Day 3 Old Hyden Norseman Rd to Overshot Hill

Monday, 23rd November 2015

The packing up was all but done, we just had to put the shower bag away. We left it on the bonnet overnight after using the other one. As the bag was lifted up, guess what?? Bees had settled along the edges and underneath the bag. We reckon there was about 80 – 100 bees. The procedure from here had to be slow and careful so we didn’t annoy them. We swished them off with a paper towel and thankfully they complied without anyone getting stung.

Free to leave now we headed for Norseman but first we had to negotiate the tricky terrain ahead, which is littered with trees. Trees fallen on the track mean people have made go arounds; we clear a few each time we’re out this way so in time the track will follow it’s original path and nature can reclaim the go arounds.

As mentioned yesterday the track is deteriorating and the next section we came across required some care. It was a lumpy section with cracks and some drop offs at the side. All was going well when suddenly the front LH wheel slipped off, the RH rear popped up and we dropped into the crack. We recovered having only scratched the side step but looking ahead we decided not to continue so we reversed up and took a track off to our left. Just before we hit the Kalgoorlie – Norseman Road we turned to the right to follow the old Telegraph Track into Norseman. The going was slow and after a point we reached a spot where too many trees blocked the track. As we were only a few metres off the Kalgoorlie – Norseman Road we back tracked to a point where we could return to the highway. From there we headed into Norseman.

About a week before we left several fires were started by lightning to the south of Norseman and in the Esperance region which sadly resulted in 4 people losing their lives. The Esperance – Norseman Road was only opened the day before we left on this trip. There was evidence of the fires all around us and smoke still hung in the air.

After filling up at Norseman we got our best fuel economy for some time despite the road conditions.

Traveling along the Lake King – Norseman Road was slow going. We’ve been traveling this road for 30 odd years and as recently as 5 mths ago. To ease the shakes and rattles of the corrugations we slowed to as low as 18kph. Just past Peak Charles we’d had enough and turned on to a track on our left and tripled our speed , traveling up to 55kmp. When you’re in this region Peak Charles can be seen from pretty much all directions and tracks when your around 50kms from it. You can see why they early travelers and settlers used it as a navigation point.

Along the way we saw a family of Bustards out for a stroll.

We met back up with the Lake King – Norseman Road and headed toward Ravensthorpe looking for somewhere to camp for the night; storm clouds were forming, a thunderstorm was forecast. We pulled into a rest area just north of Ravensthorpe and set up camp just in time. The wind picked up, lightning lit up the sky and the thunder made it hard to hear each other talk, then the rain fell. It rained and the wind blew all night but our Caribee Spider pop up tent kept us dry, a good buy.

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