Gunbarrel Hwy Day 2 - Mt Magnet to Wiluna

Saturday, Jun 23, 2001 at 00:00

ExplorOz - David & Michelle

Day 2 - Saturday 23/6/01
Start - Mt Magnet, 9:30am
Stop - Wiluna, 3:45pm
Trip Odometer - 369.6km
Max speed - 111.6km/hr

So far, travelling to plan and Leah is settling in – dropping off to sleep about 15mins into the morning trip, and then again after our lunch stop meaning she is still on her usual routine of 2 daytime naps and is coping extremely well.

Found a good bush camp 15km north of Cue on RHS (blue lake, bush camp with shady trees).

Meekatharra had Telstra mobile phone service. We stopped here for lunch, refuelling and since there was a Woolies a small restock of things like fresh meat, fruit and veg. They even had meat pre-cryovaked. We found our fuel consumption to be much higher than we’d planned and decided to drive more economically – ie at 95km/hr rather than 110km/hr. The first day and a half of driving at 110km/hr used 140L of diesel over 750km. We expect to get a range of about 1300 out of that 140L. The 170L tank also seems to have a residual of about 30L that we cannot use – unless we siphon it out. So we’re going to monitor that some more.

We turned off the highway at 1.30 and made the trip from Meekatharra to Wiluna in just 2hrs 15mins. This was the first dirt road of the trip and it was just graded making travel fast and easy. Found an ideal bush camp 25km west (before) Wiluna on RHS – a grove of trees by the river, 22minutes from town. We continued on however as we’d forgotten Spinifex mesh for the radiator and wanted to pick some up at the general store if possible as we didn’t think they’d be open tomorrow – Sunday. Town was closed however and after talking to other travellers who’d just come off the Gunbarrell Hwy they said we didn’t need it.

The only camping option in Wiluna is behind the pub. $8 will get you a pretty rough camp but fresh water on tap, grass, and hot showers and laundry. The locals can get a bit loud with their partying and you will most likely be approached by hawkers wanting to sell you paintings or spears. We camped there with just 2 other cars. Probably the most striking thing about Wiluna is the night sky.
David (DM) & Michelle (MM)
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Always working not enough travelling!
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