Day 108 | Lake Mason Station, Meekatharra Sandstone Road: camping out in the Goldfields once again

97 km | zzOz total: 5,221 km

Time to get back on that old well worn path: self justification.

I’ve had a few travellers remark about my travelling in remote zones across Australia and now I’m about to emerge from that isolation I might go on about it some more.

To me isolation is only an issue if you haven’t prepared for the journey, worked out how many days it’s going to take and stocked up on food accordingly. 14 days without a fridge cuts down on the possibilities but I’ve generally seen the sense in getting any fine dining out of the way in the towns where you have the facilities to orchestrate the event and subsisting on a plainer diet out on the road.

The water, well that’s more problematic, I generally err on the side of caution, ie, assume water points will be more restricted and just rejoice at any surprise water as a bonus, often for more hearty body washing.

The remoteness is a joy, I’m away from distraction, well even the possibility, and can concentrate on just living, being here and now, unconcerned by plans for the future or regrets of the past. Maybe if I’m trained up well enough I can achieve that state later when the distractions crowd in.

I’ve abandoned the habit of worrying about daily distance. I go as far as is reasonable considering daily circumstances: state of the road, wind, etc. Most of the time my computer is switched to the time, just so I don’t have to look at how far, or little, I’ve come. It’s liberating not to be striving to get 120 km to a particular campground, any place out here is a potential site.

Solitude: well I had my daily dose of socialisation today talking to Will, about his career path: sheep farmer, too much work; goat farmer, dingos took a huge toll; road construction contractor, much easier to work for local government than for a higher paid but rigid, restrictive job with the mines, where random alcohol testing in the morning may result in instant dismissal: mines generally have a zero tolerance policy for “safety reasons”. Will was fixing his own hydraulics something not possible on mine sites, however simple.

Around here the easy gold may be exhausted but a massive vanadium mine is about to open next year, that’s going to be bigtime.

Boring? Rode through some old gold mining areas today, and looked down some shafts dug from about 1900 to 1930, back when men were men, maybe 20 m deep, vertigo inspiring. Hit sporadic areas of dense packed wildflowers, often mauve coloured. Saw a live Thorned Devil on the road and a sad, dead goanna whose head had become trapped in a coke can.

You can’t get bored out here.

Unless you shoot past everything at 120 km/hour.

Off road? The road surface has been quite good, I averaged over 15km/hour today and that’s OK by me. There’s been odd short stretches of sandy road and bumpy bits as I crossed from side to side.

It really is hard to describe the isolation here, rare traffic, no shops, houses, roadhouses, sheds, power lines, traffic, people, and, for instance, I can’t pick up any AM band radio reception after the sun gets up, during the night there’s real choice including the Indonesian stations not so far away.

The Meekatharra Sandstone Road is classed as an unsealed major road but less than 10 cars went past today, one a motorbike. But all that’s coming to an end as I hit the more populated, and trafficked, Goldfields area for the next 400 km of asphalt.

You sense I like my dirt roads, away from it all.