8 Apr 2025

 8 Apr 2025

Another early morning as some of the neighbouring campers decided that 4 am was a good time to head out. A quick walk around the site and it was obvious a lot of people were awake, so I packed the car and didn't feel too bad about heading off at 6:30 am.

 Heading off along the highway it was obvious that there had been quite a bit of rain overnight as there was a lot of groundwater about the place. As the car was using so much oil and to be honest it has been running a bit rough at times I decided that I would head straight to Perth and try to get a Morris Minor mechanic to have a look a it. Saying straight to Perth is a bit misleading as there isn't any real direct major route from Norseman to Perth, you either go north then west, or go south and west. Getting low on oil I looked for the closest car parts store where I get the expensive brand of oil I have been told to use in the "new" engine and it was in the place I had been planning on staying the night anyway Kalgoolie. It rained off and on, mostly on, until just near Kalgoorlie. I stopped just down the road to fill up again, it was still very wet and the old leapfrog trucks passed me again, So that was Port Augusta to Kalgoorlie for the mining trucks, that is a lot of highway rolling roadblocking!

I managed to get some more oil, on sale for half price!, the headed off along the road to Perth, in sunshine and quite hot too. I had to go through Merredin which was the place I was going to be staying tomorrow night and I stopped at the Caravan park to cancel the booking and pay is necessary due to late notice, but they were fine with it and off down the road to see their Silo Art before pressing on.

Merredin Silo Art - painted by: Kyle Hughes-Odgers

From there is was just a long slog with a few stops for fuel, at one of which I encountered three cars from the Victoria Morris Minor club, they didn't notice me at the time but they caught me up along the road and then passed and left me like I was standing still. The day was just spent driving and I managed a couple of reasonable sunset pics before pulling into Perth at 7:30 pm. Long day of driving for me and the little car.

Guess I will find out tomorrow what damage the day will bring either to the car or my wallet...