Alex & Jill Benham - Travelogue: Monday 8th July 2013

Karen’s birthday today!!! They were off for a walk early back to Little Mertens Falls as they had missed seeing the Indigenous Art. We blew up some balloons and wrote Happy Birthday Karen in the dirt ready for their return.

On the drive back to King Edward River we had a couple of photo stops - for the fan palms and for the view from Lawler’s Hill back towards the coast.

Surprisingly as we got near King Edward we came across a grader on the road. So much for the road not being maintained – not that we’re complaining the road was much smoother for a while.

After King Edward it was a left turn and back on to the road to Drysdale where we had decided to camp once again at Miners Pool. While the road is in reasonable condition there are certainly patches of corrugations that are capable of shaking everything to pieces. At one stage we had to stop and do a bit of a repair on Mark’s vehicle. The after market fuel filter had increased the weight on a bracket which had ended up cracking the guard. A few cable ties reinforced things so hopefully all is well. Soon after we passed a bus travelling north which showered us with rocks. Ended up with a star crack on the windscreen which kept spreading until we arrived at Drysdale.

It was almost 2pm by now so we thought we would support the locals and buy lunch at the station. No such luck they had closed the kitchen – must be making too much money. We fuelled up ($135c per litre), paid our $20 camping fee and headed for Miners Pool where we set up camp and made our own lunch.

Got out Arthur’s Oven (a gas cylinder cut in two – heat beads – and Mother Bear (Middle sized camp oven) and put on a cake. It is Karen’s birthday!!!!!

Went for a swim and enjoyed the peace and quiet. There are quite a few birds around here. Quite a few different finch species – long tailed, crimson and double bar and also say the Red-Collard variety of the Rainbow Lorikeet.