Western Australia is lucky to be fairly free of COVID-19 with no community transmission, which means we can travel the state. My husband and I had planned a trip to the US in September but with that no longer possible, we decided to head north and explore this huge state of ours. Today was day 1 of what will be about six weeks of travelling around the state towing a caravan. I'd love you to tour WA with me through this blog.
So today's trip saw us leaving Perth and heading up the Great Northern Highway to Cue.
Travel Time (including stops): 9 hours
Distance Travelled: 641 km
Travelling north through the city didn't take too long and then we were driving through hilly (for Australia) country, with cows grazing or canola crops in the fields off the road.
About 15 km south of the Benedictine Monastery hamlet of New Norcia we hit the first road block of the trip. The Great Northern Hwy is one of the main roads into mining country and we saw evidence of that with this wide load.
Currently listening to:
We followed slowly until we hit the turn off to New Norcia and headed to check out the monastery and the beautiful old buildings there.
Fun fact: While I was at university, I spent a week at New Norcia archiving one of the monk's papers.
We caught up with the truck just as it was pulling over to let people pass which was great.
But we also had to pull over ourselves to give room to some wide loads which were heading south.
We paused for petrol and lunch at Payne's Find which isn't much more than a roadhouse on the side of the road. I loved the sign for the toilets though!
By this stage time the green hills had long since disappeared and we were into red dirt country. The land is endless and dry, yet there are signs which warn of flooding. It's hard to believe.
We arrived in Cue about 3.30 pm. Cue's an old gold mining town with beautiful old stone buildings and some wonderful historical monuments. I would have liked a couple of days to explore the surrounding area and the history, but we've only had time to wander down the main street, take a few photos and then we'll be on the road north again in the morning. It's only about a six hour journey tomorrow so relatively short, so we might get to sleep in a little bit. 🙂
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