Meet Up
Everyone met at Kelmscott for an on-time start – except Kerry. He had a last minute, urgent job on, and said he would catch us up. The details of how and where were sketchy. I said, “Ok, Alice Springs is a big town”.
This was the first leg of our Red Centre Tour.
We stopped at Stumpy’s Roadhouse in Brookton to check vehicles and trailers. Wise to find any problems while close to Perth. All good!
If heading to Norseman and points further east why go any other way than the Hyden-Norseman Road? Big, wide, open, comfortable dirt road after Hyden with little traffic compared to Great Eastern Highway with trucks, road trains and a lots of cars! And the trip through Hyden is quite a few kilometres shorter.
Wave Rock and Hippos Yawn
Wave Rock and Hippos Yawn at Hyden are a convenient stop for lunch on the way to Norseman. Hippos Yawn is a wonderfully graphic example of what is known, geologically, as a tafone.
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- Hippos Yawn.
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- Wave Rock.
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- Dan’s Prado, John’s Patrol and Kim’s Rodeo at Hippos Yawn.
Hyden Norseman Road
East of Hyden is the Great Western Woodland, a region about the size of England. It stretches from the edge of the Wheatbelt to the Eastern Goldfields and pastoral rangelands to the north, the inland deserts to the north-east and the Nullarbor Plain to the east.
The State Barrier Fence is a clear distinction between productive agricultural land and ‘the bush’. We stopped for the obligatory photograph.
The Breakaways are a great stop along the Hyden Norseman Road (HNR). Ignorant people were camped on the internal track, blocking the way in and around. Clearly the Universe revolves around them.
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- Breakaways.
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- Our vehicles at The Breakaways.
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- Breakaways.
Onward eastward
We pulled in to the McDermid Rock carpark and, surprise, surprise, more ignorant people thinking they are the only people that would be visiting McDermid Rock that day. Turnarounds blocked, ignorance personified. And they weren’t aware of their rudeness. Or at least were too embarrassed to acknowledge it.
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- Waves at McDermid Rock.
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- Disappearing water in a depression at McDermid Rock.
While returning from the three ‘waves’ of the Rock towards the carpark we saw a familiar figure up on the rock. It was Kerry. The Tour was finally together.
It was getting late in the day as we continued past Lake Johnston.
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- Lake Johnston.
At our latitude, 94 kilometres of eastward travel equates to four minutes of solar time, meaning that at Norseman, 565 kilometres east of Perth (straight line) the sun sets 24 minutes earlier than in Perth. Coupled with our determination to camp in the bush, rather than Norseman Caravan Park, there was an imperative to find a campsite soon – a bush camp where we could light a fire.
We turned off HNR and headed north towards Theatre Rock. Road realignments defeated our efforts to reach the Rock but we found a very comfortable first night’s campsite adjacent to a large gravel pit.
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- Scott’s Jimny.
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- Campsite near Theatre Rocks.
It was a pleasant night around the fire getting to know everyone.
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- NORSEMAN TO MOODINI.
The schedule called for a 8.00 a.m. departure time. We got underway at 7.30 a.m. – very encouraging because it is my experience that people get more and more efficient at packing up and preparing to leave as time goes on. So, early departures could be expected ?!
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- Crossing Lake Cowan.
© Kim Epton 2016-2026
609 words, 13 photographs, three images.
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