1998
Lionel the Landcruiser
and Tap-Tap go Walkabout

Hi all,

It's the end of day one and we are sitting in the tent at the Desert Pea Caravan Park in Laverton! Yes, nearly 1000 km on the first day - but it was easy 'cos it was all on sealed roads. Tomorrow it really starts as the gravel begins about 10 km outside Laverton.

Lionel all packed up - and nearly full!

We packed last night and were so excited that we couldn't sleep and got up at 3.30. After eating everything we could that was perishable from the fridge, we actually left the flat at 4.38 (as recorded on the little tape recorder). With all our gadgets, the only problem is that the video camera packed up last week so no tour video (what was that cheering I heard from all round the world?).

Ready for departure. Early Sunday morning.

Anyway, the drive to Kalgoorlie was as normal - but fun 'cos we saw the sun come up as we were driving. The only point of note was the jerk driving towards us down the dual carriageway outside Mundaring. Luckily Hild was keeping to the left lane so we just pretended we were on a normal road. I'm not sure how this guy was going the wrong way, but, hey this is Australia - if it feels good do it!

We got to Kalgoorlie by 11.30 and had a really nice lunch at Basil's on Hannan's street (stocking up on meat, Hild had lamb and Rob had steak). The roads are good at the moment, but we will need to check at each stop 'cos a good rain can wash them out. From Kal towards Leonora is new territory for us, but you couldn't really tell since it was pretty normal West Australian scenery - scrubby bush and flat. Only began to see road kill from Kal onwards - not sure why unless the Roos are getting cleverer nearer to Perth.

Filled up in Leonora and went towards Laverton and finally saw some wildlife - sheep grazing at the side of the road. Hild was surprised 'cos her 'sheep on the road' antennae hadn't picked up on them - must be defective sheep. There were emus as well, so it does count as wildlife.

Emus are fun!

Well, Laverton was reached at about 4.15 and we had the tent up and airbed inflated etc by about 5, so then we had a quick walk around. Interesting town - for us anyway, not having much experience of these things: A combined Catholic/Anglican/something else chapel, bottle shop, Police station/ Fire brigade and a rather extensive video rental place. Looks like it is just getting going as there are a number of houses in the process of getting gardens etc, so it might be interesting to come through again in a year or two to see if anything has changed.

That's all for now. Will write more tomorrow and maybe sometime towards the end of the week we will be able to send it off - the plan is to stay somewhere nice in Alice so that we can use the phone etc.

OK, bye for now

Lionel