Off Road Adventure

Due to yesterday's lack of wind, Selwyn and I decided to test our 4x4's on the track north to Wedge Island. We got a crude map from a local tourist info place and spoke to a few locals about the track before we set off. They seemed pretty confident our cars were more than up to the task. Apparently there were some 'soft spots' but for the most part it was rocky rather than boggy. I removed some of the items that could bounce abou from the boot and we set off, through the off-road area around the dunes, over a dune or two and onto the track. It was a pretty hardcore track in places, some big ruts, rocks, deep sandy parts, steep ascents and decents, but the White Dragon seemed to love it. I almost felt asif the beast was doing all the work and I was just going along for the ride. It was relatively slow progress in places though, some of the rocky areas have to be crawled over, but other spots could be driven fairly quickly. The rocky parts I wasn't that keen on, I had to drive very slow and the whole car rattled and sounded like it was going to fall apart. Climbing up and over the dunes and racing along the loose sandy tracks was great fun though, and felt much smoother. just before we reached Wedge Island there was a huge, huge dune to drive down, which wasn't too steep and was fairly firm. That was great fun.

The little 'town' at Wedge Island was quite amazing. It was just a collection of corrugated iron shacks in amongst the dunes next to the beach. We had a look to see if we could drive back along the beach, for a bit of variety, but the tide was too high. Instead we had a little look around and then set off back along the track towards Lancelin. The rocky areas were still very slow, but with a little more confidence in the White Dragon's braking ability on the loose tracks, and a thirst for a sundowner beer in Lancelin, I put my foot down a bit and had a great drive back, leaving selwyn in my dust. The White Dragon's 3.9 V8 petrol engine proved to accelerate the beast a lot more rapidly than Selwyn's 2.8 Tdi. I was loving it, apart from the rocky sections, which still had to be crawled. I thought about the tracks we drove on in South Africa, which were a different league, although one must keep in mind we were taking them on in a VW Polo! I thought about how much Honray would love cruising the White Dragon down these tracks, and also how much Jim would love it too, although he'd probably go twice as fast as I was!

It took a good couple of hours to get back, despite only being about 40kms or so. We drove straight to the pub and had a nice pint of Coopers Pale Ale as the sunset. Then it was off back to the campsite to cook some more fish. Unfortunately it was dark, and I hate cooking in the dark. But I managed to pull it off and it was pretty nice. After dinner I was exhausted again, so I got another pretty early night ready for another day in Lancelin.

Thismorning I woke up a bit later than usual and decided to have a Sunday lay in. I cooked myself a pretty greasy breakfast when I got up, it was quite nice, but I think I might start getting these little fruit salads they have at the supermarket from now on. I saw Selwn and he had some bad news, during the night his wallet and iPod had been stolen from his car. His central locking had been playing up and randomly unlocking his car, so someone had obviously seen their opportunity and taken it. Bastards. Some people have no respect. What goes around comes around though, hopefully they'll end up getting some flesh eating disease soon. It made me think twice about leaving my surfboard on the roofrack as I have been lately, and coupled with the lack of wind it made me think about moving on sooner than planned. Lancelin is a great place, but I think after a couple of windy days I'll be eager to see somewhere new. Hopefully theres going to be some wind midweek, so I'll stay for that and then maybe head up to Geraldton and possibly Gnaraloo (braving the flies!!) befor eheading back to Perth to meet Nick on the 9th December. That would mean we could then head South, which is apparently virtually fly-free and has a lot more surf, which would suit Nick. We'll see though, I don't like to plan too far ahead, but it would be quite a good idea to try to cover ground quickly so I can get to New Zealand a bit earlier than planned (maybe end of March/beginning of April) so that I can start earning again. Anyway, we'll see. What will be will be!