Wind and change

There really is only one flavour here: south westerly and full force. Our days begin before daybreak, for the strong winds kick in late morning or early afternoon. Like on the blistering days near Tom Price we don’t do much after 1 PM; too much effort for too little progress. After nearly 4.000 Australian kms we can mark a first: a car pulls over and the driver offers us deliciously cold grapes, a couple of homegrown mangoes and a bottle of icy water. Robbie works for WA Mainroads and when we meet him again the next day he offers his whole lunchbox: ‘I’m on me way home anyway’.

It’s not the only change; when we are nearing the township of Northampton we suddenly see a piece of land, cleared to the horizon, on our left side. And as we wonder what it is it suddenly sinks in: After 6 weeks of sand, rocks, and bush, we have difficulties recognizing agriculture when we come across it. Rapidly the world around us changes; the outback gives way to Western Australia’s wheatbelt. Fields of gold covering rolling hills, farms, windmills, and fluffy sheep. Northampton not an outback settlement, but a township with some sense of history, well, as far as there is such a thing in Australia. We see elderly people on their way to the local grocery, shops lined at a covered boardwalk, the shared front of the butcher and the chemist faded, the convent now a B&B. All motivated by these changes we push on again a gale wind and with 10 kms at a time we reach Geraldton for a final day of rest. The outback behind us, less than 500 kms to go to the finish line.

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