3,425 – 3,635km, Days 167-175 Balladonia to Condingup

Back on the road again – YEE HA. And guess what? We made it back to the lands of the living! Farewell to the A1, and hello to fresh adventures heading south!

We were pretty happy to leave Balladonia, to be honest. We decided to take a shortcut south down Old Balladonia Rd towards Condingup. We checked out the road online and asked as many folks as we could about road conditions, as we would be taking the float down it and didn't want to destroy an axel. As always, the reports we got back varied from “You could take a Mercedes Benz down it!” to “That track will destroy anything you drive down it”.... which obviously left us a bit stumped to know what to do. Luckily we spoke to a few locals who reassured us that yes, the road was corrugated, but we'd be fine if we took it slow. So the indomitable Alex set off at a steady 20km/hr, and me and the boys ambled along behind her. What a great track! The first few days were in the rolling arid woodlands we were familiar with from the past few days, with fascinating history and a few old homesteads, some ruined and some restored but all uninhabited.

A few days in, the woodland gave way to a charred wasteland. A massive fire had ripped through the area last year, and the forest hadn't yet recovered. As we were riding along, I came around a bend and felt as though I had stumbled back in time. Alex had found the most perfect campsite at Deralinya, an old homestead built in the late 1890s and lovingly restored by Roger and Tim. The whole place was open, so we settled in and were making a cuppa in the lovely wee kitchen when a ute pulled up and Roger himself, one of the owners, jumped out, up for a week of on-going restoration. At first I felt a bit rude, making myself at home in someone's house, but Roger soon made us feel welcome and at home, sharing fascinating stories of the history of the area and his passion for restoring the dilapidated house sites in the surrounds. Deralinya had been a labour of love for Roger and his mate Tim, taking them decades to turn what was not much more than a few walls and foundations of outbuildings into the beautiful site we were now in. Sadly the fire had burnt some of the grounds, but luckily the house was undamaged.

From there it took us another day to get down into the grassy lands out the back of Condingup. It was a pretty trying and stark day, with demoralisingly straight roads and the post-apocalyptic burnt out landscape in the background, but the next day we were back in wheatfields and grasslands, hosted at Neville’s feedlot, and then back on the road for two delightful days down into Condingup. And oh wow, how exciting to be back in GREEEN lands again, to be able to graze whenever the fancy took us, and revel in the amazing wildflower display on the verges.

Thanks to Nicole for having us one night, and to Emma for looking after my boys so well 😊

From Condingup, we're heading West, aiming to cut across North of Esperance and make it to Ravensthorpe for our next reprovision. Wish us luck in avoiding all the roadtrains, as the grain harvest has just begun.