Day 115 Sandstone, WA

Much of our easterly journey today looked like this......

 The carpet of white wildflowers lends a welcome relief to the many kilometres of saltbush scrub country. It is red soil country with lots of rocky patches.  There are very few hills and the country is typical of a lot of country right across the top end of Australia. But, I kinda like it......

When we reach the turnoff into Sandstone and drive into the small township we are pleasantly surprised.  Once again a lot of $$$'s has been churned into the tourism industry with many tourists trying their luck at gold prospecting. The main industry around Sandstone is pastoral but we did pass a Valadium mine between here and Mount Garnet.  We also passed quite a few four trailer trucks heading West so we will have to ask about mining.  Our first stop is the Tourist Information Centre/Museum.  I don't know where they find the staff for these centres but every single one we have been to (and there has been dozens) the staff are just so helpful and obliging.  This centre was no different.  The museum attached to the visitor centre was a walk down memory lane and you are really showing your age when you remember most of the items on display! By the time we walked out of the centre we had already decided to extend our stay to two nights instead of one.  There is a walking tour around Sandstone tomorrow morning that starts at 11.30am and there is a tourist drive that takes us to London Bridge, a well known tourist attraction.

(We had this exact same cash register when we were kids and we played "shop" in our cubby house)

We check into the one and only caravan park at Sandstone, that we have had to book into in advance.  Sandstone has become quite a popular stop-over.  It is a clean well maintained park with gravel underfoot. We will appreciate the gravel tomorrow if the prediction of rain is correct.  We are like a well oiled machine these days when it comes to packing down and setting up the van.  It takes us around twenty minutes to do both.  As it is almost lunch by the time we finish we decide to head to the local pub for a counter lunch.

This old pub, built in 1907 is wonderful.  I just love walking into these buildings. You can almost hear the walls talk and I wish they could because they would tell some pretty darn good stories.  The pub was built after the gold boom when the whole town was shifted to a different area.  I can't wait to hear more about this tomorrow.

We order a simple meal of hamburger for Philip and Steak Sandwich for me.  It is pub grub but it's nice to have someone else cook lunch for us.  The pub is also the grocery store that stocks basic items that I'm sure many travellers would appreciate.  I comment to Philip that it is 150k back to Mount Magnet and 150k to the next centre, Leinster, so the locals have quite a way to drive to stock their pantries.

After lunch we walked a different path back to the Caravan Park and were totally amazed to find half a dozen thriving olive trees.  They are well maintained and have just undergone a pruning. There are olives all over the ground and on the trees and I wondered whether anyone harvests them and pickles them for eating.  They would be good eating.