We were up to wave Annie off to work and say our goodbyes - we’re going to miss Annie and family but we know we’ll see them all again one day. Our morning then consisted of loading up with food, fuel and water for our first trip to the outback. We drove over to north Perth to meet up with Darryl, Will, Brad and Hank from the Land Rover Owners Club of Western Australia who had invited us along on their recce trip of Ningham, a former sheep station about 400km to the north east along the Great Northern Highway.
Darryl kindly fed us toasted cheese and tomato wraps whilst he finished loading up his Mitshubishi Pajero, then we collected the others and set off through the sprawling suburbs of Perth. Our cruising speed of 90kph set the pace, and a stop for fuel and refreshments meant that it was after dark by the time we arrived at the station. It was about 23km along dirt tracks from the station to the campsite Darryl and Brad had scouted out on Google Earth, where we found a nice clearing around a eucalypt tree to set up camp. Will was on fire duty, helped by some kind soul having left a small pile of firewood ready to burn, and he soon had the campfire going whilst the rest of us sorted out our tents. The speed and ease of putting up our roof tent was highlighted when we were all done in about five minutes, whereas the rest of the guys had to clear some ground, layout groundsheets, erect their tents and set up their bedding - all of which took about half an hour (although we will have to take down our tent tomorrow whilst everyone else can just jump in their cars!). Darryl had bought spaghetti to reheat and we enjoyed a meal around the campfire with a glass of wine (or cider in Brad and Will‘s case). We were late to bed at 1am, but we still paused to enjoy the stillness of the bush, brilliantly illuminated by the full moon in a clear sky.SPOT
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