Waddi Farm

Woke at New Norcia Roadhouse to a cold 6.7oC, but brilliantly sunny, day.

Breakfast, as usual, was porridge cooked on the Trangia washed down with a cup of green tea for me and espresso coffee for Hun.
After breakfast I tried out the shower which I'd heard so much about the night before:
“Oh and did I tell you how tiny it is? Oh and did I tell you about the drips?”
So I was expecting something awful.
The room was exceptionally small, and I did have trouble shampooing my hair because my elbows kept banging the side of the shower recess, but going by past experiences of community showers, this one wasn't too bad. And yes there were drips, big drips that fell off the extra high ceiling. I wondered if stalactites would eventually form on the ceiling because it was obvious that these drips were of a permanent nature.
The floor of the cubicle was up to the standard of many of the other showers I've used over the past seven weeks, that is, gritty and brown with soil picked up on previous users' shoes and deposited on the wet floor.
I now keep our old newspapers, not only to help with starting campfires but also to use as disposable bath mats in muddy showers, especially when there are no mops provided in the ablution block.
Our camp was almost packed up by nine o'clock but we left the roof top tent up with flaps open to allow it to air out and for the heavy dew to dry off. (We'd managed to pick the shadiest spot in the caravan park.)
Towels, teatowels and blankets were hung out to dry before we set off to buy some freshly baked bread at the New Norcia gift shop. We were hoping for some rye sourdough but unfortunately, this is not baked at the monastery so had to settle for one fruit-and-nut and one rosemary-and-olive wheat loaf.
Over the past five or six years I have, to varying degrees of success, reduced my intake of wheat products. When I did this initially, I managed to reduce my wheat intake to zero and lost ten kilograms in two or three months.
Andrew also cut back on his wheat intake at the same time and found that his gastric reflux improved to the point that he could stop taking his medication.
But we are finding it increasingly difficult the further we travel north to purchase wheat-free bread. The closest we can get to this is rye sourdough which can sometimes be one hundred percent rye but not always.
The bread was still warm when we picked it up and we walked back to the tent to have a slice of fruit loaf spread with butter and accompanied with a cup of tea before we returned to the monastery to visit the museum and art gallery.
The monastery has a rich history dating back to the nineteenth century and houses an amazing collection of religious artworks and artifacts which I believe would be of interest to anyone wanting to learn about Australian pioneering history and the indigenous people of the area. The fact that it is religious based does not detract from its significance to Australian heritage. The artworks alone denote a unique collection dating back to the seventeenth century.
In the present the monastery faces huge financial challenges to maintain the town to the standard it is entitled to. Many of the buildings are heritage listed but it takes dollars to maintain such heritage. Monastic numbers are dwindling and as a result lay people have to be employed to carry out more and more duties at the monastery.
The amount of produce coming out of the monastery seems to be proportionate to the number of monks.
The Great Northern Highway was originally a track built by the monks for their own use. No one dreamed that it would one day become the main route north and today the use of the highway by up to four hundred trucks and road trains a day impacts on the many unique buildings on either side.
The two hour tour offered by the monastery is well worth every dollar. Our guide Ricki has been in the monastery's employ for nine years and proved to be a wealth of information regarding the history of the town. Not once was she stumped by questions asked from the gallery.
In the museum itself I will mention only two pieces: a monstrance c1870 which was presented to Bishop Rosendo Salvado OSO by Governor of Western Australia, Governor Weld (1869-1875) and a long case clock with John Ellicot clock movement donated to New Norcia c1857 by Queen Isabella II of Spain. I hope these tempt you enough to go and visit the place for yourself. Two days could be easily filled in at New Norcia.

We left the town around 2.45 p.m. and travelled one hundred and twenty one kilometres to Waddi Farm Resort to camp for the night before heading to the coast.
Enquired at reception regarding a camp site and were told that the ablution block has no hot water but we were welcome to stay if we were prepared to use the bathroom in one of the cabins. We didn't have a problem with that, the price was right so here we are, camped at Waddi Farm Resort, it is now 9.2 o C, a clear sky, with the odd bird call, (the birds in the Western Australian outback seem to stay up later than in any other place we've been, but on the other hand are awfully subdued at dawn.)
Waddi Farm was originally an emu farm. Emus are no longer farmed here, but there are endless undulating hills dotted with grass trees as well as the odd grey kangaroo.

Dinner; sausages with corn on the cob, steamed carrot and peas under the stars.
As per the usual practice, it's early to bed and hopefully early to rise.
We are hoping for a quiet night but won't be surprised if it's not. Last night, the trucks and road trains were frequent after about five in the morning. There was a irregularity in the road conveniently positioned just in front of the roadhouse, which meant regular use of exhaust brakes by most of the trucks.
We are finding that quiet camp sites are far and few between and I can count the number of quiet nights we've had so far, while camping, on two fingers.
Is that a cow or three I can hear, mooing in the distance? Oh, did I mention that we're travelling through farming country?