Our Trip North

It was a few years back now, when Frances asked if I would be interested in going with her when she and Bill next visited the Martu Community in Newman WA, and at the time I immediately said yes, but when the time finally came, I didn’t want to go and was hoping the Lord would bring something about for me to pull out of the arrangement.  No excuse came up.  Friends said I should be honest and just tell Frances I wasn’t going, so I did.  She listened, then said if I changed my mind, please let her know.  We were to go together in their van and she had already arranged for me to stay with a lady in Newman, who was so disappointed I had changed my mind at the last minute.  When I got off the phone I was immediately convicted.  Had the Apostle Paul shrunk back from his trials and tribulations? No!  In fact he found it an honour to have been called.  It’s not that I was giving up anything of great value or would be called to suffer any great loss for His Great Name, in fact I was privileged to be going on another adventure.  What was I so worried about?  I called Frances back to say I was coming after all.

I started to get myself ready as it was now only four days until our departure. I asked a neighbour if she could keep an eye on my garden and water the pots that were not on reticulation.  I moved as many as I could under the sprinklers, checked the reticulation, gathered a few summer clothes, toiletries and necessities needed for the trip. The pile of clothing I had been collecting for the Gospel Chariots Africa were taken to their warehouse and on route home I had my long curly hair all chopped off short. Newman’s temperatures were in the 30’s, unlike Perth, which was hardly getting higher than 20 degrees yet!  Wednesday was forecasted to be warm and sunny, a great day for washing and house cleaning.  Before going away, I have a habit of spring cleaning the house, so that when I come home it’s like having a clean start.

Wednesday was hectic.  I had been awake since 1:30am for no reason other than it was a bad night for insomnia. By 4am I decided there was no point in trying to go back to sleep and waited for the first rays of sun to light my path through the bush for a very early morning jog at 5:30am.  It was beautiful. The air was full of the sound of insects, frogs, ducks and a tawny frogmouth owl, with its mournful call to its mate.  I just love this time of the day!  Back at the house I gathered my clothes for a wash.  Praise God I put it on straight after my jog, as I’d missed an SMS from Western Power to remind me the power was going off from 7am – 3pm.  I saw the message as I checked my phone to repower it at 6:30am, with the washing finishing just before 7am.  I quickly made my porridge before it was too late. By 8am with washing hung and no power to vacuum I decided I’d go back to bed.  I had about an hours sleep before being woken by the builders across the road.  Now awake, I started on my cleaning, taking a break for a coffee at the local café.  Not quite as good as my home brew but I needed the coffee hit to keep going.  All my wood furniture was oiled, surfaces cleaned and things put away into their rightful place, having been strewn around the house in piles of things to be done, for months.  I was very grateful when the power came back on at midday.  It gave me an early start on the vacuum cleaning, followed with mopping which I prefer to do on my hands and knees as I can do the skirting boards while I’m down there.  I vacuumed and washed the car, checked the sprinklers and watered the garden so that my neighbour only needed to water the pots once while I’m away.  The plants on my kitchen window I put under the citrus trees where they should get water and not too much sun.  Retic now set to come on twice while I was away, I was happy I had done the best I could for the garden in my absence.  I was exhausted by the end of the day and aching all over.

Earlier in the week I had called my host, Janice, in Newman and asked if she wanted me to bring anything up from Perth.  She works in the Martu community gardens so requested any cuttings such as succulents and geraniums, which fortunately I have a lot of.  The morning of our trip I was up early for a jog, breaky and a final pack and tidy before doing a bit of a garden trim, putting some of my geraniums, succulents, lettuce and silver beet into polystyrene boxes for the trip.  Frances and Bill arrived just as I had finished and helped take my things to their van.  I quickly put the cover on the car, locked the house and joined them in the van.  We had to return to their house as they had forgotten a bag of clothes for the children.  While waiting there, I rearranged the back seat to give me more leg room.

Bill had pre planned our route along Reid Highway to Tonkin Freeway.  Unfortunately he had not come that way since all the road changes and we took the wrong ramp and headed south instead of north.  We took the next exit at Morley Drive but nearly went around the round-about twice with both Frances and I saying turn left here, left here, left, left. Once on the road north, it was easy going. As we eased into our long drive I realised I had forgotten my pillow.  I prefer to take my own to help prevent neck problems, never mind I’d have to make do.

It wasn’t long before we left the city roads and suburbs behind entering into the long stretches of bush and farm lands.  We stopped for a coffee break and to stretch our legs at Jenny’s Backhouse Dalwallinu.  They were opposite a community fruit and veg place and had 5 Senses -Compton Road coffee which we also use at church.  It was a great cuppa, as was the lunchtime ice coffee.  I can’t say the same for some of the other places we stopped.  The following day when we stopped for lunch, I asked some ambulance drivers where the best coffee in town was, as they usually know.  They pointed to a coffee van, where I ordered a double shot ice coffee, that too was a lovely cuppa.  So I must admit this coffee snob has been blessed on my travels.

Not long into our trip, we were caught behind two over-width, over-length trucks, carrying what looked like the tray of a huge Hercules iron ore truck.  It took us two attempts to try to overtake them and only when we were waved on by the rear security vehicle.  They were so wide, they took up two lanes and as most of the roads up here are only single-lane, the vehicles coming the other direction had to pull off the road for them to pass.  Once we passed them, we realised there was a police vehicle plus three other vehicles in front of the convoy plus the rear security vehicle.  Whenever we stopped after that, we had to hurry to make sure we didn’t get stuck behind it again!   At our lunch stop, I noticed a police vehicle had just pulled in as we were finishing our lunch.  I asked if he was with the Hercules convoy.  He said yes and we had 10 mins if we didn’t want to be caught behind them again.  Frances asked where they were going and was told the destination was a mine north of Newman.  We wondered if they would be travelling through the night or stopping somewhere along the route.  We definitely didn’t want to get stuck behind them again.

Our night stop was at Mount Magnet, in accommodation called a ‘donger’, which is a shipping container made into individual rooms, with a shower, toilet, bed, table, fridge and TV.  Very basic but sufficient for our needs.  Once unpacked, we went for a wander around the town at sunset, treating ourselves to an ice cream.  Walking back to our rooms, the moon was a bright ball in the darkening sky. Unfortunately, my donger was full of mosquitos, which I knew would disturb me all night if I didn’t do something about them.  I tried killing them between my hand claps and caught quite a few but realised there was just too many of them so borrowed some bug spray from the proprietor.  I then needed to vacate the room to allow the fumes to settle before I could sleep.  The Hearn’s were very obliging, permitting me to watch the news with them for a while.  I adjusted the air conditioning which even set at 22 degrees was not cold at all.  I usually have it set on 25 degrees, as I don’t like it cold.  Eventually, happy with the temperature and with the doona removed, I felt I could survive the night.

Although we had shared the driving, we were all exhausted and it wasn’t long after turning in that I fell asleep. I woke just after 5am, waited for the first rays of light to peek over the eastern skies, before going for a jog.  It was so much cooler outside than in the muggy room.  It would have been nice to have had screens on the window so I could have left them open all night instead of having the air conditioning on. As I was heading out of town along the main road, work vehicles were heading out to the mines.  I found a dirt track, which I followed, leading to a local cemetery just as the sun rose above the horizon, sending soft hues of light across the land.  On the opposite side, in the western sky, the moon was hovering, about to set below the horizon.  It was a magical hour of the day and my favourite time.

It wasn’t long before we had eaten, packed and were back on the road heading north, hoping not to meet to Hercules again.  We passed many articulated road trains, which were three, even four trailers in tow.  These all take a bit of careful judging, speed and boldness to overtake.  It wasn’t only the traffic on the road that we had to be careful of, as on one occasion while we were queuing for petrol, the ute in front of us pulled out to help make room for us to fill up but didn’t realise they had begun to roll back and their towbar smashed into the front of the Hearn’s van.  Praise God there was only a small crack in the bumper bar and a dent in the number plate.  Details were exchanged, but Bill didn’t want to take it any further if there was not internal damage.  What a wonderful man he is.

Another service station incident occurred at Kumarina, the road house just before Newman.  We had pulled up with a nearly empty tank and needed fuel to finish our journey. Again we were second in the queue, but when Bill went to fill up, the bowser cut off after only 40 cents worth!  The attendant was called to help, but she too had the same problem every time she tried, which was several times!  In the end, she told us this had happened once before because the bowser was too hot, so they brought out three large bags of ice and hosed it down.  We couldn’t believe our eyes or ears! I had suggested they try pumping some petrol into a gerry can to get the flow going, which in the end they did and it actually worked.  Due to our delay, we were offered a drink on the house.  I asked instead for a bucket of chips which wasn’t even full, which both Frances and I had previously asked about, but when we were told the price, we had both declined.  I was very grateful they now given them to us for free.  They filled the gap, as I hadn’t eaten my afternoon meal and at this rate it looked like we wouldn’t get to Newman till after 5pm, as it had taken over three quarters of an hour to get petrol.

I had been driving as we pulled into to Kumarina, and the steering wheel was wobbling more than usual, which made me think we might have a flat tire, but all looked ok.  It was till wobbling as we pulled out and headed to Newman, another 160km drive.  I prayed we would arrive safely and the wobble eased until we entered Newman. I had had no phone reception up until this point, so had left my phone off.  Frances directed me to the visitors centre, where we stopped to try and find Janice’s home. Now with reception, I messaged Janice to say we had arrived and were looking for her on google maps but the map wasn’t working. Bill had tried too but he had no reception.  In the meanwhile I used the iMap which showed we were not far away from Janice’s home, so we decided to try and make our way there.  Just as we were heading out, Janice arrived at the visitors centre and followed us home.

I was dropped off at Janice’s home with all my luggage and stayed with Selena, Janice’s friend, while Bill and Frances followed Janice to their accommodation at Red Sands.  On her return, we had a lovely BBQ and a long chat, getting to know each other. I felt very much at home, especially as everything came abruptly to an end, dishes were washed and all cleaned up before 8pm.  Janice also likes going to bed early as she too is a terrible sleeper.

I had a room to myself but unfortunately it had recently been painted and the fresh paint smell still lingered.  I tried sleeping there but by midnight needed to move to the bed in the lounge where Janice suggested I sleep if the smell was overpowering.  Praise God I was back to sleep within an hour and slept through to 5am.

In my next update I will tell you all about our stay in Newman.

Photos:  1. Wild flowers beside the road    2. Bill and Frances with backed van    3. Driving    5. The long road north    6. Hercules    7. Mount Magnet hotel    8. Sunrise at the graveyard    9. Moon rising at sunset    10. Coffee stop    11. Mount Magnet

Prayer & Praise Points:
Praise the Lord for His continual blessings.  For a safe journey north and reaching Newman without too many incidents.

Please pray that the Hearn’s van will be back on the road early Wednesday, with no further problems or expenses.

Please pray for our stay in Newman to be a blessing to all those we have come to visit.

Pray for the Wilmot’s who are ministering to the Martu people and for Janice, who is assisting with the community garden and training of those working in the gardens.

Please continue to pray for Emma and her treatment for leukaemia.  She is on a second bout of chemo and therapy, pray she will see speedy results and for the Lord’s healing.

Pray that those who don’t yet know the Lord Jesus will have their eyes opened to His love, peace and saving grace.

I praise God for all our supportive friends and prayer partners as we help each other through these difficult times.  We all need each another in different ways and it’s reassuring and encouraging to know friends are not too far away, thanks to technology and prayer.