So yesterday was the planned trip to Bruce Rock and Merredin. I spent last night preparing and making sure I have all that I needed, so all I needed to do that morning was little more than just grabbing a couple of bags and throwing them into the car before I went on my way. That is the Virgo in me, I like to be organised and to try avoid surprises. I was up at 4am, and after brekkie, I was on the road by 4:45am, it was still very much dark!! It started to get light just as I was getting near to Northam, and the Sun was up by Cunderdin. A total of just three hours later I was in the Merredin and Bruce Rock area, I estimated four hours but did it just inside three hours - probably cos the improved roads and there not being much traffic at that time of day.
No ET incidences that day, the Merredin-Kellerberrin area being an ET hotspot, but there was another kind of incident at Kellerberrin. As I drove into the town the boom gates across the rail line on the outskirts of the town were down. So naturally we thought uhhh a train!!!! But after several minutes it became obvious that there was no such train coming. So several of the cars started to take off across the gravel to another road, and my GPS device confirmed that there was indeed another road that took us into the town without crossing the rail line. So we went up this road until we got to the center of town, and from there was able to cross over the rail line back onto the highway, those boom gates were up, confirming that the boom gates back before town were indeed faulty.
My first stop was Belka - Mother's old locality. I drove up and down the Belka road at least three times but still could not find Mother's old house!! However I did uncover some new ideas and in hindsight thought of some new theories as to where it might be. I am not going to give up. I am going to find this house even if I have to search every inch of bush between Belka and Bruce Rock!! Just might need some ET help in the process!!
So to recap the story..... just before Mother got sick, Pasco took her up to Bruce Rock, and there Mother located her old house and took pixs of it. Then a little while later, before Sally got too sick to travel, we drove up to Kalgoorlie so thought we'd stop in at Bruce Rock and look for Mother's house. So we asked Mother, and her instructions at the time seemed straight forward - take the road to Bruce Rock from the Highway, until you come to Belka Road, and between the turn off and the Belka settlement we should be able to find her house - one of two houses!! Now Mother is good at many things, and I miss her so badly, part of the reason for this trip as well as my walks, it's hard to imagine how one could miss a Mother as I do mine - it's never easy to lose a Mother, but the way I lost mine at such a young age, well it adds that extra dimension of pain. But one thing I must say is Mother was dimwit when it comes to giving directions, she gets easily confused, muddled, sometimes gets places mixed up, and you never employ her as a navigator unless you like getting lost!!!!
So Sally and I first drove into Bruce Rock, then we took the road to Merredin assuming we would soon see Belka Road, and it wasn't long before we found such a road. So we traveled up and down this one road a couple of times. We could only see one abandoned house but being only one house we figured it wasn't Mother's. But we did find the ruins of two houses which had obviously been knocked down leaving only piles of wood, there in the midst of a wheat field. So we thought they have finally knocked down Mother's house. Then as we continued on the road to Merredin we spotted another "Belka Road" and realised we may have gone up the wrong road, but didn't have time to go up that road as we were running late in getting to Kalgoorlie. The next time we visited Mother, she showed us the pix of her house, our mistake was seemingly confirmed. The house was located in open woodland not in a wheat field, and it seems very unlikely that the land would have been cleared in such a short time, especially since these days one has to get permission from the govt to clear away natural bush even on one's own land!! So we figured we did make a mistake..... but then Sally soon got too sick to travel, and we had no further opportunities.
Now I remember that photo like it was yesterday, so with the help of Google maps I located all of the natural wooded areas along Belka Road, and when I got there this day, I looked into all of the wooded areas along the road between the Doodlakine and Merredin roads, but still couldn't find her house - indeed I couldn't see ANY old houses within any wooded area. But quite clearly the pix Mother had did show her house as being in a natural wooded area!! I drove up and down Belka Road three times but still couldn't locate her house.
However I certainly haven't given up on the idea of ever finding her house!! I have now thought of new ideas and theories. Mother's instruction to look on Belka Road between the Bruce Rock road and Belka actually gives THREE possibilities. There are TWO roads into Bruce Rock from the main National highway, one from Doodlakine, the other from Merredin, and Belka Road runs between both roads - Belka Road West from the Doodlakine road, Belka Road East from the Merredin Road, and Belka Road South also from the Merredin Road. It was the South road that Sally and I drove up, being the first road from Bruce Rock.
So I thought of taking Mother's point of view. Imagine Mother and Pasco travelling along National highway, Pasco almost always did the driving. The first road to Bruce Rock from Perth is at the Doodlakine turnoff. So when Pasco drove into Doodlakine and saw the sign to Bruce Rock, he naturally assumed that was the road we take, so would have taken that road with little or no input from Mother. Then a little while later while on the Doodlakine road, Pasco would have spotted the sign identifying Belka Road - so he'd say - Aha! There's Belka Road!!! and he immediately turned into the road. At that point Mother has a distinct advantage over me, that is, having lived there virtually all of her childhood, Mother would have known exactly where her house was located - even after all those years. She may be no good at navigating but at least she would know where her own house was!!!! One thing I assumed, especially after asking Mother, was that you could see the house from the road. But it seems you can't see the house from the road (otherwise I would have spotted it today!!!!!) but Mother knowing exactly where it was could have easily pointed Pasco to the exact spot, and a short stroll into the bush would have take them to the house.
And so when Mother instructed Sally and I on how to find the house from the Bruce Rock road, while we assumed Mother was referring to the Merredin road, Mother could have in fact been referring to the Doodlakine road - forgetting that there was also the road to Merredin. I'm sure she knew about that road, but as I say being a dimwit at giving directions, she may have unintentionally omitted that detail, assuming we would also take the Doodlakine road. We indeed did take the Doodlakine road, but due to Sally's weak bladder when travelling, she is always needing to go to the loo at every town when we travel. Doodlakine is a tiny settlement with no loos, so Sally insisted we go into Bruce Rock first so she could go to the loo!!! Then we traveled back up the Merredin road and we saw the Belka South road and assumed that was what Mother was talking about.
Another thing to consider.... the house is most likely to be on public land. Mother had actually visited the house and even went inside. She told us that there was an old suitcase in one of the rooms!! Now if the house was on private property, that is, on a farm, it is highly unlikely Mother would have ventured onto the land. Today I have seen plenty of abandoned houses on farming properties but none of the looked like Mother's house anyway!! And it happens a lot of the bushland along the road is on public land, so it seems likely her house is located in any of such bushland.
So on my next trip to the region, especially knowing it is only a 3-hour trip not 4 hours, well I will work on the theory that Mother was referring to the stretch of Belka Road between the Doodlakine road and the Belka settlement. There is actually a natural bush reserve on the corner of Belka and the Doodlakine road, perhaps her house is somewhere in there. There are a couple of tracks into the area, but didn't drive on any of them today as I assumed the house could be seen from the road. There are a couple of smaller areas of natural bush along this stretch of road that is also on public land. And around Belka itself there are plenty of areas of natural bush on public land there. So I have plenty of leads to work on!! I am not going to give up, I am going to find this house even if it kills me!! LOL!!!
Anyway... after the fruitless search for Mother's house, I finally drove into Bruce Rock. First stop was the Post Office where Dad said he worked there when he met Mother. Then I drove around town for a bit, came across the District High School and thought that it was most likely that Mother went to that school. This led me to another revelation. In my childhood when I complained that I always have to walk the 1/2 mile to school cos I didn't have a bicycle like all the other kids, she would always scold me and tell me about the "miles" she had to walk to school each day in 110 degree heat!! Well I figured out just how many "miles" Mother likely to have walked each day. The actual distance depended on exactly which route she would have taken, it seems likely to be between 9 and 10 miles!!! That's a bloody long way!!!!! OMG!!! Given she probably walked at a reasonably brisk 4 to 5 mph, it would have taken her at least 2 hours each way!!!! In winter she would have to leave before dawn and probably didn't get back until after dark. She'd have sister Marlene for company, nevertheless..... it is no wonder she scolded me each time I dared to complain about walking around the corner to my school cos I didn't have a bicycle like everyone else at school did!!!! It was no wonder Mother was so good at athletics to the point of representing her school in the regional competitions - all that walking each day would have given her legs good exercise!!!!
After exploring the town for a bit, I went to the rock the town was named after - Bruce Rock!!!! Half of it was divided onto private property with signs given in no uncertain terms that we dare not traverse this fence!! However that still did leave half the rock I could legally explore. Me and my fascination for rocks!! haha!!
Now it was onto the 40 or so kms north to Merredin. Finding Dad's abodes was much easier. While Mother was a farm girl, Dad was a town guy! LOL! First I drove into the main town stretch mainly cos I was getting hungry by now and needed something to eat!!! On my walk up and down the strip for a country town's equivalent to "fast foods" (since there are no Maccas, KFC, Hungry Jacks, etc! LOL!!) I came across the Post Office where Dad also worked there. It seems interesting that Dad worked with mail, cos it is also where I work in my job. I first started life at the Ed Dept in Computer systems support, but I was destined to work with the mail. The govt privatised the Computing area, so I was redeployed, and was eventually sent to Records where I was assigned to the Mail room, opening mail and delivering mail around the Dept. I was put on redeployment once again, and was sent to Distance Education where I have been for the last decade - still working with mail, receiving mail from students, sorting mail into pigeon holes, packing items to be sent out in the mail, placing students' work into envelopes and addressing them, preparing the mail to be sent out, and etc.....!!!! So STILL working with mail in my job, and I guess I will be destined to be working with mail until I retire!!! It is funny how destiny works. I studied at University and tried all my student life to get into either the Science or Computing area, and got as far as starting in the Computer area in my first jobs, but destiny soon took over, and the rest is history - I have been working with mail for much of my work life!!!!
Anyway..... I paid a visit to the PO, then to Atkinson's Drapery which is where Mother worked!!! Amazing that a small shop is still there and trading after more than five decades!!!! Soon I spotted a bakery and had a delicious pizza bread!! Next on my itinerary was Dad's first abode in Coronation Street, so I went there only to find it had disappeared down a vortex and into a parallel universe!!!! Number 50 simply did not exist!!! The house numbers jumped from 48 to 52!!! But in the place of what should have been 50 was an obviously modern house quite out of place from all of the other old houses in the street! So I figured the house must have been knocked down and a new one built in its place. But still can't figure out how number 50 had simply disappeared. Must be some kind of vortex! LOL!! My Instagram pix shows a row of houses, the one in the center is what should have been number 50. hmmmmmm........
Next was Cunningham Street, and Dad's house there on the corner did look more original. There was a savage looking guard dog in the back yard so figured it wasn't a good idea to go in!! LOL!! I kept to the park across the road!!
Last but not least..... the Merredin rock!!!!! And oh what a rock it is!!! And not just one huge rock, there seems to be at least three or four of them!!!! Plenty of pixs on my Instagram account as me the intrepid explorer went on at least the first two rocks. There was also the dam, I assume what Dad talked about..... there were some HUGE fishes in there, must have been near to 1/2 metre, though of course the water can give some illusion of size, nevertheless, these were easily the largest fish I ever saw in any freshwater system - lake, dam or river!!!!! I don't think the pixs I managed to take of them does it any justice!!
The energy of exploring those rocks needed a Subway, and there was a Subway in Merredin - I had my roasted chicken roll from there. Then finally headed back home, and in spite of the increased traffic, it was still about a three hour trip.
So a must come back!!!! Plenty of walk trails in and around those rocks!! That is my plan over these next few months or so. Each time I travel to the area, I test one of my theories in trying to locate Mother's house, then go for my walk at the Merredin rocks. And being only a 3 hour trip as I now discovered, well it's not such a huge undertaking.
Although I had no ET experiences I did feel vibes on those rocks. There is a reason why Aborigines often regards these rock landforms as sacred sites!!! There are energies associated with rocks, and is often associated with ET experiences. Uluru, what we called Ayers Rock, a major sacred site for Aborigines is indeed one of the seven Chakra points of Planet earth. Every human body has seven Chakra points which affects our health, etc, well planets has them as well, that also affects the health of the planet. It is said that while the seven planetary Chakra points were in operation on Earth, we were able to derive our energy needs without resorting to fossil fuels, nuclear fission or other such polluting methods. But one of the Chakra points was Atlantis, and when Atlantis fell into the ocean, the Chakra system collapsed so we could no longer derive our energy from there - so having to resort to polluting fossil fuels, nuclear, etc. Anyway there are definite vibes associated with the Merredin rocks, so another reason why I will be going back there. It will be interesting to find out about the Aborigine history and legends about these rocks, I am sure there are such legends around, just a matter of trying to find them. Aborigine legends, the Dreamtime, are often pointers to ET activity and the particular vibes of the landforms in question.
Lessons I learned from the trip.... the car charger for my devices does not work!!! It did not charge my devices in spite of the light on the charger showing as on. I know it is not the car lighter socket cos I use it all the time for my Travel Cooler, it works brilliantly, keeps my soda cooler than ice alone. I always bring my own soda as they charge an utter fortune for them at the shops especially out in the country and at tourist spots. So I do purchase food from there, so not quite as frugal as Mother who'd be totally self sufficient on trips, bringing EVERYTHING with us on trips so avoiding shops altogether!!! But then I do like my food hot, I don't like just having salad rolls. My Travel Cooler can also work as a Food Warmer, indeed I used it as such when transporting my hot meals to Sally during her stays in hospital, but obviously you can only use one setting at a time - cooler or warmer - and purchasing two of them would be fruitless as there is only one cig lighter socket in the car!!! So yes I do buy my food when out which also costs a fortune, my 6-inch half sub from Subway in Merredin cos me over $8!!!!..... but even half a sub had so much meat and stuff in it that I struggled to eat all of it, I really don't eat much at all in spite of my energy expenditure, I get by perfectly well on small serves of food - probably another legacy of Mother, she'd always limit our serves of food at meal times, possibly a combination of budgeting and health issues. So though I do splurge a bit on the food, all of my drinks I bring on my own. At least one of the supermarkets always have blocks of soda on special, usually a 24-pack or a 30-pack, and like Mother I do always shop for specials, though not always, not quite as thorough as Mother, but for drinks I do - and getting sodas on special, it works out usually around 60c or so per can, as opposed to up to as much as $3 for the same can in some country places!!!!
So point is there is nothing wrong with the car cig lighter socket!!! I thought perhaps there is not enough current to charge my two devices - a cell phone and a tablet - but I would have thought that my Cooler which has a motor, albeit a small motor, with a fan would use more energy than my two devices together. But whatever the possible cause, the car charger did not work, and I had to travel back home cut off from the world - my two devices being out of action due to the battery being spent!!! But at least they lasted through the day during my sojourns. I have a GPS app on my tablet which turns my tablet virtually into the same GPS devices that you see in some cars. It proved to be useful in more ways than one. It even warned me of approaching speed cameras - very useful for me who tends to be lead footed!! But the speed indicator on the GPS device is more accurate than my car speedo, indeed while my car speedo shows me doing 110kmh, the GPS shows I was doing only about 104kmh - now I know why more cars than not zooms past me on the highways while I do what I thought was 110!!! To achieve my real speed of 110, the speedo shows 118. However it is more accurate at lower speeds, 80kmh on my car speedo shows as about 78 on the GPS. The GPS was also very helpful in other ways, especially when trying to find the various streets and landmarks in Merredin and Bruce Rock, I found them all without a map - though I did bring hard copies of maps in case of failure, you don't always trust technology, it does break down on occasion, but while it was working it proved a wonder - and it worked like a charm during my whole trip - until my devices ran out of battery power and my charger didn't work!!!!! grrrrrrr..... Uh yes the GPS works directly on the satellite signal, you don't need to have a phone signal for it to work - very useful when the intrepid adventurer like me travels off the beaten track and often out of range of phone signals!!!!!
Anyway I will now purchase a battery backup pack from Dick Smiths before my next day trip. You can get one with two sockets for about $80 and they claim it is good for one full recharge of a phone or tablet device, which would be all I need - my devices usually have enough charge to last me for the trip to the place and for exploring the place, I always seem to run out of battery by the time I head on home - so a backup battery pack it seems would be perfect.
Now today is my last day of vacation, and it looks like a sunny day, so will be going for my last walk of vacation. Tomorrow when I am back at work it will be even more sunny, indeed 30 degrees Celcius - our first 30-degree day of the summer!!! And I will be stuck all day in the warehouse!! grrrrr..... On such a day I'd be walking at the beach, we have beach trails up and down our coast. So I'd be walking along the beach and hopefully catching up with my ET kins - the dolphins and whales. The souls of dolphins and whales are both from the Pleiadean and Sirius star systems, which is why I get on with them so well. Today it will only be 26 Celcius so probably not warm enough for the beach unless you're a pom! LOL! You see the beaches of England filled with people sunbathing and swimming when the temp reaches 24 Celcius - a hot day for them!! LOL!! But for us sunburnt Aussies we need more than 24 degrees before we go to the beach. So I probably won't go to the beach today. Tomorrow would have been perfect for the beach, but not to be, I be back at work..... *sigh*..... and it will be sunny every day this week until the weekend when it will rain again, it is forecast to rain ALL weekend!!!!! grrrrrrrrrr...... Uh well such is life.... *sigh*
But another thing I will do today is going to the shops for new clothes for wearing to work, given it will be 30 degrees Celcius and my current summer attire are a little worse for wear!! I never was one to spend much on clothes. Was never really enthused about clothes, I see them as purely a means to an end. Me being a frustrated hippie would happily go nude in the summer but obviously not the thing to do in this particular society!!! LOL!!! As a kid I never liked to receive clothes for my birthday or Xmas. I'd get excited about toys and gadgets, but when it came to clothes, I just push them aside as if to say.... uhhhhh whatever!!! Big whoopee doo!!!!! And I still feel the same today, I never put clothes on my birthday/Xmas wish lists. I much prefer gadgets, devices, anything to do with computing, space crafts, etc..... The good thing about my job is we can wear casual clothes, I just wear jeans and a T-shirt to work. In summer it is my denim shorts, but my shorts from last year are faded and suitable only for bush walks and gardening!! So definitely needing a couple of new shorts, and I simply go to Big W where you can get them for reasonable price. And also some sandals. We are allowed to wear sandals at work. They frown on flip flops, but sandals are OK. And in the warehouse it does get very hot, often 10 degrees hotter than outside. They do have aircons in the warehouse, but due to the govt 3-tender rule, the aircons are next to useless. The govt always doing things on the cheap. For any contract work, such as hospital catering, or installing warehouse industrial aircons, the dept has to get three quotes and are obligated to take the cheapest quote regardless of any possible sub-standard service. And so we contend with an aircon system that quite simply does not work!! Most time we don't bother even switching them on, it makes no difference whatsoever to the air temp in the warehouse!! Fortunately we do have a working aircon in our offices, but none in the warehouse. So we just contend with the heat best we can, and wearing casual summer clothes and sandals does help. So yes am shopping for denim shorts and sandals for work tomorrow. Then I go for my walk. Then brace myself for returning to work tomorrow...... *sigh*......
Anyway.... the song for today, given the them of exploring rocks and Aborigine legends, this also being a social consciousness song compelling us to consider the plight of our native kins...... Solid Rock by Goanna....
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