West2East Challenge: Day 1 and 2

Day 1: Denham to Mount Magnet 736km

Thursday 20th August

So, our official start day has finally arrived! Everyone is really excited, despite our 4:30am start time! The spectacular sunrise helps as we headed off down to the Bay to video the start of our journey and for a group photo of the crew.

The Bailey Rangefinder Nebula and Gemini are in pristine condition at the moment.

The Nebula is 22ft 2 berth caravan with a fixed full size end Queen sized bed, shower, WC, central kitchen and front lounge which is ideal for looking out over the stunning scenery. This layout is unusual for Australian caravans as they're usually traditionally designed with a central lounge, however, this new European-style design is proving popular so far.

The Gemini is 20ft 4 berth and is a more family orientated van with bunk beds at the back next to the full ensuite, a more Australian-style design central lounge and full size Queen bed at the front.

The kitchens have a stove and grill with optional full oven, 190l fridge freezer and a washing machine fitted as standard which I have the feeling I'm going to be grateful for in the next couple of weeks!

The vans also have a huge amount of storage capacity which is great as I've brought a lot of 'stuff' with me! Packing for weather conditions ranging from wet to dry and from 0 to 30 degrees is difficult!

Today has been very focused - it'd be great to get to Mount Magnet in daylight to pitch up but with roads lined with wild flowers and wildlife and our first 'The Outback starts here' road sign, we've spent a little too much time stopping for photo and video opportunities and before we know it, just outside Mount Magnet, we see the first of many spectacular sunsets which stops us in our tracks. The shocking pink sky provides such a contrast against the landscape it's hard to take in; it feels like it's enhanced in some way. I'm really getting a sense of the vastness of this country, We're on The Great Northern Highway and haven't passed another car for at least an hour and as far as I can see is just outback - there's not a building in sight!

Quick stop for refuelling and in the orange glow of the sunlight I get a little glimpse of the town of Mount Magnet and it reminds me of a cross between an American Western town with staple British influences - namely a pub!

It's dark by the time we pitch up and the campsite looks charmingly rustic! There's a real eclectic mix of vans here ranging from roof tents to caravans but not many motorhomes. It's particularly cold tonight but we're nice and cosy in the van which I'm sharing with lovely Gina from Bailey Australia, and like me, she's a caravanning newbie! I've got the bunks and they're more spacious than I thought they'd be but the van overall is a little larger than most we'd find in the UK.

It's raining and about 4 degrees this evening and only going to get colder so I think a cuppa and a game of cards is in order this evening! Off to Laverton tomorrow, only 8 hours of driving rather than 10 tomorrow - easy-peasy! 

Day 2: Mount Magnet to Laverton - 557km

Friday 21st August

As expected, last night was pretty cold indeed! These Baileys are definitely going to be put through their paces weather-wise on this trip! We stopped for proper trucker tucker this morning at the local 'servo' petrol station and got up close to some of the road trains we've passed a few times and get chatting to Trucker Tom who's heading our way pulling 16 tonnes worth of vehicle tyres. Each one weighs 4 tonnes; our Toyota Landcruiser and Bailey Rangefinder caravans together weigh 5 tonnes -  they'd make mincemeat of our lorries!

It's difficult to quantify on here the gargantuan size of everything here - we covered 730km yesterday and that's just a drop in the ocean compared with what's ahead!

Although we're officially in The Outback we haven't left the bitumen just yet but the scenery is rapidly changing to red, although no Big Reds have been spotted just yet, we'll just have to keep looking!

We arrived in Laverton in the dark again but everyone's so friendly here and really interested in what we're up to. One couple have seen what we've been doing on social media which is fab so we had a good chat with them around the camp fire about touring in Oz.

What's lovely is that everyone here shares the same passion for touring as we do back home, so it's not difficult to make friends!

Check out our photos online so far, there's plenty to see!

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