Dawn was just breaking when we roused our sleepy selves and made the final checks before jumping in the Tojo and heading north out of Perth.

We had a long drive ahead, as we left Perth's Southern suburbs and headed out towards Welshpool, Roe Highway and then Toodyay Road. We managed to get away just before 6.30am on a Monday morning, when the kids were going back to school after the half term holidays (if we had left it any later, the traffic was going to get busy).

Around 2 hours into the trip we discovered that "someone" had left their wallet at home. Not a big issue, unless they are required to show ID to board the homeward bound flight from Perth to Newman on Sunday. We shall see!

We stopped at Wongan Hilks for brekkie & coffee at the bakery (not convinced they actually bake at the bakery. When I asked for a bacon & egg sandwich, I was told they "weren't cooking eggs at the moment but had some already cooked up"! I opted for a ham & cheese croissant instead). If you're after "proper" coffee, the bakery is the place to go.

After that it was back on the road again. We had a laugh about the various types of trees we could see at the side of the road (okay, we got a bit silly after coming up with "surveyor's tape" and "coke can" trees, but really, it's pretty disappointing to see the crap that some people just leave by the roadside or hanging from trees.

Just after lunchtime we arrived in the sleepy little town of Perenjori. We stuck our head in at the Shire Office to enquire about the state of the roads out to Camel Soak (our overnight camping spot) and the road on to Payne's Find.

Next stop was fuel. Where on earth is the servo in Perenjori? We drove up the main strip, chucked a "u-ey", did a few bog laps around the the back streets and back around the police station to no avail. We ended up back at the Shire Office, only to be told we needed to drive out of town (heading North) and we would see the servo on the right hand side of the road, and indeed we did.

Being a small country town, it was an advance swipe of the credit card before any fuel would be delivered. After swiping said credit card in machine, we proceeded to fill up the Tojo. Bang on $100 (around 2/3rds full), the pump clicked off and delivered no more fuel. Back I went to the credit card machine. Swiped my card, got my receipt and then swiped again to re-authorise. Back to the pump I went, continued filling and then back to the credit card machine to swipe my card and get another receipt. After a fair bit of swiping and walking to and fro across the servo forecourt, we were finally fuelled up and headed east on the Perenjori-Rothsay Rd, towards Camel Soak.

After approximately 20kms of bitumen (& watching the road trains dump their iron ore at the rail sidings), I happened to notice a wreath flower on the side of the road. We had been told that the windflowers hadn't been that good this year, and I have never really seen the wild flowers before, so my surprise and pleasure at being the one to spot the first "wreath flower" (wreath Leschenaultia). These flowers are considered to be pretty rare and people come from around the world to spot them in Western Australia. The ones we spotted were slightly past their best, but still spectacular to view.

Soon the bitumen road petered out and we were driving along a typical Western Australian orange, unsealed road.

We found our turn off into Rabbit Proof Fence Rd without any problems and were soon turning off for the approximately 1 km track into Camel Soak.

With the exception of one other couple who were hidden away under some trees (& the flies), we had the place to ourselves.

We quickly set up camp (the first time I've done it without Jase), and then went for a nosey around Camel Soak.

After an earlyish dinner and a few more ciders, it was off to bed.