Day 7 Norseman to camp along Old Hyden Norseman Road

Thursday, 24th December 2015

We wake to a warm day it’s already 34 degrees at 8.30am. We’ve been to Norseman more times that we can count over the years but we’ve never done the Dundas Coach Trail so today’s the day. It was interesting and took about two hours to do the loop. One year after gold was found in the Dundas Hills in 1892, the town of Dundas was founded. It had a short lived existence as the major town in the region when in 1894 gold was found on the site of what is Norseman. People flooded into the town from all directions to seek their fortune among the richer and larger gold strike at Norseman. In 1896 the first Mail Coach arrived. The trail takes in the site of the original town of Dundas, a cricket pitch at Break O’day where social gatherings were held and the old Dundas Dam among other historical sites.

Once we’d finished rather than head straight back to Norseman we took a track that went around the northern tip of Lake Dundas. Lake Dundas is one of the largest salt lakes in Southern Australia and along with Lake Cowan water from the two was condensed to provide water to the Town of Norseman back in the 1890’s. We followed the Old Telegraph Line track which crossed Lake Dundas and then we followed a track which ran along the edge of Lake Dundas.

By 11.00am it was 40 degrees and over the next hour climbed to 42 degrees. As we skirted around Lake Dundas we were treated to some lovely sights. Then the grey clouds started to roll in and just before midday we had the first drops of rain followed by thunder and lighting. Just after midday the temperature was 42 degrees and the rain set in, within 10 minutes the temp dropped to 34 degrees. We decided to stop for some lunch and watch the lightening show.

The temperature dropped to 29 degrees which was quite pleasant after 42 degrees. We continued on our way. It’s funny how after only 30 minutes of rain the road conditions changed and we encountered some puddles. As we turned north to head back to Norseman the temperature started to climb again making it very muggy. We saw an old EH Holden along the way, although not a 4 x 4 it didn’t have any trouble getting there but didn’t quite make it back.

After topping up the tank at Norseman we headed out along the Old Hyden Norseman Road to look for somewhere to camp for the night. Recent rains had left their mark on the track. One of the things we enjoy out this way is the Salmon Gums. They’re lovely trees and they’re even nicer in summer when their smooth bark salmon colored bark is easily seen. The bark fades to gray after summer so if you want to enjoy their beauty summer is the time to go. These trees can grow up to 30mts in ideal conditions but 20mts is more common.

We came across some newly fallen trees which needed clearing. After doing four and the chainsaw battery needing a recharge we decided to look for somewhere to camp and found a nice open spot where we enjoyed a lovely evening listening to nature as it serenaded us to sleep.

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