Kate and Michael's Second Trip - Foreword April 2010

Six months passed, and not without incident, after we first boldly went where we hadn’t gone before (apologies to Captain Kirk!). We survived Christmas, New Year, recalcitrant offspring, surprising and somewhat contradictory reactions from friends (to our relationship) and the Great Storm of Perth.

And we had manged to stay together. Best of all, Michael has not been put off by my tendency to break everything known to Man. In a state of complete madness, he foolishly agreed to risk possible mass destruction of his camping gear a second time!  Hopefully, I would reward his outstanding faith in me.

There was a profound difference to this trip compared to the first one. Basically, we did very little planning. We knew we wanted to return to Linden, via Mount Palmer and Kookynie, but that was about as far as we envisaged. We had a vague idea we wanted to spend a night or two exploring the Linden surrounds - and after that?

We were better prepared in other aspects. The food box was inspected and added to, the swags and sleeping bags were aired, the tent (!) was located, 90 litres of drinking water was procured and we even bought another 30 litre washing water container. The first aid kit and our maps were checked.

Weeks of interminable waiting altered dramatically in the last frantic few days. Meals were cooked and frozen and piles of clothing and towels were stacked on my dining table.  Packing was slow, disorganised and haphazard and we wondered if we would actually succeed in leaving on April 1.  After all, we were beginning our next trip on April fool’s day!!  In spite of everything, we did it...and left. 

Bread anyone? All that's left above ground of a bakery at Linden, April 2010.