All photos of the trip, and the below text at:
http://geoff.greig.net.au/gallery3/index.php/July-2014-Caravan-Trip-All-the-way-Around-Australia
Following our shaky start last night with the car battery dying at 4.30pm, we headed off today just before midday. Seems no matter how much you prepare there are always things you don't get a chance to do - water the garden, etc. We also forgot to pack our fish and steak, but Gympie is well stocked so all is good. After sitting on the Gateway freeway for 40 mins following an accident that had cleared away completely by the time we passed the spot, we stopped at Jowarra Park (Caloundra turnoff) for a late lunch and drink and decided to stop 6kms short of Gympie where we stayed a few years ago - the first ever free-stop I think. Free bbq and flush loos. A small park, but we found a spot OK. Egg and bacon and Geoff's delicious vege pancakes.
Awoke at 6.30am to the sounds of early-rising car-sleepers and then loud country music to make sure we were awake. Cold last night but not as cold as I thought. Not like -3c just out of Alice Springs. Headed off at around 8.30am, didn't stop to see anyting - been there before. Stopped at about 3 road-works, each of between 5 - 10mins stop each. Stopped at Maryborough for stocks. Lovely historic town and railyards, but have 'done' Maryborough before so didn't linger. Passed through Childers and intended to stop at Calliope free stop near Gladstone. Instead stopped at a free camp out of Gin Gin (stopped twice before in our travels) as we still have 170km to go and these stops fill very quickly. So set up camp at 1.15pm and did some housekeeping, not organised before we left. Nice day, around 20c, dappled shade and just sat ourside sending emails and looking at the world go by, making the most of free time as there will be lots of long days driving ahead. Very pretty country all through here.
A bit cloudy morning, but not too cold. Truck with refrigerated motor on all last night kept us awake a lot of the night. On the road by 8.30am, a little later than hoped. Stopped at Gladstone for fuel, but bypassed the city - been there before a few times. Straight on to and through Rockhampton, including at least 3 roadworks, with stopping times on average about 10 minutes each. Arrived in Yaamba around 2pm and decided to stop as there's not much else for the next 150km. Yaamba is a Rest Area with loos, a pub, a derelict looking general store and fuel. Geoff and I went for a walk along a dirt track, passed a few houses (some seen better days), dogs barking, horses grazing and we found a track to the Fitzroy river. Steep embankment so if there are any crocs we were safe. Amongst the dirt track and houses stood this huge, multi-storey brick rendered building which used to be the pumping station for Rockhampton water suppy, now derelict. We stayed about 100mtrs up the road from the Rest Area in a small area big enough for 7 vans, but hopefully a bit of a buffer from the hwy noise.
Not too cold last night and woke to a misty morning. A good night sleep last night (hardly heard the hwy noise), so got some good shots of the early morning sun. Left around 7.30am to a long drive beyond Mackay. For about 30km it was very foggy and most of the time we were behind a truck, (big brother paving the way for us). Loo stop at Marlborough, about 1km off the hwy and found a quiet camp spot behind the Hotel (a note for next time we pass through). There are a couple of camps about 100kms north of here, Clairview and St. Lawrence. Had been to Clairview for lunch once. The tide there goes out at least a km. Had seen good comments about St. Lawrence so decided to divert to have a look. It is a free camp, clean tiled toilets and hot showers, laundry trough and 2 clothes lines!!!. We decided stay after only being on the road for two hours. They expect and appreciate a donation which is gladly given. It is a huge area where they also hold the Campdrafts and Rodeos and cattleyards, but it is a wonderful place to stay (max 7 days). Walked about 1km into the town, a very small town. Geoff got his fix of potato cakes (potato scallops of those Qlders) at the general store. On the way back walked to Marg's Park, next to one of the St Lawrence inlets. It also has huge tides - as we walked to the town there was no water, on the way back the water was coming in. It's not a beach, more like inlets surrounded by hills, very picturesque. The shoreline comes with a Crocodile sign. First opportunity to put in the kayak and we are already in crocodile country. The water's edge is all mud and mangroves so not the best anyway - certainly no swimming allowed. The tiny town of St Lawrence has been mowed to the enth degree. It is a very old, out of the way town (5km off the hwy), but even the old, small houses are all mowed neatly. Road verges, railway sidings, everywhere is mowed. Gets my pick of a tidy town. They have seen the value in grey nomads supporting the town. The camp area is fenced the traditional country way with flowering Bougainvilleas there and on the intersections, everywhere - very few trees though. There are wetlands out beyond the camp and we'll do that walk tomorrow.
A very mild night and today is about 28c and lovely. Did a walk to the wetlands and into the other part of the metropolis which is St. Lawrence to see the Police station, Post Office, School and Church and a hand-full of houses - many with more bougainvilleas and some with blooming roses - Did 7.5km walking (Yes Kristi sunscreen on my nose and a big wide hat!!) . Lady in the caravan next door counted the vans last night - 115, so we are not alone in this camp spot. We have decided to stay tomorrow night as well, giving us time to check our maps, get some reading in and do the other walk to the Melaleuca wetlands. Apparently all the area beyond the camp used to be part of the gulf - salt water estuary. When they built a new road across two points they blocked this area off (destroying the salt estruary environment in the process), but what has resulted is freshwater wetlands and thousands of water birds - hmm can't reverse it now I guess. Interesting to see one side of the road, fresh clear water, and wetland reeds and water birds and on the other side, mud, mangroves (and I guess crocs). We missed seeing the tide come in which runs in more like a flood, but maybe tomorrow. Our next day on the road will be a long one I think - maybe as far as Townsville. Another nice sunset is expected with just enough cloudy patches to bounce off the sunset lights.
A colder night last night and heavy dew. A beautiful scene down across the wetlands with fog over all the water area. Planned to have a big day reading - got about 30 mins in due to getting washing done and other housekeeping items ready for our next day travel. A much windier day and top of around 23c. Went for a walk to the Melaleuca wetlands, walked over to the old sale yards and met a guy shovellng manure for his Helleconyans (sorry about the spelling), those nice flowers. He's planning to grow them commercially and admits he doesn't know much about them (he didn't even know the difference between evergreen and deciduous!)but he's a rough around the edges ex-truckie with no skills to fall back on when he retires. Walked back to find the track to the town across the railway tracks. Found it at last but dutifully didn't disobey the signs about entering railway property. Geoff participated in a BFS (Broadband for Seniors) webinar (see photo) Another lovely sunset and magnificent when all the geese fly up and out to roost against the fiery red sunset sky. We heard today that they fly away to eat a farmer's crop and 'he's not happy Jan'.
It was quite cold last night and this morning the wind was strong. On doing our van checklist we found the stop lights weren't working on the van. We left around 7.45am for a longer trek than previous days. Stopped at Clairview to see the sea (tide was out about 1km as previous). Geoff tried to fix the lights (they had been working with some coaxing the last two days on the road). No luck and it was freezing (well it was 9c) and blowing a gale, we decided to push on to Mackay and every time we braked going through the town, Geoff put on the head lights which were working so they looked like brake lights. After getting some supplies, we were on the road again, did not divert to Airlie Beach (been there before), nor Bowen (been there before). (All of these places along the coast we will see again when we do Brisbane-Cairns-Brisbane in a year or two and anyway pushed for time today). Stopped at Guthalungra rest area and got there about 4.15pm with 3/4 of the sites taken up. Whilst talking to a fellow traveller Geoff discovered that the cap to the van water tank was missing - he was positive he had tightened it!!!!! So we'll probably spend more time in Townsville than planned to see to the van brake lights and find a new cap. If anything is to go wrong we need it to go before we head north-west from Townsville into the outback. Scenery - so close to the sea and yet so far…..caught glimpses of the beautiful water and islands passing Bowen and the rest was trees beside the highway.
Another cold night and another beautiful morning (once it warmed up). Stayed in bed longer, looking up maps, etc. Did our checklist and the van brake lights were working!! Drove about 70kms to small town, Home Hill Comfort Stop for a hot shower. Met Pauline and John an elderly couple Geoff had spoken to at length last night. She is Maltese and he Scottish, I thought Geoff could talk. They are a lovely couple and every word that came out of his mouth was a joke, he was so funny and she was well read and had a quick mind. Pauline would rather be in the one place for her holidays - holiday apartments, by the sea, with a pool, so she's probably not enjoying being on the road in a medium motorhome, quite as much as John. We walked the town, bought supplies at the local grocers to support the town and looked at the historical displays of the district, in the pub. Decided to move on to Giru, a new entry in the camps book and most of the countryside was either sugar cane or mango orchards. It is a small sugar mill town about 5kms off the hwy. Turns out the council demolished the loos despite the whole town (100%) petitioning for them to stay so that more Grey Nomads would come and support the town. There were still some 15 vans here tonight. Large grassed area, unfortunately backing on to the railway line. Nothing new as that's how it's been most nights. There is a helipad in the middle of the camp/park in case of a mill accident. With smoke and steam billowing from the sugar mill stacks and the continuous hum of the mill, the sun set to brilliant orange again. Will find an auto-electrician in Townsville tomorrow. We have a temporary fix for the water tank cap - half a tennis ball.
Well the trains out-did themselves last night. Continuous throughout the night, I think many coming from the mill. There was a 'kink' in the track just as the train passed our position and you could feel the floor of the van shudder from the roar of the engines. Got out of bed at 6am, no point in trying to sleep any longer. Stopped off at the Lions Park loos and met a fellow camper who added to the story of the demolished loos. Apparently the owner of the Eco park had complained about competition for his business and that's why the council took out the loos. The owner is a relative of one of the councillors!! Graft, corruption or at least conflict of interest here and so stupid as they are two different clientel but that's another story. The fellow campers has been at this particular camp site for 8 weeks so if we had decided to stay a second night I don't think that would have been a problem - she had been on the road for 12 years (yes 12). Headed back to the hwy towards Townsville. Had all our waypoints set on the map for supermarkets, auto electrician and caravan parts, until the new motorway (we had an older map), took us off our course and headed us back south. Long and the short of it, we got the van fixed (was a blown fuse and dud connection in the car), bought a water tank cap, got groceries and travelled about what seemed to be 50kms around central Townsville to get it all - a cooks tour. Back on the road again we were heading for Saunders Beach but heard there was only room for 6 vans, so headed for Bluewater camp. All reports said was very busy and luckily we got the last spot and it was only 1.30pm. Nice little spot, large picnic area backing on to the creek, across the road is the camping area backing on to the cricket field. Lots of vans came and went as there was no spots left. Geoff thought he might put in the kayak as we figured this might be a freshwater creek, but after our walk we saw a sign for crocodiles so maybe we won't take the kayak in. PS we had originally planned to go over the Hervey Range Road then on to the Gregory Development Road to get to Normanton and Karumba, but there were differing opinions about road trains and army vehicles using those roads, so we are staying on the Bruce Hw until Innisfail and then head west - that way we might yet get to see the ocean and having to worry about pulling off the road for road trains - there will be plenty of time for that.
A milder night last night but still cold. Another beautiful day, high 20's. Had a lot of laughs with Jo and Chris to our left and Eddie and Lyn to our right. Went for a walk in the town (already seen the creek), ha ha. Tried out for the first time our Ensuite Tent. Heated water in our solar water bottle, Geoff wired up the little water pump which Kristi had given us and, bingo, it worked. A lovely hot shower. A nice day had hanging around the camp, doing chores and talking with our neighbours and tatoo lady (didn't get her name), travelling on her own.
Cool but beautiful morning, packed up and said farewell to our neighbours. We were heading for Balgal Beach, but knowing it was very busy and a small area our back-up plan was to go to Rollingstone rest area (another nice spot but not on the beach). On the way we decided to stop at Toomulla to actually see some beach. There was also a free camp there. Arrived and found a treed area, space for about 20 vans, next to a deep creek and a short 50mtr walk to the beach/creek entrance. Decided this was too nice to forego, so set up camp - only 16kms travel today!! One camper said they saw a large and small croc on Monday and everyone got a photo - apparently the whole camp was down at the boat ramp. Harvey, who was just packing up and moving on showed us his photo of the croc. We are also told that the locals will tell you there are no (or small) crocs, but THEY won't go swimming!! Anyway, Geoff and I went for a walk, along the esplanade passed smallish houses and along the foreshore parkland - very neat and well looked after, out to the beach (along with descriptions of the bird life and vegetation). The tide was out so walked out on to the sandbar and Geoff insisted on paddling in the ocean and I insisted on him staying in very shallow water - at least shallow enough to see a croc. We continued our walk around to the cliffs and point, over the rocks and walked back through the town. A very small, very neat little town - too small for shops. As we walked back along the 'main' street we saw a sign at a creek with arrows ' Shire of Hinchinbrook' to the left 'City of Townsville' t the left - a divided town? All the nice houses on the cliff are in the Shire of Hinchinbrook and the free camp is in the City of Townsville. The mobile library arrived at about 3.30pm. Geoff had 4 minutes to go to the end of his video and then intended to walk over. 3 minutes went by and it drove out again. Either no customers or all the locals are waiting to return/borrow books and then the van was out of there - woosh. We'll probably stay here tomorrow night also. We are learning was we go - everyone KNOWS these camps along this stretch are all 48hrs, but the caretaker only comes Mondays and Thursday, and a few who are on the road all the time just keep doing the rounds - everyone KNOWS which camps you need to line up for and how to beat the system. We have seen the same vans a number of times as we travel. Tonight we will have NO hwy or train noise. Had a bbq dinner and then I dissuaded Geoff from going spotlighting crocs, I know who would be spotting who!
A lovely mild night and the only sound was very feint waves from the beach. Another sunny day. Went for another walk along the beach a bit further along and caught up on some reading, etc. Later in the day it started to drizzle rain. Was just a lazy day today.
Another mild night, despite it continuing to light rain all night. As we were under some tree branches, the water droplets were heavy and loud all night, not a restful rain. Luckily we had pulled out the back awning yesterday, not thinking we'd actually need it. With the exception of some puddling, it held up OK and we learned to fine tune the ropes for maximum water run off. We had intended to move on this morning, but decided to stay another night so as not to have to pack up in the rain and then set up in the rain further down the road. Took care of some housekeeping items, had lunch and went for yet another walk, this time at full low tide. We paddled in the shallows (beach not the esturary) (again shallow enough to see any crocs) and played with the crabs and crustaceans as they scurried for rocks as we paddled through - most relaxing. The tide was out at least 100mtrs and looking back at the shoreline with trees and mountains as a backdrop was very scenic. Being Friday night, Geoff had his chips. I had egg on toast. Just as well because later in the evening, Geoff opened the fridge and the door shelf front fell out, along with the eggs, three of which cracked - omlette for breakfast tomorrow.. Happy Birthday Charlotte.
A mild night (had to open a window) and lovely morning. Got on to the road and intended to stay at Rollingstone just up the road. Visited Balgal Beach on the way and, unexpectedly, as there was a vacant spot we pulled in and will stay two nights. (We heard vans are usually lining up first thing in the morning awaiting a vacancy). This stop has room for about 18 vans, a real squeeze (like a caravan park). Our site backs on to the grassed picnic area which is right on the beach. Across the road is a bar and take-away and a boat ramp with it's own resident croc.
After setting up and speaking to the three other lucky campers and comparing stories and seeing the last two vans pull in at 10.00am as the last two vans left, we set up the van and then had that omlette for lunch then walked 3kms along the beach to the other part of the town to a spot we pitched a tent 8 years ago. Here also the tides go out a long way and the coastline is dotted with tropical trees and cloud covered mountains as a backdrop.
Very mild last night, had to open a window. Balgal beach gets the breeze whereas Toomulla Beach camp area is protected by foreshore vegetation. Walked to the boat ramp to go croc spotting again and some more beach-combing. The Fisherman's Bar has the best chips - a huge lot for $3. Went nicely with our bbq'd fish. No veges tonight.
As we were lucky enough to get a spot at Balgal Beach, we didn't stay at Rollingstone (nearer the hwy), but popped in there on the way out this morning to have a nice warm shower (our ensuite tent, a boiled kettle and two buckets and our little 12v battery operated pump). We could have stayed, it was lovely there, but we hadn't done many kms in the last 7 days and we had intended originally to by-pass the east coast and get to the west turn-off asap. But why not, the last 7 days has been really good and relaxing in nice environments, walking on the beaches and READING!!!!
Stopped at the Hinchinbrook Lookout. We are now in World Heritage area. It was magnificant looking over at the island and the channel and spoke to a couple of National Parks guys for a while about crocs and whales jumping into boats. On to Ingham to do some shopping. Another caravaner outside Coles told us our left brake like wasn't working - hopefully just a missed connection. The landscape is much more tropical now, with cane fields (haven't seen any 'lightning cracking' over them as yet) and a backdrop of mountains and national parks (we will visit them next time). Stopped at Cardwell briefly and found a sign that said 'Don't Feed the Crocodiles'…what tha????? I thought everyone AVOIDED them! Cardwell is a smallish town right on the foreshore dotted with palm trees and a view of the islands. Moved on and stopped for the night at Bilyana, a rest area on the hwy between Cardwell and Tully, with a train-line about 40mtrs behind. 1st train went through at 4pm and driver obligingly hooted his horn - I hope not at 4am. Sat for quite a while in the late afternoon with Hugh and Dianna (our neighbours from Elphinstone, Vic and have a similar van to ours). They were probably in their 70's and very well travelled all around Aus - many times.
We are not too far from the coast, but a cooler night last night and guess it will get cooler as we head west, inland. Only 1 train went through last night not long after we sent to sleep and that was all so it was OK and had a buffer from the hwy. Innisfail last stop to top up water and supplies before going inland.
We are not too far from the coast, but a cooler night last night and guess it will get cooler as we head west, inland. Only 1 train went through last night not long after we sent to sleep and that was all so it was OK and had a buffer from the hwy. Had a late start as we weren't going far. Countryside is mostly sugar cane and now lots of banana plantations and cloud/misty mountains. Drove through Tully with the sugar mill spewing out dark steam/smoke against the white clouded hills in the background. (We came up here just after cyclone Larry and the banana plantations looked like someone had sliced them through with a sickle - all the plants were chopped of halfway down) Stopped at Innisfail, last stop to top up water and supplies before going inland. They don't cater very well for van parking even on the outskirts of their 'CBD' and after some debate as to whether the van was 'in' sufficiently from the white line, we did our shopping - I bought eggs (remember someone opened the door and they all fell out and broke) and topped up with bananas at a roadside stall. Geoff bought a globe for the van brake light - (luckily it was only the globe after only having all the wiring done by an auto elec in Townsville). Headed out of Innisfail to Fred Drew Park, another stop not that far out of town. About 15 vans by nightfall. Met Carol who lives just up Beaudesert Road from us at Parkinson - used to live in Melbourne, her sister lives in Bindi st. Glenroy and we compared pub meals in our local area - as you do when you are nearly 2,000km from home. Sat and chatted with others and read some more. SPIDER ALERT!!! As I closed the passenger door I glimpsed a huge spider on the door rest between the front and rear passenger door. Geoff assured me he couldn't get into the car, so I sprayed into the gap between the two doors - he didn't come out. After about an hour Geoff opened the doors and he was not there - did he go into the car? Geoff assured me again that he couldn't get into the car and probably came out at the bottom (no footprints where I sprayed). I was visioning myself living in Innisfail for the liftetime of a spider - I was NOT getting into that car. Needless to say the door stayed closed for the rest of the night of which I had sleepless bouts thinking about how he would get home without getting into the car. (For those of you who are not aware of my acute aracnaphobia (big, hairy, fast spiders are a big deal and my brain does funny things in these circumstances). Watched a 1941 movie, then an episode of the Twilight Zone as the backpackers at the picnic table were still giggling and chatting until the wee small hours of 9.30pm, how dare they, ha ha. Usually by 6.30pm there is silence in the rest stops.
It rained a little last night - it is the tropics. Whilst putting stuff in the car I checked the door frame, no spider. I opened the back door, and there on the lower sill was THE SPIDER. Geoff, armed with an old shirt grabbed him (1st time lucky) and his main concern was that he might kill it….hmmm. No, all was OK and it ran away near a tree after Geoff let it go. Phew. Said good-bye to Carol and those with whom we had made an acquaintance. Headed out and realised we were still in the suburban outskirts of Innisfail. The area heading into the Atherton Tablelands is magnificant, with Wet Tropics World Heritage National Parks. Stopped at a couple, camps and lookouts. Will camp here next time and do the whole area. Cloud covered mountains, rainbows, continued on to Ravenshoe, highest town in Queensland at around 923m. Stopped at the info centre, Millstream falls and then to Archer Creek rest area. Although we only did just over 100km, we were happy to just chill for the afternoon, finish this diary day. The solar shower worked well again for getting hot water, etc. About 23C, partly cloudy, bit windy, but very pleasant. This area backs on to a lovely rocky creek, I don't think crocs can climb 900mtr so we are probably OK if we paddle.
Lovely morning, stopped at Innot Hot Springs with a lovely sandy bank. You can see the hot water come out from a pile of rocks, the creek is cold just upstream and quite hot downstream, Very eery seeing steam come off creek water. As we got an internet signal there, we did internet things before we moved on. Passed through Mt. Garnett, through the roadworks at 60kph (new stones laid) and on our way out when we got a cracked windscreen. There was no speed limit coming the opposite way so naturally we got one of their stones. Stopped at the 40 Mile Scrub National Park where there is a walk in the Dry Rainforest. About further 5km down the road we arrived at the Junction Rest area. We were stopping short today and do a long trip tomorrow. Decided to pull into the huge gravel pit across the road from the Rest Area. At one point we were the only ones there, having arrived early about lunch time. As we suspected we might need to share with Road Trains (according to Wiki Camps), so we manoeuvred the car further to the outer edge away from the turning circle. Finally Louisa and Andy arrived (an older European couple) and I felt safer. It's a beautiful day today and we are still at around 700mtrs so yet to get to the hotter areas. Altogether there are 7 vans and Geoff spoke to the BP Tanker driver who had, in 7 years, never seen a truck, so I felt better. A beautiful sunset.
NFP: Camps Rest Area is basically a long skinny paved pull-in for cars and trucks, with loos. The gravel pit across the road is huge, we put the van in to a flatish, tar and stones section back into the grass, so van was off the main turning circle. Lots of loose stone circle camp fire sites, so I guess more than just trucks stop here. Stopped here early as the next free stop is about 250kms away, so get 100km under our belt today. Partly cloudy and warm, wind has died down a bit.
A coolish night and, at last I got some sunrise shots over the gravel pits, ha ha. There wasn't much traffic last night and we were far enough away from the road that the trucks that did stop, weren't roaring. Headed off early and stopped at Mt. Surprise (gemfield town). Saw the tiny railway station that services the Savannah Gulflander train (the train that does not connect to any current rail network, but used to service the old mines - it is called the railway to nowhere). I got the life story of the lady who cleaned the toilets (her last day today after 22 years of cleaning the loos - I felt honoured as I sat there!!). She has written 9 books and does a whole lot of other things and was a vivacious, happy person. Drove on to Georgetown, another gemstone town and Geoff went into the Gemstone Display whilst I topped up with town water. The swimming pool is free and you get a token to get in (once you've signed a liability waiver, etc. - Govt requirement). Had a swim, it was lovely “once you're in”…. Feeling refreshed, we travelled another 20kms to the old Cumberland Mine Chimney stop. Just a chimeny remains of the old workings and the area slopes down to a lovely lagoon (artificial with levee bank) with water lilies, ducks, pelicans and other water birds.
About a quarter of the road travelled today was, one-lane, sealed. We had to go off quite a few times for other vehicles, but did not encounter any road trains - time for that - nor did we get any windscreen chips despite the road shoulder was often stony. We stopped for a few roadworks and cattle sauntering along the road. We saw an emu and her chicks on the side of the road, luckily she didn't start running in front of us.
It's lovely here, our van backs out to the lagoon and we have some shade - it was 30c today as we have come down from an altitute 700mtrs to 200mtrs. I'm guessing the days will be hotter from now on.
Early morning I got some sunrise shots and the road gang arrived again to get water from the lagoon. We headed off for Black Bull siding to get us closer to Normanton. The hwy continues to change from comfortable double lane to single lane. We only passed a handful of cars, but enough to get dust in the van every time we had to pull off. Stopped at a mains road loo where sat this guy with 3 suitcases. Even before we pulled up we overheard chatter on the walkie talkie wondering what this guy was going out in the middle of nowhere. He was an Irish working/tourist who'd be offered a job on one of the stations as a machine operator and ended up picking up sticks so he quit. He was dropped off at the rest stop with 2 hours to kill waiting for the bus back to Cairns. Lots of small kangaroos jumping across the road today. Arrived at Croydon and got gas from the oldest surviving store in Australia with museum pieces, then did the heritage walk with the old police station and gaol, courthouse, etc. then went out to Lake Belmore and the Chinese temple at the archeological dig. There was a high Chinese presence during the mining boom, mining gold, silver, lead and tin. 170 men went to WW1 from Croydon and only 63 returned. WW1 spelled the demise of the mining in Croydon. Moved on and another 50 odd kms came to the Black Bull Siding. The Gulflander calls in here. There is a mains road drop loo, picnic tables and a large area for vans. It was hotter today, but lucky we got some shade.
Beautiful morning after a comfortable but cool night. Cloudless and occasional breeze (mostly willy willy's whipping up dust in the mostly still air). The road has been good from before Croydon and is a much more comfortable ride. This road carries very little traffic. Arrived at Normanton, not much there, but decided to stay in a caravan park and then drive to Karumba for the toe dipping and the famous sunset. Our site was shady, but the CP had seen better days. The CP water supply is Artesian Bore water (drilled in 1896 by the Govt), has a real sulphur smell, but apparently naturally fluoridates the water - it still stinks though. Finally got internet coverage after a week so Geoff did the banking and travel diary and I did the laundry. We went for a swim (in their pool) and later in the day did the 72kms to Karumba (142kms return). To me Karumba is an industrial town being the departure point for live cattle exports, fishing fleets and boaties heaven. It looks very tired, not bustling, not even many cars. We looked at the old piers from yesteryear and they had quite a few nformation signs around the town telling of the history, eg the flying boats during WW11. Chatted to a lady who has lived there since 1988. Apparently people come up for months at a time so the CP are always full - hence the high prices. I saw a little store and a pub at Karumba and a couple of cafes and a pub at Karumba Point and that's about it. There isn't any decent parks to sit. Even the Lions Park is just scrubby bushland on the water's edge. The Norman River coming in from the gulf is beautiful and across the river from Karumba is just natural mangroves and crocs. Around at the point it opens out to the Gulf of Carpentaria and the place that Geoff touches the water, which he did after negotiating sandstone slabs amongst mud to get to the actual water - it was low tide. At last he got there. We waited for sunset which was well worth the wait - magnificent. With the sky still bright orange on the horizon, we headed back to Normanton in the dark. We did 70km/h all the way as there were kangaroos on the side of the road for the whole 70kms. Only 3 ran across in front of us and one is a very, very lucky roo. We will have a good look around Normanton tomorrow morning on our way out.
The landscape has been surprisingly treed all the way, until half-way to Karumba from Normanton when the trees disappear and the landscape is bare. These are the floodplains of the Norman River as they snake their way down to the Gulf. They do however graze cattle there. Scenery around Croydon was hilly with small round boulders and looks like mining country. Back to Monday. It is very windy today, but it was a mild night. I got some more washing in before we left. We drove around the town before leaving, the station with the Gulflander and museum is very interesting and the ONLY piece of green grass we have seen since Croydon. It's across the road from the Centrelink office. We did not take a photo of the huge Crocodile statue as I can't believe it is the actual size, it would have to have been pre-historic - humbug, haha. There are some other historical bits and pieces and we went to the Norman River where there had been a thriving prawn processing industry in yesteryear, but there is nothing but a couple of concrete pads left. The brochure said there was 5 fuel places - we only saw 3 - 1 outside a small run-down something didn't have any fuel, 1 didn't have diesel, 1 was outside a tiny store, the BP Servo was a ramshackle, small building, with only one side of the bowser open as the other side had a car with no wheels (being worked on?) and stacks and stacks of tyres. Luckily the fuel hose was long enough to pull around to the other side of our car. Just beyond the bowers were 5 (old codgers?) sitting around, gas-bagging away, surrounded by more piles of tyres and up on the hoist in the tiny shed was the Police Car - guess it's a good time to do the crime. I guess all the crowds are there for the fishing, but I believe it's been too cold for the fish, so no fish, but the crowds are still there. We bought some supplies in the tiny 4 Square Store (I didn't know 4 Square still existed) and headed south to a free stop at Bang Bang. We saw two birds from a distance walking across the road - looked like small Emus, but probably some water bird a long way from water. Got a photo. After stopping at 5 different road works, and numerous narrow sections and filling the van with dust, we arrived at Bang Bang rest area. Very large area, back off the road, with a very clean Main Roads drop loo with push pedal flush (very modern these days). By late afternoon there were about 20 vans who were serenaded by one van resident with country music and a guitar, along with applause from each of the vans, which were spread out everywhere. Spoke to many fellow travellers. There was so much chatter going on amongst all the 'residents' that it was too loud to have an afternoon nana nap - ha ha. So much for the remote outback, but safety in numbers. Lots of Galahs around here and haven't seen the proliferation of Whistling Kites that we have seen for the last 700kms.
Fairly windy today, much cooler night so heading for cooler weather. Got a late start, stopped at the Burke and Wills Roadhouse (the Potato Cakes were greasy!) and continued on to O'Brien's Lookout Rest Area. On the way we saw three roadtrains (parked at the Roadhouse) and a motorbike (Honda Gold Wing) with pillion and towing a small trailer. Saw lots more of the Whistling Kites and flocks of Galahs are more prevalent, lots of termite mounds and the vegetable stayed sparse and relatively flat. Arrived around 2pm and there was already many vans there. Chatted in the afternoon with others and watched a beautiful sunset over the distant hills. We looked for the lookout, but the best view was from the ramp leading up to the loos. At one stage there were thousands of small birds flying in formation as one against the setting sun. They may have been budgies as we had heard their distinctive calls earlier in the day.
It sprinkled rain last night and we packed up in light showery rain, but it was OK. The wet grass smelled lovely. The landscape is decidedly hillier now, looking more like mining areas with reddish, rounded boulders. Saw our first eagle for the trip, eating roadkill. The roadkill birds seem now to be larger Kites or some other slightly bigger bird of prey, but not quite eagle size. Got fuel and supplies in Cloncurry and headed for Fountain Springs rest area (on the hwy). Stopped on the way at Capella Dam where there was plenty of vans and plenty of space, but very bare, uneven, rocky and small shrubby vegetation. Pulled in to Fountain Springs and chatted with others and unhooked and did the 50km round trip to old copper mining towns and the actual Fountain Springs. Signs mark the towns, but there is very little left, except for railway sidings and some metal relics. This is also a roadtrain route (into a current mine) so we switched to the UHF channel just in case there was one on the road (at each section they call their location). It is a 4wd road only (no 2wd allowed) 45km/h for roadtrains and 60km/h for other vehicles. I was freaking out that our tyres were not good enough to take the rocks, etc. and then the road got worse. We pressed on to Fountain Springs which is an oasis amongst beautiful ocre hills. The road ends here where there are low overhanging trees and green shrubs, the spring water comes out from the rocks into a beautiful pool with a backdrop of two high cliffs of ocre and a gap in the middle. Small green Finches were bathing in the shallow pools. Got back to the van and we managed, just, to get our car back in front of the van (many had arrived in our absence). A whole bunch of us sat at the picnic shelter for happy hour and exchanged BS.
By nightfall the vans were packed in like sardines - a fairly small rest area but we counted 25 vans. The guy who pitched a tent in front of us was leaving by 9am, so no problem, but he couldn't get out till the motorhome moved, nor could the long caravan parallel to us. The last man standing, was a van that had been blocking everyone in, but didn't seem to want to leave early to let others out. Anyway, we all manoeuvred out and on our way. We stopped at the ghost town of Mary Kathleen a uranium mining town in the 1950's to 1980's, now abandoned. They took everything with them, even filled in the swimming pool. What is left is acres of grassland and trees and foundations of various larger buildings, slabs where houses had been, a roundabout, a stop sign on the road and a no parking sign on a gutter a couple of flag poles, a town fountain and plaque stones (plaque was taken) tennis courts and foundations for some public toilets. Seeing those tiny ceramic tiles on the floor of the public toilets reminded me of the tiles we saw at Roman Ruins and they are almost as exciting - well a little. The whole place is very eerie. It is a free camp on what is now private property and most camp on the old house slabs and spread out - crowds are kept down as there are no loos (apparently they took them with them also!!)
We followed a thin trail of diesel from the town and out to the gate which led to a lady by the side of the Hwy.. She'd had a leak in the fuel line and lost all her fuel - she was waiting for the RACQ and the Fire Service who were going to disperse the diesel. It was a long trail and I wondered if they were going to go all along the road with a shovel and cover the little trail.
We got into Mt. Isa which we'd been to before. They have plenty of tours, etc. but not one viewing area of the mines, except a lookout over the town. I was interested in the history, but there didn't seem to be much at the information centre, it was all about selling the various tours. We got supplies, fuel, gas and water and by 3.30pm we were on our way again.
Did the 50kms to the WW11 rest area. The hwy out ran parallel with the old road that was built during the war to link Mt. Isa with Darwin. Such a feat in troubled times. Dad had a photo of Mt. Isa 1945, so it's likely he was here at some stage during the war. Got to the rest area, no problems with crowds tonight. It is a huge area and then goes back into the grass with gravel areas. Photos
Quite windy today, luckily it's a tail wind. Travelled into Camooweal (about 13km from the Qld/NT border) (Diesel $1.989), 40c/ltr more expensive than Mt. Isa just 100kms away and on the main fuel route - profiteering- enough said. Crossed the N.T. border and the obligatory photo with Geoff under the border sign. Vegetation has changed significantly from the ocre hills surrounding Mt. Isa, flattening out closer to Camooweal to mostly grasslands and almost treeless. Arrived at Avon Downs Rest Area, with the Avon Downs Police Station across the road and a public telephone. Met Harvey and Sandy from Warrandyte and chatted for some time with them then walked a track along the fenceline (of either Avon Downs station or the Aboriginal settlement) to the dry riverbed and back - our exercise for the day. A nice sunset, but we haven't really seen anything of interest, today except we are seeing more eagles and then flocks of Galahs this afternoon.
Said good-bye to Harvey and Sandy and then ran into them again at the Barkly Homestead where they are staying tonight to see the football (he-Swans, she-Hawks). Saw a few more eagles, eating the same kangaroo carcass as the Ravens. This Barkly Hwy is 440kms from Camooweal to the Three Ways and there is not much to see (and 1 flush loo the whole way [Barkly Homestead]) From Barkly Homestead there are NO loos for 188kms so people need to improvise! Speed limit most of the way is 130kph. Marg K - we saw a pram on the side of the road (wonder if they were from the Alice)! Unfortunately (Ra may disagree), we couldn't help but run over a snake trying to cross the road - saw him too late. He took up 3/4 of the lane so was fairly large. Passed a number of stops with bores, so we won't go thirsty (sign says 'This Water May Not Be Suitable For Drinking', liability speak for 'it's OK to drink, but we can't tell you that as it hasn't been treated' - we have enough town water to see us through. Finally arrived at 41 Mile Bore rest area and set up the van - in just the right spot to catch the afternoon shade and the right angle so the awning could shade the van and the right level so the fridge would work - we don't ever seem to just 'pull up and stop'. At the bore there are plastic containers filled with water where the Zebra Finches were having a ball. Still very windy today (again had a tail wind).
Decided to stay today to do some housekeeing and repairs and so we didn't need to pack up again. It was still very windy all day and dusty would get whipped up often. It was still good to just sit and get the diary done and select photos. The Zebra Finches were out again and our NZ friend from Fountain Springs rest area arrived so Geoff had a chat again. Still sunny and around 28 degrees so not too hot. Another lovely sunset.
We both woke about 4am and couldn't get back to sleep so decided to pack up. There had been a full moon and you could almost read by the light. A sight we rarely see - the full moon lighting up everything and the soft pink and orange hues on the horizon, of the sun yet to rise. We headed out (west) just before the sun peaked over the horizon. The moon was full, pink and getting bigger as it set. I got lots of blurred photos from the car. Pity the people travelling east into the rising sun. Arrived at the Three Ways (47kms later) and turned right towards Darwin. (Last time it was left towards Alice Springs). We stopped at the Three Ways Roadhouse for fuel and to see the John Flynn memorial (Royal Flying Doctor founder). 649kms to Katherine so we have a few night stops before then.
Dad's WW11 journey : We had copied a few of Dad's war photos to Geoff's phone, some of Darwin, Katherine and Mt. Isa and one that said Churchill's Hill. A fairly insignificant photo in itself, a photo of a road and small hills either side with what looked like a rock or people on the right in the distance, but it must have been of some significance though. If it was the hwy then it would have been long remade and widened. We searched our map and it found Churchill's Head - sure enough it was marked on the map and only 50-odd kms north of the Three Ways - this must be it. Came to a sign that said Churchill's Head and drove off the hwy, only to find it was the old Stuart Hwy. After a few kms we came to a hill with a Microwave tower - oh this is Churchill's Head, oh well. Just then we came to a rise and Geoff pointed straight ahead and there is was, a rock in the shape of Churchill's Head with a tree branch sticking out that looked like a cigar - we had found it. We took heaps of photos until we got one that was closest to Dad's photo. Dad's photo with what we thought was a rock or people, was the rock called Churchill's Head - and you can still see it 70 years later. We'll post both photos.
Back on the road, the vegetation had changed from flat savannah grasses, to much more treed and a little hilly. Stopped at the WW11 site at Banka Banka Station. It was a Staging Camp site on the long trek from Darwin to Alice Springs and one that Dad probably stayed at. After much discussion we decided that we would take the 11km round rough road to Longreach Waterhole instead of another free camp on the hwy. Stopped at Elliott, supposed to be fuel, a supermarket, etc. As we drove in there was another WW11 Staging Camp site, with concrete foundations, etc. Elliott basically consists of two indigenous communities (each consisting of a couple of streets and named at the entrance - sorry didn't catch the names) and a store and Post Office in one shed, with a gated entry to a patio and entry to the store. Down the road a little was a petrol station. (On two major road signs the word 'Elliott' had been vandalised to read 'Idiott'. After almost turning too soon, twice, there was a small sign to Longreach Waterhole. Thus commenced 11kms of corrugations and a couple of sandy patches which I thought were a little deep, but the Subaru pulled the van through quite OK - not sure how many nuts and bolts we left on the road behind us. FINALLY came through an entrance, drop loo and tank, dusty track, 50mtrs up a couple of picnic tables and lots of spots to pull up for the night. Drove further and then we came to the lagoon and some relatively undusty, but undulating spots and the 11kms was worth the trip. Took us 20 minutes to decide on a spot and level the van but we had a lagoon view.
Birdlife: Probably hundreds of Pelicans, hundreds of Black Cormorants, heaps of Whistling Kites hovering, I saw a few Rainbow Bee Eaters (Ross with the slide-on van identified that one) and little tiny yellow birds - and Ravens. Surprisingly, no Cockatoos, Galahs, Cockateils or Budgies. The Pelicans and Cormorants mass in their hundreds and go through a ritual of diving their heads up and down, like a crowd wave at a football match or like a ballet. I took heaps and heaps of photos and now have the job of deleting all the blurred and crappy shots.
We walked along the bank and met Hank and Seeta then went back to take more photos. At 5.30pm we took our water bottles to Hank and Seeta's van, as they'd invited us for Happy Hour. Chatted for a while and then went back to take sunset shots, of which I took ONE or TWO!!! The wind finally died down. The lagoon itself is a couple of kms long and 100mtrs wide and is fed from Newcastle Waters in the north and drains into Woods Lake in the south which is technically a 'deep depression'. APPARENTLY there are no crocodiles as they don't come this far inland. The loos are new, the tanks (2) are plastic, have huge concrete bases and the bbq's are stainless steel state of the art - all were all built with the 'Economic Stimulus Package'. However, there is no toilet paper, no water in the tank and no gas to the bbq, hmmm.
About 2hrs before sunrise - one little bird chirped the whole time, well it is his home I guess. With the sunrise came the wind again, but luckily we were on a grassy patch enough to keep the dust down and the wind direction kept the road dust just a little parallel with us, with the occasional diversion to our van. Very, very windy today. (The only saving grace was that we had a terrific tail wind for the last days travelling). I again got shots of the sun and the moon in the sky together, along with ONE or TWO!! videos of the Pelicans and Cormorants flying low over the water to one end of the lagoon. The pattern seems to be that they fly with the wind to the end of the lake, congregate all together, paddle their way into the wind, doing their diving (head down, tail up) routine way up towards the other end of the lagoon, then all fly back again. Surprisingly there is a sign at the end of the lagoon saying 'End Ski Area', so I guess there is definitely no crocodiles. Ross was saying a person launched their motorboat into the lagoon a day or so ago and headed straight towards the Pelicans - all the campers were annoyed at his blatent disregard for the wildlife. Seems strange to allow skiing on a lagoon which teems with wildlife, but I guess when you live in an area with few water activity options, something has to give, at least in NT. We are staying a second night (a) because it is such a lovely place (minus the wind) and (b) we need to make the rough 11km trip in worth it (plus not looking forward to the return trip). We went for a walk (about 2.5kms), but it took us for ever as we stopped and chatted to a couple in a van and ended up sitting with them for about 45mins. The wind continued to howl and we couldn't seem to get any reprieve even around the van. Later in the day Geoff, finally, got the kayak out and paddled off. He came back OK so I guess there were no crocs. The sun was just setting and the wind died down, so he had to paddle back as well. I also got some good shots of MORE birds. They certainly put on a spectacular show again today. Another beautiful sunset.
The wind even blew during the night last night so we packed up with the occasional dusty gust and travelled back the 11kms sand, dust and corrugations and on to Newcastle Waters, an old town that died once the roadtrains started in the 1960's. It used to be the central meeting point for all the stock droving activities in the region and from all directions. They have a drovers statue in the small park and a few old buildings from the 1930's including an old store, now a National Trust site, open to walk through with many remnants/equipment from those days (it was a general store, butcher, bakery and later a saddlery). The walls were made of mud and beer bottles, with concrete floor in the front section and compacted dirt in the rear rooms. Reminds us of how diffiult it must have been back in those days, particularly as this region was so hot for much of the year. Bit weird to think that buildings from Mum and Dad's day are now National Trust. The road in crosses the actual Newcast Waters which led into Longreach Lagoon. Same milky, muddy colour, but lovely wetlands. As we came out of the historic store a tour bus pulled up briefly, did a u-turn and then stopped at the drover's statue in the park - letting everyone out to take a photo (missing all the historic stuff).
On the road again and we passed through smoke briefly from a grass fire on the side of the road to our right, but to our left, luckily (wind from the east) was this huge bushfire, black at it's base. In this wind it would be impossible to contain. There was a small plane buzzing it, but doubt it was a fire bomber, just an observation as there are cattle properties all around here, albeit 1,000 sq.kms in size.
Ran into Seeta and Hank (from Longreach Lagoon) at the Dunmarra Roadhouse (Geoff got a dim sim, NO POTATO CAKES!). Stopped at the Roadhouse on the hwy near Daly Water to fuel up. Diverted to Daly Waters 'town' which consists of a caravan park and cabins behind and across the road from (and controlled by) a pub which would be jumping at night. It's staffed by backpackers, the interior (walls, upright posts, bar, any surface that doesn't move) are covered with bank notes, coins, old t-shirts, tour bus name tags, old photos, etc, etc. It has a pool for guests, an undercover outdoor cafe and two beautiful bougainvilleas out the front. It is all very cute as it is the original 1930's pub with low verandah and high timber and corrugated iron roof/ceiling. It is also a National Trust site. Also controlled by the pub is a cute petrol station (a small shed with bowsers out the front) and next to a small shed with a damaged helicopter on the roof - saying flights are cancelled due to maintenance, ha ha. All very Ettamogah Pub-ish.
The loop drive in was very interesting - a WW11 airfield, hangar still intact with explanatory boards inside, then on to Stuart's Tree, the spot where the explorer Stuart camped and carved his 'S' in the tree. He explored from Adelaide to Darwin, hence the Stuart Hwy is the main north/south hwy. At Daly Waters roadhouse we got a signal for the first time in six days, but our data ran out yesterday, after not being able to use it in many places prior to that. The Daly Waters pub had an internet cafe (15 mins for $2) so we were able to recharge our data and send a quick email to the kids to let them know we were still alive. Saw two more eagles standing over kangaroo road kill, neither of them flew away as the car approached - not street smart like the Ravens and the Whistling Kites, hence more eagle road kill. After doing about 300kms today we stopped at Warloch Rest Area for the night.
14th August, - Warloch Rest Area to King River Rest Area (sth of Katherine)
Sunrise has been very variable on our trip as we head west and from one time zone to another. We wake up in dark and find it is 7am and still no light on the horizon. The wind had died down, hopefully, for the time being. It was a little cool, jumpers on when we take off and then it gets warmer.
We of the Never Never : First stop was Elsey Cemetary the last resting place of those who died whilst at Elsey Station mid- to late-last century and into the early 20th century. Elsey Station was the home of Jeannie Gunn who wrote 'We of the Never Never'. Jeannie and her husband ran the station and her story was made into a film. She was from Melbourne (somewhere) and he was from Campbellfield of all places. It was lovely just wandering around the large but sparse cemetary. Obviously Elsey station was big enough to have it's own cemetary. Just getting into the car a bus-load arrived so we were glad we had those quiet moments reading the various headstones and the stories of each person. Just up the road was the original site of Elsey Station and all that remains of the homestead, butchery, 2 lots of quarters, maintenance building, etc. is a rock cairn. The homestead was relocated and then WW11 roadworks obliterated any sign of habitation. But Geoff walked down the road and little, through a cattle gate and found a bridge and a lagoon, with water lillies all surrounded by different palms, etc. it was a magic spot, an oasis in the dry countryside and makes sense to have a homestead close to a water source. I might look at the film again.
We then went into Mataranka, another oasis to the areas we've been driving through, just a small town with two road houses, a small supermarket, a huge area for vans to pull in and sprinklers everywhere - obviously from the springs. Local indigenous people were sitting alone or in family groups, having lunch. In the park is a huge termite mound, an old fig tree and some figures, I guess of the Elsey Station inhabitants. Three kms off the hwy was Bitter Springs - what can I say!! We walked the 230m to the springs just to have a look - beautiful, the springs are thermal so are warm, so we walked back and changed into our bathers. There are steps down into the water which has a current. A lot of people (forearmed) had those noodles you use in the pool (mostly supplied by the nearby caravan park). You rest on them and float around a couple of corners then exit from some steps downstream. It is just a magic place, absolutely crystal clear water (the clearest either of us have ever seen). In some parts it's about 3mtrs deep and when you look into the water and the ripples stop it's as if you had a face mask on. It's about 3-5mtrs wide and edged by palms - did I tell you it was fantastic. Geoff then went back and got his face mask. Geoff said you could see all the people about 20mtrs away, clear as day. A lady lent me her noodle as she doesn't swim. There are a few logs underwater and lots of water lilly type plants on the bottom and you can see it all as you float along - did I say it was fantastic, ha ha. We got there about 12pm and left at around 3pm and in the water most of the time. Ran into Harvey and Sandy (Avon Downs) - they'd gone the Tablelands Road, a different 800km road and back out to the hwy just a couple of hundred kms back.
Back on dry land, we headed for King River Rest Area. Whilst we still had internet, we got confirmation of our booking in Katherine and sent a couple of emails and uploaded the diary and photos. Settled in and meet more people. As we had arrived later, after 4pm, the rear area was taken and we parked closest to the road so we will get some traffic noise tonight, but we did get the last shady spot, ha ha.
Back on the road and headed for Katherine. Dropped in to see the Cutta Cutta caves, but it was in mid-tour so we didn't hang around for the next one. After seeing the caves at Halong Bay and reading the reviews of Cutta Cutta caves, we felt it wasn't worth hanging around and the $40 entry. Dropped in to the airport (after some debate as to whether we should keep driving through the Prohibited Area at the RAAF Base at Tindal, just out of Katherine). Arrived in Katherine and parked, with about 30 other vans in the huge parking area near the info centre. Did some shopping (Woolies has a monopoly here) and then checked in to our camp site which is at the Manbulloo Homestead about 9kms south of Katherine. Did some housekeeping and then walked along the track to the Katherine River which is quite nice. Freewater crocs in here and salties get flushed in with the wet season but the lady at reception said they fish most of the salties out, but you never know, no-one goes in. A guy from the park was trying to fly his model aeroplane in the paddocks behind the park and the two local horses just followed him around and wouldn't leave him alone, so he abandoned that idea and chose another paddock. Will do Katherine Gorge, the Springs and museums over the next two days. Hopefully we can find some information on Pa's WW11 activities.
A cold night last night, 11c, but another lovely sunrise and cloudless day. Intended to do Katherine Gorge today, but doing stuff in town ate up the time so will do that tomorrow. Went to the Katherine Museum which is the old terminal building for the Katherine 'Drome' , the old runway and the old Telegraph Station. We spent a couple of hours there, very interesting and covered all the history of Katherine, the floods, the telegraph station and lots more, including a lot about WW11. Nothing about Pa's unit, but it turns out the Manbulloo Homestead where we are staying was an airfield during the war and explains some of the heavy equipment we found next to the river, ie a barge thingy that perhaps the army used to cross rivers. There was one photo at the museum of a group of army guys standing in front of a truck. You be the judge, but it looks a lot like Pa (or maybe wishful thinking) (he's the one leaning out of the truck). Also found a photo of, wait for it, the BANANA MAN, with a shirt on. Along the road out to Manbullo station (South Katherine) is where a lot of the WWII troops were stationed, so I feel wherever I go in Katherine, Pa was there. We visited O'Keeffe house which was the Officer's Mess during the war, Knots crossing and Katherine Springs. The Springs are very nice, but it was late so we didn't swim. I feel Bitter Springs were much better, clearer, deeper and surrounded by natural palms and vegetation. Katherine Springs is obviously the local swimming hole and lot of it has been concreted or stone-walled. Stopped at the old railway bridge over the river (with the 20mtr flood marker for 1998 flood), again crocodile signs, then to the Low Level Reserve, very picturesque with the Katherine River cascading over rocks and a small weir, sandy banks, overhanging trees, clear water, but no swimming due to crocs - last confirmed sighting was April this year. The museum had a photo of a crocodile which ate a horse, but died of poisoning - talk about biting off more than you can chew. We also saw the old and new railway station.
Went to Katherine Gorge today (Nitmiluk National Park). Turns out you need to walk 2.2kms to a look out to see Gorge 1 (the visitor information centre is on the river but not the gorge). I was happy to do the walking track and beyond, but Geoff was keen to get the kayak into the water again. We enquired about taking our own kayak into the water (mostly all hire canoes) and you needed to buy a permit. After speaking to the canoe hire people who said the freshwater crocs leave you alone, we decided to take the plunge literally. In total we did 8kms return up the gorge (with a strong headwind for 4kms). Very picturesque with a combination of very steep rock faces and treed edges and palms. Didn't see any 'freshies' but you could see the drag marks coming down to the river, especially where the signs were stating 'nesting spots do not enter'. Gorge 1 comes to an abrupt end with about 50 metres of rocks separating that from Gorge 2, 3, 4, 5 and so on. I'm guessing in the wet season there would be no barrier. So if you want to see this spectacular country you need to be prepared to walk about 20 or 30kms. By the way, we arrived about 12noon and by the time we got the permit, blew up the kayak and did the trip and back it was about 5pm (they like you to be back around 4pm), so best to get there early and make a day of it.
The weather continues to be warm to hot during the day, but dry and very pleasant and the nights here have been 11c. Heading north tomorrow and undecided if we'll do Litchfield National Park first before Darwin or divert to Kakadu first. Stay tuned.
Left Katherine after fuelling and buying some groceries, undecided if we would go towards Kakadu or Darwin - it's a 400km round trip either way and we'll be coming back to Katherine when we head to W.A. Good road and only issue was a road train pulled out on a b-double truck which had just passed us. The road train did not pull away but did 40km/ph for a long time, then 60km/ph then got up to 80km/ph and then back to 60km/ph on the rises in a 130km/ph road. The B-double probably wasn't happy having to slow down for so long - about 15kms. Luckily we were turning into Pine Creek when the car engine warning lights came on. At least if we got stranded we were in a town, with a caravan park and internet connection. After tooing and froing with emails to the kids (isn't technology wonderful - sometimes), Geoff checking what the warning lights meant and skyping with Glen, and then the error lights going off, we were confident (I was anyway) that it was the dust thrown up by the road train the whole 15kms. He must have been hauling it. Anyway Pine Creek is another historic town 500mtrs off the highway with a lovely park (sprinklers going), a railway museum and markers at various old buildings, one of which is the hotel that Jeannie Gunn and her husband (We of the Never Never) stayed at on their way from Darwin to Mataranka and Elsey Station. We didn't know anything about their story (only seen the film) but there are references to them all along the Stuart Highway, including Katherine. Everywhere we have been you can only imagine the hardship that the early pioneers/settlers went through. Geoff walked up to the lookout (unsuitable for caravans) and looked out to the historic open cut mine which is now a large lake - now I know where they got the sprinkler water from. In Geoff's efforts to skype Glen, he saw Lyn was on line, so we chatted to her and caught up with news.
On driving out from Pine Creek we decided to go to Kakadu first. We stopped at a rest area just short of the border with one van already there. Obviously the hordes of vans hadn't arrived. It wasn't until about 5.30pm that two other vans arrived - safety in numbers. The owner of the property who allowed the Govt. to set up this rest area, came to clear the bins and Geoff chatted with him for a while. We walked over to the small hill of rocks which had been burnt out and the cycads which were blackened along their trunks all had sprouted beautiful green foliage - lovely agained the blackened earth and pale rocks. I was a bit anxious as the owner said the locals came to drink there occasionally, but we found no-one and no evidence. In any case, as Geoff continued to walk up through the large rocks and boulders and I had another 'Miranda come back….“ moment.
That evening we spoke with Sandy and Alan in the other van (from the Sunshine Coast). There has been smoke all around and people travelling south say that Darwin is blanketed. As the sun set the sky was magnificant with the smoke haze and then the wind shifted and we had smoke to most of the evening.
Took a while for the smoke to clear this morning but then the breeze was clear. About 29c today. Geoff thought he had better get his tax done so we decided to stay today here. Spoke to Kay and Clinton in the other van and they were staying today also. I could smell smoke coming from behind us with the wind and went to investigate. Kay (ex-CFA driver from the Grampians) says they are burning off, but we all decided to keep our eye on it (back burning has been know to go wrong - particularly on a breezy day so we had an escape plan. The tiny flies have been bad and I spent some time designing fly netting screens, eventually settling for simple ones on the sats - but not good when you are trying to look at the computer through the netting, so off it went – 'swat - damn flies!!!!!!!'.
Awoke to another smoke hazy morning. We've been in smoke haze for two days now. On the road towards Kakadu and dropped into Mary River Roadhouse, but it was closed (camping ground was open). Stopped at the Bukbukluk Lookout then on to Gungural campground as there was another lookout. This was quite a steep walk to the top of the hill, particularly in the heat. There was a track down to the river (two dry parallel beds then the main river, with a little water in it. I grabbed a stick in case a crocodile came at us, but it was probably a toothpick as far as he would be concerned. I think of the photo of Pa's with the Croc with a stick holding his mouth open. Had lunch in the shade of the van. It's quite hot today, about 32, but cooler in the shade - heating up as we travel further north. Came to Mardugal Campground and did the Billabong Walk which is a level walk - looks like a wide river other than a creek and it has a resident 5mtr croc, but we didn't see him. Moved on to Jim Jim Billabong to camp, but found it was closed after going over some unsealed road with corrigations (pity they didn't tell us at the Information Centre). So we dropped in to the Yellow Waters wetlands. At this time of year, the dry season, it is more a series of wide and narrow waterways surrounded by lush green grasses, would be magnificent and vast in the wet season. Took a photo of a crocodile sign in the middle of what seemed to be a dry paddock. Instead of moving on we went back to Mardugal Campground where they had showers and flush loos and cleaning water - very clean and better than the Katherine caravan park we stayed in. All along the road today the smoke haze was bad as burn-offs continue.
Nice temperature last night, looks like the extra doona stays in the car from now on. The campground was quite treed for Kakadu. Just before we left, the tank on this huge stand started to overflow, like a waterfall. I told the manager, thinking water must be critical up here. She explained it just seeps into pipes and goes into the river and most of the water is from a bore, so again it explains why all the sprinklers in a parched environment. Went to Cooinda, a lodge and fuel stop and booking office for the wetlands cruises and 14 day passes. We went back to the Yellow Waters wetlands and did a happy birthday video for Dianne's 60th tomorrow. Stopped for lunch at the base of a lookout walk, it was much too hot to walk the steep 1.6kms. Geoff and I had to fight off a very aggressive Raven who was determined to have our sandwhiches from our hands if we took our eyes off him. Stopped at another billabong, but again it was too hot to do the 3.5km walk. Generally, there is not a lot of access to the billabongs, just little openings here and there, except for the Yellow Waters wetland, but again not expansive due to the dry season. We decided to stop at a campground up the road from last nights stay, about 72kms. Basic campsite, but there was shade and today seemed much hotter. After setting up camp I, foolishly, suggested we walk the nature trail. Turned out to be 4kms of mostly walking into the sun and no shade, with glimpses of the various lagoons and billabongs - still no croc sighting. After dragging ourselves back to camp it seems the nicest and closest lagoon to see was the one about 30mtrs from our camp, but it was nice to see the floodplains. Not much birdlife though. When we arrived back there was one more van there - Kay and Clinton whom we had met at Harriet Creek two nights ago. With burning off to the west, it made for another nice sunset.
A lovely morning, but the mozzies and March flies were everywhere. We headed off towards Jabiru and the Ranger Uranium Mine. Jabiru is an established town, I think built for the Ranger Uranium mine some years ago. Bought bananas and, of course, potatoes (it's Friday chips night), fuelled up with diesel and drinking water and headed for the mine. Excuse my ignorance, but it is still an operating mine - I thought it had been closed down some years ago when they were establishing Kakadu National Park. They seem to co-exist, the escarpments of Kakadu in the distance and in the foreground a huge, huge, pile of tailings (4 or 5 storeys high) and a dirty great big hole in the ground. No viewing platforms, but we'd seen enough. Headed west towards Darwin and stopped at the Marukala Wetlands and bird hide, which was very nice, considering it was the dry season. Today is much hotter so we didn't do the 3.5kms walk. Had lunch in the van before we left and next stop was the South Alligator River picnic area (our last stop in Kakadu and our obeone kinobi to see a crocodile). The South Alligator river is quite muddy and tidal and totally different from the billabongs and creeks we had seen over the last two days. We went to the only place you could see the river, the boat ramp, and there it was, our first sighting of a crocodile in the wild. Laying on the opposite bank quite a way a way, but nevertheless there it was. Just as we were trying to take a good photo, a monitor lizard walked along the boat ramp footpath….OMG wildlife everywhere, ha ha. Actually all we have seen is birds and they were few and far between. Anyway not trusing our photographic expertise we took lots of photos. As we left we spotted an eagle sitting in a tree so got some shots of that also. The landscrape here is very flat, most of which is floodplains with the only trees lining the river. We were heading towards Darwin and looked up some reviews of our next stop - not complimentary, so we decided to stay at a roadhouse caravan park which was very nice. For the last two days we have seen a few vintage cars, i.e. T-Model Ford, a 1909 something, etc and really old motorbikes. At one point we were stopped at roadworks (we were told 20mins but arrived 10mins before they were due to finish). As we arrived everyone was getting out of their cars and walking back to see the old cars which everyone had overtaken. When we got to the Bark Hut, they were all there in the caravan park, so there are vintage cars and motorcycles all throughout the park, some being worked on. Had a swim, despite the water being cold, so was refreshing after a very warm day.
Lovely sunrise and hoped all the vintage car drivers would sleep in so we wouldn't have to overtake them on the hwy, but they beat us to the hwy. Very interesting to see vintage motorcycles and vintage cars doing 40-60kms/ph, in a 130km/hr speed zone, with road trains and caravans trying to pass. We stopped in at Windows on the Wetlands a very good informative centre, overlooking what would be vast wetlands in the wet season. Back on the road, we finally got to the outskirst of Darwin and found a caravan park (Coolalinga) and booked in. Not luxury, dusty and little shade, but clean amenities and good camp kitchen (apparently Darwin has a reputation of having crappy caravan parks) - I was just glad we got something. The first one I rangwas booked out. Took off for Darwin to follow Pa's footsteps and photos. First stop was the photo of the memorial. Found it fairly easily (with a little help from Google) and comparison photos. Fanny Bay is lovely, rocky cliffs and goes right around to East Point where there are numerous carparks, picnic areas, a nice lake and on top of the point is the Military Museum. We enquired as to how long it would take to see everything in the museum and was told a couple of hours. As it was 2.30pm we thought we'd go back the next day, but when we found it was a series of videos of the bombing of darwin and other general paraphenalia, I doubted I was going to find anything about Dad's unit. We moved to the open area at the point and there were a great number of war relics, a 9” gun (intact), armouries, and numerous gun enplacements, anti-aircraft gun turrets and bunker and numerous other bits. We headed for the State Library and found some information on Dad's unit, the 134 AGT Coy. The lady there was very helpful and was able to recognise the locations of 2 photos. As the library was closing was went into town and took duplicate photos, so we had found a few more locations. As it was getting late we got Red Rooster for dinner and walked back to the Esplanade where we had parked the car and watched the sunset - absolutely brilliant due to the smoke haze. I am just about over this smoke haze - haven't breathed fresh air for 7 days. Found our way back to the caravan park in the dark, despite the GPS not wanting to co-operate at the critical moment. Being Saturday night, there was live music from a venue a few streets away which went to midnight, then later on someone shot off a shot gun (sounded more like a grenade about 4 times) so it wasn't an early night for us.
Did some housekeeping this morning, then headed out, firstly to Howard Springs, lovely little springs but I think half of Darwin was there. Toddlers pool, a small lake (no swimming - algae), turtles, fish. Moved on to the Aviation Heritage Museum and Geoff spent time there, mainly to see the B52 bomber, whilst I planned what other things to cram into the day. Went into Darwin via the wharf and marina, then went back to the library to look at a couple of books we didn't get time to look at yesterday. Found some reference for the 134 AGT coy. and it had been in Pine Creek (we had stopped there when the car warning lights come on), Larrimah (where the roadhouse was closed, but the pub had a pink panther (not real!!) and Mataranka where we had swam in the springs. No mention of them being in Katherine (but that's one thing we do know), but I had seen a mud map from another book yesterday which marked where the 134th had been in Katherine, so it's a matter of gathering info from all areas and piecing it together in what time we had. But we are now more aware of where Dad was and will make closer enquiries on our way back to Katherine before heading west to W.A. We left the library and went to Charles Darwin National Park where they have quite a few WW11 airforce munitions bunkers, covered with dirt so they looked like hills from the air - now they are hills with trees growing out of them. Darwin/NT has done a really good job of giving information about the WW11 bombing of Darwin and Katherine, WW11 signage all along the Stuart Hwy where troops camped, heaps of old WW11 airfields and various other reminders. Due to running out of time we didn't see the Cyclone Tracy Museum. I think we were very lucky to find any of the old buildings in Dad's photos, given the war and the cyclone almost wiped out Darwin all together. Took a few shots from the lookout at the national park and then headed for the Mindil Markets (apparently a must see). They actually cater not too bad for cars (bit like Carrara Market parking). The markets start at 4pm and close at 9pm and as we got there at 5pm the car park was almost full. I don't think it's actually the markets that are the attraction (one 1 row of market stalls), it's more that they are on the track behind the beach, everyone arrives with chairs and tables and makes a late afternoon of it, there is a whole row of food of all nations and then people just take their chairs up the small dunes to watch the sunset. Humbug us, having seen a magnificant sunset last night, left early to get back whilst it was daylight, but I did get a lovely sunset photo through the back window of the car doing 100kms/ph - a bit shaky but the colours are lovely (the last photo in today's group).
Fuelled and watered up, did some shopping and then headed south back towards Katherine. We turned off to Berry Springs Reserve, a very pretty picnic area, green grass, treed and springs - a small waterfall leading to a narrow creek into a larger pool and then into another pool. All spring water and warm. We swam in all three and there were little fish which mostly swam away from you, but occasionally would nip your toes. Sign assured us that they take the saltwater crocodiles out when detected “when detected” was the worrying word for me. The freshies are ok, as long as they are not disturbed or otherwise they get aggressive. Well with lots of people there I guess it was safe - anyway had our swim and still alive to tell the tale. These springs are very clear but I still prefer Bitter Springs which were crystal clear. Also being only 40kms from Darwin it is more of a local swimming hole, lots of families and some travellers, Bitter Springs seemed to be all travellers as Mataranka is miles for anywere. Anyway the swim was refreshing and then we headed for Batchelor for a day in Litchfield National Park tomorrow. We passed about 3 signs showing WW11 airfields or runways and the troops has been at Berry Springs, so maybe Pa was there. Anyway went through Batchelor a quaint, tree-lined little town, with a sign saying 'Town Centre' where there was a tavern and a general store. We will investigate in more detail when we leave on Wednesday. About 7 kms out, we booked into a caravan park which had seen better days, but got a mostly shady spot under a mango tree. Regards vegetation I haven't mentioned that there is a lot of pink tea tree and Grevilleas blooming (I think the tree-types like Grevillea Robusta, only young ones) but I guess it's almost spring even in the Top End.
Spent the whole day in Litchfield National Park. It was very lovely. Stopped in at the giant Cathedral Termite Hills and the Magnetic Termite Hills which are flat-faced and face north. Moved on to Buley Rockholes and had a swim. Spring-fed with a small waterfall at the top cascading into a deep rockhole, spilling over rocks all down a creek into another deeper rockhole (about 30' deep). We were taking a selfie of us when a guy offered to take it for us. Turns out it was a fellow traveller whom we had first met at a stop just out of Cloncurry, then at a stop on the Barkly Hwy, then at the Bark Hut between Kakadu and Darwin and now here - about 1,600kms in total. Anyway Buley Rockholes where just lovely (lots of people though). Moved on to Florence falls, Tolmie Falls then Wangi Falls, two of which had swimming opportunities and Wangi had crowds of people. A couple more stops, the last of which was the ruins of an old tin mine which was very interesting. It has been very hot today and will continue to be now we are away from the coast (Darwin was certainly hotting up, but the breeze just kept it bearable). We still got smoke haze last night, but today was clear, but there was a huge fire to the north west of us. When we got back to the caravan park there was more haze and I'm guessing it's from Kakadu burnings which we line up with to the west. Overall we liked Litchfield more than Kakadu. We saw a lot more interesting stuff. You could see more by car, Kakadu you had to walk long distances or 4WD over mostly very rough roads or take a flight. Litchfield covered a total of 180 road kms in and back, whereas Kakadu was 400kms. There were only a couple of roads we didn't go in at Litchfield, but mainly as we didn't have the time in the day. Overall a very good day. Temperature was 35c today.
Smoke haze again this morning and the weather is very warm so glad we are heading south. Stopped in at the town of Batchelor on the way back to the hwy and also stopped at a WW11 site, where a Medical Camp had been a short distance away. Back on the Stuart Hwy and we faced a strong headwind for the first time. We passed a couple of more WW11 airfields along the Stuart Hwy. We stopped at Adelaide River and in the main street a guy told us one of our stop lights wasn't working, but luckily Geoff bought two globes when we had the last light go on the blink. As Geoff was fixing it, the Ghan train went through (1st time we saw it was in Alice Springs two years ago). We then went to the War Cemetery (managed by the Federal Government) which holds the graves of solidiers killed in Darwin during the war. There was a small, very interesting visitors centre next door and we found more information about the bombing of Darwin and Katherine, all the dates, targets, planes and defensive losses. Not sure if I mentioned it, but there were 64 bombing raids on Darwin, including Katherine, over a two year period. Moved on and stopped early at Bridge Creek rest area for the night. Temperature today was about 33c.
Back on the road this morning and left the Douglas Hot Springs to another trip (30km divert with some unsealed section). Instead further down the road we turned off to another WW11 airfield, McDonald Airfield. Followed the old hwy for about 4kms (lots of potholes) and assuming this is the road Pa would have taken. The runway is still in good condition and we drove from end to end on the runway - smoother than the road which had potholes. The land around is small tea tree bushes and other very low vegetation right up to edge of the paved surfaces of the road and the runway - so not the place to be if there is a fire. Moved on to Pine Creek where we officially have now done the Pine Creek-Kakadu-Darwin-Pine Creek loop, so for the next 90kms we were retracing our steps back to Katherine. Whilst in Pine Creek for the second time we asked about WW11 camps and there was not a smigeon of information (the museum was closed) and the local store person, who had lived there all her life, didn't know anything. However, in the book in Darwin it listed down heaps and heaps of units which were at Pine Creek during the war, including the 134th AGT Coy. I took a photo of the large parkland where I'm sure Pa would have been. I think I've mentioned Pine Creek is a lovely little town, full of railway and mining history (pity they let down the WW11 history).
Back on the road and we passed lots of groups of military vehicles, Hummers most of them, one with a gun on it. Arrived back in Katherine, got fuel, went to Woolies (the busiest Woolies we hav ever been to - well at least the longest checkout waiting lines we've ever seen and backed up by other travellers who noticed it also). Went to look at the location of Pa's 134th AGT Coy. which we had seen on the mudmap in a book in Darwin. There were no signs or indications as to where it was, but all we knew it was about 2km east of Katherine. I took a photo of the approximate location and included it in today's photos. It looks like a place the army would camp!!!?. After driving into a 'No Entry' road to a fire station and having to back out there and onto a pathway in front of the Police station, we made our escape out of Katherine.
We passed the entry road to Manbuloo Station where we had stayed a week or so ago and went in off the road further down to another WW11 airfield, Manbulloo. This airfield was to be Katherine's replacement of it's old aerodrome which used to get flooded all the time, but shortly after it was built and only in service for a couple of years years from 1942 to 1945, Tindal airfield became Katherine's official airfield which today is Katherine Airport and Tindal Air Force Base. Like McDonald airfield, Manbulloo was also a veeeery looooong, sealed runway and a lot of blood, sweat and tears would have gone into building it in harsh conditions, for such a short life.
We travelled about another 50kms and pulled into the Vince Connelly Crossing/Limestone Creek Rest Area for the night. Did about 320kms today. Temperature was about 31c and the breeze in the shade was good. Hopefully we have escaped the really hot weather, but we still seek the shade when we can.
A late start today, but glad to get out of the dust which was very powdery (a guy got bogged in the dust just behind us yesterday and he had a 4wd and trailer). The hwy took us through the Gregory National Park, which has stunning, rich red rocky hills and escarpments. Whilst enjoying the views, the engine sensor lights came on again. They had come on a few weeks ago then went out and we put it down to all the dust from the roadtrain we had been following. It happened again last week and same thing, they just went out. But no dust today. About 10kms from the Victoria River Roadhouse the cruise control didn't work and the car seemed to lose power. Not concentrating on the hills so much then, we made it to the roadhouse. Geoff decided to reset the fault code and it worked (but obviously not the underlying problem, if there was one). As we started to take off the lights came on again, so Geoff reset them again and this time they stayed off. We travelled on through the national park, visited the Victoria River in a couple of places, one at the Bradshaw Bridge (yeh Dave!). It is a very large river. Moved out of the national park and on to Timber Creek where we got fuel and, having a signal, emailed Glen about the sensor lights. It was the first green grass I have seen for a very long time - I am over this dust and the fires are still burning.
We had intended to stop just short of the WA/NT border but stopped at an earlier stop as it was getting late (East Baines Rest Area) East Baines River I think is a tributory of the Victoria river and is quite a good size for this dry land but we are moving towards the coast. More dust but we managed to find a spot that had some dead grass where we walked, so as long as we didn't walk to the right of the van we didn't have to walk in inches of powdery dust again. With tank water available up went the ensuite shower and I caught up with the washing. Almost forgot how the ensuite shower folded up again, having spent the last week or so in caravan parks. We had arrived safely with no other problems from the car after travelling another 120kms following the resetting of the sensor. Chatted to the other van residents and sat and saw the sunset. Wildlife we saw today - one dead cow and one live bullock saundering across the road up ahead, plenty of Whistling Kites, mainly over roadkill kangaroos and 3 live kangaroos. I guess there is more during the wet season. Photos
We haven't been keeping up with much news and we only found out today that a Russian tourist was bitten/nipped by a freshwater crocodile (on Monday) the day before we went to Wangi Falls in Litchfield National Park (Tuesday). We had swam at Bouley Rockholes that morning and had considered swimming in Wangi Falls on our way back. Maybe all the other people swimming there that day after the incident hadn't seen the news either. Anyway at 6am I heard a car arrive limping/bubbling/flapping quite loudly into the rest area. Turns out they had a flat tyre on their 4wd and that's what was making the noise. They stayed for a while and talked just to make sure they had well and truly woken everyone. We found out later that the driver had fallen asleep whilst driving on the hwy, ran off the road and blew 2 tyres, so they had no spare for the 2nd flat. I guess they weren't worrying about waking people and assume they would have been in shock a little and very lucky people. They left again with Kununurra about 150kms to the west or Katherine about 270kms to the east (and nothing north or south). I guess it would take them a while doing about 50kms/ph. Our car was still OK and no more senor lights came on. We had intented to go to Kununurra today, but as we stopped short yesterday we headed for yesterday's intended rest area, Saddler Creek. We pulled in about 10am and found a shady spot (not many shady spots there). Geoff and Yvonne from two nights ago arrived and we and another couple chatted for quite a while. Eventually I took stock of our fruit and vegetables as our next stop was the WA border and they search your cars and vans and confiscate any prohibited fruit/veges/seeds/plants, etc.. I made potato and vegetable pancakes and potato salad, but will have to relinquish half a bag of carrots and our potted aloe vera and garlic chives.
Saddler Creek Rest Area has a backdrop of cliffs which are quite stunning (got sunset photos of the red rock). Not sure what rock type it is. Many people are now telling us that the 'season' finishes tomorrow and prices should go down. Prices have varied from $15pn for unpowered site at a Roadhouse (with a pool) and told in Broome they are charging $55 to $60 for powered sites and $40+ for unpowered (captive audience I guess). At Victoria River Roadhouse yesterday, the guy told our last nights neighbours that he'd pulled the tour boat out of the water on the week-end - 'end of season', but had 18 willing customers lined up - hmmm, wonder what the 'season' means, can't be the weather as it is still very hot - mid 30's.
I had strawberries and banana for breakfast, made cucumber, cheese, baby spinach leaves, carrot and lettuce sandwiches for lunch and gave away half a bag of carrots - we were set for the quarantine inspection at the WA border. Oh, yes, said good-bye to my garlic chives and aloe vera plants. Went through the WA border with the inspector looking in our fridge, but there was very little hold up. We arrived at the border at around 11.30am and 5 mins later crossed into WA at 10am, 2nd timezone crossed for the trip. Next stop was Lake Argyle. A 68km round trip divert only to find caravans were not allowed to go the last bit down the road to the dam. We parked the car and started to walk but it was very hot and we didn't know how far it would be so came back. Therefore the only view of the lake was glimpses on the road coming in and from a vantage point next to the caravan park. It is very large and looks like a larger version of Lake Eildon. The geology in this whole area is quite stunning. Arrived in Kununurra and found we had an internet connection, so whilst Geoff did all the internet thingys, I went searching for water. Being Sunday only the smalll IGA supermarket was open, but Coles and all the other shops and the Info Centre were closed. Fuelled and got water, drove to a lookout showing Kununurra to the south and the Ord River and the irrigation country to the north. Then went to the lagoon and Lake Kununurra, the green parkland part of the town. Whilst the Lake is nice, it is man made to provide water to the town by daming up the Ord River at the town (Lake Argyle is created by a larger dam further south). The main road goes over the dam and to our right as we left we could see the Ord River in it's natural state, much nicer.
Just as well we had gained an extra hour and a half, as it was getting very late N.T. time. We arrived at Cockburn Rest Area about 4pm (5.30pm N.T. time) and we usually try to pull in to places by 3.30pm to ensure we find a place and to avoid animals (mainly kangaroos and cattle) which wander on to the roads at dusk. Met a couple who had travelled down from Darwin today - 11hrs travel all up. This rest area is on the intersection of two hwys and there have been a few road trains, so we expect more noise tonight. Another nice sunset. We have seen very little smoke today, but lots of burnt country. We have been lucky with the wind, having it behind us most of the way, except for coming back down south from Darwin to Katherine.
Woke at normal time - ie sunrise, except in W.A. that's 5.30am so we were on the road by 7am and heading for Wyndham, a small town north towards the gulfs and river inlets from the sea, except it is still about 100km from the ocean. Stopped in at the Grotto, a small gorge with 140 steps (so we are told). During the summer wet it would be a raging waterfall, but at the moment has a nice little pool at the bottom with moisture dripping from the rocks, on to moss and into clear water at the base. It was quite hot walking up and down the steep steps and it was only 7.30am. Arrived at Wyndham and decided to stay in the local caravan park so that we could take all day to sightsee and a place to stay. It is a lovely caravan park, very well maintained, shady, the owner/reception lady is lovely and suggested we could take a slab site as they weren't busy now. The resident donkey was standing on the spot I selected and he wasn't moving for anyone, so he just watched as we set up our van. Apparently he used to wander the town with a fellow donkey and the companion died so the town got a goat as a companion for him and that worked well until the goat died and he was lonely so he just wanders around the caravan park eating grass or eating people's flowers out of the garden. Anyway we set off for old Wyndham town and port and wharf. There are hundreds of sq. kms of tidal flats around the old town and the port. When we got there the tide was running out - literally running. Up in this country they have big tides and watching the water gushing out was amazing (we got lots of video of runing water!!). Geoff went to the local museum and then we went to the iron ore port where all those road trains went to and from to the mines. We didn't get to see the sunken ship, but apparently Wyndham was bombed by the Japanese during the war. They bombed the port (and the ship elsewhere which steamed back to port) and the airport, which is still just an air strip - Wyndham is a very small town. They created the new town because the only road in to the old town used to get cut off by the high tides. Came back to the caravan park, had a swim and a rest, then travelled up to the 5 Rivers Lookout, the climb is 4.5kms long and very steep, so very high - the best lookout Geoff has ever seen. It showed all the tidal flats and the rivers and surrounding hills and mountains for 30kms, it was quite magnificent. Stayed for the sunset which was beautiful - compliments of more smoke haze.
Forecast for Wyndham today is 37c. Luckily we were in shade all morning. We are still benefiting from the W.A. time change. I had showered and done a load of washing and it was still only 7.10am. We took photos of the 2,000 year old Boab Tree, it was huge and Fuzzy the donkey was back and had eaten our neighbours dog food before they realised it. We headed out via the airport to see if there were any flights over Lake Argyle. Unfortunately, according to the electrician, the only person at the airport, the scenic flights advertised on the sign hadn't run for years and only the mail plane lands here. Got back out to the main hwy about 60kms south and headed towards Halls Creek. The geology continues to be great with escarpments, weathered hilltops and rounded clusters of hills - we are obviously getting closer to the Bungle Bungles. Stopped at Warmun (Turkey Creek) for a break (it's a roadhouse and aboriginal settlement of about 20 houses and a police station - nothing else - hundreds of kms was anywhere). Geoff bought chips (no potato cakes!) and we saw Geoff and Yvonne again for the 3rd time in 4 days and 500kms. We passed a few rest areas, one in particular I wasn't expecting until later and it looked nice, but decided to press on. Arrived at Leycester Rest Area which sits just up from the Ord River - not far from the source. The rest area is named after a 13 year old boy called Leycester, who died in a car accident at the Ord River. Amongst his belongings they found a bag of 5c pieces. The sign at the Rest Area which has his story, has 5c pieces, stuck by travellers, all along both sign posts - very touching. It was 36c when we arrived and took a while to find the right shady spot, accounting for the angle of the sun and movement, etc. etc. It is a huge area, but not much shade, but we didn't do too badly. Later, when it got cooler, we walked down the road (old hwy) to the river crossing. It is a lovely place, dry, except for a trickle, sand and large boulders and very wide, accounting for the wet season and small trees all bend over in the direction of the flood waters. Just on sunset the Brahman bull and assorted other bulls sauntered around the camp eating their evening meal. A nice sunset.
Awoke early again this morning and on the road by 7am. The landscape is still very interesting but as we approached Halls Creek and got further south from the Bungle Bungles, the hills became more weathered and smaller, however, still a lot of craggy, rocky outcrops and hills. Stopped in at Halls Creek and bought our bananas and oranges and got fuel. Went to see the China Wall, a wall of quartz vein sticking out from a serious of hills which have weathered around the long quartz wall. Only 2kms off the main road, corrugated and dusty, through a gate on private property but worth the visit. Went to the airport, but again there were no scenic flights, even though there were signs, I think by the same mob that advertised at Wyndham airport. We didn't venture to the other points of interest, as it was unsealed, corrugations for about 25kms in and then 25kms back out. Back on the hwy, there were a lot of loose cattle on the road as we passed and occasional feral goats. We pulled into Mary Pool Rest Area, a very large area beside a dry Mary River. Only did about 200km today and it was 35c again, but cools down in the evening. Have had to bring in the extra doona again.
An early morning again after a coolish night, but didn't need the extra doona after all. Headed towards Fitzroy Crossing where the landscrape changed to flatter less rocky and then more rocky outcrops appeared. Turned off to Geikie Gorge, but after a 38km trip, found that you can't see the gorge at the river unless you take a tour boat. We could have waited till noon to put in our kayak, but it was very hot and didn't want to wait an hour. Walked to the sandbar where the dry Margaret River meets the Fitzroy river and was quite nice, but a hot walk. Geoff took a photo at the loos which had a snake curled up in the toilet bowl and the sign asked to please put the lid down. Got some water in our water bottles with the intention to fill the others at the servo when we got fuel. No water at the servo and was sent over to the tourist info centre - where they charge you to fill your bottle with water. A bit rich seeing a lot of tourists, including us, spend money at the local IGA and the tourist info centre AND buy fuel. Shame but that will be my lasting impression of Fitzroy Crossing. As any other sights are all 4wd, unsealed roads we kept heading west and came to the Ellendale Rest Area. It was now 37c and we needed to stop soon being the last stop before we head into Derby tomorrow, but luckily found a small tree which helped shade the van. Geoff enjoyed his chocolate biscuit as you will see from the photo. It took till late to cool down, so I'm guessing it would not be as cold tonight. Looking forward to getting to the coast.
Not cold last night so today will be hot again. Headed out about 7am and it was 25c already. Did the divert to Derby, about 50kms north. Saw the giant Boab Prison Tree where they used to put the aboriginal prisoners last, in the 19th century, the Myall Trough with bore water where they used to water their cattle after a long drove as they got to Derby and Frosty's Pool built by the 125th General Transport Company during WW11 (the 138th General Transport Company was there also - just 4 AGC's from Dad's company (134th), ha ha). Went into Derby which is a medium sized town. It has a Woolies and IGA and a few small businesses, but that's about it. We went to the wharf and saw some historic relics of the old days, the old gaol, etc. Derby has 11mtr tides, but apparently it's not the right time of year, but the guy working on the wharf says, during the high tide season, if you fell off the wharf when the tide was going out, you'd probably drown as the water travels so fast - comforting thought. Seems the same as Wyndham where the tide was running very very fast. Headed back to the hwy towards Nillbubbaca Rest Area (about 100kms east of Broome), dodging cattle on the road as we went and again found a tiny bit of shade at the rest area. It reached 37c again today. As the sun was setting, an old couple in a motorhome, pulling a trailer pulled up. They were towing an ice-cream van and travel around to various events and busy rest areas selling ice-cream and coffee and had to have their generator going till 9pm - so much for peace and quiet but Ben was such a nice old fella we couldn't be too annoyed.
Moon was almost full again last night - too bright for stargazing. Woke early at 5am, Ben, bless his cotton socks, started his generator at 6am. I'm guessing people, especially those in a tent, would have been cursing him. We hit the road at 6.30am, a record for us (but it is 8.30am in Qld.) It only took about an hour to arrive in to Broome so decided to leave the shopping till later and went straight to the famous Cable Beach. The beach itself is nice, sloped down to the beach like Torquay with a few palm trees at the top, a grassed picnic area, toilets with showers and, of course a restaurant. Across the road are high-end houses and resorts. The ocean is such a magnificent blue and very clear. There was a black slick on the sand but it was ash from the fires that we had been coming through for the last 2 weeks. It has two large car parks so we had found a shady spot. Geoff got his wish and touched the ocean on the west coast which now completes his round of ocean touching around oz. Geoff went for a paddle in the kayak and then for a swim and he said there were largish fish - but no sharks, crocs or stingers luckily. We then went to Gantaume Point where they have dinosaur prints in a concrete cast and the real ones in stone at low tide, but the tide wasn't low enough when we were there today. The point is very rocky with brilliant yellow, orange and red sandstone slabs - and against the beautiful ocean colour it was just magic. It was quite hot but the sea breeze kept the temperature down to about 28c. We moved on to the port, no big ships in and came to a boat ramp. Again the beach rocks were lovely and the same beautiful blue ocean. It was about 2pm and we hadn't even seen Broome as yet. We went to the Town Beach where there seemed to be more locals and drove towards the main drag or should I say, one street. I expected a little CBD, but there's not much at all, but there is a Coles in one shopping centre at the end of the main street and a Woolies in another up the road. We parked in the Coles car park, the only shady spot we could find. I shopped whilst Geoff took photos of the planes taking off across the road. If a plane overshot the runway it would end up in the Coles carpark - luckily they take off and land towards the sea. It is a domestic and international airport. We were on the road by 3.30pm and had 150kms to go to the next overnight stop. We had a headwind, but luckily a bus, then a roadtrain were in front of us which helped a lot. Just as the roadtrain put his blinker on to turn right, the car behind us decided to overtake. He got passed, but just as the roadtrain was turning, the next car behind us (a car with about 4 locals) decided to overtake and ended up off the road, on the right hand shoulder when he realised he was heading for a turning roadtrain. Just as well they had been travelling slowly at the time they pulled out. Arrived safely at the Goldwire Rest Area, settled in, spoke to two other couples (only ones there) and saw another lovely sunse
This morning we saw dew for the first time in 2 months, it has been so dry. We are told that's the first sign of the changing season, so as long as it stays dew and not storm, I'm happy. From Broome to Port Hedland is 540kms and nothing but two roadhouses in between. There wasn't anything to see yesterday (unless we did trips of 20-30kms out to the coast on corrugated, dirt roads. We left this morning still with about 400kms to go. There are more and more wildflowers, mainly purples and mauves. We realise we'll probably miss the main wildflowers down south, so it's nice to see some at least. Also as we got closer to the coast, we noticed the Boab trees were sprouting leaves. Amongst all this heat and dust, I forgot it is only just Spring. The landscrape became quite bare for a long time and at one point we spotted sand dunes, presumably on the coast and that's the only hint of ocean we saw - so much for 'coast' road. Stopped in at the Pardoo Roadhouse for fuel and at Sandfire Roadhouse, changed drivers (still no potato cakes and got chips instead) and, after travelling the longest distance with nothing to see so far (380kms today), tried to find the vermin-proof fence, 1km down an unsealedroad leading to an indigenous community (funny looks from a family passing by). The map says it's here, but there is just a road. It would have been nice to see the other end, as we have seen the eastern end on the Qld/NSW border. We pressed on until we reached De Grey River Rest Area, 80kms north of Port Hedland. The river is partly running and camps are all along the river. The river is tree lined and very pleasant. It's really an oasis in desert. The rest area also has free wi-fi as part of the Pilbara Council project. Today was 36c, but with the breeze near the river it was bareable, once we settled in.
It was so lovely, we decided to stay today as well. More dew on the car. Today we did very little (washing and shower compliments of the river). Geoff wanted to go kayaking, but there were crocodile signs so we didn't even though a few people were swimming. Relaxed and happy we weren't on the road in the heat with the strong head-wind and sat under the shade of paperbarks overlooking the river and had a long chat to a fellow camper. Today we saw a CLOUD - first one for 2 months. Geoff even took a photo. A few more appeared on the southern horizon, but peetered out. Still windy but we are protected.
Last night was mild, warm this morning, but the wind had died down. Walked along the riverbank to the old disused railway bridge and back. Did more washing and sat around most of the day. It was about 33c today. The cows came through in the morning and then in the early afternoon a stampede of 4 coming straight for our van (must have been spooked further back). I ducked behind a tree, but Geoff stood his ground as he 'knew' they would go in another direction - I'm glad he was confident. The lead cow did go in another direction and the other three followed. Other than that, they are very placid. Geoff had a snooze (see the pic) and then late afternoon we walked the 400mtrs to the free wi-fi hotspot at the picnic shelter. We met Joy and Dean, whom we had met at a rest area about 1,600kms ago and one of the campers here said they saw the ice-cream van back at Sandfire Roadhouse a few days ago so I'm glad we didn't stay there, with their generator going almost non-stop (see my diary of 5/9). Tomorrow we head south as it will be heating up more here over the next few days.
Did last washing this morning and then headed for Port Hedland. The industry starts about 10kms from the town, mine utes everywhere (outnumbered private cars), huge piles of what looks like salt in one area, huge piles of iron ore? in another, miles and miles of works - old steelworks and mining. Took a divert to a picnic area marked on WikiCamps as it said it had drinking water - Pretty Pool. It is part of the coast, an inlet, surrounded by housing, but it was lovely. After going for a walk around the small inlet and out to the main beach we came back to see two other vans parked, hoses running across the car park to fill their tanks. They must also read wikicamps. Tried to follow the coast as we got closer to the 'CBD' of Port Hedland but it was mainly suburbia, but then came across another shoreline park with bbqs (and drinking water) and green grass - luxury so we stopped for lunch. The steel loos were the highlight of that stop. It tells you to press the button to lock the door and that you have 10mins, then plays jazz piano music - can't remember the song but I guess if it keeps the vandals away, why not. It's like being in a safe. It must have got its timing wrong as it said time was up when I was washing my hands (all automatic as well) so I pressed 'lock' so I could finish washing my hands. When I was finished I pushed 'unlock' and I pushed the door, but it wouldn't open, I pressed buttons again, thinking I'd mucked up the system, but it wouldn't open. It was hot in there and very claustrophobic and after pushing the door and buttons a few times, I started banging on the door - knowing Geoff was about 100mtrs away and wouldn't have heard me. I banged again and I heard a voice say “do you want me to open the door?” I said yes please and the door opened. It was a young guy eating chips and had a dog with him and he had heard me banging on the door. I told him it had locked me in and he said 'did you try to slide it open“ - what tha????? I was pushing, not sliding!!!! My apologies to Port Hedland council, I'm sure your ears were buring for a while there. Anyway, we saw 3 turtles in the water from the rotunda lookout (it is a huge nesting area) and Geoff was in his element using the provided telescope to see all the ships on the horizon and the oil rigs.
Moved on nearer to the port, huge tonnage and the port was a hive of activity. Another nice park with grass and a small pier. There was a small street the other side to the port and that was the CBD. The brochures had said it was a small town, but how could it be with so much housing and industry and yet the main shops were the Post Office, all banks, a coffee shop, a convenience store and one or two others and that was it - where do people buy stuff? As we drove out of the town there was a small shopping centre with a Woolies, but hardly big enough to support this huge town. As we drove back towards the hwy, about 10kms out, we failed to take the correct turn on to the highway and ended up at the South Hedland Town Centre. Now I know where everyone shops. After circling the town centre, we took another road which got us to the highway. Stopped at Herbert Parker/Yule River rest area. Similar set up to last night, lots of camps along the river (dry), but shady spots. Went for a walk across the huge sandy riverbed to the last remaining water and a few waterbirds and a nice sunset.
Decided to stay today also and chill out - I wish we could as it was another hot day. Went for a walk to the end of the track along the river (Geoff did the last 200mtrs or so). We saw an eagle siting on a low branch and he moved himself just enough away from us a few times as we walked by. I could almost hear him say “I'm keeping away from you, but don't mess with me”. The rest of the day was uneventful and we just read (I looking at where we are going next) and watched a David Attenborough doco - now I know where all the vertibrates comes from. Two camps left this morning and one came in, but we are so far in between you can't see or hear anyone, very peaceful.
Headed out of the river camp for a long day. Stopped in Roebourne to look at the Museum which is in the old gaol. Many of the towns buildings are stone and date to the mid 1800's. Quite a small town and as we moved on towards Point Samson - another attempt to see the coast/ocean, we passed a prison, a huge prison (way out here?). From Roebourne to Point Samson, there is mining, mining vehicles and a mining town called Wickham. First stop was Town Beach and Geoff and I both had a swim in the beautiful turquoise water, then to a lookout where we could see many large tonnage vessels. Back along the road to Honeymoon Bay, a small rocky inlet and then the boat ramp/fishing port. This is a lovely place and they've created some nice foreshore areas. On the way out we took another road leading to a huge port where there is kilometres of parking bays for Rio Tinto, car park and shuttle buses for the works at the port and the mines. The scale of mining and port activities is staggering. We drove as far as we could go to the port and turned around where the large trucks turn. The truck driver said there was a lookout but it was on gravel road and very very steep so I opted out.
On the way back we stopped at a creek where the tide was coming in very, very, very fast and still turquoise and clear. We stopped in to Wickham to have a look and it is just a town for the port and mine workers. It is quite a suburb, has it's own shopping centre, all types of accommodation and streets and streets of houses. We went up a very steep road (sealed road) to a lookout and I think that is where the fridge door flung open after 'someone' forgot to lock the fridge door after getting lunch. After going down a few deadend streets we found our way back to the hwy and onward to Karratha. Karratha is a large town, the first one since we were in Darwin. It has some water frontage, but no beach, just mangroves but pretty nonthe less. Got fuel and then found a Repco for motor oil as the oil pressure light had come on whilst in Wickham and then went out again. Karratha has hi-rise accommodation and riding on the back of the mining and oil and gas boom. We finally got an internet signal and I found the address of the Akzo Nobel (International) Trade Centre with whom I had many dealings, but we had already passed it and would be going back out to the highway a different way. The people I knew would be in Perth now anyway, but it would have been nice to see. Karratha does not cater for tourists, no foreshore parks, no caravan parking or any open spaces for that matter. We didn't even try to park at Woolies - car park too small and no street parking. Maneouvred/squeezed and turned on a pin head in the Repco car park and Geoff got motor oil. Plan was to be back on the hwy by 3.30pm to do the last 155kms to the next overnight stop but it was 4.40pm and still in Karratha.
We moved on to Dampier, some 11kms closer to the coast. Dampier was the major port for iron ore and other minerals and exports, now in addition it is in the middle of the North West Shelf Gas Project. From Karratha to Dampier there is a 4-laned, divided hwy, with salt evaporation ponds everywhere and mining, mining, mining. The hills around are brilliant ocre/deep maroon (those that haven't been mined, that is). Arrived at Dampier and despite a huge port and gas project down the road, Dampier itself has magnificant views across the water. It is an older town and seems to have been eclipsed by Karratha. If it were not for the many rundown houses and rundown blocks of flats and unmown weeds in all the streets, Dampier could be a haven. I'm guessing all the facilities are now in Karratha. Dampier's 'main street' consists of one large building which houses a small IGA, a post office and about 4 shops. Went up to yet another lookout and the view was worth it. By the side of the road and in the thicket were Sturt Desert Pea flowers. They are along the hwy, so we are getting to see the wildflowers after all. We stopped at the caravan park which had a number to call the caretaker, but her answering machine gave a mobile no. which we could not decipher, so it looked like a 155km trip after all. On our way out we went up to the NW Shelf Gas Project visitor centre 10kms down another road, but it was closed at 4.00pm and it was now 4.30pm. We got a good view of the gas cylinders and the gas works anyway.
By the time we got back on to the hwy it was 5.30pm and we started our 155kms trek. We were hoping to get to our destination before dark, but we knew that wasn't going to happen. Before sunset we saw 2 eagles and a wild dog (not a dingo and had a head similar to a hyiena. The scary part was after sunset and not seeing cattle on the side of the road until we were almost on them, luckily they were just on or over the shoulder line. We had obvioulsy reduced our speed considerably at nightfall. Heaps of mining utes on the road and many gas plants along the route and still magnificant coloured hills. Stopped at Fortesque Roadhouse and then gingerly and safely did the last 43kms to our destination, Robe River Rest Area, where we set up in the dark. All was good.
Woke up this morning to see where we had parked, as it was dark when we pulled in last night. All OK, was in between the dump point and the loos, so whichever way the wind blew we copped it - but all OK it wasn't too bad. Another free stop with 15mins free wi-fi. On the road and Geoff wants to see every bit of coastline where there is a sealed road, so next stop Onslow - 160kms round trip of basically flat land and very little vegetation. A small industrial town on the water, with huge tonnage ships anchored, a 1.5km long loading jetty and one main street. Most of the road in is flat, lots of red termite mounds (different architecture than the N.T. mounds). Everywhere we have been, many of them have been dressed up with shirts, hats, etc, from western Qld. and all through N.T. Well here, a lot of them had hard hats on - does that tell you anything about the area - the Pilbara. Anyway also along the road in is the Onslow Salt condensing ponds. They are so large in places they look like the coastline, in other places where the salt lays, it looks like the snowfield and all this miles from the coast. I was interested as my old boss was also appointed as General Manager of Onslow Salt, to pull up it's bootstraps, and then Akzo Nobel sold it off. He wasn't happy as he'd turned it into a very efficient business - but that's another story. We saw the actual salt mine pile from the lookout near the beach. Geoff went to the museum. Went and looked at the boat ramp which was also surrounded by industrial works and support businesses for the mines. The caravan park now has hi-rise accommodation and rows and rows of on-site caravans to house mine workers (paid for by Wheatstone, a mining company) and apparently retains 4 powered sites of the old caravan park for tourists - as you can guess this is not a tourist town. The town has had on average a cyclone every two years since 1910 and one year the wind gauge broke after recording winds of 254km/hr. Onslow was the most southern part of Australia to be bombed in WW11 (airport bombed in 1943) and in 1952 the British exploded an atomic bomb on the Montebello Islands just 70kms off the coast. Needless to say Onslow is a survivor.
We have seen 4 blue-tongued lizards on the road over the last few days, one of which we weren't sure if he made it or not, today was the 4th, but not much else wildlife - you'd have to be tough to survive in this environment.
Back on the hwy after 160kms round trip, the wildflowers are getting a little bit thicker and more diverse and we are back with red/maroon hills. Another hot day in the mid-30's but the lady in the info centre at Onslow says it gets to around 50c in summer. October marks the official start of cyclone season, so we are getting out just in time.
Stopped at the Nanutarra Roadhouse where we fuelled up and Geoff bought a bucket of chips that you almost had to take out a mortgage on. (We were warned about the RIP OFF at this place, but they have a captive audience - hundreds of kms from anywhere). No sign of a water tap, but we had filled out bottles in Onslow where they have a FREE public water point outside the info centre.
Travelled the last 70kms to get to our stop well before dark after doing 360kms today and 450kms yesterday. Not quite the same as 20kms in three days just north of Townsville. Barradale Rest Area beside the Yannarie River (dry). Huge area where the old Barradale Roadhouse used to be.
Continued heading south till we got to the Burkett Road which takes you to Exmouth then we turned west. At about 90kms short of Exmouth we checked in to the Bullara Homestead camping area. Very basic, but we would be passing this way back out of Exmouth and Exmouth is outrageously expensive. Very high end housing, marina, airport about 30kms out serviced by Qantas and Virgin. The town is not what I expected from all the tourist brochures. A little shopping centre with an IGA and a few small shops. It has hot dry summers (no wet season) and mild winters (320 days of sunshine per annum), so I guess that's the reason there is very little green grass and trees. I did have FREE drinking water at the Info Centre.
The attraction to this place is the Cape Range National Park and Ningaloo Reef and all the tours that leave from there. Exmouth doesn't seem to have any things of interest except the two resident emus which wander the streets and the one beach a bit out of the main town with sand which seems like a combination of mud and sand and vehicles drive up and down and the water is not very clear. For swimming the info lady recommended Bundegi Beach and I can see why - very very clear turquoise water, gentle waves, very nice - however, it is about 36kms from Exmouth. A bit further on from there, around the tip of the gulf we saw the wreck of the SS Mildura which sunk on the reef in 1907, then around a little further around the point was some spectacular wave action over the reef - quite wild. Moved on to the Lighthouse with a wonderful view. Along that stretch of coast we saw a few large turtles and a breaching whale (mostly the breach and not the whale). We had run out of time to go into the National Park which would take us another 20-30kms of gravel road so we headed back and had a swim at Bundegi beach which was just lovely and found a mother emu and about 5 teenage chicks having a bath in a hole in the road that had water from the fish cleaning area.
Back the 36kms to Exmouth, got fuel, that's when we dropped into the Town Beach (the one with the vehicle traffic), then to the marina and out on the road to do the 90kms back to our van. We did do a short detour on a road we had seen coming in. It was the back way to the National Park and the road climbed very steeply into the hills. Before long we were very high overlooking the Exmouth Gulf and amongst some scenery of a mini-grand canyon (the back of the National Park). The sun was setting fast and after taking a few good photos, I chickened out to go the last 4kms as I didn't want to be travelling on a windy, steep gravel road in the dark. Back on the main road the sun had set and we had to keep our eyes peeled for stray animals. We saw lots of sheep, but managed to stay clear of them and returned to the homestead.
Bullara Homestead used to run Merino sheep until the price dropped, so they ran other sheep and wild dog/dingo-crosses took them and then cattle until the live cattle export issues affected them, so they are left with some cattle and tourism. The camping area had three bathroom blocks (loo and shower in each), one of which is outdoor (corrugated iron lined outside with young tree trunks under a water tower, fueled by a fire they stoke day and night (they said we don't have to do that, they do!). It was interesting having a shower almost out in the open, with the smell of smoke and someone chopping wood outside. From our van we did have a good view of the old rusting, wheel-less FB Holden in the yard behind us with lots of Finches bathing and drinking from a bore puddle. Oh yes and the red, powdery dirt. The people were very nice there. Went out the 2km dirt road to the highway and headed for Coral Bay some 65kms south.
Coral Bay is in the middle of nowhere (just like Exmouth) and one of the places you can see Ningaloo Reef. Arrived at Coral Bay which consists of a very small group of shops, a caravan park and assorted holiday units, maybe two or three and a couple of houses overlooking the water. We headed for the boat ramp and the first view of the water was just magnificant. Fantastic turquoise blue, very light near the water's edge then deep, almost irridescent blue where the reef starts. I've seen some dodgy boat ramps, mud, etc. but this one was pristine. Decided to put the kayak in (sounds simple, but have to move all our bottled water, put the boat on the car roof so Geoff can blow it up with the car pump, tied the kayak to the roof of the caravan, drive down the access road to the boat ramp, undo the ropes, take it off and then put it in the water and drive the van back up to the car park). A local asked if we were camping for the night on the boat ramp, obviously he didn't seen us unload the boat. ANYWAY……..the water was sooooo clear, there was a 5' long, 400kg Groper 'Merv” who hangs around the boat ramp and lots of other fish. We saw lots of fish hanging around the fringing reef. After packing up the boat, we headed into Coral Bay itself. We had heard they don't cater for travellers, there are no drinking water taps and the beach showers in the toilet block is filtered salt water- so much for getting the salt off after having a swim and a small area to park a van (not allowed in the normal car park). That's the negative. The positive - beautiful swimming bay, beautiful sand, tide was in so you had to swim out a little to get to the reef. Geoff swam out and I stayed within my depth and I saw numerous Manta Rays and a few biggish fish. We then walked around the bay a little and people were gathering for the fish feeding at 3.30pm. The fish knew what time it was and they swam back and forth and around people and then the lady turned up, gave a commentary while feeding the fish with pellets -Spangled Emperor, North West Snapper, Parrot Fish many of them 2' long - it was just wonderful. Geoff had another swim to the reef and saw lots of other fish and the coral had more colour than the closer in coral. It was time to move on, had our salt water shower and back on the road. Just out of town and back to the reality of outback, low scrub and nothing. The roadside wildflowers are starting to pick up a little again. Stopped at Lyndon River west rest area - dry river, flat area, no trees, but a welcoming patch of ground we can park our van for the night and no red dust! Two milestones today, we clicked over 10,000kms so far for this trip and we cross the Tropic of Capricorn for the second time, this time heading south.
This morning we got shade from a cloud for the first time in nearly 3 months - but only for a very short while. We took our time this morning as we are only going about 80kms to the next overnight stop before we head out to the coast again tomorrow so it will be a rest day and planning day. Got fuel at the Minilya Roadhouse, again no drinking water, only bore water. N.T. has water tanks at many of their rest areas, unlike W.A. where there is no drinking water at the rest areas and not freely available anywhere. Still seeing some wildflowers but still to see them en-masse. Tonight's rest area brings us back to red sand - luckily it's not powdery dust so some consolation. Weather got up to 29c today, so hopefully we are out of the very hot zone now. We are parked near a mature-age man, with a small tent and a bicycle - he's obviously doing the trip tougher than we are. Tomorrow we'll go out to the coast and then to Carnarvon
Another dewy morning and a little cooler and some cloud. On the road and the sky is actually cloudy. Turned west towards Quobba Point, past Lake MacLeod. Sounds nice, but it is just a very large salt lake (when it has water) and is part of the Rio Tinto/Dampier Sale Operation. Very low scrubby land and the occasional sand dunes. 50kms in and we come to Quobba Point. Magnificant, wild coastline, breaking waves beyond the reef in some placed and breaking, churning waves at the cliff-face with a fantastic blowhole reaching 20mtrs or so. Again, beautiful blue water. Got some good shots. Around the point was a small bay, sandy beach, calm waters and fringing reef. Saw lots of colourful fish in the crystal clear water and Geoff did some snorkelling, but the tide was still too low to safely go over the reef, but he still saw lots of fish. We could have stayed and watched the water for hours. We left, going past the sandy track to the lighthouse which Geoff started to take the van up as we came in, but being an almost vertical climb, on sand, with potholes 'WE' decided it was not do-able, so we backed out down the track. Back out of the hwy and heading towards Carnarvon, we saw a few market gardens - are we back in the land of the living? As it was getting late, we stopped at a caravan park in Carnarvon (Norwesta), which was quick good for our purposes. Carnarvon is a medium town, one strip of shops, including a Woolies. It has an airport with regional flights (the flight path is over the caravan park). Did a quick run around the foreshore, bought chips and Geoff finally got his potato cakes - yah. Quite windy in Carnarvon, but at least it is not hot.
Did the last of my washing whilst I still had town water at the caravan park whilst Geoff went and got the two gas bottles filled. (The small gas bottle ran out during the night but things in the fridge still seemed cold.) Before getting back on the hwy we did a proper look around Carnarvon. Lots of history, with the one mile jetty which used to load wool for transport, passenger ferries, etc. Quite a few old buildings remain and saw a lot of old photos at the museum of Carnarvon back in its heyday, street scenes with the horse and camel teams transporting wool. Pa would have been very interested in the old Shearing Shed part of the museum with all sorts of shearing paraphenalia, including a fleece grading table (with wool) and bale press and the same shears that Pa used to have. There was some information on the HMAS Sydney II which was sunk in 1941 of this coast down near Shark Bay with the loss of life of all on board (645 souls) and which was finally found in 2008, various nautical items such as a cutter from the ship and a lifeboat from the Kormoran which sank her. There was the old lighthouse keepers cottage where some of the items I remember either mum or our nana having - doesn't make you feel old. There was also various old steam driven equipment. Saw the mouth of the Gascoyne river and beach area which is just an ordinary beach (after the beaches we have seen over the last few days). The foreshore is nice with some palm trees. Before heading out of Carnarvon we stopped to get food and ran into an elderly couple (ie older than us), on a motorbike pull the smallest caravan I have ever seen. Geoff spoke to them for a while and he eventually came back with a Mormon's booklet. Drove out to the hwy along the HMAS Sydney II memorial drive with a plaque for each sailor lost on that ship. 80kms down the road, we pulled into the Edagee Rest Area for the night. Weather was around 25c today, so quite pleasant. The only wildlife we saw was a Swallow darting around finding food and bringing it back to feed her chicks over and over again - they sitting in a nest on top of the toilet wall. I'm sure people were wondering why I was taking photos of the toilet.
Considered staying another day here, as we needed a rest, but no shade and near the hwy convinced us to move on. We stopped at White Bluff lookout, overlooking the bottom of Hamelin Pool and the Sedimentary Deposits Reserve. You could see clearly that this whole area used to be an inland sea and the flats down before us are still tidal. On top of the bluff are three mounds of stones - one with odds and ends where people have put their names and dates of visit - stones, shoes, hats, bottles, lots of things - as long as it's kept in the pile then I guess it can't be counted as rubbishing Australia? Another pile of stones was an unofficial memorial to the HMAS Sydney II which was sunk during the war not far from here and the names of two who were on board - obviously family has put this here. The third was about 20-30 garden gnomes of all shapes, sizes and colours and a few stones and inscriptions - memorials to family and friends who have passed away - and the gnomes are all looking out seaward. It was quite touching.
Back on the road we passed the 26th Parallel and we were no longer in the North West. Stopped at Worramal Roadhouse for fuel and then eventually turned west to head into the Shark Bay and Hamelin Pool area. We booked into the Hamelin Station (very well run, very clean). Settled in and took off for the old Telegraph Station and the Stromatolites. Stromatolites are micro organisms which are ancient and date back to the original forms of life in the sea going back 3.5 billion years. The ones in Hamelin Pool are about 3,000 years old. I think they form similar to coral, except these are micro-organisms. They survive here as Hamelin Pool is very salty - 55-70gms per 1k of water (twice the salt as the ocean) so ideal conditions. A large proportion of the world's Dugong population live in these waters as it has the largest seagrass area in the world - of which the Dugongs each about 50kgs of it each day. We also saw the shell block quarry where over millions of years, tiny shells are compressed together and a concrete substance solidifies them and they are 10m deep, 1km wide and 120kms long. Many of the historical buildings were made of this shell block.
Got back to our camp and at 5pm went over for happy hour where about 5 other couples, plus the caretakers, and we sat around and talked BS again. Got to 29c today, but the wind kept it comfortable most of the day. No shade here. We will do the long trek to Shark Bay and Denham tomorrow. This whole area is World Heritage Listed due to the 4 criteria for that listing, i.e. its Natural Beauty, Earth's evoluntionary history (Stromatolites), Ecological Processes (largest Seagrass Banks in the world) and Biological Diversity - all the different animals - landbased and marine - many threatened species which survive well here and flora and ranked as one of the planet's most important wilderness regions. I sound like a tourist brochure.
Today we were doing Shark Bay and Denham. Did a bit of sand track driving with some debate as to how far we would go. They have a feral fence across the peninsular to keep out the feral goats, cats and sheep to protect the Bilbys and other natural and endangered species. We stopped at Shell Beach where the cockle shells compress to create solid concrete-like blocks which were used for building materials. The beach is built up with shells high above the shoreline and there are undulating dunes of shell right back to the car park and the water is crystal clear, but twice as salty as an ocean. Stopped at various lookouts most of which involved unsealed roads in and we took some sandy tracks along the beach and along up to a ridge to a very high lookout. We looked out to the most western part of the Australian mainland (120kms unsealed road and need a permit so we didn't go there). The whole of Shark Bay is lovely, with clear sandy bottom near the shore and deep blue further out which is the seagrass - unfortunately we didn't see any Dugongs. Stopped at Eagle Bluff lookout and saw two small sharks, so we got to see some marine creatures at least. Arrived in Denham (the most western town in Australia), which is a nice seaside town and then Little Lagoon. We started to head for Monkey Mia, but had been told there would be no dolphins in the afternoon and it was a 52km drive, so decided to stay in Denham and as we'd got a signal, uploaded our diary and photos under the window turbines. We crossed the 26th parallel today so we were back in the North West, but out again on the trip home. Today's travel was 250kms round trip. We actually found a tree for shade at the information bay on the outskirts of Denham - The flora for thousands of kms has been low scrubby bushes and the only trees were along dry creek or river beds. Temperature was around 26c today with a nice breeze and this afternoon we saw more cloud. I think we are getting into more variable weather now and preparing for it to be coolish. It's school holidays next week (private schools start this week) so we are thinking of heading east from Geraldton in a few days.
NFP: Monkey Mia - was told they only feed the dolphins in the morning so chance we wouldn't see any in the afternoon. It's all part of a reserve now and you need to pay to go in, even if you just want to see the beach. Return trip was 52kms and it was getting late so we didn't go. We have seen the dolphins at Tin Can Bay and enjoyed the fish feeding at Coral Bay.
Very windy this morning. Set off with a strong side-wind, but a good tail wind once we were back on the hwy. Saw lots of feral goats and their kids along the road, as we have done for the last few days. As we drove south the vegetation started to change to higher bushes and low trees so it seems we are coming out of the low dry scrubby land that we have seen for thousands of kms. Even the fantastic coast we have visited has had low dry scrubby land just back from the beach. Towns have virtually no trees. The sky clouded over and we have our first fully cloudy day and it actually started to rain for about 30 seconds then stopped. The temperature when we left at 8.30am was 27c. We heard on the radio that Perth and further south were to get 100km winds, storms and rain and to take shelter so we didn't want to go any further south. Pulled into Nerren Nerren which is a very wide area with lots of tracks and spots back in the bush, but the main area is paved. For once I wasn't concerned about the shade, but wanted shelter from the wind and as it would probably rain we kept off the red sand, so pulled up next to a largish bush and we had some protection. The temp had gone down to around 24c and not long after we stopped, standing in the open, we felt the warmish wind changed suddenly to cold wind (are we back in Melbourne??). It started to rain about lunch time and the howling wind continued and the temperature went down to 14c so we just waited out the weather and hope tomorrow would improve. Wind died down in the afternoon and the clouds cleared just after sunset. The landscape soil, with the exception of a few areas of white and cream, is still very red sand and dirt and contrasts quite stuningly with the low green bushes which seem to have new deep green leaves. We are seeing more wildflowers along the way.
It was cold last night, so brought in the extra doona. It rained on and off last night, but the wind has died down and a sunny morning with a few clouds hanging on. We spoke to a couple we had met at Goldwire Rest Area and a couple with a van similar to ours, he was born and bred in Torquay and lives at Clifton Springs, so we reminisced about Rip Curl beginnings, etc.etc. On the road and the weather looked promising, but the wind had started up again, so was a little cross wind. Travelled about 40kms and we saw trees, the landscape was definitely changing, then it started to look like a normal landscape, a row of trees along a creek, some paddocks and we saw our first house visible from the highway (other than in a town) since, I think, we left Innisfail in Qld. All the properties have been stations, of hundreds of thousands of acres and often the homestead is 50 to 100kms in off the hwy. We could see rain ahead. We stopped at a rest area which had tank water, the first since we left N.T. We had intended to go to Kalbari today, but the weather was so bad we stopped at a rest area we wanted to check out, so we stayed the day. Galena Bridge on the Murchison River. Very large, very nice, very busy and very, very cold - I guess it didn't get over 15c so on went some winter woolies, but Geoff was still resisting putting on long trousers. Went for a walk to an old copper/lead mine and along the riverbank. Ran into Barb and Keith we'd met at Hamelin Station at happy hour. The wind blew very strongly all day, but the clouds started to disappear and by late afternoon had all but cleared. The wind died a little but still blowy.
Sunny, but cold morning and wind starting up. On the hwy we turned west towards Kalbarri. Lots of wildflower bushes, many past blooming, particularly the Bansias, but some still blooming. Kalbarri is a nice seaside town with the Murchison River mouth forming a safe swiming beach, leading out to the 'heads' where there is high surf crashing onto rocks. Dropped into many side roads leading to spectacular cliffs and crashing waves. One area was a surf beach where the waves came towards the cliffs at an angle, then over the rocks - the surfers were very selective as to which waves they took. The last 3 turn-offs where part of the Kalbarri National Park where the cliff colours went from deep maroon, to bright orange to sandy coloured sandstone and against the deep blue ocean and the pure white surf it was quite spectacular. Continued south and passed the pink lakes, caused by algae which produces beta-carotine which turns the lake pink. BASF, the chemical company have an operation there where they extract the beta-carotine to use to colour bricks. It was getting later than we had planned so we pulled into a Farmstay - Linga Longa which we had heard about. A bit like parking in someone's back yard. The other caravan guests got Jim (and his foxy [dog] Roxy) for us, who showed us the powerpoint on the back of old cabin, took cash and that was it. Nice grass though. It's a working property and has lots of history. There is the Samson homestead up the hill which we visited and watched the sunset from the balcony and old mill and old stables, all heritage listed, so was an interesting stay.
No loud traffic noise overnight, just the occasional car in the distance and the sound of the ocean. Sunny morning and warmer today and no strong wind. Headed back 5kms to look at Port Gregory and a better view of the Pink Lake. Port Gregory is a tiny, sleepy, village, one general store, a couple of streets of houses and is a fishing and diving spot. The water is that lovely turquoise blue with reef just off shore and small waves crashing onto it. We headed for Geraldton along a gently undulating landscape and open paddocks and boundary trees, the general landscrape you'd see in country Vic or NSW. Yes, we really are back into civilisation. At one point we had 3 vehicles behind us and as we passed a motorhome stopped on the side of the road and two people walking around looking at the ground, we realised they were looking at a bunch of lovely wildflowers - couldn't stop because of the tailing vehicles. Came into Northampton, a very historic town, lovely old buildings, cathedrals of stone, old railway precinct, etc. Info lady said, due to unseasonal rain earlier, the Everlasting Daisies have come and gone. So all I have so far are shots of individual bushes and flowers - no flower carpets yet.
Finally, we arrived at Geraldton, did the shopping, saw the foreshore and lighthouse. Geraldton is a very large town (maybe a city). It was getting on to 4pm and still had a way to travel to next stop. We didn't see the HMAS Sydney II memorial, but we had seen a lot of photos, memorabilia, relics and information about it and the Kormoran (the German ship who sunk her) at the Carnarvon Maritime Museum. Had a choice of a couple of stops, one may be booked out as it's a popular camping spot, another just a pull-in on the hwy (there was one other van), but decided to go to one 90kms south of Geraldton where there had been good reports. Got there about half hour before sunset. Turns out it is right on the water, a small carpark, but tracks either side. So we camped for the night, 10mtrs from the water's edge, gently lapping waves. Not brilliant turquoise, but a nice quiet beach and about 10 other vans, low scrubby bushes but it was not hot and the good thing it is 72hrs (officially apparently). Watched our first west coast sunset into the water, brilliant.
A cool night and woke to the sound of gentle waves, a sunny morning and no wind so far. We walked south and found a couple of spots along the track, a bit more private and away from the rubbish skips. So we moved the van to a camp spot a bit protected from behind by a small cliff and set up, again. Walked the south track to the point, Cliff Head, found a bunch of run-down shacks with signs saying, 'keep out', 'don't steel water or break in', 'Professional Fishermans Lease', but only one occupied. We walked a little further to a large grassed oval where there were more caravans. A couple from Victoria, so I knew these weren't a camp of locals ready to cut your throat, ha ha. Chatted to a couple for a while, then Geoff climbed up the rocks to the CLIFF HEAD. There was an old fishing jetty and an Osprey chewing a large fish. These birds are the size of a small Eagle and a similar hooked beak. They have been all along the coast from Broome and in most places, councils (I guess) have put up structures to allow them to build their giganic nests, many 1m dia. Chilled out in the afternoon, but the wind cropped up, so WE moved again (on the same site), turning the van to give us some protection.
Another cool night, lovely morning and light breeze today. Walked the north track and found a few more spots, but decided to stay put where we were, ha ha. Geoff blew up the kayak and went for a paddle, me not knowing if this was a shark-infested WA beach (hopefully they stick to the surf beaches??). Quite a few wildflowers around, but no fields of flowers as yet. Kept a watchful eye on Geoff and then just read in the afternoon, trying to decide where to from here- inland a bit to avoid school hols on the coast. Weather is expected to deteriorate over the next couple of days.
Another cool night, lovely morning and light breeze today. Walked the north track and found a few more spots, but decided to stay put where we were, ha ha. Geoff blew up the kayak and went for a paddle, me not knowing if this was a shark-infested WA beach (hopefully they stick to the surf beaches??). Quite a few wildflowers around, but no fields of flowers as yet. Kept a watchful eye on Geoff and then just read in the afternoon, trying to decide where to from here- inland a bit to avoid school hols on the coast. Weather is expected to deteriorate over the next couple of days.
Windy morning and I had suggested we move, AGAIN, out of the wind but concerned about trees coming down. We stayed put and the wind was very strong and the sea very rough. It rained heavily and then lightly on and off for a few hours, then the wind swung right around and stayed very strong, so luckily we hadn't moved. The only exercise today was to the loo and back which is about 100mtrs away. Just read and watched the rest of the movie Geoff fell asleep to last night. By evening the wind had died down and no rain.
Partly cloudy but not raining so was able to pack up in relative dry. We spoke to a lady camping not far from us, a local from Perth. Yes, there ARE sharks along this coast and she had seen one a year or so ago when it swam between her and the kids in the shallows!! So much for my shark-watching the other day. Headed out the short distance back to the Indian Ocean Hwy and popped in to a number of short unsealed roads to bits of the coast. The heads and points along the coast seem to be limestone rock and quite pretty, but seaweed/grass most of the way along, in some places over 1mtr high mounds and very few access points to the beach, as it also was at Cliff Head. Along this stretch of some 30kms it's the Beekeepers Nature Reserve so the seaweed just lays there, providing shelter for lobster and other marine animals. I now realise why a couple of guys were rummaging through it at Cliff Head Point - they hadn't lost a wedding ring after all! Dotted along the coast were fishermen's huts (probably not fisherpersons). Dropped into Leeman, a small fishing town, a tiny but pretty beach and small fishing fleet. A quite nice town, with very wide streets and a couple of land sale estates. Not sure whether it had seen a boom then bust and growth slowed or whether they are just ramping up. There was a half built block of holiday townhouses, but weeds around, so maybe the bust came early. Neat streets and new plantings of natives along the esplanade. There is a lookout to a Tee Tree which from 1957 to 1992 the fishermen used as a refence to find their way home as there is reef offshore.
Headed inland and saw a few wildflowers on the way, but different people have told us, due to the early rain that the Everlastings Wildflowers have come and gone. A few kms along and suddenly there were trees, low Eucalypts, but WE HAVE REAL TREES. Stopped at Lake Indoon which is a bit salty, about 2km in diameter which has camping and we got one of the last sites which overlooked the lake. We thought it would be busy being the long weekend and start of school hols, but there was no families, lots of gray nomads and a few campers. Cold showers (but salty bore water) flush loos, tank drinking water - what more could you ask for. It drizzled and was still a little windy, but compared to yesterday it was a safe haven. Geoff went for a paddle and I didn't need to Shark watch. Met Stan and Katherine from Brisbane (Ferny Grove) and their friends Anne and Michael from Calamvale, just up Beaudesert Road from us. Lots of smallish birds, including Swallows and beautiful Ring Necked Parrots, green with a black band which hung around the larger Eucalypts near our camp. Council usually charge about $10pp but I think only in summer, as there were gas cylinders to the amenities, but obviously turned off and the grounds around the camps are overgrown. They do have some magnificant Cyads growing and if the grass area was mowed it would make a more garden setting, but we are happy, it's more like bush camping and no charge at this stage. Cloud cleared by late afternoon.
Very still and partly cloudy, with the birds chirping. We will stay again today and walk along the lake. Geoff went for another paddle. A bit easier today, as there was little wind then we went for a walk part way around the lake. Took photos of the birds again and then joined Stan, Katherine, Ann and Michael for happy hour again.
Very windy today but warming up. Decided, instead of doing the Wildflower trek after we leave here, we'd do it today. Unhooked the van and spoke to Eddie (another caravaner) who gave us directions to a track to see some wildflowers. We spent a lot of time and snapped hundreds of shots of wildflowers. So if you don't like flowers, skip today's photos. Went into Eneabba, a small mining town (mineral sands) and bought bread and bananas then checked out the local mine, but we couldn't get entry, but we took a photo of the sign. We had planned to go to Three Springs to follow the wildflower trail and whilst there see the Talc mine which Western Mining used to own - I used to work for Western Mining and knew the guys at Three Springs Talc. As we would only get as far as the gate on the road, it wasn't worth travelling the 70kms, especially as we had seen some lovely wildflowers already. We did seem some clumps of Everlastings, but yet another person has told us we are too late for them as in carpeting the landscape - up this far north anyway. Took a track along which was supposed to be some caves, but it was literally a rough track with sharp rocks protruding. We turned around and found some more unusual wildflowers, so that trip wasn't wasted. I'm yet to get the names of the flowers, but many are tiny grevillea-like flowers and some could be mistaken for English Country flowers. Our photos uploaded are only a fraction of what we took. It heated up today to, I guess, high 20's and tomorrow will be warmer.
Windy again this morning. Went for a short walk, but it was getting very hot. Eventually got to 32c today. Geoff tutored a fellow caravaner (Ed) how to us his SLR Canon 1200 and then later how to upload the photos. Took quite a few hours off and on. Didn't do much else because of the heat, except some washing. Late in the afternoon a thunderstorm skirted by very close, but luckily it missed us and we got about two drops of rain, but a lot of thunder and a little bit of lightning.
Headed back along Indian Ocean Drive through Leeman and on to Jurien Bay, all the time travelling through the Beekeepers Reserve with low bushes, many flowering or at the end of flowering. Weather clouded over more as we headed south. Jurien Bay is a busy small seaside town (school holidays) where the sea is once again, blue and white sand. It has a relatively small stretch of beach and grassed foreshore and jetty. It would be much better on a nice sunny day, but it was very windy and cool to cold and very overcast. Saw bunches of kids walking to the beach from the caravan park and it brought back memories of family holidays at the beach. Went to IGA, then headed inland, again going through the Beekeepers Reserve and stopped at a stretch of wildflowers (good thing we are not using film camera). Arrived at Wandoo Reserve Rest Area. Lovely treed area, picnic tables, fire pits, over back fence is vast rural, green grassy paddocks, with dairy cows. Very peaceful. We were the only ones there.
Still on our own this morning, but a lovely sunny morning, cows mooing, mozzies biting. Not long after heading out, we stopped at another reserve and more wildflowers. Stopped at the Coomallo Conservation Reserve and did a short walk to see more wildflowers on the way back Geoff found a plastic box with trinkets and notepad and pen - it was geo cache. There were many entries in the notebook from various people who found it. (Generally you get co-ordinates and go looking for geo caches, but we stumbled across it as some others had done). Geoff found it stuffed into a dead tree trunk. So he is not the only silly one who puts their had into hollow logs in the bush!!!! Escaping not being bitten by something living in the tree trunk we moved on to Badgingarra, stopping long enough for a loo break and for Geoff to poke a stick into a bees nest. He informed me that even though you stand back a bit, they still chase you!!!!!! Having escaped with no stings, we stopped a little further to another reserve with walking trail booklets, contributed to by the local primary school among other community groups. They did a good job. Heading further east we stopped at Moora, a town big enough for an IGA and a Foodworks. Stopped for lunch in the Apex park, watching two Magpies, dive bombing anything that walk along the path. Fuelled up and headed further east and stopped at New Norcia which is basically a Benedictine Monastery town. Established in 1847 as a mission, with a high indigenous population. Visitors can walk through the properties containing the old mission buildings including the school, boys home, church (even inside) and old cottage. As we travelled east the landscape got greener and more treed, but the grounds outside this church at New Norcia was a sight for sore eyes - lush green grass and garden beds of magnificent roses, bordered by wide hedges of French Lavendar, all in bloom. After wandering around for some time we headed for our overnight stop. Headed back west, then south and arrived at Wannamel Rest Area. Lovely spot, 3 other vans, flush loos and A LIGHT, woo hoo, and a bbq. Wildflowers surrounding the camp area and a green rural paddock as a backdrop. This town has done a similar thing with the booklet and wildflowers and a heritage walk through the town. This is a lovely spot. Whilst we were sitting in the last of the sunshine we were discussing the electric fuse box on the van - Geoff opened it and on the inside of the door was a huge huntsman - the peace was shot. A beautiful sunset, not on the horizon, but a strip of cloud produced some lovely colours. Photos for today will be mostly flowers, but some interesting shots of New Norcia buildings.
Will stay again today. Lovely morning and stayed nice all day, around mid-20's (warmer than Perth). Did the historic town walk, past the sites of the railway maintenance buildings, various cottages and old hall. There is nothing in Wannamal at all now, except for tennis courts, current hall and the rest area which used to be the Wannamal School site. The whole area has wildflowers, but most have finished. Found some more Kangaroo Paw and some stunning purple flowers. Came across a small Monitor Lizard which scurried on a tree when we walked past. On a closer look we could see ants all over him. We got closer thinking he would run, but he just stayed there. We were concerned that, as he was covered in ants, that he was somehow paralysed. We used a stick to shoo him away but he just stayed there. I eventually tried to lift him off the tree with a stick, he didn't run, and he held on fast, but eventually he fell to the grass and then ran away very quickly. I think we saved his life. We just relaxed in the afternoon and Geoff caught up with tax stuff, etc.
As predicted the weather had changed. Full cloud and rain then drizzle. With 'trail' brochure in hand we headed down to Bindoon, a small town with some walks, a lake and an IGA. It rained on and off and too wet to do any walking. The countryside is green, rolling hills, with some grapevines and many citrus orchards. Took the opportunity to buy oranges from a stall out the front of a house to nice old lady (much preferable to Coles/Woolies). Diverted along the Chittering Valley Road which is very treed and winds and follows the small something river. It was drizzling again and I imagined many of the farm houses, nestled amongst trees would have scones baking in the oven and the owners sitting by an open fire, wearing their home-made woollen jumpers, drinking hot chocolate. Came out the other end of the road to Bullsbook where the Pierce Air Force Base is (no planes today) and headed east to see the coast down to Perth. Of course, it is all suburbia but we expected that. The weather had set in, the wind was howling and the rain driving. Eventually the rain stopped but the wind was still howling as we followed the coastal road and beaches. To our right was wild, blue water, white caps all the way out and on our left, 'boxes, little boxes' actually all huge, huge houses, some identical, most not landscaped, overlooking the water. Must be mining money here somewhere. There are quite a few roads into car parks to the beach, some with parkland which are nice (on a nice day). We thought we'd go as far as Scarborough (being a famous Perth beach), the Esplanade of which is about 200mtrs of car park, a thin strip of path and then the beach. Overlooking is shops and some hi-rise apartments. Nice if you like that sort of thing.
Headed towards Perth and decided to do a quick car run through Kings Park (we'll do the Botantical Gardens by foot one day). Views of Perth and the Swan River are magnificant. Even their garden beds and roundabouts have wildflowers in bloom (any many named). Drove the top roads, another view, this time closer to Freemantle and then from the Lookout Tower on the top of the hill which has two staircases in the shape of a Double Helix. Getting up was a struggle as we fought against the wind. Took some quick shots and could see rain coming. Drove back out and through Perth city, stopped at Heirrison Island, just off the causeway between the two arms of the Swam River. Too wet to get out. Headed for our caravan park which is run by the Adventist Church. Geoff told people we were staying at an Adventure Park until I corrected him. The rain held off until we set up the van and then rained on and off into the evening.
Pink sunrise and mostly clear sky with very little wind. We visited the site of the old Akzo Nobel factory which is all housing now. Went down to Henderson, south of Freemantle to the current office and distribution centre. Wasn't sure who would still be there, but met with Phil the Sales Manager and my old boss Vic. Whilst he manages part of the Asian region now he is still based in Perth, so it was nice to catch up briefly and lucky to find him in the office as he travels every other week. Parts of Henderson is large industrial area with marine industrial activities on the water. Drove to various points on the water including a regional park on the point. Even though there are a lot of small shipping activities, the water is still a lovely colour. Travelled back to Freemantle where there are some lovely old buildings. The place was jumping with people because it was school holidays and a nice day after it being so terrible yesterday. Couldn't find a car park within cooee, couldn't find the famous fish and chips, so did the circuit of the old town and moved on. Next stop Como where I had gone for the Aviat Sports Carnival in 1973 and found fish and chips on the way. The units at Como are still there and even the little corner store is there, but Como has a lot of newish units and a very nice suburb - just a hop, step and jump, over a railway line and a freeway to the edge of the Swan River.
From then on it was shopping for supplies and shoes for Geoff and then back, through peak hour traffic, to the park. Weather turned out lovely today, low 20's and no wind.
Dropped the car off for a service with a drop off in the city by Stan who pointed out the interest points in the city, arranged a spot to pick us up and eventually dropped us off right at Kings Park. Spent a couple of hours at Kings Park, magnificant views of Perth and the Swam river and did a guided walk around the Botanical Gardens by Jeremy the a very good guide. Caught the free bus back into the city, dropped into the Perth Mint, went to the Museum and then it was time for Stan to pick us up. Worked out very well. Did some shopping, got caught in peak hour traffic and then back to park. The day was beautiful, low 20's, very few clouds and no wind, just lovely.
Being based at the foothills, we headed out east into the Perth Hills. Still suburbia changing to rural and a combination of orchards and pockets of natural bush and a national park (still mainly medium size Eucalyt trees with mainly Banksias and Grass Trees and TV station aerials. We got a nice shot of Perth as we descended further south (bit like the view of Melbourne from the Dandenongs). On to the Tonkin Hwy and headed south towards Bunbury. The Hwy became a Motorway (still quite a few traffic lights) and then came to a T-intersection, so we chose to take the scenic SW Hwy (5km east) instead of heading west to the coast (about 15kms) and getting on to what looked like a real freeway. SW Hwy skirted the hills and the areas along there are small towns and farming. Arrived at Pinjarra (80kms from Perth) and set up the van. Geoff checked out the railway station and some old rolling stock, but we will look through the town tomorrow. Nothing spectacular to look at today, but a pleasant drive for the last 40kms.
It rained a little overnight, but was only a two doona night. The weather is expected to improve slightly, so if we get 19c-20c's and no rain I think we'll be happy. We had been parked almost in the middle of town so packed up and went to the the historic precinct where there was a Museum, an old homestead, old school and headmasters residence and a rose garden. Very nice and well done. It is an historic town, but very busy as Alcoa has the largest Bauxite Mine in the world in the Pinjarra region. So in amongst historic buildings it has a Coles, Reject Shop, Priceline and other stores. Headed west to Mandurah, a huge regional area that is a popular tourist destination, but also a large permanent population. We skirted the area as we didn't want to get stuck in suburbia and could see the hi-rises as we crossed the Peel Inlet bridge, about 3kms away. The hwy we were on ran down the middle of the beach to our right and Harvey Estuary to our left. Just about everyone has a waterfront view. Further south we turned to go to Yalgorup National Park to see the Thrombolites - similar to the Stromatolites we saw at Hamlin Pool, but these prefer fresh (or fresher) water, but like the Stromatolites, these Thrombolites are over 2,000 years old and the original building blocks of life as they produced the oxygen which started the whole evolutionary process off. On the boardwalk overlooking the Thrombolites, there were two camera points where Dept. of Envrionment and Conservation ask people to take photos and send them in, so they have a constant view of any changes. The Thrombolites are a sandy colour and were in a long lake behind the ocean sand dunes, the Stromatolites were black and in the bay. With the wind howling, we didn't stay long and moved on to Preston Beach. The first access to the ocean after Mandurah. It was 10kms in, passing through more of the National Park. At Preston Beach, there is a beach, a carpark, a general store and houses, but the kangaroos in the street and carpark made the trip worth it. We stopped for lunch in the National Park on the way out and then pulled into Old Whittakers Mill picnic area which is supposed to be an overnight stop. It is a lovely treed (Pines and Eucalypts) with an entry road and sandy tracks leading back in a number of directions. As we still had about 30kms to Bunbury, we felt we wouldn't get to see it properly with the time we had left in the day, so decided to stay here. After finally levelling the van, we went for a walk next to the Pine Forest beside and behind the bushland and then through the bushland. Finally saw some carpeting wildflowers, with Grass Trees, Banksias, Peppermint Eucalypts and Pine trees as a backdrop. Fingers crossed that this doesn't go to Pine Forest. There's not much left of the Old Mill, but there is a sign on a tree written by a guy who worked in the mill in 1953, telling of his journey to get there and that we got a pine cone and spread the seeds around, which apparently are the pines in the picnic area now. Geoff sat in the last of the sunshine whilst I tried to work out where to next. Had dinner and as at 8pm, we are still the only ones here.
Sunny, but cool morning. We headed for Bunbury, dropping in at the Leschanault Conservation Reserve which has a long lake, I think partly salty, partly fresh, leading up to about 500mtrs of bushland which rises and then comes out to the ocean. This bushland is on huge sand dunes and consists of Banksias, Grass Trees and Eucalypts and on the ocean-side small native bushes, some of which were flowering, but most had finished. The wind has continued to blow, but particularly on the coast. Last night after we had backed the van there was a strong burning rubber smell which we could still smell when stopping at places this morning. After having the car serviced three day earlier in Perth, we weren't sure if the two were connected. Luckily there was a Subaru Dealership in Bunbury, so that was our first stop. Nathan, at Subaru was great. He came out into the street to look at the car, immediately identified the smell as clutch, said the smell could hang around for a while and it was unlikely that anything major had happened (but to be careful with such a torquey engine) and probably because of the backing up a slight rise with the van, and he didn't charge us. My mind was put to rest, I didn't want to get stranded anywhere, particularly across the Nullabor. Excellent service from both Subaru dealerships. Anyway, that out of the way it was time to look at Bunbury. Did some small shopping, got a free sausage from the bbq stall for Mental Health Week and I spoke to a lady who told me the various activities they had on that week. Spoke to a couple who had parked their van behind us, Skyped Lyn (thinking of you Mary), Skyped Kristi and emailed Glen. We went out to try to get a vantage point over Koombana Bay to see the Dolphins, but none today. Bunbury is the 3rd largest town in W.A. (I guess Geraldton is the 2nd) and is a lovely large town with lakes and inlets as well as the bay and ocean. Fuelled up and headed south and arrived at Pine Plantation Rest Area, a circular area surrounded by old Pines. A car was there already, turns out it was Rick who Geoff had spoken to a few times at Cliff Head North over the 4 days, enquired how his dog was now and chatted for a while. Not long after, the couple whom we had spoken to at Bunbury turned up. Not alone tonight. (When reading our Camps book we found last nights stop was marked as a Day Use area - oops - we had just relied on WikiCamps with lots of reports from overnighters).
Overcast today. Decided to stay here another night as rain was expected further south, the weather is to improve tomorrow and we needed an early start for a big drive. Didn't do much today, just rested, looked for things we had lost (and found them) and sorted our 'stuff'. A younger couple pulled in for lunch with their new (second hand) van and two Great Danes. It was Day 1 of their very first van trip (picked up the van on Thursday). They were testing it out for a couple of days and then were to live in it for 12 months whilst their house was being built, about 30kms north of here. Their van has double bunks, one each for the dogs! Watched a movie - in the middle of the day! and I did a little work. Sunny patches all day. Rick, fellow-traveller we met at Cliff Head North said he would be back tonight, but hadn't turned up by 8pm, must have found a better spot. A camper van arrived around 8pm and pitch black (sounded like a family) so we had company for the night.
Left early for a long drive today. First stop was a Nature Reserve after having gone through the Tuart Forest, the world's most endangered forest species (lack of regeneration, development, declining canopy). The Grass Trees continue to be prolific, as are the Banksias so the combination of the three make this forest such a special place, as far as native forests goes. Some of the trees are around 300-400 years old, but we didn't see which ones.
Headed into Busselton, but when we got to the foreshore road they had a 'fun run' or something on and some of the roads were closed. After having detoured a couple of times, corralled into a busy street and not being able to get to the 2.5km Jetty, we pulled into the only relatively vacant car park - the shopping centre, which wasn't open as it was just before 8am on Sunday. Too far from the Jetty, we left Busselton, but it seems like a nice little town (Woolies, IGA, Target Country - that's how I measure their size), but no hi-rise and a quaint main-street). We headed for Dunsborough about 10kms further on and discovered that most of the road between is small acreage and small rural businesses. Drove through Dunsborough, probably a smaller town, but very busy, lots of money around, nice houses. Headed for the tip of W.A., stopped along the northern side at Castle Rock Beach and discovered there had been a shark attack on a couple with an inflatable kayak the day before (not us and we let everyone know). The beach is beautiful, turquoise water, gentle waves, in a bay bordered by rocks and a nice sandy beach, trees down to the beach. Went to Meelap Beach, very similar, but a bit wider beach area (seems to be the favourite for swimming), but also closed due to the shark attack. Unfortunately the wind was very strong and still cloudy so could not appreciate the beauty quite a much. Then stopped at Bunker Bay, famous for, I think Sea Lions, but none today (they stayed home because of the wind). Again beautiful water, large copper-coloured rounded rocky outcrops from the car park to the water and treed, just beautiful.
Our aim today was to see both lighthouses on the kick-out (my technical term) part of the bottom of S.W. of W.A. First at the north, Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse (in the Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park), the second is the Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse in the south and every nook and cranny in between along the Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park looking out to the west. We saw the 1st lighthouse, then diverted to Sugarload Rock, Yallingup, Canal Rocks, Smith's Beach and Georgette Isaacs Rocks on Redgate Beach. Each was unique, all of them had huge waves far out as there is reef all along, a couple were surf beaches with fantastic waves, some were rocky cliffs and rocky outcrops being bashed by huge waves and was spectacular. We saw a pod of dolphins (a bit far out) swimming and surfing with the waves for a long time - even got a video of a dolphin shooting out of the back of a wave and diving in. We saw three different types of lizard - one with a blue tongue which he showed me when he opened his mouth and hissed, each time I got close to him. We had stopped as he was crossing the road, veeeeeerrry sloooooowwwly, and we didn't want anyone else to run him over. Some of the wildflowers are still out, so between waves, bobbing dolphin heads and wildflowers I took too many photos. About half way along, we diverted to Margaret River, a nice town but very trendy. Back on the road we finally got to Augusta and the Cape Leeuwin lighthouse. The road all along from the start to finish was vineyards and cellar doors and some dairy. Green, lush, rolling hills with a magnificant coastline a few kms away. A wine enthusiast (or just a drunkard, ha ha) could spend weeks visiting all the wineries. It was 4pm by the time we got to Cape Leeuwin and still had over 100kms to go (we like to be settled by 3pm). Headed inland for out chosen overnight stop. Through beautiful country, rolling hills, forest and windy road. Through Nannup, a gorgeous little town. From then on the road got very windy and followed the Blackwood River, luckily along the valley. Reached one stop, which is now a gravel pit (not sure what happened to the forest picnic area). Continued on and now trying to beat the sunset. No roos so far. Twisting and turning road, magnificant late afternoon colours on the hills, we reached the highway and travelled the last 10kms to Greenbushes. Arrived at the stop (behind the Soccer oval) just as the sun dippled below the hills. Two other vans, loos, drinking water and shade (not that we needed it), well done Ballingup/Greenbushes Council. Set up and all was good. Did 380kms today. Did almost a full circle as we are only about 80kms from where we stopped last night.
Decided to stay today due to the long drive yesterday. Did housekeeping and after lunch, went for a walk along a dirt track to an old mine digging which now has blue milky water, but it still looked nice. Saw some wildflowers I hadn't seen before and took another track which took us to the township. Greenbushes is a very historic town (and currently a lithium mining town), with rows of houses leading to the main part of the town, most of them having a plaque stating what used to be there during the early tin-mining days go back to the mid-1800's, e.g. the butcher, baker, cordial maker, general store, drapery, shoestore, etc. etc. two pubs are still standing, but there used to be a lot more. A few original buildings still stand, the WA Bank and the Post Office and two small shops. There were a lot more sites, but as we had already walked the cooks tour through the forest we headed back. We will do the mine site lookout and the railway station tomorrow. It had been cold this morning, but the wind died down and it turned out to be a lovely day. Later in the day we spoke, at length, to a couple who had parked their van further near the entrance. (John and Jan from Perth).
Decided to stay again today, the weather will be nice and we can do another walk. Got to around 24c and little wind. Met a local guy showing his relatives around the town (they are from Qld, Loganholme not far from us). Logged on to work and did a few of hours work in the morning, then in the afternoon we went for a walk to the old railway station (following the tourist map we had got in the town, the day before). Found the railway station which is in North Greenbushes, a couple of streets of house surrounded by bush or state forest. I think the map was fairly old as the track back (we took the road going in) was nowhere to be found and was supposed to cross the road in a certain spot. Armed with the GPS and Google Satellite, we walked into the bush and headed for what we thought looked like a track. Wasn't concerned about snakes, just ticks, my first for the trip of which I got 6 days ago - but no ill effects. Anyway, the bush was small Eucalypt and small grass trees the reason being that it is revegetation from all old tin-mining area. Found a creek (hmm not the track), turned in another direction, through more bush and finally came to the track at last. I wonder if anyone else has tried to walk the track. We wouldn't have found it if we weren't armed with our technology. All the time we could hear the hwy and the side road, so we wouldn't have got lost. Wildflowers - yes I have to mention them. There were clumps of long strappy, thin stems, like Iris but a smaller version, with bell-shaped flowers, coloured peach, pink and purple - very nice. There were lots of French Lavendar, in the bush in lots of places, so I think they are esacpees from the town gardens unless there is a native Lavendar. It smelled just like Lavendar. Got back in time to sit for a while in the afternoon dappled shade (I like dappled shade). It was an enjoyable day, even if we did have to brush ourselves and our clothes vigorously to ensure we got rid of any ticks. Checked out the weather and it was going to be nice here tomorrow (not so much further south), so will stay again tomorrow and walk into town and have lunch for my birthday. This is a nice campsite, treed, birds, way back from the hwy and a feeling of security as it's next to the cricket oval and the town has made the area available so you feel welcome..
Sunny morning and a little wind. One camper bus for company last night. After experimenting with the camera and the SLR camera and being in contact with the kids, we walked into town, Geoff spoke to the ladies at the Community Resource Centre and they have Broadband for Seniors (the same as our Logan Centre has), then chatted with the volunteers at the Op Shop (Val? and Ben) (alas no broad brimmed hats for Geoff) and had lunch at the Bakery/Cafe, the only place in town to get anything to eat. The pubs were closed (the Exchange Hotel had a sign - Oktoberfest 12noon TODAY - but it was 1pm and not a soul around - wonder how long the sign has been there). After lunch we continued our historic town walk (which we started two days ago) and went to the old Court House and old Gaol, then up to the open cut mine lookout, then walked along the back street, on to a bush track back to the camp. Two vans pulled in this afternoon, one with a van the same as ours only an off-road version. We spent some time talking to Lorraine and Kev comparing notes of our two almost identical vans. The day turned out quite nice and warm, but the wind got stronger during the evening, so expected a turn in the weather for tomorrow.
Windy this morning, but still sunny, bonus. Needed to get an early start as we would be stopping to look at things a few times today. Got talking with Lorraine and Kev, and then a ute turned up. Lorraine went over to talk to them, she thought he might be the ranger. Out gets a lady, it was Jill from the Op Shop. Stocks had come in not long after we left her yesterday and there was a wide-brimmed hat amongstso she and her husband dropped it around to us - how's that for service. I asked how much and she said, 'don't worry about it, it was only a $1 anyway', but Geoff gave her a $5 note - $4 for delivery, ha ha. She was a lovely lady, I couldn't believe how hospitable she was. When I do washing I try to be as discreet as possible hanging it out, usually under the awning, so as not to look as if we have moved in. Well Lorraine wasn't of the same mind. She used the soccer goal posts as her clothes line, which is almost in the middle of the cricket ground.
Finally got on the road after farewelling the crowd. Went back into the town of Greenbushes to see the pool, a lovely spot. It is an old mining site which has filled with water and they have a nice picnic area, boardwalk and wildflowers. Apparently they don't promote it as a swimming hole any longer (maybe residual mining stuff has become evident). Left Greenbushes and headed for Bridgetown - historic with an old timber bridge. Moved on to Manjimup and went to see the King Jarrah tree which is 500 years old and huge. Went into Manjimup (big enough for Coles and Woolies). Got supplies, fuel and gas (ran out this morning). Moved on down the highway to the Diamond Tree. This one is a Karri and is 51mtres high and there are climbing spikes all the way up to a Fire Lookout. I got a quarter of the way up, but as it was like climbing a ladder only with small rounded rungs, my sandals weren't supporting my feet enough and it would be very difficult for someone to pass - it would be just like passing on a ladder only there was a wire surround (but not straight down, it was all open). Geoff went up to the top - another lookout highlight for him. There are only 9 people allowed at the top at any one time - 9 crazy people if you ask me - but there were only 2 ahead of Geoff. Wouldn't like to be there when it was busy, you literally have to closely slide past each other if you want to pass. Decided to stick with the plan and take a divert to Pemberton. Rolling hills, pockets of tall timbers and lots of wineries. Went to the Big Brook Dam and the tramway. It was getting late (again) and headed for our overnight stop. Arrived with an hour to spare before sunset. No-one else here, just an unsealed parking bay, with about 10mtrs of scrubby bushes between it and the hwy. But there were some very large trees as this section of the hwy is in the middle of state forest. Although it's the hwy there are very few cars so hopefully a peaceful night. One other car pulled in for the night.
It rained a little last night - we have been very lucky so far with no rain whilst on the SW coast of WA which gets very ordinary weather this time of year. The smell of pure forest after rain was just lovely. Left our rest area and continued along the SW Hwy. It has been just forest since we left Manjimup and very nice. I think only two cars went past last night and that's pretty good for a highway, but then there is nothing to go to or from within cooee. Headed for Walpole, had a quick look around the town jettys which are on a very pretty inlet. Dropped into the info centre where they said we would be right with our small van and type of car to take the unsealed tourist road to the Giant Tingle Tree. Found the turn-off and it said 'no caravans'. Geoff ignored that and we decided we'd blame it on the info centre guys if we got stuck. No dust as it had been raining, but the road wasn't too wet either. Stopped at a lovely look-out over the inlet and ocean, then on to the Giant Tingle Tree estimated to be about 300 years old, but there are older ones there (Tingle is a type of Eucalypt - one of the larger species of trees). A walk through the forest with other giants and we came to 'the tree'. Like many of them, being subjected to fire, they burnt out in the middle, but survive as the life-blood is nearer the outer bark. There are old photos of a combi van and also a Valiant parked inside the tree, it is soooo big. Took too many photos of big trees and moved on to Central Pool, a pool created by the Frankland River, with rocky edges, it was quite nice. The rain was holding off. The circuit took us back to Walpole and then we continued east to the Valley of the Giants. This road is sealed all the way and we dropped into the Discovery Centre where we did another walk around giant Tingle trees, but it was getting late so it was a quick walk. We didn't do the walk which took you out looking over the giants - it was getting late and at $15 per person, I think we'd seen enough trees for one day. It drizzled on and off, but started to clear as we got closer to our next stop, Parry's Beach. Arrived in time to go for a walk on the beach, lovely bay, with smooth rocky outcrops not far from the camp. Geoff had just enough light left to cook his chips (Friday). Saw some different wildflowers today.
As expected it was fully overcast and windy on the beach, but within the campground we were fully protected by the medium sized, mostly Peppermint Eucalypts (in flower so were lovely). Unperturbed by the weather we rugged up and headed out at the crack of lunch-time to walk further along the beach to the rocky headlands of which there were 3. It was wild weather and even the small waves crashing heavily on the rocks looked good. Worked our way around until we couldn't go any further due to a crevace in the cliff and worked our way back, following steep sandy tracks, sometimes disappearing, finding other tracks and avoiding stepping on the wildflowers. The steep hills behind the beach and rocky points were covered in low heathlands and other low plants and we saw some more nice wildflowers. Geoff found a rounded bushy structure about the size of a soccer ball, held together by lots of tiny sticks, so as you do you put your foot in it - and millions of ants came running out and later he found a crab which scurried beneath a rock and Geoff spent some time trying to get it out with a stick, but it would grab the stick but would let go when Geoff pulled on it - he was a smart crab. Geoff finally gave up. We saw two rabbits yesterday but Geoff didn't poke a stick at, or step on, them. Sat outside the van late afternoon, but succumbed to the cold and stayed in the van from then on. Unfortunately the showers here are solar powered. Last night's was just luke warm, but not much hope of having a hot shower tonight given it was cloudy all day and we saw the sun once for about 1 minute just before it set.
Today's weather is expected to get worse, so no use paying to sit in the van. Packed up in only light drizzle and headed out. Dropped in to see Green Pool a large pool area on a beach protected and encirculed by large rocks, Elephant Rocks and Elephant Cove, even larger rocks creating a lovely cove on shore and wave wash over off-shore rocks, decided to risk the unsealed road (national park road so it must be OK - hopefully) to Waterfall Beach, medium height dunes, covered in vegetation with a few wildflowers and a creek cascading down on to the beach and lastly Madfish Bay with a wide expanse of rocks off-shore creating waves which come around both sides and converge into each other and not on to shore. The wind was howling, but the rain just held off. Arrived at Denmark and Geoff talked to some wood turning guys next to the info centre, got fuel, water and supplies and headed to Cosy Corner East a free stop about 40km east of Denmark. The temperature had dropped to 12c as we arrived to get the last spot protected by the trees and backing on to the beach. Settled the van and from that moment on it rained all day and the wind continued to howl, but luckily we were mostly protected by the low bushes. At one stage we were going for a walk, but once out of the protection of the bushes and trees, we realised how wet and windy it really was, so movies in the van it was for the afternoon. The small gas bottle finally ran out so had to go out in the rain to change cylinders. The wind howled into the evening.
The wind below and it continued to rain all last night and this morning it was fine misty rain on and off, with the occasional sunny break. Decided to go on our walk whilst we could. Armed with rain coats we headed for the beach and found the wind had died down to a comfortable strongish breeze. Along the whole walk it was on and off with the raincoats as each shower passed and the sun came out for 30 seconds at a time. We are in a bay, with rocks just off-shore leading around to a very rocky point and a small green island just off the tip. We are very close to the most southerly part of W.A. Along the walk we found lots and lots of Blue Bottles with blue tentacles, obviously washed up by the heavy seas the last two days. Found steps which lead to Cosy Corner West picnic area with bbq and loos (would be nice on a nice warm day!). It is also a stop-off point for the Bibbulmun Track, a 950km walk starting up near Perth somewhere and goes probably to the eastern most national park in W.A.. We have crossed its path numerous times on our travels in the SW and SE of W.A. (the walkers in the photo at Parry's Beach a few days ago were walking the Bibbulmun Track). Back on to the beach and we crossed a couple of inlet creeks, one which was filtering and dripping water from the metre high bank like a curtain, from the heavily vegetated dunes covered with many of the plants we have seen along the coast, some still flowering, but most finished. Nearer the point where we climbed over the huge rocks to get around the shorline was this straggly bush with magnificant cream star flowers, the size of half a hand and the most beautiful perfume. (Previously in the forest we could smell sweet perfumed flowers, but the other wildflowers we had seen didn't have much perfume). The camp is amongst low bushy Peppermint Eucaypts in flower (low because of the persistent wind from the coast). A lovely plant, narrow pendulous leaves, with a willowy habit when in flower, a series of tiny perfumed flowers along the drooping leaves and peppermint smelling leaves when crushed. I only mention this because they are everywhere we drive and all in bloom. As the weather bureau predicted it did rain (on and off) all day, so we just read (and computed) in the van. We don't have internet or mobile reception where we are, but up near the loos we did find there is a signal. We put out the rear awning for the second time on the trip, with some difficulty (wind blowing, pegs kept coming out with the soggy sand, etc.), but was a cover to get into the back door. Thought we might go back to the picnic area for a sausage sizzle, but it was still raining and windy late into the evening. (I only bought sausages because they smelled so nice on everyone else's bbq back at Parry Beach!).
The wind has finally died down, and the clouds started to clear mid-morning. Went for a drive to get as close as possible to the most southerly point in W.A. which isn't far from where we are camped. Followed the signs to Shelley Beach, through beautiful rolling hills and green farmland, (stopped at the top of a hill as we got an internet signal, checked emails and did some banking - as you do), then went through the West Cape Howe National park gate into beautiful Marri (River Red Gum) forest where a few giants still survive. Crossed the Bibbulmun Track again and went up to the Shelley Beach lookout which had fantasic 270 degree views of hills, cliffs, Albany wind turbines in the east and Torbay Point, that most southerly point and, of course, Shelley Beach. The water in the small Shelley Beach bay is a magnificant turquoise blue to emerald green in the deeper sections and beautiful clear waves. Got lots of photos (too many again, but there must be a good one amongst them). Came down from the lookout to Shelley Beach itself, waves crashing on the large rocks either side of the bay, beautiful clean, whitish sand, beautiful waves and that gorgeous colour. Unfortunately the only way to get to the point is along 'very difficult 4wd sandy tracks' (National Park words) so decided not to attempt it. From the lookout we could see in the distances what looked like a cow trail going almost straight up the side of a hill - so must have been that 'difficult' track so glad we didn't attempt it. Drove back, stopped at the top of another hill to check emails, as we got an internet signal again, and found we could see water to the right and the left of us in the far distance (as we were on a peninsula). Got back to camp and had lunch on the beach. Still a bit breezy but we did it, so we could say we had lunch on the beach. Spent the afternoon sitting in the sheltered sun at the van and doing various housekeeping chores. I think tomorrow is supposed to be a little warmer, but showers predicted.
Did a walk to the east through sandy tracks, bringing us out to Perkins Beach, across the small estuary and back along the beach. More wildflowers on the track and on the beach and more Peppermint gums in flower making them look like snow has fallen. The clouds had lifted and it was fairly breezy. Then did the drive again to get an internet signal some 5kms away, up a big hill. Finally cooked our sausage sizzle for lunch at Cosy Corner West, a lovely picnic area and sat in the sun back at camp eating our sausages, watched very closely by next door's Dingo-cross (see pic) and then did a some computer stuff. As predicted, it clouded over and got cooler late in the afternoon and we expect the weather to deteriorate overnight - but the day was better than what we thought it would be. Neighbours told us it is expected to hail so we moved our car under cover of low bushy trees. As at 8.30pm we have had lots of thunder continuously for an hour and a half, some of it very, very close and drizzly rain and then a very heavy shower which is now easing. Fingers crossed, it doesn't get any worse.
The lightning and thunder lasted for abot 4hrs continuously, two bolts must have been very, very close. It was quite a spectacular light show even when it had passed over. This morning it was calm and somewhat sunny, but another storm was predicted and headed towards Albany and planned to make two stops before going into Hopetoun. Along the hwy were more wildflowers (the Iris type). Before going into the town centre of Albany we did the Koonderup National Park out on the peninsula. 1st stop was an old lighthouse used as an international satellite-aided search and rescue system that detects emergency beacons, i.e. EPERBS. It was struck by lightning last night and the only other one in Australia is in Bundaberg. I gues we were safer than the lighthouse last night. Next stop was the Natural Bridge and the Gap. Stunning coastline, huge rocks. A young man fell the day before yesterday and was rescued luckily. You can understand why there are 'risk' signs absolutely everywhere. It was a quick trip and a run down the path as we could see the rain coming towards us and the wind was howling and got caught in the rain as we ran back to the car. Next stop Newell's lookout over a lovely cove with beautiful blue water - the rain started again - back into the car. Next Salmon Cove, a lovely sandy beach, protected and clear water. It didn't rain this time, just very windy. Next stop Stoney Hill. After we turned into the road, it said 'no caravans' and there was no-where to turn around. We attempted once, but the road was too narrow and gullies either side. Headed up hoping it wouldn't be steep and it wasn't - I just don't think they wanted to build a car park big enough. Walked the track to the top of Stoney Hill, literally one big, huge rock where they built a signals station on top of during WWII. I could think of less windy locations, but it would probably defeat the purpose ha ha. Discovered I lost my reading glasses (again) somewhere along the track and couldn't find them this time (the ones Kristi hated, so she will be pleased).
This National Park has stunning coastline.
Headed in to Albany which is a large town (city) on the water, surrounded by peninsulas and offshore islands, with an old strip-shopping main street leading up to Plazas, Coles, Woolies and K-Mart and of course traffic jams - but it is a lovely town. Had hot showers, filled up our water bottles, bought new glasses, bought more vitamins, did the shopping, got diesel and got gas in the cylinder - we were on a roll. It was about 4pm when we headed out to our next stop, Green Range rest area. Passed the King River which has huge boulders in it and surrounded by lush vegetation and trees (and two caravan parks on its banks) very pretty.
About 50kms east of Albany, in the drizzling rain, a Kangaroo came out of the bushes and jumped straight in front of our car. The hwy is reasonably narrow for a hwy and has vegetation up to the shoulder. Luckily the car was driveable, engine was OK, but smashed in across the front middle to right hand side. Back to Albany and to one of the lovely little caravan parks we saw on our way out at the King River, 11kms from Albany. We were just glad we got back close enough in case we needed to be towed. Geoff contacted insurer I cooked steak in the excellent camp kitchen (with a gorgeous herb garden). It continued to drizzle all night - a bit like out state of mind.
No sightseeing today and hardly had a chance to view the beautiful river that flowed behind our van. Packed up, went straight to the two panel beaters as directed by our insurer then booked into a Caravan Park Resort - a high-end CP, but only 1.5kms into the town centre as we'll be without a car for a while. It is the ANZAC re-enactment coming up next week-end and the whole town has been booked out for a long time. (Albany was the last place the diggers departed from to go to Gallipolli and it is the 100th year anniversary. Ships from around the world are coming). Anyway the people at the CP were good and sympathetic and found us a grassy spot next to a pre-fab for sale and gave us power, but charged for unpowered and also got a weekly rate as we booked for 7 nights. Even so the rate per night was twice what we would normally pay for unpowered. I guess we'll just have to go for a swim in the pool, play tennis and table tennis and billiards to make it worthwhile, ha ha. At least we found a place to stop for a week and we can walk back after dropping the car off and relax for a week so that is the upside.
Both panel beaters and insurer were very good, getting quotes in asap and accepting asap, with some gentle coaxing from Geoff. Looks like 5 days to get all the parts and then time to fix the car. We may end up being here for the ANZAC week-end after all.
Had lunch at a lovely fish and chips shop (best flake I have ever eaten - guess it's very fresh in these parts of the world). Sun came out this afternoon but still cold and more of the same expected over the next few days - but we have power and a heater.
Drizzled overnight, but clouds started to break up a little. Albany CBD runs down to the bay, in between two granite mountains (large hills) so went to the top (and lookout) of Mt. Melvile which is only 2kms from where we are staying. Lovely views of the harbour and peninsula and a good spot to see the Navy ships next week-end for the ANZAC re-enactment (if we are still here) as it is walkable. Went down to the port then worked our way back up the windy road through the suburbs and up the top of the other mountain, Mt. Clarence, much larger. Came to a turnoff to the Anzac Centre, starting with an Avenue of Honour, then a lookout to the eastern side of Albany looking out to Middleton Beach, with 5 or 6 black lizards on the nearby rocks and bush, trying to get warm. It also has a mountain bike track - very steep but I guess that's why they call it a 'mountain' track. At the very top is the Desert Mounted Corps Memorial to the WWI Light Horse Regiment, from the car park about 200mtrs of steps coming up to a huge statue, with signage along the way with excerpts of letters from Diggers and stories of how one horse came home from the war (and more lizards on the side). The wind was howling again making that awfult eerie sound as it went through the communications towers. Beautiful views from the very top, but we could see the rain heading straight for us, so literally ran down the steps and jumped into the car as the rain hit (but we saw what we needed to see). Back to an intersection and wanted to see the ANZAC Centre, but it will be opened officially next week-end. There are other ANZAC memorials spread throughout the town. Turns out Albany had the 1st Dawn Service on 26th April, 1923 and from there everyone else followed suit, so along with being the last port the AIF and NZ forces (just after that collectively called 'Diggers') saw of Australia before going to Gallipolli, Albany is very proud of it's ANZAC involvement. There endeth the history lesson. Stopped in at Middleton Beach and Emu Point where there is a mini-rip between two narrow points. We missed the Farmers Market in the morning (we got a late start). Back into town to view some of the older buildings and Geoff went to the Model Train Centre. There is a huge Entertainment Centre (the facade of which is in the shape of a ship) and that whole foreshore out to the port is reclaimed land. After crossing the Bibbulmun track numerous times after leaving Perth, we get to the information centre yestered where I found the 'Bibbulmun Track - Southern Terminus' . Interesting it started (950kms away) just up the road from where we were staying in Perth and it ends here in town (not in a National Park as I had thought). Last task for today - Bananas - and back to the van we went.
Rained last night, but hopefully will clear up. As it was windy we pulled up the awning and chairs back in the car, but we have all sorts of things stored under the van as we won't have the car next week. Geoff has been monitoring the weather. Apparently we are in the coldest place on the Australian mainland. During the week Perth will be mid-20's to low 30's, here it will be 19 - 21c!!
Today we went to the Boatshed Markets, small markets all home-grown produce, with a couple of jewellry and crafty things and photos, fresh fruit and veges and the rest was gourmet food - cakes, honey, ice-cream, olive oil and specialist dips/sauces, yabbies, oysters, waffles, coffee - not a sauso or hamburger in sight. We did the historic walk with the replica Brig Amity (a small ship that came across from England), the old residences near the old waterfront, along with the last segment of sea wall, all of which was some 300mtrs from the current water's edge. Saw the other historic buildings in an around the CBD and eventually went back to the van where we spoke to the kids for a couple of hours all up. The wind was still blowing fairly strongly.
Today we dropped the car off at the repair place. In all our travels we have noticed huge rocks in peoples front gardens and guess these are just protuberances from the granite hills either side of Albany. There was one which has a name - 'Dog Rock' it looks like a dog's head and a collar has been painted on it. The shopping centre is even called Dog Rock. Anyway, we saw this as we were approaching the repair place, so now we don't have to look for it on foot. Dropped the car off and still don't know how long it will take - maybe tomorrow we'll know more.
Walked to the shops and ran into a couple in a shop, also looking for a bucket for their van - also grey nomads - so we got each other's story in the aisle and at the register. Walked down into the older part of town and found the Boardband for Seniors centre (same set up as what we do at LACOTA). Geoff had wanted to do some training whilst here. He gave details to the lady there (Fiona) and then we wandered over to the op shop for a squiz. The lady's there were lovely and we chatted for some time. Went to St.John's Anglican church, the oldest concentrated church in W.A. and the site of the first Dawn Service for the ANZACS. Geoff spoke to the elderly guy (standing guard on the watch for vandals) for some time whilst I took photos and then I spoke to the lady. Combined with conversations with the townspeople today, other campers and Dennis and Doris who live in the retirment village behind the caravan park (they walk through a gate into the park) I think half of Albany knew we had hit a kangaroo. Our fish and chips shop was shut today. Walked back towards the van and Geoff got a call from Fiona who had booked in about 5 people for him to do training with over the next couple of days, so that will keep him out of mischief.
At the van park I spoke to a couple of retired ladies (sisters) coming out of the park reception, we chatted and they laughed that they might come and get help to put up their tent (Kathy is from Coorpooroo in Brisbane). Later we surprised them by going over and helping them put up their large tent in the wind. They were very thankful and Anne presented us with a rose in thanks and explained that it is a Mary McKillop pink rose from her garden and they had brought a bunch with them to scatter on the day of the Anzac Re-enactment (their great uncle had died at the Somme, WW1) and gave us one for our kindness - wasn't that nice. We told them that the kids had gone to Penola College (Penola, S.A. being Mary McKillop's birth place and the school had a close association with Mary McKillop) so they were interested in the association. I also said, it is on the site of the old St. Joseph's Babies home in Broadmeadows and Anne said their aunty was a nun there and used to look after the babies. Once again, a small world, particularly when one of them Kathy is from Brisbane and Anne is from Perth).
I think we will be getting fitter as we'll probably need to walk into town most days this week, but it being 1.5kms one way, it is quite do-able.
Nothing much to report today. Walked in to the Plaza shopping centre, got my hair trimmed (what part of 'same length all around' did the hairdresser not understand? - but then I am NEVER happy after a hairdresser visit). Geoff bought me a watch as I think he is getting tired of me asking him the time. I haven't found the right one so I kept putting it off. Did a little supermarket shopping and walked back. Today is actually quite nice today, mostly sunny and 21 degrees and just a little wind. Housekeeping this afternoon and a little work and utilised the camp kitchen gas pizza oven.
Again not much to report. Geoff walked 6km to town (round trip) to do some volunteer sessions with Broadband for Seniors at Albany, (a national project which he is also involved with in Brisbane) and I did some computer work back at the van. Weather very overcast and saw the sun for about 5mins today. In the afternoon we played pool in the recreation room. That's it folks. Took one photo today - the opening hours of the fish and chips shop, as Geoff has gone there 3 times and it has been closed each time. I don't think you need to see that photo!
Cloudy, cool, afternoon sun and windy. Geoff spent a few hours back doing his Broadband for Seniors session and I did more computer work. Repair shop says it will be at least end of next week before the car is fixed. Booked in for another 5 days at the Caravan Park and Geoff asked if he could do a computer training session in the camp kitchen/bbq area. Wrote out an information sheet and left it in the camp kitchen where there was about 20 caravan club members having happy hour, so he may get some starters.
Cool, partly cloudy. Geoff did his session at the camp kitchen and had about 4 takers. After lunch we walked up to the top of Mt. Melville to see if there were any Navy ships in port. We saw one, but the others had either not arrived or were behind Mt. Clarence. It was a very pleasant walk, although a bit steep in parts, up to the communications tower, then around the circuit walk through the bush and down back into the town. The mountain/hill is mostly granite rock. Walked past one lookout (a large rock sticking out of the bush) and there was an ABC cameraman and technician from Perth, with their microwave dish and TV camera (a good one from Melbourne) in preparation for tomorrow's events. Met a lady today who had booked this week's caravan site 2 years ago. Our and NZ Prime Ministers will be here and the GG Peter Cosgrove is already here. We walked 8.5kms today, a lot of it uphill so we were walking back about 5pm and didn't have the energy to go down to the foreshore for the Sunset service. Utilised the camp pizza oven and had pizza for dinner - GEOFF FORGOT IT WAS CHIPS FRIDAY!!!
Went into town (another couple from the caravan park saw us walking so they stopped and gave us a lift into town). We arrived after the march, but in time for the Commemorative Service. GG Peter Cosgrove, PM TA and Bill Shorten, NZ PM and other dignitaries were all there. A nice service, Geoff was bored. As we were standing in front of the camera we saw ourselves a few times on the big screen (see the pic of Geoff taking a photo of us - we are in the centre down the bottom of the screen). They also had big screens all along the main street with the ANZACs story. After the service we decided to walk toward the point where the one Navy ship (which we saw yesterday from Mt. Melville) was anchored. There were hundreds of people lining the walking track at every vantage point. We pressed on until we found the highest place (walkable) and climbed up a huge rock (along with about 20 other people, some with wine and strawberries) and got a good view, just as the ships were moving in convey. Two came through the narrow opening into Princess Royal Habour and the 4 others plus a submarine lined up in convey. That was very moving as that was what the original convoy would have done as people waved good-bye, probably from the same rock. Eventually a third ship went through the narrows and it was a Japanese Navy vessel and the sailors were waving to those on the shore. Walked back into town where there were street stalls and other activities and we were tossing up whether to walk to the free concert, located a bit out of town the other side, when a Concert Shuttle bus stopped right where we were, so off to the concert we went. There were thousands of people at the concert, with blankets, chairs, wine, cheese, nibbles, hot chicken dinners, etc. We had a plastic bag each to sit on and half a museli bar. Obviously we hadn't planned too well. The weather today had been almost perfect, no cloud, a bit windy and about 22c, a blessing for the march and service and our long walk, but once the sun sent down it was cold. With Geoff in shorts and me no coat we lasted two hours at the concert sitting on our plastic bags and then walked home, in the dark, but warmed up. The concert was nice with the Navy orchestra and singer, Indigenous Navy personnel performing a number of traditional indigenous dances accompanied by a didgeredoo (really strange to see indigenous dancers, made up in traditional body paint, wearing army fatigues on the bottom and saluting at the end). Similar performances by NZ Maori navy personnel. The W.A. orchestra played, but we left just as the 'stars' started their performances, so we listened to the rest of the concert as we walked back to the van and whilst having dinner (and sitting in the warmth). We walked 12kms today (not counting the car and bus trip).
Supposed to be 25 degrees today, but I don't believe it. Wanted to see the Navy ships one more time, but decided we wouldn't go down to the wharf but go up to Mt. Melville to the look out we were at on Friday. Decided to try another track to the summit. Took another bush track which seemed to skirt the mountain, until we came across a bit of a 'cow' track which led to an old quarry. Quite a lovely scene with a sheer face of granite. Geoff's GPS told us the communications towers were directly above us, so followed the small steep bush track up the side of the quarry and then out to a huge granite outcrop. As we stepped over a flat wire fence we saw a sign “Do Not Enter - Quarry” - too late we'd just come from that. Thought the track must keep going up so, up we went, it was all granite rock and very, very steep, with magnificant views. The rock kept going up and we could now see the towers, but there was huge boulders between them and us. Passed a small monitor lizard who said 'don't mess with me'. All the black lizards scurried away before you got to them. Worked our way around bushes and kept to the vast rock areas (another 'Miranda come back' moment). We kept looking back so as not to loose sight of which rock face we came up, then we found a sort of track going through the bushes and came to the seat we had sat on on Friday - we are at the top. Up to the 2nd floor for another 360 degree view and 5 of the 7 vessels were in port. Walked down the summit track to the large rock lookout again (a closer view of the same thing), then followed the track back down which brought us out across the road from Maccas. Waffle Cone, ice-cream and chips and reading the newspapers were our treat and a good rest. The weather had stayed warm, but mostly cloudy, but we knew the rain was coming. Looked out the window of Maccas and the rain was coming quicker than we thought. Powered walked/jogged back to the van in time to get the washing off the line. With black clouds all around us, we ended up with a couple of drops of rain only, but someone was copping it. Got a little rain later on. Walked 6.36kms today, half of which was uphil a lot of which was very steep. We must be getting a little fit now.
Nothing much to report today. Both did computer work on and off during the day. Walked to the shops and dropped into the smash repairers on the way home. We can pick up the car tomorrow 'and if anything goes wrong, just bring it back'….so what happens if something goes wrong 100's of kms away, ha ha. Anyway, we now know we won't be here until Xmas. Walked back a different way, across fields, past the leisure centre, followed a drain, walked a narrow track alongside a new building complex wall, up some rocks and into the back of the caravan park - just call it the scenic route, but a bit shorter distance. So another track found, along with the mini-Uluru track we found yesterday. The clouds cleared in the afternoon, around 19c, but the wind continued to blow strongly.
Again, partly cloudy but warm enough to do our last washing before heading off tomorrow. Geoff picked up the car in the morning and we did housekeeping, last minute computer work and packing the car. Amazing how many (albeit not easily accessible) nooks and crannies you can find in the caravan to store a car-load of travel 'stuff'). Jim Price and his son Steven came down from Perth to visit Geoff in the afternoon. Geoff made brownies for me whilst I did some work in the evening. Other than them being burnt to a crisp, getting chocolate all over his good shirt and over the clean sheets, it was a complete success.
Lovely day, sunny, no wind - best day out of the 13. After doing some shopping we headed out from Albany to see if we could get further than 13 days ago. Took a photo of where we hit the kangaroo (Geoff had GPS co-ordinates) and took a photo of what was left of the kangaroo. Yes, the landscape was very scrubby right down to the ground, there would have been no vision at all until a kangaroo emerged from the bush on to the road. Just beyond from where we it the kangaroo was a sign 'kangroos next 65kms' - thanks for telling us! The hwy went mostly through bushland and some open paddocks and I was quite nervous the whole trip seeing small bushes that looked like kangaroos and emus, from a distance. Stopped at Jerramungup for lunch, north east and away from the coast and it was 35c, moved on through Ravensthorpe where we saw road alert signs for camels and mallee fowl, then headed back to the coast to Hopetoun where we met Sharon (Jim's sister) and her husband Jo. A very nice evening was had by all along with a beautiful roast dinner, the first for many months.
Spent a very pleasant day with Sharon and Joe, talking about family, computer tutoring and went for a drive in the afternoon to the Fitzgerald National Park. Beautiful coastline, very tall rocky hills and mountain backdrop, various beaches in between rocky cliff points, blue water and treeless landscape covered in native bushes of all descriptions. Being a few weeks delayed the wildflowers have all but gone, but still a few lovely ones, including some yellow Banksias.
Farewelled Sharon and Joe and hopefully see them again sooner rather than later. As we couldn't get to see Esperance properly AND get to Kalgoorlie today, we paced ourselves so we stopped early at a rest area in a small town. We are hoping to check on Jim's Uncle Harry's resting place in Kalgoorlie and possible location of his WW1 medal, but now don't know if the museum or the cemetery board will be open on the week-end, fingers crossed. At the rest area, Geoff spoke to another couple in a van (Eric and Lee from Sunshine Coast - formerly a farmer near Kingarooy) and a local farmer about his Canola cutting and how the big header they hired got a lot of the waste stuck in the machine and now they have to hire another one. It's getting cloudier and the wind is still blowing but at least we had a tail-wind. Sharon and Joe were heading west for Pemberton today for a wedding on Saturday and they face around 500kms of headwind today.
Cold last night and coolish but sunny day. Headed to Esperance and 'did' the beaches a little west of Esperance. Magic with rugged coastline of huge rounded granite boulders, mostly white sandy beaches (surf, fishing, swiming). Went to Twilight Beach the 'best' beach in Australia in 2006 (not sure of the rest of the years till now). Clear turquoise still water, a smallish cove with huge granite boulders just off shore about 50mtrs, then the cove extending out to a bay with a long stretch of beach, white sand. I just kept taking photos of the water as I couldn't get over the colour. I thought I'd seen some lovely beaches in my day, but W.A. really does have the best beaches (albeit some you have to travel hundreds of kms in the remote area to get to them). The whole of south-west, south and south-east W.A. is just beautiful. Headed towards a rest area about 100kms north of Esperance. We went through wheat country and then Mallee country (Victoria hasn't got it on its own) with a lot of bushland and nature reserves. Of course 'kangaroo watch' was heightened. Kumarl Siding Rest Area was a nice spot, large area, 3 other vans, some shade (not that we needed it). Unfortunately for one van the road work cement truck and workers were refilling and leaving overnight their trucks in the same area, but we were back far enough not go get any cement dust. Geoff, as usual, spoke to the guy and now knows all about cement mixing and roadworks.
Sunny and just nice this morning. Headed north and stopped at Norseman. I had a particular interest as the Central Norseman Gold Mine (now not operating) was owned by Western Mining (since 1936) and I worked for the Exploration Manager for WMC back in the '80's. Apparently WMC brought the water pipeline and electricity to Norseman. Back in the 1890's Norseman was a horse owned by a guy who found him lame one day and found a stone in his hoof, turned out to be gold - the rest is history. The mines are now just rusting equipment, trucks and looks very sad for itself. No-one told the tourist information people as the brochure says it is producing 100,000oz of gold/yr and the boards on the lookout tell the same story, but dated 2001. I guess it still gets the tourists in. Left Norseman, passed the turn-off to the Nullabor where we will come back to tomorrow after going the 200kms to and from Kalgoorlie. Decided to stop short at Kambalda about 50kms south of Kalgoorlie. WMC used to own a mine there also. Stopped at a 24hr stopping spot, next to the leisure centre, swimming pool and walking distance from Woolies. Well done Kambalda. The weather turned hot and in the mid-30's so a taste of things to come.
The temperature didn't seem to drop at all last night and it was still 24c at 6.30am. Luckily Kalgoorlie was predicted to be around 32c so I was relieved. Arrived at Kalgoorlie and first stop was the super pit. The 'Golden Mile' as it was known was a series of small gold-mining operations going back to the 1800's. Alan Bond bought up all the leases along the 'Golden Mile' (wonder who's money he was spending) with the intention of consolidating them all into one open super pit, as some were open pits and some underground. Anyway, as we know he went broke and Kalgoorlie Consolidated Mining (a joint venture) followed through with the idea. Today the super pit is 5kms long, 2kms wide and in places 1km deep. It's a very big hole. You see the trucks going up and down the roads and they look like ants, then you see a normal car and it is miniscule and you realise those trucks were the giant haul trucks. Anyway Kalgoorlie still seems to be thriving, so there must still be gold in them thar hills (or in the hole). Kambalda where we stayed on the other hand (Nickel mining), has a lot of vacant shops and seems it's seen better days, but it still seems to be a bustling place. Kalgoorlie - heaps and heaps of historic buildings, wide streets, mostly Eucalypt tree-lined. Stopped at Woolies to get Geoff's 4-seed bread. Not all Woolies have their own bakery so we wanted to make sure we got it as it's the last opportunity before the Nullarbor. Then on to search for Uncle Harry's war medal and gravesite. Uncle Harry was Jim's (our brother-in-law) great uncle who was awarded the 'Military Medal for Conspicuous Bravery and Devotion to Duty under very heavy shell fire while moving the wounded“ on 5th April, 1915. Uncle Harry returned to the Goldfields and passed away in Kalgoorlie in 1943, not having married or kept much contact with his family. Of interest was the final resting place of the medal and in case the medal had been donated after his passing, we went to the W.A. Kalgoorlie/Boulder museum and the Administrater confirmed they didn't have the medal and referred us to the War Museum, but they had not record of it either. We did find Uncle Harry's gravesite and he has a lovey shady spot between two small trees. Time to move on and, as we were leaving Kalgoorlie, we met a fellow traveller who had done it the hard way, unsealed road most of the way, all the way from Brisbane. Did the 55kms back to Kambalda and as it would be after 3pm when we arrived, decided to stay there tonight and go the 200kms back to Norseman tomorrow before heading east across the Nullarbor. Kambalda narrowly missed a huge storm just to the west and all we got was about 3 drops of rain and a beautiful rainbow when the clouds had passed.
Topped up our water bottles and headed south towards Norseman where we turn east and out on to the Nullarbor Plain. This area is very treed with small to medium Eucalypts, mostly Mallee, I think and Saltbush and other low bushes. There are quite a few salt lakes along this stretch also. The only indication of mines along here are the turn offs from the hwy. Arrived in Norseman and fuelled up at the BP. With large road signs saying get water at Norseman as there is none on the Nullarbor Plain, the BP had a captive audience and wanted $5 for tap water, but gave me the tap handle as I only wanted to fill up my water bottle. Luckily we keep our tank and bottles topped up as we go along. The Caltex we stopped at coming through Norseman two days earlier was happy to direct me to a tap - no cost.
Headed east and the landscape doesn't suddenly change (funny about that) and continued to be treed until we pulled in to our first stop. From the Weather Bureau map we saw last night, we had worked out we couldn't travel too far each day or we would be in the heat the whole way across (in the 40c's). Norseman had been around mid-20's so was comfortable. Even though it was just before noon, we had done 200kms so we stopped and it was hot (around 34c). Ironically, I got overheated just walking around looking for a shady spot! Vegetation is mostly small Salt Bush, Tea Tree (Melaleuca) and Eucalypts (Salmon Gums) with shiny trunks, very interesting. We found a half-shady spot, but in the afternoon found I had been standing too close to the car to get an accurate compass reading and we were getting the afternoon sun. I stayed in the van to keep cool, Geoff went for a walk and found another salt lake and a dam across the hwy. We could see black clouds in the distance which got closer to us and then the cool finally caught up with us with a vengeance. Bit like a Melbourne cool change and went from mid-30's to mid-20's in a few minutes, accompanied by very strong winds. The buld of the huge storm, luckily, was slightly to the south so most of which we missed, but did get some close thunder and it rained steadily for a couple of hours - but it was cool.
Day 2 of the Nullabor Crossing. It was cool this morning and fine misty rain, but I wasn't complaining. Geoff had just enough signal to ring Telstra about his new SIM and after some tooing and froing, he was able to get them to activate his SIM as it was impossible to do it on-line, so we should have a Telstra signal in many locations across the 1,500km stretch of the Nullarbor Plain. The vegetation changed and there were less trees. We officially left the Western Woodland which apparently is the largest Eucalypt forest in Australia, so I am guessing that is the largest in area and not the type of tree. However, there were still many trees along the way. We stopped for fuel at the Balladonia Roadhouse where they had a little museum with bric a brac of yesteryear, an old Redex trial car (Redex was the around Australia trials in 1952, 53, 54 on unsealed roads). Of most interest was the pieces of Skylab which fell in 1979. One piece sits on top of the roadhouse, holding the satellite dish (there's some irony there) and another piece is in the museum, with the metal edges melted. Note the photo of a Littering Infringement Notice given to N.A.S.A. by the Esperance Council for $400 (the $5 printed on the fine notice was crossed out and replaced with $400, ha ha). Space debri was strewn from the Indian Ocean, across Esperance, up to Balladonia and another town just north, where the search for the main wreckage was based.
The Roadhouse had a sign, 'no water due to drought' fair enough. A sign said they had to cart their water from Norseman, that very town where the BP servo wanted to charge $5 for water. Even the remote roadhouses up north, didn't charge that much for water. Enough about profiteering. We continued on the hwy and across the section was the emergency landing strip for the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS), then on to the longest stretch of straight road in Australia (146.6 kms). We pulled into the Baxter Rest Area about 11.30am, early again, but the next overnight stop with toilets was 310kms further east and only one roadhouse in between. Didn't worry about a shady spot today (started out at 16c and by lunch time was about 23c), but did look for a spot that we could get out of if it rained. It is much more comfortable today so I did some more planning for the weeks ahead and Geoff did some banking - we bought a Telstra SIM and have a Telstra signal here. (They must have taken heed of Geoff's complaints as they have now reduced their rate from $40 per gigabyte to $15. It was quite windy, but I think that is normal for this area.
Day 3 of Nullabor Crossing: Addendum to yesterday. On the weather bureau website we tracked a storm all the way from Kalgoorlie and it hit us late in the afternoon - lightning, but not too close and heavy rain for a while. Said good-bye to Keith and Lyn from Campbelltown, Sydney. It had drizzled on and off last night, but we got out on the dirt road OK. The rain had set in as we headed east. Pulled in to a stop which had a tank (must boil to drink, but we wanted it for washing up). It took ages to fill a 4ltr bottle with a bonus of bits of something (the catchment area was a rusted picnic shelter, but at least we didn't have to use our drinking water for hand and plate washing. Met Loz in a 5th Wheeler, with no car. Their car wouldn't start yesterday so Paul, her husband, hitched a ride with someone to Norseman, 300kms away, came back with the tow truck and accompanied it back to Norseman. Loz was on her own, with no internet or phone coverage, but there were 6 vans in last night. A bad experience, but she had the extendable lounge, dining room and kitchen; and the bathroom, bedroom and heating, so was quite comfortable. There was nothing we could do to assist, but to offer to contact Paul when we got reception to tell him she was OK which we did some 20kms along.
It rained steadily as we passed a 'wide load' carrying swimming pools and passed another RFDS emergency landing strip on the hwy. Lots of road trains spraying water as they passed. We stopped briefly (in between showers) to view the blowhole near Caiguna. The whole of the Nullarbor Plain is one large limestone karst and the largest in the world (I think, must check my facts). The Plain has many caves (not really accessible), except this one. It's just a large hole about 4mtrs deep then bends away, but is linked to the other caves, so apparently the air coming out is like an air conditioner. Pity it was only 16c today. We came to the end of the 146.6kms straight stretch and fuelled up at Caiguna and a lady said it had been 40c at Ceduna (the eastern end of the Nullarbor and she was heading west). We gave her the bad news about the thunderstorms following us and moved on. Since Kalgoorlie, we have passed about 6 of the Nullarbor Links Golf Course holes, one of which is at Caiguna. We had a 'near miss' with a Kangaroo, darted straight out across the road, but we have a 3 second window of time, so all good. Arrived at Madura Pass and went a small distance on a rough stoney road to a lookout over the 'Plain'. Apparently we had been on the tableland and the plain down below us was dotted with trees, no forests here. Decended to Madura Roadhouse and went the additional 25kms to Moondini Bluff Rest Area. We had come out of the dark clouds, to higher clouds, then patches of blue sky. On arrival to the rest area, the sun was out and warming up to 23c. Met Alan and Lyn from Bendigo and chatted for quite a while as we watched the black clouds catch up and hear the thunder in the distance. Later in the afternoon Alan and Lyn invited us to happy hour in their van (we are not used to 4 people in a van all at once). They have an ensuite (shwr, toilet, basin and washing machine). It rained the rest of the afternoon, but luckily we were spared the lightning and continued to rain all night. I think we outsmarted ourselves by avoiding the heat on day 1 crossing - somewhere travelling east of us is a dry patch in between the heat and the rain - you can't always pick it.NFP: Madura Pass roadhouse wanted $1.96 for diesel (other 2 on the plain road was $187.9). Norseman $152.9/ltr)
It was still raining when we awoke, so packed up with some difficulty. Waved goodbye to Alan and Lyn, only to catch up with them just after ascending the Eucla Pass, at the Eucla Telegraph Station which is 4kms off the hwy towards the coast. About 500mtrs of an otherwise very good dirt road, was clay-like mud which stuck to wheels, mudguards, front of van, van stabiliser legs, etc. The old telegraph station is 3/4 full of sand - just shows how they would have had continue to keep the sand from the building during it's operation. The coast was a good 15min walk further on through the sand dunes, but as it looked like rain again we didn't go. At least there was a break in the rain for the time being. We had also seen an emu as we pulled into the car park and he was not perturbed by us at all, so I got a good shot (photo that is). Also at the telegraph station turn off was a memorial to Eyre who would have done it hard when he travelled across.
Back on the road, the rain once again set in and we still had a head-wind. Fuelled up at Mundrabilla Roadhouse and the wind and rain was blowing side-ways. Pushed on till we came to the first lookout to the Great Australian Bight (GAB) and another break in the rain. Was quite a view of a cliff point to the west. Walked closer to the cliff edge, overlooking low scrubby bushes, sand dunes and then the beach, quite stunning. We could have stayed overnight, but it was very windy so after some debate, we pushed on. Next stop was more open and smaller, moved on to the next stop (luckily all within 15kms of each other). The wind was howling stronger so pulled up behind a huge gravel pit trying to get away from the wind. Looking like 5pm, it was so dark, but it was only 2.30pm, but I was 'kangaroo shy' so we stayed. Long and the short of it, the wind got stronger, we pulled down the pop-top after dinner (as did other caravans). On getting into bed I discovered the top corner of all the bedding, including mattress and pillows were wet, obviously through a small gap in the front window, from the driving rain today. A quick fix with towels so I could sleep in the dry and all was good. The rain pelted and the wind howled all night rattling the van continuously, but we had battened down the hatches so felt safe.
Still a little windy this morning, but the rain had all but stopped. Spoke to other campers who were all a little shell-shocked from last night, then on the road. We were coming out of the rain and there were sunny breaks. Stopped at 3 wonderful lookouts of the Great Australian Bight, two of which were just down an unmarked track behind a rest area (but both marked on our old 250k map). We checked out the edges from a vantage point to see how far overhanging the cliff was and used our commonsense near the edges then doubled the distance as this was not a controlled look-out. The two official lookouts have a carpark and a fenced walking track that you must stay on, due to the danger, as some tourists don't have a brain in their head. Went past yet another R.F.D.S. landing strip on the hwy and wide-load vehicles. I finally got my photo of the wombat road sign - so far there is supposed to be Kangaroos (we saw one), cattle, emus (saw one), camels and wombats. We were well and truly on the 'Nulla Abor' Aboriginal word for treeless plain. But surprisingly it is vegetated with low saltbush and other similar scrubs which get their moisture from the air and take in equivalent of their own weight each day. There are some small, low, Mallee Eucalypts, many of which have new shoots so everything looks fresh and new - not what I expected which was dry, dusty and no vegetation. There is a lot of grass in places, so I guess that's a result of all the rain they've had recently. I am still glad we are not travelling when it is about 40c. So far there have been two stops with water tanks (must boil first), no water available at the Road Houses and South Australia does not have any toilets at their rest stops for the whole 500kms so you must be well prepared which we are. Stopped at the 164k Peg Rest Area where we met Alan and Anne from Perth who were travelling home. Just a short trip today only about 140kms, but lots of sightseeing which is great. Sunny patches continued so fingers crossed the rain has ended.
The rain held out, beautiful sunny morning, but cold, about 8c. Said good-bye to Alan and Anne, our only company last night. Not far down the road we came to a sign saying Western Edge of the Treeless Plain. Ah, so that's why there had been so many small trees up until now. We saw yet another truck carrying swimming pools, only he was heading east - wonder if they couldn't sell the ones heading west or whether it's two different lots, manufacturing in the west sending them east and ones manufactured in the east and sending them west, hmmmm. I probably didn't mention but 2 days ago we were overtaken by, not one, but two portable buildings. Anyway, first stop was fuel at Nullarbor Roadhouse and a shower, then, finally across the treeless plain and to the turn-off to the Head of the Bight. At the end of the 12km road in, there is a viewing platform to watch whales during the whale watch season. Season ended 31st October, but still $5 in off-season ($14 in season) to walk on the board walk (and see no whales). I suspect the cost is to cover the road in and the kiosk to buy things and the restaurant, etc. We had come to see the water and the sand dunes, so we took our photos of the bight from the car park and moved on. It was just being there that mattered, as there was such magnificant scenery yesterday from the various lookouts which had good unsealed roads. Sorry, I think I am too cynical! Continued along the treeless plain and before we knew it, it was back to trees again. So of the 1200km trip across the Nullarbor Plain, about 100kms of it was truly treeless, hmmm, not what I expected at all. The landscape changed, we passed the Vermin-proof fence which goes right across Australia (we have seen it in a number of different places in our travels over the years) and saw our first homestead in 1200kms, then sparse vegetation and tree patches were replaced by wheatfields and silos, I guess we are out of the wilderness, but still have 40kms to the official end of the Nullarbor Plain and quite a few hundred kms of outback travel after that. Stopped briefly at Nundroo Roadhouse then continued to Cohen Rest Area, where as at 6.15pm we are the only people stopping - not sure if it's us or the 'something dead' which we get a whiff of every now and again - couldn't locate it, but stopped in a spot hoping to be upwind of it and so far it's not too bad. Only did 220kms today.
Cold night and beautiful sunny morning, with no wind. The 1.5hrs time difference was staggered over two sections, the 2nd of which we didn't see, so because we are now in South Australia and they have daylight saving, but the West doesn't, I adjusted my watch 2hrs ahead. All of a sudden we are getting up later and the sun doesn't go down until 8pm (instead of 6pm). Headed out at 9.30am!! usually 7.30am. About 30kms along, we stopped at Penong for fuel, a small town with a pub, general store, service station and some historic buildings and lots and lots of windmills, everywhere. Another 70kms we came to the quarantine check for S.A. (we had been in S.A. for a few hundred kms). Before binning any fruit and veges at the checkpoint, we sat and had an early lunch of cheese, lettuce and carrot sandwhich. It was only 11.30am - but really 9.30am by our body clocks, so no wonder we weren't that hungry, haha. Just after the checkpoint we came to the caravan dump point next to the BP servo and a 'drinking water tap', woo hoo, the first for over 1,000kms, and filled our bottles. Ceduna is a nice little town, main street and foreshore lined with Norfolk Island or similar pine trees, a lovely grassed foreshore and a jetty. Not the dusty town I imagined it would be. Shopped for food and fruit/vegs and went to the info centre. The guy there, who looked more like he was just minding the shop, surfing the net and looking like we interrupted him when we walked in, in answer to our question he said “it's all in the brochure”, hmmmm. He could have “this place is famous for xxx, this one for xxx and this one for xxx”. We had sort of decided to do the Eyre Peninsula anyway, but it meant an additional 400kms, rather than going directly to Port Augusta, and wanted to make sure there was not of the same we had experienced over the Nullarbor. Enough of my whinging. First stop was Laura Bay and the Conservation Park, low scrubby bushes, similar to what we had seen for 1,000kms, but still nice and it surrounded an inaccessible bay. Was down a 4km unsealed, but very good road. Next stop Smoky Bay, a sleepy coastal town, famous for Oyster Farming, a lovely beach around the bay, a long jetty and heapl of Pelicans, particularly around the fish cleaning table at the boat ramp. On reading the brochures last night I think we picked the right Peninsula as this coast and Port Lincoln down the bottom the Australia's largest fishing fleet and famous for it's seafood and marine life. Geoff walked the jetty and saw people who had just caught some large blue crabs, some of which they threw back because of small size. Had lunch, again ha ha, then moved on to Haslam Rest Area for the night.
Not so cold last night. Some cloud. Headed off and stopped off at a spot down the road on the beach. A few vans there and loos, but no water, grass hut structures on the beach. Headed into Streaky Bay and stopped long enough to buy a lettuce. Another sleepy coastal town with some nice older buildings and a pier. All these towns have a pier. Moved on and stopped at Eyre's Water Hole, where he set up his base camp prior to travelling over the Nullarbor. Drove around Port Kenny briefly, it is a rundown sort of town, not like the others we have seen, I don't think I saw a car, even outside the pub. The turn off to Baird Bay said Sea Lion colony and dolphins, but at a 50km round trip on unsealed road we decided to pass. Moved on to Venus Bay, just another sleepy town but had a coastal walk. Met a couple coming back from the walk and said they had seen dolphins so that enthused us a little more to do the 2.7km walk. The couple had been on the road for 15 months and were from Perth. Anyway we did the walk and saw dolphins, but a little far away to get a really good shot. The bay is lovely with overhanging cliffs and quiet waters and the walk took us around the point to the ocean where the cliffs were quite rugged and beautiful and very eroded, so again overhanging cliffs of limestone and sandstone.
Back on the road and we did a divert on unsealed road (round trip of about 16kms) to the Woolshed Cave with magnificant pink sandstone and limestone and the Tub which is a hollowed out cave where the younger limestone on top collapsed in with the erosion from the ocean, forming a tub or bowl. The ocean was a lovely blue and further around was a remote surfing beach with a magic view from yet another cliff top lookout. We had seen 2 memorials for people who have lost their lives on this coast, one of which was in 1928. Back on the hwy we got fuel at Elliston, a quaint little seaside town with murals painted on a number of buildings and even on the public loos. I couldn't find the sign which indicated which was the Ladies and which was the Gents and then I realised the mural of the lady and of the gent indicated which was which - deeerrrr.
It was around 5pm, but the sun was still high (3pm WA time), nevertheless we were on kangaroo alert. I looked up at one stage and asked Geoff if he saw the emus, emus? what emus?. The ones on the road shoulder looking at us as we passed. Maybe he was too intent on looking for kangaroos! Found the Dry Stone Walling Rest Area and there were already 2 vans there (company at last). There were only two spots available so we parked a short distance down a dirt track and the ants saw us coming. They diverted their trail to get to our feet and were biting. There was absolutely nowhere to stand without getting them on your shoes and working their way up. We had just enough insect spray left in the can to spray the stabliser legs (we have had ants before which got into the van from the stabliser legs) and then Geoff noticed the pin was broken on one, so he was laying down on a piece of carpet trying to fix the leg with ants having a field day on his legs and back. They walked straight over the insect repellent we had put on our shoes….unbelievable. By late afternoon with shadows, they had 'clocked off' and the ground was bare.
Tried to pack up before the ants woke up, partially successful. Before leaving we walked across the road to a lake and some more bush camps - lake was a partially dry, salty lake surrounded by low scrubby trees and bushes. The landscape continued to be mostly wheatfields with pockets of trees, mostly along the roadside and there were a few old stone ruins along the way also. We passed Lake Hamilton, very large and mostly on private property. Turned up to a lookout, an unsealed, relatively steep road but was fine for the van. At the top was more, and as it turned out the last, of huge coastal cliffs of the Great Australian Bight, with associated wild water and huge pieces ready to drop into the ocean. I tended to forget that the 'Bight' just doesn't stop after you cross the Nullarbor. 50kms before Port Lincoln, was Coffin Bay, an oyster farming and fishing coastal town, quite large with some very nice residential and holiday houses, but no Coles and Woolies - there must have been a fight somewhere to keep it the way it is. The town sits between two bays, where at the jetty they had just landed their catch of what looked like whiting. Of course Geoff was over there talking to the guy loading the large insulated boxes which had added the fish and ice, were then fork-lifted to a truck for transportation - talk about low processing. The bay behind the town is pristine with sand dunes across the small bay which is part of the National Park.
Headed across to Port Lincoln, cutting off the tip of where the Southern Ocean/Great Australia Bight and Spencer Gulf meet. Unfortunately it would have meant a huge amount of travel on unsealed and remote roads. Arrived at Port Lincoln which is a huge city, lots of industry, very large port and some lovely historic buildings closer to the Esplanade. Visited the evil twins (Coles/Woolies) and Bunnings to get a 12v drill so Geoff could fix the connection on the stabliser leg. It was getting around 4pm so moved on another 70kms to Cowley's Beach. This is all wheat and sheet country, no trees and rolling bare hills. At the end of a 6km unsealed road is Cowley's Beach, a flattish wide open area just above some small sand dunes almost on the beach and we were the only ones there. Went for a short walk along the beach, it was lovely. It was bit breezy and it was still high 20c's. During the night the wind changed, was very strong so we pulled down the roof, only for the wind to die down almost completely not long after that.
Still no wind this morning, cloudy and it rained a little on and off during the night, but still it was 27c. Pondered if we'd stay another night, but the wind got up, there were ants here also and the bees that were hovering last night were now on a mission - time to move on. The eastern side of the Eyre Peninsula is mostly bare, rolling hills, sheep and wheat so decided not to go out on every unsealed road to the coast. Dropped in to Arno Bay, a small coastal town with two large Vitera grain silos. Moved on to Cowell a bustling little town (IGA size) with some historic buildings. We passed what is left of the Middleback Range. Iron Ore was first discovered here and BHP/Onsteel have mines all along the range from here up to Iron Knob a town on the Eyre Hwy. Their first mine was Iron Knob, then Iron Monarch then, Iron Princess, Iron Duke, Iron Duchess, Iron Knight, Iron Chiefton, Iron Count, Iron Queen, Iron Baron and Iron Prince. Too bad if you were looking for a mine which had royalty in its name - Iron Knob sounds a lot more Aussie, ha ha. Arrived at Whyalla and as I expected it is a huge industrial town with old steel works. Went to a lookout right in the middle of town with spectactular views. We also saw the thunderstorms rolling in so didn't hang around. It pelted down just as we were leaving, but passed over so we didn't travel in the rain for too long. We arrived at a rest area between Whyalla and Port Augusta, but it was only a truck stop and very near the road so decided to move on and go beyond Port Augusta. Having stayed there two years ago we only fuelled up and kept going as we headed much further than we had planned for the day. Heading towards the foothills of the Flinders Ranges was magic, with the sun on the hills and the thunderstorms which we had side-swiped all along were in the distance. We steadily climbed through Horrocks Pass and at the top of the pass came a sign for a lookout - 7kms of dirt road further up and 5pm, so of course we went up. The trip was worth it, we were sooooo high and there was an overnight stop at the top. The view was absolutely magic, Port Augusta in the sunshine, steam or smoke billowing from a chimney to the right and to the left thunderstorms dropping rain and Spencer Gulf. We decided we wouldn't stay, too windy and I didn't like the odds of coping a thunderstorm on top of a mountain. Pressed on, descended to Wilmington and followed a pretty valley road to the Goyder Line Memorial rest area, much much better than the one we originally saw - views of wheat fields with Mt. Remarkable National Park in the background. Got two heavy rain patches, one with very, very strong winds, then calm. One other van, down another track, so company tonight.
Beautiful sunny morning and expected temp low 30c's. Just relaxed today seeing as we had a beautiful view behind and there was almost no road noise last night. In fact there were more bird noises than vehicles noises so was a nice change (lots of local trucks, but they go home to sleep at night as opposed to the interstaters and road trains 24/7). Saw a few cyclists passing now and then. One of which pulled in and he told us he is one of a large group cycling from Indonesia to Sydney (he was only cycling from Darwin - slacker!). At the same time we met the guy from the other van who is also a cyclist, but he only cycles down to the township to get water. He has been on the road for 10 years with his two dogs for company - he'd be in 70's. Geoff and he talked usual caravan talk, solar power, batteries, fridges, etc. and then we checked out the memorial at this rest area. Turns out Goyder is the surveyor who identified, back in the 1800's, which areas of S.A. were drought-prone and drew a line to assist settlement. Where we are, just east of the Mt. Remarkable ranges is the 'good' area and everything west (including Whyalla and Port Augusta where we were yesterday) is in the drought-prone area. As mentioned yesterday there are some very wide, large Eucalypts and look like River Red Gum and very old. The wheatfields and Mt. Remarkable range national park behind the fields are just lovely with the large Eucalypts in the foreground, just giving us shade late afternoon. One more stop tomorrow night and then we hit Adeliade.
Sunny with impending cloud this morning, but stayed sunny and 34c all day. Headed off, just after John our neighbour on his 10 year trip. Very strong tail wind for half the way today. Fortunately, we had chosen, 2 days ago, to come inland a little through the mountains. Had we not have done that, we would have stayed on the main hwy and had to go through Snowtown. (For those unfamiliar, it was the final site of the 'Bodies in the Barrel' murders). I get shivers just thinking of the name. Anyway on our scenic route we passed numerous small historic towns, some with cycling/walking trails through the nearby forests and along old railway lines and all towns with lovely historic stone buildings. The landscape was mostly wheatfields and harvesting was in full swing. Being able to see the weather online we could see that Adelaide was copping it big time and our destination was just north of it all (and I'm sure there were a few nervous wheat farmers).
Came to the Clare Valley and vineyards and wineries and stopped at Clare, went to the library (Geoff had to know it they had a Broadband for Seniors facility there) and IGA. Clare was very busy, but it was Saturday morning. Lots of stone and grand historic buildings. We moved on through more historic towns, but lots of vineyards and cellar doors, amongst wheatfields. A nice stretch of road, but Margaret River wine region in W.A. is much larger and more scenic, with cellar doors and vineyards starting 30kms away from Margaret River, at least from the west and the vineyards were a foreground to beautiful forests. The Clare Valley is much drier, but perhaps this is good for the wine. We kept checking the weather radar and so far so good but the red and orange storm cells kept coming across Adelaide. We had stopped at a memorial to John Horrocks earlier in the day and got a bit of his story (we had passed through Horrocks Pass through Mt. Remarkable 2 days before) . After we went through Clare we came to another memorial to John Horrocks with another part of the story and then we saw his actual stone house - we were definitely obligated to take a photo of this one.
We stopped briefly for lunch at Rhynie, named by a guy from Aberdeenshire in Scotland, based on a place near Balmoral Castle, but there the similarity ends re temperature and landscape and definitely no royalty here. At the picnic area there was an old wooden building/box about the size of a small toilet cubicle. Turned out it was a very old telephone exchange. It had a PMG metal tag outside and remnant wooden shelving inside. A couple more historic towns and we eventually arrived at Tarlee and the Tarlee Oval. We are the only ones here but are in the right place - Wikicamps told us so. A large oval, but perimeter trees and the most beautiful Peppercorn Tree (for those that don't know I love Peppercorn Trees). As it was 34c we needed shade and after much manoeuvring was able to get under the shade of the Peppercorn tree and some protection from the wind. It was a bit like 'Where's Wally' as the van could hardly be seen under the tree from the entry and playground. Pub across the road and a take-away (Geoff got his potato cakes). Lovely spot, we might stay tomorrow also.
Lovely morning, hazy cloud, but not cold. The last few mornings we have actually heard a lot of birdlife which was refreshing. Didn't do much today except more washing and a walk into town for the best hamburger in town 'voted by the guy you likes hamburgers' - they were nice too. Another lovely old town, stone buildings of the 1800's, including The Institute (now the Post Office), church, pub, an old disused railway which serviced old stone grain store buildings now dominated by the huge, busy Vitera grain silos. A van pulled in during the day and we chatted with Bev and Bruce (from 1770 near Bundaberg) who had taken the same path as us and we compared notes. Our electronic/computer equipment has started to fail us - the GPS cable to the computer doesn't work and I can no longer see where we are, I never thought I'd miss that little arrow (and Geoff is still trying to get the little Bluetooth device as an alternative to work) and the computer no longer reads the photo SD card so we have to go about it the long way via cable to the camera and for a while Geoff couldn't access my computer via wifi and Geoff's Windows Explorer stops unexpectedly - just the normal functions of computing!! Travel planning this afternoon for Adelaide and beyond.
Windy last night, sunny briefly but cooler today. Seems a lot more traffic this morning being Monday, so I guess we were lucky we were here on the week-end. Said good-bye to Bev and Bruce and did the long trek - 79kms into Adelaide. Settled into the caravan park and looked at what was to be seen during our stay.
After doing a little computer work, we had a couple of hours, so headed into the city to the Botantical Gardens. Very nice, quite a few old buildings in there. These gardens have obviously been around for a long time. Magnificant old, large, exotic trees and some natives, some expanses of green lawn and the whole place was like an English garden setting. Walked through the rainforest enclosure but even the auto sprays to keep the humidity up didn't make us homesick for our humidity at home. Wandered into the Santos Museum of Economic Biology. My first thoughts were a mining company trying to sell their feeble rehabilitation efforts, but we were pleasantly surprised. It was the original Museum of Economic Biology - basically all the things you can do with plants and plant parts and seeds - dyes, tans, medicinal, cosmetic, oils, flavours, teas, writing, furniture, implements of all kinds and a lot more. It had papyrus writing paper dating back to 800BC and a mummy shroud going back 1,000BC, dyed with Indigo (and had Indigo in all its natural forms). What was this place in a Botanical Garden? A guy came up and asked if we liked the place, long story short, he was the Curator and we talked for quite a while (we were the only ones there). This was the original museum dating back to 1881 with its magnificant building, ornate ceiling, timber panels, timber and glass showcases etc. There were a few modern exhibits, but most were the original exhibits from that era, which obviously had some very old stuff then. The exhibit tags were written in very flowery script of that century and it was like walking back in time. These exhibits had been in storage for many, many years, but funding was obtained from private companies (sorry I doubted you Santos) and the museum was resurrected. The museum was supposed to be closed today and he (the curator) was working out the back, but a delivery arrived and during that time the public came in the doors and he said he would never turn anyone away - so we were very lucky. We wondered why there was no sign and the door was closed. We ended our conversation down the steps on the path in front of the building talking about the architecture - he was so enthusiastic. Wandered around a little more of the gardens and went to another old building, all glass and wrought iron, a really, really fancy hothouse and also dating back to the 19th century. A good couple of hours and every unexpected.
Only about 22c today. Did some work then headed off to Port Adelaide. Geoff went to the Railway Museum and the Aviation Museum. As I wasn't really interested I did a walk around the old buildings and did some much needed checking of where we go to next. Once Geoff had finished with the museums we drove a little further down the road to the actual port. There are such wonderful old buildings, a lot just raw stone and some rendered. Once again, the fanciest building used to be a bank. Saw some old sailing yachts with huge masts, an old 1864 clipper “City of Adelaide” just about to be restored (don't like their chances it looks like it has been under water for 100 years), old lighthouse and an old pub on every second corner. I think the churches are on all the other corners in Adelaide. There were a few cafes around and many restaurants which would open in the evening. It was lovely just wandering around the small portside streets in the peace and quiet. The old port town reminded me of Fremantle, but a little smaller - and of course there were no crowds and very little traffic. From there we followed the coast road down to Glenelg where Geoff and I (and Mary and Jim) had gone in 1977 when we played netball/basketball at the Aviat sports carnival. Took a photo of the units we had stayed at and then let Google Navgiation navigate us back trying to avoid the city at peak hour (as our GPS is still not working). We are enjoying Adelaide. Will stay an extra night as we still have the Museum and/or Motor Museum to do.
Lovely day today, expected around 23-24c. Walked along the treed walking track along the Torrens River (backs on to the caravan park) and caught the O-Bahn, a bus that runs on tracks and goes very fast and then comes off the tracks near the city and runs like a normal bus. Dropped into the Grand Lodge of the Freemasons as, surprisingly, it said free tours on Thursday, but as this was Wednesday so we felt we would be allowed to go in, so we went just into the great foyer. Geoff's dad was a Freemason but Geoff can't every remember having been into a Lodge before. Went to the S.A. Art Gallery and I saw a couple of Frederick McCubbin paintings (originals of course), a print of one which I have on my wall at home, so I was very pleased, he is my favourit artist. The original of 'The Breakway' by Tom Roberts was also there. I'm not an art expert, but to see an original of prints you are familiar with was nice. Next door was the Museum and we spent quite a bit of time there also. It's not huge, but bigger than the Brisbane Museum and was very interesting. After that we thought we'd better actually walk down the main street of Adelaide, so crossed the road to Rundle Mall and wandered a little. Caught another bus home which dropped us off closer to the caravan park, but went through the suburbs, but that was interesting. It seemed all within 10kms it went from historic stone cottages, to turn of the century terrace houses, to 40's and 50's, 60's and 70's, then modern houses. Compact to say the least. I am enjoying the Daylight Savings, but means late nights without realising it. Adelaide has a lot of charm and culture and many old historic buildings with terrific architectural features.
Finally got on the road after chatting with Neecia and Graham, whom we had a long chat with yesterday also. They are building a house and staying in the van park in the interim. Went to two Woolies to find the 4-seed bread and we were off. Climbed through the hills behind Adelaide which was very windy for the whole 32kms - lovely countryside and many historic towns along the way. Arrived at Birdwood, another lovely historic town and has the National Motor Museum where Geoff spent a couple of hours and really enjoyed it. Many of the buildings in the town are unrendered stone, it was lovely and there are roses in bloom everywhere, green deciduous trees and birds singing on a mid-20c's day. We had intended to go to Mt. Lofty for a lookout view, but it would have meant going almost back into Adelaide, so we kept heading for tonight's stop, via Mt. Barker. The lush green hills, turned into open graving paddocks and closer to our stop there were vineyards and wheatfields. We stopped at Langhorne Creek where we had stayed a couple of years ago, an overnight rest area about 1km from the township. I discovered they had removed the loos and the wind was strong and an extremely strong smell of tar or something nasty. We realised the grape growers were spraying something and we were getting the overspray. At the same time Geoff discovered that there was another stop just down the road so we packed up the van to investigate and sure enough, THIS was the one we stayed at last time - and there were the loos. They were almost identical spots, except this one had no smell and more green grass and more protection from the wind. So all was good.
Sunny morning, was about 30c today, but little wind so was nice. Met Jerry and Bev (long-time off road travellers) and Robyn and Phil (on the road permanently) and chatted for a long time. Geoff participated in a webinar during the day and I did some final planning on our last days on the road before Melbourne. It is so pleasant here and the road noise is negligible during the night. The birds chirp and sing all day, there are vineyards across the road and in the paddocks behind us beyond the large Eucalypts which give us some shade and we have green grass to walk on. Tonight we had a beautiful sunset, the first for some time.
NFP: Cooked a few carrots to get the supplies down, ready for the quarantine check at the border. Gas ran out during the night.
Another sunny morning and expected to really warm up the next couple of days. First stop was the ferry crossing at Wellington, 2nd in line at the ferry terminal with loos on the building right next to the road - how convenient (I guess that's why they call them conveniences). After a short trip across the Murray River, we stopped at Tailem Bend for gas as we had run out during the night, then on through small towns, turned right at Keith and headed south west. It was now 35c and stopped at Winalooka where they were playing cricket - they must have been hot. The loos at the rest area had showers (hot) so we availed ourselves and then moved on with it too hot to stop and watch the cricket. We came back into vineyard territory which continued for miles and miles. Stopped at Naracoorte for a while and then, went to the Naracoorte Caves. World Heritage Listed fossil caves. It was 3pm by the time we arrived, but hoped we'd still get to go in. Turns out the main fossil cave has a tour at 10.30am and that's it - no self-guided tour and we missed out on each of the other caves each of which had a one time tour during the day. The only thing left was the Wonombi Fossil Centre and the Wave Cave so bought tickets. Disappointing as the Fossil Centre was just a display of animated prehistoric animals, in a vegetated setting, with thunder and lightning and growling sounds. It was nice and the kids would love it, but left us both cold. We thought we'd get to see some real fossils. (We actually saw some in the foyer of the info centre which we wouldn't have had to pay for). So off to the cave, it was OK, with thick stalagmites and stalectites, but nothing fancy, it looked just like rock and some simple signage about plants and animals being compressed over millions of years - ho hum, sorry we knew all of that. So if you want to see fossils in caves, you need to get there by 9.30am. Continued on through vineyard country and into the Coonawarra wine region, and on it went. Arrived in Penola and found the site of the first school which St. Mary McKillop and Father Julian Tenison Woods, set up. Then found the next school which they set up, a lovely old stone building, next to the Mary McKillop Memorial School established 1936. For those that don't know, Kristi and Glen went to Penola College in Broadmeadows (which was named after the town Penola) and it is on the site of the St. Joseph's Baby's Home which Mary McKillop set up and in fact the building still stands, so it was interesting going into the town and seeing where it all began. It was now about 4.30pm and knew where we were going, so not too rushed as it was cooler in the car. Another 30kms and we had arrived at Tarpeena Footbal Oval where the township has made available the grounds for overnight camping/caravans. Apparently they don't have a football team now and the locals are happy the facilities are being used - green grass and flush loos in the small park at the front. Luckily the temp came down to about 29c and then cooler into the evening.
A quiet night last night, no football activities (apparently no football team). Headed towards Mt. Gambier 30kms to our south. Wheatfields and vinyards are giving way to Radiata Pine Forests. Stopped briefly at Mt. Gambier, where a 'fun run' had a few streets closed off in the CBD, so headed away from that and didn't go to the Blue Lake. We had spent about 3 days here a couple of years ago, so we had seen a lot of it. Diverted down to the coast towards Port McDonald, low sand dunes and coastal vegetation. Looked like a surf beach but no-one in today, just a few cars on the sand. Made sandwiches for lunch using the last of the greens we had, as the Vic Govt website listed down the things you can't take into Victoria and it has a quarantine check at the border. Moved on to Piccaninnie Ponds Conservation Reserve, a wetland formerly drained in the old days and has been rehabilitated. As it's part of the Limestone Coast, the ponds are a series of ponds on limestone, some of which are very, very deep underwater caves, but the water is crystal clear. You have to be a qualified caving diver to diver there, and no swimming allowed but you can snorkel if you want to cope with the constant 15c temp of the water and you must have a permit. Another track a little further on took us to another part of the coast which is unsuitable for swimming as it is very rough and has lots of rips. Back on to the main road and we stopped at the Victorian border and at the surveyor's mark, but not a sign, nor a quarantine bin, let alone a check point in sight. We didn't have any fruit with us anyway, but I think that is the main issue for in the citrus growing area in northern Victoria. Dropped in to Nelson on the Glenelg River then moved on to Portland with mostly pine forests along the way. Dropped in to Portland, the port foreshore and then on to our stop for the night in the Mt. Clay State Forest at the Sawpit Picnic and Camping area. This area had been burnt out, probably less than a year ago, judging by the black trunks with fresh green re-growth close to the trunks, but seems to be recovering well.
Whilst we didn't hear a peep out of the 15 teenagers, they did start playing their guitar about 1am, but softly. I was already awake due to the 3 other guys, talking and laughing until around 2am. To add insult to injury everyone had fires but didn't know how to manage them - they let them smoulder all night, the smoke from which wafted into our van. We've been lucky as we have had relative overnight peace from neighbours most of our trip (except for the ice-cream van in N.T. and he was such a dear old soul). Seems the locals want to enjoy the few days they have camping, whereas grey nomads are generally of a like mind and the place is usually silent by 9pm. Anyway, it drizzled a little this morning and was cloudy. We packed up, not silently, and headed out. We dropped into see Geoff's cousin Fiona and their under construction house at Port Fairy and Fiona gave us a Cook's Tour of the town and her shop. Port Fairy is a lovely town and reminds us very much of Queenscliff. From there we went to Tower Hill, an old volcano crater (went with Dave and Trish and both lots of kids when they were all young). Drove through Warrnambool main drag, took a shot of the place we all stayed at, skited the town and then back on the hwy. To get a good start tomorrow, we stopped at Hopkins Falls for the night, just a little north-east from Warrnambool. This whole area was subject to volcanic activity, evidence of which can be seen at the falls and in the landscape around. Chased a little Blue Wren (or is it a Blue Robin) in the afternoon for that perfect shot, but they moved and darted around so much, I think I'm lucky to get shots at all. Cloud cleared a little in the afternoon and the temp stayed around 20c (cooler than the mid-20cs predicted for Melbourne and other areas).
Woke to a very light drizzle. Glad to move on as this stop was just a car park (with a large grassed fenced area, bbq and loos). Amongst the 7 backpackers cars last night, was the stationwagon with 3 guys (The Three Amigos) who had talked till 2am the previous night in the forest camp. Last night they had pulled up right next to the van (even though the rest of the car park was empty at that stage (except for Rudolph and Dulcia from Germany and Holland whom Geoff had chatted to earlier in the afternoon). Again these guys chatted and laughed till late literally next to the van (and strummed a guitar), not obnoxious, but totally unaware of 'personal space' (they were European) and being young people totally self-absorbed and only thinking of themselves (to all the nice young people out there- I'm not talking about you). Anyway, not wanting another sleepness night, at 11pm, I said politely that I couldn't sleep with the noise and could they move it away from the van. They all apologised and I thanked them. They did the right thing and moved about 4mtrs away and whilst the sound was not so sharp, I could still hear them but got to sleep with the aid of ear plugs. Mind you, Geoff slept through most of this and I am a light sleeper. There's a reason for telling you this story.
Anyway, back to the travel diary. Headed south towards the Great Ocean Road. Stopped at the Cheeseworld just out of Warrnambool for some cheese tasting and purchase. They had a lovely museum at the back that had something for everyone. Old farm, dairy, butter/cheesmaking equipment, old engines, saddlery, and a huge range of tools and a chonological history of the Warrnambool Butter and Cheese Factory which has been around for 125 years. They also had old typewriters and 3 of the 4 they had there, I had used at work! and a lot of old household items, old copper washers, irons and the list goes on. There was a group of about 6 dear old souls (men) all with walking frames being accompanied by a carer. They were having a ball, their eyes lighting up and giving their own history story when they saw a piece of equipment. She said to one guy, everyone is going in to have an ice-cream, he just sat there and said, no I'd rather they here. He pointed out the old grammaphones to me which and I read out the song title on the record. Of course they all reminded me of Pa.
Moved on and stopped in at most of the sights along the western part of the Great Ocean Road - Childers Cove and a few other little turn-offs, through Peterborough and Port Campbell and all the well-know sights along the way which we had not been to for some 40 years - London Bridge, The Arch, Loch Ard Gorge and the 12 Apostles - all magnificent scenery, BUT OMG, literally thousands of people at Loch Ard Gorge and the 12 Apostles. You no longer turn towards the coast to the 12 Apostles car park. You turn north into a huge carpark with huge kiosk and a helicopter scenic flight station near the end, with people lining up. The car park was nearly full (Tuesday in November!) and 3 helicopters went all day. How do you see the coast? they have tunnelled under the highway and you have to walk about 500mtrs to get to a very controlled pathway where there were so many people it was literally like Bourke st on a Friday night. Tourism Victoria have certainly done a good job. There were 6 tourist buses at Loch Ard Gorge and even more at the 12 Apostles. Anyway, the Gorge was still beautiful and we walked down to the beach, along with all the crowd and went around the corner to the cave where the only two survivors had sheltered when the Loch Ard broke up in th 1800's. No-one there thankfully, they were all just at the beach edge taking photos of people making funny poses (must be the latest fad in Asia). So it was a nice peaceful 5 minutes. Of course the cave is roped off as the cave is unstable (as is the whole coast), but everyone went into it back in the OLD days. We remember walking across the London Bridge in the old days, you could walk anywhere. One section collapsed in 1990 and left some people stranded on the outer bridge and had to be helicoptered out. No chance of that happening now. Roped walkways all the way. I recall there was a cemetery near Loch Ard gorge we had visited all those years ago and sure enough as we left the carpark we saw a sign to it. As I stood there looking at the gravesite of Eva Carmichael's family (she was one of the survivors and lost her parents and 5 siblings) I noticed how much more vegetation there is around, low coastal bushes. 40 years ago there was just bare grasslands, so having become a national park, it has revegetated and certainly needs to have controlled access to cope with today's tourism hordes.
It was getting late and we had seen the scenes, but too late to go into the mountains, so we back-tracked a littled and headed for Lake Elingamite just south of Cobden. The trip was lovely, rolling green hills and relatively windy road, but I was glad we didn't get into the mountains. Arrived at the Lake, the foreshore fenced off, but back from it was a very long stretch of mowed grass and a long row of trees, very nice. At the very end about 100mtrs away was two long rows of Cyprus Pines which provided full shade AND THE THREE AMIGOS!!!! We set up camp those 100mtrs away, saw them with their guitar, but didn't hear anything for the whole afternoon or evening.
Yesterday decided to stay today also. It had been sunny all afternoon and was to be about 28c today. Woke to full cloud cover and drizzle. We MUST be getting closer to Melbourne. It drizzled all day, so it was a good time to catch up on emails with the limited signal we had. The 3 Amigos left and we had the place to ourselves, with just a few locals coming and going, mainly to check out the lake, which is very, very shallow, but being a crater of an old volcano, it could be deep in the middle, but too wet to put in the kayak. Thunder rolled by all day, but we were very lucky we didn't get any heavy rain. Watched a very long movie and then just when it was getting late, the clouds cleared just enough to get a beautiful sunset.
Lovely morning - the one we should have had yesterday, ha ha. Geoff spoke at length to a farmer, who'd come to check out the lake. Time to move on, but it was a lovely spot. The day was warming up and quite humid, especially after the rain yesterday. We stopped at Colac for groceries and gas. Once again the low bottom of our tow bar scrapped as we tried to drive into a drive-way. This time it was the Shell servo. We knew it would bottom out or scrape so we went carefully, but it actually dug into the tarred road so we couldn't go forward and then we couldn't go back - really stuck. Geoff had to get out the jockey wheel and raise the van which was sticking out on to the road. We left a hole in the road and of course I was worried it had somehow pulled out the tow bar from the car. Two guys came over to see if we wanted help, one of them from the servo, so we handed him the gas bottled and he filled it whilst we freed the van. From there we wanted to see Lake Colac from the town end and arrived at beautiful Botanic Gardens. It was very warm and humid and very still, it was just lovely walking amongst the old oaks, etc. and they had a rainforest section, emulating the Otway Ranges. When walking back to the van we met Jimmy siting in his car. He's 78yo and started talking to us. We talked for about 20mins and by the time we left he and Geoff had solved the political problems of the world. He was dear soul and kept telling jokes into between discussing politics. The clouds seems to be gathering and with such unstable weather, we knew someone would be in for a storm. Apparently this area really copped the storm last night that we luckily missed. Arrived at Lake Colac campground just a few kms up the road and settled the van (after a few horitcultural adjustments) under some shade as it was quite hot (was supposed to be around 24c) but the lake was a mirrow finish. Whilst speak to Jenny in the van behind us, the wind sprang up instantly to become almost gale force, it clouded over and the storm clouds and rain got closer, but luckily they were just to the south of us. Again we avoided the bad stuff. Later in the day the wind died down with a few ripples continuing on the lake and it was a lovely evening with a nice sunset. Still can't get used to the daylight savings in Victoria and sunsets at 8pm - late nights creep up on us very quickly. The vans either side of us are both on the road permanently and we are finding that more and more.
Staying today also. Morning was overcast but wasn't too cold last night. Light wind which is a blessing. The day deteriorated and it blew all day. Luckily we had a good internet signal so spent the day preparing for our cemetery search in Ballarat and Bendigo.
Packing up fairly quickly this morning as we could see a lot of rain coming. We headed towards Ballarat (as you do when it starts to get cold elsewhere, ha ha - all Victorians reading this will giggle). It drizzled on and off whilst driving. Arrived at Buninyong Cemetery to see if we could see my Great Great Grandmother Armstrong. Found a couple of graves, but one was in the Weslyn section and one the Presbyterian section, so not sure if they are related. Have put that information into my info pool to be sorted at a later stage. Arrived at the Smythesdale Gardens just south of Ballarat, a huge grassed area with Cyprus and other assorted pines. Took a while to find a level spot, it was still drizzling a little, damp and, of course, colder than Colac. At least it was not windy.
Drizzled all through the night and was still drizzling this morning. The metal detectors club who were camping there also, stoked up their very smouldering, smoky fire once again, so kept the van closed. Not sure what was worse the damp or the smoke. Headed into Ballarat. It was 15c when we left and, would you believe, it went down to 13c as we came into Ballarat (only 16kms further north) - why were we surprised. It was still raining so did not stop at the Botantical Gardens and just drove through the Eureka Stockade complex. Last time we were there (about 30 years ago), it was a very large park and had a small pavilion with a model of the Eureka Stockade and some commentary that you could wander through (when I first visited in the 60's it was just a park and the spot when the stockade was. Today, it is still a beautiful park, the trees have grown more and a gigantic building (Museum of Democracy at Eureka) where you can learn all about the event, but now you have the priviledge of paying $12 to hear the same stuff, but you have a huge, building to learn it in. No indication of the actual spot, but there is a playground in the shape of a stockade over the spot where I remember it being. What's wrong with a simple plaque signifying the actual spot?
Moved on to our nostaliga trip - Princes Street where Dad used to live. We didn't have the street no. and looked at all the houses (we'd also done a google street view search) and compared with a photo of the house. One house almost fit the bill, but not sure. Drove up the street behind that used to have the brick works where Dad would play and help out during the holidays (no health and safety rules in those days), then up to the top of Black Hill overlooking Dad's place. Next stop was the Old Cemetery and found a grave, the information from which I will put into my info pool to see if there is a link. Drove to St. Patrick's Dad's old school then headed for the new Cemetery (post 1875). Two specific graves I was looking for - My Gr Gr Grandfather and Gr Uncle, buried together and my Gr Grandmother and Dad's two siblings (2days old and 2yrs old) buried with her. Had the grave nos. but alas there were no headstones, very disappointing. The wind by this time was blowing strongly and it continued to drizzle. Had some other names, but wasn't sure of the link, so did the rounds. Found one grave, the headstone of which had fallen and cracked so only got the first bit as the rest of the headstone had fallen upside down. Done as much as could be done.
Went back into the city and, after overcoming the inconsistent street numbering, got to the Art Gallery. I saw another Frederick McCubbin and a Tom Roberts so was happy. Quick stop at the supermarket and headed out towards Clunes where we caught up with Christine, Geoff's other half-sister. Christine runs a shetland pony farm and I saw the tiniest pony I've every seen.
Day was spent with Christine exchanging more information and photos and visiting her friends, Margie and Col in the morning, who also have ponies and we had a few laughs and Geoff doing more computer tutoring. It was a bit windy and warmed up during the day to about low 20c's, with temps just a little further south over the ranges, still lower.
Farewelled Christine and went to the Clunes Cemetery and met Margaret, the Secretary of the Cemetery Trust who happened to be there and she later looked up some information and emailed it to us which was much appreciated. Next stop was back to Old Ballarat Cemetery for another search of an additional name we found. All 'cemeteryed out', we headed for Queenscliff via Geelong, dropping in on a fellow Broadband for Seniors Webinar participant for a face to face at Drysdale and then on to Lyn's (my sister).
At Lyn's for 6 days. Weather just holding.
Cloudy this morning. Lyn left to travel to Melbourne earlier in the morning. Packed up, secured the house and travelled back to Geelong, but a round trip via St. Leonards, Indented Head and Port Arlington (to see Geoff's old camping ground), where we could see the clear weather over Port Phillip Bay towards Melbourne. Travelled back through Geelong and stuck to the bay road as far as we could go to avoid the busy city and see Corio Bay - something we haven't done for many years. Back on the Geelong road which, luckily, was an uneventful trip. Stayed on the Geelong Road and stopped in at the Footscray Cemetery to search for our Gr Gr Grandmother's grave. Footscray Cemetery area and grave locations are no where as good as Ballarat, but found the grave and unfortunately no headstone or grave, but dirt, but nice to be standing at her last resting place. It was getting on to 3pm and in a major industrial area so needed to move on as we had to yet get through Melbourne city, so we didn't try to find any of the other graves we had listed. Briefly dropped by to look at Geoff's old work (used to be James Hardie but is now another business - the old buildings have been pulled down and new ones gone up due to the asbestos - little wonder, when Geoff worked there some days the extraction fans were not working and inside the factory was like fog [only it was asbestos] and the guys still worked on - no wonder so many of them died. Luckily Geoff worked in the office, but he still had to go into the factory every day). Cut across to get on to the Westgate Bridge with the thousands of other vehicles, half of them trucks, but the view at the top is stunning. Had a decent run through the city, a bit of stop start further out and arrived at Mary and Jim's just in time for dinner - nothing like lobbing at someone's place just on meal-time. There had been storms all around and in front as we travelled, but they held off or skirted us and we only got about two drops of rain in the evening.
With Mary and Jim for six days.
Visited Dave and Trish and caught up with their children and Grandchildren and the CFA santa. Wednesday we had Geoff's cousin's funeral to go to at Mt. Martha - very sad, but an unexpected opportunity to catch up with rellies we would otherwise not have been able to.
First opportunity in many years for the Greig's to have Christmas 'Lunch' with Marg's family, as Christmas Eve seemed to be a better solution than Christmas Day - thumbs up!
Stayed with Geoff's sister's last night where Christmas Day lunch was held. Another lovely day. Travelled back to Nar Nar Goon in the evening.
Again stayed with Mary and Jim (with Lyn coming up for a few days), jointly celebrating their grandchild's and Kristi's birthdays and having lots of cuppas.
Stopped with Ray and Joh at their property on Lake Eildon and spent time chatting with their friends and rellies and sailing.
Drove across country to Bendigo, passing more dying or dead Cyprus Pines. Apparently they are dying everywhere in Australia and acquaintences we met the last few days had lost all of theirs on their property as have many people they know. At this point there is nothing science is able to do to stop the 'rot', literally. Arrived at the Bendigo public cemetery and just when we were to give up, due to the poor markings of their sections, I found my great grandmother's grave - with a lovely gravestone - the first gravestone we had found of any of our ancestors (my Great grandfather was not listed at all in the Bendigo search). We were not so lucky at the White Hills cemetery (the oldest of the Bendigo cemeteries) when looking for my Great Great Grandfather. Whilst I had the section no. and grave no. the section we needed was not marked at all and there was no cemetery map at the entry - not happy. It was 4.30pm and found out later that there was a map at the Tourist Information centre, 'what-tha?'. Except for the hot weather, it would have been a nice day to wander and look for his grave and also this is where the old Chinese cemetery is, dating back to the gold rush. Drove another 100kms to Moama to Michael and Val's, just across the Murray River from Echuca.
Stayed the full day with Michael and Val catching up.
On the road again - the plan being, if it's really hot (as it always is in NSW in summer) we travel the most direct way home and not stop too long anywhere for the last 2,000kms.
Stopped at Cobram on the Murray (haven't been there before), then on to Yarrawonga (it's been about 30-35years) on Lake Mulwala, across the bridge to Mulwala. Lake Mulwala is a man-made lake with an eerie view across the lake and the skeletons of all the dead trees, still standing, so I guess it's not too deep. Drove around the other side to Kyffin's Reserve and had lunch. Lots of birdlife and might have been a nice place to stop, but too early and too hot. At least we were not on the Newell and on a road we hadn't travelled before. Continued on to Urana (sounded familier) and on arrival beside their lake, we both realised we had been there before in 2011 and had actually stayed in a cabin in the caravan park. Being very hot now, Geoff went for a swim, but I didn't have the energy. Did a small divert into the very historic town and as there was no other way to cross the Murrumbidgee River further north (crossings were more than 50kms apart) we headed for the familiar Newell Hwy at Morundah where there was a nice stop about 1km from hwy noise, beside the fast-flowing Colombo Creek which would be a tributory of the Murrumbidgee. Other than a farmer from Narrandera there with his family and a local Morundah guys with his two children there for a swim in the hot afternoon, we were the only ones there and had a very hot but peaceful night, amongst the River Red Gums, the Galahs, Cockatoos, Kookburras and Apostle birds.
Woke to an omenus northerly wind. Today is expected to be around 39c. but only reached 35c thank goodness. Travelled along the Newell Hwy, passing through the usual towns along the way, including Parkes where, luckily, we beat the start of the 'Elvis' festival by one day. Apparently it is world-renowned now and the town's population explodes over the 4-day festival. Arrived late at the Mendooran Rest Area, a huge grassed and treed area beside the Mary River and next to an historic town. Having been there a few times before we knew there would be plenty of room and it was better to travel slowly, much of which was through forest, in case another kangaroo jumped in front of us. It was still 34c as we unpacked the van at 6.30pm.
It was going to be another hot day which meant longer hours driving to keep cool. Stopped briefly at CoonabaraBRAN (for bread Kristi, ha ha) and a Police roadside breath test - thank goodness Geoff had his licence with him. At Narrabri we followed a sign in town to the Australia Telescope Compact Array (having by-passed the Radio Telescope at Parkes yesterday as we had been there a number of times previously). We thought it would be just down the road, but 25kms later we arrived. It is an array of radio telescopes all lined up on a railway track to allow re-positioning and re-alignment. They had a visitor centre with an audio-visual room and some stunning time-lapse video of the night sky as it moved (actually as the Earth moved). We again tested the satellite dish where you speak into it and a person some 50mtrs away standing facing another dish can hear you speaking. Back on the road we travelled along the Newell Hwy, along with all the Melbourne to Brisbane traffic, including a continuous stream of trucks. Having negotiated road trains for the last 5 months and knowing the right time to slow down once they are out overtaking and when to indicate to them their trailers have cleared our car and getting acknowledgements from them, a few B-Doubles were not intimidating at all. The worst bit was the road surface which is very bad for a major highway. Being still very hot, we decided to head east towards Glen Innes up on the New England plateau where it would be about 26c on arrival and more comfortable. The Gwyder Hwy was a much better road and a very pretty drive. Just before Inverell, Geoff decided we'd go to Copeton Dam some 40kms south. Arrived about 6.30pm, after taking the wrong unsealed road, found the right road and a sand track and a spot overlooking the lake which is only 20% full, so about 1km away, but the view is nice anyway. Only ones here as at 8.15pm and still very warm. We did 491kms today.
Tossed up whether to stay another day but expecting another hot day and only 450kms to go, my mind was focussed on home . Geoff walked down to the water's edge, luckily finding a track to take and found the waters edge was very muddy so did not blow up the kayak. Headed back to Inverell where we fuelled up WITH DRIVEWAY SERVICE! Geoff spent some time at the National Transport Museum. Weather cooled as we got to Glen Innes, a lovely town on the New England tableland and N.E. Hwy, stopped at Tenterfield for lunch under the shade of huge trees, next to a lush green grass and treed park with an old bandstand/gazebo. We had 'done' Tenterfield and it's historic sights in detail previously, so, with my feet itching to get home, moved on. Unceremoniously crossed the border into Queensland (ie missed the sign) and travelled through Warwick and descended Cunningham's Gap, a route we had travelled numerous times, although the descent still turns my nuckles white. Trucks and buses must use low gear, and limited to 40km/h and there are emergency run-offs and an emergency helipad halfway down. Many a truck and bus have crashed or rolled on this stretch of road. (I was more scared of this road than the one we took in the minibus driving up the mountain out of Danang in the rain, although that was uphill). Passed through Aratula, Willowbank (drag racing), Amberly (air force base) on to the Ipswich Motorway, passed where I used to work and lastly Johnson Road, being mindful of kangaroos along this stretch of bushland - they say many accidents happen just near home. Arrived home and opened the car door to …. humidity - Brisbane in summer.