Thurs, 28th to Sun, 1st May - Wanneroo

Another birthday on Thursday ... happy birthday Barb!! We moved on today to Wanneroo which is just north of Perth to a caravan park that we managed to book into earlier.  It is one of the most run down parks we have been to on the whole trip, and the most expensive at $40 per night!  The V8s are on at Barbagallo this weekend and we are only about a 20 minute drive from there, so the parks can charge as much as they like.  Once settled, we drove around and did some sight-seeing, and had a look at Hillary's Boat Harbour. We also drove out to the Barbagallo Race Track to see how difficult it will be to get there on a busy race day and plan the route.


On Friday Rick left fairly early to go out to the V8s, while I washed and had a look at the local shopping centre which was walking distance away.  The first time I've been in shops on my own for ages!  Rick caught up with Warren Luff briefly and a couple of other people he knows while at the track.

On Saturday we both went out to the race track. The traffic going out there flowed freely and we could park quite close to the track which was great.  It was really hot sitting in the grandstand until the sun went behind us and then it got really cold.  The racing was good but it was a long day, so we had an early night to bed.

Neil and Lynne arrived at around 7:30 on Sunday morning and the guys packed some food and drinks and headed to the track.  Lynne and I drove out to the Wanneroo Markets and walked around for a couple of hours.  There were some really interesting things for sale at the markets ... dried pigs and lambs tongues for instance ... pet food (we hoped) ... yuck!  We then watched a DVD until the guys came home from the races.  Their seats were located right on the start/finish line so they had a bird's eye view of the fiery crash on the starting lap.

The view from our seats at Barbagallo

Thurs, 21st to Wed 27th April - Bunbury

We leave the Margaret River area to head towards Bunbury.  On the way, we pass through Busselton, and think it would be a good idea to visit the famous jetty and underwater observatory at the end of it.  No such luck ... it appears that it has only just re-opened after an upgrade and once again because it is school holiday time, all the tours are fully booked.

As we get closer to Bunbury, Neil gives us a call to organise a spot to meet up with us and guide us to our home for the week.  Neil had just started getting his lunch ready so we pull over at a rest area to have our own lunch and to wait for him.  Neil and Lynne arrive and we follow them to his mate's factory where we set up camp.  It is even better than a caravan park.  We are in a secure compound with a remote gate, level site and water and power.

Neil and Lynne took us to the Bunbury lookout then we returned to their home for oysters for dinner .... yum!   We were picked up again on (Good) Friday morning and we drove to Mandurah for a seafood lunch at Ciccerellos.  We then headed inland to Pinjarra to have a look at the house Neil and Lynne are building there.  We meet the new neighbours, Lola and Will and then visit a couple of other friends for drinks before heading back to Bunbury.  Wow ... that was a late night for us!

The next morning Neil picked us up at 6:30am to go fishing.  I don't think any of us really wanted to go after such a late night, but we persevered anyway.  It was foggy and very breezy and Neil only caught one fish, so after about an hour we packed it in.  Later in the afternoon we caught up with some shopping and then headed back to Neil and Lynnes' for dinner.  We had caught a heap of blue swimmer crabs at Streaky Bay so we cooked those up in some curry and coconut cream ... hmmm ... not bad at all.

Sunday was a day of more sight-seeing ... thanks Neil and Lynne!  We drove to Australind for fish and chips and sat by the water to lunch in the wind.  After lunch we headed to Ferguson Valley to visit Gnomesville.  What a funny place!!  It appears that for some reason, at some time, someone placed a gnome there and then the numbers grew ... and grew ... and grew.  It is now quite a tourist attraction.  There are single gnomes, multiple gnomes creating a scene and others that aren't even gnomes at all.  We spent around an hour wandering around, but could have spent much longer if we stopped to read all the funny little messages.  In the evening we had more oysters and Neil cooked some yummy prawn toasts.

On Monday, Rick did the wheel bearings on the van and carried out some general maintenance chores.  Unfortunately, we do have to work sometimes!  On arriving at Neil and Lynne's in the afternoon we heard via email about Garry's health scare. We spent the next few hours trying to find out a bit more information, and it seems that it isn't as serious as we had first thought ... thankfully!

Tuesday is Lynne's birthday.  Neil and Lynne drove us down to Busselton so that we could visit the underwater observatory that was booked out when we drove through last week. We walked the 1.9km long jetty out to the observatory on the end for some excercise instead of riding the small train. Our tickets covered the train ride out and back in again, plus the entry to the underwater observatory.  Even if you just want to walk the jetty or go out fishing it costs $2.50! We decided to have pizza on the way home and by then it was raining quite heavily.

The next day (Wednesday) was my birthday.  We drop our car in for a service (we booked it in a couple of weeks ago) and have to leave it there all day.  Once again, Neil and Lynne drove us around to do some sight-seeing and we have takeaway for dinner again.  Garry's health situation is looking better than at first expected and it appears that he may still be able to go to Las Vegas shortly which is great news.

The view of Bunbury from the lookout

Another spectacular view

Gnomesville and one of it's horror scenes

Tues, 19th to Wed 20th April - Margaret River

We had a bit of a sleep-in and didn't get away until 9am.  It is day 60 of our adventure and today we ticked over 8,500kms.  We drove to Walpole and saw the famous 'Gloucester Tree'.  This tree is around 60 metres high and has pegs nailed into it in a cicular, upward pattern to create a ladder to the top.  At the top is a platform that is used for fire spotting (at least that's what they say is up there)! We saw several people climb the tree and even pass each other climbing half up/down.  There was a lovely Indian lady at the bottom of the tree with two of her daughters, who wanted her to climb a few rungs for a photo.  With the first step up the mother let fly with a loud 'air pooh', much to the embarrassment of her daughters who cried 'Oh ... Mum!'.  The mother had a laugh and the rest of us tried to pretend we hadn't heard a thing. 

We left the tree still chuckling and followed the 800m loop path around the forest in between some of the tallest trees we have ever seen.

Leaving Walpole, we drove on to Alexanders Bridge campground hoping to find a suitable camp spot.  Being school holidays the area is packed with tents and campers and is quite small.  One couple tell us they are about to leave their spot and we can have it if we like, but we decide to keep going and see what else we can find.

We end up driving to the 'Big Valley Campground' which is close to Margaret River.  The campground is located on a farm and has limited facilities, but at least there is plenty of room for us and it gives us a base from which to explore Margaret River.  In the afternoon, we visit the famous Chocolate Factory which was disappointing, the Pickle Factory, the Visitors' Centre and some of the beaches.  The whole Margaret River area is designed to make money and is full of craft shops and cottage industries. 

On Wednesday we decide to drive south to Augusta and explore a couple of camp areas along the way.  We visited the old water wheel that was used to supply water to build the Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse.  We had lunch at the gatehouse of the lighthouse but didn't go in as they wanted $5.00 just to walk the grounds, let alone climb the lighthouse.

We left the lighthouse and visited the Leeuwin Winery.  Luckily we hadn't decided to go there for lunch as they were asking $43 for a dozen oysters natural!  We bought a couple of nice bottles of wine and headed to Eagle Heritage.  Eagle Heritage started its life as a refuge for sick and wounded carnivorous birds.  It was another disappointment as we were charged $17 a head and a lot of the cages were empty and it was all very run down.  We did see some large sea birds and an eagle.  We have learned today that the reason almost all the town names in WA end in 'up' is because it means 'the place of'. We have all but given up pronouncing a lot of the names over here.

The Gloucester Tree with its ladder

Our Big Valley Farm campsite and one of the beautiful sunsets

Mon, 18th April - Shannon National Park

We rose early this morning and drive into Denmark which has an award winning Bakery. Lynne and Neil had mentioned the Bakery to us, so we figured it would be a good place to get some morning tea.  We quickly find though, that Denmark is not an 'RV Friendly Town'.  It is very difficult to find somewhere to park our big rig, so Rick drops me outside the Bakery and drives around the block.  The cakes in the display cabinet were all beautiful and it was hard to decide on just one item ... perhaps it was a good thing that Rick would be driving around waiting for me otherwise I might have spent a bit longer in there, haha.

We drive on to a place called Parry's Beach.  Once again it is busy and the spots are quite tight to get into ... also there is a dead snake hanging in a bush that a fellow traveller has only just hit with a shovel, so we decide to keep moving.  

We continue on to Walpole and the Tree Top Walk.  Lynne had assured me that it was quite safe and if she could do it, I could do it.  It is very high and a bit unnverving but worth the effort.  This area reminds us a bit of home and the rainforest on the South Coast.  The trees around this area are even taller though.

We continue on to a rest area for lunch and then head to Shannon National Park to camp for the night.  The camp sites here are well appointed with BBQs and wood provided as well as picnic tables and level areas for vans.  The toilets are clean and there is a donkey for heating the water in the showers. 

We  get settled and then go for a 2.5km walk around the National Park before preparing some oysters on the BBQ for dinner. This is one of the nicest camp sites we have had so far and only cost us $12 to camp for the night. 

Tree Top walk

Tree Hugger

Our Shannon Park campsite

Thurs, 14th to Mon, 18th April - Albany

Thursday is a very important day ... Mikayla's 13th birthday, so we make sure that we ring her as early as possible.  We are 2 hours behind NSW so we don't want her to think we have forgotten her.   

We leave Bremer Bay and drive towards Albany stopping into a couple of free camps along the way.  The sites are not really suitable for us and one in particular was tight enough to make it very difficult to turn around with the van on the back.  Fortunately, 'The Wrecker' was able to back into another area and get us out of there.  We continued on to Albany which is a very pretty place with lots of lovely beaches again.  We checked into a caravan park again and then drove out to several free camps further out of town to see what they are like. Because it is close to school holidays and Easter, these areas are very busy and we're not finding enough room for our big rig.  

We really splurged and went to a restaurant at the beach for dinner.  I thoroughly enjoyed my seafood chowder as we have been having so much roasted and BBQ'd meat since we have been travelling.

On Friday we had a huge walk around the beach and explored the vicinity of the caravan park.  Later we drove out to the old Whaling Station on Cheynes Beach.  The Station hasn't been in operation since around 1978.  Neil and Lynne both recall driving out there one day just as a whale was being hauled onto the cutting deck. 

The Cheynes IV is a whale chaser now in dry dock that can be explored all over.  It really gives an insight into how tough the whalers had to be, to live in such tight and uncomfortable quarters for long stretches of time and during some really rough weather. It was quite scarey at times too, to climb the ladders to the different areas.  At the rear of the Whaling Station, a small zoo is in the process of being set up.  Here we were able to get really close to a Koala and give him a pat while he slept in the sun.

On leaving the Whaling Station, we drove around to some really spectacular beaches.  One was called Salmon Holes, where we could see a number of young people fishing from the rocks in the distance.

Another beautiful spot we visited in the afternoon was the Gap and The Bridge and Cable Beach. 

Saturday was a lovely day again ... 31 degrees.  We decided to go to Albany's Farmers' Market, however we were very disappointed.  The only thing we had wanted to buy was some free range eggs and they were totally out of stock!  We ended up visiting K-mart and Coles instead.  We also strolled the main street and had coffee while watching the world go by.

After coffee we headed over to the old brigg, Amity.  We had fun exploring this old ship for quite a while, though some of the ladders to the hold were a bit rickety.  We moved on then to the Old Gaol and visitors' centre before heading home for lunch and for Rick to watch the car races.

Sunday wasn't such a nice day ... cool and rainy.  This time we went to the Boatshed Markets and were just as disappointed in this market as we were yesterday.

Neil contacted us and asked us to pick up 10 dozen oysters for him, so we organised those, and then drove out to Nanarup Beach.  The oysters were ready to be picked up at 11:45am so we returned to the marina area and then had salt and pepper squid at the 'Squid Shack' ... hmmm ... very nice indeed!

We have decided we will leave Albany tomorrow so Rick fuels up the 'truck' in readiness.

Overlooking Bremer Bay

This one could have swallowed Rick whole!

The Cheynes IV Whaling Vessel

Salmon Holes

The Brigg 'Amity'

Tues, 12th to Wed, 13th April - Bremer Bay

How unusual ... it is blowing a gale again today!  At least the washing has dried over night and our little fold-up clothes line stayed upright.  We got going again at around 10:15am and drove to Jerramungup - why does every place in WA end in 'up'!!??  We had a nice lunch here before driving on to Bremer Bay.  We booked in for two nights at a shady and sheltered park on the river and spent our afternoon of arrival driving around to get our bearings.  We finally have internet access again and 'The Wrecker' has decided to cook roast pork for dinner ... yum!

The rain stayed around all night and continued into the next morning.  We did some more washing (where does it all come from?) and Rick spent a bit of time cleaning the outside of the van.  While doing that, he found a smallish crack in the cladding just above the bedroom window.  We'll email Noel at Roadstar and see what he suggests we do.  In the meantime, Rick has put some silicone on it to stop water getting in.  The rain settled down a bit so we drove around and looked at some more sights.
 

Our nice, grassy spot in the park

Stunning scenery around Bremer Bay

Mon, 11th April - Hopetoun

Raining once again, we left Cape Le Grand to head back into Esperance.  We needed to shop for supplies before continuing on to Hopetoun further along the coast.  

We soon discover that there isn't much at Hopetoun, and it is too unpleasant to fish on the jetty, so we just catch up with the washing and talk to our neighbours in the park.  The park is quite new and only has a demountable building as an amenities block.  There is only one washing machine and one dryer, so we make use of our own in the van. 

We heard today that Neil and Lynne can't meet us at Albany as planned, as Neil has an appointment on Friday.  This is a disappointment, but can't be helped.  We have now travelled 7,000kms on our adventure.

Wed, 6th to Sun, 10th April - Cape Le Grand

We left Esperance early and headed 50kms to Cape Le Grand which has a small camping area in a National Park. On the way we ticked over 6,000kms of our trip.  It was lucky that we arrived early (9:30am) as we had a choice of three secluded sites. There are only 15 sites altogether and it is a case of 'first in, best dressed'.  After walking the entire area we decided that site one was the best and set ourselves up.  It was closest to the beach and very sheltered. The facilities in the camp are a great ... solar showers, flushing toilets, camp kitchen complete with BBQs and 4 huge gas burners and sinks ... very civilised!  All this cost $6 each per night.  The only catch is that you can only stay for a max of 28 days.  We were greeted by a very large lizard who wandered around our site as though he owned it!


The day warmed up beautifully to around 36 degrees and stayed calm.  Rick even went swimming twice during the day as the water was warm and clean.  The sand is so white that when the sun shines the water is a beautiful aqua colour.  You can actually drive almost all the way back to Esperance along the beach, providing you take care of what the tide is doing.

On Thursday we woke to a rather gloomy day so we decided to drive to another camping area not far away called Lucky Bay just to have a look.  As we drove out of our site there was a German couple trying to hitch a ride back into Esperance.  We had seen the couple the day before on the beach.  We  picked them up and as we weren't going to Esperance, we drove them out to the turnoff.  It seems they are hiking around the country and had spent the previous night sleeping rough on the beach.  They said they arrived in Perth a month ago and have 3-4 months left in our country.  After bidding them goodbye, we visited another beach called Hellfire and walked to it's smaller brother, Little Hellfire before the rain started.  When the rain settled in, we headed back to camp and played games.  Unfortunately, we had no mobile phone therefore no internet connection either.

Friday was cool again and blowing a gale with the odd shower of rain, so we did some more driving around and sight seeing.  Saturday was still cool but a bit better weather.  We drove to the Duke of Orleans Caravan Park, approximately 50kms away.  We saw some more beautiful scenery and then stopped at a little place called Condingup.  There is a tavern there, so we decided to have some lunch.  The food was lovely and a young lady there explained that the tavern had been in her family since 1968.

Sunday was another cool and later on, windy day.  We walked approximately 4kms return along the beach.  We also climbed almost to the top of Mt Le Grand overlooking our camp area. Believe it or not Johnno, 'The Wrecker' actually drove a few kilometres along the beach.

 

Looking down on our site ... first one on the left of picture

Our resident lizard

This beach is only a minute's walk from our campsite

Hellfire Beach

Driving on the beach

Tues, 5th April - Esperance

We made many phone calls, texts and emails organising and booking tickets for two to go to the V8s at Barbagallo at the end of the month. We contacted Neil and Lynne to see if Neil would like to go as well.  We were able to book a van park not far from the track for a few nights.  Neil and Rick will go on race day and I will go with Rick on the Saturday.  We also spent a good couple of hours on the phone and internet trying to book accommodation in Bunbury towards the end of the month.  It is school holidays and Easter time, so there was nothing available anywhere.  Fortunately for us, Neil knows someone who has a factory where we can park the van over Easter.  Thanks Neil!

In the afternoon we went to Mermaid Leather ... very interesting.  Fish leather ends up being 7 times stronger than cow leather and is really attractive once coloured and made into items such as handbags and pens.

In the evening we went out to a Chinese restaurant with Tony and Sue Lawson and Sue's parents, Bruce and Judy.  The first restaurant we went to was closed ... wherever we go things are closed!! The second one was OK so we had an enjoyable dinner and early night

Beautiful views around Esperence

Mon, 4th April - Esperance

The weather was lovely and we drove the 'Great Ocean Drive' which is roughly 40kms of beautiful scenery along the beaches in and around Esperance.  We have never seen such beautiful beaches with white, white sand and turquoise water.  There is a long jetty in the heart of Esperance so we walked the length of it, talking to all the hopeful 'fisher-people'. There were thousands of garfish to be seen and caught, but they were all pretty small.  One lady caught a nice size flathead, but no-one was getting onto any squid. If we were going to fish, we figured we had better get ourselves a WA fishing licence.  When we investigated, we found that provided we are not in a boat, a licence to fish isn't required.  Great!

There is a resident seal under the jetty called 'Sammy'.  He swims around very close to the shore just under the fish cleaning table ... I think he appears when he hears footsteps just in case he might get a fish carcass or two.  We had a tasty lunch at the Taylor Street Jetty restaurant sitting on the deck and near the marina.  We drove out to a glass craft shop but found it is closed on a Monday.  I also wanted to go to Mermaid Leather (where leather is made from fish skins) but it only opens on Tuesdays from 2pm - 5pm. Rick booked tickets to the V8s at Barbagallo at the end of April and we've also booked into a caravan park near Wanneroo then.

The Great Ocean Drive

'Sammy' waiting for a tasty morsel

Sun, 3rd April - Coolgardie

We decided to leave Kalgoorlie behind as there is nothing open on Sundays.  If we stayed, we wouldn't have had much to do.   We drove to Coolgardie via a slightly different route than when we went to Kalgoorlie.  There isn't much in the quaint little town, but the museum in the old courthouse in the main street was open.  We ended up spending around 2 hours in the museum as it was so interesting.


We drove around the streets and went out to a lookout over the town before heading off for Esperance.  On arrival at Esperance, we checked into the van park on the waterfront and went out to do some grocery shopping.  Once again at the shopping centre, we bumped into Tony and Sue Lawson (we saw them first at Streaky Bay).  They (and Sue's parents) had been camped at Duke of Orleans Caravan Park around 90kms out of Esperance, but were now checking into the same park as us for a few days.

Main street of Coolgardie

Sat, 2nd April - Kalgoorlie

We rose early again (I think our bodies were still on NSW time) and drove on to Kalgoorlie, arriving at around 10am.  We were able to check into our caravan park early which gave us the afternoon to have a look around.  We drove to the Super Pit (gold mine) and were blown away by the size of the hole in the ground.  

We walked for a long time looking for somewhere suitable to have lunch and settled on a small take-away shop.  It appears that there is not much open on weekends in Kalgoorlie.

Later in the afternoon we went to Questa Casa brothel to do the tour of the oldest continuously operating brothel in the country.  Here 'The Wrecker' spent $36.00 (senior's discount x 2) and we had a bit over an hour in the brothel.  He thought that was good value!!  The girls still stand in the open pink doorways advertising their wares.  After dinner we drove back up to the super pit to see it working under lights.On returning to the caravan park we saw one young lady talking to a fellow in her doorway.There are currently three brothels operating on Hay Street.

We can't get over how much rubbish is on the sides of the roads wherever you go around any of the mining areas.  It is so filthy!

Kalgoorlie 'Super Pit'

One of the fantasy rooms

The oldest 'still operating' brothel in Australia

Fri 1st April - Mount Thirsty

We rose at 6am (Perth time ... or at least we thought it was Perth time) to an overcast day.  After a pleasant but long day's drive, we arrived at Norseman.  We decided along the way that we would head down to Esperance, but make a detour beforehand to Kalgoorlie as we were so close.  It would require a bit of back-tracking, but we have plenty of time.

We stopped at Norseman long enough to get some groceries and drove a further 20kms north towards Kalgoorlie to a free camp called Mt Thirsty.  There were several other campers at the site and we all shared it with some pretty vicious March flies.  We were parked very close to the main rail line between Norseman and Kalgoorlie, but fortunately only heard two trains during the night.

Campsite at Mt Thirsty

Thurs, 31st March - Great Aust Bight

We decided to leave Fowlers Bay and continue on our journey west.  The Great Australian Bight is beautiful in it's ruggedness. 'The Wrecker' has only been as far as Streaky Bay before so from here on the journey was all new to him.  We called in to 'The Head of the Bight', paid our $5 and walked the boardwalks to see some of the spectacular cliffs.  We found further along the road we could have seen similar sights for nothing!

Apparently until July last year, two friends (ladies in their 50s) who had both lost husbands to cancer, ran the 'Head of the Bight' centre.  They drove out one night on their way to lock the entrance gates and didn't quite make it.  They had a car crash and weren't found until the next morning ... very sad!

Rick spoke to some people who were towing a speedway car to Kalgoorlie on their son's behalf.  There was going to be a meeting at Kalgoorlie the following Saturday night.  The parents tow the car (they had just come from a meeting in Mildura) and the son flies in to race it ... what dedicated parents!

We were very careful to have blanched all our fresh veges yesterday, as we knew that they would not be allowed into WA. We had some duck breasts defrosted for dinner and were going to cook them in honey and soy sauce, but when we got to Border Village, they took our honey from us.  We had no idea until then that honey was a problem.

Fuel prices vary so much on the Nullarbor ... $1.59 at Nundroo, $1.87 at Eucla and $2.04 at Nullarbor.  We spent the night at a pleasant free camp spot about 40kms east of Madura at a place called Moodini Bluff.

  

More beautiful scenery

Wed, 30th March - Fowlers Bay

We've been away from home for 40 days now and enjoyed every one of them!  It's time though, to leave Streaky Bay and we finally came to the decision to keep heading west.  We were in two minds to head back to Pt Augusta and then north from there, but the West won.

We left Streaky on a beautiful day weather-wise, and enjoyed the drive until we got to the Fowlers Bay turn-off.  The road was very rough and rutted so we pottered along very slowly as our van is not an 'off-roader'.  By the time we got to the Park it was blowing a gale and not pleasant at all.  Fortunately, once inside the Park we were sheltered and it wasn't so bad.  We were advised that the Park's water comes from within the sand dunes nearby, and that there is a limited supply, so we decided to use our tank water.  The dunes around the area are spectacular and we could see some people tabogganing down the slopes in the distance.  We were asked to only use one electrical appliance at a time too, as the power is all supplied via generator.

Once settled, we went for a walk and spoke to one of the other campers.  He advised that you could get heaps of King George Whiting from the jetty and the odd squid.  We decided to grab our rods and head out to see what we could get.  The wind was howling and quite cold so it wasn't long before we packed it in.  We weren't going to have fish for dinner after all! 

Other 'fishers' on the jetty reckoned they hadn't been catching anything, so which one should we believe?

Sand dunes behind the buildings

Sand dunes around Fowlers Bay