21st October 2013 We are home

We finally arrived home last night after spending an extra couple of days avoiding bush fires in NSW. Having free camped basically since leaving Kalgoorlie we were down on computer battery power and conserved it to keep track of road conditions.
As we get ourselves organised (unpacking and cleaning), I will try and upload some photos and bring the blog up to-date.

Kalgoorlie 9th Oct 2013

We have arrived in Kalgoorlie on our way home, stepping out of aircon after several hours driving the blast of hot dry air made us both do a double take, although as it turned out it was only 38C!! Nancy doesn’t like ‘hot dry’ and prefers humidity. Not me, I hate the humidity and find the ‘hot dry’ quite tolerable especially with the blast of wind accompanying it.

Our last blog post was at Coral Bay where we really enjoyed our stay, made particularly so by having Lisa join us.

With Lisa’s departure we commenced our trip south on our homeward journey, stopping only for fuel and water at Carnarvon we free camped at a couple of spots and one small caravan park en-route to Geraldton where we were booked in for a car service and some wiring changes to the caravan fridge (yes we have finally got it sorted out, never been right from new).

Fortunately about two thirds of the way down to Geraldton the boring roadside scenery changes from an uninteresting wall of scrub into rolling hill pastures and grain country and so driving becomes more interesting and the kilometres pass a lot quicker.

We left Geraldton in peak hour traffic (apparently), and drove south for a couple of hours until darkness overtook us. By GPS we found a free camp spot on the coast and set up for the night comfortable in the knowledge a couple more vans were parked 50 metres or so away. In the dark we could see the lights of an oil rig platform out to sea and the distant glow of lights in the sky from townships not so far away.

Morning came with the threat of rain and while preparing to journey on we discovered our neighbours for the night were from Brisbane and had purchased their van (different brand) from the same people as us. It’s amazing the number of people we have met that have sold up their homes and are just travelling. No base? Not for this little black duck.

The Coastal Ocean Drive, once stopping at Jurien Bay now goes basically all the way to Perth which makes for a pleasant trip down this part of the West Coast. Visiting coastal villages, enjoying great views of the ocean, rugged coastline and white, white sand dunes. Often we were amazed to see great dunal sand blows popping up several kilometres inland, so white they looked remarkably like snow fields glistening in the now blue sunny sky.

One more night on the road and we eventually checked into a caravan park on the outskirts of Perth for a couple of days. Originally we hadn’t intended stopping at Perth on our way home as the intention is to spend a substantial amount of time there next year on our return. At Nancy’s suggestion and Lisa’s recommendation having been to the park, we decided (Nancy) to spend at least a day in Kings Park Botanical Gardens while the wild flowers were in season. This turned out to be quite sensational (I’m glad I suggested it) we spent a couple of hours there on Saturday until we got drowned and then tried again Sunday morning in glorious weather. As Kings Park is quite a high hill you have a great view over the city and particularly the CBD area that it overlooks , what a beautiful city. We are certainly looking forward to spending a lot more time in Perth later.

Monday saw us on the road again heading east towards Kalgoorlie, back country roads were the call in preference to a highway and this took us out through the old town of York, the first established inland town in WA. Quaint old buildings and shops with original facades, unfortunately 90% of the interesting places were closed Monday to Wednesday, obviously open all weekend to cater for weekend tourists probably from Perth. Nancy discovered the ‘Original Country Butcher’, so we bought enough meat to last until the next trip over here. We enjoyed the drive through this part of the world, beautiful grazing and grain growing areas. Lush looking country and of course we were seeing at its best, Perth having had its fair share of rain of late.

Eventually we joined the Great Eastern Highway on our journey eastwards and spent a night camped off road about half way to Kalgoorlie.

Both Nancy and I were quite amazed at the countryside on this drive the bulk of the way is through grain growing country and although the farmers here carry out broad acre farming they haven’t turned the countryside into a barren desert devoid of anything but grain. Instead they have left spasmodic copse of trees here and there and broken tree lines, working around them instead of destroying them and creating soil erosion and thereby creating a whole different scene.

The last few hundred kilometres to Kalgoorlie passes through natural scrub very much like coastal dunes the soil is a creamy yellow sandy material similar to the sandy soil in the famous Kalbarri National Park area further up the coast and this is hundreds of kilometres inland. Roadside wild flowers and flowering shrubs were spectacular with shrubs we had studied closely in Kings Park growing wild in profusion along the highway. For a major highway across the state though, the great Eastern Highway leaves a bit to be desired and although sealed and wide enough the surface is very rough, bad enough in a 4WD I would hate to be driving a truck on it all day. Reminiscent of the Bruce Highway up north between Townsville and Cairns.

During the night a cold front came through and cooled things down to a nice temp. Today we have a few things to see and do including, a conducted tour through the grand old town hall, a sight see through the CBD a visit to some old mine workings and although we were unable to do a mine tour of the ‘Super Pit’ due to school holidays, we were able to spend some time viewing the super pit operations from a designated look out. What an unbelievable sight and more on that later.

From the top of the mine lookout hill we could see a storm building up in the distance so we decided to head back to the van and close things down. While Nancy shut windows and hatches I re-stowed the awning and at the same time thinking I was being a bit paranoid as there wasn’t a bit of wind or cloud in the sky. Half an hour later back in town we were amazed to be confronted by a huge dust storm and howling wind and within minutes the temperature had dropped to single figures and eventually started to rain – hell it was it was cold.

          

Coral Bay in-spite of the wind definitely not over-rated - beautiful place

Spangled Emperor fish feeding 3:30pm daily

Lisa

Nancy better be getting dinner ready

Coral Bay

25^th Sept 2013

During the three days we were at Carnarvon there was a chilly wind blowing so we decided it prudent to stay within the confines of our caravan as Nancy had become quite chesty, not like Marilyn Monroe more like Louis Armstrong. The main thing was not to let it develop into asthma.

Monday morning I was eager to get away early and managed to get us mobile by 0830. There’s not a lot at Coral Bay and what is there is as dear as poison so Nancy wanted to buy up half of Carnarvon before we left, unfortunately the first venue we pulled up at didn’t open until 0900. Eventually we got under way about 1000am, cloudy and windy but at least it was warm in the car and gradually as the heat increased the cloud burned off and it turned into a nice day.

Our run up to Coral Bay was uneventful and although only just over a three hour drive with the van, it’s a boring drive right until you enter the village of Coral Bay. Coral Bay, for those that haven’t been there, has two caravan parks a pub come motel a very small shopping complex that is full of dive and tour booking offices a bakery where you can buy coffee, very small supermarket (corner store size), the obligatory souvenir knickknack shop and post office. Alongside this is a huge and modern backpackers accommodation that is by far the largest single building in town. Apart from that there isn’t much more in the way of commercial establishments, other than a small snack bar at the entrance to the caravan park where we are set up. All packed in like sardines and lots more expected by the end of the week with the start of school holidays here (heaven forbid). There isn’t any TV coverage at Coral Bay, we do have good Telstra reception so at least we can get on the web. Water is a premium here with bore water that is very salty used in the showers and toilets and there are several taps around the place where you can draw fresh rain water for drinking purposes. We fill a few jugs for that purpose and cart hot bore water for washing up etc. You don’t hook up to the bore water or it would corrode everything.

At 0600 Tuesday we made the run through to Learmonth airport (Exmouth) 122kls to the north. Lisa’s Qantas jet was right ontime at 0720 with her on board and a mob of fly in fly out off shore oilrig workers. Lisa then had to wait until 0800 for a teleconference call that lasted until just before 9:00am. In the meantime watching the comings and goings of the FIFO rig workers changing shifts by huge helicopters intrigued Nancy and me. One chap we learned actually comes all the way from Belgium 2 weeks on 2 weeks off, must be good money to make that worthwhile.

The weather at Coral Bay has been blue skies and sunny but blowing hard all the time, the bay looks beautiful in the sun with its white coral sand bottom and crystal clear water reflecting the blue sky, really picture post card stuff. Lisa and I have managed a snorkel, she had a wet suit and I shivered with the cold water so I didn’t stay in very long, Nancy wasn’t game to get in the water with her ‘Louis Armstrong’ chest, there’s no hospitals here. This morning we all did a two hour beach walk before breakfast which gave us a good appetite, I listened to Lisa trying to get Nancy out of bed at 6.00am. “You go ahead, I’ll catch you up”, ‘yea right’. She gave up and eventually enjoyed the walk. Lisa has done a lot of reading and sleeping and that’s what she needed, all ready after just a couple of days she says she is feeling quite relaxed.

   

Sept 20th 2013 alive and kicking.

20th Sept 2013

Yes we are still alive, to start with with we spent a lot of time in areas without internet coverage then when we did have some I discovered we had run out of Big Pond credits due to watching TV on the computer.

We have just pulled into Carnarvon for a couple of days on our way to Coral Bay so here's our up-date.

14^th Sept 2013

Currently we are camped at Ellendale Pool a picnic area next to a freshwater pool in a pleasant nature reserve, that also has room for a few caravans to park. Facilities here include a couple of clean flushing toilets; several gas BBQ’s with shelters and a small children playground. In all a pleasant and peaceful venue for $5 per night if you stay and I believe a max of seven nights.

Unfortunately it is blowing a gale and in between glimpses of weak sunshine it buckets down with rain.

We are about 50 kls south east of Geraldton where we are due in to the caravan repair centre Monday to have a look at our troublesome fridge. You wouldn’t believe it a few weeks ago it wouldn’t work on gas, now it won’t work on electricity and it’s acting almost like a freezer on gas.

Since my last written post on the 31^st August we travelled from Geraldton north east through beautiful rolling hills of lush pastures and healthy wheat fields to a country village called Yuna. Wild flowers abundant we stopped numerous times for photo shoots observing black faced sheep with young lambs on shaky legs staggering drunkenly around them. The black-faced variety of sheep appears popular in this area and looks quite different to the iconic Merino we all know so well.

Passing through Yuna we changed direction southeast to the town of Mullewa normally well known for its wild flower displays. We visited the information centre for the latest wildflower report only to be told that it was a very poor season due to the lack of rain in June but were advised by the young lass behind the counter to take a particular wildflower reserve walk, which we did, all 3.5 kilometres of it. Not one flipping flower thank goodness we were glad of a bit of exercise.

As we were leaving the township that troublesome wheel hub collapsed again, thank goodness I was crawling along and stopped before it did too much damage. So we set up camp in the local shire caravan park, that turned out to be first class and only $21 per night on power. Over the next couple of days in between showers and freezing wind I changed the brake drum, bearings and seal and sent photos of the problem to the van builder in Caboolture Qld. Fortunately I had purchased a spare hub and bearings as insurance when we were in Geraldton. I am now of the conclusion that the stub axle of this particular hub has either been machined concentric or more to the point it is slightly bent, either way it is a pain in the butt and I can’t get anything done about it until we get back to Qld.

We extended our stay at Mullewa and spent one day driving the district looking at wild flowers and another day went back to Geraldton (100kls) to picked up another spare hub and bearings, at least we have some peace of mind we can get out of trouble when it fails again. From Mullewa we travelled south through rich grain and grazing country checking out wild flowers and shrubs as we went, stopping for the night at another shire caravan park at Perenjorri. The whole purpose of using a caravan park instead of free camping was to be able to watch the election on TV. After establishing camp and hooking everything up, to our dismay (Nancy’s) there was no TV reception whatsoever. Fortunately we discovered we had Telstra coverage with the phones and that meant internet so we watched the election results unfold on the ABC’s live streaming on the computer, good old Aunty.

From Perenjorri we criss-crossed the countryside admiring the scenery and wildflowers alike and followed this pattern over the next few days stopping each night at shire caravan parks of varying standards and price range, all very acceptable and reasonably priced though.

We spent a day and a night at a town called New Corcia this is a totally monastic town established by Spanish monks circa 1846 a two hour conducted tour through this town was extremely interesting and well worth the few dollars we spent. That night we camped for $7 in a paddock with numerous other travellers, no facilities, just somewhere to park during the night it bucketed down I was sure we would end up floating out of the place.

At this stage we were only 65 kilometres north of Perth but had no desire to venture into a city so started our return journey north to Coral Bay to eventually meet up with Lisa on the 24^th Sept.

Driving north through heavy showers and head winds we eventually arrived at Western Flora Caravan Park 22kls north of Eneabba on the Brand Highway. This is a nature sanctuary on 160 acres of land established by the current owners Allan and Lorraine Tinker who purchased the land several years ago when it was cleared farmland and then allowed the place to return to its natural state. Although a considerable distance from the ocean this area was once a seabed and consequently the soil is extremely sandy similar to what you would find travelling across our sand islands like Fraser, Moreton or Stradbroke for example. As a result of this there is a large variety of wildflowers and shrubs endemic to sandplains.

Allan and Lorraine built a pleasant caravan park and homestead out of adobe brick, they carry out botanical research, seed collection, nature walking tours and tag along 4wd tours on the property. We joined the two hour guided information tour led by owner Allan, and were surprised at how interesting and informative it turned out to be. Allan’s knowledge of plants was just astounding as he described and showed us how plants adapt to reproduce and survive by using various means. At the end of the walking tour he took us into a room where on a projector screen he showed us various wildflowers collected on the tour and magnified under a microscope to be able to see up close what he had been talking about, it was quite mind blowing and not the least bit boring, we both thoroughly enjoyed it.

Friday 13^th we continued our journey north looking at various small towns on the way and ended up at Ellendale Pool. No TV no phone coverage but nice and peaceful.

Last Christmas Lisa gave me a complete box set of ABC DVD’s of the series Spooks (British security MI5), 7 packs in all with several discs in each pack and each disc containing multiple episodes. So when we are in areas without TV coverage, each night we watch a couple of episodes.

A couple of days in Geraldton doing the necessaries, shopping, haircut, washing and water top up and then we start heading north to eventually get to Coral Bay where Lisa will join us for a week.

Once again the weather was inclement cold, wet and windy so Nancy did a good job getting her washing dry. I managed to swap several books at the caravan park, that should keep me quiet for a while. Just lately I’ve read a few, couple by Wilbur Smith a Dan Brown and a John Grisham and I’m just starting Tom Clancy’s “Executive Orders” supposed to be a number 1 best seller and it looks bigger than “War and Peace”.

         

Wild flowers from the central wheat belt

Wreath flowers this is how they grow each year the outer ring gets bigger

Wild Flowers through the central wheat belt