Hi again,  It is hard to believe another two weeks has passed since my last post and we will be home in another 9 weeks.  The time is certainly going fast.  A few snippets from the past couple of weeks. The town of Cowaramup which is only about 2k from our caravan park in Margaret River certainly trades on its name.  There are pretend cows in front of most stores, in the park basically everywhere.  I felt sorry for the ones outside the butcher shop!

Of course you can’t visit Margaret River without a visit to one of the wineries and having lunch.  A taste plate for Tony

Then onto Albany via Walpole where we found a nice tree walk to stretch our legs.  Our couple of days in Albany were spent driving around taking in the scenery and a visit to Whaleworld – we didn’t go in because we would have had to wait an hour for next tour but here you can take yourself back 30 yrs and board the last whaling boat used by Australia. After our Albany stay it was back in the car and a 340k drive to Wave Rock passing many salt lakes.  Settled into the park which is a very short walk to the large granite outcrop known as Wave Rock and then did a 3.6k walk up and over the rock. The rock is used as a catchment area for the local water supply so there is a wall built on the rock channeling the water into a dam. Then another 1k walk and home for the night.

After a lot more walking the following day we headed south via Esperance and then up to Norseman to start our Nullarbor journey.  We free camped for 4 nights on our way to Ceduna.  Free camping is certainly a much more relaxed way to go, nice starry nights, camp fires, crisp clear mornings, no-one parked just next door – the list goes on.  The downside of course is if no-one else is there you don’t sleep as soundly!!

We called into the Whale Centre along the Great Australian Bight after waking up to a very foggy morning and 6 degrees. (where is that power point for the heater!!). After paying our $12 each admission (that’s the oldies price) we set out for the viewing platform.  What a treat it was – there were at least 20-30 whales and their babies lolling around which could be easily seen from the boardwalk.  One showed us his tail occasionally.  They were close enough that you could hear their sounds and air blowing.  They weren’t all that playful but after reading the signage we learnt that the babies are still too young to be too playful just yet – mother and baby stay together very closely initially – so close actually that sometimes it was only by binoculars you could see the baby near its mother. The coastline along here is just spectacular.

and here we are now at Ceduna having made a successful Nullarbor crossing.  The first day I wish we had counted the road trains we met along the way.  Our guess was at least 40-50 and every time one went by Tony had to put his arm out and hold on to our mirror because the wind drift was so strong it was blowing the mirror off the suction at the car – he had a tired arm by the end of that day – our longest driving day so far – 480k.  Even after buying the recommended mirrors they have been the most hassle along the way.  The crossing wasn’t as boring and tedious as I had expected with changing scenery along the way, even the treeless plain was something different to look at.  There were lots of Wedgetail eagles along the way.

Hi again, After 14 weeks on the road we are still having fun.   After leaving Geraldton we went inland to Mt Magnet doing a loop back to the coast to Dongara (about 900k) searching for wildflowers (although we weren’t expecting many as we had been told there hasn’t been enough rain this year).  We were surprised at how many wildflowers we did see.  A few fields of everlasting daisies, bright red banksias, wattle and heaps of others I don’t know the names of.

We stopped at the site of Lennonville – a town of about 3000 in its gold rush days of 1894 – 1906 but now there is nothing except for a broken railway siding. At Mt Magnet we did a quick  walk around the town (didn’t take long – population here 700).  There are still some old buildings, school, police station, a couple of hotels etc).

Overnight at a free camp site (White Wells).  no other vans here yet.  .  Nobody came!Tony built a fire to sit around with our coffee and we settled in for an early night, lights out to make ourselves as invisible as possible.  Sometime during the night two trucks came in, they were refrigerated trucks so we had the drone of their compressors to keep us awake but at least I felt safer.

Next stop Paynes Find for petrol and there was a small museum about the gold mining in this area. The museum was actually owned and run by a woman (the only Australian woman) who worked the stamper battery.  She was a 3^rd generation miner and this battery was last used about 5 years ago.  She sold her and her father’s leases a few years back, she said fortunately when gold was at a good price! 

After another free camp – this time at a very popular free camp spot – at least 20 vans.  We headed for Jurien Bay, running into some very heavy rain – couldn’t see the white line at times – but made it safely. From here we drove about 17k south to the Pinnacles (literally thousands of limestone pillars rising from the sand dunes before heading to New Norcia. . 

New Norcia was founded in 1847 by the Benedictine monks originally for the support of the aboriginal community. Today the only people that can be buried in the local cemetery are the monks or aborigines.  There has been 80 monks living here but now it is down to 7 and 1 novice.    They still bake their own bread and I am sure it is the yummiest bread I have tasted.  We did a town tour with a guide (who told me he is 48 – I would have believed 38).  He applied to enter the monastery but said he was told he “wasn’t cut of good enough cloth” so now he just works there!!. 

Then to Perth. the caravan was booked in for a service in Perth and because of the bad weather (windy gusts over 90k per hour and heavy rain we decided to stay put for another day.  We are now in Margaret River- a farm stay park.  I just feel like I am in the country, animal feeding each day – I need the grandchildren!  The downside for me of all this travelling around is the navigating.  I just don’t seem to be able to read a map no matter how hard I try so that part is very stressful.  The GPS is good for A-B but getting around the towns is a bit of a challenge.

The lobster is tasty over here.  This is our third lobster dinner so probably our last!

Busselton jetty – we gave the tram and miss and walked the1.8k each way.  There is an underwater observatory (8 metres) at the end of the jetty but because of the recent bad weather this was closed due to poor visibility.

x

Hi again everyone,

Just a few photos of our last week.  We had lots of walks in the Kalbarri National Park.  The cliffs at Kalbarri are very similar to the Great Ocean Road and some of the landscape is very similar to the Kimberleys.  The red layers of sandstone I guess.  The week at Geraldton has been less hectic, visiting a couple of museums, a couple of day trips. Oh and of course there has been lots of Wimbledon tennis watching on my behalf.   I will let the photos do the talking.

There are numerous signs along the way “Stay away from cliff edges”.  I guess this photo shows why.

Lunch spots don’t get much better than this.

It was certainly worth a trip to here. The Principality was formed to outwit the WA Government over a threatened resumption of land due to a dispute over wheat quotas. Apparently under some ancient law a Principality is exempt from land resumptions!

This is an amazing memorial site.  Since the HMAS Sydney 11 wreck site has been found they have added the final stage of this site.

Amazing what you give way to…..

Blending in with the locals  –  this is in the first week of our trip….

Love….Jenny