A little luxury!

Day 10 and 11: Margaret River Region

Well, whilst we are on a 'camping' trip around the country, it was always our intention to have the flexibility to stay in some resort style accommodation as we made our way around.  Bad weather has probably necessitated this on more than a couple of occassion, but we had always planned to live it up a little in the beautiful Margaret River Region.  Turns out it's been a good decision too - there's been some ridiculously wild weather (the News just reported 130km/hour winds) so I'm pretty stoked that we aren't in our tent! 

To give you an idea of the weather, today we pulled up at the mouth of Margaret River to have a look at the ocean - the rain was horizontal and despite us have the engine stopped, the car still moving from side to side!  There's always a silver lining though - we had a 'double rainbow' moment!  Ace!!

Truth be told, the weather has interupted us pretty minimally.  The last couple of days have been spent seeing some local sites, tasting a wine or too and munching on the local produce.

Here are some photos:

Lighthouse at Cape Naturaliste

"Voyager" winery - beautiful

Port Lincoln Parrot 



Need go without saying, there's a deer farm around here!

Jewel Cave - south of Margaret River. Absolutely stunning!

 A close up of the Port Lincoln for Papa Pete!

A Touristy Day

Day 9: Albany to Bunbury

Well, we still must be operating on Queensland time because it was another early start for us. We ended up making the decision to pack up camp to give us some flexibility in deciding where we were going to spend the evening. The general thought was to do some touristy things, head west and see where the road took us. So, after we packed up camp, we hit the streets of Albany. Being a Sunday, a lot of the local shops were shut (a little disappointing for me as I was kind of looking forward to some retail therapy) however this proved to be a non-issue as there was plenty of interesting stuff to see and do.

First stop: A tour of the replica of the Brig Amity. This ship set sail from Sydney to King George Sound in the late 1800s. It was great to have a walk around the ship (guided by an audio device) and get a feel for what life was like – glad they didn't have a 'smell-o-vision' tour though. The place must have stunk with the poor hygiene, cramped spaces, maggots and buckets of excrement everywhere!! Mind you, back then, the bad smells were probably some of the least of their worries by the sounds of things!

 

We ended up deciding to head to Bunbury for the night – doesn't make too much sense probably but it was a better road for driving at night and we thought it might have increased our chances of finding accommodation late on a Sunday evening.

 Next stop: About 20km out of Albany is a great little tourist drive (Frenchman Bay Road) with some awesome rock formations and whale watching spots along the way.  We headed out here in search of Whale World.  Whale World was an old Whaling Station which was last in operation in the late 1070s.  It's pretty graphic in parts (the photos of the killings and how they harvested the whale oil and meat) but really interesting all the same.

This is the skeleton of a Blue Whale which was beached down in one of the bays close to the whaling station. It's massive, 25m!! Apparently big Blue Whales can get as big as 34m!!

This was one of the last whaling ships in use in Australia. Now you can climb aboard and have a look around.

After finishing up at Whale World we continued to head west and stopped at another great tourist attraction – The Valley of the Giants Tree Top Walk. This is just east of a little town called Walpole and is definitely worth a stop if you're ever in the area. The trees are Red Tingles (a type of Eucalypt) and you get to view them from the suspension bridges ~40m in the air, as well us on the ground. Very cool. (Unfortunately I'm having trouble uploading the photos which show the bridges - sorry)

This is a picture of one of the Red Tingles from the ground.

On the road again

Day 8: Esperance to Albany

Well, we had actually booked a third night in Esperance Seafront Caravan Park (great site by the way), but after waking up this morning to a cold, wet day we decided to cut our losses and try and chase some finer weather.  Consequently we pulled up stumps, did some last minute clothes washing and hit the road again.

The day was pretty uneventful, we drove ~480km with fairly unremarkable scenery.

(sorry, this is as good as it gets - not many photos taken today!)

We ended up in Albany in time to set up camp in the lovely Emu Beach Holiday Park.  After setting up we headed into the main street of town (York St) for dinner at a cool Italian Cafe.  We must still be operating on Queensland time because it was another night of early to bed, ready for a day of exploring Albany tomorrow.

Winding down in Esperance

Day 7: Esperance

Well, after the calamity of yesterday it was time for some rest.  By the way, sorry for those of you requesting more pictures of the rocks and mud pools that gave us so much grief in Cape Arid - we just didn't feel like stopping to take any and the photos I took when the car was on the move didn't quite work out.

Anyway ...

We got off to a relatively early start (we still seem to be operating in Queensland time).  Had a massive breaky in our hotel and then went about setting up camp in the waterfront caravan park, cleaning the car and getting a new spare tyre.

After some initial hesitation in tackling another national park, we decided to head out to Cape LeGrand National Park just east of Esperance (the brochures promised 2WD access, no 4WD required!).  Well, I have to say, we have no regrets.  It's a 'must do' for anyone visiting the region.  Beautiful rocky mountains, gorgeous white sandy beaches with the most amazing turquoise water.  Simply stunning.  I'll let the pictures tell the story ... oh, and Nick got his first spearfishing experience of the trip too ...

 Nick's first fish in WA!!

The water was so clear - the silver streaks are fish. Massive mullet swimming through the waves. Nick actually hit one with the spear but he thought it got away, I ended up catching it on the beach (2nd fish of the day). Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of it, but it was one of the biggest Nick has caught (55cm)

Western Grey Kangaroo - they're everywhere!!

Overall, it was a great day - certainly made up for our dismal day yesterday. If you're ever headed to WA - Esperance, particularly Cape LeGrand, is a must!

Wrestling Cape Arid

Day 6 – West of Eucla to Esperance (including the Cape Arid calamity!)

We got off to an early start packing up camp after a good night's sleep in the tent on the side of the road on the Eyre Highway.

Unfortunately, that highway rest area was probably the highlight of the day. We had an ordinary breakfast at Madura. Ordinary food (they mucked up the order) and ordinary attitude. Following breakfast we tackled probably the most ordinary part of the driving so far. The longest (and most boring) section of straight road in Australia. The scenery was pretty dull too so it was high fives all around once we hit our first bend!

We had a quick lunch in Belladonia Roadhouse; spent $50 on basic groceries we needed for camping (2x tins salmon, 1x tin of asparagus and BBQ sauce); and then we hit the dirt to Cape Arid.

Now we knew that we needed a 4wd to access the national park however, unfortunately, I don't think we were quite anticipating how long and tedious the drive was to become. After 2.5 hours of driving on rough road and dodging basketball sized goolies, we thought we should have arrived at a campsite – but alas, no campsite presented itself!! We then decided to proceed down another track in search of the said campsite, when we fell victim to a nasty twig.

Normally a blown tyre wouldn't phase us too much however: sunset was fast approaching, the hideous rocks were never-ending, no other cars were in site, we were in a remote location, and we were pretty stressed out that we were at high risk of losing a second tyre (that would have been a show stopper). Staying at Cape Arid was no longer an option – we needed to get out.

We proceeded with caution towards towards the South West entrance of the park closer to Esperance, We crawled along at ~20km/hr dodging literally thousands of the dodgy goolies! After about of hour of this, we were relieved to see that the rocks were becoming fewer in number – but alas, we had a new nemesis …. deep muddy pools of water!! We then managed to get stuck in the mud with water half way up the drivers side door. Luckily Nick was able to get us out in low gear without needing to use the winch (as it turns out, the would have been impossible to get to anyway because the controls were in the door on the side immersed in water).

Anyway, I'm rabbiting on … after a few more hours of dodging deep muddy waterholes and rocks, and after much contemplation of what would happen if we did lose a second tyre (when exactly do you actually set off an Epirb emergency beacon - when you run out of food, when you haven't seen someone for week??) we eventually got out of the national park and headed into Esperance. Stressed and weary after 15hours of gruelling driving, we checked into a hotel.  It was a bit of a dive but gee we slept well!!

Say G'day to WA!!

Day 5: Streaky Bay to somewhere west of Eucla!

We're back on the road again. It was a relatively early start in Streaky Bay – a little sad to be leaving the sea side town today as the weather was at it's best yet. The water was a sheet of glass as you can see in the photo below.

Next stop Ceduna. Ceduna's about an 1 hour north west of Streaky Bay. It's a bigger place, but from our short visit it lacks the character of Streaky Bay. We took a walk along the jetty and saw some pretty cool birds. Now I know pigeons aren't exactly an endangered species but we were both struck with how massive these ones were … some (Pete and Tarz) might even say they they were Naz sized!! The photo doesn't quite do them justice so you'll just have to trust us on this one.

We were soon back on the road again and heading across the Nullabor. As you could imagine there's not a whole lot of change of scenery along the way, but yet again we were gobsmacked by the beauty. For miles you see nothing but saltbush and no trees, then you'll get a glimpse of some cliffs and the ocean.

We were pretty happy to make the stop at the most northern section of the Great Australian Bight. The admission fee of $12 a head seemed a little bit steep just to walk along the wooden walkway, but it was pretty spectacular to see the Souther Right Whales and their calves so close to the shore line. Unfortunately we missed seeing the white calves which were born a day or two ago, but nevertheless the black ones were pretty interesting too.

It's hard to get a great photo of them, but I think this will give you a good idea.

And this is just prove I get in the photos every now and again too.  The photo doesn't do it justice, but the shoreline is just beautiful.

We finally crossed the border into WA just east of Eucla where we were stopped by quarantine and lost our veges which we'd planned to use for dinner tonight, but otherwise it was pretty uneventful.

Eucla itself was a worthwhile stop off.  Highlights included the old Telegraph Post ruins and an old jetty. We also got to have a good chat to a retired couple who have done lots of travel around the country. It confirmed that we'd made some good choices with our travel plans but also highlighted that there will need to be many more trips to come.

Well, finally we have set up camp in a rest area somewhere west of Eucla. There's no power, no internet so I'm writing this blog via battery power on my laptop. Feels a little weird to be surrounded by nothing yet using this technology.

On that note, I shouldn't use too much more battery power up as we probably won't be at a powered site for some days now. No doubt I'll post this blog in a few days but thought I better put pen to paper before I forgot too much.

Nick's Wrap Up:

Glad we had: Frozen peas and couscus(after loosing our fresh vege at the border)

Wish we had: A bigger lens for the camera

Lazy Day

Day 4: Streaky Bay

Well, this blog will be a quick one - two reasons - 1) We had a rest day (yay!!) 2) The 'nomadnet' Internet connection that I've been using is unavailable this evening for some reason - I'm therefore trialling tethering the net through my iPhone.  I'll see how it goes.

So, as I said, it was a rest day today. We felt we needed the rest after some mammoth days driving.

So, the day has been spent like this:
- Nick up early for a walk around town
- Kassie enjoyed a sleep in
- Nick went fishing and caught some squid
- Kassie explored town and did some blogging
- Nick came back and we went for a scenic drive including checking out a sea lion colony
- Wine and cheese prior to dinner (thanks Maryke for the lovely wine!)
- Nick cooked the squid for dinner (YUM!)

We took a fair few photos but I'll only post a few as I'm using my phone.

It goes without saying - a sea lion. Unfortunately even with Anna's great lens we were still too far away for a great shot.

The view on the way to the sea lions was amazing, if not a little surreal.  We were standing on a sand dune, looking at a wheat field with the ocean in the background.

Anyway, that's about it for today folks.  We're heading off west tomorrow. We'll probably camp in a national park somewhere along the Nullabor so you may not hear from us for a few days ... until next time ...

Nick's Wrap Up:

Glad we had: Squid jigs

Wish we had: More ideas on how to catch King George Whiting

BIG day in SA!

Day 3: Broken Hill to Streaky Bay

We got off to an early start for another BIG day!  Here are a few of the BIG things that come to mind:

BIG breakfast - awesome little restruarant in Broken Hill called Cafe Alfresco.

BIG birds in BIG wide open spaces

BIGGEST Gum tree I've ever seen!

BIG toys

And a bloody BIG galah!!

There were a few other significant events on the day too...

We waved goodbye to NSW and said a BIG hello to SA!

We went through an number of BIG dust storms with BIG winds

And we drove off into a BIG sunset

We got a little further than we initially had planned. Instead of Port Augusta (a BIG industrial town) we decided to push through to the more inviting Streaky Bay.  The wind was still blowing strong so we decided to spoil ourselves and stay in a lovely little villa instead of trying to put the tent up in the wind and rain.  We're planning on staying here a couple of nights which should give Nick some time to go fishing and give us both a little rest from all the driving.  That being said, I think I might go get out of my PJs, put on some washing and take a little look around Streaky Bay.

Nick's Wrap Up:

Glad we had: Prawns for lunch (it was probably the highlight of Port Augusta, only problem is they came from Queensland!)

Wish we had: Stayed in Broken Hill for half a day

No Icebreaks in Western NSW :(

Day 2: Mungindi to Broken Hill

It was always going to be a long haul.  Over a thousand k's in one day!  We were off to an early start leaving Mungindi - sadly minus one of our vices that would have energised us for the big day ahead - Icebreaks! (no Pauls drinks in Western NSW).

So, after dodging even more roos than the night before and navigating the slippery black soil road between Mungindi and Collarenebri, we had to settle for alternative caffeine sources and a late breakfast in Brewarrina. Actually, talking about breakfast in Bre - what a classic!!  I really must get used to taking my camera everywhere I go.  Caffe DeLuxe was the name - "Cleanliness and Civility" was the motto!! (the motto was advertised everywhere!) 

It was actually a really cute cafe, felt like we were stepping into the past with all the original furnishings of a classy establishment.  And ... well ... they were certainly civil, but clearly over the years the imagination has been stretched with respect to cleanliness - cobwebs and dust were plentiful!!  Nick's breakfast was interesting too - toasted steak sanger (with onion ordered as an extra) literally came out as a steak, with a little onion, slapped between two bits of toast!  Nevertheless, it got us kick started for the rest of our journey.

Sunrise somewhere between Mungindi and Collarenebri

We got fuel at Bourke which allowed Nick to reminisce about his fruit picking days - we even stocked up on some Splash Cola.

The scenery was great and despite by initial fears of a long and boring day, we both thoroughly enjoyed it!  Mind you, we were quite grateful to check into a comfy hotel in Broken Hill.  No more luxury hotels though - braving the cold and camping tomorrow!!

We saw a lot of these ...

Probably even more of these...

And a lot of this!!

All in all a great day!!  Must be time for bed!

Nick's Wrap Up:

Glad we had: Splash Cola

Wish we had: Icebreaks

We're off and racing!!

Day 1: Caloundra to Mungindi

Well, after a busy few weeks leading up to our big trip, we have finally hit the road - yay!!  We managed to get away from Caloundra relatively on schedule, leaving the dogs and fish in the care of our housesitters - thanks heaps guys!

First stop ... Landsborough BP!  Now, I know that this isn't too far from home, and if we keep on at this rate we'll not get much further than Toowoomba, but Nick wanted to make sure we kept Linden fed and watered (with his favourite prawns) we were staying with him and his family at our first destination - Mungindi.

Second stop ... a quick hello and picking up some gear from friends in Toowoomba ...

After dodging a number of roos, foxes, pigs and echnidnas along the way, we arrived in Mungindi at ~7.30pm.  Actually, regarding the wildlife on the road to Mungindi, we didn't completely dodge the echnidnas - one MASSIVE one clipped the underneath of the car despite us trying to straddle it with the wheels! (For the record, the echnidna strolled off the road after the ordeal - unfortunately I wasn't able to get a decent photo of it!)

Anyway, after a lovely dinner with our mates at the "Jolly Swagman" we settled down in a nice warm bed, preparing ourselves for a bit day of driving ahead.

Nick's highlight: 1x 45kg pig seen east of Mungindi

Kassie's highlight: Not hitting said pig in my new car!

Nick's Wrap Up:

Glad we had: Cruise control

Wish we had: Pig dog