Home Sweet Home

Time to bid farewell to Coolgardie and in all fairness the workers there were no problem, the problem was that the caravan park was not really able to cope with so many people, the second ablution block wasn't up to the task. On our last morning there the manager was pressure washing the walls and floor of the gents - an admirable thing to do, but do it later in the day, not at 8.30am when people are using the showers and therefore being sprayed with cold water (and all the dirt and other stuff off the walls and floor!!!) When Michael complained he said, 'Oh, I'll go and have my breakfast then', what a good idea.
So we left town and drove westward to our rendezvous at Karalee Rocks, one of the nicest rest areas around. The actual camp area is 5 kms off the Great Eastern Hwy along a gravel road. Gravel roads are prone to 'corrugations' because of the pounding from the tyres, and a road like the one into Karalee is very popular with 4WDs so the corrugations are really bad. We crept along at 15kph.(max), but we always take comfort in the fact that as we are creeping along we can hear every rattle and bang and know if something has shaken loose in a cupboard or if a door has shaken open - the caravans being towed at speed by the 4WDs don't know what's happening in their van until they get there and open the door to whatever chaos had occured.
The last time we were in Karalee was before the National Rally in Kalgoorlie in October and there were around 25 vans there, this time there were only 3 vans. We parked up in a nice spot and after lunch and a rest collected some firewood for a fire tonight, as there are great fire pits around and BBQ plates over the fire pits.  Just before 4.00pm Ralph & Hanny arrived and after a coffee we lit a fire but we didn't sit out for long - the evening was quite cold and after dinner we all sat in their van and played the boardgame - supertoc.

The morning was what I think is called 'crisp'.
 No one was feeling energetic, in fact the other 3 all enjoyed a really nice time lazing about.
After lunch, I was feeling restless so went for just a little walk up onto the rock - and then over the rock - and then on the 'long trail' across to the other rock and through the bush.

When the track started heading away from the camp area and no one knew that I had gone off for a walk I decided to retrace my steps and returned to camp - just as they were waking up for afternoon tea!!

We lit a fire nice and early, in time for 'Happy Hour' but just before sunset Ralph suggested a walk up to the rock to see the sunset.
I love sunsets so off we went - twice in one day I was standing on the top of the rock!!!
The night was another cold one, but I found the hot water bottle and snuggled up.
We left the rock and crawled back to the highway into Southern Cross, we were hoping that despite it being a Sunday, that there would be a cafe open for coffee, but no luck so we boiled the kettle in the van parked up in the main street. Then we drove on and stopped in Merredin for lunch and the boys were going to check out the military museum (Michael and I have been around it before, and whilst he was happy to do a repeat tour, I was going to give it a miss). The tourist season has obviously finished in Merredin, not only was the museum closed, so was the information/tourist centre. We did a drive around town and headed north to the little town of Nungarin.

 We have enjoyed visiting Nungarin before so didn't re visit the military museum and workshop there.
They now have an overnight rest area right in the centre of town, (with very clean toilets, open 24hrs opposite). We pulled up next to the table setting and enjoyed a cocktail or two! We had a very short walk along the main street and then after dinner sat inside for more board games.

Monday morning we had another stroll along the street. I was really impressed that all the old buildings are so well preserved, no graffiti or vandalism. I went into the Shire Offices to thank them for providing the rest area, the girl was so surprised - no one had ever been in to thank them before!

Our next night stop was at Minnivale, near Dowerin, and we dawdled along the highway taking time to detour around the little towns on the way. The first town was Kununoppin - we drove around the streets and apart from spotting a dog lying in a driveway raise a leg for a quick scratch, there was no sign of life at all. The next town was Trayning, and we stopped there for a walk around the 'Tree Library'.

 A park area that has been planted with various species of trees, and their growth in the local soil and climate monitored. Some are thriving, some are surviving but some aren't there anymore.
Then we drove along to Yelbeni, one of the 'smallest towns', there's a house, a store and a 'machinery museum' ( a shed by the side of the road with some old farm equipment in it, one side of the shed is open so you can view the 'exhibits'.) There is obviously more equipment around because they are laying the foundations for a second shed.

Next town along the highway was Wyalkatchem - their slogan is 'Strange name, Beaut place'.
Wylie (as the locals call it) is the biggest of all the towns so far but was very quiet and none of us fancied the Wheatbelt Museum so it was onward to Minnivale.

The area has been cleaned up dramatically since our last visit, and there was a nice fireplace set up with a little pile of chopped wood.  We took advantage and soon had a fire roaring away.
The next morning before leaving we had a game of boules on the sand. Well, sand and gravel and bits of wood, it all made for an interesting game.

                   Definitely one more of chance than skill - Michael and I won by one point.

Then we slowly headed into Dowerin - one of our favourite towns in the area. There's a great bookshop there, a very good craft shop and now there's a bakery too.
We bought books, I bought a cross stitch kit and then we all had lunch at the bakery.

The town of Dowerin's symbol is a dog - the story behind 'Rusty' is that in the days of the gold rush the miners used  to camp in Dowerin by the sides of the local creek, on their way to the Goldfields. They threw their empty meat tins into the creek and it became 'Tin Dog Creek'.  In recent years the local high school was involved in making a mascot for the town and the idea of a Tin Dog was born. He was made of steel and stands about 3metres high on the roadside by the Creek at the entrance to the town.
Naturally as he is made from steel his name is RUSTY.
It seems that he has now turned his talents to baking!

We also discovered that there are plans to convert the old wheat bins in Minnivale into a train museum and to run tourist trains from Dowerin to Nungarin - it's all still in the planning stage but would be great for all the towns along the track. I just hope the rest area at Minnivale isn't spoilt - I really like that spot!!

Our night stop was Goomalling, another favourite spot. The caravan park there gives a 50% discount for motorhome club members so for $10 we have a powered site (can run the heater tonight).
We were delighted to see some familiar faces around the park and had a quick 'Happy Hour' together but the cold wind made everyone head into their vans for dinner early.

Despite the cold morning we were up, showered, packed and away by 10.00am.
We headed into Northam (to stay with Tom and Lois again - you might remember that we spent the first night of our trip with them).
On the way we passed the 'town' of Jennacubbine - none of us had been there before so we turned off the main road and wound our way into 'Jenna'.
  We thought Yelbeni was small - Jennacubbine consists of the tavern and a really tiny building which is the CWA (Country Women's Association) meeting room - (singular!)
The tavern wasn't open, so once again morning tea coffee was in the van.

We checked out the war memorial - which had a specific memorial to Capt. Hugo Throssell 1884 - 1933.
Throssell was born in Northam, and is the only Light Horseman to be awarded a Victoria Cross (at Gallipoli).  His Victoria Cross was donated to the National Military Museum, and is in the Hall of Valour. He went on to lead the Jennacubbine Rifles, a volunteer force.

Then we discovered that there IS a bitumen / sealed road into Jennacubbine, we had crept in on a gravel road. The corrugations weren't as bad as into Karalee but it was still a slow ride into town.  The road out was much faster, and we were soon in Northam.
 We had lunch in the vans, next to the park by the river. Tom and Lois were both at work so we amused ourselves in discount variety stores and Op shops.
We had a cuppa at a nice cafe before popping around and parking up in their back garden.
Once again a fantastic evening in their company - great food with amazingly hospitable people.

We headed off into our respective vans around 11.30 and we quickly snuggled up to beat the cold.
We heard our hosts leave around 7.00am but we didn't move until 8.30am. The temperature in the van then was 11 degrees and we later found out that the minimum that night was in Northam - 1 (one) degree!!!!!

We said goodbye to Ralph and Hanny, they live south of Perth city so would be taking a different route to us. We travelled on very familiar roads across to the towns of Toodyay and Gingin and then across to the coast, we turned north,  and then into Redfield Park ..........HOME.

                                             (this is the entrance to the 'estate' of Redfield Park)


                                          Everywhere looks so green - even our block!

        We just drove around the back, parked up and then enjoyed the serenity of our lovely house.

     That's it folks - we travelled just over 20,000 kilometres and were away for just over 7 months.

                          Thanks for being there with us.

There will be more, it was such a great trip and as we're still talking to each other we think we'll do it again next year!! Look on this blog to find the next one!
                                                    A Bientot!!

Almost there

Every holiday comes to an end and our little holiday in Esperance was over.
Time to move on again, so we filled up the water tank, the fuel tank and the food cupboard and hit the road. On our way out of town we stopped at a weigh bridge - something we'd been meaning to do for ages, but they are few and far between. This one was at the local cement works and they only charged $6 so we took advantage - oops! overweight!!
 I suggested that next time we weigh without the full water and fuel tanks!!!???!!
 There was nothing we could do - I'm sure that 80% of motorhomes are officially overweight, but it gave us food for thought and something to debate over the next few kms. Maybe tow a trailer on the next long 'bush' trip and don't carry the generator and extra fuel if staying on main roads, within range of fuel and caravan parks.

                 We stopped for lunch at Pioneer Park in the abandoned town of Scaddan.

The town was originally called "Thirty Mile", its' distance from Esperance. The area was first 'opened up' in 1910 with 1000 acre blocks. The locals changed the name to Scaddan in 1915 but it wasn't officially gazetted until 1924.
It's a really lovely spot, beautifully maintained by the local community - there is no 'centre', no town, but  there are still people living in the surrounding area.

When the hotel was opened, because it was on Crown Land, it was not allowed to serve alcohol - they therefore operated as a B &B on the Cobb & Co coach route, calling the hotel "The Temperance Hotel".

                                                 It is still standing today - but only just!

            A nice spot to rest, but it is officially a 'day use only' stop - no overnight camping.

We carried on north, towards Norseman and stopped early in the afternoon, about 30kms south, at Bromus Dam. A large wooded area around an old dam.

The dam was built in 1925/26 to ensure a reliable water supply for the steam trains that ran between Coolgardie and Esperance. There are several of these dams in the area; Karalee Rocks and Dam, where we stayed on our way out to the Kalgoorlie Rally at the start of this trip is one. Karalee Dam is filled with water through a flume channelling runoff from the rock but Bromus Dam has no flume and appears to have been filled by a pipeline, possibly from another dam further off in the bush, but we didn't venture off to check it out. There was some water in the dam and even some 'gold' fish - whether they were goldfish or Koi I don't know but I'm pretty sure they were dumped from domestic tanks.

We had just one neighbour in the afternoon and they came over at 4pm to check that we were staying the night as they don't like to stay anywhere on their own. We assured them that we would be staying (then as they were in a caravan we took off!!! - only joking)

         These early sunsets (around 4.45pm) are really beautiful and dramatic but SO early!!

The place was very quiet all night and dawn arrived reasonably quietly too, not too many birds around for a big dawn chorus.

We drove a few kms up the road and turned off to have a look at the old town site of Dundas.

 Now totally abandoned, but the shire has re instated the roads and street signs with some tourist info notices. Dundas never really got established as a town, gold was discovered in Norseman just as it was trying to get started and naturally everyone headed there. The road in, and all roads around, were dirt roads in reasonable condition but not so good that we were tempted to travel the entire 'heritage' route into Norseman. A 33kms run following the original Cobb  & Co route. We re-traced our tracks back to the highway and drove up to Norseman, stopping just to buy a paper and then carried on north.

There were two rest areas north of Norseman that we wanted to check out. We stopped at the first one for morning coffee and then went on to the second one for lunch. Both are large areas but close to the highway and the second one is between the highway and the railway. They have large shady areas but we didn't fancy an overnighter in either so we carried on up to Coolgardie - our favourite Goldfields town.

We went into our 'usual' caravan park and checked in for 2 nights. We paid and then went to find a shady spot but were horrified to find that a large company, which has the contract to work on the railway in the area, has set up their 'base camp' in the caravan park. The park is almost full of transportable cabins, around 20 of them! One of the amenities blocks is now completely for gents as there are so many blokes around. As we won't be staying over the weekend we hope that they don't carouse on week nights.

Well we had one night in the caravan park and it was reasonably quiet once they had come in after work - the gravel drive ways make most of the noise. The biggest problem was that the showers ran out of hot water half an hour after they came in!! We hope that everyone realises that Coolgardie Tourist Village caravan park is no longer a viable site, Coolgardie, the town is still well worth a couple of days stopover for travellers, and that this will persist for at least a year!

The weather is absolutely gorgeous - it was a cold night (Southern Cross had 2 degree minimum the night before last!!) but today is a perfect autumn day with clear blue skies and temp around 23degrees! Fingers crossed that it stays like this for another week, for our time in the bush with Ralph & Hanny. That starts tomorrow at Karalee Rocks where we enjoy staying whenever we come out to the Goldfields.
Once again Optus permitting another 'posting' soon, if not, then the next one will be from the comfort of my own recliner, in my own lounge. Aaaahhh!!

Back in the West ("The West's the Best")

We extended our two nights in Ceduna to three, the caravan park is very pleasant, a nice place to chill out.
                                         
                                              The amenities block may be old but it's cheerful!!

The weather is getting changeable, sunny, though cool days with a cold 'lazy' wind and the nights are quite chilly.
We walked around Ceduna - which didn't take long, and did a little shopping. We walked out to the end of the jetty. We are not fishermen but even if we had been it seems we'd be out of luck, no one was catching anything other than a couple of squid.

Time to leave Ceduna and continue west, as we drove out of town it was grey and overcast with a very strong wind blowing.

 As we neared Penong 'The town of windmills' the wind was really blowing making the whole area into to dust bowl. You had to feel sorry for the farmers, watching their topsoil blow away to neighbouring farms but as Michael said 'it will blow back this afternoon'. We carried on and found a little shady spot for the night. No sooner had we settled in and we were joined by 2 4WDs and caravans, obviously the right time and place to stop. There was another really amazing sunset - with pinks, purples and orange.
Through the night there was very little traffic and we had a good rest.

Next morning it was up and onward to the SA / WA border. We detoured to The Head of the Bight whale watching centre but the whales hadn't arrived yet - they were expected at any moment! The season is from May to September, so we missed them on the way east and now we're too early on the way back!
 We stopped for an early lunch break to eat the last of the salad and the potato salad so that we were totally vegetable free to cross into WA.

                                            Then we did just that - we crossed into WA!!!
                                                                       HOME!!

It may be home - but we still have a long way to travel.
Just 5kms from the border is Eucla, the caravan park there is cheap and clean so we checked in for 3 nights. We are trying to pace ourselves to get to our rendezvous with friends. We, of course, forgot the time difference and thought we gained an hour and a half - in truth we gained only 45 minutes, (gaining another 45minutes at Balladonia). We thought we were right because the phones and the tv programmes agreed with us,  but it did explain why we were the last up in the morning and why the toilets were being cleaned at what we thought was 9.15am!!
 By 6.00pm that first night there were over 20 vans scattered around the park. I say scattered because there are no bays marked, you just park near a powerpoint. We grabbed the same spot as we had in October. It's a narrow strip between 2 trees, on one side is another bay but it too is narrow and bigger vans tend to park out in the open. On the other side is the corner of the large parking area so no one parks there, it's too exposed.

Despite the roadhouse being open 24 hours, there was very little traffic noise because there is a short distance between the two areas.
The next morning dawn arrived really early - (11/2hrs early!!) That was a shock ! We were awake and up at 8.00am. by 8.30 there were only 4 vans left in the park.

We enjoyed another day at Eucla, the wind dropped and the sun was glorious, we sat outside and rejuvenated our tans.
In the afternoon a couple from Queensland pulled in near us and we got chatting to them. They were enroute to WA but had 'lost' a week of their holiday because he had got sick after eating oysters on the Eyre Peninsula and had spent 4 days in Ceduna Hospital.
Thursday morning it was time for us to leave - naturally we were the last to leave - well it was 8.45am.
As you leave Eucla you drive straight into the Eucla Pass - with it's fantastic long sweeping views.

We had intended to dawdle across to Norseman but Michael was raring to go after the 3 day break and we drove on until 4pm, when we reached Balladonia.
The fuel prices had been gradually dropping as we travelled west and just by not filling up until Balladonia we saved 4 cents a litre. We asked about staying at the caravan park at the roadhouse but were shocked by the price $28 for a powered site (we could have gone unpowered at $18) so we backtracked 5kms to a roadside rest area just 5kms east of Balladonia and settled in there. Another really quiet night in the bush, no traffic noise which I'm sure wouldn't have been the case at the roadhouse.
These early dawns are so annoying, we were awake before 6.00am, but managed to cling to the sheets until 7.45am. Over breakfast we checked out the map and our options and decided to turn left at Norseman and spend a few days in Esperance. After all this travelling we feel like a holiday!!!

We stopped for morning tea at a lovely rest area, one not mentioned in our book as it's relatively new. It overlooks a dry lake and is set well back from the road so we've marked it for future use.

Then we stopped in Norseman to get some lunch - not at the cafe this time - we bought rolls and made our lunch in the van before making that left turn and heading down to the coast at Esperance.

We went straight to the caravan park that we'd stayed in just after we got the van, it's small, clean and fills our main criteria of being walking distance to town. (and we get discount).
We booked in for 4 nights and settled down for a good rest in familiar surroundings.

we took a stroll into town on Saturday morning and got fresh WA vegetables -
  do you know that it's so hard to get Royal Blue potatoes in other states and they are really THE best potato, and there really isn't any yoghurt quite like Mundella!

The weather in Esperance is lovely - there was a thunder storm during the night leaving the days warm and sunny. We have walked into town, along the beach and had a lovely relaxing time.

The town feels open and friendly - the last time we were here was at the start of summer and it was busy and people were crazy, and noticeably unfriendly. Obviously they don't like their town full of tourists, a few at a time is okay though. We really enjoyed our stay.

Tomorrow we'll head north, back up to Coolgardie and then through the Goldfields area back towards Perth and our rendezvous at Karalee Rocks. This part of the trip is backtracking on our route outwards, but after Karalee we will take a few days to tour around some country towns and bush camps before finally turning onto the road home!!

Halfway across Australia - almost home

Goodbye Coober Pedy - an interesting town, and interesting towns usually have interesting cemeteries so on our way out of town we detoured to the cemetery: Boot Hill. This really does prove that we have no qualms about wandering around taking photos of gravestones.

 Here are a couple of interesting ones from 'Boot Hill':

Michael noticed that this cemetery is the only one that he's been to where the graves are not all facing the same way, some are even placed at right angles to each other.

Then it was time to  head out of town, back on the road in the state with some of the more interesting road signs in the country -

The scenery was red and really flat, good cycling country!!!

At least we were sitting comfortably with the air conditioning on, listening to CDs.

We stopped for lunch at a rest stop called BonBon and were treated to a visit by a flock of Zebra finches.
The tap on this tank obviously dripped a little but some kind soul had put a bowl underneath, they'd even put a few rocks in it to stop it tipping up and gave the birds somewhere to perch.

Just along the road we met 4 much larger birds - Wedge Tail Eagles enjoying some roadkill.

Our night time stop was at Lake Hart Lookout - another stunning surprise. What a beautiful spot!!

I took a short walk down to the Lake (it's a salt lake) to take a few sunset photos and when I wandered back to the van I thought some cheeky so and so has parked right in front of our van.
 Hang on, I know that van - it was Annie and 'the boys' (her 2 whippets, Conor and Clancy).
We had met Annie a couple of times in Tasmania and had kept in touch. We knew that she was going up to Darwin soon and were hoping to meet up on the road - we'd sent an email telling her where we were but had missed the reply before we left Coober Pedy. She had been keeping a look out for us as she headed north, what a stroke of luck for us both to choose Lake Hart for our night stop.
It was great to spend some time chatting and catching up. It was really good to see her again.
 The Lake Hart Lookout proved really popular, with around 16 vans parked before dusk.

The morning exodus started well before 7.00am and by 9.00am (as we were having breakfast) there were only 4 vans left, 2 of them were Annie and us!
Annie then headed north and we carried on south to Woomera. A place with a short but dynamic history, it started with the 'last great Australian explorer' Len Beadell deciding that this was the place to site the governments rocket testing base - the rest, as they say, is history.
The surrounding area is still a prohibited zone, with the range still used intermittently for some rocket testing so we couldn't go out to any sites.
 However the museum is good and the food in the cafe is excellent.
.

                                                 The outdoor missile park is quite something.

                                                          Len Beadell's hat and boots


We were pleased that Len Beadell featured heavily at the museum, but we were disappointed that the fountain at his memorial wasn't running.

The town is struggling to be anything other than just a museum, but I suppose when there's rockets being tested at the site, the town is busier.

We had allowed for a possible 2 day stay in Woomera but after the museum, the missile park, lunch and a drive around the whole town we were satisfied and hit the road south that afternoon.

We found a quiet little rest area about 50kms north of Port Augusta and settled in.

The stop was near the train line at a level crossing so it might prove a little noisy but also a little different.

 A car and caravan came in and as they set up they put up their tv aerial - we hadn't expected any reception so hadn't tried; we tried then and to our surprise we got 14 digital stations!!
It was really windy and the aerial kept wobbling around making the picture come and go. Michael lowered the aerial a little to stabilise it. Later when we lowered it completely we still got reception - with the aerial down, Fancy That!!
After dark a 4WD pulled in alongside us, they set up in a tent by the light of their headlights. They were away the next morning just after 7am. The caravan left shortly afterwards leaving us to enjoy a beautifully peaceful breakfast.
We had heard a few trains in the night, but they didn't really disturb us.

Then it was onward, into Port Augusta. We had considered staying at a caravan park there but the one we saw resembled a compound - not at all inviting.
We drove around town, found a 'Cheap as Chips' discount store and got a few bargains before leaving town and heading westward.

We stopped for lunch in Iron Knob - a small mining town, the birthplace of the Australian steel industry. It's also the place with one of the catchiest town slogans - "Iron Knob - what a hole".
We drove around town and if you want parts for a 70s or 80s car you could probably get them here.
We're not sure what the state of play is at the mine but it was VERY quiet.
The wind was still howling so we decided to carry on another 80kms and stop for the night at Kimba -
                                                                 'Halfway across Australia'.

It was a cold night, and we were really feeling the cold especially after being up in Alice Springs a few days ago. We had showers early in the afternoon, as the lack of glass in the windows of the amenities block made it rather chilly in there. The heater in the van got a good run.
We had another good night's sleep and the next morning had an early start (well early for us, 9.30am).
The weather has definitely turned, our summer is finally over. The shorts and singlets are being replaced with trousers and long sleeve T shirts (and a jumper).
We drove across the top of the Eyre Peninsula and it is not stunning scenery. We stopped for morning tea in Wudinna, remembering the great 'real' coffee we had 8 years ago at the cafe - the cafe has closed! So we had a cup of instant coffee in the van before continuing west. Our lunch stop was the quaint town of Poochera. Renowned for the 'dinosaur ants' found in the area.
 (that explains the signage on the toilets - the girls is ANTHEA).

                               Also of interest was an old 'humpy' made from beaten kerosene tins.

After the excitement of Poochera we continued into Ceduna on the coast. We checked in to a caravan park on the foreshore, in the centre of town, for a couple of days. We won't be replenishing fruit and vegetables in Ceduna because we'll have to dump it all at the WA/SA border.

Once more I don't know when we will get Optus coverage again, for the blog. After Ceduna we'll try around Penong but then it's on the Nullarbor for a few days, then back into WA and into Norseman.
We will have a few days in Coolgardie  (should have coverage there).
Then we're meeting our friends Ralph and Hanny at a campspot out in the bush. They have a van the same as ours and we really enjoy travelling with them, especially bush camping.
The time with them will be a great welcome home and a great wind down for us after all the travelling.

So until somewhere, sometime - watch this space!