Back on the Nullarbor (Day 23)

You know that the things being moved on the Eyre Hwy are BIG when you have to pull off the road completely!  This was a couple of huge bulldozers that were headed west - probably to the mines.

Showing how much further we have to go today to get to our next campsite (Nullarbor)

 A good leg stretcher was the Old Telegraph Station at Eucla.  It is consumed by the dunes now, but in its heyday, it connected WA with the rest of Australia and the world.  The kids (and adults alike) had a ball going through the different rooms.  Some were completely full of sand; others only half full.  There is graffiti etched into the walls - some of it before even Mark or I were born.  So graffiti is not a recent thing.

 We have really gotten into this goecaching thing.  There was one located at Eucla and not very far from the Telegraph Station, so Tom and I tok off to find it.  The flies were incredible though!

Found it!

 Leaving WA and headed into SA

 Along the Aust Bight, we were directed to another cache.  Mark didn't want to try and find it, but after some persuasion (!), he relented and drove us there.  What an AMAZING location.  We would have actually camped here, but there was already a couple there and given that it was a bit of drive in to the site, we didn't want to disturb their peace with our raucous kids.  The photo of Biddy below, doesn't do the vista any justice at all, because you can't tell what a steep drop off it actually is.  And the view was just incredible.

The geocache was located OVER the edge of the cliff in an underhang.  I sent Tom over the edge to look for it!!  But there wasn't any real danger....provided he kept his footing!

Biddy pointing to the cliff where the geocache is located

We pulled into Naullarbor Roadhouse at about 6.30pm, but it was dark at this point.  This was a "friend" that appeared looking for a feed.  The things you see when you don't have a gun......

Kms travelled today: 551

Total kms travelled all up: 6,568

to Caiguna (Day 22)

Leaving Esperance today, we completed the loop of SW Western Australia by arriving back in Norseman just after lunch.  Which is a bit sad.  Sort of.  But it really does mean that we are on our way home.

But before Norseman, we ducked into Dundas Rocks to check them out (as all good tourists do!).  Except, we were not sure which of the rocks were Dundas Rocks.....or indeed if they ALL were Dundas Rocks.  However, we did find a wall of an old dam which turned out to be a catchment dam that some enterprising types caught water and then sold it to others.

We also called in at Newman Rocks.  The march flies were simply something else.  They chased us all the way back to the Prado.

Back onto the Eyre Hwy and once again, we hit the signpost for the longest road.

Biddy taking a picture of us all

sunset on the Eyre Hwy heading east

Cape Le Grand and Lucky Bay (Day 21)

Yesterday we spent most of the day just bumming around Esperance.  No photos really to share.  We did some shopping, some washing...nothing special.

Today, we took the kids to Cape Le Grand National Park and Lucky Bay (which was voted Australia's whitest beach).  We cracked a great day weather-wise and because it was a weekday, there wasn't a heap of people around either.  Or maybe there isn't a lot of people usually....I dunno.

 What is fantastic about this area, is that you can drive on the beach!  I know that this is not the only place you can do this, but we have never been to one, so it is a real treat.  DRIVING ON THE BEACH!!!

The kids started calling Henry a baby turtle, because he was dragging himself along the beach chasing the others down to the water.

 Even the kangaroos in this part think that the beach is pretty special!

The other day, Henry started sitting up on his own.  So now he is strong enough to sit in the portable highchair.  When we got back to the caravan, Henry had his first sit and some finger food of pear.

Now 11 months old!

Total kms today: 130

Total kms travelled all up: 5,432

Esperance (Day 19)

Esperance will be the last major stop we will have in WA for this trip.  After this, it is pretty much straight back to the Nullarbor and into SA.

found it!

This morning, before we left Hopetoun, we checked out another goecache (told you they were addictive!).  This one was very near town and quite easy to find (provided you have an GSP that is).  However, the mozzies were UNBELIEVABLE as after we found the cache, we hightailed it outta there.  But the kids found it such a great activity.  The photos today, we taken courtesy of Tom and Biddy who are trying their hands at being the photographers every now and then.

We took a slightly different route to Esperance and travelled along a lot of unsealed roads.  Through mostly cropping and grazing country, so we weren't exactly too far off the beaten track.  But we saw this little fellow sunning himself on the road and we stopped to take a pick.  In the picture it is hard to judge his size, but he is quite big.  I think he is a goanna or a monitor or something similar.  Judging by his claws anyway!

Kms travelled today: gotta check..sorry

Total kms travelled: back with this next post.

Hopetoun (Day 18)

We are now well into the second half of our holiday, but I have to say that it doesn't feel like the time is flying.  Which is good.

Today we tried our hand for the very first time at Geocaching.  A good friend of mine, Mary Hoppen, spoke to me about this fun activity many years ago.  I did look it up on the web once, but really didn't do anything about it.  I mentioned it to Mark last night because of another trip we are planning on doing that happens to have this along the route.  Mark had a bout of insomnia last night and looked it up on the web.  He found a geocache near us and today, we all set off to find it.

I am no expert at it, so all I can really tell you is that is is all based on GPS co-ordinates and they direct you to a 'treasure' or a cache of stuff.  The 'treasure' is usually a weatherproof container that holds a pad, a pen and some trinkets or business cards left by others.  The trick is to find the cache without being spotted, write your name in the book, return it all to the same spot and then log your find (or log your non find if that is the case) on the geocache website.  Very fun and quite addictive!  The kids think it is great.  Plus, it gets you out and about and looking at the great outdoors a bit more than you otherwise would.

On the hunt for our very first cache

Found it!

After our successful geocache, we headed even further south to a place called Hopetoun.  We would have skipped this entirely and driven straight to Esperance, but we are still in Easter traffic, so we decided to not chance it and get a site where we could.  The caravan park at Hopetoun is a very old beachy park.  There are HEAPS of sites, but you can barely see them because they are all nestled in amongst scrub and teatrees.  We picked a post that had easy access to the beach.

We thought we would go for a walk down the beach just to check it out.  If it was any good, we would come back with our togs.  The kids had other ideas in mind.  Tom was the first in, and commenced to pull the other 2 girls in soon after.   The water was quite cool, but once you were in, it was fine.  The howling wind was another thing though....I'm glad it wasn't me that was in wet clothes having to walk back up the beach!

 We met a "friend" along the way.  This kelpie (who looked a lot like Blue and a bit like Trixie) was having a run on the beach.  We stopped and chatted to the owner who was holidaying here from Bunbury.  The dog had developed an adrenal tumour and after years of keeping it at bay, the time had come to put him down.  This was the last holiday.  I had a bit of a tear in my eye when I heard that.  I know how hard it is to put such a loved animal down regardless of how good it is for them.  Anyway, the dog had a great time playing with the kids in the water.

Kms travelled today: forgot to look...will update
Total kms travelled all up: again, will get back.

Happy Easter (Day 17)

Well the Easter Bunny has done it again.  He has found us in an out of the way place.  For the past few years, he has found us in Katherine (NT), Cann River (Vic), home and Wave Rock (WA).  He is amazing isn't he??!!

Henry's 1st Easter

 

I snuck away while the kids were distracted with chocolate to take some more pics of Wave Rock (without the shadows iof yesterday on it) and to also have a bit of a walk up the top of it.  I had noticed that there were small walls built on it (you can see them from the ground) and I assumed they were to stop people fro falling off.  Wrong.  They are actually there to redirect the flow of rainfall into the dam that has been built on one area of Hyden Rock.  This is the water supply for the area.

The caravan park (taken from the top of the Wave)

We left Hyden and headed for Ravensthorpe.  The only reason we stopped here was because we are still on the tail end of the Easter Crush and can't get in anywhere else until Monday.  We are all looking forwarded to getting to the coast in the next few days!

Lunch on the street in Newdegate

On our way to Ravensthorpe, we passed through an area called Lake Biddy.  All that remains on it now is a church, but there is the nature reserve and the lake (I'd say pretty salty by the look of it) that are signposted.

Lake Biddy

Me and Bella