21/22/23 May

We packed some more last minute stuff and made sure everything was good to go, then headed off towards Braidwood at about 3 on Friday arvo. Tasha came 'round to say goodbye, which was great, so I got to have one last talk and laugh with her. Thanks honey!  

The drive over to Braidwood was pretty unremarkable, except to say that both us and Norma and Chris missed the turn off to the rest area we were staying at! Anyway, we got set up (Matt and I in our camper trailer, Norma and Chris in their caravan), collected some firewood, and took a couple of pics, of course! 

That night would have to be one of the most freezing that I've ever tried to sleep through! Matt and I both froze to death, then realised in the morning that we needed a) more layers of clothing and b) at least one more layer of blanket. So, we packed up and headed (along a few dirt roads, much to Ferris' disgust) to Bathurst. 

After the purchasing of another blanket, some books and some thermal underwear (and a trip to Mitre 10 for Dad), we had lunch in a lovely little rest area across the road from the Bathurst Correctional Facility. We sure can pick the good spots! Then it was off to that night's destination, Dubbo, where we're currently staying. 

Matt and I have been to Western Plains Zoo today (bloody awesome!), and we've fed the giraffe's, listened to a couple of keeper talks, and in my case taken about 5 million photos! I think about 4.5 million of those were on the giraffe's alone... The zoo is absolutely fantastic, and makes you realise just how cramped most zoos are in comparison. We learnt a bit, walked a bit and had lunch next to the elephant enclosure, the African elephants of course! 

So, again, I'm all up to speed with our travels! We're heading out for dinner tonight next door to the CVP we're staying at, then heading off in the morning. Destination - Bourke. Or maybe further if we feel up to it. We've stayed an extra night here than what we planned, so if we can make up a bit more ground, it means fewer big driving days for us further down the track. Anyways, wish us luck for the next bit of adventure, and you'll hear from us soon! 

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The last six months or so...

So, I know it's been a reeeeeeeally long time between blogs, but I'm planning to make up for it with this email, then we're back on track! And since we're actually back on the road, I reckon that's a good start...

Here's what we've been up to since the last blog:

* I flew to the Gold Coast for Meta's hen's weekend. 

• Matt and I spent time with his dad and step-mum for a pre-xmas xmas on our way to Ulladulla.
• We had Christmas and New Years at Kings Point at mum and dad's place with the whole fam. New Years was quiet (compared to some we've had before), but it was awesome fun with drinks, darts and even a haircut and "makeover" for my uncle Rob! Fun times...
• Matt started working at a local caravan repair place.
• I turned 29, almost the big 3-0!
• Ryan, Ange, Hollz and I went to see Bluejuice at the Ex-Servo's Soooooooo good, then Ange and I saw them when we were driving past the next day at Pilgim's in Milton. 
• I was bridesmaid for one of my best friends from school's wedding. Meta and Aaron were happily married on 6th February!
• Matt and Dad have become "pro" on Wii Golf.
• I started work at a take away place in Mollymook. Fun times...
• I got to see the Blessing of the Fleet princess parade for the first time in about 10 years. Believe me when I say it's a big thing in Ulladulla!
• Ryan (my bro) and Ange (his gf) and Roxy (their dod) moved out of mum and dad's place to Tarrawanna, in Wollongong.
• Matt quit the caravan repair place and went back to work for Glen.
• I flew to WA for my best friend Bruce's 30th. It was a tops night, and great to spend time with Bruce and his beautiful wife Nikki. 
• We went to Sydney for the weekend to see Wicked. It was wicked. If you have a chance to go and see it, do it, it's bloody awesome! 
• Brendan (my other bro) and his gf Aleeda have reno'd most of their flat in Dee Why. They're still going from what I hear... We'll have to check out their progress when we get back in August.
• We sold our caravan, and borrowed Matt's dad's camper trailer for this trip, and for next's years venture up the east coast.
• Skye a.k.a Nooga (one of my best friends from school) has moved to Kings Point, on the very same day that we left! I helped her move. 
• I've had some tops luches with my bestie Tasha, lots of talking and laughing and laughing and talking... : )

And I think that just about brings us up to date! There's a few photos to come, it's going to have to wait until I get somewhere easier and better to upload them all though. 

D

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On the road again...

We packed up our little house on wheels, and drove the huge distance (two suburbs away) to Kylie and Stu’s for Maxx’s 1^st birthday party. The birthday boy amused everyone before going down for his little nanna nap, then was up and running again! It was a good chance for us to say one last goodbye to everyone (seems like all we’re doing these days is saying goodbye to people!) before we headed down south.

 

Got to Busso (as the locals say…) Sunday afternoon after I drove most of the way down the new Forrest Highway! Craig and Dale (who we were staying with) live right on the beach at West Busselton, or Abbey I think it might be called, and it’s beautiful! When we got there it was nice and sunny, we took the dogs (ours and theirs) for a walk along the beach and basically just caught up on the news.

 

Monday, Craig and Dale had the day off (they own and operate the par 3 golf course in Busselton, it’s awesome fun! http://www.touristradio.com.au/busselton/sponsors/par%203%20golf.htm), so we went out to some of their local drives, across to Dunsborough, 4WD to Yallingup, had some lunch there, then headed down to a couple of galleries for lookies and coffee. On the way back to Busso, we called in to Christian Fletcher’s gallery in Dunsborough, and I was in heaven! Christian’s photos are unbelievable, something to aspire to, and the gallery is just beautiful. Well worth the visit if you’re ever down that way, or even check out his website, you’ll see what I mean! Monday arvo, Matt and Craig went out on Craig and Dale’s kayak’s, and Matt scored some mussels off a couple of the boat moorings that are just off the beach. I tell you, there’s nothing better than fresh mussels on the barbie, so yummy! We went to Craig and Dale’s friend’s place in the afternoon to play tennis, and ended up being there for about an hour and a half.

 

Tuesday, Melbourne Cup day, Matt and I played in the par 3 ambrose (listen to me talking like I know what I’m on about!) competition at Craig and Dale’s golf course. Matt and I were Dale and Pam’s (Dale’s sister) handicaps, so much so that Dale and Matt came last, and Pam and I second last! It was good fun, I did feel bad for Pam that I was so crap though… J We watched the race after that, as you do, then had a quiet afternoon back at the house with Craig. Matt and Craig went out on the kayaks again, and this time came home with a couple of squid that Matt and I cooked up for dinner for all of us! So yummy again!

 

Wednesday, our 9^th anniversary, we ended up doing a bit of a tour of the area thanks to the lovely Craig and Dale. We headed down to the Margaret River cheese factory first, then onto Moon Haven in Cowaramup which Dale’s friend from high school, Leonie, owns. We got a backstage pass so to speak, with Leonie showing us all through the stock rooms and even giving us a few samples! J After buying a few things from there, we headed over to Providore which has the most amazing pastas, sauces, jams etc, I think Matt and I sampled just about everything! We then went on to Woody Nook for lunch (delicious!), then back to the chocolate factory (ahhhhhhh), and on to Yahava Koffee before heading back to Craig and Dale’s place. Matt and I hung around for the rest of the afternoon while Craig and Dale went to work, then we all went out for Thai for dinner with Craig and Dale’s two daughters, again so lovely!

 

Thursday, Matt went to work with Craig to play in the weekly mens comp, then I went in with Dale at about 9, and Matt and I played another round. We then headed back to Craig and Dale’s place so we could pack up the van for the weekend, and some stuff for overnight. We then headed back north for the night to Bunbury (Bunno as Ryan tells me…) to stay with Ryan and Brent for the night. Brent cooked up a storm on the barbie, and we sat around in the lovely afternoon sun, chatting and drinking.

 

Friday we headed back to Busselton for some food shopping, then we were off for the weekend camping with Craig and Dale and Leonie and Eric who we’d met on Wednesday. We ended up staying at Sues Bridge, the only place around there that allows fur kids. So we all got set up for the weekend, and had a few drinks around the campfire.

 

Saturday, Matt and Craig decided that they’d like to kayak down the Blackwood (launching from where we were staying), and we could all go and meet them in a couple of hours to pick them and the kayaks up and go back to camp. Dale, Leonie, Craig and I sat around the campsite for the time being, reading and just hanging out, pretty much. We said we’d meet the boys at Hut Pool at about 12, but after we’d been waiting there for an hour and a half, we started making plans on who was going to go back to camp and get some food and warmer clothes for us all. About five minutes after we’d decided that, the boys came paddling down the river! Apparently it was longer than they thought, and there’d also been quite a few places that they’d come across where the river was quite wide and they’d pretty much had to paddle non-stop! So, we had a fairly quiet afternoon after all that excitement! We did have a few more drinks that night, and played cards, oh damn, again.

 

Sunday Leonie and Eric packed up to go home, so Craig, Dale, Matt and I went out 4WDing for the day. We went back to the Donnelly River campsite where we camped at Easter time to show Craig and Dale, then tried to find the access to the campsite on the other side of the river – no joy. On the way back past we stopped at Donnelly River wines (very cute!), then went up and had a look at Red Gully where Matt saw the first of two (albeit small) snakes that we found that day. We had lunch, then cut back through Denys Road and had a look at another campsite right on the river where there was a snake just at the edge of the river. Yay.

 

Monday Craig and Dale packed up before we’d even started to do so, then headed off back home. We finally finished at about 12, then headed south again and ended up staying at Parry’s Beach for the princely sum of $7 for the night. We got a hot shower before the sun went down, and the camp was right on the beach (not as good as Woorrora, but still pretty good!).

 

We made it to Albany this morning, had a bit of a look around the town then headed out to the King River Palms CVP, where we’re set up right on the river. It was beautiful when we got here, and for about two hours after that, but big thunder storms have been rolling in all afternoon, and it was even hailing when we got back from our drive this afternoon! It’s pretty nice though, so we’re here for another night to have a bit more of a look around, then on to Esperance. We’re both looking forward to getting past here, onto “new” roads for us since we’ve never been further than Albany along the SW coast.

 

I’m putting some pics up tomorrow, so check them out probably in the afternoon, I should have at least some up by then! : )

Getting up to date... Rockingham, working and leaving again!

So, we spent a couple of weeks in the lovely (ahem!) Rockingham while Matt did some work, and I had the lovely job of tidying, sorting and generally making the caravan a bit more user-friendly. We got rid of all the stuff we’ve quickly realised we don’t need to cart around with us, re-packed the storage unit, and I gave my car a bit of a runaround for a couple of weeks before putting her back into storage.

 

I’ll just run through a couple of the highlights here, and chuck a couple of pics up so as not to bore you with the whole story.

 

*Went to Jus and Kat’s for a BBQ/catchup/drinking session. I slept on the couch the whole next day, and I have very bad memories of some chilli sauce…

 

*Went to the driving range with Justin, could hardly move my arms for the next couple of days…

 

*Caught up with our WA family, the Reads. J

 

*Matt got his dreads done again. I surprised Bruce and Nikki that day while I was waiting for Matt by turning up at their place unannounced. J

 

*We had one super-hot Perth day, 37 degrees baby! Went swimming off the new jetty at Palm Beach and the water was freezing!

 

*We went to see Ash Grunwald again! This time we dragged Shersto and Woody (aka the uni students) with us, and it was bloody awesome. Ash puts on a damn good show, and since this one was a recording for a live album it was even betterer!

 

*Went to Steve and Anne’s for homemade wood-fired pizza. Soooooooooo good!

 

*Had lunch with Bruce in the city after discovering that the Peter Alexander city store has closed down… L

 

*Took Glen out for dinner at Istanbul in Freo. Yummy!!!

 

*Went shopping at Peter Alexander in Booragoon!!!!!!

 

*Out for dinner at Betty Blue, my favourite place on the foreshore at Rockingham.

 

*Went to Bruce and Nikki’s for dinner. Mmmmm mmmm!!

 

*Went to Dunc and Ken’s for lunch for six hours! Their baby, Dylan, is getting so big! Too cute!

 

*Went to Maxx’s 1^st birthday party at Kylie and Stu’s for a couple of hours on our way to Busselton.

 

And I think that’s about it! So, that takes us up to leaving Rockingham (well, Palm Beach if you want to be precise!), and heading down to Bussleton…

 

Port Gregory

Ok, so this bit’s going to be a bit of an update since it’s been awhile (ok, a long time!) between blogs. There’s more to come after this one as well, so put your glasses on Norma, you’re in for a read!

 

From Carnarvon, we headed south again (and yes, it’s getting colder and colder as we do…) to the quaint little town of Port Gregory, where we are currently residing in lot 81! We got here yesterday, got set up, then headed down to the jetty for some more fishing. Yay. Fishing. J Matt and Craig outdid themselves, and pulled in a couple of decent sized Taylor that we’ve had for lunch today.

 

Today we’ve been exploring along the beach with Craig and Dale before saying goodbye to them after we all had a feed of fish (except for poor Craig who’s allergic to fish!). They’ve headed a bit further on down the coast, and are basically heading home from there. It’s been great travelling with them (if nothing else, it gives you someone else to talk to! J), we’ve had so much fun and seen some awesome sights. It was kinda sad to see them go, but I guess some people do have to work… J

 

So, Matt, Jack and I are on our own again but not for too long since we’ll be back with the lovely Jen and Phill this weekend in Cape Burney. We’ve already had another adventure this afternoon, anyway! We headed inland towards Northampton to check out the ruins of Lynton.

 

By Matt:

 

Hi, We haven’t written for a while sorry! This is actually my first go at a blog too. Following on from where D got up to last time. We went to the Hutt River Province and had a tour around with Prince Leonard. The PHR (Principality of Hutt River) is well worth a look if you are up this way http://www.principality-hutt-river.com/.

 

After we left Port Gregory we headed down to Phill and Jen’s at Cape Burney. We watched the grand final here and I got us extremely bogged on the beach which meant that we missed the start of the game.

 

And that’s the end of Matt’s blog writing excitement…

 

We ended up staying with Phill and Jen until the Monday after the grand final (that’s the afl grand final for those of you in states that show the REAL football). We headed back to Rockingham pretty slowly (you’ll see why in the photos), and pulled up in Glen’s driveway on 29^th Oct.

 

Worroora Station and so on

I think the last blog left us at Worroora Station, at 14 Mile Camp, so let’s go back to there…

 

The 18^th, we spent a very lazy day doing not much apart from a bit of tidying up and doing fun stuff like emptying portaloo’s. Fun times… We ended up with Craig and Dale in our caravan for dinner since the wind was worse than ever (if that’s at all possible!). We had a great night, a few drinks and played some (rather, a lot of) cards.

 

Saturday (19^th) was another action day, we headed into Coral Bay for most of the day. We started off going into the dunes south of the new-ish boat ramp and got a little way up before some people on four wheelers told us that there was someone in a 4WD that was stuck further up. We got to him a couple of k’s further south, he’d made it through all the sand dunes, and had got stuck on the beach. Matt was laughing afterwards, he said the guy didn’t even know if he had it in 4WD or not! So, after pulling him out of the sand (he was pretty thankful), we headed a bit further down the beach to Five Finger Reef where we stayed for an hour or so while Matt and Craig put their lines in. Craig caught the only one this time, as you’ll see in the photos. We headed into town after that, straight to the pub where we had lunch overlooking the actual bay of coral, very nice! Lunch was followed by snorkelling amongst the coral, fish and a couple of turtles, I only wished I had’ve had an underwater camera! A quick trip to the supermarket for the world’s most expensive jar of coffee, then we headed back down the coast to 14 Mile for dinner and cards again (love those cards! J).

 

We decided that we’d had enough of the relentless/blowing/howling/gale force/annoying (insert your favourite in here) wind, so packed up on Sunday and headed into Carnarvon. Matt and I had to stop at the entrance to the station to put our level-rides back on the caravan, and Craig and Dale were waiting for us there. As soon as I got out of the car Dale showed me these gorgeous little green bird-looking flower/leaves. It’s hard to explain, so there’s a photo of them to show you. Dale was telling me her grandpa had been a lighthouse keeper and her grandma had brought one of the bushes back to Busselton with her after they’d done a stint in the north-west at one of the lighthouses up there. How cool is that?! A lighthouse keeper! J

 

So, we left the windy coast and headed south again, back to good old Carnarvon. Craig and Dale cooked up a feast of roast dinner, and we “went over to their place” for dinner. Had a pretty early night so we could get organised and get going early the next morning.

 

Worrora Station

Tuesday we left Barradale, and headed straight to Coral Bay. Had a bit of lunch, and a wander around before making the trip in to Worroora (pronounced Warra) Station. So, we’ve been here since then, and are camped right on the beach with Craig and Dale (we’re about 10m from the water, so Matt tells me) and it’s windy all the time, but it’s bloody beautiful! Warroora is on the coast (obviously!), and is part of the Ningaloo Marine Park, WA’s answer to the Great Barrier Reef. You can see the actual reef all the way along the coast from the beach, I’d guess it’s about anywhere from 500m to 1k out from the shore. The water is a beautiful aqua colour (you’ll see in the many photos!), not super cold but just nicely so.

 

Matt and Craig threw a line in almost as soon as we got here (boys and fishing, pft!), Matt ended up pulling in a Milkfish (we didn’t know that at the time, someone told us the next day what it was), but threw it back. Craig and Dale found some corrugated iron, so we’ve had a couple of raging fires so far which has been quite good with all this wind. Wednesday we went to Sandy Point (on the station) for the boys to do some fishing. Craig caught the first fish, a little black thing, threw that back, then Matt caught a Golden Trevelly. We were all stoked, most of all Matt, probably because I always give him such a hard time about not catching any fish! We had planned on having the fish for entrée to our roast dinner that night, but we ended up having fish and rustic chips last night, and it was absolutely delicious!

 

Yesterday, we had a bit more of an explore around the coastline. I think at the furthest point away from where we’re camped, Matt said it was about 32k’s as the crow flies. There’s heaps of stations right on the coast along here, like here and Quobba, that Matt and I have found really unusual. Nothing like this on the east coast. So, we went to a couple of beaches along the coast yesterday, did some swimming and snorkelling, and drove right to the other end of the station. Just in the one day we saw goats, sheep, emu’s and kangaroosters, and Jack stared at all of them, so funny! He even had a bark and a bit of a wimper at the goats when Matt stopped to get him to have a look at them, then tried to jump out of the window and chase them. The little bugger… He’s been in his element here though, it’s the first time he’s been off the lead for this long in ages. He’s even turned into “the great crab hunter”, chasing all the little crabs along the shore and pushing them with his nose when he catches up to them. He’s loving it!

 

The wind has been blowing pretty much constantly since we got here, the first night we were ready to move over behind the dunes, but we’ve kinda got used to it now, and it hasn’t been as bad as the first night again (thank god!). We’re booked in here for the week ($50 for both of us for the week, how cheap is that?!), Craig and Dale leave to go home next Tuesday I think, so we’ll make the decision then whether to leave with them, or stay an extra couple of nights before we invade Jen and Phill back at Cape Burney again on our way back to Perth. It’s been pretty great so far, especially the rest day today. I think I’ll definitely have to have a nanna nap this afternoon…

Karratha Weekend

After leaving the pretty cool Point Samson, we drove the mammoth distance to the awesome Karratha (made so by the Morrissey’s! J). We arrived at about 11am, parked the van up outside Kez and Petey’s, then headed into Karratha to have a bit of a look around. After some Maccas to help Matt’s sore head, we drove out to Dampier to check that out. (I’ve just realised that I deleted the photos I took out at Hearson’s Cove, near Dampier, so there’s not going to be anything on the blog from there. I’m so annoyed with myself for doing that, it was so beautiful the day we were there. Grrrrrrr…)

 

After a swim and a bit of a wallow in the water (it was so warm and clear!), we headed back to K-town via the bottlo (priorities), and got back to Kerry and Peter’s just before Petey got home from work. We sat around having a good old yarn with Petey, then Kerry came home and after a bit of a catch up with her, we decided we’d head out to the pub for dinner. The Tambrey was full of guys in hi-vis, which is to be expected on a Friday night, I guess. The ratio of guys to girls was about 10:1, so that was a bit funny. We had a nice meal, a couple of drinks then jumped in a taxi to go (no more walking, hey Kez? J). After a few more drinks back at the house, we had an early-ish night.

 

Saturday was hot again (I didn’t expect anything less in Karratha). We headed into town to the shopping centre to have a wander around, do some shopping and pick Conner up from work. Kez suggested we all sit and have a coffee at Muffin Break, and I tell you it was one of the funniest shopping-type experiences I’ve had. Firstly, it took us about 10 minutes to actually get to be served (there were only two lots of people in front of us), then by the time we actually got to the counter we could see why. The dude behind the register was (to put it nicely) a bit all over the place. He took Kerry’s order, then went off on his merry way to get it all together and by the time he came back it looked like he wasn’t going to take any money. Then there was no EFTPOS (who doesn’t have EFT these days, I ask you?!), so we asked him to add the orders together, then when we asked how much it was he pulled out a calculator to figure it out since he’d taken the first order off the register. I was wetting myself by this time, and I was surprised that we actually got what we’d ordered! After that fun little experience we went to do the shopping, Conner was finished at Coles by then and we headed back to a nice big lunch and a very relaxing afternoon back at the house. We headed off to the local AFL grand final later on, Matt and I just made it for the last quarter. One of the guys Petey works with’s son was playing, and they won so that was pretty cool. It was a good game, even for me who’s not really into AFL. We watched more footy and cricket on the movie screen Kerry and Pete have in their home entertainment room while having a few quiet drinks.

 

Sunday Petey, Conner, Matt and I headed off to Cossack to go out in the estuary in Pete and Kerry’s (soon to be) son-in-law’s boat that Petey is “looking after” during the winter months. We had a great day, crabbing and fishing, but only ended up with one mud crab that Matt and I ate that afternoon while K & P were out at a friends place. Had another relaxing evening around the outdoor table. We said our goodbyes that night, and it was lucky we did since we woke up later than we’d planned. Such a great weekend with good friends, we’ll definitely be back to park to van on the corner and stay in Karratha again! J

 

Monday we headed off early to do some shopping for the week/s ahead, it ended up taking us bloody ages but we weren’t really in that much of a rush so it was all good. We ended up leaving at about 1, and drove straight through to Old Barradale (there used to be a roadhouse there) with a quick stop off at Fortescue River for Matt and Jack to have a swim! Barradale was packed with grey nomads, but we found a spot alright since the place is so big. We woke up the next morning to find that we were the second-last people there, because apparently you have to get up at the crack of dawn to be at your next night’s accommodation by 10am (rule #76 in How To Be A Grey Nomad). We only woke up at 8, and didn’t think that was too late, but clearly we were wrong…

Balla Balla, Roebourne and Point Samson (6-10th Sept)

After deciding to stay two nights at Balla Balla, we ended up staying for only one. Matt got stung by massive amounts of midgies (sandflies) on Sunday night (check out the photos to see how bad they were!), I was in bed thank god and didn’t get stung at all (or weed on, so we’ve found out from our extensive research on how to stop the itch and prevent them biting you). Matt tried some fishing at the “boat ramp” which was more of a mud pit with rocks, but got no joy. There were crabs everywhere, you could see little bits of red all through the mud, but they were only small (the ones we saw, anyway), so sorry Norma, we didn’t have any! : (

 

After a pretty quiet night, we headed off mid-morning through to Roebourne, then straight towards to coast to Point Samson. It’s a pretty sleepy little town (if you can call it that!) with two caravan parks, some houses, and that’s about it. The caravan park (Cove) is pretty new, I think only about three or so years old, so it’s pretty nice even if the prices are a bit steep!

 

We jumped on our bikes after unpacking, and had a bit of a look around the point, not much to see other than whales passing by, lighthouse, reef and the Cape Lambert port for iron ore (I’m guessing from Newman) with the massively long jetty. The jetty is apparently the longest and highest in the southern hemisphere (or maybe just in Australia…?) There’s an old jetty here as well, but there’s not much left of it – the weather up here gets a bit hairy when it’s cyclone time! We found the coolest raised deck-type thing as well (the photo is on the website – especially for you Lyn & Drew!), it’s on top of a bus parked in someone’s front yard!

 

Tuesday we went out to have a look at the abandoned town of Cossack. The town originated from pearling, and was abandoned after Broome took over as the pearling guru town. It was pretty interesting having a walk around and checking out all the restored buildings and ruins around the town. Matt threw a line when we’d finished looking around, but no luck. : ( We then headed back in to Roebourne to go to the tourist information centre that’s been set up in the old gaol, only to find that it closed at 3 and it was 3:20 by the time we got there! So, we went up to Mt. Welcome, then headed back into Point Samson.

 

Yesterday we had a bit of a lazy day, well I did anyway! Matt did a bit of work while I sat outside all day and read a whole book, for the first time ever (not I actually read a book for the first time ever, I actually read a whole book in one day – and no, it wasn’t a little golden book : P). We had a bit of a wander around the beach and rocks out the front of the cvp, then Matt went for a swim (surprise, surprise) at Honeymoon Cove. We wandered around to the marina (world’s smallest!), and had a bit of a paddle at the boat ramp. The marina highlight was the size of the chains we saw sitting on the side of the road, check out how big they are! Crazy!

 

Today’s been another kind of lazy day, we went to the beach this morning (both got sunburnt), then came back to do a bit of maintenance on the van, and have a bit of a tidy up ready to head off tomorrow. All the way to Karratha… (seriously, it’s only 60k’s from here! Hi Kez and Petie, we’ll be there soon!)

Saturday & Sunday (5 & 6th Sept)

We made it to Port Hedland from Auski Roadhouse (Munjina for those of you playing at home) yesterday. It’s amazing how much the country changes between the two, going from mountain ranges (that look like something out of the wild west) near Munjina, to big flat open plains and back again all in about 260k’s. Pretty uneventful drive.

 

When we got to Port Hedland and had a quick bite to eat, and saw some people in a mini-bus with an Ulladulla sticker on the back of their bus, we booked into the noisiest caravan park in the world, no kidding. A hint if you’re ever staying in Port Hedland, don’t stay at the PH CVP, you won’t get any sleep or peace for as long as you’re there. It didn’t help for starters that the international (cow paddock!) airport is across the road, and the train and main road down south are right out the back and front of the park. Not a good choice of mine, and a waste of $30 for the night. Oh well…

 

So, we headed off early-ish this morning, via South Hedland to visit McDonald’s for breakky and after a slight detour (ie. we took the wrong road from Whim Creek), we’re now about 120k’s S-E of PH at a place called Balla Balla. It’s not much more than a mangrove swampy kind of thing, but there’s access to the ocean and apparently an island about 3k’s off the coast. We’ll probably stop here for two nights (it’s nice and cheap being free!), then head further down the coast towards Karratha, maybe to Roebourne or Port Sampson. We’ll see…

 

BTW, I’ve put up all the Karijini photos on the website, check them out when you’ve got a tick. So many beautiful gorges!

Monday 31st August to Friday 4th September

We’ve been to Karijini! : ) After spending the day on Monday in Newman getting organised again, we headed North on Tuesday (once again!) to Karijini National Park. Here’s some fun facts for you about KNP – it’s the second largest national park in WA, and has both of WA’s highest mountains, Mt. Bruce and Mt. Meharry. We didn’t do any mountain climbing this time, but definitely did some other climbing – up and down into the gorges! It was a bit bizarre when we first got into the park and got set up, you can’t really see anything from any of the day use areas that would give away the size of some of the gorges, and they’re all down in the ground, instead of up like we were expecting. There are a few mountain ranges in and around the park, which are pretty massive in themselves, but then to have all these big gorges go down from ground level is quite amazing. (As I write this, we’re actually driving through some of the ranges to the east of the park, and there’s even some more gorges you can see from the road - beautiful!)

 

So, we camped in Dales campground (quite fitting since we were still with Craig and Dale!) for the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights, and managed to see all of the gorges within the area within those couple of days. The first afternoon we thought we might as well make the most of it, and headed straight down into Dales Gorge, to the beautiful and bloody freezing Circular Pool. There was water cascading down out of the rocks into the Pool, and being the afternoon, the sun was nowhere to be seen since we were at the bottom of the gorge. We then headed up to the other end of the gorge to Fortescue Falls, the water was falling off the layered rock and straight into another big pool and was a little (not much though) warmer than Circular. After swimming there as well, we headed on even further (still in the same gorge) to Fern Pool. We definitely swam in the right direction, because Fern was the nicest and warmest one of them all! (BTW, I’ll add photos of all these when I get a chance to get them off the camera – in the next couple of days) We had an early night, as we have tended to do when we’re off-road, and made plans for the next day.

 

Wednesday we were up and going early (early to be, early to rise!), we had a 43k drive to Weano Gorge. This one was the same, no inkling of a gorge even being there until you’re actually climbing down into it. Craig, Matt and I headed off leaving Dale to read while we tackled this one. After a steep descent, and even a shimmy down a ladder, we made it to a pool where you had two choices, get wet, or climb the rocks. Craig and I scrambled over the rocks while Matt put his non-slip sandals on and waded through the water. We got to Spider Walk after that, where you have to have your hands and legs spread over either side of the gorge, and “walk” through (again, I’ll put some pictures up if that, I don’t think I explained it very well!) to Kermit’s Pool. Kermie was a bit chilly (no, actually it was bloody freezing!), but we had a union rule for the three of us, one in, all in. We couldn’t go any further along this gorge, since it turned into a category 6 after Kermit’s Pool, so you have to be accredited to abseil and all that kind of stuff. We headed back along the Spider Walk, I took Matt’s advice and left my shoes tied to my bag and just walked through the water at the bottom of the gorge instead of spidering along. We were back at the top of the gorge before we knew it, with burning thigh muscles (not for the first or the last time)!

 

After a bite to eat, we headed off to another gorge, and down along the bottom to Handrail Pool. We left Dale at the entrance to Handrail, and climbed down the slippery water course and had another (chilly) swim over to the other side of the pool, and into a smaller gorge that we swam through, only to be met with another sign that it turned into a class 6 gorge! So, again we turned back and headed back up the gorge.

 

We then headed about 20k’s back towards our camp, and on to Knox Gorge. It was getting pretty late in the day by this stage, but we still headed in, and along the bottom once again. We didn’t get too far again when we hit the class 6 section, so couldn’t go any further, but headed back a bit to a pool we’d passed on the way and had a nice soak for a bit, even though the water was a tad fresh. A Swiss family (Robinson, I  like to think their name might have been) caught up to us as we were just getting out, and Matt talked them into going for a swim on the proviso that he went back in to the water as well. The son took ages to jump in the water, but mum was videoing him at the same time, so it might have been a bit of a play for attention. He was quite funny to watch though, I reckon he counted to three about fifteen times before he actually jumped in, and then his sister and dad jumped in straight after him. We had a bit of a chat to them afterwards, they’d just come from living in Switzerland for 6 years and were heading to Sydney after this holiday, where the mum had been living before that. Interesting people you meet… : )

 

We had another quiet night, dinner and a couple of quiet drinks around the pseudo-campfire (aka Craig and Dale’s candle, since we weren’t allowed to have an actual fire). Had a very cruisy morning yesterday, then headed off to Kalamina Gorge, after a quick stop in at the visitor’s centre (they had some awesome Christian Fletcher photos for sale, as well as his second book that I pored over for about 10 minutes!). We had some lunch before heading down into Kalamina, then Craig and Dale headed straight to the waterfall while Matt and I headed the opposite way to have a bit more of a look in the gorge. Most of the pools here were pretty stagnant, with only a little bit of running water, so after a bit of a look around, we headed back to the waterfall where there was a nice little pool that Craig was having a dip in. Matt had a “shower” under the waterfall, and I took some pics (surprise, surprise), then we headed back to camp.

 

We were planning on chilling the bottle of Moet that Nigel and Donna gave us as a going-away pressie, and taking it down to Fern Pool to drink, but we’d over-exerted ourselves a bit too much over the last couple of days, and ended up just having a lazy afternoon, reading and snoozing. Sorry Nige, I promise we’ll find somewhere even better for a drink! : )

 

So, that brings us up to this morning. We’ve been up since about 7:30, packed everything up and have been up to Auski Roadhouse to drop the van off, and are now back on our way to Newman to pick up muttley, who’s had his teeth cleaned and has hopefully been given a hydro-bath by now, so he won’t be so red and stinky vby the time we pick him up! We’re booked in at Auski for the night, pretty expensive but nice grassy sites, so we’ll make the most of it while we’re there. We’ve got a few bits and pieces to do in Newman, then lunch and pick up not-so-stinky dog before we head back to Auski. Should be heading up to Port Hedland tomorrow, but if we find somewhere nice to stop off tomorrow night, it might not be until Sunday night that we grace the Hedland. We’ll see… : )

 

PS. For all the Perth kiddies, we’re going to be back through that way for most of October. Matt’s working for most of the time, and I’m looking for work to get a bit more dosh for us. Hope we’ll be able to catch up with you!  : D

Friday 28th to now

Ok, here goes with another mammoth blog! My apologies, but we didn’t have the laptop with us all last week, and even if we did I couldn’t have sent anything anyway! We saw about three other groups of cars for the whole time we were out last week, so it was pretty remote stuff. Some beautiful scenery and waterholes (some not so full of water), and we got our fair share of exercise for the week scrambling up mountains and over rocks for hours at a time. We’ve had a great week!

 

Friday 21^st

Left Newman after dropping Jack off at the boarding kennel. First stop was Kumarina roadhouse, where they had the biggest homemade sausage rolls I have ever seen! We all hoed in to one each, but mine made another appearance a couple of hours later which wasn’t so pleasant. Anyway, we headed offroad straight after that, through a property (thanks gate girl!) and after awhile found the abandoned drill rig and windmill (see pics). After another little drive, we came to Beyondie Station, abandoned for quite awhile by the looks of it. There were a couple of wells we were supposed to have made it to on the way there, but that wasn’t to be. After a bit of not really knowing if we were headed in the right direction (there’s what looks like mining tracks all over the place that intersect with the actual roads, all a bit confusing), we decided to camp for the night at a T-intersection of the track we were on.

 

Saturday 22^nd

Little did we know we were camped about a k up the track from Waterfall Rockhole, which we promptly found the next morning. Looked like it usually has a fair bit of water in it (from the marks on the rocks, and also from the article Craig and Dale had), but there wasn’t much when we were there. We spent about an hour there, the boys climbed all the way up and over the top of the rocks, while Dale and I checked out the Aboriginal art on the walls of a cave, a bit higher up than the water.

 

We left there after all our exploring, and headed straight to Virgin Spring. Since we were there so early in the day, we had a bit of a look around before deciding to stay there for a couple of nights. The articles that Craig and Dale had said that there was hundreds of aboriginal rock art around the water course, but on our first quick trip we had only found a couple of bits. After we got the camp set up and had some lunch, we went for another look, this time walking straight up the water course (there was only a trickle of water over the rocks, so they were a bit slippery!). It was like we’d been walking around with our eyes closed the first time, cause we ended up finding art almost everywhere we looked on the second mission, so we felt a bit better after that. We cooked up a big roast for dinner (it’s a hard life…), and I think we had one of our later nights and didn’t go to bed until 9! Big night in the bush!

 

Sunday 23^rd

Had a later start, then checked out a bit more of the spring. We climbed up to some rock pools, and Craig and Matt (the crazy buggers!) had a swim in the biggest rock pool we saw all day, but it was bloody freezing! We climbed up a bit higher after that, then Dale turned back and the three of us climbed right up to the top. We were standing there feeling like we were the last people on earth when we heard these voices coming up behind us, maybe not as isolated as we’d have thought. The guys turned out to be shooters, and were out looking for camels and emu’s (obviously not on the top of the mountain) to cull. Matt and I ended up almost driving through their camp later on that afternoon on our way out to Lake Kerrylyn, then they followed us out there and we could hear them firing at god knows what, we didn’t see anything at all while we were out there. Had an early night as we planned to get moving early the next morning.

 

Monday 24^th

We left Virgin Spring at about 9, and moseyed on over to Talbot’s Waterhole. This was like a little oasis in the middle of the desert, it was picture-perfect! The boys swam again, while Dale and I had a bit of a wander and a look around. There was a bit more rock art here, and a couple of inscriptions as with Waterfall Rockhole and Virgin Spring. We ended up staying there for awhile, since the next campsite we were staying at wasn’t too far up the track. We got to Serpent’s Glen early afternoon-ish, set up camp and decided that we’d stay there for three nights so we could have a good look around, and also do some walking. Craig and Dale had a bit of a wander in the afternoon, then Matt and I climbed the rocky mountain that was directly above our campsite.

 

Tuesday 25^th

After a bit of a sleep-in (I think it was about 8 before we all were up!) we headed up through the middle of Serpent’s Glen, and saw the rock bridge that Craig and Dale had discovered the day before. Matt and I ended up walking/climbing right through to the end of the valley/gorge, and walked back around to the front and met up with C & D who had found the aboriginal art. We were a bit suspicious about some of the art, it looked like it had been done too recently compared to the other art we’d seen over the last couple of days. Have a look at the pics and judge for yourself.

 

We had a lazy afternoon, just hanging out at the campsite, and I think we all nodded off during the afternoon. Had another roast for dinner. : )

 

Wednesday 26^th

Got moving early-ish and went to check out Good Camp Rockhole, which probably was a great place to camp in the 1960’s when there’s no water around anywhere else! Matt and I reckoned that we’d almost walked right past it on our big walk the day before, it was that close to where we were camping! We then tackled M6, which was supposed to be a 2.5k round trip when you’re walking, but we drove further up a track we found and cut a fair bit of that off on the way up, thought it was pretty steep climbing and a bit hard-going. After a bit of a look around and a picnic on the top, Dale and I left the boys to go back the way we climbed up, and we took the more civilised (read: more gently sloping) route to the carpark where the boys were waiting for us for about an hour!  

 

Thursday 27^th

We packed up camp at Serpent’s Glen pretty early, so headed off straight away. We were trying to find an ochre pit just up the track from our camp that we’d seen the day before from the top of M6, but didn’t end up finding it. Our next stop was the Blue Hills abandoned station. That was really interesting, after walking around for a little while we found quite a bit of stuff that had been left behind when they left the station, by the looks of it. There was what looked like an old kitchen (outdoors, of course), the beams for a house, an old stockyard and fence, and a whole heap of tins that must have been where they dumped their rubbish. We had a look around there for quite a while before continuing on.

 

After an hour or more we finally made it to the Canning Stock Route, and went straight to have a look at well 5, since that’s the well we were closest to. As you’ll see in the picture, it’s been really nicely restored, and Craig and I wound up a bucket of what would pass for drinking water after a boil. The other wells were a bit disappointing after seeing well 5, because none of them have been looked after, or restored like this one has (none of them on that end of the stock route, anyway). The next well was 4B, pretty shabby, then we headed on to Windich Springs for lunch. That was probably the most amount of water we’d seen the whole time, so we all jumped in, then quickly back out again, it was a bit fresh! Onwards to another couple of wells, then we found my furry red trees at well 3. I finally found out what they were, thanks to the plaque! By this stage, it was early afternoon, and by the time we made a quick stop in at well 2 (it was a really quick stop since there were two sheep carcasses in the well!), we made a beeline for Wiluna, thinking that we might just get a room each at the pub for the night.

 

And then we actually got to Wiluna and very quickly changed our minds… On our first drive past the (one and only) pub, all the windows were barred up and it looked like it was closed. We thought that was a bit strange for a Thursday night, so ended up heading to the police station to ask there. The dude Matt and Craig spoke to assured us that the pub would be open, we just had to go around the back through the gates though, and knock on the door if it looked closed. Apparently it was pension day, and they don’t like to have to pub looking to inviting, or do over-the-counter take-aways because the (indigenous) locals like to indulge on payday (surprise, surprise). We were a bit hesitant, but were hungry, so ventured around the back of the pub, which looked like it should have been the front, cause that’s where everyone was! We got A drink at the bar, ordered, ate then left straight away. The boys actually went to wash their hands in the bathrooms, but there were no sinks in there, and god only knows what smeared all over the floors. They highly recommended that Dale and I didn’t go to the toilets there, who knows what state they might have been in…

 

So, we ended up driving pretty much straight back to Newman, and ended up getting back here at about 1:30 in the morning. Matt and I crawled into the caravan, and Craig and Dale rolled their mattress out in the back of our car, and we all slept through the sun coming up, as well as all the mine vehicles in the carpark around us leaving for the morning. Tired much!

 

And that was our trip to the Carnarvon Ranges and Canning Stock Route. I’m sure there’s probably bits and pieces I’ve left out since I’m trying to remember this all now, but I reckon there’s enough there to give you a fair idea of what went on. It was a pretty cool week, fairly easy-going (apart from the last day!), and just good fun. It was very nice to have a decent shower and scrub after the week away though… : )

Saturday 29th August

Craig, Dale and I took ourselves off to the BHP Mt. Whaleback mine tour this morning. Pretty interesting, with all the facts and figures that just seem to huge to be true. It was a bit disappointing not being able to get off the bus more than once, but I guess having a bunch of tourists roaming around your mine site probably isn’t the safest thing. There’s a couple of pics up of the site.

 

Matt spent the morning working while we were on the tour (he’s a good boy, isn’t he?), then we decided to head out to Opthalmia Dam for the afternoon. We were amazed at the amount of water it holds! The boys went for a swim (again!), and Matt tried to wash some of the red off our now red and brown dog. Made a bit of a difference, but not much…

Sunday 30th August

Went up to Weeli Wolli today. It was about a 60k trip from Newman, but so worth the trouble. We took the corrugated roads out to the river, and ended up spending a couple of hours out there, with only two other groups. The first surprise was that the water flowing over the rocks was warm! Everywhere we’ve been over the last week or so (including the pool at the caravan park) has had absolutely freezing water, but this was actually warm! We all jumped in, and had a bit of a wallow since the water wasn’t hugely deep, then cooked up a bit of a barbie for lunch.

 

We had a bit of an explore down river after lunch and another swim, and ended up pretty much following the river down for a couple of k’s. It was all looking pretty similar, so we ended up turning around and heading back on a track that ran parallel to the river bed.

 

After crossing back over the river, Matt found another place to swim! The boys only this time jumped in, while we sat on the warm rocks in the lovely afternoon sun!

 

A lovely day. : )

Saturday 15th & Sunday 16th August

Hi all,

 

We’ve made it just past Tom Price today! : )

 

We headed off mid-morning yesterday from Carnarvon, after a bit of food shopping and a last little look around. We did try and go to the growers market that was supposed to be on in the “town centre”, but nothing around looked anything like a market, so I Woolies’d it up, then we stopped off at a side-of-the-road stall on the way out of town. The trip to Nanutarra was fairly uneventful, but we did get there in time to have a good look around, and for both the boys to go for a swim in the river that runs just next to the roadhouse. It’s a pretty river, fairly low at the moment, but not dried up like most of the rivers, creeks and streams (or dry’s, as I’ve taken to calling them) we’ve driven over the last couple of days. I guess it’s a fair bit different in the wet season, huh.

 

So, we cooked up some dinner and bought the world’s most expensive ice creams from the roadhouse, watched a DVD then crashed. (BTW, if you’re after a good movie, Hunting Game with Richard Gere is a good’un)

 

Matt had the fabulous idea to get up before the sun this morning and go and take some pics of the sun coming up, and shining on the mountains. Anyone who knows me well knows that I’m not a good morning person, but I actually made it up about 20 minutes before the sun, and got some pretty cool shots of the river and mountain. I must admit, it was a pretty good idea after all, and who knows, I might even do it again! : )

 

We were on the road by 9 after our early morning start, which turned out to be a really good thing. We had lunch at Paraburdoo, then decided to head straight on to Tom Price to stop for the night. Only thing was when we got there, the caravan park doesn’t allow dogs anymore (thanks websites, and books we have that say they do!), so we’re camped up in a side-of-the-road parking bay, which has actually turned out beautifully. As you’ll see from the photos, the view is fantastic (we’re about 10k’s out of Karijini National Park), and we’ve met a lovely Scottish couple (Derek and Flo) from Perth that are staying here for the night ‘cause they’re having troubles with their bus. We’ve made plans to follow them (or vice versa) tomorrow since we’re both heading in the same direction.

 

The thing that’s really surprised us is how mountainous it is up here! There are some beautiful looking mountains around this area, as well as a heap of cattle that we keep seeing on the sides of the roads (and avoiding like the plague!). Jack’s quite curious about them all, but was crapping himself when Matt actually tried to take him up to a couple of cows today! Speaking of Jack as well, this camp is literally red, like everything around here. We now have a slightly red (instead of white) and brown dog. He’s having a ball so far!

 

So, onwards to Newman tomorrow!

 

PS. There’s photos up on the website as well. Kylie, I made sure we took some pics of both Matt and I, thanks for the suggestion. Jack had a bit of trouble taking them at first, but I think he’s getting better… : )

The last couple of days...

Alright, since it’s been a bit busy over the last couple of days for us, I’m adding the last couple of days into one big blog. Try to keep up, I can’t promise I won’t be jumping around all over the place! : )

 

Tuesday we had a bit more of a look around Quobba Station after saying goodbye to Craig and Dale in the morning. We went and checked out the lighthouse, blowholes, Sydney II Memorial and a couple of other bits of the coastline. We ended up on a beach just South of the actual homestead, where I finally got my whale pictures, though not the jumping out of the water one I was hoping to get! They’re up on the website. Had a bit of a pack up and some lovely slow-cooked lamb shanks, mmm mmmmm!

 

We left Quobba on Wednesday morning, and headed back into Carnarvon. After a quick our through the town itself with the van in tow, we decided to stay at the Capricorn Caravan Park, mainly because of the fact that their sign out the front said “Your pets are welcome”. Matt figured that they must be a bit of alright if they were accepting of pets, and having been here for two nights already, I must say I do agree with him. The park is nice and clean, dirt roads (it’s no Suncoast!), an undercover pool and it’s far enough off the road that you don’t get all the noise of the big trucks going past at all hours like most of the other caravan parks here would do. We’ve had a nice couple of days here!

 

Wednesday afternoon We went into town to have a bit of a look around, and ended up washing Jack at the vets, then wandering down the road to a pub right on the water for a drink. There’s a couple of pics up from there on our pictures page. We had a quiet dinner in the caravan after doing some much needed washing!

 

Yesterday we dropped the car off for a service at Toyota (PS. they’re a bloody rip-off, don’t go to Toyota in Carnarvon if you can avoid it!), then rode our bikes with Jack in tow out to One Mile Jetty. We ended up riding out to as far as you can go on the jetty, it’s under repairs after a couple of fires and some big swells in the last couple of decades. Go there if you get a chance though, apparently the entrance fees are going towards the restoration. You can only go out to about 800m, but when it’s re-opened it’d be pretty cool I reckon. We also went to the light house keepers house museum, the house is all set up with lots of historical stuff, all four rooms plus the laundry bit off the side of the veranda look like they would have in the early 1900’s, pretty interesting. They’ve got the original lighthouse there as well, that used to be up on a wooden structure until white ants came on the scene. I love a good lighthouse, in case you haven’t guessed it, but I’m still yet to actually go inside one! One day, I hope…

 

We rode back into town after that, had a coffee and finally picked up our parcel from Norma from the Post Office (thank you very much, Australia Post), then headed back to pick up the car. Had some lunch, then headed out to Miaboolya beach for some fishing for Matt, and I took a heap of photos. Jack and Matt were sick of me pretty quickly, but I managed a few sneaky ones of them anyway! : ) We heard about a really good seafood restaurant from some other people camping at Quobba, so got all dressed up and went out to the boat harbour for a seafood feast! The trouble with that was, when we got there, a big group had just arrived and we were turned away. : ( Damn it! After a bit of a drive around, we found a Chinese place back in town that looked alright, apart from the fact that there wasn’t anyone in the restaurant. We went in anyway, and were told that we could have take away, but not eat there as they were closing early since it had been so quiet. So, after the promise of fresh seafood in a restaurant we ended up with take away chinese, luckily it ended up being a pretty good substitution, and I’ve made a reservation for seafood for tonight, so it had better be worth the wait!

 

Today’s been a bit more of a catch-up day, more washing, and Matt’s doing a few bits and pieces to the car. We’ve got shopping and a few other bits to do in town, and we were going to head out to Chinaman Pool today as well, just to see what it actually is ‘cause I’ve wondered every single time we’ve driven past the sign! Lunch first, then we’ll see I guess.

 

Tomorrow we’re heading off again, on the way out to Newman for the next adventure with Craig and Dale. We’re off to the fresh food markets tomorrow morning, then on the road to probably Nanutarra tomorrow night. So, it’s packing up everything again tonight and tomorrow morning early-ish so we can get a decent start on the day. We’ll see if that happens, though. : )

 

Until next time…

 

PS. for Nick. I was cracking up this morning when, the morning show was playing The Venga Bus, and I’ve had it stuck in my head since then! Thanks for that.

Sunday 9th August

With a bit of sadness, we left Phill and Jen’s (oh, and Chelsea’s)at Cape Burney at about 8am on this morning. We knew it’d be a long trip to Quobba Station, so we took our time on the road. It’s been a fairly ordinary kind of day, but not raining so that was a plus. We stopped a couple of times during the day, including the Overlander Roadhouse for lunch (PS. the toilets there are very­ ordinary, just in case you’re travelling up that way, take your own TP, and keep your fingers crossed that at least one of the toilets is working!). We ended up getting to Quobba at around 4:30, since I made Matt stop on the way about 5k’s shy of the station so I could try and take a photo of the whale we had just seen jumping out of the water. The result is on the photos page, you’ll just have to take my word for it that it actually was a whale! : /

 

Quobba Station is a big (and I mean BIG, like over 50k’s of shoreline on the one property) sheep station, that seems like it’s still working ie. grazing and shearing sheep. There’s a sheep in the homestead area that hangs out with one of the cattle dogs, and I swear it thinks it’s a dog. So funny, and it even has a tail, first time I’ve ever seen a sheep with it’s tail intact! We got set up here ok, a bit windy but nothing too bad. We have set the annexe up for the first time, so let’s hope it’s as good here as it was on the front lawn the first time we set it up! This seems like a pretty cool place, not too many people, and you can hear the waves crashing against the shoreline rocks, about 100m away!

 

We haven’t been able to find our friends we’re supposed to be meeting (where are you Craig and Dale!?), so hopefully we’ll catch up with them tomorrow. There’s some blowholes (yes, that’s right Kiama I said blowholeS, guess you need to get a couple more to catch up, hey?), and Red Bluff that we’ll be checking out over the next couple of days, so we won’t be bored that’s for sure!

 

 

Monday 10th September

Oh my god, I thought it was windy in Safety Bay. We were woken up initially at about 11 last night with the beginnings of some quite heavy rain. That was cool, no worries at all. Then the wind started. At about 3am I actually thought the caravan was going to blow over, or the annexe and awning would rip off the side of the caravan and fly away ala Dorothy’s house style. Holy crap, that was some pretty scary shit! Matt ended up going out at about 4 or 5am to tie down the annexe with some rope, just so it felt a bit more secure and wasn’t going to fly off. Thank god everything was ok, we’re pretty happy with the way everything’s still attached as it should be!

 

So after that, we had a bit of a late start to the day. Matt put some wood under the hot water tanks outside the showers and lit a fire for our hot water at about 8am. I was surprised at how hot the water actually was, even though it was extremely salty. We decided to head up to Red Bluff, the other campsite we were talking about meeting Craig and Dale at, and as we were just about to get there they were coming down the track towards us! So, we’ve spent a lovely day with them, went up the coast a bit to the turtle sanctuary, didn’t see any turtles though. : ( Matt and Craig did a bit of snorkelling, but the water was murky because of all the wind. I swear it hasn’t stopped here all day, but at least it’s not as crazy as it was last night!

 

Craig and Dale have been at Red Bluff for a couple of nights, and said they sat around yesterday afternoon watching whales cruise on past their campsite (in the water, of course!). Craig showed us the photos they’d taken, and the whales were so close to the shore you could have easily swum out to meet them, if you were allowed to of course. We sat around for an hour or more at Red Bluff when we got back from our day trip, and watched some of the largest members of the ocean blow water out of the sea. No more spectacular aerial manoeuvres from them, but it was still pretty cool.

 

While I think about it too, we’ve been told that you don’t get notified when we put up new photos on the website, so we’ll just make sure we mention it in the blog when there’s new ones and you can go to the website and just check them out from there. Sorry for the confusion, we didn’t realise it wasn’t going to work that way. There are some new pics up there from today for you to check out.

 

We’ve made plans to meet up with Craig and Dale in Newman in 10 days time, so we’re going to take our time getting there, chill out for a couple of days and get organised for the next leg of the journey. From Newman, we’re leaving the caravans and heading south to the Canarvon Ranges for a bit of a trip through there for a week or so. Then back to Newman, and probably north a bit from there. We’re so excited to be getting out to places like this, and it’s even better to have someone else to do it with!

 

We got back here (to Quobba) at around  5, after a quick stop in at Korean Star, a shipwreck off the coast. You can’t see anything from the shore, but there’s a big Rio Tinto operation happening near there (thanks for the tip, Craig!) that’s pretty cool to check out. (See the pictures on our website!). We’ve had a lovely dinner of whiting (thanks Dale!) and “chips” (sliced, cooked potatoes), and were supposed to be heading over to a nearby campsite for a few drinks and a bit of a chinwag with some fellow ExplorOz-ians, but we’re both too knackered so bed’s looking like a great option really soon.

 

Oh, that reminds me, Mum, you’ll love this one, and Dad you’ll be so proud! I bought a stack of Bali DVD’s with us that we hadn’t watched yet, so we thought we’d break one out last night. We started watching The Boat That Rocked, I fell asleep, and got woken up at the end of it when Matt was having a sad because the end of the movie wasn’t on the DVD! If I wasn’t half-asleep at the time, I would have laughed!  : )

Moving on...

Still staying with the lovely Phill and Jen in Cape Burney. We headed out for dinner in Gero last night, had an awesome feed and a great night out, thanks guys! It’s been great just to chill out for a couple of days with these guys, and little Chels, we’re going to be sad to leave in the morning.

 

Jen cooked us the bestest breakky this morning, which was awesome since we all had a couple of drinks last night! No mess in the caravan this time, though… We’ve had a pretty relaxed day, Jen and I went for a spot of shopping and I finally bought us a TV, hooray! It works a treat and now we finally have an HD TV. : D That’ll keep me entertained at least!

 

D

The story so far...

So, our first night on the road (Tuesday) we spent camped up in a roadside rest area just South of Gulilderton. It was a fairly uneventful evening, almost a full moon, and bloody noisy anytime a car went past. We didn’t do a lot having not tv, so got up early and got on the road. That was perfect timing, it started raining almost as soon as we pulled out of the rest area, and was pretty miserable until we got here to Jen & Phill’s in Cape Berney, just south of Geraldton.

 

We’ve been parked on the front lawn of Jen and Phill’s place until now, having a tops time catching up with Jen and doing a bit more last minute stuff to the caravan. Still got a bit to do, but we’ll hopefully have a bit of time over the next couple of weeks to be able to do those…

 

Thanks to everyone who’s signed up to our blog so far, there’s heaps of you! We will get around to sending out individual emails one day (I hope!), but until then keep on reading!

 

PS. Photos to come soon as well, I’ve just got to start taking some! : )

First Day on the Road!

So, we know we’ve been a bit slack with the blogs this far, but we finally made it! We finally moved out of our house on Friday morning, then moved all the way across the road… We lounged around on Lyn & Drew’s driveway for a couple of nights, before parking up at Justin and Kat’s last night for one last celebration with an awesome roast and some drinkies. Feeling a bit seedy this morning, we dumped some last stuff off at the storage unit, then headed ‘round to say goodbye to the PGSR crew before finally heading up to Yanchep to visit Tammy, Brady and Minnie.

 

 We’re now officially spending our first night on the road, camped up in a roadside rest area just South of Guilderton. We’re off to Geraldton tomorrow to crash on Jen and Phill’s front lawn for a couple of nights, then heading further North to Red Bluff. We’re hoping to spend a bit of time with Craig and Dale from Busso, then no real plans after that.

 

So far, everything’s running pretty smoothly, and it’s great to actually be out here! There’s more pictures to come when we get the chance as well.

 

Matt and D

The time has come...

Monday 20^th July 2:36pm

 

The baby’s here, our tenant’s all ready to move in on 31^st, so the time has come (almost) for us to move out! Less than two weeks to go, and we’re nearly ready, I think.

 

Matt finishes up full time work after tomorrow, then we’re head-on into packing the storage unit up with all the stuff we’re not going to need for the next few years, beds, entertainment unit etc. We’ve got one last catch-up with our friends around here this weekend, then last minute cleaning and packing next week. Fun times…

 

The plan this far is to head up and stay with our friends Jen and Phill (and little Chels, of course!) in Geraldton for a couple of days, then head up further north (somewhere warmer!). We’re supposed to be meeting up with Craig and Dale at Quobba Station (near Canarvon)  after that, but have to see how Matt’s appointment for his neck assessment turns out before we cement that. Whatever happens with that, we’re planning on being up north for most of the rest of the year, until it gets too hot to handle, then we’ll head back down towards Perth and start the trek over the Nullarbor to spend Christmas with the fam.

 

D

First Blog

Thursday 18th June 1:35pm

Well, it's about bloody time we put something up here for everyone to read! So here goes...

We've been back from Bali for almost two weeks now, and the house is getting packed up very slowly. Matt's back at work for a few weeks, so the beginning of the trip should be around mid-July (depending on when Vik's bub comes!). Matt's filling in for John (Vikki's husband) while he takes paternity leave. I'm doing bits and pieces of work here and there, but mostly just staying at home to try and pack it up!

We're both looking forward to warmer weather, especially after coming back to WA in the middle of winter (well, almost). At this stage, it looks like our first stop is going to be Geraldton to crash on Jen and Phil's front lawn since they just moved up there. We'll keep you posted on that though. We'll definitely be heading there, just don't know when for sure.

We're off to Sydney for a couple of days next week, so may have more news on our departure date after then. Stay tuned... : )

I'm also adding a couple of pics, so check them out when you get a chance to.

D