PORT HEDLAND TO FITZROY CROSSING

July 7th 2007
From Port Hedland we had a pretty easy drive to 80 Mile Beach, about 250 k’s, and found a very nice caravan park about 10 k’s off the highway and for once, everything we had been told turned out to be true.
The drive north was quite interesting again, the landscape changing all the time as we left the Pilbarra region and headed into the lower reaches of the “Kimberley” at least we were getting away from the red dirt for a while.
The park was very spacious with big shady sites, spotless amenities and nice neighbours which is a bonus.
The day after we arrived, being Sunday, was “Market Day” and a lot of the people in the park set up a small stall to sell their crafts etc. that they make during their travels it’s quite popular with about 10 or 12 stalls.
Judith put out a few of her Teddy Bears she had made plus her haircutting sign… and worked all day.
She was a real hit as the nearest hairdresser was 250 - 300k’s away and most of the campers were long timers and some were pretty scruffy.
Having spent most of Sunday entertaining J’s clients and keeping them happy while they waited in the queue, Monday was my time to fish, so I went down the beach with our next door neighbour (David) and brought home a 16lb Threadfin Salmon, got my photo taken for the bragging wall in the shop and was pretty happy.
Next day we went for a drive up the beach to the north, looking for shells which are very plentiful and quite different, anyway we drove about 20 k’s, got lots of shells and on the way back to the camp we noticed a spot at low tide that I reckoned would be a good fishing spot tomorrow on the high tide.

The tide here can be anything from 5 to 8 metres so it is fairly easy to find a potential gutter at low tide.
We took David & his wife Trish in the car the next afternoon and headed up the beach and our “SPOT” turned out to be a winner, over the next 2 days I caught two 20 pounders, David got one at 22 pound but Trish topped us all with a Mulloway (Jewfish) that weighed in at 27 pound.
Having caught 3 big fish we were then barred from the beach (that’s the limit) so we spent the next (and last) day washing the car and caravan before heading for Broome. (We didn’t have room in the fridge to keep any more fish anyway)
As you can imagine 80 Mile Beach has become one of our favourite spots…. I don’t know if we’ll ever return though, it’s a long way from home.
For those of you who didn’t pay attention at Primary School, somewhere along 80 Mile Beach is the northern (or western) extremity of the Woomera Rocket Range, which was surveyed in the 1950’s by Len Beadell who was commissioned by the government of the day to locate and survey a 1500 mile straight stretch of the country that didn’t encroach upon or pass over any civilization or settled area, in order to test fire the Jindivik, Australias first rocket.
I’m not sure for what purpose but it worked and flew the required distance so obviously everyone was happy.
After a week at 80 mile we continued on to Broome where we also planned to stay put for a week (driving 300 to 400 k’s a day can become pretty expensive over here with petrol around 150c/ltr.
We’d decided to give ourselves a treat and book an ensuite site for the week which was nice for a change and only $24.50 a night, which is cheaper than some parks where we camp on gravel.
Just as well we stayed as long as we did because Broome was a very nice town and we thoroughly enjoyed our visit. We went on a sunset cruise one night, rode the camels along Cable Beach at sunset, did a tour of the local Pearl Farm and to top it all off we were lucky enough to be there for the “Staircase to the Moon” which only occurs on 2 or 3 nights each month during winter when the rising of the full moon coincides with the extreme low tide and the reflection across the Roebuck Bay sandflats towards the East, resembles a ladder that stretches right across the bay. (Quite spectacular)
The amazing thing was that for the 3 days prior to the staircase there was quite a bit of heavy cloud cover which made the sunsets quite beautiful, but no good for a clear sight of the moon, anyway our prayers were answered (again) and Saturday dawned with not a cloud in the sky so the experience was possible.
Sunday morning when we left it was cloudy again and we even had a spot of rain. (Someone must be looking after us)
While we were in Broome we had a visit from Ken & Robyn Short from Newcastle who we hadn’t seen for about 3 or 4 years, they are about to drive the Gibb River Road and can’t take their little dog into the National Parks so they drove down to Broome for a night to leave Sam in the “Doggie Motel “at the local vets office for a couple of weeks.
We had a very pleasant night catching up on their travels in recent years, sitting on the beach watching the sunset with some nibbles and a glass of wine or two…… (It‘s a tough life out here.)
From Broome we drove up to Derby for some more tourist activity which included one of the better days we’ve had so far on this trip.
Monday morning we left Derby airport at 8.00am in an amphibious plane headed for the “Horizontal Falls”
We travelled with Graham & Merlene Whitney, formerly from Glen Innes, who we have spent some time with in the last 2 weeks or so and only 4 others.
The plane landed on the lake near the falls and we were picked up by a small boat, taken for a tour of the falls and the surrounding waterways before being delivered to a magnificent 65ft yacht moored nearby where we were given morning tea and waited for the tide to turn and the falls to begin their performance.
The horizontal falls are created by the water rushing from one very large lake, which opens to the ocean,
into 2 other smaller landlocked lakes through a very narrow opening in the cliffs. Due to the huge tides that occur in this area the flow of water is frightening and actually builds up to a height of about a metre as it pushes towards the opening, the spectacle only last about 2 hours on each tidal movement but on a really high tide or an extreme low it really is a performance to be seen.
When the time was right we boarded the small boat again for the ride of our lives through the falls, the boat is a rubber Zodiac type craft with twin 200hp outboards and believe me, it needs everyone of them to get through safely as the opening is only about 10 metres wide and the water is pouring through at about 40k’s/hr.
We had 3 or 4 runs through over the next hour or so, which was great, took some beaut photos and video then they took us back to the yacht for a very nice lunch before being picked up again at 1.30 for the trip home via Cape Levique where we landed and were left for a couple of hours to have a swim and a good look around the camp there.
We were later picked up by 2 other small planes and flown back to Derby, arriving at about 4.30. (Not bad for a trip that is advertised as a half day tour)…..Not cheap but great value,

I’d do it all again given the chance.
The next day we went with Graham & Merlene for a 350k round trip, part way up the Gibb River Road, to the Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek, very nice but not quite as exciting as yesterday. The only excitement came when we found a colony of Freshwater Crocs (the harmless ones) and got some good close up photos.
We got back to Derby about 5.00pm and decided it was too late to start cooking so we all went to the local fish restaurant down at the jetty for a nice feed of fish and chips.
We said goodbye to Derby early next morning, topped up the petrol tank at 155.0 c/ltr, for the short trip to Fitzroy Crossing where we found a real nice caravan park out the back of the Fitzroy River Lodge, a pretty flash tourist resort on the banks of the river with petrol on sale at 147c/ltr. (Bugger)….. Booked in for one night only, then headed out to Geekie Gorge for a look and found a boat tour just about to begin so we jumped on board for a very interesting 1.5 hour trip up into the gorge with a pretty well informed guide.
As much as we often say one gorge is much the same as the other, they really are quite different in their own way and worth the effort to see. …..I figure there’s not much point in coming all this way just to drive from one town to the next.
Next morning we decided to stay an extra night as this is the first camp we’ve had in several weeks where they appear to have an abundant water supply and allow you to wash cars and caravans on site so we took advantage of that, it’s a good opportunity to hopefully get rid of the last of the Pilbarra dust and do some washing as well to catch up. The little washing machine is still doing a great job. J tells me I’m due for a haircut so that’s probably going to happen sometime soon as well.
Tomorrow (Friday) we head for Halls Creek then on to Kunnanurra for a few days (and more tours) before heading towards Katherine and Darwin…. We hope to be in Katherine by next Wednesday to watch the State of Origin, you don’t hear anything about NRL in W.A. but I do check the results on the net every week and I’m VERY happy that my Parramatta Eels are doing so well, unfortunately for J the Roosters are having another lean year.
We hope you are all well and thanks to those of you who Email occasionally, it’s good to hear from you.
Till next time
Love to all
D & J.

CARNARVON TO PORT HEDLAND

http://andosontherun.blogspot.com/
MAY 2007
Greetings from Port Hedland
From Carnarvon we only had a relatively short drive to Coral Bay where we had booked for 3 nights.
We had been advised it was a very busy place and it is wise to book first and that info turned out to be accurate for once.
Coral Bay is a beautiful little resort town, a bit of a magnet for backpackers from all over the world, a bit like Airlie Beach in Qld.
The village and all the infrastructure (except water) is privately owned by only 3 families, 2 of them each own a caravan park and shopping centre and the third group own the pub and between them they appear to also own all the boats and tours they offer for diving, coral viewing and fishing etc. plus 4WD quad bikes which are everywhere and available for hire…. For some reason no one can buy property here and officially, no one lives here either. (I don’t understand that but it seems to be true as we were told the story twice)
We decided to give the whale sharks a miss and instead went on a snorkelling trip to the reef which is only about 1k from the shore. Unfortunately the water wasn’t as flat as it could be but, as you would know by now, it’s always windy over here and we didn’t have much time to pick & choose, however once under the water I suppose it doesn’t make a lot of difference. The only danger was getting blown away from the boat but we managed to avoid any problems in that regard and had a great time for a couple of hours.
The coral over here is not as colourful as the Barrier Reef but it is very pretty just the same and some of the growths are huge, the highlight for us was swimming with a large school of snapper and spangled emperor to about 50cm. Being within the Ningaloo Marine Sanctuary the fish are quite tame, they know they are safe and if you’re careful and don’t make any sudden moves, you can actually reach out and touch them under the water as they swim by.
(Who said fish have no brains?)
Day 2 we did a bit of 4W driving into the sand hills and on to the beach away from the town, like most of the W.A. coast the water is a beautiful turquoise colour and the sand is almost pure white, it really is lovely and perfectly safe for swimming with no swells or rips anywhere.
Many years ago, before tourism became popular, this area was known as either Maud’s Landing or Bills Bay (depending on who you listen to) and was an export point for the wool industry, the only reminder of that era today are 2 piers left from the old jetty which has long been derelict. (Probably blown away by a cyclone or two)
The weather is starting to warm up now that we’ve crossed into the tropics, most days are a very pleasant
27 - 30 degrees and nights get down to around 18 and as we’ve turned more into the North East since turning the corner at Carnarvon the winds appear to be lessening as well……Let’s hope so.
We only had about 180k’s to travel the next day to Exmouth so we had a late start for a change as the weather forecast predicted a tail wind from the S.E. we had no need to get away before the wind came up.
Exmouth is a small town of about 2500 currently, but obviously about to go into an enormous growth period, not unlike the rest of W.A.
About 1k south of the town there is a huge canal housing development under construction near a very new harbour and marina precinct which is full of very big boats and prawn trawlers, there are literally hundreds of blocks being created, most with deep canal frontages, all over 900sq mtrs and very expensive. The cheapest we saw in the sales office in town was $440k up to a maximum of $550k and apparently they are selling like hot cakes…….This is obviously going to be a much bigger town in the very near future.

We spent most of the time here on washing & housework plus stocking the pantry and fridge as we intend heading inland for the next week or so, to Tom Price and Newman to have a look at what’s causing this mining boom we keep hearing about.
The road on this sector passed through some of the prettiest and most varied country we have seen on this trip, firstly we drove through miles of bright red sand hill country with patches of brilliant green as a result of recent rains, then it changed almost instantly as we got into the range country and started to see some of the huge rocky outcrops which obviously contain the ores and minerals for which this area is well known.
Some people actually say driving over here is boring but we certainly haven’t felt that at all.
First night out of Exmouth we had a stopover at the Nanutarra Roadhouse where we found the caravan park area quite clean and spacious.
We decided as it was only a quick stopover we would have tea in the cafe attached to the roadhouse…… not a good decision……..due to the isolation everything here is super expensive……..anyway we enjoyed our $19.75 hamburgers, checked out the petrol price (175.9c/ltr) and decided we had enough to get us to Tom Price.
A couple of people we spoke to explained that the power generators at the roadhouse cost about $1000 per day to run so that’s why everything is so expensive. (Makes sense)
Next morning we set out for Tom Price and again drove through some very pretty country, as we approached the Hammersley Ranges the hills became bigger and more colourful and the compass went haywire so there must be mineral everywhere.
Tom Price was a very interesting place, the only caravan park was a little bit out of town and full of workers from the local mine, with a few sites kept for the tourists. You don’t need an alarm clock here as all the diesel utes in the park fire up between 5.30 and 6.00 every morning to go to work.
Tom Price is the highest town in W.A. only 500 plus metres above sea level and in the shadow of Mt. Nameless the highest accessible mountain in W.A.
We stayed for 3 nights, went on a tour of the iron ore mine which is owned by Rio Tinto and is a huge open cut operation 5.5km long, 1.5km wide and about 500m deep right down into the centre of what used to be Mt. Tom Price. Not quite as big as the “Super Pit” in Kalgoorlie but they haven’t been digging here quite as long yet. (Pic’s on the Blog if you‘re interested) They bring the ore up from the bottom of the pit to the processing plant in huge dump trucks each carrying about 180 tonnes, the tyres alone stand 3.7mtrs high and cost about $100k each, up till now they have taken about 1billion tonnes out of the mine and it still has about 8 years left before it runs out.
We were told if we come back here in 10 years we will probably see “Lake Tom price” from the same lookout, as the underground water keeps flowing in continually and the pumps operate 24 hours a day to keep it under control and when the ore runs out it will just be left to fill.
The company will then move on to the next mine…they currently have another 6 sites ready to go at sometime in the future.
We saw the ore being loaded on to the trains which consist of 230 cars, each carrying over 100 tonnes and measuring a total length of 2.4k’s for the trip down to the port at Dampier some 400k’s away on the coast to be shipped to China or Korea.
The whole loading operation for a train that size takes less than 2 hours.
The interesting thing is, as Tom Price is the highest town in W.A. the trains use less fuel travelling down hill to Dampier fully loaded than they use on the return journey empty.
The other interesting bit of info we were told was that the largest single shareholder in Rio Tinto is the queen so I guess their future is assured well into the future.
(There’s a bit of trivia for you)
Next day we went for a drive out to Hammersley Gorge and Mount Sheila, a little bit rough in parts but well worth the drive as both are quite spectacular in their own way, the rock formations at Hammersley Gorge are different to anything we have seen previously, …..not having the faintest idea what type of rock or what the curved formation would be called, I’ve put a Pic on the blog, you can see for yourself.
On the way back to the park we drove up to the top of Mount Nameless via a very ordinary 4WD track with lots of signs advising us if we got into trouble no one else cared, anyway we got to the top and back down in one piece and again, it was well worth the effort, the view is spectacular.
We decided not to go to Newman as it involves another 165k and return to the same point before making any further progress north and as we had seen the mine at Tom Price, we could see no value in another mine, even though the BHP mine at Newman is supposedly the largest open cut operation in the world…..This is certainly the world of “BIG” over here, everyone claims to be bigger than someone else, there is currently a debate going on about which of Dampier or Port Hedland can claim the title of the biggest exporter by tonnage.
We skipped Port Dampier and Karratha as we have heard there’s no accommodation there anyway, all the caravan parks are full of workers and their families.
We are currently in Port Hedland where we’ve seen more big trains, big trucks & even bigger ships and will leave here tomorrow (Saturday) for 80 Mile Beach (about half way to Broome) …we will probably stay there for 6 or 7 days, apparently the beach fishing is really good at the moment and we have been told it is a great park. (Will let you know next time)
It’s getting late in the day and I’m sure you’ll be thinking I’ve waffled on long enough, so hopefully this finds everyone healthy & well.
Till next time
Love to all
D & J.

KALBARRI TO CARNARVON

MAY 2007
ROAMING RAMBLINGS #6
KALBARRI TO CARNARVON
We enjoyed our stay in Kalbarri, it is a very friendly little town and the weather during our stay was perfect barring one night of rain but not enough to spoil anything, the caravan park was right on the river and very clean.
The fishing in the river was fairly quiet so we didn’t spend much time chasing fish as there were plenty of other activities to fill in the time.
We drove about 50 k’s back towards Northampton to the principality of “Hutt River Province”, you may remember in the 1970’s Prince Leonard and his family took the government of the day to court over an issue with his wheat quota, he lost that case but he didn’t give up and after a very long struggle and many court cases he finally seceded his 18000 acres of sheep and wheat from W.A. and Australia and created the independent principality of Hutt River and over the years it has become a bit of a tourist attraction.
When we arrived at the gate we were greeted by one of the staff and told that Prince Leonard had gone to Australia on official business but Princess Shirley would show us around in his absence, it turned out Prince Leonard had only gone into Northampton to collect the mail and would be back in an hour or so.
Anyway we had a private tour of the place, learnt a bit of the history which we found interesting, had our passport endorsed with a visa, bought some currency and souvenirs then Prince Leonard came back and completed our tour with a photo session with both himself and Princess Shirley.
All in all, a fun day with some very strange but fascinating people. Prince Leonard (now in his 80’s) is a bit of an old eccentric but not stupid by any means.
Next day (Wed) was Anzac Day so we got up early to attend the local Dawn Service at the Town Cenotaph, a very small turnout but they had a couple of pipers so that made it OK for me. The march later in the morning attracted a bigger crowd (maybe it had something to do with the free lunch at the pub put on by the RSL.)
We drove out into the National Park in the afternoon and walked to some spectacular gorges in the upper reaches of the Murchison River.
Thursday we had a lay day and caught up with some housekeeping and washing through the day and at night the park people put on a BBQ for all the camp. I had arranged to go on a fishing charter offshore on Friday at 6.00am so an early night was on the agenda.
Fridays fishing trip was really good weather wise, the sea was very calm and the fishing was a bit quiet, but I got lucky and caught a 8kg Dhufish which they consider a delicacy over here. He’s a bit like what we call a Jewfish but not in the Mullaway family, more like a very big Pearl Perch, anyway he is beautiful to eat and that’s all that matters.
From Kalbarri we drove up to Denham which involves a 125k diversion off the main N.W. highway and return, but it was well worth the extra few k’s as Denham is a lovely village in the World Heritage area of Shark Bay opposite Dirk Hartog Island and Steep Point which is the western most point of the mainland, which is another 125k side track on gravel so we declined the opportunity and settled for the view from Denham.
The caravan park at Denham was very large and very clean, the ground consists of compressed shell in coarse sand which is packed down so tightly and has been dry for so long, some sites require an electric drill to create holes for tent pegs to be able to penetrate it.
We couldn’t stay as long as we’d hoped as their annual fishing fiesta was about to begin at the weekend and all the parks were booked out, so we were only able to book for 3 nights… Anyway we took in all the sights and visited Monkey Mia to feed the dolphins, saw some wonderful sunsets and met some nice people. The coastal scenery in this part of W.A. is fantastic as most of the coastline is protected by a series of reefs and the water is so calm and crystal clear turquoise most of the time. (Set to Email 7/5/07
Next stop was Carnarvon, the home of the OTC communications facility which played a major role in the NASA moon landing programme in the late 60’s. The big dish is not operational any longer but it remains on the hill, east of the town as a reminder of the part the town played in that event.
We spent 3 nights in a caravan park especially provided for Seniors and Retirees, (no dogs & no kids allowed).
A bit discriminatory but they seem to be able to get away with it over here, the promotional material just says no child facilities available, it must work OK because the park was fairly busy.
We caught up with a few people we had met so far on the trip including Graham & Merlene Whitney from Glen Innes (cousin Wendy’s old neighbours) plus Lester & Joy Alsopp, previously from Gosford, (I used to play golf with Lester about 30 years ago), they now live at Lennox Head on the North Coast near Ballina.
There’s not a great deal to do in Carnarvon but fortunately there was a speedway event over the weekend, the W.A. State Titles for modified sedans so,…as you do, we went along on Friday & Saturday nights…… took Lester & Joy and had a good time, met a few of the local revheads and rednecks and joined in the fun, the only problem was our choice of vantage position, we parked right on a corner alongside the track where we had a great view, unfortunately the cars ended up covered with clay……Bugger….. One day I’ll learn.
We did visit and walk the 1 mile jetty at the local “Heritage Precinct” on the waterfront at the old lighthouse site, which contains a fairly new “Shearers Hall of Fame” which has only opened recently and is not yet complete but it is basically the work of one local identity who has recently been recognised for his community works. I don’t think there are a lot of sheep in this country today but it has obviously been a big industry in the past.
We leave here tomorrow for Coral Bay at the southern end of the Ningaloo Reef which is the viewing platform for the Whale Sharks which visit this area from about April to July each year.
(Don’t know if we’ll be diving with them, but you never know we might get brave and if we do I’ll tell you about it next time.
Till then
Love to All
D & J

PERTH TO KALBARRI

ROAMING RAMBLINGS #5
APRIL - 2007
PERTH TO KALBARRI
Our first stop after Perth was Cervantes which is a lovely little fishing village with a population of about 250, home to a large fleet of Crayfish boats. It is also the nearest point of access to the Nambung National Park where we found “The Pinnacles.”
The Pinnacles Desert is a very large area of interesting Limestone structures, some up to 4m tall, created by the constant winds blowing the sands from the stone outcrops over many thousands of years. The National Parks people are currently creating a large new interpretive centre and car park at the entrance to the desert in the hope of attracting more visitors in years to come. (Don’t know why that is necessary as it seems every tourist in W.A. goes there now)
The road through the desert is very well defined with many parking areas for those “Kodak “moments.
On the way back to Cervantes we drove into several of the side roads indicated as tourist areas to view the coastal scenery and on one occasion we discovered the local nudist beach so we didn’t stay there too long, the scenery wasn’t that good anyway.
Closer to town we drove to Lake Thetis which is a small inland lake, the location of some Stromatolites which look just like rocks around the waters edge but they are in fact a living organism dating back 3500 million years supposedly the oldest life form on earth. They’re obviously very happy little organisms as they don’t appear to want to move very far or fast.
We then visited the local wildflower centre, as this area appears to be a major wildflower area later in the year during spring when we believe the towns population grows considerably.
Back in town we drove to the beachside area and saw the sign indicating the existence of the nudist beach to the south, we must have gone through the back door.
Cervantes is named after an American whaling ship wrecked on a nearby island “Cervantes Island” in the mid 1800’s.
From Cervantes we drove north along the coastal tourist road through Jurien Bay, Green Head and Leeman to Dongara where we originally planned to stay for a while but we decided to continue on towards Geraldton and stop at Greenough (Grenuff not Greenow as we originally thought) as we had been told at Cervantes we could launch the boat directly into the river from the caravan park and do some fishing for a few days.
That turned out to be wrong advice, but we stayed for a few days anyway and found some very interesting attractions to visit plus the TV reception was good for the V8 races on the weekend. (That’s important)
Greenough is a town that was relocated during the 1800’s due to several floodings of the old town which still stands on its original site and has recently been purchased and restored by The National Trust.


The restoration of the area is almost complete and it has become a very popular tourist attraction.
The buildings available for inspection include the old gaol & courthouse, the community hall with a continuous video presentation showing aspects of life as it was in the village during its existence, 2 churches (Catholic & Anglican) which are still available for weddings and other events including regular services, the convent, the presbytery and a couple of the original houses.
The most surprising thing about this area was the large number of artefacts and relics within these buildings, not tied down or in display cases, just laying where you would expect them to be when the buildings were occupied and apparently nothing is ever removed by the visitors. ….It gives you a bit of faith in your fellow travellers.
The next day we drove into Geraldton and visited the W.A. museum and the H.M.A.S. Sydney Memorial which sits high above the town in memory of the 645 seamen lost when the “Sydney” was sunk offshore in
this area during WW2. The memorial is a huge steel dome containing steel stampings of 645 seagulls and is quite spectacular.
The museum down on the waterfront is mainly dedicated to the story of the “Batavia” a Dutch East Indies ship wrecked on the Abrollhos Islands about 60 k’s from the coast in the 1600’s and the story of the few survivors who made it to the mainland, fortunately they were picked up by another ship some time later and returned to Holland, which is probably just as well otherwise we’d all be speaking Dutch.
On Monday we decided to leave Greenough because once again we had picked up a story in the park about Kalbarri and the possibility of finding a caravan park on the river where we could get some use out of the boat and for once it turned out to be a fact.
We arrived in Kalbarri early afternoon after visiting Northampton, Horrocks Beach and Port Gregory on the way, found a nice park opposite the river, so the boat is off and ready to go.
That’s enough from me for now, I’m goin fishin.
Till next time
Luv to all
D & J

Busselton to Perth

APRIL 2007
BUSSELTON TO PERTH.
Busselton is a very nice city, like the rest of W.A. there is much development happening. It seems there are just not enough houses to go around and serve the current population growth.
The caravan park was very comfortable with large sites and very clean amenities. Walking distance from the town centre and the waterfront.
We drove down to Augusta on day 2 through Margaret River which we thought was a bit overrated and were pleased we had decided not to stay there, lots of wineries just like the Hunter Valley, a bit too yuppie for us. Anyway we at least had coffee and a walk around the shops fo an hour or so before heading south to Augusta where we were pleasantly surprised... Augusta is a favourite holiday destination for Perthites and it's not hard to understand why. It's right on the coast and the scenery and the town are very attractive.
We drove out to Cape Leeuwin for a lighthouse tour which was amazing. The tour guide told us that the weather and conditions on this day were as good as any he'd experienced in many months, as you already know the wind very rarely stops blowing over here and on the day there was not a breath, the sun was shining and the ocean was like a millpond.
Cape Leeuwin is the point at which the Indian and Southern oceans come together and due to the calmness of the day, we could actually see the two currents coming together about 500 metres offshore. As the two oceans currents rotate in opposite directions we could see the small waves coming together at about 45 deg to each other and at that point the water just welled up about half a metre and rolled into the shoreline.
From there we drove around for a while to look at the other sights and when we were parked at one location, a N.S.W. car pulled up behind us so we started a conversation with the people and they turned out to be recent neighbours of cousin Wendy and her family from Glen Innes.
(you could never try and hide in this country)
On the way back to Busselton we stopped off at a Venison Farm where we bought lots of delicious Venison products including some mouthwatering fillet steaks...Sorry Bambi!...... and then on to the Chocolate Factory (Yum. )Then to the Bootleg Brewery which has just recently won a major award for Boutique Breweries in W.A.... Nice area amongst all the wineries with very nice picnic areas around a large dam.
Next day (Wed) we stayed close to town to catch up with the shopping and in the afternoon,walked the length of the Town Jetty (1.8km)
This is the longest timber Jetty in Oz. Again the weather was perfect and the walk was very pleasant. There is normally a small tourist tram runs the length of the jetty but is out of action at the moment for maintenance, but I think we would have walked anyway as the weather was so nice. (and we probably needed the excercise.
We headed to Mandurah on Thursday where we had planned to tuck ourselves away for Easter.
Mandurah was probably not the best option for Easter as everyone from Perth who hadn't gone to Margaret River & Augusta were in Mandurah
for the weekend.....Very much like the Gold Coast or any major tourist destination, wall to wall people and cars, we probably should have headed inland away from the hustle..... Anyway we had a quiet Easter, walked around the waterfront one day, checked out the marina and all the flash real estate. New estates and housing everywhere, they say this is currently the fastest growing area in Australia.
Monday a lot of the visitors were heading home so we went to a miniature village, much like Cockington Green in Canberra, not quite as expansive but very nice just the same, we successfully negotiated the maze so we were pretty happy with that.
Tuesday we drove up to Perth for 10 days where we were expecting a 5 day visit from Karen, Todd & Brant, arriving Thursday so we had a spare day to catch up on the housework & washing, plus car & caravan washing (believe me it was long overdue)
Lovely caravan park at Karrinyup, right on the bus route, very clean and quiet.
We had a nice few days in Perth with the family, the weather was fairly good except for the Sunday when they had their monthly rainfall average (40mls) in one day however it didn't stop us doing what we wanted as we'd planned to drive to Fremantle for the day where we found some markets, the maritime museum and the old Fremantle prison which was very interesting.
The previous day we spent in and around the city using public transport, buses & trains which seem to be a pretty good system. We visited the Perth Mint where they handle all the gold mined in Australia as well as Indonesia. We travelled around the city on the Tourist Tram and ended the day with a visit & tour of Kings Park which is one of the largest city parks in the world, bigger even than Central Park in New York and Hyde Park in London. (I think something like 600 hectares)
Before we caught the train back to our park we walked around the city centre for a while and found London Court which is a very old shopping arcade built in 1937 in Tudor architecture and either restored or maintained in its original form to this day.
Perth is a very nice city as we've always been told, a lot slower in pace than Sydney & Melbourne, more like Adelaide which we love, lots of development again as the resources boom over here continues and it seems everyone wants a piece of the action. New estates and new suburbs being created everywhere, we drove out to a new area north of Perth called Joondalup on Tuesday morning and the entire area appears to be no more than 10 years old yet it is a very busy and obviously thriving area. Anyway we found the Spotlight store so J was happy and the Teddy Bear box has now been refilled....( that should keep her going till Darwin)
Karen, Todd & Brant flew home on Tuesday and we packed up ready to leave the next day to continue the journey.
That's about it for now so will send this of into the ether and hope it arrives safely at your house.
We hope you are all well, we are and looking forward to the next stage of our adventure "around the block"
Love to All
D & J.

Esperance to Busselton

APRIL 3.
GREETINGS TO ALL FROM BUSSELTON W.A.
Arrived Esperance Monday 26th March.
We spent a couple of pleasant days in Esperance including a visit to one of the best museums we have seen (believe me, we have seen some)
On the Tuesday morning we took in the local Tourist Drive around some of the prettiest beaches, we intended taking a cruise to one of the nearby islands but the weather intervened and the cruise was cancelled (as you would know it gets pretty windy over here most of the time) but the drive was very pleasant nonetheless, we visited a wind farm of which there are many in W.A. due to the prevalence of the aforementioned wind and also drove past the Pink Lake, although the weather was quite dull you could still see a tinge of pink in the water, we believe due to the presence of algae in the water. Back into town for a visit to the local Museum and Heritage Village.
This museum is located on the site of the old Railway Workshops and although there are a lot of exhibits relating to railway history, the general
exhibits relating to the town and surrounding areas here are as interesting as anything we have seen previously, most of the items you expect to see in any museum, but beautifully presented and very clearly identified, obviously prepared by a very enthusiastic and passionate group of local people...... One display that stood out to us was the section relating to the Space Station "Skylab" which we had learnt a little about back in Balladonia on the Nullabor, but apparently much more of the debris fell in the area surrounding Esperance and when you see the mapped
locations where some very large pieces came to earth it's a wonder many people were not killed or injured.
Tuesday night we spent a few hours at a lovely waterfront seafood restaurant to celebrate J's ??rd Birthday then headed off early next day towards Albany, we intended to have a stop along the way but as the weather was still not very nice we continued on and arrived at Albany late afternoon after a very interesting drive through huge areas of wheat and grain country, it would be fascinating to drive here later in the season when all the crops are planted and with the amount of rain they've been having I think the farmers over here are a little optimistic at the moment.
Very nice caravan park at Emu Beach, about 6 k's from the city right on the beach.
Our immediate neighbours turned out to be Brian & Joan Shoesmith from Manning Point which used to be known as Brighton when our family holidayed there for several years in the 1950's. We used to rent a house next door to his uncle Jack and Jack had hire boats which our dad hired
for our fishing excursions over the 2 weeks we stayed there..... Brian grew up in the village and his family owned the only shop, he and Joan later
built the caravan park which they ran for 30 years before retiring last year. We had a lot of fun discussing life at Brighton in those early days and remembering names of other families who went there and finally concluded we had probably played and swum together as kids.
Albany is the oldest established settlement in W.A. and is the point from which the ANZACS left for Gallipolli during WW1 so there is a lot of military history to be seen.
Friday we were joined by Russ & Jan Sessions who we met last year at Streaky Bay shortly after they had left their home in Warnambool Vic. for a 2 or more year journey around Australia, (they obviously love W.A as they haven't left here in 12 months, although they did travel to Europe in the middle of last year and have flown home to Vic. recently for a family wedding.
We have kept in contact with them and as we were to be in the same area they called in to Albany to see us on their way to Bremmer Bay for Easter.
The best part of this is that Jan (who is very clever) taught me how to set up a BLOG on the puter so I can now prepare all this waffle without being connected to Cyberspace and you can all view it by accessing the BLOG...... (If you want to)
At least that's the way it's supposed to happen. (Stand by for instructions later)
At Albany we also visited Whaleword which was one of the last whaling stations to operate in the country and it has been beautifully restored as a tourist attraction with all the usual interactive displays etc. We took the organised tour and got a really good insight into the industry as it was in early times.
We also drove to a point where you can see the southernmost point of the mainland.
You can drive out to it but it's a pretty rough track so we declined. There is also another windfarm. (I'm sure we are going to see plenty of these)
I'm told most W.A. town names end in "up" because the wind is always up. That's certainly been the case so far.
After a very nice Saturday evening which included dinner at a local Japanese restaurant with our Albany neighbours, we left Sunday morning for our next destination. We had checked out the road to the 2 local lookouts the afternoon before so we knew we could take the van up there as we were leaving, unfortunately Mount Adelaide had the road closed for a billycart racing event but the other one, Mount Charlotte, was easily accessable so we spent an hour or two at the Princess Royal Fortress which was the gathering point for the military personnel leaving for overseas service during WW1 and also the site of the first ever ANZAC dawn service.
The fortress has been lovingly restored over recent years with government assistance and it was well worth the visit.
We finally left Albany late in the morning and as again the weather wasn't the best we decided to drive through to Pemberton in the centre of the State Forestry Industry.
We had originally intended to stop at Walpole for the night and go back to visit the Valley of The Giants in the forest, but as we passed the entry point the weather broke into beautiful sunshine and it was obvious we could take the van in and park while we did the various walks available and also the "Tree Walk" rather than come back later and run the risk of the weather tourning sour later in the day.
This was quite amazing, there is a very easy ramp up into the trees and then a 600 metre structure about 40 metres above ground right in the tree tops. The trees in this area are Tinglewood and are really beautiful stately specimens.
I'm not normally very comfortable with heights but I found this so interesting I forgot all about the height.
Having decided not to stop at Walpole we continued on towards Pemberton not sure what to expect but we were pleasantly surprised when we arrived to find a lovely little town and a very pleasant caravan park on the river.
The country in this part of the state in very interesting and diverse, everything from cattle, dairy, sheep and grain plus forestry which is obviously the major industry and still going strong evidenced by the constant warnings to be aware of timber carriers.
Even though W.A. is experiencing drought like the rest of the country, most of the dams we passed are holding a fair amount of water and most creeks were running so it seems they have had a bit of rain recently.
That's about enough for now, we have arrived in Busselton and plan to visit Margaret River and Augusta tomorrow, then a quiet day before heading north to Mandurah for Easter.
We hope you all have a Happy & Safe Easter
Thanks to those who have sent emails with news from the East.
Love to All
D & J.
P.S. Will send this as a normal Email and then put it on the BLOG which we will update at more regular intervals.
(Hopefully the link to our BLOG will appear somewhere)
Well anyway here goes.

WELCOME TO MY BLOG!

This is my first attempt at publishing a blog.
I hope you like it.
There will be more later.