A journey around Australia, travelling with 2 adults, 2 kids and our camper trailer affectionately known as "Lailer".
1 lap, 8 months, and over 37,000kms.
We've had a couple of windy days in Esperence, the last few days have been a zigzag up to Wave Rock and Kalgoorlie and then down to Esperence only to be going up again to get back onto the Nullabor. But we couldn't come this far around and not check out this town after we were told it was a "must do" by so many people. It is definitely a beautiful place, but I think January is the better month to be here without the winds.
THURSDAY, 17th November 2011
The time has come to leave for the Nullabor. We made it through the straightest stretch of road, you can see the view we had for 146.6km.
We drove until sunset just to avoid the onslaught of flies that honed in on you every time you opened the car door.
FRIDAY, 18th November 2011
There certainly are some characters along this road. This fella was putting his corrugated iron to good use.
And over the border we go. And in much quicker time than we expected.
You don't get to see much of the coastline as you drive along. But of what you do see is pretty cool cliffs.
We overnighted in Fowlers Bay Caravan Park, which had put on a bbq for all the campers and was ready right when we rolled in, very convenient. But it was a good cause too, each month they donate all the profit to a sick child somewhere around Australia.
SUNDAY, 20th November 2011
We've stayed in for a couple of nights in Streaky Bay. Its evident where the name comes from as you can see in this picture.We took a drive up to the blowholes but the kids weren't all that impressed by the noise.
Another beautiful sunset.
TUESDAY, 22nd November 2011
We headed down Port Lincoln and rugged up against the cool winds that blew in - and nearly blew the trailer away with it.
THURSDAY, 24th November 2011
Wind 1 - Tent 0. We lost the fight getting the tent up in Whyalla, and resorted to staying in one of the cabins there instead. The tent was being lifted up like a parachute while the tent poles were bending in some unpleasant angles.
We had better luck in Wallaroo, and the kids made there own slippery dips in the piles of dirt around the place.
SUNDAY, 27th November 2011
We arrived in Hardwicke Bay and the kids are thrilled to have their friends to play with for a few days. Edie and Ben showed Ella and Ash where to find the crabs under the rocks, and then the challenge was to keep them alive in the buckets back at the house.
Then we were treated to a trip out on the fishing boat. I'm not sure what the kids liked more; being towed by the tractor down to the beach, or the boat trip itself. I do know that Jace was very happy with the haul of fish and squid they managed to bring in - the tally came in at 49 fish I think, and sure made for a delicious dinner.
Jason below with one of the many garfish they caught.
The kids had a ball playing together, there were no more tears from Ella about not having friends to play with each morning.
WEDNESDAY, 30th November 2011
And then Rebecca and Jason also let us pitch the tent in their front yard in Adelaide - thanks guys!!! It was so nice having company with other adults...not that Jace isn't good company, just nice to talk to someone other than the same person 24/7 for 7 months.
So anyway we spent a few days exploring the beaches and city.
And drove down through the Maclaren Valley winery region down to Victor Harbour, where we absolutely froze with the winds that were blowing in.
As we left Adelaide we headed out to Beerenberg farm and picked a few buckets full of strawberries, I think about half of them were eaten by us all before we made it back into the shop to pay for them. Such good fun.
THURSDAY, 1st December 2011
One of the random houseboats moored at Renmark. We went onboard and had to be careful not to step on the chickens that were running around. Ella had the wits scared out of her when she came up close with the rooster who crowed in her face. Some very odd people on the Murray I think.
SATURDAY, 3rd December 2011
We stayed in Mildura overnight and woke up this morning with a 2 year old. Ash was very impressed with his toy truck, and proceeded to tell everyone about "My Tonka" all day long.
We took him out for a trip on a paddlesteamer, which we all enjoyed, thankfully it wasn't too full and the kids had plenty of space to run around.
Oh and of course a cake! I had planned on making a kids party cake when we got to Port Fairy but it never happened so the lamington cake is what he got.
SUNDAY, 4th December 2011
A big day of driving through country Victoria as we headed back down towards the lower corner of South Australia. Plenty of wheatfields on the horizon. And a quiet night at Horsham.
TUESDAY, 6th December 2011
Next stop was Mount Gambier, where I was informed it was time to put up a xmas tree, so I found the smallest tree I could and the kids spent the afternoon decorating and redecorating with the 1 piece of tinsel.
We walked over to the Blue Lake which is contained in the inactive volcano. Such an impressive sight.
And then we also went down to the sinkhole in which they've filled with gardens and bbq areas. There were plenty of bees buzzing around with their natural hives up on the rockwalls.
SUNDAY, 11th December 2011
Back into Victoria again as we made our way to Port Fairy. We had a lovely couple of days of sunshine while we were there. Once again left wishing that it wasn't so cold down there or we might be more inclined to live there.
And enjoyed such a beautiful wedding with a beautiful bunch of friends. Mia and Brant we are so happy for you!
TUESDAY, 13th December 2011
Then it really was homeward bound as we headed through Melbourne on our way to Sydney. Melbourne came through with some to be expected weather raining, windy, cold and hot all in the one day.
WEDNESDAY, 14th December 2011 We spent our last night at Gundagai, and the reality of the trip being
over is really starting to sink in. All thoughts are of finding
somewhere to live, getting back to work, and more positively getting to
spend christmas with our families.
On our way out of Kalbarri we stopped past the Pink Lake for lunch, its obvious why it got its name, not sure what causes the colouring although there was a definite smell of sulphur in the air.
Next up comes Geraldton, we checked out the local war memorials and Jace struck a pose.
But not much else here except for seaweed covered beaches.
TUESDAY, 25th October 2011
So time to move on and we stopped through Greenough for a picture of the leaning tree. And to check out the historical village.
The village is really cool, they have put a lot of effort into restoring the buildings and fitting them out. Ella was having a bit of an emotional day so Ash tried to cheer her up with a hug.
But we still decided to lock her up in the jail cells for a while!
But the kids got their own back against Jace and locked him in for a while.
WEDNESDAY, 26th October 2011
We drove through the Pinnacles, and despite reports that there wasn't much to see, we thought they provided a pretty impressive backdrop despite the looming clouds above.
FRIDAY, 28th October 2011
In Perth today and I'm getting spoilt for my birthday. We went into the museum and arts centres which had lots of markets and free kids activities on.
We took a trip into the city and were swamped by the crowds of the combined long weekend and CHOGM, not a good reintroduction to city living after so much remoteness.
SUNDAY, 29th October 2011
We spent today wandering around Fremantle markets and then headed down for some fish and chips on Cottlesloe beach.
MONDAY, 31st October 2011
We had to get a new timing belt on the car, so while that was happening we spent some time down at Scarborough beach. There were thousands of ladybugs around which was unlucky for them because Ella is a fan of collecting ladybugs and over-caring for them, so most of them end up dead. Eating lunch was a challenge trying not to end up with a mouthful of flies or ladybugs - ewww!
And my day ended with this....a face only a mother could love!
TUESDAY, 1st November 2011
We visited a friend as we headed out of Perth, and then completely missing the Melbourne Cup we made our way down the south coast and stopped in Bunbury for a few days. We really liked the town.
Can you tell Ella's camera skills are improving? only slight fingertip infringment, but thank god its a shock proof camera!
THURSDAY, 3rd November 2011
We took a rainy drive up to Mandurah which we somehow managed to miss on our drive down, and I'm sure it would have been great if it weren't for all the rain.
And then came back via the farmland surrounding Bunbury and stumbled across Gnomesville. Quite an impressive collection going on here, started to spite the councils addition of an unwanted roundabout and definitely out of control now. The kids had a great time exploring though we had to keep a close eye on Ash since he wasn't much taller than most of them!
SATURDAY, 5th November 2011
Ever onward we passed through Bussellton today and took the kids on a train ride out along the 2km long jetty, our mistake was thinking that they would be ok with walking back and the drama was reminiscent of the effort we had trying to take the kids out on the Hervey Bay jetty. Guess we don't learn our lesson.
SUNDAY, 6th November 2011
Made it to the Margaret River yesterday and the rain and cold are a bit of a shock. We wandered through the town then had a nice lunch sampling ales at the Bootleg Brewery, thanks to the kids playground there it made for a nice day out in comparison to the whinging they've been putting out the last few days. I think the kids have well and truly had enough of travelling...but we still have to drive back over to the other side of the country before we are home. Not too much to ask...right??
There was not much surf at the Margaret River mouth, but that didn't disappoint Jace since he wasn't going in anywhere near the man-eating sharks anyway.
MONDAY, 7th November 2011
We took a disastrous tour of Lake Cave, we were that annoying family that has crying kids in confined spaces so that nobody can hear the tour guide....so not fun!
We toured the rest of the south west coastline from the comfort of the car, the 100km winds and rain would have resulted in lost children (hang on, after the cave incident that might not have been a bad idea! just kidding).
We camped overnight in Warren national park, and it poured with rain the whole night, we woke in the morning to ankle deep water through the whole tent, which made for fun trying to pack up, especially taking breaks for hail storms. So we've decided to treat ourselves to a hotel tomorrow night.
TUESDAY, 8th November 2011
The skies cleared momentarily while Jace climbed to the top of the Bicentennial Tree some 60m high.
I was content to stay much lower, but I had to hold the kids back from getting too high! Monkeys!
Later on Jace took us down one of his typical goat tracks that leads to nowhere. And then he had to figure out how to turn around with the trailer on the back. I think it was something like a 100 point turn.
WEDNESDAY, 9th November 2011
We crashed in the hotel in Walpole last night - it seemed like a great idea when we were watching the horizontal rain outside, but not the most peaceful night since the kids thought it was such a novel idea they were awake most of the night.
But anyway moving on, we visited the Tree Tops Walk and Valley of the Giants. The kids did so much bickering in the fake tree garage that Jace and I decided to each do the walk separately while we used the trust DVD to keeps the kids occupied.
Jace thinks it was pretty amazing walking on a structure 50m up in the air, meanwhile the sway that got started every time the wind blew was a bit much for me, much happier on firm ground.
Back to the coastline we went down to Elephant Rock, but Ella was insistant that they were camel humps. Still very picturesque, as was the small town of Denmark that we drove through.
THURSDAY, 10th November 2011
Next stop Albany. While we emptied out the tent to let it dry out, we took a quick visit through the town's monuments then headed out to Torbay Point (most southerly point of WA). It turned out to be spectacular coastline.
And we were lucky enough to spot a bunch of seals swimming just off the rocks, you can barely make their heads out in this photo but we were up on top of the cliff.
FRIDAY, 11th November 2011
We left Albany heading for Hopetoun but ended up camping in the Fitzgerald national park instead.
Jace managed to get his first major roadkill for the trip, but he was warming up to it, first he took out a blue tongue lizard, then a black snake, then a baby emu had a near miss and managed to run into te bush, but the roo was not so lucky. All within 30km, he insists they were all unintentional.
Hammersley Inlet gave us a pretty awesome sunset, and the kids made the most of no neighbours with their dinner table antics.
SATURDAY, 12th November 2011
We went for a play at Hammersley Beach in the morning, Ella managed to wear herself out chasing butterflies, lucky for them she didn't catch any!
And then we drove North to Wave Rock. Jace took his surfboard down but the wave was a bit too elusive to be successful, not much of a surfer I stuck to swimming.
Hyden had a whole village of tin sculptures and not much else.
MONDAY, 14th November 2011
Further north to Kalgoorlie now. We took in the view of the Superpit, the kids couldn't grasp why the trucks were so small doen there.
Jace was quite impressed by the old school pubs, particularly the wild west.
We then went through the WA Museum to see the massive gold nuggets, and the replicas of the camps and conditions the miners use to have. We all really enjoyed it.
TUESDAY, 15th November 2011
In Esperence now, trying to psych ourselves up for the Nullabor.
