Back in SA

The end of the trip is looming fast and just to slow it down a little (and of course cause it was convieniently the right time of day) we stopped the night at Fowlers Bay. A great last stop, huge sand dunes loom over the little town. The boys had great fun trying to sandboard down them. The next morning we headed off with another family who we have crisscrossed the last few weeks with, the Francis’, over the sand dunes in 4wd, top views and great fun as we explored the peninsula and found Australian sealions and New Zealand furseals. We then headed for Ceduna and caught up with friends, Greg and Sonya just south of there at Perlubie. It was fantastic to catch up with them, we stayed the night so had time to visit the beach and enjoy the views over Streaky bay as well as catch up. The boys were very impressed by Sonya’s snake especially when she fed it a rat (defrosted and warmed up).

The next day we headed straight for Pt Pirie and arrived in the afternoon had a big catch up with Woodsys sister - Chub, Gil, Patrick and Ellen…………..so we are right back where we started nearly as this was our first stop on the start of our big adventure. We are just heading down to Kadina to catch up with Woodsy’s parents and then we are home………………

 On the way to Fowlers Bay

 Coastal python at Greg and Sonya's

 Perlubie beach

 Greg and me

Greg Sonya and to boys

Across the Nullabor

We left Kalgoorlie, stopped into Kambalda and looked over the massive salt lakes from the lookout. Next stop was Norseman for lunch and then we headed east across the Nullabor. Unsurprisingly we found the longest straight stretch of road in Australia. We stopped in at Eucla and had a walk around the old telegraph station that the sand dunes are slowly reclaiming. We finally crossed back into SA…….”we’re back in our own land” Lachlan said. We loved the views of the Bunda cliffs of the Great Australian Bight and spent some time watching the Southern right whales Mums and bubs club at the Head of the Bight, there were about 16 mother’s and calves there, really close in to the cliffs so we had a great view of them. One of the calves even put on a little display, breaching and slapping its tail around.

 GPS advising the next turn in 1197km!!! 1928 km from home

 Random camp on the Nullabor

 Telegraph station

 Great Australian Bight

 Whales at the head of the bight

 

Interesting camp on the Nullabor

Wave Rock to Kalgoorlie

Unfortunately the sun did not shine on us at Wave Rock so we had a quick walk  in the wind and light rain around Hyden rocks which includes Wave Rock, actually really impressive. Hyden rocks itself was really nice, a big granite formation, we went over to another even bigger granite formation called the Humps, would have been great to have a big walk around there but the weather was not looking good and we wanted to make it to Kalgoorlie.

Kalgoorlie was great, the sun finally came out and it was a bit of a trip down memory lane for me as my family lived there for about 7 years when I was young. We went and checked out the HUGE!! Superpit, and watched the tonka trucks in action, boys all loved it. We went to the superpit shop and museum, we got to climb up on one of the huge dump trucks, pan for gold (even found a couple of specks – turns out they put a few in there for the tourists), checked out the gold nuggets in the vault of the local WA museum, looked at all the rocks in the School of mines museum as well as having a bit of a drive around to look at some of the old places I remember. Kalgoorlie has lots of beautiful old buildings as well as some great history but the boys really liked the historical old lolly shop the best.

We have left quite a lot to do here for the next trip

Wave Rock at Hyden Rock

Hippo's yawn

 Blast at the Super pit...missed it by that much!!!!

 Paddy Hannan

 Just needs a new seat!!!

 Camp at Kalgoorlie

 Hannan's mine tour

 panning for gold at Hannans mine, and yes

 Kalgoorlie Town Hall

Boulder Town Hall

Perth

Back into the big smoke, Perth really is an impressive city with its big skyline right on the Swan river. We were originally going to stay with my Aunt and Uncle but she unfortunately is really sick at the moment so we stayed out in the Swan valley nearby and stopped in for a few visits. They loved seeing the boys and it was great to catch up with them. We also caught up with another friend of mine (and bridesmaid) Melainie and her husband, Barry for dinner for a couple of nights. They have 2 boys so it was fantastic as they all got along really well so we just had a great time catching up while the boys entertained each other.

Melainie, Barry, Lachlan and Jeremy

During the days we managed to pack in a fair bit, we went to AQWA a great aquarium with lots of sharks , stingrays and a great touch pool………..there’s nothing quite like patting a stingray?!

We also spent a day down in Fremantle, went to the old prison did a great tour through the old cells and exercise yards, a very bleak place. Woodsy tried to put Toby in solitary confinement but he managed to escape. Had fish and chips on the pier, (actually I had seafood chowder it was YUM). Went to the Shipwreck Galleries for the final bit of the history lesson from all the monuments and places we had seen up the coast. Fantastic place, they had so many artefacts that had been salvaged from the WA shipwrecks plus the history behind it all, as well as the salvage stories. They actually had part of the stern of the Batavia reconstructed from the timbers pulled from the water. It was incredible. The poor old Dutch had a terrible time on the WA coast.

We also had one beautiful afternoon when the sun actually shone up in Kings park, had lunch and walked around. The views of the city were great, the park is really lovely, all the wildflowers are out on display……..even the boys appreciated them so they must be good.

 AQWA

Touch pool at AQWA

 Freemantle Prison

 Nice lunch at the boat harbor in Freemantle

 Samuel and I in jeans for the first time since leaving home

 Stern of the Batavia

This is the closest the boys got to seeing a Quokka

 Kings Park

Now the reason I mention the one beautiful day is because the rest of the time it rained and on our last night it rained and rained and there were storm warnings of winds up to 100km/hr so we took the awning down so it wouldn’t blow away and wouldn’t you know it…………that’s where all the rain came in, in a BIG puddle right in the middle of the floor. At least there was an industrial strength dryer close by the next morning, it worked overtime. So the sun came out and dried the canvas briefly and we made a run for it east as fast as we could, only the next night we had 50km winds near Wave Rock and honestly we sat awake all night wondering if we going to wake up in some paddock over the road. (But it was a beautiful drive on the way there and we went through the lovely historic town of York – no castle – and saw the rabbit proof fence.)

 York Town Hall

 Dog Cemetery in Corrigin

our camp at Tressies museum. Almost blown away overnight