What a great two weeks we’ve just had. We left Melrose a little bit later than usual, as we had a flat battery (yeah!!) but we ended up buying a new one from a farm mechanic down the road who was super helpful, genuine and efficient - can not praise this guy enough!
The landscape on the drive from Melrose to Port Lincoln was amazing, red red earth, grey Salt Bush and then coming down onto the coast and blue waters. The view from our campsite at Port Lincoln was right over the water and one morning Dave saw a whole bunch of boats racing off across the sea.
Dave caught a squid off the jetty at Port Lincoln and he cooked it up in his Special Fried Rice - YUM!!
Leaving Port Lincoln we stopped at Elliston for lunch on our way to Ceduna and the dude in the cafe told us about a 12km coastal drive which has amazing views of Elliston and also sculptures at various points - it was very cool.
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| one of Dave’s insightful comments - “the view of Australia through bug guts” (TM. Dave Gibson) - (NB. he made me write that!!!) |
We spent the next 2 days in Ceduna, just relaxing & walking around the coastal area. Loads of people fishing & crabbing.
Monday 4th April we left Ceduna and headed for the Nullarbor, these are the highlights of our crossing:
Views from the Head of the Bight
Signs on the Nullarbor
view of the magnificent cliffs from one of the lookouts along the Nullarbor.
Quarantine Checkpoint heading into W.A. & Dave cooking up our veg on the side of road so we don’t have to throw it all out :)
Our camp at Eucla Roadhouse & us playing funny buggers.
When crossing the Nullarbor it is required etiquette to wave at other travellers as you pass them by. Just as there are a variety of personalities, there are also a number of different ways fellow drivers wave, here’s a list of the ones we noticed:
- the veteran driver, one finger (first digit) raised
- 2 to 3 digit raised wave with hand still on wheel
- whole hand raised in hello but with wrist still on the wheel
- hand completely off the wheel and waving like a 5 yr old seeing their parents.
- passenger waving in lieu of driver
- head nod from motorcyclists, don’t think they really want to take their hands off their bike
- majorly cheery full on waving hello from a dude cycling across the Nullarbor.
It is an amazing stretch of road with quite literally no-one around for km’s. The roadhouses are all ‘unique’ in their own individual ways and we were lucky enough to see green vegetation all the way due to some recent rains.
We crossed the Nullarbor in 2 days and arrived at Norseman late in the arvo on Tuesday. Early to bed that night and a very long kip before heading off to Kalgoorlie the next day. We walked the main street of Kalgoorlie and the number of beautiful old buildings still around is amazing. The Superpit was next, a ginormous gold mine and these photos really don’t fully show the enormity of this thing:
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| View from the Superpit looking over the town of Boulder |
From Kalgoorlie we made our way to Hyden, where the “Wave Rock” is located, and we had to drive along approx. 130km of gravel road. It was actually only recently graded and was in excellent condition, piece of piss.
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| a dork “surfing” the wave |
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| another dork getting cosy with a Sandalwood tree |
The above photos are from our walk around the Wave Rock and views from the top and then into the Hippos Yawn.
Throughout this area of W.A. there are these stunning eucalypts called Salmon Gums, the bark is a smooth glossy ‘salmon’ colour and when they’re on mass they look amazing.
After Wave Rock we drove to Malak’s Cave where there are loads of aboriginal cave art, majority of them hands.
climbing through the cave and out the back we spotted these little fellas
At Malak’s Cave we met a lovely young couple who hail from a town near Geelong, fellow Victorians, woo hoo. They happened to be staying in the same campground as us (there is only one!) and we met up that night for a chat. They’re travelling the coast of W.A. too and we’ve met up with them in different spots along the way already. We look forward to seeing them in other places as we continue :)
Onto Esperance the next day and we had a great time here. We drove the Great Southern Tourist Drive and the views, once again, are stunning.
huge bug on our bonnet
In the afternoon on Saturday we did the Port Authority tour organised by the local Apex Club. It went for about 1.5 hours and we got to drive around the whole port and see where the iron ore, nickel and grain are transported into and stored and then where they’re loaded onto the appropriate ships in their respective berths. It was really, really interesting and they don’t charge anything for this tour, just asked for a donation for worthwhile charities they were trying to raise funds for.
After our afternoon of gaining knowledge into our braincells, we proceeded to destroy a few at the Taylors Beach Bar that night whilst watching a local band. I think we may have actually gate crashed a 21st, because the singer of the first band that played also had a few extra friends attending for his birthday. It was all good though, a cruzy bunch of people and the bands were enjoyable.
After a hearty breakfast of pies & sausage rolls (:)) we headed for Cape Le Grande National Park. What a place.
The below photos are of Lucky Beach, which has been found to have the whitest sand in the world, bloody amazing.
There are also some very relaxed and easy going kangaroos on the beach
We drove further east from Lucky Bay to Wharton, more beautiful coastal scenery. Here’s some of the local Banksias, the leaves are different to the ones from Vic.
So from Esperance to Albany and the weather when we left was lovely, until we got about half way to our destination and then the heavens opened up. Suffice to say, we were drowned rats setting up our camp that arvo, but silver lining, the young couple from Vic (Laura & Shaun) were at the same caravan park and we got to catch up again, which was lovely.
We come to yesterday, Tuesday 12th April, and it’s still raining in Albany but we head out and see a few of the sights. The Gap and The Natural Bridge.
View from said features:
Read the sign and then see all the people in the next photo……..they’re just working on bettering the gene pool.
A bit further on down the road and there’s a lovely short walk around Stony Hill. There had been a bushfire through there recently, but the landscape was still lovely.
Dave made me put this photo in, me being a dork amongst the foliage again.
The rain set in again just as we left Stony Hill, but we did some sight seeing from the car around the various beaches and coastal areas. We also visited a Bee Farm-y place and got some delicious local honey and then made our way to Middleton Beach, where it proceeded to bucket down and we happened to see a restaurant on the beach - perfect for lunch.
Our next stop was the Princess Royal Fort and it was fantastic. There were old bunkers you could go through and even old “big guns” (technical term) that still semi-moved, Dave was like a big kid playing army men.
They also had the old garrison there with all the different buildings which now house displays on the 11th Light Horse Regiment, history on all the ships leaving for WWI and Anzac Cove from the port of Albany and other wonderful history on the armed services. It was exceptionally well done and we nearly read every plaque, it was that engaging.
View from the Apex Lookout on the way up to the fort.
And so we finish our visit of Albany with a trip to the Sandalwood factory, OMG (as the young folk say) the smell was amazing!! Yesterday as we’re leaving Albany, the sun shines and the clouds have cleared….. we will have to come back for another look at this place.
