Trip to South Australia, Western Australia, Northern Territory and New South Wales #5

These next few are not going to have pictures - so I can get them out to you quick.....

#5

Wed 26^th.  Today was the Memorial for the celebration of the life of our friend WAYNE. We thought of his wife Marie and family as we were travelling up the road towards Kimba. 

We went past Iron Knob and the huge defence property.  Interesting crops and areas on the way and we camped at Kimba East Rest Area and were joined by three other vans for the night.

Thurs 27^th.  Travelled through Kimba to the ‘Halfway Across Australia’ sign, saw the Big Galah and the painted Silo at Kimba.  We then travelled on Wudinna before stopping at Ceduna.  The Oysterfest was on this weekend.

Fri 28^th we had a rest day.  It was VERY windy, so the washing dried in no time at all and we just rested.  We did go and do the groceries this morning and checked out the venue for the OYSTERFEST but most of the activities etc start tomorrow.

We went to the Ceduna Oyster Barn for a lovely dinner of oyster, FRESH fish and salad.  We even had a lovely drop of wine.

Sat 29^th. We headed westward. Our first rest stop was at Penong – the home of the Windmill.  In one paddock there are 16 windmills – each one is owned by a different family and this is their source of water for the home.  There is also the Windmill museum with the largest [30metre] windmill.  This one is still actually pumping water up for the village.  We stopped at Nundroo for a coffee and then we stopped at the entrance to the ‘Head of the Bight’ but as they had only seen 10 whales yesterday – we continued on our way.  We stopped at Nullarbor roadhouse for fuel and then had lunch in the van.  We had been making good time as we had a tail wind initially and then it was coming from the south-east and picking up speed.  We called into the Bunda Cliffs Lookout – 74km from the WA border and decided this was a good time to stop as it was 4pm.  The wind seemed to be picking up speed as we sat, and it was rocking the van quite well.  By nightfall there were 4 of us parked up for the night and faced into the wind.

Sun 30^th. Today we headed out late and stopped at the Quarantine Checkpoint at Border Village and handed over the honey, and some Lavender and Rosemary cuttings.  The young lady was VERY thorough and went through every nook and cranny in both the car and the van.  We then went around to the SA/WA Border sign and took a couple of photos.  We had put our clocks back by 45mins as directed by the Quarantine staff.   We stopped at Eucla and refuelled and then continued West.  We stopped at Moodini Bluff Rest Area for the night.  We had a great afternoon chatting to some fellow travellers – all heading East.  We had a tail wind again today – so the fuel consumption was good.  By nightfall there were about 20 RV’s parked up and we heard another 4 come in after dark.

We had some light showers overnight.

Mon 1^st Oct.  We headed off about 8.30 and made our way into Madura for Fuel and then up to the Madura Pass lookout for a peek.  We headed to Cocklebiddy and played the Nullarbor Golf Links hole – Eagle Rock.  This is a Par 4 - 347metre hole.  I gave up and Darryl continued the hole.

We then made our way to Caiguna and filled up with Fuel.  We had a tail wind again today, but it was changing to be coming from the south.  Leaving Caiguna, we were advised to put our clocks back another 45 minutes and we would now be on PERTH time.

We had a coffee and whilst here another ACC van pulled it.  It was Peter and Kath from the Sydney City Slickers Branch.  We chatted whilst we were seeing three giro-copters being refuelled.  Just after Caiguna is the sign for the ’90 Mile Straight (146.6km)’.  We then travelled a further 5km and stopped to look at the Caiguna Blowhole.  A giant hole in the rock and it basically has air rushing out of it from over at the coast.  Today it wasn’t active.

We travelled a little further on to Baxter Rest Area and pulled in to use the toilets and empty the van toilet at the Dump Point.  We then saw that Kathy and Peter were already set up for the night.  We then decided that we would also call it a day and set up camp.  Before nightfall I think there were about 40 RV’s parked up for the night. 

Tue 2^nd. We were out of the camp by 9am and heading west again.  We made it to the end of the ’90 mile Straight’ and arrived at Balladonia and topped up the fuel.  The most expensive fill across the Nullarbor was $2.069 per litre.  We had our coffee and Kathy and Peter arrived and then we also met up with Banjo and Stuart and Maureen from Victoria.  They were heading to Norseman tonight.  Kathy and Peter were heading to Fraser Range Caravan Park and we were heading to the Fraser Range Rest Area.  On arrival we found that the name has been changed to the ‘Southern Hills Rest Area’.  All good.  It was a great little stop and near what appeared to be a great Clay Pan, but another traveller told us it was a lake – but couldn’t remember its name.  I haven’t been able to find it on Google either.

By nightfall there were 4 of us camped here.  We had several people come in to use the amenities and then leave again though.

Wed 3^rd. We were all packed and ready to leave when we noticed that the birds had been into one of the bins and scattered rubbish everywhere.  We got another garbage bag and were picking it up when I accidentally bashed my head on one of the reo lids (we had opened it to make it easier to put the rubbish back and as I bent to get the rubbish at the base of the bin --- WHACK).  A slight bruise above my right eye and swelling above the eyebrow and LOTS of pain.  DAMN!!!!!

We travelled on to Norseman and got fuel and did a drive through town and found the camels.  [luckily, we didn’t find any real ones on our journey].

We then headed up to Kalgoorlie and managed to find a space at the third van park.  Not a bad old park and close to the CBD of Kalgoorlie.  We went for a drive into town and called into the Visitor info centre at the Town Hall and booked in for the walking tour with headsets for tomorrow.

Back to the van, Panadol for my headache and a pleasant evening. Into bed at about 10pm and then I awoke at about 11.30 pm and promptly vomited.  More Panadol and keeping the bucket handy I went back to bed – having to use the bucket again during the early hours.

Thurs 4^th.  Into town by 10.30am and picked up our headsets and guides and off we went.  This is a nice way to explore the towns of Kalgoorlie and Boulder.  We made a few long stops as we checked out the different points of interest throughout the town.  By 5pm we had decided it was time to head back to the van.  My headache was easing a little --- which was good --- but my IBS was now rearing its head…..  AHH well if it isn’t one thing it must be another.  We had no sooner arrived back at the van when we had a really great storm. We also had quite a bit of rain overnight – totalling 23.5mm all up.

Fri 5^th. We headed out at 7.30 so we could do the Boulder tour and be back in Kalgoorlie to hand over the headsets by 10.30am.  Boulder was an interesting little town also and once we returned the headsets we came back to the “SuperPit” lookout and then back down to the ‘Loop-line Rail’ museum.  In its hey-day the Loop-line had over 100 trains a day --- this was more than the main station in Melbourne.  The sky was rumbling as we were making our way back to the van and then we had another major storm with lots of noise.  It was nice going to bed listening to the sound of rain on the roof of the caravan.

Sat 6^th. We left Kalgoorlie today and made our way to Coolgardie.  This was a pleasant stop in a town with very WIDE streets and some truly lovely buildings.  Coolgardie was where the ‘Goldrush’ STARTED but now only has about 200 people living there.  We stopped for a coffee and I found some rugs like my Mum used to make.  These brought back so many memories.  We then continued westward and by 4pm we were pulled up at Central Park at Burracoppin for the night.  It wasn’t long before we were joined by two other campers.  

Sun 7^th.  On our way by 9am and continuing Westward to Merredin.  We called into the Merredin Peak RV park and found some lovely little wildflowers before continuing on our way.  We turned southward and headed down to Kulin through Bruce Rock and Kondinin.  We had several stops to get out and check out bunches of wildflowers though.  We got to Kulin and found the caravan park booked out so headed back up to Kondinin and into there.  This park is a ‘Royalties for Regions Project’.  It has separate Public Toilets to those used by the park tenants.  I will have to google what this project is all about.

After setting up the van we headed out to Wave Rock and had an interesting hour out here before heading back to the van.

Mon 8^th.  We headed out this morning to Kulin to do the Tin Horse Highway and check out all the sculptures along the way.  There are over 150 of them and I think we got most of them.  Some are quite cheeky.  When we returned to Kulin it was to find that there is also a large RV camping area for 72hours which we could have used yesterday.  Ahh well we will stay at Kondinin.

We had a coffee at the hotel and then headed out to the West Tin Horse Trail to the largest of them all.  We then returned to Kulin and stopped in at Macrocarpa Trail and wildflower walk.  This is 1km long and took us about an hour because we kept finding lots of little flowers.  The macrocarpa hadn’t flowered yet but there are some nice big pods forming in the trees.  We then returned to the van by 2pm. Had lunch and did the washing before sitting down to type up this update.