Xmas

Well we came home for Xmas and what a day it turned out to be!!!!.   It all started well, breakfast at my son's mother-in-laws.  We had a beaut breakfast shared with a family friend Wade, who was  flying out to Africa with two mates to bicycle around Africa.  Presents were given and warmly received.  Then Rick headed out to pick up my mum & her hubby and I started on lunch.   After a big lunch we were lashed with hail stones and wind and rain.  It came out of nowhere.   When it had reasonably settled we headed off to take the oldies home.  Then the nightmare hit us.   We drove into a massive hailstorm.   Stuck on the freeway with little shelter, my car was smashed by hail the size of golf balls.   Dents in the roof, sides and bonnet plus a cracked windscreen.  It was THE most frightening thing any of us had been thru.   The sound of the hail smashing into the car was scary.   The four of us were almost shell shocked by the enormity of the storm.   After we dropped the oldies home, we set off again, the very same freeway was now bone-dry and you could never imagine what had happened just 45 mins. earlier.  There were still quite a few cars abandoned on the sides of the road though.     As we werent sure if the giant hailstones had been thru Melton we were anxious to get home and pray the bus, which was in the drive, hadnt been damaged.   As we arrived home, the storm front hit us again, the rain lashed us as we tried to get into the house and then the hail came with such force.  We managed to get the bus under cover, then headed to our sons house to rescue his wife's new car which was out in the storm.  Fortunately for us all, no damage was done to the bus or Kristels car.   Rick and I got back to the house like a couple of drowned rats.   Soaked to the skin, belted by hail stones.  All we could do was laugh.   What a day.     We got a "white Xmas". Apparently Melton was hit by a mini tornando and today, Boxing Day, we saw some of the damage to some of our neighbours trees which have been split in half or torn out of the ground.   Our younger son Justin & his wife Rachel didnt make it to our home for Xmas Dinner until almost 9pm as they were caught by not only the rain but also flash flooding that closed the major roads they were travelling on.    Today, the 26th is fine and warm.

My mum and Jim, both in their late 80's, they enjoyed their day out, which was great, as who knows, if they will be here for many more Xmas Days.

Grandpa Rick helping Cooper check out his presents

Bella checking out her gifts

This is Uncle Wade, with Bella and Cooper.  They love him to bits.  He is flying out in the early hours with some mates for 4 months overseas.  They are taking their bikes with them and planning to cycle about 120km per day, thru Africa.  Brave, adventurous and possibly crazy!!!!!!!!!!!

just some beer signs

Have we ever been away??????????????????

We knew we were home in Victoria, before we saw the signs, even blindfolded, we would have known.  The Highway turned to shit!!!!.   The roads/highways in NT, WA and SA are all excellent, but ours are without doubt the worst.    We are back home, already, a week has passed, and it feels as though we were never away.  Its back to normal, although Rick and I are both finding it extremely difficult to get motivated.   Housework is being ignored, dont really care for it at the moment.  Strange.   Just catching up with friends, family, a bit of work, and going thru all the mail.   Thats about it.   Christmas is coming and I cant even be stuffed getting out the tree.   Perhaps we need another holiday to get over coming back home. HA HA.

I have just started to work out our spending.   I can tell you that we travelled 27,000kms on our trip.   20,000 of them in the bus with the car in tow, and 7000 in the car on trips.   Our fuel costs were $7,297 for the bus.    The cheapest fuel was $1.38/L in Albany  WA and the highest in Erldunda  NT, $1.89/L.    Fuel costs for the car were $1119.  The cheapest fuel in Bunbury WA $1.22/L and the highest $2.00/L at Glen Helen in NT,   any other figures are to come.  

2 sleeps to go

We had a really nice relaxing time catching up with Col & Liz and "Killer" Cody.   We had seen them at the rally but hadnt spent any real time with them there.  Possibly we will see each other in 2012.  Then we set off for home.  Camped at a lovely lake near Ararat in Vic. for our last night.   It was a lovely spot, the lake was calm and there were a few ski boats out so we sat, drank and watched them have fun.

Such a pretty and peaceful spot, even with the ski boats. 

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Arriving Home and parked up in the backyard.   The place looks amazing.   Everything has grown so much since we hit the road, the trees enormous.  It wasnt too out of control and we should be able to get it back to "normal" within a few days or so.  Not bothering too much yet.   Too much else to do.

When we got inside, we were rapt.   No musty smells, no dead flies/spiders,/cobwebs our anything else creepy.    Our beautiful family had been over, the house vacuumed, swept and dusted.   Perfumed room fresheners thru the house.  Flowers, fruit, chocolate, bread and milk awaited.  We are truly blessed. I will follow up in the next week with some more blog.

The Eyre Peninsula

We have been pulling into the small towns and bays etc along the Eyre Peninsula.  Whilst the weather is nice and sunny, the wind is still blowing a gale and we arent even bothering to spend time looking around or taking photos.    The other problem for us is that we arent all that impressed.   We have seen so much that its hard to get enthused.      Its time to head for home and we are now making our way towards Adelaide.   We will catch up with Liz & Col from Murray Bridge and then spend a few days making our way home.  It will be nice to ge thome and see everyone and of course, smother Bella and Cooper with love.

Ceduna

The town of Ceduna is all about fishing and grain.   The grain terminal here is massive.   We watched one of the ships being loaded with grain for who knows where.    Everywhere we travelled we have seen fields of gold being harvested.    All thru the wheatbelts of WA and now SA.   Cant imagine how much grain is being grown and sold, in just these two states but its huge.      The town itself was Ok, probably a little nicer than I thought it would be, but quite small.   Not a lot of tourist stuff to do here, except buy and or eat seafood.   Lots of outlets for just that purpose.    We did a couple of "nice" drives, but they werent all that much. We have also filled the freezer with freshly caught fish, straight off the boats.    A feed of very fresh King George Whiting last night was to die for.     We actually celebrated my birthday here, and had a great dinner at the pub.   Seafood!!!!!,  of course. I was so hanging for a chocolate dessert but sadly there wasnt any on the menu.   Had to settle for home made baked coffee cheesecake.  Pretty good substitute.  Must admit, we both need to lose quite a few kgs. once home, so perhaps one more chocolate feast whenhome and then diet time!!!!!!!!.

We were tossing up which way to head from here and have decided to visit the Eyre Peninsula.   The trouble for us is that it is still blowing a gale and its not that enjoyable.   We have also picked up a hitch-hiker.   A little mouse has joined us, possibly on the Nullabor.   Has had a feast on Ricks muesli bars and now the trap is set.   Hopefully he is a loner and hasnt got a family on board.

The mouse has now been caught.  Fat little sucker.    Havent caught another, but will leave a trap set just in case.

The Nullabor

We have crossed the Nullabor now and are in South Australia.   It has been blowing an absolute gale since we left Norseman.   A big headwind for us all the way.   Each time we pulled up to take a photo of something or just to camp up for the night, we were sandblasted.   Couldnt sit outside or socialise.   Everyone was pretty much shut up in their vans.  Sometimes, the wind would force us backward or sideways as we stepped out to a lookout etc.  My camera was actually pushed sideways as I tried to take photos.  Of course this didnt make us that happy and our fuel gauge was moving downwards pretty quickly.   We had already determined where the cheapest fuel was for us as we crossed and we hang on for grim death, with the gauge on empty, hoping we would make it.   Of course we did, just nail bitingly close to running out.   We had seen fuel for $2.10 and we paid $1.88.   When we got to Ceduna it was only $1.54.

Rick was on a mission to get across as quick as he could.  It was foot to the peddle as we made our way.  Yes it was pretty boring, but the landscape did change quite a bit as we travelled thru it and we could do some side trips to the  Nullabor Bunda cliffs and The Great Australian Bite Marine Park to alleviate the boredom of vegetation.

Its nice and green for a good part of the way with lots of new growth alongside the roadway..





The treeless plain, now that was boring.   At least if there were any wild life you could spot them, but we saw nothing!!!!!!!!!!

The cliffs and the Great Aust Bite coastline.   Once upon a time, or up until recently, you could drive right out on to the cliff edges to view the ocean and the cliffs and to even camp up.  Nowadays they are all fenced off, and you must view them from lookouts or pathways.    Cuts out a lot of the view in some cases which is sad.  But on the other hand, it was so windy when we visited that we were getting knocked around and you could easily imagine the wind pushing you over the cliffs.   It was beautiful to see such a contrast so close to the highway.

This photo is of the old Nullabor Highway.  It now runs alongside the bitumen highway from Eucla to Ceduna.    Very overgrown in places but still recognisable as the old Highway.  We were keen to "revisit" it.  This is the road that we travelled on in 1970-71.   Firstly in a Ford Fairlane, then a FX Ute and on one return trip, a motorbike.  Sadly for us the bike died on the bitumen part of the old Highway and we had to hitchhike in a truck the rest of the way home to Melbourne.   Of course we were young and naive.   We have seen a few cyclists on the Nullabor and think they are nuts.

Just a couple of garden ornaments in a town we passed thru.   Much to Ricks heartbreak.!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Esperance cont.

There is a 21km drive you can do in Esperance starting at the Information Centre.  On that 21km drive you visit more than 10 different beaches.   They all start to blur after a while.    It was a rough old day, the rain had stopped, but the wind was blowing a gale and the seas were getting quite rough.   On a beautiful still day they would have been sensational.   Still I have posted them here so that you can se the "islands" of granite that are all thru the bays here.

Twilight Beach, once voted the worlds best beach.   Many moons ago.

More Granite Islands

The beach from the town lookout

The port facility right in the CBD

Looking back to town and the port facility

We had planned to stay an extra day in Esperance in town, but Rick is anxious to move on so we are now heading North to Norseman than we will turn East and start the journey on the Nullabor.   I have tried to drag it out a bit longer but Rick wont cooperate!!!!  Im losing the battle.!!!!   I love the Coast and dont want to leave it yet.   Home is beckoning.    Not sure what service there is as we cross the Nullabor this week so may or may not be updating for a while.   Quite possibly there wont be anything worth reporting anyway.

Cape Le Grand and Lucky Bay

Parked up and ready to drive for kms along Cape Le Grand beach, the other campspot in the Nat. Park

Shamrock Bay, the white sand dunes in the background

Hellfire Bay, this was beautiful. We walked all the way around this bay and were treated to a show from some dolphins that were fishing off shore

Whistling rock - Another "dog" rock we think.  The rock actually does whistle as the wind comes thru.  

The dolphins we spotted.  There looked to be about a dozen just off shore and we caught these ones "surfing"

Parked on Lucky Bay beach

The view as you enter the campground

The view from the steps of the bus

The other view from the steps of the bus

This rock is a 3km walk to the top. We didnt do it of course

The kangas in the campground, they just hang around and wander around the vans without any fear.

Our neighbours water bucket.

Albany-Ravensthorpe-Esperance

Leaving Albany we headed to an overnighter at Ravensthorpe.  It was an interesting trip watching the landscape constantly change.   We had wheatfields, sheep, cattle, eucalypt/tree farms, forests of nat. park and then mines.   Two very large mines were seen, one at night lit up like fairyland.  The other mine, which we couldnt work out what it was processing was as big as any that we had seen up North.    We pulled into a bush camp, settled down and then it started to bucket down.  No service, so card games and draughts were played until we went to bed.   Then we started to feel our camp was just a little "creepy" no reason, we just both felt uncomfortable.  So at 9.30 we jumped out of bed, started up the bus and took off back into town.   Dinner dishes in the sink, half asleep, half dressed.  Ended up in the middle of town in one of their parks.  Not quite a legal stopover but we were stuffed and just didnt care.   The camp was prob. perfectly OK, we just had "that" feeling.    The next day we set off for Esperance.   It rained all the way and we werent feeling happy.   (Sue - thought of you & Brian then and your time visiting Esperance)   Got to the Esperance Info Centre, told them we were heading for Cape Le Grand Nat. Park and Lucky Bay and they said as far as they knew the campground was full.   There was no way they could check its status, we just had to drive the 55km out there, and if full, drive 55km back!!!!!.   Not impressed.   When we got out there it was 3/4 empty.    Our friend Paula told us we would love Esperance and she wasnt wrong.    As you turn down to go into campground, the words OH MY GOD couldnt be held back.   What a stunning place.   Crystal clear waters, white sand that went on forever, granite rocks everywhere.     Such a beautiful place to camp up, $12 per night, looking over Lucky Bay.  You could drive for kms along the beach, swim, fish or just soak up the beauty.    The whole of Cape Le Grand National Park was beautiful.   We visited all the bays and took far too many photos.   This lower end of WA is seriously granite rock country.    There are "mountains" of granite here that would give Ayers Rock a run for its money they are so huge, but their colours annd landscape make them breathtaking. We were so lucky because the sun shone for us and we were able to sit back and just enjoy.    This is one  place where you can see kangaroos lazing on the white sands of the beach.   They were there each afternoon around 4.30, I wish I had taken photos of them as our "neighbours" in the campground did and they were fantastic.  Bugger.    We were too lazy to walk around the beach to visit them. I could have stayed for weeks, but Rick is anxious to move on and get home, so 3 days was it for us.     Definitely the place to visit again and again. The day we left it started to rain once again.    I have posted pictures on the next instalment.

Albany

Can you see the puppy's head - this is The Gap at one of the National Parks here in Albany.

The Bridge - I cant remember its name

Dog Rock - Does he look like a Staffy.   This is the feature of the Dog Rock Shopping Centre (Woolworths)

Dog Rock Motel

Salmon Pond Bay - pure rock

Albany is a very large City and we liked it very much.   Parked up in a caravan park, next to the main beach which is huge.   This place is built on and surrounded by pure granite rock.   As you can see from the examples above.   Lots of houses are built with foundations over massive rocks on their blocks.  Others are set back from the rocks, then landscaped to include the rock as its garden.  Everywhere you look you see these monstrous but very attractive rocks.     Lots of lovely old heritage type buildings here, all mostly around where the Port is.  Albany has a huge and very busy port facility, lots of ships coming and going being loaded with various cargoes and has been so since the 1800s.   Whaling was also very big here.    It would be a great spot for whale watching at the right time of the year as Albanys bays are easily viewed from a number of great lookouts. This place was also the embarkation point for the Anzacs when they went to fight in WW1.  It was very hot here, spent time  walking the beaches and in the park pool, but also watching the smoke clouds in the sky. We thought it was from Margaret River but then found out there were fires not far from Denmark, around 50kms from here, where we were last.  The weather has changed so fingers crossed the fires are now under control as I type.  Last reports 39 houses lost at Margaret River.

Cable Beach Albany not as nice as Broomes Cable Beach but very private

Waiting for a feed, we tried to give them chips but they were waiting for the fishermen to clean their catch.