Archive for October, 2008
We headed off from Busselton and headed to Albany. The drive from a little town called Nanup to Bridgetown was one of the nicest drives we have done on this entire trip. Huge trees and a carpet of wildflowers underneath, we didn’t take the cameras out at all I’m afraid so we can’t show you just how magnificent it was.
Here on the south coast of W.A. in Albany and it is one of the most picturesque places we have seen. The weather has improved although it is very windy every day. We booked into the Middleton Beach Caravan Park. We had a wonderful site right next to the beach. Just down the road was the Dog Rock, in fact the whole place had huge rocks dotted around with houses built around them. All of the towns here in the south have beautiful buildings and have retained their heritage as much as possible.
The ship Doulos was in harbour and we went on board for a look around. The ship is staffed almost entirely by volunteers and travels as a floating bookshop. The profits are used for charitable projects throughout the world. We thought it would be a great thing to do for a year or two. About 300 people live on board from all different countries and backgrounds.
The coastline here is rugged and beautiful. We went for a drive to see The Gap and The Natural Bridge and went for a wander around the rocks. The roads are great, there are lookouts everywhere but unless you are in town there are no public loos anywhere.
They have a really good war museum here and a lighthorse section ( a friend of ours has written a book on the 8th Lighthorse) so we went to have a look at that and the impressive statue that stands on top of the hill. This is the view from the base of the statue, isn’t it just wonderful? In the middle of town, on the waterfront, is this replica of a brig. We went on board here too and you just can’t imagine sixty people travelling on this little thing. Down below you couldn’t stand up at all and 60 people plus animals and all the provisions sailed in this to Tasmania.
Our next stop was Esperance, again we were right on the beach but it was wet and windy. Gale force winds in fact. Again the coast road here, called The Great Ocean Drive, was pretty spectacular. We stopped to have a look at this lookout but it was so windy that only Motley1 made it to the top. Our next stop there was a climb down rather than up but sad to say neither of us was game to have a go as we would have had to come back up.
Every morning the sealions came up unto the beach and just lazed around. It was quite amazing to watch how graceful they were in the water and then how clumsily they moved on land. Esperance is quite a large port and we watched some ships to come in to load up with grain at the jetty. Pity about the weather as it wasn’t too good at all, the cold wind was the main reason we decided to move on so soon.
Boulder was our next stop and we booked in to the park here. The buildings in this area are wonderful, most of them restored to original condition and well looked after. Gold, of course, is what this area is famous for. Mines abound everywhere. We visited the War Museum here too.
This shot is of one of the numerous pubs, mines and pubs as far as the eye can see 
Skimpies are topless barmaids for the uninitiated but my favourite was the sign about the tropical beergarden, something not quite right there I think! Here is another of the pubs in town. What do you think this outstanding building is? Yes you’ve guessed it, another pub.
We went to the railway museum for a visit. They used to run a little train around what was called the Loop Line but the mine has taken some of it to transport their hauls.
Kalgoorlie is just next door to Boulder, twin towns really, you can’t tell where one ends and the other begins.
On our way into town we came across another one of those crossings where the road is tooooooo near the railway lines. I really don’t like being so near the train but the drivers aways give you a friendly wave as they know you will be sitting there for about ten minutes while miles of carriages go past. Kalgoorlie is also a town full of historic buildings and pubs. You can see where the money goes from all these high wages in the mines though. Alcohol pays well ! The pubs are very grand.
This year marks the centenary of the Kalgoorlie Town Hall. We went for a wander through the inside too. It was very impressive with its grand staircase and council chambers as well as a huge auditorium. You can see the steeple for miles and the clock chimes on the hour.
No visit to Kalgoorlie could be complete without a look at the mine. This is the superpit, the largest goldmine in W.A. Apparently, Alan Bond bought up a lot of little leases and combined them together to come up with the superpit. It stretches for kilometres and you can see here how deep it is. You can watch for hours all these “little” trucks trekking up the sides laden with rock. Here is one of the shovels on the fron of the diggers and what looks like a dinky model from on top is just huge.
Motley1 says as my picture at the W.A. border gave everyone such a laugh (he’s cruel) then we intends to take one regularly so everyone can see just how much fatter I am getting. Standing at the little path leading down to the beach the other day he told me my backside blocked his whole view of the ocean, I think he’s trying to tell me something but I can’t quite work out what it is.
We thought today we would go for a drive to Coolgardie thinking it would be much the same as Kalgoorlie but worth a look see. It was slightly quieter than Kalgoorlie although still had those impressive old buildings. I don’t think we saw more than four other people the whole time we were there.
Motley1 liked his visit to the park and meeting up with a kindred spirit there. We drove out and had a look at a small unused gold mine, I do wish I had a gold detector in case they had left some behind.
Last but certainly not least, here for Bev are some closeup shots of the wonderful wildflowers that cover grass verges, paddocks and forests wherever you go.
Since our last post we have covered a lot of miles but we’ll start back at Broome where we last left you. It was hot and getting hotter every day. We went to see Cable Beach, Broome’s most famous landmark. The camels do walks on the beach every morning and evening. While we were there, we saw posters everywhere asking for information as someone had covered the camels in oil, spread glass where they walk daily and thrown paint over the vehicle of the camels owner.
Sounds like a grudge or a competitor to me.Further around the coastline was much rockier, I preferred it there as we clambered over the rocks, the formations were quite spectacular. Broome is famous for it’s pearls and the pearl divers, so we went to look at the pearl luggers and there are statues all over the place commemorating the divers. Chinatown was interesting also, most of the divers were Chinese and there is still a big influence in the town from that time.We were becoming uncomfortable in the heat as the nighttime temperatures varied little from the day so we decided to head south and the cooler weather.
We set off for our next stop, Port Hedland. They mine everything here I think, including salt. The whole town was full of people wearing mining uniforms. We weren’t very impressed by what we saw or the red dust that covered everything so decided to head off the next morning and go further south.
Our next stop was Karratha, it looked a nice little town but the caravan parks were horrendously expensive so we carried on to The Nanatarra Roadhouse, The distances between towns is astounding, up to 650kms. the only thing in between are the roadhouses. On our way, we managed to collect another flat tire, the whole thing shredded and again we had to stop on the side of the road and change a wheel. At the roadhouse we managed to buy a tyre and have it fitted to our wheel as we felt we had tempted fate enough the first time around driving so far without a spare. We did meet a nice couple here though who offered to follow us the next morning as far as Carnarvon if we didn’t want to pay the exorbitant prices they charged at the roadhouse for a tire.
At the roadhouse we saw white peacocks and lots of red dust, not much alse to be seen. Although the tyre was expensive, Bruce, the owner of the roadhouse fitted it to our wheel
and delivered it to our van at 8.30pm so the service was appreciated.
Next morning we set off for Carnarvon which was a very pleasant surprise. A lovely little town and a very nice caravan park. We decided to stay a few days and enjoy GREEN grass under our feet, We’ve seen precious little of that for a long time. Carnarvon grows fruit and vegetables for most of W.A. and for miles there are orchards and farms. Most of the farms sell their produce at their gates also and all on an honour system. This was just one of the refrigerated units that we passed on the side of the road.
There were flowers everywhere also and this was just one of the many laneways which were a blaze of colour. The town is overlooked by a huge communications satellite dish which was used during the gemini and apollo missions. It is no longer in use and you can climb up there for a view over the town. The size is incredible, impossible to get an idea from a photograph. Motley1 climbed only a part of the way up and was suffering from a little vertigo afterwards.
There is a long wooden jetty ( 1 mile long, if my memory serves me well ) which was used by passenger liners and freighters alike many years ago. Motley1 was for walking out but I wasn’t for that
so we travelled out on the Coffee Pot. It was so windy out there that I held on to the train the whole time we were out of our seats but Motley1 went for a walk and saw a shark swimming around the legs of the jetty.
Heading to Geraldton, we stopped for lunch at Northhampton at these lovely gardens where Motley1 took off his socks and shoes (despite the cold) just to walk on the grass.
We arrived in Geraldton and all the people we had spoken to en route to here were proven to be correct. Everyone had warned us that it was a windy town and they were right.
The town was much larger than we had envisioned so looking for old friends when we had no idea where they lived proved an impossible task. The visitors centre was very impressive
and adjoined the old hospital building which has been preserved. We spent a couple of days looking around the town and now complaining bitterly about the cold weather.
Never Happy!
The memorial to the H.M.A.S. Sydney 11 was enormous and overlooked the town, my favourite was the waiting woman who still waits for the ship to arrive. Driving along the coast road we stopped to photograph the lighthouse which as you can see is now kept painted red and white.
Our next stop was Perth, oh what a shock. It’s so long since we were in a large city with traffic jams, traffic lights and people, people and more people that we had trouble coping with all
that hustle and bustle. We stayed in a park in the centre of town and arrived to find that we had been put on an overflow site with no tap for water. We weren’t very happy but the thought
of driving around Perth in rush hour traffic with a caravan behind us was a worse case scenario so we stayed.
We went into the city for a look around and it wasn’t until we parked the car and looked for our cameras that we discovered that they were both in the caravan. So no pictures here at all.
It was cold, raining and very windy and we didn’t spend more than half a day before heading for the caravan and the heater ..who would have thought that we would be complaining about cold weather after Darwin and Broome.
We moved to Fremantle where again we were surprised by how much it has grown and how much busier it was than we remember it from 10 years ago. Motley1 and family landed here at
Fremantle in 1955 when they first came to Australia. We headed down to the pier to have a look at where the ship berthed and watched this ship leave the harbour and head out to sea.
You will all have heard of this one as it was front page news for a week or two. It was the Tampa.
We were impressed by the bronze statues that abound throughout the area and this one was the favourite of Motley1.
The sunsets were spectular and have been in many places, we thought you might like this shot.
Medina, the town Motley1 and his family moved to on their arrival in Australia was our next stop and the house they lived in is still there. The town has been swallowed up by the neighbouring town of Kwinana but there were a few places like the school and oval which evoked many memories from long long long lonnnggggg ago for old Motley1.
One of my favourite places both on our last visit and this was Rocklingham and before you all remember that the British Lolly Shop is located there, that isn’t the only reason. OK, so maybe it plays a big part of it but it really is a lovely town.
For those who are wondering about the markets and how they have been going, they haven’t. W.A., unlike all the other states we have visited, has very few craft markets. Our first attempt at a market for ages was while we were here in Fremantle. There was a five week waiting list to have a stall at Fremantle, so we booked into a Perth market. Gale force winds, rain and temperatures in the single digits put an end to that one quick smart.
Our next destination was Bunbury where I have friends who moved here from N.S.W. many years ago. We found a nice caravan park with nice big sites and booked in. Fran arrived soon after to visit. I couldn’t believe she looked exactly the same. Hasn’t changed a bit in 10 years, it’s just not fair !
We visited the Dolphin Centre in town and saw some dolphins but they were pretty far out from shore so we drove round to the harbour for a look and whilst walking down the jetty saw the dolphins come in really close to us. I saw the latest little baby dolphin which was a real thrill.
I found these units fascinating. Old grain silos converted to units. Apparently there was much opposition to them from the townspeople but I think they look great.
Fran took us for a drive to see the wild flowers, we had seen many on our drive down the coast but here there were paddocks full of beautiful colours, pinks, yellows, white, blue.
My theory is that they dropped the seeds by plane but the locals are adamant that the grow naturally
Finally, we did a market at Busselton just down the coast a little which did not too bad. The rain stayed off but boy was it cold. Sadly, we farewelled Fran and Nisha ( the dog ) , Carol and Katie and headed to Busselton as we could do two markets there on the weekend.
It’s school holidays here in W.A. so the caravan park was full of delightful children enjoying the break.
Saturday we did the market at a little town called Vasse where we had an inside stall which was just as well as it poured the whole day. Sunday the market was on the foreshore at Busselton and although the town was busy I think it was too cold for people to come to the market.
Today, we headed to Margaret River, the wine growing region of W.A. There are so many wineries here it is a wonder they can all survive. Makes for a great day out though We stopped here for morning tea. Home made pies which were delicious.
Augusta is just down the coast and we couldn’t miss it out of our list of places to visit. Home of the tallest lighthouse in Australia, it’s where the Indian Ocean meets the Southern Ocean and it’s the most south-westerly point of the continent.
We saw so many different wildflowers here, it’s impssible to put them all on here but if anyone would like to see more just let me know.
The golf course was interesting, we couldn’t understand why they use gravel as the whole place was green.
We had lunch on the banks of the river watching the pelicans and seagulls, it was so peaceful. Driving back up the coast, we turned off to Hamelin Bay which was really spectacular. We are so disappointed in the photos as tthey just don’t do justice to the real thing and wish we could share with you what we see ..
We met two Scottish girls who work in the mines as geologists doing the cape to cape walk, 135kms, they were on the final leg and were having the time of their life. Motley1 climbed up to the lookout, the cliffs are limestone and eroding all the time. I stayed at the bottom out of the wind and enjoyed another few pages of my book.
So we are up to date again and heading off in the morning. I wish the temperature would come up by about 5 to 10 degrees although I know it won’t be long and we’ll be complaining about the heat again.
Till next time…
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