Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

From Helen and David.

We have finally arrived in Melbourne for Christmas with Deb and family, though the Blog doesn't show this as its dropped behind a bit. I hope to get it up to date pretty soon, now I have good reception and the time to do it.

4th Dec
We made it as far as Elliston. A nice quiet Camping ground and we found out there was lots to see in the Area.

Another Jetty to walk down, this time into a very cool wind.

We were told about a Cliff top drive, with some sculptures scattered around cliff edges, so we decided it could be worth a look.

 More nice Coastal scenery and Cliffs with wild seas breaking on the rocks far below. Keep away from the edge!!

 Some interesting sculptures, large and small.

I don't think this improves it one jot!!

Gives you an idea of the stability of the area, don't drive near the edge!

From here it was on to Port Lincoln at the bottom of the Peninsular.

We arrived and settled into the camping ground and ended up with a nice view over the Bay.
The view from the lookout behind the Town gives you an idea of  how the place is situated.

 
We drove into town that evening and had a look around.

 Another Jetty! But this one gave us a good view back to the Waterfront which, with the lights coming on and reflecting on the Water was nice.

 On the foreshore was a Statue of Makybe Diva, the three times Melbourne Cup winner. Apparently she was bred and raised around these parts. 500kgs of Plasticine was used to make the mold for the Statue.
While we were in Port Lincoln we travelled over to Coffin Bay to see where all the good Oysters come from. Not a lot to see and the Town was only average so we carried on out to the National Park.

Not a lot of improvement here. We checked out a couple of camping spots but they were tucked in the Scrub and infested with flies, so not for us thanks.

We carried on through to the Coast but though nice, was just more of the same. I think we must be getting sceneryed out! Nice Cliff formations though.

 We packed up and hit the road again heading for Adelaide. The road up the East coast of the Peninsula was pretty boring again,. notable only for the Wheat Silo's and the long straight roads with Wheat on either side.

We finally made it to Port Pirri and it was stinking hot (37) as the wind was from the North and straight off the Desert. As we passed through Port Augusta we completed the loop of Australia, as on the previous trip (8 years ago) we turned off there and went up the middle to Alice Springs.

We went into Town and had a Feed of Fush and Chups!! Very nice too. Some nice old buildings around town and the old Railway station was the nicest. It's now a Museum, don't know what happened to the railway.

Next stop Adelaide.

Cheers Helen and David.

2nd Dec

The next day we motored on, until we got to the Great Australian Bight Marine Park.

It was here at the lookout that we had a meeting with the Law!!

Fortunately they were friendly guys and had just piloted a couple of Cat dump trucks to the WA border, and were on their way home.  They kindly took our photo and this was the first time we have had our photo taken by the Police!!

They didn't do a bad job either.

The cliffs seem to go on forever up the Coast looking East.

 

A stop at the Nullarbor Road house to top up the Fuel. You only put in enough to get you to the next big town where hopefully the price is a bit cheaper.

By the way if you wondered what Nullarbor means, well Null is No,  Arbor is tree.

See what it means! No trees!

We arrived at the Whale watch centre at the Head of the Bight and though it wasn't Whale season we though it worth a look.

Of course you had to pay but being a Senior does have its advantage at times like this.

 The Cliffs looking West.

And looking East to where we were headed. During the Whale season you can see heaps of them from here and well worth a visit apparently.

The next stop was Ceduna at the end of the big trek and a Border check point for Fruit and Veg.

We had eaten all the fruit but still had a few veges left so what do you do?

You cook up a Roast on the side of the road to use them up of course.

Very nice it was too!!

We still had a dry old Lettuce that we gave them as we went through and they seemed happy with that. I figure if you give them something it stops them looking for anything else.

From Ceduna we headed down the Eyre Peninsula as we hadn't done this before. We probably wouldn't do it again as the place is covered in Wheat as far as the eye can see.

There was one interesting spot to break the tedium of the wheat, and that was

Murphy's Haystacks.

An unusual series of Rock formations sitting in the middle of nowhere being sculptured by the wind.

They are not small rocks either.

Next its on to Port Lincoln at the foot of the Peninsula.

Cheers Dave and Helen.

30th Nov

I suppose the first thing you notice about the trip across the Nullarbour is the road signs. They are slightly different to what you get anywhere else.

You just know you are in for an interesting drive and when you strike this, you not only keep your eyes on the road but glance skyward as well. This normally follows the first photo and is the Flying Doctors emergency Airstrip. By the way that's the main road ahead of you.

Sometimes you have to dive off the tarmac to see the interesting stuff.

 

To explore further you had to go underground and it didn't look big enough for me.

 

 

The Madura Lookout gave us a great view over the Hampton Tablelands, of which we were about to drive across..

Not a lot to see out there!! and not much was moving, except a couple of Cyclists. And no they weren't Japanese!!

 

We stopped for the night at a free camp and the Stars later on were magnificent. You have to be away from any source of light to get the best view and  there wasn't a light for Miles out there.

 

The next day we motored on until we came to the old Telegraph station at Eucla,just before the South Australia Border.

 

An interesting place and you wonder what the original operators did with their spare time. Its miles away from anywhere!!

The next stop for the night and we were in South Australia after being in West Australia for what seemed like forever. We had crossed into WA at Kunnanura and we seemed to have done half Australia before we got out of it, here at Border village. The West is a huge State.

 

 Not many neighbours at this stop. But a short walk to the Cliff edge gave you some magnificent vista's. Just don't stand too close, just look at the undercut. Another night of magnificent Stars.

The Southern Ocean has got some power with it. These are the Bunda Cliffs. I believe they are the longest stretch of Sea Cliffs in the World.

Next on to Ceduna and the Eyre Peninsula.

Cheers Dave and Helen

27th Nov

On our way to Kalgoorlie we stopped for the night 20km North of Norseman on the side of the road with another couple of Vans. It was pretty warm so we didn't do much just tried to keep cool.

 This was OK, but later in the afternoon we could see a Thunderstorm building up. When it hit us just after dark it bought torrential rain and wind, so we had to close all the windows in the van, with the upshot that the Temps got up to 37 deg and pretty steamy with it. It made for an uncomfortable night but we did get some sleep.

The next day we headed away bright and Early to make use of the nice tail wind that was blowing.

We arrived in Kalgoorlie after making good time and made our way to the Caravan park.

Just down from the site we were allocated was a group of people clearing away a tree that had fallen  across a van in the Storm the previous night. Not much damage done just the Solar panel and a plastic roof vent broken.

Kalgoorlie has some fantastic old Buildings showing how much money was available during its formative years at the height of the Gold Boom.

But the reason to Visit Kalgoorlie, apart from the Red Light Area, which is down to one Brothel these days,painted a suitable Pink,

 is to see the Super Pit.

A panoramic shot of the Pit.

The must have photo if you are in Kalgoorlie and at the Super Pit.

This is a photo taken from the Local Tourist information book. It was too good not to use.

It shows the size of the place with Kalgoorlie in the background. Since this was taken I suppose its grown even bigger.

Next we tackle the Nullarbor.

See Ya

Dave and Helen