Cape Le Grande and Esperance

We had heard so many wonderful things about this place, we had high expectations.  We were a little disappointed, not with Lucky Bay itself but with the weather.  It is such a beautiful part of WA, but would be so much better in the warmer months.  We stayed three nights and it was overcast and windy most of the time.  We had a few pockets of sunshine which we made the most of.  We venture up to our shins in the water and it was surprisingly warm, either that or we were cold to start off with.  There's a pretty good National Park camp here, $22 a night, which is pretty standard.  They have showers here and I was so keen to have one.  I waited until the afternoon hoping they would be warm, jumped in and it was freezing.  Who'd have thought that the solar showers needed sun!!

 

 

We spent a lot of time doing school work and looking around the national park. We took the kids over the coast to Thistle Cove.  It was a great hour walk, even with the wind, so pretty.  Mark climbed a big rock, was working out how to get the kids up too when a big gust of wind made him loose his footing. Needless to say the kids didn't get to go up! So nice to be out and about in nature again.  That was until the clouds rolled in and the thunder started.  We only got a little wet, it was still warm at least.

Our little walkers

Marks big rock

Whistle rock

Pretty nice spot for a picnic table

Lucky Bay is such a picturesque place.  The white white beach and the blue turquoise water.  Looked so inviting.  We had many walks on the beach and some beach cricket. Its about two kms to the end of the beach and there's a small look out at the end.  The wind on the way back made walking tough.  Good leg workout. But look the sun did shine....

There were a few resident kangaroos on the beach.  Everyone was of course taking photos of them.  The kids just wandered up and patted one.  Think they are little tame!

We were going to climb French mans but due to the weather it was very wet and slippery so we gave it a miss.  We instead went and walked up the hill at Rossiter Bay.  Fabulous view from there.

One evening we went to Le Grande campground and beach to watch the sunset.  Was pretty but not spectacular.  Still lovely to be able to be on the beach having nibblies and drinks at sunset.

 

 

I think that's about it for Lucky Bay.  We enjoyed ourselves, even if I whinged about the weather!!  from here we went to Esperance.  Due to the weather (yes me whinging again)  we decided we wouldn't stay here as we couldn't really enjoy the beaches etc anyway.  We had a look around town and went out for lunch then drove to a rest area on the way to Ravensthorpe for the night.

 



Kalgoorlie

Kalgoorlie, well its an interesting place.  Pretty much what we had heard and expected.  A mining town but a pretty good one. We spent four days here looking at the sights and catching up with our mates Adam and Cath.  Was great to see Adam again and to get to know Cath. 
We also had a look at work availabilty, caravan parks and schools.  We are thinking of potentially coming back here for our next work stop.  I think it would be a great place to work and earn money but the caravan parks are dusty and not so nice.  There's a great sports and aquatic centre, we had a swim and I even checked out the gym. We will keep looking as we travel the south west and decided closer to July I think.

We took the kids to Mt Charlotte lookout over Kalgoorlie.  It was a cold day but kids being kids found water and had to splash.  Always good to get a view from up high to orientate your self to a town.

We went to the main tourist attraction in town, the Super Pit.  That is one big hole in the ground.  From the main part of town it just looks like a hill in  the background.  You can hear the trucks a little at night but not much.  The giant yellow trucks looked like tiny little match box trucks.

We figured we should keep trying to educate the kids as we travel.  In a mining town what do you do, you go to a mining museum of course.  It was a quaint old museum.  It had a couple of fabulous yellow machines at the front and a lot of old stuff the rest of the way.  It was good to get perspective from up on the truck, then to look up at it from bellow.  Its crazy to think that it takes about 6 loads of material from these trucks to make a golf ball size piece of gold. 

The kids favourite part of the day was panning for gold at the museum.  They worked very hard but didn't find any gold.  So Mark distracted them and I hid a gold coin in each of their pans.  They were so excited to find real gold, but soon realised we'd put it there.

We had a great time in Kalgoorlie.  Had dinner at Adam and Cath's place, Mark and Adam had a few drinks.  The next day Mark was a little unwell.  He proclaimed to Cath and Adam it must be because of the dodgy water in Kalgoorlie.  Cath was good enough to remind Mark he hadn't drank any water last night!! hee hee  You never know we may end up back here.  Off to Esperance and Cape Le Grande National Park.

Nullabor

Well it began and it ended with lots of driving in between!! I think we averaged about 500km a day.
First day we planned to drive a shorter distance and camp at Fowlers Bay and meet up with the Yens again. We drove 25km on a dirt road only to find where we thought the camp was and no way could we get in there. So another drive on dirt road back on the highway. We then decided to drive as far as we could, it got dark and we kept driving past the rest areas, oops. We did get to see a few dingoes and a fox but no kangaroos or camels. We ended up pulling up next to a couple of other vans right next to a viewing area of the Great Australian Bite. It was so dark we couldn't see it. But we knew it was there, the windy, oh my gosh the van has never rocked like that before!! The stars that night were amazing, but it was too awful to stay outside and appreciate them. Kids were freaked out by the wind. Jake couldn't believe they didn't have a fence. I explained that there was a fence. But he thought they should build a brick fence taller than the caravan, to stop the wind. Not sure that would work at a viewing platform!!!

Got up early and went and checked out the bite or little "nibble" as Mark called it. Pretty impressive seeing the sheer cliffs and the raging ocean.

Next stop the boarder. Man they are strict there, poor Mark was devastated to have to give up his honey :(. But its important for quarantine reasons, and to protect their industry.  I got talking to the quarantine officer about it and said yes I know all about why we need healthy bees and hives, I've watched the kids movie called The Bee Movie.  Yep I sounded very educated!!!

Pulled up for the night at a random rest area. 2/3 of the way now!! Must say the sunsets over the Nullabor are rather pretty and the sunrises are amazing. We thought it would be flat and with limited plants. We were pleasantly surprised to find a lot more to see. There's are lot of wide open land out here....

Drove through Norseman. Only stopped for Mark to climb on the famous horse. Apparently back in the day the horse accidentally dug up some dirt and found gold.

Now I've got a head ache and have been stuck on the car for three days. I wasn't feeling pleasant!! Made it to Kalgoorlie yah!! The Nullabor was an okay drive. It's just hard to drive such long distances for three days in a row. Kids were awesome, probably nicer about it than I was in the end!! It's done now, pretty sure we won't be heading back that war any time soon!!!

Eyre Penninsular

Yah we are heading west, well south then west!! First stop after a long drive was Point Lowly. A really busy free camp near Wyalla. We meant to stay one night but had two as we had a few repairs to be done.
Mark was busy sorting caravan brakes and solar panels. We did a walk or two, checked out a nice old light house. Explored for fish but no luck :( .

The evening walk, lucky we had a super hero to protect us

Next stop was Coffin Bay right at the tip of the Peninsular past Port Lincoln. Another long drive. I've been sitting in the back with the kids as we drive to get some school work done. We stopped at Port Lincoln for supplies, a nice small town. With a great and cheap fresh seafood place. The freezer is now full.
We got in to camp a bit late and had to set up in a open crappy spot but oh we'll!! Am sure we will still enjoy ourselves.

The washer lady

We had a bit of time before dark and had been stuck in the car all day, so decided to head off for a walk. It was a nice walk but we kinda went a bit far and just made it back as the sunset. Oops. Kids weren't impressed!

We spent some time in Coffin Bay. It's a fabulous small town with lots if shacks but not massively touristy. There's a great path along the water front where I spent some time exercising. Lots of cute shacks to check out, gotta love a sticky beak. Mark and the kids had fun fishing. Caught some Tommy's that were quite nice when cooked. And of course we sampled a few dozen oysters, and they were delicious!!

Charlotte is obsessed with fishing, she is great at it and loves it.

No Charlotte you don't gut the fish like that....

A tad dark to be scaling fish

Oysters Oysters Oysters

We went for a drive along the 4wd track through the park. Saw a lot of emus mostly, like a whole paddock of about twenty to thirty of them. Got the cruiser in some mud and had a drive on the beach. Then the fun began, we drove onto the sand dunes. It's safe to say I held on tight. Was fairly nervous! But was great, looked like we were in the middle of the desert. And we didn't get bogged!! We were all like big kids on the dunes.  I even rolled down the sand dune, haven't done that in years.  Lots of fun for us today, sand in places we wished we didn't have sand.

They look so happy

Then the kids went and got cover in red spots. They were a little bit sick. Then I got it. But I don't think it was chicken pox, just some sort of virus. But it did mean we missed out on catching up with my cousins. We stopped on the way home and checked out the view from the look outs.

Pose nicely for the camera kids

 

Took the kids to a beach at the National Park.  I was busy taking photos, Mark was wandering about and the kids went crazy.  Was so lovely to see, they spent so long just rolling and wrestling in the sand, think they had some energy to get rid of.  Was most amusing when they turned on Mark and tried to splash him in their game.  I think they forgot their Dad is smarter and faster than them.  They ended up sandy and wet.  A great day  :)



We had a great time at Coffin Bay. A really lovely spot for our first stop on this leg of the journey.  So great after spending the last three months apart with work and school commitments to gel together as a family again.

Coffin Bay

The view from my walk along by the shacks

From the tip to the top of the Peninsular. With a stop for lunch at the bakery at Streaky Bay, it was raining. We planned to camp on the beach for a few days at Perlubie before crossing the Nullabor, like our friends had. Unfortunately we timed it wrong and there were king high tides and couldn't get our big van on the beach. It's OK we just camped in the area off the beach. Such a beautiful area. It has these cool beach huts and swings on the beach. Apparently they hold horse races here on the beach and that's why it's all set up.

Choice spot for a swing

We met up with the Yen family from Victoria who are travelling in their camper trailer. Kids all had a great time playing together. Did some fishing, caught a couple of small fish. Had a couple of nice walks along the beach with Kieren. Pleasant life really! Now it's time to cross the Nullabor. Apparently it's rather long and boring. Am sure the kids are going to be little cherubs :)

Orlando, Jake, Horatio and Charlotte, Solvy had ran off.