Day 59

31 March 2013

Today is mumma's birthday! Happy birthday mumma! Xxxxxxxxxxx

Today we went for another 4wd drive around the surrounding bays. Joel had come across a inland lake that after slurping some water into his mouth and promptly spitting it out had come to the conclusion that it was fresh water. With the car looking like a dirt ball from yesterday's events we thought we could give it a quick wash in the fresh water!

First Joel drove back and forth through the water to get all the underneath cleaned up. He went a little too far and started digging up the sand below and spraying that over the car too! Then I suggested he park in the middle of the lake and scoop buckets of water to get rid of sand and dirt. This seemed to do the trick. Off to check out the beach again and just off the shore was a big pod of dolphins! Love dolphins! By this time the car had dried and it looked like the paint was peeling off! Looked awful so back to the lake and this time both of us knee deep in lake water, Joel had the sponge and I had the bucket of water scooping behind him. Bush car washing! If anyone saw us doing this they would have thought we were from Qld or something! Haha

Car washed and we thought we would head out along the beach to get it all sandy again. : S Had a fish and Joel caught a little herring which went back to grow bigger. After pretty dismal fishing episode we headed back to camp, tide was high so there was only single lane access on the beach up in the soft dunes. A triton came the other way and blocked our path, just sat there and wasn't moving. Joel was rolling back and forth trying to get it into 4L (trito guy probably thought we were being dickheads) still triton didn't move, so Joel fangs it into the wet boggy sand and tries to go round triton and back into soft shit but doesn't quite make it and she is bogged up to the side steps! So I am on digging duties and Joel is letting the tyres down (which he didn't do again!), dmax finally goes into 4L and we are out of there!

While this doesn't sound like much, this took up our whole day! Its amazing how easily you can get rid of a day! Over and out.

Carly & Joel

 

Posted with Blogsy

Day 58

30 March 2013

 

This morning we were tired of waiting for the weather man to give us some beautiful blue skys so we decided to head to Cape Le Grand National Park no matter what the weather.

The day started off with pretty gloomy looking weather but we set off to our first destination, which was some exploring on 4wd tracks in and around the National Park. From where we are staying at Dukes of Orleans Bay it is a 40km drive on a mostly dirt road to get to Cape Le Grand. There is a few off tracks which pretty much just do loops back onto this dirt road but Joel was keen to do some 4wdriving so we turned left onto Saddleback Road.

The road wasn't too bad, a little washed away in places because of the recent rain, but fairly good for a 4wd track. First detour was to Dunnes Beach, this road was sketchy (to say the least), the rain had created huge pools of water every 100m or so which had us tracking up into bushland to go around them. Few ruts and few skippys crossing the track and then the track turned to sand, which made us think we must nearly be there! As we tracked a bit further the sand just got finer and boggier and as there was nobody around for miles we decided it might not be such a good idea to get stuck in here and turned back to saddleback road.

Back on saddleback road with the car sporting a very muddy look, the road progressively got more 4wd like as we went, the rain had definately done some damage to this track which we found out when we got what felt like hours down this road and the track had been completely washed away! Which you guessed it meant we had to turn and go all the way back to the main road. Oh well, you just never know what you might find down a 4wd track!

On our way to Cape Le Grand and the road turns to bitumen, if you come from Esperance the road is totally bitumen so it is easily accessible to anyone. There is a park entrance here and you have to pay to enter the park, which is $11 a day or we opted for the $40 for a month pass which allows access to all WA national parks. This park is so well kept and planned out, just really user friendly and you can see that the money paid to enter the park is actually going into making the park enjoyable to visit (unlike some NP's)! So well done WA!

Well where to start really here, think photos will probably speak louder than the words I write but a quick rundown. Firstly headed to Hellfire Beach which has a nice bbq area and toilets. You can walk up onto big rocks here to look down on the beach or why not walk along the purest whitest sand I have ever seen and look straight at the clear blue water! Now this water is not blue, it is not green, it is not a colour that is describable, it is a truly magnificent shade of aqua and turquoise and is completely clear and see through! They are right when they say these are the best beaches in Australia, would be hard to beat I think!

Then to Thistle Cove which homes the whistling rock. This rock is humungous and it is said that if you listen carefully you can hear the wind whistling through the rock. Now I believe I did hear this whistle; however I wonder if it is similar to the seashell (you know put a shell to your ear and you can hear the ocean) where everyone tells you you can hear something and eventually you just say you can even if you are not sure whether you really can! haha

Lucky Bay - Spectacular. Camping grounds here too if you are lucky enough to get a spot!

Cape Le Grand, camping here also, again if you are lucky! Beach access for 4wdriving. Spent a nice arvo here relaxing on the beach and soaking in the serenity. Also you can see as the day went on the weather just got better and better!

Back to camp and have decided to stay another night here and maybe take the boat out tomorrow for some fishing.

Carly & Joel

 

Posted with Blogsy

Day 57

29 March 2013

Today we awoke to some precipitation....boooooo! Thumbs down! We left the car awning out overnight and we must of got a fair bit of rain cuz it was full of water and sagged in the middle! Looks like now we have fixed the leg we broke in the wind, we have now stretched the ass out of the canvas from water logging it! Yay us! I also broke our one and only mirror today! I know bad luck! And now god only knows how we look (probably for the best!)

Joel was determined to find us another place to stay at, as in this weather there is nothing to do at a show ground, so we decided to head to Duke of Orleans Bay which is just a bit further than cape le grande national park. It's about 80km from esperance and is right on the water. The drive is fairly easy out here, suitable for 2wd. We first stumbled across a nice picnic area at Table rock which is a huge rock formation in the middle of the bluest clearest water I have ever seen.

Then onto the Duke park, as we drove in we were met with quad bikes and motorbikes galore! People on them everywhere! I think Joel thought he had died and gone to heaven! Couple of nice guys showed us a spot we could stay and we were away to setup.

Lots of people around and camp after camp with 4+ motor or quad bikes sitting at their camp. We had some lunch and then we were off to find out where all these bikes go....

Headed towards Beach and turned down the first dirt road we see. There are just tracks after tracks after tracks through this area. Rock climbs to the great water views, soft sand, hard sand, ruts, mud, water, a 4wdrivers paradise! We took a track that lead us on all of these things and a bit more including some WA pinstriping! Ouch!

We got to the beach and were just about to take the track down when we ran into a couple of old buggers on their fully equipped, fishing,drinking quad machines! We got stuck in sand while they were watching us all cuz Joel got to excited about the whole 4wd thing he didn't let his tyres down. The old blokes were telling him what to do, getting him sorted out haha it was funny. They then told us to follow them and they would lead us home, so they were zooming off on their bikes and we were in tow behind them.

Beautiful beaches here, hasn't been great weather but the whiteness of the sand and the colour of the water is amazing. Again I wonder why people go overseas to find beaches like this....they are right here!

Rest of the day we tried our hand at fishing, no good! Joel has worn himself out and is now snoring up a storm and I won't be far behind him!

Carly & Joel

 

Posted with Blogsy

Day 56

28 March 2013

 

Look I am going to keep this one short. We got some new tyres put on the van today, other ones were buggered after dragging shutz over the nullabor! We also had to move out of the caravan park as it was booked for Easter. The only place we could find that wasn't booked out was the show grounds which opens for overflow camping in peak periods. They had power here and showers and toilets but nothing special. There were some other vans around so we weren't the only losers there!

Footy training was a bit loud with all the boys yelling at each other and the bright lights on the ground shining at us but other than that pretty quiet.

We are waiting for some decent weather to go to the beaches here and today was not a nice day either (hence the lack of things to report)! Hopefully tomorrow is the day!

Carly & Joel

 

Posted with Blogsy

Day 55

27 March 2013

Today woke to rain and another overcast day. We spent most of the day looking for jobs and sorting out Joel's resume.

Joel also built some shelves in the wardrobe in the van so we could actually put our clothes somewhere! Before and after photo...

 

Heaps better now!

New leg fitted to awning, diff bung tightened, pretty productive day. Hopefully tomorrow we will have a fine day so we can get out and do something exciting.

We are loving not having to wind a camper trailer up and down! Also liking that our beds don't get wet in the rain, that we have an actual wardrobe to put our clothes in, that the fridge lights on gas the first go, that we have a stove and range hood and that we have some overhead cupboards which makes it easy to get to everyday items.

Carly & Joel

Posted with Blogsy

Day 54

26 March 2013

Today we had a few loose ends to tie up so headed to the Main Street to start sorting out some things.

Visitor Information centre informed us that they open overflow camping at the show grounds here for Easter, so that is where we will be going on Thursday.

Drove to a local mechanic and unfortunately they are booked out till end of April! He did have a quick look at the diff and agreed with Joel that the bung had just come loose and it would probably be fixed by just tightening it; however he had no hoists free to check it out so that means Joel is being a mechanic today!

We then headed to ARB as there was a guy who fixes Waecos, after chatting to him, he thinks it may just be the circuit board that runs the lights etc on the fridge so may be an easy fix. Good news! He has to order them in and hopefully they will arrive before we leave here. ARB also had spare parts for our awning on the car which included new legs, so got one of these to replace the wind damaged leg.

Lastly to get a proper antenna pole for the tv antenna, we had been using a tent pole with sticks gaffa taped to the end of it! Time to upgrade! And by this time the sky was turning a nasty shade of black and thunder was rolling in.

On way home we decided to have a little bit of an explore and found the Great Ocean Drive. Which is just as it states a drive along the ocean! It was very nice and a lot quieter than the real great ocean road, the rain did not make this experience as enjoyable as it should be. Also along this drive is the Pink Lake, which is meant to be a pink colour, hence the name. Now I am not sure if it was the weather, maybe the lake needs sun to be pink but this lake was not pink. There was a nice lookout to look at this (not so) pink lake.

Afternoon spent testing the tv antenna! Works well!

Carly & Joel

 

Posted with Blogsy

Day 53

25 March 2013

Woke up early here, we have been very confused at what time it actually is here! We had no reception here so our phones were still on SA time, all I know is I think it was about 6am when we set off, so early start because our hopeful destinations was Esperance which was 918km from Eucla!

On the Nullabor and again nothing much to report here. Saw much of the same as yesterday, lots of wide loads and road trains. It really is a boring road, I mean this would not be something I would worry about adding to your bucket list. Just put this picture up on your tv screen and sit and watch it for 8 hours! That should cover it!

The highway does also double as an airstrip which was exciting for the fleeting moment that we read the sign!

And another sign, and let me tell you it feels like the longest road too!

I would actually suggest doing the train trip if you want to come across Australia, at least then you can fall asleep! Haha

My ass was asleep, I have never experienced that before but it was very uncomfortable! Joel did so well to drive the whole 918km! Yes we made it to Esperance! Unfortunately it was not nice weather and we were buggered anyway so had a quick look around town then spent rest of night in the van.

Got a few issues at the moment.... Diff oil all over the caravan! Ute's diff is leaking. Waeco fridge hasn't worked for week or so now, light panel is dead. The caravan park is $39 a night to stay (ouch) and everything is booked out for Easter! Tomorrow we look into fixing these probs!

Also there are 39 general rules and regulations for this caravan park (all written in capital letters which I don't take kindly to) including do not leave your washing on line overnight (important!) and there are 9 rules regarding riding scooters including the warning system.....1st warning - scooter confiscated for day, 2nd warning - no scooter for a week, 3rd warning - no scooter for duration of stay. Is this not the parents job? Not the caravan manager on a power trip?! Anyway thoughts to ponder....

Carly & Joel

 

Posted with Blogsy

Day 52

24 March 2013

Last night was a bit noisy, think Streaky Bay dragged out the race day at the local pub all night! Early morning I could hear some joker advising his lady friend of all the different stars in the sky. We might have been interested if he wasn't slurring all his words together and if he hadn't woke us up! After this I put earplugs in to get back to sleep.

This morning we opened our van door and right outside the door was a flask?! I thought maybe Joel may have stirred it up from under the sand when he was packing up last night but he didn't think so. Anyway went to neighbours before we were heading off as I had lots of fruit and vegies and wanted to give them away, rather than getting them confiscated at the WA border! First thing neighbours said was "did you get much sleep with all the commotion last night?" Apparently some guys were actually standing at the door of our van, hiding from someone and saying we didn't do it! Haha.

Our plan today was to make it to the Wa border and stay at a place called Eucla. This of course meant we were bound for the Nullabor and 600km of it!

Hmm I'm not sure how much I can say about this drive....firstly it was not what I expected. For some reason I pictured it to be red flat land with nothing but a road, and I guess this wasn't too far from the truth except the land was similar to that of what we had experienced in SA, small shrubs, trees in parts but other than that nothing.

Road trains are huge out here! And they are not patient or real friendly! And you might even meet some that swerve all over the road out of pure boredom! or flick rocks up at ya by swerving from the road to the gravel and back! Road kill is also big, I did not see one kangaroo alive, however I saw many many dead. And I had high hopes after seeing this sign that I might see a camel!

We did see emus, dingos and huge huge eagles (feeding on the road kill)! But no camels! : (

We made it to the border, got some fuel.....: o

Then through the quarantine checkpoint where car and van was searched for fruit and vegies. Nothing (because I had already given it away) except they took my Capilano honey! Wasn't happy about that (and I will tell you now I then went to the IGA to buy more honey and guess what honey they stocked? Capilano from QLD!? What the?!)

Eucla is just next to the quarantine station and the town consists of a petrol station, motel, restaurant & caravan park all in the one building! Now let me tell you this is nothing flash, it's $20 a night for powered and it is just willy nilly spots everywhere. There was a lot of people around though so it was fine place to stop for overnight and a lot better than some of the road houses here!

Set up and Joel opened wardrobe and held up a plastic bag with onions and sweet potato in it and said what's this? Guess the quarantine check was not that thorough! I had completely forgotten that I had that bag in there!! Oops!

Carly & Joel

 

Posted with Blogsy

Day 51

23 March 2013

Today we were a bit slow in getting going, we haven't been sleeping all that well in our new beds, still getting used to them. We had a few little things to do in town, so did this first up. And while in town thought we would check out another attraction....a replica of a shark weighing 1520kg caught on a 24kg line off the jetty here! This is located in the shell servo in town.

Today was a big day in Streaky Bay! It is the annual race day! So we thought since we were here we may as well get amongst it. This however did mean pulling out nice clothes we had buried deep under all the shorts and shirts we have been wearing for the last 8 weeks! Also finding different shoes other than pluggers! And even putting a bit of make up on!

Courtesy bus picked us up from caravan park and dropped at races, good service! $10 to get in, $5 steak sanga, $7 spirits, $5 beers, $5 race book and we were ready to race! Now you know how they rate the track, dead etc. Joel rated this track, dead dry and shit! I would add dusty to that rating! There was not a patch of green to be seen but was still a good day out! The horses did resemble ponies compared to the big horses you see at big race meets and some of their legs were like twigs but hey they still run! We won a few races, lost a few races, came out even so can't complain.

Courtesy bus back, long chat to neighbours and we are out for the night.

Carly & Joel

 

Posted with Blogsy

Day 50

22 March 2013

Today we decided to go on a touristy drive to see what was around here. One of the first things I normally do is google "things to do in......(wherever we are). So I googled things to do in Streaky Bay and 41 things came up, which normally when I do this only 5-10 things come up, so what I am really trying to say is that there are lots of things to do in this area if you are keen!

We started the day off with the Westall Loop Tourist Drive which is only about 10km out of Streaky Bay. This loop is 30 km long and encompasses a few attractions. First the Yarnebie Sand Hills which were not as big as Port Stephens but still big enough to sand board down if you have a spare carton with you!

Then smooth pools which is a lot of small and big rock pools that you can walk down to and search for little things living in the pools. Again we saw nothing but still nice area!

Continue the drive to The Granites, High Cliffs and Tractor Beach (you can camp here too). There is also the Cape Bauer Loop, Murphy's Haystacks and Point Labatt which you can see colonies of sea lions from a viewing platform!

So endless things to do if you have endless time....we however didn't as it was lunch time and we were hungry, so headed back to camp for lunch.

We then decided to take the boat out, even though it was a bit windy we thought it might be better on the water. Let me tell you if it's windy on land it's bloody windier in the water! This area also is breeding grounds for white pointer sharks so as we are heading out from the bay, Joel says "I just saw a big black fin come out of the water," and I thought yea whatever you are just trying to scare me...but he was serious so I turned around to look too.....luckily though it was a beautiful pod of dolphins! About 6 of them just hanging around the boat, pretty cool! Unfortunately the wind just made for a very unpleasant fishing trip so we headed back in.

Had an early dinner and decided to head back out on the boat cuz it looked a little less rough....it wasn't! So fishing trip no 2 was also a fail, give up and get some shut eye instead!

Carly & Joel

 

Posted with Blogsy

Day 49

21 March 2013

We stayed at Point Lowly last night which is 20km from Whyalla and is a free camp. This area also seems to be home to a huge gas mine which seems to connect with Whyalla's steel mining, so big operations going on out here!

Wow we just seem to attract wind! Last night was windy again, while we were thankful we were not back in the camper, we were still getting battered by the wind! The wind was just whistling with incredible force and kept us awake again!

Headed off after a little sleep in (the wind was to blame for this)...had to go back into Whyalla for our big day of driving today! Now we are doing big k's at the moment and the pure reason for this is to get to WA! SA just hasn't lived up to our expectations, it is so dry and really not pretty at all and there is just 100's of kms between towns, it is very boring driving! We were pretty excited today though cuz we did come across a few curves in the road which kept it interesting! Sorry to any South Australians reading! Someone had told us we are here at the wrong time of year so that might have something to do with it.

So yea WA we hope this will live up to expectations cuz really the whole trip was about getting there!

Drove through another mining town at Iron Knob,

And then onto the Eyre Highway towards Kimba, the halfway point across Australia! And home to then Big Galah!! Now this is what I am talking about, it was a BIG galah, it was maintained and it didn't have a big fence around it saying under construction or closed or private property!! So yay big thing!

Fuel at Kimba too so filled her up and saw a pretty cool vintage car and van, which we are blogging about mainly for Joel's dads enjoyment as we thought he would like it. It was from QLD to so maybe even know them!?

We are now settled on the water again, oh so peaceful and will probably stay here for a couple of days before hitting the Nullabor! Fishing is good here so we will be hopefully doing some of it tomorrow!

Carly & Joel

 

Posted with Blogsy

Day 48

20 March 2013

OMG Joel had way too many beers last night....you know how I know this?! He snores and breathes like a freight train! So I got no sleep and he slept like a baby. I actually got up and put earplugs in in the middle of the night! Bad!

Today we were off to Port Augusta for one reason and that was to transfer the new caravan into our name. Head off (after our 5 min pack up hehe), happily driving along the highway and hear a bit of a thud.... We both looked at each other....Joel thought maybe a flat tyre so we slowed down. Joel looks at the reversing camera and notices something doesn't look right.... we are missing the spare wheel!!! Quick radio check to the truck behind us and yep, we lost the spare wheel! Turned around to go look for it and was lying in the merge lane so were able to stop and quickly chuck it in the back.

Strap broke and really we were careless and should've checked before we left to secure it better but too late now! Even better valve busted so leaking air = tyre stuffed! Sort it out in Whyalla when we get there!

In Port Augusta, found the registration place and headed in....now you know a place must be a little rough if there are signs where you queue saying "We will not tolerate abusive or aggressive behaviour, our staff deserve to feel safe at work!" Lined up and was told to fill in a form to get a SA customer number. Ok done, line up again, you can not have a QLD address, you must reside in SA to get a customer number (which I think is totally reasonable; however the caravan centre did tell us this would be a simple process). Further investigation said we could use the caravan park we stayed in as the SA address, great! However the receipt for the caravan park was in my name and all the transfer papers had been done in Joel's name! Argh! Lady was really good and said we could just white it out and redo in my name. Then she needed a stat dec to say that Joel was happy to have it in my name. Off to find JP, back in line and $31 transfer fee later we are away! This took most of the morning and am mainly telling this story in case anyone is thinking of buying a caravan while in a different state you will know what to expect!

Back on road and heading for Whyalla. Quite a nice drive to here because of all the ranges you can see in the backdrop but still so dry and flat and now red red dirt! Every street sign was just covered in red dust! Tyre fixed for $3 (new valve) = happy! The council here mustn't have anything to do cuz we saw a guy mowing the red dirt where grass would normally be growing, guess they have to keep busy somehow!

Found a nice free camp right on the water and we are testing out our new oven! That's right people shutz has an oven!

Joel has been cooking dinner while I have been lying down and enjoying the view from our caravan door....bliss!

Carly & Joel

 

Posted with Blogsy