Day 76

17 April 2013

Decided to head off this morning in a northerly direction and that's about all we know.

We don't know what we are doing, so undecided about working and money sucks when you aren't working. School holidays is going to stuff us right up with busyness of places and finding good locations to camp.

Anyway good news on our way to "somewhere" north we ran into the pinnacles. Which we had forgotten about but glad there was some signage to remind us. As we had bought a national park pass back in Esperance it was free to see the pinnacles (normally $11) so winning, have definitely made our money back on that pass. Once here you can either drive around the pinnacles or you can do a walk to the pinnacles. As we had the van on we were not allowed to drive through so walk it was. It's a 1.2km track and it is only about 200m and you are at the pinnacles and you can keep walking or just soak in the surrounds. This is a cool place but really hot! About 10 degrees hotter I reckon and just surrounded by these pinnacles everywhere. All different shapes and sizes, ones with holes, one that resemble things and then just orange coloured sand everywhere under your feet.

Back on the road we found a camp site for $15 a night so headed in there. Now there were two access roads and we had to pick one, we drove past the ones with the signs everywhere (in hind sight probably not the best idea) and headed to what looked like a shorter route. Big mistake, the road was corrugated and then all of a sudden we were on a tiny sand road with branches and sticks hanging out everywhere onto the road which proceeded to scratch the shit out of the dmax as we headed through. Problem was once we were in there we only had the option to go forward not backward! The caravan also received some new pin striping today and we got about half way down this road and found a small turn around so went back, we decided we were better off going back then going into more stuff we didn't know! As you may understand by the time all this happened we were not in the best of moods and were ready to kill each other. Remember people who caravan together stay together! haha Drove back to correct entry and settled into our spot for the night.

We were a little late to watch the sunset! : ( always tomorrow... I missed it cuz I was too busy watching Edward on DVD on our new tv! Haha

Carly & Joel

 

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Day 62

3 April 2013

Woke up from a very restful sleep, I even had a dream which I haven't had in ages so must of been sleep. I did however dream that I robbed Target with Heath from Home & Away! Haha it didn't work out so I just went back to work (at target) haha. This is what happens when you can't watch h&a all the time, you start to make shit up! Haha

This morning was fishing time. With everyone telling us we can't leave until we have fished, we took there advice and were out there early! Seems it paid off, this area is known for black bream and black bream we did get! Would have caught about 10 undersized (25cm is legal) but among them were some whoppers! 30cm fat fillety freshness was the biggest bream. We then scored a King George Whiting 40cm, it was a goer and other fisherman were trying to steal it from us, apparently pretty hard to catch here?!

Now I say we in all of this, however I didn't fish as yesterday I managed to snap my rod in half....now this would be a cool story....except I didn't snap it while I was fishing! It's a long story and I don't want to go into it however I am down a rod which means I watched Joel fish all day! BCF here I come!

Filleted the fish up while chatting to some locals. We keep seeing some of the same couples over and over again in every place we stop, bit funny, may as well just travel with them!

We have made some fish cakes for dinner from our catch today for something different.

We needed bread crumbs for the fish cakes, didn't have any bought ones so was going to crumb bread but we don't have power and inverter wouldn't run my magic bullet so Joel came up with another way......

We ditched happy hour today for a nice hot bush shower! Nothing like it when you stink of fish! We have the hot water system down to a bit of a fine art now, heating the bucket of water first then running it through the shower head. This guarantees there are no screams when the Coleman cuts out and shoots freezing water from the shower head!

Big happy birthday to my good friend Sez! Hope you had a great day yummy mummy!

Carly & Joel

 

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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

 

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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

 

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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

 

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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

 

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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

 

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Day 41

13 March 2013

Today was apostle day!! Now while I was excited about this day, I also was thinking that I have already seen so many photos of these things, and was skeptical about whether actually seeing them for real would be much different....

Day did not start well....wind was huge here last night! We had the awning on the ute out overnight and were woken early morning with a huge bang which made us both sit upright and say WTF was that?! Well it was the awning crashing down! So in these huge winds we are trying to put the awning down while the wind is getting under it and forming a sort of parachute above our heads!! Crazy! Even better news it bent the leg of the awning so we couldn't pack it up properly and just had to do what we could until the morning. Not much more sleep was had after this as wind was so strong, Joel also got up and put tent poles on a diagonal at our beds to brace the roof as it was just swaying around in the breeze! Good times! We hate wind!!! The water pump in the van also burst and leaked water everywhere the night before so we weren't having much luck!

Anyway we packed up and got the hell out of there this morning for brighter pastures! Made it to the apostles, there is lots of parking here for big rigs which is good, and a little kiosk and toilets if you need them. Then a short walk to a boardwalk that overlooks the apostles. Well I couldn't be further from the truth by saying that seeing pictures would do this place justice....it did not! No matter how many pictures you have seen of these things, you will never be able to imagine how amazing it is in real life. The sheer size, shape, coastline....just amazing! This has to be on everyone's bucket list! I was really in awe...from here there are so many little stops you can see more and more of this great coastline.

We then stopped at Loch Ard Gorge which has one of the greatest looking rocks (I think), called Razorback.

Also at Loch Ard Gorge is the thunder cave which is a cool little cave chiseled out by the waves.

Further along the road is the arch, also great, just amazing that this is all naturally occurring!

Then to London Bridge which has collapsed into two pieces now. When this collapsed there was actually people standing on one of the rocks and they were marooned there until a helicopter could pick them up!

Bay of islands is pretty much the last lookout of this great area.

Great Ocean Road done and we are now in Warrnambool staying at a Big 4 park, living it up with jumping pillow, spa, heated pool, gym, table tennis, big TV and hot showers! All of which we have used this afternoon! Only here for the night and then well we are not sure.....

Carly & Joel

 

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Day 39

11 March 2013

 

This morning we got up before the sun to start packing up the camper for our ferry ride. While we did try and be as quiet as possible the neighbours probably weren't too happy being woken up before sunrise! Joel wound the camper down and it was about half way down when I realized that the front was going down but the back was still in full upright position! The roof was on a total 45 degree angle! Shiiiiittttt! We thought the winch in the camper had finally given way or something had broken, turns out a few wiggles and a few bangs later the back part fell to the fronts level. Haha classic Jayco. We were on a time limit being booked on the barge for 8am so luckily it did not turn into a big problem.

Headed to Sorrento and we were running early and made it to the barge at 7am and just in the nick of time to catch the earlier one so we didn't have to wait another hour! And we were on the ferry for sunrise which was nice....

Ferry is very comfortable, nice cafe where we grabbed coffee and nice lounges to rest in while the ferry does the rest.

Only took about 30 mins to arrive at Queenscliff, headed off the ferry on our way to the Great Ocean Road!!

Drove on the Great Ocean Road through Torquay, Stopped at the Memorial Arch for a photo, Angelsea, Lorne, Apollo Bay. What a great road, really, why aren't they all built like this! It should be called Great Scenery Road though I think as some bits do cut inland and you wonder where the ocean went but still spectacular!

Past Apollo Bay and then we started to run out of Diesel....hmmm in the middle of two towns we decided to press on to Lavers Hill as google indicated there was a petrol station there. On way to Lavers Hill we checked out a campsite at Aire River (probably not the best choice when running out of fuel) was nice here but was absolutely packed with people for the long weekend so headed back out on highway to continue to Lavers Hill.

Diesel getting low, but come up the hill and see petrol pumps....thank you....but wait diesel pump has a sign saying "no I don't work" and unleaded has sign saying "yes I work"! Not helpful, apparently pub down road might have diesel left......head to the pub.....doesn't look open, picked up diesel nozzle and there is a padlock on it! Panic stations, we are nowhere close to another town and we are on the red line! While we were sitting contemplating how we got ourselves into this mess, a guy comes out and says "you guys aren't from around here are ya?" He also had a key in his hand that opened the diesel pump!!! Saviour!!! He told us he rations the fuel as there is limited supply so depending on whether he likes people or not he will give them $20 of diesel or a full tank! Haha he filled our tank up! That was soooo lucky!

On the way up the hill we found another free campsite on the beach so headed back here to check it out with a full tank of fuel. Great spot, in Johanna, right on the beach, big open grassy areas, lots of friendly people around and it's free! Winning!

Spent the arvo setting up, resting, beach fishing and eating!

Tomorrow day trip without camper!

Big Happy Birthday to Rachael!! Hope you had a great day!! We did buy you a card but forgot to send it! So made you a card in the sand at Johanna, Vic....you can't buy this!

Carly & Joel

Tip we learnt today - instead of buying the chemicals for your porta loo, use napisan, it doesn't smell as much and you can then tip it into toilets as it is biodegradable! Great tip as chemicals are expensive! Thanks to two men emptying their porta loos or "dumping" (as it is commonly referred) while we were at the toilet block. You just never know when you might find out useful info!

 

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