Day 77

18 April 2013

Joel's mum has put a request in for a blog about how we live each day in the van and where we camp etc, rather than just showing you all the great places we visit! Now I thought this would just bore everyone but apparently it's interesting so here goes...like sands through an hourglass, so are the days of our caravan lives..

Currently we are bush camping so the only facilities here are pit toilets (my personal fav) and bore water (which you can't drink). This site is right next to the beach just over a big dune so the camp sites are sandy and a bit of low bush around. Not real private you can pretty much hear and see everything everyone is doing but we have been to worse. This is a shot of the campground...

And this is how we normally set up... Our van has a rear door (unlike most that have a side door) so we try and pick spots where there is bush behind us and not people! We park the ute next to the van so we can roll out the awning between the ute and van to sit under if we want to.

There is also an awning on the back of the van but its time consuming to put up and it's purple (which Joel doesn't like) so unless its raining and we need the shelter for the bbq etc we don't set it up.

A typical morning starts with tea and coffee (like most people)! Obviously when we are bush we have no electricity so it's gas all the way here (fridge runs on gas when bush). Boil our kettle on the stove in the van for tea and dishes etc.

With no electricity we still need to charge electrical items like phones and iPads so this is where cigarette sockets that Joel has installed in the van come in handy.

These were connected to the dual battery on the car, we just plugged the car into the van via an Anderson plug. Now we have solar panels and a third battery so the cig plugs run directly off that now. Joel installed the new battery under the seat at the table and a volt meter to make sure we do not run the battery too low. It's also good to know what things really chew the power etc and you can see what volts the solar panel is creating.

Now you might be asking yourself (probably not but just run with it) how do you charge stuff that doesn't have a 12v charger? The answer.... An inverter which you can plug 240v chargers into and it converts to 12v.

This is also why we purchased a new tv...it is a normal tv but came with 12 v adapter so can be run on either. Saves power because we don't have to have the inverter running as well. Oh and it has a DVD player so Joel can now watch his 4wd DVDs!

We still have a little table where we sit to eat....yummy!

I still have to do dishes, washing and clean the van! So nothing changed there. At the moment we just don't have much room when we pack up, we put everything into the van on the floor which makes it difficult to stop anywhere for lunch cuz you can't get into van without pulling it all out. So once we pull up to camp we pull everything out from the floor as it is the stuff that sits at the rear door, eg table, bbq, etc. and whola we are set up. Oh there are 4 clips on the outside of the van that have to be undone and then the roof pops up... And now we are done.

On the flip side, we explored Jurien Bay today which is a pretty little town, did some fishing, tried to catch a blue swimmer crab with a rod, and managed to catch the sunset!

Anything else you want to know....just ask!

Carly & Joel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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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 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

 

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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 43

15 March 2013

Great sleep last night, very peaceful here. We are getting a bit naughty with sleeping in after 6 weeks on the road, getting up at 7-8am instead of our normal work wake up at 5-6am! This will not serve us well when we start working again!!

Bacon and eggs for breakfast and we were off to have a look around town. First to the jetty and boat ramp here, we were surprised to see that to launch your boat at this ramp you have to pay a yearly fee of $50 or $4 each time you launch. Is anything safe from a $ amount these days??

Next to Shelley beach lookout where we can imagine this to be a really nice spot however the weather of late has made the beaches quite dirty with debris and rough waters. The caretaker told us we could dive for some rock lobster here so Joel was on the lookout for any just walking over the rocks that he might be able to grab, surprisingly we did not see any!

Cape Northumberland is further the road and to the left of the parking area is where fairy penguins can be seen and to the right is where the old lighthouse used to stand and where a famous ship was wrecked. First to the penguin side, and while I had high hopes a penguin (who never normally comes out in the day) might pop it's head out to say hello for the sake of the blog. Haha no luck here either. This area is also the most southerly point in SA.

Over to the old lighthouse site where you can see remnants of it and read stories of when it was in operation. There is also a map showing all the shipwrecks that have happened in this coast. Some ridiculous amount had be wrecked right at this spot compared to other places on the coast. I did wonder whether this is why they got rid of the lighthouse here, obviously it was not helping the boats!?

There are lots of little lookouts you can view from along this scenic road. We came across on that had this sign.....

Joel read it and immediately wanted to check the sign was correct! Result...

Bogged in powder consistency sand! We just sunk and even better the tide was coming up and we didn't have much beach to work with. First let down the tyre pressure, second put her in 4L and third....reverse the hell out of there!

Sign is correct - check!

After exploring we headed back to camp for a relaxing afternoon.

Carly & Joel

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