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| Ollie earns his keep! |
We left Norseman and headed north 210k's to Kalgoorlie, or 'Kal' to the locals. We went via Coolgardie just so the kids had to endure listening to me rabbit on about the use of the Coolgardie safe in pioneering days. Coolgardie was the original biggest gold mining town, but is now pretty quiet. It has some great old heritage buildings, one housing the museum, and one green patch of grass in the playground in the main drag. It was a balmy 38 degrees the day we were there, and we sat in the park and watched black storm clouds roll in on the horizon, putting on an amazing lightening show, while we were still sitting in sweltering sun! As we rolled into Kal, the kids had a ball laughing their heads off as I ran into the tourism info centre through torrential rain!
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Crazy kids at Lake Douglas Recreation
Reserve, just outside of Kal |
We found a great recreation reserve in the bush
about 12k's out of Kal. It was a nice flat amongst trees (with drop dunnies) but the Lake was not very full due to (previous) lack of rain. The red loam here is redder than back home, almost a scarlet, ochre colour. It's very striking against the Salmon Eucalypts.
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| Tonka truck on a grand scale! |
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| About to go 36m underground! |
The next day we went up to the Super Pit lookout that gives you a birdseye view of this massive open-cut gold mine. The huge trucks (as above) look like toy trucks rolling up and down the pit. Each one carries 225 tonne per load, which yields about 18K worth of gold per truckload. Not a bad days work. We then went to the Mining Hall of Fame, the original underground gold mine in Kal. This was great. We went 36m underground in a 1m X 1m shaft lift, with four people in there! Retired mole Jim gave the tour, and he was a real character. He talked about the 'average' day in the life of an underground miner - 7.5 hours underground, and you were only able to come up if you had a broken limb. He also talked about the practical jokes they used to play on each other, like dropping a bit of gellignite at the feet of a co-worker working on the next level down - today you would not only get sacked but land in jail for your trouble too!
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| Ollie holding the gold bar - it was very heavy! |
While here, we also watched a gold pour. It was very interesting to learn that all gold has its own DNA, a core taken from each batch poured, and analysed and stored on record. If there is a gold theft in Kal, an emergency siren blasts throughout town, all buses, taxis and planes must stop, and all roads out of town are barracaded off - it's pretty fair to say that this isolated town's livelihood depends on the yellow glittery stuff! The town was a lot bigger than I had expected, with all the mod cons, and lots of 'skimpy's' for bar staff to keep lonely miners happy.
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| Tyson holding a cool 70 grand in the hand! |
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| Run Nat run! |
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| The kids enjoying the main beach along Esperance foreshore |
Esperance
Saturday, 6th Feb, did 400ks south to the coastal town of Esperance. It was extremely windy during the couple of days prior to getting here, and, we were to find out, for the next two weeks to come. Cyclone Yasi had made its way across from Qld, down through this pocket of WA, uprooting and obliterating trees along the stretch of road from Kal to Norseman. My first impressions of Esperance were - I love this town. Its not too big, is clean, has beautiful beaches, hills and lookouts. We booked into a caravan park at the top end of town, and rode/scooted/walked over to the awesome adventure playground area. They have a skate park, maze, Bball, climbing frame, mini train, putt putt golf, and playground stuff - the kids were in heaven! While here we rode along the foreshore bike tracks, did a bit of fishing, rode down to Mermaid Leather (where they make leather from any type of fish skins, shark and stingray skins - amazing), we got the kids a hair cut they all desperately needed, and generally tried to stay out of the wind and rain. We met Paul and Alexa from Johannesburg, South Africa, with their three boys, Oliver, William and Quinton. Alexa was originally from Perth, and has brought Paul and the boys out here to do a 12 month tour of Oz - awesome couple, and the kids got along like a house on fire. We all went out to Maccas for tea together - nice adult conversation! The kids also started School of the Air this week, which we all found very daunting, but the kids handled it quite well by the end of the week. We do 2-3 hours most mornings.
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Sammy, the resident Sealion. Oliver fed him a fish (although
Nat and Ollie swear Sammy is a girl). |
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Tyson's favourite past time - he and Trav caught about 70
garfish off of the Esperance jetty (we didn't keep all of them!) |
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| Brave Nat and Ollie playing with a little 'trumpeter' |
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| William, Oliver and Tyson sharing DS games (a universal past time!) |
Cape Le Grand National Park
Lucky Bay
60km East of Esperance is a slice of heaven in Lucky Bay. We stayed at a campsite here that provides toilets, solar showers, and water (still costs $9/adult and $2 school aged child, but much cheaper than caravan parks). The sand here must have a lot of quartz in it as it is the whitest in Australia (literally - its been scientifically proven!!) and very soft and squeaky. The bay has the bluest waters, and is surrounded by granite outcrops. We stayed here from Friday 11th Feb - 14th Feb. Again, it was so windy, but we managed to walk across a massive rocky mountain into Thistle Bay where we went exploring caves and rock pools. We drove around to Hellfire Bay and Cape Le Grand Bay (this campsite was much more sheltered than Lucky, but was full) where Trav and Tys had a go at snorkelling. The next day was a little bit warmer, so we all had a go at snorkelling in a little protected corner of Lucky Bay. We only saw a few little fish, but was great for a first go. We also met Gary and Anne from Ocean Grove, doing 10 months around with their 2 girls, another top couple.
Before we left on Monday, we all climbed Frenchman Peak, a 2.5km round trip up a granite mountain. Some parts were quite steep, but Nat and Tys raced ahead, while Ollie plugged along, chatting the whole way, and did 90% of the climb by himself!
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| Lucky Bay at Cape Le Grand National Park |
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| Exploring at Lucky Bay |
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| Checking out the rock pools - lots of crabs! |
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Walking over to Thistle Bay, looking out over the islands
of the Archipelego of Recherche |
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| Ollie and I exploring at Thistle Cove |
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| Oliver literally getting amongst it! |
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| Trav 'Grylls' Bath |
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| Giggle pots basking on the rocks |
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| "Check it out kids!" |
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| Natalie loved exploring! |
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| Tys in paradise... |
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| Nat amongst the whitest sand |
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| Frenchman Peak |
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| The boys aiming for the summit |
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| Almost at the top! |
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Looking through one of the caves, almost
at the top of Frenchman Peak |
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We made it! Nat got cold, so gentleman Tys gave her his
shirt - what a gem! |
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| Yahoo! We did it! |
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| We love School of the Air! |
We stayed two nights at Mangilinup Beach campsite, part of Stokes National Park. We loved this spot, a lot quieter than Le grand, and you walked straight out onto the beach, that had a rock shelf about 60m offshore, making the bay nice and protected. There were little rock pools we explored, and Tys and Trav did some fishing from the shore and the kayak. It has been so nice just to spend time strolling along the beach with the kids, watching them enjoy collecting shells and running in the waves - life's good!
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| Fishing off of a little jetty at Bremer Bay |
We did one roadside stop near Fitzgerald River, before heading into Bremer Bay, about 40km south off the highway, on 17th Feb. We only stayed here 2 nights, and it was the nicest caravan park we have found so far, nice big grassy sites, shady, basketball and tennis court and little pool. There wasn't a great deal to see in Bremer (a little museum that was closed while we were here), but there was a nice little shelterd bay here where we spent the arvo fishing. The kids saw sting rays and crabs, and Tys caught a little flathead. We went for a walk over the rocks where it looks out over a fairly wild and rugged Southern Ocean.
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| Master fisherman again |
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| Bremer Bay |
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| Nat and Ollie searching rock pools at Bremer Bay |
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| Trav likes mucking around with his rod |
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Ollie at the Desert Mounted Corps
ANZAC memorial in Albany |
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| Tyson at the lookout, over Albany |
Albany
We spent a week in the busy town of Albany at Albany Gardens Tourist Park, where the kids enjoyed feeding emus and kangaroos. Albany is about the size of Mildura, and was pretty busy. It is built on large, eucalyptus lined hills, two main ones in town. It has a lot of heritage buildings, as well as a lot of war memorials, ANZAC peace park, and War museum. It was the place where the first troops headed off for WWI. During our time here we drove out to Torrindirrup Nat Park to the Gap (a huge gap between granite boulders that drops stright into the sea), and the blowholes (that weren't blowing), and Whale World Museum. We had a look at Middleton and Emu beaches, both very nice and a lot quieter out of town. We also went to the King and Kalgan Rivers for a bit of fishing and kayaking - the rivers were beautiful. While we enjoyed our time here, we would definetly stay out of town if we came back again. Met a lovely couple, Alice and Graham, from Meckering near Perth, who have offerred for us to go out to their farm when we are up that way - beautiful people!
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| Striking a pose in front of the memorials - no respect! |
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| Nat hitching a ride |
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| King River |
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| Oliver's Black Bream - he went back in! |
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| Nat's went back in too! |
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| Tyson at the Kalgan River |
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| Serious fisher-people's |
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| Noodle is one happy camper! |
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| Old Whaling ship at Whale World Museum |
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| Ohoy there me hearties! |
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| Would you trust this crew?! |
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| Checking out the crew's cabins |
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| Smoochers |
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| Tys at the blowholes |
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| Overlooking the rugged coast |
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| Torrindirrup Nat Park near Albany |
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| At Middleton Beach near Albany |
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| Beach Babe |
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| Surfs up Ollie! |
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| Our campsite at Cape West Howe |
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| Lounging around on the beach! |
We headed west to Cape West Howe National Park, on 26th Feb, and wound our way down a one way, steep, narrow and winding road into a campsite right on the wild beach of CWH. On the drive over here the landscape suddenly changed from completely rugged, lower lying trees, to huge Karri forrest - beautiful. Our campsite was at the base of huge mountains that fall straight into the ocean, fringed by black granite boulders - stunning. We got very brave and dropped the tyre pressure to do a bit of 4WD through the dunes and scrub (took almost an hour and a half) out to Torbay Head, the southern most tip of WA. Here Trav drove the car up on the cliff, while I got the kids and I out!! This was awesome!!!
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| Making more lounge chairs |
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| Tys out at Torbay Head |
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| Torbay Head |
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| We're on top of the world!! |
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| Our own slice of heaven |
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| Can you spot our van? |
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| West Cape Howe |
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Green's Pool at William Bay National Park, a popular
swimming hole near Denmark |
We headed west only about 40km, into Denmark. I love this area. It's so lush and green, with lots of cows, sheep, wineries and tourist attractions. Denmark River is a lovely little river that the town is built on. We drove out of town about 20km to Parry's Beach, a very popular (and probably over rated) camping spot. However, we had to stay in the parking bay as our van was too high to fit under the trees in the campsite. From here we drove to Green's Pool, but it was a fairly cold day again. Would be an awesome spot for snorkelling, which a lot of people were doing. We also spent a fairly cool, windy day at Parry's Beach fishing and going for walks. While it has been cool, topping 22-24, the nights are mild, only dropping to about 16-18. Had an inside day with rain again, making playdough, and Nat made some yummy cupcakes!!
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| Green's Pool |
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| Fishing at Parry Beach |
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| Nat exploring |
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We should have brought another trailer for all of the
things Oliver has been collecting!! |
