Hi all To date: Car has travelled 46,102 klm Van has travelled 24,511 klm We have stayed in 163 different campsites to date. We have had our van serviced and warrantee issues dealt with - we now have new foam in our lounge seats and a redone seat back. It took 2 days, but the van looks much better, and is certainly more comfortable to sit in. The guys were perfectionists and very efficient. But, we had to spend 2 days with no place to go all day, waiting for them to ring and say it was ready. Yesterday we had [View Full Entry]

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Hi all We've had an enjoyable week with Rick and Sue, exploring more of the south west area. They travelled with us in our car, and stayed in cabins in the caravan parks, which worked out very well. We spent 2 nights at Busselton, unfortunately the weather was not great, apparently the wettest 24 hour period for this time of the year for 20 years, but it did not stop us too much! (Breaking us in for NZ next week!) We visited yet another lighthouse - Cape Naturaliste - and we all did the personal conducted tour (no one else there [View Full Entry]

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Hi all Today we drove up the motorway to Burns Beach, north of Hillarys Boat Harbour, for a night. It is a pretty spot, near where Rick and Sue are staying. Our van is a stone's throw from the beach. Tomorrow Rick and Sue will come with us south to Busselton, where we will base ourselves to explore the south west with them. They will get a cabin in the caravan park. This week we did a bit more exploring around Perth, including Kings Park, Swan River, North west beaches and drove around some of the more expensive areas. We took [View Full Entry]

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Hi all We have had a lovely week with Linds and Harv and are now back in Perth. They arrived last Saturday, and picked up their campervan Sunday morning. We headed south, having lunch at the town of Harvey! On we went south, and stayed the night at Bunbury. Chris and I climbed up the Mariston Hill lookout tower and got a good view of the pretty town, harbour and sea, and very impressive black and white chequered lighthouse. Next day we continued south, stopping at Busselton, where we walked through the town to the beach and old jetty. Another nice [View Full Entry]

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Hi all We arrived at Forrestfield, Perth this morning, quite near the airport, after spending 2 nights at New Norcia, Australia's only monastic town, an interesting experience. We parked there , near the oval, along with about 6 - 8 other vans and motorhomes. We did the excellent guided town tour, taking us through most of the buildings in the Benedictine Community, including 3 chapels and one Abbey Church. The paintings on the walls and in the art gallery were amazing. We attended the morning mass service, and also went to the evening sung prayers with the monks at 6.30pm, so [View Full Entry]

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H all We are spending tonight at Cervantes - the place Rick named his launch after. We visited the nearby Pinnacles this afternoon, and were very impressed with the way they are presented for the tourists. We walked around a 1.5km loop walking track first, seeing thousands of limestone pillars, which vary in shape and stand up to 4 metres high, then went to the visitor centre. After that we drove around the one way vehicle track. On the way back to Cervantes we called at Hangover Bay, and had a swim, and also saw the stromatolites at Lake Thetis. From [View Full Entry]

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We left Shark Bay and continued our way south. We stopped for a night at a freepark at Nerren Nerren, and had planned to stay at another at the Murchison River, a pretty spot with lots of wild flowers. But the FLIES were so bad, after lunch inside the van, we decided to continue on to Kalbarri. We stopped on the way and did 2 short walks at Kalbarri National Park, to Hawkes Head lookout and Ross Graham Lookout. Our flynet hats came out, first time for a very long time - (the Kurong in South Australia we think was the [View Full Entry]

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Hi everyone After Carnarvon, we drove down another uninteresting road,stopping at a lookout for lunch on the way. We kept going to the Overlander Roadhouse, where we had a quick look around, then turned off towards Shark Bay. We stayed 2 nights at Hamelin Station, where Chris volunteered to help the owner for a day. He built tempory yards, drafted sheep and goats (and some emu), and tagged some animals without tags. He was picked up at 6am, and got back to the van at 6.15pm exhausted but happy. I will include his comments of his day at the end of [View Full Entry]

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Hi all We are now back at Carnarvon, after spending 10 days at very pretty and under rated Pt Quobba, (80kms nw of Carnarvon). We camped just south of the blowhole, at a free park beside a white sand ocean beach. It reminded us of Baylys Beach, going to bed listening to the surf pounding in. There is a lagoon nearby, behind a coral island and reef that has very good fish and coral, so we snorkelled there some days. Unfortunately, other days the wind was brisk and cool. We saw lots of whales, some quite close to the shore, some [View Full Entry]

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Hi all We arrived at Carnarvon Big 4 Caravan Park on Sunday to a special welcome. We'd sent our Big 4 passport to Melbourne a month ago, as we'd qualified for a special reward as we had 50 different camping ground stamps. We had arranged for it to be mailed back to us at Carnarvon. We were the first to get 50 different stamps, and expected a T shirt, but we also got a $150 fuel voucher, flowers and a bottle of good red wine! Our photos were taken, so I guess we might appear on their rewards website. Carnarvon is [View Full Entry]

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