ALICE SPRINGS - WOOMERA - PORT AUGUSTA - MILDURA We have been to Alice a number of times but never stayed more than a couple of days. This time we had a week and enjoyed every minute. We loved the Alice Springs Desert Park so much that we went back a second time spending a day and a half there. They have obviously spent many millions of dollars setting up this magnificent glimpse of Australia’s desert. Hundreds of species of plants, birds and animals found across Central Australian deserts can be seen, smelt and heard. We drove west from Alice out [View Full Entry]

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DARWIN - LITCHFIELD NP - MATARANKA -DEVILS MARBLES. Our caravan park in Darwin was about 14k from the city centre. We were given a great site shaded by Palm trees and surrounded by green lawn. The Darwin Museum was very interesting the recently completed Cyclone Tracy exhibition was chilling. One of the rooms was playing a recording of the wind noise that sent a shiver down my spine. The before and after pictures showed the total devastation. The military museum is also well set out and very informative. I did not realise the extent of the Japanese attacks on Darwin in [View Full Entry]

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BROOME - DERBY - KUNUNURA - TIMBER CREEK I had better start with the bad news !. I hereby confirm I am a weak man, I just can’t say no when Jacquie looks at me with pleading eyes and says “I really like that pearl can we just get that one.” This happened on three occasions, firstly at the pearl wholesaler at Broome. Secondly at the pearl farm we visited near Cape Leveque and thirdly at Kununurra there was an oval shaped diamond she just had to own. I suppose I should look at the bright side. If the bank balance [View Full Entry]

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Pardoo Station, Eight Mile Beach and Broome. We left Karratha heading for Port Headland post office to pickup our mail. Thanks to Ann and Graeme for the mail forwarding. The mail collected the next job was to find a suitable caravan park. After a short search we decided that Port Hedland was not a good place to stay and continued on another 100k north to Pardoo Station. Pardoo is a 200,000-hectare working cattle station. They run Santa Gertrudis cattle which are sold for export. Pardoo runs 80km along the coast and goes inland another 80km. It is covered with low scrub, [View Full Entry]

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Tom Price - Karajini National Park - Karatha We left Exmouth about 9am heading for Paraburdoo and Tom Price. At 4pm it started to rain and it was still 100k to Paraburdoo, so we pulled into the Beasley River rest area along with seven other travellers. The open fire was inviting and we all gathered around telling travelling stories with the mandatory happy hour drinks. Next morning we continued on to Tom Price with a short detour around the streets and shopping centre of Paraburdoo. Everything was going fine until we made the final turn to the Tom Price Caravan Park. [View Full Entry]

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Carnarvon, Coral Bay, Exmouth & Cape Range National Park We were reading our Caravan Park book to choose the Caravan Park at Carnarvon. I saw one Park described as “for the more discerning mature retiree”, Jacquie said that’s for us. What we later found was we were the youngest there and after 5 Pm everyone disappeared and you could hear a pin drop. I never thought we would miss the sounds of kids playing. Carnarvon is the fruit and vegetable bowl of the West. There are many huge plantations along the Gascoyne River so we stocked up on fresh fruit and [View Full Entry]

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GERALDTON - KALBARRI - SHARK BAY We packed up at Port Dennison just as the rain and wind started and headed off to Geralton about 300 Km North. We later found out that this turned out to be a very good move. Several hours after we left the approaching storm caused quite a bit of damage at the park. The rock sea wall near our caravan site was washed away together with about 10 meters of the sand and foreshore. Our caravan park at Geraldton was 4 Km North of main shopping area and right on the beach. We spend several [View Full Entry]

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ESPERANCE TO PORT DENNISON On the trip from Esperance to Albany we spent 2 days each at Hopetown and Bremer Bay. Hopetown is a small village by the sea that has shrunk recently with the closure of the nearby nickel mine. It is also gateway to the Fitzgerald River National Park. This park boasts it has wildflowers all year round unlike the rest of WA where wildflowers mostly appear in the spring. We spent the day driving though the park mostly on gravel and sand tracks. We saw lots of wildflowers and some beautiful small beaches. Bremer Bay is also small [View Full Entry]

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Our four days at Kalgoorlie were very busy, we did a 200 km outback pub crawl that took us to some unusual pubs as the pictures show. The circuit took us north towards Laverton and back through Coolgardie mostly on red dirt roads. The Kalgoorlie Super Pit is a huuuge open cut gold mine that operates 24/7. They extracts gold at the rate of 16 ounces per ton of rock. I tried to count the number of trucks that were crawling like ants out of the pit and work out the figures at $900 per ounce. I gave up after a [View Full Entry]

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The trip from Cowell to Port Lincoln is about 160 Km and we called into Arno Bay and Tumby bay on the way. The board walk at Arno Bay wanders through the mangrove swamp, over little creeks and comes out on the beach. It took us about one hour to complete the circuit with stops to watch the dozens of different birds. Tumby Bay is a relaxed little fishing / holiday village and we can reccomend the Vanilla slices at the bakery. Our caravan site at Port Lincoln overlooks Porter Bay and we can see the fishing trawlers coming and going. [View Full Entry]

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