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Published: March 24th 2010
Hi all
Tonight we are at Norseman , at the start / end of the Nullabour. We had planned to go further today, but we went up to the lookout here, to see the big tailings from the gold mines. On the way back down the steep slope we discovered we had no brakes on the caravan!!! So, we cautiously drove down, and decided to book into the caravan park here, so Chris could sort the problem. (He cleaned all the conections which were very dusty and dirty, and tightened everything, and all seem to be OK.)
Tomorrow we will continue on to Kalgoolie, about 200k from here north, for about 3 - 4 days.
Since leaving Albany a week ago, we have travelled east. We spent 2 nights at Bremer Bay, a pretty spot with lovely beaches and good fishing. Beside us was another kiwi couple, Jan and Paul Fitzpatrick from Huntington, Hamilton. They lived near Harv and Linds, and know Linda's sister, Jan and Owen. We had 2 very social nights with them, sitting under the awning. (They are going the oposite way to us).
We went exploring around the various lovely beaches, and saw some big snapper that
had been caught about 10k off the coast. We did some 4WDing , one track took us down a sandy narrow trail to Dillon Beach, another was in the Fitzgerald River National Park, and was a very corrigated dirt one. We visited the Quaalup Homestead (built in 1858), that Linda and Den had visited and recommended, but we were advised the track was too bad to take the van (and it was!) We did a Nature Walk there. Some of the plants are very different, and are only found in this area. One, the Royal Hakea was very interesting. Some were still flowering.
From Bremer Bay we continued east to Ravensthorpe, a mining town that had a big sign up as we went in "Town closed for a funeral". We stopped at the infomation area, and met some SA people with hot rods and small vans heading to Busselton for Easter. There was a queue waiting at the petrol station, but noone was there! Luckily we didn't need anything, so we kept going, turning south down to Hopetown. We didn't stay long there, it was windy, overcast and cool, so we headed back to a freecamp for the night, which
we had to ourselves. From there, after a showery night, we drove east to Esperance, where we had 3 nights. Unfortunately the weather wasn't great there (but not as bad as Perth, who had hail storms). We had overcast, misty drizzle, and windy conditions, with rain one night. It was a shame as it is a very pretty area. One day we drove out to Cape Le Grande National Park and saw the very beautiful white sand beaches we'd been told about. On one, Thistle Cove, we walked to the end of the beach to see a big whale bone. We drove as far east as Orleans Bay, and had a swim in the very clean, clear water at Wharton Beach, nearby. (our last swim in the sea in WA)
In this area there were lots of different Banksia still flowering. The weather improved , and we sat on the beach and enjoyed!!!
You can drive on lots of these beaches, the white sand is very fine and firm to drive on.
This morning we walked from our beachside caravan park at Esperance,towards town and saw Sammy, the sealion , who spends most days resting on the beach by the
wharf.
We plan to check out playing the Nullabour Links (the longest golf course in the world), which has it's first holes in Kalgooli and its last in Ceduna - it spans 1,365k, with 1 hole in each main town or roadhouse along the Nullabour. Should be a bit of fun, if its not too hot! It got to 39 degrees today - thankgoodness for airconditioning!
Thanks to those who have sent news, we love hearing from you.
Cheers Lynne
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Susi
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Home Again
We arrived back home from 5 weeks on the South Island exploring areas not seen by us before. "Hammond" our little Suzuki Samarai was the star of the show. We drove some great roads that we never would have been able to in a normal car. My knuckles are still white from some of them, but fun none the less. Your adventures still are wonderful and the blogs are a highlight for Carl and I to read. It was great seeing you earlier this year albeit was way to short. Cheers