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Published: April 22nd 2007
Hi All.
Have arrived safe and well on the WA coast at last. It really is a VERY LONG WAY. We have put a lot of K's on the clock getting here and are more exhausted than relaxed at this point. Soon to be rectified as tomorrow we head up to Kalbarri National Park and plan to stay at least 3 nights. Much slower progress from here on.
Kalgoolie was a very interesting town. Very like Broken Hill with about 30, 000 people. Overall impression of the place is that it is very boom and bust. In fact the whole Goldfields area is full of stories of people being entreprenerial and making serious bucks for a couple of years, followed by bust as something bigger overtakes them. There was a guy who started his own brewery at a place called Sandstone and did very well for a couple of years at the start of the 1900's but the new railway brought bottled beer up from the south and his business soon went down hill. You get the impression that the same sort of thing is going on today, but of course its BOOM at the moment. You would not
believe house prices!
After our power problems at a roadhouse caravan park on the Nullabour, we decided to up our power supplies onboard and spent a day in Kal shopping (yay!) for another 105ah battery and fitting it to the van. We can now be offgrid for up to 5 days.
We toured from Kal up north and visited Leonora, Leinster, overnighted near Sandstone, Mt Magnet and then here to Geraldton. All a bit civilised really. We were expecting 100kms of doubtful dirt, but the road was newly sealed so no probs at all.
Funny thing but, there are a lot of pubs out here, and every second one of them seems to be advertising a "Skimpy" (eg Skimpy Holly, Skimpy Suzi Q, Skimpy Storm). What could all that be about? Mike won't go in and find out.....
Our overnighter 30kms short of Sandstone was the first night we had been able to have a small campfire. The sky at night was awesomely bright - Mike and I sat up late (8.30pm?) watching meteor showers and warding off bullants. The distant howling of dingoes got Angus pretty excited! The bushflies all go to bed at sunset which is a relief.
Fowlers Bay Campsite
All on our own at Scott BayThe b**tards were up at dawn though as we broke camp. Thank God for fly nets!
This is Wedgetail Eagle country up here. Also roadtrain country. The only kangaroos we saw in 600kms were squashed ones, but the eagles were making the most of the free dinner.
We are just about finished here in Geraldton. Big city and again booming. Lots of work going on with huge freeway overpasses and a major foreshore/marina development happening. Terrific museum and spooky shipwreck stories have kept us amused today. Going to Fishermans Wharf to checkout the Lobster processing plant tomorrow morning on the way out.
Just about ready for bed again and it is - oh - 9.00? Geeez.
Cheers all. enjoy the pics xxx
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chris Lennon
non-member comment
Lucky buggers
Hi Steph Good hear your all well, sound like a once in a life time trip. I had memories flooding back when I was about 8 years old , and my parents and I went to Perth with our caravan. Angus , will remember this for trip, for ever. great experience for him, i'm sure. All the best Chris Lennon