How sad it is, so quickly getting back to normal. Life goes on though. Still feeling good about the holiday, that won’t go away quickly, I’m sure! Still have lots of “after” holiday stuff to do, we are all sorting and selecting photos to print for albums, books, journals and slideshows, etc. I’m working on the “blog book”, slowly but surely getting there.
Lots of work happening in the garden dept, mowed it all today for the second time since our return, Wendy’s brother Peter helping out on his ride-on, thank you very much Pete. Got some advice too from Pete on the various projects around the garden, which will all happen. . . eventually!
Just a quick note, this post was probably started back early this year, ie 2011. It is now Nov 2011, and have the blog on the iPad now, so been a big slack with this blog, sorry. Been updating my other blog, maxpower351 more regularly, so maybe check that out too. Anyway, that’s it for now.
The old shed - hard to find a shot of it, not very photographic! this shot is from 07.
Hey it’s Friday already? Seems like only two weeks since we’ve been back! Many normal things have so far occurred, like going to the dentist, working in the garden, working on the cars, watching movies at night, many, many sleepovers! Also lots of playing on the computer, well, working really. Finally finished putting all the photos onto the home computer, our nice big (ish) iMac. Did a bit of a count, we took 6,058 photos! Well, I took 6,000, I’m sure that some other people took the other 58 shots! Brett and I worked it out (hi Brett), that averages 60 photos per day. Waaay too many photos. Still, now they are all sorted and I am well into the Blog Book. Going to start putting selections onto a flash-drive too, for printing at Kmart, will fill up a 300 shot album each time, should be fun.
The old shed on it's way out. Soon to be reinstated behind the garage.
I mentioned last time about the new garden shed, well, thats all happening now. Pulled down the old shed and put it up behind the garage, then stood back and looked at the spot where it used to be and thought, Nah, lets plant something there instead of a bigger shed, spoils the view, so now we are putting up the new shed round beside the house, up against the fence, alongside our street. Going to dig it down a bit so it doesn’t stick over too much, and bolt it to a concrete slab. Will be big enough to take all the garden tools, mower etc and the bikes, hopefully with room to move. Will run power to it as well, very fancy!
Finally, in it's own spot, and looking very clean! Need to polish the bull bar, very stained, we think its the salty air.
Cars. Cars, eh! Bloody cars. Booked the Prado in for service when we got back, told them it may require a valve clearance adjustment, seems to be running a bit rough and has just been on a 20,600 km drive! Took it in on Monday morning, they said, yep, should get it back tomorrow arvo. Well, it’s now Tuesday night, they rang this arvo and said, sorry, parts are coming from Syney and Brisbane, might get the parts on Friday, probably get the car back the following Monday. I said, how about a loan car? They said, sorry, booked out till next Tuesday! Ha! Who wants to go into the technical details of valve clearance adjustment using shims? The Toyota way! Hmmm, give me an old Ford, a spanner and some feeler gauges anyday!
My old bomb, taken before the trip with the new canon camera, the one we lost on the trip! It had this colour choosing feature, pick a colour to highlight, everything else black and white.
Oh, and who wants to hear about my green car. Developed a bit of a miss, thought it might be burnt valves, booked it in for a diagnosis, yep, burnt valves. Still going though, just really lumpy! Will keep driving, and get another set of heads reconditioned, then just change them over when it’s time.
Going back to work next week. Feels weird even just saying that! It’s been four months away from there, will be a bit like starting a new job again. Popped in last week, actually remembered everyones names too. Starting on Monday, but the local school that we drive school runs for
Bus 29, parked up at Mt Hotham carpark, on the last snow job I did before the Big Trip.
does not start till Friday, courtesy of Mr Brumby, deciding that teachers need four days student-free at the start of the year instead of the usual one day. So, the first day of term for govt schools is on a Friday! Anyway, back to the workshop for a bit, maybe a couple of other bus runs in the meantime. Will be fun getting up at 6.00 every morning again, even more fun learning to go to bed early!
The beach at Twilight bay, Esperance. Clear, blue water, white sand, magnificent views, can't say enough how great all the beaches are around here!
One of the questions we get asked the most is “what was the highlight?” So hard to answer, as basically the whole trip was a highlight! We thought of breaking it down a bit, to highlights of each state, or even each town. Maybe by subject, like “the best beach” or “the best tourist attraction”. We also found that as we travelled and reached the next place, it’s highlights eclipsed the previous locations highlights! Also, depending on how well we remember things determines how it stacks up on the list of favourites. Because we went to SO many places,
Sandboarding on the Lancelin sandunes. So much fun, and so much sand!
unfortunately some of them slip through the memory cracks, only to reappear at certain times during conversations etc.
At the moment, I am concentrating on a book, using the blog as content, as suggested to me by a number of people, thank you very much everyone, great idea. This actually saves me a lot of effort in trying to decide which photos to include, or what locations to focus on, as it is already done. We will also make a couple (I think) of just photo books, going perhaps state by state, or even
Had lots of fun driving all around the sandunes here at the old Eucla township, underneath these dunes!
month by month. All of these projects will help all of us to recall all of the Big Trip, and not forget a thing. Thats the plan, anyway.
The girls have also worked hard on their travel journals, which could end up as books themselves, they are certainly full of enough stories. They will be presented I think in scrapbook style, with photos, brochures and clippings attached, can’t wait to read them.
As for some winners in the highlight
Just some of the rock formations at Elephant Bay, near denmark. Again, could have spent days here, beautiful!
stakes, it all comes down to opinion, and in the category of “best beaches”, the winner is Esperance. Has been mentioned in the blog before, see January’s archives for a refresher. Magnificent.
Best sand dunes, Lancelin. Most fun on sand dunes, Eucla.
Best rock formations at a beach, Denmark. Best beach cliffs, The Bight.
Best inland rock formations, The Olgas. Most scared on the trip whilst attempting
The Great Australian Bight. Fantastic, big, scary cliffs! Anytime you point a camera out here, it took a good shot!
a tourist activity, Climbing the Diamond tree at Manjimup.
Best cabin stayed in during trip (out of three), Carnarvon. Best blowholes at a beach, Carnarvon. Best blowholes inland, Nullabor. (the caves are so big, that a certain places where there are small holes leading to the caves, they “breathe” cool air out during the day, and take warm air back in at night, due to differences in air pressure)
Wow, well, more highlights posts another time. Thankyou to all our loyal readers
Diamond tree, an old fire lookout, now a tourist attraction, over 50 metres high!
who apparently are still enjoying the blog, checked the stats today and found 112 people read it last Friday! Amazing! Still, now the pressure is on to keep on producing worthwhile and interesting stories for you all. Here’s a hot tip, next week. . . I’m putting up a new garden shed. Stay tuned for all the details and sneak peek photos! Seriously! Anyway, as you all know, there are heaps of places you havn’t read about yet, so once or twice a week, I’ll do an update. Catch you next time . . . . .
On the way home, flooded creeks, rivers, water over the road everywhere. Didn't stop raining from Mildura to Research
Today is Thursday, and we have been home for a week. There has been lots of sleeping-in, lots of relaxing, lots of movies, but, lots of working, gardening, mowing, weeding, washing, cleaning, sorting etc. Once the multiple loads of washing were done, then packing up all the “stuff”, like books, DVD’s, electronic gear, souvenirs, all the shells, rocks and sand sorted out! In between visiting friends and sleep-overs, the girls have been helping a bit with washing and packing up clothes etc, and enjoying the last weeks before school starts.
Another fancy shot of us driving through water. We travelled just in time too as some of the towns we drove through were flooded within the next day or two.
After our last night camped in Mildura, the camper was soaking wet outside, and had to be packed up wet for the last leg home. Just stopped raining when we arrived home, so the next morning, we opened it up to dry out the canvas. Still rained a few times but eventually had two or three days of sunshine so it dried out well, or so we thought.
We had emptied out the camper and parked it back under cover, and so yesterday we took it with the Prado down to the local carwash to clean them both. Took over an hour, but all clean now.
The trailer all cleaned and drying out in the garage
Parked the camper in the carport then for drying and fiddly bits cleaning, then today, moved it out to the middle of the courtyard to open it up again, to put back all the clean sleeping gear. Opened up the outside cabinets, and it was all wet! Bugger. Combination of driving home from Mildura in pouring rain, and using the pressure wash yesterday. So, cleaned out all the storage compartments, washed everything, pushed the camper into the garage and left it all open for airing out.
My jacaranda tree, after a growth spurt.
Took about two days to mow and whipper snip the garden, and prune all the out-of-control trees and bushes, weed most of the garden beds, generally tidy up. Looks pretty good now, it’s amazing how much everything grows when you’re away for three months, especially the trees. My jacaranda tree is towering over me, and the Chinese elm tree is huge, they must have had a growth spurt! Had lots of garden ideas and discussions on the trip . . . .have to talk about something on those long drives, and will be starting on a couple of them soon. We bought a garden shed on ebay before we left, and worked out a good spot for it today, so thats the first job.
Went shopping with Wendy and Dee yesterday and whilst they looked at clothes, I wandered off to look around. Our local shopping centre is
Some of the growth in the as-yet unmown part of the garden
Greensborough, and it is going through some changes, so renovations, new shops, others gone and some big plans for extensions over and above the main road, to incorporate the shops on the other side, big stuff. Anyway, lots of shops having sales, so I did some clever shopping (well, I thought it was clever), bought some presents for me, and a birthday present for Dee. Most of my presents were model cars, but I did get a nice watch too!
Talking about cars, got them all started
Some of the toys, including two new ones.
and washed, booked the green one in for some work tomorrow, and the Prado is going in for a service on Monday. Thats all on cars, I know we all think they are a necessary evil, ha ha. Anyway, going to post this tonight, it’s Thursday 20th Jan now, (although I think it’s actually after midnight), and will add some more photos later on, good night.
The old Burra Town Hall, doesn't look that old actually.
Sounds like a sort of Donkey, but, it’s the name of a lovely little town about halfway between Port Augusta and Mildura. Lots of history, in fact the town is more historical than “our” Soverign Hill, in that they are still using all of the old original buildings, many of them for their original purpose, the old bank from 1850 is still a bank, the chemist, bakery and pubs are still the original old buildings, just to name a few. We drove through on the beginning of the trip, and just had to drop back in on the way back,
The original old bank. . . still a bank!
this time staying the night. Wandered around town in the evening, then in the morning after packing up camp, had a big walk and a shop in town, didn’t get away until about 11.00. Lucky for us, Mildura was only 350 kms away, so made it there easily in the afternoon. Could have spent many days there, just walking around and checking out all the old buildings. Almost felt like we should have paid admission, it was so great.
The place started as a copper mine, and
Wendy standing in front of the local Chemist shop
the town was built by the mining company as a private concern in 1846. Eventually, other smaller communities sprang up on the boundaries of the town, either for other mines or support for the main township. All up there were about five satellite towns, with names like Redruth, Aberdeen, New Aberdeen, Hampton and Llwchwr (a small community of Welsh smeltermen). By 1851, it consolidated into a borough of towns(hence the name Burra) , and was Australia’s largest inland town, and the
The open cut copper mine. The green colour comes from crystals suspended in the water.
7th largest altogether, with a population of 5,000.
Wow, enough of the history lesson! Couldn’t help it, though, sorry. They also have tours of the original mine, and you can drive all around the entire mine works as well. One of the hills has a lookout and you can clearly see the boundary of the original town, which was called Kooringa.
We worked it out, it’s 540 kms to Mildura and 350 kms to Burra. If you
The original mine was underground, and these buildings are the engine house and the winding house, now part of the museum.
were keen and shared the driving, you could do it in one day. Spend about a week camping there and just walking everywhere, exploring the old streets and buildings. There were at least old four churches there too, that we saw anyway, and the old pubs were great. Excellent, interesting short holiday destination for anyone with even the slightest interest in history! In fact the whole area of the York peninsula looks great, may be a good place for the next Big Trip.
The SA town of Kimba, with the Big Galah and their claim to fame, apparently halfway across Australia
Staying the night at the sleepy little town of Wudinna. Heard of it? We hadn’t! Lots of towns along this road that are here supporting the local wheat industry, complete with huge silo’s and
big grain trucks. The town itself is off the hwy, whilst the caravan park is on the hwy, so we don’t actually know if it is a sleepy town or not! Probably won’t even visit, sorry Wudinna.
Camped here with Jeff, Kim and the boys, been travelling with them for the last two days, it’s been great. Jeff and I have played the last 7 holes of the Nullabor links golf course, and I’m getting
better at it, pretty soon, I might be able to actually hit the ball. The girls have been having a lovely time with the little boys, Nathenial, 6 and Jamison, 9. They have been travelling in their van a lot of the time and having some fun with games etc. It’s been
Kimba, halfway across Australia. Maybe should have got out of the car to actually read the sign to find out how they can claim that. Might zoom in on the photo!
really great because at this stage of the
trip, mainly travelling, things get pretty boring for them, so a bit of company is welcome.
Some of the towns along the Eyre Hwy here have names like Poochera, Cungena, Minipa, Pygery, Kyancutta, Koongawa, Panitya and it goes on. Most have roadhouses and some sort of camping there so travellers are spoilt for places to stay. Some of them make a bit of an effort to make themselves interesting for travellers, like Kimba, that claims to be Australia’s most central town. Everyone
Lunchtime in the sunshine, lovely.
has to stop for a photo at the big sign, we had to queue for a photo op!
A bit of a driving day today, with a goal of reaching a nice town called Burra at the end. Stopped at Port Augusta around lunchtime, where we stopped for a meal and a bit of shopping. Found a lovely park and the sun decided to shine for a moment or two for us so it was a very pleasant lunch shared with Jeff and the boys.
Too bad, how sad! Arrived home this afternoon after a 540 km drive from Mildura. Went to bed last night with cloudy skies but really humid and still, yuk. Woke this morning at 6.30 to torrential rain, and with all the flaps open to let in as much air as we could during the night, everything got soaked, us included. Had a bowl of cereal sitting inside the camper, then packed up in the pouring rain, very funny it was too! Was starting to worry about road conditions so we said our goodbyes to our new friends Jeff, Kim, Jameson and Nathenial, and headed off. . . .to McDonalds, of course! Had a bit more breakfast, ie cappuccino, then left Mildura by 8.30. Down the Calder, we had numerous creek and flood crossings to negotiate, nothing too deep, but they slowed the drive down a lot. After two fuel stops and driver changes, we made it home by 4.30.
Good to be home. Sad to be home! Loved the Big Trip. Would have liked to keep going forever, but, life goes on! Going to bed now, will catch up with everyone soon, starting with my Mum and Dad tomorrow and will do a few backtracks shortly. Thanks for coming along with us on our adventure.
This is it. The last post. Sorry that it’s been a while between posts, but we have been driving, driving, driving, and also having a lovely time being sociable with Jeff and Kim, so been too tired and too busy having fun! So, tonight is the last one. . .for the trip anyway. Have thought about further blog topics and realised that there have been plenty of locations and destinations that we haven’t talked about, so look forward to a few more “backtracks”.
We are in Mildura, finally arrived late this arvo, dodging rain clouds and storms, listening to ABC news radio to all the events around the place. Glad we decided to go via Mildura rather than Horsham, as they are getting a bit wet too! Hopefully the Calder will remain mostly dry for the run home tomorrow. We have 540 kms to travel home, so a nice early start, and should be back within a reasonable hour.
Don’t have any pics for you, sorry. Get ready for hours of slideshows, photobooks and stories galore on our return! See you all soon.
Just thought I’d let you know, Jeff and Kim made it here, after a big days drive. Parked beside us and had tea together, now planning for tomorrow’s activities. The litle girls and boys watched a movie together tonight, and are all looking forwards to spending some days with each other.
The other thing is, I hope you have some fun with these polls that I’m attaching to the post. They don’t lead to anything, or open anything, they are just there for a laugh. Feel free to vote on some of my questions. Also, my Mum wants me to keep up with the blog after we get home (Hi Mum!), so everyone get ready for John, the bus drivers blog! Maybe a weekly update though, bus driving is not quite as exciting as traveling around Australia. May have to spice it up with an anecdote or two as well!
Ok, today is Saturday, 8th Jan, should be home sometime next week, so as usual, it Boo Hoo till then!
The old Eucla telegraph station, almost covered in sand. There is only one other building just visible.
On our second day in Eucla, having lovely weather at the moment, about 23 deg, puffy clouds, warm sun, cool sea breeze, very nice. Its a fascinating landscape here, we are up on the Hampton Tablelands, right on the edge. Down below us is whats called a basin, called the Roe plains, and about 4 kms away is the beach, the Great Australian Bight. We drove down to the beach this morning, down the road to the old telegraph station, which first operated in 1877. The original township and most of the telegraph station are now covered by sandunes, due to a rabbit plague in the
On the beach by the old Eucla jetty. Low tide here, up past the car at high tide, also very soft here too. Had to drive down by the waters edge for hard sand!
1890s that ate all the vegetation and destabilised the dunes. The township then relocated 5 kms away up the escarpment, where we are now. Enough of the history lesson. At the telegraph station, the sandunes stretch to the beach, and tracks criss-cross everywhere, so we headed off onto what looked like the most well used track, and almost got lost, but had lots of fun trying to find the right track. Finally arrived at the beach, parked and took a few shots of more blue water, cliffs disappearing away to the east, and the remains of the old Eucla jetty. Then took a different track back towards town, it
Dee took some shots of me having some secret practice swings. . . just warming up, you know!
seems that all roads lead to town, or to the highway, so we got out alright. Drove back up the escarpment, known as Eucla Pass, and checked out the Eucla golf club.
Another interesting piece of information (trivia) is that Australia has the record for the longest golf course in the world. This course is known as the Nullabour Links, which starts at Kalgoorlie, and with 18 holes to play, finishes at Ceduna. Various towns and roadhouses along the Eyre Highway host the course with one or sometimes two holes at each. Players
The hole info at Eucla, Nullabour Links
purchase their scorecard at Kalgoorlie, play the first two holes, then drive to the next hole! Each hole is named, rather than numbered, and has interesting facts about the origins of it’s name and the local area. Our travelling companion Jeff is playing the course, and when they catch up, I might have a hit as well! We have been checking out each hole as we pass, and they are very interesting, and funny too. Next time you have internet, google “The Nullabour Nymph”!
Tried to park evenly over the borderline, ended up a bit crooked. This is at Border Village, just past Eucla.
After we checked out the Eucla golf club, we drove the 12 kms up the road to Border Village, actually on the WA/SA border, for some pics of signs etc, and some fuel. Trouble was, on the way into SA, there were no vehicle checks, but on the way back through, we were stopped and inspected. Silly us also had all our latest fresh fruit in the car for snacks, bugger! Tried to explain that we had just come from WA, were camped just down the road, and were just heading back. The only concession she gave us was a promise to keep the fruit for us in their office for when we come back through tomorrow! Hmmm. Also filled up with gas, paid 125/litre, then got back to Eucla and found it was 110/litre there, bugger, again!
Wide load coming up Eucla pass, view of the Roe Plains in the background.
Checked out the trucks chugging up the Eucla pass from a memorial on the side of the road. (By the way, the road was sealed between Norseman and the SA border in 1969) Had the UHF radio on, listening to the truckies chatting, and heard them talking about a 5 metre wide load on the way. Got the camera out for some pics, and as the escort vehicle drove past, the driver saw us with the camera and called to the truck driver, smile for the camera! So as the truck went past, we got a big smile, a wave and a blast of the airhorns.
Frogs in the fish pond behind the Eucla motel.
Thats about it for today. It’s about 4.30pm here now, Jeff and Kim have not arrived yet. We drove up to the Eucla golf club and left a strategic note for them at the tee (written on a paper cup and weighed down with rocks inside, clever, eh?) for them to meet us here at the caravan park. Will see what happens. Had a relaxing arvo too, lots of journal and blog work happening. The girls went for a walk to the gardens behind reception, and they have a pond set-up with the most amount of frogs we have ever seen, the girls are fascinated by them. Kept them occupied for ages!
