Jan and Russ Around Australia II

THE END

2009-04-20T13:44:00.004+08:00

Today, 3 years and 2 months ago, we set off to see Aus. We told our tenants they had a guaranteed 18 months in our house and they are still there. We'd never owned a caravan or 4 WD and didn't know if we'd enjoy the lifestyle. Now we know we do!

Last night we stopped to fill up with diesel and the man beside us asked where we were off to-Russ said "home" and I nearly started to cry. I'd love to keep going, but if I did, I'd get house sick and want the house. I'm excited to be moving into our new little villa but so sad to be finishing our most amazing journey. I've always loved the reaction we get from someone when they ask "so how long have you been on the road" and somehow feel a bit of a quitter. I've loved watching the kilometres and the months tick over.

However, we will be better able to get to places like the Gulf and Northern Queensland leaving from Victoria. It's hard to travel up and down and around and arrive in the right season for a particular place if you've left somewhere up north at the end of its good season (if you get what I mean).

Lots of people ask us where our favourite place in Australia has been and that's been almost impossible to answer-I love anywhere any of our kids and partners are, I love anywhere the fishing is good (Tasmania, Walpole, Exmouth and Coral Bay (all WA)), Denham because we have wonderful friends who go there every year and the Ningaloo Reef because the water is warm, the fishing is good and the weather is perfect for a few months a year! Litchfield National Park (NT)was great, yabbying on Fairburn Dam (QLD) another highlight, so were the WA goldfields. And the Kimberly and Pilbara in spring was beautiful. In the end though, coming home to Warrnambool to the people we know is really the best of all (especially when we know we can pack the van up and go again!).

I don't think a blog about life in Warrnabool is so very exciting and have decided to finish it now. Thanks to ALL you people who have written or told me how much you enjoyed it;so did I and I was so lucky to be able to go do it!

Easter and 10 nights in Traralgon

2009-04-19T18:38:00.004+08:00

Thursday night, we went over to Verity's parents place for a little party for Kobie. It was a nice family one with sausage rolls, little boys, fairy bread and an Iggle Piggle birthday cake. The birthday boy stayed up long enough to have a little to eat, accept his gifts and play in the cake, then he had a spa and was off to bed!

Friday we took a heap of fish and some squid to sister Glenda's to share for lunch. Glenda had also done a lovely smoked trout pate-about 12 of us were there. We ate dinner with Mel and Michael at their cabin in the caravan park that night.

On Saturday it was my birthday. My son Mick had suggested we go out to Chinese-15 of us had a really good night at Traralgon Lion City. On Sunday, Daniel decided a family BBQ/picnic would be fun at Newman Park. It has good BBQs and a great playground so about 20 of us had a fun time there. It's especially fun to watch Kobie enjoying the swings and slides now! We had a couple of quiet nights Sunday and Monday night.

On Wednesday after baby sitting Kobie for the day, we had dinner with old friends Ruth and Bob Duljas. Thursday, we sat Kobie in the morning, then drove to Sale via Maffra, then home along the highway. I used to live in a number of small towns in the area, so I always enjoy a look around. I was rapt to get a couple of replacement pieces for a new dinner set we bought in Tasmania at Sale's Target store (one was missing and one broke being carted all over the place on rough dirt roads). Thursday night we had dinner with another old friend Christine and husband Gary and her two daughters Dee and Shannon and SHannon's husband George. I met Chris at my 21st when the girls were 2 and 6, they are 35 and 39 now. We had dinner at Shannon's beautiful new home and about a million drinks. It was a very late night (morning), a taxi ride home and a very slow day Friday with dinner out at la Porchetta but home to bed by 8.30.

I cooked dinner for the four of us at Glenda and Peter's on Saturday night, then today we drove to Port Fairy stopping for lunch with daughter in law Leah in Melbourne. I'm working for Kirstyn at the B&B in the morning (poor girl has a cold) and dinner out tomorrow night with Paul and Wendy (who we met in Tas).

I was pleasantly suprised with the Park Lane Caravan Park. We've spent an awful lot of time in parks over the last three years and it was one of the very better ones-really clean amenities, nice pool, spa, mini golf, good play ground and good sized sites. I'd be happy to stay there any time.

Now we are hoping the titles come through for our house this week and we can settle up and start moving in.

Narawntapu National Park

2009-04-09T15:05:00.004+08:00

Narawntapu National Park is about 35ks from Port Sorell (you look at it across the Rubicon Estuary and the park sits between that and the ocean. We hadn't visited it, but had a couple of hours to kill yesterday (due to high level of organisation packing the day before ;-) )

It (the park) was a former spud farm and is really quite flat and featureless, but it has some nice camping areas, a lot of birds and wild life and is unique in that you can take along horses (there is a large holding yard) and ride on designated trails. The yards have a camping area alongside, so it would be wonderful for horsey people.

We were rapt to see a wombat and her baby grazing on the short grass by the visitor's centre-it's the first time I've ever seen a little on up so close.

Finally we got on the boat and had another super smooth trip across Bass Strait. I forgot and left a glass on the kitchen bench. It was in exactly the same place I left it when we arrived in Traralgon. The boat docked at 5.50 and we were off and on the road by 6.10am. We'd planned to go to Leah's for breakfast, but figured Jan and Russ at 6.15 would be too much for the poor girl and headed to Traralgon. We were at the caravan park by 10.00 after stopping for breakfast in Bunyip. The chatty roadhouse owner somehow got to telling us lots of travellers were passing through eg, the people beside us were from Warrnambool. What a small world. They live on Caramut road and their daughter lives in flats at number 14 Panorama Ave (we live across the road at 15!

We got set up, then went and had lunch with Dan, Verity Kobie (the birthday boy today) my ex Allan and his new lady friend Sue. Tonight we are off to a little party for him at Verity's parents. Kobie cried when he saw us but cheered up when we produced one of his birthday presents (a Koala camping chair) which he really loved.

The Birthday Boy

Is My Face Red?

2009-04-08T07:52:00.002+08:00

We were just about packed and ready to leave the caravan park when we decided to check our ferry ticket for the latest we could arrive at the terminal.
I looked and looked again hoping I was wrong, I asked Russ the date, then finally accepted we were booked to sail on Wednesday 8Th NOT Tuesday 7Th like we (I) thought.

Fortunately, we hadn't disconnected the water, power and waste water or wound the legs of the van up. More fortunate, we could stay on this site until 6pm Wednesday night. So out came the TV, antenna and our picnic tea we had made to eat on the boat. Luckily, we were able to change our booking in Traralgon (got that wrong too) and contact my son, my sister and Leah.

Our solicitor rang last night and the title for our villa has finally been lodged, so she thinks we will be able to take possession at the end of April. Hooray! It will be almost two months late, but it really isn't a problem to us.

Cradle Mountain

2009-04-06T15:45:00.005+08:00

Pencil Pine Falls Cradle Mountain NP

Cradle mountain is one of Tasmania's most visited National Parks, so we thought we better go see it before we head home tomorrow night.

We had a bit of lunch stuff hanging around, but needed to get some ham at the local supermarket. After forgetting to do that, we drove through Railton to Sheffield (the town of murals) where we stopped for a walk and to get that ham. We found a BBQ pack (containing 3 burgers, 3 snags and 2 small steaks) on a throw out special for $2, so bought it instead. Sheffield has one free public BBQ in the middle of a park in town-by the time we cooked our feast, the day was cold and getting colder, but it was so good! Sheffield has over 50 murals-painted to "save" the town about 20 years ago. It seems to have worked, as the little town was really busy while we were there. Lots of new homes seem to have gone up since we were last in town too.

Sheffield sits at the foot of Mt Roland and the drive to Cradle mountain takes you right out past it. It was very beautiful.

Cradle Mountain and Dove Lake

By now it was getting colder still and when we arrived at the Dove Lake car park it was sleeting. So much for the iconic view of Cradle Mountain reflected in Dove Lake. We did manage a couple of short walks in the area, but had hoped to do a couple more. Even with the rain and cloud, it is a stunning national park and I think we'll come back in a year or two and do it on a nice day.

SNOW! (in April)

We came home via Wilmot and Forth. We stopped and bought some of our favourite Dutch Cream potatoes from a farm gate to bring home with us, plus some local carrots and spray free apples. We were kept entertained spotting mail boxes on a 10k stretch of road out of Wilmot. We spotted Tin Man, dogs, wombats, Ned Kelly, Motorbikes, Cars, Rockets, Horses, you name it we saw it. Dozens of properties have the craziest letter boxes.

Mt Roland

Beaconsfield

2009-04-03T16:14:00.004+08:00

Mining Heritage Centre

We've had a relaxing few days here in Port Sorell. The park is almost completely empty so is very quiet. We find we've been sleeping really late without the usual early risers and packer upers. It's wonderful.

On ^Tuesday we caught up with our laundry and did a bit of shopping-there is a great little strip of shops at near by Shearwater.

Wednesday, we put the boat in on the estuary. I caught a good sized flatty almost immediately, then only one more just size fish in the following three hours. Russ caught a couple of undersized ones in the same time. On the way home, we stopped near the boat ramp and he caught one more good sized one. When we got back to the boat ramp, both were still very alive and active, so we let them go. There are big tides here and that meant our drifts were probably too fast to catch fish-but it's better to d4rift over flathead than wait for them to come to you. Oh well, there had to have one shitty fishing spot!

On Thursday we drove along the old coast road to Burnie. We haven't been there for about 10 years (since my mate Henry lived there) and it seems to have really gone ahead. The CBD is much nicer and the shops seemed busy. We had lunch in a Chinese restaurant, then bought a new doona set and two new dinner sets for the house, and lastly stopped at the Lactos factory and treated ourselves to some delicious cheese. We had a couple of drinks with Blair at the Devenport airport before he flew home to Melbourne which was great.

Today we drove to Beaconsfield to visit the Mining Heritage Centre. It's a pretty decent museum-well laid out and enough to read without going into overkill. I think the most amazing display is the one that deals with the mine collapse and rescue of Todd Russell and Brant Webb in April/May 2006. There is a replica of the pipe that was eventually laid and the cage they were trapped in for two weeks. It's a dreadful feeling just to pop your head up into the space and try to imagine spending two weeks there!

I was surprised at what a pretty area Beaconsfield, Beauty Point, Kelso and Greens Beach is and how many people live there.

Port Sorell-Our Last Stay in Tassie

2009-03-30T15:45:00.003+08:00

Paddymelon by the Van

Yesterday, we were supposed to leave Mt Field NP, but had both had a lousy nights sleep, it was raining and we decided to extend another night. We spent a lazy day, just taking a little walk through the tall trees. After dinner, we rugged up and walked to the falls with our torch to see the glow worms-they were a bit of a non event, but it was still fun.

Tall Trees

We drove from Mt Field NP to Port Sorell today-it's 330ks and about as far as you want to drive in Tassie towing a van. We arrived here after 6 hours of driving (with a quick stop for lunch) feeling like we'd driven double the time. We are staying 8 nights here with a late check out on the last day to keep the freezer plugged in as long as we can before we board the ferry for the trip home. I should mention that we stopped in the inevitable bakery in Ross and had THE best pies ever-Tasmanian Salmon and Brie. We both thought we'd died and gone to pie heaven. When we get into our house, I'm going to have a try at making them.

The caravan park here has 8 tourist sites and all but one have en suites. It was amazingly cheap for the 8 nights-$21.50 a night with the en suite.

We stopped on the way in Longford at the meat works and stocked up so the freezer is full to bursting for the trip home. We find it travels better like that, and good looking whole porterhouse was $9.99 a kg.

I got a lovely e-mail today offering me some work when we get home at one of my long time favourite casual jobs, TAFE canteen. I'm thrilled and it made my day.

Lake Pedder and Gordon River Dam

2009-03-28T16:33:00.007+08:00

Today we took a drive to Lake Pedder and the Gordon River Dam. Lake Pedder (actually the little hydro town of Strathgordon is 86 ks from here (Mt Field NP) through some of the most stunning scenery we have seen in Tasmania. Parts of it are declared a world heritage wilderness, parts are state forests and therefore logged, and some are state reserves (not sure what they are!). Strathgordon had 2000 people living there at the height of the dam building. Now it has a handful of people who operate the hydro power station and a couple of touritsty things in town.

All the way, we travelled with ranges on either side of us-big granite mountains everwhere. We tried to take photos, but our camera just can't do it justice (and if I had a better camera, it would be wasted on me). It was quite misty on the way out, but the cloud burned away and it was a beautiful day after lunch.

Lake Pedder is 40km long and drowned the original Lake Pedder (causing quite a lot of controversy 40 years ago). Gordon River Dam wall is the largest of it's type in Australia at 140 metres and was amazing to see, although it was all to high for me. I'd never be able to do some of the maintenance work they are expected to do in some
of the places we saw.

Lake Pedder

Gordon River Dam

We drove 30ks down a dirt road to see the smaller Serpentine and the Scott's Peak Dams both also on Lake Pedder. It had been suggested to Russ by the ranger at the local info desk and was wonderful We drove through a couple of valleys with mountains all around us and at the Red Knoll Lookout, the mountains circled us from 4 to 40ks away.

The Road to Red Knoll

Lake Pedder from Red Knoll Lookout

On the way to Lake Pedder and home, we saw a group of logging protesters living in the forest trying to save the Florentine region from logging. It's a difficult thing when so many in Tassie rely on the logging industry, but the area is so very beautiful and worth saving.

Mt Field National Park

2009-03-27T14:41:00.009+08:00

Land of the Giants Caravan Park Mt Field NP

I just sat down to write this when a paddymelon (a small, chunky sort of wallaby) hopped past the door of the van-right under our awning! There are lots of them around the place and heaps of a native Tasmanian bush hen that is very noisy.

We arrived here around lunch time yesterday-it's beautiful. The caravan park within the national park is tiny and there are only about 4 other vans and tents here tonight. Our site backs onto the Falls Creek and Russ has headed over there to catch himself a trout. Hahaha. He bit the bullet and bought himself three wattle grubs at $2 each, so he's pretty serious about it. I had to hold them on the way home and the slippery little suckers kept trying to escape the hanky I had then in. Probably suspected that they might be drowned soon!

Russell Falls

Yesterday after setting up and having lunch, we took a walk to the interpretive centre, then on to the falls. We have been here years ago, but I'd forgotten how pretty the walk to them is and how tall the falls actually are. They come down as a gentle veil of water over three or four tiers and are really beautiful. We walked to the top too (216 steep, slippery steps). While the top isn't so spectacular, we got a great view of the valley with a pretty rainbow over it.

From the Top of Russell Falls

It started to pour rain on the way home, so we sheltered in a hut for a while talking to a nice young WA couple.

Last night I made a really yummy dinner of sausages and cabbage braised in beer and mustard over mash. Russ wasn't too keen on the recipe, but we both loved it and it was perfect for the cold night.

Today we drove up the "steep, winding, narrow, subject to snow, ice and fallen trees" road to the ski fields 16ks from here. The road was one of the better dirt ones we have been on in Tassie and not deserving of all those dire warnings! Maybe it's a different matter in the ski season though!

Lake Dobson

We took a few short walks through the different types of forest and across an alpine peat marshe, then took a walk around the very pretty little Lake Dobson. It was just far enough for fatty boombah me and I especially loved the pandani grove with its old pines growing like gnarly old bonsai off the rocks and the mosses and lichen hanging off the trees. The pandani were suprisingly tall-much more so than we see them in the tropics. We stopped and gave a young Israeli couple a lift to the bottom car park on the way home.

Hops About to be Harvested at Bushy Park

After a lunch of home made soup and toast, we drove back out the way we came yesterday to towards New Norfolk through the hop fields. They are quite vast (the biggest in Aus) and produce tons and tons of hops for beer. There are remains of kilns, oasts, big storage sheds and a water wheel on the River Styx. They were owned by one family originally and 30 houses remain on the properties. The hop farmers also grow black currants, raspberries and sheep.

Right now, Russ is home after drowning one $2 wattle grub and catching no trout (he saw about six "rise" though) but they wouldn't take the bait. He's consoling himself with a glass of wine while he cooks us a green Thai fish curry.

Bruny Island

2009-03-25T12:14:00.005+08:00

Monday we took the 11 o'clock ferry to Bruny Island. It's about or 5ks from Kettering across the channel and Russ has wanted to go for years.

I enjoyed the day out but think I was a bit tired of driving after our trip down south the day before. If you were to ask me which of the two days I preferred, I would have to say I got more from going to the end of the road on the Sunday.

Bruny Island Light House

Bruny Island has about 100ks of sealed road (and plenty of unsealed stuff) and you get spectacular views of the d'Entrecasteaux channel and Southern Ocean from various lookouts but a number of things (the smokehouse and cheesery were two I wanted to go to) were shut on Mondays and lunch at the White Wallaby Cafe was a bit forgettable.

D'Entrecasteaux Channel from Bruny's Highest Point

Presbyterian Church Bruny Island

We paid $12 for a burger and salad (no chips) and got an un toasted stale roll, a nasty, previously frozen patty and an odd salad with diced carrot in it on the other half of the roll. It filled a hole.

Cloudy Bay Bruny Island

Yesterday we stayed home and went out fishing. We caught 13 flathead (Russ caught most of them) and I caught two squid. Our freezer is full to bursting with fillets now.

Today we went into Hobart as Target were having a home wares sale. We bought some sheets for the new house (if we ever get to move in) and some sandals for Russ. We stopped at Banjos in Margate and had a coffee and a couple of fresh hot cross buns on the house as thanks for taking the time to write and complain about our experience at breakfast on Sunday. We were offered another free breakfast, but don't eat that many cooked breakfasts in one week! The owner spent AGES talking to us about staff and problems with them (and his holiday shack on Bruny!) We had a light lunch in Hobart, then shopped in Kingston before heading home here to Snug.

Tomorrow we are moving to Mt Field National Park for three days and I'm not sure if we will have TV, Internet or phone. We couldn't go today as I'd miss the Farmer Wants a Wife! After that, we plan to spend our last week and a bit on the North coast-Port Sorell perhaps.

South of South!

2009-03-22T16:44:00.008+08:00

Tassie has turned the weather on once again; it's been beautiful for the past few days.

Native Oysters in the Snug River (where we launch the boat)

We spent Friday and Saturday fishing. On Saturday we did more touring in the boat leaving here and crossing the bay (about 9km) to Bruny Island then back to Tinderbox and home. Russ estimates we did about 20km. Naturally we stopped to fish and caught ourselves 12 flathead and a barracuda for bait. A seal spent about an hour fishing and sunning himself close by and we were amazed to see him catch something (a squid we think) and play with it like a cat with a mouse as he ate it. We are sure we'd have caught more fish if he hadn't been around.

Yesterday was a really calm day on the water so we boated the 6 ks over to Tinderbox and caught ourselves 9 flathead, one red gurnard perch and I managed to catch us two good sized squid. We have realised the squid here are quite different to SA and WA-much more slender and arrow shaped, with shorter, stubbier tentacles that make better bait. They are tricky little devils to catch as I reckon they are thinking fish! The nature lesson for the day was to see two fairy penguins swimming along across the bay. We both initially thought they were ducks, but quickly realised they were penguins-another amazing sight.

Today we had brunch at Banjos in Margate. We've breakfasted at Banjos before in Latrobe and really, really enjoyed it, but today I don't think they wanted to serve breakfast (only one menu and that was hidden) and the dining room was quite dirty so I wrote to the company tonight! After brunch, we headed down south once again. We've been to Huonville twice just recently but I love the drive through the orchards and wineries and along the river.

Huon River

This time we headed further south. In Ida River, Russ wanted to turn back, but I wanted to go the whole way as we've been to the most westerly and the most easterly points in Australia. Russ gave in and we headed to through Catamaran to Cockle Creek, the most southerly point we can drive to in Australia. We passed such milestones as the most southerly pub, the most southerly caravan park and my favourite, the most southerly B&B. I would love to buy the property on the southern side of that and start my own......

Cockle Creek

At the END OF THE ROAD (Cockle Creek), we visited the tiny tip of the Southwest National Park (a huge NP that covers about a massive amount of Tasmania with much of it designated a wilderness area and world heritage listed). We took a short walk to Fishers Point with its Southern Right Whale calf sculpture.

Fishers Point

Cockle creek was a busy whaling station with a big logging industry until the trees and whales ran out! Now it's biggest claim to fame is being the end of that road. We came home along some wonderful back roads wherever we could for great views of D'entrecasteaux Channel, Bruny Island and Huon River. Leaving Huonville, we hit rain and thick fog (at 5 pm) which made for a slow drive home.

My International Tooth

2009-03-19T13:45:00.003+08:00

Last year crossing the Nullabor, my tooth fell to bits. I finally got to see an English dentist in Albany and had it re-built. Up north in WA, it fell to bits again and a delightful Canadian woman fixed it for me back in Perth. Yesterday it fell to bits again so a nice young Kiwi "boy" had a crack at it this afternoon.

It has a pin and huge filling in it now, but it gave him plenty of grief getting it anywhere near to a point we were both happy with! The filling fell to bits the first time he took the metal clamp off and asked me to "bite lightly" on it, so he had to change the filling stuff and refill half of it. It took forever and he said if I wasn't happy to come back. I actually "came back" from reception for him to smooth some more off it.

He had quoted me $230 and only charged me $190 for it all-the receptionist was implying how very lucky I was as it had been a super long consultation-I was sore and snappy and pointed out it was only because the filling disintergrated and we had to do it again that I was getting the discount. I suspect it may fall out again, pin or no pin.

A repeat of last year's wedding anniversary present when I had a trip to the dentist on almost the same day.

We just went and booked four more nights in Snug-bringing the total to 14. It's a lovely place and we still haven't been to Bruny Island, down to Dover and beyond and we haven't toured the rest of the bay. Russ bought me a new fishing reel while I was in the dentist (an anniversary present) so I want to try that out too.

Southern Forests

2009-03-17T18:08:00.008+08:00

Arve River Picnic Ground

This morning we drove from here to Sandfly, then on to Huonvale and down the other side of the Huon River (to yesterday's drive). It's a really pretty area with lots of apples, stone fruits and veg growing and being offered for sale in little road side stalls. I think it's the most like the Tasmania many people would imagine. The river has lots of fish farms and a few factories and heaps of yachts moored in the little bays.

At Geeveston, we headed to the Southern Forests. We drove out to a pretty spot called Lookout Lookin for a brief walk through the temperate rain forest with its tall trees, tree ferns and mosses.

It was just on 12 o'clock so we decided to drive the 7 ks back into Geeveston and have lunch so we could actually enjoy the rest of the afternoon. Geeveston is a bit limited for eateries, but as usual, there was a bakery. Today being St Pat's day and the owner of the place being Irish, it and the staff were decked out in green, and Beef and Guinness was the pie of the day. We decided to get into the spirit and order a couple of the pies which were delicious-the best filling in a pie we've had in Tasmania. They were offering green coffees too-but we weren't quite THAT spirited!

Arve River Picnic Ground

After lunch, we went back and stopped next at the Arve River picnic ground where we took another short walk along the river and through the forest.

Hartz NP

Then on to Hartz National Park. It's a beautiful drive up into the Alpine region which we've decided we love in Tasmania. The mountains, rock and plants are more dramatic than the gentler farming land. We took a lovely walk to the Arve River Waterfall across the alpine field; the area is covered with water that gently runs downwards to the Arve, gradually getting bigger and bigger until it rushes and drops 500 metres down from the plateau to once again become the gentle little river at the picnic ground below.

Arve Waterfall (The Top)

For most of the walk to the falls, we were the only ones there. A couple of couples walked in as we were leaving, but I don't think many people visit.

The Big Tree

We stopped at the Big Tree after that. It's the biggest tree by weight in Australia-it's not the tallest and keeps losing its top in wind and storms, but is still a massive thing. I should point out that you can't see about 15 more metres of it in the photo and I think a large family could live in the base of it-the photos just can't show the immense size of it.

We met a couple at the tree who are from near Wonthaggi in Vic and after talking to them about mum and dad coming form there (dad was born in Jetho, they lived in Loch and Wonthaggi) we got onto names. I said dad and mum had bred dogs and it turned out the woman's sister had bought dad's last breeding dog Dooley who just died at a very old age! The man had been a livestock carrier and knew mum and dad's neighbour Allan Bramstedt REALLY well too-it's such a small world.

The Big Butt

We went on the the end of the road and the Sky Walk, but decided not to pay the $22 each so late in the day and headed home. We shopped in Huonvale Woolies for a few things and got home just on 6 pm; what a great day out.

Waratah Lookout

Monday

2009-03-17T06:17:00.004+08:00

Woodbridge Supermarket

We did some much needed grocery shopping at Woolworths in Kingston on Monday morning, also got a few things at Big W (tent pegs, a tarp, sinkers etc), then came home for lunch. After lunch we took a drive around the channel highway which follows the D'Entrecasteaux Channel to Verona Sands, then goes up into Huonvale alongside the Huon River. It is a stunning drive with water views the whole way and although it was a bit cold and windy we really enjoyed it.

The Lady Nelson

At the quaint little village of Woodbridge we watched the training ship The Lady Nelson crash into (and break) the Jetty as the TRAINED CREW!! docked her. Not very far down the road, we stopped and freed a big black horse from a fence he had himself caught in. He'd obviously been there a while judging by the poo around his feet!

We bought apples in Huonvale and picked blackberries on the road. At Huonvale, we turned back to Woodstock and went over some great hilly country through Pelvatara and and Sandfly then home through Margate. It was a fabulous afternoon out.

Blair and Leah in Snug

2009-03-16T10:46:00.006+08:00

Snug Waterfall

Blair and Leah arrived in Snug around 7.30 on Thursday night. We cooked dinner here at the van for us all and then took it to their cabin to eat-mostly because management asks you not to cook fish in the cabins. We made the Parmesan and pistachio crumbed flathead we'd cooked for ourselves a couple of weeks ago.

On Friday, we skipped breakfast and went to the Margate Tavern for an early lunch. Russ and Blair had a couple of terrific hamburgers with chips and salad for $7 each; Leah had fish and chips and I had crispy buttermilk chicken over Caesar Salad.

Blair had to do a few hours work, so Russ Leah and I took a drive around Snug and then went to the Snug waterfall for a walk. Waterfall walks are either to the top of the falls or to the bottom. This was down a very steep and quite slippery track, so I gave up and walked back up after a kilometre while Leah and Russ went on to the bottom. They tell me it got extremely steep and slippery so I'm glad I had the sense to walk back or I reckon I'd have had to be medi-vacced out! Friday night we had a BBQ here at the van.

Saturday, Blair and Russell went out fishing, catching 9 flathead while Leah and I sat around the cabin chatting. It was a lovely relaxing day. Blair's not that keen on fishing, but it's a pretty spot and he caught a few, so I think he actually really enjoyed it.

Suburb of Lindisfarne-Opposite Michell and Ben's Place

A Three Minute Walk to the Water Taxi

On Saturday night we taxied into Hobart to Michelle and Ben's place then took a water taxi across the harbour to Salamanca Place and dinner out. The water taxi cost us $7 a head and was fantastic. When the owner/driver realised we were visiting, he stopped under the bridge to show us where it came down after the Illawarra hit it and stopped right where the Illawarra wreck lies. The water was calm and it was a great experience. After a couple of drinks at a pub by the wharf, we went to a modern Italian restaurant (excellent) the to another great pub for another couple of drinks before catching a taxi home. Blair and Leah shouted us the evening for our birthdays and anniversary this week.

Tasman Bridge From the Water Taxi

Yesterday we lunched at the Cascade brewery. Blair and I chose the hamburgers-$23 for the smallest burger ever, a small delicious salad, a tiny dish of beetroot raita and a spicy tzatziki. Not related to the generous and cheap burger eaten at Margate! The meat patty as Cascade was THE best burger I have ever eaten, but the price sort of spoiled it especially when there wasn't a chip in sight.

Cascade Brewery

We left there and drove about 15ks to the chocolate factory (but it was closed) then went to the Leonardo da Vinci exhibition back at the wharf. That was really interesting-it was models created from his sketches.

Last night we had a seafood feast. Blair had brought us a 1 1/2 kg lobster, so the dealt with that while I cooked creamy garlic prawns and scallops, Russ cooked crumbed fish (caught by him and Blair), calamari (caught by him and me)and made oyster patties from wild oysters Blair got off the rocks here in Snug. I don't honestly believe you could get better or fresher in any restaurant. We had baked potatoes and a nice salad with it but really the seafood was the star.

Blair and Leah left at 7 this morning. The first two days of their stay were probably the best continuous weather we've experienced in Tassie-perfect Autumn days. It broke up a bit after that and Russ estimated we had about 2 inches of rain on Saturday night and 3/4 inch on Sunday night. It was still pleasant at times during those days too though.

Russ's Birthday

2009-03-12T11:18:00.005+08:00

Another birthday celebrated travelling-it's amazing to think where we have been on each of our birthdays over the last three years. Yesterday Russ turned 63 and we spent the day moving from Richmond to Snug. It was one of my favourite sort of moves; short and sharp and over in under an hour as we only had to travel 70ks from one side of Hobart to the other.

Mt Wellington

We arrived here around 11am and quickly set up, had lunch, organised the boat and got out fishing around 1.30. The water was so calm it would have been criminal not to and we managed to bring home 12 good sized flathead which we will cook for Blair and Leah tonight.

Tenders at Margate

I cooked a couple of delicious eye fillet steaks topped with a seafood sauce and served them with smashed potatoes and veg for a lovely birthday dinner last night. It was especially nice to be able to enjoy the evening outside cooking with a glass of wine in hand-something we haven't wanted to do on the cooler nights latley.

This morning, the weather was nicer and the water even calmer than yesterday so we got out early for a cruise around some of the bay Snug is situated on-we saw about 15ks of the coastline. We can't help ourselves, so stopped and caught 6 flathead that we'll pack and freeze shortly. We have Blair and Leah arriving later today, so that will put paid to the fishing for a few days and the weather is supposed to turn a bit nasty too. We are booked here for 11 nights though, so I'm sure we'll get out there amongst those flathead again. I also live in hope of catching a fish farm escapee-the atlantic salmon often escape apparently. Mmmm salmon!

A Pretty Spot to Fish

The caravan park is right on the beach and we have an espcially nice site as sites go. Close, but not too close to the ablutions block and camp kitchen, and plenty of room for us, the car and boat. I met a woman in Coles Bay who told me this was one of the cleanest parks in Tasmania and I think she's right; it's a credit to the owners or managers (or whatever they are)

Wendy and Paul

2009-03-10T14:23:00.006+08:00

Monday we drove out to Seven Mile Beach then on to Opossum Bay-it's on the other side of the bay from Kingston and Snug and is very pretty. The last little town on the point (Opossum Bay)is like a step back in time with tiny holiday houses jammed together on the sand dune right on the beach. I'd say very little has changed in 50 or 60 years. As the point is surrounded by water and it was a nice day and public holiday, we saw heaps of yachts and various boats out in the waterways.

Roaring Beach

We came home for a latish lunch and just lounged around until it was time to go out for dinner with Wendy and Paul. They are a lovely couple who our friends Dave and Julie put us in touch with. They have taken a year off work and are travelling around Australia in their van. Like us, they were complete novices at this when they started out a couple of months agao, but are settled in and loving it. The night went so fast as we all seemed to have so much to say and the waitress who took our photos couldn't beileve we had never met until just outside her restaurant that night. It might have been some of the worst Chinese any of us has eaten, but it was a night I'll think about often!

Dinner with Paul and Wendy

Today we drove to Sorell, then Cambridge and finally Hobart looking for a tyre place. In desperation, we stopped at a garage and he sent us to the one they buy from. The tyre was fitted and we were on our way in 20 minutes. He (the tyre fitter) is worried our "stub axle" might be bent after hitting a kerb in Launceston when we were lost on the steepest, windiest piece of road we and the van had ever been on. Bummer if it is!

After another late lunch, we went downtown here and took some photos of the famous bridge then went to the Old Richmond Goal for a wander around. It was really interesting but I walked out promising I'd never be so naughty I could end up in prison! What a hard life those convicts led.

Richmond Goal

Richmond

2009-03-08T10:38:00.003+08:00

We've extended our stay in Richmond and will have been here 9 nights when we leave on Wednesday morning. It's been a lovely time here as the park has been pretty quiet and I've enjoyed the en suite!

We've been out every day exploring the area and Richmond is close to Hobart so have managed to get into there a couple of times. We had to go in Friday and buy a new oven as ours has given up the ghost. It seems so many things are pre-programmed to pack up just after they are 12 months old and out of warranty. It's done a mighty job and done it in tough conditions, living outside in the salt air and dust mostly. I can't believe we lived without one for the first 18 months-it's something we consider essential now!

On Friday we had a friend of mine Peter to dinner-we both belong to Recipezaar and it's the first time I've met him in person. It was fun and good to feed him some of the ton of fish we have in the freezer. As we were sitting outside, Russell notice one of the van's tyres had shredded and was peeling off (might be a kerb we hit fairly hard in Launceston!) anyhow, he is out changing the wheel as I write. This is the first car or van wheel we have had to deal with in our 3 years of travel-I hope it's not a sign of things to come.

Peter and Me

Yesterday we drove to Campania to the farmer's market-the trouble was it's on Sunday (yesterday was Saturday). No matter, we had the camera, jumpers and water, so we headed down to Port Arthur. We'd been there before about 5 years ago, so rather than go again, stopped in all the little towns and villages and touristy things we went by last time. Just outside Sorell, we stopped at a veggie barn and were amazed to see eye fillet steak at 9.99 per kg. Our plan was to get some on the way home.

Lookout near The Arch

We stopped at The Blowhole, Devil's Kitchen, Tasman Arch, had lunch in a bakery and the last stop was some amazing convict ruins at the site of a coal mine about 10ks from Port Arthur. It was where they sent the really, really naughty prisoners and apparently a very grim place. I was amazed to find we were the only ones there on a busy long weekend. There was lots of info and it was free!

The Devil's Kitchen

Coal Mine Ruins

At the veggie barn on our way home, I was devastated to discover all the fillets were gone, so this morning, we went to the farmer's market and then back there and got our fillets. Even if they are dreadful, they would be cheaper than most stewing steak at $9.99. We got a heap of bananas too as they were 99c and the cheapest we have seen them was 3.99 but most often they are around 5.99kg.

Tomorrow, we are having dinner with Paul and (friends of my friend Julie).

There has been a lack of photos lately because I deleted quite a few off my camera by accident!

Mt Wellington

2009-03-04T18:07:00.002+08:00

I had a nice call from Wendy-another caravanner here in Tassie who is mutual friends with our friend Julie in Queensland. It seems they will be staying in nearby Cambridge over the weekend so we are going to try to catch up. It'll be great. Friday night we have my Recipezaar mate Peter coming for tea. He likes a bit of seafood and we just happen to have quite a lot in the freezer-it should be fun too.

We drove into Hobart this morning and did a bit of shopping-warm clothes for me and a couple of little things for Kobie's birthday next month, and then had some lunch (Indian).

We had a lady approach us in the shopping centre car park today-she had locked her keys, hand bag and phone in her car. I loaned her my phone to contact RACT who eventually agreed to come out and open it-after putting her on hold for ever, then updating her details etc etc while we waited.....

After all that, we headed up Mt Wellington. We've never been to the summit before as it's either been snowing or covered in cloud. Today it was cloud free. It's is the most amazing view ever, but the wind was the strongest and coldest I have ever had to walk in. It was fairly howling and took my breath away to the point where I had to have my ventolin! We went into a viewing pavillion and it just howled and rattled around that and you couldn't hear anyone talking or yourself think.

We could see back to Ben Lamond (out back of Launceston), Maria and Bruny Island and all the waterways surrounding Hobart. I felt like we were in a plane. Actually on the wing of a Tiger Moth!

On the way home we called into the Cascade Brewery but didn't have suitable shoes to do a tour. The gardens are beautiful but they were suggesting people didn't go out there due to the chance of falling limbs! They have a lovely bar and a nice little menu, so I'd like to go with Blair and Leah next week.

When we got home and watched the news, it had started to snow on Mt Wellington.

Richmond

2009-03-03T05:31:00.003+08:00

Richmond Bridge

We finally dragged ourselves away from the wonderful fishing in Coles Bay and moved on a little further to Richmond It's a lovely little touritsty town just outside Hobart. It's a bit like Handorf in SA or Maldon in Vic-quaint shops,galleries and cafes, a narrow main street with hordes of tourists and lovely old homes. Richmond boasts the oldest stone bridge in Australia built by convicts in the early 1800s, so that's an easy spot to run a tourist or two over!

It was a grey drizzly day as we drove here, so I think we missed some beautiful scenery along the coast on the way here. We might go back a hundred ks or so on a nice day with our camera. It's amazing here in Tassie-we filed the car 9 days ago, did a couple of drives, moved on to here, shopped in Sorell yesterday and still have fuel in tank. Crossing the Nullabor we need to fill after 5 hours driving!

Richmond is surrounded by orchards, vineyards and a big company Houston Farms seems to own huge areas of the valley where they grow salad leaves (for mesclun mixes) and I saw lots of fennel growing too. It's all very beautiful.

It was suggested by our last neighbours in Coles Bay that the park here "looked a bit run down from the road", but we decided to try it out anyway. It's a bit overgrown and a bit dusty, BUT the sites are quite large and level, our en suite is sparkling clean and the HEATED swimming pool is too. Laundry is only $2 a load! We may stay a week here as Friday is the start of a long weekend here in Tasmania.

We really enjoyed shopping in Sorell yesterday as we were close to out of food and today I'm having a haircut.

Coles Bay

2009-02-27T17:28:00.003+08:00

It's Friday 27th and we've decided to stay on here until Monday, when we'll definately leave. The weather improved yesterday and we got out fishing again catching ourselves 18 flathead and two Ruddy Gurnard Perch. I think they are more related to lion fish than gurnard with their big heads and massive spines. Whichever they are related to, they have to be treated carefully as the spines are nasty and quite poisonous.

We put 3 pack fo fish in the freezer, gave our lovely neighbours Malcom and Barbara a feed of fish and ate the 2 gurnard thingies for our dinner. I made a crumb mix with pistachios, breadcrumbs, parmesan and parsley for the fillets and we baked them. They were wonderful-firm, meaty and very delicately flavoured. Russ was talking to the guy at the desk who eats them, but says lots of people throw them back as they look so difficult to deal with.

We had a drink with Malcom and Barbara last night before dinner. They headed off this morning, but we might meet them in Strachan if we ever get over that side of Tassie.

I can remember one or two people hinting to us that 10 weeks would be more than enough time in Tassie, but with the fishing so much fun, we can see it won't be long enough. We've already decided not to rush and come back in a couple of years to do the rest of it. Iwould extend our stay if it wasn't for Kobie's first birthday, the new house and the weather-I think we'll be feeling the cold by April 7th.

The weather turned bad today so we didn't fish. Russ went and picked us some wild blackberries and I just made us a pie which we are about to eat for dessert. We also froze the same amount to use at a later date.

Feb 24th Coles Bay

2009-02-24T15:16:00.003+08:00

Cape Tourville

The weather has turned a bit cold and nasty, so we've had a couple of days without fishing.

Yesterday we sat around for most of the day, then went out to Cape Tourville (for views into Wineglass Bay) and Sleepy Bay for a couple of short, (bracing) walks. It was threatening to rain and the seas were quite wild, but it was good to be out in the fresh air.

Sleepy Bay

Today we went to Swansea for a look round. It was very windy here when we left and it poured over there, but once again it was nice to get out. We had just finished lunch when our neighbours (here in the park) arrived and we sat talking to them over coffee.

It's about 60ks to Swansea from here around a large lagoon and Great Oyster Bay. We drove out to Bagot point and could almost have walked over a channel in the lagoon to Swanwick-a little town about 3ks from Coles Bay. We arrived home to calm seas and a beutiful sunny day.

We booked another couple of nights here to make up for the two we just lost to bad weather. The woman behind the desk said people are pulling out due to the weather-we are the only ones she has had extend. I quite like it here and wonder how far you'd have to drive through nasty weather to get to better and maybe you wouldn't get to better so would be setting up in the rain. I prefer to get cosy in the van and wait it out!

Feb 22nd

2009-02-22T18:32:00.004+08:00

Coles Bay

We had a nice day today. After a yummy breakfast of bacon and eggs, we took a drive into Bicheno stopping off at all the beaches, lookouts and blowholes we missed on Thursday when we had the van on. After we'd done a bit of shopping and got some fuel, we went to a little aquarium to see the sea horses. It was in a garage and didn't have many exhibits, but I really enjoyed it. He had a couple of huge crays, some cute baby squid and the very elegant seahorses-and they were all in such lovely clean tanks and water.

On the way home we stopped and bought some Bass Straight scallops so I can make our own curried scallop pies. Curried scallop pies are a real Tassie thing and they want between $5.50 and $8.00 (so far)-I reckon I can make better myself and have got my pastry so am ready to go.

It was a lovely afternoon, so we weakened and took the boat out. We had a bit of a tour around the Bay doing about 20ks in total. It was beautiful. We'd taken a tiny bit of bait along "just in case" and managed to catch 10 big flathead. We threw back quite a few legal sized ones that we reckon are just to small to bother with! I'm so glad we bought the vacuum sealer and freezer and hope lots of people come to fish cook-ups when we move into our new home!

Day 2 Fishing

2009-02-21T16:15:00.002+08:00

This morning we headed out quite arly and were back before lunch. We brought home 22 flathead and 2 barracuda (good bait), we missed a squid on a hook, then lost our best old squid jig trying to catch him. Tonight we gave our nice WA neighbours Derek and Liz a feed of fish and had battered flathead and chips ourselves. The neighbours aren't interested in fishing so had never had fish as fresh Liz told us later.

By the time Russ filleted all the fish and we had our showers the day seemd to be over. Must get out into that National Park very soon.

Fishing in Coles Bay!!!!!

2009-02-20T13:11:00.003+08:00

Surpise, Surprise, we went out fishing today. It was a surprise too. Kev who we chatted to last night said it was THE best flathead fishing ever and he wasn't wrong. We brought home 15 good sized ones and threw back around 20 legal and a dozen undersized ones as well. He (Kev) said 37 was the biggest he'd caught out there, and while most of ours were 33 or 34 cm, we caught a 37cm and 40cm one so we were pretty happy about them. It's another beautiful spot to fish too-the scenery is stunning.

Three Years Tomorrow

2009-02-19T15:16:00.003+08:00

Tomorrow we've been on the road (or out of our house at least) for 3 years. I can't believe it as the time has flown and we haven't seen half of all we want to see yet.

This morning for the first time in three years we packed up in the rain (must be in Tasmania LOL). We drove a leisurely 115 ks along the coast road stopping in Bicheno for brunch (a bit late for brunch so we had a pie) and some shopping before arriving here in Coles Bay just after 12 o'clock. I think the coast road is as beautiful as The Great Ocean Road-it just doesn't have Loch Ard Gorge or the Twelve Apostles. It was quite wild and interesting in the misty rain that cleared to brilliant sunshine at times. We spotted the tall ship James Craig in the Bay at Bicheno-we have seen it twice at Monkey Mia in WA too.

Tasmania is renowned for small caravan parks with small sites and we couldn't fit our medium sized van on the first one allocated to us. The second one was a good size, but we nearly burned the clutch out backing UP onto it in 4WD! We'd booked for 4 nights, but after the performance parking, went back and booked another 3 so we don't have to do it all again too soon! Besides, the Bay looks like a lovely spot to fish and there are a number of walks to do in the National park.

We drove out to the park and bought our holiday permit, then came home and sorted the boat out. As we went to put the motor on, a neighbour came over to help. I recognised him as a man who we met at a lookout two weeks ago! Tassie is a small island sometimes. He has a boat and says the fishing is wonderful here. It was nice to chat to him (Kev) and his wife Deb-they have been travelling for many years and are still loving it even though she had a stroke last year.

Goodbye Neighbours!!

2009-02-14T13:15:00.003+08:00

Hallelujah, the're gone. They were up at 6.30 with him telling her to "get out of my way you stupid bloody cow" etc and 4 caravan legs all in need of CR40. They clattered and banged until they left around 7.30 never (we hope) to be seen again!

We are just back from a few hours fishing. It was a bit quiet with only 3 flathead and one leather jacket to go in the freezer. It's braised rabbit for us tonight. The two we are cooking are the last of the 5 we bought in SA. I keep telling all the baby bunnies in the park here they better watch out!!!!!!

St Helens

2009-02-13T11:47:00.002+08:00

We keep extending our stay here in St Helens-I just called up to the office and changed our departure to Monday which will bring our total nights to 11. It's a lovely little town and the fishing is OK so we figure it's worth that much out of our 10 weeks.

A few days ago (maybe Tuesday) we went out fishing and came home with 8 flathead and two leatherjackets and did the same again today. We figure it may be the best fishing spot we find and the weather is pretty good here and now, but will certainly get cooler in the next 8 weeks.

I was happy to find out the people behind us are leaving in the morning-although I bet it's the noisiest departure of all time. They are up just after 6 most mornings and had the TV on at 2.30 this morning and were talking. I was seriously considering pulling the antenna plug out. Their van is parked directly behind us about 2 metres away. The man has a loud, high pitched (read whiny) voice that he loves to use. When I asked the park manager about their date of departure, he said they can't wait for them to go either as they are weird and always bothering them in the office.

Out For A Drive

2009-02-11T15:52:00.008+08:00

We've been feeling so, so sad with all the news of the fires, then hearing about Natasha, Robert and the little girls that we haven't done anything for the past few days. Today we decided to get away from the TV for a while and take ourselves off for a drive through the local area.

We left here and went to the Pyengana Cheese factory. The car park was right beside the cow track down to the dairy and was so smelly-things didn't get off to a good start! The cheeses were expensive and not all they were cracked up to be. Nevermind.

Welderborough Pass Rainforest Walk

On top of Weldboruough pass, we took a walk through an ancient Myrtle rainforest. It was just a short walk, but really beautiful. So green and peaceful. Just what we've been needing.

Our next stop was for a wander up and down the main street of Derby. It's a funny little former copper mining town that has a few cafes, galleries, gift shops a Tin Centre (too expensive for us) and a couple of pubs. It was an enjoyable walk though past some lovely old buildings-library, old police station, churches and schools.

Branxholme Pub

We stopped in Branxholme (another mining and hop growing town) for lunch at an old country pub. As the only customers we figured lunch would be either great or gross-it was great. We had a chicken schnitzel and parmiagana with chips and salad-all super fresh, crispy and well cooked. The publican was friendly and took a few minutes to give us a local map and discuss the route we'd decided on for the rest of our drive. He really knew about HOSPITALITY. Something else we've noticed on any drive we've been on is how well Tasmania caters for free campers. The areas are large, clean, tidy and usually have toilets. They are usually well signposted.

Ledgerwood War Memorial

He told us that Ledgerwood with it's carved war memorial wasn't to be missed. It was really quite moving-the cyprus trees the figures are carved from were originally planted as an avenue of honour after WW1 so the carvings are really appropriate. There wasn't much more to the town-the milk factory is now bottling VIRGIN spring water (probably from a tap out the back we reckoned!)

There was even less at the tiny town of Mathinna. We felt it was very like the ghost town of Gwalia we visited in WA's central gold region-except for the people!

Evercreech Forest Reserve with it's huge white gums was beautiful too. The largest, at 91 metres, is one of the tallest trees in Tasmania. The reserve had excellent faciities-toilets, fires, wood, a great picnic shelter and we were the only ones there.

Evercreech Forest Reserve

All in all a lovely drive through some steep hilly country and some very peacefull little valleys. A good day out!

Fires

2009-02-10T05:15:00.003+08:00

We had dreadful news of our good friends last night. They lost their daughter, son-in-law and two small grand daughters to the fires. I can't imagine how that can feel and how they could want to go on.

Victoria Burns

2009-02-08T18:00:00.004+08:00

So much death and destruction in our home state Victoria. Bushfires are burning out of control in a number of places and to date, 65 have died and 650 homes have been destroyed. It's an awful day for the state.

My ex husband is cut off in his Paradise Beach home with no electricity, his nephew has lost his home and our friends daughter and family live in Kinglake. Kinglake is gone!

Fishing

2009-02-07T05:43:00.002+08:00

Yesterday we got out fishing in the estuary just out front the caravan park. We managed to catch ourselves 4 nice flat head for dinner and also caught 3 enormous leather jackets and two smaller ones(threw them back) a tailor (he became bait) and almost got a silver trevally in the boat.

I used to love leather jackets when I lived in Gippsland, but the big ones we saw in WA weren't good eating, with their nasty dark, weedy tasting flesh. However, a local back at the boat ramp assures us these leather jackets are excellent eating. Bummer, the three big ones were around 40cm. He says the flesh is white and firm and cooks up beautifully.

We both managed to get a bit sunburned-I have a face like a big, red apple!

Today's Lesson

2009-02-05T18:07:00.003+08:00

Don't dare to tow a full caravan over a piece of road marked on a map with the words "Welderness Pass" written on it!

We missed a turn in Launceston and ended up heading out of town the wrong way to Scottsdale so drove up THE steepest, windiest road we have ever towed the van over (and that was just the burbs). We eventually crossed over to the the "right" road and headed off.

It was 163 ks and we estimated (as we sped along the nice flat, wide road) we'd be there by lunch time. It took us 4 hours of driving from Launceston (we lunched quickly in Scottsdale) and was a beautiful, but awful drive. I swear we came within 4inches of wiping the whole side of the van out once on a hairpin bend and twice had almost nowhere to go but down twice when two big trucks came around corners on our side of the road.

If I had to drive it again, I think I'd ask to be helicoptered out!

Trout Fishing and Another Grandchild

2009-02-04T08:18:00.005+08:00

Dan and Verity are expecting a second baby in Mid Septemeber-so another grandchild for us to love!!!!! We are certainly going from none to some in record time. Some other exciting news yesterday-Verity had a driving lesson and loved it and has booked her next one. I'm so happy about that too!

We bit the bullet and paid our $18 for one 24 hour licenc, and $7 for 10 (big, fat) worms and headed up the river in search of trout. I went the first time and while we saw a few fish jumping, didn't catch a thin. The next time Russ went our I stayed home to mind our roast of pork as it cooked-much more exciting actually.

The second time he went out, he met a farmer at his pump on the river who said it is a difficult river to fish-especially when it's up like it is at present-and he doesn't bother but goes up to fly fish in the lakes instead!

Oh well, it was pretty out there and so exciting to see a platypus on the bank rather than crocodiles!

Tomorrow we head from this lovely park to St Helens for our next week.

Tassie and the Heat

2009-02-02T10:41:00.003+08:00

I never dreamed we'd ever be complaining about the heat in Tasmania! It was so hot on Thursday, Friday, and then Saturday, although it was still hot, you could tell the worst had passed. It's now a pleasant 20 or so which is lovely. We put the doona under the bed for the fist time in over 12 months as I don't think the weather in WA ever got as hot.

Lilydale Falls

On Friday we drove to Bridport for lunch on the beach. Along the way, we stopped off for a walk into Lilydale falls. It was pretty, but really too hot and still to enjoy it much. We had thought about going swimming (at Bridport), but it was much cooler there and didn't seem like such a good idea in the end. On the way to Batman Bridge, the tar had turned to liquid-most often on our side of the road as we drove up hills. It was awful driving over the smelly, squishy stuff. We drove back along the Tamar river into Launceston and once again thought it one of the prettiest drives in Australia with the windy, narrow road running right along the river and past some beautiful old homes.

Old Jetty Bridport

Saturday we had a quiet day here in the park-we put the boat in and took a tour a few ks up the Macquarie River out front here. It's beautiful, and we saw lots of trout jumping in the shallows amongst the reeds. It's made us determined to get out and have a try catching one at least once!

Longford CP on Macquarie River

Yesterday we went to Evandale for their Sunday market. I wasn't expecting it to be as big or as good as it was. We came away with some lovely local cherries, apricots, just dug new potatoes, carrots and a stainless steel fruit dish for the new house. After lunch at the market (really delicious baked spuds) we drove to Ben Lomond. It's a ski field out back of Launceston and i really stunning in the summer. The dirt road to the plateau is one of the steepest windiest pieces of road I've been on and would be worse in snow with chains on!

Jacob's Ladder Ben Lomond

Longford Tasmania

2009-01-29T13:21:00.003+08:00

Alpine Flowers at Pine Lake

Without realiising it, we chose one of the best times of year to take a drive out to the Central Plateau Conservation Area. As we drove up Mt Blackwood we were suprised to see the number of wild flowers but discovered the plataue at just over 1200 metres has snow in winter, so summer is the best time to see the alpine plants.

Pine Lake

We actually drove up there to get away from the heat down here. It got to round 35c (which seems so hot in Tasmania) but up higher, it was about 10c cooler and really nice.We drove almost right round the Great Lake and stopped for a look at Arthur Lake and also took a beautiful walk out to Pine Lake through the alpine flowers, pencil and plum pines, mosses and ferns. We stopped at some great lookouts too for amazing views of the area.

Pine Lake

In Deloraine, we had a late lunch at the Golden Grain Bakery. I had a chicken, mushroom and cheese pasty that was chock-a-block full of chicken and delicious-any wonder they've won all the awards they display all over the place. Russ had a pie and then the yummisest cherry tart ever.

On the highway back to Longford, we passed what looked like a fatal accident. It's a horrible feeling and sight.

We called in to the local meat works butcher shop on our way home to pick up some meat for dinner. Russ backed into a 90 year old local lady parking her car. Poor old thing had never had an accident (I told her SHE still hasn't). She was so sweet about the dint in two doors. I was so worried about her but she promised me she'd be OK and I didn't need to call anyone for her.

Now we're home, it's hot and I'm so happy our aircon was fixed before we left!

The Ferry to Tasmania

2009-01-28T08:29:00.004+08:00

The ferry ride last night was wonderful. We arrived bright and early (second in the queue actually but more soon arrived). It was really social waiting as they sent all vans into one line and that's how we boarded.

I went to Tassie by ferry many years ago. It was a rough crossing, I was seasick and being young and poor, we opted for seats for the night. This time it was so smooth apart from a bit of rolling around going through the heads and we had a cabin. A nice cabin with our own en-suite which was well worth the expense.

Loading was a slick operation. Russ only had to produce his licence to be given our boarding passes and room keys. The ferry is quite spacious with several bars, restaurants, a theatrette, gaming room and play room for kids. We had a reasonable buffet dinner, then headed down to the back of the boat and a bar with arm chairs and a pretty good guitarist/singer playing mostly 70s music. It was a lovely place to sit and see Melbourne disappear at sunset.

This morning we got a wake up call and an explanation of disembarking. We were able to take our time as our vehicle was on level 6 and would be last to be offloaded. We strolled down to a late breakfast (and hadn't finished it) when a call came over the intercom to say "could the driver of a silver Nissan Nivara TTJ129 come at once to their vehicle on LEVEL 5!!" We had to leave our breakfasts and run to the car-Ours was sitting in front of all those nice people we met last night and the rest of the level was completely empty. I could have died on the spot! Russ had guessed that because we only came up one level on the escalator to level seven with it's cabins and restaurants etc, that we were parked on level 6. I'd guess the escalator was two levels long! Anyhow I'll make sure I check the actual level number on the way home.

We drove the 110ks to Longford stopping at a bakery for breakfast no 2 and a new start to our holiday. It's 11.43 and we are completely set up in the very beautiful caravan park. It's on the banks of a river that we'll be able to travel about 10ks in in the boat one way, then get into the Esk river the other. We will be able to fish for trout which will be a first.

I'm surprised at the number of trucks on the roads-especially large ones hauling sea containers to and from the ferry. Luckily there are plenty of overtaking lanes as the hills make it slow going for us.

The New Villa

2009-01-23T14:01:00.002+08:00

I finally got around to taking a few photos of our new villa. They are taken from the (never to be built on) crown land at the front. We drove by there today to check out the colour of the guttering and roof so we could match a garden shed to it.

7 weeks in Port Fairy

2009-01-23T06:38:00.002+08:00

BBQ at Great Aunty Glenda's

I can't actually believe we've been here for almost 7 weeks-time seems to have flown by. Between visits to Traralgon (with Glenda, Pete, Dan, Verity and Kobie, to Melbourne to Blair and Leah's, and the buying of the villa, there's hardly been a quiet day.

After Joy's funeral in Geelong on Thursday 15Th, we went to Traralgon and stayed at G&P's whilst they stayed on with Peter's remaining sister Shirley. It was so nice to have the house to ourselves for a couple of nights, then good to see them home. Dan and Verity came over for a BBQ and lunch on a couple of the days we were there. We caught up with my long time friend Sheryl too, so it was a good visit.

On our way home Monday, we picked up our brand new air conditioner and finally had it fitted yesterday. The local fitter has been very hard to pin down (obviously too much work around for him) but did a fantastic job fitting his first ever unit in a van! Better still, he charges us a meagre $100 to do it with Russ's help-making it cheaper than the guy in Mildura quoted to replace a part! We've held on to the old one as it is a treasure trove of spare parts for the new according to Ron who fitted it.

We had our house valued last week as our tenants are keen to buy it. It was about $20,000 over our estimation, so a very pleasant surprise. I'm not sure how pleasant it will be for the tenants though!

It's off to Tasmania for us on Tuesday. We are looking forward to that. I think we need to get on the road so we can have some relaxation time. Let's hope the flatty's are biting! I'm thinking the trip to Tasmania will be the place to finish over three years of blogging-not much point to it all once we are shifted into our villa.

The villa should be settled while we are in Tasmania-around Russ's birthday at this stage. Kirstyn will take possession for us.

Portland and Deb and Pete's

2009-01-11T15:40:00.002+08:00

Russ and I are just back from a night in Portland with friends Deb and Pete.

We arrived there yesterday and by 3pm, we were off in the car to pick boysenberries at a secret spot they've been going to for ages. So secret is it, we had to sign saying we'd tell no one, and submit to being blindfolded as we drove there.

Pete reckoned we'd missed the best fruit by about a week, but it took us no time to pick 3kgs of the lovely juicy, sweet things. We took them home and with Deb's mum Margaret's expert advice, had them turned into jam and bottled by 6.30pm. It is seriously delicious jam!

We then had a BBQ dinner and sat relaxing until just after midnight. After a late and leisurely breakfast of hot buttered toast and homemade boysenberry jam, we took a drive out to Bridgewater Bay (stopping to check out another secret blackberry location on the way). It was a gorgeous day on the bay with no wind and crystal blue water. We counted over 20 seals out sunning themselves just behind the swimmers and surfers. It was beautiful. We had lunch at the old kiosk, then drove home round 4pm stopping down in the Portland harbour to check the catches coming in in the boats. It seemed strange to see people cleaning 28cm snapper when we can't keep anything less than a 50cm one when we fish for them in WA!

I was just joking about the blindfolds!

Port Fairy

2009-01-10T07:21:00.003+08:00

At the moment we are back in Port Fairy. Ryan and Kirstyn are booked solid in the restaurant and B&B for the next couple of weeks, so we are here trying to help by keeping up with laundry and a bit of house work for them. When we arrived home from Melbourne we could tell they'd had no time to do anything but get themselves to work every day.

It's two weeks on Tuesday until we head to Tasmania and I feel like there is so much needing doing. We have a new van air conditionor waiting to be picked up in Melbourne and I want to get to Traralgon to see Dan, Verity, Kobie, Glenda and Pete before we go.

We are right in the middle of solicitor, real estate agent and bank dealings over the purchase of the villa. I hate this sort of thing, so am feeling quite stressed over it all. We did have a major win yesterday though-the title to our home was somewhere amongst the furniture stored underneath it, so we donned our work clothes and proceded to pull out stuff to get to the back where we thought it was. I'm talking about the washing machine, dressing table, dining table, matresses etc. all needing to be moved! Anyhow, we moved a painting and a basket and spotted the document folder sitting on our left-I can't begin to tell you how that lifted my spirits!

Yesterday, during a two hour call to Telstra to sort my account out (yet again), my sister rang to tell me my BIL Peter's siter Joy had died. She had a very short, sharp battle with cancer that she lost yesterday. It's so very sad as she was a great friend to Russ and I. We can't quite come to terms with it right now.

A Broken Foot

2009-01-01T08:05:00.004+08:00

Mick and Hayley

Mick and Hayley headed back to Melbourne around lunchtime Friday. She's a lovely girl who fitted in with the family really easily. By the sound of things, our families are quite similar in that we all love a drink.

The greyhounds were fun, then 20 of us went to the Warrnambool for dinner. It was lovely to see so many of Blair's mates and partners=some after many years. And as Blair and Chris have both worked at the pub, they were kind enough to leave us and a barman in the dining room after dinner instead of sending us back out amongst the hundred of people in the public bars.

On Saturday we drove to Portland to see Deb and Pete, Margaret and Deb's brother Murray who was on a quick visit from Brisbane. Lunch was a lovely (home made sausage rolls and a mango and avocado salad), then we headed back to Port Fairy and out to dinner at the Merrijig with Blair, Leah and another 3 couples. Dinner was pretty good too!

Sunday Russ and I spent a super lazy day doing nothing while those Ryan and Kirstyn worked and Blair and Leah went off to the races. We had planned to drive to Melbourne on the Sunday but were just too tired and changed the plan to Monday.

Leah suspected she had her foot broken by a friends wife pushing her into a pillar at "The Gal" one of Warrnambool's local nightclubs. As another friend commented "some people shouldn't drink on an empty head"!

Russ and I arrived home ahead of Blair and Leah and cooked a lovely steak topped with garlic prawns, baked potato and salad for us all.

Blair flew out on Tuesday morning, so Russ took Leah off to the doctor nd on to x-rays and yes, her foot is broken and may need a cast for 3 months. Her doctor is off until tomorrow and will decide then exactly what to do. Whatever he decides, it's difficult as their house is two stories with bedrooms and Leah's office up 17 extremely steep stairs!

Tuesday morning a Recipezaar friend Friedel and her husband Andrew arrived for the day. They are currently riding their pushbikes around the world with Australia and NZ the last legs of a journey that will take them almost three years. They have ridden 35,000 ks so far and are so happy and healthy looking. It's been an amazing trip so far and was great to get to meet them. I checked Friedel's recipes and reviews so knew she'd enjoy a dinner of prawns, chorizo and rice, a big salad and olive bread. They are very un-fussy, enthusiastic eaters (and have to be with all the ks they pedal every day). We sent them off to the Tassie ferry full of food and good wine-it was a wonderful day and reminds me yet again how good the recipe site has been to Russ and I over the 7 years I've been a member.

On Wednesday, we planned to drive on to Traralgon, but realised we couldn't go and leave Leah on her own with her broken foot-especially in the really painful early stages so we called Glenda and Dan and stayed on here and will get to Traralgon next week. Our change of plans meant we were able to have breakfast with Chief and Suz who headed home to London today, and dinner with Mick and Hayley before Hayley headed to work. We had a magnificent standing rib roast of beef, garlic chats, asparagus wrapped prosciutto, baked tomatoes and fennel and cumin carrots. What a feast for New Year's Eve. I did my most favourite dessert of fresh berries and cream to finish. I love the fact the berries are so cheap at the market-3 punnets of strawberries for $4, 2 punnets of blackberries for $4 and 2 punnets of raspberries at $3.49 each was more than enough for 5 greedy pigs.

A new house

2008-12-26T11:38:00.004+08:00

The builders accepted our offer and the local credit union gave us the go ahead too, so we'll sign contracts etc early in the new year for our new home. I'm so excited as it's just perfect we think.
Here's a link if you want to check it out-ours is second from the left in the group photo. You need to copy the link below and paste it into the url address thingy at the top of your page.

http://www.stockdaleleggo.com.au/details.asp?internetid=176260&OFFICE_ID=70

Christmas eve, Blair, Leah, Russ and I went down to the Merrijig-Ryan and Kirstyn's restaurant-for a lovely dinner. It was a great, but late night.

We had nice family Christmas day with Ryan, Kirstyn, Blair, Leah, Mick and Hayley at lunch and then we all moved out to Koroit and Kirstyn's mum Jill's for our evening meal. We all ate too much and got lots of nice presents, so it was a fun day.

Today (Boxing Day) has been very relaxing. Mick and Hayley headed home earlier, Chief and Suz called over, Ryan and Kirstyn are working and now we (Blair, Leah, Russ and I) are about to get dressed and go to the Greyhounds then on out to dinner in Warrnambool. A friends dog is running so it'll be fun to go after all these years.

Tomorrow it's off to Portland for lunch, then out to the Merrijig again for dinner. Sunday, Russ and I are off to Melbourne and will stay at Blair and Leah's a night or two before heading to Traralgon for New Year's Eve.

Kobie's First Visit to Port Fairy

2008-12-23T16:42:00.004+08:00

Dan, Verity and Kobie left this morning after a coupld of days here in Port Fairy. It was lovely to spend some time with them and show them around here and Warrnambool. We managed a lunch and breakfast out,and cooked a curry (Dan's request) for them here.

We also took them to see the NEW villa we have put an offer in for in Warrnambool. It overlooks the second Brierly cricket pitch and on to the racetrack. It's gorgeous and will be perfect to leave (or come home to) when we travel each year to warmer places in the winter.

Port Fairy

2008-12-16T06:27:00.004+08:00

We arrived in Port Fairy on Saturday 6th of December. It was great to see Ryan and Kirstyn after 10 months and we certainly had lots to catch up on. Sunday they had their staff christmas party at home-it was fun to be there for that.

Monday, we went to Warrnambool to do a bit of shopping and catch up with neighbour David (and our mail), Tuesday, Kirstyn was off work with a tooth ache which she's since had a temporary filling put in and Deb and Pete came from Portland for lunch so another very social day.

Wednesday we went down to my sister's in Traralgon and visited Kobie and Verity at her parent's house. It amazed us to see how much Kobie has changed in the few months since we saw him last-I guess that's what babies do. Verity already had a couple of trials at various hairdressers in Traralgon, so that's good. Dan and his mate Taz left Perth on the Monday in the car with a fair amount of furniture in a trailer and arrived in Traralgon on Wedenesday too. We caught up with them on Thursday. On Thursday arvo, Russ and I went around to see an old friend of mine Chris-it was amazing to see her after about 7 years!!!!

Friday night we had Dan, Verity, Taz, nephew and niece-in law (Marcus and Fiona) and kids over for a BBQ.

Saturday we drove to Melbourne to stay a few days with Blair and Leah. We had dinner at Woody and Sophie's on Saturday night after a few drinks with Dan and Taz (Dan's Brazillian kitchen hand) at a pub where Mick works near here. Caught up with Barbs and Pip as well, so it was a bit of a reunion.

Sunday we were having Mick and his girlfriend Hayley over for dinner so Russ, Leah and I walked over to the South Melbourne markets to do our bit of shopping for the meal. The markets are great and so convienient for Leah. They really live in a great area-our car has only left its parking spot once in the few days we've been here! I was pretty proud of myself spotting an old friend of Blair's at the market. Leah didn't know him and Russ was having trouble recognising him after about 7 years. He and his wife Suz had just land4ed from London two hours before we met them. They came for dinner too.

Yesterday (Monday) Blair flew out to work in Tasmania leaving Leah, Russ and I home alone for a couple of quiet days before Holly turns up from Geelong for the night with us. We left Leah working and took Mick out for lunch, then drove over to see Mick's house and the new Bunnings store he's working at. Last night we had a quiet night and delicious soy braised chicken salad with Leah.

Mildura

2008-12-05T12:14:00.002+08:00

We arrived in Mildura on Wednesday after calling in at Renmark Club on the way to see Glen Jones-a primary school mate of Mick's. It was great so see him-he looks well and happy and is going really well in his position as head chef at the club.

The weather warmed up as we travelled, so it was a bit of a worry to find our air conditioner smelling and crackling as we set up. I like to turn it on the minute we arrive anywhere as that's one of the times the van really heats up-must be the bitumen roads and the fact it's closed up for X amount of hours.

A visit from a repair man yesterday confirmed that it was stuffed. It has apparently fused the condenser and was going to take a day or so to get the spare part and was covered by our insurance according to him. It tuned out it WASN'T covered and with the factory closed until Monday, it started to look like we'd be here until Thursday. It's too hot to sit around here with no air conditioner, so we called him, cancelled the job and we are moving south to cooler weather as fast as we can. We plan to be in Port Fairy tomorrow and a Port Fairy refrigeration crowd will look at the van for us early next week and get it fixed.

I was really happy when the park gave us back our money for the extra days we paid for and even hppier when the repair man wouldn't take any money for the call out yesterday. It's a bummer it's not covered by our insurance policy as the guy here quoted $1200 to fix it. We live pretty tightly these days and that's an expensive have to have!

Last night we went over to our friends Julie and Geoff (Glen's parents) for a BBQ. It was terrific to catch up with them after a few years. I love the sort of friends you don't see for ages, but are just able to pick up where you last left off. They have been good friends to us for a lot of years now.

Today we've been over at the Centro Mall enjoying their air conditioning, buying a few clothes for us and Kobie and having a bite of lunch. It might be time for a swim in the pool here now.

We picked the park nearest the Jones's and it's turned out a great choice. There has only been 3 vans in and we were told to use as many of the nearby sites as we wished as they wouldn't put anyone near us. The site we chose for the van is well shaded which is lucky although it is still 32 in the van right now.

Berri

2008-12-01T07:52:00.002+08:00

We made it to Berri on Saturday-we had planned to stop a night in Nuriootpa then come on, but arrived there round 1.30 and figured another 1 1/2 hours would get us here and we'd stay four nights instead of three. This is a huge caravan park , but once again it is really quiet-according to the cleaner I was talking to, it will go nuts on Boxing Day and stay like that for a few months, so she is enjoying the quiet like us. The road between Port Wakefield and Nuriootpa is THE worst sealed road we have ever taken the caravan on. It was so bumpy we travelled most of it at around 60km per hour.

I got my rabbits in Ardrossan (and a few more!). A friend suggested I wouldn't be able to leave the two we bought alone until we got them home, and I thought about it so bought another fresh one to eat on the Sunday. That left two in the display cabinet which the butcher offered to me for $8.95. When I refused, he knocked them down to $5 each so I took them too. Last night I cooked the fresh one in mustard cream and I have to say it was the best rabbit I have ever cooked or eaten. It was moist and tender and delicious.

Yesterday we took a drive to Loxton and Renmark stopping at fruit stalls and a church fair along the way. We stopped at the Berri shop as well, so are stocked with avocados, pumpkins (big butternuts for $1 each) jarred peaches, fruit juices, tinned tomatoes etc. Today is haircut day and then out to the other side of town here to more fruit stalls and wineries. I'm trying to track down an asparagus grower as I saw local stuff in a shop. If not, we bought it cheap in a 5 kilo bag in Mildura a few years ago ( we go to Mildura Wednesday morning).

Southern Yorke Peninsula

2008-11-28T15:45:00.004+08:00

Yesterday we left at 10am and did a big drive around a fair whack of the southern part of the Peninsula. We headed from here (Marion Bay) to Hardwick Bay and Port Minlacowie, then on to Minlaton where we had lunch in a great pub. They had rabbit on the menu but I couldn't bring myself to pay $23.95 at luch time so did without. I was really greatful when the chef told me where he gets his rabbits though!

After lunch We drove out to Port Rickeby then right back across the peninsula to Stansbury down to Edithburgh (the first settlement in the area) on to Port Mooworie and home by about 6 pm. It was a huge day out as we stopped at lots of beaches and bays and lookouts between towns. It's a lovely area, but sadly lacking in facilities in a lot of the little towns. I think the nearest decent shopping would be in Kadina a couple of hours away. Anyhow, nice to visit.

Today we slept quite late, did a load of laundry, called the butcher in Ardrossan and ordered two rabbits, then headed out after an early lunch. We drove North to Corny Point and The Pines stopping at beaches and bays and lookouts along the way. At one lookout over a beautiful bay, we saw a pod of about 12 dolphins surfing in on th waves. We watched as they played in the shallower water after that for quite a while before moving on. We were able to drive a lot of the way along the coastal roads in 4WD so it was a great afternoon out.

Tomorrow I pick up my two rabbits on our way to Nuriootpa-I don't think I'll sleep with the excitement of it!

Marion Bay

2008-11-27T06:28:00.011+08:00

Stenhouse Bay Jetty is almost 100 years old

Yesterday we drove just out of town to Innes National Park. It's not a big park, but it's lovely. We thought we'd spend 3 or 3 hours there, but wound up stopping and starting, walking out along boardwalks and good tracks to look at beaches and lighthouses etc and spent 6 hours doing it. Russ often says the Yorke Peninsula looks like a foot and if it does, we were right out on the toe nails at times. The coast line was quite spectacular in places with big cliffs and long white beaches. There are 40 ship wrecks around the coast and some of them are quite visible.

Chinaman's Hat

The park has three "towns" inside its borders-Stenhouse Bay which has a trading post and tavern and Inneston which is in ruins apart from some restored homes available for hire for short stays. There is a crayfishing fleet which operates from a small fishing village (Pondalowie) within the park too. It's a great place to fish for whiting amongst the moorings according to this CP manager but paying $6 park entry each time to get to it would stick in my throat a bit.

West Cape

We saw lots of emus and chicks as we walked, some very big kangaroos up close, and heaps of lizards, snakes and birds. The park has some lovely wild flowers at the moment too.

Dad and the Kids Inneston

The Old Post Office Inneston

Lake Inneston

Last Day in Wallaroo

2008-11-25T15:35:00.002+08:00

Yesterday was our last in Wallaroo. We got out crabbing for an hour or so before the wind blew up (got 6 crabs and two squid). Then it was home for lunch before packing up the boat, trailer and fishing gear. We figure that's almost the last time we'll fish until we get to Tassie. We might find time to get out in Port Fairy, but there doesn't seem much to catch there.

The wind dropped in the late afternoon and the beach out the front was like a mill pond. It was amazing to see 7 of the ten prawn trawlers right out front (about 300 metres from shore) working. They have mostly sat in their pens for the two weeks we were in town so there must have been a huge school of prawns go by. They were actually trawling where we'd been crabbing in the morning and were out there amongst other tinnies enjoying the clam conditions. I always imagine any fishing boat out in huge seas, in all weather, and there they were.

I really enjoyed Wallaroo. It was a nice friendly town with beautiful old homes and public buildings and had enough services to satisfy anyone. If they didn't have it, Kadina was only about 8ks away. The beach out front the caravan park was lovely and just great for small kids and perfect to launch our boat from.

Today we drove to Point Turton intending to stay about 3 nights. I felt sick when we saw the crowded park and was thrilled when we were told they were booked out. It's only happened to us once before and I was happy to have it happen again. We drove on about 40ks to Corny Point and found they had no TV, phone or Internet reception, so drove on another 50ks to Marion Bay. The caravan park here is lovely-really nice clean facilities and almost empty. We haven't stayed in a busy park since we left Coral Bay on the Ningaloo Reef in WA in August and prefer not to if we can help it.

Wallaroo

2008-11-23T09:59:00.002+08:00

The past couple of days have been super windy, so we had to take the awning down and cook inside which feels odd. We've been unable to crab, so have gone out for a couple of drives which has been good-especially with the price of diesel dropping even more. It doesn't hurt quite so much to see the gauge go down now!

On Friday we drove out along the coast road to Tickera-it's not far, but the road is right alongside the sea the whole way and there were a number of shacks and pretty bays and inlets to stop and look at on the way. Tickera itself is a little town with 70 residents. You can see it's been bigger by the number of old, closed shops, school, post office, and couple of pubs that once were.

Yesterday we drove to Port Wakefield which is North on the Other coast. It's a bit bigger -600 people, but you can see it's also been bigger with its old pubs, railway station, and shops that are now homes. It's only 98ks out of Adelaide and I really would have liked to keep going to Port Fairy (we'd have been there in time for dinner!). We had a good look around a caravan builder's yard while we were there (he builds new and sells second hand) and came away thinking we still like our layout the best with our centre kitchen over the wheels. It certainly has worked well for us.

Today we got out for an hour and a half crabbing and brought home a big whiting, 1 squid and 7 crabs. We are going to turn that into a seafood platter of crumbed whiting and calamari, crab sushi (with extra meat to freeze) and garlic prawns (we bought just over a kilo from a fisherman in town yesterday). We'll be eating that while I watch the final of Idol.

Yorke Peninsula

2008-11-20T17:44:00.005+08:00

Lunch in Ardrosen Overlooking the Cliffs

This morning we got up and did our laundry, changed sheets and had a general tidy up, then made ourselves some cold roast lamb and beetroot jam sandwiches and headed off for a drive to the other coast.

We stopped in Kadina and bought ourselves some more beautiful tomatoes, cucs and eggs, and finally tracked down a stainless steel bolt we lost while travelling here from the Flinders Ranges. It's pretty important as it's one of two that holds the boat trailer onto the van as we travel. It took three shops to finally find it so we bought two!

We stopped in the very pretty town of Ardrosen for lunch-it was lovely sitting at a picnic table overlooking the jetty and a view of the beautiful red cliffs and sand. Then it was on to Port Vincent stopping off in tiny little beach side villages with shabby old holiday shacks (just the sort I'd love to own). It was great as we had the coast right beside us almost all the way, and it was even closer on the old coast road-a gravel road between Port Julia and Port Vincent. I really loved Black Point about 15ks out of Ardrosen and would like to go stay there in the little caravan park.

Port Vincent had some of the most beautiful old homes I've ever seen and the town is so clean and tidy-and they'll tell you too. The road into town has countless signs telling you they've won Australias tidiest town, SA tidiest town, SA best small town and won them all a lot more than once. The gardens with their roses, geraniums, oleanders and bougainvillea were all looking very good too

On the way home up the centre of the Peninsula, we stopped in Maitland to buy a lime for dinner tonight. We ended up buying two kilos of bacon for a price we couldn't refuse and a chunk of lovely leg ham.

Crabs and a shark

2008-11-19T14:50:00.002+08:00

We caught 6 crabs this morning and a dog shark in one of the nets. The dog shark will be a nice feed of flake tomorrow night (roast lamb tonight, from a half side we bought today). I've had to visit a local chemist a few times as I've waited for a prescrition to come from my doctor inWarrnambool and have struck up a bit of a friendship with him-he is a keen crabber (and talker) too. He was suprised to know he could eat the dog shark and has thrown 3 back lately. Russ gave him detailed skinning and filleting instructions today.

Tomorrow we are taking a day off from the crabbing to take a look at the Eastern side of the peninsula.

More Crabs

2008-11-18T10:44:00.002+08:00

Although it was cool and overcast, we decided to slip out the front for a couple of hours this morning. We brought home 11 good sized crabs and two squid, so it was very worth while.Some of those crabs are going to find their way into Crab &Preserved Lemon Risotto tonight.

Crabs

2008-11-17T07:00:00.003+08:00

The Port Hughes Jetty

While there is a definate shortage of fish in the bay here, there's no shortage of crabs. We zipped out on day one and caught 5, day two 6, and day three 10 and a squid, so we are stockpiling a nice lot in the freezer. As far as fish, we have caught 3 puffer fish, one sand whiting and one undersized king george whiting. The place is well and truly fished out. Russ seems to have more luck fishing off the rocks for crab bait-we can't identify the fish he catches, but that isn't worrying the crabs.

The Beach at Balgowie

Today we decided to skip crabbing and go for a drive. We headed to Port Hughes where we walked out to watch people squidding and fishing very successfully, and Moonta, then on to Port Victoria for lunch, back to Balgowie, across to Kadina and home. We took another walk out along the jetty, then had lunch in a little cafe nearby at Port Victoria-they tried so hard to sell us the local delicacy whiting, but with a freezer full of our own, we settled on a burger for me and a steak sandwich for Russ.

We were amazed at the amount of wheat and other grains ready for or being harvested and saw some beutiful stone buildings in most of the towns. South Australia really knows how to build beautiful stone buildings!

Walleroo

2008-11-15T09:35:00.003+08:00

North Beach Walleroo

We've been four nights now in Walleroo on the Yorke Peninsula and are really enjoying it. The North Beach CP is great-cheap, clean, relatively empty, our site is right by the ablutions block and the path to the beach. It's about 300 metres by road around the park perimeter to that beach so launching the boat is easy. The beach is long, wide, shallow and weed free-it almost reminds me of Cable Beach in Broome but with whiter sand and minus the camels.

Walleroo is a lovely little town with a great shopping centre and 6 pubs. It's busy at the moment with trucks delivering different grains to the silos, but that doesn't worry us. Kadina 9ks away is bigger and has an excellent shopping centre although IGA here in Walleroo seems to be cheaper than Kadina's Woolworths.

We shopped in Kadina the other day and got ourselves lost on the way out. We ended up in a back street where we found a house with the most beautiful tomatoes, cucumbers and eggs for sale cheap. We'll be back over there in a day or two for more. Here in Walleroo, we saw they had fresh ducks for sale. We wanted one, but waited until the use-by date on them was up, and then got ourselves two big ducks for $9.99 each! I marinated and oven roasted one (maybe THE best duck I've ever cooked I think) then made stock from the carcass, and froze the other one for later on.

It's been windy-one night we were out after midnight securing our awning as it had blown out at the ends-I've never heard wind like it, but we survived. The last two mornings, we've got out in the boat for an hour or so crabbing, but have had to come in as the wind blows up. We've managed to bring home 6 and 5 crabs on those days though so have been very pleased with ourselves. Last night we had our favourite Garlic Baked Crab-it was delicious.

The park is cheap, the shopping seems cheap and best of all, for the first time since about April we are paying under $1.50 per litre for diesel. That's over $60 a tank full compared to the $2.35 we were paying in the WA goldfields. It makes a big difference to our budget.

Flying Over the Flinders Ranges

2008-11-10T13:56:00.009+08:00

This morning we went for a 30 minute scenic flight in a 6 seater Cessna over the ranges from Wilpena. It was stunning-terrifying for me, but stunning. We flew around and over the pound, along various ranges and out towards Lake Torrens. I can really recommend doing it if you ever visit the Ranges. They had to chase a pair of emus off the runway before take-off which impressed a few foreign visitors. Wilpena pound (it's the second photo) is 17kms long, 8 kms wide and approximately 58kms around the outside. Mary's Peak is the highest point at over 1100 metres. It was a sheep and cattle station originally and you can see where they've attempted (but failed) to grow wheat in the centre of the pound. The only way to see the pound is by foot or flying over it.

It was a brilliant morning for flying and I wouldn't hesitate to do it again (although not tomorrow morning). Russ said he could tell I was nervous because every time I handed the camera forward to him, it was all hot and sweaty from me clutching it.

Bunyeroo Valley Lookout

After our flight, we headed home through Bunyeroo Valley, along the Brachina Gorge Geological trail and then finally the Moralana Scenic Drive and back to Hawker by 3pm. I have tried to take photos, but they don't do the scope of the place and the amazing colours any justice. I think you have to see it to believe it. It's teeming with wildlife-kangaroos, emus, lizards and huge numbers of birds, so is a great place for visitors.

Brachina Gorge

Hawker

2008-11-09T16:35:00.008+08:00

Shearer's Quarters Kanyaka Homestead

On Thursday after arriving here, it got hotter and hotter (35c) then we got a wind change. The lightening started and was really spectacular across the night sky. Next the thunder came and lastly the rain. It bucketed down. Fortunately we were able to get everything we leave outside into our very large en suite so all was OK. It rained on and off all night with the town eventually getting the highest rainfall in the state-25ml or an inch in the old measurement.

Friday, it rained until about 2pm, so apart from a drive around town and out to an old cemetery and railway station ruins, we had a very quiet day.

On Saturday morning we went and visited a local couple Hazel and Bernie. They have lived in Hawker all their lives and at 75 and 76 have been married for about 59 years. They were lovely and a real wealth of local knowledge. They took us for a drive round some of the back roads and showed us the damage done by a flood nearby two years ago.

In the afternoon, we took a drive out to the amazing ruins of Kanyaka Homestead and Woolshed. It was built about 130 years and has been deserted for about 120 years, but is in amazing condition considering.

Jarvis Hill Lookout

On the way back we stopped and saw some Aboriginal art in Yourambulla caves near town and then drove up Jarvis Hill for beautiful views over town and on to the hills.

Miner's Cottage Blinman

Today we drove out to Wilpena, Blinman, Parachilna, through Glass George, Parachilna George, visited Rawnsley Park Resort, stopped off at some amazing lookouts and just had a fantastic day. The weather was gorgeous (not too hot) and the crowds of early spring have disappeared-we are the only tourists in a huge caravan park in Hawker with a few semi-permanent Telstra workers the only other guests.

The Road to Parachilna

The Road From Parachilna to Hawker

Tomorrow, we're driving out to Wilpena again for a flight over the ranges at 9.45, then we'll drive on to some other spots we missed today.

Glass Gorge

Port Augusta

2008-11-06T11:50:00.005+08:00

Yesterday we went out to the Arid Lands Botanical Garden as it had been recommended to us. We were very disappointed with the place as it has really suffered with the drought. I would say 60% of the plants are dead (not just resting) and about 25% of the remaining ones were in flower. We filled in a couple of hours with a visit to the Matthew Flinders Red Cliffs Lookout that's in the park and a walk around the gardens. I can imagine it would be beautiful in better times.

Matthew Flinders Red Cliffs Lookout

I was a bit put off by signs advising what to do in the case of snake bites (King Brown and Black live in the park) and the fact that every time we stopped to read a sign, we had hordes of ants crawling over our feet, up our legs and biting us-not nice at all.

After lunch, we drove out to a couple of lookouts. One wass in an old tank and you had to climb about 80 steps to the top. I got half way up and started to panic as I could see through the very old wrought iron rungs and didn't like it one bit. I couldn't go up or down. In the end I went up slowly with Russ just ahead of me.

Water Tank Lookout

Next we took a drive out of town along Blanche Harbour which is at the top of the Spencer Gulf. It was so beautiful with the clear blue sky, bright blue water and the mountain ranges behind that. There would be well over 200 holiday houses along the road- tin shacks and mansions side by side on tiny blocks with jettys out front over the mangroves or tractors to launch their boats. What a magic spot. The houses were at the end of "courts" that came off the main road for just under 20ks and were identified by clusters of very imaginative signs up on the main road.

Today we packed up and drove just over 100ks through Quorn and out to Hawker where we'll stay for at least 4 nights. We are almost the only people in a huge caravan park and have a big en suite site for the time we are here. Tomorrow, we'll get out and have a look at the Flinders Ranges. It's a lot warmer here than anywhere else we've been for a couple of months-it's great, but the flies are pretty fierce so out have come the fly veils.

Port Augusta

2008-11-04T07:15:00.002+08:00

Yesterday we drove from Coffin Bay to Port Augusta (actually for some reason I drove the whole way) stopping for a counter lunch in a pub down by the jetty at Port Neill. It was another lovely drive with the ocean on our right a good part of the way and wheat and canola about to be harvested on our left. We were tempted to stop and stay in Tumby Bay, but decided we can do that next year. It looks really beautiful.

We booked 3 nights in Port Augusta (an all time record for us) as we want to do some laundry and watch the cup today, then shop and visit the interpretive centre and arid dry land gardens tomorrow. I am the only one who sees the funny side of us not revieving channel 7 so not getting a cup coverage-something we would have been able to get in Coffin Bay! It's amazing how the tables have turned when Russ wants to watch something-he's out there twirling the antenna and trying it in vertical and horizontal positions-now he's off to the rec room to check that TV out. If it was me wanting to watch Idol.............

After we arrived and set up yesterday, Russ went to town while I played with my new internet dongle (faster and cheaper Yay!) to shop. He came home with a nice bottle of NZ Sav Blanc and nibbles for our cup watching and now we can't see it!!!!

Thursday we are off to Hawker and the Flinders Ranges for a few days.

Coffin Bay NP

2008-10-31T07:02:00.007+08:00

Thursday (yesterday) we packed our lunch and headed out into the national park for a drive. We did about 60ks in 4WD along rough bush tracks, over dry lake beds, through the sand dunes and along 7 mile beach. We only gave up at the end of 7 mile beach when we couldn't see any other vehicle tracks-travelling by ourselves, we'd have hated to end up axle-deep in soft sand unable to get out!

Leaning on a "Road" Marker

7 Mile Beach

I especially loved being able to get out on the sand dunes and know no one else had walked on them (at least that day). I laughed when an emu and his 6 chicks ended up on the road in front of us at one stage. We were in a paricularly sandy spot where we couldn't stop and the bush either side was so dense he couldn't get off, so we all had to keep going at about 20ks ph until he and the kids could get off the track about 400metres later.

Coffin Bay Week 2

2008-10-28T17:31:00.006+08:00

I've been a bit slack with the blogging, but Coffin Bay has been a really quiet time for us.

We booked for a week originally, but extended that to two . We now leave here on Monday 3rd of November.

The last 9 days have been spent fishing (not too successfully though) and relaxing. We've been twice into Port Lincoln to shop-it's a good shopping centre. We've been out for drives to various beaches and bays, did the Red Hat Societies car boot sale and the local market on Sunday, and today went out to check out the Coffin Bay National Park.

On one of our drives, we came across a tree heavily laden with quandongs, so stopped and picked a heap. I tasted one to see if they were OK and while they were tart, I figured they were ripe. I got home, spent ages finding a chutney recipe on the internet, then started to take the fruit off the seeds. I'd done a heap when I noticed all the fruit was infested with tiny maggots. Yuk, yuk, yuk!!!! So all my hard work went straight into the bin.

The national park today was stunning. It's only a couple of ks from town to the park gates, so we drove out for a look at all the stuff on the sealed road today. We left here round 2pm and were home just before 6. Next time, we'll go out and do the 4WD stuff. I didn't know the park existed before we got here anwas suprised at how beautiful the bit we saw today was. We saw lizards (blue tongue and goannas), emus and kangaroos, quite a few wild flowers and some lovely birds.

Coffin Bay

2008-10-20T16:20:00.002+08:00

We drove from Venus to Coffin Bay this morning. I think it was about 250ks so just a nice drive really.

Actually, it's a lovely drive with views of the ocean, a number of salt and fresh water lakes, tiny towns, deserted stone cottages, dry stone walls and good and bad farm land along the way. We both really enjoyed it as we can't remember coming this way 6 or so years ago.

After partially setting up, we drove 45ks into Port Lincoln to do some shopping and collect some mail David had forwarded on to us. It was good to get into a Woolworth's and do some serious food shopping as we were completely out of fresh fruit and veg. We were pretty excited to buy a fresh duck and he'll be dinner tomorrow night. I love South Australia as they have great turkey and duck in the supermarkets.

Coffin Bay is beautiful. It's famous for oysters and the farms are within wading distance from the shore. Oysters are around $5 per dozen so we better have some while we're here. I'm not fussed on raw ones, but don't mind them Kilpatricked and my mate Peter has a smoked oyster recipe I'm keen to try. It looks like there is lots of water for us to explore and Russ has the trailer, boat and motor all sorted and ready to go in the morning. We've booked for a week with an option to extend.

Venus Bay

2008-10-17T07:12:00.007+08:00

Full Moon Over the Mud Flats

I quite liked the park and little town on Monday, but by Tuesday with the wind blowing and the fish not biting, I took a real dislike to it and wanted to move on. I don't often get like that but I got like it bad!

Town Jetty at Dusk

On Wednesday, the wind eased we went out fishing and I caught three big whiting while Russ caught a good sized flat head.l It cheered me up a lot and I'm enjoying the place once again.

Southern Ocean from Woolshed Cave Talia Beach

Yesterday after a drive around town and then out to Talia beach and caves and Camel Beach, we went fishing for a coupld of hours and brought home 6 big whiting again. Russ caught 5 of them, I only caught one, but it was the biggest at 38cm! I also caught a really big salmon (the biggest I've ever caught) but we don't eat them much except to smoke them, so we let him go.
Back at the fish cleaing table here in the park, it seems we had a pretty good day and Russ had to chuckle to himself when the man opposite us stated that squid is no good for bait!

Southern Ocean

The town is situated on a narrow neck of land with the Southern Ocean and its big cliffs on one side and the large, shallow, peaceful bay on the other. It's really beautiful.

Venus Bay

Venus Bay

2008-10-13T13:49:00.004+08:00

Today we left Streaky Bay and moved about 80ks to another little bay on the Eyre Peninsula-Venus Bay. It's quite a pretty place and we were here and set up early enough to get the boat out for an hour. It's literally a one minute drive down to launch the boat off the beach. We caught a trevally, a salmon and heaps of annoying little sand crabs, but didn't spot a whiting. Our neighbour across the way has given Russ all the info though so we'll see what tomorrow brings. We have the biggest site we have had ever which is a luxury.

Who Forgot the Bungs (Again)?

Yesterday (our last in Streaky Bay) the wind started up at 3 am (no sleep after that)and blew non-stop until 6pm. It didn't gust-it just blew. It reached speeds of 7okm per hour and was one of the most horrible days I've spent on this whole trip as it rattled and shook the van and filled it with dust. It was awful. Today is beautiful once again.

More Fishing

2008-10-10T14:41:00.003+08:00

It was an even more beautiful day today so we got out bright and early (for us). We sat, and sat and sat and moved a few times before the tide changed and everything woke up. We wound up coming home with 7 big whiting, 7 crabs, 4 tommy ruff and a squid.

The water clarity was amazing today so the crabs didn't stand a chance as we could see them when they went into the pots. We could also see the cormorants diving through the water for fish beside us, a seal who tried to get our crab bait and two sting rays that tried as well. The dolphins were out feeding and a mother and her tiny calf spent quite a while near the boat. An wonderful day.

Then it was back to shore with fish to fillet and freeze and smoke, and crabs cook and pick. Todays catch will give us about 6 meals.

Crabs

2008-10-09T15:19:00.000+08:00

I'm happy-we caught 4 crabs today. I hated seeing the last pack in the freezer get used up. Frozen crab is especially good in the enchiladas and Thai style crab cakes we make.

We also brought home 4 big whiting and two salmon and caught a couple of garfish that we used for crab and fish bait.

The weather has been beautiful today-about 24c and a light breeze.

Fishing

2008-10-08T14:00:00.004+08:00

We've been able to get out fishing the last two days-it hasn't been warm, but the fish don't care.

Yesterday we caught (actually I caught) 3 big whiting which we turned into a tasty Layered Fish, Potato and Saffron Cooked Leek pie. Russ found the recipe in a New Idea he got from the laundry yesterday and cooked it up for our dinner last night. It was great.

Today we went out again and I'd caught 6 big whiting before Russ managed to catch a fish he could bring home. He went on to catch 3 more whiting, 2 salmon and a squid so it ended up a pretty successful few hours. Whiting was selling for nearly $60 per kg in Shark Bay at the fish shop and it wasn't as beautifully filleted, skinned and deboned as our are after Russ finishes with them.

We had 8 dolphin playing around us for a couple of hours while we fished. A lot of people think they scare the fish off, but I think fish are too stupid to care.

Lucky we are very careful with measuring of our fish as the Fisheries inspectors met us on the boat ramp and took a look at our catch. Yesterday it was the police checking boat trailer regos.

It was nice to get home and have a hot shower, but my hands feel like sandpaper (it happens catching whiting). I just went and booked an additional 4 nights here-the fish are biting and that will see the end of the school holidays which is always good.

Streaky Bay South Australia

2008-10-06T07:22:00.004+08:00

It's lovely to be here our of season. This place is nuts in March/April, but the park is almost empty now and very nice.

We've been here 4 nights and managed to get out in the boat twice (to windy on the other days). Day one we caught two King George whiting and a few Tommy Ruff, yesterday we caught 6 whiting, 3 tommy ruff, a flat head and a squid. That squid is the first we've ever seen here and one whiting was 37cm which is quite big for one of those. I caught a crab on my line that we have never seen before. We think it's some type of spider crab but aren't sure-anyhow, we let him go.

Just as we finished fishing yesterday a light wind blew up, by the time we got back the couple of ks to the boat ramp it was a howling gale that hasn't let up all night! It's eased this morning a bit.

Fowler's Bay

2008-10-02T15:56:00.004+08:00

Cliffs of the Great Australian Bight

We left Ravensthorpe on Monday morning and drove to Norseman. It’s a nice little park for an over night stop and it was much cooler than last time we were through here. I reckon it was over 42c when we arrived there around 6pm in March earlier this year.

Tuesday we drove about 540ks to Madurah Roadhouse, stayed the night then drove on yesterday to Nundroo Roadhouse. After just under 600ks with a strong side wind almost the whole way, we were exhausted, so it was a bit disappointing to find out they didn’t have a site left. We were thinking of staying two nights and driving out to Fowler’s Bay so it seemed a good idea when the woman at the roadhouse suggested we stay out there the night. It’s 32ks of unsealed but good road and we were lucky to get the last site here. We booked for two nights. Remind me never to stop at Madurah again-it was expensive at $24, they forgot to give me a token for the hot water in my shower (Russ didn’t need one) the sites were really uneven and there was no drinking water that we could find.

Fowler's Bay

Ruins of Yalata Station

I have been past the turn off into Fowler’s Bay a few times now and always wanted to see it. It’s one of the oldest settlements in SA and is the first or last (depending on the direction you’re travelling) “town” on the Nullabor. It’s got about two dozen houses, an old hall, a B&B, rental house, 2 blocks f flats, kiosk, caravan park and a long jetty that they seem to catch plenty of fish and squid off. The town is in danger of being buried under an amazing set of sand dunes-one house is about to be swallowed up and I’d think twice before signing a lease on the kiosk near by (it’s for sale).

A Portion of the Magnificent Sand Dunes at Fowlers Bay

We are really eking out the last of our fresh fruit and veg as we cross the border check outside Ceduna and have to hand over any left overs. I hate to give them anything and have squeezed lemons, deseeded chillies and caramelized onions and frozen them all!

Yesterday drove to Scott’s Beach and back across the birrida for great views of the dunes. Then we stopped at the extensive ruins of the Yalata Homestead-a station that once reached from the Head of the Bight to Streaky Bay.

Last night a family turned up quite late (after 7 and in the dark). It sounded like they were building a second caravan as they clattered and banged until almost midnight. I won’t miss the crowded park.

Windmills of Penong at the Eastern End of the Nullabor

This morning we drove to Streaky Bay stopping in Ceduna to shop and have a counter lunch. It was a lovely windless drive and lunch was good. Groceries seemed very, very cheap after the small towns of SW WA.
917

Ravensthorpe/Hopetoun

2008-09-27T12:15:00.004+08:00

Thursday it didn't stop raining all day and we were stuck inside reading, playing computer games and watching TV. It's the best rain the area has had in years, so it was hard to be unhappy about. So far 40ml has fallen very steadily which is making all the locals happy (including a family of ducks in the dam behind us here in the park).

Friday (yesterday) by 10am we'd had enough so got in the car and drove to Hopetoun for a look. The NP was closed (they do it to stop the spread of a mud carried disease "die back" in plants) but we drove along Southern Ocean Road and out to the NP gates and saw some lovely scenery and plants anyway. The rain was more showery there, so we could get out and walk on the beaches and take photos.

Ravensthorpe

2008-09-25T09:12:00.004+08:00

Russ and I left Cranbrook on Tuesday morning after 5 nights there. It was quiet, but we enjoyed that a lot. What we didn’t enjoy was the bitter cold wind and rain-we found it almost impossible to get warm on a couple of nights even though we rugged up in long pants, jumpers, socks, slippers and put the heater on.

On the Monday, we took a drive out through the Stirlings again, then on to the very different Porongorup Ranges and home through Mt Barker. The Porongorups were much lusher than the Stirlings with Karri trees and creepers through the undergrowth.

It was nice to drive to Mt Barker and see the pastures looking so good. I lost my sunglasses somewhere in the Porongorups so was pleased to find a pair I liked in town. We saw lots of shingle back lizards, racehorse goannas and a snake on the road as we drove around-they must like the heat of the sealed roads.

Tuesday we drove to Ravensthorpe and booked into the caravan park for two nights intending to head to Salmon gums or Fraser Range Sheep Station Caravan Park on Thursday. The guy in the office was very friendly and immediately suggested a couple of drives we could do-one out through the Ravensthorpe Ranges and the other through Fitzgerald NP to Houptoun. We’d have had to do the first really quickly that night and the second the following day. We quickly decided to stay an extra day. Then Russ realized we’d be somewhere on the Nullabor when the AFL grand final was played, so we decided to stay on another two days-so our two nights is now 5.

I am enjoying it here although the park is odd. The female half of the pair running the place is a keen gardener and has lots of broken toilets, old stoves, boots , toilet pans (remember them), teapots, wheel barrows etc. etc. etc. filled with flowers and plants and scattered throughout the garden beds. The toilet blocks are crowded with live plants, home made mobiles, old stuff hanging on walls etc etc etc. All this stuff has seen much better days and must have been picked up at the tip. She has one garden bed called “Barbie is a slut” and it’s full of Barbies and Kens doing very rude things!!! She has painted murals on the office walls, toilet blocks and laundry and she is THE most heavily tattooed woman I’ve ever seen. Plus she looks like she did too many drugs in the 70s. But she’s really friendly and loaned us lots of books on local wild flowers to take on our first drive today.

The Ravensthorpe Ranges were beautiful, a real surprise with their huge variety of flowers and shrubs. We drove up a dirt track to a couple of lookouts (over the NP and out to sea) then down and back into town and couldn’t get over all we had seen. The only pity was that the wind was blowing so hard it actually spooked me at the first lookout. It was howling though the guy wires of the radio mast and the car doors were in danger of being ripped off as we opened them!

Tomorrow we are off to the NP if it doesn’t rain tonight. We are expecting 20mls and that will cause the dirt roads to be closed in the park

Stirling Ranges

2008-09-21T10:15:00.004+08:00

At the moment, we are staying in Cranbrook in the South West just near the Stirling Ranges. We were only going to stay 3 nights, but the weather has been pretty lousy and we haven't been able to get out into the ranges as much as we expected we would. So, we are staying on a couple of extra nights as the weather looks set to improve.

Yesterday we took a drive through the ranges, stopping to look at flowers and orchids in between showers. It was cold, but still a good day out. We took along a few snags, bread, tomato etc expecting to find a BBQ to cook on-after checking out the first four picnic areas and finding no fires we ate a tomato sandwich each. We found a BBQ at the last place and finally (around 3pm) ate our sausages!!

Cranbrook

2008-09-19T09:09:00.002+08:00

We left Perth on Tuesday, and after a couple of nights with Brice in Bunbury have moved on to Cranbrook near the Stirling Ranges. It was very sad to leave Todd, Kobie, Verity and Dan in Perth as we have had a fantastic time with all of them. Dan and Verity sent us off with a wonderful hamper of goodies for looking after Kobie (not at all hard to do) which we'll enjoy as we travel.

Cranbrook is a tiny town in the wheat belt (although I reckon we saw more canola than wheat getting here yesterday). We've stayed here before in the park in the one cabin the shire provides. It was a pleasant surprise to find our van site was only $14 so it will be a cheap few nights. On arrival, we set up, then followed a series of signs down to the local supermarket to pay our site fees.

The weather has turned foul-rain and really high winds yesterday that dropped through the night but are back with a vengeance this morning. I don't think it'll be much fun out in the ranges looking at wild flowers. We can have a quiet day today and stay an extra day or two if need be though. Russ has no plans today after 4.30 pm.to be anywhere but in front of the TV cheering on the Saints.

Recipezaar

2008-09-14T16:26:00.007+08:00

Dan and Joy at rear, Pat, Terese, and me at the front.

Today 9 of us went to Saigon Restaurant in Northbridge Perth for a long lunch. Joy and Simon are here from Wales and Chris and Pat, Terese, Dan and Verity came along too. It was lots of fun, the food was good and it was relatively cheap.

Pat, Joy, Terese, Dan and I all belong to Recipezaar-a US based recipe site and Russ and I have met all of them before in different states and Wales.

Russ and I leave Perth on Tuesday for Bunbury and a couple of nights with our fishing mate Brice. Then we are heading to the Stirling Ranges. Unless we hear very quickly about a couple of jobs we've applied for with the grain board out of Geraldton.

Joy and Simon

2008-09-09T16:26:00.002+08:00

We had our friends Joy and Simon over for lunch today. Joy belongs to Recipezaar and we visited her at her home in Barry Wales two years ago. It was lovely to see her again and met Simon for the first time. They're trying to tak us into visiting Wales again and I have to say it all sounds tempting!

It's been a beautiful day here in perth, so we sat out on the deck by the pool with a glass of wine, then had a seafood pie and salad for lunch. We've all talked and talked and had a wonderful afternoon. Sunday a group of us are off out for lunch and I'm looking forward to that.

Latest Photo of Kobie

Perth

2008-09-05T16:50:00.004+08:00

It's been a really busy time for us in Perth this time round. We have both seen our dentists and had quite a lot of work done, we've had the car serviced, Russ's seen the doctor, we cleaned the van of a ton of red dust and bought a new freezer which we've managed to fill with meat already. We've also been sitting Kobie on Wednesdays and Fridays so Verity can work and she's had a night out with her sister. Todd took us out for a great dinner at Divido's-an Italian restaurant on Scarborough Beach Road last Tuesday and we've been to Saigon for lunch with Dan and Verity.

Tonight we are sitting again, and expecting Leah to call in for a while, then tomorrow we are off out with Blair and Leah and Chris and Carly etc as Blair had some work to do over here today (Friday). Sitting Kobie has been the best fun and we really feel like we know him so well now (as well as you can know a 5 month old). he really is the best baby and a dream to care for.

Yesterday we drove out to Roleystone to Araluen Botanic park for a wander around the beautiful gardens and especially the 100,000 tulips in bloom at the moment.

Next week we are having lunch (probably home here) with friends Joy and Simon who are home in Wales, then a few of us are going to Saigon with them on Sunday. Monday or Tuesday we'll start to make our way back to Warrnambool.

Dinner with Chris and Carly

2008-08-25T09:58:00.003+08:00

Yesterday we spent the afternoon with Dan, Verity and Kobie, then came home and cooked Indian for Todd, Chris and Carly. We made Pork and Coriander, Curried Potatoes, Spiced Pan-fried Fish, Chickpea Curry, and Rice. It was delicious and the house still smells wonderful.

Perth

2008-08-23T19:57:00.002+08:00

We arrived in Perth at Todd's around 3 o'clock. I'd spoken to Dan when we stopped for lunch outside Northam and again while we were chatting with Todd. He didn't know we were in Perth and was expecting us Monday.

Around 5ish we went up to the restuarant and suprised Verity who was there with Kobie. Dan was out getting some groceries, arrived back, saw our car and boat and the suprise was over. We played with Kobie and fed him until Allan (my ex) turned up to take him (Kobie) home, then came home and cooked pasta for Todd. It's lovely to be here and feels like being home.

Southern Cross

2008-08-22T16:45:00.007+08:00

We drove from Menzies to Kalgoorlie yesterday thinking we might stay a whie in Kal. We took a look at the caravan parks, did some shopping and drove on here to Southern Cross instead. We've been a bit spoilt the last few weeks with small and often quite empty parks so the ones in Kal looked too big and crowded for us.

This is a great park with spacious sites, nice showers and toilets, not too many people and SC is a lovely little town. This is the edge of the wheat belt and it is so nice to see it looking green and lush with mile upon mile of wheat.

We took a drive today out through a few smaller towns (Bull Finch and Westonia) and saw some great rocks and wild flowers. We thought we'd get lunch along the way in one of them, but ended up buying a dip and biscuits in Westonia and calling that lunch. I'm looking forward to a chicken curry for dinner tonight!

Tomorrow we'll drive into Perth arriving a day or two earlier than expected. I'm looking forward to it.

Menzies

2008-08-20T17:22:00.008+08:00

Yesterday after setting up and a bite of lunch we drove out to the ghost town of Kookynie stopping at Niagra Dam and the town of the same name.

Niagra Dam is a really pretty spot, with free camping and yabbies!!! The dam was built at the end of the 1800s to supply the town but they discovered more reliable underground water closer and the dam became a white elephant. It is only tiny, but cost 1/6 th the amount Mundaring Weir(Kalgoorlie and the goldfield's main water supply but coming from Perth) did, but Mundaring holds 335 time the volume of water. The little dam is remote and cement for it had to be carried in on 400 camels from Kalgoorlie.

Kookynie is one of the more interesting ghost towns we've visited. It has a pub sill operating and a couple of houses and the ruins of others are pretty good. The pub is for sale, but you'd have to be a major optomist to buy it.

After all that, we went looking for a number of rocks that should have been nearby, but could only find one. I'm guessing the rest weren't very imposing. I can't tell you the name of the one we found as we don't know where we were on the road.

Today we drove out to Lake Ballard to view 51 sculptures of Menzies residents, actually set in the salt lake itself. It's a really question as to why you would do it, but very interseting anyway. The red dirt and the snow white salt make amazing backdrops for the figures. They are scattered over a 4 km walk which is supposed to take around 2 hours to complete. We spent just over an hour out on the lake and saw about 30 of the sculptures (got close and personal with about a dozen). It was pretty hard going on the salt as it got really slippery-just like ice- as it crusted to the bottoms of our shoes. In wetter years, we'd have been wading through knee high water apparently. We were the only ones there until two sisters turned up as we were leaving. They were both widowed within 6 weeks of each other and were on their first trip away together out in the gold fields "getting some red dirt back in their veins".

We left the lake and drove to a lookout which gave us great views of the lake. It's massive seen from there. Then we visited a few more little towns, stopped for some lunch, found an old Cobb and Co staging post at Ularring Soak, missed a turn and took the long route home through stations and past mine sites and generally had a great day out.

Menzies

2008-08-19T11:58:00.002+08:00

Today we drove 110ks from Leonora to Menzies. We've booked in at the extremely tiny and cheap ($14pn) park for two nights so we can go to Lake Ballard to see the Inside Australia Sculptures that rise up out of the lake. There are 51 of them apparently.

On the way here, we had a near death experience. A woman driving a large 4WD and towing a camper trailer took a corner way too fast coming towards us. The car and trailer nearly tipped on the corner, swayed and bounced around over our side of the road, still doing probably 110ks per hour. Fortunately, I had enough flat shoulder to get off. I watched in my rear view mirror and saw her finally pull up way down the road, so I pulled back on to the road and kept driving. As we drove on, we could see her tyre marks all over the road. It was truly terrifying for us but I'm sure she was even more terrified. It reminds me that when we left Coral Bay I waved and tooted a man down whose brakes were on fire as he towed his van down the road totally oblivious to it all.

Leonora

2008-08-18T19:07:00.005+08:00

We've ended up in Leonora for 3 nights (tonight's our last). After setting up on Saturday, we spent a lazy afternoon chatting to the neighbours and not much else.

Yesterday we drove the 4 ks to the ghost town of Gwalia 4 ks from Leonora. It's great. The mine wound up in Decemeber 1963 when they sent trains from Kalgoorlie to collect the miners. They walked away leaving the tiny tin and hessian shacks many of them had lived in. In 1993, locals from Leonora adopted the shacks, did them up (sort of) and they are now just standing there open for tourists to wander about if they wish.

I especially liked the Patronis Guest House with the kitchen, laundry, bathroom, and signgle mens lodgings sort of as t would have been. The town is rough and dusty, but really interesting and it's FREE.

Gwalia also has an excellent museum that we spent a bit of time in. The old guy taking our money was a bit of a museum piece himself-my guess was he was about 95 years old and when he had to give us the change of $20 from his own wallet in his pocket, it was the slowest thing I've ever seen. The museum was a good mix of mining and local history and we both enjoyed it a lot.

Today we drove to Laverton along the sealed Laverton/Leonora Highway and came home on the unsealed Old Leonora Road along the old rail line past a number of former town sites, the largest of these was Mt Morgans which had an old rail siding, a lovely brick Municipal Chambers building and a prison work camp (complete with prisoners) next door.

Mt. Morgans Municipal Chambers
Abandoned Mine Pit

We stopped at various lookouts, mine pits, Malcom Dam and then came home. We decided to treat ourselves to lunch in Laverton which was a bit of a mistake. The only thing open was Fred's Deli that sold Sensational Chicken and was a bit forgettable! The dam was nice-not much water, but a huge group (flock?) of emus grazing on the short green grass, plus roos (so nice to see a few live ones), pelicans, ducks and herons.hey

Sandstone Not Tombstone!!

2008-08-16T16:39:00.006+08:00

Grevillias in Flower Near Sandstone

Friday we drove a very short distance to Sandstone. It's a former mining town with a population of about 70. It has a mixed business, shire office, tourist info centre and a caravan park and that's basically it. Once upon a time, 3000 people lived there and it was a bustling town with lots of shops lining the streets-not any more, but it's clean and we enjoyed our stay there.

Tourist Info Sandstone

The information centre had a really good display of well mounted black and white phots of old time Sandstone. It's amazing to think the town was ever so large. A video by 60 Minutes done in 1993 was a fun look at the town too. After all that excitement, we went for a drive out to an old brewery in a cave, London Bridge, the deserted state battery, and Deception Well (the original site of the town's water supply).

London Bridge
Old Cottages at the Deserted State Battery

At 5 pm, we had drinks with a nice couple from Melbourne who have sold everything and left home 17 days ago to see Australia. She's not fond of the outback and loves the Sunshine Coast Hmmm, I think she's in for a bit of a shock in WA!

Today we drove to Leinster, had lunch then drove on to Leonora where we'll stay 2 nights. It's a friendly little park and I was suprised to meet Trish, formerly from Camperdown and sister-in-law to Stuart and Denise who had the Kilarney Hotel and now run it as a motel. Russ and I know them and their family well.

Mount Magnet

2008-08-14T18:29:00.008+08:00

Yesterday we lazed around for the morning, then drove out to The Granites (not the same The Granites we saw in Meekatharra) and the remains of a former mining town Lennonville.

The Granites

The Granites is an aboriginal site a few ks out of town and absolutely huge. We just drove on and on through very photogenic outcrops of granite over an area of many hundreds of acres.

When we thought we must be at the end of it all, we'd turn a corner and find something else to stop and climb or take a photo of. There are rock paintings, wells and secret places, but we couldn't find any of them. It was an enjoyable couple of hours poking around.

Not much remains of Lennonville apart from the old rail platform, a lot of broken glass and bits of rusty iron and a few mine shafts.

Today we made some lunch and went to Big Bell-another mining town site. It was created in 1936 and wound up in 1956 so it wasn't very old. It was interesting though. We figure the houses must have been sold for removal as there are heaps of concrete slabs still on the ground and there is most of a church and the hospital foundations and a huge hotel. The hotel once boasted the longest bar in WA and is in fairly good condition considering it is open to the weather and people to wander around.

Big Bell Hotel

Walga Rock

After lunch we went on to Walga Rock to view some rock art. I wasn't expecting the rock to be as large as it was or the art so interesting. After viewing the art, we took a drive around the rock-we travelled over 4 1/2 ks. It's one of a number of granite rocks in the area, but is the biggest we saw. It's not as big as Ayers Rock, but it was almost as imposing and wonderful to visit when you are the only people there.

On the way home we made a detour to a meteor site. I'd never heard of it, so wasn't suprised to find out it is the smallest known in Australia with a diameter of 21metres! Now that's a claim to fame!

Shearer's Quarters at the Abandoned Station

We travelled 300ks today-80 was sealed, the rest was on gravel mine, or station roads (which were mostly in excellent condition). We drove right through two station homesteads, one abandoned, one inhabited, we saw sheep, emus, goats, eagles and on the way home, heaps of kangaroos. It was a really, really great day out through lots of beautiful country.

Stone Cottage Near Mount Magnet

Meekatharra

2008-08-12T20:16:00.004+08:00

Sunset Over Peace Gorge (The Granites)

We stayed two nights in Meekatharra. There's not much there, but I hate just driving on and on and on-I'm just not up to it mentally I don't think.

Meekatharra was another mining town and while there's one mine on the outskirts of town, I'd say most fly in-fly out to work it. At it's peak, the town had a population of a couple of thousand-now days it's about 200 and most are aboriginal. The school tries hard with competitions, give aways and animals, to get the kids to school, but it doesn't seem to work. The park owner asked a couple of kids outside the shop this morning why they woeren't at school and the older one (maybe 9 or 10) said "we don't go to school".

With the closing of the mines, the town is trying to promote tourism. They have produced a few good brochures and some well signed walks and drives around town. On our first night, we went out to the Peace Gorge on sunset, then back to the lookout just as it went down. The lookout is built on one of the mine tailings.

Along Meekatharra Creek

The next day we did a three kilometre walk along the Meekatharra Creek, looking at various points of interest along the way. It was a pleasant walk and we really enjoyed the way someone had written the material on the signs.

In the afternoon we took a drive out to the airport (which is built to service 737s if they need to be diverted from Perth)and the RFDS station, visiting a couple of old mines, the old hospital site, the BOM office and Globalstar on the way. Globalstar is one of three sites in Aus that transmit our mobile phone calls around the world via satellites orbiting the earth.

Globalstar

Along the Great Northern Highway

This morning we left just before 10 and drove to Mount Magnet. We stopped for a few hours in Cue where we took a walk around the town, had lunch then drove on to the old hospital ruins and th Gt Fingal Mine office.

Cue Police Station, Court, Post Office
Old Hospital Ruins

Cue was another important gold mining town and has some lovely old buildings in the main street. The shire building has a really good photographic display of the areas history that we took a look at.

Abandoned Offices of Gt Fingal Mine

Tonight we are in Mount Magnet. The park is small, friendly, very clean and cost us $18 which is so cheap. After we'd set up, we took a drive round town (5 minutes) then went to the IGA supermarket. It used to be owned by a couple (Des and Gaile) we met in Streaky Bay SA this March. They sold it over two years ago and I had to laugh when I noticed the register computers both still say "Hello Gaile". They were smart to sell when they did as all the mines have moved out now-the only mine left is 100ks down the road.

Tomorrow we are off to look at Walga Rock Art Site-the largest art site in WA.

Newman to Meekatharra

2008-08-10T16:16:00.006+08:00

Wild Flowers at the Revolving Restaurant

We enjoyed our 3 days and four nights in Newman. Like I said, I really enjoyed the park and the town had more than enough services to satisfy us.

On our second day we took a drive out to the local water supply Opthalmia Dam and then on to Kalgan Pool. The dam is very pretty and a 4WD track up a steep little hill gave gave excellent views of it and the surrounding country. We got a great look at a mine blast across the dam while we were there.
Opthalmia Dam

After stopping at the dam, we headed back the way we came and on to Kaglan Pool. We turned right onto an excellent road we'd got a permit for and travelled along the railway line as we were supposed to, but couldn't find the road under the railway line. On and on (and on) we travelled, until the rail line stopped and the mines finished and the aboriginal land started. So back around we went. Reading the map, we crossed at one of the two level crossings and took a hard left and headed to the pool. The sign to the pool was missing, but "that happens". We drove about 15ks but instead of heading to the hills, we seemed to follow the railway line. Finally we arrived at a GATE. As it happedned an ambulance had just gone through and the driver was shutting the gate. He waited for us and when we explained we were lost, said that he'd guessed that. We said we'd turn back but he waved us through explaining we'd better be careful as we were going through an active mine site, but it would put us on the Marble Bar Road in moments. It did and we realised we'd taken a wrong turn coming out of the dam and forgotten that that bit of the Marble Bar road was sealed unlike the good mine road we'd found!

So, once again we headed out along the Marble Bar Road, made the right turn under the railway line, found the sign to Kaglan Pool and managed to lose our way again and end up up in the hills on a degraded overgrown 4WD track.

It Looked OK, But Wasn't a Couple of Ks Later!

So back again to the railway line where we eventually found the second sign to the pool. Off we went only to decide after 13ks of huge corregations and a boat motor banging around in the back, to turn around, go home and have a glass of wine.

Yesterday we decided to go see the Aboriginal rock etchings 73ks back towards Tom Price. We stopped along the way at Silent Gorge-it really is silent and the colours in the rock were amazing.

Silent Gorge

The art site isn't sign posted (not unusual for Aboriginal sites we've discovered)except by a pole with a pink ribbon tied to it, but we'd spotted the turn on the way in to Newman on the day we arrived. Well, guess what, there'd been roadworks in the area, the pole and its pink ribbon had been knocked over and we missed it. It wasn't until we were 13 ks down the road we thought to check the speedo (just talking and looking around), turn round and go back.

Rock Art Site

It was well worth it. We were the only ones there, the etchings were easy to access in one small area and were amazing. We sat on a large river boulder, ate our lunch and just looked at etchings that have been there for tens of thousands of years.

This morning we packed up and drove the 420ks to Meekatharra. We both agree we have never seen so many trucks, passed so many over width trucks or had move off the road and stop as massive mine trucks and equipment were driven by us. I think we saw a new mine being outfitted today. We have seen trucks of all sizes , mine equipement of all sizes and shapes, rail trucks, rail truck wheels, and dongas being hauled. We saw trcukloads of small vehicles too-new mini busses, 4wds, fire trucks, ambulances. It makes the days we've travelled across the Nullarbor seem quiet almost! After visiting a few mines, it's been amazing to see all the pretty colours new equipment comes in. I don't think it takes too long before everything turns basic brown. It was a big day for road kill too with the road littered with dead roos, cows and eagles.

Newman

2008-08-07T16:56:00.005+08:00

A Pretty Place for Some Repairs

We are now in Newman for 4 nights. It was a relatively short drive of 255ks from Tom Price to here yesterday and very pretty through this part of the Pilbara. We joined the Great Northern Highway about 100ks out of town and were amazed at the instant increase in traffic-mostly road trains and mine vehicles. On the way here, one of the straps that tie the boat down snapped and we had to stop fix it but it isn't much of a worry as the boat is actually bolted on to the roof rack. It's a bit like gloves on a food handler-just for looks!

Newman boasts the largest open cut iron ore mine in the world and is found in the largest shire in the world. Things are BIG out here.

Big

The caravan park we are staying in was much cheaper than Tom Price ($25 compared to $33) and although it has only 25 tourist sites and about 200 rooms in dongas for mine employees, it has a nice feel about it. The 6 washing machines are marked NO WORKCLOTHES or WORKCLOTHES and there are 4 dryers (I've never seen so many driers in a park before). Our site is right by the laundry and clotheslines and last night one guy had hung out his washing and had a whole line of socks. I haven't seen so many socks since the boys left home. We never wear shoes and socks these days.

After setting up we went down to the shopping centre. It's a nice enough little one with a Chinese restuarant, pizza and Chicken Treat and a huge Woolies. It was difficult to get into there and not feel like we had to buy a months worth of groceries before moving on. And amazing to think they get fresh meat, fruit, veg and herbs everyday. It will be pretty much like that now apparently until we get to Perth as we are now on the main highway to Broome and many of the other mining towns.

This morning we got up and did a mine tour. It was really pretty good and quite different from the other two we've taken. This took us through the work shop areas and tyre stores before going to look at the open cut. It is supposedly the largest mine of its kind in the world.

Bigger

After lunch we went 4wding out to the Revolving Restaurant. I originally thought that it was pretty impressive that a tiny town like Newman should have a revolving restaurant out in the ranges, but it turned out to be the name of a hill that gives 360 degree views of the Pilbara. I'm sure the girl behind the desk was smirking as she patiently explained that to us.....

Tom Price

2008-08-05T13:58:00.005+08:00

Mt Nameless

We stayed at Tom Price CP last night and will again tonight. We thought about going out to the gorges for a drive today but 350ks is a lot of fuel to go somewhere we've been before 2 years ago and tomorrow we'll drive right through the centre of the national park on the way to Newman anyway. Instead we went right to the top of MT Namelss here behind the park for some beautiful views of the ranges and the iron ore mine. I was too cowardly last time to go right up, so it was great to go see it this time.

Views From the Top

And On the Way Down

Nanutarra Road House

2008-08-04T18:09:00.006+08:00

On the Road to Nanutarra

We reluctantly left Coral Bay yesterday and set off for Paraburdo or Tom Price. We'd slept late, so Paraburdo made more sense but we weren't sure if it had a caravan park.

It was a pleasant drive to Nanutarra RH where we planned to refuel before going on. We had decided to ask about a park in Paraburdo, then phone ahead-if there wasn't one there, we would be travelling into Tom Price to late for us (many roos and lots of stock on the road).

The road house had been without phone coverage for a couple of days so we had to raid our money box to pay for a tank of fuel, then the young (and very busy boy) "thought" there was a park ahead. In the end, we decided it was safer to stay so we ratted the last of our stash of money and spent the night there. And if the Paraburdo or Tom Price had no phones, we might not get fuel there either. It's the third time we've stayed and we actually enjoy it-the others who stay are always keen for a chat and the atmosphere is very friendly. It's a cheap overnighter, but the price of fuel makes up for that-we paid $2.30 a litre there. It was $1.98 here in Tom Price today.

Anyhow, after a lovely drive through the beautiful Pilbara with lunch at Paraburdo, we've arrived at Tom Price for a couple of nights. It was nice to get to Coles this afternoon and shop as we we used our very last fruit and veg last night. I also went to the chemist to get a prescription only to be told they wouldn't be able to fill it until tomorrow when the truck arrives.

Last Days in Coral Bay

2008-08-01T17:00:00.002+08:00

Wednesday we fished again and unfortunately (for Russ) once again I caught all the fish (3 lovely Spangled Emperor).

Yesterday it was windy with big swells, so we had a quiet day reading and computing. Boredom must have got to us, because we booked a passage to Tassie in January over the net. We leave on January 27th and will have 10 weeks there which should be lots of fun. It's supposed to be pretty good fishing and will definately be different from here. I was pleasantly suprised at the cost to get us, the car, boat and van there and back and can't wait to go.

Today was a bit windy for fishing, but as it was to be our last chance for a couple of months we went anyway. Russ was happy to be the only one to land any good fish in the boat (2 Red Throat and 1 Spangled Emperor) and we were out and back with them in a couple of hours.

Tomorrow is pack up the boat and trailer and wash the fishing clothes day, then it's off to the inland on Sunday.

Spangled Emperor

2008-07-30T08:04:00.003+08:00

Sunset Over the Sand Dunes

The last three days have been great fishing for me. I seem to have figured out how to catch the much prized Spangled Emperor found here. Sunday I caught 3 (and a nice golden trevally), Monday 2 and Tuesday another two. Russ has caught quite a few 38/9 cm ones but they have to go back as the minimum size is 41cm. He's getting quite frustrated and has rigged up a bigger, better rod and reel for todays challenge.

We are very happy with our fishing success as no one gives you much info on where the fish are (naturally). We spotted some bottom that should suit the Spangled Emperors but were suprised to catch such big fish consistently in 1.8 metres of water, so close to shore.

Our neighbours have enjoyed the fish too as we've given two feeds of fish to each recently.

(738)

Coral Bay 2008

2008-07-26T21:28:00.003+08:00

We had a lovely day today. I'm really enjoying it here this year.

At 9am, we headed out fishing and by 11am we'd caught our limit of Red Throat emperor. Not long after we headed for home and lunch. We gave two fish to a couple I'd met while Russ was getting the car and trailer. They were having no luck off the rocks and were thrilled to get two very alive fish for their lunch. Russ filleted the remaining 6 fish and we gave half to the Victorian couple parked behind us here.

For a change, we bought ourselves a couple of pies from the bakery over the road, then went swimming. There is a lovely little secluded beach where we've been fishing, so we let some more air out of the tyres and headed for that. It was great to have it to ourselves and the water was a pleasant 21c so very nice for swimming. Russ had a snorkel out over the reef, but my mask needs to be repaired beofre I can go out tomorrow.

When we got back, we went to the pool here for another swim before coming home to watch a bit of football (unusual for us) then we started dinner. I made a Greek fish dish with a rich tomato sauce, feta cheese, olives and fresh herbs. Yum.

Along the Coast Access Road

2008-07-24T16:40:00.003+08:00

After a couple of fairly successful days fishing, we decided to take a break and go for a drive along the Coast Access Road which starts about 5 ks out of town. Our neighbours Todd and Melissa and two boys did some of it yesterday and recommended it to us.

We left around 10.30am and got home right on 4pm. It was 80ks of sand and 50 sealed. The sand had a good firm base, but was very, very corragated. Letting our tyres down made it pretty comfortable though.

We travelled through Cardabia Station (no stock) to Brudbooodjoo Point-it's a pretty popular camping spot and we counted 25 vans and tents. The fishing looked like it would be better than here (less fisherpeople), but we aren't set up to camp like that. It seems a bit late in our travels to be investing in generators, shower tents, satelite dishes etc. and the thought of how much water they need to carry puts me off too. I guess I like the soft option.

After leaving there, we pulled in to a very pretty spot in the sand dunes over looking the reef for some lunch. We stopped a lot actually for some beautiful views. It was really a worthwile drive.

We saw a few sheep on Ningaloo Station (and heaps of emus and kangaroos) but nothing as we went through Bullara Station. They probably de stocked in tougher times and can't afford to re stock now when there seems to be plenty of grass around.

Coral Bay 2008

2008-07-21T21:22:00.004+08:00

Back for the third time. The park is full so lots of tents, caravans and motor homes. We set up, got the boat and trailer organised then went for a walk to the other park to visit our friends Ron and Irene. It was lovely to catch up with them and see them both looking so well.

Last night the power went out twice-once as we were cooking dinner and the second time as we were eating. Trouble was, the power didn't come back on until 7am this morning. I was starting to get anxious for all our meat and dairy foods we bought in Exmouth to come here and the freezer, but it was a chilly 6c over night so all was OK.

The New Boat Launching Facility!!!

Today we had an early lunch then headed out fishing. We used to launch the boat off the beach across the road from here, but now have to drive a few kilometres out of town to the new boat ramp. It's a very flash affair and makes getting out of the no fishing zone very fast.The fish were a bit scarce, but it was beautiful out there (as usual). We were fishing in 3 metres of water over sea grass when we spotted two dugongs sunning themselves really close to the boat. They hung around for quite a while.

The View from the Boat Trailer Parking Area

Yardie Creek-Last Day

2008-07-19T12:08:00.000+08:00

It’s Saturday and our last full day at Yardie. Tomorrow we drive the 150ks or so back to Coral Bay where we’ll spend 2 weeks before heading to Perth via the inland route.

Thursday we headed out for what was our last day of fishing. It was a little rough with the biggest swell we’ve fished in while here. A little rough means better fishing though as the fish can’t see us in the boat. We caught a number of CCC, releasing any that were smaller until we had 4 good sized ones. I lost a MONSTER fish that I worked so hard to almost get to the boat before he broke off-we’ll never know what he was now. Not long after though and in the same place, I caught a size (41cm) spangled emperor (the most highly prized catch inside the reef) and just after that, Russ landed a 57cm one in the boat. That’s a big fish on the gear we use. We were able to return all the CCC back, alive to the water after that!

We gave the neighbours a feed and kept the rest for ourselves. I made a delicious Indian curry with coconut milk, tomatoes, whole green chillies and curry leaves (amongst other things) from it for dinner, with leftovers for lunch today.

Yesterday (Friday 18th) was a funny day. It drizzled on and off in between very sunny periods. Russ managed to get all the laundry done, out and dry though which was great. Otherwise we had a quiet day.

I did overhear two men talking outside the van about one of the boats in the park being overturned by a whale just outside the reef. It should be true, as there are lots about this year! I’d only commented to Russ the day before that I’d be scared of that happening if we took the tinny outside the reef on a good day. Obviously it happens!

We are seriously considering coming back for a month next year after we’ve been to Denham-if we come back to the west next year. The fishing here is so good and certainly outweighs the slight isolation of the park.

Manta Rays

2008-07-16T20:25:00.001+08:00

Tuesday and today have been two of the best days out on the reef so far. We have a couple with three small children behind us and as the kids are early risers, so are we. It’s been good as we’ve been out on the water not long after 8 the last two mornings.

The wind has been really light, the water still and crystal clear. It’s amazing when we fish over the coral.

Yesterday as we headed out, we spotted what we at first thought were fish, then dolphins, then sharks, then as we got very close we finally realized they were giant manta rays. We counted 8 of them all over 3 metres across. They were either fishing, mating or just enjoying the warm sunny morning.

The flat water has made it much easier to spot a number of dolphins and scores of turtles cruising by checking us out. Some of them are huge too.

We’ve managed to catch good feeds of fish both days and on our way home today, I caught a very big squid on a hook using squid as bait. It was fortunate (for me, not the squid) as that piece of bait was our last squid from Denham.

Cape Range National Park 2008

2008-07-14T09:34:00.003+08:00

Cape Range NP

Sunday 13th, we went out to the Cape Range NP. We didn’t go last year, so it was a good drive. We’d forgotten how spectacular its gullies and gorges are, and the stunning colour of the rocks. The higher points give beautiful views up and down the Gulf of Exmouth too. I drove as Russ did last time (2 years ago), and was really happy to see they’ve put up new rails in the very steepest, narrowest part of the road. It scared the crap out of Russ last time, so I figure I got off easy!

The road through the bottom of the park was closed due to rain damage (a few months ago!) so we couldn’t go there. Instead we drove back into town and checked out the new canal development. It’s looking very empty and very very expensive so far. I think that three houses are completed and about 2 started since last year. The money however seems to be being poured into it still.

Kailis Prawn Trawlers

On the way out to the park we stopped and bought fresh bread rolls, then at Kailis’s shop we bought fresh cooked king prawns. We peeled our prawns and put them through a mayo, sweet chilli, spring onion mix then piled them into the rolls and ate them for a yummy picnic lunch. We wonder what the rich people do sometimes!

The Soak Picnic Ground

Sunday night, we went over and had a roast dinner at the camp “restaurant”. It was done by the same people as last year and still no better but at $14 for the two course meal, I figure we got what we paid for. I enjoyed the two families we sat with-one from Mandurah and the other from Groote Island in NT. It was especially interesting talking to them about their life there.

Yardie Homestead CP 2008

2008-07-12T12:14:00.001+08:00

Sand Dunes Across the Road From Yardie Creek Homestead

We arrived at Yardie Homestead on Thursday 3rd July after a couple of nights in Carnarvon. I’m not all that fond of Carnarvon, but it’s a great place to stock up with groceries at Woolies and IGA and to buy all the wonderful fruit and veg that’s produced in the area. We came away with tomatoes, bananas and avocados in various stages of ripeness. We bought zuccs, pumpkins, eggplant, red and green capsicums, herbs, corn, and pink grapefruit. The stuff is cheap at the farm gates and so fresh you can’t believe it.

Yardie has been a bit windy to do much. We got the boat off the car on Thursday night and put it in on Friday (4th) morning, but gave up after a couple of hours as it got too uncomfortable to fish. It’s a real shame as this is probably the best fishing spot we ever visit. Yesterday we sat around and did nothing. I get a bit bored, lonely and homesick if we can’t get out and fish or do something, soon Sunday (7th) we decided to get moving and go on the boat trip at Yardie Creek Gorge about 55ks from here. It was really good, not long, but very pretty and well worth the drive through the national park. On the way home, we stopped at a secluded beach and had a picnic-stras and leftover ratatouille-simple but so yummy. We’d taken our snorkels and masks along, but the wind was whipping up little waves and it just didn’t feel warm enough to swim.

Yardie Creek

I don’t know if it’s cooler this year, but we are still using our doona and I haven’t had a sleeveless shirt out in a long time. Maybe we are getting acclimatised!

Tuesday the 9th, we braved the wind and headed out fishing for the afternoon. It seems we weren’t the only ones suffering with cabin fever as the boat trailer car park was packed. It was rough out, but still better than just sitting at home for yet another day.

We caught heaps of fish-lots of my favourite, Charlie Court Cod, lots of various emperors and an amazing array of fish that should be in an aquarium. The most interesting of these were a triple tailed wrasse, a hinge jaw wrasse and a blue fish we have only ever caught at coral bay (he was about 4 times the size we usually see). We also caught bigger than normal rabbit fish and leather jackets.

Hinge Jaw Wrasse

We kept 4 Charlie Court Cod and two emperors (a sweet lip and some other variety!). That gave us dinner last night and two feeds in the freezer. Russ made us THE best home made fish and chips I’ve eaten in years last night with two of the CCC’s.

When we were in Perth, we bought two portable gas cookers (the ones that use the disposable cans of gas) to use here, and we have discovered they cook the best fish, chips and steaks! The park has very limited power supply and we can’t use our aircon, oven, hotplates, microwave, toaster, jug, sandwich maker or a hair dryer (not much of a worry to me with my hair). The van has a 4 burner stove, but after 2 ½ years of cooking outside, I can’t bring myself to start using it much. We sometimes boil our water and cook a bit of rice or our veg in here, but that’s about all.

Thursday and Friday mornings, we went out early and had a fantastic time. The water clarity was amazing and with the lack of wind (and waves) the reef was beautiful. I love it when we see all the tiny fish and the ones that steal our bait or we eventually hook. Thursday, we came home with a great feed of CCC and Red Throat Emperor-too much for us, so we gave one feed away to neighbours George and Margaret. They’ve been coming here for years and fish quite successfully off the beach but had never caught or tasted CCC as they live amongst the coral so you need a boat to get them. (Or maybe the neighbours tell everyone that and are kept in CCC ;-)!)

Fishing for Red Throat Emperor in 3 Metres of Water!

On Friday, we went fishing again, but just to go out on a beautiful morning. We released all we caught and took photos of any interesting reef fish we brought up. If anything, the water clarity was better than the day before. We headed in around 12.30 and after a quick shower headed to town to do some shopping (especially needed disposable butane to keep cooking!) We lunched in town at the Chinese and enjoyed it so much (both had delicious noodle dishes) that we’ve decided to do it again when we are in there. It’s almost 40ks to town, so it needs planning.

Dinner on Friday night was a recipe by my friend Jules in Queensland called Trinidadian Lime Thyme fish. We marinated our previous days catch (or part of it) in lime, thyme and dark rum, cooked off an onion and garlic then added two chopped, skinned tomatoes, cooked them down and added the fish, marinade, s&p and chopped coriander. It was amazing over rice and I wish I could eat it again tonight but I can’t as we have some steak about to slide past its use-by date.

After two near perfect days, the wind is up again and we can’t go fishing. So, today is a day of rest. Russ has done a load of laundry and now we are relaxing. Tomorrow looks like more of the same, with the weekly roast dinner put on by the park to look forward to, and then Monday is supposed to be a better day. That works well for us as we’ll be ready for more fresh fish by then.

It’s school holidays here in WA at the moment and the park is chock-a-block full of people. They’ve just started to develop some more sites out the back near the old shearing shed and we reckon there are 50 tents or vans over there without power. It’s making it hard to get a hot shower (actually even a coldish shower is a win) and the boat ramp and trailer park are so busy and full it’s amazing. Anyhow, the madness will be over in a week for another few months.

Carnarvon for a Couple of Nights

2008-07-01T20:40:00.003+08:00

Yesterday was our last day in Denham. We headed out to Monkey Mia to go crabbing one last time and were happy to come home with 21 good sized ones-so were Beatty, John and Jan and Brice who all got a few each. North of Carnarvon the blue crabs stop and we won't be going to mud crab territory this year.

Russ packed up the boat and trailer while I cooked and picked crabs, then I made a potato salad for dinner. I used 3 of our beautiful smoked tailor filets in it and it was yummy. It was to share at a final BBQ with our neighbours Beatty and Charlie (Mutard), their friends Mary Jane and Alex, John and Jan, Ron, Carmel and Craig and Brice and Wendy. It was a really fun night.

It was sad saying goodbye to everyone this morning. I don't think we've ever had so many people turn out to see us off. We left around 10 and stopped once for our lunch (fresh bread and crab sandwiches) then arrived in Carnarvon around 2.30.

It was a lovely drive out of Denham to the highway then on to Carnarvon. It's the third time we've done it in two years and this time was the best. There has been lots and lots of rain recently, so lots of water around still, lots of new greenery and wild flowers already. We saw lots of varieties of everlasting daisies.

After quickly setting up, we headed to Woolworths for a much needed big shop. Tomorrow we'll do our usual trip around the North and South River Roads to pick up our fresh fruit, veg and herbs. We had an easy tea of sausages and leftover salad and were just settling down to watch a bit of TV when the lights went out for a couple of hours. It happened about 3 nights ago in Denham too.

Thursday we are going on to Exmouth, then out to Yardie Creek Station Caravan Park for a few weeks.