Week 12 - The Crossing of the Nullarbor and other such adventures

Hi all,
This week we are broadcasting from Adelaide having made it over the Nullarbor.  Story there in itself - that's below somewhere.  We are all well and still enjoying our travels - in fact, we are experiencing withdrawal symptoms from the movement of the car when we are stopped for more than a couple of days now.  The girls travel really well and our intial aim of 500kms a day is now an easy morning for them.  We are struggling with the smallness of the States on this side of Australia after being over in WA for such a long time.  WA is just so vast and travel distances between places so huge that it is somewhat of a shock to look and the map and see that we can be over the state lines here in under a day and we could in theory be home in one big day from here.  There is  much more traffic now so overtaking is much more of a trial which means that vanners who travel at 75kms an hour are a much more frustrating thing to be behind than over in WA.  The car continues to hum along and our little house bumps along behind.  We love our trailer and are now pretty used to living in this smallish space.  Everyone keeps their own space neat and tidy - if only I could be confident that this will continue at home.........I think not!
We started the week in Albany where it continued to pour with rain.  With no respite from rising damp, we checked into an on site van in a van park  in Esperance for 2 nights hoping to keep our canvas dry and ourselves sane.  This worked rather well and we still managed to get out and about and Mal got some fishing in on the jetty.  We left Esperance and moved on to Cape Le Grand National Park.  What a magnificent park.  The camping there is second to none with fantastic camp spots right on the beach with wind breaks so shelter you from the wind - which can be pretty strong in that neck of the woods.  There are flushing toilets and hot water from the camp kitchen which is a large covered in space with gas cooktop and BBQ's.  Glorious when the sun shines.  We took lots of photos at Lucky Bay which the the beach photo we have hanging on the wall at home. 

Lunch spot at Lucky Bay, Cape Le Grand National Park WA

The next day we took a deep breath and headed for the Nullarbor.  We travelled to Norseman (3 hours) and then on to the Nullarbor itself.  It is flat.  Sometimes trees, sometimes not.  We stopped at Balladonia for lunch and to check out the "museum" to see the bit of Skylab that fell out of the sky in 1979.  Then on to Caiguna.  Pulled into the roadhouse and got the second last powered site in the camping area.  Hmmm.  Camping area - not sure I could call it that.  It is a strip of bitumen behind the roadhouse with 5 power mushrooms along the strip. We tried to set up but with bitumen it was impossible to peg down - that's no big deal, we can set up without pegging down and it was a beautiful 30 degrees anyway without a whisper of wind so we were pretty happy.  The sky was blue and clear of clouds for the first time in many days so it was all looking pretty good.  We left the trailer hitched to the car for a quick get away the next day.  All good.  Until I tried to cook dinner.  Gas ran out and since it was after 6pm, no gas refills till 7am in the morning.  Lucky we have a little backup cylinder.  The only hassle is that the gas is delivered ever so slowly and dinner took an age to be ready.  Dark by then and all tired.  Hit our beds just on 8.30pm and all lay looking out at brilliant star show in summer pj's again.  Then, all of a sudden, without any warning at all, the wind started.  It hit the tent with such force that we weren't sure what was happening.  It sounded like rain was thundering down on the tent roof, but it was dry as dry outside.  It was dust and bits of gravel hitting the tent roof as they were tossed about in the air.  The wind was phenomenal.  It just hammered us for 4 hours.  Mal moved Rachel up onto our bed platform and he lay across the floor using his body weight to keep the tent down on the ground - no pegs remember.  We weren't even able to guy rope to the car this time (the bull bar has been used before to great effect) as the car was still hitched and facing the wrong way to the tent set up. The poles stood firm against the raging weather outside but Rachel and I lay close together holding hands and talking to the big guy upstairs to keep us safe.  I was fairly anxious that night.  We talked about moving to the car if need be but decided to tough it out inside the capsule for a while.  Finally, at 1am the wind died down to a dull roar and eventually Mal and I slept on and off till 5.30am.  The morning after inspection revealed one broken pole clip and lots of debris including tin sheets that had blown across the bitumen strip during the wind storm.  Without any internet access (no signal out there) we were unable to see the weather radar or get any info about what to expect for the next couple of days.  The roadhouse staff were able to tell us that the wind was clocked at 130kms per hour and that there had been a severe weather warning posted during the evening.  The worst winds they have had there for just over 14 months.  We were pretty keen to move on and after having a shower and discovering I was sharing it with a scorpion, I was in the car and ready to go without a second look back.

Lunch stop on the Nullarbor - lots of nothing.......and wind.

 We drove steadily all day with the intention of making it to Eucla on the WA/SA border.  We made it by lunch time and when we hopped out for lunch, we were nearly blown away.  So, we kept driving and got to the Head of Bight by 3.30 after making and eating lunch in the car on the move.  We went into the whale platform and saw some Southern Right Whales with babies which was lovely to see but we were all pretty tired from a terrible night and we were dead sick of the wind by then so it was good to get off the platform, beanies and all, and back into the safe windless environment of the car.  We had a family vote and decided to drive for as long as Mal could manage and then stay in a free camp/rest area on the side of the road.  Well, what a trooper - Mal kept driving all the way to Ceduna.  We hit the fruit fly inspection point at 7.30pm in high winds and after a very brief inspection of our fridge, we were waved on.  We found fantastic fish and chips in the main street and then headed for the nearest motel.  Our first motel since leaving home but we were all totally exhausted and just needed hot water and a decent bed to sleep in out of the wind.  The Ceduna Motor inn was fantastic, they checked us in quickly despite the late and unannounced arrival and by 8.30pm we were all in bed asleep along with the other 3 camper trailer families that had been blown off the Nullarbor earlier in the day.  A huge day for us, 970km - the one and only day like this on the trip.  We have the dubious honour of being able to say we drove the Nullarbor in 2 days but would have liked to have been able to enjoy the experience for a couple of extra days.

Bunda Cliffs - Southern Right Whale Land.

The drive into South Australia from Ceduna is a long haul of nothingness - we overnighted at Port Augusta - a mining town for miners and tourists are just an inconvenience really - and then we moved on here to Adelaide.  Tonight is our second night here and we move on again tomorrow.
Last night we drove to Victor Harbour (about 80kms) and did a Fairy Penguin Tour on Granite Island.  The girls loved it and it was great to see the little penguins coming ashore and waddling up the beach to their burrows to feed their babies.  We met Kath and Kim there (really, we did - I swear they are the real Kath and Kim that the story is based on!) and they managed to keep Mal and I well entertained all evening.  Still giggling thinking about it.
Crossing the Nullarbor gives you lots of time to think - especially when there is a 970km haul in one day!  I thought a lot about how in our society there are not many limits for people - most people do what they want when they want and are usually able to get what they want over time with a combination of effort, good fortune and sometimes hard work.  There are some people who have never hit any true limits.  Out here, the ultimate limit is nature itself.  There are some things that you just can't do because of the weather.  You can't drive the Gibb River Road in the wet season - you can have the most expensive 4WD with all the mods but you still can't do it.  You can't live in some places because there is just no water and without water, you can't survive.  If you come out here and don't bring water, you just couldn't get anywhere.  It is very good to be reminded that there are limits to all human activity and out here those limits are evident and real.  Everyone out here lives by the rules of nature and everyone has respect for those rules. Those days in the isolated outback are over for us for now, and we will be in built up cities and towns from now till we get home.  Mal and I are keen to return to some of these places but know that we will have to wait till we too are real Grey Nomads.  I wonder if we will have Mal and Jane, UHF 18 on the back of our rig........

A bit more Nullarbor.......

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - The good would be making it in one piece through the Nullarbor and not sustaining any damage to our house in the wind.  The bad would have to be the drivers in SA.  We have seen such reckless and impatient driving since we hit the border. I have lost count of the number of times I have seen cars coming directly at us in our lane as they attempt to overtake on their side with nothing like enough vision or room.  Even here in the city they are shocking.  If they want to go somewhere, they just go and they don't give a damn about anyone else around them. I am curious to know if the SA road toll is the highest given the head of population in the National Road toll figures. 

And now to the Ugly - definately meeting Kath and Kim at Victor Harbour.

There we are, waiting to go our Penguin Tour and there is a very loud family standing quite close by.  There is a mum and a dad, 2 kids, a boy and a girl and a grandma and grandpa.  The mum is the spitting image of Kim from the TV show - honestly, - she was wearing a stretchy pink Adidas gym top that was at least 2 sizes too small for her ample bosom and over the top she wore a grey tracky top and bottom.  Her mum, and this is the scary part - was a dead ringer for Kath - her hair was exactly the same, and she wore cute little heeled shoes, had a red trenchcoat thing on and a big handbag.  Mal and I shot sideways looks at each other and mouthed the same thing at the same time!  Bang on 6.30pm when the tour was to get underway, Kath announced in a loud voice that the tour was late, and when was it going to start.  A conversation then started up between her and Kimmy.  Lots of discussion about which guide booked them in, which one looked like they knew what they were doing and about how they didn't like being kept out in the cold.  Kim complained loudly about how cold she was, and her mum said it wasn't any wonder since she had come dressed in her gym clothes.  Kim shot back that at least she didn't look like her mother in the trenchcoat.  And so it went on - just like the real script off the show.  Meanwhile, both men in the party looked on helplessly and the kids ran around like feral sheep both coughing like they should be at home in bed with a vaporiser on.  As luck would have it, they were shuffled into our group.  Mal and I spent the next hour gigling our way round the boardwalk being entertained by the conversations that ensued. At the end of the tour the guide pulled out a penguin skin/pelt to show us and that's when it got really ugly.  First they were repulsed but such an awful thing, then the jawdropping question  from Kim - "Was the penguin dead when you skun it?"  The guide blinked and repeated the question to be sure that she had heard right.  And then she answered it with a "yes, that's right, the penguin was already dead." Undeterred, Kim launched on with her next brain teaser - "So, was it very still when it was being skun?".  I had to move away from the group at this point and kept thinking what fun I would have if my Dad had been there with me!  "Yes, it was dead, therefore it was still."  And then, question number three "So, did you eat it after you skun it?"  The lady next to me on the other side actually verbalised her disbelief before clamping her hand over her mouth to bite her thumb.   Anyway, you would think that would be the end of it - but wait, there's more.  The pelt was then handed around for everyone to have a feel (gorgeously soft and furry) and when Mal handed it to Kath, she had a fit and wouldn't touch it.  Meanwhile, the guide had another pelt to show us and she told us it was a female skin.  She said she knew this and turned it over to reveal its name - none other than KATH - she went on to say she had left Kim at home!!!!!  I was nearly wetting myself by now.  The human Kath then announced in a loud voice that everyone could hear "Kath and Kim, what an awful show, someone should have skun them a long time ago!".  Mal turned and looked at her (somewhat incredulously) and she immediately said "well, sorry, but I really don't like them."  Her husband then kept telling her over and over not to worry and that the man (Mal) didn't seem to have taken offence at her comment.  They then all decided that it was too cold and told us all that they were heading off now, to have dinner.  We all laughed long and loud on the 1.5 hour drive back to Adelaide to our tent.  Then Eloise fell asleep and we were left to laugh with Rachel.

No dream stealers this week.  We must be looking too dusty and well travelled these days to attract advice.

Love and starry nights,
Mal, Jane, Rachel and Eloise

Week 11 - The BIG week

Hi all,

A week of BIGS this week.

BIG WHALES - this week I decided that I needed to see whales up close.  I have been seeing them off the shore for weeks now and although they look fantastic through binoculars when they are only about 1 km off shore, I started to feel like I was really missing out on something wonderful.  The only problem is that the last time I tried to go whale watching about 20 years ago, I experienced a BIG SICK, lost my camera off the side of the boat, no one saw a single whale, and it took 2 full days to get my equilibrium back.  It was a most excellent weekend away!!  I tossed all the pros and cons around and decided that if I was going to do it, Dunsborough was the best place to give it a go.  I could see whales off shore (not like last time) so wouldn't have to go far out to sea this time to see them, the boat was a catamaran (not like last time), the weather forecast was for the wind to drop (last time we had seas with 3m swells) and the cruises here only go for 2 hours (5 hours the last time).  Weighing all this up, I booked us on a cruise and bought a box of Kwells.  I was a bit nervous in the morning (which I heavily diguised from the children) and we got up with enough time to have a reasonable breakfast.  I ate a few cracker biscuits about 15 minutes before boarding and it was so still and calm, I didn't bother with the Kwells.  It was very overcast and rain was forecast but that didn't really bother me.  We headed out on the boat and within 15 minutes we were up close to whales.  Absolutely takes your breath away to be so close to such huge creatures.  They are awesome.  Two whales came so close to check us out that we have photos of a whale's head coming straight at us and a tail photo that is too big to fit in the frame of the camera.  I didn't take that many photos - I was too busy looking at the whales.  It was a fantastic 2 hours on the water and despite having to sail through rain everyone was transfixed by the whales.  We saw dolphins on the way back, jumping and riding our bow waves so it was a bonus that made up for the terrible, no good, very bad  day at Bunbury. I wasn't queasy at all and was ecstatic to have pulled this off.  Eloise went green 30 minutes into the cruise but Mal shoved a half a Kwells into her and within 10 minutes she was bouncing round the boat screaming with excitement at seeing the whales.  A totally fantastic time. I am no photographer but this is one of the tail shots that I got.

BIG TREES - here in the SW of WA they grow their trees big!  They are honestly massive.  We have driven through national parks here that have huge tall Karri trees, Marri trees and Red Tingle trees.  They are usually as much as 12 metres in diameter at the base and between 30 and 40 metres tall.  Almost too big to comprehend even when your are looking up at them.  There have been a couple that are pegged so you can climb them but with a BIG SWAY (1.5 metres) at the top where the viewing platform is, we all took a BIG RAINCHECK.  We did the Tree Top Walk at Walpole and the entire platform and walking spans move about as you walk over them.  It is seriously high and I was glad to be off them.

Hard to capture the enormity of these trees with a camera.

BIG WET - This week we have hit the rain.  Not just a little shower here and there but thunderous rain that just keeps falling.  We left the Margaret River with a completely wet canvas having packed up between rain storms and drove all day through heavy rain that lashed the windscreen.  We booked into a cabin thinking that we could dry the canvas out but the rain just wouldn't let up.  The next morning we headed onwards through the most heavy rain we have seen yet to where we are now at Denmark.  Again we went for a cabin and pulled everything that was wet in from the car.  We strung up a washing line and systematically dried everything out!  Mal did a load of washing and we dried that too!  We left no stone unturned as we dried out bedding, pillows, clothes and our camper mattress.  And the rain thundered down outside and then turned to hail.  This morning we woke to cloudy sky with a few sunny breaks so Mal and I shot out of bed like little Jack Rabbits to set up the tent.  10 minutes later (which is all it takes!) the camper was up in the sun drying out.  We headed out till lunch time to do things and returned to a dry canvas which we smugly packed away all dried out.  The forecast into the next few days isn't good so we may be staying in a few more cabins yet as we aren't keen to get our canvas wet before we hit the Nullarbor mid next week.  Despite the rain, everyone is in high spirits and we have learnt to adapt what we are doing to fit the conditions.  As I type this from the comfort of my cosy coastal cabin, the wind is now howling outside and the rain isn't far away again.  After 75 nights in the camper, 4 or 5 in a cabin isn't too bad if it means we still have a good time.

As you can see, the van park is exceptionally busy (not!) and this is our trusty home having a sunbake to dry off.

BIG WAISTLINES - the Margaret River area is seriously bad for BIG CHOLESTOROL LEVELS, BIG WEIGHT GAIN and has the ability to blow your food budget right out of the water!  We now have a fridge that is loaded with gourmet cheeses, (we did have yoghurt......) and a food box that is fast turning into a long life storage area for gourmet products that we are hauling home - olive oil, nougat, honeycomb, dukka, Gaby's Muesli, choc covered almonds, other nuts and toffee.  Not much space for my rice, pasta and cereal these days.  My jeans are feeling fairly snug this week so I may have undone all my good work for the last 10 weeks in one 5 day period in the Margaret River.  Bah humbug.

The BIG UNDERGOUND - this week we have been into the most spectacular caves here in WA and seen the most astonishing limestone formations.  Regrettably, they leave anything on the East Coast for dead.  We got a Caves Pass which got us into 4 caves in total out of a possible 7.  We chose carefully and visited Jewel Cave, Mammoth Cave, Lake Cave and Ngilgi Cave.  The advantage of travelling out of peak season and out of school holidays is that there are so few tourists that you almost have the tour guide all to yourself!  It is incredible to think that these caves have been thousands of years in the making and are just so incredibly beautiful - Jewel Cave blew our minds with the formations, stalactites and stalactites, Lake Cave was the best of all with an underground lake in it with astonishing formations up close, Mammoth Cave was just that - BIG and Ngilgi cave was full of shawls and colours in the formations.

Looking out of the start of Mammoth Cave

Mal's BIG adventure - Mal was taken with the lighthouses at each end of the Cape.  He went on a tour of both and survived gale force winds at the top of both.  He saw whales off the top of the Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse to the North and he saw the Indian Ocean and the Southern Ocean's meet from the top of Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse.  The two ocean's meet front on to each other which makes for some pretty big waves and very choppy conditions.  Both lighthouses are BIG in themselves and Mal now knows how they decide how tall they need to build each lighthouse.  Handy for when you need to build your next tower over the sea.  Just give him a call - he is a sharing kind of guy.

Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse - Mal informs me as I type that this is the smaller of the two lighthouses.......

The BIG BORE - You may be thinking this is some kind of water well in the ground or in fact, it could be us getting ready for the drive over the Nullarbor(ing) - but you would be wrong on both counts!   If you ever visit Pemberton, you can probably safely give the Tramway Company Forest scenic tram ride a miss - unless of course you have a fetish to be bored stupid by a very boring commentary from a long term Pemberton resident (that says it all to start with really).  Almost nothing to salvage from that morning activity except that Mal and I got to sit quietly for a couple of hours while Eloise slept (yes, she actually put her head down and slept) and Rachel went through her camera and deleted dodgy photos.  Such a shame - that could be such a great opportunity to share with tourists the story of Pemberton and the mill there and all about the Karri trees........but no, instead it would have to go down as the most boring thing I have done for a very long time.

Before the trip.  The after shots aren't so lively!

BIG BAROMETER - we were hoping to finish this week with a visit to the world's biggest barometer here in Denmark but apparently, the man who built it, got the strops with the visitor's centre (despite the custom made centre to house it and the visit from the Guiness Book of Records to record it) and took it home to his back shed!  So, no barometer viewing for us.

You can guess that our eyes have been wide open and BIG this week taking it all in.  It is a sensory overload - we feel that our eyes and ears just can't take any more in.

The Good, Bad and Ugly for this week:  The Good would hands down go to the whale watching cruise.  Awesome!!!!!!!!  The Bad - the visit to the Bettanay Nougat Factory to stock up on fancy nougat only to find that all their nougat has white chocolate mixed with it.  Not real nougat at all, and not nougat that can be safely consumed by the chief planner, map reader, navigator, cook and distance education specialist. 
The Ugly - easy one this week.  Picture if you will a cosy tent all closed up tightly against the rain and a family all snugly wrapped up in sleeping bags sleeping through the rain storm.  The Mummy wakes and is unable to go back to sleep without a trip to the loo (noise associations with running rain water are most unhelpful) so she heads down the ladder from her penthouse sleeping platform.  As she reaches the bottom rung she puts out her foot to the floor of the tent and steps into a freezing cold puddle of water.  She screeches to wake her sleeping mate.  He wakes (slowly) and asks (slowly) what the problem might be now.  He is instantly briefed about the water situation and the fact that the children have wet pillows.  She doesn't get much feedback.  So she loses her temper BIG time.  It's midnight, the tent is full of water, the children are going to die from water poisoning, her bladder is not a snap lock bag that can hold water indefinately, it's raining, and he is lying down in the penthouse.  His solution - to turn off the heater (the water ingress is caused by condensation - BIG fancy words for midnight with a cranky spouse) and put everything liftable into the car.  These two actions were executed and then the adult members of this family head back to bed.  The male of the species falls asleep instantly (chuckling) but the female lies awake for many hours in a hot temper watching the tent poles for water "ingress".  Humph.  Very ugly.

No Dream Stealers this week - they have all gone home to Victoria with their vans.

The car and trailer sitting on the side of the road in Jane National Park.  Yes, it really is called Jane National Park.  It's very beautiful (naturally) and very peaceful (how does that work?? Mal).

Till next week,

Love and rain drops,

Jane, Mal, Rachel and Eloise

Hi there all,
Yes, this post is a couple of days late - but we have been having some real adventures and time has not been on my side this week for blogging.  So, as I type this tonight, I can see the full moon through the crack in the top of the window above my bed and the frogs in the dam outside are calling "pobblebonk" to each other.  We are staying in the Margaret River area in a caravan park that is part of a working cattle farm so we are in a peaceful rural place with no one around us.  This is because everyone else is in vans and we are the only camper trailer here so we got the whole camping area to ourselves.  Blissfull.  Like being in a Nat park but with facilities!  The window is only open a crack at the top as it is very chilly here at night.  We have been having overnight temps of 4 degrees which is cold when one is living under canvas.  We have a powered site and our little $20 blow heater from Coles has been the most appreciated piece of equipment this week.  Looks like we will be in organised camp sites from here on in to be able to access power overnight to keep warm enough to sleep.  The tent itself is very cosy and as I type Elsy is cavorting around in her summer nightie - how she manges to do this in such a small space is beyond me!!

Our current view - note replacement UHF aerial after breaking our old one (Dolly) on the Gibb River Road This one is called Bolly ( she dances around like a Bollywood dancer)

We left Kalbarri at the start of this week and headed down the coast to Geraldton.  On the way we saw a pink lake.  I have to admit to being astonished - the water really was bright pink.  We took a photo with my pink grapefruit Bundy soft drink (I only had a half a bottle of this left at this point and it is the equivalent to everyone else's 5pm tipple.  Photo below.

This is the pink lake.  It is really pink.  Surprising that is hasn't been renamed Barbie Lake.

  Geraldton had a wonderful museum that housed relics from the Batavia and the girls were enthralled with the whole story of the ship, the mutiny and the wreck.  The day was gone after that.  Overnight we almost got blown away with the wind.  It was shocking.  The tent doesn't move an inch but the wind was incredible.  Hard to pack up and eat breakfast in such weather and we were pleased to be back into our car capsule and ready to move on.  After lunch we arrived at the Nambung National Park.  We went in to see the Pinnacles.  The look on Rachel's face when she saw them was priceless.  She was clearly overawed by the sight of them.  Once again, we spent a long time in the centre where the story and theory of how and when they formed was spelt out for tourists to read.  Both girls full of questions and very interested in how it all came to be.  They have a track that you can drive around but you can't take your van/trailer which meant we had to unhitch and leave our home in the carpark.  Mal was not impressed by this and the girls got the giggles listening to his mutterings about having to leave the trailer behind.  Apparently, the track is too rough for trailers - this just added to Mal's ire as our trailer has done and can go anywhere.  We unhitched and went for the drive.  After re hitching on a slope in the wind ( and out of Coke rations) we moved on out of the park.  We had intended to stop overnight in Cervantes but the wind was just awful - more mutterings from Mal about diesel consumption in the head and cross winds and how his figures were blown out of the water - so we decided to pedal for Perth city.

Pinnacles in Nambung Nat Park

  We were going to stay in Scarborough but the wind was driving us crazy so as Mal drove, I checked out the map for the most inland caravan park in Perth - found one in Swan Valley and rang them to book in.  Arrived there after 6pm in the dark - our latest stop time yet - and had our trailer parked, unhitched and set up in 15 minutes as all the vanners watched from inside the surrounding vans - little chinks of light are a dead giveaway.  I was impressed at our team work and went to bed that night feeling very smug.  Until I realised we were under the international flight path to the south and the domestic flight path to the north.  I can now sleep through anything.

The next couple of days were spent exploring Perth and feeling very happy that we were out of the wind and had lovely sunny days.  We got the train to the CBD, visited the mint, bought books for the girls to read, sourced some binoculars and spend bulk time in the museum.  The car was serviced here too and the flare that has been gaff taped since Katherine was fixed for a mere $20 - just needed new clips. New brakes and a big service later the bill was fairly nasty but great to know that it is all in good condition and absolutely nothing wrong with it.  I feel like sending a happy snap to Toyota Darwin to show them my new bargain priced $20 flare - they just offered us a new one at $500 plus painting to match the car.  We visited Kings Park and loved seeing all the wildflowers that are out at the moment.
The end of the week wasn't quite as smooth sailing as the rest of the week - we really wanted to take the girls on a Dolphin Watching cruise so we checked out the trusty internet and found that at Bunbury there is a Dolphin Discovery Centre with Eco cruises.  A couple of problems - one, they only ran on Sat and Sun, and they cost a fortune.  We re arranged our travel plans and booked one for Sunday morning.  We figured it was now or never.  We drove to Bunbury on Saturday after being in Kings Park all morning and stayed overnight.  We packed up on Sunday morning early and made our way to the Dolphin Discovery Centre.  What an experience that was.  From the minute we arrived there was a very attentive volunteer worker at our elbow to lead us through the centre and tell us all about dolphins.  When one drew breath, another volunteer would swoop in and lead us off in another direction and tell us something else - only to be interrupted by another volunteer who would correct them and offer completely contrasting information.  Well, after many weeks on the road and being very comfortable with just each other's company we were shrivelling just a tad with all this attention.  Mal was shooting me looks and muttering something about wierdos and I was keeping a tight reign on the girls while trying to look interested and stop giggling with Mal.  This might sound easy to you, but it was pretty tough, I can tell you.  I tried the "Where are the bathrooms" line and was personally accompanied to the door of the outhouse.  The girls and I scurried inside and sat on the seat in the toilet block and had a whispered conversation about what might or might not be wrong with all these people.  On the exit, you guessed it, they were waiting to escort us to the boat ramp for our cruise.  I thought the boat ride might be safer but no, the only sane person on the boat was the boat driver who apparently was on his second day.  No guesses for why they can't keep boat drivers.  Anyway,, off we went into the sea with our volunteer dolphin expert and her informative commentary (!) and for 2 and a half hours we cruised around and saw a total of 0 dolphins - yep,, you read right, 0 dolphins.  Just for the record, it was the guides first cruise in 7 years that they hadn't been able to see a single dolphin.  We were all totally thrilled with this outcome - not.  Mal and I decided that the dolphins have finally got jack of being chased around the bay by volunteer dolphin experts and have moved away to Bussleton.  We were entertained by our  host on the way back to the mooring point by her insightful chat about how we had been entertained on this eco cruise as we had seen not one, but two cormorants bobbing about on the water.  So, a lot of money later, we departed less than impressed and won't be recommending this outfit to anyone who is heading to WA on holidays.  We headed on down the road to the Margaret River area and found this wonderful camp site with a very normal receptionist and a stunning outlook across green paddocks with frogs that sing in the evening and we have slowly recovered from this frightening experience!  I think they must all have training at the Mr Bean Academy for volunteers.

This week has been superb so far but that is for the blog at the end of this week coming!

The good, the bad and the ugly.  The good was the WA museum and the gold pour at the Mint, the bad would have to be the (No) Dolphin Cruise and that leaves the ugly - this week's winner is Babette!
We have chased Brownie and Babette down the coast this week past in their big heavy van and have passed them many times.  They just keep driving, we stop and see things and drive as well!  Anyway, I usually get a big wave from Babette as we pass (Brownie has his eyes firmly on the road in front of him) and I know her by sight quite well.  I was in the bathroom at Perth in the van park and who should walk in but Babette - I have never seen her in the flesh, only through 2 car windows - but I knew it was her straight up.  She is about 65 years old and very well tanned.  She is a blonde and the morning I saw her, she was wearing skin tight jeans and an orange singlet t shirt with diamontes on the front that said Totally Sexy.  I said hello - since I am such a polite and friendly person - and she said "Good Morgen" back to me.  I went for my shower with new knowledge that Babette and Brownie must be German.  I couldn't wait to tell Mal this new bit of information for the Brownie and Babette file.  When I came out from the shower, she was at the basin.  She turned to face me and gave me a magnificent smile - all gums - as she was cleaning her false teeth!!!!  Not German at all, just didn't have her teeth in.  Later on that day, she greeted me again with a very clear Aussie hello.  I decided that I prefer Babette through 2 sets of glass windows and look forward to seeing her again  - maybe on the Nullarbor.
Quote of the week - Eloise was heard to say in her loudest stage whisper in the very echoing hall of the WA museum when I suggested we go for a loo stop - "Oh Mummy, I am sick of drop toilets. Can't we go home and use our flushing toilet".  Much laughter from all those around us and squeals of delight when I took her into the bathroom and she saw the flushing toilets.  Hmmm - maybe we need to ease up on the National Parks for a while.
Dream Stealers - lots and lots this week.  Don't go to the Margaret River - it is too cold and it rains every day there.  Haven't had a drop of rain yet and we are quite warm enough for now.  I doesn't matter where you pull up at night - once your eyes are closed, it just doesn't matter where you are. This statement is spoken by a true vanner with no camping experience whatsoever.  The good thing is that we won't be seeing much of him since he camps in places we don't. So far, the tally is very much in our favour and goes to show that when you want to do something, it's best just to give it a go and if you have to turn around and abandon your ideas at least you've had a try and you aren't left wondering.

There is gold in them there hills! (Just need to find it...)

On that philisophical note, I will sign off till next week.  We are all well and still having a great time.
Love and empty gourmet cheese wrappers,
Jane

Ningaloo Dreaming - Coral, fish and a crocodile!

Hi everyone.  This week we have seen and done some amazing things.  And I have taken about 300 photos!

Monday saw us up and away from the trailer early and over into the Cape Range National Park.  We headed to the Tantabiddi Boat Ramp where we were booked on a one hour Glass Bottom Boat trip to the reef.  The reef is about 20 metres out from the shore line and the corals and fish that we saw were truly amazing.  We saw a green sea turtle that was huge and another not so big one.  The fish were astonishingly bright and colourful as was the coral.  It was hard to get off the boat when it ended.  We then headed to Turquoise Bay so Rachel and Mal could snorkel.  There is a drift snorkel area there where you drop into the water at the south end of the beach and the current takes you to the north end.  They don't recommend that kids snorkel there but Rachel proved to us that she could (easily) swim against the current so it was a goer.  They had an awesome time and did the drift snorkel circuit three times before the temperature of the water (not so warm) drove them out to the beach.  We had some lunch off the back of the car and then went to the bay itself where Eloise had a bit of a go at snorkelling with Rachel's help and she managed to see a few fish.  Then we drove to the end of the park at Yardie Creek and found a great place for Mal to fish from.  It wasn't long before he caught 2 fish.  Great excitement and whoops of joy.  The first fish in was a coral cod - absolutely gorgeous and we threw it back.  The second fish in was a whopper that took some landing on the beach and lots of interest from other fishermen.  It turned out to be a Crocodilian Longtom.  It has a mouth like a Freshwater croc - it seems there is no getting away from these beasts on our camping trips.  As Mal hauled it in, it did the death roll and wound its long mouth tightly shut - very handy.  It lay still on the beach and pretended to be dead while everyone had a good look and went oooh and aaaah.  It was 90 odd centimeters long, irridecsent green and had teeth like you wouldn't believe.   Mal unhooked it ( a mean feat) and managed to put it back in the water - it lay in the shallow water upside down with a bend in it and looked to all the world to be dead.  Everyone worked their way closer to it and when Mal put his hand in to the water (wrapped up in his fishing towel) to turn it over, the sneaky bugger shot off like a rocket - real crocodile behaviour.  After such excitement, and many photos, we called it a day and headed back to the ranch for dinner and a warm tropical night.

Mal with his Longtom

Tuesday - Today we moved down the coast to the southern end of Ningaloo Reef to Coral Bay.  What a gem of a spot.  We took a tour to see the Green Sea Turtles that love to call this place home - the only catch was that the only way in to the cliff area to see them was via quad bikes.  Mal was in heaven of course and Rachel went on the back with him while I was left to cart Eloise around on the back of mine.  Not my idea of fun but the girls had a fabulous time and I spent the morning with Eloise yelling from behind - go faster mum, put your foot down mum....  We saw the turtle up close and it was all worth it.  They were stunning and I could have watched for ages.  We rode a little further and Rachel and Mal went snorkelling again.  The guide had an underwater camera and took some shots of Rach in the water - they are very special shots that I will treasure for a long time.  The water was quite cold but she saw so much and they managed to photograph most of what she saw.  We bought the photos on a CD.  A very fun day out.

Wednesday - A bit of a rest day today.  Mal went fishing and reeled in some whiting.  We cleared emails and went to the beach.  Rachel and Eloise snorkelled and I enjoyed the sun.  We did some school work in the afternoon and the girls wrote up journals from the last couple of days.
Thursday - Off again and we headed for Carnarvon where we walked the famous One Mile Jetty and rode the Coffee Pot train back the other way.  Blowing a gale and a cold gale at that.  We scuttled back to the car and kept driving to Denham which is part of Shark Bay World Heritage Area.  Our campsite was a stones throw from the beach and Mal disappeared to the jetty with some other men to go squiding.  Wasn't long before the kids were over there too and the squid were being pulled in.  The wind got up and was really howling which forced them all home and into bed.  It blew and blew overnight but the tent held strong like a fortress and I loved falling asleep to the sound of the waves crashing against the shore.
Friday - Up early and up the road 25 kms to the famous Monkey Mia.  We were all non plussed after visiting here.  It is marketed very well and yet it is almost a con.  The dolphins that come in are all from one family and they now have 3 generations of this family that visit the beach each day.  They often only have 6 or 7 dolphins that visit the beach and we couldn't believe the attraction for people to want to feed them a fish.  Of the 100 or so people that were lined up by the rangers in a very straight line with their feet in the water only 3 were chosen to offer a dolphin a fish.  Astonishing that people pay big dollars to stay at the resort there and line up in the water when the dolphins come in (sometimes once a day, sometimes 3 times a day).  Not a place that the Crawford's were very taken with.  Also not happy with the misinformation given by the workers there regarding dolphin behaviour and feeding patterns in the wild.  It was in stark contrast to everything else we had heard at Ningaloo and in Exmouth and our cynical natures managed to make some not so quantum leaps towards the deduction that the info given at Monkey Mia suits the ongoing visitation of dolphins - it would be pretty bad if the dolphins stopped coming after the whole place has been developed around this premise.  Hmmm.  We spent the afternoon at Denham at Ocean World which is an open marine environment with a guided tour from Marine Rangers and it was excellent.  We all learned so much about marine animals and it was enthralling.  The tanks were all open at the top so we could stand around them and see in.  Refreshing after the commercialism of Monkey Mia.  Still blowing a gale and we happily retreated to the tent after dinner.

Our campsite at Denham

Saturday - Today we travelled to Kalbarri.   We stopped on route at the Shell Beach World Heritage Site where the beach is made up entirely of cockle shells.  Absolutely astonishing.  And then, just down the road, were the Stromatolytes at Hamelin Pool.  More astonishment.  Today we drove through very threatening skies and gale force winds, but not a drop of rain!  We set up in the van park ( not very nice but no other options here) and huddled in the tent against the cold.  This was a shock after being warm for so long.  I am back in jeans, my singlets have made a reappearance and I now have my Possum Fur jumper firmly in my sights at all time.  Won't be long before we need the heater overnight again.

Shell Beach - Shark Bay

Sunday - Father's Day!! Mal received  his new bait box and his fishing magazines and his badge which says "Fab Dad" which he wore all day, and we headed out to the Kalbarri National Park.  We walked to Nature's Window and to the Z Bend.  Just lovely in the sun and the wind has died down a bit.  Still need long pants but back to 3/4s.  In the afternoon we visited the Rainbow Jungle Parrot Breeding Centre.  It was so lovely.  The parrots fly around in a free flight aviary and they are so beautiful.  We sat quietly in the aviary and they flew all around us and over our heads.  We were the only visitors for a long time and the owner came and gave the girls almonds to hold up for the parrots to come and take from their hands.  Rachel managed to do it but Eloise was too frightened of them and couldn't hold the nut still in air for long enough. We took a drive down the coast road and went to many of the lookout areas and saw heaps of whales jumping about in the water.  The wind came back today and the day was cold.  We had fish and chips for dinner for Father's Day and jumped into sleeping bags for an early night.

Nature's Window

Thanks for all the messages of despair over my photos!  My girlfriend Lynwen who left Broome on Saturday to come down this way, stopped in the rest area and her family did a thorough search of the area with my directions.  She even made the people resting there check under their vans!!  She has posted signs in the toilet door in case anyone finds it - they had no luck with their search.  I have closure now that she has had a look - if she couldn't find it at least I know that it is not lying there in the dust waiting to be picked up.  If it was there, it is gone now so unless it turns up later, which is very doubtful, there is nothing now to be done about it.  Lynwen did tell me about her husband's pocket knife which got lost in his backpack and couldn't be found anywhere.  Two years later when he went to put something on top of the wardrobe the pocket knife fell out of the backpack!  If you ever see a little blue USB pick it up - it might be mine!

The good, bad and ugly for this week - the good would be the fish and marine life that we saw at Ningaloo Reef, the bad is that the weather is much colder here and we have become wussy having been in the tropics, and the ugly would be the commercialisation at Monkey Mia.
Dream Stealers - not very many this week - we get lots of comments about how we are mad going south and how cold and wet it is - well, it is colder but we have warm clothes and a heater for overnight and so far, the only rain we have seen was a short lived rain shower that helped clean the car while we were driving between Denham and Monkey Mia.  Mal has reminded these folk that we are not hanging around in caves with clubs in our hands and just because we are not in a caravan, we do have a heater that keeps us warm when we need to use it overnight.  We must be looking more like seasoned roadies now as we are attracting less Dream Stealers who are keen to destroy our plans.

A resting chair in the Kalbarri Nat Park - an extra photo just because I can!

We are still having fun and we are enjoying our time out here in the vast country we call home.  This week coming will see us hit the big smoke of Perth and then we will have just 4 weeks left till we are due home.
Until next time,
The Crawford Crew