The Great Ocean Road

Flagstaff Hill Maritime Village

Warrnambool has quite a bit to offer on the sightseeing front, but we didn't have much time, so after a quick packup on Thursday morning we chose to visit the Flagstaff Hill Maritime Village, an interactive reproduction of 1850s coastal life. It was brilliant and we spent an interesting few hours there. The kids were fascinated with the old-fashioned printing process - a volunteer showed us how the typeface was set backwards and then printed a sheet on the press to show us the whole process. They also enjoyed feeding the ducks!

Hungry ducks

We managed to convoy out of Warrnambool without being rear-ended by the Prado and turned off to start the Great Ocean Road journey; also to start looking for a garage to fix our indicators and lights! The western end of the Great Ocean Road has the familiar scenery of the Bay of Islands, Martyr Bar, London Bridge and the Twelve Apostles (although collapses have reduced their Apostolic number). Frequent stops allowed us to enjoy the rocky scenery, although Pap, driving behind us, did not particularly enjoy trying to work out what we were doing with no lights to give him fore-warning! We re-instituted the old fashioned system of hand signals and managed to avoid any contact between the Prado and the caravan. Dad said it was a bugger as although he was driving our Prado, if we had an accident he would hit his own caravan.

Bay of Islands sea sculptures

We stopped at a garage in Port Campbell to try to get the situation remedied. The garage owner kindly fitted us in straight away - he was involved in a lengthy discussion with a local, and was possibly glad of an opportunity to escape! - and got on with checking all the wires and connections. He was slightly impeded by the boys all crowding around to watch but was good humoured about it! After half an hour he thought all was well, so we drove off. We had only got a hundred metres or so before Marcus's wild waving in the Prado behind us alerted us to the fact that nothing was working. Back we went. The mechanic again extricated himself from a conversation to assist us. After another bout of fiddling, spraying and jiggling, he gave us the verdict that it would work sometimes, it would stop working sometimes and that we really needed to buy a new connector, of which he had none. Right. Off we went again, and to everyone's surprise, the brake lights and indicators started working. This was very fortunate, as the Twelve Apostles viewing area could only be reached by an astoundingly busy car park. We parked without a rear-ending incident and walked over to enjoy the scenery. There were so many people there with the same idea that it wasn't particularly enjoyable and we decided to head off!

The Twelve Apostles

We drove the last leg into Apollo Bay through more green forest than you would have thought possible on the Great Ocean Drive along a windy road and it seemed to take forever to get out. Luckily no-one was car sick so we had the full team on deck to set up at the caravan park in Apollo Bay and all could enjoy the fresh fish and chips for dinner, which we rated in the Top 3 of the trip!

Cape Patton Lookout

Leaving the others to complete the packup the next morning, Mum, Lachie and I went back into town to get a few supplies. It is very handy having another vehicle! The convoy then headed north along the peninsular with commanding views over Bass Strait. Cape Patton lookout was our first stop, where we learned that the Great Ocean Road was built as a living memorial to the Victorians who served in the Great World War. It was built with picks and shovels and provided employment for many returned soldiers. We enjoyed the scenery along the coast and appreciated their efforts fully!

The cockatoos landed on Lachlan's and Jackson's arms
and drew blood!

Gran photographing the ceremonial toe dipping

We made a quick stop in Lorne to check out the jetty and ended up hand feeding the resident white cockatoos. After another lovely coastal drive, it was Torquay for lunch where we dipped our toes into Bass Strait. We were not tempted to dip anything further, nor indeed to double dip, as it was windy and cold. Victorians, however, are made of sterner stuff than us and were frolicking in the water; perhaps they were moving about so much to keep warm.

We gratefully installed Gran and Pap's GPS in the Blunderbuss and after a minor mishap in Geelong, followed Karen's directions in to Melbourne, with the Prado in hot pursuit. It was lucky that the brake lights and indicators were working on the bridges and Tollway! After some wending through narrow city streets, following (and narrowly missing) trams we managed to find the Melbourne Big 4 and checked in. Coffee and alcohol were necessary. City traffic and caravan convoys are not conducive to couple's composures. Oblivious to stress levels in the adults, the kids had a swim in the pool and quickly found the games room. Ella even managed to score a ride on the Big 4 golf buggy, so was very happy.

Stay tuned ...

The race to Warrnambool

After our late night at The Hoot, no-one was overly keen to get up and on the road, but we managed to drag the kids out of bed and hit the road by a not unreasonable hour!

Overly ambitious time-wise, we took a turn to go to the National Motor Museum, only to find it was many kilometres out of our way once we'd got started. We enjoyed the towns and villages on the smaller byways, but after buying some cherries and apples from a roadside stall we decided we'd better make tracks back towards the M1.

Jackson has now designed a Lego steam train

Hahndorf was just as attractive as it was last week as we drove through the main street again and back onto the M1 at Mt Barker. Pap was texting us as he and Gran travelled down towards our meeting point at Warrnambool. At one stage, they were embarking on a paddlesteamer on the Murray River at Echuca as we crossed the same river at Murray Bridge at the bottom of the state! We had lunch at Tailem Bend, where Jackson took a zillion photos of the restored steam train to help him build a Lego model.

The khaki-coloured waters of the Coorong are an important pelican breeding site, but it wasn't a particularly attractive drive along the estuary there. The marginal country improved as we neared Millicent where herds of fat cattle delighted Ella and we saw the largest windfarm in the Southern Hemisphere as we passed through. We arrived at the Mt Gambier vanpark with plenty of light left to set up on the large, grassy site - it was very relaxing after the last site where we felt like sardines. Lachie and Ella rescued a bird which flew into a window - and Lachie spent the next few hours worrying about it. He cuddled it until it warmed up a bit then lay on the ground near the caravan as it sheltered under there. Fortunately it flew away before bedtime which was far less upsetting than the scenario we were expecting!

The Pump Station at Blue Crater Lake

After packing up, we drove up to Blue Crater Lake, which is a relatively recent crater lake formed by a volcanic explosion only 6000 or so years ago. The waters are grey until November, when they turn a brilliant cobalt blue during the summer, which is the colour we got to see. A walking track and viewing platform (which we thought resembled a chess piece) were constructed there in 1919 and we were amused to note that the Chairman of the project was named Rook and the architect Knight!

FIRE! The oversized chess piece

We were due to meet Gran and Pap in Warrnambool so we got moving and were soon at the border, crossing into Victoria for the first time. The kids were excited to add another state to our tally but far more excited at the prospect of seeing Gran and Pap! Pap's texts added spice to the journey as it became a race to Warrnambool! We stopped briefly in Portland, Victoria's first permanent settlement for a chilly morning tea then drove along past drystone walls, historic stone buildings and lovely farmland before another short stop at Port Fairy. A 15th century Portugese caravel was moored at the jetty there, which held us up a little!

Notorious built by amateur boat builder Graeme Wylie

Whilst inspecting the Notorious, Pap texted their taking of the chequered flag in Warrnambool, so we drove the last 10 minutes before we spotted them in the Prado, waiting to join the convoy. They said later that they thought the Blunderbuss was going to helicopter up off the road as there was so much waving going on inside! They followed us to a van park (with difficulty, as they discovered we had no brake or indicator lights) where there was much exclaiming about how big we were. They noticed that the kids had grown too!! We confessed our caravan damage sins and we had a very relaxed evening catching up.

The Great Ocean Road journey is about to begin!

Stay tuned ... 

Having a Hoot in Adelaide

We were all roadweary and quite content to stay in camp on Tuesday morning. It was the smallest and most awkward site we've had to squeeze into, but at least we were protected from any wind. It was finally warm - about 24 degrees - so the pool occupied us (twice) and we managed to get a map of the city before trying to find our way back after zooming out for supplies. Jackson tried his hand at navigating. His verdict? "Stressful!"

One of the sweet shops in Hahndorf

Hahndorf, a small village of distinctly German heritage was our destination on Wednesday. We sailed merrily out of town with our new map and managed to get lost ... the map is a summary of the place, apparently, and many streets are missing! On the bright side, we had a lovely drive through Belair National Park (South Australia's first National Park) and the Adelaide Hills. Our little excursion through the hills lead us back to the M1 so we found Hahndorf in good time for lunch! The main street is lined with mature trees and it is a gorgeous town. Ella was thrilled as we had lunch in a fairy garden and Lachlan was in heaven with lots of sweet and chocolate shops lining the avenue. We spent ages in the German Candlemakers which was stocked with many traditional German Christmas decorations. The beautiful and intricate decorations are all hand-carved and many have mechanisms which spin with the heat from a lighted candle. No batteries required! Marcus and Jackson, with a gleam in their eyes, were reaching for their pocket knives before we got out of the door! If only we had found the German Wood Block shop, the caravan would be full of German-inspired Christmas decorations by now!

The Puppet Shop was another favourite

Detouring slightly, we visited Don Morrison, a luthier, and spent an interesting hour with him in his workshop. He makes resonator guitars, mandolins and ukuleles out of reclaimed Lysaght corrugated iron; aptly named "rustbuckets"! We ordered a custom resonator guitar ... and left before we could order a mandolin and ukulele as well.

727 metres - the summit of Mt Lofty

We drove up to Mt Lofty on the way home, the summit of which gives incredible panoramic views over the port, the city and the surrounding countryside. Memorials to the lives lost in the Ash Wednesday fires in the eighties sat at the bottom of the tallest Fire Tower in Australia. Volunteers staff this tower and hope that early warning of any fire in the area will minimise damage and prevent further deadly bushfires.

Adelaide Botanic Gardens

The possums were using our tent as their personal trampoline early on Thursday morning, so we got a cracking start on the day! The possums were probably surprised at their cracking pace as they left the roof of the tent, propelled by Dave, as they flew through the air and over the fence! We spent the morning organising busking licences and such, then decided to visit the Botanic Gardens. Rain was threatening but we managed to complete a circuit of the lovely gardens before it started. The highlights were the enormous Amazon lilies and the Church Engineering Department was most interested in the historic pre-fab iron and glass exhibition building. The Palm House is an exquisite, painstakingly restored Victorian glasshouse imported from Bremen, Germany in 1875. It is thought to be the only one of its kind still in existence.

Jackson's photo of the Palm House

The rain overnight was bizarre - it dripped and drizzled all night. At least it discouraged our possum friends from their nightly playground visit! Due to terrific good luck, the van was needed all day for servicing so we unloaded it and soon you could not swing a kitten in the caravan, so it was apparent that avoiding the rain in camp was not an option. We donned our coats and waddled off in the rain along the Torrens into the city, passing the zoo and more churches than we would have thought possible in that city area. Possibly the city was thinking the same thing about us! We spent the morning happily exploring the city and buying fresh book supplies. Although Confucius was correct in saying "You cannot open a book without learning something" we could add "You cannot open the caravan without being hit on the head by a book". We will have to send a few more boxes home to make room for Gran and Pap to join us next week! The Museum seemed the ideal place to avoid the rain for another few hours, so we spent an absorbing afternoon there. The Buss was ready late that afternoon and we were all glad of an early night. As we read, we heard Elton John on rotation and getting louder and louder. We were about to ask for the CD to be turned down when we realised it was the Elton John concert just down the road! Everyone in the caravan park had a free show.

We awoke to the sound of the monkeys in the nearby zoo on Saturday morning. They were having a fantastic time by the sounds of it! We had organised to go busking at the Central Markets on Saturday morning, but it was wet and we decided that we couldn't be bothered lugging all our gear for blocks through the city in the rain. The Blunderbuss is too high to park in the underground city parking lots! Instead, we drove out to a shopping centre where we got haircuts so the Hermits look less like the Beatles! After some abortive Christmas shopping - way too difficult with the 4 kids there! - we came back to camp where swimming, games in the park and handball occupied everyone until dark.

The HMS Buffalo

I spent my birthday morning trying to keep up with the delivered cups of tea and reading PG Wodehouse. I haven't read any since I was about 12 and was delighted to rediscover his comic genius. Dave got stuck into them too and soon we were all quoting passages to each other and crying with laughter. Jackson and Marcus were soon on board - that'll spin the reading material out a little further! We drove out to the coast at Glenelg, where we celebrated my birthday on the HMS Buffalo in the Captain's Cabin. Fantastic fun!

Monday morning saw the Hermits in costume again - busking in Rundle Mall. We lugged all our gear from the carpark to the distant mall and found a pitch. We hadn't done any street busking before and it was a lot harder than the markets. However, by our second set we had gathered quite a crowd and really enjoyed the couple of hours. Two Canadian girls loved the music and helped get the crowd going and a local musician invited us to come to the Hillbilly Hoot - a live community radio show. We knew about it and were going to go anyway, but it was nice to be invited!  After taking the instruments back to the car, we had a late lunch and checked out some more bookstores. We were on a high until we trundled back down to the carpark to find that we had a parking ticket! Back at camp, the kids had a swim and we relaxed for a while before heading out to The Hillbilly Hoot. We did a song live to air in front of the live audience of about 70 and were invited to do another. I had to join the "band" for the last two songs as this meant a total of 3 double basses on stage - a record for the Hoot!  The people were really friendly and we had a jam with lots of the musos afterwards. We had an absolutely fabulous time - we hope to return to Adelaide sometime on a Monday night so we can go again!

A rare photo of the Hermits in action - with Dingo, a ring-in!

Onwards on Tuesday - across the border into Victoria and we are looking forward to meeting Gran and Pap in Warrnambool on Wednesday. The Hermits will include 3 generations in our next busking efforts, although Pap doesn't know that yet!

Stay tuned ...

The Eyre Peninsular

Spending another day in Streaky Bay - ie not having to drive anywhere - was as appealing a prospect as winning the lottery (which co-incidentally, would come in handy about now!), but it was cold, windy and a fair drive still to Adelaide so we left on Friday morning.

Rock Formations

Murphy's Hay Stacks are an interesting collection of oddly-shaped, pink granite inselbergs in the middle of a wheat paddock just outside Streaky Bay. Local legend says that Murphy's Hay Stacks acquired its name from an Irish agricultural expert who saw this landmark in the distance whilst travelling on a coach. Apparently the learned Irish gentleman was very impressed and informed his fellow passengers that the farmer must have harrowed his land to produce such a great abundance of hay! We wandered around the Hay Stacks enjoying the sun and found a lovely fat shingleback lizard trying to escape notice in his camouflage clothing. He didn't take Eagle Eye Marcus into account.

What you lookin' at?

The Eyre Peninsular (western side) scenery included some rugged coastline, many ruined stone cottages and buildings, and drystone walls. The land was rocky, marginal sheep country and there were plenty of dry salt lakes to be seen. We had never seen any before this trip.

Port Lincoln was our destination and the van park we chose was huge, almost empty and located on the edge of Boston Bay. Our tent and van faced onto a fishing jetty ... so you can guess where Lachie disappeared to! Marcus and Ella went fishing as well and Marcus caught a lovely whiting, which Lachie filleted. The wind was howling and the freezing temperatures eventually drove us all back for hot showers and a retreat indoors.

Saturday morning started with a sleep in, although Lachie went out fishing. I joined him for a while, but it was colder than the evening before - is it really December? - and we went back to warm up. The wind was incessant and unpleasant, confining us to the caravan, tent and Blunderbuss. We were all dead beat, dog tired and done for after all the driving (almost 2000 kms since Tuesday) so we spent the rest of the day reading and had a much needed Hermits rehearsal. Lachlan discovered a novel use for the tuner ...  he can burp in concert E flat. Such are the lengths we go to for amusement when we are stuck inside!

E flat, Ladies and Gentlemen
A boy totally committed to musical development!

No-one would get out of the shelter of the
Blunderbuss to get in this photo!

The wind did its best to transform our tent into a zeppelin overnight, so no-one joined Lachie on the jetty on Sunday morning. He managed to lose one of his thongs overboard during a particularly vicious gust before losing his fishing enthusiasm in the icy gale. The locals are apologising for the weather - apparently it should be lovely at this time of year. It certainly isn't. In an effort to escape the vile wind off the bay, we went into town to have a picnic lunch near the sculpture celebrating the Port Lincoln-owned Melbourne Cup winner Makybe Diva. Makybe didn't seem to mind the wind but our teeth were chattering so we jumped back into the Blunderbuss to find something to do inside, somewhere - anywhere! - other than the caravan.

The marina was chockers full of boldly hued fishing boats which we duly admired from inside the Blunderbuss. The kids spotted the Leisure Centre as we circled around the marina and, as we were at leisure to stop, I took them inside for a fabulous afternoon of waterslides, the challenge of the inflatable rat race and the Tarzan Rope. Dave sat inside the Buss playing his guitar and all were happy. Well, I was a bit bored sitting on a chair but I think I may have mastered the art of looking fondly upon the offspring's antics while dozing! I was so cold I couldn't contemplate getting into the pool! After some more interior entertainment - draughts, accordion, drawing, and Ella wrote a list: Things I Miss About Home - we couldn't take it anymore so we drove off to find somewhere out of the bloody wind for dinner. The kids were very excited at the Mandarin - we rarely eat out and they have had a hankering for quite some time to try fried icecream! We enjoyed the meal but realised as Dave went to pay that he had lost his credit card. It was almost a long evening of dishes but I remembered my wallet was in the Buss.

We were all up early on Monday morning, thankful to pack up and get out of the infernal wind. Dave's credit card turned up at the office and the packup went smoothly despite the encumbrance of many layers of clothing ... until a huge gust of wind picked up the Oztent and deposited it on top of the Blunderbuss! That was a new packup scenario. We often leave a town wishing we could stay a little longer, but we were all pleased to leave Port Lincoln and its diabolical weather.

I would have thought the Nullarbor
would have been a Death Star, but
he made it through!

The Lincoln Highway took us north up the eastern coast of the peninsular. We made several short stops and reached the industrial centre of Whyalla for a late lunch, where the undeniable charm of the steelworks helped us decide to push on to Adelaide. We managed Port Augusta by 3:30 p.m. and were enormously cheered to see Paul French, in his stormtrooper costume, walking along the highway. He is walking from Perth to Sydney in full stormtrooper getup to raise money for charity. We had heard of his fundraising and were excited to see him. May the Force be with him! The highway was busy and we couldn't stop so this photo comes from Getty Images.

We were pleased for the extra hour of daylight saving as Adelaide was still many kilometres off. Dave drove on, musing that there would have been no way he could have driven so far at the beginning of our journey. We bypassed Snowtown (the Bodies in Barrels murder scene) which seemed a rather grisly tourist spot and laughed as we spotted the Loch Ness monster in Lake Stirling, just outside the town of Lochiel.

We eventually made it to Adelaide after 671 kms and found a central city caravan park by sheer luck just before dark. Also by sheer luck, they had one site vacant which we gladly took.

Stay tuned ...

Driving the Nullarbor

We were up early on Tuesday morning, filling all our water containers and packing ready for the long drive across the Nullarbor. After 200 kms, the turn eastwards onto the Eyre Highway at Norseman was encouraging - it is only 1986 kms to Adelaide!

Skylab in Balladonia

Balladonia was our lunch stop and we doubled its population in our short time there - if you discount the flies. Balladonia's claim to fame was being sconed by a piece of Skylab in 1979 and I suspect not much has happened since!

A little further along the track the road had a dual purpose - the verges were cleared and widened and the Royal Flying Doctor Service planes could land there on the emergency airstrip. The kids were disappointed nothing happened while we were on the "runway". It would be quite something to be tootling along the highway with a plane as your oncoming traffic!

The next spot of interest was the longest straight stretch of road in Australia. Although it was not hot, the road stretched out in front of us and disappeared in a shimmer of haze on the horizon.

We exited the straight just before the Western Time Zone where we lost 45 minutes, arriving at Cocklebiddy Roadhouse around 5 p.m. It was bare, freezing cold and not at all inviting, but we needed to stop so we set up quickly and sheltered in the caravan out of the howling gale. And we were expecting the Nullarbor to be hot!

Looking for a giraffe on the veldt

Highly trained squadrons of budgies entertained us early the next morning as they peppered the sky with specks of bright green. Ella was pretending to be a dog, and I held her lead to stop her from chasing the budgies, as I thought she would in her doggy way. "Likely not" she said, "They're too beautiful!" After a long drive unrelieved by any change in the scenery, we crested a hill at Madura and stopped to admire the view. It looked like the African veldt, but we didn't spot any giraffes!

We stumbled across one of the Nullabor Links at Mundrabilla so the kids played the Par 4 Watering Hole with a yellow plastic cricket bat and a pink tennis ball. As needs must! Marcus played it in 19, then 40 and the four of them played as a team in 29!

Tally-Ho!

A somewhat irregular golf swing -
a mixture of Tiger, Federer and Ponting!

We continued playing leap-frog with the Nullabor Postie as she did her vast delivery round. Most homesteaders were waiting for her and were on for a chat, so we passed her, and she us, as we drove the length of the Roe Plains.

Eucla Pass took us up onto the plateau with commanding views of the coast and thinking we'd have lunch by the sea, we took a 4km detour to the old Telegraph Station ruins, only to find the sea still at least a kilometre's walk away. There were 2 inquisitive emus there who followed us as we investigated the building.

The hall has not been swept for some time!

The Border village was just outside Eucla and we crossed into SA with very little fanfare - not even a welcome sign to be photographed there! - and lost another 45 minutes. The Great Australian Bight stretched out before us and we stopped at a couple of the lookouts to take it in.

We pushed on towards Nullarbor (roadhouse) and discovered there that it was an hour later than we thought due to daylight saving. We also discovered that we'd driven for 2 days, had consumed all of the "Nullarbor Lollies" from the Boulder Sweet Shop and had only just reached the Nullarbor Plain proper! Nullarbor was cold, very windy and not at all appealing, but they did have hot showers so we set up right next to another of the Nullarbor Links - the Nullarbor Nymph. The kids bolted with their golfing equipment to play "Big Golf", as Ella phrased it, and were gone until almost dark. They were protesting about it being too light for bed, but were all sound asleep fairly quickly!

Our favourite road sign

Marcus was due to have his phone interview for School Captain on Thursday (if we could find a payphone in working order at the right time - and if we could work out the right time!!) and his first comment of the day was "What time is my interrogation?" He hadn't slept much - he rarely gets nervous about anything, but this had him worried! At least he was quiet on the road!



A welcome diversion was the Head of Bight - a whale watching paradise in season and a spectacular lookout over the Bunda cliffs for us. We exited the truly treeless Nullarbor Plain faster than expected and then it was much the same as the other days ... flat plains and shrubby bush. We started to notice fences and then wheat fields just before Penong, where we stopped for lunch and to find a public phone. Our mobile phones are useless out here. To Marcus's disappointment, we found one in working order and so at 2 p.m. we rang school so he could speak to the interview panel.

A difficult first interview with a panel
and payphone ... and passing trucks!

Having a roadside interview in a phonebox was not one of Marcus's favourite experiences on the trip, but he spoke well and managed to answer most of the questions. He looked much better when it was all over.

Windmills and silos at Penong

Penong is known as the "Town of 100 Windmills" but try as we might, we could only count 36. Nearby Lake McDonnell has enormous gypsum deposits. 96% of the plasterboard produced in Australia is made from the gypsum from here.

We had to stop at the Ceduna Quarantine to forfeit the last of our fruit and then made a quick supply stop at the supermarket there, before driving to Streaky Bay (we were tempted to add "con") where we were more than pleased to stop. Guess what? It was cold and windy. The kids didn't notice as they played in the playground, happy to use the long hours of daylight. Dave and I sat almost comatosed in the caravan, feeling the effects of almost 2000 kms. Marcus received an email saying he had been selected as one of the two school captains, which cheered us all up and we celebrated with lemonade and chocolate!

We were on the road again the next morning, travelling the Eyre Peninsular on our way to Adelaide.


Stay tuned ...

Kalgoorlie

It was a relief to pack up and leave Esperance without being held up by a flat tyre! The new tyre rim looks very flash and is doing its job nicely.

Corrugated camels at Norseman

We drove through the wierdly named towns of Grass Patch and Salmon Gums (where the service station attendant told us it was 40 degrees the day before), then on to Norseman for our first break. We found that the town is named after a horse, who kicked up a nugget of gold while tied up overnight in the area. Jackson and Lachie had a great chat to the fellow in the information building and learnt about Nullarbor Links, the longest golf course in the world. It is an 18-hole par 72 golf course which spans 1365km along the Eyre Highway from Kalgoorlie in Western Australia to Ceduna in South Australia.  We won't have time to complete the whole course, but the kids' eyes  were gleaming at the very thought. Of course, we have a slight problem - about the only thing we don't have with us are golf clubs. We'll work that one out when we need to!

One of the lovely buildings in Coolgardie

The drive to Coolgardie featured salt pans and empty salt lakes. In years past, the local kids were prevented from attending school during winter when the salt lakes filled with water. Summer was harvest time so many could not attend then either! The sky became overcast and threatening as we had our lunch with the ever-present swarms of flies. We had a quick look at the historical buildings before making the final dash to Kalgoorlie. We set up and enjoyed a swim to cool off, although it was no-where near as hot as we had expected.

The evening's entertainment included a fabulous lightshow - a huge thunderstorm with lots of lightning, wind and thunder, but very little rain. It continued well into the night, disturbing Lachie in the Blunderbuss. We reassured him that he was safe as houses in the van and he toddled back sleepily.

Sunday morning dawned clear and surprisingly cool. Our tour of Boulder-Kalgoorlie started at the Boulder Sweet Shop, conveniently located on the way to the Superpit lookout. Dave thoroughly enjoyed the NZ sweet section and had difficulty choosing from his childhood favourites. We found out later that New Zealanders make up 7% of Kalgoorlie's population, which explained the comprehensive NZ sweet selection. The Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mine (KCGM) Superpit is a HUGE opencut gold mine. Alan Bond started buying up small underground mines in the 80's and although he bailed out in financial difficulties, the Superpit open-cut mine was eventually created in 1989. The Superpit is approximately 3.5 kilometres long, 1.5 kilometres wide and 360 metres deep - so big that it can be seen from space. It certainly impressed us - the scale of the operation is unbelievable.

A ute following one of the huge 793C Mining Trucks

We watched the huge machinery for ages. The kids were enthralled by the activity and the mind-boggling facts and figures on the interpretive boards.  For example:

PC8000 Face Shovel (for loading trucks)
Price: $10 million
Engine: 3714 hp (2 engines)
Fuel tank: 11 000 litres
Weight: 685 tonnes
1 bucket load: 60 tonnes
Maximum speed: 2.1 km/h

Drilling for the charges to be laid for the next blast

and the rather impressive tonka trucks:

793C Mining Truck
Price: $4.5 million
Engine: 2300 hp
Weight: 166 tonnes
Fuel tank: 3790 litres
Payload: 225 tonnes
Maximum speed: 55km/h

'Twas Mulga Bill from Eaglehawk,
 that caught the cycling craze ...

On the way home we stopped at the museum where we spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the mining exhibits and enjoying the 360 degree view of Kalgoorlie from the mining Headframe there. A handmade bicycle ridden by "Mulga Bill" interested us all. We're still not sure if he was nicknamed after Banjo Paterson's poem or if it was the other way around!

Monday morning saw us waiting outside the tour office in Kalgoorlie, ready to board the bus to tour the superpit. We spent the next 2 and a half hours being amazed at the size of the machines and the scale of the whole operation whilst struggling to understand our driver's Scottish accent.

Sporting a mo' for Movember

Incredibly, each huge dump truck carrying 200 plus tonnes of rock would average a piece of gold the size of a golf ball. To each load of gold-bearing rock, there are 6 trucks full of waste rock which gets dumped into the ever-increasing waste piles. As the tour ended the news came through that a blast was about to be detonated in the pit, so we drove back to see it. We had to wait for an hour, but it was worth it!

One of Marcus's 35 photos of the blast!

The kids enjoyed another swim in the pool in the afternoon although it wasn't exactly hot. We had expected temperatures in the mid 30s but our Kalgoorlie experience was a very pleasant 24!

Across the Nullarbor next. I suspect it will be a l..o..n..g drive, probably our longest stretch so far.

Stay tuned ...

Esperance and Flat Tyres

Our caravan site overlooked the beautiful Esperance Bay and Tanker Jetty, but all eyes on Thursday morning were firmly fixed on the caravan tyre. IT WAS FLAT AGAIN! Even the boys were starting to (slightly) lose their enthusiasm for jacks! Beaurepairs was just up the road so we treated the caravan to a new rim before heading out of town to Cape Le Grande National Park. Esperance is renowned for its beautiful beaches, regularly winning "WA's Best Beach", so we decided to check out a few.

Lucky Bay

Lucky Bay is a pristine white sand beach and is utterly gorgeous - except for the wind! The flies were thick there too, forcing us to swelter inside the Blunderbuss to eat lunch. Still, it wasn't far to the water. While we were lazing on the beach, a kangaroo bounded up and nonchalantly started feeding her joey next to us. We were spellbound!


The rocky headland was crying out to be explored, so we spent some time clambering over rocks and crags, enjoying the wind and the views.

Granite headland at Lucky Bay

Cricket at Hellfire Bay

Thistle Cove, named by Matthew Flinders, was equally beautiful but we drove on a little further to Hellfire Bay. How could we not, with a name like that! It was getting late so we didn't swim, but we did have a fantastic game of beach cricket in probably the most picturesque location we'll ever play in! Ella happily made another set of sandpeople (and cats!) before joining in with the game.


Tanker Jetty saw us arrive early on Friday morning as Lachie wanted to try his new fishing float and we all wanted to see a sealion. After some unsuccessful fishing off the jetty in very windy conditions, I decided to head back for breakfast. There, basking back on the beach, was an enormous sealion. We watched him for a while then went back to camp to get Ella and Marcus, who had chosen to sleep in, to come and see him.

What's for brekkie?

We had a quiet morning doing routine chores (and Dave took the spare off and put the new tyre and rim back on) before heading out to do Esperance's Great Ocean Drive to take in some more fabulous beaches. This is one place where the tourist blurb about the beaches does not lie!

Twilight Beach all to ourselves!

We stopped at Twilight Beach, voted WA's best recently, and lazed about in the crystal clear waters. The water was so clear and inviting that the kids could not resist looking underwater, resulting in saltily sore eyes. The last part of the drive took us past another Pink Lake, but this one was as blue as the sky. If we hadn't already seen a pink lake, we would have thought it was a con! It was time for some resting and relaxing after lunch as we are feeling the effects of far too many late nights. Ella and I washed the Blunderbuss and caravan and the kids had an enormous tidy up in their chair bags and inside the Buss. So it will be a sparkling, tidy rig that hits the highway tomorrow morning! Dave and the kids finished the day with a game of cricket with half the campground while I finished catching up on the blog. I'm glad so many of you are enjoing it as your encouragement keeps me (mostly) up-to-date!

We are going to test our high temperature tolerances in Kalgoorlie for the next few days, and then we'll be driving the Nullarbor!

Stay tuned ...