Conquering the 'Nullabor' and breathing in the 'Eyre'

At 1,200 km's the Nullabor is vast and long.  The word means ‘treeless plain’ but betwen the nothingness there are a few adventures to be had.  Although our cars DVD player has broken, we made it across with our sanity intact.  I spent the time passing back food, colouring pencils, food, odd toys, and more food, while listening to Sam ask yet again 'How many more minutes will we get there'.

The first adventures was to visit the 19^th century ruins at Eucla, a town buried by sand.  Remains of the sandstone telegraph station built in 1877 are still there, half buried, and the kids had a wonderful time running around pretending to rescue all the people. 

Second exciting stop off was my first roadhouse shower.  The weather was too cold to strip down outside for our camp shower, but I was surprised to find that 3 dollars buys you 15 minutes of fabulous hot running water!   It is actually the longest shower I can ever remember having. 

Crossing the South Australian Boarder was a highlight.  Although again, I said farewell to my fruit and vege’s.  Some of which needed to be farewelled.  It is an odd experience, going through your fridge and pantry with a stranger checking for signs of life.   You find a rotting carrot, a half eaten orange, and something else unidentifiable so best really to hand it over. 

Final stop off was the Great Australian Bite to see the amazing cliffs drop into the oceans.  At head of Bight there are about 20 whales that live close to shore.  It is fabulous to see them rolling around, spurting water, and singing deep songs to each other.

When finally the Nullabor was conquered at ($2 a litre of petrol)  and we retreated down the Eyre Peninsula for a week, staying in little sleepy coastal villages.  While the Nullabor was a dry outback landscape, the Eyre Peninsula is rich green farmland, with hills rolling into the sea.  Here the sheep have the best view – reminded me of New Zealand.

Streaky Bay was a little haven where you could buy a very large block of coastal land for $80,000 or less.  Lots of development in the region with mining opportunities makes it a tempting investment opportunity.   Wonder if the banks here will lend money to a couple of travelling muso’s.

Just a little further south of Streaky Bay live Australia’s largest Sea Lion colony.  They looked like giant slugs laying on the beach.  Suddenly, one of them would come to life, waddle around to play with one of his friends.  They were affectionate creatures and liked to rub their noses together and cuddle each other with their flippers.  It really was a magnificent site.

Heading down the peninsula we stopped off at Murphy’s Haystacks …. yet another magnificent rock formation, but the kids just don’t seem to get tired of climbing all over them.  We just stand in awe of the age of our earth and it’s magnificent creation. 

 

At Lipson Cove we found a fabulous camp area on the beach, sourrounded by farms, the ruins of an old jetty, lots to explore on the beach, and a conservation island about 30m offshore.  One morning I took a walk on the beach to watch the sunrise (in my dressing gown).  There were thousands of birds on the island, lining up in formation and taking off in groups, soaring over my head.  It was stunning.   In the water below a dolphin was swimming back on forth.  The glow of sunrise was three sixty, with orange over the ocean in front of me, and pink in the sky on the green hills behind.    Then I returned to the caravan for the chaos of morning breakfast with the kids.

Last four days were spent at Mt Remarkable national park at the southern end of the flinders rangers.  John is missing gorges and mountains, so we are detouring there on our way to the Barossa.   Mmmmm…. Barossa, can’t wait.

John declares this his favourite type of holiday spot.  I remind him that we are on about the same latitude as back home in Newcastle, where we also have Gum tress, mountains and rocky creeks .  All this travel and he will still love to spend his time right where we live - good to know.

We have a map on the wall of our caravan where we have marked out our route, which also has pictures of Australian landmarks.   When Joshua saw the drawing of parliament house in Canberra he asked, ‘Mummy, is that a circus’.  I guess the shape of the roof and the flag on top does look a bit like a Big Top.   The political irony of his comment has kept us laughing for days.   

Meanwhile with the kids only carrying on the trip basic toys, and Amy not having a stroller for her dolls, she is carrying them around in a roasting pan.  Looking forward when we get home, and the kids enjoy resdiscovering their entourage of toys.  Thinking about home a bit more now.  But next up looking forward to the Barossa Valley, Adeleide and the Great Ocean Road, all in the next 2 weeks.

Ahh... The CITY!

Perth would have to be Australia’s most liveable capital city.  Small, clean and majestic with all the state capital trade marks - a cluster of iconic tower blocks, historic buildings, state museums, art galleries, and botanical gardens.   We had a chance to drive through the city at night and see the romance of the lights (not something you often get to do with three little twinkle stars in tow).  Definitely a place I will look forward to coming back to one day.   

We had sent John’s CD ahead to the radio station about a month earlier, and they happened to start playing it on air the very day we arrived!  Surely a sign that we are on the right path.  While in town John went to the station to prerecord an interview which will air in the next week or so.  He had a great time talking about the album and about being a song writer – living his dream.   

With the rain greeting us in Perth we spent the first few days in the library, museums, Scitech, and art gallery and DFO.  (Not sure that DFO actually fits the cultural category but still fun).   The highlight was the Perth Contemporary Art Centre where we all became part of an art work, dressing up in zebra pattern costumes of different colours, inside a giant blown up jumping cave, also decked out in zebra.   

The Perth Zoo was great value, and a fabulous experience for our little family – Elephants, crazy Orangatans, Tigers, Lions, Zebra’s, Rhino’s, Reptiles and all the Aussie favourites too. The rain managed to hold out for most of the day.

Finally with sunshine we hit the botanical gardens, with large parks for the kids to play and run.  Our brave Joshua injured his foot while attempting to go down a very tall firemans pole.  Poor little guy didn’t walk for three days, and limped for the rest of the week.  Amy was not happy to be sharing her stroller.

The highlight of our time in Perth was two days spent in Fremantle.   Tall ships lined the port, and yachts moored on the river.  The town was buzzing with art, music, markets and historic buildings.  It had a feel that reminded me of many European cities merged with Aussie coastal beauty.  John made some cash playing at the market bar there, so we enjoyed lived it up for a few days - a coffee on Cappuccino strip, Malaysian for lunch at the Shanghai Inn, where Sam learn to use chop sticks, fish and chips for dinner at Cicerello’s on the wharf.   I enjoyed a cooking class at the markets – some Kid free time. 

John visitied the Maritime Museum to see the plaque that Dirk Hartog left on Hartog island in 1616, along with shipwrecks from the Batavia and other amazing historic stories.  Tales of heroic survival beside  stories of great human suffering.  In the 1600’s Dutch explorers would come and chart the area looking for ships that had been lost in search of the spices found in South East Asia.   It is amazing actually that the west coast don’t speak Dutch, but the reports the early captains brought back were unfavourable – they always landed out of season and never really encountered WA’s resources or beauty. 

Eventually we had to leave the urban thrill of city life (or we would go broke!)   So we head inland and the take scenic wheatbelt drive on the way to Esperance.  It took us past Wave Rock, which looks like a giant wave about to crash into the surrounding bush.  The shape of the rock was carved out by water thousands of years ago.  It stands 15 meters high and stretches 100 meters wide.

Esperence is named after the French who were shipwrecked there in 1972.  The coastline is stunning.   We camped out of town at Cape Le Grand National Park and enjoyed a view of wild coastal scenery, rugged rocky peaks and crystal blue water.   The sand on the beach was so fine and white it was like salt when it was dry.  It also held it’s shape well.  The kids thought it was like snow, and we shaped it into balls and had sand ball fights and made a sand snowman. 

A side note for fellow travellers when the camp site sign says solar showers, don’t expect them to be even remotely warm in the middle of winter.

Time to leave Western Australia (goodbye 'DOME' coffee).  We are now at last heading east and our lap of the map is coming full circle.  Next stop, the Nullabor and South Australia.   

From bare feet to gumboots

Our chase of the infinite summer has come to an end, with the cold weather setting in, but we managed to catch a few last sunshine adventures….

Having missed the Great Barrier Reef because it was a bit costly to put us all on a boat to sail out to the reef islands, and we didn’t think the kids were up for it, we were excited to find ‘Ningaloo Reef’ on the opposite side of the country in WA.   This time the coral and marine life start just metres off the mainland.   It cost us only a few dollars for access to the national park to enjoy a day of snorkelling in safe tropical waters.  Once I became confident with the goggle and snorkel, it felt like I was floating across the reef.  The coral looked like giant cauliflower, or strange under water flower bouquets.  The fish were electric with colour and mesmerising to watch scurry around the reef.  

Heading further south to Coral Bay we took the boys Kayaking over the reef.   Late in the afternoon you could also hand feed fish in knee deep water.   They seemed enormous with shimmering blue scales.  One of them bit my hand while I was feeding him, later I found out they are called 'snapper' - and i totally understand why - his teeth left puncture marks and drew blood.   

I expected the WA coastline to be magnificent, and it is.  With the weather a little inclement it really creates a dramatic atmosphere.   The most amazing blow holes I have ever seen are just north of Carnarvon at Quobba.  This part of the coast has king waves and is famous to surfers around the world.   Too rough for us to enjoy a swim, although Josh went in – fully clothed, and was quickly dumped by a wave.  We camped here on the beach a few nights with a lighthouse on the headland and enjoyed a roaring campfire.  Seeing the lighthouse on at night left a big impression on Amy, who now talks about lighthouses often in her daily chatter. 

Shark Bay is world heritage listed and home to the famous dolphin bay of Monkey Mia.   We camped on the beach again, and went to Monkey Mia during the day to watch the dolphins play.  It was fabulous for the kids to see the dolphins in their own environment and get up so close.  John and Sam had the chance to hand feed them.  The feeding program is carefully controlled, only feeding the female dolphins – they are continually breastfeeding or pregnant so I can totally understand why they can do with the extra food.  They give them just a small portion of their daily nutrition requirement, so they continue to hunt for themselves, and teach their calves to hunt.   They breastfeed every 20 minutes!  Exhausting thought for anyone who has had a baby.

John has had his heart set on seeing ‘Natures Window’ in Kalbarri.   He had seen a picture in a magazine of a small family there, who were travelling OZ.  This photo had inspired the idea that it was time for us to go on the same adventure.  So of course we had our photo taken there too.

Geraldton signalled a return to civilisation –Bunnings and a real Target (not the country target kind).   We also enjoyed a catch up with a long time friend Alicia Conner and met her new husband. They are shortly moving to the remote town of Derby at the tip of WA.  We wish them the best on the next league of their life adventure. 

The Pinnacles are a massive collection of limestone rocks peeking though desert sand, it was like another world.  You are free to walk amongst them, and we decided with the three little kids the best way to enjoy the moment was a game of hide and seek.  A great memory.

It has been such a diverse two weeks - we have seen shipwrecks, wild emus, a skink, a thorny devil, shell crabs, star fish, coral reefs, blowholes, dolphins and amazing wildflowers.  Now sweaty days have turned cold and wet, arid ranges have turned into green rolling hills, bare feet have been replaced by gumboots, and picnics in the sun have been replaced with hot lunches in the caravan. 

Finally arrived in Perth now.  So ready to hit a city again!  They are already playing Johns music here on the radio, he has a radio interview scheduled for Friday, and is playing later that night.  Good things ahead.

 

Campfires in the Kimberleys

Finally in Western Australia.  I have always wanted to see the other side of our enormous country and watch the sunset over the ocean.   The state is huge!  We have already needed to use our spare fuel, just driving on the main route’s.   Thinking we were very experienced now – before heading down a dirt road John wisely gaff taped the vents outside the van to keep the red dust out – but three kilometres down the road we realised we had left a window open.  Lesson learnt.

Crossing the boarded to WA our caravan was searched by quarantine, we handed over a few pieces of left over fruit and a jar of honey, which left poor Sam in tears.  Hard concept for a little by to understand.  We did try to eat as much honey as we could in the days leading up to the boarder, but I was running out of ideas of things to put honey on.  

Western Australia greeted us with giant red rock ranges of the Kimberley’s sprinkled with boab trees.  It looks like the earth has opened up and pushed it's crust through cracks in the mountains to make long rocky shelves along it’s walls.

Our first stop after the boarder were Lake Argyle a stunning gorge lake.  They wanted to charge us over $50 for an unpowered campsite there, so we just had a quick picnic lunch, and left for Kunnunurra.  Weeks later we were at a free campspot and I heard Joshua say to some new arrivals 'this place is too expensive, you'll just have to have your lunch and then go'.  Budget travel has left an impression on him. 

Somewhere between on the road between Lake Argyle and Kunnunurra we lost Amy’s ‘Lambie’ – her precious little stuffed toy.  But thankfully after a sleepless night we found her the next morning at the local tourist information centre.

Lake Kunnunurra

From there we had intended on making a straight run for Broome but found a beautiful spot outside the Bungle Bungles to stop and camp for a while, with a lovely flowing stream for the kids to play in, and campfires every night.  I had been coping really well with pit toilets until one night my torch spotted a dozen large cockroaches crawling around inside the bowl.  From now on all my night time toilet trips will be done in our caravan toilet.

After a 900km outback drive west, we arrived at Broome and enjoyed our morning coffee on Cable Beach.  Voted number one beach in the world it has a long stretch of white sand and crystal clear water.  We returned to the beach that day to watch the sunset, and again the next morning for breakfast.  We also went searching for dinosaur footprints on the rocks which can be seen at very low tide. 

Cable Beach

Broome is where the dessert meets the sea.  It is stunning to see red outback dust turn into clean white sand.   As an old Pearling town and a casualty of bombing in WW2 Broome has a great history.  It has maintained a very multicultural feel from it’s pearling days with a great mix of people, and a retro little china town.  This is very unique for such a small country town.  John took the kids to look at the pearling boats while I window shopped in the jewellery store and enjoyed being dazzled by the pearl displays.  (John picked up a great little pearl treasure which he has tucked away for my birthday).

From the Kimberelys you enter  the Pilbara region which is rich in natural resouces and houses the mining towns of Port Headland, Karatha, and Tom Price.  The area has it's own beauty with red rock ranges, salt pools, mine plants, mud flats, red dirt, and white salt mountains.  We had commented to ourselves that the red rocks seemed like we were on Mars, and read a few days later in the paper that NASA was using the area to do some testing.  At night the plants are covered in lights, and appear beautiful in the distance.

We were looking forward to Karratha to catch up with the precious Sarah and Ben Morris and there two gorgeous munchkin boys.  It was a much needed half way stop for us, so we enjoyed the luxury of a home and great friendship.  Wonderful for the kids to all play together.  A big big thank you Sarah – at 31 weeks pregnant you were the most gracious host – thank you Fin and Fletch for sharing your toys, and Ben for washing our car and taking my hubby for a fish.

We had some great memories together, Dolphins in Dampier cove, Cossack Carnival, great Chinese takeaway, and watching the Staircase to the moon.  

Before leaving home we had read about the ‘Stair case to the moon’ – a rare phenomenon seen only in a few locations on the west coast at a certain time of the year.  The full moon rises over the ocean.  It was an amazing thing to see and so good to share the experience with Sarah and Ben.   We sat on the beach looking into the black night sky, then suddenly a bright orange moon peers into the horizon and rises over the water, leaving a silver trail on the sea.  The moon gradually changes in colour to yellow then white as it moves higher into the night sky.

Moon rising over the ocean

Hanging out with our friends in their lovely house, really gave me a taste for going home again.  First time I have really been looking forward to home since we left.  We are a few weeks ahead of schedule, so home is really not that far away.

Where the desert meets the sea

Endless Summer

At home in Newcastle it is mid winter, with so much rain that our bathroom ceiling is caving in!  Hard to imagine here as we sweat through 30 degrees, swimming in beautiful waterfalls, kyacking through gorges, and soaking up the culture and beauty of the Northern Territory.   John had planned the trip so that we left home before winter set in, to chase summer as we travelled North.   

Also spent a week in Darwin, a modern city with a deep history.  It has suffered the greatest of tragedies.  The first locaI I spoke – (for those that have been following our story, he was the technician fixing our caravan fridge) had said he and his family fled Darwin after Cyclone Tracey when he was a young boy, and he didn’t return until he was in his thirties. (The government order the evacuation of about 40,000 people from the city after the cyclone – I can’t fathom what that would have been like).  Since then the city has been gradually rebuilt.    A tough task as only thirty years earlier they were rebuilding after the world war 2 bombing of Darwin.  This creates incredible contrasts with most buildings built in the last thirty years, shadowed by a few monumental ruins from both the bombing and the cyclone. 

I hadn’t realised how strong the war history is in Darwin, particularly the trail up on the Stuart Highway
from Adelaide River.  It still has a strong military presence with an army base.   We took a walk through the oil tunnels built to store oil in 1942.  They were wet and we walked in puddles.  Joshua told other passing tourists ‘This is where they made water’ – somehow I think he’s a bit confused after all the educational exhibits we’ve dragged them through.

The greatest highlight of Darwin was catching up with our travelling Newcastle friends we’d met in Atherton.  The kids were thrilled to catch up, and the adults enjoyed a meal of fresh mud crab (great cooking Tony).    The Mindel Markets held at sunset by the beach are a cultural sensation.  Stalls of crafts and international cuisine, with a hundred people all on the beach to watch a perfect orange ball slowly fall and disappear over the horizon, lighting up the sky.   I had taken Amy for a walk around the markets, she found something pink and decided it was hers.  It took me a long time to find the stall it came from to return it.

Darwin’s waterprecinct beachfront was fun for the kids, with a crocodile free netted beach area, and a wave pool.  It reminded me of Newcastle’s honeysuckle with café’s restaurants and accommodation overlooking wharf and beach.  We also enjoyed the war monuments, botanical gardens, art gallery and museum.  So nice to be in a city again.

 Finally ready to leave Darwin we drive off to the sound of a V8 engine revving, and discovered it was us – that sound doesn’t normally come out of a Ford Territory.  It was the same problem we had had with our exhaust back in Tamworth.  We tried every exhaust place in Darwin, but they couldn’t fit us in.  With one last try before heading back to the caravan park John stopped into a tyre centre that looked quiet.  They were fabulous, put the car on the hoist, tightened our loose exhaust screws and sent us on our way for free!  Thanks Darwin we had a great stay.

There is a strong mix of aboriginal people in NT, it is still there home.  The cultural displacement is strongly evident.  They are beautiful, but there is a minority who spoil their reputation and create trouble in the community.   You can tell alcohol is a real problem, even older women - grandmothes - drunk in the streets through the day.   Young men drinking, shouting, wandering and loitering.  There is a lot of iddleness.  It is all product of the western society breaking down and in some cases destroying generations of cultural structure.  A long time ago we also moved in herds of or cattle to destroy the eco system they really on.  When you head into Kakadu, on the border of Arnhem Land, and you see the pride of the people start to emerge, the incredible rock art and stories help you appreciate the deep heritage cultivated over many thousands of years. I don’t know the answers, but I greatful to see all this with my own eyes and grow in understanding - with much more to learn.

At one of the Information centres there is a library and we take the chance to read the boys stories about the aboriginal narratives.  Joshua is taken by the rainbow snake, and spends the next few weeks talking about it, and we chase rainbow snake tracks on our walks.

The kids did some amazing bush walks.  We were told that the sunset at Ubir lookout was not to be missed.  Although sunset is 6.30, the kids bedtime, but we decide to push through on the walk.  The kids were bounding with energy on the climb up, but it was so late, they were really set for a big display of tired tantrums by the time we were headed back.  Sometimes three little kids on the road is a bit of circus, and we don’t know whether to laugh or have a break down.   I am taking photo’s of a magnificent sunset vista across the wetlands, while John is chasing after Josh who has run off to the cliff, Amy is crying for sheer tired, and Sam is having a melt down over not wanting his picture taken. 

 

Our last day in NT was 2^nd of July, and we take a walk to see a boab tree with a date carved in it by explorer Augustus Charles Gregory after he was shipwrecked there in 1855.  To our suprise the date on the tree also happened to be 2^nd of July only about 160 years earlier.  We are in the middle of our trip now, and we feel like we are in the centre of Gods will.

Now we are heading across to WA.  I am very excited, but also a little nervous.  I have been told the spaces are vast, and you have no idea until you experience it.  Meeting other famlies travelling on the road with their kids they have decided not to go across.   Still we head on excited about the adventure.