Family News Update (this may be the last...till next trip)

Aaron celebrates his birthday on Sunday turning 23.......He is heading off overseas next month for 6 weeks.
Russell and Sharyn are again proud grandparents. Nikki and John have just blessed them with a baby boy, Lucas Robert, born 5 weeks early but doing well.

Home Sweet Home

We arrived home today and found that the "Welcome Home Fairies" had been and left flowers, balloons,food and the banner on the door........makes me happy to be home amongst friends. Everything was in order at home as the girls had done a clean up too. I am very happy to be here...Keith on the other hand would have happily kept travelling. We will go away again but maybe not this year. We have had a great trip and lots of memories. I still believe that we live in the best state!

This will probably also be the last entry in this blog so thank you to everyone who has been reading it I have been reading other blogs and find they are very descriptive and much more "sensible" than mine. I have had fun doing it though.

Thanks to everyone who commented especially Tania and Brian who always seemed to find something to say.

As a wise man once said Never a Dull Moment.

Blackwater to Hervey Bay

We are now in Blackwater with Rachel and Travis and it is so good to be with them. It a short stay but we will be back later when their house arrives which should be the end of October. I went to school with Rachel this morning and helped her take her little band of children shopping. They go shopping every Monday to buy the ingredients to cook on Tuesday.
We are heading to Gladstone tomorrow to stay with Josh for two nights. Bernadette has not moved there yet but now has a job with Rio Tinto and starts there on 30 August.
We will be home on Thursday 19 August and I am working at the election.
As our car is still in Brisbane, Aaron is going to bring it up in a few days.
We will be home before we know it.

Mt Isa to Moranbah

We have had a drive through Julia Creek, Richmond, Hughenden and Charters Towers to get to Moranbah. I lived in Hughenden many, many years ago for a short time while my Dad was in the railway there. Of course I was too young to remember anything but it was good to have a look around at all these places.

It is good to be in Moranbah with Barb and Ian and staying in their house!!

YeeHaa

We made it to Mt Isa this morning and headed straight for the Rodeo. What a great day it was!! We are staying another night here.

Mataranka

Now this is the way to catch a barramundi.........this was at the barramundi feeding at the Manor Caravan Park, Mataranka. We, yes, both of us went in the hot springs at Mataranka. Keith loved it!!!

Back to Northern Territory

No we haven't gone back to the Northern Territory, but I realised I had got a little excited and moved on to Queensland before we had really left the NT.
While we were there Keith went swimming in one of hot springs at Katherine, I put my foot in and I was also tempted to hop in the swimming pool at the National Park at Katherine Gorge. The best National Park park we have been to. It was actually a caravan park which had this lovely swimming pool with a cafe and live entertainment.

Queensland Today Yay

Well, I thought we would be in Queensland last night but alas, one more night in the Northern Territory. We worked out we only actually stayed in the NT for 7 days.....just a short cut from WA to QLD.

Homeward Bound

We have just had lunch at the Three Ways are about to turn left heading to Queensland. We will be spending tonight in Queensland. How exciting!!

Our Change of Plans

We have decided not to go to Alice Springs and Ayres Rock this trip...........yes, that means there will be more trips but much shorter ones in the future.
It is still quite cold down there and amongst other reasons we have decided to head for home, yay! So I am not flying home as originally planned and I am staying with Keith till the end!
We are in Katherine at the moment, actually, staying at the Gorge which is very nice. We are in a caravan park in the national park, with power and everything! Even a lovely swimming pool in a grassy area. There is a cafe and live entertainment. What more could you ask for? The only trouble is it has turned cool and too cold for swimming today.
We heard that the Mt Isa rodeo is on this weekend so have decided to hot foot it to be there on Sunday. After that a few towns along the way before Moranbah, Blackwater and Gladstone to visit the family and home by 19 August.
That is the plan anyway.

We did a boat cruise through Giekie Gorge and lovely it was. Freshwater crocodiles were lying on the banks.

False Alarm!!

My computer is working again............just one of the inexplanable glitches!
I am going to try and add some photos now.

Farewell WA, Hello NT

We have made it to Katherine and have yet to have a look around. I am in the library doing this as we have discovered our computer is not working.
I have also worked out how to compress my photos and put them on in the bus but now can't do it!! Always something.
At least the weather has been a bit cooler the last couple of days.
We lost an hour and half crossing the border so we ahve nearly caught up to Queensland now.

Broome to Kununurra

The pool at Lake Argle Caravan Park............a million dollar view!

In Kununurra, I checked out the Argyle diamonds......maybe I will get one for our 50th wedding anniversary.

Well we made it to Kununurra through the delightful towns of Fitzroy Crossing and Halls Creek. It has been soooo hot travelling that I have even had to put the chocolate in the fridge.
The highlight through the Kimberley was our flight over the Bungle Bungles......I stepped outside my comfort zone and hopped into an 8 seater plane. Very brave of me and we both really enjoyed the spectacle. The worst part was stepping onto the scales to be weighed before the flight!!
After a night in Kununurra we went to the Lake Argyle Caravan Park for two nights and did the boat cruise on Lake Argyle, a huge expanse of water.
We have not had much phone reception, mainly in the towns as we are passing through, so no email either. Consequently I have not been able to update my blog.
The bus is going well especially after Keith did oil changes at Lake Argyle.

Goodbye from Broome

Yes.........we have left Broome and are now in Derby. It is good to be back on the road and on the homeward journey. It is rather hot now so we will only travel in the cool of the day...I hope.

Keith has a new part time dog.........Diesel a Max look alike

I was giving some hints of Sun who is travelling around Australia on her push bike

We went reef walking and found all sorts of marine life.

We have tried all modes of transport.

Posing at the Lost City, Barn Hill Camp

Good News from Broome

Yes, the good news is that the gear box arrived right on time and Keith has been working on putting it in since.
We have decided to stay here until Sunday and we will be heading for Derby where some friends we have met along the way, are broken down in their Nissan Civilian!! Yes same bus and they are two girls so hopefully Keith can help them.
I am still trying to put photos on............thought we came up with a new way but it didn't work. I will keep trying though.

The Real Broome

We have been doing our usual walks around the town and have come to realise that Broome would never win the Tidy Towns award. There are bottles, cans and all sorts of litter scattered around the place. There is broken galass everywhere. It is a very unkempt town and don't think the council has ever mowed the footpaths. It is very untidy. There are some lovely parks around, very green, but not a seat, table or BBQ.
Apart from that it is a nice place!!

Bad News from Broome

We are still in Broome with no gear box.
On enquiring, we learnt that it was in Brisbane.........just what we weren't expecting. We thought it would travel via Darwin and Broome but apparently because it wasn't marked as Express, it is coming the long way!
The girl at NQX was very helpful and has tried to expedite it. With a bit of luck it should be here by Thursday. Then is has to be fitted which Keith says will only take a day but......!! We will then be on the road again but will probably be here another week.
As we keep saying we could be in worse places.
We have been for a swim today and while the water was freezing it is hard to believe we are in July and swimming!
Keith has now gone to do some fishing with some other campers.
Fish for tea.............I don't think so.

All About Broome

Now that we apparently live in Broome.......we are starting to know all about the place!!
Actually we have just had some good news.............our new gearbox is on it's way from Rockhampton, yes, Rockhampton, Qld. We are still waiting to hear back from the place in the Wait Awhile state! We are still not sure how long it will take but we will be here for another few days at least.
We are starting to settle in and I thought about getting a job........well, it was a very fleeting thought.
Broome is not a bad place to be broken down in. We are close to Town Beach which is nice on high tide and then there is the world famous Cable Beach which is about 7klms out of town. It has very white sand and is a very wide beach. Popular for camel ride and sunsets.
The Prison is right in town as is the airport. It is a bit like Cairns a long time ago.
There are also numerous pearl shops. By the way I did score a beautiful pearl for our 30th Wedding Anniversary.
There is the town centre and another shopping centre with Woolworths and about 30 speciality shops.
Apparently the fishing is not as good as advertised. The fish are being caught but before they can be pulled in the sharks get them.
Anything you need to know about Broome.......just ask!

No Go McDonalds

Went into McDonalds today to post some photos............would you believe ice cream machine was broken and wi fi unavailable. How dumb is that!!
We are heading down to Cable Beach this afternoon with Matt and Tracey to see the famous sunset.
Will have to go back to McDonalds later in the week to try again.

Goodbye Broome, Hello Broome

Yesterday we said farewell to civilisation, friends, power, TV reception etc etc to continue our journey.
Alas, 30 klms down the road, Keith detected a problem and we came to a sudden holt at a roadhouse. On inspection he found that there is a problem with the gear box and we drove back into Broome in 4th gear.
So back to civilisation, friends, power, TV reception etc etc for goodness knows how long. Between Keith and Matt they are hoping to fix it before too long but with the weekend looming, who knows.
Unfortunately it is still raining too!! But "all part of the journey".
I may even get into McDonalds to add some photos!
Never a Dull Moment

Another Recipe.......

I have not made this but have tried it and it is y-u-m-m-y.....and very easy too.

ICE CREAM
600 ml cream
1 tin condensed milk

Beat together until thick. You can add anything you like........chocolate, chocolate bars like milky ways, crunchies, caramel, chocolate sauce, crushed biscuits.

You have to use full cream as light doesn't whip so it is full fat!!!
It makes about 1 litre I think.

Go Queensland

Tonight we are having a State of Origin party here at the PCYC. It turns out that they have a big TV screen and have also loaned us the BBQ. Unfortunately we can only watch it at 8.30pm so no telling us before hand!!

We had "The Best Hump on Cable Beach"

or that's what the slogan says.........camel hump that is and it was fun. There were lots of surprises on Cable Beach..............old nudists who had obviously been there a lot, cars, camels and even lots of people.
It is a beautiful beach but we went for the sunset and it was too cloudy last night.
We then went to the open air cinema and saw Bran Nue Dae. It is like a local aboriginal movie which was a take off of aboriginals. It was made in Broome and I thought maybe only shown here but apparently not. We had a few laughs!

It's Raining, It's Pouring.......

It is not supposed to rain in Broome at this time of the year but it has been pouring today. This is probably one of the wettest days we have had since we left home at 5pm on 14 January!!
Our camel ride has been cancelled this afternoon so we will try again tomorrow.
It has happened again...........I went into Coles this morning and bumped into a friend of mine!!! She is one of the Directors of Torbay and is here for a few days with her daughter!! I couldn't believe it.

Did I say before that there is another couple here from Hervey Bay and also a man last night from Pomona. There is actually a number of Qld number plates in this park and we are trying to organise a State of Origin party for Wednesday night although it is all over bar the shouting.

And as Brian says Happy Gail=Happy Keith.

Family News

Rachel and Travis went to Townsville for a week to visit Travis's brother Lee, Rebecca and Addyson. Rachel is not going to be in Hervey Bay these holidays. Their house is now progressing after a slight delay.
Josh has started a new job in Gladstone with Coates Hire based at the aluminium plant.

Broome

We have arrived in Broome and have decided to stay a few days. We arrived last Friday and came straight to the "overflow" caravan park as we were told there were no vacancies anywhere. It is quite good and close enough to town for us to ride.
We haven't done a lot but we are going to Cable Beach tomorrow to do the camel ride. Keith was to go fishing in a kayak today but the weather has been overcast and windy so it was cancelled.
I have checked out all the pearl shops and hopefully will come away with some sort of a souvenir!!
We are hoping to get to the open air cinema to see Bran Nue Dae which was actually made in Broome and is supposed to be good despite being an Australian movie!
We will probably stay until Thursday so Keith can watch the State of Origin. There are a few Queenslanders here so we might be able to have a party. We are actually parked with the family of friends of ours from Hervey Bay so it is good to have company. There is also another couple here from Hervey Bay!
Never a Dull Moment.

Barn Hill Station Stay

We spent two nights on Thangoo Station at Barn Hill. It is a 430,000 acre working cattle property with 85 klms of coastline so a very nice position. They have set up a caravan park which would be a little gold mine as there seemed to be hundreds of caravanners, motorhomers etc there. (I think I have my facts right!).
It was a very pleasant place to stay even though we had to drive over about 10 klms of red dirt to get there. There was plenty of red dirt once we got there although some of the regulars have little lawns happening. Many people go there for months during winter so they have their own little cliques but I did get invited to the Craft Group..........me!! Idecided not to go, I didn't want to show the other ladies up.

The Rafters

You will be pleased to know that I wangled my way into "Stuffin" Barry's caravan to watch The Rafters with him and his wife, Lesley. Barry quickly earned the nickname because of the number of times he said "stuffin". I guess I should be grateful that is all that he said.
Anyway I wasn't disappointed and thoroughly enjoyed the first episode.

Boring, Boring, Boring........

That is how I see the last few hundred kilometres!!! Keith on the other hand is enjoying evey inch of this wide brown country. Just as well someone is!!
It is nice to call into the towns but in between there is just miles and miles of nothing!!
Port Hedland was just as I was expecting...........a very dirty town but it is so dry and dusty.
We are presently camped in another dust bowl, next stop Broome or maybe Barn Hill Station which is about 8o kilometres from Broome. It depends on the state of the road. We were going into 80 Mile Beach today but the road was too rough for us.
I guess I have to get used to these long dry stretches as there is still more to come..........or do I!!
I did want to have power tonight so I could watch the Rafters but it wasn't meant to be although I did mention that to the man next door with the satellite dish so I am waiting for an invite!
Other than that it is all good!!!!!!

This photo does not really do justice to the Stairway to the Moon. We really needed Tania here with her "big lens"! The full moon reflects on the low tide and it is very impressive. We were lucky to be here just at the right time.

Another dust bowl where we camped on the way to Karratha.

A nice block of land in Dampier!! The place should be called Boulder I think. There are mountains of rocks everywhere.

Keith the Snorkeller.

This park at Quobba Point was set in and around the sand hills and there were caravans and motorhomes everywhere as well as

permanent shanties.

Cape Range National Park, Osprey Bay where we camped for 3 nights. Note the absence of any trees.

There we were stranded by the flooded river. The catchment area had it's annual rainfall in two days and this was the result.

Karratha and Surrounds

We are currently staying in Dampier approx 20 klms from Karratha. We were going to stay in Karratha but after being told that it was $44.50 a night for a powered site we decided to try Dampier. What a rip off!! Worse than Exmouth. This park is a community park and you are restricted to staying 3 nights so we are staying 2. It is right across the road from the port so can see the ships docked and it is only $24 a night. Bargain!!
There are so many mine sites and gas fields around this area it is amazing. There must be so much work here and so much money. Apparently you can buy a block of red dust for $450,000 and then build a house on it for about the same amount! The good news is that if you choose to rent it out you can get $2,500 a week for it!! Unbelievable.
Karratha has K MArt, Coles and Woolworths and quite a lot of other shops as well as McDonalds. Yes it looks like I will be paying a visit tomorrow so will post some photos. I can taste the thick shake now!!
It also has the advantage of being on the coast.

Moving right along.......

We are heading for Karratha but I didn't tell you about the experience getting into Cape Range National Park. We stayed at Yardie Homestead which is a property that has been transformed into a caravan park and about 17klms from the park gate. We were in the "overflow" because they were so full so no power....$22 a night.
We had been told about lining up to get in the park so we were up at 6.20am and waiting at the gate at 6.45am!! There were 5 in front of us. The ranger then comes at 8am after they have heard from the camp hosts about vacancies. Luckily we only had to line up one morning! It is very popular and once you are in there you can stay for up to 28 days and you have priority. Many people are turned away apparently.
The caravan park in Exmouth was $39 a night.........what a rip off!
Tonight we are in a roadside camp but we do have phone reception. Yay.

Keith the Snorkeller

Is there such a word...........anyway, Keith has a new passion, snorkelling. We have just stayed three nights in the Cape Range National at Exmouth. We had heard about the snorkelling so I gave Keith the gear for his birthday.
We were camped in a beautiful spot right on the beach and he could snorkel right where we were staying.We also went to the Oyster Stacks for him to snorkel. Apparently it was awesome. He couldn't believe the size, colours and variety of fish that he was swimming around with....almost indescribable.
I "happily" sat by and watched........not one to go outside my comfort zone, otherwise known as a sook.
I couldn't help but think how much Josh would love to be here knowing his love of fish and all things fishy.
Exmouth itself is not very impressive and quite expensive but it is nice to be back in the land of communication.
Tomorrow we head towards Karratha. It is very warm here........about 27 degrees.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Happy Birthday to Rachel for tomorrow, 20 June.
Sorry we can't be with her.





Image Martha Stewart

No Phone Reception

We have found that we don't have phone reception at a lot of places out here in outback WA and we are heading into the National Park at Exmouth and won't have service for a few days so no blog for a few days either. As for Mc Donalds I don't think I will be seeing one of them for a long time...........maybe Broome, I don't know.
To all my concerned friends............I have recovered quite well from my fall and the bruise isn't quite as bad it it could have been thanks to the first aid from my quick thinking nurse.
Last night we spent in a roadside park beside the flooded Lyndon River. We could have crossed late in the day but then it would have been late getting into Coral Bay.
We made it into Coral Bay early this morning and did the glass bottom boat trip to see the coral on the Ningaloo Reef. They were very excited because there was a whale carcass amongst the coral and the tiger sharks were still around eating it. It was a worthwhile trip.

There has been another fall.........

Today, it was rainy so we waited until after lunch to go for a ride. We rode into town about 5klms and then at my suggestion we rode the extra 3.5 klms to see the mile long jetty...........because we have never before seen a long jetty!!
Unfortunately, as we were leaving, down I came off the bike again. Ouch!! Big briuse. The worst part was I then had to ride the 8.5klms back to the caravan park. I have just mastered swinging my leg over to get on and off but still not very steadily.
I would hate to see what I would do to myself if I fell off in full flight!!
Keith makes a very good nurse.
Never a dull moment.

We are at Carnarvon

We haven't had much of a look around yet but it is not such an appealing town........a bit like Cloncurry if you know what I mean!! We will stay here tomorrow night as well so that Keith can watch the State of Origin. We have just seen it advertised for 8.30pm here 10.30pm over there.
This is one of those caravan parks where everyone knows everyone and all come here year after year apparently. They all have name plaques in their windows!! Cute. One lady arrived at the same time we did towing a caravan and would be in her late seventies I would say. A great effort. She had to get the man from the park to reverse the caravan in but still..........
We are still heading north and looking forward to seeing Exmouth and Broome.
The bus is going well now and hopefully we won't have any more major dramas. We were lucky we had it fixed in a day once we got it organised.
Yes, Brian, Monkey Mia was busy with many people lining up to feed the dolphins, expecially at the 8am feed. You had to be very lucky to be picked as they only allow each dolphin to have two fish and there are only 3 or 4 dolphins to be fed.

On the road again............

We are all fixed and on the road again.
We are at Monkey Mia at the moment leaving later this afternoon. We weren't going to come here but heard that it was lovely so we thought we should check it out for ourselves even thought it is over 100klm detour. We didn't really come to feed the dolphins as we have done that in Tin Can Bay but we did see some. You have to be picked to feed them. It is a beautiful place.

We are currently in Geraldton sitting in McDonalds waiting for the bus to be fixed.

I very generously allowed Keith to go to the Salinig Museum in Mandurah by himself!

Margaret (my old school friend), Russell & I in Fremantle

The latest in reading lamps...........Very romantic too

The lovely little fishing villag of Dongara/Port Denison we were stranded in. It could have been much worse.

At least we saved some petrol

Help is on it's Way

We are being trucked out of Dongara tomorrow courtesy RACQ. There is an engineering works in Geraldton who are going to make some new springs as they can't find any to buy in.
Hopefully it will work out.
We are hoping it will all be fixed tomorrow but if not we will have a night in Geraldton..............in a motel!
In the meantime, we have been pedalling around here and enjoying the outdoors!

H-E-L-P!!!!!!!

Does anyone have a couple of spare leaf springs they could drop over to us????????
We have been stopped in our tracks with these springs breaking. Luckily we were in the nice little town of Port Denison and not in the middle of nowhere. Unfortunately though, there is not much here and nothing open yesterday when it happened and it is a long weekend in WA this weekend. Apparently today is Foundation Day. Why don't we have a holiday for Queensland Day which happens to be the sme day!
We can't even start to try to have it fixed until Tuesday. All we could do was pull into a caravan park and this is where we could be for a while! All part of the journey apparently.......
Brian, maybe you could rent the bus now as is!!
Luckily I insisted having the TV antenna fixed and guess what is on at the moment...........the football, Broncos v Manly, so Keith is happily watching that.

Old New Norcia

Last night we stayed at New Norcia and did the tour today. It is a mission town founded by Benedictine monks in 1846 and is still operating today. The whole town is the mission so very little there but there is a hotel!! We did see one monk!!
We drove on to Cervantes which is the closest town to the Pinnacles so some more sight seeing tomorrow.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Happy birthday to Keith for 31 May.
Happy Birthday to my sister, Debby who turns 50 on 6 June. Sorry now everyone knows!!
Happy Birthday to my niece Sam, wo turns 21 on 10 June.

Perth

We are in the lovely city of Perth catching up with old friends. Had tea last night in Fremantle with my old school friend, Margaret and her husband Russell, who are living in Perth. Today we are staying with an ex RAAF friend Bugs Burrows and his wife Stephanie. Great to catch up with friends.
We are staying in Perth until Wednesday. The drive up the coast from Fremantle is beautiful especially on a lovely day like today.

Some Stats

We have travelled approx. 13,500 kilometres.
We have spent more on food than we have on diesel.............guess who is in charge of food!!

There is currently the Cow Parade happening in the Margaret River area. It is a world class event where artists design a cow and then they are placed all through the district. These were a couple of the best.

Keith climbed this tree - 51metres - I was only pretending believe it or not.

The French backpackers we illegally drove in the bus........just couldn't resist! What do you reckon!!

The happy group at Cosy Corner

The steps to the ANZAC memorial in Albany Keith made me climb!

The wind swept look on our walk from Lucky Bay to Thistle Cove near Esperance.

Some photos..........

We are staying with my niece Julie, her husband Gavin, Jordyn 12, Robbie 7, Ella 5 and Royston 3.........and even staying in real beds. It is delightful. The kids are gorgeous and I am Nanna to Royston........I like the ring it has to it!!
I am using their internet to put some photos on the blog.

Here is Ella asleep with our dog, Matey!!

Margaret River

We had heard a lot about the Margaret River area and I have to agree that it is a lovely area especially if you like wineries. They are lots and lots of them. Keith's mate has an organic winery, Settlers Ridge. They have a shop in the town of Cowramup, affectionately known as Cowtown, so we didn't actually get to their winery.
There are also a lot of spectacular beaches. We are at Yallingup which is another small coastal town with lots of big, expensive looking houses.
It is overcast but no rain today which is good for us. The countryside is very green but not always like that apparently.

The Present

At the moment we are at Prevelly........a beach about 7 kilometres from Margaret River. It is a shame it is cold and windy and there are a few showers around. We will probably only stay one night here. It is a lovely area around here and Margaret River is a trendy little town which was quite busy today being Sunday. There is no one at Prevelly only a few sailboarders and kite surfers.
Tomorrow we are going to a winery near here, Settlers Ridge, which we have just found out is being run by another RAAF mate of Keith's.
We will be in Bunbury on Wednesday and after that Fremantle and Perth.

Black Gold

On Friday we visited an old RAAF mate of Keith's (Al Blakers) and he owns and operates Manjimup Truffles....otherwise known as "black gold". They are worth a fortune and a lot are sent overseas. The season here is only three months June-September. They are also grown in France and Italy.
Now we have all the secrets on how to grow them but..............you really need to know what you are doing.
It is hard to believe why they are worth so much money and they actually look like a chocolate truffle (I presume that is where they get the name, the chocolate ones I mean) but they grow in the ground on the roots of trees. They use dogs to search for the ripe ones. They weren't quite ready so we didn't see the dogs at work.
Very interesting. He is laughing all the way to the bank apparently.

Cosy Corner

Cosy Corner turned out to be a very cosy little corner.
As I said when we arrived Tim, Caz, Harry, 5 and Coby 4, were already there.
We then met
Dennis and Inge a young Dutch couple in a little van travelling around Australia
Jan and Peter from Coolum. Jan is an acclaimed artist.
Bec and Lani from the Gold Coast a couple of musos travelling the country as Serene Addiction......watch out for them at a venue near you! They had a bus the same as ours but not as nice!
Nathan and Sylvain, two French backpackers.
We were going to stay one night and ended up staying three! They were all such good company and we lit campfires which were actually not allowed and the girls sang! The French boys stumbled in on the last night and had walked from Albany about 25 klms! They were starving so ate everything they were offered. We then took them to the next town the next day.

On the road again..........

Luckily I have the trusty mechanic on board and the bus is fixed and we have left Albany. Not that we have gone far only about 40 kilometres and staying at a free camp site called Cosy Corner. We have just met up with a couple again who we camped beside about two weeks ago. They are from Torquay, Vic.
We have visited the Old Whaling Station and the Natural Arch and Gap which are quite spectacular. We also saw whales in the water here where we are staying!! Not bad hey!!

Albany

We arrived in Albany yesterday, about as far away as you can get. We decided to go to Emu Beach to stay the night.......still part of Albany just separated by a big hill. What a lovely place it was. We enjoyed a long bike ride along the bike path along the coast (despite the hills and wind)!!
We were heading further but Keith detected a problem with the alternator so we decided to stay in Albany tonight and hopefully get it fixed tomorrow.
Other than that all is well...............
Never a Dull Moment............

Recipe

I have decided to share a recipe of Chocolate Self Saucing Pudding that I have been given. It is good for us on the road when we have no power. It is very similar to the one I have at home but no creaming the butter and sugar!!

CHOCOLATE SELF SAUCING PUDDING
1 cup SR flour
1/4 cup cocoa
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
60 grams butter, melted
SAUCE
1/3 cup cocoa
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 3/4 cups boiling water

Sift flour and cocoa, add sugar and stir. Whisk together milk, egg and butter. Add milk mixture to dry ingredients. Place in 1.5 litre dish.

SAUCE
Combine cocoa and sugar and sprinkle over batter. Pour boiling water over mixture.

Greetings from Esperance

What a lovely place this is!! We spent last night in the national park at Lucky Bay and have now come into Esperance to stay for two nights. We will hop on our bikes tommorow and do some investigating.
It is a beautful part of the WA coastline.

Our trip continues...

Today, 10 May (sometimes the date is not quite right on the blog), we leave Kalgoorlie for the cold south west of WA starting with Esperance but we may not quite get there today. We can't rush these things!

Mothers Day. Hope all Mothers had a special day. Mine started off with cooked breakfast, we then went for a ride around Kalgoorlie, had phone calls from my three lovely children and we finished off with tea with Keith's cousin, Kerrie and Rhonwyn.

Kalgoorlie.........best known for The Superpit and working brothels! This is not the Superpit!!

The big rig......that is not Keith in the photo!

The rugged coastline of the Nullabor. It was a little chilly at the edge.

Some Photos compliments of McDonalds

Keith and his mate Graham at the end of the Nullabor.

I have learnt that............

I can read in the bus.............helps pass the time!
I can knit in the bus............. I am not up to taking orders but have knitted one baby bootee....any takers!
Mobile phones do not work after falling in the "water closet"! I have just had to buy a new phone!
McDonalds have power points so not only am I using their wi fi I am using their power! How good is that!!

Family News

Rachel and Travis are the proud owners of a block of land in Blackwater. They are now planning their house.
It is Bernadette's birthday today.

We made it............

We made it over the Nullabor and it wasn't near as bad as I was expecting. It is 1200 kilometres from Ceduna to Norseman and we took three days to do it. Can't rush these things!! There was so much traffic on the road, mostly semis and caravans but cars, motorhomes and a couple of motorbikes.................never a dull moment!
We haven't had phone reception for the last couple of days.
We travelled with Graham all the way and we were like his little support vehicle. We are dwarfed by his rig and it's size attracts much attention. I will post a photo when I get a chance. We can't actually fit the whole thing in one photo! On the back of his truck, he has a motorbike and a workshop.
At the moment, Keith and Graham are watching the football on his "big screen" TV while I use his power to do this.
We are heading to Kalgoorlie tomorrow and Graham is going to Perth. Boo hoo... we will be our own again but may meet up with him again in Broome. He has a boat and has told Keith he will take him out fishing.

Goodbye Ceduna, Hello Nullabor

Today we leave Ceduna and head for the Nullabor. We are lucky to have been adopted by a fellow with the taj mahal of fifth wheelers............his outfit is 21 metres long, ours is 21 foot (7 metres).
It looks like he has chewed us up and spat us out as the only resemblence is the colour scheme!!
What a beauty....I can actually see myself in it! He has put extra water on board for us and has also told me that we will have satelite TV across the Nullabor, what more could you want. I have made a curry for tea to compensate!
He has crossed the Nullabor before so we appreciate his experience, he, he

Mouse Update

Today, I have seen one live mouse, 7 dead mice and no blind mice.....ha,ha
Still hate the thought of them being around.

Mouse Plague.............what mouse plague!!

Apparently there has been one but we have made made it to Ceduna and have only seen three dead mice so far!! Keith thinks I am paranoid!!
We have had no power for the last couple of days so haven't been able to post any news.
We have been at Farm Beach which I am sure you haven't heard of. We hadn't either until we made contact with Lorraine and Keith Felton from Hervey Bay and met up with them there. It is a great fishing spot and Keith was lucky enough to go out in the boat with Keith and a local fisherman. They came back loaded up with 36 King George Whiting and a couple of Rock Cod. We had cod for tea tonight and it was very nice...............even better beacuse Keith cooked it.

A Day to Remember......

The day we got television reception!!! Now I am not too hard to get along with but........I do like a little bit of TV when I can. We have had no reception up until now but after much insistence from me and much "trying to fix it himself" by Keith, he rang the antenna man and presto....we have TV reception. We can only watch it when we have power so it will only be every couple of days but better than nothing.

The view from the small caravan park where we are staying. It is very nice thanks to the CWA. We are hoping to have a tour of Tumby Bay this afternoon in a clydesdale drawn carriage.

We are staying at Tumby Bay another night. I am at the library downloading some photos. The community library is actually the school library so I am here surrounded by little darlings.
It would never happen in Qld, you would need a blue card but............anyone can come here.

Here we are out enjoying dinner for our wedding anniversary.......it is scary how much Keith looks like his father!!

30 Years Today

Today Keith and I are celebrating out 30th Wedding Anniversary!! A long time!! We are at Tumby Bay, a little fishing village about half an hour from Port Lincoln. It is a nice little spot with not much here and we are staying in the CWA caravan park right on the beach. There are only 4 parks but it is a nice spot. We were going to the restaurant for tea tonight but because it is a public holiday it isn't open so it looks like the pub for tea......oh well as long as I don't have to cook.

I'm Back..........

Back in Adelaide and soon back on the road. Keith and I are heading off today after spending another two nights with Cee and Terry. We spent Easter with them and then I flew home and Keith spent the two weeks around the Riverland area..........we both had a good time.
Cee and Terry are great hosts and we will miss them when we finally leave.
More later....

We put our bikes on the Cockle Train.

Hello...........!!!

This sign frequented the Great Ocean Road.

I joined the bollards on the foreshore in Geelong.