May 08

All too soon it was time to bring our road trip to an end and head back to Perth, although we wanted to make one more stop on the way. Approximately half way along the Great Eastern Highway we turned south to get to Hyden, the main town near to Wave Rock. It’s a pretty cool lump of rock which has been sculpted by the wind and rain to form a near perfect wave shape. We stayed the night there in a National Park cabin, seeing again the amazing night sky with minimal man-made interruptions.

Wave Rock:

The next day we covered the last 330kms or so back to Perth, where we stopped in the city centre at a swanky suite as we had as very special day ahead of us – Fin’s 8th birthday and our 10th wedding anniversary. It was lovely to have so much space and we also had a kitchen, a laundry and best of all – a dishwasher!! After 8 months of washing dishes it was luxury! (Sad, I know!) After opening lots and lots of presents Fin requested some aussie animal interaction for her special day, so we headed off to Cohunu Wildlife Park to visit lots of kangas (with joeys in pouches, sometimes upside-down with their legs sticking out rather than heads), wallabies, wombats, emus, black swans and very cute snoozy koalas, all free to roam around the park with you and really a bit too friendly in some cases! We managed to have yet another WA attraction to ourselves – Chris said ‘How wonderful of you to arrange another private visit!’

Mummy and (very large) baby:

Koala cuddles:

Returning home to the balloon covered apartment we had more pressies (including a wonderful box of chocs delivered from my mum), a birthday tea party with ‘Vienetta’ cake, received calls from well wishers and watched a movie until bedtime, so hopefully it was a good birthday. Chris and I mumbled ‘Happy anniversary darling, can you believe it’s been 10 years?’ before promptly falling asleep on the sofa, which we have come to learn is the legacy of getting married and having a baby on the same date!

We celebrated the following evening however, as we stayed at Jan’s and she very kindly offered to babysit so we could go to the cinema and see the new Indiana Jones movie – WOW do we feel up to date!! We had a lovely lunch with her, Kathy, Jenny and assorted grandchildren and managed to see Richard before we left too, so it was great to be able to say goodbye to everyone.

All that remained was to wash a month’s worth of red dust and flies of the car and hand it back before heading to the airport and our flight to Sydney - we realised we had done almost 6000kms in a month. We felt so sad leaving Western Australia – yet another place we have felt so at home in, mostly due to the Pengelley hospitality as always, and the welcoming friendly attitude we encountered everywhere. Sadly I can’t recommend it at all, as I hope it stays just as we have left it!!

See ya
All love CRFS xxxx

If you look up ‘Gold Rush Town’ in a dictionary, I wouldn’t be surprised if it says ‘see Kalgoorlie- Boulder.’ It is a picture perfect example that lead us to wonder if we had wandered onto a film set – Chris said ‘are we at Disneyland already?’ But this is all real, left and restored as it was built at the turn of the last century. It is definitely still a mining town – right next to the town is the Superpit which sits on the Golden Mile, one of the most expensive pieces of land in the world, due to the rich gold seam running beneath it. We took a stroll to the Superpit lookout, confident we had seen ‘big’ things but goodness that’s a BIG hole in the ground - 300m deep, 1.5km wide and 4 kms long (and still digging!)

The Kalgoorlie Superpit:

Next we went off to the airport – not to catch a plane, but to look at a very important one – that of the Royal Flying Doctor Service. All the time we were driving around WA we were thankful that this amazing service (again thought up and started by one man with his plane) would be there to help us in a medical emergency. State health funding has a lot of ground to cover when only 2 million people live spread out on 2.5 million square kilometres and so outside Perth the only cover is what we would call ‘cottage hospitals’ back in the UK – they can cover simple broken bones, chronic conditions, clinics, maternity, and care for the elderly etc, but anything acute is almost certain to need air-lifting to Perth as none of the regional centres have intensive care units. They also provide an unprecedented back up to the mining industry – which could not operate safely without their services - and run outback clinics on stations and aboriginal communities deep in the bush too. The RFDS planes are kitted out with 2 beds and 2 chairs, enabling them to carry up to 4 patients at once, and have all the same equipment as a modern emergency unit – as a result they cost a whopping US$800,000 to kit out, on top of the $6 million for the actual plane itself. The government give them a grant to cover around 80% of their operating costs (something which is a very hot topic here as it is ‘Budget’ time) but new equipment is financed solely by their own fundraising – needless to say we spent heavily in the shop and left a donation, knowing that had we had an accident in the last month we probably would have needed a plane dispatched from Kalgoorlie.

The priceless Royal Flying Doctor Service:

The following day we decided to do at least one non-mining related activity and went horse-riding. This was part of Fin’s birthday treat but we were mindful of the weather forecast back in Perth – 20 and rain v 27 and sunny in Kalgoorlie! So we headed off for an hour’s amble through the dust, Sadie perched on a natty plastic ‘kiddie seat’ strapped on to the front of my saddle, Fin and Chris on their own. Of course Fin ended up with Bingo, the stereotypical little fat cheeky pony who tried to snack on every patch of green we went past, but she did really well, hauling his head up and telling him off, and was very pleased with herself when we got back!

As it was 100 years ago and still is today– on horseback in the outback:

After that we were out of mine-free options and so ended up at the Mining Hall of Fame, which chronicles the history of mining in the area with big section on Paddy Hannan who had been one of the first to strike gold in Kalgoorlie and also CY O’Connor’s dream of the water pipeline from Perth which sadly only became a reality after his death, but is so cool to see it stretching along the side of the road - literally bringing life to the Goldfields. Also at the museum was the chance to go down the original underground shaft drilled before anyone realised quite what a huge deposit it was, which the girls thought was very cool. They also loved watching the ‘gold pour’ and got to pan for gold themselves finding a couple of specks to their delight.

The gold pour:

The next day, mindful of the time ticking down to our flight to Sydney, we had to head back to Perth, but were sad to leave Kalgoorlie and all it’s amazing history.
See ya
All love CRFS xxxx

From Karijini we continued on to Newman and then began the long trip back down south. It took 2 days to do the 1300kms along a small strip of bitumen surrounded by red dust, passing through a lot of nothing occasionally interspersed with a tiny town with one street of services. It proved to be surprisingly expensive to find a room for the night in these places – most of them pleasant little drinking towns with a bit of a mining problem, so it was NOT preferable to be on a campsite on a Saturday night – and hotel/motel bills are paid for by mining executive expense accounts.

We took the opportunity to observe the OZ transport system too. With virtually no rail network to speak of most of the outback region relys on everything brought in by Road Trains – huge long distance rigs pulling 3 or 4 big trailers behind – signs are posted limiting the length to 53.5m (how very precise!)

Incoming supplies:

Something else we noticed was the painting of a strip of wide white lines parallel to the central thin one, similar to a zebra crossing – perplexing until we saw the sign saying ‘RFDS – Emergency Runway’!!

Multi-tasking tarmac:

Shortly after that we saw yet another warning sign for one of Australia's most lethal attractions...

...and started a ‘Road Kill Chart’, notching up roos, sheep and birds, with the scavenging dingoes and huge wedge-tailed eagles clearing up the mess. The numbers started really going up on the stretch from Meekatharra to Leonora – it seemed to be absolute carnage, maybe too many people drive at night along that road, despite all the advice about being mown down by road trains and having Skippy land on your bonnet during the hours of darkness.

Just before we got to Leonora the red dust started to change to a sandy colour instead – we were coming into gold country. One place we did stop was the deserted ghost town of Gwalia. Gold rush fever hit in the 1890’s and the town flourished to a population of 1500 people, albeit living the simple life in the traditional miners tin huts. When the mine closed in 1963 the company sent a train from Kalgoorlie (some 230kms away) to transfer the workers ready for the next operation to open up – basically if you didn’t get on that train you were stuck in the middle of nowhere, and so most people picked up what they could carry and left. The result was that in 2 weeks the town was deserted, and houses, shops and facilities were left as if they had just gone away for the weekend. Thankfully it has been preserved as it was left for the last 40 years, providing a fascinating look at life back then, although it was really quite spooky too.

Gwalia's ghostly Guest Home:

Late in the evening we pulled into Kalgoorlie and collapsed into bed, feeling slightly sheepish that 2 days travel should have exhausted us so, after some of the journeys we’ve done this year!
See ya
All love CRFS xxxx

As we left the beach suddenly the world turned red. Not just the land we were driving on but it looked as though trees, buildings and even animals were covered in fine brick dust. We carried on until we reached the town of Tom Price, in the Pilbara region, where the reason for the redness became apparent. In the 1960’s a man named Thomas Price came to the area convinced that there was iron ore worth mining in them thar hills. Despite opposition from the other members of his company he persevered and was eventually rewarded with one of the richest iron ore fields in the world. The closed town set up for the mine employees was named Tom Price on his premature death, as was the mountain they then proceeded to dig a big hole in. Iron ore is, of course, the main component in steel and thanks to the construction boom in the newly emerging asian countries – China in particular – WA’s iron ore mines are almost as valuable as gold. Rio Tinto is the main player in Tom Price and so we hopped on a tour to see what goes on.
It is absolutely mind boggling. The size of the machinery is immense and being an open cast mine it has a huge visual impact. Despite the fact that our children are girls, they were still impressed by the size of the trucks, although showed their feminine side by really, really liking the one that was painted pink!! (a breast cancer charity is one they donate lots to.)

Mine machinery WA style:

A job in the mines holds no stigma in Australia – far from it, salaries are big ($60,000 for a newbie truck driver) and accommodation, health care etc are still subsidised even though the town is now ‘open’ to all. There are many young Australians who ‘work the mines’ for a couple of years to get capital to buy houses etc elsewhere.

As we won’t get to the Northern Territory and the cultural nirvana of Uluru on this trip, we were anxious that the girls should learn something about aboriginal history and customs in Australia. So we went on a walkabout with Wilana, a local girl who told us of her family’s history and old customs of bush tucker and medicines, but was also very forthcoming about the role of the indigenous population in modern Australia, and their relationship with the local government, all of which was very interesting too.

Walkabout with Wilana:

That night at the campsite we were just heading off to the loos when we were accosted by a couple of locals – we were wary, but apparently they are more interested in Weetabix than anything else…

After a couple of days it was time to move on, this time further inland to Karijini National Park, the best kept secret in OZ. We spent 2 days exploring the different gorges and pools, staying the night at the bush camp inside the park – beautiful to see the huge night sky undiluted by electric lights, but a little un-nerving listening to the dingoes howling at 1am! The NP is stunning, most of the hikes are 1-2kms so the girls got plenty of rock-climbing practice, although the thing with trekking down into gorges is then you have to climb back out!

Dales Gorge:

Joffe Gorge:

As usual here we pretty much had the place to ourselves, and by luck more than judgement always seemed to be finishing the trail as the ‘Explore’ group headed in – we had been playing ‘tag’ with them all week!

See ya
All love CRFS xxxx

From Monkey Mia we had an overnight stop in Carnarvon and then it was full steam ahead to Exmouth (NOT a small town approximately 2 hours south of Bristol, but a TINY town clinging to the eastern edge of the Cape Range peninsula!) As the air and sea temperatures have both soared as we've moved north we stopped for lunch and a swim at picture-perfect Coral Bay on the way up, but then decided to press on to the big enchilada up north. Since we hauled out the atlas some 18 months ago, NW Australia and in particular Ningaloo Reef was a ‘non-negotiable’ stop, because the whale sharks would be in town. The mass spawning of more than 200 species of coral in March/April each year is part of a chain of events that draw the world’s biggest fish to Ningaloo Reef – one of only a few places in the world where they reliably appear regularly in any numbers, in waters easily accessible to observers. Whale sharks are harmless filter feeders, appear to be solitary animals and can grow up to 18 metres in length, although those encountered at Ningaloo are mostly immature males between 4 and 12 metres long. Very little is known about whale shark numbers, behaviour patterns and life cycle, and being fish rather than air breathing mammals they can dive to great depths for indefinite periods of time, leaving only speculation and mystery behind. So on arrival in Exmouth the very first thing we did was book ourselves on a boat!

The day dawned sunny, hot and windy – hmmmm not sure about that on the open ocean. Fin and Sadie were very keen to come too and as they are now both outstanding swimmers we had no real worries. As we were waiting to get on the boat a pair of Ospreys eyed us suspiciously, they’ve got chicks in the nest at the moment. Hopping on board, we motored out through a 2m swell thinking maybe we had been too hasty…but not to worry – as the first whale shark of the day was spotted Fin leapt into 40m of big blue without a care! What a star! (Sadie, being a girl who likes to take her time getting into the water, decided to watch a while to see if anyone drowned first!) He was AWESOME, so beautiful, gliding along below us, gently waving his tail from side to side while we had to do the 100m front crawl in record time to keep up with him. In fact it was pretty difficult as this photo shows!

Our pic of the rear end of a whale shark:

Someone else's pic of a whale shark:

We got to swim with him 3 more times, and on the last swim Sadie was brave enough to come in too, which was so cool as the ‘snorkel squeaking’ stepped up a gear. Sadie’s such a good luck talisman, on that last swim we also saw a massive turtle swimming next to the whale shark too – the shell was an amazing 1m in diameter.

Ningaloo Reef isn’t just a haven for whale sharks – we also saw 3 gorgeous manta rays, several more turtles, a pod of dolphins and dugongs too. Chris went diving a couple of days later and also saw some big black tip reef sharks, turtles (yawn!) and a myriad of beautiful fish which we also saw snorkelling around the reef. Chris and I both thought it was far more diverse and better stocked than the parts of the Great Barrier Reef we saw 12 years ago, and we were glad we decided to come up here rather than make time on the East Coast. Adding in the amazing white sand beaches of Turquoise Bay (among others in Cape Range National Park) and the usual WA lack of other tourists (‘so where the bloody hell are ya?’) meant it was a no brainer.

Returning to the tent we saw emu’s walking along the road in town and through our campsite! The caravan park was great, with non-stop hot showers, and a fantastic camp kitchen with ovens! Go the jacket spud! So it was no hardship to spend the best part of a week up here – it’s a funky little town and there was a trampolining place across the road, so the girls were happy too! In one of the little shops in town we found a book called ‘Jinormous Jack’, written by a local, all about the amazing whale sharks and trying to guess what they make of it all, so from then on ‘our’ whale shark was known as Jack!

In the end we had to move on, and waved goodbye to Jack and the lovely west coast.
All love CRFS xxxx