Esperance W.A - 27 to 31 Jan 2013

Well! Change of plans! We were about to head off for a couple of days free  camping only to discover that the water pump is not pumping water and can't free camp without water!  So,  here we are!  In Esperance W.A. in a caravan park, waiting for a replacement water pump.

First night we spent in a caravan park here, we probably picked the worst van park. The "drinking"water had sand in it and tasted like S@#T! The pool was full. ......full of sand.....lol!  And creepy!  Needless to say, we made a quick move to a different park the following day. Better for the kids too. Jumping pillow and playground.

Esperance even has their very own ocean visitor. Sammy the seal. He is a big fat seal who sleeps most of the day away on the local beach beside the jetty waiting for fish scraps from the fishers.  You are not allowed to get to close to him, so we were above him on the jetty. Declan was sitting on the edge. Wouldn't you know it! Declan's thong slipped off his foot and landed about 50cm from Sammy the seals head!  He was mortified!  A nice young men braved Sammy the seals fury. He snatched the thong quickly away from Sammy, who snapped up his head and growled at him. Very lucky escape for the nice young man and very lucky for Declan to get his thong back ;-)

Esperance was a lovely. Lovely beaches. Spotted some kangaroos at a local beach. Lots to explore. We took our first drive on the beach in our 4×4 ;-) that was fun!

We went for a swim in the beautiful blue water. I even ventured in. It was very cold above the water but not too bad if you stayed low in the water. Kids loved it. Even Declan ventured in for some body surfing.

Anyway our longest stay yet, the pump arrived and we were able to head off again. A little disappointed since it is so beautiful there  :-(

Next place, some free camping.

Caiguna blowhole

This blowhole is made from the weather on the Nullabor.

Head of Australia Bight, S.A.

About 50 or 60 calves are born each whale season here. If you visit during whale season you're guaranteed to see a whale.

Mundrabilla W.A. - 24 Jan 2013

Stayed at a free camp site just outside of mundrabilla. Wind was wild and kept Paul awake most of the night. I've taken to wearing ear plugs and usually have a good night sleep now ;-)

Gained 2 hours when we crossed the border so the kids can now go back  to their normal bedtimes since it gets dark at 7.....hooray!  we were all up at 5am this morning....even me!  So we were back on the road by 7.

Lots of roadkill along the highway and surprisingly, lots of foliage. I was expecting red dirt desert on both sides of us.  There are also lots of emergency airstrips along the highway too.

Today it is raining. Our first rainy day of driving. Hopefully we'll get enough of it time wash the car and van ;-)

Made a mistake prior to leaving our last caravan park stop. I assumed Ewan knew what I meant when I asked him if water was coming out of the van yet whilst I was filling the tanks. He said yes it was coming out. I told him to turn it off then and away we went soon after. On inspection of the water level at our first stop, I discovered we only had a little water in our tanks. Paul asked Ewan where he saw the water coming from. It was dripping from the hose he said.  As a result, we need water! Grrr!

Nullabor Plains roundhouse

This is all there is to see in the town of Nullabor Plains.

Diesel was $1.97 per litre. A packet of Doritos chips cost $5.80. Needless to say, that was lunch......lol!  Oh and bowls of cereal :O

I've had no reception for the whole of this trip across the nullabor. I'm with virgin, who use Optus towers and Paul is with Telstra. He has had a a bit of service in some spots.

Sceale bay bush camping - 19 Jan 2013

Worst free camp we have stayed at. We thought we'd be on the waters edge only to find we rnt.  We followed a dirt road to get here, got a  flat on the 4x4 in the process. Could have driven to another site if we didnt have the flat but we r stuck :'( off to streaky bay in the morning to hopefully get it fixed.

Kalgoorlie - 25 Jan 2013

Woke up from our free camp site to an 11º this morning. A bit chilly taking my shower.

We are about 2 hours out from Kalgoorlie, heading there now and will probably spend Australia Day there.

Spent the day checking out the gold mines super pit. Those big wheels that declan is standing beside cost $26, 000 each!  The diggers and cranes in the pit looked like they could be collected and kept alongside Declan toy cars. That's how small they looked from where we were standing.

We spent some time learning aboutvtge royal flying doctors service too. They were just taking off when we arrived so we weren't able to have a look inside one of the planes :-(

Crossing the nullabor - 23 Jan 2013

Apparently camels are a real pest in
W.A. Can't wait to see one. We are on the lookout.......

Streaky bay / Ceduna S.A. - 20 Jan 2013

Well, packed up early and headed into streaky bay. Was looking pretty quiet in town when we arrived. Then it hit me.....it was Sunday!  Nothing was open, except the service station. Paul stopped to fill up and was told there was a mechanic in town that might be able to help us, but it was a little early for anyone to be working on a Sunday morning. So, we pulled up at the local skate park. Paul cooked us breakfast while the kids played on the skate park and I took photos ;-)

The mechanic was able to help us but he would have order in the new tyre as the flat had had it. Couldn't repair it.  Tyre probably wouldn't arrive until Tuesday. So we thanked him abducted headed into ceduna, the last biggish before we cross the nullabor.

We booked into a caravan park for three nights just outside of town. Shelley beach.  We picked the best viewing spot, which was very windy.  The mornings were very calm. Water was very still and there was minimal wind. Come late afternoon though, that wind really picked up!

We ordered two new tyres on Mon morning, had them fitted on Tuesday morning. And here we are on Wed morning heading across the nullabor.

Port Lincoln - 16 - 18 Jan 2013

Another beautiful spot. Stayed at the caravan park there for three nights. Had a great walking track. Made use of it 2 out of the 3 mornings we were there. Temperature reached 44º on the 2nd day. Spent that day shopping for school books and hardware to fix the microwave. The microwave had worked itself lose on the dirt roads. Paul bought some antiflap straps to try and stop the awning from blowing around with the strong winds. Kids and I ventured into the water to do some snorkelling. It may have been 44 outside but I'd say that water must have been about 5º. It was freezing. Needless to say it was a quick dip.

On the 3rd day we went swimming with seal lions. An early start, we headed out to a cluster of islands near port Lincoln. We squeezed into some wetsuits. And let me tell you, they were extremely claustrophobic!  We grabbed flippers and snorkels and headed into the freezing (again) water. It was even more colder than the previous day, even either the wetsuits on. The seal lions mimicked everything we did. If we dived down, they did too. If we did rolly pollies, they did too. There were a couple of shy sea lions. They just floated on the bottom and kept an eye on us. We weren't allowed to touch them because they may bite. If we swam into shallow water we weren't allowed to stand up or raise our shoulders too far out of the water as they might have thought you were getting ready to fight and they may attack. But none of those things happened. The kids got cold a little too quick and headed back to the boat so they didn't get as much out of it as Paul and I. A real shame, but we got some photos.

Weather turned a little cold after that and have been in my jumper since.

Port gibbon - 15 Jan 2013

Beautiful place. Parked right on the edge of the cliff at the beach. Very secluded. Was a little windy up top but beautiful down below.

We played game of beach cricket and a game of beach soccer before dinner.
We saw a couple of girls riding their horses in the water.

Paul spotted dolphins on the morning we were going to leave. On his jog on the beach he rounded the corner and received one hell of a surprise when the rock he was about to go around turned out to be a huge seal. Great spot!

We all wanted to stay another night but needed more water and needed to empty the toilet....lol!

On the way out, we stopped and had a run up the sand dunes. Then Paul took the kids to see the seals he had bumped into that morning.

Fitzgerald bay - 14 Jan 2013

Free camp at Fitzgerald bay. Found a great spot. We were able to park close to the water. Only a handful of other overnights there. The kids created a makeshift tennis court and tried out their tennis rackets, followed by a game of cricket.

Took a stroll in the water when the tide was coming in. It came in and covered some of the trees. An unusual site to see ;-)

Snowtown, S.A. - 14 Jan 2013

Scary town. This is the town of the barrel murders!

I walked into the bakery to buy some bread only to be told the only had one loaf of bread. I asked if I could have other sliced. The sales clerk inquired with the staff at the rear of the shop and I was told no! I couldn't get sliced bread from here. I said i thought this was a bakery? She said, If I wanted sliced bread I would have to go to the iga down the road......what the? She looked rather scary so I wasn't going to temp murder!

Also had a windmill farm that they had established and some information about it.

Snowtown, S.A. - 14 Jan 2013

Scary town. This is the town of the barrel murders!

I walked into the bakery to buy some bread only to be told the only had one loaf of bread. I asked if I could have other sliced. The sales clerk inquired with the staff at the rear of the shop and I was told no! I couldn't get sliced bread from here. I said i thought this was a bakery? She said, If I wanted sliced bread I would have to go to the iga down the road......what the? She looked rather scary so I wasn't going to temp murder!

Also had a windmill farm that they had established and some information about it.

Brighton, Adelaide, S.A.'

Found a nice site on the beach for 4  nights. Would like longer here but were hard pressed getting the 4 nights :-(

Today we've decided to get the kayak out ;-)

Whilst we were out kayaking, I used the kids snorkel and goggles to have a look around in the beautiful clear water. I saw a whiting and lots of jelly fish. They were tiny translucent with red spotty tentacles. We were so excited. Jenna had a look. Then, shock, horror some of the little critters stung Jenna :'( she was jumping around, whilst I'm trying to tell her to start swimming away from them on the top of the water. Anyway, Paul to the rescue pulled her on the kayak, and all was well. A couple of very small welts but otherwise Jenna survived the trauma.....lol!

Some face painters were in the park and were happy to paint the kids faces for free. Just one catch it was a Spider-Man theme. So,  Jenna got Spider-lady.

The following day, we met up with Crash (Craig Cranston). We haven't seen him since before we had kids.
We met his new wife, Kym,  who is lovely send seems to love all things that Crash loves.

Crash took us on a tour of where he works....a winery! Lucky him!  He told us all there is to know about wine making. Considering he is an IT nerd...he did a magnificent job of it.  A bit of wine tasting, a couple of purchases and off we went to lunch. Had a wonderful day! Kids were pretty well behaved too.

Rained on our last day in Adelaide, so the kids watched movies for a good part of the day and Paul searched for a new place to camp ;-)

Adelaide, S.A.

Came into Adelaide to get the caravan serviced. All good there. Now just have to organise a service and smash repair for the land rover :-)

Whilst we were in Adelaide, waiting to pick up the caravan, we did a cruise around port Adelaide. Saw a couple of dolphins too.

After the cruise, we checked out the lighthouse.

Mildura

Stayed in buronga riverside caravan park. Lots of shade, right on the river. Good place to stay while there was a heat wave. Right on the river.