Road trip: Western Australia (bonus)

An unexpected windfall of days off for the lad meant a bonus road trip was hastily planned and we once again loaded the car and set off. 

View WA bonus roadtrip in a larger map

This time we headed north towards Perenjori and a farm on the edge of the wheat belt where Hamish used to work. We oohed and arghed at the big tractors and harvesters and marveled at the small (36,000 acre) farm. The boys were busy waiting for the first rain of the season so that they could start planting. 

Leaving them to it, we set off to set up camp at Camel Soak, a watering spot for camels, livestock and people as they headed east towards the goldfields. This was another hole cut out of a granite dome that collected rainwater runoff, although it was pretty much empty and populated by frogs which wouldn't be that helpful if you were a thirsty camel.

The dawning morning revealed that we were camped next to the Rabbit Proof Fence No. 2, which was the second fence built to try and prevent the westward movement of rabbits after the first fence failed. The second fence failed too but is apparently quite useful for keeping emu out of the wheat fields. 

The scenery was the archetypal Australian countryside; red soil, gum trees and long road disappearing into the distance.  It was pretty nice.

Driving off into the distance, we came across a huge salt lake - 182 km long and up to 7 km wide.  The edge of the wheat belt is characterised by natural salt lakes and this one was a monster. 

Being the end of the dry summer season, the lake was completely solid salt and perfect for a jaunt out into the saltiness.  It was quite surreal, walking out across the solid surface of a lake.  Anything on the surface was covered in salt crystals and we even found some perfect salt cubes. 

  

From the salt lake, we headed west towards to the coast to check out the surf and test the water temperature.  Once again the surfboard accompanied us on our roadtrip,  unused and taking up unnecessary space in the back of the car.  And once again, it remained unused as the surf was rubbish.  But the water temperature was perfect for a spot of swimming.  And the warm evening perfect for a picnic on the beach, watching the sun set over the Indian Ocean.

Heading south the next day, we did a driving tour through Lesueur National Park.  This was country we had seen on our 2011 Aussie road trip but it was totally worth doing again. 

The highlight of this tour was a flock(?) of wedgetail eagles that were feeding on a dead kangaroo on the side of the road.

These guys are big!  And pretty impressive birds.  I wouldn't want to be a small child out there in the desert all by myself.  

My slight fear of wedgetails was forgotten after another swim and a pleasant night camping at the beach. 

And then we headed off to the Pinnacles at Nambung National Park to once again enjoy the geological marvels.  

And then it was homeward bound to Perth for a few days before I had to head back home to do some real work.

 

But not before a quick 70km jaunt out to Fremantle on the bikes to stretch out the legs after all the driving!

But don't fret, we're already planning the next roadtrip and I get the feeling it's going to be a doozy!  Will keep you posted.....

Working by the pool

After couple of weeks of hard-core road tripping, reality decreed that it was time for the lad to go back to work, while I worked from home.

Working by the pool has proved to less than productive.  But I'm on a working holiday, with much more emphasis on the holiday than the working.

I wiled away the hours by cruising the riverside on a friend's bike, swimming in the pool, playing with the Instragram and Phonto apps on my ipod, a spot of blogging, and generally relaxing.  Oh, and there was some work in the somewhere, honest!

And then pretty soon it was the weekend again and we headed back south to Margaret River for a spot of climbing.  Well, the boys did.  I headed south for a spot of relaxing in the sunshine and admiring shirtless boys scaling cliffs.

And snake spotting on the climbing crag.  This python was hanging out in the sunshine on one of the routes and was over 2m long!  It's times like this I'm glad I don't climb.

Then it was back to another week of working hard by the pool.  A tough life!

Road trip: Western Australia (Part 3)

Lamenting the fact that we couldn't find a campsite on the coast in Esperance, we turned inland  and headed north to try and find somewhere to stay the night.  Unlike NZ where we have recently made freedom camping difficult at best, the Aussies have a huge camping culture and have embraced the ideals of freedom camping.  So we consulted the freedom camping book and headed up the road to see what we could find.  And found what was probably the nicest camping spot of the whole trip tucked in a little secluded grove of gum trees just off the main road.  There were numerous campsites among the trees and, despite the fact that there were no facilities, it was super tidy.  It was a beautiful spot for camping, and with no one else around, the perfect spot to test out the newly constructed solar shower made from an old dry bag.

After a lovely night under the stars, we continued north towards Kalgoorlie.  Western Australia's economy is driven by mining and Kalgoorlie falls on the Golden Mile, a geological goldmine of, well, gold.  While Kalgoorlie maybe be famous in NZ for the bad reality tv show, Kalgoorlie Cops, it is the Super Pit that draws most of the visitors.

This monstrous hole in the ground is over 500m deep (with below-ground mining going on below that) and the tiny little specks you can see at the bottom are really.... 

MONSTER trucks (shown next to a hilux for scale!).

It was a pretty impressive sight and got the geologist amongst us pretty excited.  Although we did concede that it seems kinda silly to dig such a giant hole in the ground to extract gold for it to gather dust in a bank vault somewhere.  But that's another story. 

After cruising the main street of Kalgoorlie and fighting off the urge to check out the skimpies in the bars, we set off west on the homeward journey back towards Perth.  The trusty freedom camping book came in handy again as we set up camp for the night at Boondi Rock in the Goldfields Woodlands National Park.

The campsite was at the site of a steam train watering stop that was set up when the railway was built from the west coast to Kalgoorlie in the early 1900s.  

The set up is pretty cunning with a big stone fence built around a granite outcrop to channel rainwater runoff into a series of rock-lined channels and on into a reservoir. 

 A huge amount of work but a lifesaving source of water for the men and their families walking east towards the goldfields.  

After watching the sunset over the reservoir and the full moon rise over the woodlands, we settled in for the last night of our 2012 Western Australia road trip.

 

The last day of road tripping saw us heading west back towards Perth, through the woodlands, into the wheatbelt and finally through the lifestyle blocks and outer suburbs before reaching suburban Perth and home to unpacking and washing the layers of red dust off the car and ourselves.  Yay for road trips and a fantastic holiday in amazing country with some pretty awesome company!

Road trip: Western Australia (Part 2)

After spending an afternoon avoiding the rain at the whaling station museum in Albany (last used in 1978!), we headed north towards Stirling Range National Park.  I should point out at this point that national parks in Australia are not what we consider to be national parks in kiwiland.  I think by this stage in the trip we had already been through about 7.  There was Leeuwin-Naturaliste with the climbing and the jarrah and tuart forest; Beedelup where we walked through a tree and harassed a kookaburra; D'Entrecasteaux along the southern coast; Shannon where we camped by the river; Torndirrup with the natural bridge; plus a whole bunch of others that we drove passed.  They are all really pretty but basically tiny remnants that have escaped being cleared.

The Stirling Ranges were one of the most scenic parks we got to, which was a shame because it was also one of the wettest spots we got to.  

The plan was to walk to the top of one of the many hills but we had to content ourselves with a scenic drive through the park, broken up by quick dashes out to lookouts in between the showers. (You should totally click on the picture to fully appreciate the 270 degree vista)

It was a little bit cold and damp.  And somebody wasn't that keen on having their photo taken!

But it was really pretty and looked like somewhere you could spend a bit of time, preferably in the dry. 

So we struck south for the coast again in an attempt to find some sunshine.  And we found it at Stokes National Park.  Although the walking tracks weren't that suitable for walking here either.

But there were rocks to be contemplated, so it was all okay.

With the showers finally disappearing off into the east, we headed on our way to Esperance and Cape Le Grande National Park.  

Blue skies, white sandy beaches, surf, amazing granite domes:  this is a pretty awesome place.  We scaled Frenchmans Peak, walked the beaches, soaked in the sunshine, contemplated the water temperature (and wimped out of swimming), and lamented the fact that it was Easter and every man and his dog had come to Esperance, overflowing the camping grounds and cluttering up the scenary.

If you go to Western Australia, go to Esperance.  And don't go on a public holiday (or at least book a camping spot well in advance).  It's definitely scored a place on my list of things that need to be done again (and properly).

In the next installment, we wave sadly goodbye to the coast and head north towards Kalgoorlie and the super pit.

Road trip: Western Australia (Part 1)

As I sit next to the pool in Perth, I think it's probably time to update you all on my adventures in Western Australia.

Having not seen the lad since July 2011, it seemed like it was time to take a holiday and explore more of Western Australia.  So what better way to do that than a 2500km road trip down the south coast and home via Kalgoorlie.

From Perth, we headed south down the coast and caught up with the boys for a spot of climbing at Prevelly.

It was the perfect spot for non-climbers like myself to laze around in the sunshine and enjoy the view.

We checked out a couple of other climbing crags along the way but the sea conditions weren't really ideal for climbing that day.

It's a pretty wild piece of coast,

which means that lighthouses are a pretty good idea.

This one used to have a waterwheel to pump water to the lighthouse keeper,

but the high calcite concentration in the water means that it doesn't work that well anymore.

We found some pretty big trees

including one you could climb 75m up to the top.  

I wimpeded out and only made it to the 25m platform but apparently the view from the top was pretty spectacular,

as was the view looking down (even the photograph gives me vertigo!)

We also found some wildlife, including pelicans,

kookaburra,

and the odd stray geologist.

There were also dragons,

tiger snakes,

skinks,

the obligatory kangaroos,

 parrots,

cockatoos,

more parrots,

some terns,

a pademelon,

and some creepy birds that were so scary they scared their name right out of my brain!

Next stop on the great western Australia road trip is the Stirling Range National Park.  Til then, think of me sitting by the pool.