To 28-Aug-06 (Sydney NSW to Bunbury WA)

SYDNEY NSW
What a great time catching up with family et al. Our 8 days in Sydney were very full - though they did seem to pass so fast.


LEEMING WA
Following our return to Perth, we stayed a few nights with Spen’s brother Roger, his wife Geraldine and their children and thoroughly enjoyed catching up. “My, haven’t they all grown!” was the common theme (probably because everyone had grown heaps in the few years since we’d last caught up).



This picture shows our van on their verge (beware, just when you least expect it, you might find our van on your verge).

We also shared church and then spent a delightful afternoon at Bibra Lake where we played football and saw heaps of birdlife (including the mandatory black swans).



CORRIGIN WA (Corrigin Caravan Park)
We stopped overnight in this small (and windy) country town. We parked the van beside some sheep sales yards (fortunately empty) were treated to a regular siren marking progress in a local football game.


HYDEN WA (Wave Rock Caravan Park)
What an impressive place. We had a delightful time in Hyden. It is a progressive town of around 400 permanent residents. One sign said that the “experts” had expected Hyden to wither and die over time – the locals obviously disagreed and contributed much time and money to create this beautiful place in the outback.



This is Wave Rock. It is one huge granite rock. We walked along the 110m long, 15m high granite wave and climbed on the rock above. We also saw the dam alongside Wave Rock which had supplied town water to Hyden until the late 90’s.





This is Hippo’s Yawn”, a short 1.4k “stroll” to the left of Wave Rock. It is a huge weathered cave which did really look like a hippo yawning. It’s amazing that Wave Rock and Hippo’s Yawn are part of the same giant granite rock.





Spencer’s eyes brightened when he spotted this little scrub-basher. He was looking forward to taking it for a spin though sadly, too many parts were missing for it to start. Would also be expensive to feed with the price of fuel today!


We did heaps of walking in Hyden and also found the Lace Place and the Wave Rock Wildlife Park with its White Kangaroos.




We were blown away with this canola field which just shone in the bright sun light. Here is Rhonda amongst the beautiful golden blooms which stretch as far as the eye can see.









NARROGIN WA (Narrogin Caravan Park)
We were surprised when a helicopter flew low over our caravan and landed in the carpark of the motel next door to the caravan park – they are quite noisy close-up! We then enjoyed a very peaceful evening and even managed a sleep-in, needing a bit of a scurry to pack up and be out of the front gate by 10am (just!).



BUNBURY WA (Bunbury Glade Caravan Park)
Heavy coastal wind and rain had prompted us to escape inland to Hyden. Fine weather had returned by the time we reached Bunbury. A quiet, peaceful caravan park, good neighbours and a large, growing and prosperous town – a very pleasant place to while away a few days before heading further south.


May you each enjoy life and care for each other well,


With best wishes & God bless,




Spencer & Rhonda






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To 14-Aug-06 (Carnarvon WA to Sydney NSW)

MURCHISON RIVER WA (Galena Bridge Free-Camp)
This was a delightful free-camp amongst beautiful trees alongside a weir on the Murchison River. They say that the fishing is good there but Spencer reckons that the weir was good only for some more casting practice as there was not even a nibble. He’s also looking for the mythical “they” who keep spreading these enticing tales.

A sign at the entrance said “24 hour maximum stay” and Don (who looked as though he’d been there for months – watch stopped no doubt) kindly brought some wood over to help us to start our roaring fire. A very pleasant and interesting guy.



MULLEWA WA (Mullewa Caravan Park)
Mullewa is located in the heart of WA’s wildflower country. Sadly however, the place is in drought with very few wildflowers because rains needed for a good showing didn’t come and so wildflowers are pretty thin on the ground.



We were lucky to see quite a few wildflowers though (this is flannel bush) and quite liked some which locals called weeds (including wild hops). We had also been looking forward to seeing Stockman’s Wreath flowers – none this year though due to lack of rain. There is the promise of more wildflowers south of Perth. If not, we’ll just need to come back another year






DALWALLINU WA (Dalwallinu Caravan Park)
We enjoyed a delightful evening stroll into town and scoped out a coffee shop for the next day’s brew. This seems a peaceful and prosperous little town in the midst of one of WA’s wheat areas.



GIDGEGANNUP WA
Kim (Spen’s brother) had mentioned that the Avon Descent was being held 5-6th August and, surprisingly, we managed to arrive at Kim & Sue’s property in time for the event. They also kindly agreed to put us up (or is that ‘put up with us’?) and to store the van whilst we made a quick trip back to Sydney.

The Avon Descent is a two-day race from Northam to Perth along the Avon River. Canoes and power boats compete and leave the start at staggered times – so there is nearly always something happening once the first craft has gone past.



A father & son team won the overall race in boat 166. Here they are dragging their boat down Emu Falls (a churning mass of white water in previous years).











These boys were having a great time and managed to wash off the speed before the weir wall (in the foreground).

Competition was strong and racers must have slept well after dragging their boats so far. Some “brave” drivers jumped over the causeway and one even managed to keep on going without needing to get out and push (there’s probably a very cheap boat and motor combination for sale somewhere in Perth).

We also visited New Norcia, a monastic town north-east of Perth and were very impressed by the beautiful chapels and buildings there. Our tour guide was a lady who had boarded at the New Norcia Girls School.



This photo shows some detail of St Ildephonsus Chapel. All the work here was completed by four monks from New Norcia. It’s amazing that such ornate and intricate work was completed by these men and women working with local materials and their own hands. And they managed to complete it all whilst helping to care for and educate locals, particularly local aboriginals.






SYDNEY NSW
We flew back to Sydney on the awesome ‘red-eye’ special and took a day or two to catch up on sleep. We’ve stayed with Rhonda’s sister Jan & her husband Roger, Spencer’s Mum and even managed a night at Buff Point.

It has been great to be with family again, to see how Alesha has grown and to catch up with Glenn & Kate and to see where Troy lives. It has also been a privilege to share church with Glenn worship leading in the morning and then to worship with Troy singing in the choir.



We realize that we would have needed 72 hours in each day to catch up with everyone we had wanted to. Apologies if our paths didn’t cross this trip, but don’t worry, . . . . . . we’ll be back . . . . . !

May you enjoy life and care for each other well,


With best wishes & God bless,





Spencer & Rhonda



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To 31-Jul-06 (Broome WA to Carnarvon WA)

Some more stats

• We’ve hit a new high in petrol price paid - 183.9 cents per litre at Nanuturra Roadhouse. It’s about 50k west of Wooroconda where the road from Karijini joins the North West Coastal Highway and the next petrol station is hundreds of kilometers away in any direction.
• We’ve now driven 22,000kms, towed the van 13,000kms and
• We've stayed in 55 different places - 10 have been free campsites (no power or water).

BARN HILL WA (Barn Hill Beachside Station Stay)
The front cover of our Camps Australia Wide attracted us to this amazingly beautiful part of the coast just south of Broome.



This picture shows the ocean over the red land as it meets the beach sand.












EIGHTY MILE BEACH WA (Eighty Mile Beach Caravan Park)
We stopped overnight here and were treated to more beautiful beach scenes.


Spencer even managed to fit in a little beach fishing. Sadly, there was neither bite nor nibble, though the “casting practice” was enjoyable. However, it was a very pleasant way to while away the hour or so before sunset.









PORT HEDLAND WA (South Hedland Caravan Park)
This is a real working town where everything has a red tinge. The constant on-shore breeze ensures that red iron ore dust is blown off (during loading of the huge ships) and spread pretty evenly amongst the town, cars and inhabitants. Leave the car parked for a few days and it looks as though it has a red dust blanket. Luckily, we stayed in South Hedland and were far enough away to be free of the red dust.


We were fascinated by the Dampier Solar Salt Works too. Only 4% goes towards table salt, the rest is for industrial & home chemicals, etc. This picture shows the huge stockpile with some “salt islands” forming in the foreground.

We drove to Marble Bar for a day trip. The highest temperature recorded in Australia was at Marble Bar and they even have a digital temperature readout in the local park. Fortunately, it was only 29deg C on the winter’s day we were there. There is also a huge “bar” of jasper (originally thought to be marble & hence the town’s name) running across the river at Marble Bar Pool. It is part of a ridge and is very impressive. We also saw our first roadside Sturt’s Desert Peas on the way to Marble Bar.


KARINJI NATIONAL PARK WA (Dales Gorge Campground)
We stayed two nights in this beautifully peaceful national park campsite and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. We walked many kilometers and covered all the tracks available from this campsite - Rhonda said she was “walked out” by the end of the day!


This pic shows a bend in the spectacular Dales Gorge. There were beautiful swimming holes and falls down in the gorge – and there were only 354 steps (of the large variety) down into it!

We also joined in a Sunday Evening Church Service in the camp ground under the stars, led by Rev Judy Knowling, the Uniting Church Pilbara Patrol minister based in Tom Price. It was a delight to share with local and overseas people (WA and Holland).

There are also quite a few dingoes around this campground and they seem to be quite comfortable with tourists. One young boy in the campsite next to ours called out “Look Mummy, a doggy!”. Fortunately, Mum made the real position very plain – no patting here!


TOM PRICE WA (Tom Price Tourist Park)


This town was established to service the local mine and is fresh, new and attractive. We toured the open-cut Pilbara Iron Mine - both the excavation and the machinery were huge! We felt dwarfed by the back wheel of this loader.

We also drove to the top of Mount Nameless – a fun, steep 4WD track to the top where the views were breathtaking.





WOOROCONDA WA (House Creek Bridge Free-Camp)
A peaceful free-camp with an awesome view of the night sky, easily visible without any ambient light. We also met Laurie (the Lorry Driver) who reversed his semi-trailer down close to our van for his dinner stop. He was a very pleasant guy, though we were somewhat doubtful about the EXPLOSIVES signs all over his truck. He drove off after dinner and then we slept very soundly.


EXMOUTH WA (Exmouth Cape Holiday Park)
There are so many beautiful beaches and sights here and we’ve almost worn out the camera (look out . . . . there might just be some mammoth slide nights in Sydney next year!!).

We had lunch in a really neat bird-watching hide amongst many mangroves. We saw some birds though most had migrated north for the winter.


CORAL BAY WA (Bayview Tourist Park)
What an amazing place – pristine coral reef and really close to the beach. We thoroughly enjoyed the glass-bottomed boat ride over Ningaloo Reef.


Spencer even snorkeled amongst heaps of big Spangled Emperor fish – they were in front, below and either side as he swam. It was a real hoot to be part of a school of fish! Here are some coming up for a free feed – they seem to know that this is a protected area and they have no fear of humans.







CARNARVON WA (Marloo Retiree Senior Tourist Park)
Yes folks, we’ve arrived and enjoyed our first stay in a van park with “seniors” in its title – it was the first one in which we could book a powered site for 2 nights. There seem to be many others enjoying the warmer north and escaping the cooler, wetter south (where we’re heading very soon). The van park was very pleasant, comfortable & clean. We rode on the “Coffee Pot” train along One-Mile Jetty, saw the blow-holes just north of Carnarvon and the impressive NASA satellite dish.



We are planning a quick trip back to Sydney during August to catch up with family and, of course, to admire how Alesha has grown. We also hope to catch up with friends as time permits.

With best wishes & God bless,





Spencer & Rhonda



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