Ellendale Pool

A lovely spot on the Greenough River at the base of some impressive cliffs, Ellendale Pool was our home for 3 nights. The flood from cyclone Olwyn had passed through a week or so ago and the grassy banks had been turned into mud flats. The kids thought this was great as the mud was drying & cracking and the chunks made great toys! We kayaked, swam, walked, played in the park & even climbed up the cliffs (not an easy feat as it was super windy the further up we got & Daniel had to help all three of us negotiate the rocky cliff face), view was amazing though. Had the place to ourselves for a few days to the kids and Daniel enjoyed a few nude swims. Kids thought this was hilarious and Jackson now keeps trying to strip off saying 'nudie run, nudie run'!

You know it's windy when.......

.....the trees grow like this!  Greenough (just below Geraldton).

The Pinnacles

After leaving Lancelin we headed towards Nambung National Park and the famed Pinnacles. We nearly didn't make it in as Jackson had gone a bit crazy ( I am sure an old wives tale says that wind turns people a bit strange and it certainly did. He spent the hour drive there screaming his lungs out for no apparent reason). Daniel and I ended up taking turns carrying him for a lot of the Pinnacles walk but at least we got to see it, and we are glad we did as it was incredible. The Pinnacles are limestone pillars made by freshwater mixing with sand then becoming calcified. They are thousands of years old and some reach as high as 4m. It was really bizarre a walking through a sandy desert area with all these structures surrounding you.

Anyway that night we get some books out to read and one of them is Hunwick's Egg by Mem Fox. Kids (and us) were amazed to see it is set in the Pinnacles! Very coincidental.

Real Australia

A funny Emilia story. We were walking to the toilets in the evening and the kids had their little battery lanterns. Emilia turned hers off and said she was saving the batteries. I asked her what she was saving them for. 'Australia' she replied. When I said we were already in Australia and our whole trip was in Australia she said, 'no, I mean Real Australia'. When I enquired as to what Real Australia was she said it was when there was no caravan parks and no shops. She then said we were close to real Australia because we weren't in a caravan park but we could still get in the car to go to shops so it still wasn't Real Australia. We will keep you updated as to when we reach 'Real Australia'!

Blown Away - Literally.

Well Lancelin had the makings of a lovely coastal town, and we did have a great time. But the numerous kite boarders and wind surfers should have alluded us to the fact that it could get seriously windy here! The first two days were average winds, still windy but we could walk on the beach, swim, play in the park, fish and watch the sunset whilst the kite boarders entertained us. But on Saturday the wind got worse and worse culminating the the caravan rocking and shaking all Saturday night whilst we got belted with ferocious winds. Daniel and I hardly slept as the windows and fly wire smacked together relentlessly. By morning the car and caravan were full of fine white sand blown in from the dunes. We couldn't even go near the beach as a blanket of white sand was blowing along it. The winds were gusting at 40km plus and the kids could hardly walk against it. Anyway it was kite boarding paradise and we got a great show. It looked super fun and Daniel has now added a kite board onto his Christmas list.

Super fine sand dunes- amazingly soft.

Kite surfer jumping.

Our camping spot behind the dunes - kids practising jumping!

Gulls at sunset.

Now that's a tongue.

Did a day trip to Perth and went to the Perth Zoo. Chanced upon a viewing platform with a giraffe having a feed right in front of us. A zoo worker was there and said to Emilia 'I bet you can't guess what colour a giraffes tongue is?'. Without missing a beat she says 'It's blue'. I am as shocked as the zoo worker, I ask her how she knows and she says she just does, and tells me she has been to the zoo before anyway!! Well the giraffe then proceeded to demonstrate its blue tongue.....much to every ones amusement.

Lake Les....Leschen...Lake Leschenaultia (Beautiful spot, impossible to pronounce)

Didn't even try to pronounce this when booking, but glad we decided to come. A large lake (3km around) in a bush setting complete with white sandy beaches (they truck the sand in), a playground, picnic areas with bbq's, numerous walking tracks and a camping area (with hot showers!). We ended up staying 3 nights as it was so lovely. Did a few walks around the lake (I managed to get lost on my first walk with Jackson and ended up on a very rough track for about half hour, bumped into a lizard though so it was good). Emilia did heaps of bike riding and we all did kayaking. The nearby town (Chidlow) had a lovely bakery (with gluten and dairy free options) so we all sampled their goods.
Camp ground was covered in large gum nuts so we made gum nut people and the kids entertained themselves using the bush debris to make fairy land and dinosaur land. The camp areas had an unusually large amount of millipedes and Jackson spent a lot of time investigating the 'worms'. Emilia and I had a frog in our shower, we had bandicoots investigating our camp at night, there were numerous bird species around (including lorikeets- Emilia's fave) and Jackson and Daniel came face to face with a large kangaroo on a night time torch walk. We will definitely be back on our way down south at the end of the year (it is only 40km from Perth).

Emilia and I kayaking.

Gumnut people

Nude swimming in the warm lake water.

Gold Fever

After the Nullarbor we headed to Kalgoorlie, gold mining town, to get the car serviced and to check out the huge mining trucks which we knew would impress Jackson. Unfortunately the Super Pit lookout was closed for a few weeks so we headed to the Hannans North Tourist Mine to look at a replica instead! They also had a mining truck and front end loader that you could climb on, WOW, they are huge and kids (and us) were suitably awed. We also did some gold panning here and Emilia was very impressed with the tiny gold flakes her and Daniel managed to find. We spent a bit of time at the wonderful Hammond Park where peacocks wandered the grounds and kangaroos and emus in bush parks and huge array of birds in cages surrounded a surprisingly lush green lawn and a large playground. They also had a pond complete with ducks and a replica castle built from local rocks and gems. We spent several hours here on the first day then had dinner here on the second day. Days were hot (38deg) and nights were steamy too. It was a city on a permanent double shift with the pubs open early for the night shift workers then late for the day shift. The city didn't seem to sleep and the noisy, hot nights meant we didn't sleep much either! The caravan park pool was a welcome relief but we were ready to leave after a few days.

Panning for gold

Miniature Castle at Hammond Park

Playground surrounded by a bush wildlife park at Hammond Park

Upon leaving Kalgoorlie we checked the weather for the next place we were heading to find that we were driving into the remnants of the cyclone that had just battered the WA mid coast. Decided to drive and make a decision on the way. After 1 hour in the rain and wind started, there was no way we would be setting up camp if this kept up. Well it did keep up so we ended up in a cabin in a caravan park about 3 hours out of Perth. Kids relaxed in front of TV and we all had a relaxing afternoon listening to the crazy weather. By morning it had cleared and we were SO glad we had made the decision not to camp!

Police Rescue

At our first stop on the Nullarbor we thought we were in the middle of nowhere so were surprised when a Police Divvy Van turned up around 5pm. They came to chat then went on their way. About 10ish, when we were heading to bed, we hear a 'Hello mate'. We absolutely packed ourselves as we were completely in the middle of nowhere and had heard no cars and it was pitch black. Daniel went to investigate then heard 'Hey Katta, its the coppers from earlier', Daniel laughed then asked if they were bogged, 'Yep, badly, we need a hand'. After unhooking the van, the cops squeezed in (one had to sit in a car seat) and they headed to the bogged van (it was actually only about 1km away so they had been trying to get themselves out for hours. They had burnt the winch out and had buried their spare wheel as a winching point (by hand as they didn't have a shovel), then they proceeded to dig the car deeper and deeper into the sand dunes whilst trying to get out. The sand was up to the bottom of the doors! Of course Daniel managed to get them out (with a lot of digging and the snatch strap). So they didn't even get the abalone they had come to dive for, they now had to explain a broken winch to their boss (on a car they had borrowed whilst off duty) and they were embarrassed as they couldn't even give Daniel a 6 pack because they worked in a dry zone!!!
The moral of the story is always carry a shovel!

When we told Emilia and Jackson the excitement from the night before they played 'towing someone out of a bog' with their bikes!!

The Nullarbor (part 2 - more pics that wouldn't fit on last post!).

Sunrise over our camp on Great Australian Bight (Nullarbor National Park)

The sign we found after setting up camp!!

Champagne on the Bight. Not many people get to enjoy a glass of Moet in a location like this. Thanks Chris for the champagne, thanks Australia for the amazing scenery.

The NULLARBOR - We did it!!!!

The Great Australian Bight

Next challenge was THE NULLARBOR! We were very excited to do this and also to see the Great Australian Bight (Milly called it the Big Australia Bight). After leaving Streaky Bay we went through Ceduna then towards the coast on a bumpy gravel road. It was a rough ride but we were rewarded with an amazing coastline near Cape Adieu on the edge of the Wagunyah Conservation Reserve. We camped right behind the sand dunes. Daniel began catching fish as soon as he got his rod in and ended up with 8 fish. We stayed 2 days (instead of the planned 1) as it was so nice, and it had taken quite an effort to get there. 

Next day saw us explore different views of the Great Australian Bight by visiting the Head of Bight visitor centre then stopping at various lookouts. Each view was breathtaking, the beauty of the cliffs and the power of the ocean was awe inspiring. We took a track through the Nullarbor National Park and found a great spot to camp right on the cliffs. Had to keep a very close eye on the kids as we were only metres from the edge. Whilst wandering around we found a sign and realised why we had managed to get the area to ourselves- it had been deemed unsafe due to unstable cliffs. Thankfully the cliffs remained intact through the howling wind that picked up that evening and we watched a lovely sunrise before heading off on the next part of the Nullarbor and into WA.

It was a huge day driving, made even longer by the 1 hour stop at Quarantine (we had to put the whole van up!). After around 650km, including nearly 150 kilometres of dead straight road (Australia's longest stretch) we had all had it and welcomed a stop at the picturesque Fraser Ranges Station. The kids enjoyed playing with the station's kelpie and we enjoyed a shower. We had crossed the Nullarbor.

Surf fishing at Cape Adieu

First catch - Flathead

View from the Head of Bight visitor centre

These signs were all over the Nullarbor, thankfully we didn't encounter any camels!

View from our camp on the edge of the Great Australian Bight.

Sunrise at our camp spot