On Tour South-West Coast

We travelled down towards Busselton and found a campsite for our second night in a pine plantation. We got the bikes off and had a bike around the camp.

Busselton Wharf

Next morning onto Busselton. Nice tourist spot. We parked up and took a walk on the Busselton wharf which is 2 kms long and stretches out into Geograhpe Bay. Decided to go back to the bus and take the fishing rods on the wharf. We caught a couple of little fish which was lucky cause i think my wee trout rod would of broken in half if we got a big one on. Went back to the Pine Plantation camp for another night and got up early and went back to Bussleton for a bike ride along the waterfront.

Ngilgi Cave

We then headed down the coast towards Dunsborourgh and up to Cape Naturaliste where the Southern Ocean and the Indian Ocean meet. Walked up to the lighthouse and tried to spot any whales that might be swimming up the coast....no luck. After a quick lunch in the bus, we headed for Ngilgi Caves. These are near Yallingup and are 500,000 year old caves. The tour was semiguided for the first part of the cave then you are free to explore them at your own pace. Awesome inside, as you go down the stairs into a huge cathedral of limestone stalactites (like icicles) looking like if they broke off they would spear right though you. We were told they were 3 times stronger than concrete. Amazing!

Onwards to Margaret River which we felt was very touristy and didn’t stay long. Managed to find a free camping spot south of Margaret River. Only had to pay for one night so far, all other nights have been free spots. Now Augusta, is a beautiful place we really loved it there. Very much the best kept secret, right on the tip of South West WA. A nice seaside town similar to towns in NZ. Home to the tallest lighthouse on Cape Leeuwin. Drove to Alexandra Bridge Camp and settled in for the night with a nice camp fire.

Treetop Walk

Had a big day driving today....Up to Nannup....along to Manjimup (Every town has “up” on the end which means “water”) and down back on the southern coast to Walpole. Huge tall trees line the sides of the road. This is where “The Valley of the Giants Treetop Walk” is. A 600m long ramp raises 40 metres up in the treetops at its highest point. It sways gently to mimic the trees swaying in the breeze. Can’t believe I walked it (with tears rolling down my face) Kerry did it twice.. At ground level we walked the Ancient Empire boardwalk which meanders around the base of the old Red Tingle trees which have been dated at least 400 years old. Awesome attraction! Stayed at Parry Beach tonight. Great spot. Just up the road “The Elephant Rocks” and “The Greens Pool”. Wow these rocks do look like Elephants. The Greens pool were beautiful and clear. Decided to stay put in our camp today and chill out on the coast at Cosy Corner Camp. Went for a walk down the beach late afternoon and decided to take a different way back to the bus though the bush....silly idea! Nearly got lost as the light was fading to dark. (Note to self, don’t go off the tracks) The nights have been quite cold but bearable.

Off to Albany to find the Information Centre. Here Kerry noticed that the shower in the mens toilet was not locked so we both sneaked in to have a lovely hot shower (free, naughty). Got our clothes washed at the laundrymat. Now we smell fresh. Drove further up the road to a free campsite. On our way now to Esperance. Wow.....yes this place is cute, smaller than I thought it would be. Stopped off in town and found the movie theatre to catch “Dark Shadows”. Found a Nature Reserve – Manjingup Lake, well the lake was dry as a chip and the reserve was over grown and disused. Rode our bikes around the tracks and decided to stay here the night. Toured around “The Great Ocean Drive” which takes in the beautiful beaches around Esperance “Twilight Cove” was beautiful. Lookout point was high up, you could see 360° around and some of the 105 islands out at sea. Past the wind farm, pink lake and back into town.

Frenchmans Peak

Beautiful Lucky Bay

Heading to Cape Le Grand National Park today. First up we decided to walk up Frenchman Peak. Its a steep 3km walk up a mountain of sheer rock. What an amazing 360° view. Phew we made it, feeling quite proud of ourselves. Back down to Lucky Bay. Yes.....this is the most beautiful place. The sand is whitest white and squeeks when you walk on it. Set up camp and were visited by a couple of wild kangaroos that laid about on the warm sand beside our bus. Went for a fish off the rocks but not even a nibble. Stayed here the night listening to the waves on the beach. In the morning coming back from the showers we encountered our first SNAKE (Black on the top and greenie brown on bottom). It was just in front of us on the path and quickly slithered away as quick as we saw it. Phew! It was more scared of us.

Hellfire Bay

Today is 30th May. We only paid for one night in the National Park so this morning we visited Thistle Bay, Hellfire Bay and lastly Le Grand Beach. At Hellfire Bay, when you walked on the beach it felt, sounded and looked like snow. The sand is like talcum powder and the water is turquoise in colour and so beautifully clear you can see the bottom. Sorry to leave this beautiful park we are headed to Condingup to stay at the recreation grounds (free) and visit Duke of Orleans Bay tomorrow. Nothing here at Condingup up so drove back to our favourite spot Esperance for another night. Had a drive of the bus and didnt like it much....some roads are very narrow.

Another lovely day in Esperance....walked out onto Tanker wharf and 2 very fat seals were swimming around waiting for scrapes of fish that people throw out when they gut and scale their fish. Yay...spotted two whales playing around in the bay. Looks like a mother and baby.

In New Zealand we did a bit of Geocaching.......It is a worldwide, outdoor treasure hunting game where players try to locate hidden containers, called geocaches by using GPS devices. When you find the cache you write in the book where you are from and you can take a treasure from the cache and then leave something. Kerry found a “Travel Bug” in a cache in Kingston when Peter and Vicki were over in March. The “Travel Bug” was from Oregon so we brought it over here with us to put in a cache for someone to pick it up and place it somewhere else in the world.  These “Travel Bugs” can be tracked online so you can see where it travels to around the world. Go to:  http://www.geocaching.com/ to find out more information. We found an awesome cache location overlooking Esperance Bay and thought this was a great place to put the “Travel Bug” for someone to pickup and keep it on its' travels.

Leaving Esperance today, 1^st June, sad to leave as we will probably not be back here. Our plans have changed....we decide to travel to Wave Rock instead of going up to Kalgoorlie. This means travelling back to Ravensthorpe and driving inland for a change. Stopped off in Ravensthorpe and bought some more books and fuelled up. Stayed the night just out of town.



Wave Rock

Arrived at Wave Rock mid morning and had a good look around. Walked up and over the rocks. Awesome scenic lookout, but not as scenic as Frenchmans Peak. The rock truly does look like a wave ready to break over the top. Found an awesome spot to camp the night next to a salt lake and watched the sunset. Up the next day to visit “The Hump” and Mulka’s Cave which is 16km from Wave Rock. Mulka’s Cave is one of the most significant Aboriginal rock art site in WA. Getting fit now walking all these rocks, up hill, down dale.

Salt Lake near Wave Rock

Stayed at Kulin, a small RV friendly town that lets you stay for free right in the town. Had a beer at the pub. Found a power plug at their kiosk so plug in for the night and juiced up the computers, phones and watched some TV. We made good use of it....naughty! Next day, Monday 4^th is “Foundation Day” a holiday for WA. No shops are open, thank goodness we have some food. Camped the night west of the Bauxite Mine only 80km from Mandurah. Nearly home. Arrived in Mandurah mid afternoon to find Peter on an RDO (rostered day off). Vicki is pleased to see us and tells us we are back working at the Atruim tomorrow. Phew....this part of our holiday is over. Loved the South-West of WA.

Highlights: Esperance, Augusta, and Cape Le Grand

3 Weeks work, then off heading to Darwin via the coast......Bring it on!

 

Aussie Soil

Debbie (sister) was there to greet us. Her place was not too far from the airport so we were there in no time. Debbie had just moved into her new home the day before so we only stayed with her for a few days to let her get unpacked and settled into her new home. Surprised my niece Tracey and nephew Grant that live just houses away from Debbie. Was great to see her house too and see that she is happy.

Monday morning we took the bus into the city to get a phone each sorted, a bank account set up and have a look around. Nice city and easy to get around. Went back into the city the next day to sort out medicare cards too.



Peter and Vicki's House in Mandurah

Friday 13^th (black Friday and all) we took the train to Peter and Vicki’s in Mandurah for the weekend. There were a couple of buses to look at down south in Bunbury. These turned out to be lemons and would barely get us back to Mandurah safely.  One more bus to look at just north of Perth. Peter and Vicki drive us up on Sunday to view it......shes a beauty. Made a deal with Sue and got dropped off at Debbies so we could transfer money over.


This only took two days so we were able to pick the bus up on Tuesday 17^th. Sue had owned it for a few years and had maintained it well. We drove it down to Debbie and stayed the night in it on the side of the road outside her house – which, apparently was a big “no no” in the city. Off we drove the next day to Peter and Vicki’s house in Mandurah south of Perth. They live in a lovely house that has a bit of land and an awesome manshed any man would be proud to have at his backdoor step. Pete had every tool you could think of so we set off to make a few adjustments to make the bus as comfy as possible for our big journey. Vicki is the Housekeeper at the Atrium Hotel in Mandurah and hires us to work there for a few weeks. This works out great as we started at the Atruim at 9am and worked til 12.30ish, sometimes later, sometimes sooner we were home to work on the bus getting it ready for our BIG Adventure. Kerry decides to change all the belts and checks the air con etc. Nice to get this done too. We end up working 3 weeks at the Antrim Hotel. Great to get the extra money.

Griffs Helicopter

Mandurah

Peter and Vicki’s landlord owns a helicopter and arrived one afternoon with his mate in another one. We had a chance of a free flight over the city in it which was an amazing experience.

The Plan.....

The decision was made to go down south along the coast anticlockwise all the way to Esperance then back up to Kalgoorie and back over to Mandurah taking about 5weeks to do and then work another 2 weeks before setting off up North to warmer weather, up to Darwin and over to the East Coast by about September.

 We’re Off.....

Its Monday 14^th May and we are finally off in our bus for our adventure. By the time we got organised it was about 2pm in the afternoon before chugged down the road. Panic started to set in, to where we’re going to stay our first night??? Couldnt find the camp we decided on and didn’t know how to sort the GPS out. Finally found a beach in the near dark (was warned not to drive when it was getting dark as this is when you are likely to bump off a Roo on the road)mmmm yes our first night and we had broken all the rules. The spot was Peppermint Beach that we illegally parked and stayed the night. What a lovely spot. Heard the waves crashing all night.

Arrived In Perth

Arrived in Perth finally on Saturday night after a traumatic drive from Invercargill to Christchurch on the Thursday before. We came across an accident on the one way bridge between Cromwell and Tarras. We were one of the first on the scene to assist the people. Each car had two people in them. The couple heading from Cromwell were OK but bruised and sore from the crash. The other people in the car coming from Tarras were worse off. The women had obviously broken her arms and was having trouble breathing which was very scary for both of us. Her husband walked from the accident but was clearly in shock. Both were taken to Dunedin in the helicopter. Phew....what a start to our adventure. Hope they are OK.

Have ventured into the big city of Perth the last two days to sort out phones, internet etc.....what a lovely city. Very warm, infact was really hot yesterday. Nice!

Nearly On Our Way

Just about finished clearing and cleaning the house. We drive to Christchurch on thursday to spend some time with friends and family before we fly out on Easter Saturday......wahoooooo

Married Now

We had an awesome wedding on 10th March 2012 @ Tautuku Beach. The day was awesome, sunny and calm. Everyone looked amazing in their black n white theme.

Busy time now sorting out house and packing to get ready for our next adventure.....our OE......Bring it on!