A WET, WILD AND WINDY FINAL LEG TO HOME

Trip Complete!

After leaving Esperance we set off on the final part of our adventure.

And, an adventure it was!

On our first stop at a free campsite heading east (Ten Mile Rocks), we got up in the night and moved the van about 20 metres to be away from overhanging branches due to sudden wind gusts that started around midnight. From then on we had very strong, cold winds (thankfully tailwinds) with some very strong sideways gusts and lot of rain. 

Beautiful bark on the Salmon Gums at Ten Mile Rocks

The sign says it all.

We made a couple of stops along the Great Australian Bight to have a view of the raging seas and the massive cliffs that run along the southern coast. Each stop was a quick ‘What’s here?’, a couple of photos and quickly back to the car before we froze or drowned! 

Great Australian Bight viewing spot Number 4

Great Australian Bight viewing spot number 1

Mural at Nullarbor Road Station

A bit of wash at the Head of the Bight

Bunda Bunda Cliffs at the Head of the Bight

We stopped at the Head of the Bight (part of the Great Australian Bight Marine Park) in the hope of seeing some whales (spoke to people who had seen 30+ there just recently, and someone who had seen a couple there the day before). However, due to the strong gusts and fairly violent seas, there were no whales. We were allowed to walk down for a viewing without charge, but on the understanding that any problems that occurred due to the weather were on our own heads and they took no responsibility. Sonja clung on to David to stop each of them from being blown away and over the cliffs. She would also only let David go to a couple of the viewing shelters and NOT on the boardwalks closer to the sea! The waves were battering the cliff faces and spraying up and over parts of the cliffs, onto the lower viewing platforms. We didn’t stay long!

Cocklebiddy - a place of significance for us (you'll have to ask)!

Just some of the dangers on the Nullabor

Storm approaching from behind at Nullarbor

Storm in front leaving Nullarbor

Fortunately for us, we were travelling in between storm fronts and missed the devastating storms that hit Adelaide and surrounds. We did strike the after effects though – the whole state lost power, floods everywhere, trees down, roads closed. So, no power meant no fuel available (unless the service station had its own generator), many shops were shut, no phone communication (as towers were blacked out/damaged) and all transactions had to be in cash (no atms/eftpos). 

Camping at Wirrulla

More wildflowers

The strength of, and constancy of, the wind caused us some problems. When we were camping (at the roadhouses) and, even with the van still attached to the car, the top and all four legs down on the van, and being surrounded by others, our van still rocked with the power of the wind.

Windmill Museum at Penong - Includes Australia's largest windmill

Apart from a number of very large puddles and having to slow down a couple of times because of it’s heaviness, the rain didn’t really bother us too much until we had passed Port Augusta. Originally (Plan A) we were going take our time and follow the coast around from Ceduna to Port Lincoln. On looking at the sea at Ceduna, and because we had to lean well into the wind to walk without falling over, we decided that part of the coast can wait for another time. Just as well, as Port Lincoln seemed to have copped the worst of everything – both prior to us arriving and also after we had moved on!

Plan B was to travel east via Orroroo, Peterborough, Burra Burra and on into Victoria. This would have avoided all ‘wet’ areas.

We had decided to stay at Orroroo, east of Port Augusta, and managed to drive within 3 kilometres of there before we had to turn back because the road was flooded - the Pekina River was too deep for our caravan and was flowing far too fast to attempt - a couple of 4x4s drove through - all vans did a u-turn. That added an extra 100 kilometres to that day’s trip and put us in a bit later than we usually arrive at a campsite.

3 Km out of Orroroo - U-Turn required

(Plan C) That night we ended up in a caravan park beside a flooded creek in Melrose, a place that had been hit a couple of days before by tornadoes that took out the powerlines, the giant pylons (some bent right to the ground – we didn’t see them) and uprooted a number of trees as well as causing major flooding and other damage. On leaving Melrose we had to make another detour because of flooded roads and still had to drive out through a couple of hundred metres of water on the highway – the road still had the road closed sign on it, but the roadworker said we would get through without problems (and so we took his word, and made it…slowly).

Just out of Melrose

We made a lunch stop at Burra Burra and bought ourselves another Tiddy Oggie (½ vegetable / ½ apple pastie) that we had enjoyed on our way through 3 months ago.

As this Saturday was AFL Grand Final day, we listened to the radio all afternoon and cheered as ‘our’ team won the Premiership – for the first time in 62 YEARS!

That night, our final night, in Mildura, it was pointed out that Daylight Saving was due to start on Sunday morning. That had us thinking a bit about the time zone changes we had just experienced – 1 1/2hrs between Western Australia and South Australia, 1/2hr between South Australia and Victoria AND THEN an hour for daylight saving – We had ‘lost’ 3 hours in the past few days. No wonder we were getting tired!

We arrived home mid-afternoon to be greeted by Claire, who was spending a long weekend at our place. We also had a thunderstorm and noted the height of the Goulburn River not far from our place (no troubles yet, but we will need to keep a watch). 

A rising Goulburn River (up several metres) met us in Shepparton

We’ve spent a couple of days emptying the van, Sonja off to the Laundromat, cleaning up as much of the red dust out of the van as possible (car to be detailed soon). Some things will have to wait until we come back from our next trip as we firstly head down south to catch up with our now 8 month old grandson (and his parents, of course), down to Gippsland to catch up with Sonja’s Mum, and back to Claire’s before we fly up to Queensland for our week on a luxury catamaran with Sonja’s sister and brother-in-law and another couple before we come back home a couple of weeks later.

Life’s busy when you’ve retired!

Just out of interest, I’ve combined both of our last two major Australian trips onto one map. Whilst this doesn’t cover all of the areas we have camped in Australia - it will enable you to see the distances we have travelled and the sights we have seen. There are still a few bits we have to visit!

2012 / 2016 combined trips

Cape Range National Park – Esperance in Wildflower season

Once we left Karratha we really started into the wildflowers – boy, does that slow the trip down! In and out of the car so many times.

The terrain was a little different as we left Karratha as we found ourselves driving over very large parallel sandhills.  We checked out the various free overnight stops along the way and decided we’d spend a night near the turnoff to Exmouth. Wrong move! It had a toilet and a dump spot (for portable toilets) but was right on the road and so we decided to give it a miss and did another station stay at Giralia Homestead. Before we moved off David had to help a Belgian traveller change a tyre on his car (couldn’t find where to p;ace  the jack – different in Belguim).

Giralia is one of a couple of large stations that cover most of the north-west cape. It no longer runs stock and relies on tourists coming to stay – very basic, but clean, so it covers all our needs.

We called in at Exmouth to see what was about for us to have a look at. It is a VERY new town and exists purely for tourism. There are a couple of very large caravan parks, a decent shopping centre and so many places offering tours. The tours are largely related to whale watching, swimming with whales, whalesharks and manta rays, snorkelling around the coral reefs and turtles.

Emus on Parade in the road into Exmouth

We spent five nights at Tulki Beach in the Ningaloo Reef National Park. A walk along the beach at both high and, in particular, low tide, allowed us to see a variety of corals, big blue sea slugs, turtles, stingrays, fish and a number of reef shark. A short drive from our campground had us on a gorge walk (Mandu Mandu Gorge) and then snorkelling at Oyster Stacks (here it was only possible when the tide was above 1.2 metres or the coral would take chunks out of you!) and then Turquoise Bay. At the latter, the beach was divided in two by a point where there was a break in the reef. On the southern side it was possible to float along with the tide looking at the coral and the vast array of fish, although everyone had to get out before they went too far and could be pulled out to sea. On the other half of the beach it was possible to just snorkel around without any difficulties.  This was a very pleasant way for David to spend Father’s Day.

Campsite at Tulki Beach

Taking a walk along Tulki Beach

Mandu Mandu Gorge walk

David coming into shore at Paradise Beach

On a trip into Exmouth to see about doing a whale watching sunset cruise we decided, as the weather was great and we were having a great time snorkelling and just relaxing, that we’d book another couple of nights at Yardie Creek (as far as we could go with our caravan). We had a good time out on the catamaran for our whale watching. Another group had booked for the same time and we were going to share with them. The other group decided to change their time and so we had a private cruise. (This meant that the catering of heaps of prawns easily fulfilled Sonja’s desire for a feed of prawns – of which she ate nearly all of them)! We saw about half a dozen whales – a couple being mother and calf. This meant we had to drive about 50kms in the dark back to our site. Usually this would be fine, except for the hundreds of kangaroos we had to keep our eyes open for so we didn’t have an accident on the way back – a slow trip!  

Shothole Gorge just out of Exmouth

Mother and calf

Our move down to Yardie Creek was easy (only another 30kms down the road) but it was now overcast and the wind had come up and made it very uncomfortable. We walked along the river gorge rim and along the beach. One night of this and we decided to pack up and go into Exmouth to a caravan park and do the washing (including our hair, as it hadn’t seen fresh water for 8 days….). The only good thing about the wind was that it did blow away the sandflies, midges and mosquitoes that had been giving Sonja hell for the past week or so!

View of Yardie Creek and beach from lookout trail

After leaving Exmouth we headed down to Coral Bay. This is a very beautiful place, but the camping area is quite limited and VERY packed in. We had a brief drive around Carnarvon before heading to a free overnight rest stop at Edaggee – lots of flies here, despite the strong wind! Every time we got in or out of the car we had to spend ages trying to get rid of the pests. Very cold night – thank goodness for our heater!

Boat harbour at Coral Bay

Colourful lookout on the way south

Strong headwinds tended to slow us down quite a bit, as did the fact that we were now well and truly into the Spring wildflower display. With all the rain over the past months (particularly further south) it is the best wildflower display for years. While it is now late in the traveller’s season, we couldn’t get into some campgrounds as they were full. This was okay when there were great places provided by shire councils and Western Australian Main Roads Department – either free or a nominal fee. Some local communities had decided to allow free camping (Latham and Kulin – showers and toilets!) or cheap (Cadoux - $10 gave us power and use of their new sportsground facilities). Our ‘Camps 7’ book and Wikicamps phone app. were great, but they still didn’t have all of them noted. We stayed a little way out of Geraldton, at Fig Tree Rest Stop, and the next morning while driving around Geraldton,  we found a free one at the port (too early in the morning for us to use as we have to speed up and head south to get down to Esperance and then home – holiday is gradually disappearing!)

Wildflower colour

On our quest to see as many wildflowers as we could, we headed to Pindar. We unhitched our van and left it at Pindar township to go out along a corrugated road. Here we saw an extraordinary display of hundreds and hundreds of wreath flowers. These were growing just along the side of the road. 

A pink carpet

One of hundreds of wreath flowers on the roadside near Pindar

A view along one side of the road

Beside Pindar Common

Donkey Orchid at Buntine Rocks

One of many bottlebrushes

Don't know the name, but it was quite stunning

Everlastings

There were many other wildflowers as we drove along throughout the day in an array of colours – yellows, reds, pinks, blues and some areas appeared to be covered in snow because of the large areas of white.

We picked up a wildflower route book from the Geraldton Tourist Bureau and used it to help our direction of travel.

As we headed further south, we noted, as expected, that it was becoming colder. The doona came out the night we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn and David had to start putting on a top when he got out of bed! Sonja insisted the diesel heater go on at night and first thing in the morning! She also changed over her summer clothes for her winter ones. In some places we followed the Rabbit-Proof Fence - the name giving the reason for it being there. We came across a couple of rabbit traps that were used to capture rabbits by funneling them into a large enclosure.

Rabbit Proof Fence sign

Rabbit trap along one section of the Rabbit-Proof Fence

We had a free night in a self-contained park in Kulin. This town has a great community spirit that is displayed along the ‘Tin Horse Highway’. There is a horse racing event here in early October, and to advertise it, an artist was asked to design a tin horse to be put on display. The idea caught on with all the community and there is now a large number of them along the eastern and western sections of the highway leading into the town. It has developed into a competition between the east and west. The community has raised a large amount of money from their bush racing meeting and plaques have been placed around the town denoting how the money has been spent.

One of the many pieces of artwork along the Tin Horse Highway

Kangaroo Paw

 

We travelled through Ravensthorpe and visited a wildflower display that gave us a good indication of what wildflowers we had seen (and missed). We bought a book to help identify the several hundred we had seen (and photographed).

Although we were only a couple of hours from Esperance, David decided he was a bit too tired to drive the full distance. So, we headed down to the coast, intending to stop at a national park. On travelling out along the road we discovered there had been so much rain over the past couple of months that the causeway we had to cross had deteriorated so much that the road was closed. That meant a return trip to Hopetoun to stay at a caravan park. Lots of strong wind and our first night of rain for a long time.

Hopetoun is only a couple of hundred kilometres from Esperance, but because of all the wildflowers on the way, it took us almost seven hours to get there!

Hopetoun - the start of our cold, WET times

One of the many, many Australian wattles

Scarlett Banksia

Unknown Eucalypt variety

Our time in Esperance has had us parked in the backyard of Peter and Kerry (Sonja’s brother and sister-in-law). We’ve done a tour of the port, and the Historical Museum, seen some of the beautiful beaches, found lots more wildflowers, had an overnight in Kalgoorlie (where we caught up with Sonja’s nephew Mark and his partner Nicky) and spent a day wandering around Cape Le Grand National Park. 

One of a variety of Spider Orchids found at Helms Arboretum

White Spider Orchid

Unknown Orchid variety

One of many orchids

One of many callistamen

One of the beaches around Esperance

In Kalgoorlie we had a good look at Super Pit No.1, a massive hole in the ground that makes the huge ore-carrying trucks look smaller than toys. Mark took us out to a great meal at one of the local hotels before we went to have a look at their nice new caravan – a few metres longer than ours and has an ensuite (Sonja’s a bit jealous). We had breakfast with Mark and Nicky the next morning while Peter and Kerry went off for a couple of appointments. We had a look through the Kalgoorlie Museum before setting off for the 4+ hour drive back to Esperance.

Superpit 1 at Kalgoorlie - note the truck circled in the centre

In the sccop at Kalgoorlie

Our time at Cape Le Grand was done on a great day weather-wise with lots of nice sunshine. We visited a number of stunningly white beaches with brilliant aqua-coloured water. David did a couple of walks, including the strenuous trek up to the top of Frenchman Peak. We had lunch at Lucky Bay where we had to literally fight off a kangaroo that had decided she wanted some of our roll. She became quite oblivious to her joey that was wanting a feed of its own and tried dragging at our tablecloth while David tried to move the plates away and Sonja swatted her several times to make her stop. She tried a second time by nudging under Sonja’s arm to get at the food!

Helfire Bay

Lucky Bay

Unwelcome lunch guests

Frenchman Peak

On top of Frenchman Peak

We had a couple of drives and some short walks around Esperance and both had our hair cut. We spent a couple of hours in the museum where they have a display of the Skylab that fell down around the area in 1979. Lots of rain over the last days here, but it’s been a very relaxing time. I've included only a few of the hundreds of wildflowers we have photographed on this section of our trip - probably have enough to make a book of them!