The Journal continuous.....

 
View Larger Map

06-10-2007    -    DAY 43

Saturday and start of the weekend.  Washing day at the laundry. After hanging out the washing we did a bit of shopping at the local Mall.  In the afternoon we went for a drive to Emu Point, Middleton Beach and the Kalgan River before coming back along the South West Highway.   The rest of the day was  spent indoors as the weather has turned back to winter with max of 15c, windy and light misty showers on and off all day.  

07-10-2007    -    DAY 44

The weather was the same as yesterday, cold, wet and windy.  This morning after breakfast at Maccas we went to the local IGA to top up the groceries.   After, we went back to the van and watched the Bathurst 1000 on TV.   Go Ford and Lowndsey.   Tomorrow we leave Albany and head inland through Lake Grace and on to Hyden to see the 'Wave Rock'.  We are expecting stormy weather tonight so have packed up the awning and cleared the decks, (so to speak).  Whether it happens or not is another matter as the weather is not that predictable anymore.

08-10-2007    -    DAY 45

We managed to get away by 8:30am heading up the South West Highway to the Lake Grace turn-off.  It started raining as we got near the Stirling Ranges  and there was very low cloud cover.  The gist is that we barely saw any of the Stirling Ranges , just ghostly shadows in the rain which was a shame because I was looking forward to having a look see and taking some photos.  We had lunch at Lake Grace and then continued on along the minor bitumen road to Hyden.  The countryside was mainly farmland interspersed by Conservation Parks and salt lakes.   At Pingaring we made a navigational error and ended up driving along a dirt road when the bitumen finished.  We figured it was just as quick to continue then to turn around and find the right road.  The dirt road wasn't in bad condition actually and so we continued on until we found a cross-road that had a sign to the left pointing to Hyden..  We followed that for 35kms and ended up  coming out a 100m to the east of the Wave Rock Conservation Park turn-off near Hyden.  Following this bitumen road we found the Wave Rock CP and booked in for the night.  We had just set up when the heavens opened up and it rained for a while.  When it eventually stopped raining we made our way to the Wave Rock car park and spent the next hour looking around at the unusual rock formation.  At one end of the rock formation there is a water resevior  that originally was for the township of Hyden.  However, with the increase in population some years ago another reservior was made further down the road to handle the increase in water requirements.  There are a number of other rock formations within the park, eg, the 'Hippo's Yawn' is  one we had to look for in the rain.  Eventually the rain won so we returned to the CP and sat in the van until dinner time.  We decided to go into Hyden and have dinner at the local pub.  When we arrived we found that it was a cook your own type buffet arrangement.  We picked our steaks and snitzels and commenced to cook on the BBQ.  Everything was fine until right in the middle of dinner the towns electricity supply failed and we were left sitting in the dark.  Staff came around with candles and torches to help with the lighting.  Apparently the storms  were to blame for the power blackout.  We finished off dinner and headed back to the the CP where it was pitch black and people were walking around with torches checking cables and power boxes.  I thought this might be a good time to pull out the 'Kipor' generator and put some light on the matter.   After about 40 minutes the power came back on and we were able to watch some TV for the rest of the night.  

09-10-2007    DAY 46

It rained some more overnight and the wind came up as we left the CP to travel to Esperance.  We had a headwind all the way to Ravensthorpe and again to Esperance.  We had a coffee break south of Lake King and lunch at Ravensthorpe.  We arrived in Esperance about 2:30pm and booked into the Pink Lake CP about 4kms from the town centre.  This CP is one of the Family Parks Aust. franchises.  I thought I'd join the VIP club so that we could get 10% off the nightly rates.  That makes me a member of Big4, Top Tourist, and Family Parks now.  This trip alone we have saved nearly$100 on nightly CP rates.

Today we did little of anything.  We went to town and walked around, did some shopping at the Rivers Store, and had a 'Coffee' at the local mall.  Afterwards we drove the Great Ocean Drive along all the fantastic beaches around here , past the wind farm and on to the Pink Lake which by the way is 'white' and not 'pink' at the moment.   After lunch I mucked about working on the van and also went to a muffler shop to buy a length of 45mm pipe that will be used to hold the sat dish so that I don't have to put out the tripod.  When we did set it up , I found that the dish could not turn around far enough at the front of the van because we were facing the wrong way. Ended up using the tripod anyway , but I reckon when we are on the Nullarbor I'll be able to point the unit in the right direction when we bush camp.  Just got to have an idea where NE is!!    We are staying an additional day and leaving on Friday morning, probably stopping at Fraser Range Station  or Newman Rocks for the night.

11-10-2007    -    DAY 48

Karen's birthday today, Happy Birthday Karen!   A lazy day spent doing a bit of shopping in town, a coffee at the shopping  centre and sitting around at the CP watching the world go by.  We had a BBQ  for dinner and then watched some TV off the sat. dish.

12-10-2007    -    DAY 49

We left Esperance about 9:45am and drove to Salmon Gums for morning tea before continuing on to Norseman where we arrived for lunch.  We topped up with ULP and LPG  before hitting the road to the Nullabor.  About  60kms out we hit the roadworks again which went on for another 40kms.  By 3pm we decided to pull over at the Fraser Range Station CP which is a working sheep station as well as a tourist stop about 90kms west of Balladonia.  Fraser Range is the first station settled on the Nullabor in 1872 .  The station covers 437,000 acres but only 150,000 acres have been developed up to date.  Some of the buildings on the property were built in the early 1900's.  Water comes from bores .  The station runs the 'meat only' Damara sheep which do not require shearing or crutching as they grow hair instead of wool.  Average rainfall is about 300mm.  In the evening we had a BBQ before retiring to the van to watch TV.  TV is obtained by sattelite at the CP and then re-transmitted throughout the park on UHF band.  Only two stations, WIN & GWN are available at the present time.  

Previous                                                                               Next                                                            

Contact me: