Back to our travels in WA and our first stop was actually in Perth to say goodbye to Mazza and Taisiya. A swim at the beach, Chinese dinner in the city, a bottle of wine in Kings park watching the city lights and a sad farewell but see you soon:) We then took the coast route south and did a day trip to Penguin Island just off Rockingham. A short walk around the island, we packed a picnic lunch, went for a snorkel, read our books on the beach in the sun and chilled out. Back on the mainland and although Mitch was away with work we stayed with Laura and the kids again that night and had a nice catch up with some backyard cricket and much less alcohol haha. We moved on to a nice NP with a beach nearby and found ourselves turning into book worms. Now I'll tell you neither I nor Ash have been big book readers, like ever, but we are really enjoying it. And I can also say we are happily still visiting 2nd hand bookstores to get more:) Some lovely country driving through towns like Harvey to see the Big Orange and Brunswick Junction to see the Big Cow but neither were there haha A quick pitstop in Bunbury and then it was down to the Margaret River Region.
The view back to Rockingham from Penguin Island
We set up Carmen at a caravan park in Yallingup and headed to town for fish and chips on the headland. This was an amazing little beach town we could happily of stayed at for a long time. Before we could go catch any waves though I had to get my board repaired which would take about a week. This wasnt as bad as it might sound, we had so much fun in the Margaret River area even without surfboards for a little bit. We walked a headland to see the Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse and found secluded little beach bays at Dunsborough. Had a visit to Eagle Bay Brewery, a coastal drive of all the beach breaks and even did a wine tour with some oldies:) A day trip to Augusta was nice too. Another lighthouse, Cape Leeuwin, watching dolphins in the river, big stingrays at Hamelin Bay and driving through the Boranup Karri Forrest with the tallest trees we've ever seen. When my board was ready Ash and I both got out and found a fun little wave at the Margaret River mouth. It was so good to get out it had been over a year since our last surf.
One of the many beautiful bays around Margs
A cave tour we did at Yallingyup
Surf rolling in at Prevelly
Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse
Smiths Beach, unfortunatkey like a lake but pretty
It was then through some of the south west farm land as we made our way down to Walpole. It was here we discovered we`d done another wheel bearing and it was 12:30pm on a Saturday. Not much is open on weekends if your not in a major city but we did happen to catch a mechanic who said we could leave it at the shop for the weekend and hed look at it Monday if he had a chance. We ran with that and camped in Rhonda the next two nights. Lots of beautiful sight seeing including Giant Tingle trees, Valley of the Giants Treetop Walk, Green Pools, Elephant Rock and gorgeous beaches. After picking up a part from Albany to get Carmen on the road faster we headed to Denmark on Monday and got a good couple of surfs in at Ocean Beach. We ran into some oldies from our wine tour while snorkelling at Green Pools too and had a good chat exchanging travel info as we were heading in opposite directions then.
Having a dip in Fontys Pool in the country side
Walking amongst the giant trees
The colours at Green Pools were amazing
Up to the Stirling Ranges NP next and we had a really lazy night watching and listening to a storm roll around us through our bed skylight. We did the highest walk in the NP possible the next day, Bluff Knoll (1095m). We were a bit out of our league for this walk maybe but ended up making the summit and returning in a little over 4 hours. Let's say we couldn't sit down easily for a few days haha. With rain everywhere on the forecast we meandered back down to the coast and set up at Cheynes Beach for a couple of nights to just chill, read and eat through the bad weather. Some great free and cheap camp spots saw us stay and drive through Bremer Bay, Ravensthorpe and Hopetoun to get us to Esperance next. The weather was lovely and we even got a surf in and decided to set up camp for 4 nights. We saw a seal at Tanker Jetty, did the Great Ocean Drive tour seeing a wind farm and a `pink lake`, read more books on the beach and spent our 3rd wedding anniversary exploring Cape Le Grand NP. The whitest sand in Australia can be found here as well as some lovely secluded bays:) We also spent one night at Cape Arid NP which had some great tracks but unfortunately too sandy for Gina to take on. A nice beach walk and an ocean view from our camp site on the hill was worth it.
All smiles at the start of our Bluff Knoll climb
We made it to the top- carpark and ranges in the distance:)
Esperance where we surfed
Taking Gina on the beach in Cape Le Grand NP
Anniversary Margs wine at Lucky Bay
From the south east coast of WA it was up to the goldfields area next, to the bustling town of Kalgoorlie. We did a museum tour, had a swim at the leisure centre and then a brothel tour at Questa Casa:) We highly recommend this tour if you're ever in Kalgoorlie, Carmel the madam was great and gave us a great insight into this booming trade in the gold rush era and how things have changed up until now. Unfortunately the super pit was closed for tourists but we'll come back through here when we eventually head east again. Instead we did some gold panning and got to see some of the big boy toys used in the mines first hand. Lake Ballard followed Kalgoorlie where there was an art installment of sculptures placed all over this big lake. We free camped there and enjoyed the serenity of the peace and quiet in the bush for a night. A great outback pub between the two towns, The Broad Arrow Tavern, gave us a good feed, a good laugh and a memorable experience of a town with only a tavern:)
Ash driving a super pit truck. Of the 250 tonnes of rock this brings out each trip there might be a golf ball of gold in it!
Outside Questa Casa before our tour
Camping at Lake Ballard
The art installment on Lake Ballard, there are about 50 of these scattered about
Adding our 'tag' to the Broad Arrow Tavern memorabilia
There's not much between Kalgoorlie and York but we did stop in on Callum's farm in Southern Cross for the afternoon. Callum was on one of Springers big headers at harvest time and we hadn't seen him since. We had a good catch up and chat while he showed us a few of his Brahman cattle and his horses on the property. We also got to a place called Wave Rock by sunset which was nice and did a walk on top of it in the morning. It was via the 'Tin Can Horse Hwy' back to York and a lovely dinner with the Springers whilst also helping Claire 'clean out' the fridge:)
Ash riding 'Wave Rock'
Hippos Yawn, another cool outback rock formation
Hilarious tin horse statues
More horsies
Rocky the 'Italian Stalion'
We still had some time to kill before work would really get going for seeding so we decided to head back to the coast just a little north of Perth as it was pretty miserable weather through here on our way down the first time. A nice jetty walk and fish and chips at Jurien Bay was lovely and more surfing and sand boarding at Lancelin was fun. We were the only ones drinking at a local pub too one arvo and got a magical sunset all to ourselves. An old school friend catch up was next in Perth, Kelly and her husband Mike. We drank and ate and caught up on life since we finished school, it was lovely. They are expecting their first baby in a few months which was really exciting too! We also visited and did two tours in the Fremantle Prison which only closed down in 1991 to inmates, who still used 'buckets' in their cells due to no plumbing in the prison. A must see in Perth if your there too!
Solitary confinement block
Inside 'Freo' jail, 4 x levels
A quick flight home for Jess and Paul's wedding and to see friends and family briefly was nice. Just a week though and then back to WA to spend easter with the Springers at Dongara. A day at the races followed by a mini pub crawl and a beach swim and rodeo the next day made for a fun filled weekend:) It was then back to York to help out around the farm pulling fences down, putting the seeding bar together and then Springbett baby number 3 arrived, Harry. For the next 8 weeks I was the Springbetts nanny and Ash worked for Agrisearch seeding trial crops again. Work kept both of us busy learning and discovering new things everyday. But as seeding came to an end so would our time in York. An end of seeding party at 'Our house' went off with a bang and another trip to Perth for some final farewells. A day trip to Rottnest was a must before we left also and saw us do 20km of bike riding over the day! One last supper with Tim, Claire the kidlets and Tims parents was a beautiful way to say goodbye to what felt like home for the last 10 months. We are finally going to be heading to the east and we can't wait! See you next blog:)
All the girls at Jess' wedding
Riding around Rottnest on our pretty bikes
Although too cold, a great snorkelling spot at Rottnest
Ash and Steve working hard on the bar
The bar being put back together, every nut, bolt and pipe=)
Science in the field, testing sprays on trial crops
Ash on the back of her research air seeder
In the garden with Annabelle
Getting Chelsea on the bus at sunrise, such a beautiful time of day
Tim, Ash, Me, Claire, Chelsea, Annabelle and Harry
