2012 Winter Trip Around Australia

Day 94

We awoke this morning to a lovely day and continued on to Burra where we had a drive through the town. First stop was at Peacocks Chimney which was built in 1857 and demolished in 1971 and reconstructed in 1972.

Opposite was a lovely old bridge.

While Pommy Bob was getting fuel, we drove on a little and took a photo of the oldest Methodist Chapel in Australia.

Right next to the Chapel were a row of cottages all joined together.

From here we travelled to Renmark where we stopped to have lunch and a look at the Murray River here.

The roses in this town are always a marvellous sight.

Next port of call was Mildura which we drove straight through and we ended up in a rest area some 35 km east if Mildura and when we stopped Pommy Bob thought he smelt something hot and discovered that he had done in a wheel bearing. Would you believe it – first day out and almost last day before we get home.

Day 95

We forecast that today would be a long drive and it was.
First thing this morning we took a wheel off Pommy Bobs van which the NRMA man told Bob The bearings gone on this wheel to” Well when we got this wheel off and checked it – it seemed fine so we put it back on and departed the rest area.
First stop was at Balranald where we refuelled and had morning tea then drove on – through Hay then on to Narrandera where we refuelled again.
We continued on through Wagga Wagga and had a rest and a cup of tea 20km east of there.
Very soon we came onto the Hume Highway and turned north until we reached the turnoff to Jugiong where we have camped for the night. It looks like they are getting ready for a gymkhana this weekend as there are a lot of horses and floats and caravans here. The local fire brigade was burning off along the fence line to make the place look presentable.

We drove 640 km today.

Day 96

We left Jugiong after taking a photo of the early morning sunrise.

We travelled to Yass where we refueled before continuing on through Murrumbateman and Bungendore to Tarago where we had morning tea. Onwards then through Oallen Ford, Nerriga, and Nowra to Home at Bomaderry.
We have had a wonderful 96 days with great company. Bob Bridgestock (Pommy Bob), was a delight to have along with us.
We travelled 18,267 km using 1953.84 lt of fuel
We spent $10,127.14
$3148.89 Fuel
$1192.90 Accommodation
$2519.05 Food and Groceries
$3266.28 on Others (tours, car service etc)

See the itinerary of this trip, and details about each destination.

Day 92

We drove into Ceduna this morning and Pommy Bob left his car (and Caravan) to have to oil and filter changed in his car. We expected that it would take about ¾ of an hour so we all went in our car into town and Hiroe did some washing and we filled our water tanks in the van.
We went and did a little shopping and since it was getting towards lunch time Pommy Bob rang to find out about his car. They were having some trouble determining what sort of oil to put in the car and Bob put them right and was told it would be another ½ an hour.
We finally went to pick up his car and van and the man talked to Bob forever and Bob had trouble getting the man away from leaning on his bumper bar. Eventually we got away and had lunch just outside town.
You will notice that there haven’t been any photos yet today – there will be none for the whole day in fact.
We drove through Wirrulla, Poochera, Minnipa, Wudinna, and Kyancutta and have stopped for the night just 20 km further on at The Goyder’s Line Memorial Rest Area. Goyder was the surveyor General of South Australia who in 1865 drew a line across South Australia and declared that all country to the north was drought affected and was unsuitable for farming. This meant about 90% of the State.

Day 93

We continued our journey this morning and drove into Kimba where we took a couple of photos of a large galah (bird) and then 3 gallahs together (a bird and two Bobs).

Hiroe bought a rare black jade pendant in the shop there. This is the only place in the world that has black jade – it does have the green as well.
We had a look at the now almost abandoned town of Iron Knob. The mine here has closed and most of the residents and shop keepers have left. Iron ore was originally mined here for use as flux in the copper smelting industry. The iron ore was of such high quality that it started an iron smelting industry as well. It is referred to as the birthplace of the steel industry in Australia. It gets its name for the fact that it has a large amount of iron ore and was a major contributor to Australia's iron industry.
Quarrying for iron at the town ended in 1998.
Onwards into Port Augusta where we checked into the Info Centre to get directions to the Telstra Shop (we need to change our “My Hour” on our mobile phone which gives us one free hour a day to make calls). We also needed to know where we could fill up the tanks on our vans with water. We did a little shopping then fuelled up, added the water and had lunch
We drove out of Port Augusta following our GPS Navigator to just south of Port Pirie then turned off towards Burra. We had camped for the night in a rest area adjacent to the road with wonderful views of wheat fields and rolling hills.

Day 89

We checked out caravan parks in Kalgoorlie last night, intending to go up there from here for a day. All the parks were full tonight and tomorrow and for Monday they said to ring. Cost 40-41 dollars a night.
We decided to give it a miss.
We drove to Grass Patch where there were some quite nice signs at the entrance to the town so took a photo.

Next stop was Salmon Gums where we had morning tea before continuing on to Norseman where we did some necessary shopping for the long drive across the Nullarbor. There are some magnificent corrugated iron sculptures of Camels in the centre of town along with a sculpture of Norseman the Horse who stumbled on a gold ingot and started the gold rush in the area.

The Cinema in Norseman seems to have suffered somewhat.

We drove out onto the Eyre Highway and took a photo or two of the sign telling how far to Adelaide.

We stopped at Balladonia and had afternoon tea. A Skylab satellite fell near here once and there was an old boiler in the garage as well.

Next stop was at the sign at the start of the 145.6 km straight road.

We drove another 50 km into a rest area for the night – it is quite windy. The sunset tonight was very good, partly due to all the dust in the air.

Day 90

We left last night stopping place rather early after a noisy and dusty night. The wind was extremely strong and gusty and the dust storm was tremendous.
We drove through Caiguna (fuel stop only there), and drove on to Cocklebiddy for a rest room stop and an ice cream, then continued on to Madura Pass which looks down on the plateau below. We took some photos.

We continued down Madura Pass to the service centre below and Pommy Bob got out one of his golf clubs to try out one of the holes on the longest golf course in the world – it goes all the way over the Nullarbor Plain.

Our next stop was at Mundrabilla and that was only for a fuel stop then on to Eucla and a visit to the old Telegraph Station which has been partly buried in sand. We have seen it covered with more sand than now.

A short trip to the border of Western and South Australia where we took some photos of the large kangaroo and the sign telling how far to a lot of places.

We have camped for the night 38 km into South Australia.

Day 91

We drove to Bunda Cliffs Lookout and took a couple of photos of the scenery there.

We drove to Nullarbor Station Fuel stop and while there took a couple of photos at the Bus Stop.

. A traveller told us that there were whales yesterday at the Head of the Bight so we decided to go there and see for ourselves.
Out then to the Head of The Bight Lookout and we were rewarded with some wonderful sights of at least 3 mother whales and their calves frolicking just below the cliffs.
The Cliffs here are magnificent.

We backtracked to the highway and drove on through Yalata which is now closed and then to Nundroo and Penong before stopping just 31 km short of Ceduna in a rest area beside the road.
Pommy Bob just about ran out of fuel as the warning light on the dash came on so we drove to Ceduna and purchased a jerry can full and returned to the rest area for the night.

Day 87
We tidied up our vans and when Duncan returned from Wendy’s we had a birthday cake and sing along for Bob’s 75th – a bit of a milestone reaching ¾ of a century. Thanks every one for your emails, skyping and phone calls.

We left Young’s Siding rather late at about 9.30, refuelling in Albany on the way through and then driving out to Bremer Bay which is the last place on our list of things to do this trip that we’ve never done before. The sand is very white and the water a beautiful green/blue colour. Pommy Bob went for a walk in the water and to our delight, got caught when a larger than expected wave got his clothes quite wet. We didn’t laugh, well not too loudly anyway.
We backtracked some 40 km then turned onto a road leading to Jerramungup. On the way we came upon a patch of Albany Banksia that we had to stop to take some photos of.

We stopped at Marra Bridge for Lunch.

More fuel at Jerramungup then on the road again intending to stop at a rest area at Fitzgerald but when we arrived there it was occupied by a rather smelly large cattle truck so we continued on to just before Ravensthorpe where we have camped for the night.

Day 88
We drove into Ravensthorpe and decided to go out to Hopetoun and have a look at it before returning to Ravensthorpe for Morning tea. The drive out was excellent and we took a photo of the Towns hotel and the well painted toilet block down near the jetty.

The wind is very strong today and driving back to Ravensthorpe it was coming from directly ahead. We found some interesting sculptures in the paddocks on the way; One was of a gyrocopter and another of the Albany banksia.

We refuelled then had morning tea in the rest area at Ravensthorpe, did some shopping including the mandatory Op Shop visit and then started to run to Esperance some 188 km away. We thought we might find a decent rest area close to Esperance to spend the night however, this was not to be and we ended up in Esperance.
We booked into a caravan park and Pommy Bob unhooked his van and we went into town to have a look around. The foreshore is a lovely sight with the port facilities.

We went up to the lookout and had a magnificent view of the bay including all the islands. It’s no wonder it’s called The Bay of Islands’

We took a photo of the amazing Clock Tower which is part of the housing for a miniature steam train which runs around a park.

Back to the vans for ‘Happy Hour’ and for Hiroe to do a couple of loads of washing.

Day 85

We travelled into Albany this morning along the Lower Road and the first stop was at Mt Clarence to have a look at the Light Horse Memorial which was erected to commemorate the men of the Light Horse from Australia and New Zealand who went to the 1st World War from here in convoy.
THIS STATUE IS A COPY OF ONE ORIGINALLY FORMING PART OF A MEMORIAL WHICH WAS ERECTED AT PORT SAID AND UNVEILED ON 23 NOVEMBER 1932 BY THE RT. HON. WILLIAM MORRIS HUGHES, K.C., M.P. IT WAS IRREPARABLY DAMAGED DURING THE SUEZ CRISIS IN 1956. THE MASONRY WAS SALVAGED AND BROUGHT TO AUSTRALIA FOR RE-ERECTION ON THIS SITE WHICH, FOR MANY TROOPS WHO SAILED FROM KING GEORGE SOUND IN 1914, WAS THEIR LAST GLIMPSE OF AUSTRALIAN SOIL.
ERECTED BY THEIR COMRADES & THE GOVERNMENTS OF AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND IN MEMORY OF THE MEMBERS OF THE AUSTRALIAN LIGHT HORSE, THE NEW ZEALAND MOUNTED RIFLES, THE IMPERIAL CAMEL CORPS & THE AUSTRALIAN FLYING CORPS WHO LOST THEIR LIVES IN EGYPT, PALESTINE & SYRIA. 1916 - 1918.
APEX DRIVE LEADS TO THE RE-CONSTRUCTED ORIGINAL DESERT MOUNTED CORPS MEMORIAL WHICH WAS DESECRATED DURING THE BRIEF EGYPTIAN SUEZ WAR IN 1956. THE MEMORIAL WALK STAIRS WERE BUILT AND FINANCED BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AT THE REQUEST OF MR ROSS STEELE OF THE ALBANY SUB-BRANCH OF THE R.S.L.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PLACEMENT OF THE DESERT MOUNTED CORPS MEMORIAL HERE IS THAT IT OVERLOOKS THE ASSEMBLY PLACE AND POINT OF DEPARTURE ON 1/11/1914 OF THE FIRST CONVOY OF AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND TROOPS TO WORLD WAR ONE.
From here we went up to The Princess Royal Fortress which was constructed and opened in 1893. The funds were raised by every State apart from Tasmania with the British Government supplying the guns. Pommy Bob loved playing the part by winding up and down the guns.
There were a lot of wildflowers up here.

The next stop was lunch which we had down in the City which the English Gentleman insisted on paying for which was lovely as was the meal.
Ww strolled through town and took a couple of photos of the good looking Town Hall and St John's Church. . Pommy Bob got talking to a lady in the Church and she kept him going for a long time and wouldn’t let him go and even followed him out onto the street. Someone can talk longer than Bob – Amazing.

And another one of a statue which looks like Pommy Bob but we think his Moustache has slipped.

We drove to have a look at the replica of the Brig Amity. The original which was built in Canada in 1816 was used to bring a number of settlers convicts and military personnel along with provisions including livestock to Albany arriving here on the 24th December 1826. This was the first settlement in Western Australia. And was settled to prevent French or other nationalities from claiming this side of Australia.

We then drove out to The Gap and The Natural Bridge. The sea was running quite well so we had a good show of the surf pounding the coast and into The Gap and under The Bridge.

We drove back towards the City and called in to have a look at the Wind Farm which produces 80% of the City of Albany’s power which is great. The generators, (18 of them), were made in Germany but the towers etc were made in Perth. The wind turbines are 65 metres tall, with a 50 tonne generator on top being driven by three blades, longer than the wing on a Boeing 747 jumbo jet. At top speed the blades appear to move very slowly – one revolution every three seconds – however the ends of the blades are travelling at 290kmh.
It was getting late so we returned to Young’s Siding via The South Coast Highway after a good day out.
Took some more photos of Duncan’s cows and sheep as well as some ducks in flight this evening.

Day 86

Today is a rest day but started out with having to cook pancakes in our van for two young children.
We changed a wheel on our van as one of those fitted had a VERY slow leak then it was time for morning tea before Pommy Bob and Bob went for a walk around the farm with Duncan. The same cow which caused some grief for Bob yesterday wasn’t too happy having him in the paddock again today and came over to confront him. Duncan standing by with a long piece of 2” plastic pipe kept her at bay. We don’t know what the problem with her is as Duncan says that they are all usually very timid.

Duncan pointed out one of his Aberdeen Angus Bulls which has huge shoulders and a nice straight back. He didn’t seem to mind us being amongst his wives (?).

The sheep look really good after being shorn.

We emptied our water tanks in the vans and filled up with good fresh rain water out of Glenda’s tank. They have plenty and expect more rain before summer comes.
We went to Torbay for afternoon tea at cousin Wendy’s home. It was lovely to see the wonderful vista she has from her house and then to go for a walk through her bush at the rear of her house.

Took a photo of the exhausted Pommy B ob and Duncan and Glenda’s two children; Beth and Jim.