Esperance and beyond

Esperance / Cheynes Beach / Albany / Walpole (Valley of the Giants Tree Top Walk) / Augusta

Leaving Norseman we traveled to Esperance which was 200 kls direct south to the W.A. Southern Coast.  The country side was a little dry and barren so we were really thrilled to see the waters of Esperance, We will now follow the coast along. Stayed Esperance 2 nights and checked out  Lucky Beach ,this beach is situated in the Cape La Grand National Park,wait till you see the colour of the water...sooooo  aqua. Lucky beach was full up for school holidays.. Lucky Beach is noted for Australias whitest beach, we all couldn't believe it the sand felt like walking on bubble wrap, and made a squeeking sound with every step, Just gorgeous...           
Next stop was Chenyes Beach,wind was up ,very pretty,. but kept the stay short. Actually the wind has been up all along the Southern Ocean.

  Arrived Albany and booked in for 4  nights as we had  lots of touring to do from this spot.Many beaches to check out  ,Natural bridge, (Brad went for a walk on the wild side,  Trish was not happy) Blow holes,Salmon holes,Cosy beach, Shelly beach, Parry beach and a quick look at Denmark.  The towns along the Southern Coast are not big places. Also went to visit Two peoples Bay and Little beach..Will put some photos up of that outing,very very pretty too..

 Leaving Albany we pass through the little town of Denmark and next stop was Walpole where you do the tree top walk above the Karri and Jarrah forest,  40 mts above the  ground. ..       I dont  understand why people  say you should embrace your fears... I did and let me tell you i hated every bit of the tree top walk and i still have a great fear of heights. ..I walked the trail clutching the railing and did not look up and down ,tunnel vision all the way,half way across i even had a tear , i have decided that i will keep my feet firmly on the ground after that eposide. I felt the greatest relief when i got off the trail.  Of coarse everyone else thought it was a great experience....Spent that night  at Shannon National Park really a great place.  B.B.Q under the stars.
 Leaving Shannon National park we had a stop over at the Gloucester Tree it used to be a fire look-out. The boys had a little play around and pretended to be on fire watch..  (from the ground)

We are now in Augusta the most Southern tip in W.A. Its a lovely little place with lots of beauty. We are going to stay a while and take in the surrounds. Going to the underground Jewel cave at some stage.   Most of the towns across the bottom of W.A. are really small. You see a mark on the map and think the next town will have a big supermarket, but when you arrive its only a IGA.  Really expensive fruit and vegs.I know what Michelle meant when she said to stock up....   Till Next time.....     The Baggys

       

Stokes Inlet

Follow our travels

Shelly beach

 Little Beach

Brad(if you can see him) taking a walk on the wild side.
 

Man at work at tree top walk

Boys being boys

Girls being girls

Tree top walk

Looking down

With my feet firmly on the ground thats where I will stay

Mick and I regressing back to the womb

Gloucester tree

Lucky Beach (check out colour of the water)

hanging on

Crossing the Nullarbor

Leaving Wongaburra,we travelled through the Barossa Valley and passed the celler doors of many great winerys. Did not have a tasting as Baggy may have settled in for a session, but Yulumba,Penfolds, Woolf Blass, Annies Lane were calling out to him...Also saw the mighty Murray in our trip too.Caught up with Brad and Trish in Port Augusta, now our big journey starts..... Crossing the Nullarbor......

Well what can i say......Long days of continuous driving,sometimes trees., sometimes dry and barron, sometimes a lot of road kill, but always    FLYS!!
       1st night rest area at Kimba. Leaving Kimba next morning we had every intension of staying that night at Streaky Bay (Baggy was thinking about fishing again) but Streaky Bay was too busy ( School hols) too windy and too many flys...   Keeping the wheels turning we kept moving through Ceduna,,(we were told not to stay there and we did  a drive by of the caravan park ,with 6 ft high chain wire fence with barb-wire on top was enough for us)  We also noticed the locals riding around the township on scooters,we thought that was quite a site.

Next port of call was Cactus Beach.....Brad had fond memories of Cactus Beach when he last past through there at 15,that was to be our overnight stop.....Don't know what he was on at 15 but we all decided not to stay..Brads trip down memory lane was kept short and sweet..  We stayed at a roadside  rest area once again and experienced a thunder storm building around us.  

Had to have happy hour on the Nullarbor and when the conversation got around to the Woolf Creek Movie we all decided it was time to call it a night.  If any-one has seen that movie they will understand, don't worry Baggy had his cane knife for protection.  We were all alive the next morning ,so all is well...

We stopped at all the scenic lookouts on the Great Australian Bight..Once again the beauty was wonderful.  Expect FLYS, FLYS, and more FLYS....We are getting Trish used to bush camping as the beach-side stops are far behind us till we get to W.A.       Stopped at the township of Nullarbor petrol $1.79 lt. ..That hurt....      and we still had over 700 kl's to get to the end at Norseman.

There is a stretch of area on the Nullarbor somewhere in between the 1600 kl's  that is very humorous..It there to spread the humor.One local mentioned that it was started by the wicked van travellers. We saw a Bottle tree, a hat tree. a scare-crow tree, a shoe tree, and a knicker tree. Everyone leaves something behind.Of coarse we had to get in the swing and leave our memento behind on the knicker tree.(Leah and Ian   will understand)  Leah and Ian gave the 4 of us a box of gifts,(the night before we left) that  had meaning to things that have happened when we have holidayed together over the last 20 yrs. Some of these will appear from time to time in photos...    Mick with his toy helmet.. Brad  with his dummy and lai ,
Trish directing the vans in, and Vonnies eyes....More to follow on that subject...   We had to do a photo shoot of all the trees, well only the ones that the boys would stop for.  It broke the monotony and i think thats what its meant to do.....The trip was very long and we have been on the road for 5 days straight leaving Wongaburra last Saturday we have travelled about 2,000 kl . Tomorrow we head to the W.A coast and have some down time.. Look out Esperance here we come.

  Love to all.       The Baggys       

Our camp Woolf Creek

flys,flys,flys

The never ending story.

This ones for Leah.

Knicker Tree

Weird Things

Scarecrow

Shoe tree

more flys...

Getting searched on the border..   they took our honey...how strange

The Great Australian Bight

The Treeless Plain

Cactus Beach

Southend S.A to Wongaburra Vic. (Southern Grampians)

Grampians-- Geo/Lesson . . . For us Queenslanders ...
The steep sandstone ranges of the Grampians took shape millions of years ago when sandy sediments were tilted,uplifted & ;then eroded away over time to form the parallel north-south ranges we see today.  Spring flowers, 970 native plant species, 200 bird life, kangaroos, possums, gliders, echidna,koalas are common. Tranquil rivers, waterfalls, bush-walking, pastrol land with majestic red gums.

Leaving Brad and Trish at Southend to travel west along the coast we backed tracked through Mt Gambier and had a quick look at theBlue Lake Pools formed from old volcanoes.(very pretty).
 We were on our way back to Victoria to visit friends....  Arriving at the "Wongaburra" property of Chris and Justins we were amazed at there vast amount of natural bushland settled at the foot of the Southern Grampians . (Wongaburra...Aboriginal meaning my home) The property has a hugh amount of protected red  gums all over 200 years old . (just beautiful)
The first evening we were taken to the edge of the land to see the red sunset on the Grampians. (Wonderful)  Wild life everywhere but Baggy was not the roo whisperer this time as they all took off into the wilderness...   Chris on foot and Justin on horseback we all went bush walking till dark. 
 Next morning Gabe who is 8 going on 18 took us bike riding all over the property,stopping at all the spider webs and trap door holes he could find.        I think he will be the  next Harry Butler.   Great to see kids doing what kids should do.  What a playground he has  all 670 acres of it , and he knows his way around it too.

Good Friday we played tourist and went to Halls Gap(I guess it could be a little Montville) about 60 kls away from Wongaburra.  Being peak holiday season the township was booming with visitors. Must be the place to go for Easter camping in the mountains.   Lots of history,art and culture.
Stayed 3 nights at Wongaburra then we had to make a move to get some ground covered. .. thankyou to Chris, Justin,Erin and Gabe. (Nebo was home for Easter so was able to catch up briefly)

We had approx 800 kls to catch up with Brad and Trish so we had to put some hours in the saddle and met up with them at Port Augusta. We now have our travel partners with us once again.

We are all keen to get to W.A. as the next few days will be travelling the Nullabor.......

Talk Soon   

Mt Gambier ...Blue Lakes

Waiting for sunset at Wongaburra with Chris and Gabe

 Checking out the plant life at Wongaburra

Justin ,and his mates

Getting in touch with nature.  Wonderful!!!! 

Baggy, Gabe,Meg,Erin and Buzz

Von trying to make friends

 

One of the beautiful Red Gums , me fooling around..

 

Chris and her students. At play...

   Our first look at the Murray... Ferry crossing at Murray Bridge

Port Fairy Vic and Southend S.A

Arrived into the township of Port Fairy and once again we had a wet welcome. Not heavy rain but enough to  pull out the winter woolies .We booked in for 2 nights and rode our bikes around in the light rain checking out the local area.           What a great little historic seaside village, that borders on two sides by the sea. The little township has retained its old world character. The rain hung around for the 2 days and the sun poked its head out the day we were leaving.         

Next port of call was Southend about 60kl's towards the coast from Mt Gambier. We can see the ocean from our vans. Just wonderful. Southend is a little fishing village thats seems to be a little hide away of beauty. The best part is the sunshine . Its quite a blessing after the rain and cold.   Norm told us about this secret place and we pulled up with a smile on our faces all excited .The boys fished off the beach last night and we all fished of the jetty this morning . So you see guys ,there is still lots of hunting going on, but still no gathering. We are very very hungry.  Can't count the undersize flathead that Mick had to throw back...              We have crossed the border to South Aust but when we leave here tomorrow Mick and I will do some back tracking and cross back to Victoria to go and visit Chris and Justin. We are only a few hours away and looking forward to our visit , as its been some years since we have seen each other.   Brad and Trish will head into Adelaide and we will find each other  down the road at some stage.

Love  The Baggys

Port Fairy

View from our vans at Southend

Still no fish

Jetty at Southend

The one that had to go back

Still no fish

Southend