Streaky Bay

27-28th April 2016

Streaky Bay is a picturesque little town overlooking the bay. After a walk through town we had lunch at Mocean cafe right on the waters edge. Selecting a table out on the verandah to make the most of the view out to the jetty and across the tranquil water. Some chilled out music was playing accompanied by a few drops of rain delicately drumming on the umbrella above our table.
Heading out to the Cape Bauer drive we stopped off at the blowholes and whistling rock. As it looked really calm expectations were not high but the blowholes were quite impressive, really loud with the occasional spray of water. No whistling at whistling rock but it was a nice walk along the boardwalk.

Our camp for the night was on the edge of the cliff. Great views all around, a section out in the ocean had waves breaking, looking like there is a wave machine out there.
Shane found a huge osprey nest that had been built on the side of the cliff, under an overhang there were piles and piles of sticks. It must have been at least 3m of sticks, how it stayed there I have no idea.
We weren’t expecting much from the sunset as there were a lot of clouds but after the sun had gone down there was a thin section of crimson which was stunning and just seemed to get even more intense.
We had a visit from the only other people camping there, 3 Argentinian guys travelling from Melbourne through to Perth who needed some water after forgetting to fill up their bottle.

During the night we were woken by a couple of thunder claps from a passing storm, the accompanying lightning illuminated the van through the skylight with only a small amount of light rain falling.

Ceduna

26-28th April 2016

We had some trouble deciding where to stay in Ceduna.  The caravan parks in town were nothing special so we drove past one a few kms out of town but it was blowing a gale out there so we went back into town only to find out they were full.  We ended up back at Shelly Beach caravan park and managed to get what must be the best spot in Ceduna overlooking the beach.

View from the van at Ceduna

We stayed for a couple of nights but didn’t do much just catching up on washing and wandering around town where we discovered that the bakery does some impressive thick shakes which were so thick I could hardly get the stuff up the straw.

Sunsets from the van were lovely and this was the view I had when doing some yoga.

We ventured out for a short drive to Wittelbee Conservation Park .  Walking around there felt like being in a snow dome as there were loads of small white moths flying around everywhere.   Shane got to do a bit of 4 wheel driving on the sand dunes.

Across the Nullabor

22-26th April 2016

After stocking up on food at Esperance we finally travelled on a road we haven’t been on before heading towards Norseman.  There we topped up on fuel and water and then it was onto the Eyre Highway.  Our overnight stop was at the very popular Fraser Range Station.  We got an unpowered site overlooking the range and then went for a walk.  There was a hand drawn ‘map’ to follow, we made it up to the water tank to some great views overlooking the campground.  We then carried on along the track across the top of the range only to realise that the sun was going down and we were rapidly running out of light (we hadn’t realised how much earlier the sun sets this far East). So we turned around to head back the way we came only to go too far and have to follow the fence back to where we could get through.  All this time we were disturbing kangaroos who seemed very surprised to see us.  We finally made it back with a little bit of light left.

The following day was pretty much a day of driving. We stopped at Eucla at a caravan site high on the hill overlooking the dunes and ocean. Visiting the old telegraph station before setting off the next morning we saw a flock of Major Mitchell cockatoos.

The next day we finally made it across the border into South Australia but didn’t get much further.  After stopping at a couple of the lookouts on the soaring cliffs of the Bight we found a great spot on the edge of the cliffs.  We stopped for lunch and decided that we wanted to stay the night as it was just too impressive to leave.  We watched a big pod of about 50 dolphins swimming along and jumping out of the water.

We took our bikes for a ride along the track, Shane was disappointed that it wasn’t close enough to the edge, something that I was very pleased about.   We lit a small fire after dinner so we could toast some marshmallows.

As it was ANZAC day the following day we set the alarm before first light and stood watching the sun come up whilst listening to the dawn service on the radio.  It was absolutely freezing but a very memorable ANZAC morning.

When we finally dragged ourselves away from our favourite campsite so far we dropped into a couple more lookouts.  The first one wasn’t even as good as our campsite!  The second one was better though as you could see the cliffs stretching away for miles.

We we went into Head of the Bight which has a whale viewing area that they still charge you to enter even though it’s too early for the whales as they are currently making their way from Antartica.   We were expecting it to be on high cliffs but it is just before the cliffs start and has a boardwalk that goes down close to the water.  The water was very calm and a crystalline blue except where the sand had been lifted by the softly breaking waves.  A lookout on the west side looks along the huge expanse of cliffs.

We were undecided where our next overnighter would be as we had thought about going into Fowlers Bay but were told at the roadhouse that it is always blowing a gale there.  We ended up at a roadside camp.  We had seen our first wombats along the road but unfortunately they were all roadkill. We spotted a large wombat burrow where we were camping so we pulled up nearby so we could stake it out.  Unfortunately Mr Wombat must have snuck out under cover of darkness as the only thing we managed to see was loads of wombat droppings.

Finally we are away

16-21 April 2016

Not leaving until 4pm didn’t give us many options for where to stay on our first night.  We finally decided on Armoin not far from Boddington.  It is quite new, has a small campground, a function centre and horses.  There was a band playing when we got there so we set up, had a quick walk up the hill to get a photo of the camp ground then took a glass of wine over to the campfire to listen to their last few songs.

The next morning Sarah, one of the owners took us for a tour of the property, the marquee they have built for functions is in a stunning spot. They also have an olive grove which they offer guests free accomodation in return for helping to pick olives.  Sarah also did a horsemanship demo. She was asking the horses to move by just using her body language. She rode one of the horses with just a rope bridle which she then took off to show that just a rope draped around the neck was all that was needed.

From there we headed down to Denmark, we spent a few nights there where we were able to get sorted out as most of the stuff we had just thrown into the van so it was a bit of a mess.  It was also good to chill out and visit a few of our favourite places like Boston Brewery and The Chocolate Lounge.

Our next stop was Stokes Inlet near to Esperance.  We got up before dawn to watch the sun rise. It was well worth the effort as there was mist rolling across the west of the inlet and the water was so calm.

Before heading off

“You must be so excited” everyone kept saying but to be honest we had so much to organise before heading off that we really just weren’t thinking about the trip.  Trying to sell the house consumed a lot of our time especially having it open both days each weekend.  Even after finishing work it took us 2 weeks before we were ready to set off, and that was 2 weeks of hard work.  Moving everything we were keeping into a small storage unit, selling or giving away what we didn’t want, taking the rubbish to the tip, tidying up the garden and cleaning the house took a whole lot longer than expected.

Unfortunately the house didn’t sell so now it is up for sale or rent, whichever happens first.