Day 56- Nullarbor Roadhouse-home

Drove out to the old Koonalda Homestead, back in the day of the old Eyre highway the Koonalda homestead was one of a number of important way stations along the road, providing a rare piece of civilisation, fuel and emergency services. It has been abandoned for over 20 years. The collection of cars date back to the 1920's most have deteriorated, but it was very interesting.
  We visited the  "head of the bite" although there were no whales the view was quite impressive of the Bunda cliffs and shoreline. Normally it is not unusual to see many whales at one time here. Between May to October approximately 120 whales appear here to give birth to their young.  It is estimated that 60 odd calves are born at the head of the bite each year. Females breed once every 3 years and calves are about 5.5 m long and weigh 1000-1500kg at birth.

Breath test on the Eyre highway

Breath test - Pass

90 mile straight

old Telegraph Station

Old vehicles at Koonalda Homestead

Koonalda Homestead 

Came across some stormy weather coming through South Australia , but had a nice stay at Renmark, situated on the Murray River. Then had a good run through to Wagga Wagga with a few storms but the countryside is quite green. We spent the day catching up with Ian and Chris , and watching Bathurst.
We are on our last leg home.

The Pilbara and Beyond what a wonderful trip, great memories and special friends .

canola fields near wagga

getting close to home

highway traffic

Day 54- Walpole-nullarbor

  Leaving the Margaret river region we headed along the coast road through the kilometres of tall Karri forests , it was so green and lush. We called into the valley of the Giants which is a Forrest of old giant Tingle trees. These trees are of the eucalypt family and are the tallest in Western Australia. These trees can measure up to 24m around the base and grow 75m tall and live up to 400 years old. They have a shallow root system and Forrest fires often act to hollow out the base of the tree creating a large cavity.
Rain set in so we were limited to what we could see, the Anzac centre in Albany was very interesting with a lot of information on interactive screens.
Esperance is a lovely little town , very touristy in season. The coast line is very pretty and has a nice tourist drive along it. We went out to the pink lake but due to excess fresh water over the last 9 years it hasn't allowed the algae to grow which give the lake it's pink colour.
From Norseman on the Eyre Highway it's quite isolated along this road, we were between Balladonia and the 90 miile straight when, there he was, a policeman in the middle of the road with his hand up to say stop. 'We are conducting a random breath test thank you". well Laurie cauldn't stop laughing, "out here!" Laurie said.

valley of the giants tree top walk

Anzac Centre

Anzac centre

Pink Lake

Day 51- Mandurah-Augusta

Mandurah is a small city of about 75,000 , but it doesn't give you
  that overcrowded feeling , situated on the coast about an hour south of Perth with an inlet that feeds channels, makes a unique and upmarket part of the world to build a house.
We had a lovely time catching up with some friends we met on a previous trip. Got taken on a tour of Mandurah and surrounding areas.
Then down through Busselton, and a walk along the 1.8 km jetty, through the Margaret River Region from the lighthouse at Cape Naturalist all the way down the coast to the Cape Leeuwin lighthouse. Had a tour through one of the many caves in the area ,  we climbed down about 150 metres and once inside there were hundreds of stalactites hanging down from the roof of the cave over a lake of water, just amazing, with the caves and the 100 odd kilometres of wineries, olive groves, cheese and chocolate factories it was tough going.
The Cape Leeuwin lighthouse is the tallest in Australia. It was built in 1801 and is fabricated from locally sourced limestone.
This is an operational lighthouse and we had a tour up the 150 or so steps to the top, it was blowing a gale and the tour guide said that the wind at the top was blowing at 80kph.

Cape Naturaliste lighthouse

canal rock

view from cape Leeuwin lighthouse 

Lake Cave

Busselton Jetty

inside cape Leeuwin lighthouse

Day 46-50 Kalbarri-Perth

 The school holidays for western australia were approaching and also a long weekend so the amount of people on the road has increased, every 2nd vehicle has a caravan or a campertrailer behind it.
 At Kalbarri National Park we visited an unusual rock formation called Natures Window. being formed millions of years ago by the effects of wind and rain.
  We also came across a Pink Lake, apparently it is used to harvest Beta Carotene not quite sure how but the colour was impressive. Then it was on to Perth where we caught up with some friends, they went out of their way introducing us to Perth's lifestyle and being shown around the district where they live.
 Spent an afternoon in Swan Valley which is the wine region of Perth. Wine tasting, chocolate factories, cheese, olives, and lots more we were exhausted when we got back to camp.
  Another day we discovered the city on a hop on hop off bus tour , which you get a bit of history and see the sights, the on to the Swan river to Fremantle where we learnt about the early times and modern day living in "freo".

wild flowers

Called in to spend the evening with friends we met on our "journey to the Kimberley" trip, it was nice to catch up over a glass of bubbly and a lovely meal.
We were running out of time in Perth and must move on.

Natures Window at Kalbarri National Park

Red Bluff lookout

sunset at kalbarri

camp at  Kalbarri

chocolate factory at swan valley

wildflowers

winery at swan valley

Day 38-45 Exmouth -Shark Bay

It was back on the road after an interesting stay at Karratha, we were headed to Exmouth to explore the Ningaloo Reef .
  This was so different to travelling through the Pilbara mining area, we were on the coast with beautiful blue water and abuntant sealife. We caught up with a friend of my sisters who was a wealth of information on the area. Yvonne and Ross also introduced us to the wonderful world of good fish, when we were invited to their home for dinner. We had a great night.
  Shark bay was fabulous, we stayed for a few days so we could experience Monkey Mia, where the feeding of the dolphins takes place. This is very touristy but it was still worth a visit. We also took a boat cruise in which we experienced the sighting of more dolphins, sea turtles and dugongs.
  We were lucky the day was sunny and the waters calm so it was easy to see in the water and the dugongs were feeding on seagrass on the sandy bottom.
 A trip to Cape Peron was next on the agenda, this was a 4wd road which was mainly sand but the 50 or so kilometre trip was worth it, spectacular views from the cliff tops and from the beach when we reached the cape. The waters were so clear you could see sea turtles, rays and sharks from the cliffs. We also found a thorny devil lizard on the road, which we helped to the other side so he wouldn't get run over.

cruiser and camper get a wash 

Ship wreck 

Ningaloo Reef

View from lighthouse

Lighthouse

Yardie Creek

crowd at Monkey Mia

Road to Cape Peron

Cape Peron

Dolphins at Monkey Mia

Sea Turtle

Dugong

on board the Aristocat 2

calm seas

Thorny Devil Lizard

Day 32-37 Newman- Karratha

We are back on the black top now, well for a little while. Said goodbye to our travel companions , what a wonderful adventure we had together, a chance meeting that we would find such amazing people so comparable with us in such a short time., we will keep in touch.
    We arrived in Newman , a mining town in the east Pilbara region. Home of Mt Whaleback the largest single open-cut Iron Ore mine in the world, the Mt Whaleback seam is approximately 1.6 billion tonnes. It is currently 5.5km long and 2km wide.
   We went for a mine tour which was eyeopening as it is hard to imagine the size of these mines untill you see them in person.
  We stayed at Karijini National Park and walked some of the trails, exausting! but beautiful down in the gorges where there is water, as there is not much around anywhere else. The water in Karijini leaches from the artesian basin which feeds the creeks and falls.
  Ariving at Karratha was a change to see the ocean as we have been away from the coast for a while. Karratha is a mining port where the iron ore comes by rail to be loaded on ships for export. As a continuance we did a port tour of Rio Tinto's Port Lambert facility. this tour was also facinating as we were taken right into the facility whilst it is operating. We also toured historic Cossack

End of our Gunbarrel Highway adventure

Haul truck at Newman

Mt Whaleback Iron Ore mine

Operations at Mt Whaleback

Karijini National Park

circular pool at Karijini National Park

Red Dog statue at Dampier

sunset at Karratha