Had a good week with my brother and sis in law arriving there on the 5th March. The one big downside to the visit was I had to say goodbye to my old girl Whisper who at 15yrs approx was really starting to struggle especially in her back legs, so rather than having her get into strife when we were a long distance from a vet, I had to make the really tough decision to call time. For a few days afterwards Cody was really out of sorts as they hadn’t had a day apart in 10yrs. He is slowly coming round now so fingers crossed. Since he is now on his own I thought it would be a good idea for him to travel in the car with me instead of in the back, I must say that he is not overly keen still even though its been a couple of months. He now sits looking at the back of the truck even though the windows are open to give him so air, he seems to have no interest in what’s going on outside when we are travelling.

Anyway, we left on a very drizzly day heading off to the Putty road and out to a small place called Bulga, It would have been a lovely drive but it rained just about all the way. So the trip took a bit longer than planned and include a couple of stops to let Cody have a sniff around. Bulga didn’t have much to say for itself, but it did have a lovey large area of grass for free camping, and I even managed to get my new awning out to give Cody a bit of shelter outside. Stayed a couple of nights before heading off past the huge opencast coal mine which was just the other side of the river and up to Lake Liddell. This was a lovely spot only spoilt by the huge coal fired power station on the other side of the lake and more importantly the fact that the lake was completely out of bounds for any and all activities because of some poisonous algae found in the water which was very harmful to humans and animals. At least the weather had picked up and the sun had made an appearance.

Next port of call was Wallabadah, had three very warm days here free camping down by the river, A great spot with toilets available as an added bonus. The pub was closed for the whole month of March as the owners were away on their holidays apart from that there was just a one shop sells and does everything and that was about it.

Skirted around Tamworth couldn’t be doing with all that twanging guitars and people singing about trains and dogs and the low down polecat who wronged his woman etc etc and carried on heading North to Barraba, where I had booked myself into a caravan park for 4 nights. It was time for the coffee machine to do its part. Now the last time I was in this township was back in 2020 and to say it was dry was putting it mildly. I free camped at the Glen riddle reserve and was parked up about a metre and a half above the river bed and you could walk across to the other bank with no fear of any part of you touching any water. Well I pulled in there on my way to the caravan park and there was water aplenty. Where I was parked up was a good 2 metres if not more underwater. First 4 pics as it was in 2020 next 4 as it is now.

Barraba is not a bad little town, has all that you need, an IGA, pharmacy, couple of hotels, cafe etc, so it was quite an enjoyable few days. The caravan park was a bit of tight fit and it took a few goes to get the van backed in very close to a tree to give me enough room to put the awning out. After a bit of swearing I got myself sorted.

Next stop was just up the road in Bingara where there was a very large free camping area down by the river. From the river bank to about 50 metres landward the ground was full of quite large pebble stones, so although it gave a very firm base to park up on it was very uncomfortable for Cody to laze around on even with his bed out there which he completely ignored. On the second night I was there it started raining and it was coming down pretty heavily. Late the next morning (about 11ish) we all had to pack up and move as the river was level with the top of the bank and overspill was very imminent. So I sorted myself out and joined a queue of about 25 caravans, motorhomes and camping trailers heading out to higher ground. It was still raining, take it from me its not nice packing up a caravan when its raining. So rather than look for somewhere nearby and set up again I hit the road and travelled onwards to Warialda. There I found a great free camp spot in an old gravel pit, lots of firm ground and far enough off the road to the traffic noise wasn’t an issue. Had a good few days here before moving on to Moree.

Went into a van park in Moree as it was time to top up with water and empty the toilet, and also to stock up with some fresh food and things for the freezer. Great caravan park with nearly all the sites being drive through which makes Parking up a lot easier and saves the air from turning a particular shade of blue

After Moree I managed to sneak across the border into Queensland without anyone noticing as I transited through Goondiwindi to stop for the night at Moonie Roadhouse. Where after travelling sort of Northish up to this point it was time to turn left. So like the wagon trains of yesteryear it was time to start heading West, and point the truck towards the town of St George, along the way I passed a sign saying welcome to the Queensland outback, which also reminded me it was time to make my reacquaintance with the flies. After St George it was a short run to a place called Bollon which had a great free camp with more than enough room for 50 or so vans if required. It was steady rather than busy while I was there with most people stopping just for the night. But it had great walks alongside the river and was only about 500metres to walk into the town where there was a lovely cafe and a little shop. From there it was on to Cunnamulla.

I had been to Cunnamulla before and only I think in 2020 but I had little recollection of it. A sure sign that age is creeping up on me. I recalled the road outside the caravan park but not the park itself and I also remembered the small IGA and that was it. I did manage to get two new tyres for the caravan while I was there so it was a good stopover. From Cunnamulla I did what is called the Natural Sciences Loop which is about a 6450kms trip which goes all the war around to Quilpie. It takes in the towns of Eulo, Thargomindah, Noccundra, Eromanga and the Quilpie. Not much to say about the town except I couldn’t get to the camp area in Noccundra as it was flooded, Thargomindah was a powered site where I only got charged for 2 nights instead of 3 and it rained all day on the Saturday. Eromango had a small free camp area which was muddy but passable, and I was able to get fuel as well. All in all it too about 10days to do the loop. Im now currently at Charleville another town I have been to before. I managed to get another chip on the windscreen on my way here from Quilpie so I will have to start investigating where I can get it replaced before too much longer. Nothing doing in Charleville unfortunately.

Now my apologies for those of you who only tune in for the pictures I have no excuse for not being out and about much with the camera lately, I have taken the odd picture on my travels but nothing decent enough to be shown to the general public. In fact most of what I have taken have been deleted. So bearing that in mind I will trying and get my act together in the future.

I had no idea it had been so long since my last missive. I think my lapse was due mainly because I had to re travel to places I had already been to so there wasnt anything new to speak about.

After the Eyre Peninsula I headed to a very nice small town in the Flinders Ranges called Quorn, although the caravan park wasn’t up to much the actual town was very pleasant indeed. It was one of the few places I had been to where I could see myself living, not sure I would have liked the winters but hey a good log fire and all things are possible. Oh and also a decent win on the lotto would have helped as well. Then it was back to Port Augusta which at this point I realised I had completed my lap around Australia. A normal distance of approx 14000kms if one goes the direct route, had taken me approx 68000kms and just over 3 years. But on looking at my map I realised I have a gap of about 600kms between Mt Isa (Queensland) and Tennant Creek (Northern Territory) which still needs to be filled in. That will have to be put on the back burner until the winter of 2024, as I wont have time to do it this winter as I have to be back in NSW in August for a very special event (Nephew Matthew’s wedding to the lovely Lisa). Note to self on that subject I had better get some decent clothes to wear for the occasion.

After Port Augusta I took a drive down to Adelaide via a night at Crystal Brook and a couple of nights in Dublin. Neither town had a lot going for it but at least Crystal Brook was quiet and had a decent IGA. it must mean something when you start judging townships by what sort of shops they have. Anyway onwards to Adelaide and parked up at a nice caravan park in Semaphore Beach, it was very busy and the sites were a bit tight but it did for a few nights. I drove into Adelaide in rush hour and it wasn’t bad at all, Traffic kept moving and no major delays to speak of. Such a change from most cities, even managed to find a parking spot within 100mtrs fo where I was going.

After my little stop in Adelaide I decided to see a bit more of SA while I was there and a couple of places had caught my eye so I decided to go and visit them. One of them was a place called Hawker which was also in the Flinders Ranges and about 40kms or so further on from Quorn. In all honesty it wasn’t worth the trip, It was very hot and dusty and yes I am well used to those conditions, but there was really nothing in the town of note, and anything that may well have been worth looking at had long since fallen into disuse and disrepair. The campsite was good though and only three of us in residence during my stay. From there it was down onto the Yorke peninsula nowhere special I wanted to see or to go to but more for a nosey and to tick it off the places I have travelled to.

By this stage the national radio (ABC) were putting out flood warnings as the amount of water flowing down the major rivers into South Australia from all the flooding they had experienced in NSW and Queensland was starting to affect SA and Victoria. Whilst on the Yorke Peninsula I had thought about doing the SA silo trail as I do like seeing all the art painted on the silos around the country, but due to the dire predictions and warnings I was hearing I thought discretion was by far the better option and decided to give it a miss. So with this in mind I started to head north and this necessitated going back over previous destinations on the way back to Broken Hill. Places like Burra, Terowie, and Yunta to name a few. I did stop at these places on my way up but will not bore you all with describing them once again. Suffice to say that there were no great changes at any of the locations. I did pull into a place called Cockburn for a couple of nights before I got to Broken Hill and boy did that turn up an experience. The first night was good, on power very warm I think it was low 30’s but a good couple of cold beers at the local pub took care of that. Nice new toilet and shower block where I was parked which was an unexpected bonus. The second night I was stood outside having a chat with the dogs and watch a very black and nasty looking storm heading towards me, well not me personally but in my direction. The wind was starting to pick up and as I was watching the clouds the wind was picking up a load of dust ahead of the storm. Well the dogs and I got in the van and battened down the hatches (as we nautical types say) to await the storms arrival. Well looking out the window the dust arrived and made the car a very nice shade of rusty yellow then the storm hit. I can honestly say it was the strongest wind I have experienced so far. Really concerned that the van may actually go over. Luckily the rain washed the car and the van and the thunder and lightning went on for a good couple of hours after the worst of it had passed. When it stopped raining I nipped out to check everything was ok and i noticed drag marks behind all four stability legs on the van, It was a huge distance probably only about 5cms (about 3 inches), but had never had anything like that happen before. So I wasn’t sorry to leave there and head on into Broken Hill for Xmas.

Now I had arranged with my sister that I would pop into Bendigo and catch up with here as it had been a good couple of years so from Broken Hill I was going to slowly head South to do said thing. Anyway heading North out of Broken Hill I was going to head off to Tibooburra and Milparinka. This opposite to planned direction was due to flooding In Mildura and Wentworth which precluded the direct southern route, and flooding in Wilcannia stopped me heading East then South. I thought if I went North first it would give the floods a bit of time to dissipate before I headed that way. I was very surprised how green the landscape was heading North it showed just how much rain had fallen. There was still a lot of water lying about in the paddocks and at the side of the road and quite a few of the floodways had water in them. Floodways happen regularly on Australian road they are basically just shallow dips in the road where the water runs off into from the land either side. I think this was the first time in all my travels around that I had actually come across any with water in them. The worst of the ones I came across was about 30mtrs wide and came halfway or so on my wheels at least the underside of the car and van got a bit of a cleaning. The one drawback with these floodways is you have to be aware of any debris that the water may have washed into the road and the sheer amount of mud they generate as well. Very soon I arrived at Packsaddle Roadhouse where I stayed for a couple of nights. The caravan parking bit of the roadhouse was nothing to write home about but it did have a very nice and modern amenities block and the actual roadhouse is probably one of the best I have been to. Very friendly staff, good honest pub food and very cold Great Northern beer. The second day I was there I went for a meal in the evening, a very good porterhouse steak and salad, and the wind was getting up while I was enjoying it. Said to myself I must put my awning in when I get back before it gets too bad. Well too bad had already been and gone, the fabric of my awning was in tatters, it had ripped along and away from the caravan and also ripped on the ratchet arm as well. Luckily none of the hardware of the awning was damaged so that was a bit of a blessing. Small mercies and all that. Anyway new awning fabric being fitted 6th March all being well. After Packsaddle northwards again to a place called Milparinka, which is an old gold mining town which is now deserted but has been turned into a sort of museum. Very hot while I was there every day was over 42c, luckily aircon was earning its keep. I was going to go up to Tibooburra to stay for a while but having driven up there one day just to get a couple of bits from the local shop I decided against it. Not really much there so I stayed in Milparinka for an extra day. Then it was time to turn around and start heading South towards Bendigo. Rather than take the direct routed I decided as I normally try to do to take the back roads and Im glad I did as I came across a few really nice little towns on the way. I did have one bit of a disaster just south of Mildura I stayed at a freecamp called stub tank. As i was sat reading I seemed to be swatting and spraying bugs a bit more regularly than normal. I go up to check and see if any windows or roof vents were open and noticed that the ceiling of the caravan was absolutely inundated with little black bugs, not sure how many exactly as I wasn’t inclined to count but I would say easily over a thousand. I emptied two full cans of spray into the van and the dogs and I went outside for 30mins or so. This still didn’t kill them all but luckily I had my third and final can handy and also my trusty hoover. Well it was the early hours of the morning before I felt comfortable enough to go to bed. Needless to say we were out of there pretty darned smart the next morning. The rest of the trip down to Bendigo was uneventful but there was a lot of evidence where the flooding had been and still more places that were still flooded. Any way I got to catch up with my sister for a week and picked up some bits and pieces I had ordered, namely a new awning fabric. Sis manage to top my freezer up with goodies and also a few bits for the fridge as well. And a very good week was had. As an added bonus I also managed to catch up with some old friends who live down in Melbourne so a very pleasant way to round off that part of the trip. From Melbourne (lilydale to be exact) I was heading off into the Victoria High Country as there was a place I had read about a while ago which I wanted to see in a town called Jamieson. Anyway on the way I stopped for a while in a very small town called Yarck, not much there at all apart from some very friendly locals. Free camping on the town oval with a cafe and small local shop just a short stroll away. It was a very pleasant few days. And from there it was on to Jamieson where I am now arriving this morning. Stunning drive through the hills and mountains with all the lakes most of it in second and third gear depending if I was going up or down a steep hill. As I said now in Jamieson and feeling a bit disappointed as the thing I read about and wanted to see is not here. I must have got the wrong town, or more likely I have remembered it wrongly. Never mind it was a lovely trip here so not a complete loss. Anyway from here Im heading back to the way I came then across towards Wangaratta then South of the Great Alpine road down to the coast then following the coast road up into NSW and toward my brothers house by the 6th March when the van is booked in.

So my apologies that this has been a long time coming and have told myself to buck up my ways and try and be a bit more regular. Hopefully no more going over to much previous ground so new adventures will unfold. Bye for now and keep safe and wel

Blue tongue lizard

abandoned house

any Midnight Oil fans? look at the Diesel and Dust LP cover

old shearing shed

Milparinka sunset

Sorry to put a dampener on things by re-announcing myself back on the blog, but here I am again anyway. Been a long while since my last post and you will realise why very quickly.

So I stayed in Broome until the first week of July during which I got a call from my brother saying he and his wife were coming across to Western Australia to view the wildflowers in the spring, and we arranged to meet up on the 24th Aug in Kalgoorlie. This meant travelling back along the same roads that I had not long ago driven to get up to Broome. Rather than over complicated things I decided to stay at the same places going back down as I did coming up as I knew where they were and the rough distances between them. Its was a trip of approximately 1800kms (just over 1100miles) which I planned to do in very slow time, mainly because I knew how much cooler the weather would get the further South I travelled. Owing to this recovering of old ground which I had already written about not long previously there wasnt really much to tell you all about.

A couple of little things happened on the way down, one was I started to get a pain in the bottom of my right foot, and from previous experience I new that this was the onset of Plantar Fasciiitis, and it got very painful very quickly, to the extent I could barely put any weight on the foot at all. The second thing was I noticed that Cody’s was getting the beginnings of smelly breath. A phone call to a vet in Kalgoorlie and I managed to get an appointment for him, and as an aside I also got the car booked in for a service. I also get a message from my brother saying he had booked the Superpit tour of the goldmine in Kalgoorlie, which you may remember I tried to do the last time I was there but it was cancelled due to the weather. About three weeks or so before we were due to meet up I got a call from my brother saying they were going to have to postpone their trip as both he and his wife had tested positive for COVID and had to self isolate for 7 days. This put a wee spanner in the works but as I had booked appts I decided to go ahead with the visit. The car got serviced with no problems and Cody had his visit to the vet, and he needed some dental work with a possible extraction, he also had a lump on one of his back legs which the vet recommended being removed. So Cody was booked in for the following week to get these things sorted, and thankfully, after their week of isolation negative COVID tests were obtained so the meet up was also back on for the following week (31st).

After nineteen months the rendezvous was achieved, and a good catch up followed. Cody had his day at the vet no extractions of teeth were required but a good clean up was carried out and the lump removed. As well as the removal of Cody’s lump an arm and a leg was also removed from myself to pay for it. After four days we parted ways me to head further South and to finally transition out of Western Australia after over a year, and to head into South Australia for the spring and probably up to Christmas time. This also meant that another item on my bucket list was going to be ticked off which was the crossing of the Nullarbor Plain, which roughly runs from the town of Norseman in the West to Ceduna in the East, approx 1200kms (going on 800 miles). Due to some very inclement weather I free camped about 40kms north of Norseman for a few days while the rain passed through, picked up a few supplies in Norseman then turned left and started to head East. I didnt go too far on the first day and found a very secluded and quiet free camp in which to spend the night. The next morning it was on to the first roadhouse (Belladonia) where I needed to stop for fuel and also booked in to their caravan park for a couple of nights to recharge the batteries and to top up with water in the van. This is when I discovered two things, the first is that none of the roadhouses on the route had any potable water, and two none of the dump points on the route were in use. Luckily I was able to top up the dog’s water containers with bore water so at least they were sorted out. The dump point situation wasnt really an issue either as most of the places I had planned to stop had toilets, and I wasnt desperate for water but i just needed to keep an eye on it.

Next stop was Caiguna where yet again there was a nice free camp to be utilised which as a bonus was all gravel so no worries about getting bogged if the weather turned nasty. A few kilometres from this camp was the start of the longest piece of straight road in Australia 146.6kms or 90miles heading due East with not a bend, curve, slight deviation to be had. Cruise control is a wonderful thing but cruise steering would have been useful as well. After this I got to Moodini rest area and was settling down to a quiet evening when I got a knock on the door to the van and found pulled in behind me was my brother. A night at the camp fire was had we said our goodbyes again and we set off again the next morning, me to go to Border Village which as the name suggests was at the WA/SA border and them to go further on to the Nullarbor Roadhouse. When I got to Border Village where I was intending to stay I was told that the generator that supplies the power to the caravan park was broken so they only had unpowered sites, so I decided I may as well find a free camp instead.. However I did discover that their dump point was working so i made use of that and whilst i was doing so who should pull in to also use the same but my brother. So it was agreed that I may as well go on the Nullarbor Roadhouse for the night as well. From Moodini to Nullarbor Roadhouse was about 340kms which is the sort of distance I do in two days or sometimes maybe three, so I did a stop to let the dogs stretch their legs and use the facilities. Once again the next morning we said our goodbyes again I was heading to Nundroo free campand my brother to Penong, which was about 70kms or so further on. I stopped in Penong the next morning to get a coffee before heading on into Ceduna where I was booked into a caravan park for 4 nights. Boy they like the Windmills in Penong, not in the sense of Dutch type windmills but the get the water out of the ground type. There were hundreds of the things everywhere, and they even had a windmill museum. Anyway onwards toward Ceduna and the border checkpoint, no fruit, veg or plants to be transported between states. and as I was approaching I got a call from my brother to seay they were in Ceduna so we met up yet again on a very windy foreshore. Shopping was done and coffee was drunk, before we said farewell to each other yet again and this time finally. I was heading off to the caravan park and they wre heading off to Kimba for the night.

I had a very peaceful stay in Ceduna and im now slowing making my way down the West coast of the Eyre Peninsula, which currently is very windy and ever changing weather. Still i guess being springtime and this far South its only as expected.

So folks you are now all up to date and now im in pastures new updates will be a bit more regular.

A few pics to end up with, nothing much as Ive been very lax on the photo taking recently

So far I have been back in Broome for two weeks and apart from the first day when it absolutely hosed it down with rain for about an hour its been blue skies and temps not dropping below 29c during the day. If one must tolerate a winter every six months well this is one of the better ways to endure it. Anyway what has been happening

When I was last on the old keyboard I was just leaving Meekatharra and continuing my journey North. First stop was Gascoyne River rest area which as per normal in this part of the country there was a distinct lack of water in the river, however the actual parking up area of the rest stop was huge and you could have fitted innumerable amount of RV’s. The other added bonus you could get far enough away from the trucks that pulled in for the night and not to be disturbed by their refrigeration compressors running all the time. Just a thought, why is there a d in fridge but not in refrigeration? Answers on a postcard please.

Kumarina Roadhouse was the next stop on the list. Typical roadhouse conditions but for $20 a night with power and water you can’t really complain. Looking at the comments on Wikicamps for this place I can’t believe the amount of people who complain that you have to use the card machine before pumping fuel. It does make me wonder when most of the time these people would pay by card if there was an attendant, and lets face it they are not exactly hard to use as long as you don’t forget the pump number between the vehicle and the machine. like a certain person did (no names). Ah well I guess some people just like to have a bit of a moan. Anyway I had a peaceful night here so it definitely served its purpose.

On leaving Kumarina its was drizzling and it soon turned into proper rain and it rained all the way to Newman. I stopped on the way at huge truck stop and rest area called Capricorn Village mainly to get a coffee, and to give the dogs a break and a drink. Still raining quite heavily so was looking forward to getting to the caravan park. On leaving Capricorn village I had officially crossed the Tropic of Capricorn and was back into the tropical North. Still raining when I got to the caravan park and it was one of the strangest caravan parks I had ever been to. It was basically a large carpark area with hardly a blade of grass or tree to be seen. There was only one row of 12 powered sites and a row of the same number of un-powered sites, but ample room to park up in other places if you didnt want power and water. Well it was pretty busy and when I got to the site I had booked it was completely flooded so on speaking to the booking people (council) all the other powered sites were booked so I had to go unpowered for one night before moving the next morning to a free powered site for the rest of the weekend. Thankfully later in the evening it stopped raining and the water seemed to drain away pretty rapidly. The site was hardly placed for the CBD only being about 3kms away but it must surely rank as one of the most unattractive caravan parks in Australia. There is not a lot to see and do in Newman, like a huge proportion of townships in Western Australia it is purely geared up for the mines and their employees.

I was now about 450Kms South of Port Hedland where I had booked myself into a caravan park and a week to get there so a nice leisurely drive was ahead. I was particularly looking forward to driving along the edge of Karijini National Park, as I heard it was a very scenic area to see. Anyway before that I had a place to stop at so on to the open road I ventured. The first stop was Mt Robinson rest area which although was a bit rocky once of the sealed parts certainly had a nice outlook. You could see the hills that were the start of Karijini NP in the distance. The rest area got quite busy as the day wore on but it was no problem fitting every one in with quite a large expanse of reasonably flat land to park up on. So one night here then on to Albert Tognolini rest area, which has to go down as one of the most scenic free camping spot going. Its about 2kms of the highway on a sealed road to the lookout spot, and about 100mtrs further on is the camping area. There would have been some lovely views over the surrounding area but unfortunately as soon as I had parked up it started to drizzle again so you couldn’t see a great deal at all. Next stop was Camel Creek rest area but nothing to write about from there, After Camel Creek it was on to a free camping spot called In the Rocks where I managed to find a lovely spot sheltered from the highway behind a large mound of boulders, some of which were the size of small houses. It was a beautiful place to stay if very barren the emptiness stretched away for many a mile. The recent rain I had experienced did manage to leave behind a couple of decent sized puddles which the dogs enjoyed paddling in. I stopped here for three nights and I was the only one there the whole time.

From there was on to South Hedland which I have stayed at and written about previously so won’t bore you by repeating myself.

As I had travelled the route between South Hedland and Broome previously I was looking to find different places to stay on my way up. Suffice to say there wasnt a huge amount of choice from which to pick. I did find a place called Pardoo Station so decided to give that a go. 8kms down a fairly heavily corrugated road (which wasnt much fun). I got into my allocated spot which was a pleasant location with a lot of shade from the trees all around, but the down side to this is that there are always a lot of leaves and twigs lying around and my two dogs coats attract this along with the sand and very soon the inside of the van is looking like a forest floor. Twice a day sweeping kept most of it at bay, but guaranteed as soon as one has done sweeping one or both of the dogs decides this is a good time to have a shake, so the process starts again. Pardoo station is a working cattle station of approximately 200,000hectares or 500,000acres or 772sq miles. So basically a decent sized property, and my 3 nights there were very pleasant even with the sweeping.

The other places I stayed between Pardoo and Broome I had stayed at before, so all pretty boring, except I did have a bit of an incident when at Goldwire rest area, where I managed to loose my temper like I havent done for many a year. Basically it boiled down to people either not reading the rules or more likely feeling they are the people that rules don’t apply to. I was walking my two dogs on their leads for their evening constitutionals, now bearing in mind one of my dogs (Whisper) is 14years old, riddled with arthritis and not very steady on her feet at the best of times. Well out from under one of the other caravans came a large black blob which later transpired to be a Labrador which promptly bowled into Whisper knocking her flying and then proceeded to jump on her causing her to yelp and then try to fight back. Well Im ashamed to say I gave this wretched Labrador two very hefty kicks to get it off her. By this time my other dog was barking and snarling as well and hearing the commotion the couple in the caravan came out saying its ok he only wants to play. Well then I lost it at them at that point. Shouting at them the dog should be on a leash at all times in rest areas, and maybe it does want to play but in my opinion it attacked a very old and infirm dog and it was by pure luck that she didnt appear to be damaged in any way. When I had calmed down a bit and they had grabbed their dog I asked why wasnt it either in he van or tied up, their response was he doesn’t normally do this sort of thing. I said that’s not the point the rules are there for a reason. I did take a note of their vehicle plates just in case Whisper had any reaction, but touch wood she seems ok.

So now I am back in Broome I have just spent 5 nights at one caravan park about 6kms from town, and im now at another about 30kms from town and Im booked in until the 21st of this month

So on that note I hope you all keep warm this winter and think of us going through the hardship of winter in Broome (hehe)

Oops nearly forgot, Lindalou over in the US of A loving your blogs and pics and safe travels to you and Kenn

A few pics this time to end up with

The next photos are all Grey Crested Babblers

the next ones are Red Wing Parrots (the green one is the female)

And finally a Little Friarbird

nearly forgot my Crested Pigeon

Made it safely into Kalgoorlie and had also booked my trip to see the Super Pit as it is called which is a deep open cast gold mine. Now don’t go thinking that there are large nuggets of gold lying around just being dug out of the ground, what they mine here is called alluvial gold, which is gold that has been moved by water and due to the weight has rested at the bottom, its very fine almost like dust. Anyway I was very much looking forward to my trip the following morning. Kalgoorlie is really two town and on maps is usually shown as Kalgoorlie/Boulder, Boulder being the old town and Kalgoorlie has sprung up due to the mining, the high street in Boulder has been beautifully restored/preserved and is well worth a walk around to see it all. Well anyway the following morning dawned, well I think it dawned but couldn’t be sure as it was absolutely persisting down with rain, in fact it was the rain on the roof that woke me up. Needless to say I got a text from the tour company saying that the days trip to the mine had been cancelled due to it being unsafe because of the rain. The next available tour would be the following Tuesday (it was currently Thursday) as it was the Easter weekend. I wasnt aiming to be in town for that long so I asked for and got a refund. On the upside though I was able to get to the local DIY store and purchased my rattle gun. Just for those who aren’t aware a rattle gun is the tool they use in tyre dealers and garages to do up and undo your wheel nuts. Rattle guns are what they are called in Australia other countries may have different terminology.

Having purchased said gun I was now able to change my tow bar over to an adjustable one. This raised the height of the towball by about 5cms (2ins) and the reason for this was I had found that quite often due to a lot of sites not being completely level I couldn’t get my jockey wheel in place to raise the van to unhook from the car. I was having to put the front stabilising legs on the van down to raise it up and then inserting the jockey wheel. Now having this extra bit of height seems to have done the trick

So on leaving Kalgoorlie it was onwards North to my next stop which was a place called Gooncarrie, now when I say place I use that term in the very broadest and loosest sense. It was basically three abandoned and heavily in disrepair buildings which were once part of the train station that used to be here. The train line was still in use as I found out at around 3am when a grain carrying train came passed and the driver thought it was a good jolly jape to sound its horn, as if the noise of 200 or so carriages weren’t enough to wake up the neighbourhood. AnywayI was only going to stay overnight and then make my way up to Menzies.

Menzies is a small mining town with a population of around 110 people. It had a hotel which also had a small shop for a few essential bits and bobs in one of its back rooms. the caravan site was virtually brand new very well looked after and very clean and tidy. All the sites had a hard standing and there was a largish patch of grass outside the camp kitchen for people with swags (tents). The other plus to Menzies and really the reason I was stopping was because it was only 50kms from Lake Ballard which was where Sir Anthony Gormley had placed some of his human like sculptures in and around the lake. He is a British sculptor who did The Angle of the North just outside Newcastle North East England and also some of his sculptures have been dotted around the coastline in the UK. Now on the maps and local info (which it was revealed were a little out of date) it was showing a gravel road from just outside Menzies all the way to the lake, in reality all but the last 8kms are now fully sealed and the final bit had recently been graded so it wasnt too bad at all. Lake Ballard was completely dry and was just a large salt pan, and its good size (50km long and up to 30kms wide in places). Reading the information boards at the edge of the site, you need to give yourself at least two hours to walk around all the sculptures, but walking on a salt with the sun beating down and reflecting off it is no fun. I managed to do a smallish loop around in about 45mins, but didnt fancy doing much more. I was glad I went to say that I had been, but in all honesty I was a bit underwhelmed by it, maybe that says more about my under appreciation or even lack of knowledge of art more than anything else.

The next stop was in the town of Leonora which gave me the chance to stock up on some supplies at the local supermarket, but the main reason for the visit here was the a placed called Goalie, which is basically a ghost town going back to when it was a mining township but it was abandoned when the mine closed in 1963. It was started in the late 19th century by some welsh miners and an interesting fact is that the former President of the USA Herbert Hoover was the mine manager in its early days from May to November 1898. In the 1980s a couple of brothers started mining it again and in 1999 having concluded mining the open pit they started to develop and underground mine. in 2003 the mine closed again after known gold resources were exhausted. in 2008 the mine was bought by another company and after a 3 year development the mine was reopened. By 2019 it had become the deepest underground gold mine at 1600mtrs and is the deepest truck mine in the world, and they are still digging down. All in all it was a place that was well worth a visit and its even free to visit the museum and to wander around Herbert Hoovers old house.

The one other sort of interesting thing that happened while I was in Leonora was that the van park well a line of about 4 or 5 caravans got hit by a willy willy or dust devil. These are like mini tornadoes but thankfully not nearly as deadly or catastrophic. The dogs and I were sat in the van quietly minding our own business when I felt the wind was picking up mainly by some flapping of the awning, the next thing I knew was that the four guy ropes holding the awning were ripped out of the ground and the awning had folded itself back against the caravan. Before going out to check on things I looked out of the kitchen window and saw next doors caravan awning was folded right back and was laying on the roof of his van, and I could see the willy willy moving down the line. Each vans awning was damaged in some way but luckily no injuries ro serious damage. I got away with just a couple of rips in the awning I will end up having to get a new one, but thankfully no damage to the actual hardware of the awning. My awning is now dotted with several strips of gaffer tape where it ripped.

Still trundling Northwards next township was Leinster, which was built in I think it was 1974 purely to house mining staff. I only stayed one night as the free camp spot wasnt crash hot and the van park it town had closed down and also there really wasnt much to see or do there, though I did managed to pop into a really well stocked supermarket there. Now I was going to continue North from Leinster but look at my trusty app/map there really wasnt much between there and the next town of Wiluna, so instead I turned left and started heading West towards Mount Magnet.

I stopped overnight at Peter Denny Lookout which was a lovely large free camp and rest area with some lovely views across to the horizon. A couple of hours or so after pulling in it started raining and then the thunder and lightening started to join in. It rained most of the night and when I got up in the morning to let the dogs out I was surrounded by water. Now Cody didnt have a problem jumping out and finding a spot to do his business but Whisper was most reluctant so I had to carry her over the water. During the night the dogs woke me up two or three times with barking and I just put it down to the the storm, but on speaking to a couple who were also parked up the man asked me if I was bothered by the Dingos during the night. Apparently he got up in the night and saw about 3 or 4 dingos roaming around the area so I guess that is what the dogs were getting excited about.

Just 30 or so kilometres down the road from the lookout was the town of Sandstone were I booked myself into the van park for 3 nights. Quite an old van park with lots of permanents there, mainly mine works by the looks of things, but it was a clean and tidy little spot. Sandstone is best described as a dying town it has a hotel and a tearoom but not much else, lots of building boarded up with for sale signs. A bit like Menzies once again the small shop (even smaller than the Menzies one) was in a back room of the hotel. The tearoom was well worth a visit had a lovely cup of coffee and a slice of home made banana cake. While in Sandstone I did the Heritage trail which was quite a nice drive and actually managed to get a couple of photographs along the way. Due to the rain we had though there were quite a few place where water was across the road so going around it was not an option. I now have quite a few rust coloured water streaks all over the car. Most of these little towns have what they call heritage trails, some you need a lot more imagination than others to see what was meant to be seen.

Next stop was Mt Magnet which the lady at the Sandstone tearoom had recommended the museum as a must see. I did the Heritage trail trip on the second day its about 45kms long, I mainly wanted to see an old miners hut from the 1800s and hopefully get some decent photos of it. Well when I found where it was it was surrounded by fencing so you couldn’t get within 20mtrs of it, very disappointed. The remainder of the trail was one of those you needed quite a vivid imagination to see what they were asking you to see. But credit to the tearoom lady the museum was well worth the $5 entrance fee. To see it all fully would probably take you a full day, it took me about an hour and half as I was worried as I had the dogs in the back of the truck and the day was warming up. But I managed to see what I wanted to without delving into finite detail.

Meekatharra was the next town on the trip but I got side tracked and pulled into Nallan Station for a couple of nights. Nallan station is mainly cattle running to 98,886hectares or 245000acres or 231sq miles, and I had it all to myself. Very friendly host with lots of animals running around loose. The owner had two sheep that followed him everywhere like a pair of dogs. Sheep chickens donkeys and a pig were all near the camping area and all were very friendly and enjoyed a pat.

And then on to Meekatharra where I am now, leaving tomorrow. Probably the last reasonably sized township in the goldfields region. Once we get another couple of hundred kilometres North of here it will be back to Iron Ore mining. There are 3 decent sized gold mines here unfortunately no trips available to visit any of them though. Im parked up at the roadhouse caravan park with is old but good enough. Manage to top up my supplies as the next town is over 400kms away and its nearly 300kms to the next fuel stop. Again another one of these towns fully geared towards mining with not a lot else going for it. I will say one thing though it probably has the busiest fuel stop in WA. it caters for a constant stream of road trains from about 6am through to about 10pm. it is a very rare sight not to see as truck fuelling up. I think if you owned that franchise you would be living very comfortably.

Ok people I think that’s me all up to date now, only about 300kms before I cross the Tropic of Capricorn line, probably sometime next weekend

It soon became time to move on from Fitzgerald, it was a very pleasant place to stay and quite a few others came and went while I was parked up. There were some lovely trees all around the area but a standout line of them were right next to the caravan. Unfortunately my picture doesn’t do them justice. So it was onwards Eastwards towards the town of Ravensthorpe, which on the map looked to be a reasonable size. Well, like so many of these rural towns it wasnt much more the a few houses and shops either side of the main thoroughfare. I booked myself into the local caravan site for 4 nights to give the batteries a rest and to restock with water and empty the chemical toilet. I also needed to stock up on some bits and pieces for the pantry ad fridge and Ravensthorpe had what looked like a decent sized supermarket. Well it was most certainly a decent size unlike the contents of it shelves, many were completely empty and a lot of them only had one or two of items they did have on display. It did make me think how the heck the locals coped, as the nearest big towns were either 200kms to the East or 300kms to the West. Not exactly the sort of distances you would want to travel just for a few bits and bobs. Anyway I managed to get a few things to keep me going for a while, and the stopover also gave me a chance to catch up on some washing.

After four pleasant days in Ravensthorpe the Easterly road called again and I was going to go to a small place called Munglinup as it had a small free camp area in the town, well when I say town it was basically a roadhouse and a few houses. Anyway you had to be fully self contained to stay at the free camp which unfortunately Im not (no grey water holding tank), but looking at my trusty wikicamps app I found a nice looking free camp spot about 18kms prior to Munglinup. So off we trotted to see what was what. And also by stopping here it only left me about 100kms to go to reach Esperance. One afternoon while I was parked up at the free camp spot the dog started to bark and carry on about something they had seen or heard outside. I knew it wasnt somebody else parking up so just presumed it was probably a kangaroo hopping by. I thought I had better pop out and have a look just to make certain it wasnt something untoward, and to calm the dogs down and at first I didnt see anything, and then, what I thought was a bush about 70mtrs or so away started moving and lo it was an Emu. then out of the bush wandered a small mob of them, in all there were six. One was marked up slightly different to others and seemed to keep a little distance to the others which I assumed was the adult. Unfortunately my book of birds didnt make it overly clear. Anyway they hung around for about 15 or 20 minutes, enough time for me to grab my camera and get a few shots of them, before they all disappeared back into the bush. I didnt seem them again for the rest of my stay in the area. Being only 18kms from the Munglinup roadhouse I was able to make a trip to get bread and milk and a few little snack type things. More importantly I was able to get a pretty decent cup of coffee as well. Its the small things in life that keep you going. Also while I was at the roadhouse I managed to book myself into a caravan park in Esperance.

I couldn’t get into Esperance too soon as I had my caravan booked in for a wheel bearing check and didnt want to be hanging around too long before that was due., anyway I got there two days before (28th inspection on 30th). Esperance is a decent sized town with a lovely seafront promenade and lots of places to park up to enjoy the view. It also had a pretty well stocked supermarket so I was able to do a decent shop and more importantly managed to get some fresh fruit and veg. I dropped the van off on the morning of the 30th and pointed out to the man that I also needed either a new door or hinges on one of my outside storage spaces, two out of the three hinges were purely decoration so he said he would have a look. So off the dogs and I went to have a little stroll on the seafront and to find a coffee shop and await the call to say I could pick up the van. I was sat on a bench enjoying the view when at about midday the call came in saying the van was ready. On walking back to the car I noticed that one of my rear tyres looks a bit flat, definitely needing a bit of air. Anyway I thought it would do me to pick up the van and get back to the campsite where I could change it over for the spare. The van was all done, new wheel bearing all round, parking braked re-tensioned and new hinges on the storage door. Managed to get the it all back to the caravan park and got it all set up again and by now the back wheel was nearly flat. So next job was to change it over. Well as most things that didnt go to plan either, I couldn’t loosen off any of the nuts. I had to ring a couple of places till I found somewhere who could fit me in, so I got my air pump out and pumped the tyre up and hoped it would last until I got the the tyre dealership. In some ways I was pretty thankful that I got the puncture as when they inspected the tyre it had a lot of bald patches on it and in one place it was nearly through the rubber. This was the same for both back tyres so it was a case of getting two new ones put on. Now these tyres were Michelins and had lasted about 19months and no more than 30 thousand kms (about 18 thousand miles). So now have a set of semi off road tyres on the back (Goodyear Wrangler in case you are interested) to the tune of $700. So my second puncture of the year, one on the car and the previous one on the caravan

Esperance was the farthest East I was going to travel and as it was now April it was time to start heading back up North for the winter. So with new boots on the car and new bearings in the caravan I was all set to go. The first stop on my way North was a free camp called Kamarl, which was a lovely large flat area to find a spot to set up. On the following morning I had to pack up and move on, nothing wrong with where I was except for the flies, now I don’t mean the normal fly type flies these things were the size of double decker buses and they bit. Good old sandflies and it wasnt just the odd one or two there were loads of the buggers, so as I was getting more and more pissed of with them it was time to move on. Only went up the road by about 40kms and found another free camp spot called Bromus Dam which was far better. Still had flies but normal types I was used to. Stayed here for a couple of nights then it was in to Norseman caravan park for a few nights. This caravan park was quite a size with loads of powered sites, and it was fairly busy, mostly with people just stopping for one night either before or after that had travelled across the Nullarboor Plain, as this was the first/last town from the plain. Not a great deal to write home about in Norseman very tidy township but like most places when you go rural, more shops and businesses closed and boarded up than open ones.

Im currently about 140kms North of Norseman at another free camp spot called Feysville bush camp. I could be here for a little while as my next stop which is Kalgoorlie is a wee bit busy at the moment as school holidays started yesterday and at lot of the campsites are fully booked. Now just to round off this little blog let me tell you what happened today. I was walking back to the caravan after going for an amble with the dogs and I noticed that one of the caravan tyres was flat, yep yet another puncture. Well the air very suddenly went very blue I can tell you. This time though I had the trolley jack to use so after jumping up and down on the wheel brace (rattle gun is next purchase) to loosen the nuts, it was a simple matter of sliding under the jack on some blocks and up the van went. So wheel changed in about 20mins rather than the couple of hours it gook me last time. Nice big nail in the punctured tyre. So when I get to Kalgoorlie it will be yet another visit to the tyre dealer for yet another tyre. Im sure I should be getting frequent customer discount or something along those lines. Although it was a lot easier to sort it all out this time I was still majorly hacked off with the fact that it had to be done.

Anyway folks that’s the state of play at this time. A few photos to end up with and catch you all again soon.

On leaving Manjimup with my new tyre firmly affixed to the back of the caravan I made my way to a lovely little bush camp about 10kms outside of Pemberton, signposted as the Pemberton Big Brook Arboretum. I was right in amongst some very tall trees some stretching at leat 50 or 60 metres towards the sky. It was $7 a night for normally a maximum of 3 nights, but as it was quiet, just me and one or two others the hosts let me stay for 6 nights. Very peaceful with no phone or internet so lots of reading and wandering around the area was undertaken. There was a lovely dam not too far away and with the temperatures climbing above the 30c mark it would have been nice to have given the dogs a dip to cool them off, but like most places dogs were not welcome. It still amazes me just how many people use these sort of facilities which are run by volunteers for our benefit but leave a load of rubbish lying around when they leave, just pure laziness to bag it up and dump it in a rest are bin of which there are numerous along every road. Pemberton itself was a lovely little township, with two decent grocery stores and at leat four cafes. It certainly catered well for the travellers passing through.

From there it was further South Westerly slowly making my way down toward Augusta. The next stop was an overnight in a rest area at Darradup about 30kms South of Nannup. I had managed to book myself a spot at the very busy Nannup caravan park for the following day. I needed to top up with water and have a chance to put the aircon on to cool the boys down a bit, although it did eventuate that the aircon wasnt required. Nannup was a very busy town with not a great deal going on there. As mentioned the caravan park was very busy as Australia Day fell while I was there and it was also the last weekend of the school holidays. There was also a large gathering of the Jayco caravans owners club of WA in attendance. Anyway I managed to get 5 nights there and the weather was certainly cooler and had a bit of drizzle on a couple of the day, and booked ahead into a caravan park in Augusta for 3 nights.

The trip from Nannup to Augusta was pretty uneventful, but I did stop at a place called Karridale, which was basically a garage, and cafe/bar on either side of the road at a T junction and that was about it. I must say though that the garage did serve a decent coffee.

Got myself all sorted out in the caravan park in Augusta, literally about 50mtrs from the beach and the Southern Ocean. Very windy the whole 3 days I was there but luckily my site was surrounded by trees so was sheltered from the worst of it and was able to have the awning out for the boys. My reasons for visiting Augusta were two fold. One was to go to the lighthouse and see where the Southern and the Pacific oceans meet, and two according to the internet there was a garage in Augusta that did Annual caravan inspections of which I was in need of. Well in the case of best made plans the garage had gone out of business and the lighthouse was completely covered in scaffolding and it also lay in the bounds of a National Park so I couldn’t go in because of the dogs. Mind you the southwesterly winds were so strong I probably would have ended up halfway across the Nullarbor. I wasnt sorry to leave Augusta if only for the fact to find somewhere less windy.

I ended up going to Northcliffe and to Sid’s Bush Camp for a couple of nights. Surprisingly quiet a few others here seeing as there were no facilities in the Northcliffe apart from 24/7 petrol pumps. The campsite did offer rustic showers and flushing toilets which I think are best described as functional, but it did appear that some of the people had been there a good while and looked as if they were going to be there a good while longer. It was a lovely setting although I wouldn’t fancy being there if it rained too heavily and it was very sandy and you could have gotten bogged down very easily.

Next port of call was Walpole a caravan park right on the Walpole Inlet, again a very busy campsite where I had booked myself in for 3 nights. During the first afternoon I was there reports of a large bush fire about 60kms to the East of where I was just outside a town called Denmark. Due to the hot temperatures and a bit of breeze this was soon declared as an emergency and people from the surrounding area were told to leave immediately and all the campsites in the area were closed and campers told to evacuate. The fire raged all Friday night and Saturday and it wasnt until the early hours of Sunday morning that is was contained, but still not under control. Luckily on the Monday rain was forecast and it duly arrived which certainly helped the firefighters and it was deemed contained and controlled on Monday afternoon. As the fire was directly on the route I was due to take I stayed an extra couple of nights and the van park to make sure it was safe to travel when I left. I was going to make Denmark my next stop but due to the fire all the campsites and caravan parks were full so instead I made my way to Albany, well to be exacted to the suburb of Willyung which is about 12kms North of Albany CBD. A really lovely Caravan Park called King River Palms which was right on the King River, just like it said on the tin. I booked myself in for a week as I had managed to find a place that could do my caravan inspection. Albany is quite a decent sized town and is well spread out. Apart from the shopping the three main things to do and see in Albany are the Whale watching (in season), the whaling station museum and the ANZAC memorial park. Although the whale watching wasnt happening the other two are well worth a visit. Took my caravan in for its inspection which it promptly failed, no gas compliance plate and also a problem with the suspension. So when I rang the recommended caravan repairers they couldn’t do the work for 2 weeks, so rather than pay for another two weeks in the van park I decided to go and free camp until I took it in for repair. I went back to a place I had visited previously at the beginning of January called Borden. So off I trotted up to Borden only about 120kms away and parked up for two weeks before heading back to Albany and putting the van in to get fixed. I had to get myself a cheap cabin for the night as the van would be in for two days, the dogs were not overly impressed to have to sleep in the truck overnight but it was all good. Got the van back the following day and had it booked in for a reinspection the day after. All went well and I got my inspection certificate. So that’s that for the next 12months.

So back on my travels again making my way East towards Esperance, which I should get to in about a weeks or so. Im currently parked up in another large free camp area all on my lonesome, well apart from a whole host of magpies. The location is called Fitzgerald which used to be a very small township but is now just this camping area. I think the town was abandoned in the early 1960s. Its currently 26c with a bit of a breeze and all is good.

Sorry Its been a while since my last blog, but too be brutally honest not a great deal has been going on since then, Basically just slowly wending my way South towards the coast.

I left Bunbury on the 16th after my eye appointment and I knew I couldn’t go too far before I had to come back and pick up my new spectacles. So I had found a free camping place called Jayes Bridge on my app which was about 14kms South of a town called Boyup Bridge. It was a lovely spot right beside the river and plenty of trees to provide a bit of shelter (unfortunately not from the flies). I ended up stay for nearly two weeks until I got the call that my new glasses were ready. Boyup Bridge was a really nice little township with a great little cafe (The Treehouse which was for sale) and a very good IGA. So although I was free camping I was still able to get a regular fix of coffee and to keep topped up with fresh supplies. The free camping spot was very quiet and the odd travellers who did turn up usually only stayed for one or two nights. Cody especially enjoyed having a good couple of acres to run around in, it made a pleasant change for him to be off the leash when out for his walks. So on the 29th Nov it was back to Bunbury get my new glasses.

While I was back in Bunbury another trip to the vet was called for and just to make a change this time it was for Whisper. I noticed some sort of growth just in front of her right ear and was concerned that she had possibly been bitten. The vet took a swab of it and said it was a tumour and after examining the swab I was told that it was benign, which was a huge weight off my mind. I was told to keep an eye on it for a few days and if it got bigger or if Whisper started to worry it to bring her in to get it removed. The vet did warn me though that putting her under a general anaesthetic at her age was in her words very tricky. So its been nearly two months now and it hasn’t grown at all and it doesn’t appear to bother Whisper in any way so Ive put it on the back burner for now. Any change and I will have to look at the options.

After leaving Bunbury I went back inland again to a town called Collie, mainly to see a large dam which had a mural painted on the front of it. Before getting to Collie I free camped for two nights a Stockton Lake (well not technically free camping as it was $7 a night) but very little facilities. It was very busy there with lots of people using the lake for water sports so you had to put up with a very regular background noise of speed boats. But all in all a pleasant enough location. Anyway after two nights it was in to Collie for 3 nights. I had also booked the car in for a service while I was in Collie as it had been nearly 6 months since the last one. Well the dam was a bust as it is situated inside a National Park so it was a no go for me. Apart from the coal train which came through twice a day there was not a lot to see in Collie. On picking the car up after the service I was told I needed some work done on it, the mechanic noticed I needed a new disc, brake pads, brake callipers on the right rear wheel, basically I only had full braking on 3 wheels. and also the right rear drive axle was leaking and needed to be resealed. The mechanic couldn’t do it until the following week so it was back to Jayes Bridge for a few days before heading back and getting it done. As per normal the part they ordered didnt fit so they had to get the part from Nissan so what should have been a one day job ruined into one and a half days. Anyway it all got sorted, the Ute got a wash (first time in ages) and I had just enough change out of $1000 to buy a newspaper.

On leaving Collie I went further into the Wheatbelt of Southern Western Australia to a free camp spot at Carrolup. On my first night there I had a knock on the van for a very pleasant chap and his wife inviting me across the road to a bbq and a few drinks as the local farm workers and contractors were having a wee end of season pre Christmas get together. There was a good crowd of about 25 or so people who turned up and it was very social. On the third day of being there I had another knock on the door this time from a very irate women telling me I couldn’t camp here as it was a cross country equestrian course and I was blocking it. Well I had noticed the jumps that were in the vicinity and had also noted that most of them were either falling apart or falling over, and the grass around most of them was well over a metre high. So I concluded it was no longer in use. Anyway as I said she was very irate and indignant and I just said ok I will leave then no problem. This took the wind completely out of her sails, I think she was hoping for a bit of an argument. Anyway I found another spot called Badgebup which was a far nicer location and certainly with a few less flies and set up camp there instead.

As Christmas was looming I thought I would book myself into a caravan park for a few days, and saw a place called Pingrup had a rural outback park so gave them a ring a booked in for six nights. For the whole time I was there I had the park to myself so it was a very relaxing time to indulge in a bit of Xmas eating. I even opened a bottle of Shiraz to help wash it down. Pingrup was solely geared towards the grain industry, with a huge grain storage facility with three large silos (with some nice art on) and eight outdoor storages each about 100mtrs by 30mtrs or so. Talking to a few of the locals due to a fairly wet winter this years harvest was set to break a few records.

From Pingrup it was time to start drifting South a bit towards the coast. Schools were still on their summer holidays so most if not all the coastal camp spots were full so I was in no rush to get down there before 24th Jan when they all went back. I was looking to stay at a town called Jerramungup for New Year but they were fully booked so I moved on to Ongerup on the 29th so booked in over the New Year period as I didnt fancy being on the road during that time as I knew there was a good chance that the locals (Hoons/Bogans) could be on the road after a visit to the Hotel. Anyhow Ongerup wasnt too bad at all and it had a small local shop which sold the essentials and had a very chatty and friendly red haired lady serving (more on that a bit later).

After Ongerup I stayed for one night in Borden, free camping on the recreation ground next to the Oval. Then it was down to Gnowangerup. Now this caravan park was $25 a night water power etc, but the good thing about it was that it was run by the local community for the local community so all monies didnt go to some fancy company. It was very clean and tidy with a modern ablution block. Not a huge amount in the town but it did have a reasonable IGA. Again the park was fairly quiet there were three others parked up when I arrived but the all left the following day (maybe I should try some deodorant), and then there was one other who came the last couple of days I was there. Still having regular problems with the wind (weather wise not personal) I had to take my awning in during the first night as it was blowing so hard and it didnt go back out for the rest of the stay.

Next stop was Mount Barker (which I noticed on my new in car gps I got in Perth, doesn’t exist) I had an appointment here to see a doctor to get my prescription re ordered for the next 6 months and the following morning to get my 6 monthly blood test done. Both tasks were successfully achieved at no cost which was a bonus, I usually get charged a doctors fee as Im from out of town and state. So after just one night parked up in a rest area I was back on the road with a fresh months supply of pills and four phials of blood missing from the left arm.

Started to head a bit to the West from Mount Barker to a free camping area called Muir Bridge which is on the Frankland river about 11kms west of Rocky Gully. Parked up and I was on a bit of lean, not a huge amount but enough to be annoying (need to get some levellers). So the next morning I moved to another spot. I noticed that the door was sticking a bit and put this down to the lean. So when I moved to my new spot which was nice and flat (and more importantly the person who was parked there had moved on) I was miffed to see that the door was still sticking a bit, checked all the hinges and all looked well, it wasnt the main door that was sticking but the inner fly screen door. Anyway on further inspection as to why this was happening I noticed I had a flat tyre on the left rear wheel of the caravan. I won’t bore you with the full details of changing a wheel on a caravan but suffice to say there was a lot of swearing even more sweating and a huge amount of grunting. Lets just say trying to lift a nearly 3 ton caravan with the jack supplied with the caravan, I think even The Rock would have struggled trying to turn the screw to raise it. A large nail was stuck in the tyre when I finally managed to get the damn thing off, I had to stand on the wheel brace to get the thing to move. After nearly two hours the job was done and I was covered in dust and grime. On the day I was leaving two chaps on Harleys pulled into the campsite and we met up for a chat and one chap mentioned he was from Ongerup and him and his mate were just out for a ride around. I mentioned I had not long been in Ongerup over Xmas and he asked if I went to the local shop and noticed a red haired woman working there, I told him yes she served me a couple of times and always had time for a chat, and this turned out to be his wife. Sometimes it is a really small world. Well I cut my stay here short as I needed to replace my tyre so left not long after the bikers and headed off to Manjimup.

So currently in Manjimup, heading off tomorrow, new tyre purchased and also a trolley jack and now that Ive bought it Im hoping I never need it. Not sure where Im heading to next but will update you soon.

You have probably noticed quite a few places Ive been to ending in UP, this is part of an old Aborigine word or saying meaning Place of or Site of, just in case you were wondering.

Made it into Geraldton on a very wet and windy day, rained so hard on the way in I had to pull over as I couldn’t see where I was going. Luckily it eased enough that it wasnt too bad setting up the caravan at the park. I was out of the main part of town in an area called West End and very close to the sea. The town centre where I was located was a bit bizarre, a real old High Street with some lovely Mom and Pop shops which would have been lovely to browse, but there was very limited parking, and what there was looked constantly full so it made it very difficult to go out and explore and maybe spend some money to help the local economy. Instead I went to the out of town hubs where parking was plentiful but the shops very much same same in all this large retail outlets. Anyway on one of my exploratory drives down to the sea I did manage to get a couple of very average shots through the drizzle of some young Ospreys in their nest. I decided whilst I was in Geraldton that I would head inland for a while to hopefully escape the wind and to also catch a glimpse of the wild flowers, which this part of Western Australia is famous for in the Spring.

The remainder of my time in Geraldton was trying to dodge the showers, so I headed off inland in search of better weather and to get back to a slower pace of life. I found a nice gravel pit site to free camp in Canna and had a very peaceful 3 nights there before moving on to a town called Perenjori. A very nice small town with a very good local cafe, and it had a few places to go and see the wild flowers, one of which was directly opposite the caravan park. As I said previously the flowers blossom in the spring so normally end of September early October. But due to the wet winter this year the flowers came out early and were in bud mid August. So by the time I arrived in early October I was probably about 2 weeks late to see them at their best, but they were still worth seeing. I found the best displays of them were just on the road side as you were travelling along.

My next stop was Dalwallinu, I was going to free camp here but on seeing the location I wasnt overly keen, it was very close to the road and a very tight area to get the caravan in, probably more suitable to motorhomes, so I bit the bullet and went back into the town to the caravan park, which although they had limited sites (due to work being done in other parts of the park) was a very pleasant stay. The town was a decent size with all the shops you could need and a very friendly pharmacy where I was able to get my prescription filled. I was now entering what is called the Wheatbelt which as the name implies is a vast area of Western Australia is where a good proportion of grain is grown. Fields here are not measured in acreage but in square kilometers. When you get up onto a hill and do a 360 look around all you can see is a golden brown colour, its an impressive sight.

Onwards now to Kilannie not so much a town more of a large grain storage area. Large white building next to railway lines dominate the towns in the Wheatbelt. This is where the grain is stored before onward shipment either across the country or to the coast to Perth and Fremantle for exporting. Most of these building also have a large outdoor area where they put the grain for what I can only assume is for drying. I got to look at one of these at my next town of Cadoux.

Cadoux is a place name not a town in any sense of the word. There is one building which is a Post office/hardware store/cafe/tourist information/and camping reception. I paid $5 a night for power and water and access to the shower and toilets in the Rec Centre, well worth the money. I took Cody to have a look at one of these outdoor grain storage places, firstly the size was impressive, probably 100mtrs by 30mtrs, with a conveyor belt which brought the grain from the indoor area and an arm which moved along the conveyor belt taking the grain off and dumping it into the large outdoor bin. Now this one was empty as harvesting hadn’t started yet, but judging by the number of magpies and crows the birds in these towns didnt lack for a feed. The other thing Cadoux is known for was an earthquake back in 1979 of a 6.0 magnitude which caused over $4 million worth of damage and devastated the area. I think most people must have left the area after this and to be honest there is much there to entice them back, apart from the farmers.

Wongan Hills was the next town on the itinerary, where I had booked in for 3 nights but ended up staying for a week. A very pretty part of the state with some lovely drives and walks. Again it had everything you could need in terms of shopping and facilities. Had a very relaxing time of doing not a great deal.

On leaving Wongan Hills I had a day to kill before arriving in Perth, so I thought I would free camp by Lake Ninan, this is a large lake only about 12kms outside of Wongan Hills and looked very scenic. This lakes claim to fame is its salinity it can be up to 600% saltier than the sea. I was going to stay the night and hopefully grab a few photos but the weather once again wasnt being friendly. It was a dirt road leading into the lake of about 500mtrs or so possibly a bit more and as it started to rain I didnt fancy getting bogged down, so after an hour or so I decided to move on as the weather didnt look like clearing at all. I drove on to the next town of Calingiri and found a nice gravel sport to park up for the rest of the day and night. Although it was windy it was dry so dropped anchor here. The next morning before moving off I let the dogs have a quick run around, mainly because I had heard what I thought was an eagle so went looking for it but that was curtailed when Cody started yelping (its always him). I got to him and noticed he was not putting his back leg down (the same one he had the op on) and I was fearing the worse. on lifting his leg to have a look there was a huge red ant which was clinging onto one of his pads and had obviously gripped him very hard. I managed to flick it off after a few goes with a stick, and Cody favoured it for a while but seems to have had no after effects from it. When I got the dogs into the back of the truck I put some antiseptic on Cody’s paw just in case, but he promptly licked it straight off so that was that.

Perth, well the suburb of Caversham in the Swan Valley wine area was the next port of call. My main reason for going into Perth was I had to get a fitness to drive medical because of my diabetes, this is an annual thing and not all doctors will do it. I had contacted one which was willing to do the procedure hence my trip in. I noticed on the way in that there was a hell of a lot of roadworks going on and lots of new road being built non of which were on my cars gps system, but were on google maps on my phone. So being a budding detective I assumed that the cars gps was well out of date and could do with an upgrade. After setting up at the caravan park and doing a google search I got myself off to the local Nissan dealer. Very helpful chap there managed to sort me out, got me a new SD card with up to date (ish) maps system on it. Now my Nissan is a 2017 and it had the system number 1 SD card in it from approx 2014/15 now got system 4 in it from Feb 2021 so hopefully things will be better, and for $275 it bloody better be. Got my medical done and all was good so cleared to wander the roads for another 12 months. While I was in Perth I went out to Trigg Beach to go and take a couple of photos for a friend in UK who used to live there back in the mid to late 1990s. Sadly I had to report that the house was no longer there it was just bare earth and judging by the other houses nearby it was being prepared for a McMansion to go up in its place. Very sad to see.

Back inland again to York for an overnight free camp, man it was busy obviously a very popular place to stay, but it was right in the town so very handy and its was quite a good looking little town. From there it was down to Beverley where I stayed for a week for $170 at a lovely little and fairly new caravan park again right in the middle of town, everything was walkable. On looking at my trusty maps I noticed I wasnt far from a town called Kulin (approx 180kms) which had been on my bucket list since I saw it on an ABC TV programmed called Back Roads a couple of years ago.

Now Kulin is known for 3 things, 1 is the bush races in October, 2 is Tin Horse Highway and finally the waterslide at the local pool (182mtrs long and 18mtrs high) the largest in Rural Western Australia. In what appears to be a recurring theme Kulin also had free camping right in the middle of the town, which could probably hold about 12 caravans or so. As for the township there isn’t a great deal there but people come to see the Tin Horse Highway. Now this stretches for about 15kms and is dotted with locally made (mainly by farmers) sculptures made out of old oil barrels and other assorted bits of metal to resemble caricatures of horses in different scenarios. As per usual with this sort of things some are better than others but most are very very clever. I also discovered while I was in Kulin that it was only 80kms to Wave Rock a well known land mark of granite which has been carved in the shape of a wave over time by water. I went out to it fairly early in the morning getting there about 0930 and I was the only person there, so no problem getting photos without loads of tourists in them. All in all a good 3 days in Kulin.

My next place and where I currently am is Bunbury which is about 170kms South of Perth as I had arranged an optician appointment for the 15th (which is also my birthday so all gifts gratefully received). Its been a couple of years and again due to the diabetes I need to get the old peepers checked up, and I’ve definitely noticed my current set of optical enhancement is not quite cutting it. So I arrived in Bunbury yesterday, blew a gale last night (some things dont change) and heading off again on Tuesday. I won’t be going too far though as I will have to come back to pick up my new specs when they are ready. Ive found a couple of free camping places I can go to so should be all good.

Now to end with let me tell you about the day I had on Saturday 13th November, which should be renamed Friday 13th. On my way in to Bunbury I pulled over to let the dogs out for quick run sniff and loo break. As I was at the back of the car I thought to go across to the other side of the towbar before I opened the back of the Ute to let Cody out and to lift down Whisper. I tripped over the tower and started to fall on the way down I banged my head on the rear bumper, as I laid on the ground wondering what the heck had happened I noticed I had skinned my shin and elbow on the towbar and gravel. It took me a little while to get back to my feet as I’m not the nimblest at the best of times. Anyway dogs sorted and back on the road a while later, slight headache starting to appear. When in Bunbury when to the shops to get some supplies and got 10ltrs of water. On getting back to the caravan no water, I had left it in the trolley as the trolley park was next to the car I unloaded the bags and pushed the trolley into the next one leaving the water in it. Then to round out the day I defrosted by tea in the m/wave (shepherds pie homemade) as I took it out and placed it on the board ready to plate up, the board tipped up and put my meal on the floor. So that just about rounded off the perfect day. I made do with a cup of coffee and some ginger nut biscuits..

All up to date now and only 200kms before I pass the 20,000kms mark for this trip.

As usual a couple of pics

All the following are from the Tin Horse Highway

Well I must admit I quite liked Carnarvon and thoroughly enjoyed my four night stay there. Little did I realise I would be returning much sooner than I had planned and more than once. Picked up a very early birthday present from my siblings, a nice wee telescope for looking at the night sky. You get some wonderfully dark nights with minimal or no light pollution to contend with. So thank you one and all for that, rest assured it will get plenty of use. Anyway back to Carnarvon, it has a lovely esplanade which was very neat and tidy and was a good spot for a stroll with the dogs, or rather a dawdle at Whispers pace. The only drawback was the wind, it blew everyday I was there with some gusts really quite strong, luckily I had the awning well anchored with the guy ropes and also the privacy screen which definitely helped keeping it stable. Anyway after the four nights were up I decided to head inland a bit to a small township of Gascoyne Junction which was about 180kms East.

Not a bad drive out to Gascoyne Junction and got myself three nights in their caravan park. On driving through the town it caught my attention that for a population of less than 400 people there was a bit of building work going on and all the properties looked new, including the caravan park. Anyway got myself all set up and decided to have a little explore. In the shop/cafe/petrol station/pub/caravan park office I found a nice little display explaining why all the new builds. In 2010 the town was destroyed by floods and all the people had to be evacuated, there is a story told there of the pub landlord being woken up in his bed upstairs by the flood water. Now the township is on a slight hill and a good 500mtrs if not more from the river. So Im not sure how deep and how wide the river was in full flood but it must have been one heck of sight that’s for sure. Most of the people who were evacuated came back after the floods receded, and slowly set about reclaiming and rebuilding the town. My curiosity at all the new looking buildings was explained.

That evening I was giving Cody a bit of a fuss and I noticed or rather felt a small lump just on the side of his bottom jaw, probably no bigger than a pea. I wasnt overly concerned as he gave no reaction when I touched it, but reminded myself to keep an eye on it just in case. Well the next morning I didnt need reminding as all of his bottom jaw was very swollen. Luckily I had the internet so I looked on line for a vet in Carnarvon and managed to get him an appointment for the Monday afternoon. It looked like a very big abscess had grown, probably from a broken tooth or something being stuck in his gum line. Anyway he still didnt seem to mind me touching it and he was still eating albeit not as rapidly as he normally does and still drinking, and also he didnt appear to be worrying it or scratching at it. The following morning (Sunday) when he got up to go out there was some blood from where he had laying, and when I looked under his chin he had obviously been scratching at it during the night, I managed to wipe most of the blood off him. So Monday afternoon comes around and off we trot to the vet to find out what is what. The vet had a good look and yep she says looks like an abscess or possibly some insect has bitten him. Well the speed at which it blossomed I think I will go with the latter, as he does like sticking his snout in places he shouldn’t. As they would have to shave all his chin he would have to be sedated so he was booked in for first thing Tuesday morning. After dropping him off Whisper and I went back to the van park, and about two hours later I get a phone call from the vet receptionist saying the vet wants a quick word, before she concluded the sentence with there is nothing to worry about, all sorts of thoughts went through my mind. The vet said that they had found a growth on the bottom on one his back legs and wanted to know if it was ok to remove it, she said it was right on the side of his paw. Now I have noticed this for the last 8 years or so and just thought he had an extra pad on his paw, but as the vet explained it wasnt, so permission was granted. When I picked him up later that day he had a lovely smart bandage on his leg and a very clean shaven lower jaw, and a neat little hole which they had left to help drain the wound. I won’t be coarse and tell you what the bill was but lets just say I think the vets next all expenses paid holiday in some pacific island is well and truly paid for. But they were super friendly and very helpful. By the by still very windy in Carnarvon.

So after a week of free camping it was back to Carnarvon for a check up for Cody and all was healing nicely, and a nice clean bandage on his leg. I had to wait a few more days to get his stitiches out so booked myself a spot in another caravan park. A few days later the stitches in his leg came out and we were all set to hit the road again.

The final time that I was in Carnarvon I went to their main tourist attraction namely the Space/Technology Museum. I must say I found it very disappointing, it all looked a bit run down, but there was quite a bit inside geared to keeping kids happy. The one plus was that they had a full size model of the Lunar Module that landed on the moon way back on the 20th July 1969. The one thing that really struck me about it was its size, it was far bigger than I thought it would be, no wonder they needed such bloody big rockets.

Anyway back on the road again and drifting slowly South, my next stop was a campsite called Gladstone Wharf. it was $10 a night and about fifty meters from the sea. very pleasant location and plenty of room. The whole site was about 3kms long and about 150mtrs wide. 6kms of dirt road to get to it and I dont think the road has ever been graded, man-o-man it was rough going, lets just say it took the best part of 30mins to cover the distance. But it was well worth it when you got there. The land this site was on was owned by the Yarinda Station and a good job of it they had done too. Only bore water which wasnt suitable for drinking but it had flushing toilets and a dump point so all was good. The only drawback to the place was guess what? you got it the bloody wind, every single day. I stayed for five nights and the dogs had good fun playing in the sea, well Cody did Whisper just tended to lie down in it, her days of chasing sea gulls are well behind her. The water was crystal clear and you could wade out over 100mtrs and it was still only as deep as my knees. Need to get some proper reef shoes as my sandals weren’t really up to it.

From Gladstone Wharf it was a fairly quick trip to my next destination of Hamelin Pool, with a quick stop at Overland Roadhouse for fuel, coffee for me, water for the dogs and diesel for the truck. then it was a right turn onto Shark Bay Heritage Drive. In no time I was pulling in to Hamelin Pool caravan park $25 a night again no drinking water or dump point but power. A basic but very popular caravan park and the ladies who run it were super friendly and seemed to know everyone by their names. I think there are only 10 powered sites but lots of room if you wanted unpowered. Very very basic supplies in the little shop they had there to get proper groceries, bread milk etc it was a 100kms trip up to Denham, and as I was low on both and many other things it was a trip I had to make the following day, more on Denham later. Had some lovely walks while at Hamelin Pool and I was disappointed that I didnt see the Pied Piper at all. There is a boardwalk there as well where you can walk out over the sea, but, unfortunately this was badly damaged when cyclone Seroja hit WA in April causing a severe amount of damage along a good portion of the WA coastline an further inland as well. There is also a shell quarry at Hmelin Pool where over time the shells get so compacted and eventually dry out to form a soft rock, which in days gone by were cut by the locals to build with. I ended up staying for six nights as it was so peaceful , and yet again it was windy every blooming day.

After my stay at Hamelin Pool I managed to get possibly the last available powered site at a caravan park in Denham for two nights. I needed to stock up on a few supplies and to refill the caravans water tanks and the dogs water containers. 194 litres for the van and 60 litres for the dogs, and ten more litres of bottled water for me. Denham is very much geared up for holiday makers and tourists who enjoy water sports, diving, scuba dolphin/shark/whale watching and of course the ever popular fishing. Basically everything that is worth seeing or doing is on one road which runs parallel to the sea for about 1.5kms and that’s it. Due to the school holidays starting and it being a long weekend the place was fully booked, anyway 2 nights were plenty for me so it was back to the road and 130kms later I was back at Overland Roadhouse for my much needed cup of Joe, stretch and water for the dogs. It was then about 60kms down to Billabong Roadhouse where they had free overnight camping and the cheapest diesel so far in WA of $1.48 a litre, and if you pumped more than 450litres you got it for $1.43 a litre. Im now currently parked up at a gravel pit about 30kms or so North of Northampton heading to Geraldton on Friday , which will be by far the biggest town Ive hit since Darwin. Definitely cooler as Im heading South, but guess what, yep right again its still windy, that’s every day since 21st Aug. After Geraldton Im heading inland to hopefully get away from it for a while.

Not too much on the photo front Im afraid but here are a few