Albany to Pemberton

My turn for a post. might not read as well as Melissa's so lets see how I go.
Tuesday we left Hyden and headed for Albany.  The back roads have all just been tar'd and quite smooth.  We got quite a bit of locus on the road. Lucky we bought some fly screen to put on the front of the car day before.
We drove right through the stirling ranges. They where massive mountains in middle of the flat plains.
We settled into the Big4 in Albany and they even put on a roast pork night at the camp kitchen. Saves us cooking for the night :)
On Wednesday we looked around Albany. It is quite a granite coast line. We stopped at the Natural Bridge rock and the blow holes along the coast. The blow holes wasn't working as not much swell, one did blow air from the swell which took Melissa by surprise when she first walked up to it. (one thing I like about WA they don't fence anything off, they just have signs saying "your safety is your responsibility")
They have a replica of the sailing ship Amity in Albany. We where able to explore all 3 decks. It amased us at the small size of the ship and how it used to carry 60 men. We recommend taking a look at the ship.
We also took in a few lookouts around the town.
Thursday we headed out of Albany and onto Denmark where we stopped for some morning tea and chat about the Easter break and where we be staying.
From Denmark we headed to the Valley of the Giants tree walk and other giant tree viewing areas.
We are now in Pemberton caravan park. (advise if you come here don't follow the GPS and just drive up the main street till you see the caravan park sign)
Until next blog hope you enjoy the read and photo's.

 Salt Lakes

 Stirling Ranges

 Dog Rock in the middle of Albany

 Natural Bridge (see me on it?)

 The Amity

 In side the Amity

 View of Albany and the harbour

 Well I finally made it to Denmark...

 Valley of the Giants tree top walk. 40 Meters high.

 Us at the giant tree's

Jock at Valley of the Giants. 

Esperance & Wave Rock - Hyden

We spent Sunday sight seeing Esperance, we started off taking the Great Ocean Drive scenic drive. Went to the Pink Lake, although not so pink this particular day as it was very overcast, the pink colour is caused from the salt and algae in the water. The coast line of Esperance is beautiful, the beaches have the clearest water and the sand is so white, we spent quite alot of time walking some of the beaches and stopping at lookouts to take photos. There is a wind farm built just above Nine Mile beach, you can walk right up to the turbines. We also visited Stonehenge, a replica of the Stonehenge in the UK. It is built on a farm just out of Esperance and the sheer size and workmanship of this structure is amazing. We spent the rest of the afternoon along the esplanade and walking along the jetty. The resident sea lion was at the start of the jetty having a snoooze on the sand when we got back, he is quite big and looks like he is very well feed.

 Coast line in Esperance

 Nine Mile Beach



 Stonehenge

 Trev and I inside Stonehenge

Inside Stonehenge

Sea lion at the end of the jetty waiting for fish

Yesterday we travelled to Wave Rock, Hyden, it was quite a warm day and we came across alot of locusts. We staying at the caravan park right at the rock, only a 200mt walk to get there. We walked along the base and climbed to the top. The rock is a huge peice of granite that actually takes up quite abit of land. There were heaps of little gecko type lizards running all over it. We also went and had alook at Hippos Yawn, another part of the same rock. We finished the day with another walk up to Wave Rock to watch the sun go down.

 Surfing at Wave Rock

Looking down from the top 

Wave Rock





Broken Hill to Esperance

Its been quite a number of days since we have had internet and mobile phone coverage and we are now at Esperance in WA. Since the last post we have stopped in Port Augusta, the temperture was very warm and we spent the afternoon looking at the jetty and the bay and going for a swim to cool off. We crossed the SA boarder and the Flinders Rangers, the view of the Flinders was great, the landscape was quite green and the hills looked amazing.

The Flinders Rangers

We spent the night at Haslam, a small ttowm about 45km up from Streaky Bay, we had quite strong winds most of the day, so the bay didn't look all that good. All caravan parks and most of the free camping were full but we finally found some stops at Haslam, a camp area close to the jetty. Mums brother also stopped in for the night as he was heading back home, so it was nice to catch up with him. It was quite cold that night and the extra blanket was definately needed.

Jetty at Haslam.

We started the Nullarbor Plains. It has taken us 2.5 days to cross from start to finish, the first 2 days was quite windy. The start and for most of the way along it has almost no trees at all just alot of scrub, but the last few hundred km's has alot of trees. We stopped in and had a look at the start of the Great Australian Bight, it was a great view and the wind wasn't even too bad. We stopped at most of the lookouts along the way, the cliffs and the colours in them looked amazing, and you drive quite close to them along some parts. We spent 2 nights on the Nullarbor, one at a truck stop off the road about 50 km from Boarder Village and the other at a roadhouse caravan park at Balladonia.

Start of the Nullarbor

Us at the Great Australian Bight

Some of the signs you see

We crossed the WA boarder and were searched at quaritine for fruit and veg, they took a few things we had as well as our honey.

Some of the slower nomads we have to pass. They only sit on about 80klm/h

Cliffs along the Nullarbor

View of the Nullarbor Plains on the WA side

Camp site at Balladonia

We are at Esperance tonight, we got here around 2pm and have spent the afternoon relaxing and getting some washing done. We are all still trying to get used to the 3hr time differance and are looking forward to stopping here tomorrow and having a look around.

    Under the sign at Cobar

 Morning tea at a rest stop outside of Wilcannia

 Mad Max Museum at Silverton

Living Desert Sculptures at Broken Hill



Bathurst to Broken Hill

Sunday morning we got up and left at 8.30am, we met up with my mum and dad outside of Bathurst, we got to Dubbo for lunch and met Trev's mum and dad at Nyngan. The weather got hotter the further we travelled, with the top temp getting to about 27 degrees. I had me first drive with the caravan today, only 63km from Cobar to the Meadow Glen rest area were we stayed for the night, it wasn't as scary as I thought it was going to be, good straight road and not too bumpy. The rest area was good, but lots of mozzies.
Today we drove to Broken Hill, it was quite windy most of the drive here, but the tempature was very warm, around 29 degrees. We drove out to Silverton and had a look at the Mad Max muesum and a few other sights, we also had a look at the Living Desert Sculptures in Broken Hill and a lookout. We are staying at Silverlands Caravan Park tonight, we are all feeling alittle wiery and I think it will be an early night.

The day before leaving...

Its Saturday at 6 o'clock and we have pretty well got everything packed except for a few things in the morning. We have spent the day packing the van, mowing the lawn, doing some cleaning and having a relaxing lunch in the park with Kelly ans Rohan. I can't believe we leave for our big 6 week adventure tomorrow, it seems like we have been planning it for so long and now it is finally here. We pick up Yvette from the bus stop later tonight than its a restful sleep for an early rise in the morning to take to the road for the start of our road trip (I wonder how long it will take us to get sick of singing "on the road again" each morning hehehehe)!