To view the photos of this leg of our trip, click here.
Day Eighty One, Sunday 12th September 2004: Now travelling with others and no longer alone, we had set a departure time from Perth of 9.00am, but were on the road by 8.45am heading for Busselton. The weather was again kind to us for moving with no wind and full sunshine. The trip down to Busselton saw us pass through rich green covered paddocks, some with sheets of water laying in them from past rain. It was 11.57am when we all arrived at the Mandalay Holiday Resort where we booked in for the next two nights.
After a bbq for lunch, we ventured down to the Busselton jetty where we went for a train ride out to the end of the two kilometre jetty at a cost of $2.50 per person. We also had to pay an extra $2.50 per person as a general admission to the jetty. The jetty is the longest wooden jetty in the Southern Hemisphere. After a cappuccino in the Equinox Restaurant on the beach foreshore, it was back to the Caravan Park to plan tomorrow's activities.
Day Eighty Two, Monday 13th September 2004: Leaving Busselton at 9.00am for a day drive, we headed for Dunsborough where we visited the Cape Naturaliste Light House. Our guided tour through the Light House cost $8.00 per person and was worth every cent for the view that was available from the top of the light House. From here it was down to Margaret River where we had a picnic lunch by the river.
After leaving the Margaret River Tourist Information Centre, we visited a Fudge Factory, Wineries, Chocolate Factories, Cheese Factories and Cape Lavender before returning to Busselton fully stocked up with cheese, jams and chocolates. It was an ideal day weather wise making it a very pleasant day to be out and about. The Margaret River region would have something for anyone who visits the area.
Day Eighty Three, Tuesday 14th September 2004: After a very damp night, we were on our way to Augusta by 8.44am. The weather was overcast with no wind. With very little rain on our journey, we arrived at Augusta at 9.58am and booked into the Turner Caravan Park for two nights. Being so early to arrive, it was a slow set up and an early lunch before we headed into town to check out the main shopping area and call into the Tourist Information Centre.
From here we went to the Augusta Light House for a guided tour. The Light House is at the junction of the Indian Ocean and the Southern Ocean and is the tallest Light House on the mainland of Australia. Once the tour was over, we then went out to the lookout passed the Golf Club which gives a 360 degree view of the Augusta area.
Day Eighty Four, Wednesday 15th September 2004: With an overcast sky, we set of in the morning to visit a number of places in the Margaret River region. Our first stop was at the Eagles Heritage and Raptor Centre where we were able to view some of the wild Australian birds of prey for $9.00 per person. We were also timed our visit to allow us to watch the free-flight birds of prey demonstration.
From the birds, we headed for the Margaret River Lake Cave where we descended down over 300 steps before entering the Lake Cave. As by it's name, this cave has water in it and is a very spectacular cave to visit. Once in the back of the cave and seated on the seats provided, the tour guide will give a light display which focuses on the main attractions within the cave. After the tour is over, it was up all of those steps to get out. The cost to enter the cave was $16.00 per person.
We had lunch at the cave and then proceeded to the Bellview Shell Collection just north of Witchcliffe. With an entry fee of $6.50 per person, we saw some of the nicest shells that we have ever seen. It was a large collection of shells from all over the world with all of the shells having their own natural colours.
When we left the Shell Collection, we headed over to The Berry Farm where we had some nice samples of wines, jams, sauces as well as some pickles only to mention a few. All stocked up with port, pickles and jams, we headed back to Augusta to prepare for our night out as it is our 25th wedding anniversary today and we are all going out for a meal at 6.00pm tonight to celebrate the big event.
Day Eighty Five, Thursday 16th September 2004: With a clear sky and no wind, we left Augusta at 8.10am heading for Pemberton where we would have a ride on the Pemberton Tram at a cost of $18.00 per person. This ride would last one hour and forty five minutes and would take us through some of the very high Karri Forest around the area as well as over several rivers and bridge crossings. Our driver and tour guide was a very informative and knowledgeable man that was suited to his task.
After the Tram ride, we arrived at the Pemberton Caravan Park at 12.43pm where we booked in for one night. After setting up and having lunch, we went out to the Gloucester National park where we had to pay an vehicle entry of $9.00 to see the Gloucester Tree lookout which is some 60 metres above the ground. Then it was back to the Caravan park to collect some wood for the wood fire bbq.
Augusta was a very different procedure to update our web with the first night having been done from the side of the road with our laptop sitting on the bonnet of the Patrol. Last night it was done from the Dinning Room of the Augusta Hotel. Tonight it will be back to normal with good phone signals in the caravan.
Day Eighty Six, Friday 17th September 2004: The day started of with full sun, but this didn't last very long before we had heavy cloud as we started to head for Walpole at 8.33am. It was a nice drive with all of the talk timber filling both sides of the road. Arriving at Walpole by 10.11am, we stopped off at the Tourist Information Centre where we found out as much information as we could regarding the sites to see. We then booked into the Coalmine Caravan Park for one night where we had an early lunch.
Our first stopping point after lunch was the Giant Tingle Tree. To get to the tree, we had to go up a one way dirt track suitable for all vehicles. It is amazing to look at these trees and appreciate their ability to survive fire and stress. From here it was onto the Valley Of The Giants Tree Top Walk where we pain an entrance fee of $6.00 each. The walk takes you out into the roof top of the forest where the highest point of the man made walk is 40 metres above the ground. The walk is suitable for wheel chairs. On leaving here we visited the Parrot Jungle at a cost of $9.00 per person. It was nice to look at the birds, but not worth the cost to get in. By the time we returned back to the Caravan park, the day was about over as we watched some caravans arrive that we had seen weeks prior on the West Coast coming down from Darwin.
Day Eighty Seven, Saturday 18th September 2004: After sitting up to watch Port Power beat Saint Kilda in the AFL football match last night, we were on the road to Albany by 8.44am. Just on the Albany side of Denmark, we stopped to have a look at the Wood Works which is a gallery of hand made wood products which are all made from mostly Jarrah timber. Sally purchased two jarrah candle stick holders and we both looked very hard at a wall clock which was made from turned jarrah. We didn't purchase the clock although we may before we leave the district as it will make an excellent memento of the trip.
Arriving at Albany by 10.42am, we booked into the Middleton Beach Holiday Park for the next four nights. Sally and Maree did the build up of washing before we went our separate ways for a quick shop. Albany has some unusual street layouts and traffic restrictions for those who are not aware of how the streets work. The last time that we were here the water was a bright blue in colour. Not so much today but we are hoping that it will turn blue if the weather is right before we leave here on Tuesday morning.
Day Eighty Eight, Sunday 19th September 2004: The rain started falling at approximately 4.00am leaving us with the thought that we were in for a lazy day. Mid morning we decided to go for a drive to some of the lookouts around Albany. The new wind farm that was completed in 2001 is an impressive site when standing below the twelve wind turbines.
Unfortunately the rain came back to torment us on and off for the rest of the day. Due to the rain and the desire to purchase a jarrah framed clock before we left the district, Sally and I made a quick dash back 36kms towards Denmark and purchase our clock. Once back at the caravan, the remainder of the day was spent relaxing.
Day Eighty Nine, Monday 20th September 2004: Our first chore for the day was to burn some more photos off on Cd to send back to Adelaide for Jason to upload onto Photo Bucket for us. With that done we dropped them off to be posted, left my two prescriptions at the Chemist and then headed off for some sight seeing spots. Maree also left many photo films to be developed at the shop.
We all headed for the lookouts that are alone Frenchman Bay Road. The first one that we called into was for The Gap and the Natural Bridge. With full sunshine and only minor cloud cover, it was perfect for those photos of this majestic piece of coastline. It was forecasted to rain in the afternoon so we had to keep moving to visit and photograph the remaining lookouts. We called into the following areas, The Blowholes, Jimmy Newells Harbour, Stony Hill, Salmon Holes and Misery Beach. It was now after 1.00pm when we started to head back to the caravans fro our lunch. After lunch it was down to the Chemist to collect my prescriptions and to have a hair cut as I hadn't had one since we left Darwin.
Day Ninety, Tuesday 21st September 2004: After being woken by rain, the rain persisted on and off all day with some sunshine between showers. With natural daylight, I had to check the inside of the caravan for coke cool drink stains. As I was walking out the door last night with two cans in my pocket to put them in the fridge of the Patrol, one dropped onto the floor of the caravan bursting. It went off like a fire hose spraying coke everywhere. Sally said, "you did it, you clean it up". We selected some digital photos to be printed off and headed for the shops to drop them off and do our final shopping before we leave tomorrow for Raventhorpe.
Once lunch was over, we headed out to Tow Peoples Bay where we spotted our first whale for the trip. The whale was located between Little Beach and the Bay. After leaving here, we stopped at the Albany Marron Farm where we bought some cooked marron to eat tomorrow. The marron that we bought was cooked while we waited for it. The remainder of the day was passed at the caravans keeping warm and getting ready for tomorrow's move.
Day Ninety One, Wednesday 22nd September 2004: Our day started with little cloud and no wind making it ideal to me on the road. When Bruce went to unlock the padlock on his caravan draw bar coupling, the key broke off in the lock before it was undone. It was the bolt cutters from the Park Manager that saved the day for him. Leaving the Caravan Park at 8.24am, we arrived at Ravensthorpe at 12.10pm after travelling through some light rain on the way. We booked into the Caravan Park for two nights allowing us to travel to Wave Rock tomorrow without the caravans. The main attraction in Ravensthorpe for us was relaxation, so we filled the afternoon with just that. With no phone reception, we will not be able to update our Web Site until we arrive at Esperence on Friday.
Day Ninety Two, Thursday 23rd September 2004: Leaving the caravans in the safety of the Raventhorpe Caravan Park, we headed for Hyden at 9.00am to have a look at Wave Rock. There was very little cloud all day which made for nice photos when we arrived. It has been several years since Sally and I have been to Wave Rock and it hasn't lost any of it's character since we were last there. We had lunch at the local Hyden Bakery before we headed back the 204kms to Raventhorpe so soak up the sunshine for the remainder of the afternoon. After our evening meal, we sat around the fire near the bbq shelter as we did last night. It is amazing how warm one feels with a few fire coals place under the deck chair, something we learnt the night before.
Day Ninety Three, Friday 24th September 2004: Today started with the same weather pattern of the last week, no cloud in the morning followed by full cloud cover as the day passed. We left Ravensthorpe at 8.18am heading for Esperance where we arrived at 10.44am. with no wind at all on the way here, we had a good trip although there were plenty of road trains on the road.
Once we were booked in for three nights at the Esperance Bay Caravan Park and set up, we took advantage of the sunshine and walked down to the Tourist Information Centre to check out what was on offer at Esperance for us to see while we were here. Our path took us past a bottle shop which saw us walk out with six assorted bottles of wine. When we were at Busselton, we saw a caravan being washed with an extendable truck wash broom head. Spotting one of these units at the local Auto Pro shop here in Esperance, we quickly purchase it to carry in our caravan. Once back at the Caravan Park, it was time to wash the caravan and sample some of our afternoon purchases.
Day Ninety Four, Saturday 25th September 2004: Today started off a bit slow with a late rise from our bed. After we had done our last grocery shop before doing the final part of our trip across the Nullarbor starting Monday morning, we settled down at the Caravan Park to watch the AFL Grand Final. With very light rain around lunch time and the big game to watch, we didn't do much else all day.
Day ninety Five, Sunday 26th September 2004: As today is our last day before we start heading for the Nullarbor, it is with a bit of sadness that we realize that our holiday is nearing an end. Once we start heading for port Augusta, the reality of it all starts to sink in. The day started off with clearing cloud so we took advantage of this with a drive along the Great Ocean Drive formerly know as the Tourist loop. This is a very pretty drive along Esperance's coast line.
After lunch we enjoyed the sunshine which was warm on the face, but had a bite to it with the UV rays burning one's face. With such a nice day in the sun, it was time to wash the Patrol as it will be the last opportunity to do it before we arrive home. We leave tomorrow for our next overnight stop which at this stage will be a free camp spot just this side of Caiguna. There will not be any mobile phone coverage to update the Web so at this stage we are unsure when it will next be updated. Perhaps when we arrive at Ceduna on Wednesday night, only time will tell with that. It has been good to have a slow day sitting in the sunshine, after all that is what holidays are all about.
Day Ninety Six, Monday 27th September 2004: After light rain during the night, we were all packed up and pulling out of the Caravan park at 7.42am heading for the Nullarbor. The rain had gone for the day and there was no wind to deal with. It was interesting to see the Caltex Service Station at Norseman was twenty cents cheaper than the BP Service Station even though you could almost throw a stone from one to the other.
After stopping at a Parking Bay 148kms East of Norseman and collecting some firewood along the way, we soon arrived at the Domblegabba Rest Area 43kms West of Caiguna which was to be our camping spot for the night. We were the first two caravans in the Rest Area, but this soon swelled out to twelve before very long. With two other couples joining us at our campfire, the late afternoon soon passed and we were all off to bed. We were parked under a tree and the overnight dew was that heavy, the dripping from the tree onto our caravan made it sound like heavy rain.
Day Ninety Seven, Tuesday 28th September 2004: After waking to thick heavy fog, the shy soon cleared to a perfect day with sunshine and no wind. It was 7.28am when we left the Rest Area heading for Eucla for the night. Travelling early in the morning, we had to keep our eyes open to avoid hitting the kangaroos that were about. We were talking to a couple on the two way radio who had already hit a kangaroo. Lunch on the road again pulling over at Mundrabilla to feed from our caravans.
We had arrived at Eucla by 12.49pm where we booked into the Caravan Park for one night. This little Caravan Park is an excellent place when you compare what they have compared to other Parks and how they have used what is available to them. After unhooking one caravan, we went down to the old Telegraph Station to view it before it finally gets consumed by the moving sand. It is only the tops of the walls that are visible now apart from the Eastern walls. From the Telegraph Station we walked to some very large sand dunes, climbed them before going to the old Eucla jetty on the beach. By the time we had arrived back at the Caravan Park, it was full to capacity.
For Diary notes of the entire trip, click here . To view all of our photos from our trip, click here .
