Port Pirie to Port Elliot (Saturday 19th June 2010)

Travel day.

Port Pirie - Adelaide - Victor Harbor - Port Elliot 320km

Woke up to someone singing opera. A man camping near us said, " if you want to see something different go have a look at the bloke swimming out in the bay singing opera. He's there come rain, hail or shine everyday of the year". We walked to the edge of the park and there in the cold grey water was on old guy swimming along head held high singing his lungs out. Opera that is. He must be crazy. It's so bloody cold. Well that's how we started the day. Today we were on our way to Victor Harbor until Pete got chatting to a guy at the park and recommended the caravan park at Port Elliot. So Port Elliot it was. We were on the road at 10am. It was raining. Made some phone calls to Kangaroo Island information centre to gather information and hopefully make an informed decision about going over to the island. After much deliberation decided it was a trip in it's self. So we decided to continue along the coastline and see more costal towns. Got a call from our neighbour to tells us our gum tree had fallen on our shed. OOPPPs. 12.55pm hit outskirts of Adelaide and were stuck in traffic. We don't miss this! Finally got through that and we were driving through the beautiful rolling hills past McLaren Vale and Rosemount vineyards. Arrived at Port Elliot 2pm and instantly liked what we saw.

Streaky Bay to Port Pirie (Friday 18th June 2010)

Travel day.

Streaky Bay to Port Pirie 482km.

Filthy, disgusting mice!. Kept us awake all night gnawing away at stuff outside. Folded up tent and found dead mice under corner of tent floor. How disgusting. Get me out of here.

So glad to pack up and leave. The antibacterial solution is being used alot.

At 1.40pm we stopped at Kimba to take a photo of the Big Galah and the Halfway Across Australia sign.

Kimba is located halfway across Australia between

the east and west coast as the crow flies.

Continued on until we arrived at Port Augusta. All the memories came flooding back of when we were last here...... we had gathered supplies before heading up to Alice Springs. It made me want to go back again. Arriving at Port Pirie the most obvious things were the wheat silos and at night the lit up smelter. We set up in the dark and the rain.

Streaky Bay (Thursday 17th June 2010)

MICE INVASION!

Mice gnawed away outside the tent all night. I just want them gone.

Sunny day so some house keeping was the order of the morning. Girls toiled over some homework. Mice scuttling around. Yuck. After visiting the information centre in town we took a drive to Point Labatt where a colony of sea lions live. The view from the platform high above the ocean was a spectacular sight in it's self. The sea lions were big, fat and lazing in the sun.

We drove to a few other coastal sights before realizing we had a flat tyre and headed back to town to purchase two new tyres. Late afternoon headed down to the jetty with our handheld squid jigs and fished for squid. A tip from the locals was, "look for the squid ink on the jetty". Emilia was the one and only to catch a squid. She was in such shock initially she felt so sorry for it she wanted to put it back! Back at camp we attempted to clean it so we could have calamari for dinner. But after ripping it's head off and not being able to get it's guts out AND ink squirting out everywhere, realized we had no idea what we were doing (even after referring to various google sites). Now I felt sorry for the squid. The poor squid went in the bin. There goes dinner.

"Does it bite?"

Squidding into the night!

Head of Bight to Streaky Bay (Wednesday 16th June 2010)

Sunrise at Head of Bight.

Travel day.

Nullarbor (Head of Bight) to Ceduna 203km. Ceduna to Streaky Bay 110km.

The wind picked up last night and we woke to a breezy morning but the sunshine was just gorgeous. Packed up and on the road by 8.15am. After studying the map for a long time we decided to head down to Streaky Bay. Between Penong and Ceduna we drove through a sandstorm. We stopped at the quarantine checkpoint 1km out of Ceduna. Being much wiser now days, we had no fruit or vegetables to declare. We ate them!!! At Ceduna we had lunch at the local bakery. About a month ago Ceduna had a mouse plague. Yuck. I was thinking of this while I was having lunch. I hoped they were all gone.

Arrived at Streaky Bay at 2pm. Setting up camp the girls came across a mouse behind our tent. A staff member who heard the girls yells of, "there's a mouse behind our tent!" said, "About a month ago you would have had 30 of them around your feet. We've baited them so the one's you see running around are a bit slow because their dying". I had a sick feeling in my stomach. My worst fears were coming true. It sounded like Streaky Bay had been, and still was, affected by the mouse plague. I hope this is the last we see of any mice. We went into town and had a good look around. Gorgeous town with beautiful old buildings. Had dinner at the pub. While eating dinner I was looking up and saw a mouse scatter across the light panel in the ceiling above us. I felt sick.

Madura Pass WA to Head of Bight SA (Tuesday 15th June 2010)

Travel day.

On the road by 9.30am. Back tracked a little after leaving Madura Pass to take in the view of the Roe Plains. It looked like we were in the middle of Africa.

Not sure where we would stop tonight so we studied maps. At 11 o'clock we stopped at Mundrabilla Roadhouse where a commercial was being filmed for police and nurses of SA. All the petrol pumps bar one had armoured trucks with lights flashing on them and a police car parked not far away. At first we thought we'd come across a police escort of some sort. Then we saw the camera crew. It was all pretty exciting really, listening to them yell out "action" over and over again until they got the scene right. Never thought we'd see that across the Nullarbor. Much to my disappointment, not an animal to be seen....yet. I'm still hopeful.

12.15pm crossed WA/SA Border and stopped at Border Village roadhouse and purchased a

loaf of frozen bread for $5.00 The basics are scarce around here. Fresh bread is a rare treat.

Sadly, closer to home. Just down the road we stopped at a road stop with gorgeous views of the Head of Bight and here we ate lunch looking out to sea. The coast line was so beautiful.

At 3.45pm stopped at Nullarbor Roadhouse/Motel for fuel. Decided to press on into 'the never, never'. To our surprise we were really close to 'Head of Bight Whale Centre'. In we went so excited that we might see Southern Right Whales in the bay. The sign at the front gate said there were 14 whales and 3 calves. We were lost for words as we watched 4 whales and one calf in the Southern Ocean. The sounds they made were like nothing we'd heard before. We watched in amazement, feeling so lucky to see the whales.

Emilia & Elizabeth on the viewing platform with the Southern Right whale in the background.

Southern Right whale and her calf.

Bunda Cliffs in the background at Head of Bight.

After our amazing whale watching experience (we were the last to leave), we realized that at 5pm we were too far away to travel to the next town and traveling at night is not the done thing out here. So we asked the lady at the whale centre if she knew of any places we might be able to camp that were close by. "Yeah you can camp here, just down by the hut you drove past as you came in". Somebody was watching over us. This was the end to a perfect afternoon.

Free camping with the whales just down the road in the outback. This was true camping, no power, water or toilets!! We watched another gorgeous sunset to top off the night.

Fraser Range Station to Madura Pass (Monday 14th June 2010)

HAPPY 60th BIRTHDAY MUM!

Travel day 427km.

Sunshine again, we're loving it! Lit the pot belly in the old shearer's quarter's this morning (which now is a fully equipped camp kitchen) and had our pancakes in luxury. At 10.30am we were packed and ready to go. Sad to leave Fraser Range Station but there was more to see ahead.

We were back on the Nullarbor before we knew it and I was really hoping we'd see a camel or some emu's today. 11.20am arrived at Balladonia where a piece of 'Skylab' was displayed on service station's roof.

At 11.40pm we reached the straightest stretch of road in Australia - 'The 90mile Straight'.

We stopped at Caiguna for fuel and food. Adjusted clocks, forward 45mins. Arrived at Madura Pass 4.45pm, a roadhouse which is open 24hrs and has camping/caravan facilities as well as motel accommodation. It was pretty basic and we were glad it was just an overnight stay.

No sightings of camel's or emu's much to my dismay.

Kalgoorlie-Boulder to Fraser Range Station (Sunday 13th June 2010)

Travel day 303km.

Gorgeous sunny day. Gave the car a once over and on our way. Really excited about where we're staying tonight - Fraser Range Station. It's a sheep station about 100km east of Norseman on the Nullarbor. At exactly 1.03pm we reached the beginning of the Nullarbor (Eyre Hwy). We were on our way! The road ahead looked like it would go on forever.

Arrived at Fraser Range Station at 2pm. This place was every bit as good as I'd hoped it to be and better! We set up camp near restored old shearer's quarters with the gum trees towering over us. Took a walk around the farm before heading off for a hit of golf on the 'Sheep's Back' Par 3 hole as the sun was setting. Toasted marshmallows around the campfire that night.

It was great.

Kalgoorlie-Boulder (Saturday 12th June 2010)

Happy Birthday Laura!

Did a spot of housekeeping before wandering down the historical streets of Boulder. I've never seen so many great old pubs in one town. One building still housed the original pharmacy with all it's bottles of potions and lotions which is now a museum. Talk about stepping back in time. It was great. We drove to the Superpit Lookout and watched what looked like tiny ant sized machinery going about their business. The pit is massive. At 1 o'clock we came back and watched a 'blast'. It was incredible. First you saw the dust rising then the cracking sound followed.

Part of the massive Superpit.

Dust rising from the 'blast' site.

Machinery at the bottom of the Superpit.

Kalgoorlie is huge. It had every shop under the sun. It has some very impressive buildings too and more great old pubs. Our final stop was a drive past the Hay Street brothels.