Yalgoo to Perth

12th to 23rd June
After spending the last few months on the coastline, we’ve turned inland to the desert, mining and grazing country. Due east 200kms from Geraldton is the small township of Yalgoo, population 120 people.... and that’s the whole shire!

Melangata shearing shed

Thanks to the mining boom funded ‘royalties for regions’ program the Yalgoo caravan park, township and brand new footy oval were all first class.
We camped at an old pastoral property which traditionally grew wool, but has recently moved to meat sheep, though battling an increase in wild dogs (dingos).

The owners took us for a drive around the property where we saw granite jump ups and aboriginal cave paintings which very few white people have seen.

Sheep Grazing country

Walga Rock

On the way to Mount Magnet we passed Walga Rock, a 2km long granite monolith that the local aborigines used for ceremonies.

The surrounding country is red dirt, sparse vegetation and very few people.

New Norcia monastery 

On our way back to Perth we passed through New Norcia, an active Benedictine monastery with Beautifully manicured lawns and imposing buildings.

Originally built as a place to convert the local aborigines to Christianity, and though the nuns convents and the orphanages have long gone the monks still operate a commercial brewery, bakery and hotel.

Campfire camping

Our East to West of Australia lap is completed..... 

After 23,232kms, 139 days travelling and 52 different camp sites we’re flying back to Sydney for a couple of weeks to catch up with family and friends. 

Coral Coast to Shark Bay

24th May to 9th June
We’ve hit the Coral Coast and are heading northward.... via Lancelin, Geraldton, Kalbarri, Hamelin Pool and Denham which is our most northerly destination this trip.

Milligan's Island campsite

This part of the coastline is ochre red cliffs running into white sandy beaches, aqua waters and blue blue sky.
Most of the towns are small fishing villages, with large pastoral leases inland running sheep or marginal cropping, Tourism's a big economic driver... no wonder the locals are friendly....
We had the best and freshest fish and chips in Lancelin, pink snapper and whiting, caught locally by the husband and cooked by his wife. Ocean to plate less than 12 hours, yum yum.

Lobster co-op

The Crayfish (Lobster) industry is worth big dollars, and we toured the processing plant in Geraldton, where crayfish are sorted by colour and size ready for export, straight to Asia.

We did this as part of TAFE tourism, which also included their fish breeding facility and a two course lunch....sadly no crayfish on the menu.

The gorge's in Kalbarri National Park are where the Murchison river comes off the plains, cutting through to the sea. We did the walks early in the day before the heat set in.

Natures Window & the Murchison river

At Hamelin Pool we saw marine Stromatolites,  rock like living fossils, the oldest and simplest life form dating back 3.5 billion years... dawn of time stuff.
Our campsite had shell base from the local beaches, and this was the first time we've had flies this trip.....

Hamelin Pool Station

Our stay at Shark Bay in Francois Peron National Park had flies, moths, wind and flooding... quite exciting.

Flynet fashion

Kevin did a great job of driving though the sand dunes to big lagoon and then Cape Peron, without getting bogged... though there were some white knuckle moments, apparently that's part of the fun?

Heavy rains came on our third night at Peron, we lost our annex twice, the roads were closed and we were 'locked in the park' for two days... just us and the campground host.
By the time we headed back to Denham there was red mud on every thing and everywhere.

Big Lagoon

Shark encounter, Denham

Pemberton to Busselton

30th April to 22 May
During our camping in the south west corner of WA we managed 16 days with solar panels only, no powered sites, and considering we had mostly overcast days we're pretty pleased with the result.

climbing the Gloucester tree

We spent a week in Pemberton, forest hiking the trails, climbing Karri Trees and wine tasting.

The area has several fire lookout trees: Gloucester tree (53m), Diamond tree (49m) and Dave Evans Bicentennial tree (65m), all have metal spikes up their massive trucks as makeshift ladders.

The Karri are a Eucalyptus growing up to 90m tall producing little white flowers, so there were plenty of lorikeets and 28 parrots about.

Conto in Cape Leewin National Park, out of Boranup, was a great base for Margaret River and Augusta. The Cape to Cape coastal walk runs from Augusta to Cape Naturaliste and we did various parts of it during our stay. 

Margaret river surf beach

We toured the lighthouse at Augusta and peered over the cliff to where the Indian and Southern oceans meet. In the right weather conditions you can see the two currents merge... our day was too choppy.

The coast is limestone and there are a series of caves in the area, we toured the Jewel Cave which is the largest in the area with it's lofty natural cathedral. Being the last to be discovered its probably also the most pristine. 

coastline walking

Next stop was Canebrake pool, northeast of Margaret River which allowed a change of camping scenery but still access to the wineries,... Vasse Felix, Cape Mentelle , Leeuwin Estate and Voyager just to name a few.

Finishing off a pretty good stay in this part of state we are having a relaxing and recharging week in the Busselton Sebel... for some serious clothes washing, hot tub soaking and 'tourist town' sightseeing.

Next up we head north for the warmer weather!

Kevin campfire cooking

Dryandra Woodland to Albany

18th to 29th April
Dryandra Woodlands marked the first of the cooler evenings, the fire bans were at last lifted, and we could have campfires.
With Easter approaching the bush camping was a perfect hideaway. The woodlands are the oldest natural remnants of original forest, with surrounding wheat fields and sheep grazing the predominant industry.

Campfire Kev

A highlight of this stay was the forest walking and Barna Mia nocturnal wildlife sanctuary tour.  The 4ha predator proof enclosure is home to Bilby, Boodie, Woylie, Quenda and Mala.

These small 'kangaroo/mouse' like marsupials were once abundant, but feral cats and foxes have decimated populations..... though we were lucky enough to see a Woylie hop by our campsite one evening.


After Dryandra we headed to Kendenup, camping at the local community hall, a great base for visiting the Stirling Ranges and local wineries. Mount Barker was 10km down the road, and we attended their ANZAC day dawn service, the town's first for 30years.

Sterling Ranges

Following our ANZAC theme we spent a few days in Albany, where the first ANZAC convoy left for Palestine to fight in WW1, including my grandfather Leslie Eakins on the 'Orvieto' which left Melbourne 21 October 1914, joining the fleet in Albany.

The National Anzac Centre is located on the headland, an impressive commemorative facility, and we were able to see the The 'Field of Lights' display in the evening.

The Gap coastline Albany

Being on the coast Albany had a whaling industry which continued up until the mid 1970's, the old whaling station is now a museum and tells the history of whaling, including commentary from past whalers on their experiences.
An interesting few days exploring the history of the area... though we did manage to see our new AFL team the Mt Baker Bulls play in the local Saturday comp,... unfortunately beaten convincingly by the Albany Royals.

Esperance to Perth

1st to 16th April
The coastal township of Esperance was a green oasis after trekking the arid Nullarbor.
We stayed at the caravan park for the first couple of nights to restock supplies, walk the jetty and have a chineses meal...

Condingup field

On the way to  Cape Le Grand National Park we free camped on a sports oval at Condingup... a short walk to the tavern for a quick meal, so the locals are happy.

As seems to happpen to us frequently, even though there was plenty of space for camping in the huge vacant field, a couple of back packers decided to camp right next to us... perhaps they felt safer with company?


The beaches and national parks in this South East Corner of the state are a mix of granite outcrops, banksia and wind blown low growing plants.

Hellfire Bay

We camped at Lucky Bay, a very windy few days, which is known for kangaroos on the beach, they were there every day, and seemed to enjoy getting their photos taken.

With coastal walks and white sand clear water beaches we had plenty of choice for swimming.

Kangaroos on Lucky Bay beach

After Esperance we headed to Perth for a few days to get the Land Rover serviced... 220,000km and still going strong. Whilst in the big smoke we did all the tourist things... including  Fremantle and the maritime museum.

During WW2 Fremantle was the biggest submarine base in the Southern Hemisphere with over 160 subs based there.. Dutch, British and USA as well as the Aussie fleet.

The skiff ‘Evelyn’, maritime museum 

The Nullarbor

28th March to 2 April
The Nullarbor is the iconic 1,670km drive along the Great Australian Bite from The Eyre Peninsula in SA to Norseman in WA.

Koonalda

Until the 1970’s it was still a gravel road, and although now bitumen there are no towns, or clusters of farming properties, with only Road Houses every few hundred km’s for refueling.

It really is a treeless plain, with salt bush and red dust filling the landscape for most of the drive. First night we camped beside the road, as there are plenty of places to stop along the way.
We spent  a couple of nights at the abandoned Koonalda Homestead now part of the National park,  but until 1986 a working sheep station on the old eyre highway.

Kevin and shovel

The building are still there along with a car graveyard of vehicles that didn’t make the Nullarbor journey. We heard dingoes howling at night, which was a bit spooky.

Along the bite the cliff tops where steep, and the winds blew straight from the Antarctic, rather windy when camping and trying to cook outside on gas.

Plenty of kangaroos and salt pans along the roadside, and the ancient limestone sea bed that is the Nullarbor is sprinkled with blow holes, sink holes and caves.

It was a starkly barren but beautiful landscape to drive through, very remote, and by the time we reached Norseman we had a greater appreciation for the explorers and early pastoralists.

Coffin Bay to Streaky Bay

20th to 27th March
Whilst still on the Coast we dove into the local produce, with a long seafood lunch at Coffin Bay, including the iconic oysters, the views over the oyster leases were a great backdrop.

Coffin Bay lunch

We camped in the national park, bayside out of the wind, though we did a few walks beach side... plenty of breeze and white sand there.

Whilst Coffin Bay is a very small village, with only a couple  of streets, it’stheiroysters that put them on the  map.
The water and food source in the bay is ideal for quickly growing oysters, though they now farm the pacific oyster rather than the local oyster whose stock were depleted in years gone by.

Streaky Bay Jetty 

As a contrast Streaky Bay was a bigger village, very neat and plenty of good food and wine. Kevin tried fishing for squid with some locals, but no luck, so we settled for seafood in the pub.

Powerhouse museum 

The town has an impressive powerhouse museum with over 460 working engines.... local enthusiasts even started the old chaff cutters, motors and water pumps up for us.

We were lucky enough to be invited to a BBQ with some locals we met at Speed Week, a fun night and great to make new friends in interesting places.

 

The Eyre Peninsula

7th to 20th March
We’re now heading along the coast line for the next few weeks, first stop Whyalla. Its still a working port shipping out Iron Ore, with mining a huge employer in the area.

HMAS WHyalla

Up until the mid 1970’s there was a thriving ship building industry in Whyalla. HMAS Whyalla was the first mine sweeper build for the Navy for WW2, now back on display in an impressive maritime museum.
We’ve plenty of power with 2 solar panels to run our fridges and LED lights, but every 10 days or so we head to a caravan park to do the washing and take advantage of a long hot shower.


The beaches along the peninsula are white sand, blue seas and clear water. Despite it being March the water temp is around 19C, and mostly we have the beaches to ourselves. We spent 5 days Camping and hiking in Lincoln National park, before heading into Port Lincoln township for the cage diving with sharks.... luckily we both came back from that day.

September beach

Our first stay in Lincoln National park we camped at September Beach, then after a weekend in town we camped at Surfleet cove.
We did several 4 to 10km bush walks over the forntinght, a great way to see the bird life, wrens, lincoln ring necked parrots and silver eyes, ..... and scenery though it’s mainly heath and mallie country.

This part of the coastline is know as the seafood frontier, we’ve seen plenty of fish cage farming, oyster leases, eaten the king George whiting, coffin bay oysters and crabs.

Fresh caught and cooked crab.  

Sunset over the bay

Next stop Coffin Bay for some oysters straight off the leases..

Iron Knob and Speed Week

1st to 6th March 2019
The coastal fringe is now behind us, and we’re heading towards Lake Gairdner for some salt lake fun.

Sunset at spears creek

We met our travel buddies Graham and Wendy at Spears Creek campsite, a working sheep station where we overnighted before heading to Iron Knob.

Iron Knob is a mining town that supplies iron ore to Whyalla Onesteel (formerly BHP). The heat wave had the temp at 43C, so we stayed at the pub that night rather than camping. We spent the day at the bar, and in the publicans swimming pool, trying to cool off.

Kev and Graham poolside

The annual DLRA (Dry Lake Racing Australia) event is held on the Lake Gairdner salt pan, 160km long and 40km wide. The event sees motor cycles, trucks, cars, custom vehicles and historic’s complete for race times.
Vehicles hitting speeds of over 200 miles per hr where not uncommon.

DLRA marshalling grid 

Before going onto the salt each day we had to blow the dust off our cars, and then once parked put tarps down to make sure we didn’t drop oil onto the salt.

There were spectator areas by the pits and start line, and most drivers and their crews were really happy to talk about their vehicles.


The 120km’s of  gravel and corrugated  tracks to Mount Ive’s Station and the DLRA campsite was worth it. An amazing few days in the heat and salt watching everything from a postie bike to a jet scream by.

Spectators 

Jane in the drivers seat

The Yorke Peninsular

24 to 30 February
We had a week to spare before speed week dry lake racing on Lake Gairdner so thought we'd explore Innes National Park, right down on the 'foot' of the Yorke Peninsular 'boot'.

The peninsular is about 300km from tip to toe, and we drove though unending fields of wheat or stubble, till we entered the national park. The beaches were white sand, clear water and perfect for swimming. Kevin liked the surf beaches, but I preferred the still waters of the rock pools.

Pondalowie surf beach

Inneston, now abandoned and turned into a national park, was once a thriving gypsum and salt mining town  from the late 1800's till about 1930.

Many of the old buildings are still there, we walked the historic town, and as usual Kevin managed to find an old wood fired bakers oven... not working though.

wood fired oven.. still in great condition

Cape Spenser lighthouse

 Each of the Headlands have light houses to assist navigate ships through the Spencer gulf, though there were shipwrecks scattered off the coast and beaches a plenty. Testament to the harshness of the southern ocean.

relaxing camp-side

We had 5 nights at Innes Nat park, and each day we swan, bush walked and relaxed... a great location. We camped near the 'fisherman's village' which is a handful of old shacks that existed before the national park was declared. Mainly used during the cray season Nov to May, and on a limited lease hold so wont be there for much longer.

If you are looking for bush camping and great beaches, with very few other people, this is a must when visiting SA.

browns beach .rock pool,

Kevin checking out the surf