Two peoples Bay

I forgot to put these pictures in of my favourite camping spot so far - Two Peoples Bay , East of Albany. I camped metres from the beach.

Gold mining country - Kalgoorlie - Boulder

This is the Super Pit where the gold is no longer found in nuggets but needs to be extracted from the dust and rock. Each dump truck carries several hundred tonnes of rock but only around 1 gram of gold is extracted from each tonne.

This road up the side of the super pit is as wide as a 6 lane motorway. The dumper truck at the top of the picture is 166 tonnes and can take a payload of 225 tonnes. It dwarfs the regular lorry in the bottom of the picture.
This was once a very busy station.
Some old miners houses. I'll take my tent thanks.
Nice looking hotel. I would like to have stayed here but ended up free camping out of town in a picnic area. Parked my tent on an ants nest and spent the night squashing the suckers. Saw a great sunset and sunrise though!

Below is a 60's buffet car which was in regular use on the Perth - Kalgoorlie line.

In the late 19th Century Paddy Hannan and his friend Flannigan found gold here.As you would imagine this prompted a gold rush and Kalgoorlie was once one of the largest towns in Australia.
Today it is home to the "Super Pit" - many of the old shaft mines were bought up by one developer called Bond and he began a huge open cut mining operation.

They have been digging the same hole for over sixty years so as you can imagine it's not one you'd want to fall down. I'll let the pictures to the talking.

Apart from that there are a few interesting buildings, a brothel scene that is ignored by authorities as it is deemed a historic part of the town and an old steam railway. Unfortunately the steam engine was not running at the time of my arrival! I considered waiting but they said it will be at least 3 years before the engine and track have been restored.

Time to move on... to the Nullabor plain which will probably take me a few days so see you on the other side! It is around 2700kms from Perth to Adelaide. I am 550kms East of Perth. Its a long way so I've got some good tunes for the car.

Albany - ex whaling town

Frenchman Bay where you can see the remnants of a Norwegian whaling operation (red bricks in the foreground)
At whaleworld - the giant skeleton of a small blue whale. This one is 30m long but they grow to around 36m.
One of the smaller tow boats used to take the dead floating whales inshore after the larger whaling ship had arrived. They floated because compressed air was pumped into them after harpooning.
Once on dry land the carcasses were carved up and boiled down into oil. This particular instrument is the head saw. It was messy and very smelly on this deck.
Jaw bones of the blue whale

This is Albany where until the 1970's many whales were hunted and killed for their precious and useful oil. It has some nice old buildings, picturesque coastline and whaleworld - the old whaling station has now been turned into a museum / whale information centre.

I was equally impressed by the Sicilian butcher in the local supermarket who made all sorts of fine Italian dishes and packed them in to reheatable containers. The meat section here was very good - certainly the best variety of cuts I have seen outside a butcher.

Walpole Wilderness

This is big tree country and it is such a contrast to the bush of the North West. Huge Jarrah and Tingle trees tower over the forest. This is a small river next to the camping ground at Snottygobble Loop. I just had to go there!

Giant Tingle tree which has been hollowed out by fire during the 50's - not an unusual occurrence in the forest. It stayed alive because the living part is just beneath the bark. It is possible to walk inside it is so large. There was a similar tree down the road which you could drive a car into. So many people posed with their cars, even campers, that the delicate root system was damaged and the unthinkable happened - it fell down! This trees roots are protected on the outer side of the trunk by a board-walk, just visible in the picture.

Contrasting burnt and living material

The ultimate tree house. The upper platform is 60m high and is named after a Welshman - Dave Evans who is a notable tree lover in the area. Usually these trees are used for fire spotting and the method of climbing is walking up metal stakes rammed into the wood as a ladder. This however is more for tourist purposes.

Big Brook Dam

Margaret River Wine country

I made the journey South from Perth to wine country and with the help of the book "Free Camping in the South West" bagged this beauty spot all to myself, and a few locals who dropped in for a swim. It is called Canebreak Pool and has local freshwater crayfish (marron) living within. I also spotted a large lizard who took refughe by diving into the pool.

Some adventurous bikers made this little kicker ramp - if only I had a bike!

Vineyard or winery - Windance near Margaret River

Surfers out at Yallingup Reef. Mediterranean climate means it rarely gets over 32 degrees C
There are some seriously good breaks here which get really big when the swells come in.

A shot of my tyre after too much heat I think. Certainly wasn't burn outs as my 1.6 Corolla probably wouldn't provide on that front. That said I havn't tried...yet!

Sheep and Wheat

Yours truly driving the header, watching out for rocks

The pet Roo

The tip - some old family cars and old wrecks which were thrashed around in the fields by the farmers sons. One was totalled in a rear end smash which left the 12 year old driver a bit worse for wear.

Giant tyres used as stands for water tanks.

I am spending some more time farming and have moved down the the wheat belt East of Geraldton, a town called Perenjori.

The farm is 20kms from town and smaller than the last I visited with about 12'000 acres of wheat, lupins and 3000 sheep. Harvest has just finished on this farm and it has been a relatively good year. 4 years ago there was a 2 year drought and many of the farmers had to get jobs in the mines up North as they were not taking a yield they could survive on.

So I managed to get a drive in the neighbours combine harvester or 'header' as they call them here. That was the last day of harvest so I think I was pretty lucky. The yield was around 2 to 3 tonnes per hectare and I didnt hit any rocks. Phew!

Cape Range National Park, Exmouth

Yardie Creek, Cape Range NAtional PArk

Aussie bloke Shannon with a handstand on a termite mound - original!
The Cape Range

The mighty Gascoyne River - not so mighty at the moment but still an impressive sight. There is an underground water course here which supports several fruit and veg farms. I bought a crate of mangos. mmm!Taken on my way South. I actually crossed the tropic 4 times during my stay up here!

more farm country pics

Contrasting colours on the ridge near the homestead.
This is the Minilya river again showing the house bore and pump. The old Lister diesel engine is switched on and off every day - it can run for around 18 hours on a single fuel tank. This is the supply of drinking water for the house, gardens and several hundred cows on this part of the farm
One of the farm roads with picturesque Gooch range in the distance.
Again, the Gooch range.
It got quite warm at times, well pretty hot to tell the truth!
There is no shortage of steak on a cattle farm. I ate it almost every day and now know a rib eye from a T bone with my eyes closed and hands behind my back.
A windmill that was used for pumping bore water was turned inside out by the tropical cyclone a year or two ago.