Eyre Peninsula and a quick drive through SA

We headed around the perimeter of the Eyre Peninsular which forms the eastern end of the Great Australian Bite. It looked like there was a lot of very nice spots but we only stopped at a few. First Cape Labatt which is the home of the largest Sea Lion/Seal colony in Australia (bigger than Kangaroo Island). This was quite something to see, at least 50 of them lazing around on the sand, on the rocks, waddling from one place to the other, mucking around and chasing each other, babies suckling from their mum. We could have spent much longer just watching their antics through our binoculars, however....the kids were getting impatient... It was well worth the trip out and as usual these photos don't seem to portray how impressive it was.

Some rocks called Murphy's Haystacks and breakfast at one of our rough camps........

By this stage the kids are starting to get fairly travel weary Cem and I can feel it. We head down to the bottom of the peninsula to Coffin Bay National Park. More emus here than we have seen all trip (except for the flock of 10 in our first week in western NSW). More beautiful coastline and we realised you don't have to travel all the way to WA to get turquoise ocean.

After all the National Parks and coastline and nature, we enjoyed the 'urbanity' of Port Lincoln, especially our city lights view from the 'Recreation Vehicle approved' free campspot at Billys Lights Boatramp. We really have found some great places to stop for the night.

Port Lincoln is apparently 'the seafood capital of Australia'. We tried our luck again off the main jetty, encouraged and coached a bit by a couple of local highschool kids, all to no avail. We gave up and went and bought a load of fresh seafood from the seafood shop.

Heading back up the east side of the Eyre Peninsula, through Whyalla and Port Augusta. They seem like industrial towns. We didn't see much of them but had a night in Whyalla at the local football club which opens their doors to campers and provides use of their toilets and HOT showers. Ahhh. Of the little we saw in Whyalla, by far the best thing was Faye, the manager of the footy club camping, who, on our departure the next morning presented us with an amazing bag of homemade goodies for the road; Anzac biscuits, coconut ice, rocky road, apricot balls and another slice. Amazing! So incredibly generous and kind of her. And also delicious. Thankyou Faye.

And so we are heading east fairly fast now. The kids have just about had it. We have done a lot of driving over the last week or so, stopping anywhere only one night and so when we came across this most beautiful campspot on the Murray River at Cadell, we all wanted to just stop for a bit and stay for more than one night. So we did just that. A day hanging around the river, watching the bird life, watching vessels pass on the river, very nice. A magnificent spot to camp, thanks to the Cadell community for providing such a facility. They even lit the cliffs up at night for us..

And dinner in the camp oven over the campfire, followed by copious amounts of toasted marshmellows and chocolate..

The kids are longing for home home now, this morning we saw the first 'Sydney' road sign (1035km). Not far at all really, considering what we have already done. In Mildura we managed to lose ourselves for a good hour in the biggest and trickiest maze we have ever done. The Maze, together with some time at the funpark, and also an awesome visit (actually two visits on consecutive days) to the Mildura Aquatic Centre (with WAVE pool!) and then Dominos Pizza for dinner went quite some way in restoring the kids lagging spirits.

NSW here we come.

The Australian Bite

Esperance was our last port of call in WA before we started the long trek east, in the direction of home, around the Australian Bite, across the Nullarbor. Sickness hit us. The boys fell one by one, first Kai, then Sol, then Cem. Kai started it all by insisting on sleeping near naked with all his end windows wide open.... and the nights are COLD. Only Ayla and I remained well, and carted our sick passengers across the Nullarbor. Go Girls!! Unfortunately Sol was sick on his 10th birthday, the first day on the Nullarbor. Here is the long haired lout, with his rosy cheeks trying to be cheery at his birthday lunch at Balladonia. He particularly requested this type of birthday cake and I was able to find one at the delicious French bakery in Esperance.

We didn't stop much along the Nullarbor, we just drove. Belladonia was a bit interesting (although it is literally just a roadhouse) because in 1979 American Skylab had crash landed in this area scattering debris from Esperance to Belladonia. Jimmy Carter, the US president at the time, actually made a phonecall to the roadhouse to apologise, but this did not stop them from apparently getting a $400 fine for littering. Here is a piece of Skylab in the small museum there.

We crossed the South Australian border and farewelled WA. Quarantine check first at Ceduna way after the border, so we ate up all our apples and bananas as we drove, unfortunately we had to hand over all our lemons.

This image probably looks very familiar, the beautiful Bunda Cliffs of the Great Australian Bite.

From Ceduna, we headed onto Streaky Bay and booked into the caravan park there for one night so our sick passengers could have some comforts such as power, showers, common room with TV and camp kitchen where we cooked pancakes and baked cookies for dinner because thats all anyone felt like eating.

Esperance and Cape Le Grand

Back down south again after Wave Rock. To the incredible beaches of Esperance. We had heard they were good but I don't think we realised just HOW good. It's the colour of the water and the brilliant white sand that contributes to this, not to mention the unspoilt setting. Although it is not yet really beach and swimming weather in south WA, Cem and I could not resist swimming in this water.

There is a 40km Great Ocean Drive around the coastline west of Esperance. One of the beaches, Twilight Beach was voted Australias Best Beach (in 2006). This is it:

At lunchtime we kicked back:

One beautiful beach after another, although quite a few of them were also a bit rocky.

Esperance is also a very windy place and uses this to advantage to produce clean electricity with its wind farms. It needs to produce its own because of its remoteness to any other major towns.

We had two nights out at Cape Le Grand National Park 65km east of Esperance. Now this is a place we want to come back to in summer. Didn't stop us from swimming though, it helped that this NP happened to have solar powered HOT showers for that quick dash after the swim. We camped and swam at Lucky Bay, the colour and clarity of the water was exhilarating.

and were able to a great walk from Lucky Bay to Thistle Cove. We also climbed Frenchmans Peak, an excellent climb with good 360degree views of the park.

In Esperance we also had the 30 000km service on the car carried out, bit more interesting than having it done at Pennant Hills Mitsubishi. It was easy and pleasant to wander around Esperance for the afternoon. The whale tale sculpture had just been opened and unveiled on 8 June, the day we started our trip. A mixture of beautiful timber, steel and glass tiles.

Dash up north to Wave Rock

Wave Rock was another place the kids have been wanting to get to ever since starting. Its a little bit out of the way on our route around the south coast, so its a dash up north and back down again.

First stop on the way up was Porongurup. The ranges at Porongurup form a beautiful National Park and Sid and Anne from Northcliffe had given us Fiona and Strawbs address (Annes sister) as a place to stay there. Well Fiona and Strawb were away but we were welcomed incredibly warmly by their WWOOFers Millie from Victoria and Taku from Japan. Also residing on the property and who also welcomed us whole heartedly were Clare and Shane and baby Elias. What wonderful people each of them are. So kind and friendly towards us. We had a most magnificent stay and enjoyed their company so. Ayla loved feeding the hens and collecting the eggs each morning with Millie (and scoring her own dozen):

also feeding the farmed fish:

and also feeding 'Goatie'. I loved viewing everyones vege garden (and ended up with a plentiful suppy). We also fed the neighbours pigs (black not pink as Ayla points out). We had a shared meal with Millie and Taku in the van (new record - 7 in the van) and the next morning before we left Taku made us a delicious Japanese seafood omelette/pancake for the road. We could not have asked for a better few days.

Taku, Millie and the kids and the dogs:

Clare, Shane and Elias:

Ayla doing some work:

And with Sol:

The ranges at Porongurup were also spectacular especially the Granite Skywalk at Castle Rock. A good steady climb and then a ladder up to the skywalk which was literally clinging to the rockface, open grated walkway with a mindblowing (for me at least) drop straight below you.... ahhh. And of course fabulous views.

And this is the drop straight down under your feet:

Porongurup sheep and ranges:

A short trip from Porongurup further north and you come to the magnificent Stirling Ranges and the Stirling Ranges National Park. More beautiful scenery and a climb to Central Lookout.

Up the 'Tin Horse Highway' to Kulin. East and West Kulin have friendly rivalry regarding these tin horses and their annual bush race every October.

Kulin was a very friendly place, particularly for caravaners, providing a lovely landscaped 24+hour rest area complete with very clean bathroom and HOT SHOWERS!, all for free.

And finally finally we made it to Wave Rock at Hyden and of course had to take the surfing photos.