TWO MONTHS IN VICTORIA

The rest of our stay in Victoria was spent wandering back and forward seeing friends and family.

Unfortunately we couldn't get to visit everyone - hopefully, we will have time to catch up next year.

We stayed a couple of months at our friends Rod and Jo Cavill's property at Cobungra in the High Country which eases the heat of a hot summer.

The intention was to fish, prospect and plan where and what we were going to do next. Dianne started working as a Home Help for the Omeo and District Hospital on a part time basis to bring in a bit of money while I helped Rod build a shed. Below is a picture of the upright poles we put in and this was no easy task - they were approx 5m in length and 3oomm thick we had to use the tractor to lift them up.

Next year we'll start on the house, hahaha.

We were planning to head North in 2010 for a green change after all the red dirt, wind and sand of the West. After researching the internet for positions up North I stumbled on one which Dianne had seen earlier, but thought was finished, on the Grey Nomads Employment web site. The position was for a couple to assist with running a Caravan Park and Camp Ground and to run Mine tours into Rio Tinto's Bauxite Mine at Weipa on the western side of Cape York. Well, to say it fitted us pretty good was an understatement. We made contact, followed by a phone interview and waited a week while they interviewed others :). The call finally came and we had our new job. The sight to some, of us dancing in the aisles may be off putting so I won't post a photo, all going well the job will be ongoing each year.

RETURN TO VICTORIA - IN MEMORY OF OUR BEST MATE

Our Return to Victoria we took 8 days which wasn't too bad on the body. Pete had a drive for a couple of hours and Dianne had a drive for 2 minutes (that's all I would allow). We headed to Alexandra where our friends Ken and Barb allowed us to park the bus at the rear of their house which helped us out beautifully because it's not easy to stash a 40ft bus with safety. We cleaned the bus out, got a few things together threw the dogs in the car and headed for Jaylene's house in Croydon. The day was really hot about 40 deg so we did some quick shopping and laid up in the house while Jaylene was at work.

Something was about to happen which would floor everyone and I think the reason why our Blog ran dry for so long. Jaylene came home about 9pm and got a rousing reception from the 3 dogs which hadn't seen her for about 10 months. She had just finished playing with Matey, all excited he was, as he walked away he staggered and collapsed on the floor. We went straight into action rushing him to the Vet where Jaylene's friend worked.

Their first diagnosis was that he was probably dehydrated from the long hot day and he was a bugger for not drinking enough, so we thought this could be feasible. They pumped him full of fluids but he wasn't too good. They did some blood tests to check if he had eaten any mice or snail bait as we weren't sure what was in Jaylene's new garden. Nothing showed up and they decided to keep him in overnight where the vet on call actually stayed with him.

The next morning the vet rang and unfortunately we were given bad news that he had a Tumour which had ruptured near his Liver which he couldn't survive from so the agonising decision was made there and then to put him to sleep. It was the worst day in our lives - as Pete said "Surely it can't get any harder than this". We took Matey back to our old property in Alexandra, where he was born, and buried him by the creek where he used to love playing.

Matey

13/1/2002 - 17/12/2009

He will always hold a place in our hearts

It just won't be the same without him

2009 HARVEST - BACK TO MULLEWA

We arrived back at Mullewa earlier this year so got to see all the wild flowers in their splendour. There were fields of all different colours. Arriving early also meant that we had a while to wait until the crops were right. So Steve ended up doing a couple of weeks deep ripping.

This year during the 2009 Grain Harvest our son Pete came over to work with us as a "change in life stage" to see where he wanted to be.

Having Pete with us for 3 months was great although sometimes a bit cramped. Luckily we had the use of the Farm House so Pete actually slept in there, but he was always with us to eat and watch telly (even though he had his own telly in the house) and of course, mum got to do his washing.

It was a really good experience for him driving tractors and trucks and anything else that moved, most of which were worth more than his first house will ever cost. Except maybe this one haha...

Pete had only been at the farm a couple of weeks and the boss, Peter Freeman, asked him to do a tip run. This entailed taking the old GQ Patrol ute a about 200 metres up a sand track. Meanwhile, Peter Freeman had gone out past the tip checking the Crops driving his GU Patrol ute. When Peter Freeman was returning to the shed, he was driving down the same track in the opposite direction whilst looking out at the crops when our Pete came around the corner of the bush and forever they bonded.

The joining of the Utes destroying both to write off. The GQ was bent in the middle and the GU was buckled across the front. Luckily they weren't travelling very fast so both drivers escaped any long term harm thankfully, only bumps and bruises. But now we were down 2 utes before the season even got started.

After all the drama they had to be taken into town to be assessed, so each ute was put on a tandem trailer being towed by Joels Navara (one at a time of course ) but this didn't stop the amusement as the boys pushed the ute on with the old front end loader and as weight goes, Patrols are heavier than Navaras.....LOL.

We worked together on the day shift kickin' arse getting the grain off, unfortunately the season wasn't the best so things ran a bit all over the place and fairly slow. This also contributed to Pete deciding to remain a Plumber to which he returned to Melbourne with us and landed a really good job with Water Pro's which do all the major irrigation for the big stadiums as well as other work, Variety is Pete's forte.

Dianne ended up getting a part time job as a Professional Dishwasher at a Restaurant in Geraldton. She had had enough of sitting around and just wanted to get out. It got us a bit of extra Diesel money and her a bit of sanity!!!!

The harvest finished up about the middle of December which gave us plenty of time to drive the bus home.

Exmouth to Carnarvon

We moved on to Exmouth and visited the "Big Prawn" and enjoyed the best Prawns in WA, in fact the only place I had found decent fresh Prawns anywhere in our WA travels. After leaving Exmouth we had travelled about 30 kms out, I pulled over to let the dogs out for a run and found we had made a major blue when hooking the car up by leaving the handbrake on, consequently burning the rear brake pads out. ( Live and Learn eh ).

Rolling along we headed for the Blowhole north of Carnarvon stopping at the beachside Caravan park run by the shire and caretaked by the fella whose been there the longest...LOL.

This place was pretty interesting with plenty to see and do . The actual Blowhole was amazing. When the waves come in it forces the water up through the hole with a whoosh and a whistle - it was a very eerie sound.

We saw men fishing with Balloons, yep you read it right (the white spot in the middle of the photo below). They would float their baits out so they skim on top of the water to attract mackeral. While we were watching the fishermen one morning, a whale slid past them below the cliff so we followed it up the coast for about 5 kms taking a few photos.

Unfortunately the hygeine in this park was pathetic, all the toilets were pit toilets in the sand hills and the place smelled like a sewer. The dunes were scattered by small old long term fishermans huts and you felt like you were tresspassing all the time.

From here we drove down to Carnarvon trying to travel slowly to avoid the cold weather we were catching up to. We stopped at a Caravan park that was built in the 50's I reckon with so many trees and little tight spots for tiny 50's style caravans which I had to wriggle a 40ft Bus into, I am good, you all know that, and I think I proved it this time haha...LOL (picture is of Carnarvon at night).

Got sick of going slow and the rain was comming so decided to head down to Geraldton and the farm and wait for the work to start as we were also just spending money we really shouldn't have been at that time.

FROM NEWMAN TO THE COAST

We headed off from Newman and travelled along the Hammersley Range through Karijini National Park towards Tom Price and Paraburdoo. We didn't actually go into Tom Price as it was off the main road, but we stopped at Paraburdoo for fuel and went for a walk around. In that short time, Steve got offered a job driving the school bus but we declined for the sake of fishing. It reminded us very much of Rawson in Victoria. A little planned town, well maintained but the busier times have gone so 70% of the shops are empty.

When we parked the bus, there was a small old van near the Servo that they obviously use at various times for selling Fast Food. Here is the menu on the side.

We then headed out of town and we thought this sign was quite appropriate, our buses namesake .

We camped at a spot called "Beasley River Rest Area" approx 170 km east of Nanutarra Roadhouse (Nanutarrra is another rip off roadhouse according to other travellers). When we first drove into the Beasley River Rest Area there was already a few campers there near the toilet block, so we decided to head further in towards the dry river bed. We found a great spot, just a pity there was no water. It was very relaxing and we decided to stay here a couple of nights.

Steve did his good deed for the year while we were here. An old bloke and his wife drove in with his commodore and old caravan and drove straight out onto the dry riverbed - and you guessed it - he got bogged. Steve pulled him out with the Nissan and they were very grateful.

After a couple of days of R&R, we headed further west towards the coast. On the way we came across this creek and we thought it even more appropriate than the last one. Someone must have been looking into the future when they named this creek - as this was the first time we travelled this road - (met a Wandy -- get it) - LOL.

We decided to stop at Barradale Rest Area which was situated near a river. This rest area was huge it was like national Lampoons vacation with all the motorhomes living next door to each other. We set up camp (that means pulled out the chairs and drinks - LOL) and were sitting outside when another bus pulled in. We watched them park and Steve and I were thinking - that bus looks familiar - and it was - it was Liz and Trev who we had met at Alexandra 2 years earlier. You can't go anywhere in this country without bumping into people you know or they know someone you know. Liz and Trev had been working on the harvest south of Perth for CBH and were heading up to Port Headland as Trev had a job.

The next morning, Steve went for a walk down to the river and came across a waterhole that was being dive bombed by hundreds of Budgies. They were swarming in a huge flock with perfect syncronisation moving in and landing on the water with split second timing before shooting off again. While they were buzzing around it sounded like a huge propeller on an old plane winding up and down.

BHP MT WHALEBACK MINE

We decided to do the tourist thing at Newman and see the Mt Whaleback Mine. Mt Whaleback mine was established in 1968 and is the biggest single-pit open-cut iron ore mine in the world. See the picture above of how it was in 1969 and below what it looks like today.

It is more than five kilometres long and nearly 1.5 kilometres wide. They blast it then excavators scoop up to 70 tonnes of iron ore and load it into haul trucks - which can carry as much as 240 tonnes - to be transported to the primary crusher. The crusher breaks down boulders of up to 1.5 metres in diameter into lumps about the size of a football. It is then transferred to a secondary crusher, where it is broken down into grapefruit-sized lumps.
From there, it is sent to stockpiles ready for loading on to trains, up to a rate of 14,000 tonnes per hour. Waste rock from the mine, which is low in iron content, is retained for use in rehabilitation. It really felt like we were doing a tour of the SEC but it has big haul trucks instead of dredgers.

BACK TO PROSPECTING

We headed for the Gascoyne River (Middle Branch) camp where we stopped on the way up. Half way there, I realised I hadn't bought enough milk so we decided to stop at the Kumarina Roadhouse. Well, that was the first time we had stopped there and it will be the last. I bought 2 litres of long life and 2 x 500ml fresh milk (thats all they had) and for that 3 litres of milk - it cost me $15.00. Talk about rip off the travellers. They are stupid for doing it as word travels fast amongst travellers on the road and they are just doing themselves harm.

We finally arrived at the river and set up camp - it was bloody freezing. The temp dropped down to about 25 degC. We had a few thoughts and discussions and decided - bugger this, it's too cold too soon and started heading back north. We thought we could go back to Newman, go across through Paraburdoo and the Pilbara across to the coast, take our time and travel south that way.

MUNJINA EAST GORGE LOOKOUT

We decided to head for Munjina East again, and stop for a couple of days and just chill after all the dramas with the fuel pump. It is a great spot. We drove the bus in further this time as it was daylight and we had a fantastic camp site. We just lit a camp fire and kicked back for a couple of days with awesome scenery looking out over the Gorge.

HEADING SOUTH

Well, we thought we would start heading back south and do some more prospecting. When we got back out to the Highway the speedo decided to pack it in. It didn't really worry Steve as the bus usually sits nicely on 80 to 85 kph. Steve decided to get under and have a look to see whether the cable had detached itself when we stopped at the Sandfire Roadhouse for fuel. When he got under there, he didn't find out what was wrong with the speedo cable but he found fuel squirting out of the fuel pump.




We weren't sure how much we were loosing, but after a quick calculation of how many kms we had done and when we had last filled up, and reckoned we could keep moving as we were still averaging good mileage. We stopped that night at Pardoo Roadhouse caravan park. After some discussions with a mechanic, we decided to go back to Indee Station (the other side of Port Hedland) and we would park there until we could fix it. We got to Port Hedland about lunch time on Thursday and parked the bus at a road train stop and jumped in the car and went hunting for a fuel pump. Now, you would think that in a place as industrialised as Port Hedland that this would be an easy task - But wait, we are in Western Australia. After consultation with our mechanic( Jock )back home, and being shunted from one shop to another, we finally got a fuel pump. I think it was Fifth time lucky.



We had to get an electric one but Jock had told Steve how to wire it up so everything was hunky dory. So, with the grocery shopping done and fuel pump in hand, we headed out to Indee Station (60kms). We got there okay, and Steve set his sights on fitting the new fuel pump. He succeeded with not too much drama, and everything was goiong to plan and we decided we would head off the next day, Saturday. We got everything packed up and the bus started beautifully, and we headed out the gate. And out the gate is as far as we got, the bus just stopped. Steve climbed under the bus again, and he could smell a burning smell. The electronic fuel pump had burnt out as it was a 12Vpump and the electrical system for the bus batteries is 24V. Once we realised this, I went into the homestead and started ringing around and do you think anyone had a 24V fuel pump in stock - NO. After a bit of discussion between everyone, it was suggested that we buy another 12V pump and also buy a voltage converter. So off into Port Hedland we went, Saturday morning, now about 10.30am and it would take us an hour to get there. After shopping around AGAIN, we found a 12V pump and a voltage converter but the converter itself was going to cost over $300 the fuel pumps had already cost us $140 bucks each. We decided to have a cup of coffee and a rethink. Steve decided to ring our boss Tim from the farm at Geraldton and see if he could get one and send it up to us. He came up with the great suggestion to just buy the 12V pump and wire it into the 12V cigarette connection. So that's what we did. Steve got it all sorted and wired up and we were ready to go - once again. But, NO, the fuel wasn't coming through. After much frustration and calling on all people available, a german backpacker who was mechanically minded saved the day. He bled this and that and got all the air out and finally, just after dark, the bus started. ( Feeling the right dick after all these cock ups or should I say lessons on road travel) we turned it around and went and parked it back at the station and we would start again tomorrow.

87 SNAPPER STREET, PORT SMITH LAGOON

We decided not to go any further north at this stage and headed to a place just south of Barn Hill Station called Port Smith Lagoon with the intention of finally getting the boat wet and doing a bit of fishing. We weren't sure what to expect.

The caravan park is in the middle of Biddyadanga Aboriginal Land. It is a 20km drive in on dirt road so we just took it very slowly. We had booked in for two nights until we sussed it out. On arrival they told us to just let them know if we wanted to extend our stay but preferrably within the next 24hours. We drove up to our site (No. 87), parked the bus, and went and extended our stay to a week. The park is set up very nicely. The sites are huge so you don't feel hemmed in with good shady trees and the ammenities are clean and spacious.

The lagoon is 600 metres away and is another story in itself. The tide movement is unbelievable and a bit tricky to work out. If you go down to the lagoon at low tide you can walk for miles on the sand but you must keep your eye on the time as when the tide turns, it races in. You can be standing on sand and within a couple of mins it is up to your knees. We put the boat in the water and left it moored there for the time we stayed. This meant that we had to work out when the water would be the same height each day so that we didn't have to try and drag the boat to the water. We didn't venture out into the open seas, we just moved around in the Lagoon (which was huge when the tide was in). There was also some really great cliffs just up from the Lagoon where you could fish from.

This is where Steve caught his big Trevally.

The assortment of fish was unreal, the water was so clear it was like an aquarium around the Mangroves. We would sit in the boat and just tease the fish with the bait just to watch them. We caught Cods, Angel Fish, Javelins and Barracuda. Most of them we had to throw back as they were too small or protected. We were hoping for a Mangrove Jack but were unsuccessful our neighbour Mark caught a ripper but he ate it LOL.

Every Thursday night they have a Fish and Chip night. It costs $5 (which goes to the Flying Doctors) and you get a couple of bits of freshly caught fish and chips. Then once everyone has been up an paid and had their feed, you can go up for seconds free of charge. They do a great job, the first night there was prob about 200 people there and you could still get seconds. They venture out and catch a heap through the week and other people also donate fish they don't want themselves. They also have live music and games. All in all a good night. If there was one place in WA we would buy into, it would be Port Smith.

Their was a family camped next to us for a while and Wally had them conned. Mark, Carol and their daughter Sarah from Australind near Perth. They had been on the road for approx 4 months and were on their way home. They missed their dog, so our three were getting plenty of cuddles from Sarah. Steve would have stayed there for a month and we probably should have as we got too far south too early and it started getting a bit cool, so we crept North again and across to the coast.

BROOME

After a week at Barn Hill Station we headed off to Broome. We stayed a night at the Sandfire Roadhouse caravan park on the way up. Very rough and ready. The servo had been burnt down and they had replaced it with Atco type huts and as for the powered sites - we were lucky to find one with the wires still attached that worked, this spot also has huge potential but lacks the passion (ohh for the opportunity to own one of these places).

We decided to stay at a place 27kms out of Broome. It is called Gateway B&B. It was quiet, not crowded and they take dogs. We found out about this place because we had enquired about a job there as caretakers. When we rang we found out that it wasn't so much a caretakers job - but contract cleaners. So we said no thanks, but wil still stayed there for 3 nights, generator power only but it had tap water, another gold mine waiting to happen.

We did a drive around Broome, seen it now so don't care if we don't go back again. Yes, it has nice beaches, etc. but it is too busy - there are plenty of other places close by that are just as nice if not better. It is okay if you want to go there for the Resort lifestyle and partying but it is very hard to do a bit of quiet fishing or to watch the sunset in peace.

BARN HILL STATION

We stayed at Indee Station for 3 nights and then decided to head up to a place 130 kms south of Broome called Barn Hill Station. It is a station on the coast that has diversified (with great profits) by having a caravan park on the cliffs overlooking the Indian Ocean.

It is a beautiful spot with great views. It's a shame the same can't be said for the way they run it The powered Caravan park side of the business has been around for a long time and utilised by the same group of people for that period, if your not in the click then you live up the other end without power and with the most basic facilities. Now basics don't bother me but when you see the money going through that place it wouldn't take much to put a little back - but we still enjoyed our stay. The dogs loved going in the surf every day and we loved going swimming every day. I still can't get used to the idea that we are swimming in the ocean in Australia in the middle of Winter. The water is so warm. I must admit, it is always in the back of your mind that there could be a croc around. They say that they generally don't go down the coast that far, but you can never be 100% confident.