Whales and Wombats

Friday, 26^th August

The highlight of our trip was viewing the Southern Right Whales at Head of the Bight, 12 klms off the Eyre Highway
We woke to another lovely day at the Nullarbor roadhouse, packed up and drove a short distance to the turnoff. The diesel fuel at the roadhouse was the most expensive to date, $2.02 per litre.

Mother and calf

John on boardwalk with whales behind him.

awesome

Bunda Cliffs

This whale was a distance away.

We had to pay $10 each to view the whales, as it turned out, it was worth every cent. This is the whale nursery for a few months of the year. The whales come here to have their calves, before leaving in October for the southern waters. Walking down the boardwalk we could see a whale breaching a couple of klms out. The smack as he hit the water was loud even at that distance, he or she put on quite a show. I managed a photo of his tail.

So close to shore

All I could say was “wow” as I got closer to the water, in front of us were about twenty whales and calves. The Bunda Cliffs are so stunning at the Bight, for a moment you forget that this is the bottom of mainland Australia. Straight out to sea is the Southern Ocean and Antarctica.

Bunda Cliffs behind us.

But it was all about the whales. We spent two hours in awe of these magnificent creatures, between us John and I took so many photos, luckily we got some good ones.

Bunda Cliffs

After two hours we had to leave, we had almost 300 klms to travel to Ceduna SA.

All I can say is to everyone, you have to see the whales in their natural surroundings here at the Bight.

We reached Ceduna about 2pm, stopping at the quarantine station to be checked that we weren’t bringing any fruit, vegetables or honey in South Australia. I had sorted out the fridge the night before. Our first stop when we arrived in Ceduna was to restock.

Ceduna is on Murat Bay, a pretty town, the caravan park is right at the foreshore and next to the pub, where we had King George Whiting for dinner. We are booked in at Ceduna for two nights, the past few days John has done a lot of driving.

Sunset in Ceduna

Saturday 27^th August.

We couldn’t top yesterday’s viewing of the whales, however it runs a close second. John and I visited a wombat centre and to our delight, we saw how injured and homeless wombats and other fauna are cared for. A lady runs the centre from a shed in her yard, she relies on donations to keep the place running. National Parks and Wildlife usually bring her baby wombats when their mothers are killed on the road. This area of the country is a wombat habitat. We had a cuddle of a baby wombat in her little material pouch, while a larger one ran around chewing on John’s shoe lace. 

Isnt he cute?

Baby wombat.

A little kangaroo joey “Annabel “ wriggled her way out of her pouch and hopped around the room. Two older wombats were taken out of their “hutches” which were boxes with lids. We came away with a greater understanding of what these carers do for animals. This lady has a full time unpaid job looking after many animals, including lambs, baby emu, a hawk with an injured wing, lizards etc. We gave her a small donation as we left, and came away with admiration for all she is doing for our wildlife.

Annabel in her "pouch"

After a drive around the township and the bay we came back to the park for the afternoon. John printed his photos, he now has four albums filled. We are into day 95 of the trip and have travelled 14, 500 klms since we left home on 23^rd May.

Tomorrow we head towards Port Augusta but will probably stay overnight on the way.

Loving the Outback.

Tuesday 23^rd August

Red dirt, old buildings, wide open spaces, awesome sunsets and brilliant night skies. This is the outback all summed up in a sentence. I am thinking of home now that we have turned east. And we turned east today, onto the Eyre Highway heading for South Australia. John and I have been in Western Australia now for about eight weeks. We have seen some great places; the coast is beautiful, now we have gone inland we are happy to again experience the outback.

Coolgardie.

Nothing sums up the outback as well as the Nullarbor Plain. We officially don’t join it for another two days of driving, but once you turn onto the Eyre Highway and know the Nullarbor is ahead of you, you know you are going on the longest stretch of straight road in Australia.

Syd at the start of the Eyre.

We left Kalgoorlie for the short drive to Coolgardie before going south to Norseman and joining the Eyre. Coolgardie has wide streets and historical buildings similar to Kalgoorlie, it lays claim to being the first town to discover gold in the area. I had learnt about the goldfields at school, here I am fifty years after leaving school seeing the goldfield towns. The museum in Kalgoorlie was a history lesson in itself. John and I spent an hour or so walking through the displays, the gold vault was very interesting.

Eyre Highway.

Sunset at Balladonia Roadhouse.

After taking a few photos of Coolgardie we continued on our way, fueling up at Norseman and watching the landscape change as we headed east.

The first part of the drive involved a few photo spots, the first one a road sign depicting camel, kangaroo and emu, they all inhabit the area and to be on the lookout for them. Them a sign telling us Adelaide was 1996 klms east. Gulp! That’s the distance from Melbourne to Brisbane. The Eyre Highway is around 900klms long. We have decided to do the drive over about three days, Balledonia Roadhouse our first overnight stop after 300klms. We got to the caravan park around 2pm. The drive wasn’t too boring, lots of trees and not so much open country. We stopped for a coffee in one of the parking areas that are provided. I always make the thermos, so we have nice hot morning coffee. No shops out here, the roadhouses are every 250 klms or so, they sell basic groceries and fuel. We had a cappuccino there after settling in. Of course no mobile or internet out here in the outback.

                       

Not many caravans drove in to join us, but we enjoyed a lovely quiet night and slept well.

Wednesday 24^th August.

John and I were up at 6am, ready to have breakfast and pack to continue the drive, our next stop about 360 klms to Madura Roadhouse. The country opened up to flat scrubby plains, we looked for emus and camels, the only kangaroos we saw were roadkill Two eagles flew off as we approached at one stage, but didn’t go far, as soon as we passed they would have been back to the carcass. No camels, but we still have tomorrow. We did see a shingle backed lizard crossing the road.

We stopped to take photos of the sign saying we are now on Australia’s longest straight stretch of road, 146.6 klms long, also the sign saying the Eyre Highway is used as an emergency landing strip by the Royal Flying Doctor.

Road Train passing us.

Believe me that road was straight, lots of road trains passed us .We booked into Madura about 1pm and had a lazy afternoon. Other travelers joined us as it got later into the afternoon. I went to the bistro later to order seafood for dinner.

Thursday 25^th August

Hampton Tablelands

John and I left the roadhouse about 8am; I realized later I should have put the watch ahead as entering South Australia we gain one and a half hours, only half an hour behind New South Wales. So it was already after 9am.

The drive was interesting, following the hills that had appeared yesterday as we entered the Madura Pass before coming to the roadhouse. They are named the Hampton tablelands and stayed on our right until early afternoon when we entered the treeless Nullarbor Plain and the Nullarbor National Park. We are seeing the country side after the rains earlier in the year, the landscape is very fertile and many shades of green in the numerous shrubs and grasses.

Lookout over the Great Australian Bight at Eucla

A few small wallabies were near the road early this morning, this afternoon we ran over a snake, too late to get out of his way, he was curled up on the road.

At Eucla, the coast appeared, the Great Australian Bight, a welcome change. We had been away from the sea for a while; the day was perfect for whale watching along the stretch of cliffs at the lookouts. Probably the highlight will be whale spotting at the Head of the Bight tomorrow, lots were seen today, as someone told us.

Old Telegraph Station ruins at Eucla

The Nullarbor Plain

Bunda Cliffs

We booked into the Nullarbor Roadhouse about 4pm. Its our third night without television, however we do have phone and internet after two nights without. John and I settled in and had showers, we had to insert a $1 coin for the privilege. Water is scarce in the outback, none of the roadhouses provide water only power. We filled our water tank in Kalgoorlie and have used it wisely. It has to last until we get to Ceduna  tomorrow.

As soon as we had internet, the footy tips went in!

 

Kalgoorlie

Sammy

Sammy and Syd.

Saturday 20^th August

Esperance was warm and sunny, we saw Sammy the resident sea lion lying on the beach yesterday, The drive north to Kalgoorlie was pleasant, we followed the train line most of the way, the railway would be for the mining trains taking loads from Kalgoorlie, a distance of  360klms to the port of Esperance.

We stopped in Norseman for a cuppa and we were in Kalgoorlie by early afternoon.

The visitor centre was just shutting it’s doors when we arrived a few minutes after 2pm.

We found a caravan park and booked in for three nights. This should give us time to tour the super pit, the markets and the lookout on our first day. The museum would keep until Monday.

Kalgoorlie has beautiful old buildings, I'm so pleased they have kept their heritage in the goldfields.

Old heritage building in Kalgoorlie.

The Super Pit.

Big Tonka Truck.

Famous Hay St brothel

Sunday 21st August

Boulder, right next to Kalgoorlie has markets on the third Sunday of the month, which lucky for us was today. Also, there is a free bus tour of the super pit on the same day. We were too early for booking tickets, so walked around the markets and bought some jams and relish. Of course, also some homemade slices and biscuits.

The super pit is Kalgoorlie’s open cut gold mine, it is awesome!  Massive trucks carry deposits of ore out of the bottom of the pit, you have to see this pit to believe it. The bus tour was very informative and interesting. The tour went for about an hour, returning us to the super pit shop in town. John later drove to the public viewing lookout.

At the Super Pit lookout.

Before we went to the park, we had a coffee in town and drove to the lookout to take photos of the town. We went to Hay Street to see the brothel, they do tours every day. John rang to find out the tour price!I think it was too expensive at $18! That was seniors rate.

We have another night here in Kalgoorlie then we start our trip home, over the Nullabor Plain.

Esperance

Esperance waterfront.

Thursday 18^th August.

There is a resident sea lion down at the jetty here in Esperance. However we haven’t seen Sammy yet, hope we do tomorrow. John and I walked out and back on the jetty, and lo and behold, waiting at the kerb there is a mobile café; ready to serve you a coffee when you finish your walk. They even supply plastic chairs so one can enjoy the view of the harbour. Esperance is a busy shipping port; with trucks and trains going to and fro through the gates. Our caravan park is not far from the waterfront.

On the jetty.

Esperance port

It was a perfect sunny day to go for a 40 klm scenic coastal drive after our walk on the jetty. There are some great lookouts. We scanned the horizon for whales, with no luck. The water is a beautiful colour, blues and greens and very clear. Both of us took plenty of photos as usual. I decided not to get out at some lookouts, think I wore myself out on the walk. So I was the lazy photographer, snapping away from the comfort of my seat. John enjoyed spotting wildflowers and managed to find a couple of new ones we hadn’t seen before.

Beautiful beach.

Syd at one of the lookouts

                                                           

WA wildflower

We had another coffee stop at one of the beaches, before we continued on. Lunch was fresh rolls at a parking area in front of the jetty when we came back to town.

We still have another day here to look around the shops and the museum.

Wave Rock

                           

Wave Rock

Monday August 15^th

Albany to Hyden is a very pleasant drive up through the Stirling Ranges NP, we had a few stops for photos and coffee from the thermos. The ranges were covered with cloud, but some how it added to the beauty of them.

Stirling Ranges NP.

 WA has lots of “up” towns or town names ending in “up”. Different to our other states. One town we passed through yesterday is named Pingrup. In one town we saw an authentic working wind mill.

John waving from the top of Wave Rock.

We settled into the Wave Rock Caravan Park and booked for two nights, leaving it until tomorrow to walk to the attractions. Wave Rock is a short walk from the park. We can stay hooked up to the power and water, giving John a whole day’s break from driving.

It rained in the late afternoon and into the night.

John under Wave Rock.

Tuesday August 16^th

This morning was very chilly but fine. John and I headed over to the car park and along the track and there was Wave Rock, just as we had seen it in the brochures but so much more inspiring. We walked under the “wave” and later I took a photo of John “surfing “, a fun photo. John went to the top of the rock via steps and the rock face, I decided to just walk around the bottom.

Later, a 20 min walk to “Hippo’s Yawn,” another rock attraction, of course more photos!

Hippo's Yawn.

John "surfing"

We had a nice cappuccino in the café opposite the park then spent a quiet afternoon in the motor home. I did some cooking and John printed out his photos. He went for another walk after lunch to The Breakers, large rocks broken away from Wave Rock.