Whyalla 28/11/18

Hi folks,
We were a bit disappointed with Port Lincoln, the things we wanted to see weren't available, so while the Toyota had a service at Peter Kittle - fantastic staff, work well done and well priced. Kath and I spent a couple of hours in the excellent Library there, oh and Kath loved the Lounge Chair Sculpture.
Drove in to see Talia Cave, the most amazing thing for me was the colour of the different types of rock, a salmon pink sand stone with yellow and orange sedimentary above it.
Then up to Cowell for the night, really quite little place right on the beach front, $10 a night, we saw the rain coming so it was an early start with a  hurried pack up and just in time too as it absolutely bucketed down for the next 30 minutes or so while we drove north towards Whyalla, did the usual visit to the Info Centre there, just walked in the door when we were asked if we would like to do the Tour of the HMAS WHYALLA, why not so off we went with Liz and found out all about the first Corvette built in the ship yards, her war service as a mine sweeper and is now proudly in centre place at the museum. The rain caught up during the tour but was gone by the time we finished.
They advised us that the best free camp was out near Cape Lowell Light house on the edge of Fitzgerald Bay, had a look at that and the SANTOS oil/gas import-export facility nearby but they do not do tours.We found a reasonably sheltered spot for the night and woke this morning to see a pod of dolphins feeding just off the beach in front of us, easy drive back to Town for the tour of the steel mill, very interesting and informative. We were shown the full cycle of events from the raw hematite to the finished product, it was interesting to see a  billet of steel about 3 meters long come out of a furnace soft as plaster sine then these being rolled out into 29 mtr railway line, the enriched pellets for export,very different to what I expected although it is still disappointing when, yes it is foreign owned. Australia owns bugger all when it comes to our resources, huge profits go overseas.
Saw an article about how King George Whititng was around $90 / kilo so we had lunch on the foreshore of whiting, salad and chips for $19.95, very nice it was too.
We had an easy afternoon drive over to Petersborough where we are spending the night, still windy but the cloud has gone and higher temps are expected over the next few days, we hope so anyway as these cold, gusty winds are wearing very thin.
Off to revisit the Barossa Valley tomorrow and restock the cellar.
Stay happy
Bob n Kath

                                                                     SATOS facility

                                                manufacturing Coke-coal for the blast furnace

                                                            quenching the coke with 65,000 ltr of water

Port Lincoln 25/11/18

Hi family and friends,

After doing the full Mine tour down into the mine, nothing really going on so a bit of a waste of time, there has been 2 land slips in the last couple of months with the last one on Friday am so everything is now closed down until the repatriation work is completed which may take over 12 months.
We left Kalgoorlie behind we headed south towards Norseman with anO/N camp just north of there, still very windy as the locals refer to it as  Blovember. Re-fueled and headed out, Kath hasn't been across So it was a new experience for her, she couldn't believe the view from the lookout at Caiguna where the road drops down off Hampton Tablelands and out across the treeless plain. We did the 3 official lookouts and a couple of others made by locals. We also ran into a Sweedish bloke who is cycling around Australia, we had met him at Tom Price weeks ago so it was great to catch up and share a few experiences, his friend who he had met up with a week or so ago has one of those lay down pedal type of cycle and both had a laugh when he related the story of how he fell asleep while peddling.
Camped for the night 20 k's west of Nullarbor, still blowing a gale and bloody cold southerly, Kath wasn't in a good mood as the fruit fly inspection station bloke left a lot to be desired in both attitude and speech, just about emptied our fridge of stuff not even listed on their pamphlet. not happy Jan.
Anyway into Ceduna for fuel, not much to see or do around there so we headed south towards Streaky Bay, what a top little place that is ! heaps of places to visit and the views are fantastic. This country never ceases to amaze me with it's contrasts, one minute there are cliffs with huge waves battering their bases then around the corner there are blinding white beaches with a gentle shore break, rocky bluffs with a colony of breeding sea lions, unreal experience to look down on them just doing their thing at a very leisurely pace. I visited the Power House Museum while Kath caught up with her diary, that Museum is packed with vintage motors of all makes, models and sizes and the best part is that they run. There were 4 older blokes (volunteers)  running the show and they are only too happy to chew the cud about the engines and Strat any one of them up if you are interested. My favourite type is the older style Blackstone open crank, theirs was a 1907 job and it started first rotation of the fly wheel, music to my ears, he then started another style of open crank which was driving a water pump - yes it was pumping water so I did a short video of it. Unfortunately closing time came about too dam quick so I had to leave.
Short drive south and camped up for the night, yes, we were in bed by 6pm as it was still a very cold windy night.
Did some sight seeing further down the coast and O/N at Point Drummond, we found a little spot with a bit of shelter from the wind but it was still into bed at 6pm to get warm.
We are now in Port Lincoln as the truck needs a service tomorrow which equates to just over 12000 K's since we left home.
We are off to do a seafood factory tour while that is being done, back here to the van park tomorrow night then away to Adelaide on Tuesday all things being equal.
Stay happy.
Bob n Kath

Tourist in Kal 19/11/18

Hi folks.
All went well with a great little free camp at Lake Douglas, 7k's west of town, clean facilities with were cleaned daily and rubbish as well. Did a quick look around for an hour or so before returning to camp.
Well we spent 3 days as tourists in Kalgoorlie/Boulder, a very interesting place to see, it started out with a lightening show, spectacular that was as it moved from the north around the west and disappeared south, very little wind and no rain.
I took a couple of shots but the mosquitoes started to attack so I left it at that.

The hour long scenic flight out to Lake Leroy and back over the Super Pit was well with it, the number of open cut mines around here is unbelievable, some are still working and others are just partly filled with ground water( salty as hell )fenced and closed up.  The ground water is used for most of the mine workings as fresh water is piped in from Perth and as such not wasted. There is one mine actually in the Lake it's self, lucky it doesn't flood, they have sunk bores down into the artesian basin for their fresh supplies. Looks really weird to see a boron the middle of a massive salt lake.
Then back over town to the Super Pit which at present is the 3 rd largest open cut in the world at 3.3 k long, 1.5 wide and 600m deep, with the future expansion planned it should become the largest. The only thing about it is that it is owned by a joint American/Canadian company, all gold is sold to the Australian Government at current world prices and all profits go overseas! Talk about stupid Government buying our own resources, same goes for Gas production, iron ore etc, we are just great at giving away our assets.
We did the Markets on Sunday morning, same old same old you get at every market in any town so nothing new there, Took Kath out to see her first 2 up game played. The game is held here every Sunday afternoon and seeing the money being thrown around stunned Kath, minimum bet was $50, needless to sawyer didn't join in although Kath would have loved to have a go at tossing the pennies.

Came back into town and just enjoyed looking at thebeautifull old building preserved in their original state including the only legal house of ill repute - Hay St brothel.
Then it was off to the Mining museum where there is a vault with about $6 M worth of gold nuggets,  ingots, old jewellery, coins etc on display, that was something to see as was a push bike made by an old prospector from scrounged timber.

After all that, it is now time to head south and out across the Eyre Highway- Nullarbor Plains so it may be a few days before we are back in circulation.

Catch you on the flip.

Bob n Kath

Kalgoorlie 15/11/18

Hi all, back again
We arrived in Albany on the 11th of November, just in time to commemorate Armistice Day in the local park, very moving Ceremony extremely well attended by both the towns folk and tourists alike.
The address was given by Brigadier Hand who spoke on when Australian Soldiers became united as one Army seperate to the English in WW1, he delivered a very pertinent speech about the dangers facing us as a Nation today from nearby neighbours, Islamic and minority groups who are rapidly undermining our way of life with the help of Government.
We camped in a little place called Two Peoples Bay, great little van  park, weather was bloody cold and miserable with scattered showers and wind.
Not to let that stop us, we did the Kalgan Cruise around the bay and the Kalgan River, the Skipper knew his stuff with entertaining commentary on the history of the area, bird life was plentiful and the damper and tea topped it all off.  These 3 photo's had to be emailed due to a stuff up with SD cards in cameras and I haven't learned how to get my Apple to open Windows files yet so if the detail is not there, thats the reason.

We took a tour of the ANZAC Centre for the afternoon followed by a night time stroll up the Avenue of Honour field of lights, truely awesome sight, thousands of lights changing colour the full length of the Avenue. At least the rain cleared for a few hours which enabled us to do this. Apparently these lights are the same ones used at Ayres Rock last year and these will be operating nightly until ANZAC Day next year. Albany seems to have its Tourist base on the ANZAC theme.
Another early rise to a wet and windy day so we pulled stakes and headed north east towards Lake Grace to see the "Jelly Bean Lake' which is advertised as a pink Lake but on arrival we find out it can be white, green or a blue colour, white for our visit but we found a really bright pink one further south which was also close to a set of wheat silos with great murals. Gifted artist there for sure, the detail was fantastic.

Just look at the detail in there.
Rolled in to Hyden to get a battery replaced as a cell had collapsed in one of the deep cycle ones for the fridges.
Wave Rock, what an eye opener there, the forces of nature that sculptured that lot defy belief, it was apparently formed by water erosion but looks like the rock was plasticine when the centre was forced up and the sides started to roll over the edge and then solidified, either way the result is awesome. There are some great water sculptures on the top as well.
We did the walk up and around and then along to Hippo's Yawn, that is a massive rock that looks for all the world like hippos mouth minus the teeth.

                                                        surfer Kath

Albany 11/11/18

Good morning people,
Well we have slowly motored our way down the west coast from Cape Naturaliste, took in 4 more caves which are everywhere along this limestone coast, no wonder their beaches are brilliant white sand. Booked into a nice quiet van park just out of Margaret River and did the wine tour by bus so no driving was involved, we only found 1 port we liked and the wines were not to our taste, sorry about that as their motto is " our wine only comes in a bottle as it is too good to put in a box "
One winery has a female figure on top of a post in the middle of a dam, which looks really good we thought, however a nearby town, Cowramup in the middle of the dairy area had a different  idea, so tongue in cheek raised a figure of a cow in a similar position in the middle of park in town. ( see the photo's)
The winery are not impressed as the town calls theirs ' the chick on a stick' so the winery calls theirs   ' The rump on a stump'.

We did yet another self guided tour of a cave, I think you have seen enough of them for now so no photos.
Next day we did the Boranup Forest drive, spectacular country with huge Karri and Marri trees, those trees have to be seen to be believed, the base of some were as wide as my Toyata is long!
After yet another cave excursion we ventured out in a really bright clear day ! wow no wind, clear sunny sky, it made for a very welcome change from the cold winds and drizzle. The shore line there is amazing and rugged, a few Korean tourists decided to go off the lookout platform for some selfies down on the rocks above waves, a lady working there is also the local Coast Guard Commander and when she spotted them, she marched down and gave them the biggest broadside about stupidity as they (CG) had been hit most of the previous weekend looking for the body of a fisherman washed off the rocks a little north of there. She was not a happy camper. The seas are pristine and support a very viable Abalone industry. There was even a bloody pirate cow there as well !
There is the remains of a water wheel nearby that used to pump water from a spring up to the lighthouse, first used to make the cement for the buildings then water supply for the cottages, if you look closely at the photo, the shaft is above the remains of a piston pump housing.
 This light is the most southerly one in mainland Australia and is the point where the southern ocean and the Indian Ocean meet, apparently on some days the line is visible from the top. You see it in the drone photo.

Camped at a great little spot called Grass Tree National Park, experienced 5.4 earth quake early in the morning, about 5am which shook things for about 5 - 6 seconds or so and then on to Pemberton for the scenic rail trip into the Jarra forest, the remains of the saw mill are beside the town, the line itself part of the original Perth line but when the Government of the day stopped that service it was used as a haul line until the mill closed in the 80's, then purchased by the tramway company and used as it is today, a relaxing and informative trip down memory lane amongst truely majestic trees.
That afternoon we were out to the Gloschester Tree, well Kath climbed a little way up, photo shoot then back down, don't blame her as to is 63 meters high with a lookout at the top, however it is accessed by climbing steel spikes driven into the side of the tree and basically does 2 complete spirals from bottom to top. We met a couple of locals while having lunch, these are wild birds but the love both apple and vita wheat with cheese. Absolutely beautiful to look at these little ones so close up.

 Then on to the Tindle tree park to see the largest living tree in Australia, it has been burnt out in the base by bush fires and the hole is large enough to park my Toyota in side! Spent quite a bit of time exploring that area as there were quite a few of them nearly as large, hard to get my head around the sheer size of those trees.
Decided to get a better look at them so oft the tree top walk up into the canopy, excellent views however the whole structure sways as people walk along it and there are load limits of 20 people on the actual span but only 10 on the platforms between them, I was counting but most weren't and that made it a little nerve wracking.

After a quiet night night we travelled on to Albany.
Getting late so I will sign off
Stay safe my friends.