Hello from WA

Happy New Year.

Chris & I realised the other day that we have been in WA for 5 months and not planning on leaving until March, so I thought I’d share our experiences of this large state.

Starting with Kunnanurra where we saw crocodiles (freshies) sun baking on the caravan park lawn just in front of our van, to seeing the mighty Lake Argyle and the Ord River, flying over the Bungle Bungles which were absolutely amazing, then onto Derby where we flew over the Horizontal Waterfalls in a tiny 4 seater plane, down to Exmouth where we saw the gentle giants of the ocean leaping out of the water, where we also swam with turtles. Onto Coral Bay where we saw sharks 3 meters away from the waters edge, this is where we spent time snorkeling on the Ningaloo Reef.. Ningaloo reef is not as colorful as the Barrier reef, it has hard coral where the barrier reef has soft coral, it is more like a manicured garden under the water with mass plantings of coral, abundant fish life and they come right up to your mask and almost say hello.

To see the brilliant colors of the wildflowers, pink, blue, red, mauve, purple, yellows and whites and now seeing the fantastic WA Christmas tree with bright orange blooms, it is just beautiful. If you stay at a village that has a fishing port and your there when the fishing boats come in, you can buy direct from fisherman, lobsters and crabs for $10 and $5 and can I say you can get tired of eating them, ho hum.

We stayed at a place called Menzies a small town not much there except for The lake Ballard sculptures and the beautiful night skies that has millions of stars, it is on the way to the goldfields of Kalgoorlie, they have the super pit a massive open cut gold mine, they advertise the time of explosions so you can go and view this amazing sight, you see where they are going to blast and on countdown you feel the earth rumble for 10 seconds before the blast, something I’ve never seen before.

In Kalgoorlie, they also had an xmas parade when we there and it’s another first to see huge mine Tonka trucks in a parade, we met another couple there who have just turned up in this caravan park. To travel to the old majestic towns of Toodyay, Corrigan and York and to look at the interesting buildings, at Corrigan they have a Ute muster and a huge dog cemetery because all utes must have a dog, it brought tears to the eyes when reading some of the plaques.

Back to the coast for Christmas where we experienced 42 and 44 degrees on xmas and boxing days. We were told that Perth (and Jurien Bay) was the hottest place in the world on boxing day. We had a different xmas this year with being away from family and it doesn’t get any easier not having Kelly here, but isn’t she having the time of her life, she does promise to be back here for this xmas if only for a holiday and hopefully Mart will be joining her. We spent the morning at the beach which was different as on all other xmas days, I’m either busy in the kitchen or in the car going somewhere, so it was so nice just the 2 of us, we ate our xmas lunch, ham, turkey and salad at about 3pm and then had a sleep and dessert about 9pm, it was different but great.

From Jurien Bay we drove to the Pinnacles, a sandy gravel desert with mounds of rock you feel like your standing on a lunar landscape. In between Jurien Bay and Perth we stopped at a place called Dandaragan, it was like an apex park run by local people and an honesty box, the amenities were spotless and only 2 vehicles, us and a wicked van with an Irish couple who are here for 12 months so we had dessert together, it was 5 star accommodation for $15.

Now onto Perth where we’ve been for the last 2 weeks, just sightseeing and relaxing by the pool. We put Olly into a dog kennel yesterday and went to Rottnest Island for the day, saw quokkas, and did a bus tour of the island, the crystal water certainly attracts many people and boats, we all had a great day, Olly came back exhausted after his day of playing. I guess the highlight of our stay here is the other day I had to do the washing, we carry a small washing machine with us when we stay a while in one place we leave the machine outside under the awning when we are traveling it goes in the car. This day I saw something poke its head out from underneath, thinking oh my god a snake, I called out to Chris and he picked the machine up to see and sure enough a snake fell out of it, we saw it slither into the garden and haven’t seen it since so needless to say the washing machine stays in the car now unless I need to wash.

We are off to Busselton tomorrow where we are booked into a caravan park for 2 weeks. People tell us we haven’t seen the best of WA yet so I can’t wait to see the south coast because what I’ve seen so far has to be the most stunning coastline of Australia. Although you cannot compare it to the east coast, they are so different and Mission Beach is still my favorite. I pinch myself quite often, to experience this gypsy lifestyle is just the best. Although I’m a bit excited about SA, our beautiful daughter Kelly gave us a romantic hot air balloon ride for 2 over the Barossa Valley for xmas, so I’m really looking forward to that, we just have to do this by May, she does spoil us. Anyway that’s about all from me, take care, love to all.

Sue, Chris and Olly xxx