Western Adventure - Day 4 & 5

A long drive down the middle of WA to Esperance awaited us on Day 4 but we got up early and took again to our travels.

The drive wound through a very interesting part of the state of WA passing as it did through mining towns like Norseman. The town named for it's rather famous horse who kicked a clump of soil and apparently discovered the nugget which lead to a gold rush. Needless to say the horse now has it's own statue which stands proudly in the town park.

All the way down we passed signs pointing to the various mines and we could see even from the car the obvious signs of mining occurring at a rapid pace.

Closer to Esperance we passed the Pink lake and several other smaller lakes like it - all colored a strange pink color having taken on the red of the soil and chemicals around them.

Around lunch time we arrived in Esperance and drove around searching for our digs. At first we were looking for a conventional hotel called the "Dodropin" with some trepidation I might say thinking of the jokes associated with such names. Amazingly it turned out to be a well hidden bed and breakfast in a self-contained apartment set up in the nicest Dutch Barn style building.

After settling in we took off to explore Esperance which turned out mostly to be a nice beach side village. A nice place for swimming and fishing in the hot whether but not that much to see thats unique or noteworthy. We did manage to find a rather good town museum to while away a few hours and also found an interesting jetty to look at. Other than that though there was not much to do in Esperance.

Next a very, very long drive to Albany (480 km)...

We got up very early the next day and departed the Barn for the former Whaling town of Albany.

Prepared for a long day in the car we were actually quite surprised to reach our destination by lunch time.

We found our hotel and settled in. Then off to explore Albany.

Albany turned out to be a really nice place that we were looking forward to spending 2 days in. Lots of nice interesting looking shops and eating places in the main street. Our first stop was to find a nice place to have lunch after the long drive. This we did at a nice place called "Venice Restaurant" where we had garlic squid with chips and salad.

After lunch we went for a drive. First thing we encountered was the museum built around the ship Amity a replica of the original square rigger that brought the first convict settlers to Albany.

After looking around the Amity we went for a drive up Mt Melville to the look out which was amazing for the view it gave of Albany harbor and King Georges Sound. We then found that there was a restored military fort called Fort Princes Royal on Mt Melville. Here we discovered some interesting history. Apparently Albany was the meeting point for the Imperial Expeditionary Forces - the ANZACs and the 26 ships that carried those troops to the middle east left from here. We had a great afternoon exploring.

Tomorrow more of Albany including Whale world ...

Western Adventure - Day 3

Saw us hit the road early from Hayden and head to Narenbeen then up to Mildren following the Eastern Highway to Southern Cross, making our way to Kalgoorlie the heart of the Goldfields & furthest place East we would go by car (about 380k of driving).

Coolgardie which was along the way is now very much a ghost town even though it once teemed with prospectors and people searching for gold. The mining registry was the biggest and most interesting building in town.

Kalgoolie was an unexpected surprise in that it was quite a large city with quite an interesting main street and a mining museum. Like most of WA there was no shortage of pubs or for the more trendy bars to score a drink. Very much a male town, very much dominated by mining and men in luminescent vest and work boots driving around in 4 wheel drives (Toyotta must love WA).

Was interested to see how much work there was going though and even the amount of signs around the place looking for workers.

Visited the mining museum and saw a very interesting exhibit on Aboriginal land rights as well as the normal exhibit on the gold mining.

Next - day 4 another 300k plus & Esperance ...

Western Adventure - Day 2

Day 2 saw us leave the New Essperence Hotel Perth bound for Wave Rock some 350 km East. The rain from the previous day had well and truly set in and it seems that Cheryl and I keep going to place that are usually hot only to find them bleak and wet. An early start saw us make good time and by lunch we had reached Hayden and were only 4 km from the famous rock.

Having checked in at the Wave Rock Hotel we drove on to the rock. The rock was a truly impressive piece of natural sculpture being as it looks in the pictures I had seen of it - very much a petrified curved wall of stone looking like a perfect wave.
There were some amazing wildflowers growing around and near the rock. Some nice red ones and other yellow and orange star shaped one. We walked around the rock for a distance but then it started to rain so we went back to the restaurant and souvenir shop where we saw some amazing black swans swimming in the pool at the back of the restaurant. Had a niece pie with salad for lunch. After lunch we drove back to the hotel and unloaded our bags and gear.

After we settled in to our room we decided to go back and take another look at Wave Rock. This time we took a longer walk toward Hippos Mouth as it is known but we turned back as I was worried that it might rain and we had no umbrella.

I enjoyed seeing Wave Rock and found it an interesting place. I was rather amazed at the noise the wind makes as it blows past the rock - it sounds very much like the sound made by cars as they fight there way to work. Quite an eerie spooky feeling ...

Western Adventure - Day 1

The first day of the trip started early. Up by 4.00 am to get ready for a 5.00am shuttle to Sydney Domestic Terminal to catch our 8.00am flight. All went well and I was surprised to see the airport was not choked with folk trying to fly out for the school holidays.

We took off a little late but had a smooth uneventful flight in which I caught up with some in flight movies. Really liked one called "Source Code" which I had not seen before,

After arriving & picking up our car a little red Hyundai Coupe we arrived at our hotel to be told we would need to wait 2 hours for our room. Not what you want when you got up early & find you have gained 2 hours flying across the country. Anyway we had some lunch, found an IGA for groceries & are back in our room for an early night. Tomorrow the journey starts as we head East (not West which sounds unusual ) to Wave Rock for our next stop on the road trip.

Did you know that in WA shops actually close on Sunday. We could not find a chemist that was open, we did however, find at least a dozen pubs that were. No surprises there. Worse news in WA digital TV equals 5 channels - how rude!