Lucky Bay

Lucky Bay 

Leaving Esperance after 5 days of exploring some of its stunning beaches we travelled with another couple we met staying at the Yabby Farm with us - Vanessa and Dan and their two gorgeous kids Eddie and Charlie. We also travelled with another lovely couple, Lyn and Geoff who we had met back in Adelaide (My future sister in laws mum and her partner :)) and who also spent some time staying at the Yabby Farm with us. Together we all had some fun on the journey to Lucky Bay messing around on the UHF radios. 

On arrival we managed to get the last 3 spaces left in the campground and all in a row!! Yeah!!!

Over the next couple of days we all had a great time exploring the breathtaking beaches. The water is so crystal clear and the sand is so white and fine that when you mix it with water it honestly feels like cornflour and water does when you mix them. The kangaroos lazing on the beach just added to the amazing surrounds. 

(Tori, Charlie, Ella) 

Lucky Bay by day 

Lucky Bay sunset 

We set the boat up and headed out most days. Dan and Gary managed to land a large Tuna which fed all 6 adults with some leftover! Gary and I still cringe over the HUGE tuna that we just couldn't quite get in the boat before it snapped our line... :(((( But a couple of days later we managed to make up for it by catching quite a few really long fish (not quite sure what they are though! But they all measured around the 68cm mark!) 

Gary and Dans catch 

Lyn, Geoff and myself all headed out for a hike to the top of Frenchmans Peak early one morning where the view from the top was so breathtaking I dragged Gary up it again the next morning! A large cave at the top made the steep climb even more worthwhile and Gary and I also spent a good 30min searching for a geocache (though we think this one may have been muggled as it was nowhere to be found.) 

We also headed down to check out some pretty cool rock pools at night where there was lots of crabs, starfish and lots of other sea creatures to discover. 

Most days the kangaroos came to say hello and we spent plenty of time removing them from out annex! 

Lyn and Geoff left to continue their adventure first, followed by Vanessa and Dan the next day. Gary, myself and the girls all stayed a extra couple of nights, but after nearly a week we decided it was time to leave (though we all agreed that we could have stayed here forever!!) 

Us with Lyn and Geoff 

Us with Vanessa, Dan, Charlie, Eddie

Us!

Quagi Beach to Cape Riche

Quagi Beach/Stokes National Park

Leaving Lucky Bay we headed to Quagi Beach for a night before heading into Stokes National Park for the next 2 nights. The weather (which has been perfect since the day we left Adelaide) finally turned on us and we had quite some rain and wind come in on our first night. Lucky for us out site was well protected, so even though the winds had picked up we barely noticed it. 

We went fishing in Stokes Inlet and caught a feed of Black Bream. We also followed a 4wd track that took us to Moir Homestead- a deserted sheep station which had a huge amount of Beehives in most the remaining buildings! I managed to get one stuck in my hair... Argh!!!! After dancing around the room for awhile (it felt like the thing was inside my head) Gary managed to remove it. They all thought it was hilarious! I'm not quite so sure! 

Tori helping Gary cook at Quagi Beach

Moir Homestead

Cape Riche

Arriving at Cape Riche we instantly fell in love with the place! Clear blue waters, white sandy beaches, shallow reefs to snorkel around, a island not far from shore, awesome fishing and lots of friendly kangaroos. Not to mention we managed to score the best camp site in the place! (Right on the beach front with no real neighbours and a great fire pit.) 

Ella feeding her friends that visit regularly 

Ella heading out for a snorkel (she lost yet another top front tooth just minutes before this photo was taken!) that's a total of 3 top row teeth lost in less than 4 weeks! I have officially renamed her my "gummy koala bear" 

Over the next few days Ella managed to catch a total of 7 HUGE squid from the boat and Gary and myself caught quite a few also. 

Ella with her catch 

The girls are really getting into the fishing and have been taking their rods down the beach in the arvo by themselves catching a fair few tommies and flathead. 

Ella with a flathead she caught. (this one survived to live another day as it was a little on the small side)

At night we have a campfire (I swear I will never tire of sitting around one)

and in the morning we get to see the sunrise over ocean due to the location of the bay. 

Sunrise from our campsite (yes I am awake to see it most days) 

As I am writing this blog on the beach, on out last evening here, we spotted a whale (possibly 2) not far off the coast! Amazing!! Talking to another couple they unfortunatly informed us that they had spotted it earlier, not far from us, whilst we was out fishing in the boat!!! :( if we had seen it whilst fishing we would have ventured a little closer for sure!

View from our camp 

Another great sunset from our camp 

Crossing the SA/WA Border to Esperance

Crossing the SA/WA border 

The girls loved crossing the Border and spent some time jumping back and forth between the two states. 

Crossing the 90 mile straight I was happy to get to the end of this one!

Newman Rocks

Pulling into a free camp we where pleasantly surprised to discover this place had a great view of the scrub for miles. We ending up spent 3 nights here and managed to build a pretty impressive rock tower one afternoon. 

Homeschooling with a view!!

Kalgoorlie

Arriving in Kalgoorlie after a long drive across the Nullarbor we set up in yet another Free Camp site. During our time in Kalgoorlie we visited the Super Pit lookout and was lucky enough to be there when they blasted one of the sides of the pit. The Pit itself is just massive and it's hard to take in how big it really is.

We also visited the Gold Museum and visited the Metropole Pub, which has a mine running under it. They have installed a glass panel in the floor so people can view the mine from the top. Whilst there Ella lost her second "Top front tooth!" 

We also visited Hammond Park (super cool playground with lots of animals roaming around) and a park where the girls got to climb up inside some of the trucks that are used inside the Pit which they found quite cool. 

Bromus Dam

Leaving Kalgoorlie we took a short detour to Coolgardie (not much to see here) before making our way down to Esperance. Along the way we pulled into Bromas Dam with the intentions of spending one night here.. Well, we just fell in love with this place! 

With endless areas to set up camp, fire pits and a massive dam with a rope swing, yabbies, fish and even a giant piece of Polystyrene that the girls (and myself ;)) could all float around on we spent the next four days playing in the sun! Come night time we had some great campfires and cooked our meals over the fire. 

After four days it was time to leave though and make our way to Esperance.

Esperance (so far)  

Arriving in Esperance two days ago we have set up at a great little spot known at "The Yabby Farm." It's basically the back of a couples property and they have set it up for people like us to camp in. For $20 a night we have power, HOT showers (these are few and far between when free camping, so it's luxury for us! Lol), a free washing machine and the guy brings us firewood each night for us to use. Such a great place!! 

We have met another family who are also staying here and travelling Australia with their two children. The girls love playing with their two kids, whilst Gary and I are enjoying spending times swapping stories over a couple of bevies around the fire at night. 

We have visited some really beautiful beaches whilst here that have the whitest sand and crystal clear waters. So pretty! 

The weather has been good to us also, with sunny warm days.. Hopefully it sticks around whilst we are down this bottom end of the Coast! 

We plan on spending a couple more days here before heading to Lucky Bay (40km east of Esperance.) Lucky Bay is known for having Australia's whitest sand and Kangaroos are often seen lazing around on the beach! So looking forward to it! 

Koonalda Homestead

Yesterday we visited a truley awesome part of Australian history which I feel deserves a post of is own.. 

Koonalda Homestead. 16km off the Eyre highway, 100km before the WA border we travelled down a bumpy dirt road, dodging Wombat holes and driving through large muddy puddles, it was a long 16km before we finally arrived at this amazing part of our Australian history.

The homestead, built out of old railway sleepers was used to service the traffic crossing the Nullarbor before the sealed Eyre highway was laid. Consisting of the main homestead, a shearers hut, sheep shearing shed, gas station and a car graveyard, it has been officially closed since the 1970's and has been abandoned since 1988. Since then it has been maintained by the Nullarbor National Park and travellers are welcome to stay the night for free either in the homestead or anywhere on the surrounding property. 

Nearby to the property is a blowhole and a sinkhole, which may be worth a visit also, but we didn't bother to check these out. 

The plan was to arrive in the afternoon and stay the night, but after stopping at various lookouts along the Nullarbor, the day had crept up on us and we weren't keen to try and find this place in the dark. So unfortunatly we did not get to stay the night here, but instead we woke early yesterday morning to explore the Homestead. 

The girls and ourselves just loved this place and more than reccomend it to anyone who is travelling this way to check it out!!