ROCK AND SURF TRIP 08

We have now been back from our 3 week 4x4 trip driving from Perth out to Aryes Rock, down to Coober Pedy and then through the Gawler Ranges and back along the Nullabor to Esperance. We had an amazing time and met some amazing people. I am going to just give you a quick rundown of the trip and it's highlight.

Preparation - about 6,000km at least 2,500km on dirt tracks, Permit required to pass through the aboriginal lands, dry camps mean't we needed to ensure we were not carrying too much alcohol through these area's, huge distances without fuel/water/food stops. We were fully loaded and ready to go!!

Day 1 - We travelled out to Kalgoorlie on the first day stayed over night and went to see the super pit in the morning, the super pit was amazing and so we will be going back for a long weekend to do the official super pit tour and do the tour of Langtrees (the oldest Kalgoorlie Brothel). Kalgoorlie is only place in Australia that allows brothels - all the lonely miners I suppose!!

While at Kalgoorlie campsite we met "The Prospector" who let us hold some of his spoils and he told us all about his prospecting and what he had found over the years.

Day 2 - We drove from Kalgoorlie to Leonora (first dry land of many - dry being you are not aloud to drink/ carry alcohol through the aboriginal lands) stopping off at Lake Ballard an amazing salt lake that has 52 steel statues based on the residents of Menzies, it was a 50km detour but well worth it. We planned to camp at Leonora for the night but when we got there we didn't fancy it so we just pushed on and had our first night Bush Camping in the middle of nowhere!! It was a scary night hoping we didn't have any unwanted visitors (you have to imaging that all reports from the city were that you want to be careful of the Aboriginal communities. If you have alcohol/fuel we were told they would come and take it - this wasn't our expereince at all), not sure which had control that night fright or excitement.

Day 3 - After leaving Leonora it was all gravel roads until Ayres Rock a few thousand Km away. next stop was going to be Warburton, the last major town before the WA/NT Border. I say major town in the loosest sense of the word it was basically a Tavern that did camping and fuel, all fuel pumps were locked in cages to stop any theft of the fuel. A member of the staff HAD to serve you otherwise the Aboriginal Elders kick up a stink...a bit of a culture shock, so again we decided to drive on until dark and find a bush camp spot instead.

On our way out of Warburton there were Aboriginal families just camped up on the side of the road, fire burning and sat on the floor, all waving to us as we went past. Then there were some young kids running along the road (more like a wide track) waving and pointing down the road, we were a bit nervous about what they were pointing at but the we saw it on the horizon...a Nomad with two camels, one with a saddle on and one pulling what used to be a Bedford Rascal type van, now stripped and painted up. He was just strolling along keeping his camels in check the first strange and unusual experience on our trip but certainly not our last!!

We ended up camping in a lovely looking spot between two rocky outcrops about 90km out of Warburton and 129km from the next town. We built a fire and had dinner. After dinner we sat around chatting in the pitch black, then a noise!! howling then a chattering....we all froze!! was it humans playing with us..not likely, we hadn't heard any vehicles for hours. Marc and Paul looked into the bushes with the torches, nothing...then again howls, howling that was right out of a horror movie. We hadn't really thought we would come into contact with dingos but this night we were all petrified as they howled and more and more dingos could be heard. Were they being drawn by our dinner smells? I was in hysterical laughter and started clearing out the back of the car so that I could sleep in safety!! we all ended up sleeping in our tents but the howling through the night kept us all awake!!

We were all up before dawn so we went to the top of the rocky outcrop and watched the sunrise over the land....quite a sight after our night in Dingo Creek as we named it.

We spent the next night at Warrakurna (Giles Weather Station township), we did the free tour, which was very interesting they set weather balloons off twice a day at the same time (give or take 30mins, on this day it was delayed because the mail plane was late and they were all still down getting their mail) as all the other Weather Stations across the world!! and it's in the middle of nowhere..literally. We got to see the Weather balloon launched, then their other old school implements to measure the conditions including an amazing glass ball which magnifies the sunlight to burn through a card to show how much sinlight they get every day and the old tracker a huge machine which used to have one person steering it inside and one person keeping an eye on the ballow and directing the other to move the tracking dish. The more modern version of the machine was now the computer which they should us and we watched the tracking on the screen as it disappeared up into the atmosphere. The resident weatherman gave us the rundown on how the weather mapping for the globe happens with all the different agencies across the world and how forecasters do there job...it was a really interesting tour.

Next stop was Ayres Rock!! The first sighting was actually of the Olgas which were spectacular...and the first bit of tarmac in 4 days!! The Olgas were fantastic, we did one of the walks around them which took you into the valley and around the majestic rocks. Ayres Rock was also fantastic we stayed in the Ayres Rock Resort at the campsite. We did an aboriginal tour at Ayres Rock which was very good and ended with a champagne sunset overlooking the rock..what a place. Definately going back to see more.

You can climb Ayres Rock but the Aboriginal caretakers of the land ask that you don't. After doing the tour we all felt that we wanted to respect their wishes and so did not climb.

We spent another nigh at King Creek Station which was just out from Kings Canyon, North of Ayres Rock. Kings Canyon was spectacular and we did the full ridge walk which took us about 4 hours, but it was great. The first climb was tough, especially when we came face to face with a dingo coming down the from the ridge!! but once up there it was lovely. The walk took us all around the ridge of the canyon and down into the bottom the canyon to a beautiful watering hole that was almost majical.

Next Stop Coober Pedy - home of the Opal mines and undergound living. We stopped off at some meteor craters on the way to Kulgera, the first and last tavern in the NT. On the way Paul had a huge blow out, the first puncture of 4 in the end for Jo and Paul!! We had a great night in the Kulgera Tavern celebrating the wonder of the NT.

Coober Pedy was where we had planned to stay in an underground motel and so we ended up in The Underground Motel, it was dug into the side of a hill like many of the houses in Coober Pedy. It was great, a very unique experience and one we would all like to do again. We went to the Old Timers Mine which was very good, taking you undergoround to see how they started the mining in the area and a chance to do a bit of Noodling (looking for opals without a permit to mine) for our own bit of Opal, both Jo and I came away with some unpolished opal found with our own hands.

Coober Pedy itself is very odd, surrounding the town is just km's of desolate land with lots of piles of rock, the only sign that mining is happening and the town itself is like a huge scrap yard, from which most of the minning equipment is made.

On towards the South Coast via the Gawler Ranges. We took the 4x4 track to the Gawler Ranges via Kingoonya a very small settlement only 6 people in residence but has a hotel with bar, so we stopped off for a quick drink in what was basically someones lounge, the whole family came out to great us and sit and have a drink and a chat, including their two dogs, a huge dog called Bear (very fitting) and a small ball of fluff, they told us all about the settlement and how it had been the main route until the 80's when they moved the road, now they are trying to rebuild the town and the hotel.

They pointed us in the direction of Mt Ive Station, a working sheep station on the edge of the Gawler Ranges, so thats where we headed, however we had to do another bush camp on the way so we just found a relatively flat spot off the track and set up camp.

In the morning a Ute with dog in the back came down the road...we though we were about to be told off for camping on his land, but he came over and introduced himself, and asked weather we had a cold night. His name was Barry and he was the Kokatha Station Manager, he had been on his rounds checking the water supplies for the sheep and cattle. He told us that the Station was a relatively small one at 2,000 sq km, with 10,000 sheep and 2,000 cattle. Barry asked which way we were headed gave us some helpful info about spots to look out for on the roads and also about a herd of Camel that he had seen on some dunes just down the road the day before that might be worth a look.

We stopped off at the dunes to look for the camels but no luck - mind you by now we were over seeing wild camels we had seen so many! but we had fun on the dunes with the cars and saw lots of animal foot prints in the sand, it was a nice break from the driving.

We arrived at Mt Ive Station (900 sq km) just before dark after having to stop to change another burst tyre on Paul's Discovery. The station was a set between two Mounts Mount Ive and Mount Scott, it was a rustic afair and we were greeted by the station dog (Chester), manager and a Kangaroo!!! That night we built a fire in the camp ground and ended up sat with the sheerer, the Station owner, and all of the Station staff (all 6 of them) singing songs while Scott played his giutar and we drank dodgy outback rum and mixers!! it was such a memorable night. We found out all about sheering and the big event happening locally that weekend with horse riding events, sheering competitions, dancing and drinking, it was all everyone was talking about it.

We did a tour of the Station in the Navara as Paul had another puncture, we scaled Mount Scott in the Navara which was quite something negotiating the skinny, very rocky tracks. We went looking for Wombats in the Wombat holes and then took dinner and cooked a chilli at the edge of Lake Gairdner, well known for being used for world speed records. The lake at sunset was breathe taking. Our journey back to camp was interesting in the pitch black with Marc's spot lights pointing into the tree canope after two weeks of rough roads.

We hit the South Coast at Streaky Bay, it was a small seaside town, quite sweet with a central Country style hotel and more shops than we had seen in a while. We needed to stay local for Paul to pick up his new tyres the next day so we stayed at the campsite in town. Amazingly it was situated right on the beach, we litterally camped 5m from the ocean. That night we had a bit of a big one at the Streaky Bay Hotel and we all came away well fed (amazing sea food platters) and a little wobbly! The sunrise the next morning was breathe taking, such wonderful pinks across the bay.

Next stop Fowler Bay - When we got there it was a ghost town in the middle of nowhere full of shacks for houses. It did have a campsite but we really wanted to bush camp instead. I called into the shop/campsite/tourist info/servo (really a room tacked onto a home) and asked about camping, he kindly dug out a mud map and showed us where to go for the best bush camping by the sea, and even where to camp that night to shelter from the wind that was in. The spot we found was just wonderful, again right at the waters edge with a fire pit someone else had left behind and a view to die for. That night in the camp light a huge moth landed in the middle of our camp it was huge..it was in fact the largest moth in the world the Wolf Moth (widigy grub) We had never seen anything like it, more like a bird the size of it.

The Nullabor was just as expected long and bare. The Great Australian Bight was stunning, though no pictures will ever pick up the sheer scale of the cliffs and the curvature of the earth that can be seen from these cliffs. Unluckily we didn't spot any whales while we were there.

We were heading for the Balladonia Road which would take us into Cape Arid National Park, but before that we had to make it across the longest dead straight road in Australia, some 147km long. At about 100km in Paul called on the CB to say that his fuel light had come on... we were at least 70km from the next fuel stop and we had all dumped the fuel in the Jerry Cans into the tanks earlier. It was quite a tense time, if not a little funny with Paul considering contingency plans!! He made it...just.

We were not prepared for the state of the tracks into Cape Arid National Park and as we had started off at lunch time we had to get to the next camp spot before dark. It took us more than 4 hours to get 90km, and just as we thought we were getting close to the camp area Paul got another puncture. We all felt very isolated that night surrounded by bush and nothing else. We finally got to Mt Ragged camp area just as it was getting dark.

Mt Ragged was stunning and the view from the climb across Cape Arid National Park was spectacular. We had planned to get to Israelite Bay but with Paul getting another puncture we decided to just head straight to Esperance another 100km on the same awful tracks as the previous day. We were all relieved when we finally hit tarmac again!!

Esperance was a busy town with all the usual shops and some nice historical buildings. We didn't stay long, just to stock up before heading out to Cape Le Grand National Park.

Spectacular. Thats all any of us could say, the ice blue water the bizarre paste like white sand the monolithic cliffs and rock rising out of the ocean into the deep blue skies, just beautiful..and right on our door step just a days drive from Perth. Two days spent at Lucky Bay where we met a man who had the perfect job. He was the camp host, this mean't he got his own camp spot with power and a view of the bay, and all he had to do was clean the showers in the morning, find something to do for the rest of the day (fishing, walking etc.) and then collect the camp fee from campers in the evening...what a spot and what a job!! (He and his wife were just filling in while they were travelling around Australia, apparently these seasonal camp hosts posts are booked up for years ahead by grey nomads mostly)

Nearing the end of our trip and we stayed at Hopetoun for the last night near the Fitzgerald National Park. Hopetoun was a quaint town that closed at noon. We left early the next morning and headed to Wave Rock (Hyden) for our last bit of rock tourism and then headed back to Perth.

To sum up - we had the most amazing time and met the most amazing people. I am sure I have missed loads of things out but trying to condense it all into an blog is impossible. Sorry if I have bored the pants off you but, it was good for me!!!

CHEERS

MRS DOGINUTE

OR Mel