We ended up spending 3 weeks in the Webbers back yard, mostly recovering from our respective illnesses but along the way got both Robyns and our vehicle serviced – another couple of thousand into the local economy. We left George and Ina well (we didn’t pass on any nasties) but with the hope that we will get to see them both again in the not too distant future.
The general plan after leaving the Webbers was to head home, given that Jude and I still weren’t all that well and the weather was still crap but we couldn’t leave the west without Robyn seeing the Pinnacles and New Norcia – some 175 km north of Perth. Worked our way up to Cervantes on the coast just past the entry to the Nambung State Forrest, the home of the Pinnacles. Overnighted in the local caravan park which it turned out was very lucky that we got into and next morning headed to the Pinnacles. This is a fascinating natural phenomenon ….
and what should we find but 9 big Healeys mostly from Qld and NSW, none local or from Vic but all on their way to the Healey Clubs National get together at Geralton. Knew a few of them – what a small world.
From here it was on to New Norcia, arriving late afternoon in the rain yet again. Camped up on the sodden oval for the night (or two) booked into the morning guided tour for the next morning and waited out the afternoons constant rain. Next morning our tour started at 11.00am conducted by a diminutive Phillipino women who was not only well versed in the history of this Benedictine Town but was very entertaining, even giving us a couple of songs in the monks auditorium at the end of the tour. I didn’t take a lot of photos this time thinking that I had sufficient on record but I haven’t yet managed to find them (same for the Pinnacles) from our last trip here in 2013…. (I’ll keep looking).
Found some….
New Norcia is truly a Gem – its beautiful buildings, its museum, its art works, internal decorations and its history – dating back to 1846. Now only accommodating 6 Benedictine monks and surrounded by just 500 acres as opposed to its earlier 20,000 acres the farmlands that supported it now belonging to ‘Twiggy’ Forrest who bailed them out of debt a few years ago. It will be a sad day when New Norcia ceases to exist.
We again overnighted at New Norcia in the sodden fields to move on the next day south to Hyden and Wave Rock. Along the way we overnighted at Beverley, a lovely historic township just south of Northam…
here showing the river through town and the free camp site (sorry – no pictures of the pretty streetscape and railway station – you’ll just have to go see it yourselves). But, I do have some pictures of Wave Rock that followed next day…
and Hippos Yawn and Mulkas Cave.
Leaving Hyden later in the day we overnighted somewhere on the way to Kalgoorlie, traveling most of the next day onto Southern Cross to stay in a free camp near the Station Hotel. Wiki Camps told us that the Station Hotel had the best pizzas and its true. Not only we we have a good feed we joined the locals for a very entertaining evening. Next day it was on to Kalgoorlie. 4 or 5 caravan parks couldn’t fit us and as we had planned to de-van and tour for a few days around town we didn’t feel comfortable unhitching in the free camp and nor was water available there so we took the only remaining park option, the Big 4. This was the dearest option and was far from worth it but, beggars can’t be choosers so they say. Any way we spent some tourist time around Kalgoorlie, got some new back tyres on the Patrol (the fourth set in 75000 km). The Super Pit tour was shut for the time being so we could only observe from the lookout but that was nonetheless very interesting. Similarly, the town tram tour was shut for the time so we found our own way withe guidance of a tourist mud map….
to a bloody big truck, a tiny miners cottage and a very active Super Pit at night ( well, thats not the Pit but is looking back at Kalgoorlie from the Pit) The Pit was more active this night than it was during the day but as I only took a video of it I can’t upload it here.
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The Boulder Town Hall and Council Chambers are most impressive, particularly for their omnipresent Wunderlich pressed metal ceilings ( I spent many years with Wunderlich in the 60’s still making these things).
We spent 3 days here, still in partial recovery mode, but at least the weather was good. Because we were relatively near and its a very special place we decided we needed to show Robyn Lake Ballard. Plus the weather had stayed good, so we made the 175 km trip north of Kalgoorlie to Menzies and on to Lake Ballard. Lake Ballard is home to Antony Gormleys incredible outdoor art exhibit – 51 iron “statues” representing the people of the township of Menzies, boys and girls, men and women. Here’s but some….
but you will have to look very closely because they are spread over some 30 square kilometers and we weren’t up to walking around all of them.
The outback scenery is at its very best here and we spent two nights on the side of the Lake. A very peaceful sojourn.
Then it was straight on down to Norseman where we once again free camped in the council RV park and took water and supplies on board for the trip across the Nullarbor. We were now a bit like the proverbial rented horse – ready for home. So, the easterly journey was not a new voyage of discovery, rather a means to an end. Of necessity we made a few overnight stops, cos it’s still a bloody long way and the bestest was probably on the edge of the Bunda Cliffs in a raging wind. See pics…
fair rocked me to sleep.
On the way through we spent another couple of days with the Monk-Paynes in Adelaide, did nothing terribly exciting to report on and finally got home to the cold on 7 September. This has been a shorter trip than initially planned, mainly because of our health and the lousy weather. Nevertheless there are still a few thing to report on but I’ll get to that on anther day when its either too cold or too hot to work on other things.
Good Night All!