Day 17 - Stromatolites

• Geraldton - Denham
•  405 kms
• 24°c

On the road again, this time in the rain!  First time we've really had any serious rain whilst driving, thankfully it didn't last too long.

A couple of the roadside sights today included wild goats, a big lizard and a tandem bicycle! oh and these really cool looking cubby houses of nature -reminded me of the thing that lived above ground in the back yard on Fraggle Rock!

Our schooling for today was based on the Solar System - Solar Walk on the ipad, very cool and worth a look.

A sign for the "Shell Quarry" & "Stromatolites" caught our eye as we were making our way up the very quiet road to Denham.

The Shell Quarry was amazing it looked like a moonscape or part of an archaeological dig, as though they were halfway through unearthing lost cities.  In the olden days large blocks were cut out and used for building as timber was scarce.  They are as hard as concrete and totally amazing, the shells release a type of calcium in the rain which forms a hard glue like substance when it dries.

The Stromatolites were cool, they are giant living rocks only found in three places on earth! They grow here because the water is twice as salty as normal sea water!

On arrival in Denham we found our caravan park and at first glance weren't all that pleased with our site as we were up quite high and not on the beach.

However after setting up and doing a spot of porching we realised we had a really awesome spot;
great view & somewhat sheltered from the West Coast Wind!  The ground is rock hard! No hammering the pegs in here, had to break out the big boys!

Getting a good vibe, think we'll hang around a few days!

Denham Seaside Village Caravan Park, $51.70 a night, awesome views, power, water, beachfront

Day 15 - Road to the Coast

• Mt Magnet - Geraldton
• 344kms
• 26°c

Pretty quiet on the road today, not a lot of passing traffic, mostly road trains and a few caravans, all poppers, no big rigs like us!

These termite mounds were dotted along most of the highway so we decided to stop off for a closer look.  Well that didn't quite go to plan but rather ended in tears & tantrums!  For some reason rather than being amazed at this wonder of nature, they were both terrified! We didn't see a single termite or any other bug but Oscar was screaming about Bullyants & Ella about Red Ants.  That exciting educational lesson i had envisaged in my head sooo did not happen. We stopped again for a cuppa further on and whilst i was taking photos, Ella got adventurous and came for a look, not too close but what a huge breakthrough!

Yay, we saw a herd? group? gang? of emus on the side of the road just doing their thing, not at all bothered by the passing traffic.

I think we were all pretty happy to get out of the car today! A little bit of car crabbiness after travelling over 500kms a day for the past 4 days.  Will be nice to have a sleep in tomorrow!

Big4 Geraldton, $31.50 a night, power, water, showers, beachfront

Day 14 - Eagles

• Menzies - Mt Magnet
• 529kms
• 24°c

Look out, i'm driving!!

Steve decided I was ready for my lesson in Caravan Towing.  I was super impressed with how well the Jeep towed it, although i must admit I did not like the Wind Wobblies at all, it just comes outta nowhere and you have to fight it to keep her on the straight and narrow! 

I was getting the "Flying Vibe" from Steve and could tell he wasn't enjoying being a passenger so after my 5kms of being Caravan Captain I pulled over and let Ketut take command again!!

He assured me I was a "Wonderful Driver" but was just more comfortable being the driver.

That's fine with me, cause to be honest i'm more comfortable with Steve behind the wheel too!

Really glad we'd done the "ring around the Caravan" when this roadtrain went hooning past us!

Colours in the desert are a nice break from Red, Red, Red!

Finally we managed to get some photos of the Wedge Tailed Eagles that have been flying overhead!

They are larger than I ever imagined, the photos really don't do them justice. We were unable to get photos of the two largest ones we saw. The wingspan on one of them was as wide as the bonnet of the car & another one perched on the side of the road was about two feet tall.

Mt Magnet Caravan Park, $35 a night, power, water, hot, hot showers, dump point,  and a really cute dog "Bam Bam" who's hobbies include wearing sunglasses and riding motorbikes!

Day 13 - Drive Faster, I Hear Banjos!

• Balladonia - Kalgoorlie - 380kms
• Kalgoorlie - Menzies - 133kms
• 20°c

Overnight was super windy, maybe that herd of wild camels went rushing past our camp? 

seriously thought the van may tip over during the night!

So we started the day with no phone  reception again, until we were about 25kms South of Norseman.  That was 599kms no phone reception across the Nullarbor, we didn't need it but were thankful we had the Satellite Phone.

Also no radio reception so were on ipod shuffle for most of todays drive and we couldn't help but giggle as Duelling Banjos aka Deliverance blasted onto the stereo, yet i did stop laughing when Steve wouldn't let me use my veto to skip it.

Thought we'd stop over at Kalgoorlie for a night or two, but that wasn't to be.  All the caravan parks were booked out, The Goldminer caravan park doesn't open it's office on Weekends? Strange.

We found a free camp spot and discovered the reason all the parks are booked out is that The Kalgoorlie Cup is on!  Apparently it's a huge deal in town, we thought the dressed to the nines locals were just a little odd? Really would've liked to see the Super Pit but it wasn't to be, we decided to keep driving and stop a little further on.

 We stopped for the night in Menzies, which is almost a ghost town yet has a really good vibe to it

Menzies Caravan Park, $29 a night, only charged $1.50 each child!, power, water, shower, great place to stop, super helpful & friendly caretaker

Day 12 - The Wild West

• Border Village - Balladonia
• 525kms
• 30°c

We did the hop,.. we did the Border Hop,.. the Border Hop,.. it was kind of a flop! Well according to Oscar anyway, but i'm sure deep down he really thought it was cool?!

Quarantine was a serious affair, the lady checked over the car, under the blankets, in the boot, she looked in everything that opened and closed in the van, including the freezer! I think we were lucky she didn't pull on a pair of gloves!  All good and we were waved on into the West.

The second we crossed over into Western Australia we lost phone reception, we are now in radio silence, see you on the flip side.

They aren't lying when they say 90 mile straight road! It is the longest straight road in Australia.

Not a curve at all, lots of ups & downs but not even a bend!

Caiguna Blowhole breathes in and out! Was awesome to feel the cold air coming from the blowhole, however Ella & Oscar weren't keen to get too close to it.

 We did see lizards, 2 eagles, 1 snake, an emu and a camel, unfortunately the emu and camel were on the side of the road and they weren't resting. oh and we did see more crazy cyclists.

We stopped for the night at the Balladonia Roadhouse which also happens to be home to....

SKYLAB!

How very cool, a real piece of space junk in our own backyard!

Pretty cool to touch something that has been into outer space

Balladonia Roadhouse, $32 a night, powered site, no water, shower - just enough to get wet, nice spot to stop off for a night