Ngilgi Cave

Cave ceiling in the auditorium.

NGILGI CAVE at Yallingup was just spectacular, at one stage we were 34 metres below the ground which is equivalent to eleven storeys. We wandered around for over an hour and there were a variety of chambers and a lot of shawls, at times it is eerie to think that you are walking over what is past roof collapses. One of the stalactites weighs 5 tonnes.

CANAL ROCKS were really impressive as water rushes into a canal section and really swirls around, would of been great to drop something in and see where it ended up.

BRAHMAN THE BARMAN at the Margaret River Hotel.

Leeuwin Naturaliste National Park

CAPE LEEUWIN LIGHTHOUSE south of Augusta, more rugged coastline and this is where the Southern Ocean meets the Indian Ocean. We had a day out and about yesterday from our base at Gracetown by Margaret River, a lovely spot but alas no phone or internet coverage, so down at the local library catching up on things. The park was busy over the long weekend and really thinned out yesterday. COSY CORNER The colours of the rocks remind me of a zebra.
REDGATE BEACH Some great waves rolled in crashing into the rocks. Further south where the Margaret River is renowned for surfing, we expected the river mouth to be spectacular but the river petered out and didn't even go into the ocean.

PREVELLY PARK The Margaret River area also has lot's of cows on display like we saw back in Shepparton, Victoria. There are some very creative artists.

ROCKS AND SHELLS on the beach by Cape Leeuwin.

D'Entrecasteaux National Park

CATHEDRAL ROCK We are now at Pemberton which is a lovely town surrounded by Karri forest. This National Park is just 45 minutes south of here and has more lovely beaches, bays and great cliffs and of course a few people fishing. THE WINDOW at Point D'Entrecasteaux, the different colours in the rocks and cliff face was quite impressive.
SALMON BEACH presume that salmon is caught here at various times of the year.

UNDERSTORY sculptures in the Southern Forest at Northcliffe, a lovely 1.2km walk with audio, so it was interesting to hear what inspired the different artists.

Valley of the Giants

GIANT TINGLE WOOD TREE Yes this is only a replica of the tree that used to live nearby, unfortunately it died with all the visitors tramping around the base of it. The gap in the base was that large that as you can see cars could be parked in it, unbelievable how they can grow so tall with the base like this.

TREE TOP WALK in the Valley of the Giants, a great experience as you do the 600 metre walk through the trees, with some of the tingle trees up to 400 years old. At the top of the walk you are 40 metres above the ground.All in a days work for this guy carrying out the six monthly maintenance check on the walk structure.

THE GAP, Peaceful Bay we went down a four wheel drive sand track and out onto the rocks, fortunately we didn't have to pass anyone along the way as there was no where to pass. This was the roughest bit of coastline we have come across in our time in Western Australia.

Further West

ART IN THE FOREST Yesterday we drove through to Walpole and are staying at a lovely caravan park at Coalmine beach which is on the Nornalup Inlet where we have caught up with friends which has been lovely. This wall is in tribute to the saving of the forest in the area. MOUNT FRANKLAND A great drive up to here and then a paved path before you walk up a lot of steps and then ladders to the summit, a great cardiac workout.

Yes, More of the Same

LITTLE BEACH in Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserve. Had a morning pottering and then this afternoon went out tiki touring as there are some lovely drives from Albany. Albany used to be a base for whale hunting and they have Whaleworld which is a great museum. FISHERMAN at South Point in the same area.
BANDICOOT fossicking for food at the side of the road.

Torndirrup National Park

ISTHMUS BAY Just one of the lovely bays in the national park. I can see that we are going to be very spoilt for the next few months with this fabulous scenery. Looking forward to when the water will be warm enough to swim in, the Southern Ocean is a bit chilly.
ALBANY WIND FARM Set on the coast in the National Park, it wouldn't be many days when it is not working well, with a gentle breeze of 7km's per hour the tip of the blades are doing 130km's per hour.

LIZARDS not sure what type they are but there were a few of them on the walk up to the War Memorial at Mt Melville. Always good when you see legs on things with tails.

Let's Hang Ten

WAVE ROCK Sorry, but I couldn't resist that heading. The granite rock at Hyden is very impressive, the concrete wall you see at the top is to catch water off the rock that is above the wave and to divert it to the dam, the dam was was looking a bit dismal.
HIPPO'S YAWN Still in the same area, us standing in there gives you bit of an idea of the size of the rock. The whole area has huge solid granite rocks and out crops. We left Esperance on Tuesday and stopped at Ravensthorpe as from there it was only a two hour drive to Hyden.
Ravensthorpe is another mining town, this time nickel, a big mine was set up by BHP nearby at a cost of $3billion when nickel was selling at $56million a tonne, then the price dropped to $7million a tonne and their break even cost was $11million a tonne, so the mine has been sold off to an Canadian nickel mining company for $330million and they will sit on it until the price increases - bargain! 1400 workers lost their jobs and the town of Hopetoun benefited as they ended up with infrastucture to cater for this number of people. HOPETOUN BEACH looking across to Fitzgerald River National Park, a quiet little town that can only be accessed from Ravensthorpe. It will take off again and be home to the mining workers and their families in the future. As you can see a storm rolled in and was dumping rain in the distance, some great lightning flashes.
UPDATE We have heard on the radio that the guy walking with the Canadian flag was actually walking the Nullarbor Golf Course, 1403.7kms, the longest golf course in the world and it took him and his wife 27 days. The course starts at Ceduna and finishes at Kalgoorlie and he raised money for the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

Cape Le Grand National Park

FRENCHMANS PEAK yes, I was in heaven again with all the granite mountains and rocks. We walked part way up and then gave it away as really steep, I am okay at walking up and then freak out when on the downhill descent and felt happy with the views that we had. THISTLE COVE this gives you bit of an idea of the size of the granite rocks in the area.
LE GRAND BEACH how good does this beach look? Can't wait to get a bit further north when we can swim and snorkel in the ocean. A bit cool at the moment with days around 22 degrees. Off the coast there are at least 100 granite islands, reminds us of the islands off Wilsons Promontory in Victory.

WYLIE BAY close to Esperance, just love the colour of the water and the white sand. The colour close to the shore is due to the sea grass, it washes up and can be close to a foot thick, we first encountered this last year at Glenelg Beach in South Australia.

Aqua Waters

WEST BEACH From Esperance you can do a great scenic loop drive that takes in some magnificent beaches. Just loved all the granite and the white sand.
ARCHIPELAGO OF THE RECHERCHE the name of the various granite islands off the coastline.

OBSERVATION POINT just some of the shells amongst the rocks.

ESPERANCE PORT This afternoon we did a tour of the port, it was very interesting and could bore you with lots of facts. They have boats delivering fertiliser and sulphur and boats taking away iron ore, nickel and wheat. This boat is taking on board iron ore to be delivered to China for the manufacture of stainless steel and will drop down to below the red line. The boat is steered in and out with two tugs at a cost of $60,000 each way, the tugs cost $6.3 and $5.4 million respectively.

By the Southern Ocean

ESPERANCE BAY This is where we have driven too today, a bit different to the red earth of the Gold Fields. The port seems quite busy so will have to check it out tomorrow as to what they are transporting.
GRASS PATCH north of Esperance. Once we got south of Norseman there were still some salt pan lakes and then it opened up to this flat wheat country, a few sheep with lambs and closer to Esperance some cows.

ON THE MOVE We passed this guy on the 4th of April on the Nullarbor and today we passed him on the highway north of Norseman heading towards Kalgoorlie, check out the Canadian flag.

Theres Gold In Them There Hills

KALGOORLIE The Supercut at the largest open cut gold mine in the Southern Hemisphere. We were there when they did a blast, the earth shook but not a lot of dust. The size of the cut is unbelievable and the machinery just looks like a pimple. The machines are all over $1million dollars and have a speed limit averaging 40kms an hour.
This gives you bit of an idea of the size of the scoop.

Some great old buildings in town and this is just one of the hotels, in the towns hay day there were 93 of them. The streets are all very wide as the supplies and water were all bought in by camel trains and they needed to be able to turn around as camels cannot walk backwards.

The historical Questa Casa Brothel, Australia's oldest working bordello. Over a hundred years old it is the last of the original tin bordellos. In the gold rush there were 300 men to 1 women and these establishments were very popular as you can imagine.

What time is it?

NORSEMAN, Western Australia, the second richest gold mining town in WA.

What a confusing 24 hours; yesterday we crossed the border into Western Australia, the time changed, overnight daylight saving finished somewhere, drove 64kms down the road this morning and the clocks went back 45 minutes, so had no real idea of the time until we got here as no radio or phone reception, very weird.

Subsequently we were in bed early last night, up early this morning, sure we beat the sparrows then were ready to take off as soon as it was light enough. The trip has been really good and not too many trucks with it being Easter.

ONE OF THE MANY DIFFERENT SIGNS ACROSS THE NULLARBOR yesterday when we left the roadhouse we spotted, two dingos a kangaroo and a rabbit, after that no wildlife.
BUNDA CLIFFS between Nullarbor and the SA/WA border where you go through a quarantine check, should have a swapping system where you leave your vegies on the South Australian side and pick up the same on the Western Australian side. From the border to here at Norseman is 713 km's and there is no where that you can restock.
SOUTHERN OCEAN just before you cross the border into Western Australia.
BOREDOM? A tree covered with a variety of footwear, other trees had underwear, numerous bits of clothing and hats.

THE DEFINITION OF INSANITY! Crossing the Nullarbor we saw these two guys pushing trolleys, four cyclists and one guy pushing a golf buggy, he was obviously playing the different holes along the way.

Heading across the Nullarbor Plain

THE GREAT AUSTRALIAN BIGHT We had a good drive along the Eyre Highway and have parked up tonight at the Nullarbor Hotel/Motel. 14kms before here is the turn off to The Bight with great views across the Southern Ocean, a good spot for whale watching between May and November. The weather is eroding the cliffs 11 metres a year, can quite believe it as the wind has whipped up this afternoon. Didn't see any wildlife and before the plain there were a few cattle, sheep and goats.
US AT ONE OF THE LOOKOUTS