Trip to Hyden

Hi Everyone,

We went to Hyden on the weekend to have a look at Wave Rock.
On the way there we went via Norseman - 3 Hours on a good gravel road. The way back we decided to go up towards Southern Cross - 154kms good gravel road. We got to put some more lines on our Traveling Australia Map.

The rock itself is good to see, but there is not much else to do in Town.




Wave Rock



The Town's water supply above Wave Rock

Hippo's Yawn

Blue Tongue Lizard

Sculptures



Sculptures

More Sculptures

We stayed at the Hotel/Motel - a bit pricey and at the Bistro you had to cook your own meat, Which wouldn't be too bad if they didn't charge $26 per Steak!



We would recommend the trip to Caravanners as the C/Park looked very nice with a lovely pool area and some brand new Ensuite Sites. Plus it is right next to Wave Rock.


Cheers and Happy Travels,



Shell

Weekend near Esperance

Hi All,

Well we had our weekend away. We left Friday afternoon about 3.30pm and got to Esperance about 6.30.  We stayed there the night so that we could head off fresh Saturday morning.
We got a few groceries and some bait before heading off to Cape Arid National Park. For those of you that haven't been there it is East on Fisheries Road past Condingup. There is a great camping ground there with BBQ's and toilets. There was a Caravan just setting up when we got there. We didn't take our van so we didn't stay here - our aim was to fish for the day!
But that wasn't to be - not even a bite! There was a seal happily swimming around, so we figured he had scared them all off. But it was a nice afternoon.
We headed back to Orleans Bay Caravan Park about 2 and checked in.

http://members.westnet.com.au/condingupwa/orleansbaypark.html


We could only get a Donga without an ensuite, but it was ok, the amenities we very clean and plenty of hot water.
The Cabins were all full and there were campers and caravans - pretty popular spot!

We asked the manager about fishing spots and he recommended Nares Beach, a couple of k's up the road. So it was back to the Donga for a few Bundy's :) Then we walked down to the beach for a look - very nice

                                                        Orleans Bay - Caravan Park


We headed off Sunday Morning around 7.30am, we walked over to the rocks to fish of them. The wind was pretty cold but we were rugged up!
Would you believe the fish started biting straight away! I caught the first one!

Then Dave

As you can see they weren't very big, but to us that didn't matter - we were catching fish!!!!! Of course we put them all back. We ended up catching about 15 - a few different kinds - don't really know what they were actually - so if anyone wants to help out with identifying them please place a comment.

We headed back to the caravan park about 5.30pm after a great day of fishing! We were pretty tired and my face was sun burnt, but we had fun.

We left Monday morning and after some grocery shopping in Esperance we headed back to Kambalda.
We took some photo's of some salt lakes on the way - they are so white!

Next weekend we are going to Perth for the 4WD & Camping Show. We will be there on Sunday wearing Spinifex shirts and handing out information on Spinifex Caravans, so if any of you are there come up and say Hi !

Well that's it for now
Happy Travels
Shell

Trip Back to Mandurah

Hi Everyone,

Well it is about time that I told you about our trip back to Mandurah in our Beautiful New Spinifex - Home!
Well Dave finally got back on Friday 20th July and he spent the weekend checking everything out - he was so excited. Then on Monday we drove back to Spinifex for a few little adjustments before we went to Bribie Island for 2 days to visit some friends and then it was time to head back to W.A.
We were pretty keen to do some free camping and test everything out. The first free camp was at a town called Bollon. campsite 828 Camps 4 (bible) it is called Wallam Creek and is right on the river. Everything worked perfectly, the site was very unlevel so Dave just used the airbags to level the van - pretty cool!  and  the diesel heater was well worth the money as well.

                                                         Wallam Creek Camp 828

Then the next day we got as far as Cobar and then headed off a bit further to the Meadow Glen rest area Camp 1057 once again the heater came in very handy. Mind you I did feel abit embarrassed as all the other campers were huddled up to campfires - we were inside toasty warm!

                                                 Meadow Glen rest area Camp 1057

Then it was off to Broken Hill for a few days where we had arranged to catch up with Dave's parents - they had driven up from Wodonga Vic. We stayed at the Top Tourist Park which was pretty full. We heard from a couple who had their wallet and purse stolen while they had walked to the toilets! Very sad as this meant it had to be another camper close by.

We took Dave's parents to Silverton for a drive - the scenery was certainly different to the last time we had been there. There was a green tinge! We were told by the Tavern owner that filming for the new Mad Max movie had to be postponed as it was too green!

After a lovely couple of days it was time to head off again.
Next stop Kyancutta S.A. Camp 766 Polkdinney Park only 2 other campers there and another cold night.
Off early again the next morning - unfortunately we did have to get back for Dave's job, so we couldn't do too much sightseeing. But we made time to call into The Head of the Bight where we seen some huge whales.

Then it was on to find a camp site. We chose to stay on the Nullabor at Camp 667 - we were the only ones there and the view was magnificent. But I must say the wind picked up about midnight and I was very glad we were in a 3tonne Van :)

                                                                        Camp 667

That was it for our free camps, then it was Norseman Gateway C/Park and then onto Mandurah Top Tourist C/Park. Our Journey back was over 4.800kms in 8 Days!!!!!!!!!!!! and Dave did all the driving - cause his wife is too chicken to tow!

We are thrilled with our van, everything worked perfectly. We couldn't be happier.

Shell

Here in Kambalda

Hi All,


We stayed in Mandurah for a few months finalising our house sale and downsizing our belongings and putting them into storage - that wasn't fun!
We stayed at the Top Tourist Park on Pinjarra Rd - can totally recommend it, lots of trees, spotless amenities, helpful staff etc.

Dave was flying in and out to a South Australian mine until they had another position for him. When he finished up there, we took the van up to Burns Beach C/Park - other side of Perth, for a week until we heard where he was going.
Our campsite was right next to the beach we had a beautiful view out of the kitchen window, but it was windy and freezing cold, couldn't even put the awning out - and we had to walk along way to the amenities!

When the week was up David got word that he would be working in Kambalda - 60 west of Kalgoorlie, so we were off!
We called into Cunderdin on the way to see the Ettamogah Pub - and have a Bundy of course :)

Then it was onto Kambalda. We didn't get there until nearly 5.30pm so it was dusk and a bit hard to see. They told us at reception to just park anywhere! So we found a site and unhooked, we didn't worry to much about anything else as we had to get tea organised and it was getting dark.

The next morning was a huge shock - we got to see the park in daylight! WOW there wasn't much to it. A lot of red dirt and not much else.
But we have been here about 6 weeks now and I am getting used to it.
Kambalda is a very small town that fluctuates with the mines. There are no jobs here for me seeing I work in retail, so I have handed my resume out to a few places in Kalgoorlie - maybe closer to Christmas I may get something.

Dave had 4 days off a few weeks ago and we drove down to Esperance - 3 hours away. We really enjoyed our time down there. We went on a drive across to Condingup Tavern for lunch, but as we got there at 11am we decided to drive a bit further and have a look around - glad we did, we found some beautiful beaches and fishing spots ( for next time) at Cape Arid National Park. We particularly liked Tagon Beach. There were some great camping sites too. Not for Caravans but Tents and Camping trailers would be perfect - even had toilets. Then we came back and had lunch at the Tavern and the young girl there told us about Orleans Bay Caravan Park 20kms from the tavern. So we drove there and had a look and have decided to go there on Davids next break - we won't take the van, we will use one of there cabins. We are looking forward to that!

                  This photo was taken at Lucky Bay, another camp/caravan site we came across.


Hopefully the next blog will contain photo's of fish that we have caught :)  We are not that lucky with catching fish!

Well that has brought everyone up to date with our travels. Hope all is well with everyone. A Special thanks to Stephen for telling me to update :)

Happy Travels
Shell & Dave