Albany to Kalgoorlie to 22nd December to Jan 16th
Kate has been investigating better gin and tonic storage options for out next trip
We dropped down from the Stirling ranges straight into Albany at the Rosegarden campsite. Our booking executive director had managed to secure a spot over christmas to the 28th . For those in the top half of the world summer holidays coincide with the christmas break and its traditional for Australian families to have a road trip and be camping for some or all of boxing day to the end of January. So this means good campsite spots near the sea are hard to come by !
Albany is an historic town which once vied to be the capital of WA and was the centre and the last outpost of whaling in Australia (closed in 1978).
Crivens help ma boab i will have a sweet and sour haggis ?
Took Kate two days to train this pelican
The whaling station is now a museum that covers the whales themselves , their hunting and the processing on the restored factory site. Despite its gruesome nature it was a great day out as it explained the details of all aspects using a whaling boat , factory equipment and some of the goriest photos of the processing floor.
We had a quiet xmas filled with quality food and drink with great walks on the beaches.
Kate got a special handbag in her xmas stocking – special in that it is designed to keep a bottle of champers nice and cold !
From Albany we moved along the coast to Hopetoun . The community of Hopetoun provides a free campsite which is within walking distance of the town and a stones throw from some fantastic beaches.
We had a day trip out to Hammersley beach which entailed some amazing dune drives and also some very scenic fishing spots (unproductive ).
Next on the journey was Masons Bay which is 40k east of Hopteoun again set on amazing beaches which provided some great long drives on the sand .
Here we met “Don ” who was the godfather of the site and had been coming here off and on for 30 years. He either knew the answer to all Mason Bay questions or he made them up ! Now Don invited us round for drinks where we met Mark a retired plumber who kindly fixed our leaking water system – touring community at their best !
One of our neighbours had an amazing set up – a truck with a hi ab that allowed him to lift his boat and quad onto his vehicle , and of course to drive his little Suzuki Jimmy onto the truck as well – then he towed his 20 foot caravan ! He had all options covered .
We were sat one evening when a young couple swung in and the temperature dropped about ten degrees influenced by their post trip tension. Christened Samanda they operated an exclusion zone from each other as they set up in silence. Amanda then came over ( after a ten minute session with her head on the steering wheel). She was asking if the rangers would take eftpos as they had forgotten to bring cash. In the end I gave Sam the 30 bucks they needed as i felt he was the bank manager who was getting the blame ! They came over later and joined our fire (the first we have been allowed for 3 months due to restrictions).
We had a good laugh and they appeared to be back on good terms. They gave us the rules to car cricket. One passenger bowls the other bats and you have an innings each. As we have a 1500 kilometre stretch on the Nullarbor Plain ahead of us we thought it could come in useful !
Next we shimmied across to Esperance, spending three nights at the Bushlands park near Pink Lake . The pink salt lake was a great place for early morning runs as it is flat as a pancake and provides a bit more give than tarmac. Very moody place too !
Esperance is very popular seaside town for families with amazing turquoise waters and white sandy beaches.
The local fishing shop owner has the coolest personalised plates ?
We then headed to Lucky Bay which is the start of the Archipeligo of islands just off the Cape Le Grand national park and unbelievable endless white beaches and seas the colour of our favourite JOLOMO painting that hangs on our wall at home.
We got into the campsite at 9am and had the choice of two spots and we selected the one next to the beach with a not of wind protection.
We didnt realise how lucky we had been until talking to fellow campers who explained that everyday there were queues of camper trailers, caravans and whizbangers (the name given to backpacker vans due to the noise their slidings doors make ) at the camp entrance from 630 am waiting for spots to come free and we had just waltzed straight in ! The popularity was soon easily explained with some of the best beach driving in Australia , beautiful family beaches at the end of the campsite , rock fishing round the corner and some great facilities. Even though it is 40k from Esperance a coffee van sets up each day on the beach itself selling their speciality Kangachino in tribute to the roos that live on the beach.
The Kangachino has floating Maltesers and chocolate shavings to replicate roopoo floating on the sea ! It tasted great – the coffee that is.
We met a very interesting couple (Bristey) for once this wasnt a single name spanning two people that we made but one they had concocted themselves from Brett and Christy. They were doing the big lap having jacked in their jobs in engineering and accounting. They broke into the big lap to do a three month tour in Africa then resumed the clockwise round of the big island. They shared scare stories from Africa and we swapped good campsites for each of us to consider.
I had a night fishing trip to Thomas River targeting Mulloway that feature on this amazing stretch of beach. Unluckily i picked a windy and rainy night – i got pissed wet through and only one decent bite to show for it (if you don’t count the numerous bull herring that i inadvertently caught).
On the day before our departure we got an ABS warning light on the dash so we took the car into the local dealer who helpfully agreed there was an ABS problem but he couldnt fix it . So we rang ahead and booked into the main dealer in Kalgoorlie some 420ks north.
We had an overnight stop at Salmon Gums at their community campsite for the princely sum of 15 dollars. We nipped across the railway line to the historic Salmon Gums Hotel and sampled a few coldies propping the bar up with the landlord and landlady who having renovated were activating their 5 year plan and selling up. The Pub , house and 20 rental units was on the market for $390,000.
When we got back to the campsite we sat with Peter who is the volunteer camp host . Now peter would have made an amazing second row forward at Rugby union 50 years ago. Around 6 foot 6 broad as a river gum trunk and hands so big and strong it made me feel like a toddler when we shook hands. He was a really interesting guy who had worked in mining, farming fishing in all states. He regaled yarns of his exploits from being a tuna fisherman on trawlers using bamboo poles to scraping the dirt in the outbalk for rubies.
From Salmon Gums north to Kalgoorlie . Now Kalgoorlie is built on gold mining and unlike most of the other place we had seen built on gold it was still mining it and in a big way ! The Superpit in Kalgoorloe is 3.5km long. 1.5km wide and 600metres deep. It removes a staggering 28 tonnes of gold each year.
The Gold rush started in 1893 when Paddy Hannan found 100 ounces of gold . In 1989 the superpit was the brainchild of Alan Bond who bought or cobined all the gold mining leases to exploit the “golden mile”.
The town itself has an absolute treasure of period building s that have been well looked after and you get a real feeling of how it must have been when the rush was on and the town was extremely wealthy .