Scott's Australian adventures - The Nullarbor: WA

Showing posts with label WA - The journey. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Caiguna, WA - The journey

The distance from Kalgoorlie to Ciaguna was 542 Kilometres. We had expected to stay at Balladonia, but decided not to.

Caiguna is the first caravan park which does not supply water, however we had filled the caravan water tanks at Kalgoorlie, so no problem other than increased towing weight and increased petrol usage - the price for having water.The roadhouse at Caiguna is the only building! Our stay was just overnight.

Our one and only coffee break during the 542 kilometre journey on the Eyre Highway

An added reason why we stopped where we did for coffee

Monday, August 23, 2010

Kalgoorlie-Boulder, WA - The journey

A realtively short journey of about 230 Kilometres. The roads were the same as we had already encountered on this journey - long and straight!

That pipeline on the left of the photograph is over 950 kilomtres long!.The straight line that runs out of sight is the Great Eastern Highway

More of the Great Eastern Highway

Southern Cross, WA - The journey

A 393 Kilometre drive took us from Burns Beach East to Southern Cross. Actually we took an extra 20 kilometres as I stuck the wrong information into the GPS!.

Roads were good although quite a lot of traffic. We took one stop at the Meckering Road House for petrol.

Burns Beach, WA - The journey

The distance between Geraldton and Burns Beach was 411 kilometres along the Brand Highway

One of the road trains encountered

Coffee break at the Enneabba road house

Geraldton, WA - The journey

We left Monkey Mia this morning and rather than stay at Northampton (as we did on the outbound journey) we decided to drive a little further and stay at Geraldton, a little over 400 kilometres from Monkey Mia. We had one coffee break about two hours into the 5.5 hour journey.

The road was really good with just medium traffic, most of which was vehicles towing boats (Seems to be a fishing area). We will stay in Geraldton for 3 nights before heading back to Burns Beach (about another 400 odd kilometre drive. As can be seen, we are doing this part of the journey in 2 hops rather than the three we took towards Monkey Mia.

We decided not to take any further photographs of the roads we are travelling unless they are new roads - Our Guess was, "If you seen one, you've seen then all"

The 'Billabong' Road House for fuel and a stop for our coffee and sandwiches. (About halfway between Monkey Mia and Geraldton)

Monkey Mia, WA - The journey

Finally arrived at our most outbound location. From here on its all return journey.

Monkey Mia resort looks very good and once again we are almost on the edge of the Ocean.

The Journey was fairly long (381 kilometres) today, but we had a good trip and have now set up the caravan. We are here for 6 days and there is plenty to see and do.

We thought once off the Northwest coastal highway and onto Monkey Mia road, we would just be a short distance from the marine park - Monkey Mia road turned out to be 128 kilometres long!

Monkey Mia road

Monkey Mia road, coffee stop

Northampton, WA - The Journey

Leeman to Northampton is just 204 kilometres along Highway 1 (Pacific Highway) although much of the highway is renamed. Today it was called, for much of the journey, Indian Ocean Drive.

The roads were as straight and good as they have been for the journey so far. Today we saw a lot of caravans on the road, some in convoy. The weather was just brilliant.

The long straight Highway

Northampton Welcome sign

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Leeman, WA - The Journey

We had intended to stay at Eneabba but the GPS couldn’t find the caravan park, so we headed towards the coast to Jurian. Found the caravan park but not dog friendly!. However they advised us to head for Leeman (right on the beach) just 14 kilometres away where we were able to book in for the night. It will be Northampton tomorrow then Monkey Mia.

The weather is improving the further North we travel. Intending to stop at different locations on the way back to Burns Beach, including Geraldton. Roads remain good even though we used the Indian Ocean road (minor road). Made one stop for a coffee break between Burns beach and Leeman.

Directions to Leeman

Burns Beach, WA - The journey

Well here we are after about 5000 kilometres, at Burns Beach where we will stay for 9 days.

We have a lovely site right on the edge of the Ocean and can hear the waves brake on the sands.

The road from Mundarah to Burns Beach was almost all Freeway. Lots of traffic which skirted Perth as we headed to Burns Beach, but an easy drive.

The weather has been sunny although a little chilly in the evening.

We have selected a few venues in Perth and Freemantle and now just a matter of creating a schedule.

Each side of the Freeway was serpareated by a train line!

The Highway between Perth and Burns Beach

Mandura, WA - The journey

Arrived in Mandura after just a couple of hours driving from Margaret River. This is the first day of complete sun - most welcome.

The roads were good and still very little traffic. The surrounding landscape was green fields and trees making the drive very enjoyable

Bussell Highway, Mandurah, WA

Got lost! (only joking)

Margaret River, WA - The journey

We were suppose to have a couple of nights at Walpole, but on seeing the place (eight shops on the side of the highway) and not one caravan in the park I selected, we decided to drive on to Margaret River. We arrived at 5:30pm and it was fairly dark. Got a guy in the adjacent caravan to reverse mine in after several really poor attempts on my part.

Saw our first live Kangaroo at the side of the road. Just a little fellow, but a roo none the less.

We interrupted our drive between Denmark and Margaret River to call into the 'Giant tree0top walk' just outside Walpole. The walk was amazing as was the scenary.

We will be here for three days and extend our stay in Mandura to get back on schedule for our arrival at Burns Beach.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Albany, WA - The Journey

On leaving Esperance we were going to break the journey to Albany by stopping over for the night at Ravensthorpe, however we changed our minds when we arrived and continued on to Albany. Total distance 485 Kilometres. It rained for much of the journey, but we had expected the rain as it had been forecast.

The roads were good with little traffic

Norseman, WA - The journey

This was our longest journey so far, about 530 kilometres from Madura to Norseman. We wanted (needed) water and a place that had something to look at. Prior to Norseman there was only road houses, none of which offered water. The drive was amiable as the clocks had to be turned back a total of two hours. The scenery changed very little, although, due to rain, the Nullarbor was green with a fair amount of vegitation each side of the Eyre Highway. We had expected arid, brown land, so we were surprised at the greenery.

Part of the longest straight road in Australia.

Several parts of the Eyre Highway are marked as emergency airstrips for the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

See what I mean!

The rain fall had significantly greened the landscape along the Nullarbor

Jean holding up the sign!

Friday, August 20, 2010

Madura, WA - The journey

We had originally intended to stay a couple of days at Eucla on entering Western Australia, however as we passed the caravan park (which looked very well presented) we notices that as far as we could see, there was no surrounding interests, just terrain. We decided to drive a further 65 Kilometres to Madura. The roads were good although we did have to drive through three or four misty sections. As usual there was little traffic , mostly road trains. The total journey was about 500 Kilometres.

A designated look-out at the Bight for Whale watching

We never saw any! Well, we did see one live Roo and a lot of flat ones

Hard to believe that one can see the Ocean when travelling the Nullarbor