018 - Fraser Range to Kalgoorlie

We decided to depart Fraser Range and head for Kalgoorlie a day earlier than orginally planned. In desperate need of a decent place to do some washing and get in touch with the outside world (thanks for nothing Telechoice...) we pushed on.

We're developing quite the routine now with our hook ups and set downs, and slowly I think everyone is adopting roles.

Matt: Outside stuff
B: Inside stuff
Sam: A-frame stuff (i.e. chains, andersen plugs, jockey wheels, stone stomper) and table and benches
Evie: Foam mats and caravan legs
James: Hoses and cords

Well, at least it's working for now and I reckon at a push we could have it down to 20min if we haven't unpacked much. Possibly 15min if the kids didn't help... :)

So off we set, with a nice run down hill from Fraser Range to Norseman before turning right and heading up to Kalgoorlie via Kambalda.

Not much to add for today other than a couple of short bullet points:

• Watch for the turn at Kambalda. We nearly took a turn into one of the mines there which I'm sure would have pleased absolutely no one.
• The "bronze gums" look cool. Not sure what variant of gum they are, but I've never seen them before, Trunks looked spray painted.
• Ensuite sites are excellent if you are carrying your own washing machine. We just put ours in the shower out of sight and churned it away. It's already paid for itself.

So a quiet addition today as we focussed more on relocation and domestic duties. Tomorrow is Superpit day though!!!

It can't be glamorous all the time can it?

These were literally the 3 pics we took today...

The kids, after helping with the washing, earnt some time in the pool. But seemed more fascinated with the chain wire security boom gate.

B found this on her phone... classic.

And yep... this was it. 8 in the little washing machine, 1 in the big park machine for my jumpers.

017 - Fraser Range

Our first night at Fraser Range was pretty windy, as it we seem to be the Wind Whisperers. Cool and overcast, but reasonably pleasant. Certainly nothing that we weren’t accustomed to by now.

Mother Hubbard looked in the cupboard and it was looking decidedly bare after a few days in non-central towns. Whilst it wasn’t quite Stalag 13 standards, we did have to break into the Emergency “Shakin’ Pancakes” which pleased, well, pretty much everyone.

We make full use of every camp kitchen at every park we’ve been to, as it allows us a bit of space and an ability to use the park’s power and gas rather than our own. I have to say that Fraser Station’s camp kitchen is easily the oldest and most rustic, given it is part of the original Homestead building complex.

Camp Kitchen to the left, Dining Room where we had our "Special Dinner" to the right.

The surrounds and grounds are incredibly well kept and are very pleasant to stroll around in. Dotted around the garden are various bits of scrap and old machinery from yesteryear.

Is a sundial on a cloudy day essentially a watch with a flat battery?

Afterwards we kicked on with school hour where we changed it up a little. B took the younger two while Sam and I worked on his blog, and discussed how to make it something we’ll try and get to every day. Even as I type right now, he’s next to me writing today’s events. Duelling Blogs perhaps?

School led into a brilliant couple of hours whilst we took the drink bottles and did the Summit walk up the mountain behind the Station grounds. We’re keen to get as many walks into the kids as possible in practice for some more heavy duty stuff up North walking into some gorges.

It was a reasonably solid climb and circuit around, and our kids were brilliant without too much as a whine or a whimper. The older two are certainly part mountain-goat, whilst James is still developing his walking pace. His stamina and determination is without question, and I do have to remember his little legs don’t nearly cover as much turf as the rest of us.

The view from the top was nothing short of spectacular, and we signed the guest book, which I try and do as much as possible as the opportunity arises. On the journey, we picked out an array of wallabies, kangaroos, emus and a plethora of different types of poop which Evie of all people kept pointing out.

We lost the track on the way down and ended up near the Station’s golf hole, which forms part of the Nullabor Links, the world’s longest golf course. It’s a cool little concept, playing a hole in most roadhouses and stopovers along the Nullabor between Kalgoorlie and Ceduna. But it’s not one that lends itself travelling with 3 kids as at times, you just want to keep trucking rather than pull out a piece of astro-turf to hit a rock around a bunch of paddocks. I feel I’ll return to this concept in later years.

In this landscape, Sam's red Welsh Soccer jumper proves to be excellent high vis.

Evie, although part baby giraffe, bounds over this landscape like a younger, female version of the BFG. Smaller ears though.

And our little red caboose... James I'm referring to. Epitomises the "I think I can" mentality though.

Quite the view from the top though...

Getting the hang of this family selfie thing.

More emus... I'm sure I heard one of them say "C'mon Beryl. Mt Helen is this way"

"Oh... we're off to see The Wizard..."

A bit of lunch and then I was in charge of PE whilst B decided to invest some time in a good book. I’m not sure if I’ll make a great PE teacher but everyone seemed to have fun. Just me giving them ball games to work through and work on the hand eye co-ordination.

On from there we pottered around, Sam and B having a game of Battleship and the other two flitting away the time as kids do. Also got to tick two more animals off on the Fauna Bingo. The local resident carpet python and a Thorny Devil picked up from the driveway.

A lovely little moment.

Which way did he go...

Ahh... there he is. Incidentally, didn't see many mice around the station.

Oohh... spikey

We had a “special” dinner at Station’s Camp Galley where they offer a set menu of pretty much staple fare they offer the workers, and open it to park guests. The kids were very excited to have some chips, pizza, nuggets and other general pub junk. A solid fish and chips for me and a custom made fish burger for B, and ice cream for all for dessert made it a very popular dinner for all.

We had great a conversation about ghosts named Alex who haunt Gareth Bale and aliens who fly marshmallows. Everyone was happy and in great spirits.

Tomorrow we move on to Kalgoorlie a day earlier than planned but really in need of a stock up and a reasonably priced washing machine.

And maybe, we might get reception. So someone other than myself can read it should they feel inclined.

016 - Eucla to Fraser Range

Like Donkey in Shrek, I should not have doubted our trusty steed…

Starting at the end for today’s post it was 600km+ of faultless performance today as we continued and depending on which map or book you read, completed our crossing of the Nullabor.

Click here to see the journey's path

In what was more of an uneventful day, we did what we hoped to do and made it to Fraser Range Station and found a spot available for us.

Our morning started at god knows what time… It seems the region in and around Eucla and the WA border keep their “own” time. It’s unofficial but everyone around those parts use it because, well Perth is still light years away and it’d be pointless being on their time zone. After driving a fair chunk of it today, I can confirm, it’s a freakin big state.

So when I fired up The Rock Truck this morning and found no engine light, I was cautiously optimistic. The kids were fantastic getting in the car with little to no fuss. We left at what we were treating 7.15am, SA time. This was actually 5.45am WA time…

The Faithful Duo... Up and ready to roll out of Eucla.

We rolled down the spectacular Eucla Pass as dawn broke and headed off across the plain.

So much for being flat...

Geez... lucky we had the GPS to tell us where to head. And for those interested, yes I do sit on 90-95kmh with the van. Speed limit towing over here is 100kmh, and whilst the Rock Truck does it fine, fuel economy is much better (relatively speaking) at 90. And when it's $1.73 per litre, every bit helps. Bloody caravaners.

And…. That’s about it. The required fuel stops, a bazillion bits of road kill (more than I’ve ever seen) and admiration of quite a few wedge tail eagles (taking full advantage of aforementioned roadkill) filled most of the day.

There was quite a bit of anticipation when we set off from Caiguna after lunch (at 10.30am!) and took off on conquering Australia’s longest stretch of straight road, all 146km of it. For those wondering that’s about the same distance from Bacchus Marsh to Bendigo, with a small detour at a supermarket to three. Dead straight. Was quite the unique experience, and Evie and I developed a short impromptu game where we’d ask each other every 5min if there was a bend coming up.

How picturesque the Caiguna Roadhouse is for lunch.... 

James pointing out "this playground has no steps and a huge hole in it!" A career in OHS beckons with his safety first mentality.

These swings reminded me of the scene with Steve Buscemi (sp?) in Con Air where he talks to the little girl in the playground. Obviously not something I relayed to the kids.

And away we go. Australia's longest illegal drag strip.

And after nearly two hours of dead straight... here's the bend. Hold on!

Apparently we had a third child in the car today, but you wouldn't know it. He assumed this pose for most of the time, reading and devoted to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

But really, that’s about it. Was funny catching up with a guy from Gordon, near Bacchus Marsh just before setting off from Eucla. We were just pulling out whilst he was on the way to the shower. He was on his way to Perth in his old-school Ford GT, and he managed to catch us up at Balladonia, some 500km down the track. Whilst his fuel bill might have been similar, I think he was doing quite the different speed…

So we’re camped now at the lovely Fraser Range, due here for two nights before we embark on the next leg before Easter to Kalgoorlie. Not sure if we’ll do it in one hit, or whether or not we might free camp just before it, but like everything else, we’ll make that call when we have to.

For now, it’s about adjusting to this whacked out WA time and exploring the lovely Fraser Range Station tomorrow.

Time to let Sam have the precious highlighter to update the book. Lots to highlight today!!

And giving The Rock Truck a well-earned day off. Well done girl, you did very well today.

015 - Fowlers Bay to Eucla

Today was the day I’d been thinking of for quite some time. Years without a doubt.

Today was the day we’d start our crossing of the Nullabor. The epic treeless plain that dominates any East-West crossing of Australia near the Southern coast.

We left Fowlers Bay with little fuss and I’m very pleased to say that the Stone Stomper was excellent in protecting the front of the van and allowed us to sit comfortably on 60kph on the gravel roads knowing the van wasn’t copping a beating.

Now I’m sure most would say that crossing the Nullabor would be with few and far between talking points. And don’t get me wrong, there was plenty of ‘nothing’ periods but there were some rippers in there as well.

The first was not long onto the highway  and whilst fuelling at Nundroo seeing a huge Tonka truck, bound for the mines, thunder pass on the back of a truck with associated pilot vehicles. Sure enough, we caught him pretty quickly down the road as I think they were maxing out at around 70kph. You think we had a long crossing ahead of us!

I’m not going to deny, I reckon I could have sat behind it for quite a while before I got sick of it, and judging by the faces from the back seat, I wouldn’t have been alone. But over the UHF came the call of “good to go mate” and we were obliged to ‘come around’.

This was about the 3^rd or 4^th time the radio has come in handy when negotiating trucks and other vanners and I wouldn’t be without one if towing a van or something of similar size.

No.. .this photo is not staged. They were pretty excited about the Tonka truck 

And around we go... I reckon the driver of the pilot van has shares in O'Briens Windscreens...

Not much room here with The Big Green Lizard on the back...

The truck driver informed us there was another Tonka ahead somewhere, and sure enough we found him parked just as the Treeless Plain started near Nullabor. No negotiations required to pass, but it didn’t stop us admiring the sheer size of the heavy machinery. Can’t wait to see the kids faces once we hit Kalgoorlie.

"Sam... why do they put the truck on a truck?"

"Not sure Bob... not sure."

Was quite strange to see a whale in the middle of the Nullabor...

One of the many warning signs we saw. It became James' job to identify them and tell us what to look out for.

Then it was definitely a few hours of nothing as we happily chuffed along the highway with a significant amount of other nomads, heading both directions. Weather couldn’t have been nicer, gentle breeze and moderate temperatures. 

I had put John Williamson on for most of this part of the journey,as I've always loved his music. He has a song for just about every part and style of Australia, and as I lived and experienced another new Australian landscape, I felt even closer to his songs.

There is certainly a lot of nothing out there.

See?

We stopped over at the first three marked lookouts for The Great Australian Bite to admire one of the most recognisable and unique pieces of landscape. The sheer cliff faces are jaw dropping and whilst I like most have seen pics of them before, to finally see them in front of me was an important moment.

Iconic. Breath taking. Jaw dropping. Take your pic. Truly amazing.

At this point I could tell James that we were on the "edge of the middle of nowhere"

Cheeky group selfie!

B wisely took a panoramic shot. Hopefully it turns out OK on the blog.

We were now definitely on our adventure. We were now going boldly where we’d never been before.

We were aware of the quarantine checks at the WA/SA border so B had chopped up all the salad into a tub for an impromptu salad. We plonked it in the back seat a little out from the border to see if anyone was keen for a snack. It was like a plague of salad eating monsters lives in the back of the truck as the tub came back 10min later with little more than a few carrot sticks left over…

Stopping a Border Village for a shot with the Big Kangaroo and a top up of fuel, and quick check of the van by Border security, and we were good to go.

Or so we thought.

Moo and a roo.

The most expensive Callipo's in the country. Still, cheap reward for continued patience and persistence from the gallery in the cheap seats.

No sooner than firing up, and trundling down the highway a kilometre or two and the orange engine light came on out of the blue… Oh great… Thankfully the township of Eucla is only a short trip down the highway. No issues noticed with the truck, but I wasn’t passing without checking things out. The next stop is 65km…

Trouble is, we’re still without reception so no way to read up exactly what the cause might be. The highly-detailed manual in the glovebox simply instructs you to “contact your nearest Holden dealership”. Umm… OK…. Thankfully Eucla has a pay phone, which I used to call Kalgoorlie Holden and my brother Mark to sound them out. Both indicate that if no loss in the truck’s performance has been noticed, then we should be safe to push on.

Given we had already been in Eucla now for a good hour or so, and with the arm on the clock nearing “Roo O’Clock” we decided that the Eucla CP would be a nice enough pitstop. Finding out the roadhouse actually had a bar and we could have a couple of drinks whilst watching the kids play happily over in the park made it so much better.

We managed to snaffle a spot that had it's own "garden". Our staple of pasta and sauce was had, and was quite the unique setting...

The Rock Truck and Big Green Lizard discussing the days events. Hopefully talking over some dodgey fuel or similar that called an impromptu end to the evening.

Evie and the old school "death slide"... This thing was like all slides I grew up with... have your wits about you at the end or your face was in the dirt. Suffice to say, the big kids loved it.

"Yep James... we're officially in the middle of nowhere"

And here in lies what we will need to adjust to. Things popping up and just being flexible and calm enough to work your way through it. We’ve got a bit of buffer in our Easter timelines so there’s no issue in being a few 100kms short of where we thought we might be.

One good bit of advice I read, and confirmed by an experienced traveller at work, was when something goes wrong, the first thing you should do is make a cup of tea or coffee. People who know B, know that it wouldn’t take too much to make that Step 1 of any action plan, regardless of the situation!

So we’ve “made a cup of tea” here at Eucla and we’ll be up early tomorrow to hook up and try to continue our way across the Nullabor. Fingers crossed The Rock Truck has a good night’s sleep and I’ll be able to find some reception and report in that everything went well.

014 - Fowlers Bay

A new week (I think it’s Monday isn’t it??) dawned on us, and it was a quick impromptu class for Sam and Evie whilst James and I went in search of all things related to ‘7’. This is fast becoming a bit of schoolwork norm with us, and I enjoy spending the one on one time with James. I get a rough outline of the things we should be doing and questions to be asking from Mrs White (who is also the teacher of the Grade 2 and 4 classes, and Principal of the School of Gecko) and away James and I go.

Following school, I left the kids with B and took off to the Jetty. No takers or little accomplices on this trip, as I assume the lure of hanging out with the other kids proved too great. It’s one thing to monitor actually, ensuring that we still allow them time to interact and play with other kids around their age. I think 7 to 11 appears to be the popular age, but James doesn’t seem phased. He just tags along where and when possible.

Still it afforded me a good couple of hours solo on the jetty to allow me to catch… sweet buggar all. Only pulling in one rubbish Trumper and that was when B and Sam joined me. Maybe Sam is my Talisman as well as he was around for most of my other fish as well. I suspect Pop might support this theory.

Still it was nice for some quiet time. No actually, it was great for some quiet time.

We left Sam on the jetty with Derick and Christine and B went off to make some lunch whilst I decided now was the time to fit the Stone Stomper onto the van and truck. Arriving a little too close to departure date (through no fault but my own) it’s been carried around on the roof of the car for the past 2 weeks just adding drag.

For those not in the know, the Stomper is simply a net that hangs between the car and the van, and stops stones and debris from flicking up and hitting the van, damaging it, or even worse, rebounding stones back onto the car. Unfortunately, our front lid has already borne the brunt of some stones from previous trips but we still want to protect it as much as possible. The road into Fowlers Bay included 12km of reasonable graded dirt road, so I was keen to fit it so I didn’t have to crawl along that stretch on the way out.

After finding the bracket a little narrow for the hitch on the back of the car, a little “persuasion” from some screwdrivers from Derick and some good old work from the universal spanner, it ‘slid’ on. As I parked the truck to measure and fit the net of the stomper, it caught the eye of some other Nomads who had just arrived. Now I had an audience…

Still, I think it went on reasonably well, but the true test will be tomorrow when we hitch up and head off. The front of the van connecting to the truck is now getting quite crowded and there’s fast becoming more time to set it all up. Still all of it’s important from either a safety or protection point of view.

The Stone Stomper fitted. Already has proven it's worth on the road out of Fowlers Bay as well as a couple of other side tracks. Great product.

Also managed to sort out a key organiser. Anyone who has owned a van knows of this frustration and picking this idea from online somewhere has proven to be a godsend. Great little addition for the princely sum of $3 from Cheap as Chips.

Following that it was a simple round of showers and domestic duties before we headed off to the campfire area to hopefully cook the baked potatoes we promised everyone (you can’t take spuds into WA, so having plenty, we decided we’d feed the hordes). Only issue was… no campfire had been started. Not. Happy. Jan.

After a bit lolling around, I took (fire) matters into my own hands, such is my want at times, and started it myself. I was a little worried it wouldn’t take, but eventually it came good and before long we had throngs of Nomads around going “geez, this is a nice fire”… My work here is done.

Another good little day, but like Ceduna, we’re ready to push on. It’s funny how some places hold your heart and mind, but others you simply go “OK, been here, done that”. 

I had earmarked a hollow log in the wood pile and told James that this would be our "party piece". Worked exactly how I'd hoped and flames were soon spitting out the top.

Derick and Christine showing James about "Twisties". Must admit, I'd never tried them before but a huge hit with the kids means they'll probably get done again. 

Gracie, Evie and Bailey. Anyone would have though that they'd known each other for years.

Port Lincoln was definitely a place we didn’t want to leave, but most others we’re keen to keep moving. I look forward to seeing how that develops over the trip and see how many places hold our hearts to stay.