KALGOORLIE BOULDER to BOYUP BROOK

Day 150, Wednesday 30th September –2015
KALGOORLIE BOULDER to KARALEE ROCK and DAM 168k
We left Lake Douglas reserve and heading west again through Coolgardie where we had a morning tea stop and also topped up our water tanks at the Information Centre and continued onto Karalee rock and Dam for our overnight stay, the large Karalee rock has a

wall about 700mm high built around the perimeter of the rock a couple of metres up from its base, when it rains the water shed from the rock is funnelled by the perimeter wall into an aqueduct which fills the dam, in earlier times the water was used to supply the railroad steam engines.
Day 151 and 152, Thursday 1st and Friday 2nd October –2015
KARALEE ROCK and DAM to BERINGBOODING ROCK 249k
Still heading west our next camp is Beringnooding Rock, the same concept as Karalee Rock but this is designed to collect water for irrigation and is still used today, built during the depression years to provide work, it was too late for many farmers in the area who could not survive the drought. We thought the flies were bad in our previous camps but Beringbooding was something else, as soon as you stepped out of the van a black cloud formed around you, we had fly nets but the buzzing was enough to drive anyone crazy, we were

able to have a campfire and the smoke was enough to keep most of them away.
On Friday we did a drive of the local area including Elachbutting’s Rock Wave Wall which is a similar to the famous Wave Rock but not as well known.
Day 153 to 154, Saturday 3rd to Sunday 4th October –2015
BERINGBOODING ROCK to WYALKATCHEM 182k
Our next stop was Wyalkatchem for a couple of days, the main reason being to watch the AFL grand final on the Saturday and the NRL Grand final on Sunday, we picked up some pies from the IGA and had a football weekend with pies and cold beer, we also went out to the woodland walk track to see the wildflowers in bloom.
Day 155 to 156, Monday 5th to Tuesday 6th October –2015
WYALKATCHEM to NEW NORCIA 151k
New Norcia is Australia’s only monastic town and was founded by the

Benedictine Monks in 1847, and consists of a number of buildings constructed by the Monks, including the Monastery, Abbey Church, Convent and various colleges. The visitor centre and museum have a magnificent collection of art and artefacts. We were able to do a guided tour of the town which is well worth while and had an Abbey Ale and Dinner at the New Norcia Hotel, camping is available beside the cricket ground.
Day 157 to 161, Wednesday 7th to Sunday 11th October –2015
NEW NORCIA to NAMBUNG STATION STAY 156k
Continuing west towards the coast we stopped for a couple of days at the Nambung Station Stay which is a working cattle station, from here we drove out to Leseur National Park, there is a drive loop through the park which is known for its abundance of wildflowers and Stockyard National Park and the Stockyard Tunnel. Brian the property owner took us on a tour of the property including a trip into the sand dunes to show us some mini pinnacles.

Day 162 to 166, Monday 12th to Friday 16th October –2015
NAMBUNG STATION STAY to PERTH 261k (20,742 k)
From Nambung Station we headed south along the coast to “The Pinnacles” where we unhitched the van in the visitor centre and did the drive loop through the sand dudes, there are thousands of pinnacles of rock up to 4 metres high through out the dunes and several theories of how they were formed ? They do make a very unique landscape. We continued on with short stops at Jurien Bay and Cervanties along the way before reaching the Karrinyup Caravan Park in Perth.
Tuesday we needed to do some shopping to restock the groceries and a couple of loads of washing.
Wednesday we caught the Bus and Train into Perth and did a tour of the Perth Mint, a visit to Kings Park in which we only covered a small section of it’s 1000 acres and a visit to The Bell Tower.

Thursday we caught the Bus and Train into Perth again and this time did the return Ferry trip to Fremantle along the Swan River, the river side mansions are amazing and there are yatch clubs about every 5 kilometers along the river each with 100’s of very large motor cruises and sail yatchs. On our return from the cruise we walked some of this beautiful city for some window shopping and to see some of the heritage buildings which Perth have preserved including the post office, law courts and government house.
Friday we caught the Bus and Train into Perth, changing trains for Fremantle, after a brief stop for a browse and coffee at the E Shed Markets we went over to the Fremantle Maritime Museum then onto to sweetlips Fish & Chips for lunch and then back to the museum where we did the guided tour of the Oberon Class submarine HMAS Ovens before heading home.
Day 167 and 168, Saturday and Sunday 17th and 18th October

–2015
PERTH to LANE POOL RESERVE 118k
We enjoyed our stay in Perth but were glad to be leaving on a Saturday morning as the weekday traffic can be horrendous, heading south west this time to Lane Pool Reserve, we had intended to stay at Nanga Mill camp ground which is the site of an old timber mill but the park ranger directed us to a just opened camp area Nanga Pool right beside Nanga Mill with specific camps for Caravans and Motor Homes, how lucky were we, the Nanga Mill camp ground was packed out with a couple of hundred school kids on their annual student/father camping weekend. On Sunday we drove around to Bobs Crossing and did the bush walk track.
Day 169 and 170, Monday and Tuesday 19th and 20th October –2015
LANE POOL RESERVE to LESCHENAUGHT 146k
Belvidere Campsite at Leschinaught which has the ocean on one side

of the camp and a freshwater lake on the other, we left early to ensure we would get a campsite, we had the whole place to ourselves and tried fishing from the beach with no luck. We did not bother fishing on the fresh water side because of the mozzies, we had a great camp fire each night with the firewood that was supplied and the local council truck came in to top up the firewood supply.
Day 171 and 172, Wednesday and Thursday 21th and 22th October –2015
NANGA MILL to BUSSELTON 136k
Moving on via Bunbury to the Anglican Church caravan park just out of Busselton, a great little camp on grassy sites and right on the beach, on Wednesday afternoon we went to the shops to restock and on Thursday a drive out to the Cape Leeuwin light House and then onto Margaret River with visits to the Chocolate Factory, Nut Factory and Cheese factory, on the way back we called in to see Bill & Noni (ex Mitsubishi 4WD club members) at their Becket Flats

Winery and then back into Busselton to the famous jetty and a coffee before heading back to camp.
Day 173 to 175, Friday to Sunday 23th and 25th October –2015
BUSSELTON to ALEXANDRA BRIDGE REST AREA 89k
We moved on to the Alexander Bridge Rest Area north of Augusta on the Blackwood River and set up camp in this bush camping site, we were lucky to get a camp site for our 2 vans, the weather was cold and there were plenty of other campers here, most of them for the fishing, the locals gave us some expert fishing advice and even donated some of their spare fish when we could not catch any. On Saturday we drove down to Augusta for lunch and then onto the Cape Leeuwin lighthouse.

Day 176 to 179, Monday to Wednesday 26th and 28th October –2015
ALEXANDRA BRIDGE REST AREA to PEMBERTON 107k
Monday we travelled to the Pemberton Caravan Park, on Tuesday we drove through the Karri forest and did the Karri Forest walking trail, also visited the Glouster Tree (firetower) which has climbing pegs if you want to go the 86metres to the top, Beedelup Falls,The Dave Evans memorial tree (firetower) which has climbing pegs if you want to go the 75metres to the top and Snottygoble Swamp.
On Wednesday we rode the Pemberton Tramway, a tram which takes the old rail line through the Karri Forest.
Day 180 to 183, Thursday to Sunday 29th October to 1st November –2015
PEMBERTON to BOYUP BROOK 110k
John told me he had a surprise and would not tell me our destination after Pemberton, next stop Boyup Brook for the Harvey Dickson’s

Rodeo, what a fabulous event (thanks John), we camped in a large paddock and were within walking distance to the arena and music stage, bar, food wagons etc, when we arrived on Thursday we took a walk around the venue, Harvey is a very creative person, 40ft high guitarists each side of the stage and made out of tree trunks plus many other art creations made from (large) old trees being planted upside down in the ground with the root systems on top. We were among the first to arrive and watched the paddock fill with another 3000 or so people. On Friday we visited Harvey’s Shed which was amazing, every concievable thing hanging off the walls, from the ceiling etc, he is a big Elvis fan and the shed doubles as a music stage for Country Music events, there was entertainment here on the Friday night but we did not go because of the heavy rain.
Saturday the weather was fine and the ground had dried out, the events started at 10am and we spent most of the day at the Rodeo events until it had finished, they also had a car show plus market

stalls. After the Rodeo we came back to camp for dinner then back up to the music stage to watch the 3 Country Rock bands, the night was cold and they had a number of Braziers spread around to keep everyone warm.
On Sunday the campers were mostly gone by midday and we had the paddock to ourselves again.