CARNARVON to KALGOORLIE BOULDER

Day 130, Wednesday 2 –September -2015
CARNARVON to HAMELIN STATION 230K
We continued our journey along the North West Coastal Highway to our next camp at Hamelin Station at the bottom end of Shark Bay. Hamelin Station was a working pastoral station but is now owned by Bush Heritage Australia founded by Bob Brown, they purchase ecologically significant land then remove the feral animals so that the

natural inhabitants and plants can re establish in the area, they have about 30 properties Australia wide and it is mostly funded by donations.
In the afternoon we went to Hamelin Pool to see the Marine Stramolites, these are one of the earliest lifeforms (microbial algae) and is one of only two locations in the world with living examples.
A short distance away is the Old Telegraph Station and the Shell Block Quarry, many metres deep of minute cockle shells have cemented together over time, the early settlers in the area cut blocks from the shells and used them as building materials and there are still examples of shell block buildings around this area, the shell blocks are now only mined when they need to do repairs to the original buildings.
Day 131, Thursday 3 –September -2015
An early start today for our trip to Francois Peron National Park, along

the way we stopped at Shell Beach, made up of a squillon little shells then onto Eagle Bluff which is a board walk along the cliff face, if your lucky you will see Dugongs, Turtles, Sharks etc swimming in the crystal clear ocean below, we stopped here for morning tea but unfortunately nothing during our visit to day.
Our trip continued on through the little coastal town of Denham where the beach front was full of cars with empty boat trailers and then on to the end of the bitumen at132k, the next 65k to the tip of Cape Peron is 4WD sand tracks and they have an air station at the start of the track so that you can deflate and reinflate your tyres, we made our way North and stopped on the beach at South Gregories before the final leg to the Cape, there is a small lighthouse and views over Shark bay, the landcsape is spectacular with the rich red of the cliffs and the ocean blues.
The top of Cape Peron was once a sheep station but this was purchased by the government in 1990 and is now a park, the old

homestead still stands although there is no public access, a small shed has been turned into a museum and a walk through the old shearing shed is very interesting with the old wool press, classing table, belt driven shears and holding yards all still in place. At the back of the Homestead some of the visitors were enjoying the hot spa fed by 40 deg C bore water.
It was a long day, we did not go into Monkey Mia on the way back, we have had nothing but negative reports about it being a rip off from many other travellers, by the time we got back to Denham the fisherman were all over at the public cleaning tables with their fish, we made a quick stop for fuel and arrived back at camp just after dark and finished off the day with a campfire.
Day 132, Friday 4 –September -2015
Another early start today for the trip to “Steep Point” the western most point mainland Australia.
Remember that stuff they taught you in school about Captain Cook

discovering Australia, well in 1616, 154 years before Cook, Dirk Hartog a Dutch trading ship captain was the first recorded white man to arrive on Australian soil at Shark Bay. A bit further on the 4WD tracks today with 130K to the cape, the track over the sand dunes had a great display of wild flowers, then we took the track along the Indian Ocean following along the high cliff face and stopping occasionally for photos and to see the blowholes. We reached Steep Point and took photos in front of the “Steep Point Western Most Point of Mainland Australia” sign post, and watched 4 whales swim around the headland close into the shore, they were so close we could hear them calling each other. We had lunch and spent an hour fishing, the rocks were about 30 metres above the clear water, we threw our line in an watched about 30 fish gather around the bait, then tried to hook one, John and I caught one each before heading for home, our return trip was down the Shark Bay side of the Peninsula and then back over the dunes, another afterdark arrival back to camp followed by a

campfire and happy hour with several other campers at Hamelin Station.
Day 133, Saturday 5 –September –2015 ( Fathers Day)
We had been told over the campfire at Mt Augustus that if we wanted to see a the best display of wildflowers we should do the Butchers Track and at the end of the track there was a great lunch at the Murchison Pub and being Fathers Day the girls were going to shout us lunch at the pub. At the previous nights camp fire another couple Pam and Dave asked if they could come along, after 60K on the bitumen we arrived at the dirt road turn off to Butchers Track, the sign said Murchison 156K, a bit further than we had estimated but hey, we were about to see the best wildflower display in WA plus lunch in the Murchison Pub, the wildflowers were disappointing, nothing really until the last 20K and they were no where near as good as Mt Augustus, we stopped to take some photos Dave and Pam pulled up behind us, Dave said “boy when you guys go for lunch you really GO for lunch”.
Any way we arrived at Murchison and no Pub only a Caravan Park with a café so we ordered Fish and Chips and Hamburgers, not a bad lunch but not what we were expecting, across the road they had a wild flower botanical garden so we checked that out and turned for home arriving back after dark again, happy hour and another camp fire to finish off the day.
Day 134 to 135, Sunday 5 to Monday 6 September –2015 ( Fathers Day)
HAMELIN STATION to GALENA BRIDGE (Murchison River – West side camp) 164K (17,158k)
A sleep in to day and continuing on down the “North West Coastal Highway” arriving at Galena Bridge for lunch, we set up camp on the river and collected firewood for the evening campfire, Monday was a relaxing day and we collected some more firewood for our camp oven roast dinner of roast lamb and baked vegetables,

mmmmmmmmmm delicious.
Day 136 to 139, Tuesday 7 to Friday 11 September –2015
GALENA BRIDGE to MURCHISON HOUSE STATION (KALBARI) 74k
An easy drive today to Murchison House Station, set up camp and then went into Kalbari (approx 10k) to do some shopping, fish and chips for lunch and a trip up to the lookout. On Wednesday we visited the inland gorges Z Bend, Natures Window, Hawks Head and Ross Graham, we also had the added bonus of some great display of wildflowers along the road and walking tracks. The weather was warm 30 deg with clear blue skies. On Thursday we visited the coastal lookouts, it was a bit cooler and overcast, at lunch we sat in a shelter overlooking the ocean and some whales, as we sat there a large black cloud rolled in, the temperature dropped and we thought we might cop some rain but it fizzled out and we did not get a drop. On Friday we went back into town to get fuel, shopping and a haircut

at the local caravan park.
Day 140 and 141, Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 September –2015
MURCHISON HOUSE STATION (KALBARI) to CORONATION BEACH 150k
As we left Kalbari it started raining, our first rain since leaving home, we kept heading south stopping to check out Pink Lake, yes pink water in the lake? and the 1850’s Lynton Heritage site of the Port Gregory Convict Hiring Depot, the remains of buildings for this facility still exist and the main building where the convicts were housed has been fully restored. We travelled on to Coronation Beach, only a couple of spaces left for us in this small camp ground on the beach, we met up with a few other travellers we had met along the way, on Sunday we tried fishing, the water had a lot of weed and the only thing we could catch were little puffer fish (blowies) they just kept taking our bait and in the end we gave up because they were so annoying.
Day 142 and 145, Monday 14 and Wednesday 16 September –2015
CORONATION BEACH to GERALDTON 39k
Another easy day today as we travelled south to Geraldton for a couple of days in the caravan park, Monday we spent time in town, Tuesday we had the car booked for a service and to have some new tyres fitted which took up most of the morning, on Wednesday we visited the HMAS Sydney II Memorial, the warship was sunk in a battle with the German Raider HSK Kormoran in 1941with the loss of all 645 men, from there we visited the Geraldton Museum where there is an excellent display on the early shipwrecks including the Batavia which have been recovered off the WA coast.
Day 146 and 147, Thursday 17 and Friday 18 September –2015
GERALDTON to MULLEWA 117k
The school holidays are almost upon us so we have decided to head out east to the gold mining towns,
Our first stop is a free camp at the waterfalls just outside Mullewa, there are a couple of driving loops here that we are doing to see some of the local towns and wildflowers, there is also a wildflower walking track of 2.8k near town, a bit disappointing, the last 2.6k was no different to the first 200m. Just out of town was a better site with a whole group of the rare wreath flowers growing on the side of the road together with some very colourful displays through the bush. The waterfall was dry but we did manage a great campfire.
Day 148, Saturday 19 September –2015
MULLEWA to WINDSOR (Rest area) 324k (18,336k)
We continued West to our next free camp at the Windsor rest area via Yalgoo where the old train station has been converted into the local racetrack and sports centre, at Windsor the flies were trying to carry us off, as soon as we lit our campfire they disappeared.
Day 149 and 150, Sunday 20 and Monday 21 September –2015

WINDSOR (Rest area) to SANDSTONE 92k
Our next stop would be Sandstone, we were told by our mate Errol that we absolutely had to have a Lady Di’s Pie, “Australia’s Best”. When we arrived at Sandstone, Lady Di had her advertising banners on the main street and a small crowd gathering, we went to the caravan park, the park manager was cleaning the loo’s and told us to get set up and meet her back at reception after 2.00pm to check in. After we set up we then did the heritage walk around town planning to finish at Lady Di’s just before lunch for a famous Pie but by the time we got back to Lady Di she had packed up and gone home. We had our alternative sandwich lunch back at the van and then went over to reception and paid our money, I told the manager I only had one complaint “ Lady Di had packed up before lunch”, she said “how lucky were you, the pies are terrible”. On Monday we drove the mining loop which takes in the site and rock cave for the Old Brewery, London Bridge (a rock formation), the old crushing battery

and surrounding buildings, the old well and the pioneer cemetery. Monday evening we went to the 1907 National Hotel for dinner.
Day 151 and 152, Tuesday 22 and Wednesday 23 September –2015
SANDSTONE to GWALIA 294k
From Sandstone we kept travelling east to the abandoned mining town of Agnew where there is a huge crusher battery, we stopped for morning tea and a look around then onto Leinster to refuel and then south to Gwalia to our free camp overlooking the mine pit, they have an excellent museum here including the operations buildings and the main winder plus the original mine managers house which was designed and built by Herbert Hoover the original mine engineer/manager who went on to become President of the United States of America, the house is still in beautiful condition it is open to the public and operated as a B&B, surrounding the site are also the

abandoned miners cottages, pubs and shops.
Day 153 and 154, Thursday 24 and Friday 25 September –2015
GWALIA to LAKE BALLARD 207k
We continued south to the town of Menzies and then turned West for 51k to Lake Ballard where the “Inside Australia Exhibition” by Anthony Gormley is located, there are 51 sculptures across the salt lake, they are all fairly similar, we walked to about 15 of them by which time you get the concept and then headed back to camp and another great opportunity for a campfire.
Day 155 and 158, Saturday 26 and Tuesday 29 September –2015
LAKE BALLARD to KALGOORLIE BOULDER 135k (19,168k)
From Lake Ballard we continued on and stayed at the 24hr free camp at centenary park, this gave us a chance to do some shopping, catch up with the laundromat and call into the visitor centre, on Sunday we moved out to the free camp at Lake Douglas Reserve, there were

some dirt bikes and quad bikes in the reserve which were a bit annoying but they were gone by Monday. Monday was a public holiday and we had a quiet day in camp, in the afternoon we lit a fire in the firepit for some coals for our camp oven cooking, roast lamb and vegetables for dinner, what we did not count on were the millions of flies which had come from all over Kalgoorlie Boulder to enjoy our dinner, it was a real challenge trying to wave them off and get a mouthful of our delicious roast.
On Tuesday John and I did a bus tour of the Super Pit while Pam and Marilyn did the shops, the tour took us through the vehicle maintenance area where there were some huge haul trucks, tyres, diggers and various other mining equipment, we then went onto several lookouts on the edge of the super pit for an amazing view and then a short distance into the pit near the portal for the underground mine with a large truck coming out of the mine to dump

its load of ore. We moved onto the crusher where the trucks dump their 220 ton load of rock from the bottom of the pit, we were surprised to see a young lady driving the truck, from the crusher we then went for a drive through the processing plant to end the mine tour, on the way back the driver took us along “Burt Street” the main street of Boulder where all the old buildings have been restored to their original heritage condition.