The South West - Western Australia

The bottom left hand corner of Australia, famous for wine, surfing and its pristine coastline.

Windy Harbour in the D'Entrecastaeux National Park - A collection of ramshackle holiday shacks built around a small bay which looks a bit like a harbour and where it was extremely windy, hence the origins of the name for the place I guess. Sitting on the beach having a full body sand exfoliation at no charge.  

Pemberton in the Gloucester National Park, climbing the Gloucester Tree one of a series of lookout trees, this one constructed in the 1949 to act as a fire watch tower. A total of 153 metal pegs are driven in the trunk to allow you to climb up to a platform 63m high to see out over the top of the Karri tree forest. No safety equipment provided just many disclaimers about climbing at your own risk and recommendations that children don't climb. Only problem was that by the time we had read all the disclaimers Ellie and Fleur were half way to the top so we all had to go to the top.

Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse nr Augusta - Mainland Australia's tallest lighthouse constructed in 1895 to guide shipping travelling to Australia's eastern ports and still using the same lens today which shines at the intensity of a million candles and is visible from over 47km away. Cape Leeuwin marks the point where the Southern Ocean meets the Indian Ocean and also marks a landmark on our journey as this is the point from where we stop heading predominantly west and turn right to start heading predominately north.

Gracetown Beach near Margaret River. Swimming in the protected bay to the pontoon. At each end of the bay at the headlands are North and South Point, world class breaks for surfers apparently. Margaret River was full of coffee houses and eating places so we spent a morning chilling out drinking coffee and watching life go by.

Busselton on the shores of Geographe Bay, and home to the Busselton Jetty at 1.8km long the longest timber piled jetty in the Southern hemisphere. Here we are sat in front of the jetty which was constructed in 1865 and has survived cyclone, storms and fire. As well as the jetty there is endless white sand beaches, calm waters and a nice foreshore. 

Bunbury - still on Geographe Bay, with a distinctive lighthouse, the first black and white chequered lighthouse on our trip. Bunbury is renowned for the wild bottlenose dolphins that live in Koombana Bay and visit the shores at the Dolphin Discovery Centre "every day" except Wednesday 26th February the day that Penny, Fleur and Ellie got up early to go and see them. Other than the lack of dolphins another nice beach and some interesting public art in the form of sculptures doted around the town.  

South Coast - Western Australia

After crossing the Nullarbor we turned left (south) and headed down to the South Coast of Western Australia, or "Great Southern", a unique wilderness area of stunning coastline, and some of the best mountainous national parks in Australia.

Cape Le Grand National Park nr Esperance - On top of Frenchman Peak overlooking the National Park. A steep scramble to summit with a huge open cave perched on the top. Weather was overcast which means photos don't do the place justice.

Driving along the beach from Cape le Grand National Park to Wylie Bay, 22km of pure white sand, crystal clear sea and no one to see. Only life we passed were a couple of wild horses on the beach. There were some pretty interesting rock formations at Wylie Bay which  looked like beached whales. 

Fitzgerald National Park - One of the largest and most botanically significant national parks in Australia, of the 1883 plant species that have been identified in the park, 75 are found no where else. Only downside the girls have to do some school work, but the location must be slightly more inspiring than inside your average classroom. Not sure about the teacher though.

Free camping in the National Park for 3 days beside our own deserted beach and underneath the peaks. After a hard mornings school work some fun on the beach. Someone said "lets do a surfing pose", for some reason Penny heard "lets pose like an Egyptian".

Stirling Range National Park - our next national park and our next summit. On top of Bluff Knoll at 1095m the highest in the range and the highest point in the southern half of WA. Outstanding views for 360 degrees from the summit. Free camping in the park for a night. 

 Porongupup National Park - 1100 million year old granite outcrop. We climbed to the top of Castle Rock to see some pretty amazing balancing rocks. This one looked a bit wobbly so we have left Fleur up top to keep it upright. Promised the girls that they would be no more mountain climbing for at least a few days, and had to buy them both an ice cream.

 Denmark - Where the mountains meet the sea and Hippies meet each other. Formally established by the Europeans to supply timber to the goldfields. Known as Koorabup (place of the black swan) by the original aboriginal inhabitants. Wilson inlet - clear blue waters and rope swing, nothing more to it, had to give it a go.

 Denmark - Birthday girl, Penny with her chocolate cake, strawberries and candles. No clues to her age from the number of candles. Nice campsite to celebrate and get over the hardship of free camping. 

Walpole - Nornalup National Park, The Valley of the Giants. A steel walkway through the canopies of giant Tingle trees at 40m above the forest floor. The walkway sways with the wind and movement of the people and only occupies less than 4 sq metres of the forest floor, a marvellous feat of engineering.

The Nullarbor

The crossing of the Nullarbor Plain on the Eyre Highway from Ceduna to Norseman - a total of 1,197km's. The weather was kind and the wind behind us for most of the way so we crossed in two and half days and free camped for two nights along the way.

A typical road sign along the way. Amazingly though, we didn't see any camels, kangaroos or wombats. We did see several emus and a few birds of prey eating the road kill. Apparently there are some 200,000 wild camels wandering around but none near the road.

The view from the car not much to see after the first 200km as the trees ran out hence the name Nullarbor (derived from the Latin for no tress). It was however surprisingly green with a never ending sea of shrubby blue brush.

 Head of Bight - whale watching platforms over looking the Great Australian Bight Marine Park the world's second largest Marine Park after the Great Barrier Reef. We were at the wrong time of year to see the whales. It was rather windy, but the southern ocean was a glorious turquoise colour.

Bordertown - One of the few road houses along the way each with a single golf hole which combined make the longest golf course in the world - The Nullarbor Links. The one at Bordertown is a 160m long par 3 called Border Kangaroo hence the large kangaroo.

Most of our traffic partners were of the road train variety and the odd camper van. Everyone gives the out back wave - a single finger raised from the steering wheel to acknowledge you as you pass so all friendly.

South Australia - Western Australia Border - a full time border where we had to sit and eat all our fruit and vegetables and were subject to a full search of Larry and Carrie, even under the bed, to ensure we didn't smuggle any tomatoes over the border.

Eucla - Just after the border the old telegraph station gradually being engulfed by the sand dunes. In its heyday the busiest telegraph station outside of the capital cities due to its location relaying messages across Australia.

90 Mile Straight - the sign says it all. We passed around ten other vehicles whilst traversing this section of road and one of those was a cyclist.

Norseman - end of the road with some tin camels in the middle of the roundabout, looked like a bit of a sad place with not much here other than a few people sitting in the road, still miles from anywhere. You can turn north for Kalgoorlie or south for Esperance, we choose to turn south and head for the coast.

Port Lincoln, Sheringa, Sheringa Beach, Murphys Haystacks, Streaky Bay

This Wednesday marked the 8th week since leaving home. We have covered over 4000km's on our circumnavigation route and over 5400kms in total. To date we have burnt over  1000L of diesel so our carbon footprint is somewhat out of control, but on the upside no one has murdered anyone yet.

Port Lincoln - Statue of a horse called Makybe Diva on the foreshore in town. Triple Melbourne Cup winner 2003, 2004, 2005 and awarded the most memorable sporting moment by the Australian Sporting Hall of Fame 2005. Extremely windy for the 3 days we stayed here.

 Sheringa Roadhouse. Miles from anywhere but this place could provide you anything you could ever need from fuel, food, beer, fishing gear, clothes, shower or anything else you could imagine. We stopped off for an ice cream and sat at the outside bar watching the world go by for a while. (Nothing went by in the time we sat there)

 Sheringa Beach - Free camping right on a beach celebrated for its spectacular ocean views, amazing surf, white sand and crystal blue waters. The girls got to body board with a couple of dolphins in the shore break and not a tourist or tour operator anywhere near so a saving of a couple of hundred dollars there. Amazing place to chill out for a while.

 Murphys Haystacks - a geological wonder over 1500 million years old. Named by a Scottish agricultural expert who believed they looked like haystacks. Family photo in front of a few of the stones.

 Streaky Bay - Small town on the North Western top end of the Eyre Peninsula. Home to a replica of the largest white pointer shark ever caught with a rod and reel at over 5m long and 1520kg which was caught off Streaky Bay in 1990. Somehow Ellie managed to get her head in its mouth. Despite the shark we went swimming in the sea which must be the warmest sea in the whole world. No wonder the sharks grow big.

And tonight we rest, for tomorrow and the next few days the weather reports are saying that it should be cooler (high 30's) and the winds to be from the south east, so we are going to head west on to the Nullabor Plains and make a break for the Western Australia boarder. It may take a week or so to cross but if the winds swing round to come from the west and the weather gets over 40 we may just hunker down somewhere.

Mount Bryan, Peterborough, Wilpena, Cowell

Mount Bryan -tiny place with a population of only 70,  the birthplace of Sir George Hubert Wilkins an Australian Polar Explorer who was the first to land an aeroplane on ice at the artic, one of the first to fly across the Atlantic and led the first expedition to see if it was possible to pilot a submarine across the Atlantic and under the artic in 1931. It failed but paved the way for a later successful crossing.

Peterborough - Family photo looking over the plains as the sun sets. Very hot and dusty. A railway town and a stop for the Indian Pacific train on its way between Adelaide and Sydney.

Flinders Ranges National Park - Wilpena Pound. A large natural basin covering about 80 sq km, on the outside the wall rise almost sheer for 500m inside the basin slopes away like a bowl creating a natural pound for keeping stock.

Wilpena Pound at the top lookout looking into the pound.

Cowell on Franklin Harbour on the Eyre Peninsular. Fleur and Ellie jumped off the pier a few times before catching up on some school work.