We spent 10 days in Kalgoorlie, I worked some of those days and the rest we went sightseeing. I loved Boulder, the buildings were old and the town was smaller but had a buzz to it. Coolgardie was another town that also had character – I put all three these towns together, easy to get to and a lot to see. Kalgoorlie was nothing like I remembered, having been there about 40 years ago – Hay St had changed remarkably, there were no more brothels and there were no two-up rinks. The only remnants of a brothel was the Questa Casa which has been turned into a museum, a history of the old Hay St. I was kind of surprised to see that some pubs still ‘skimpy’ bar maids. The Super Pit is a must see in Kal, it is amazing to think that 50 Billion ounces of gold goes through that mine…….. unbelievable.

It was great to have some time living in the caravan and finding homes for everything – trying out the washing machine and putting up the Annex – however putting the annex away nearly caused our divorce. we have struggled each time with the awning, the annex was actually ok, its the awning that causes us grief. Men do not like asking for help – on the other hand, me I’d ask anyone, please come and give me a hand – but no men don’t at least not Ian. As we were trying to argue quietly, which is very hard to do….. a man drove past and took pity on us…. he strolled over with this wry smile on his face, “hi guys, do you need a hand there”…. me immediately. “yes please” before Ian could think of saying no – he laughed and said, ‘these awning take time to get use to, here let me give you a quick easy lesson”. You have no idea how grateful I was. I promptly took a video of him teaching us so we had a permanant reminder. Marriage saved.

Our next leg of our trip from Kalgoorlie, through Kambalda, Balladonia, Madura, Eucla and the Nullarbor approximately1,296km and diesel costing anywhere from $1.99 – $2.99 per litre with the Nullarbor being the most expensive. We never let the tank go too much less than half before we filled up, just in case – remember towing a 20 foot caravan will also use your fuel. We free camped just past Balladonia, its a great option for a night or two – can’t seem to get Ian to stay two nights anywhere yet…… its work in progress.

The Nullarbor starts from Norseman and ends at Ceduna SA- Eucla is half way -it is Australia’s 90 miles of the straightest road – took us 2 days to cross, we spent one night at the Roadhouse – that cost $33.00 for a powered site, cheap – we had dinner at the Roadhouse and it was great food, we even arranged to meet our friends there who luckily were traveling in the opposite direction. Life has funny ways of letting you catch up with people.

The Nullarbor was not like I remembered it 40 years ago – it seemed to have more shrubbery, still no trees and the most boring road trip ever…. just kilometres of road, and not many wild animals to spot – not even much road kill.

The Great Australian Bight, or open bay – off WA, the southern coastline, was just magnificent. Just about 20 km from the Nullarbor Roadhouse heading to Ceduna, is the Great Australian Bight Marine Park. We saw beautiful whales, breeding season had been and we saw lots of Mumma and babies – just beautiful. There are great viewing platforms – Again, its worth a stop to see them, we were so lucky, we spent a few hours here, more than I had planned.

we stopped for lunch at Penong, along the Eyre Peninsula, which sounds like an Asian country but no its in SA and is famous for having the biggest windmill in Australia – the windmill is called ‘Bruce’ or Big Bruce. The windmill is part of the windmills of the Windmill Museum, if you like finding all things big, this should be on your list.

Our final leg of this day was to get to Streaky Bay, via Ceduna. We also had to pass through boarder control, no fresh fruit or vegetables across the boarder – lucky we had eaten everything and I stewed the apples so we were good. Just for information the only honey you can take is commercially bought honey otherwise in the bin. They inspected our fridge…..

We decided that we would pick up a few supplies in Ceduna, but we would explore it on our way back so just drove through, it looked pretty big. The coastline was looking amazing, and great weather. Next stop on the Eyre Peninsula was Steaky Bay.