Butts Reserve, Maldon, Victoria {Free Camping}

What a beautiful spot to hide out for the long weekend!

We had so much space, access to flushing toilets and water all for nothing.  Our cheapest stay in Victoria!

It didn't take us long to arrive at our spot {even with a few stops for the puppy} and it was nice to have a quiet afternoon around camp for us all to settle in.  A little relaxing, cheese eating and of course playing with Lillie was a perfect way to spend our afternoon.

 

 

After pancakes for breakfast we headed up the Mountain to have a look at the view before making our way into Maldon.  All I can say is we timed it well as everything in town was open and they even had an awesome little market for us to have a wander through.  Some fresh food purchases, twisty potatoes for the kids, checking out antique stores before we stopped for fresh scones & coffee.  It was a really nice way to spend the day, just slowly wandering around and taking in everything the town had to offer.

 

  

 

 

It really is a lovely little place, not too far from Melbourne and even closer to Bendigo. The following day we decided to go for a drive around the area to explore the surrounding region.  It reminds me a lot of Kalgoorlie in that there are heaps of old mine shafts in and around the town, hard to believe how big and busy the area was in the late 1800's, early 1900's.

More puppy play time before it we started packing up ready to leave the following morning.  

Just as the sun was setting behind the mountain we decided to take a quick drive up to take in the rest of the site and boy am I glad that we went.  What a fabulous way to spend our last night here.

  

Fitzroy River, Portland, Victoria {Free Camp}

Under advice from Tina & Paul who we meet at in South Australia {and no I have yet to find out who they are or a way to contact them} we headed to Fitzroy River.  A little way east of Portland, but still close enough to be able to spent the following day in town.


After setting up, having lunch and doing a little school we decided to head into town for a quick look around at the visitors centre.  Good thing we did as we discovered them setting up for a market right on the foreshore for the following day.  Odd timing we thought but then a lovely local man shared with us that they had a P & O Cruise ship docking for the following day and the town was going to be busy busy busy. 

Tina and Paul advised us that it was a lovely spot, free and loaded with koalas.  Well after our trip to town we headed home for some school and then exploring, we didn't see one koala and felt suitably ripped off!

After a slow start to the morning we headed into town, our first stop being a wander around the markets.  It was a lovely little market, we got some lovely hot coffee, a warm shall for me, a beautiful skirt for Kyla and the kids got twisted potato things.

Our first spot to explore was the local blowholes, sadly the swell wasn't there for us to see it but we did get to take in the coastline.  Loads of wind turbines and some lovely limestone tubes that looked like a forest.

 

Cape Bridgewater was our next stop.  We decided to tackle the walk out to see the Australian Fur Seals.  It was hard work, especially for the kids but it was well worth it to take in the coast line. I'm thankful that we had the zoom lens otherwise the seals would've been only tiny black dots to us!

 

       

 

 

We headed back into town, grabbed some fresh rolls and headed to the park to make lunch.  It gave us a chance to sit down, enjoy the sunshine and the view.

After we regrouped we decided to take a look out at the Cape Nelson Lighthouse. What a lovely spot, hats been maintained and the old keeper cottages have even been turned into accommodation.

    

After our full on day we headed home for a quiet afternoon.  We were all rewarded when we went for a walk, koalas.  I think, from memory the kids counted five and loved being able to see them in their natural environment.

 

 

What a beautiful spot that we could have easily stayed in for a few more days had time permitted, on the come back to list.  Next stop.....

Coles Point {Free Camp}

 

Well we eventually found Coles Point, it took a lot longer than planned {after all of our stops for exploring along the way}.  It was terribly sign posted, as in there wasn't any at all.  Thankfully when we got to the right spot, or what we assume was the right spot, we had a lovely spot on the cliffs.

After setting up our camper we headed down to the beach for some exploring.  Kyla and I walked the beach while Kaleb attempted to fish {it really was a little rough and the tide was wrong but he was desperate for some fishing}.

 

 

Only one night here and our next spot planned we headed for an early night.

Heading to South Australia {Traveling}

We are on the road, leaving Perth for South Australia!

I am sure that everyone, myself included can hardly believe that we will be finally leaving the state or that it will actually happen {I might not even really believe it until we are across the line} but that is the plan as we head out of Mundaring slightly later than planned.  Given we left later we decided to stick to the road well traveled and followed Great Easter Highway until Coolgardie.

Heading towards Norseman we stopped around 80km before, just in a road side rest area.  Nothing fancy bit it serviced it purpose.

I did however learn two very important things when picking somewhere for a quick overnight stop:
#1 Trains can be LOUD when they're long and one is trying to sleep
#2 Trucks drive heaps at night, big trucks, big LOUD annoying trucks at all hours of the night






We packed up bright at early and hit the road again.  A refuel in Norseman, including taking in the local lookout and a drive around the town {My Mum's family did live here for a time} before we hit the Eyre Highway.

It wasn't anything like I expected it to be, the Eyre Highway that is.  Whilst, yes it does contain 'Australia's Longest Straight', it had a surprising number of changes to the landscape.  This doesn't even include the trip up a massive range. That is right there was a HILL, I totally didn't expect that!

The drive was uneventful and relatively painless.  We again stopped in a rest area, but this time moved further back from the road {for a much better night of sleep}. 














Being 40km from the border means we will be in South Australia bright and early tomorrow morning.

Robe River Rest Stop {Free Camp}

After leaving 80 Mile right up until the last minute we remained undecided on where we would spend the night before heading to Winning.  We had to go into Karratha to get some things I had dumped at the Hunters place, do a big spot again and post a few items.  So after getting to Karratha at a reasonable time we decided we would do all of this and then keep plodding along and find a rest stop.

We had some serious camper sorting do to and didn’t want to set up on the Hunters front lawn nor crash in the house {knowing they too had unpacking to do themselves}.

So we ended up on the Robe River for the night.

A nice area with plenty of space, although it did start raining right as I started cooking dinner.  Only a light drizzle but enough to be painful given the awning wasn’t pulled over.

J spoke to Rory from Kordarrie and we had planned to stop in there but it would all depend on how much rain they ended up with as to what the Twitchen Road would be like.  Rory said in the morning that we should be right, he hadn’t had that much and Yanery {his neighbor} had only had 8ml overnight.

So we headed that way.  The first few kms where wonderful, followed by a few puddles we could easily get around….. That didn’t last long till we had to ride the shoulder to get around some of the ‘puddles’ and then when we got about 2km from the driveway we wanted we had to go ‘bush’ only to discover that said driveway was under water.  After all that effort we turned around and headed back to the main road. 

Turns out that Yanery had infact had over 30ml of rain over night!

Goodbye Kalgoorlie {Caravan Park - Work}

One thing that I will miss about Kalgoorlie, the amazing sunsets, lovely old buildings and parks.  It doesn't nothing for my desire to have an old house again, to live in something that has character and to show it new life.

There is actually a fabulous looking 'Bank of Australia' building that is for sale in Boulder but sadly not something we would ever consider buying because, well it is in Boulder and that is not really somewhere I would like to live forever.

It is hard to believe that we have been in Kalgoorlie for more than a month, time has flown in one way and dragged by in another sense.  Living in a caravan park for this long has been one of the downfalls, we have stayed places for a month of more before but it has felt different to this. I am well and truly ready to move onto our next location.

Holland Track {4WDing & Free Camping}

Driving from Albany we had planned to stop at the Stirling Ranges for a night but the weather put us off as it was wet & cold which would have made it hard to do many, if any of the walks.  So we took in the wonderful ranges as we drove right though the middle on our way to Hyden.

Wave Rock is nothing like I remember it, well it is still a giant rock shaped like a wave but i don't remember even being able to actually walk on it or that it was actually established as a dam in the early 1900's to provide the town with water.  See even I learnt something!

Next stop on our day in the car was to find the Holland Track and get started.  It really wasn't that bad of a 'track' to be honest and I was starting to think that we would have it done in no time at all.  We stopped for the day around 4pm, set up and took a look around while taking in a wonderful sunset.

We heading off reasonably early the next morning to make the best of the day.  Well let's just say we lost the track twice and it turned out to be more of a 4WD track that I thought.  There must have been a massive amount of rain in the area earlier in the week as there was some serious mud puddles laying around, some that we had to take the car/camper through.

We stopped for a drink and something to eat mid morning and meet up with another car that couldn't find the track, they had lost it at the 'State fence' so J was pretty happy to have someone else with us a few hours as it was a little more game with some of the tracks that we took.  I will admit to closing my eyes in some points and to mud flying in my opened window.

It proved to be a great day for wildlife, we started with Kangaroos, a wild dog running down the track {which was very large}, more race horse gonnas than I could count and a few thorny devils.

It took us all day to travel just under 300kms so we stayed the night at Victoria Rock, which is really just a great big rock but it was a nice spot for the night as driving onto Coolgardie was just too far.  We stopped just before 5pm so it was a long and exciting day in the car.

Next stop Kalgoorlie as J has a job laying flooring starting on the weekend.