Breakdown

We left Adelaide and then our fuel pump started spraying out diesel. We left the van and went to find a garage and luckily there was one just around the corner. We managed to drive the van around very cautiously and the mechanic took a loot at it. He couldn't fix it so we arranged to get a tow truck to take us to the Adelaide Merc garage. This happened on a Friday we had the ferry booked for Kangaroo Island on the Saturday and they said they would fix it on Tuesday as they would have to order the part. Nightmare! We thought we'd be spending 4 nights in our van outside the garage! This is the tow man - very nice and very hairy!

Anyway, we arrived at 3.30 and they had the part in stock and got it fixed by 5pm. Fabulous. How lucky are we?

We got the ferry to Kangaroo Island on the Sunday, only a day late.

Naracoorte Caves

How scary is this stuff? We visited Naracoorte Caves which is World Heritage Listed. In the 1970's they found an area the size of an olympic swimming pool with animal bones dating back up to 500,000 years. They've only analysed a tiny percentage and have found all sorts of bones from newly discovered Mega Fauna. Including this chap; a huge leaf eating kangaroo type animal:



The giant lobster (more like a crayfish) was seen on the way to the caves. You can just see me underneath:

This cuddly chap was an elephant type animal:

Flinders Ranges, Yorke Peninsula and Adelaide

We visited the wonderful Flinders Ranges and had a few days enjoying greenery after brown Coober Pedy. There were Emus everywhere:

Here is Nic at the Hill's Homestead. Jessie Hill lived here with her parents for about 20 years before they gave up farming as there was either drought or flood.

A view of the Pound; a circle of mountains with a huge flat area in the middle. This is where the Homestead is.

There was a huge storm one evening and lots of the towns on the Yorke Peninsula lost power. We stayed on the coast and it was exciting watching the lightning and hearing the thunder. The next day we found this huge spider on the inside of the van door, it must have come in to escape the storm. I'm glad it didn't go any further and decide to get in bed with us!

We arrived in Adelaide the day after the cricket test match ended and we'd thrashed the Aussies. We went into town and met 3 of the English supporters in a bar and it was nice to chat with some fellow Poms.

The next day we walked miles to see some of the Adelaide sights; we went to an Aboriginal art gallery, we had a look at the Oval, we strolled beside the river and we went around the huge food market. Adelaide is a lovely city and the suburbs are so pretty. They've had record levels of rain here this year after 8 years of drought so everything looks green and the blossom trees are in full bloom.

Leaving WA, crossing the Nullarbor, Eyre Peninsula and Crazy Coober Pedy

We left the coast in W.A and drove north to Norseman, the start of the famous Nullarbor; a 1200km road through barren landscpes between WA and SA. One part is 90 miles of totally straight road - exciting! Imagine what it must be like on a bicycle. We did it in 2 days and it was a huge relief to get to Ceduna and have a day off from driving. Once again we had to declare our fruit and veg and change our watches (forward by 2 1/2 hours). There are now 5 different times within Australia - crazy!!

After our rest we drove around the Eyre Peninsula, there wasn't much there but we had a look at the haystacks; pink limestone boulders:

We spent the night alone at the camp ground in coffin bay with only the wallabies and birds for company:

We then decided to drive 600km each way to Coober Pedy. This place looks like Mars and due to the high temperatures (it gets to 50C in the summer), half of the people live underground in their dugouts. Luckily for us summer seems to be late here and it as only 25C. 80% of the people come from overseas and they all do the same thing, dig for opals on their own little plots.

We decided to spend a night at the only underground campsite in the world. It was lovely and cool:

We went to visit Crocodile Harry's place. He died a few years ago but his house is still open for viewings. Totally crazy and very colourful!

We also went to a kangaroo orphanage and met the lovely chap who cares for them until they can release them back into the wild.

This is Ebony - only 6 weeks old.

These signs are all over CP:

We also went to visit a mine. This one was rediscovered when a couple needed an extra bedroom in their dugout:

They also found some old newspapers and one of they had this photo of an advert for cigarettes - nice!!!

On the drive back to 'civilisation' we took a walk along this huge salt lake.

Diving the Swan Wreck near Dunsborough

We had 2 dives on the wreck and we had fun looking about. We had a go on the bridge and Nic sat on one of the toilets! Quite a novel experience as it was our first wreck dive.

Perth to Esperance - lots of cute animals, wreck diving, massive trees and stunning beaches

We've had a busy few weeks so this blog is a whopper!

We spent a week in Perth with my Uncle Jeff, his girlfriend Yvonne and her lovely family. They made us really welcome and it was exciting to live in a lovely house (with a new pool). Jeff and Yvonne took us out and showed us some lovely places and we had a couple of days sight-seeing on our own.

One of our days was spent at the stunning Rottnest Island, we cycled about in the heat and went snorkelling in the cold clear water. Here is a cute Quokka:


We also had a day touring around fabulous Fremantle and Perth. Here is the one photo we took of Perth:



Here's me with Jeff and Yvonne - looking a bit red after a day around the pool!

After leaving Perth we went over to Penguin Island near Rockingham. Here are some ridiculously cute blue (fairy) penguins:

It started to rain (shock horror) and rained for about 3 days. I had to put my jeans on for the first time in about 4 months!

We visited the small but lovely Dolphin Discovery Centre. We didn't see any dolphins but we did see some cool stuff in the rock pool and aquarium, including this wonderful cow fish:

We had a few days to spare before our Swan Wreck dive so we had a few days trying to avoid the rain around Margaret River. Here is Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse located where the Indian Ocean meets the Southern Ocean:

We did our diving (check our videos on separate entry) and then headed off to see some big trees. We climbed the 60 metre Gloucester tree that used to be a fire lookout tree. My legs were a bit wobbly at the end but the views were fab.

Here is ring-necked parrot eating someone's picnic.

Next we went to see the giant Tingle trees. There used to be one that you could drive through until it collapsed in 1990.

We did the Valley of the Giants walk - 40 metres above the ground with more fab views. Here's Nic looking very small:

We left the big trees and drove to Porongorup NP to do some walking. Here's a view from the top:

We carried on to Stirling Range NP and did even more walking, this time up Bluff Knoll, just over 1000 metres high:

Here is the view from the top:

Near the top there were masses of beautiful wild flowers:

We left the hills and headed back to the coast. This is a beach near Esperance that we saw doing the Great Ocean Drive - the coastal scenery is amazing here.

Then we had a night at Cape Range NP. Stunning.

In a day or 2 we will have left Western Australia and we'll be in Southern Australia. WA is totally amazing - undeveloped, amazing wildlife and stunning natural scenery.

sea lions at jurien bay

nic being headbutted by sea lion pup