Archive for category Geocaching

Day 16 – Valley of the Giants, Pemberton, Nannup


Another travelling day for us.  We started out cold due to a power failure at the park.  As a consequence of that, we were the only lights on anywhere to be seen thanks to the backup batteries, but the heater wasn’t working either, so we were probably the coldest too since we were the only ones silly enough to be out of bed this early!

Kel went to have her morning shower and bid a hasty retreat, as since there was no power the instant GAS hot water wouldn’t fire up and a cold shower wasn’t in her mornings plan.

We didn’t have too far to go today, but there was plenty to see and do.  The roads were also winding, undulating and steep with little opportunity for others to pass ol’ wobbly, so we had a fan club behind us for most of the day.  Luckily, since my van rear view camera was on the rubbish pile back at Albany I was blissfully unaware of the goings on behind me.

The Valley of the Giants tree top walk opened at 10am and that’s when we rocked up.  This tree top walk is the original.  It’s only got the walk and none of the fancy towers or cantilever sections like at the Otway Fly.  The walk isn’t the drawcard though, the trees are.  They are certainly tall and majestic.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , ,

Day 13 – Lucky Bay (Part 2)

Another day of decisions … would we leave Lucky Bay and go back to Esperance in order to make the next days looonnng drive a bit shorter.  God no!  This place is just too intoxicating.

The walk down to the beach ... about 6m away from the van

Kel woke me up this morning with complaints.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: ,

Day 12 – Lucky Bay

We had ummed and ahhhed over whether to leave Esperance and try our luck at Lucky bay.  In the end we decided to give it a go … and that will remain one of the more ridiculous decisions that we’ve ever made.

I mean, just check out this place!  The “oh my god’s!” as we came over the last rise to see the colour of the water said it all.

We arrived here and just dropped the van.  There were only 2 other vans here anyway, we virtually had the place to ourselves.

I do apologize sincerely for this post.  Read on and be thoroughly green with envy at your peril.  There’s a lot of pictures and ya just know that they’ll be terrible …

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: ,

Day 11 – Esperance

The day started out just as it had ended with drizzly rain and freezing cold.  Overnight, fog had also been added to the mix.

Since the rain had turned the red dirt into red mud I was a little worried that we might not get out since we had a bit of a climb up a dirt track to contend with on the way out.  It was no trouble at all though and we were soon back at the highway pointed at Norseman about 160km away.

We stopped briefly and took some photos of the tin camels.  We then headed up to the Beacon lookout but were unsuccessful in taking any photo’s as it was too cloudy.  There’s not much else to do in Norseman.  It’s a gold mining town, not a tourist town.
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: ,

Day 10 – Balladonia

Sunrise saw us up and on the move again.

An uneventful, but chilly night was had.  Road trains come past roughly every 20 minutes.  I’m guessing that it takes about that long to get each one through the border checkpoint.

Today was a pretty long driving day with even less than yesterday to see.  The Nullarbor was in full flight today with absolutely no trees and not much of anything else to see.  The few small roadhouses along the way are gone in an instant and there’s nothing missed if you don’t stop.

We did stop at Caiguna to see the cave blowhole there … but it wasn’t blowing.  Seemed like a nice enough spot for lunch though.
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: ,

Day 7 – Port Lincoln

We were up bright and early this morning.  I went and did the nearest geocache which was only a couple of hundred metres along the beachfront bike path. This path pretty much runs all the way around Port Lincoln and is a fantastic asset.

A brekky of pancakes saw us ready to attack the day.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , ,

Day 6 – Port Lincoln

Since we’d already booked Port Lincoln we didn’t feel the need to hurry there and took our time.  We had a bit more of a look around Port Augusta and spent an hour or so in the Wadlata Outback Centre.  This was well worth doing.  The place is full of history, both Aboriginal and European.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags:

Day 4 – Adelaide (Victor Harbor)

Today we got some of the domestics done.  A bit of washing, drying and shopping.

P1000312

Not far to the beach … just where that fence is.  I went for a bit of a ride there this morning and grabbed the geocache of the day.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: ,

Day 3 – Adelaide (Hahndorf, McLaren Vale, Glenelg)


Our first non-travelling day today.  Also my first day of non-work, which was also SMS and call free … bet that won’t last!

The plan was to go and have a look at Hahndorf and then do a few wineries around McLaren Vale before heading back to the van, and we pretty well kept to that idea although we nearly got sidetracked a few times.

A geocache in the morning saw the kids amazed by their first micro geocache, a berocca container embedded in the side of the steps leading down to the beach.  It took a bit of finding, but was found on the morning walk.

Before the day got away from us, we headed up into the Adelaide Hills to Hahndorf, past Grumpy’s brewery while thinking of Al.  If I’d known it was a brewery at the time then we may not have gotten any further … but alas we cruised in to Hahndorf.  Blake had been really looking forward to it but was a little surprised by it in the end. He’s interested in his German heritage, but was bemused to find that that boils down to a love of sausage and beer. I’m sure he’ll come to embrace the beer at some stage. 🙂

P1000301

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , ,

Inverloch 13-15/5

This is our last little trip away before the big one. The last time we’ll catch up with the Nomads before the Xmas Rally too.

We’d been saying to the kids for a while now that they should get a friend to come along on some of the rallies.  Blake has had a few friends come along, but this was Hannah’s first time to have a friend over and she brought along Abby.  Blake also wanted to bring his friend Blake along too, so we took 4 kids with us … to rainy, cold Inverloch.

And what a rainy, cold Inverloch it was!  We arrived in the dark and had the usual setup of the van to do and also a tent.  This was to be the boys quarters for the weekend … both their first nights in a tent.  They picked a great night for it! We managed to snap a tent pole even with 4 of us trying to hold the tent still. Thats how windy and pleasant it was. Typically I didn’t have my tool kit with me, so had to borrow some gaffer tape from uncle Max and that was enough to hold the pole together. Fingers crossed!

The Big 4 at Inverloch has a huge camp kitchen and we occupied that until 11pm.  It was very cozy in there and it was a great place to watch Geelong snatch victory from Collingwood in the last minutes.

The boys were keen to go sleep in the tent since it was a bit of a novelty.  The winds were ferocious and the rain was verging on hail a lot of the time.  I checked on them a few times during the night and they hadn’t floated away.  They were fairly well protected from the wind though.  They had a wind break on 2 sides and the en suite and van on the other.  Ideal spot for them.  They reckon that they had a better nights sleep than the rest of us … but I don’t know how.  The van was a-rocking all night and anything loose outside was banging and crashing until dawn.  Not much sleep for anybody.

Needless to say, we were all early risers … apart from Hannah.  A quick breakfast had the kids desperate for a swim in the pool.  The pool area was fantastic and they had it all to themselves.

Saturday saw us wondering what to do, so I suggested that we check out some of the local geocaches.  We logged a DNF on one and Blake found another one with ease.  A great little walk from the campsite up to a lookout and return.

View from the lookout

They thought it was cold

The view heading back to camp

Flowers next to the van

A short walk

 

We got back to camp just in time to head out to lunch at the Esplanade Hotel.  All the boxes were ticked.  Well priced meals that were really yummy.  A good spot and plenty to keep the kids occupied.  Kellie scored a Tandoori chicken pizza while I had a Sweet Chilli Chicken Wrap.  The kids had Parma’s and Nuggets.  Abby’s first Parma and she loved it.  I dunno where she put it, but she almost finished the lot!

The weather wasn’t really flash, so we spent the afternoon back in the camp kitchen discussing the upcoming travels.  It seems like most of the Nomads have some serious trips planned and it will be Xmas before we’re all once again sitting down for a chat.

Note the kids in the background all playing together nicely ... or is that plotting mischief?

Evil little girls!

Saturday nights dinner saw Kellie give me specific instructions to cook 12 sausages only.  Of course that meant that I put about 30 on the barbie.  Abby was keen to do tong duty and cooked all the snags to perfection.  They ended up being Sunday lunch as well!  We all said our goodbyes and retired fairly early.  The kids had occupied themselves with movies and iPods and were fairly well tuckered out.  The girls had befriended Fred’s granddaughter and were watching Gulliver’s travels in the van after dinner.  Once that was finished we were all soon quickly in bed and asleep.  A much quieter night weather wise on Saturday and we all slept well.

The scenic route home got us back by 1pm with no fuss.  The kids were SILENT and watching DVD’s or playing iPods all the way, both ways.  Parents today have simply got it too easy.  Thanks to the GPS in the back they can even answer the question “Are we there, yet?” without having to say the words.