April 22 - 25

Day 21 – April 22 – Kalgoorlie Boulder -> Grass Patch

Did a big clothes wash this morning at the caravan park – 5 loads – once it was hung on the line the heavens opened.. We checked the weather forecast to hear that there was a 90% chance of rain – pays to check in advance next time! Who would have thought that we would have rain in Kalgoorlie…

Then we found out that the Super Pit observation deck was open again after the earthquake – Yeah! Amazing… Huge hole dug out and blasted – 3.5km x 1.5km and 500 m deep. We saw the huge mining trucks and diggers cart tonnes of rubble out of the pit.

We then went to the Royal Flying Doctor base at Kalgoorlie airport where we listened to some information on the history and current operations – very impressive, the service was the first of its kind in the world and still more extensive than any other. We then head off towards Esperance but didn’t make it – stayed at a small town called Grass Patch where the kids befriended a family of black cats – what was that superstition again?

Day 22 – April 23 – Grass Patch -> Lucky Bay

Spent the day at Cape Le Grande National Park 50km east of Esperance. We started walking up Frenchman’s Peak (named because the top of the mountain looks a little like a Legionnaire’s hat), but it turned very overcast and windy. The scramble over the rocks was very steep so Michelle, Erin and Ben stayed down the bottom while Bruce and Luke continued up the top. Up the top the rain started, so B & L took shelter in a cave right at the top – they waited until the rain stopped before they came down, but it was very slippery and dangerous. In some places they had to clamber down like crabs – no more mountain climbing for us for a while…

Dropped in at Thistle Cove – more rocks but it wasn’t raining and the kids had great fun rock hopping.

We camped at Lucky Bay camp site – a gorgeous long white sandy beach with turquoise and aqua coloured water. Would have been great for a swim but very cold! The sand was the whitest and finest we had ever seen. Ben loved making ‘sand balls’ – he wanted to take one home with us… We took refuge from the gusty windy weather in the motorhome and spent a few hours playing cards (taught the kids how to play patience), while Michelle cooked roast dinner and surprise slice in the over – a perfect end to the day.


Day 23 – April 24 – Lucky Bay -> Wave Rock

We all woke up just after six and went for a hike over the headland to Thistle Cove and back – a great walk, we saw the sunrise. Ben got wet shoes and socks in the first five minutes so Bruce carried him!

We drove through Esperance and along the 40km scenic Great Ocean Drive. We saw beautiful white beaches and a windmill farm (Esperance was the first location in Australia to have a wind farm). The kids went swimming in their clothes at Twilight Beach (voted Australia’s best beach in 2006).

Then drove to Wave Rock through vast open plains and wheat fields under a big light blue sky. Got there just in time to see the rock in twilight – huge! 15m high & 110m long..

Day 24 – April 25 – Wave Rock -> Perth (Fremantle)

We surfed Wave Rock in the morning, and walked over it – the colours are very pretty – orange, red, white and black stripes. Wave Rock is part of the larger Hyden Rock – it was amazing to stand on top of it, great views of the wheat plains extending out to the horizon.


The water pump stopped working today, and Bruce also broke the outside shower tap – both problems beyond us – so we decided to drive straight to Perth to get them fixed (as well as the cracked windscreen). We’ll go back to the southwest corner afterwards.

In Hyden we had learnt that there was an AFL game on tonight at Subiaco – Fremantle vs Richmond. Luke had always talked about seeing an AFL game while we were on the holiday, so tonight was the chance! We managed to get 2nd row tickets right behind the goals (don’t know how we managed that!). The warm-up was interesting – hundreds of footballs coming at us from all angles – good thing they had a net up between us and the field! Fantastic experience overall – the atmosphere, the crowd, the junk food, and of course the football. We decided to support Richmond even though we were surrounded by thousands of screaming Dockers fans (never felt threatened though) – Richmond had a great first quarter and scored six goals (at our end!), so we saw the players up close. Fremantle recovered and ending up winning convincingly. We left at three quarter time to escape the crowds, and then drove to Fremantle to stay at a caravan park.