Walpole to Bridgetown

This is on the riverbanks of the Blackwood river at Bridgetown and one of our most generous hosts Chris(owner of the FC holden)
This was our transport whilst we were in Bridgetown. On this day we went to the local markets.
Billy could tee off straight outside the van when he wanted to practice. This was our view at Lorraine and Chris's at Bridgetown. We stayed here for Easter and had a wonderful time.
HOST WITH THE MOST.... Our host shows us how you decant wine.. Sure Chris!!!! It was only a bottle from 1981, so it was just an OLD ONE......
We went for a picnic at Donnelly River Mill Town and it was truly lovely. We had emus and kangaroos walking around us while we ate. Afterwards we went for a bush walk to try and find an old graphite mine, which we eventually found. We also found an old property known as the SWAMP which has some very interesting old tales about the place.
We drove past this house thinking that they had statues in the front yard until we got toooo close and they scattered. Twas quite funny.
You can travel by 4WD, car or Emu around here.
We went off the beaten track with Chris and Lorraine in search of the SWAMP.
This was a channel dug by two brothers who owned this SWAMP and they dug this to drain their property. It was 1klm long and they dug it by hand with a pick and a shovel. It was up to 10ft deep in some places. It took them several years. It was pretty well solid rock most of the way.
Dave standing next to this beautiful specimen of a Black Boy, ooops sorry Grass tree or as they are now known an Australian Fire tree.
These are some of the gorgeous colours throughout the graphite mines grounds. It was very pretty.
This is the skywalk amongst the Valley of the Giants near Walpole. The walk thru the tops of the trees was beautiful. Some of these trees grow as high as 75m whoa!!!!
This shot shows you the size of these massive trees. It doesnt seem like there is much still holding these things to the ground but it seems there is enough.
These trees were mind blowing with their size.

Albany and surrounds

Billy stands beside the skeleton of a blue whale at the Whale-world centre near Albany. It was amazing. I wouldn't like to come across one of these in the water. It was massive.
This is a shark cage used at the whaling station to check the pipelines between the station and the ships in the harbour. They needed these cages as they would be swimming in a heap of blood from the dead whales. These bars would allow a not so small shark thru them and I wouldnt like this job.
This is at Whaleworld again and look at the beautiful water. Years ago this water would have been solid red with blood from the whales that were killed here.
If you look real close you can see Dave and Billy doing the Toyota add. I was petrified and couldn't walk over where they were. It was so fardown if they fell. This shot was taken at the Natural Bridge near Whaleworld.
This is Billy standing on clifftops at Salmon Beach. It doesnt look very far down in the picture but it really was.

Israelite Bay fishing trip

How clean is this water????? Israelite Bay is the start of the Great Australian Bight from the WA end. We drove 4hrs and 186klms to get here and 1hr 100klms was on sealed road and the other 3hrs were driven in 2nd gear thru sand and bog holes and a salt lake, but BOY was it worth it. Dave knows how to 4WD now.
Boys playing silly buggers at the old telegraph station site. It must have been a huge place when it was running.
You can take the boy out of cricket, but you can't take the cricket out of the boy. Bill found this cricket bat at the old hut at Israelite. It only weighed a tonne. It was an old hardwood sign. He could hardly lift it even though he has bulked up to 25kgs...
Here stands the Moose waiting patiently while we are fishing for hours off the rocks. Looks like a real TOYOTA ad.
The sand is soooo white that it looks like snow capped mountains. The beaches are amazing here.
See how far away it is to the Moose on the beach, well thats how far we carried all our fish . The next day(when Denise stayed at camp) Dave drove right to this spot here on the rocks so they didnt have to carry all the gear and fish too far. Poor didums.
Dave caught a big fat nothin, so he took the shot of the fisherpeople that caught dinner..
Cooking up a storm which was our catch of the day. Fish cooked slowly on top of hot coals. YUMMO!!! Good on ya Les..
Billy cooked us toads in the hole for breakie. Les showed him how to do it on the hot coals. So guess who's cooking sunday breakie from now on..

Esperance and surrounds

What an amazing place... Twilight Beach just outside(west) of Esperance. The most beautiful waters and sands around here.
This is another huge sea lion in the harbour at Bandy Creek. Don't know why we didn't catch any fish.
Billy trying to wake up the wild sea lion at Esperance jetty. The most he got out of him was a yawn...
This is just one of the many delights on the menu at the Loose Goose in Esperance. Food was SENSATIONAL.......
This is Les and Helsie having coffee with us at Tea cafe at Esperance. WHat great people they are. They put up with us for 2weeks in Esperance and Norseman.

Esperance and Cape Le Grand Nat park.

We are at Esperance and staying with friends Les and Helsie. When we arrived Les gave us a tour of the town and surrounds including this little spot which he is planning and hoping to develop as an Eco park. It will be amazing if it all goes to plan. We called this Les's rock... beautiful spot.
We took a drive out to Cape Le Grand Nat Park east of Esperance. The beaches and coastline are spectacular. Sands are the whitest and the water the bluest EVER.
Here we are just pulled up for lunch at this really aweful spot (Lucky Bay). We drove along the beach and it was that hard we didnt even have to lock hubs or let tyres down.
This is straight in front of the car. The boys went for a dip after kicking the footy around for a while.
This is a little place called Thistle Bay another beautiful place.
These very irregular shaped rocks just keep popping up around the place, looks like Dave is on the loo. Not real sure but I think that is what Billy is doin....

Ceduna to Kalgoolie

This is the Grass Patch Yabby Festival and they hold the Yabby classic which is a race meeting held in the middle of a table and theyeven have a TOTE betting tent. It was classic..We collectively put $80 on the nose of no.1 BUT should've gone with Denise's choice of no.6 as it won and payed $13. BUGGER!!!!!!
The first Yabby out of the ring wins.. some races took ages as the yabbies wouldn't wake up. It was very hot..
We went yabbying on the farm at Grass Patch and caught plenty for lunch. We caught some bigger ones which Billy entered in the Yabby classic.. He didnt win but had a great day.
We went to a place called Grass Patch and stayed on a friends farm and Billy checked out this $700,000 harvester. He liked the Maxi tractor and the Quad bike better though...
We went to the Super Pitt in Kalgoolie, what an eye opener that was....look at the size of the monster trucks at the very bottom of this shot. They take out 800000 ounces of gold a yr and its going to be operating for another 40 yrs. $1200 an ounce, not bad....Its only 1.5klms long now and it will be 3.5 by the time they finish and you can already see it from space.. so we are told.. we havent been there yet..YET!!!!
Dave n Billy played the Nullabor Links golf course across the Nullabor. It is 1200klms and its the longest course in the world and as you can see the holes are IMMACULATE and definitely challenging.


This is one of the holes across the Nullabor called Dingo's Den and look below there are real Dingos. Billy crapped his pants when he saw this one coming.

Sorry we've been off air but we back now. This is at the Head of the Bight. It was pretty windy this day and this shot was taken by one of the 5000 Ulysees bikers heading across the Nullabor to their AGM at Albany WA.