Friday, March 26, 2010


Esperance is a port city and we enjoy watching the ships being filled with grain.
The beaches here at Esperance have been voted the best beaches in WA - the most popular is Twilight, the Whitest is Lucky Bay in the National Park. We spend 3 nights here. Fantastic.

Esperance WA


Amy, Bridget and Claire enjoy the beautiful clear but extremely cold waters of Twilight Beach, Esperance.

Exploring the Cockle-Biddy Caves on the Nullarbor, with the Smiths.

Western Australia Border


We've made it finally to Western Australia. Yeah!

The vast cliff faces along the bight. Most spots are unfenced and very exposed. You have to watch your kids VERY closely here.
Lots of cool signs along the drive on the Nullarbor. Tim had just enjoyed a beer at the Nullarbor Hotel/Roadhouse, and we had a $1 shower - the only bargin on this expensive track!

The six cherubs overlooking the Great Australian Bight at the Head of Bight. In the winter months you can see whales but we see nothing but vast ocean today.

The Nullarbor Plains


Here we are on our 4 day journey across the Nullarbor. We have a great trip and find it very interesting - even though its a very long trip of 1200kms.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Streaky Bay


We pass through Streaky Bay and visit the Shell Servo to see this replica of the shark that was caught back in 1989. It took 5 hours to reel in.

The kids have an art lesson at Murphys Haystacks. They do very well at trying to copy these unique boulders.

Murphys Haystacks



These granite boulders are amazing formations - Australias version of Stone Henge
Tim took a photo of this strange sign near Licoln Nt Park. Someone has added a bit of artwork to this sign making the Kangaroo look like a Bilby!

The beautiful beach at Lincoln National Park, called Fishermans Bay. Good for snorkelling.

Port Lincoln


This is right at our caravan park at Port Lincoln complete with wonderful water views - and of course the opportunity for fishing and snorkelling.
Tim has caught a Blue Swimmer crab for an entree. He was delicious. The fish Tim caught, however, smelt disgusting, so we ate fish and chips from the shop!

The old seal who lives on the beach at Port Gibbon, near the awesome sand dunes. We could smell him before we saw him hiding in the seaweed.

Port Gibbon

Lauren catches a shingle back lizard, with Amy and Bridget.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010


The mighty, majestic Flinders Ranges. WOW
Just a bit wet and windy in the Flinders!!

Thursday, March 18, 2010


Hard to see but there is a Yellow Footed Rock Wallaby in this photo.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

The Flinders Ranges


Here we are at Wilpena Pound - after an hours bushwalk we make it to the lookout to see the pound itself.

Greenhills Adventure Park


On Maddie's recommendation we go to Greenhills Adventure Park for Laurens 12th Birthday.
There are some cool water slides, maze, jumping pillow, archery and mini golf.
We arrived at 10am and we left when it closed at 6pm. Wow what a great day.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Here at Pages Flat Dairy - or Moo View as its known I get to squeeze the cows teats! Yipee.

Jacob is pointing to Kangaroo Island. We didn't go over here on the Ferry as it would have cost us a fortune - besides it was so windy it wouldn't have been worth it.

The Parkers and The Smiths (except for me that is!).
This is Second Valley, located on the west coast of the Peninsular heading down towards Cape Jarvis.
Its like the mountains literally slide into the ocean here.
Beautiful - yet windy!
Meet Brenton Cornish who heads up Mobile Mission Maintenence, and who has looked after us very well here at Pages Flat.

This is Chris. We are traveling with them and the boys are working together.

Here is Tim tiling the bathroom at the Pages Flat dairy. Once the tiling is finished they can get the plumber in to connect everything up and the bathroom will be usable.

Pages Flat


Here we are at Pages Flat - picking fresh Blackberries. I am here with Claire, Bridget and Lucy. Yum yum.

Granite Island


Crossing the 600m bridge to Granite Island - where there is a small colony of Fairy Penguins. We didn't see any but could see where they were living. We all walked around the Island, but Amy's shoes didn't make it back at the end as one of them went into the water. This was the 2nd pair of shoes to bite the dust in 2 days.

Thursday, March 11, 2010


The horse carriage pulls people out to Granite Island and back again. But we aren't lazy - we walk the whole way!

Victor Harbour

We splurge on ice creams and donuts at Victor Harbour. Its been a big day and we enjoy the treat. We are about to walk out to Granite Island to try to spot Fairy Penguins.

Goolwa - the mouth of the Murray


Not a great shot! But this day where we finally found the mouth of the Murray river flowing into the sea was SOOOO windy. We drove on the beach and tried to make sandwiches, but it was so sandy (they really were SAND - wiches).
After this photo was taken we spotted a seal swimming around - bobbing up and down. Very exciting in the windy weather.

The kids enjoy the amazingly still beach of Aldinga - a rare thing we gathered when we returned for another visit and it was blowing a gale, (more common around these parts let me assure you!!).

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Aldinga Beach SA


Beautiful Aldinga Beach, where we had our first experience of driving right onto the Beach and parking near the water!
Trouble was the kids running back and forth between wet and dry sand nearly got run over!
The water on this particular day was so flat - no waves or wind.
This was the day that we spotted Dolphins and Lauren was able to get up quite close to them. WOW.

Lauren too gets her horse riding experience on Willy - the ever patient horse.
Jacob gets in on the act of horse riding too. He is quite good at it and enjoys himself very much.

Wistow SA

Amy FINALLY gets to ride a horse! She is riding Molly's horse Willy. She loves it.

The "Birthday Party" with (2nd) Cousins Maddie and Molly at their house at Wistow. Chocolate cake and chocolate crackles - what more could a chocoholic want in life?

Amy finds a sleeping pussycat in the Fairy Garden in Handorf.

Handorf has a lolly shop which is why it is a PERFECT destination for a Birthday. Just ask Jacob what he thought of it!

Monday, March 1, 2010


Just Tim looking his BEST!!!!
We are here watching Molly and Jen doing camp drafting on a property near Mt Baker. Very dusty inside the arena.