Head of the bight. SA

The South Australian West coast behind us.

The South Australia East coast behind us.

The ocean behind us has no land mass until Antarctica.  

If you look closely at the black dots all over us, and our jackets,  are millions of pesky flies.  Most of our photos whilst here didn't have us smiling because of the chance of inhalation of a fly or two. Zachary is not impressed.  After all there were so many of these flies they could easily have lifted Zachary up and flew him to Perth. 

Across the Nullarbor there where many viewing areas,  just off the roadside.  As you can see in the photo, a close grasp of the boys was needed due to the sheer drop off the edge.

Our second free camp was a little more comfortable with at least a toilet.  The grounds were cleaner with more bins provided and there were provisions to build our first camp fire of the trip, much to the boys excitement. 

Nullabour Plains. SA Side

Mike Pauly

http://thearthritisway.wordpress.com

Today we travelled from Ceduna to the first free camp after the Nullabour Roadhouse.  We filled up at the Mobil roadhouse at $2.089 / litre.  This has put a dent in the costings. 

Whilst travelling this road, we came upon Mike Pauly.  My father, Bob Richardson, heard about Mike's plight on Macca's radio show, and said if we see him we should stop and have a chat.  We did this dad!  We shared a cuppa tea, chocolate slice and a sandwich with him.  Mike is walking to raise awareness for Arthritis.

Digging the loo at our free camp.

We have stopped for our first free camp on our trip.  It is about 20Km west of the Nullabour Roadhouse.  It is an isolated place.  No toilets and plenty of flies, much to Jenni's delight!  

Ceduna SA

Ceduna Jetty

Ceduna in the background

Playdough time

Leaving Streaky Bay we began our travels to Ceduna, only to be frustrated by a fellow caravaner driving at 80kph (Was that you Russell?  Or Russell's clone?)  

What should have taken about one hour, took us just short of two hours.  Provisions for the boys was only morning tea.  That blew out in the first fifteen minutes.  And as the saying goes, "Are we there yet" couldn't have come quicker for us.  

Arriving in Ceduna, we set up camp with the foreshore in front of us.  The caravan park has six foot fencing and barb wire all around.  We asked at the front desk where the best bike trails were.  They suggested if we wanted to keep our bikes we should not go for a bike ride here.  Hmm!!  

So the day was spent walking along the foreshore, down to the jetty and exploring the local park for the boys.  In the afternoon we did a board game appropriate for Jacob and then playdough.  We met our neighbours (Mark, Kim, Georga and Liam) for afternoon tea and drinks.  The boys had so much fun running around with Liam.

Streaky Bay SA

Sunrise at Streaky Bay

Baking

The boys are eagerly helping to make chocolate slice.  Thank you Nat Irvin for emailing us the recipe.  It was a real treat for the boys to help make the chocolate slice or should I say EAT the slice!!

Exploring Streaky Bay

Streaky Bay is a small seaside town in South Australia.  We had cool crisp mornings but the days where just perfect.  Shorts and T-shirt weather.  We had fun exploring this little seaside town by bike.

 The Family enjoying ice-creams on the pier

Easter Sunday

Easter Bunny's hidden treasure

The boys did the traditional Easter Egg hunt and followed the egg trail to the hidden treasure.

Easter Sunday

V8 SuperCar Transporter

We got caught out just before Broken Hill with our fruit and vegetables and the quarantine they have in the fruit fly zone.  We weren't going to throw out anymore food so we stopped to refuel in Yunta and did a big cook up with our left over vegetables.  The boys were eating all the left over fruit.  Whilst we refuelled and did our big cook up, two V8 SuperCars Transporters refuelled.  The driver came over with two V8 SuperCars - Ford caps for the boys.  GO THE FORDS!!

NuttBush Retreat  

www.nuttbush.com.au

Leaving Broken Hill this morning we had a long day travelling from New South Wales over the border into South Australia.  Just west of Port Augusta (40k SW) we stayed on a working sheep property named Nuttbush.  Due to the Easter holidays, we miss out on the sheep shearing by two days.  The boys Grandparents, neighbours have sheep and they get shorn every Father's day.  We were fortunate to be able to get the only grass site.  The facilities are great.

Silverton Visit

Mad Max Vehicles

Lunch Bell has rung

Silverton Hotel

A visit to the original mining town Silverton, a small town 20km outside of Broken Hill.  Silverton is older than Broken Hill and is now known for its historical buildings, ie the goal and museum.  The Mad Max movies where also filmed in Silverton and it now has iconic movie relics.  The afternoon continued with the historical trail of Broken Hill.  

Broken Hill

Pro Hart Gallery

        Pro Hart Studio

Pro Harts Rolls Royce ( two of four )

Today we stopped at Broken Hill which is home to the biggest silver lode ever discovered on the planet.  We rode our bikes to the Pro Hart gallery.  Intriguing man, who was once an underground miner.  Pro Hart's son, John and daughter, Julie (two of his five children) are talented in their own right as artist. 

Cobar

Cobar

A refuelling truck for the mine

Jacob showing Zachary some finer points 

on the truck

Steven repairs his bike

Our first vehicle stop by police in Nyngan, which was a roadside breathalyser.  We then continued on and we arrived safely for an overnight stay in a mining town called Cobar.  After setting up camp, Steven road his bike into town to buy some bread.  Only to return without bread and his bike chain broken.  Despite the support car with spare parts, Steven neglected to have a spare 110 link chain for his bike.
Our neighbouring caravaners pulled up behind us only to tell us that their power source was faulty.  They moved to another site.   Typical Mr Curiosity, Steven pulled out his electrical meters and tested the powerpoint.  It was perfect!  Was it because these people saw we had children??  Should we allow the boys to play next to their caravan in the morning? (Or should we be allowed to remove the offender's gearstick and jam it up his **** )?

CSIRO Dish

The Dish

           Future explorers with their new telescopes

The original radio receiver

Today we visited the CSIRO Parkes Observatory, to view the famous Radio Telescope, well known as the Dish.  The most interesting part is the new radio receiver is now 10,000 times more sensitive compared to the original as photographed.  

Steven was disappointed not to have the opportunity to roll the arm over and take a hat-trick on the Dish.   However you could buy a souvenir cricket ball.  The temptation was there to take the tourist photograph of holding up the dish.  But Jenni won!

Our afternoon was spent in Dubbo viewing a working model train display called Traintasia.  The boys including Steven were delighted.

For afternoon tea we had home made Naan bread, with fresh herbs, picked from the caravan parks own garden for residing campers. (The herbs were suitable for childrens consumption). 

Dubbo Zoo April 18 & 19

We watched many feeding exhibits which included the Black Rhinos, Meerkat's, Hippopotamus, African Elephant and The giant Galapagos Tortoise.  Steven and Jacob were able to also see the Sumatran Tiger, Otter, and the Siamang Apes being fed. There were other tours throughout the day which we enjoyed.  The  jammed packed adventure over the last two days have been clearly shown in the exhaustion of the two boys when they have asked us to go to bed.

Two day adventure at the Western Plains Zoo "Dubbo Zoo"

Steven, Jenni, Jacob and Zachary spent the last two days exploring Dubbo Zoo.  We ventured around the zoo with the 4WD on our first day, followed by a bike ride on our second day.  The boys were able to feed the Giraffes as promised and this would have to be a highlight to watch their little faces encounter these graceful creatures.

4am departure delayed until 6am

Departing Grandma and Grandpa's house, we began "The Great Western Escape". We arrived in Moree for our first overnight stay.  Departing Moree, we began another long drive arriving at our first big destination Dubbo.  If you're wondering how we arrived so quickly, the photo of Jacob and Zachary helping with the drive gives it away.

Two weeks until departure

With only two weeks to departure, I am checking details twice.  Car & Van are in for a service.  Mum & the kids are very excited.