Today we slept in, we woke up to find the floor covered in water! There is a leak some where above the cupboard and because it rained the water dribbled down to the floor we cleaned it up then we had a nice breakfast of toast and vegemite. We stayed at the caravan until after a lunch of leftover roast and gravy in a roll. Before lunch Tara and I did some homework. When we had finished our lunch we went to Kings Park to have a walk around. It was lovely and green. There was a nice pond with water spurting out. There was a little duckling paddling around in the pond. We had a small afternoon tea at a cafe near kings park, it was very nice. We walked back to where we parked the car the other side of Kings Park. Peter and Abby and two of their friends came for cheese and biscuits then we went out to a very nice Italian restaurant for dinner. The spaghetti bologna se was very nice! Overall we had a very nice day!

We had some toast for breakfast. Then we drove into Perth city. We met Abby in the mall, then we walked to the Perth Mint. We went on a tour. The Perth mint started in 1899, because of the Kalgoorlie gold rush in 1893. One of the first governors of the mint came out from England with his wife, to take on the roll. His wife liked to socialise, but the problem was, her lady friends considered it improper to visit her at the mint, because of all the male workers. So, to fix this problem, the governor would take all the workers down the street to go to the pub for three hours every Tuesday afternoon, so that his wife and her lady friends could drink tea, play croquet and do what ever else they did. Also, at the mint, they had two doors so that the upper class people could walk through one, and the lower class people walk through the other, because the upper class people did not want to walk through the same door as the lower class. The mint is Australia’s oldest operating mint. These days the mint makes specialised coins. At the mint, they have some scales that can convert your weight into how much you are worth in gold. I am worth $2,168,720. On the tour, we watched a gold pour, it was really quite spectacular. The melted gold was glowing, and then it sets hard in a matter of seconds! We went to another sushi train for lunch. There are Japanese restaurants everywhere in Perth! After lunch. We went down to the Perth City and looked in some of the shops. Tess and Dad went to the WA art gallery. We drove through Peppermint Grove, where all the really expensive houses are. There were definitely some big and extravagant houses there! We had some nice fish and chips for dinner!
Tara

We got up, had breakfast then headed of to Perth. On the way we stopped at an old town that as very similar to Maldon, it was called York. We had a look in the big grand town hall. It had upstairs seating with the stage down below. The town hall had the biggest floor space in Australia. In the town hall, there were models of buildings from around the town, one was the hall itself and one was the railway station. We had morning tea at the old mill then traveled on to Perth. We got to Fremantle (where we are staying), set up then went down the street for lunch. We went to a sushi train, it was very nice. We had a look at some shops then had a look at the Fremantle market that was very crowded. We went to Peter and Abby’s house for dinner. We had a very nice meal of home made tacos and then a lovely cheese cake in a glass. It was fun seeing Ava(their dog). We had a wonderful night.

Tess

After breakfast and after packing up the van, we headed off down the street to go on a tour of the Kalgoorlie Mine Superpit. It was quite amazing, the pit was very large and so were the trucks! The mine is run by KCGM (Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mine). Our tour guide used to work in the mines and she also worked with the explosives. She said that KCGM take safety and caring for the environment quite seriously. They have started a revegetation program on some old mining sites, this has been going for about twenty years. Also to work at the Kalgoorlie mines, you have to actually live in Kalgoorlie. This stops fly-ins, and also means that the miners can be home with their family’s each evening. Some of the trucks have cameras that watch the drivers eyes for fatigue. If the driver closes his or her eyes for longer than the average blinking time, then alarms start going off, and the driver’s supervisor is notified. This is also an example of how advanced some of their technology is. They have one blue coloured truck, that raises awareness for male depression, and one pink truck that raises awareness for breast cancer. They have 40 mining trucks on the site, and each costs about $4.4 million. They can carry up to 250 tonnes. Well over 57 million ounces of gold have come from the Golden Mile. Gold was first discovered on the Golden Mile by Paddy Hannan, Dan Shea and Tom Flanagan in 1893. KCGM was formed in 1989 and they are currently leasing the sight until 2029.
After the tour we basically just got in the car and drove for about 3.5 hours, until we got to Burracoppin, where we stayed at a roadside camp. Mum cooked a very nice roast for dinner in the barbecue!

Tara

Today we got up quite early because we are still used to Victoria time. We had bacon and eggs then hit the road to get to Kalgoorlie. Not really any stops of the way, just to get fuel and swap drivers. We got to Kalgoorlie just before midday to find the passenger seat window jammed. Mum and Dad thought that they could try and push it down to get it going. Bad idea. Doing that broke it completely and it fell down and landed all wonky. We took the car into VW but they were too busy, they told us to try the auto electrician down the road. We did and they could fix it. It took a while though. We had lunch then sat around for a while. We then had a very yummy risotto that Mum made.

Here are some Salmon Gum trees we saw on the way to Kalgoorlie.

“But I don’t want anyone to look at me!” says Tess as she walks out into the middle of the caravan park to do somersaults under the lights in a Tigger onesie…

Finally, a day without driving! Not I that I particularly dislike driving, it was just good to have a little rest day. We haven’t quite adjusted to the time difference yet, because we are going to bed early and waking up early! We had our first bacon and eggs breakfast for the trip! It was rather delectable! We had quite a lazy morning, we played a full game of Threes (A very fun card game!). In the late morning, we went for a 1.5 hour bush walk around the ranges. We saw a few emus, some red kangaroos in the distance, some ferrel goats with kids, and some wild sheep. The wild sheep all had tails and some had wool dangling down to the ground! It was a nice walk, and also an adventure because the map and path was not completely finished yet! In the late afternoon, Dad and Tess went off to do some drawing. They sketched what was left if the old wool shed that was mostly destroyed in a severe storm. The only thing left was the engine room and a six stand shearing machine. We decided that we would have the home cooked meal at the station again tonight, because we still didn’t have any veggies! The meal tonight was a very nice farmhouse chicken casserole. We found out that the station is 1,000,000 acres! The last owner died in 2000 in a plane crash while mustering sheep. However, what actually happens today at the station remains a bit of a mystery, but we think, from what we’ve heard, that there might be some sort of mining going on on the property. After dinner we sat around the communal camp fire and chatted with all the grey nomads. It was a nice and relaxing day.

Mum and Tess relaxing at the caravan. Mum is reading the Castlemaine Mail… Over two thousand kilometres away from home…

The nice reception building at Fraser Range Station!

An emu…

Wild goats.

A road.

Here are the drawings!

Tara

Today we drove the longest straight road in Australia! It goes for 145 kilometres, it was a long straight road.

We stopped for breakfast at a really small town. All it had was a caravan park and a small general store. Dad asked if they sell news papers the man said the only time he gets the paper is when one of the truckies leaves one behind.
We went through about 4 towns and all they were were road houses with not much to offer.

We got to the park and when we went to check in we saw a sign saying that tonight there was roast beef and fresh green veggies and sweets, Mum didn’t even notice the sweets because she was so exited about the fresh green veggies. You actually can’t get any fresh or frozen veggies for a while after the border when you have to throw them all out. We went for dinner and it turned out they were fresh white veggies not green (it was cauliflower, potatoes and cabbage.) Mum said cabbage has never tasted so good.
It was a really big full moon tonight and it looked lovely coming up over the hills .

We had an early start this morning. We left Streaky Bay just as the sun was rising. The sky was beautiful.
We stopped to make our breakfast at Ceduna, and ate it while looking out at the ocean. It was very nice and refreshing!

Our next ‘pitstop’ was at Penong. Penong is also known as the Town of 100 Windmills. Apparently, the general store there was the last shop for 1000km! By this they mean groceries I think!
Here is another road warning sign – the famous trio! (It appears in a lot if brochures, we’ve found)
We stopped for lunch at Head of Bight. We went to the lookout to see if we could see any whales, and we did get a glimpse of a Southern Right Whale! The cliffs and the aqua-blue waters were just spectacular!!
Further along, we stopped at another picturesque lookout.
At the border between South Australia and Western Australia, we had our car and caravan searched for fruits, plants and vegetables. Unfortunately Mum’s Mother’s Day gift from Tess had to be tipped out, because it was a plant.
Our plan was to stay the night at Eucla (which is just over the border) but after crossing the border, and turning our clocks back, we realised that we were all feeling pretty good, and could actually keep driving for a bit longer. So we drove about a further 60km before stopping at a roadside camp where we stopped the night. We were able to have a fire there, so we cooked our dinner on the fire! It was lots of fun!

Tara

Today we are off to Streaky Bay. We did not leave so early today, we had breakfast at the caravan and then started our 5 hour drive to Streaky Bay. We looked around a mining town called Iron Knob. There were signs like the kangaroo warning signs (the yellow diamonds) but instead of kangaroos they were emus!

We had an early lunch at Kimba. After a bit more driving we had a short stop at Wudinna to look at an 8.5 metre high big stone statue that weighed 130 tonnes. The statue was of a farmer with sheep at his feet, carved into the statue were lots of symbols such as wheat crops and campfires and also some old blade shears and the farmers family.

When we got to Streaky Bay we had a look at the shops and then sat around down at the beach. Then for dinner we had fish and chips.

We had quite an early start this morning. We got up at about six and left Fiona and Darren’s at about six-forty five. The fog was very heavy for quite some time, but it eventually lifted, revealing a lovely, sunny day. We had planned to get some breakfast in Bordertown, however, on our arrival there, we found that nothing was open yet! We them proceeded onto Keith, where we were successful in finding a place to eat. The cafe where we ate had lots of things in it from the 1960’s. After finishing breakfast we kept driving for quite some time until we arrived in Adelaide. We had lunch in Adelaide at our cousin, Sarah’s place. Nick cooked some very nice pizzas for lunch! We then left Adelaide and started driving again. We drove past a very big wind farm, and also through Snowtown, where the bodies were found in barrels in the State bank building. In Snowtown, there was a wind farm blade set up as a sort if tourist attraction, it was rather large! While we were driving, the sunset was quite pretty! We arrived in Port Augusta at about six o’clock. It was a very long day driving, so hopefully the blogs will get a bit more exciting as we go on!!
Tara