West Coast 2021

The weather has warmed up a bit - only a bit - after moving north from Kalgoorie. We had a peaceful 3 night stay at Goongarrie Station (an old sheep station) with a day trip during that time to see the Gormley Sculptures at Lake Ballard.  Next was a very windy overnight stay at Gwalia Museum where we learnt about the the Sons of Gwalia gold mine. Next morning drove 5km to our next stop in Leonora, on the way looking at Gwalia ghost town. We set up our vans at the back of Goongarrie Homestead The facilities at the homestead included flush toilets, a shower and a nice sheltered area A few vehicles were left here after they died Me on the hill in Lake Ballard The mud was nearly dry after recent rains One of the tourists trying not to get muddy feet Hoover House, designed by the Herbert Hoover, then mine manager at Gwalia The view out the front gate ........ ....... at the open cut gold mine Devonshire Tea on the verandah of Hoover House  

   Because of the border restrictions from NT to WA we came across to WA via SA. This required a change of itinerary which meant we had to tour some of southern WA in winter - not our preference. We did get some nice days but we also got a lot of rain and strong winds - sometimes both at the same time.     After a stormy night in a shaking caravan at Lucky Bay we started to move north; hoping to get away from the rain. It sort of worked but the rain caught up with us again at Kalgoorlie.     On the way to Kalgoorlie we visited more rocks; the most notable being Wave Rock.  We also had a lunch stop at Mount Palmer, a deserted gold mining town.  We found the road out of Mount Palmer to be overgrown and that it had lots of water from the recent rains.  When we got to the other end of the road with lots of mud and bush scratches we saw a sign saying the road was closed and to enter at own risk. Lucky Bay - a bit cold and windy Even wi...

July 2021 and we set off on our outback adventure that we had originally planned to do last year.  Even after 12 months of delay we still leave another 5 days late due to another lock down and a closed SA border.   After crossing into SA we had covid tests just over the border at Tailem Bend.  We got our negative results the next day and then we were off.   We started up the Oodnadatta Track to go the Northern Territory.   Then we heard about the Alice Springs lock down.   Also, it was impossible at the time to travel from the NT into WA due to covid restrictions so we turned around at Farina and started across the Nullabor to enter WA from SA at Eucla.  On the way we had to clock up 14 days in SA before entering WA so we spent time seeing a lot of things along the way that we'd usually miss. Picture show on the Quorn Silo Pichi Richi Railway at Quorn Our Camp at the start of the Strezlecki track (we went up there a short way to get away from the traff...