2 lucky ducks on the road again

We wrapped up and went for a walk each morning and afternoon but we never saw anymore whales, the rain eased Thursday afternoon so we were hoping fo a good day on Friday so it would dry things out. The sun came out with patches of cloud on Friday and the road dried rapidly.  We left on Saturday we were the only ones there and the only phone reception was when we walked up on the hill at Pt Anne, when we got out the road the ranger had put gates across the road to close the road but Merv managed to open it ok and we escaped

Third day and boy has the weather set in heavy rain all night and day nothing to do but read and try to stay warm and dry, it is sooo cold, about 4 o'clock in the afternoon a thunderstorm hit with a vengeance, hail and rain that was hard to believe, we were hunkered down wrapped in our blankets trying to stay warm. The camper never leaked apart from when it was vicious wind driving the rain, then it was only one small spot in the stitching, it was so cold outside though the inside got wet with condensation it dried ok with the micro fibre cloths. The heavy rain kept up all night. When we got up we realized we were not going to be leaving, this was the day we were to leave, there was water everywhere and even when we walked down the road to the toilet we sank into the road several inches, if we tried to go it would destroy the road. When the rain stopped slightly we put on our coats and went for another walk, we had to get out of the camper. We walked along the beach towards Pt Anne...

Second day in and the  weather is looking rather ominous, we went for long walks along the beach and out to Pt Anne trying to catch site of a whale. We never saw any whales just an echidna, snake and kangaroos. We walked back up around St Mary's inlet, it was getting late and the sky was looking stormy, The inlet is large flowing from the St Mary river, I wished that I had a canoe so I could explore it, there wasn't any easy place to launch the blow up  boat. We just got back before the heavens opened up and it got extremely cold, there was no eating outside. sunset over the inlet with a storm coming was beautiful 

We arrived at Fitzgerald National Park to a beautiful sunny day, we were both gob smacked by the natural beauty, on the way in to the camp site we were astounded by the volume of wildflowers, we have since found out there are 1800 different plants there with 62 specific just to that area. It was sad to see they have a severe case of die back in the banksias, the royal banksias has to be seen to be believed, I took a couple of pics but only small ones they grow into sizable bushes. We were lucky enough to get a good size camp area without too many trees so we could get sun for the solar. After setting up we went for a walk down to the beach, omg the sand is so white, it is like walking on talcom powder and so squeaky so beautiful to walk on, the water was crystal clear and the most amazing turquoise because of the white sand. We went for a very long walk up the beach didn't find anything except a huge pile of rope in the edge of the water, which we dragged way up the dune and a huge...

We left Wagin on our way to Katanning it was a nice day so we made a bit of detour to Lake Dumbbleyung and was very surprised to find out the history of the place. Neither of us new it was the lake that Donald Campbell broke the world speed record on water in 1964 with a speed of 444.7 kms per hour, he also held the land speed record of 648.43 km per hour which he achieved on Lake Eyre SA. The boat, the blue bird was built as a replica to honour 50 years and is proudly displayed in the small country town. Donald Campbell died in England in 1967 trying to beat his time, he was doing well over 500 kms per hour when the boat became airborne and flipped, he was knighted posthumously. The water speed record now is held by Ken Warby, in 2016 he reached 511.1 on a dam in NSW. The lake gets to 4 metres deep but in the dry it can become a salt pan, it is over 13kms long. When we reached Katanning they were holding their annual show so the free stay area was almost full, we were lucky to get a s...

We packed up and left home approximately 11o'clock to head South before making our way to Tasmania, we are booked on the boat on 14th December. I was extremely sad saying goodbye to Liza knowing I won't see her for many months, I will miss her Phil and the dogs very much. It was hard to enjoy the trip, we stopped off in Boddington to have a look at the free stay where we have stayed several times, we haven't been there in covid times and was surprised at the changes, the town has built a first class skate park and bmx track along with a huge playground with one of the best flying foxes I have seen, this along with new toilets have been built near the camp site which has been graveled, surrounded by rose garden, the town should be very proud. We then travelled down through the wheat growing area, which looks spectacular at the moment the paddocks seem to go on forever, we finally arrived at a camp site on a show ground in Wagin. The sites had power and water but we didn'...

We arrived home again on the 10th ready for our Doctor appointments, Merv the physio and me a follow-up with the surgeon, while home I am also getting my skin checked. All went well with the doctors but I had to wait a week to have a suspicious chunk cut out. That was done and I told the doctor I would remove my own stitches so we could head off again. While we were waiting at home I had great shopping trips with Liza, out to dinner with Liza and Phil at the sports centre where Liza goes for her BNI, the food was cheap and very tasty, we also had a good bike ride, the weather stopped me having more than one, great walks on the beach and of course morning soccer with Ranni and Gemma over on the oval, there was a lot of fun play time with both the doggies. Liza and I had a craft night painting starfish to make Xmas decorations. Neville and June came down we walked Point Peron then went to Rockingham for lunch. On the 22nd October the night before we left Liza and I decided to have an ear...

After returning home Merv found a company that specialised  in injectors,  they did a very timely job and the price was great. When it was finished we went down south to Peppermint Grove beach for 6 days to give the truck a run and check it's performance, we had to return as Merv had a doctor appointment for a injured shoulder. We next went out towards Kalgoorlie to follow the gold trail for 2 weeks until I had to go back to my surgeon. We went to ghost towns, no towns only ghosts, we visited Mt  Palmer, Credo station, Victoria rock, Lake Ballard along with another station and lots of other interesting places, on the way up we stayed at the free camp at Merridin, another large rock and quiet camp spot.  The road to Kalgoorlie was so rough we decided to come home the alternative way through Hyden, the flowers along the way were spectacular, we had sent one night in a Kalgoorlie caravan park and it was nice to be camping away from people and hav...

We stayed at 9 mile camp for quite a lengthy time and would have stayed longer only the truck played up again and we had to return home, just when the weather was getting lovely and the water had became nice and warm. We had been for a couple of swims and Merv had been for a snorkel, he found a nice silver spinner on one dive, a sqid lure and another big lure on one of our walks, I found a great squid lure on one of our walks and this lure caught some really good squid when we took  the blowup boat out for a fish when the weather permitted. When we went out in the little boat we saw big sharks, lots of dolphins feeding and wanting to play around us. Neville and June came in and joined us for a week, we went out in our blowup boats, the weather wasn't very nice only caught a couple of Charlie Court cod. I did learn an easy way to clean squid while at 9 mile, it is using a pole eg: broom handle and a piece of shade cloth, works a treat and the end product is a very clean white tube. ...