Daryl and Glennys Barnett

Wednesday 6 June 2012

After a very restful night in the cabin at Canarvon we headed inland to Mt Augustus. What an amazing site The largest rock in the world. Twice the size of Ayers Rock, it abruptly rises 2354 ft above the surrounding plains, and at 1750 million years old, Mt Augustus is 8klms long, 3klms wide. It constantly changes colour from bright red at sunrise through shades of green, to hues of blue then through orange to gold at sunset.We got up early the next morning to go climbing.We done a class 5 trail which took us nearly 6 hours to get up and back.Glenn sat on a rock at the half way mark and said enough.!!But she got herself going again and made it to the top.The traditional custodians are the Wadjari tribe who know Mt Augustus as Burringurrah.

Back on the road again after lunch we headed off. We drove on the Goldfields Highway to Leinster.
The town was established in 1976 by the Agnew Gold Mining Company as a dormitory town for workers at its nickel mine. The Leinster Nickel Operation is now part of the BHP Billiton Nickel West business group. The operation employs 992 workers and produces 40,000 - 45,000 tons of nickel in concentrate per year. We were told to go to the Miners mess for dinner so off we went. What a surprise $12 a head for all you can eat buffet style. It was like going to a major shopping centre food court. It was huge and the food was fantastic. Spotless have the contract.

Next morning we headed into Lake Ballard, which is 50kms west of Menzies. 51 life-sized statues that form the "Inside Australia" exhibition by internationally renowned artist Antony Gormley. The Statues are situated on part of the major salt Lake. The work is an installation of black abstracted steel figures standing in a 7 square kilometre area of Lake Ballard. Locals in the Menzies community contributed by having their naked bodies scanned. The resulting scans were used as the basis for making accurate concentrated forms which allow attitudes and emotions embedded in posture to be revealed. The resulting sculptures cast in a special alloy of elements taken from Western Australia are life-size in height but reduced to one third of their original body volume. They are intense, taut, stick-like body-forms that stand out against the brilliant white of the salt-lake.

We only managed to see around 29 statues as the earth was rapidly turning to mush and the salt melting was making it difficult to walk through. But this took us around 2 hours to see them. We were fortunate to see them with the salt so white as the next morning it was brown mushy earth.

Daryl putting his shoes back on after walking through the mud.

After packing up the next morning after a lovely evening by the fire we headed into Menzies which is a mining and pastoral town in the Eastern Goldfields km east of Perth. It is not a large town but the council has erected several notice boards out the front of the heritage sites which are very interesting to read.

In the boom days there were 13 hotels and 3 breweries in Menzies This one is the Old Menzies Hotel which is now a private residence.Established by Harry Gregory in 1895.

Baker's Oven: Ruins of Wells Bakery.

After taking some photo's and wandering around town we headed to Kalgoorlie - Boulder where we stopped for some supplies and the obligatory coffee from Macca's. Daryl went to have a look at the

Super Pit. It is currently 3.5 km long 1.5 km wide and 680 mtrs deep and will eventually stretch 3.9 km long Since 1893 more than 50 million ounces of gold has been mined from the Golden Mile. Very impressive.

We headed next onto the Eyre Highway for the travel across the Nullarbor plain. Stopping only overnight at a roadhouse which was very noisy all night with the transports pulling in for fuel and food. So we got an early start the next morning stopping at the Nullarbor Bight, which is said to be the longest line of sea cliffs in the world. Very impressive but we nearly got blown away. A few snaps and talks to other travellers and we were on the road again.

Old Paney Home stead.

We are now convinced that the journey is coming closer to home as the cold weather is really starting in. We stopped for lunch at Ceduna where we got chatting to some travellers who suggested that we head into the Gawler Rangers, no trouble getting Daryl back into the dirt roads off the beaten track so advice taken we headed in there. Not a soul to be seen, collected our firewood on the way and set of to see some history.

Beautiful flock of emu, I had not seen so many at one time
free in the open .I could only wonder what the foreign tourist
would think of think of these amazing animals.

Our last campsite at Gawler National Park before we headed home.

Leaving the rangers behind us we now had only 1 overnight stay in Tailem Bend then we arrived home at about 4pm Saturday.

Some statistics:

Days – 39

Kilometres – 14580

Total Costs $6174

Total Fuel Costs -$3748.05

Longest Klms/day – 941klms

(Tamani from Alice Springs to Halls Creek. Advised not to visit Aboriginal communities due to tribal unrest)

Longest Distance without fuel available - 940klms

Most expensive fuel - $2.27/litre, Pink Roadhouse, Oodnadatta

Cheapest Fuel - $1.50/Litre, Geelong

Most expensive camp - $41.00 Kooljaman Resort - Cape Laveque (powered site)

$40.00 El Questro Wilderness Resort – Gibb River Rd. (unpowered)

Cheapest Campsite – 9 free camps

Tuesday 5 June 2012

Amazing Art Work at the homestead along the way to Millstream

Tracks at Millstream National Park

Landscape to Mt Augustus

The largest rock in the world is Mt Augustus. Twice the size of Ayers Rock, it abruptly rises 2354 ft above the surrounding plains, and at 1750 million years old,And we climbed it.5 hours.

Wiluna. Warri and Yatungka a love story.WA

1st well on the Canning Stock Route.WA

Mt Gould police station Circa 1888.WA

Internationally reknowned artist, Antony Gormley was commissioned to do these sculptures.There are 51 scattered over 10kms on the salt lake approximately 55km west from the townsite of Menzies.WA

Great camp spot at Lake Ballard. WA

Super pit mine .Kalgoorlie

Great Australian Bight Nullabor Plain.

Kolay Minca Falls. Gawler National Park SA

Thursday 24 May 2012

After leaving Wolfe Creek crater we headed to Halls Creek where we refuelled after our longest leg without re fuelling. As there was no where to buy Diesel along the way without detouring along the Tanami. 940 kms.

We were told not to go into Yuelamu, because there had been a disturbance with the locals and one man was scalped and the Police Woman was hit over the head with a hammer!! So we heeded their advise and hoped for the best.

We headed into the Bungle Bungles very rough road but so amazing.We settled into the camp.
We met a lovely young couple and exchanged stories of our travels and they shared theirs. Nick and Amanda.They are doing a 3 month trip around Aust.

We spent 2 days going through gorges and Chasm's. It was fantastic, the colours, reflections and wildlife that you don't see anywhere else.

After we headed to Kununurra for supplies we headed to the Gibb River road.
The first stop was Emma Gorge where we walked up the Gorge and had a well deserved swim at the falls.We had a treat of Iced coffee's when we got back to the resort.

We went to El Questro where we drove to the summit which had amazing views and Daryl got to use his 4 wheel drive skills in low range.Thank goodness we never had other traffic to contend with as passing passing was near impossible.

We drove up to the private Homestead where tourists pay up to $2000.00 per night to stay and they were building accommodation to cater for 12 more. They are very busy up there.

After leaving El Questro we headed along the Gibb River road with a little bit of intrepidation, as the Pentecost River was 800 mm deep and at least 50 metres wide with a rocky bottom. It was flowing very fast. As we arrived Daryl had a chat with some others who had been across so he felt up for the challenge. As we bounced over rocks in the river the rushing water had our heart rate rising,but Daryl and the Ford were fantastic a great experience.

We were so lucky to be told about Bindoola Falls from the guys back at the crossing, as we would not have seen them. They are another amazing natural wonder of the Kimberley.

Travelling along were were surprised to see a cyclist riding along, he only had thongs and a very small pack on his bike. We didn't stop, but further along we came to another 2 cyclists,so we stopped and Glenn made them a coffee and we chatted to them Finding out 1 was from Hong Kong the other from the UK. They explained that there were 4 of them all together but 1 had gone ahead and 1 was still back at the last camp because he had a blowout and was trying to repair the tyre with fishing line and tape.

We came across a sign that said "Scones with jam and cream.!!!!" so of course we had to detour into Ellenbrae Station. After sampling them and learning about the station we started of again.

70 kms from Ellenbrae we headed onto the Kalumburu Road towards Drysdale river where we stayed the night. The next morning we headed up to the Mitchell Falls which had only been opened 3 days, we were very lucky to be able to get in there. The walk to the falls was a steep rocky, very hot walk but the reward was exhilarating with a large amount of water cascading down the falls. We spent ages up there, just contemplating the wonder of it all. On the way back we jumped into the river and had a fantastic swim which revived us both. Driving back to Kalunburu road we passed through Palm trees interspersed with gums and spinifex, the colours and textures were truly beautiful, also we had stopped to see Indigenous art works off the road through the paddocks on some rock faces that we were told about.These are fantastic.

Next stop Mt Elizabeth Station we drove the remote track into Wunumarra Gorge. This track was terrible, Glenny got out and walked the roughest part saying it was unbearable. It took us 4 hours to do the return journey. It was well worth the effort as the ancient rock art site was excellent, well preserved and so hard to get at.It was also special as it was on the Barnett River where Daryl had a birthing experience and jumped in, in his birthday suit. Ha Ha (No photos)

Back on the Gibb River Road we stopped at Galvan's Gorge, but it was disappointing that most of the Gorges were closed due to the heavy rain. We continued onto derby. We will have to go back another time. Daryl rotated the tyres, Glenn did the washing, then we both went for a refreshing swim at the pool.we went to the refurbished hotel Spinners for dinner.
We found out that you can rent a 3 bedroom unfurnished house for $800-00 plus a week.
Daryl helped assemble a flat pack shelf set for a slightly inebriated young lady in the permanent camp site opposite ours. He knew how to do it as he had assembled some at LandCare a couple of weeks before we left.( I think he misses it)

After leaving derby it wasn't long before we reached Cape Leveque road. After 15kms we were pulled over and Daryl was breathalysed. He hasn't had a drink in months!! So funny and it was about 10am.
.
There were protesters sitting on the turnoff to James Price Point, they are there to try and stop the planned LPG Plant.

We went to see the Sacred Heart Church at Beagle Bay. It features a beautiful alter decorated with mother of pearl.

We were on our way to Middle Lagoon when we came across a man leading a camel towing a Volkswagen kombie shell with his little lady and 2 children bouncing along behind him and another camel, so all up he had 2 camels, 2 dogs 2 children and a wife. He couldn't stop to talk as his camel would only sit down and not get up again. As we approached the camp there was a Donkey sitting in the middle of the road, we slowed down but the donkey proceeded to put his head in Daryl's window so we took off with the donkey chasing us, Hilarious.

Next day we went to Kooljaman Resort which was what we were looking forward to the whole trip, Cape Leveque.The water is pristine, scenery magic, the weather beautiful. It was everything we expected plus. We swam in the ocean, drove along the beach and just relaxed. We went up to One Arm Point where we met Barry who runs the Trochus shell hatchery. He got Daryl to feed the Barra, which jumped up and scared the crap out of him. We bought a shell then left and went to Cygnet Bay, where we had fantastic coffee and cake, such a treat in the middle of no where.The chef is from Sweden. We had a look around the area before we headed back down to Broome.
Cygnet Bay has the biggest cultured pearl in the world which is 22.5 mm dia. It is on display at Broome showroom.

We stayed at Cable beach where we joined the masses to watch the sun set.
Leaving Broome we headed down to Cape Kerauderen which was a nice setting on the lagoon BUT!!!! the midges were horrible and we were both badly bitten by them. Glenny had bites all over her back and arms. It took all she had to stop scratching them they have lasted 3 days and still are red lumps.

We headed into Millstream Nat Park where we set up for the night, chatted to other campers and Daryl had another swim in the river, the scenery on the way up was spectacular.

We have treated ourselves to a cabin at Carnarvon for the night before we head over to Mount Augustus.