Australia: Tales from a Canadian Nomad: Sister Tales from the Road

cave at Uluru

The Olgas

beach at Lucky Bay

Canadian Pride

sunset at Uluru Campground

cave at Uluru where men gathered for important talks

Kangaroo at Lucky Bay beach - so tame!

this is a view looking up at Uluru...

the beginning of the Great Central Road across Western Australia

Uluru in the morning

salt pond in WA

recycled vehicle...now the garbage truck

beach kangaroo at Lucky Bay

Sorry for the lack of posting but I've been busy! My sis and I left Alice Springs on the 2nd of April and headed straight for King's Canyon where we spent the night, and went for a short hike in the morning. It was much too hot to hike the rim, so we just did the canyon floor hike in overcast skies. No really remarkable photos, sad to say. But I'd seen the canyon from the rim last year, and captured some amazing photos.

my sister took this at Uluru - amazing!

From King's Canyon we headed to Uluru for the night and saw the rock at sunset in the middle of a magnificent thunder and lightening storm. The rain poured down over the rock while I shot photos, and captured some amazing video of the rain pouring down over the rock. My sister shot the amazing shot posted here. I missed every time, so was a bit pissed about that, however proud of my sister's photo. We went off in the morning to check out the rock up close and did a couple of hikes there, It was still pretty hot so we were glad to get back into the air conditioned car! We then went for a tour of the Olga's and I opted out of any hikes and instead enjoyed the view from the shade while my sis walked a bit. Then it was time to push on towards Western Australia.

We made it to Docker River over some fairly rough roads, and took one look at the campground there and said um, no friggin way. No one was there, it was just a few sites with two toilets and very close to the community. Unsafe all the way around, so we kept on going for Warrakuna and camped at the small campground at the Roadhouse there. They were infested with ANTS so Kimm nearly shit bricks, and I was also miserable dealing with ants, flies, and mozzies. She couldn't handle the ants crawling into her tent so slept in the car that night. I slapped several away, but managed some sleep and woke up with bites from something. I'm not sure what, but I was scratching all over...

Packed up there and headed west, and made it to a roadhouse in Tjirrkarli for the night. Nicer campground, less ants, and an awesome lounge with two plump recliners - we moved in for the night and didn't even bother setting up the tents and slept in comfort and air con. The drive was eventful with a thunderstorm that moved in and out of the roadway, leaving the bush road slick in places so we had to decrease the lead foot and try not to spin off the road into the bush. We saw hardly any traffic at all. We had the forethought to fill a jerry can with 20 litres of fuel, which turned out to be a good idea as when we left the roadhouse, the next town had one gas station and it was closed for Good Friday. We made it to Lenora and gassed up there before heading out for Kalgoorlie for the night.

Kalgoorlie was just another dusty town, but the Super Pit was pretty amazing, right in the town and HUGE! We went for a looksee at the rim and took photos. They have been mining gold here for decades. After Kalgoorlie we headed for the ocean!! We managed to make it to Esperance, but discovered all campgrounds full, including our chosen destination of Lucky Bay. Thankfully they had an overflow campground at the ballfield so we camped there for a couple of nights and headed to the beach the next day at Lucky Bay. It was simply gorgeous there and we couldn't wait to get into the ocean and bob in the waves. The water was heavenly and we were in for a few hours before drying out on the beach and chilling with some books. It was rather windy so sis sat in the car. There were some kangaroos that came down to feed and were so tame I could pet them! So very soft, I want a pelt...

We departed Esperance and headed west to Hopetoun. We had planned to camp in the National Park there, but it was closed for renovations, so we were forced to camp at a caravan park in town, which was nice enough, but not real tent friendly. We left the next morning and headed west again, hoping for better beaches than we found in Hopetoun. On the way we saw a kangaroo jumping across the road, and marveled at the fact they were out in the daytime, just in time to have a very close encounter with one who was apparently not far behind the first one, and narrowly missed him with the car...he was so close he could knock on my window...phew...

We have now landed in Denmark, which is a sleepy little beach town with marvelous white sand beaches and just what we were looking for. We have decided to stay for 3 nights at least as the campground is fantastic, lots of mature shade trees, and just minutes from the beach. We've been in the water both days since our arrival, body surfing in the crashing waves. This morning we visited a local chocolatier and tasted some marvelous homemade chocolates before heading back to Albany for a few hours - left my credit card where I had bought a table yesterday, and had to fetch it back! Thankfully I remembered where I left it, and they had kept it for me. Had some lunch in Albany and then back to Denmark for the beach. We will head into town tonight for a meal, and hope it doesn't rain from the ominous looking clouds nearby. We set up the shade tent over our campsite so hopefully it keeps the worst of it out, should it rain. We're not sure where we will head after this, but it will be at the beach!