DAY 75 - EMU ENCOUNTER

From Lake Grace we drove south getting ever closer to the sea. As we arrived into Ravensthorpe 50 kms shy of the coast we could at last feel a slightly cooler breeze coming through. From here we drove out of town a few kilometers to a little dirt track up to Fitzy's bush camp on a farm run by a very friendly couple, Alan and Kay. We had a great view up on their hill and their resident emu Milo came to visit in the afternoon for his daily feed from Alan. The girls looked so small next to this long necked creature.

DAYS 71 to 74 - SWIMMING OUR WAY ACROSS THE WHEATBELT

There was a film I once saw as a boy called The Swimmer with Burt Lancaster where a man decides to make his way home via his neighbours swimming pools. Well travelling through the Western Australian wheatbelt felt similar as each town had a wonderful swimming pool to cool ourselves off in as we made our way down from Perth to the south coast. These towns we travelled through had received funding for their nice state of the arts swimming pools through the Royalties for Regions funding project to inject life into these tired dusty towns. Not only did these towns have new swimming pools but also often brand new shire caravan parks which were very cheap to stay in but of a high standard.

So from Wave rock we travelled about 100 kms to the town of Kulin with it's 18 meter high, 182 meter long water slide. The campground had lovely brand new double concrete pads to park on and the toilet block had individual bathrooms with posh fittings and huge shower cubicles. Ayla loved the waterslide sitting on my lap as we went down at speed. Kyra was not so keen. The first day I had the wrong top on which slowed us down but the second day without a top we really did fly down the slide, painfully bumping knees and elbows as we went. There were only a few kids using it so we never had to queue.

The next day we drove without the caravan 70 kms to the dentist who mucked up gluing my crown tooth back in. Hopefully he is a dentist! Who knows out here in the wheatbelt, anything is possible! He still didn't do a great job filing my teeth down to make them fit together better. Roll on dentures! So we made a day of it visiting the Grain discovery centre explaining how the whole wheat growing process works. I wrote in the visitor book that I was gluten free! Then we visited the Hidden hollow for a picnic and the girls learnt to make a rock cairn. From there we drove to Buckleys breakaway, where erosion has cut through orange laterite exposing beautiful coloured cliff.

sunset over our lovely camp spot at Kulin

The day after we got up early to climb up the monolith of Jilakin rock with it's great views over the salt lake below it and then we drove along the Tin Horse highway stopping to take photos of the hilarious barrel drum sculptures which locals have made which line the road into Kulin.

After Kulin we drove south slowly heading closer to the sea and stopped at the small town of Lake Grace for one night. It takes it's name from the huge salt lake next to the town which stretches as far as the eye can see. At this town they have a 50 metre pool which was just great for Steffi and I to do laps and it had a great children's paddling area for the girls too. I took a photo of the pool for the blog and the young guy running it came up to me to ask me what I was doing. I told him about the blog and he just gave me a blank stare and said that people weren't allowed to take photos of the pool. He repeated this a few times to make sure it sunk in. Reminded me of the days of being arrested for taking photos in countries where the people were paranoid of spies.

This is the photo I took of the pool that I got severely told off for!

the very salty Lake Grace

DAYS 69 to 70 - WAVE ROCK

Getting behind with my posts...tut tut! So anyway...Wave rock. We arrived there just as another very hot spell started. In the mid 40s both days but atleast we now had power and therefore air conditioning. Plus the dusty campground at Wave Rock had a little pool which was perfect for us to cool down.

The first day we drove 18 kms to the Humps where Mulka's cave is to see the Aboriginal hand prints on the cave ceiling.

 We also climbed to the top of the Humps in the searing afternoon heat which was a mission as you can see from the girl's red faces!

. In the evening we also climbed to the top of Wave rock to watch the sunset, the heat finally subsiding.

The next day we were up at 6am to beat the heat and do a circular walk (the girls on their bikes) past Wave Rock, Hippo's yawn and lake Magic salt lake

. In the afternoon we chilled out at the local town pool and then back to lake Magic to watch another magical sunset.

The morning we left I took a few more photos of Wave rock and this was my favourite. It has the feel  of a pastel painting to it.

DAYS 61 TO 68 - COOLING DOWN IN BRUCE ROCK WITH IT'S GREAT SWIMMING POOL

With the temperature hovering around the mid 40s mark we drove east only about 50kms to the small Wheatbelt town of Bruce Rock to the great modern but empty campground there. Only 109 dollars for 7 nights with a free washing machine and the town swimming pool right next door. Steffi hadn't felt baby kick for a for about 24 hours so we went to the doctor here straight away and as we went in to his office baby started moving about again. The heart rate was fine but he told us we must immediately drive to Perth to have baby checked in the main children's hospital there. A round trip of about 500 kms! I guess he was covering himself just incase but he was very insistent. We thanked him but with baby kicking away again we headed to the pool instead.

So for a week Stef has been working and I have been fixing up the caravan in the morning and in the afternoon we have all been swimming in the pool . Then some evenings we cycle to the nearby district club for cheap drinks, air conditioning and a playground you can see from the bar!. Ayla and Kyra have come on in leaps and bounds in the swimming pool and Ayla has finally learnt to swim breaststroke and is really good, her little head bobbing in and out of the water as she goes. Kyra loves to go under the water with her goggles and loves jumping off the diving blocks. I have even been helping out running the water slide at the pool which the girls love going down.

One of my gold crowns fell out whilst we were here and the nearest dentist I could find was 50 kms away in the small town of Narembeen. $120 for 20 minutes and then when I got back to the campsite I realised the crown he glued back on was too high and started to cause my gum to hurt. So now I have to track this dentist down who moves from town to town and at the moment  is in a place called Corrigin which is 100 kms away!

Our camp spot for the last 8 days. You can see the waterslide between the car and caravan.

Bruce Rock Aquatic Centre

We often have the pool to ourselves.

Ayla's special dive.

Who's next?

                                      

                                      

Ayla doing the breaststroke for the first time today.

The girls on the town!

Sad goodbye to Rodena the pool manager.

DAYS 59 AND 60 - FREE CAMPING, FLIES ,HEAT, AND CLIMBING A MONOLITH

After York we carried on east about another 100 kms to the Kwolyin free camping area. Great set up with new flushing toilets and camp kitchen plus gas BBQ with new bench tables. We set up camp with our solar panels to keep the van battery charged. The temperature rising today and above 40.c which wasn't too pleasant especially as we had no electricity to run our AC unit. Poor Stef with her large tum as well! Lots of flies around too. You can even see one on the camera lens in this photo!

The girls going for a walk around the campground with fly swatters at the ready!

The next day we drove to the nearby monolith of Kokerbin which is 122 meters high.. This is the third largest in OZ, the biggest being Ayers Rock.

The girls had a pack each for the 5 km walk up to the top. Even at 9am the heat was quite intense until we got to the top where a breeze took the edge off it.

The girls taking a break under this rock from the burning sun.

Back at the campground we took cold showers all afternoon to cool down and the girls did some home schooling in between. They learnt about how to use a compass and we even made one using a needle hanging from a thread.

In the evening we climbed up to the top of a small monolith by the campground to watch the sun set and a full moon rise.