A drive around the highest mountain range in Australia

We got to Corryong and set up camp.  Lucky we got here early as the vans and camp trailers have not stopped coming.  The festival is much bigger than we expected and we think bigger than the town expected!  The poor volunteers are looking worn out already!

We had a day to spare before the activities started so we headed out into the high country.  From Corryong to Khancoban then started heading up. The mountains are beautiful and they keep coming. The round trip was around 300 kilometers in the Honda of couse, Midi bus may not make it up these hills!

Even though we are in Kosciuszko National Park Sammie can come with us as it is a public road.  We head through Thredbo Ski Resort and lunch in Jindabyne.  Around Lake Jindabyne and Lake Eucumbene. Then head back into the hills to the north of the lakes and find the highest town in Australia.  Cabramurra - built in the early days to house the workers for the Snowy Scheme it was updated in the 70's and there is talk that it may close down as drive in drive out seems to be taking over.

Heading South

The bus is packed and we head out from Bribie Island around midday.  Bribie is our new home since the last blog.  We have tickets to the "Man from Snowy River Festival" in Cooryong, Victoira.  The festival starts on the 4th of April so we have to get moving to get in early and get a good camp spot.

The bus is a bit sluggish so Jim decided to have a break and a check around before we head up the range and through Cunningham's Gap.  Lucky he did as the trailer brakes were on.  That fixed we head out through Warwick and spend our first night under the stars along the Cunningham Highway at place called Gore.

Next day out to Goondiwindi turn left and we are on the Newell Highway and into New South Wales.  The next night is at a camp called Hickey Falls.  Its a bit dry out here and the falls aren't running but there are some nice pools for Sammie to lay in.

Jim has some concerns about the power usage and some fuses that keep blowing so we spend the next day here with Jim up and down in and out of the bus checking and isolating circuits to try and work what is making them blow.

It is the trailer - the electric brakes this time!  So after having to remove both wheels it looks like he has that problem fixed.  The loo is not flushing either so he sets about fixing that also.  He spends some time checking the wiring to the new fridge and seems to have that working well now.

Off we go further down through NSW we have some time so we head into Stuart Town where Jim's dad was born.  Interesting story about the name of the town and its history.  It was named Ironbarks, made famous by the Banjo Patterson poem "The man from Ironbarks" - Ironbarks and its community had such a bad reputation that a judge decided the only thing that would save the town was a new name and he called it Stuart Town after the then Governor of NSW I think.

Orange, Canowindra, Cowra, Young and Cootamundra fly by very nice country to drive in.  Through Wagga Wagga and onto a little town called Culcairn for the night.

We head into Cooryong along the Murray Valley Way.

continuation of the crossing

Anne joined us up front to get a look at the view. 

We did see a camel carcass - would have been a shock to hit it. 

Down at beach level just before the big bite. 

About as close as you want to take a 9 tonne bus to a drop like this.

Southern Right Whales - come to bay at Head of Bight to calf. We could have watched them for hours.

Across the bottom with Anne

Hi,  I think all of you have given up on me by now (I certainly would have) - but I will do one last post to show you our journey across the spectacular southern coastline of mainland Australia.  And a couple of other special spots in WA - Wave Rock near Hyden and the fabulous bays at Cape Le Grande National Park near Esperance.

Our friend Anne fly to Perth to join us for the crossing.  Jim did a fabulous job of converting the dining area of the bus into a bed for Anne.  It was fun having an extra person along with us and Sammie really enjoyed the extra attention.

The Nullarbor Plain was not as flat or barren as I expected - but the Bight is definitely spectacular and looks like some big monster has risen up out of the sea and bitten a chunk out of the Continent. I think it could easily be called the great Australian Bite!

Wonder why they call it Wave Rock.

Yes I can remember golden fleece petrol stations - If you can you will be showing your age!!

The rain that falls on the rock is directed by this wall into a dam at the end - it supplies the town water.  Aboriginal people have been doing something similar in the area for thousands of years.


ESPERANCE - CAPE LE GRANDE NATIONAL PARK 

The photos do not show the true spectacle of the colours - this is Hellfire Bay

Some very health conscious kangaroos - having a seaweed wrap and a bite to eat 

We were lucky to have good weather while at Cape Le  Grande - this is Lucky Bay

STARTING THE TRIP ACROSS THE NULLARBOR

The big flat plain

Beautiful campsite looking back to the ridges.

Eyre telegraph station - one of the many abandon buildings along the line - cant imagine how isolated these people must have felt. 

see next post of more photos of the crossing.

South west corner and then east

 We stuck to the coast south of Perth for a while - Bunbury ad Bussellton are the big towns in the area.  They are great towns they seem to have everything and more they are right on the beach!! Probably a little better in summer.

We now have moved into the sort of axed shape bit at the bottom corner of WA - visited Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse and then down through the Margaret River area - we are not into doing the cellar door visits when we are travelling - the bus is pretty cramped so usually if we want a wine or something it gets bought and drunk within hours.  So gathering the occasional dozen from the winery just doesn't work for us. It was however surprisingly hard to purchase local wine at the bottleshops - maybe a bit expensive for the locals or they drink their own!  If you intended to visit every winery in the area I think it would take months they are everywhere.

A little further south and you hit the most south-westerly part of Australia - Cape Leeuwin with one of the tallest lighthouses in Australia.  All along this coast from Cape Naturaliste down the sea-faring history is long interesting and full of sad tails of shipwrecks. (hence the lighthouses).

He turned our noses to the east and find ourselves with this beautiful coastline on one side and the amazing Karri and Jarrah Forrest's on the other side of us it has been a very special couple of weeks.

Another night in the forrest - a bottle of local red and good fire. 

What do you do with some great coals leftover from last nights fire - you make damper (I will tell you a secret I don't actually know what damper is so I just use my scone recipe)  -sorry about the photo I have a new camera and I was playing with the filters and I forgot to turn dramatic off. 

This is pretty amazing!

We went on a treetop walk - it gets to around 40 meters off the ground and the trees still tower over you.  As you can see it rained on us - I suppose trees don't get this big without lots of rain. 

Enlarge this photo and look down the bottom in the middle - that is the suzi car, it just gives you some idea of the size of the trees. 

A lot of the area is National Park  - We snuck  a ittle way into a couple - don't tell anyone.

CATCHING UP

Sorry guys been very slack - as usual I could bore you with excuses but I wont.  But thank you to our friend Randy who reminded me that I was being slack!

Now that we are in the South West Corner there are several ways of getting to places and plenty to see along the way.  We have been doing some circling - so it might be a bit hard to follow our journey.

And as a bit of a catch up I am going to post some potos with captions and then hopefully I will be a good girl and get some posts up more regularly from here on.  Better phone coverage down here also so that might get rid of one of my excuses.

We often play board games at night - this night we were playing Squatter it is like monopoly only you play for sheep stations - well this night I even got the shirt off his back

This is the Pinnacles National Park - there are thousands of these scatter over kilometres - Jim thinks they are petrified anthills and it seems the scientists are baffled so he may be right.  The rangers here are pretty clever they have pens at the headquarters that you can put your dog in and use your own lock great idea.  But what we did was just leave the bus in the compound and Sammie in the bus he is very happy in the bus and we new he was safe in the compound.  

Some very creative person - has designed this bus shelter in the shape of an upside down boat -  in a fishing town called Dongarra - 

The wildflowers are really starting to show there colours.

No we are not in the Snowy Mountains this is the white sand around - the beaches 100k or so north of Perth.

We are now heading into the south-west and the big trees are beginning to show in the forrest.  These are Jarrah -the larger ones 300-400 years old.

Great fire already to go for the evening - Iornstone Gully Falls free camp.

Yes these are gnomes - thousands of them - on a corner near a place called Lowden.  People power at its finest - people just leave gnomes that represent them or they trip or all sorts of other things - someone has made a Gnomesville Police Station. 

Jim suggested that I just sit down and let the moss grow over me and join the gathering.

We camped in this area to the North of Perth - Called Beekeepers Reserve there are several of these - state owned land usually heathland that is open to beekeepers.  We had to watch Sammie as some bees have decided not to live in hives and made there homes in trees around the campsites.  In the photo below if you look up in the left hand top area you will see a hive on the rock face.  These are not native bees they are honey bees.