2014 trip begins

Oh my goodness, what a whirlwind of a trip to WA. 

Recently I got a call from Michelle at Coral Bay looking for a couple of cleaners at the Peoples Park Caravan Park in Coral Bay.  The thought of going back to Coral Bay was very exciting as we loved the WA coast so it didn't take us a lot of time to decide to accept the job.

We had less than a week to get our act together and a wedding to go to in the mix, one day to pack the car and the tvan and Monday 31st March we were off.

We took 10 days of shared driving of 9/10 hours on the bitumen, even though there was no sightseeing on the way it was so good to be back on the road! We were on our way to Broken Hill when we saw our first wedge tail eagle and being on the bitumen we had to tackle plenty of trucks, wide loads and road trains most of the trip.

 

(One wide load while I was driving I had to stop on the side of the road as the truck took up the whole road.)  We had varied weather, the first night at Narrabri was very warm and hard to fall asleep and the next night we had our trackies and flannies on and were pulling up the doona.

We had a couple of nights in caravan parks, some free camping,

 

 quite close to the highway

very close actually

 

one night with Milly,

Milly took us for a drive around where she lives, very interesting place...out near Southern Cross WA...

after leaving Milly's we caught, only the edge of a thunder/lightning storm but it didn't last very long for us thank goodness

 

and then we had two nights with Steve's sister, Jenny, in Gidgee. so good to catch up with her and Frank and Ida again.  We had only planned one night at Jenny's but after an oil change and a bit of lunch we hooked up the van and couldn't get the van tail lights to work and found we had a broken pin connection,

 

so after the one hour trip Steve did to Midland and back to get a new pin set, Steve got the lights working again but it was a bit late to be on the road.  We left early the next morning and had a 10 1/2 hour drive ending up driving after sunset

 

(not good on the open road) and ended up in a rest area about 80km south of Carnarvon and setting up in the dark, oh joy.  The hardest park was finding a place to park as this stop was a big area, with a toilet, (always popular with fellow travellers) and there were plenty of others already camped for the night. Chatted to 2 other couples from Bunbury and Mandurah for a while but we were looking forward to a well earned rest.

It is Wednesday 9 April and we are on the home stretch now...into Carnarvon to stock up, food, beer and wine...all the important stuff (I wish we thought to stock up on extra fuel in the jerries and the gas bottle that ran out two days after we arrived in Coral Bay).  We were on the road into Coral Bay and over a rise and all over the landscape were willy willies.

 

and then the last couple of hours and we arrived in Coral Bay.

 

We met Michelle and Matt, a lovely couple, and they showed us to our site 113.  Matt gave us some shade cloth to put under our feet and to protect the lawn that he is trying to grow and we spent the rest of the day setting up and unpacking.  Steve keeps our grass well watered around the Tvan

Thursday we had a bit of an orientation by Michelle of the cabins and what our work entailed...not rocket science but a few particulars to learn.  Then we had the day to ourselves and it was across the road to the beach for a swim...what a life!!!

Friday morning we get our phone call about 7.45am, our trainers, Sango and Cris, had arrived and we had 4 villas/cabins to clean, and ended up a total of 5 hours work and only needed one villa ready for a check in...easy peasy, finished by 1pm, plenty of time to put our feet up and rest our weary legs. 

Saturday is the big day, the start of the school holidays, (for the people that know me very well you may find it hard to believe but I was awake by 6am) and we started work at 7.30am, four of us had five villas and four cabins and lastly the penthouse to clean.  Being the newbies, Steve and I made the beds and vacuumed and mopped mostly (now I know why nurses have bad backs...not from lifting patients, it's from making beds hahaha).  Well we had a huge day, we finished at 4.45pm; it's been a long time since we have been on the go for 9 and 1/4 hours non-stop. 

 

 

 

 

First thing Steve and I did after we finished was sit down and have a beverage

 

and then we went to the beach and had a swim to cool off...by the way it has been in the mid to high 30C and the water is beautiful right up until sunset, then the big fish start chasing the little fish so it's time to get out of the water... for us anyway.

Coral Bay and the Easter Holidays!
 

We treat ourselves to a fish, calamari and chips from Fins Café at our shopping village

 

and we ate it in the park watching the sunset and that was the end of our day today.

Now we are also working like some of you...sort of.

Life doesn't get much better!

PS. tomorrow we were supposed to have the day off but we have to do 'one' villa but then we will have the day on the beach...might do some snorkelling...ho hum.

PSS. and we have a golf cart to drive around in...how cool is that!

 

 

 

We have got through the first week and we are quite enjoying ourselves (five days on, 2 days off with varied hours each day...depending on how much there is to do and we get to work in the air con) and the Easter Holidays are in full swing. Tomorrow, Easter Saturday is a huge day and there will be 5 of us cleaning cabins and villas and doing towel and linen changes, so it is an earlyish night tonight.

 

Happy Easter!!!

Coffin Bay, Port Lincoln and homeward bound

Happy New Year!

Today we continue our path along the Westall Way Loop Coastal Scenic Drive past the Highcliffs, Granites, Smooth Pool and we checked out Speeds Point and wouldn't you know it we found camping spots every where towards Speeds Point on the edge of the water.

Then it was a stop in at Sceale Bay, (nice public toilet)

and south to Point Labatt where there is a viewing platform over the cliffs of the sea lion colony, the sea lions were basking in the sun and swimming in the water,

we could have watched them for ages but more places to see.  On to Baird Bay, could be a stopping point, even for lunch...but no, hot wind and flies, so we push on and stop at a private property that has a tourist attraction called Murphy's Haystacks.

Baird Bay from the lookout

Murphy's Haystacks
 

It is still hot while we take the walk around and to look at these amazing rock formations in the middle of a paddock for a small entry fee (if your honest).
Back in the aircon and south along the Flinders Hwy through Port Kenny, ducked into Venus Bay for a look and onto the Talia Caves:  Woolshed Cave and The Tub, interesting bit of nature at a work in progress.

Venus Bay-every town has their historical jetty

walk to Woolshed cave

the Woolshed Cave

Unfortunately all this water around and not a safe place to swim.
Our next town was Elliston,  of course nothing much happening in Elliston on New Years Day and it is still hot so Steve wants to find an air con room to sleep in tonight and get some decent hours of sleep.  We find a take away with air con and buy lunch and call the caravan park close by and they have only one budget cabin and we go take a look, yes very budget but it does have air con and a...DOUBLE BED...squishy or some may think cosy, we take it any way and wouldn't you know it...the breeze picks up and the temperature drops.There is no telling what mother nature is going to do next.  The local pub had meals on so seafood was on the menu tonight, Steve got his first half dozen (that was all that was left) oysters...Mmmm as he moaned and groaned in ecstacy.  Steve has been waiting along time for the Coffin Bay oysters.  We make cosy in our little, little room this evening (that turned out to be cool and no need for an air con) and, good call Steve, it starts to rain and showers on and off all night and we forgot how noisy the rain is on a tin roof, we pushed out as many Zzzzzz as we could.
We pushed on the next day did a coastal tour of Elliston where their are some very impressive pieces of artworks on the cliffs

and drove past a little fuel/shop in Sheringa..."Steve, do you want to stop, oysters $6/dozen", I say..."no, probably unshucked" was the reply.    We pulled into Leo Cummings Monument Lookout to see the magnificent cliffs and the biggest osprey nest I have ever seen on top of the rock

and then we drive onto ... "COFFIN BAY".  We drive around town and found Beachcombers where everybody was getting lunch.  Steve got more oysters ($12.50/dozen) for lunch as well as fish and chips and he says, 'even better than last nights oysters'.

Fully oyster satisfied for now we decide to continue on to Port Lincoln and stay in a caravan park till the Christmas holiday traffic are safely back at home and going back to work on Monday and we will head off too.  Our stay in Port Lincoln has been very quiet and the weather has turned on us again with cold, wind and rain and all we have done is toured the town...too cold to swim with the sea lions or the tuna.

The rain is coming...again

seal lion hanging around the fishing boats on the wharf

a few of the fishing boats in the marina

tuna farms we can see from the tvan

Now we start heading north...Bris Vegas here we come.