28th September. Kalgoorlie.

💨💨💨🌥🌥🌫🌫🌞🌞🌞 Wow, a real mixture.

Our next stop was at Sandstone, Peter Denny Lookout.. It was a huge area on the edge of a breakaway formation with expansive views down the orange cliffs to the sea of spinifex scrub that extends to the horizon.

There are only garbage bins and a couple of concrete picnic tables.

There were only 4 caravans & 2 tent type campers there. Quite a number passed through to take in the view. We arrived by 11am and enjoyed the sun and the view but not the flies!

We then set out for Leonora, an active Gold mine, "The Sons of Gwalia" The open cut mine was hugmungus as were the huge hills they had created around it. There was a free camp 'On the top of a hill, no tree, no shelter from the wind, no nothing.....except for a museum ' we are mine museums do out! Down we went to the original village, parked in the parking area, cooked & ate our dinner, then went for a walk among the 'what was left' 

We had planned to stop there but chose to go on to find something better, kept driving & driving, wind got stronger & stronger. We stopped in a roadside stop , nobody there, so decided to go on to Kalgoorlie. We are at Centennial 24hr free park right in town. Must be FULLY self contained.

WELL....we put our sullage hose onto a tree (we arrived at 5pm) after having been blown down the Goldfields Highway, set up for the night with 15 other vans & had a good night in the wind & rain.

Slept in until 8am. Brian got out of bed & opened a blind to see the Ranger recording all number plates.......he put a sleeveless jack over his PJs & went to ask if we could have an extra night because the car is booked in for a service tomorrow. It was granted, recorded and were told to put that sullage hose away, a lidded container or grey water talk were necessary!!!! We have now complied.....

Had a nice day today driving around the big town. Originally there would be a Pub on every corner which have become other things now.

The local Baptist Church 

Yesterday we fueled up......serve yourself by credit card

Also saw more wild flowers.

We will move immediately after the car is serviced. It's a 7am booking....Brian will be delivered back for breakfast and picked up when the service is done. Pretty good.

Out for Dinner tonight, thanks to Jocelyn (Fathers Day).

Well, our dinner out was beautiful & thoroughly enjoyed.

A lovely end to our day in Kalgoorlie.

25th September. Mt Magnet.

Just a very short drive today in our rig after a nice stop at Yuloo.

Where we came from

Where we were going

We stopped a number of times to see the wild flowers because they would finish when we got to Mt Magnet.

And up close

The scrub around this area

Another stop

How about these Pom poms and their black shadows

One more stop for a change of colour 

What a delight it has been. 

We are camped on the roadside, 1 k through Mt Magnet. Very quiet except for the occasional Road Train. And one young dirt bike rider with a ute accompanying him. Even able to get TV here as well as Telstra, pretty good.

24th September. Yalgoo (find it if you can)

Left Geraldton 8.45am heading due east for the first time in 6 months. We were aiming for Mullewa, a Western Australia Wildflower noted area. It started off as a beautiful rural farming area. Huge wheat fields, some sheep and steadily changes to bush land with nothing but scrub.....then the roadsides started to be carpets of yellow or white flowers, there were some other patches of blue as well as odd bushes of purple, pink & red. We stopped at Mullewa and talked to the women at the info centre & they recommend we go 30k further to Pindar to see the wreath flowers as it's nearing the end of the season. Oh, it's one of Gods amazing creations.

There roots go down 2 meters and live after the flower dies. They are best when there has been some earlier rain & this year was a winner.

These were all in about a 500 meter edge of the road, both sides. Not in amongst the scrub but just on the roadside.        This is the Blue Pincushion.

There is another story attached to these photos.....the Wreaths are right on the roadside, but some of the others were further into the scrub.....I went in and was walking back, so pleased with myself, when......I steped on a giant ants nest.......they attacked me by the hundred, bighting my ankles and going up my legs under my trousers, my shoes were covered with them racing to get onto me.......the others standing nearby were laughing!!!!, I said, don't speak to me, Brian, open the van, I've got to get these pants off!!!, he shook them out inside out and right side out, heck what a fright. Lucky they don't sting & there are no reprocussions. Looking back it was funny but not while it was happening.

We had planned to stop at the free site where there was a sign 'Where the outback begins', however it didn't happen & we came to a nice little park $22 with power & water and lovely ensuites. Yalgoo. 

It's been football all afternoon, Doggies won & now Storm are winning. Brian is happy.

Tomorrow, another story.

23rd September. Geraldton WA

We moved into town, Big4 Sunset Beach Caravan Oark. It's very nice, l, we have loved the hot showers especially. Opportunity to use our washing machine & get everything up to date for our months trip home. We are noticing the cooler weather after all the high temperatures up north.

Yesterday we had a day sightseeing, first stop was HMAS Sydney memorial 

That has 645 seagulls that form the dome, one for every life lost when it was sunk 19 November 1941 by a German Raider which was also sunk with 80 lives lost and the remainder were interned until the end of WW11. 

The wreck was only found in 2008 & this has been built nice then.

Everything was symbolic right to the material used in its construct. 

The LifeSize Bronz statue of a woman looking out to sea, forever waiting.

Another view.

Naturally it is on a hill overlooking Geraldton and it gives a great view of the city.

Under the centre of the Dome is a propeller 

The wall in the back ground has the name of every one engraved.

On then further south where we saw the leaning trees. It shows which way the wind blows.....westerly!

This is an isolated one but we saw many more on out travel.

Our destination was Greenough which is now a heritage village which was a busy farming & central community centre in the late 1800 & up to about 1970 & it's now a very interesting place to visit. Both Anglician & Catholic Churches which are still used on a monthly basis.. 

School

And a big Police station & Court house. The Sargent & his wife had 14 children!!! The was also a gaol , this is the exercise yard!

The Catholic Church even had a boarding school there.

Their information centre was well appointed and very informative. Even the outside was cute.....

We watched a half hour video of the history & found it most interesting.

On then to Ellendale Pool, a very beautiful spot where we could have camped for $5 per night.

No he didn't jump in!

The flies had found it also, so we had our lunch in the car!

Brian didn't like the last 5k because it was dirt road & we had just had the car washed!,not too bad this time. Saw some wild flowers but the predominant was Wattle, which has a bush instead of a tree that we are used to.

There is another yellow bush but the flowers are not as intense as the Wattle 

Our last stop for the day was the Infirmation Centre which is most interesting and has a display of the wildflowers. Out side they have the giant Mortan Bay Fig Tree planted in 1900. A wonderful sight.

Time to go home as it started to rain, but it had been a wonderful day.

Today, it was grocery, pills and I got a pair of warm tracks dacks, cold nights when free camping over the next month. We also bought a board game from Toyworld.... Delux Rummy-O. We were missing Fred & Monika too much. First game about to be played.