Blog 16th Feb - Victoria, the Home straight.

I think for the most part we can let the picture do the talking…

We have covered approximately 5200 kilometres from Broome, WA, in less than 7 days to get to the town where my Dad (Rob’s) and his family arrived first after leaving Holland, way back in 1958.

The reason we left Broome in such a fashion will be unpacked on the blog in the coming days, but all I will say for now is that the road from Broome to Darwin was flooded and the humidity averaged 80%, temperatures at night were consistently above 28 degrees - bad combination. We were faced with a choice between a wet, muggy, flooded tour of the top end, or a shorter trip and ‘unfinished book’ which will be completed at a later date. I think for now I will leave the blog at that, and I will endeavour to update it again at the weekend- when conditions are more favourable.
Over and out

Wed 11th Feb - Meekatharra

Well… God be praised our car is back on the road. On Monday we approached a local Broome mechanic and seeing the 25 plus cars in his yard already were very doubtful of getting the car fixed within 2 weeks, let alone immediately. After a few prayers for help we walked inside and they took the car straight through!
They then were kind enough to drive us to Broome main street where we walked around for 4.5 hours. Quite a feet when we didn’t know how much to spend as we didn’t know the hourly rate for a mechanic up here (ask us when we get home if you want to know but it’s nothing to sneeze at) . We ended up in the Broome visitors centre watching info documentaries. There is a natural 'phenomenon' where the tide changing rushes between a gorge so quick that it creates a horozontal waterfall. 11 thousand litres a second or something going through the rocks.
We left Broome 1pm Monday arvo and have been driving since (apart from sleeping time). Our country really is huge! We are now about to get diesel in a small town and heading into remote areas so if you don’t hear from us - have no fear - we will catch up with you soon.
Over and out!

08 Feb - Broome

Well since we last wrote we have been busy busy bees, covering 1500km, but having a blast. We left Ningaloo Reef and headed for Karijini NP, famous for its gorges and natural spring swimming holes. The day we visited was 35-40 degrees so we kept our observing to most of the lookouts as the climb in and out of the gorge would have been quite a feet. The info booklet had a scoring system for the intensity of each walk/hike so we picked one in particular with a swimming spot and off we went. On the way down I (Em) found the trek quite easy, descending about 250 rock steps until Rob reminded me, what goes down must come up (in our case anyway). We ended up at ‘circular pool’ and it was beautiful. Defiantly a highlight of our trip with little waterfalls creating natural showers.

We then drove on to Port Hedland, largest Port in Australia distributing Iron Ore, mainly to Asia. Here we decided to take some time just to sit and watch, its amazing how much the ships can hold. We watched a ship get loaded with 167,000 tons of Iron Ore - that’s the equivalent of 66,800 of our hilux.
Its also a very expensive place to live. Chatting with a local, houses go for $700 a week rent - minimum. I don’t think we will decide to stop permanently in Port Hedland.

rob escaping the flies just out of port hedland.
Next stop is where I write this blog. Broome. We arrived on Saturday about 6pm, decided to spoil ourselves and looked into a motel with air-conditioning. We decided to go for the only thing apart from a bar that was open on a Saturday night and went to the open air sun cinemas. We decided to drive there as we didn’t know exactly where the cinema was located and ended up parking 100mts down the road from our motel after going the long way around. We watched a strange Will Smith movie called ‘seven pounds’ which we didn’t understand the plot until about 2/3 of the way through. Being out first cinema experience since well before we left we enjoyed the night out. Today we spent the day trying to be touristy but no attractions are open until Monday 9 am so the extent was a swim at cable beach.
It was here in Broome where we started to hear a grinding noise and vibration from the back right wheel, thinking ‘this can’t be good’ we began the process of elimination. We have (rob has) concluded that it is the rear wheel bearing, thankfully Rob had the foresight to bring spares but with the requirement of a special tool/machine we are headed to a mechanic in the morning. We hope he isn’t too busy and unable to help us. We don’t really want to hang around here any more than we have to, with the humidity at 80% (seriously), so we’ll probably have to do some negotiating, but hopefully not!
We will let you know how we go in a few days!
Over and out!

03 Feb - Ningaloo reef

this is a very short and delayed update... (read as Tues 03 Feb)

We are sitting at “Ned’s camp” which is the highest north camp site on the cape range national park (Ningaloo reef). It is 700pm and still 31.5 deg in shade. This doesn’t sound like much to you Melbournians at the moment, but I can tell you that after a day of being un-sun smart, our sunburnt bodies yearn for a cooler climate. We are hiding under the one tree in about 30 km that provides shade and are hanging out for a post sunset swim. Today we spent about 3 hours underwater admiring what is arguably the best offshore reef in the world. Some time ago we were told to go to “Oyster Stacks” for great snorkelling, and our advice was right. No one there because of medium-difficult access, and we got to swim with REEF SHARKS !!

Yesterday we met a turtle in the water and some stingrays, but today we helped rescue a 80-100kg turtle who got wedged in between rocks at high tide. We didn’t want to add to the 10 person , but when asked to help, we obliged, only we were smart and brought a hammer- no, not to put the turtle out of his misery- but to “shift” some of the rocky matter out of the way. Anyway, 5 minutes, 1 winch strap and 4 muscle men later, and the turtle is home free. The most memorable moment followed soon after with the wife of another saying, “I just got off the phone from the Ranger and he said not to move the turtle at all.” oops!!

over and out

30 Jan - Overlander Roadhouse

On Wednesday morning, at 7:30 am, we were packed and ready to leave (although bypassing Dad B’s perth office to drop off about 20kg worth of winter clothes - we’re heading north), so we put our budget wise hats on and went grocery shopping. Topped up our supplies and began the next chapter of our journey."Back on the road with a new Tropical resistant tent"

We drove past the “Pinnacles” which reminded me of the aussie troops driving through the afghan desert. Wed night we stayed in our ‘brand new home’ north of Leeman- pretty cold and windy, quick grab the winter clothes….. Oh well.

Thursday we drove through Geraldton and filled up with diesel, posted some things and headed up to Kalbarri for the night.
In the morning we toured the Kalbarri national park and visited the long and windy Murchison gorge. Which is pretty much all there is to do in the national park, not even allowed to camp there!! Grrrr!! So we kept driving, aiming to reach shark bay for an afternoon snorkel and fish, however water decided to make a dangerous pool over the road….

…. So instead we went searching for Hamelin pool, which on the way found out we’re not allowed to swim in because of some world heritage list 100 gazillion year old stromatolites. So we headed back to the apparently flooded in overlander roadhouse. It is here where we are listening to Australia getting smashed in the cricket and enjoying the cool temperature that the setting sun leaves in its wake.
Tomorrow, shall the aftermath of cyclonic weather pattern and the flooded Gascoyne river soak into the underground water tables, we will head to Shark bay and Carnarvon. Hope you’re all coping with the 40+ weather over east. Over and out

17 January - The Vines

(watching WA v QLD 20/20)

Hi All,

In case you were wondering what has been going on, and by popular demand, we have decided to update the blog. I (rob) did my first days work for 3 months on the 7th of this month. i wish it was as easy for Em as it was for me. The agency Emily is applying through have given her form after form, and course after course, to start work for what might only be a week worth of shifts. We can't understand what the difference is between nursing in Vic or WA, or anywhere in the world for that matter... Litigation is yet another hurdle, police checks and working with children checks, although nationally checked, are only state recognised, there goes another $80. Why, if there is a 300 nurse shortage in WA, do they make it so hard to nurse?? anyway, enough whinging, Em should be practising again by monday the 19th.

From the 12th - 16th Jan we were joined by The Billson's and Grandma K for some summer fun by the Scarborough beach. it was a very relaxing week catching up with family and seeing some more of the sites (before they got burnt down yesterday) here in perth. FYI- Friday was 42deg with Nth winds and some smart cookie decided to set Kings Park alight.

We have been spending lots of time with my Cousin Joel and Kerry and kids Zane and Lily-Ann. Zane (3yrs) absolutely loves his floaties, so we have obliged to swim at the resort pool almost daily - what a shame... Lily (9mths) also loves a splash.

My cousin Peter has a 62ft Charter boat, which he shared with us on friday 9th. we went over the swelling seas to rottnest island and had a boat party, spent the night on the water, then ate the freshest crayfish possible, from the hands of the great white hunters in scuba gear straight to the onboard barbie. the story would have been even better if i liked crayfish! after a refreshing swim and once the scuba divers had had enough, we went back to Hillary's boat harbour and disembarked 'The Pelican' to solid land, much to Emily's delight.

My cousin Corey had been busy up until boxing day getting his latest short term accomodation ready for lease. It is a brand new, 3br, double story, entertainers delight house, backing on to the world famous vines golf course. good if you like golf i suppose... Anyway, once the tenants vacated, Corey and Michelle put on a big roast for us and others, a bit i of a house warming party i suppose, so that was nice.

so up til now, the weather has been simply HOT! it is the hottest start to the year for 15 years for perth, and here at the Vines you can add another 2 degrees as there is no coastal breeze. We have been staying mostly with my mum's sister Wilhelmina and her husband Chas. It is a lovely 2.5 acre block with 2 cows, 20 chickens, 2 ducks (8 hatchlings eaten by crows), 20+ homing doves, 50+ coy fish in the back pond, 100+ tadpoles in the front pond, a westy terrier Mitsy, maltese cross Minette, cat Clementine, two parrots, Hughie and Georgie, 3 rats (2 dead so far, still hunting the 3rd) and as my Aunty would say, one sexy chick. It really is a lovely escape. Willy and Chas have been great hosts, very generous and easy going.

The whole McIvor Clan have been very welcoming and it will be sad to leave on the 27th, but we need to keep moving. we will have been in perth just over a month, and frankly, we are getting itchy feet, so we will brave the feirce heat, rain and wind of the north, and continue to explore.

This will probably be the last blog until after Australia day, so we hope you will have a safe long weekend, and hopefully Barack will still be around to change the world, and hopefully it wont be cold and rainy like it looked to be yesterday in melbourne! over and out

Happy New Year - 3rd Jan 2009

Hi family and friends.

Hope everyone had a wonderful christmas and that 2009 will be a positive year. We are looking forward to the joys and challenges this year will bring and excited to see where the year takes us.

Good news is that Emily has a job with a nursing agency in WA who can help with finding work up the coast as well as in Perth, with a few benefits like accomodation if we want to organise it. Rob is exploring work options as some builders haven't gone back from christmas holidays yet.

Its lovely to see family but starting to get itchy feet.

Excited already to see everyone again early April! Love you all.

Em and Rob