Kalgoorlie to Coral Bay

After our great camping on the Bunda Cliffs, we stopped off at Baxter free camp on the way to Kalgoorlie.  We must like Baxter - this was the third time we've camped here!

It's nothing special at the Baxter free camp, but it's obviously in the right place

We’ve been to Kalgoorlie a few times, and this time decided to try the 24 hour free camp, which we discovered is actually better than the paid ones.  It’s all dirt and becomes very boggy when wet, so you can’t stay unless you have a grey water tank fitted to your van.  We had one installed at Bush Tracker a couple of years ago and it’s great to be able to use it occasionally. They’re very strict, and a ranger comes around to check you comply with their rules.  We found a nice spot next to the park, so we had a lovely outlook.

We had planned to go out for dinner, but decided to eat in after another 500 km drive from Baxter that day.

The car, van and bikes were coated in salt from camping on the Bunda Cliffs, so everything got a good wash.  It was Sunday and Kalgoorlie was very quiet, but we rode our bikes into town for a coffee, and back via the back streets past the old brothels. 

Madam Carmel outside her brothel in Kalgoorlie

They used to do great business with the miners, but there’s only 1 open now. 

We had no fresh food as you can’t take any fruit and veggies through to WA, so we had to restock and left Kalgoorlie after lunch.

We wanted to go to Marble Bar for the Anzac Day dawn service, so headed north for Gwalia, an old gold mining ghost town near Leonora. 

What an amazing place!  All the old buildings had been faithfully restored by people interested in Gwalia's history, or had a connection with the town over the years it operated as a mining community.

Gwalia Ghost Town

Miners Hut

Ghost Town at sunset

Gwalia Pub, now deserted

The Pink House

Local lockup with the interior lined with beautiful Jarrah timber.

Open Cut Gold Mine, operating just at the back of our camp site

Sitting at the Cafe in the Hoover Homestead, built by Herbert Hoover before he was the 31st President!

Scones and Mocha, yum yum, very civilised!

We were the only ones at the free campsite that night, with the operating mine in background

The old Hoover designed Mine Winder

Sandstone

We stayed 2 nights in Sandstone to catch up on washing, and just to chill out a bit. 

An old brewery Cave in Sandstone

London Bridge at Sandstone

Western Australia is divided into different areas, and we were travelling through “The Goldfields”.  From the map you can see just how many mines WA has.  Driving through the outback is like one huge mining site, with massive road trains, and normal trains a kilometre long transporting their riches to be processed. 

There were so many flies we weren’t able to spend much time outside, so we made a snap decision to cancel Marble Bar and head for the coast.  We still had a deposit owing to us from Peoples Park in Coral Bay, after having to cancel our 2020 holiday.  Coral Bay here we come!  It’s just down the road from Exmouth, our major destination for this holiday, and where we meet up with our kids.

We’ve driven through the Goldfields, into the Mid West, and are now in the Gascoyne.

We’re meeting up with Merv and Jenny, our friends from Perth, who are joining us on Ningaloo Station in a few days time.  Hopefully their travel plans will still go ahead, as they’re “locked down” in Perth for the next 3 days due to a Covid outbreak.

Now that our plans have changed, so did our direction of travel, so we turned west, and spent a lovely night at Tenindewa Pioneer Well and had our first fire for the holiday.  It was a huge camp area and we had the place to ourselves.  We felt like we were in the middle of nowhere, but we could see road trains in the distance from our campsite.

Tenindewa

View from our campsite

Our first fire of the trip

Pioneer Well

Dam just near by

Those flies!

It would have been nice to call in to Karratha for a couple of days, but after Cyclone Seroja, Karratha has been blown away and the place is a mess. We arrived into Carnarvon after another 500 km driving day.  It’s a bloody long drive from Sydney, but now we can slow down. 

Carnarvon

Our shopping options will be pretty limited for a while now, and Carnarvon had a Woolworths, BWS and Jaycar, so Alan was able to fix our faulty 12 volt cable which runs our Waeco fridge.

Carnarvon is the “fruit bowl” of WA and the first place to grow bananas in Australia.

Of course, their big banana is NOTHING like the Big Banana in Coffs Harbour, but you have to give them points for trying.

The weather in Carnarvon was nice at just on 30° C with cooler nights, and no wind. Very comfortable.

We picked up some beautiful butterflies on our way to Carnarvon.  Luckily we own a company that makes Wunda Bug and Grime, which removes bug guts from your car.

Coral Bay

This is a beautiful place and we managed to secure a beachfront caravan site at short notice. Mind you at $75 / night it's not cheap but definitely worth it. We're here for 5 nights before we head to Exmouth and Ningaloo Station for a week with Merv and Jenny before our kids arrive.

Providing there's no more COVID outbreaks, our kids fly here on Mothers Day 9th May to join us for 2 weeks at Ningaloo Station.  They won't have any nice facilities like Coral Bay though, but we have hired all their camping equipment, including tents, cooking equipment, chairs and camping toilets that they need to empty themselves :) We're looking forward to welcoming them to the paradise on this side of Australia.

Our Coral Bay site

View from under our van's awning. This is what $75 a night gets you around here.

Our first swim for this trip. The water is warm as well.

Coral Bay had a Dawn Service for Anzac Day which we participated in,

along with a surprising number of other holidaymakers who turned up before sunrise

Anzac Service with a view!

Just south of Coral Bay we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn. So now we are officially in the tropics. Its amazing what difference this invisible line makes. The temperatures in Coral Bay are ranging from 35° to 37° with nights above 20°.