The Final Word and The Final Leg Home

A quick Final Word “By Chris” - NOW AT THE END OF THIS PAGE !

- and a quick map

Now the BLOG : The Final Leg Home (FAMILY BLOG UPDATE) Kalgoorlie to Adelaide

Day 92 Monday 16/8/10 Back in Kalgoorlie “By Ryan” – Press here for map link

In the morning we stood around the camp fire then packed up the camper and headed for Kalgoorlie. We went straight to the Super Pit which is a massive open cut gold mine. We had seen it three years ago and it has got even bigger since then. From the lookout the giant trucks look so tiny. After lunch we drove around and Mum took some photo’s of the old buildings which were damaged from the earthquake in April. We decided to stay at a caravan park and the kids cooked everyone tacos for tea. We watched a new funny TV show “The legend of Dick and Dom” before bed. A big thank you to everyone who has contacted me by phone, e-mail, or msn while I’ve been away. I’m looking forward to seeing you again soon.

An interesting fact for me is that we only watched four DVD’s in the car during our whole time away.

The Superpit, truly incredible the size and how small the vehicles look at the bottom

(Google sat view link of Superpit) - Press here

One of the small truck tyres

A earthquake damaged historical building in Boulder-Kalgoorlie

Day 93 Tuesday 17/8/10 A day of driving “By Amy” – Press here for map link
We packed up the camper in the morning quickly before it rained and then went to McDonalds to all get breakfast. We had egg and bacon burgers. We left Kalgoorlie and drove to Norseman. Mikayla and I bought some different rocks in the visitor centre. Dad put petrol in the car. There were some tin camels in the middle of a roundabout so we got some photo’s by them. Then we drove for a long time. We played and read in the car. When it started getting dark we pulled off the road and drove into the bush. We set up the camper really quick and made a fire. We had sausages for tea and went to bed.

Great Camel "statues" in Norseman - everyone in stripes !

GPS readout when leaving Norseman - only 1178 km until our first left turn (funny!)

Start of the Australias longest straight road (actually a little boreing)

We had to include another great fire picture, great sparks

Day 94 Wednesday 18/8/10 Across the Nullarbor “By Mikayla” – Press here for map link
On Wednesday we had breakfast around the camp fire. We packed away the camper trailer and drove the whole day across the Nullarbor. We did some of our journals and read some of our books. Once we got to Eucla we looked at the Old Telegraph Station which was in the sand hills. It was fun playing there and jumping off of the ruin into the sand. We played our ds in the car and set up our camper trailer off of the road near the Head of the Bight. We had peaches and cream for dessert and Amy did a puppet show before bed.

The old Eucla Telegraph station - now over run by sand dunes

Great Australian Bight - started looking for whales

Great Australian Bight cliffs - incredibly rugged and beautiful

Day 95 Thursday 19/8/10 Whales at Head of the Bight “By Trudy” – Press here for map link
I made us pancakes for breakfast and we enjoyed our last morning of true bush camping. We were nestled in amongst the sand hills and sheltered from the wind behind some trees. We drove down to the whale watching boardwalk at the Head of the Bight to see the whales. I was so excited as I had never seen whales before! Mother whales and their calves were frolicking everywhere so I went click happy with the camera and Chris had a job to drag me away. He had grown up at near there at Yalata and would go fishing off the rocks as a boy dropping sinkers onto the whales from the cliffs above, so he didn’t think today was all that special. Especially now that you have to pay just to walk to the cliffs - it cost our family a ridiculous $31 to see these animals in the wild! A little way down the road we drove into the restricted aboriginal community of Yalata so the kids could see where Chris use to live. Chris went into the administration office to get permission to be there and was soon recognised by some of the elder aboriginals. They were hilarious remenising to each other about where Chris use to live as a boy and about his mum being their school teacher. For the rest of the day we were in the car driving. We drove for nine hours from the Head of the Bight to Pt Augusta where we had arranged to stay with Chris’ sister, Nicoli, and her family again.

The kids all travel brilliantly and think nothing about long distances – they think another 300km is not far at all! It was wonderful to catch up with Nicoli, Tony, Cody, Shaynee and Brett again, and to enjoy a meal together. The kids thought it was great to start and end their holiday playing with their cousins.

Our last bush camping spot - we love this type of camping

A (tiny) seal playing with a whale and it's baby - helps shows the sizes

Mother whale and her baby calf

A quick and fun visit to Yalata

Day 96 Friday 20/8/10 The Final Word “By Chris” – Press here for map link
It was nice to wake up and know that there is not far to go to get home. However it is also very sad to know that our special family holiday will be ending very soon. It is not so much the travelling to special places that I will miss (as exciting as it has been) but rather being able to spend so much time together as a family. So I (and we) are going to try to keep that going (spending quality time together) as much as possible when we are home. We have also missed our friends and family a lot while we have been away and also want to make it a priority to catch up with you more often.
So expect a phone call soon to invite you for dinner - I promise it won’t be a slide night!!
Thanks to everyone who helped make this trip possible for us. Thanks Belinda and Josh for looking after our cat, Charlie; thanks Georgie for looking after our turtle, Freddy; thanks to the kids teachers for letting them have a term off off structured school work; thank God for keeping us and our fellow travellers safe on this trip; and a very special thankyou to Mum and Dad (Kevin and Ruth) and Sandy for so competently running Trudy’s Hire for Baby business for us.

Thank you everyone for keeping in touch and your comments, updates and feedback along the way (we will keep our blog open for future trips as well).

Thankyou Ryan, Mikayla, and Amy for your fantastic company and spirit of excitement on this adventure and for travelling long distances so well (we have travelled around 21,000 km in 3 ½ months!). It has been great to watch you all grow up these past few months.

And lastly thankyou Trudy for your enthusiasm to do this trip, for the endless hours helping prepare and set up, for keeping us so well fed, and for your support and company – it has been great! I love you heaps.

For the last time, take care and stay warm
– Looking forward to seeing you all soon.

P.S. If you get a chance, make the time to do a trip like this !