Travel

12 September 2024 After three nights in wonderful Albany, we headed off to spend three nights in Esperance. While Esperance is only around halfway across the south coast of WA, it is starting to get very remote from here. And the stunning beaches just kept coming. Esperance is a nice little town, but a lot smaller than Albany. You can read about its history here if you like, but one of its earliest claims to fame was as the “gateway to the Goldfields” when the jetty was constructed in 1890.

12 September 2024 From Esperance, Nicole and I headed for Cape Le Grand National Park, just under an hour’s drive east. With no caravan park there, we booked ourselves into the Lucky Bay Campground, run by the National Park and unpowered. As we arrived at the NP entrance and got out to pay our entry fee, we had a quick chat to a quite elderly couple doing the same. They had been coming there for I forget how many years for their wedding anniversary. When I mentioned that the weather didn’t look good at all (being very overcast), he said that every time they had come here it had been blue sky by the time they reached the water. While I loved his optimism, I personally didn’t share it.

13 September 2024 While my scorecard updates have been delayed (too much to see and do), I definitely have been sampling sausage rolls along the South Coast of WA. Here we go … Denmark Bakery (Denmark) As covered in Beautiful Albany, after doing the treetop walk, we ducked into Denmark for a sausage roll. After having breakfast there that morning too! The Denmark Bakery is a multi-award winner on the pie front, however I wasn’t sure how that would translate to their sausage roll offerings. There’s only one way to find out, so I jumped straight in.

24 September 2024 After leaving Lucky Bay we spent three nights in Kalgoorlie. Kalgoorlie is pretty remote, pretty dry and dusty and, I imagine in Summer, very hot. Boulder On our first day we went for a walk from our caravan park to the township of Boulder. Boulder is a sister town of Kalgoorlie and very, very close. So close in fact that they seem to be the same small town. The only giveaway is that there are two town centres and two City Halls.

24 September 2024 From Westonia we headed back to Perth to meet up with Katelyn, whom we hadn’t seen since she’d visited us in Darwin back in May. Katelyn had been in WA for a bit over a week already with a friend, spending a lot of that time driving up to Exmouth to see the Whale Sharks. It was fantastic to see her again. We had arranged a unit to stay at in east Perth, which was very nice and in a great location. The property owners also did us a huge favour by letting us park the motorhome at their base, because it was 2 hours street parking on weekdays where we were staying and so we couldn’t leave it on the road.

4 October 2024 From Perth, Nicole and I headed to Bunbury. While we had visited Bunbury briefly back on 23 August, that was only a quick stop on the way to Margaret River, and the weather was terrible. What a difference a month makes, because this time around the weather was truly magnificent! Blue skies, chilly mornings and glorious sunny days. We stayed at the Bunbury Foreshore Caravan Park because of its great location just across the road from the beach and an easy walk to the CBD.

4 October 2024 From Bunbury we drove the roughly 60km south to Busselton, where we would spend the next five nights. We’d originally only planned to stay three nights, but we extended our stay to line up with some work being completed at Bruce & Michael’s Beach House at Myalup, where they had kindly offered for us to stay before we left WA. In the end it was a good thing we stayed for the extra two days, as there was plenty to keep us busy.

11 October 2024 133 days — or nearly 4.5 months — ago, on 31 May, Nicole and I entered Western Australia. Back then, Queensland was still State of Origin Champions, the Broncos were travelling well, and the Lions were travelling terribly. What a difference 133 days can make. We left the lovely Beach House in Myalup owned by Bruce and Michael (thanks very much guys!) on 8 October, where we spent a very nice, relaxing week. This marks the point where we’ve now turned to start heading back home.

13 October 2024 We left early in the morning from Esperance, the departure point we’d chosen for our Nullarbor Crossing. After taking on breakfast at McDonald’s, we headed north to Norseman. Norseman was as we remembered it (that’s not a compliment), so we simply emptied the toilet cassette and turned east. We were in good spirits and looking forward to making the most of any sightseeing opportunities. And … there weren’t many.

15 October 2024 Plan A After a restful night in nature, we rose and prepared bacon and egg wraps and coffee for breakfast; our ‘go to’ breakfast when we have a bit of time to get ready. Our aim today was to reach the 52km Peg Free Camp, named after the distance-marking pegs that start from 0km at the WA-SA border and stretch to the east. We chose this spot as it is literally on the magnificent Bunda Cliffs (also known as the Nullarbor Cliffs) that stretch along a fair section of the Great Australian Bight. So, heading 52km east of the border would mean a drive of 335km, or around 3.5 hours of driving plus stops. That was the plan …

17 October 2024 We woke up early (unclear of the time) as the sun was rising. We quietly packed up, as considerate campers do, and headed east yet again. Eucla Our first stop was the Old Eucla Telegraph Station, just on the western side of the WA-SA border. Before the telegraph came, communication between Western Australia and the rest of the nation took months, but when the Eucla telegraph line and manual repeater station were established in 1877, transmitting messages only took a few seconds …. Together with the telegraph line, a jetty and tram line were also constructed for offloading supplies brought by ships.

19 October 2024 Sausage Roll Scorecard updates have fallen into a state of disrepair of late and Greg J, I know you miss them. I have seven updates to catch up on now, so this update will be low on storytelling and high on brevity. And, for the record, as of yesterday’s Friday Weigh-in I’m somehow still under the weight that I left home at. Go figure … Wild Poppy Cafe (Merredin) Different pastry — quite nice. Different filling including carrots — quite tasty. Nice and hot. Nicole really liked it — so extra 0.2 points. Rating — 8.5 out of 10.

25 October 2024 As I write this, we’ve just left Port Lincoln on Day 211 out of 283 days we will have been away by the time we arrive back in Brisbane on 5 January 2025. That means we are bang on 75% of the way through our trip. And roughly speaking, we seem to be around 75% of the way around this massive country. We’ve now driven 23,181 km, which is interesting because my original planned travel distance was 18,500 km. Oh well, the best laid plans of mice and men and all that …

26 October 2024 I’ve decided to refresh the look on the website for two reasons: To jazz it up a bit and make it look a bit fresher (I hope you like it). To make the Map / TravelMap view more prominent. The reason for making the Map / TravelMap view more prominent is that from what I have been hearing, a lot of people aren’t really aware of it. My posts of late have been a little more about what we have done and seen (less interesting), rather than stories and/or insights (more interesting).

28 October 2024 We’ve been on the road for nearly 7 months now and are missing a lot of things. At the top of that list is our wonderful daughter, Katelyn, who is really thriving while we’re away. We also miss our beautiful dog, Daisy. Say hi, Daisy! To help ease missing Daisy, we’ve become “vicarious dog owners”. By that, I mean that we basically mug anyone we see with a dog, asking if we can say hello and have a play (with the dog, that is). While it’s a good way to meet people for a chat, it’s also our only way to get a “dog fix” while we’re away.

4 November 2024 As we’ve moved from the Eyre Peninsula into the Flinders Ranges, I’ve been sampling more of South Australia’s sausage roll offerings — for better or for worse. Nicole has also been sampling the vegetable pasties (her bakery go-to item), although a lot less frequently than my sausage roll samplings. And yes, we’re both still under our Big Lap Starting Weight (BLSW). The Beach Bakery on King (Port Lincoln) Nicole and I had finished a morning drive through Lincoln National Park (with some of our teeth loose after all the corrugations in the dirt roads there) and were exploring the Port Lincoln CBD area. We’d just finished a beer paddle at Jump Ship Brewery and were feeling a bit peckish, so headed to The Beach Bakery on King.

7 November 2024 Nicole and I have just spent 8 nights in the Flinders Ranges. It is an absolutely stunning place to visit, and we thoroughly enjoyed our time there. While I’ve provided some details of our day-to-day activities in the Map section (also at the bottom of this post), I’ll cover some summary insights and tips here. Highlights Rawnsley Park Station Rawnsley Park Station, where we stayed for the first 6 nights, was great. It had wonderful views, fire pits on every site, and plenty of room for everyone.

18 November 2024 We’ve moved from the Flinders Ranges through the Yorke Peninsula and on to the Clare and Barossa Valleys. The Yorke Peninsula didn’t have a lot to offer, so we moved through there fairly quickly. However, there was one sausage roll sampling made on our last day there, in Ardrossan. In the Clare Valley I sampled two (Burra and Kapunda), and then one on our last day in the Barossa Valley (Nuriootpa).

21 November 2024 After five days on the Yorke Peninsula (the highlight being catching up with the Kalbarri Crowd in Moonta for 3 nights) we headed north of Adelaide to Clare — jewel of the Clare Valley. While the Yorke Peninsula had been nice (if not a little sleepy), we were keen to spend some time in a more ‘sophisticated’ area i.e. more things to do and a better variety of food and drink.

23 November 2024 All good things must come to an end, so it’s with a degree of sadness that I’m announcing that Sausage Roll Scorecard is being shut down, effective immediately. There are a few reasons for this. First, on this trip I’ve purchased, photographed, tasted, assessed and written up 45 sausage rolls. Given that we’ve been on the road now for 239 days, that makes a sausage roll every 5.3 days. There’s no way I’d eat a sausage roll every 5.3 days at home, so I need to break this habit quickly.

27 November 2024 Since our time in the Clare Valley and Barossa Valleys, and Hahndorf, we’ve been taking it very easy. After Hahndorf we spent three days in Mount Barker (only a 20 minute drive from Hahndorf) going nowhere, and doing no sightseeing. We did watch a movie at the cinemas (Gladiator II, not bad actually), do some shopping, a haircut for me and a pedicure for Nicole. Having the caravan park an easy walk from the CBD was very convenient, so we took advantage. I also watched some cricket (until Australia fell in a complete heap) and some F1 motor racing.

10 December 2024 Nicole and I have now made our way through South Australia and are on the verge of making our fourth border crossing for this trip — from South Australia into Victoria. It’s a shame this border crossing hadn’t been front of mind when we shopped for groceries in Mount Gambier yesterday. We were being healthy and buying fresh food, fruit and vegetables; then I realised when we got home that we’d be crossing the border in two days time! Needless to say we’ve been eating plenty of fruit and veggies today.

13 December 2024 While we’d planned to do a lot more free camping on this trip, for a number of reasons we haven’t been. Initially we’d been preferring caravan parks to allow us to use the air conditioner when needed in the hotter weather, but then we just got used to the convenience and kept it going. While there are a lot of upsides to staying in caravan parks, some experiences are better than others. After having stayed in 78 different caravan parks on this trip by the time we arrive home, we can speak with some form of authority on what the good, and not so good, features of caravan parks are.

20 December 2024 Nicole and I are moving through Victoria reasonably quickly. After traversing the Great Ocean Road (in a day), and a lovely stay in Geelong —including meeting relatives I hadn’t met before (thanks again for your hospitality Gordon and Anne) — we’ve started exploring Eastern Victoria. After a wonderful ferry trip from Queenscliff to Sorrento, we had a fun half day or so exploring the Mornington Peninsula. We had a phenomenally good weather day, putting the Mornington Peninsula in its best outfit. And, while it’s very beautiful in that outfit, I couldn’t help thinking about how much money she has around her. Beautiful houses, beautiful people (present company included), stunning views, and luxury cars. Good for them I suppose.

29 December 2024 Nicole and I have safely made our fifth state border crossing, into NSW. In doing so, we have literally turned the corner of South-East Australia and are now heading north to home. We had a great time in Melbourne, including Christmas Day and attending the Boxing Day Test — a sports watching bucket list item. Since leaving Melbourne we’ve been moving pretty quickly, spending one night in Lakes Entrance and about to spend our second (and last) night in Eden. While this is a beautiful part of the world that we haven’t seen before, we have added these places to our “Next Time” list, as well as Mallacoota. We won’t however be visiting next time in the Christmas-New Year period, as the parks are just so busy and crowded at the moment.

31 December 2024 The puzzle answered From Eden, we’ve now driven up to Mittagong via Canberra. Our maps app told us this would be the quickest way, plus it would mean missing the traffic along the coast south of Sydney (which we’ve seen previously). It also means our Big Lap has taken us through all mainland Australian states and territories, plus answers the puzzle I set in the last blog regarding the three more border crossings remaining for us before we arrive home i.e. NSW into the ACT, the ACT back into NSW and then, finally, NSW into QLD. Well done if you worked it out!

2 January 2025 Travelling anywhere is potentially dangerous. We (mostly) realise that, and accept there is a level of risk involved. Despite this, the society we live in continues to insist that we are constantly reminded at every step that potential danger is all around us. On this trip, Nicole and I have had many a giggle at some of the signs posted about the place. Some have been useful warnings, some (in our opinions at least) have been unnecessary warnings, some have been baffling, and some just hilarious.

3 January 2025 As a bit of a fun summary of our trip, here’s our Big Lap ‘Academy Awards’. Hottest place visited … Edith Falls (NT)! We had booked 4 nights free camping here, and after 1 full day with no air conditioner in mid 30 degrees heat with high humidity and very little shade, we went off free camping for a long time. Coldest place visited … Tom Price (WA)! In late June, and around 400 km inland, it got very cold in Tom Price — around 3 degrees.

7 January 2025 At 11:11am on Saturday 4 January 2025 — 281 days after we left home — we finally (and safely) arrived back home. We had finally closed the circle on TravelMap, completing our epic Big Lap. We’d left Port Macquarie at around 5:00am AEDT (meaning around 6:00am AEST) that morning, so were pretty stuffed when we arrived; but he excitement of arriving home made us forget all of that.

7 January 2025 Now that we’re home, here’s a breakdown of our Big Lap in numbers … Total distance travelled = 30,826 km. Total nights on the road = 281. Average distance travelled per day = 111 km. Total speeding tickets* / traffic infringements = 0 (although we did receive a warning ticket from a parks inspector in Kalbarri — for parking on the road but apparently too close to the crest of a hill).

11 January 2025 Well, Nicole and I have been back for just on one week. It’s been a busy week getting organised at home, and back at work. I’ve been slowly remembering all sorts of things like how to navigate the streets around our area, which shops we used to use, the switches and controls in the car, catching the train again, remembering everyone from work, remembering all the stuff I used to do at work and what’s changed …