Update For Craig. :-)

This update is in response to a friend of ours saying "Wheres the updates!!" :-) So here it is, bout time really. Been a bit lazy lately.

With the Grain season finishing in early December Trace and I packed up and left our little camp at Arrino grain receival site. We had a good time working there and have learnt that young lady backpackers from Scotland are lazy and the 17 year old boys from the rural communities are just as lazy. Putting aside the laziness we had a good time working there and picked up a bit of knowledge of the grain growing business.

That header is 60 feet wide, the widest you can get at the moment. It's a Case Header.

Unloading into chaser bins.

This is where it all ends up. In the bulk heads at site.

We traveled down the wheat belt of WA and took a right to Bunbury avoiding Perth. There were some lovely country towns down that run, one of which was New Norcia. New Norcia an old Benedictine Monks township where they educated nuns and priests. The buildings on this site were beautiful.

 The Priests chapel.

Boarding house for the boys.

From Bunbury we followed the coast down through Margaret River then on to Albany. We did the obligatory wine tour in Margaret river and had a great time, the wines there are delicious. The whole of the south west is quite nice, much nicer than the rest of the west coast in our opinion. 

We continued on to Albany visiting the Valley of The Giants and the tree top walks there. Great experience here as the trees are quite large and the walkway sets you 40m above the ground for a fantastic view.

Onto the Nullarbor!!!

Harvest Season in WA.

Time for a bit of an update. We have mentioned we organised jobs with CBH ( Co-Operative Bulk Handling) here in WA. Well, the season is on the way and we are here in Arrino working at a grain receival site for a couple of months or how long the harvest season lasts.

We were a bit relieved to leave Grealton as both of us didn't like it much. I'm not a fan of the beach and the jobs we had there turned out to be caustic to our well being. My job at Bolts 'R' Us in Grealdton ended up in a shouting match between the owner, an 80 year old recalcitrant, and I ending in a walkout by me. He was a shit of a man to work for and belittled the staff in front of customers. Three of us were there, none now. Anyway........enough of the pricks in the world.

Trace and I are loving being in the bush again and CBH are a good mob to work for. Trace is doing grain sampling and I am a RPO (Receival Point Operator), receiving the wheat grain into the plant and storing it.

There is no phone reception ( sitting at the pub in Three Springs composing this ) and about 3 houses in Arrino along with the receival site. Doing without the internet is a good thing as we tend to have a bit of a reliance on the internet and SMS.

 This is what we are harvesting.

 Trace at her weigh bridge.

 We only have to drive up the road 8 Klm to get internet and make a phone call on the mobile.

Were having a good time working some good hours and are expected to ramp up to 12 hours a day, 6 days a week next week, good money. It's interesting to learn how the wheat farmers are doing their business and how the weather dictates the harvest season. As I sit writing this there are a couple of farmers talking at the pub about their crops and when and when not to harvest. Funny thing is, Trace and I know what they are talking about.

That's it for now. We have a couple of months of hard work up till Christmas and then we will be back on the road again, doing the south of WA.

Failed attempt to go camping.

We decided to get out of town during the week and go camping about 90K out east during the week. We planned to go to Coalseam National Park to get back out into the bush for a couple of days. We loaded up the car and the swag and headed out to the park. Wet all the way out and rain when we got out there, very muddy.

Too wet for the swag on the ground and it turned out you could not have a fire, so cold and wet without a fire did not appeal to us. So we had some lunch and headed back to Geraldton, on the way visiting a wind farm.

The wind farm sits just out the back of Geraldton and consists of 4 different companies and their turbines, 54 in all. Great sight out there in the wind as the blades are massive and make a fair bit of noise as they move through the air.

Trace giving some perspective at the large end of the blade.

Now to wash the car from the buddy adventures in Coalseam National Park.

That's all for now! We should hear confirmation of our employment at CBH this week or next. Getting a bit excited about that and moving away from the coast and getting out bush again.

Geraldton............For Now.

We got to Geraldton and started looking for a bit of work. We have the ambition to work the wheat harvest here in the west and we are in the wheat belt, so good a place as any.

 

Geraldton Port and a bit of town.

We registered for the harvest and got interviews and practically have the job, just waiting for the confirmation email. They love couples working at the remote grain receival sites as many people don't want to go out bush. We want to!!

Geraldton is not to our liking, Trace and I both don't like it much but we have jobs and the harvest starts in a month or two so......... We had a look at the HMAS Sydney monument that is here in town and it's fantastic. The HMAS Sydney sunk off the coast of WA and took 645 men in WWII. There is a seagull in the dome for every man.

Life here revolves around a bit of fishing and a large port for ore and Wheat. I am again working in a hardware shop selling tools, bolts and Nuts. I don't like the job, but it puts money in the bank. Trace is working for the caravan park we are staying in which gives us cheap site fees, water, gas and power.

We are both looking forward to starting to work for CBH Group (Co-Operative Bulk Handling) and heading out bush. The windy wet weather on the coast does not impress either of us. :-)

We are still having a ball though!

Kalbarri National Park.

On the way down the coast we stopped in to see Kalbarri and the national park. Kalbarri is a nice seaside town that is full of character, but the main attraction is the national park there.

The major geographical features of the park include the Murchison River gorge which runs for nearly 80 km on the lower reaches of the Murchison River. 

We had a good time having a look around the park with most of the features a short walk from car parks. This was good for the injured and swollen ankled Trace. The main feature and draw card of the park is a rock formation called "Natures Window". Now we have seen a few of these windows on our travels but this one was cool.

On to Geraldton where we we again look for work.

Floods, Exmouth and Cape Range National Park.

After having Tracey's ankle checked out at Tom Price Hospital we headed for the coast again, looking forward to Exmouth and Cape Range National Park. On our way out there were massive rains and Exmouth was flooded along with half the camp sites in Cape Range. All the pristine snorkeling waters were muddied with the run off from the floods.

We decided to give it a miss and ended up on the coral Coast around the Shark Bay area. Another lovely area on the coast near Monkey Mia.

We got a good campsite on top of a bluff at Whale Bone Bay and enjoyed the sunsets and watching the fish, rays and sharks cruise by us below.

We are now leaving for Kalbarri and the National Park there. Should be good as we have heard a lot of good things about it.

Port Headland No Go......So Off we go!

We spent a fair bit of time in Port Headland to get a job but it seemed you needed to "know someone" to get into the "gang" in Headland. These mine towns are clicky mob's. It's expensive here as well, we paid over $500 for a caravan site for a week, if we were permanent they wanted $2500 bond for a site!!
Not to worry we decided to head off and have a look at Karijini National Park. Awesome! is a word. We have not seen such beauty since the Gibb River Road. We loved it.

We had a great time walking all the gorges the park had to offer.

On the last day Trace rolled her ankle on a rock. So we headed out and rested up in a free camp for a few days after having the ankle checked out at Tom Price Hospital. All OK just a sprain thank goodness.

Tom Price, Paraburdoo and onto the coast.