The Pilbara, Cape Keraudren

We are making our way slowly down the coast of Western Australia and have reached Port Headland, not before we visited 80 Mile Beach and Cape Keraudren National Park.

                                                                   80 Mile Beach

                                                         

80 Mile Beach was beautiful but we headed down the road a bit to Cape Keraudren because it was going to be a bit cheaper. Tried a bit of fishing to no avail, I hear a quote the other day "Australia's most sustainable fisherman" that's me. :-) We had a good time fishing though and enjoyed the massive sea turtles cruising by us while we fished.

When we got to Cape Keraudren national Park we were glad. We had our choice of camps and $12 for a night for the two of us instead of $41 at 80 Mile. Better views at the cape as well.

As mentioned we are in Port Headland at the moment looking at the job situation as there is a lot of money to be made here is town. Our initial gut feeling though is that we don't like the place as it feels like the town is a massive mine site. I mean everything! Shopping centers, roads and caravan parks. Just a sea of high vis. Might head to Karratha. We'll see.

Broome............Again.

We had an uneventful trip from Kununurra to Broome, free camping along the way and taking it pretty easy. As we approached Broome the weather got hotter and more humid as we got closer, the day we arrived it was high 38 degrees and filthy humidity!

We caught up on some washing, saw a few friends and got a few running repair jobs on the van done, including insulating the poor 12v fridge as in this hot humid weather as it struggles a bit. I encased the fridge in high density refrigeration foam and it seems to have made a difference, free camping will be the tell tale.

We spent the obligatory sunset on Cable Beach one night and had a couple of quiet beers. Always good to see the sun set over the water.

This time we are off down the west coast as we set out to do a couple of years ago, looking at stopping at 80 mile beach to have a look. 80 mile is half way between Broome and Port Headland and the fishing is supposed to be good, we'll see!

Darwin To Kununurra Via Asia.

We finally got to Darwin and lobbed in at my uncles place at Berry Springs. He was good enough to look after the van and car for us when we went overseas.

Set off from Darwin on 12 March for our month long holiday to Asia, starting in Kuala Lumpur for a few days then we caught the train to Penang for a couple of days.  While in KL and Penang we indulged in the awesomeness of the Roti Canai and curry sauce (delicious!).  

                                                                        ROTI

We went to Batu Caves and shopping, which was out of insane as most of the shopping centers were all high end shops like Hugo Boss, Tag, Prada etc but good fun to look. 

BATU CAVES

After leaving Penang we flew to Siem Reap in Cambodia for a week.  Whilst in Siem Reap we went to an army camp and we shot an M16 and an AK47 which was so exhilarating :-)  We also went to Ankor Wat and surrounding temples.

ON THE RANGE!

TEMPLE IN CAMBODIA.

From Cambodia we went to Thailand where we spent the last 2 weeks.  We stayed in a place called Kanchanaburi for the first week and just relaxed and enjoyed how delicious the food is.  The last week we spent in Bangkok exploring and visiting the markets and shopping. In one of the shopping centres they sold Lamborghini's!!!

Now we are on the road again and we have once again left Darwin and are now in Kununurra on our way to Broome where this time we will only be spending a couple of days and then continue our way down the west coast.

Excited that we are now on our west coast journey.

On The Road Again..........

Here we sit in Katherine after taking a few days to get up here. It's hot and humid here but we are getting used to it pretty quickly, reminds me of Broome in the wet season. Thing is, we were so used to the dry heat of Alice Springs it's a bit of a shock!

We hit the road on Monday from Alice and leisurely made our way north, no stress as we did a few hundred K's a day. It's good to be on the move again, having spent the last year in Alice we had itchy feet. The initial idea was to spend some time in the Alice to see if it were a place to forge a new life. Not to be, just didn't "feel" like home I guess.

The road is pretty straight up the Stuart highway, our first camp was at the Devils marbles, we love this place so we set up camp. A couple hours later some kids turned up and made a lot of noise and proceeded to set up camp right near us, complete with a couple of dogs! We left in the morning.

Managed to get some nice photos of  the Devils Marbles at Sunset.

From here we headed to Katherine to stay for a few days, stopped at Mataranka for a while and had a swim at Bitter Springs. The weather was Very hot here, a fine introduction to the wet season up here. 

Bitter Springs

All the way up the Stuart Highway there were flying ants as the wet weather and heat had hatched them. Every time we stopped for fuel we found we had to clean the bugs off the windscreen, radiator and front of the car. Even got a piece of fly screen on the grill to prevent the radiator getting clogged up. Took minutes for the windscreen to become covered in the little critters when back on the move, you had to resist the temptation to use the windscreen wipers as they are so greasy and you couldn't get the screen quite clean.

Pesky Flying Ants

We leave Katherine tomorrow for Darwin where we will be staying with my uncle. We have flights booked for Asia on the 11th February from Darwin. So that is our next move, Asia for a month.

It's Getting Hot Out Here.

Pretty standard times out here for the Nuskies out here at the moment. Just a bit of work and camping. A couple of weeks ago we had a week of 40 degrees plus, a sign of things to come out here for the summer. It's cooled down at the moment with great weather but I think it's going to be a hot one this summer.


We went to Rainbow Valley a number of weeks ago to have a look. Lovely place, bit too hot to camp for the night as it was 40 odd that day and the flies were as thick as. So we did the tourist thing and did the day trip.

The other weekend we went to the NT Dirt Cart Championships and the following weekend we went to the Australian Titles. Pretty good racing with the go carts on a dirt track. Big sport out here as it's relatively cheap compared with running a buggy.

Finally, Tracey shaved her head for charity and raised over $1000 for the local wig library that helps cancer patients deal with the hair loss thing. I am very proud of my wife that decided to do this after her friend here in Alice was diagnosed with breast cancer. So Trace reckoned if she lost here hair she would support her through doing it herself. Good no ya Trace!!

:-)

We are still planning to leave after the new year. I think it is about time to move on and we are both looking forward to it.

That's all for now.

The Alice Mid Winter

Our time here in Alice is ticking along well. Trace and I are in the same jobs and we are saving heaps. We both are looking forward to having a big break at the end of the year starting off with an overseas trip to Asia I think the we will come back to hit the road once again. This time we will have the funds to have an extended time on the road and the luxury of working when the chance arises, not when we deem we have to.

A couple of weekends ago we went for a quad bike ride on one of the stations out here, Undoolya, that is 3500 Sq Km big and one of the oldest working stations in the NT. Frosty, our guide, is a customer at work so we organised to go out and have a look. We had a great time with a full day of riding and being taken to all the secret spots on the station. If you come out this way it’s an awesome thing to do. http://www.outbackquadadventures.com.au/

Last weekend was the Henley-On-Tod here in the Alice. It’s a boat regatta that is held in the dry river bed of the Todd river that runs through town. Tracey was lucky enough to get VIP tickets so we got free beer and food all day and had the pleasure of watching it from a nice tent. After the day at the Todd river I had a fight night event here in Alice that the boss had organised, VIP seats again! Excellent day on Saturday.

Bit of a video here of one of the races. http://youtu.be/IQZajlXF2dQ

Apart from that, all is well. Tracey is getting over the flu that is doing the rounds here in town. We both are looking forward to the end of the year.

Bye for now.

Finke Desert Race 2013

Just came back from the desert watching the Finke Desert Race for this year. Awesome time as usual, camping in the middle of nowhere and motor sport, what's not to like?? :-)

My boss from the Industrial and Hydraulic shop I work at took out the Pro Lights class and came 7th overall. Not a bad effort!!

This is him........

And Some Other competitors......

I love going to the Fink races, 240 Klm to Finke from the Alice and back again the next day. Great test of Man and machine. Sussed out Trace today as to weather she would be interested in doing it!!!!

Some Video Here.

http://youtu.be/H-bbUuTZ2QY