Hi everyone,
I know this a bit late, but I have been very busy/unmotivated to sit in front of the computer.
Last year on our way back to Melbourne from Broome, we stopped in Alice Spring for 2 weeks as my sister Maree was on her way to join Russell in Darwin. Maree was low-lying up the Stuart Highway with mum and the cat for company. Both behaved beautifully I am told. We had a great afternoon going round the shops in Alice, good dinner in the van and lots of chat, breakfast the following morning and off Maree went to meet her husband.
Whilst in Alice we went to a few places that we have not been to. Araluen Cultural Precinct was a full day looking around, there is an Aviation Museum, Craft shop, Art centre and Museum of Central Australia, so much to see and learn it was a fantastic day. On another day we went to Palm Valley, oh this place is just out of the world with ancient Palm trees, Cycidads & gumtrees, we had a great walk down the valley & up and along the top edge. The drive in was also beaut with easy gravel road till the last 10 km's when the road turned into a rocky track with markers across the creek beds. We also watched some of the Solar Cars come into Alice for the solar car race, it would have been very hot in the cars.
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| Palm Trees in Palm Valley |
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| More of the Palm Trees from above |
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| Ian driving into a creek crossing |
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| The quilt I finished in Broome |
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| One of the Solar Cars form the race, a 4 person car |
From Alice we headed down the Stuart Highway to the York Peninsula for a week. Our first stop was at Wallaroo, where we had unexpected visitors at our door. Denise & Robert Hill from our Kimberley cruise in 2012. We went over after tea and had coffee/tea and lots of chatting, this was a lovely unexpected evening. We had a look around the area stopped in at the Heritage Museum, then to Moonta Mines. From Wallaroo we moved onto Minlaton for a few days.
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| Tipara Lighthouse built in 1877 |
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| Hughes Pump House at Moonta Mines, built in 1865 |
We used Minlaton as a base to travel around the peninsula and Innes NP. The NP is wild and windy with lots of lighthouses, wildlife.
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| Corny Point Lighthouse completed in 1882 |
It was so windy at West Cape Lighthouse we were unable to get very close as we were being blown away. We saw Seals, Emu's, Stumpy's, Chinamans hat rocks.
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| West Cape Lighthouse is Stainless Steel, built in1980 and is 67 meters above sea level |
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| Cape Spencer Lighthouse, standing 78 meters above sea level |
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| Troubridge Hill Lighthouse, is 32 metres high built of custom made special wedge shaped clay bricks |
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| Shepherds Hut in the Innes NP |
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| Ocean of Corney Point, windy |
From Minlaton we went to Port Adelaide, we visited Pam and Roger at their new home. Lots of trees and a great walk to go on, gorgeous house. After Adelaide it was off to Mildura to Geoff, Marion, Darren, Rose and the children. We went to a car display and found a good caravan and tow vehicle to trade up to.
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| Tear Drop Caravan and tow car |
We arrived back in Melbourne and stayed in Coburg, the Big 4 in Elizabeth St worked out well as it is very close to Robert, Mel and the boys. We also went back to Mildura for the weekend for Geoff's birthday, Darren & Rose had the christening of their 3rd daughter.
Come December we changed our caravan for a new one. Our new home on wheels is 25' Cell Peninsula. It has a slide out, outdoor kitchen/laundry and many more great features, when I take more photos I will put them in the blog. We had Christmas at Robert's with Mel's mum and sister and mum.
At the end of January we went on the Australia Day weekend rally with our friends in the Jayco Club. Halls Gap is where we went. Halls Gap had big fires in the Grampians and after a very hot weekend we left on the Tuesday after a community meeting due to the fire threat getting bad again. From here we went to Ballarat the Koorumburra to see Matthew & Charmaine's new home. We had a great time with them.
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| The gang at Halls Gap |
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| Australia Day dinner guests (yes it is having a snack) |
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| These guys also came to dinner. |
Well I do hope this has caught you up with our busy few months. We are now on our way back to Broome via Darwin to see Maree and Russell also Neila and her partner. We are staying in Darwin over Easter. We leave Ballarat in the morning so by for now and I promise to keep you up to date with our travels. We have started our 5th year of travelling round Australia.
Cheers Marilyn and Ian
