TravelStream™ news feed for member middletonfamily on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/middletonfamily en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Mon, 02 Feb 2009 07:55:15 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/middletonfamily/1/1231923060/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/middletonfamily/1/1231923060/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/middletonfamily/1/1231923060/tpod.html Mon, 02 Feb 2009 07:55:15 -0500 The Melbourne Middletons Great Great Fantastic Adventure

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Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, Australia

This place is hot, after being over on the coast for a week we were again back in the heat. I am staggered at the number of Gold mines in and around this area. We took a trip up to Lake Ballad to see the 50+ statues (by a English artist Gormley) scattered through a massive salt lake. It was 150 km North East of Kalgoorlie and 60 km North East of Menzies down a average dirt road. When we arrived there was a helicopter and the staff from WA post card doing an article on the area. We also spent some time exploring the deserted town of Gwalia where the Sons of Gwalia gold mine started.
(A long day over 650 km in the heat.)

We took the next day off and spent it at the kalgoolie Oasis Pool where there was a large water slide for the kids and a cool artificial wave unit that you used a boogey board on. We then headed of the next day back to the dirt roads and out to a place called cave rock, more beautiful than wave rock and then to Burra rock and the dam on the rock for a refreshing swim.

We left Kalgoorlie in the afternoon after Jack and Bec had been out prospecting for gold and I with the girls had finished a number of jobs in town. We had booked in to go salt lake sailing for the afternoon. (At a salt lake 60 km south of Kalgoorlie).
We had booked 3 Blocart's (they are made in NZ and are a low slung 3 wheel go cart with no motor and a large windsurfer sail on top). This is cool fun, Rachael did not quite get the sailing idea and Bec had a quick go . Jack, Sarah and I had a great time and the kids got a great handle on sailing by being able to follow me and talk at the same time. They could do up to 60kmh and were very easy to tip over as Jack found out.
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Hyden, Western Australia, Australia

Wave rock was very cool, we spend the morning doing a 10km walk through to the hippos mouth and out through the surrounding bush. We had taken a swim in a natural salt water pool not far from wave road, the water is 4 time saltier than the sea and I think saltier then the dead sea OS. The water is so salty that you could not sink, you can float standing up and when you try to dive down you are lucky to get your whole body under water.

We left wave rock and travelled the back road across to Kalgoorlie along the worst road so far 300 Km of average to very bad corrugated road. We had a look at the rabbit proof fence now the Emu fence and then pulled up half way at a location called the break away. We had to do some cleaning up above the van and also the drop toilet! - it had redback spiders the size of 50c pieces that were not very happy with Bec chasing them round with a broom. Up early and off to Kalgoorlie.
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Shannon, Western Australia, Australia

We headed to Shannon National Park with the Sheridan's the day after Boxing Day and used this as a base to see a lot of the South West. This included the magic tree top walk through the Red Tingles, Greens Pool at Denmark, Sand Dunes at Yealerup, huge sting rays at Hamelin Bay, Climbing a lookout tree near Pemberton and generally just enjoying the magic national park. We managed to try out the car in the sand dunes for the first real time. And had to let the tyres down to 15PSI to get back off the beach and up a 1Km long sand dune. (Have to mention for Steve Sheridan's sack that we got up the first time and it took him a couple of times)
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Boyup Brook, Western Australia, Australia

After talking to Bill Gordon on the phone and organising to spend some time out on this farm we headed into Boyup Brook. As we worked out what the town was all about at the visitor info, Bill happened to turn up at the same time. We spent the afternoon checking out Sandy Chambers work (he does sand sculptures for large shows and displays) and then out to Bills place. We spend the following day helping drench 400-500 lambs.
As we headed down to the back paddock to get the lambs in Jack and I were on a quad bike, as we approached the back gate we could see a very large kangaroo (maybe 6-7 feet high) and standing on the gate post beside him, like they were having a chat was a Wedge tailed eagle (easily over 2 feet in height).When we arrived at the fence the Roo headed out but the eagle just sat there not caring about us until we walked over to open the gate.
Thanks to Bill we spent a couple of great days at his place before heading back out into the heat.
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Esperance, South Australia, Australia

Our Own beach. Down to the D'Entrecasteaux Natioal Park and stayed at the area called ' Lucky Bay'. Kangaroos on the beach with really white sand and lots of Banksia's.
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Albany, Western Australia, Australia

We eventually made it to Albany and to Middleton beach where we had booked in for Christmas. We had also booked in a day earlier, when we had gotten stuck in Gawler we had cracked the exhaust pipe just behind the turbo and we could hear it getting louder and louder. I had spoken to the manufacturer and we had agreed that we would put a new one on when we get to Perth. So I had to fix this one in Albany. The local exhaust place was happy to weld it up but didn't have the time to pull it of the car. I was up at 6 early to be down at the shop allow it to cool down and remove it before they opened at 8 am.

We had been surprised as a number of days earlier the Sheridan's - Jacinta and Steve and 4 cherubs (friends from Melbourne) who are also out travelling for 6 weeks had decided to meet us in Albany. We had a great time in Albany swimming at the beach and playing around the park. We cooked up a big feed for Christmas lunch and all up had 11 of us in the caravan annex for lunch.

We took the time to go out to Whale World and see some of historic processes during the whaling era.
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Gawler Ranges, South Australia, Australia

Rule 5 - Take notice of the Road Signs - If the road sign says 4WD only it probably means no caravans.

As we headed into the Gawler Ranges we took a short cut that was to save us 10-15 minutes, this ended up costing us 3 hours. As we headed down the dirt road with the tyres all still pumped up hard, the van on the back, the car not in 4WD we found the road getting worse. The road was quite eroded and therefore there were high banks on both sides and no way of turning around so the only way was forward. As we continued the road started turning to sand and the dunes got higher. We came to a large dune (at this point I should have stopped and put the car in 4WD) we drove half way up and then car sank into the sand up to the diff. After trying a number of different times we eventually started going again (after letting all tyres including the van down to 15 PSI, the car in low range 4WD, and after digging the car out) and had to have a run at a number of other large dunes as we continued down the track. After all that we managed to hit a kangaroo as we where travelling quite late in the afternoon now. The Kangaroo (about 6 foot high) came out of the bush on the driver's side and tried to stop. We clipped him with the bull bar on the car which meant no damage to the car, but he decided to stand up between the car and van so the front corner of the van to the full load leaving it looking a bit second hand. All up the Gawler ranges where very beautiful with magnificent rocks like wave rock and a rock formation called the pipe organ.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/middletonfamily/1/1228912620/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/middletonfamily/1/1228912620/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/middletonfamily/1/1228912620/tpod.html Sun, 01 Feb 2009 07:51:55 -0500 The Melbourne Middletons Great Great Fantastic Adventure

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Port Lincoln, South Australia, Australia

This is a very interesting place not quite what I had expected, the town is large had has all the services that you could need with a great climate. We got in late and had been booked to do a swimming session with the Tuna so we found a spot down near the marina and pulled up for the night.

We headed out the next morning to where they fatten the southern blue fin tuna in massive fishing net cage out in the ocean about 10km for Port Lincoln. The tank was the same as what the commercial guys use except they had a pontoon in the cage and an underwater area that you could watch from. These fish are very cool about 50- 80kg each and around a metre long and very fast. The commercial guys feed the fish in each cage about 2 tonnes of fish each day. So they where happy for us to feed them, they had heaps of dead fish and after we had feed them from the pontoon they suggested swimming in the water with them. So we all got in. The guide had bet me $5 that I couldn't catch one and was happy for me to try and dive in after them (no hope). We spent the next 30 minutes with snorkels and mask and where feeding the tuna and watching as they swam around (very fast).

The next day I had booked in to be the fish bait by doing a Great White cage dive 60km off the coast of Port Lincoln in a seal area. We arrived and the guides threw over some tuna heads and blood, within minutes we had a 4 metre great white circling the boat wanting to get the tuna heads that they had on ropes (they would play a game of cat and mouse with the sharks). We then got a 4 man shark cage in the water and suited up for a 1 hour session in the cage (all the time they are throwing Blood oil and playing game with the sharks to keep them around) by the time I got in the cage we had 3 - 4 sharks around all great whites ranging from 3 - 6 metres all more than capable of eating me. What a cool, outrageous, fantastic, crazy experience - one large shark tried to get into the cage and at one stage we had a shark half stuck between the cage and the ropes that connected it to the boat. If you are an adrenalin nut which I know a lot of you are this is a must to do (only one of two places in the world that you can do this and the other place is South Africa.) We had a lay day in Port Lincoln and also had a tour of a fresh fish factory where I learned how to fillet a fish and that you need to freeze a fresh squid before you eat it.
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Kimba, South Australia, Australia

After spending time on the coast we started heading west and our first stop was half way across OZ in Kimba. A friend of my cousin lives on a wheat farm 50 km from Kimba and graciously invited us to stay for a couple of days. Jack and the girls where very excited as they had kids to play with. Dean and Peta where still in the middle of there 2 months of harvest. It had been raining so the header was sitting in the paddock and Dean was doing some work on the tractor. We got up Saturday and were invited to join Dean and Peta and the local farmers at there tennis day and Christmas party. We had a great day as the kids were off with other kids and we got a chance to talk to some of the locals about the area. Santa turned up that night on the back of the local regional fire truck. Dean and I stayed talking with a number of other guys until the early hours of the morning. We spent the next day helping to move some sheep 10+ km which took a bit of time. Jack stayed until the end helping Dean's father move the sheep the last couple of km. (I think it was the fact that he got to spend the day riding a motorbike). We left Monday morning as the kids went back to school and we headed up into the Gawler Ranges North of the Kimba area.
Thanks again to Dean and Peta for your gracious hospitality.
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Gawler, South Australia, Australia

After meeting some friends of Jillian and Claude's at their wedding we head to their home. They welcomed use in their back yard so we could do some day trips into Adelaide. Merilyn and John run a great business for accommodation in the Gawler area.
The first day was spend enjoying lunch with M and J and then off to the movies. The second day was spend at Mount Lofty (great view) and then a 4km hike down to the water falls at the base of the mountain. Certainly a heart starter walking back up again!! We then travelled North East to Birdsvale - the Automotive Museum there was quite impressive bringing back memories of cars we have seen or travelled in - Valiants, Kingswoods then some of the T-Fords etc.

We then travelled back to Gawler for the night.
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