So yesterday in Merredin, we awoke to a beautiful bright, blue sky day. We had a leisurely breakfast, packed up and departed the park around 10am. We were very impressed with all the facilities and staff at Merredin Tourist Park and would highly recommend staying there if in the area.

We headed off towards Kalgoorlie but it wasn’t long before we got stuck behind a couple of slow moving wide loads. Coincidentally they turned out to be the same vehicles as the ones we saw in Meckering the day before. They pulled over to let everyone pass. Sadly, just near Moorine Rocks, we came across the two trucks that had crashed head on in the early hours. Police were still on scene and traffic was filtered through via a contra flow. A stark reminder to drive carefully.

We stopped for a picnic lunch at a roadside rest area in Boorabbin National Park. While there we looked at the memorial to the three truck drivers killed in a bushfire in 2007.

Finally at approx 4pm we arrived in Kalgoorlie and checked into the Discovery Holiday Park in Burt Street. Ben had a room to himself and we had a powered site. After unhitching we made our way into town and ended up having dinner at the Albion Hotel. Yummy food at great prices and fantastic staff. Another establishment we would thoroughly recommend.  After dinner we drove up to the viewing platform overlooking Kalgoorlie’s Super Pit, one of the largest open-cut mines on earth and the biggest gold mine in Australia.

Today, Thursday, we went back to the viewing platform to see the pit in daylight and witness one of the blasts take place. An incredible sight! We then went to Hannans North Tourist Mine, one of the first registered mines in Kalgoorlie. Look at the pics to see what we got up to.

Tomorrow we have an early start as we head to our first stop across the Nullarbor – Cocklebiddy!

We finally got away about 10am and headed along the Julimar Rd via Toodyay to Meckering.  Lovely farmland scenery, very green after all the rains. Arrived in Meckering and saw the various references to the 1968 earthquake which almost destroyed the entire town. We visited the camera museum which has a frontage styled after an SLR camera. The owner has been there 21 yrs and it is his own personal collection. Fantastic display, commentary and would highly recommend a visit if in the area. Ten minutes down the road we came to Cunderdin and a replica of the Ettamogah Pub where we had lunch. We then drove onto Merredin and checked into the tourist park. We had a drive thru powered site and an ensuite room for Ben. Very nice park with great facilities. We finished the day by cooking a bbq at the camp kitchen and watching Home & Away!!! We had a great day full of laughter and jokes – you had to be there to understand!!

Toasting the start of our journey. Stay tuned!

Guess which are Ray’s pile and Jude’s pile??!!! 😊😊😊

Although Ray still has another week until his retirement on the 1st July, we will be moving out of our house this weekend. During the next two weeks we will be staying with Annette and Jock (Jude’s sister and brother-in-law) but also spending time at the caravan getting it ship shape or should that be van shape!

There are many great memories to take with us from our seven years at Cooloongup. One that stands out is the surprise visit from Becky, Kia and Evie for Ray’s 60th birthday!  We are both feeling a mixture of excitement tinged with a slight nervousness at just what the roads ahead will bring. However we have absolutely no regrets at selling up, retiring and going on this amazing journey.

Another item on the list ticked off with the installation of our new Titan drawer system. We are really pleased with the quality and the amount of extra storage space created.

5 weeks today, Tuesday 12th July, and we set off on the first leg of our big lap.  We are even more excited as Ben will be joining us from the UK for the first 3 weeks.  We will be travelling to Adelaide via Kalgoorlie, the Nullarbor and Quorn where we will be visiting family.  Jude’s sister Annette and Brother-in-law Jock will be flying into Adelaide and joining us at the same caravan park for a week.

We have accepted an offer on our house which should be finalised soon. We have bought a 20ft shipping container and have been very fortunate to be able to set it up on a friends farm. This means we are busy sorting out what we keep, what we dispose of and what we store!  We have just taken up one trailer load and placed into the container.

Stay tuned……………

We decided that we wanted to separate some of the pictorial side of our journey and have therefore created a new wordpress site.

On this site we will publish the photos that mean the most to us and in so doing, we hope they will appeal to you, the viewer.  Check out the link below!

A superb mix of smiffspics