Doing it tough in WA - and getting paid for it!

[El_Freddo]

G'day all.

Just a couple of quick pics to share my trip that I'm working on in WA with my school and the larger organisation in general.

Last night's sunset at Guilderton:



The Pinnacles this arvo:







The trip has been great so far but I'm a) missing the family and b) missing Ruby Scoo as we cruise past some awesome dunes/4wd'n areas!

Also, one question for the WA crew - are L plater's allowed to tow trailers in WA?? We passed a young girl towing a massive fishing boat in a light truck, the back of the boat sported an L plate as did the front of the truck. We don't get that back in Vic!

I've been enjoying the driving, just missing my ride - can't fit all the kids in it for starters!

I'll update when I can again

WayneO I'm hoping to meet you the week after next when we're at the station for two nights I'll be in a white hi ace van with vic plates from europcar - no, we didn't drive them over here

Cheers

Bennie

[niterida]

No - L platers are not allowed to tow.

Drop in and say hello when u come through Geraldton

[Kustomchris]

Looks like a blast, would love to explore WA one day

[El_Freddo]

Today was our run from Drummond Cove up to Carnarvon. A good drive had - I had the "over flow" students from the other van, even then we lost one to one of the "cargo vans" - that left me with two students for half of the trip and two staff - so we had fun!

Got a thing for road trains, always have since being a little kid in the territory:



The road ahead disappearing into a mirage:



That's not an aerial, THIS is an aerial!



^ Glad I crested that hill doing the speed limit - they were being sneaky with the radar gun!

Overlander road house:



More road trains, no big ones yet:



^ We passed this fella at least twice, he must have been getting sick of our convoy...

This was across the road from the roadhouse, I thought it photo worthy due to the amount of work put into the front fence/wall:



Some lookout we stopped off at. Only two of our vehicles checked this place out - some great vast views to be had. Wish I knew the name of the place. This pile of rocks has been made from many people writing the name of a deceased family member or friend and adding to the pile:



And I found these random garden gnomes looking out to the ocean on the horizon:




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[El_Freddo]

We moved over for this piece of heavy machinery:



Lunch at Wooramel Road House - thought this was photo worthy:



Then more of this going on:



When we hit Carnarvon I finally got to see the road trains I used to see all the time - dunno why but I love them, wouldn't mind driving them for a bit, even though everyone tells me it's a shit job!



Started a tally at lunch. This is how it stands at the end of today:



We listened to about 80 songs on the ipod today!

We hit up the beach. I'm sure the locals look at us funny as "it's too cold to be swimming" as we were told yesterday!



^ 1 mile jetty in the background too.

Then the sun set, it started like that:




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[El_Freddo]

And it ended pretty well like this:



All going well so far. The swags aren't bad either.

Niterida - sorry mate, we barely touched on Geraldton, it was straight through for us. I've not got a lot of say as to what I can do when we're on the move en mass

Tomorrow we're off to Coral Bay for our 4 day stay. Dunno if I'll update this tomorrow night... we'll see!

Cheers

Bennie

[Kalbarri_baru]

Will be working at Kalbarri Sports and Dive, up near the Bakery, be sure to pop in and say Gday.

The others will be up here for the ANZAC weekend for a fishing trip (looking forward to that one).

Hey Bennie I know ur missin ur rig, so if you have a free hour or two when ur at the Station I would be happy to show you a special land locked fishing hole full of big Blackies and you can drive my carby EA82 with no power steering and no aircon (LOL).

Travel safe and see you in Kalbarri.

WayneO................

[El_Freddo]

The others will be up here for the ANZAC weekend for a fishing trip (looking forward to that one).

Yeah I'd love to be there too - so near yet so far

Hey Bennie I know ur missin ur rig, so if you have a free hour or two when ur at the Station I would be happy to show you a special land locked fishing hole full of big Blackies and you can drive my carby EA82 with no power steering and no aircon (LOL).

Awesome! Hopefully I'll get something sorted for this opportunity! My boss/organiser wants to know if you can fit in 28?? :P

Travel safe and see you in Kalbarri.

Looking forward to it mate!

Cheers

Bennie

[Kustomchris]

Seen any wild pigs or emus out there yet?
Some of the traffic out there is pretty cool


Wait till you see a cop car coming down the road in your lane with a massive piece of mining equiptment on a truck behind it.

You could also see if the kids can figure out what the snow is on the side of the road all over the place sometimes too.

[Kalbarri_baru]

Hey Bennie, you might be in luck with the extra 28 passengers, I just bought myself a cage for the roof racks and have been keen to load it up (LOL).

WayneO.............

[El_Freddo]

Kustomchris: Seen a couple of these, but they've been waiting to turn into the road we're on. Not seen any police escorts but have passed a few large oversized loads with their pilot vehicles going in either direction, the largest being the excavator in the pics above.

WayneO: Awesome, boss is stoked

Cheers

Bennie

[taza]

Looks like loads of fun!!! Will you be back in Perth for long when you shoot back from up north?

[niterida]

Seen any wild pigs or emus out there yet?
Some of the traffic out there is pretty cool


Wait till you see a cop car coming down the road in your lane with a massive piece of mining equiptment on a truck behind it.

You could also see if the kids can figure out what the snow is on the side of the road all over the place sometimes too.

That photo is nowhere near Carnarvon - nearest cotton field is thousands of kms away. GPS says Carnarvon Hwy - which is not even in WA!!

No (or very very rare) wild pigs out this way either

[Kustomchris]

Yeah i figured that after i posted.. Haha woops

One hell of a drive if he had travelled all that distance

[El_Freddo]

Hehehe... I'd been keeping an eye out for the wooly looking stuff.

We did see quite a few dead sheep, thought they may have fallen off the back of a truck from the top level... Or they were wild but they didn't seem to be damaged by a vehicle strike.

Now, on to the good stuff:

Yesterday was a quick trip compared to the other driving days...

This was camp pack up, one of the quickest we've done so far! Boys area:



And the girls area:



Proud of the boys! No prompting either

First stop off was the Minilya Road house. Not much special on the trip to this point. Not even at least a single road train to pass. At the road house there were these super old steam engines - they weren't even steam tractors, just an engine on wheels:



The old Lister generators put out to pasture:



And a road train photo - "only a little one though":



Getting closer!



Lots of this going on. Great to see, although I thought it might be a bit more baron than this - maybe I need to head further inland...




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[niterida]

Great part of the world up there.

I spent 3 days at Minilya road house once when my van died - cost me over $1500 in accommodation, tow truck back to Carnarvon, more accommodoation and the repairs. And what was wrong with it ? A loose wire on the alternator !!

I lived in Exmouth for 4 years too - didn't want to leave as it is THE best place in the world to live (well it would be if it wasn't quite so isolated).

Surprised you haven't seen any decent road trains -thats usually all you see on those roads.

So whats the plans at Coral Bay - whale sharks and diving ?? and where to from there ?

[El_Freddo]

At the tropic of Capricorn, had to stop for a pic of this. Missing Ruby Scoo though!



This one's for you Subaruby - I'm sure you'll appreciate this:



The sunset at Coral Bay:





And we went fishing - after finally finding a place we could legally fish! I got this little one which turned out to be hooked on some other fishing line that was lost from one of the kids earlier in the session - still one to chalk up though!



Been having a great day today too. Snorkelling all morning, lunch and some actual HEAT finally

More to come later. Will be back at it later after the mobile phone charging supervision session that's going on at the moment...

Cheers

Bennie

[El_Freddo]

Great part of the world up there.

I spent 3 days at Minilya road house once when my van died - cost me over $1500 in accommodation, tow truck back to Carnarvon, more accommodoation and the repairs. And what was wrong with it ? A loose wire on the alternator !!

Ouch! I bet you know better now!

Surprised you haven't seen any decent road trains -thats usually all you see on those roads.

Yeah I was pretty devo'd about that! I guess they had already left town well before us. There was very little traffic on the road, we kept passing the same caravans and campers after each break.

So whats the plans at Coral Bay - whale sharks and diving ?? and where to from there ?

Snorkelling, kits have been purchased for all the kids! Today was a chill day - do washing, sit on the beach, snorkel, blog/post about yesterday etc. Tomorrow we have the group split in two: one group to go out snorkelling with the whale sharks and the other group that I'm a part of will be out charter fishing

Thursday we're doing some other stuff that I can't remember, Friday we're doing more other stuff and then we're off to Exmouth for a few more days, then we head south again to Kalbarri.

Cheers

Bennie

[Rodeo4jake]

Gee, these kids are getting a top trip, I'd luv to be doing all these activities. Bet you're finding it hard to cope with over there.

[NachaLuva]

Sounds like you & the kids are having a ball. I hope you get in some 4WDn & good fishing...the further north you go the more amazing it gets