Our campsite in the Stirling Range National Park
A closer look at the kitchen setup (largely inspired by my mothers camping kitchen)
My little blue tent which has worked very well
The view from our campsite at sundown
The dry landscape with Toolbrunup Peak in the distance
Toolbrunup Peak - 1052 m; we climbed and descended in 3 hours.
A road through the National Park
The road to Toolbrunup Peak
A look back...
Omar on a Cairn taking a photo
An Australian Grass Tree; grows only 1-2 cm per year! They are often found at 1-2 metres in the area making some of them over 200 years old
Some flowers of the region
A famous Australian "Bob Tail". An ugly lizard that occasionally will latch onto body parts and not let go
Not the kind of guy you want to find in your tent...
Bluff Knoll (1095 m) - the highest peak in the Stirling Ranges, and the highest peak for 1000km radius.
The track behind from the steep ascent of Bluff Knoll
But well worth the view over the surrounding farm land
Looking out over the Stirling Ranges
At the peak...
From the peak of Bluff Knoll
The track over the summit
A fine example of a Grass Tree
Bluff Knoll (we ascended along the right hand side and the traversed across the top)
On the way out of the Stirling Ranges, we found the a strange tourist attraction...
...A dutch windmill called "The Lilly". Wasn't all that interesting, but it warranted a few photos.
We arrived in Esperance to find beautiful beaches and coast lines like this one...
This is "Pink Lake". If we were there in the right temperatures and conditions it would be pink, but we weren't, so it wasn't very interesting
The beaches would only get better
Esperance is so far away from anything that it is off the main power grid, so it has to generate it's own electricity. Two wind farms in the area generate about 23% of the needed electricity (the rest coming from Natural Gas)
It was my first time up close to these turbines - although the blades don't spin very fast, they make a fair deal of noise
Not a typical beach for the area - granite rock
Strange things grew in the crevasses however
A lookout... I found it quite strange that they would build a lookout tower for the city and radio towers in the same area
I went for a walk through a swamp area - there was plenty of bird life in the area
This is the first photo from Cape Le Grand National Park; 65 km's from Esperance. This beach is called "Lucky Bay". From here it doesn't look like one of the most exceptional beaches I have ever visited, but just a little walk down and it is
A caterpillar on the sand - the sand is made from Quartz.
Due to the beach being composed of quartz sand, it was very hard, very shiny, and it would squeak under the pressure of my feet
4x4's (and later my Toyota) are a common site on the beaches here, where they allow people to drive on the beach. There is one route that will take you back into town from here that is only 23km's, compared to 64 km on the road. Unfortunately, I didn't want to try such a distance on the sand with my FWD Station Wagon
Omar cooking under the light
We went for a walk to another bay about an hour away...
This area was slightly greener than the surrounding areas.
That is me at a rock know as Whistling Rock - it whistles in the wind
A Goanna along the way
Thistle Cove - the end point of our walk
Crystal clear waters
Lucky Bay - where we are camped, and the best beach of the area
Omar in the camp kitchen in the National Park
There are much more severe consequences to mice here - Needless to say, I cleaned up
Me and my car on the beach
Penola
It can get quite windy - and the spray will blow in from the bay
Kalgoorlie "Super Pit"... The biggest man made pit in the world.
The huge mining trucks lining up to be filled - just that loader alone costs over $10 000,000!!!
Preparing the area for an explosion, one that we would be back to see.
Before the explosion...
During
After some of the dust settles... the area will be closed off for the next 13 hours to allow it to settle
The mounds in the distance are the beginning of the Super Pit
Kalgoorlie
