Albany, What A Pleasant Surprise ....  We arrived in Albany on the most perfect day we had had for quite a few days.  No wind, no showers, no clouds and just blue skies and sunshine.  This made Albany look perfect.  We settled ourselves at Middleton Beach just a couple of kilometres out of Albany city and set out sightseeing.  The scenery around Albany is picture postcard stuff.  The waterways are just perfect for sailing, fishing, swimming and any water sport you fancy.  There are numerous islands off the mainland that make the place look like paradise on a sunny day.  We took short walks from Torndirrup National Park to see some of the attractions including the Blowholes, The Gap and Natural Bridge where the big seas of the Southern Ocean crash onto the cliff face and make for some good photography.   Two Peoples Bay was another National Park with just fantastic views.

Whale World, What A Name ....  A visit to Whale World was really interesting.  This whale museum has been created from a working whaling station which operated until its closure in 1978.  In its heyday the chasers took up to 850 sperm whales in a season operating at the edge of the continental shelf 35 to 50 kms offshore.  The museum is well worth visiting and a lot was learnt on the cruel whale industry. We even managed to watch the whales and a group of eight seals just of the shoreline.  Whale watching is just a great way of wasting time.  They really are fascinating beautiful creatures.

After one fantastic day of weather, it was a change back to much cooler and wetter weather, so we spent time touring the town and updating our web site in a cosy little restaurant.   We have found that some internet cafes are really good while some have been challenging either because of poor quality computers or modems or slow lines that make uploading photos slow and unreliable.

Moving Eastward ....    Again, it was time to move on to Esperance.  Esperance is nearly 500 kms from Albany.  This was a big drive for us so an early start saw us having a breakfast of bacon and eggs 150 kms from Albany in an off road camp spot and arriving in Esperance early afternoon.  Esperance is located on the shores of the Bay of Isles and you look out towards the islands of the Recherché Archipelago.  Again the beaches would have to be some of the best in the world.  There are also six national parks to visit and this area is very popular with holiday makers.

Gold, Gold, Gold, Yes Kalgoorlie .....   We decided it would be crazy to do a right hand turn at Norseman and head across the Nullarbor, without visiting Kalgoorlie so we continued straight ahead.  Another reason for this decision was to watch the opening ceremony of the Olympics on the telly.  Fancy allowing the television to dictate what we do!  Kalgoorlie is the "Gold Capital of Australia" with a population of 30,000.  The Kalgoorlie Cup was being run on Saturday, so the town was hyped up about this big event.   Kalgoorlie was a swinging  town on Saturday night.  It has some beautiful old buildings, and the some of the pubs in the town have been renovated and are very attractive.  Even one of the brothels has had major renovations to it at a cost of $3 million.  To recuperate some of the costs the madam runs tours of the establishment and museum at $20 per head.

That's A Big Hole .... Back to the mining and a visit to the Super Pit owned by Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines Pty. Ltd. which is the biggest gold producer in Australia.  600,000 ounces of gold are produced annually.  The Super Pit has swallowed many of the historic workings which once made up the famous Golden Mile.  It is a huge "hole in the ground" with 200 tonne dump trucks and giant face shovels which scoop up as much as 40 tonnes of dirt in a single pass.   When the mine is completely exhausted of gold it will be 2 km long, 1 km wide and 650 mtrs deep.   This certainly is a big hole in the ground.

Just Turn Left, The Nullarbor ....   An early start before breakfast gave us a good start to reach Norseman and turn left to cross the Nullarbor along the Eyre Highway.  We first stopped at Norseman for bacon and eggs and then hit the highway doing over 600 kms on our first day.  The landscape changes every so often from light vegetation to not much vegetation at all.  We stopped for petrol at Balladonia where the price was $1.30 per litre and heard that it was dearer further on.  It was then onto Caiguna a further 182 km down the highway and spent our first night off road 44 kms east of Caiguna.  Another early start saw us travel onto Eucla where we had breakfast overlooking the Great Australian Bight. - petrol here was only $1.25 per litre. We had many stops from here on as the scenery of the Great Australian Bight is really spectacular.  Vertical cliffs just drop down into the ocean and on one of these stops we sighted the Southern Right Whales who visit the warmer waters of the Bight from April to October.  During this time they calve and breed  before returning to the sub Antarctic feeding grounds.
 

Our Journey Continues ..... Our next night stop off road was 30 kms west of the Yalata Roadhouse, a very uneventful night with just the odd road train beeping its horn to say hello.  The Eyre Highway from Norseman to Ceduna is 1213 km long and very straight but not boring as the landscape is continually changing and there are many different things to see along the way.  The highway is in very good condition which makes for easy driving. The Eyre Highway was built in 1941 with a labour force of 150 men.  These  men worked 10 hour days, 6 days per week and for 7 pounds per week.  It was sealed to the border on the WA side by 1969 and the final 400 km was completed in 1976.  We were nearly across and the next day saw us approximately 350 kms from Ceduna.  There are many tracks which lead down to some great surf beaches and are popular with the surfers, but are also popular with the great white pointer sharks.  We arrived at Ceduna around lunch time and stayed in a caravan park on the foreshore.  A very interesting town where oysters are the selling point along with good fishing.  We enjoyed a beautiful home cooked meal of fresh local oysters, prawns and King George Whiting with a nice bottle of wine.

A Boating Mecca ....   Port Lincoln is a town of 13,000 people situated at the tip of the Eyre Peninsula and is surrounded again by water, a haven for fisherman, yachtsmen and boating enthusiasts.  We had a very interesting visit to Constantia Designer Craftsman furniture manufacturers.  Constantia was commissioned to design and build the Table for the House of Representatives and the Hansard Table, the main tables for the new Parliament House in Canberra.  We toured his workrooms and saw the process from the raw product to the finished product.  Some of the imported timbers he uses cost $20,000 per cubic metre so don't expect to see his furniture in K Mart.

A pretty seaside town 44 kms from Port Lincoln is Coffin Bay and the Coffin Bay National Park so the four of us packed a picnic lunch and toured around the National Park which is 4 WD only.  The coastline around here is so rugged but spectacular and the sand dunes at Gunyah Beach were stunning.  We had a seafood night and ate the pink snapper that Wendy and Lester had caught at Shark Bay and the prawns we bought at Ceduna and on our last night we taught Wendy and Lester a new card game.   We decided that there will have to be a rematch.  The next day saw Wendy and Lester move on to Adelaide while we continued at our leisurely pace heading homewards.