We have moved on to the Clare Valley and while here we received the sad news that Fred, our Pupalupagus, had passed away on the 25th October. His poor heart just gave up, love him. These shots were taken just before we came back to Perth and I have already posted one of Stephen and I with both Fred and Patches. 
We travelled round through Port Lincoln, to Tumby, then on to Whyalla. We had intended to stop on the way but the weather was very windy, so decided it was better off to keep going on up the east coast of the Eyre Peninsular. We got another beach front position, which was the next mistake as we nearly got blown of the jack and legs of the van! This shot is from the old battlements used to protect the steel and ship yard in the second world war.
The steel works are still in use today, and this is were some of the 5% ore comes to from the mines in Western Australia.
They had on land the first of the HMAS ships that were built in Whyalla, hense the name. This ship was used to locate and destroy mines in the war, worked in Victoria Public Works, actually cleared the entrance to Port Phillip Bay, at this time it was called the Rip. Then sold back to the town for $5,000.
Captain of the ship, the Whyalla was brought 2 K's over land to were it sits now. The ship is well worth a look and the museum if factual and very well presented.
As you can see, quite a sight to see by the side of the road.
We left our lovely Streaky Bay and travelled south heading for Coffin Bay. On the way we did a scenic route around Elliston. This cliff top drive had sculptures dotted along the cliff faces. The one above had this boat and also an painters easel all set up. The coast line was spectacular and hardly a car in sight.
Not bad sculpture, this impressed with the islands in the background.
Coffin Bay was a pleasant enough spot, but the national park was outstanding. This shot is taken from the mainland and as you can see you could almost walk over to Golden Island, the currents, colours and waves were entertaining. 
We had decided not to stay in Port Lincoln, so spent a very pleasant day down in the area...we went to Boston Bay Winery (great Riesling)to the harbour, saw the marina full of tuna boats, had lunch on the boardwalk (tuna & mulloway), got some supplies, then off to Lincoln National Park.
Still doing the twitching, a Stephen is still trying to step on the wildlife. This Black Faced Cormorat was just sitting in a rock crevis, check out the green eyes!
Unfortunately, I had developed what was called a wry neck.. not sure of the spelling, or as Stephen called it a pain in the neck. Basically I could not move my neck at all and it was extremely painful. Ended up at the hospital, but managed to find a good masseur which helped. We therefore spent a few more days than originally intended, but in doing the area slowly (for my necks benefit) we fell for it.
The coast line and the scenery was outstanding. With rough seas, limestone cliffs, tranquil bays, it's an area not to be missed.
We visited the Sealions at Cape Labatt, which was all I could do.... we had intended to swim with the Sealoions at Baird Bay, but the neck put pay to that. These creatures were a joy to watch, doing bog laps etc.
See what I mean about the scenery.
This is one of the Murphy Haystack's , in the middle of no where is this collection of Pink Granite rocks... the colours are magnificent.
We headed for Fowlers Bay as Bathhurst was upon us, and Stephen had the neeeeeed to see his cars. We had already earmarked this spot from when we were at the Eyre Bird Observatory. It is a quiet spot (picture above is called the Mexican Hat) but with a Saturday Night spit (or drum) meal, we met lots of people crossing the Nullarbor.
Blow this one up it is worth a read. We are finding it interesting to follow trails, names, monuments, water holes, etc. Talking of blowing, this day was the worst weather we have encountered with terrific winds and some rain, good job we were siting inside watching the TV.
The old jetty, Stephen was very surprised that it was still standing!
The first of the plaques on the Eyre trail.
Crossing the boarder into South Australia... now we are beginning to feel like we are getting somewhere!
A few of the pull in's to see the coast were closed but we still managed to blow our minds with these fantastic views... and to imagine that a lot of this coast is not accessible from the road.
We could not miss the Head of the Bight, one of the worlds premier whale watching spots. Although late in the season we were still lucky to see five Mum's and Babies. We also saw this near white calf. Apparently they get a couple of these each year and nearly always one in the beginning of the season and one at the end.
It was difficult to come away from these incredible creatures, and just made us so mad that countries are still hunting and killing these whales.
The look out area has been very well organised, we did feel it was a shame that you cannot camp around here so that you can spend more time watching.
As we have both become twitcher's, we had the opportunity to go to the Eyre Bird Observatory. This is a good 30k's of the main road (you know the one your on number 1), and is only 4wd. So we left the Turtle at Cocklebiddy roadhouse and set off early to spend an hour looking around..wrong!! The road is only 4wd...and means it, it took us just over an hour to get to what was the old telegraph station house. This beautiful place is set up for visitors ($90 per person all food included), and we were very annoyed that we had not known about it before as we would have loved to have stayed. The operation is run by volunteers Beverly and John. They were a lovely couple and were to be based there for 7 months..this was there third visit, most informative.
We did get to see some of the bird life and had a general walk around.. we found this plaque so included Fowlers Bay into our trip, more on that later.
The beach was long and had some interesting flotsam and jetsam. 
This was the site of the original telegraph station house... not much left but interesting. We were very sorry to have to leave so soon as we really enjoyed ourselves and the company.. put it on your list, we would have stayed if it was not for poor Turtle sitting on the road side ..not a good look.. we got back in time to get close to the border for the next day's travel.
We left from Kalgoorlie to Norseman, before we started the long trek across the Nullabour. I must say that I had a certain amount of dread of three days traveling with little respite and endless nothing... to say I was pleasantly surprised is an understatement. Above is the look out at Norseman, with the plains stretching out in all directions... then we were off.
We were on the longest straight bit.. 146k's long..not boring at all.
We were doing some free camping on the way, not the most pleasant places but they did have a toilet of sorts, this one could have done with an attached seat... but hey all good.
We did have a spectacular sunset to send us to sleep...another long day tomorrow.
Kalgoorlie is a lovely place and we really did not do it justice in the few days we were there. We will be back..... having done the golden Quest and ending up at the Super Pit, we were still overwhelmed as to the sizes and industry that Western Australia has to offer. Especially with all the doom and gloom it was great to see a thriving community. This picture is of the Original Council Office.. now houses post office etc.
View down the mail street, showing the architecture of years gone by, while we were walking down here, a friend of mine Rick Hurst, called to find out were we were and lo and behold he was driving into Boulder!! He was on his way to Perth but managed to find 45 mins to get to our Turtle for a quick drink before heading to the Airport... such a small world!
Stephen suggested that we topped up the coffers.....I don't think so!!!!!!!!!
This was my idea of a chance of topping up the coffers... didn't find a thing but it was fun trying. This is at the Miners Hall of Fame, were we went down a mine, and yes Mum they turned out the lights!
And they also did a so called Gold pour... well not quite but it was still very interesting to watch. (The only place you can see a real gold pour is at the Perth Mint)
C Y O'Connor, is one of the interesting members of the West Australian history that we are coming across. He was the engineer and genius that was traumatised by the politicians of the day and the media, to the point that he committted suicide.
He was not only the main Engineer on the Golden Pipeline, but the engineer for the building of Fremantle Harbour.
This is the original pipe which was made of wood, used during the steel shortages during the war.
These are the remains of the above mentioned wooden pipes, with there wire binding still in evidence all along the pipeline, where it has been replaced.
This is the memorial at C Y O'Connor beach, south of Fremantle. This is supposedly the spot were C Y O'Connor rode his horse into the ocean and drowned himself. A great tragedy.
The morning of the 3rd October 2008 brought us to the second leaving. We had hoped that Deborah & Anthony were going to be able to join us on the first week of our travels,but Anthony's hospital appointments made that a little tight, so it was a sad goodbye again. I really did not like this second time round. Having said that I would like to thank them both for putting up with us and all our mess (we had to empty our caravan into their house, while it was being fixed), miss you heaps.
We passed the road up to Kalamunda, and started our travels in basically the same direction that we had on the 4th July... this time though we were doing the Golden Pipeline on the road to Coolgardie.
If you ever get a chance this is quite a fascinating trip, and I will do a blog entry on the engineer C Y O'Connor, This picture is of Cunderdin Pump No 3. All the stories of the firewood collection, the families and family history of father's and son's work on the pumps, all to get the water to Kalgoolie, for the gold rush.
It goes on and on, but the remaining bridges, dammed areas, all have a historic significance of there own.
This is an aqueduct that takes water from the bottom of Karalee Rock to the Dam. It is a fantastic piece of engineering for it's time. It was used to supply water to the railway line between Perth (Midland) and the Goldfields. Beautiful camping spot.
