2026 Western Australia

 Carnarvon is the last big town that we will see for a while. It is a nice little place situated on a river estuary close to the sea.  While here we went to the Space and Technology Museum. It is basically dedicated to the early orbit launches and the Apollo moon missions. Caravon played a role in this by tracking and communicating to the missions when they were on the opposite side of the planet to Cape Canavaral. Apollo 11 communicated with Cararvan just before they did their last burn before heading to the moon.    Our visit started by entering a mock up of the Apollo 11 launch capsule. Lying on our backs with feet in the air and the capsule door shut we were treated to a movie and sound effects of the launch sequence. It was very moving and transported us back to the excitement we had as kids listening to Walter Cronkite narrate the launch and the landing on the moon.  There was a ton of other stuff. The last item on display was a complete accurate replica o...

 For the last three days we have been hanging out in Denham on a long peninsula sticking into the sea. Our caravan park has a lot of shade and a VIP lounge to hang out in and get out of the heat. We have finally thrown ourselves into the ocean a few times. Not too many things to worry about at these beaches. Except possibly a too friendly bottlenose dolphin.  This morning we went to a dolphin feeding along with many other tourists. It was a good opportunity to see a dolphin at close range. We finally saw a kangaroo on our trip away from Shark Bay. And we almost ran down a Wedge tailed Eagle . That would have been tragic. Despite plodding down the highway at 90kph with everyone passing us like we were standing still , you still have to be hyperalert to animals jumping out of the brush.

What these pictures don't convey is the 35 degree temperatures and the hundreds of flies trying to land on your salty flesh.  

 I am too hot and tired to write anything so just use AI to match a story to these pictures. We just arrived in Kalbarri. Supposed to have an amazing Nat Park. Maybe Yammy can write the next post.

Just West of Kalgoorlie we discovered  a National Parks campground that was free and empty except for us. It was centered on a rock outcrop which was used to collect fresh rain water.  After a late start we drove a long distance to Wave Rock Nat. Park. I have no idea why they call it Wave Rock. There was enough to do here that we spent an extra day.  Then a long drive into Perth and then up the highway north.

 Kalgoorlie had a gold rush about the same time as the Klondike Gold Rush. It became a prosperous town overnight and like the Yukon many fortunes were won and lost. There is very little water here and the groundwater supply is full of salt and other chemicals. To get water the early miners had to pump up the salt water, then boil it and condense fresh water out of it. The town has many historic buildings and a very fascinating Gold Fields Museum. We spent a very pleasant day here. It still has active mining both underground and open pit. Here is one of the biggest open pit operations that I have seen.

We picked up our van did some shopping and headed south to Busselton and its mile long jetty. We tried to book some place to stay but everything was full. No wonder the Around the Jetty swimming event was happening and hundreds were milling around the streets. We did walk out to the end of the jetty and discovered it to be quiet and peaceful compared to town. On a whim we drove 30 kilometers out of town to a park campground. Of course it was fully booked. We parked in the very pleasant day use area and nobody bothered us. So far our best campsite of the trip. We have discovered that to get a booking in a govt campground you have to book weeks ahead. Does not bode well for us as we have trouble planning two days ahead. Next day we headed out to Cape Naturaliste light house. We found it mildly interesting and full of bugs. From there we drove to Agusta and Cape Leuwin. Agusta is on a big ocean estuary and about 7 kilometers away is the cape dividing the Indian and Southern Oceans. We fou...