Denmark delightful

We arrived into the township of Denmark on the 10th of June. What a beautiful place. Crossing the river into the town ship there is a strip of small shops a gorgeous park, full of tree's which are fooled into thinking it was the start of Autumn. Their leaves where the most brilliant assortment of colours. We had a quick tour of the town before heading out to Kirrak Reach our home for what was to be 4 weeks.
Turning into Silver Rd the street is lined by giant Karri trees, majestic, amazing and hundreds of years old. We climb the steep incline and wind around the trees before arriving at the Kirrrak driveway. Under wise instruction we left the van at the gate and drove on in to ensure that not only did we feel comfortable to get the van into the property safely but also to be able to get it out again. The driveway was narrow and steep, lined with large trees and covered in loose gravel and about 2kms long. John being John said no worries and we returned to get the van, I on the other hand was much more apprehensive. I should have known better than to doubt Johns judgement as he engaged low range 4wd and comfortably got the van into a reasonably flat area safely.

Wow what an amazing place! gorgeous views, lovely chalets and some friendly and quirky farm animals. We settled into a lovely chalet and met some of the other people staying there. Most backpackers, and really lovely people. Rahni one of the owners of the property came and checked we where settled and explained we would be meeting her partner Ellen later in the week as she was working in Perth.

Now settled in, it was time for John to start work and the kids to start school. John was expecting to put the tin roof on the house. However they have had back packers doing the brick work and no experienced tradesmen on site. Thus the walls are crooked and different heights and the roof is no where near being ready to go on.

Working hard over the next 4 weeks the brick structure which was to be a house actually turned into something that resembled a house. The walls where out by 100mm from one end to the other, and the width was out by 50mm from one end to the other. Not bad when really it needed knocking down and starting again when we arrived.

Denmark provided us with many memories. We visited the many beaches, wineries, the alpaca farm, the chocolate factory where the boys where introduced to fondue, the Giant tree top walk, Marin fishing and other sight seeing.

And just when I am really missing home we had a visit from one of our dearest friends Chris. We met down the street by coincidence and I saw him before he saw me. Like a crazy woman I ran across the road and flung my arms around him, squeezing so tight that I wasn't sure that he could actually breath. A special little piece of home was just what the doctor ordered. John and the kids where just as excited as me although not showing their excitement in the same way. We had 2 wonderful days together. The boys had fun showing Chris the areas of Denmark they had discovered and John and Chris had fun just talking rubbish and drinking beer. I just loved having him and his quirky ways around. Saying goodbye was hard but he had come along at the right time to lift my spirits, and for that I was so grateful.

I had been a little down since the isolation of Newdegate and Johns long work hours there. I was really missing all my family and friends and schooling the kids was proving to be a much bigger challenge than I had expected.. Now I have the inspiration and excitement to look forward to new adventures. So with another new experience complete and another small pocket of this huge country discovered we move on. Looking forward to the next big adventure.

Albany

We arrived at the Middleton Beach holiday park around 5.30 pm and feel relaxed instantly. This gorgeous park is right on the foreshore and the people there where so nice. We set up and set straight to touring town and finding somewhere to go for dinner. The town of Albany is HUGE and widely spread out. This being the case we thought it best to leave the exploration till daylight.
Well what a treat morning was. After living inland for so long, it was homely to be back by the beach.
The coast lines around this place are stunning! We started by following the small bay around to the main harbour then out onto the coast and the ocean. We spotted a whale and where stunned by the beauty of the natural landscapes. Albany has so many free and fantastic places to visit. The Natural bridge, the Blow holes, the gap,Frenchmans bay, amazing lookouts and a lovely ANZAC memorial.

We visited whaleworld, a whale museum that actually used to be a working whale station and was the largest of its kind in WA and was the last to close down when the whaling ban was introduced. What a facinating place, it is fully interactive, they have fully restored the old whaling ship and you can climb through every piece of it, a 3d movie, massive whale skeletons, a fully guided tour of the factory and explanation of how everything worked. The kids found it facinating. So much so that three hours had passed and we We headed back to the caravan park to make use of the spa and swimming pool and the childrens playground. We have tomorrow to explore some more before moving onto Denmark and starting work again.
Albany is the first of all the beautiful places that we have been that has come close to the beauty of home and our coastlines. We truely have something special in our little part of Victoria

Goodbye Newdegate

Today we said goodbye to Newdegate. When we arrived here we had planned to stay 4 weeks and now 7 weeks later we say farewell. When we arrived the paddocks where bare, dry and grey. The dams empty, now as we are leaving the place has undergone a massive transformation. The paddocks now have a green cover, the animals look happy and the dams are full all curtosy of 20 mm of rain. Not alot, but oh what a difference it makes out here. What a time we have had and what an invaluable experience it has given us all.
For myself I learnt what it was like to live in a remote community and the difficulties associated with that. For example the 25 minute drive to go to the nearest store and postoffice (thats one way). The isolation of the nearest farm being another 30 kms up the road. The organisation required to get the children to school,sports and play dates on time. The need to be resourceful, you cant just nick to the corner store. The difficulties of living and working in a drought. Using every and I mean every drop of water to get the most out of it. To make food from scratch and grow all your own meat and produce. Setting a shopping budget in this area is so hard as the prices are so inflated compared to city areas. The cheapest loaf of bread $4.20 and you got it out of the freezer not of the shelf, $3.25 for 2 litres of milk and treats well thats exactly what they are as they cost somewhere around that of a gold bullion.
The kids learnt very quickly that they needed to get along. They where the only friends each other had out there. They learnt the importance of chores and pulling your weight to earn your keep. They also learnt to make the most out of their environment. Without realising they where educating themselves. They helped daily with the feeding of the sheep, using math to work out quantities, they made statues from old steel objects so to giving themselves an art class in sculpture, Learning about farming practises associated with a sheep and grain farming learning farming history. Rounding up the sheep running around behind them and making sure they dont break away was like a phys ed session in football or basketball defending.
John extended his knowledge of farming and farming practises. He learnt new skills in dam cleaning, tractor driving, seeding, mulesing and bull dozer driving.
We all gained a new appereciation for farmers especially in a drought.
So now we take all the new found experience and say goodbye, looking forward to new challenges and new adventures.

We only travel 100km when we come into the town of Lake Grace I pop into the local IGA and grab the essentials for lunch and as a little moving on gift a few sugary treats. The kids eyes popped half out of their heads as I passed them a chocolate paddlepop each. It had been along time between treats. We had enough fuel to continue on to Katanning so with a spring in our step, the sun shining and a smile on our faces we drive on. Katanning here we come!
If we had known that only 240kms down the road was this fantastic town we would have made the effort to come once a week. There are real shops, Woolworths, bakerys, Toy shop, and so much more. There is also a minature railway and the most amazing playground ever!

The playground was designed to keep children active and out of trouble. The slides where multi story, everything was adult size and huge, check out the photos. The kids had a ball, I thought I would try out one of these big slides and screamed like a little girl all the way down. It was massive and you dont realise how high up your going until you get to the top. I would love to see playgrounds like this back in Victoria but that would never happen.
Time is now ticking on and it will be dark in a couple of hours, so back in the car. Destination Albany.

Kalgoorlie

With this being the last chance for us to have some time together for a while(John starts 12 hour a day seeding next week) we thought we would make the most of it and head to Kalgoorlie. We left the farm at 9am Saturday morning after what seemed like the rain that broke the drought the previous night.

Travelling the back roads we had worked out it would take between 2.5 and 3 hours.We started out no worries the sun was shining and most of the water had run into the drains on the side of the hard orange gravel roads. I looked down to see we were sitting on 120kms no worries, great we are going to get there even quicker we discussed. That was until will turned onto what could only be described as the best 4wd track if you where out looking for some mud to play in. We didn't want to play we wanted to get to Kal.
Too bad we had come to far to turn around we had to push through. We had no option we had to engage 4wd and go through the puddles there was no other way around.The kids loved it as puddle after puddle the water sprayed out the sides of the car up their windows and over the bonnet and onto the windscreen. It would have been great fun any other day, but we needed to get to Kalgoorlie and into the shops before they closed at 5pm. We slowly travelled the last 80kms over the next 1.5 hours and arrived in Kalgoorlie safe and sound.

The tourist car from Victoria was certainly alot dirtier than any of the local mine cars which where disgusting. We headed to the first car wash we could find after doing the shopping to make the car a little more respectable.
Bargains, bargains, bargains in Kmart Kalgoorlie. New shoes reduced to $1.00 a pair, cutlery sets reduced to $6.00 for a 30 piece wiltshire set. Jumpers $15,.00 games for the kids $5.00 and so much more. Needless to say the trolley was full when we walked out and only spent $200.00 BARGAIN.

Shopping done and car cleaner we headed to the Prospector caravan park to check in for the night. A lovely English couple chatted about the sites of the town and their caravan park gave us the keys to our cabin and off we went to the Superpit.
 AMAZING, HUGE are just a couple of words that come to mind oh and bloody freezing. Who would have thought the dessert would be so cold. The look out to the superpit sits so high above the rest of Kalgoorlie and the wind just goes straight through you. We stood and watched for as long as our bodies could cope before returning to the caravan park to rug up in warmer clothes and organise dinner. Pizza was the request from the kids so pizza it was. Then back out to the superpit to check it out under lights. Shouldn't have bothered couldn't really see anything, so back again to the caravan park and to watch a little tv, and have a good nights sleep.
We started  Sunday with breakfast out, then we went to Bunnings for a few bits and pieces we found we needed for the van. Then off to the Museum. What a fantastic place! Entry by coin donation. We started our tour of the museum via a glass lift up the poppet head to see the view of the town of Kalgoorlie. What a sight! The town is so much bigger than I had ever imagined. Then we went back down a level to learn about the history of gold mining in the area. The gold rush and equipment used back the day, saw some old restored cottages and shops,we then checked out some 100 year old advertising banners in a climate and light controlled room. Even the kids where impressed. They where huge and had such detail and where all made of cloth. From  here we went and learnt of the local aboriginal communities and there practises, before going down to the vault! The vault contained the first bar of gold refined from the superpit weighing 400 grams, as well as other large gold nuggets, antique gold jewellery. All under the watchful eye of many a security camera. But what a bargain we where there for almost three hours for $6.

We checked out the superpit again for one last time as this was free and the kids just couldn't get enough of the trucks.

Then did the drive down Hay Street, which has Kalgoorlie's oldest and original working brothel. We didn't tell the kids what it was and made sure it was daylight when we drove by. You can do a full guided tour which reading the reviews is quite the eye opener. A drive by was enough for me.

We then called out to the airport and the home of the Royal flying doctors service. Unfortunately no tours run on anything in Kalgoorlie on a Sunday so we had a look at the planes and then headed out of town back to the farm.

We stopped and had a picnic lunch and then travelled a different way home. It turned out to be and extra 130kms and we got back a little later than we had expected. Exhausted from our big weekend and ready for bed, I quickly whipped up some dinner showered the kids and put them to bed. Made John and I a nice cuppa before bed, only to look up at the clock to see it was only 7pm. OMG we really had covered a lot of kilometers and seen a lot of things we where all exhausted and fast asleep by 8.30pm, after a fun filled, educational and action packed weekend.