Going west again.........part 5.......heading for the border...........

 

I think I better get busy and finish this report of our trip west, as it is almost end of February which means we have been home for 6 weeks now!! Where does time go to?

I shall try and be brief with this post, and take you from Northampton to the WA/SA border. We  headed south and bypassed Geraldton this time and took the inland road so that we could stop at Carnamah......

It was very hot, and we found a lovely park under a tree so that we could check out the latest addition to this town...... a big tractor, and it was huge, a replica of a Chamberlain tractor.......... 

\                         

You can see how large it was in comparison to the building alongside it.

WE kept moving south and passed lots of bunkers of grain from the harvest of the farmers in this area. WA had one of their best harvests for years, while the farmers of SA had one of the worst. A big difference!!

We had thought to stay at New Norcia and tour the monastery there, but the time did not work out for us........

...........so we kept going and ended up at a roadside stop at Meckering.....a little town on the Great Eastern Highway....

.......it was still very warm and we set up the generator for power to run it............

Meckering is famous for an earthquake in 1968 and there is much information in the park ..............

Next day we moved further east until Coolgardie before turning south............

...........We saw many road trains carting ore from the local mines..........

........and lots of wide loads transporting mining equipment..........

We stopped that night at Norseman..............

and the next day turned east again and headed across the barren lands of the Nullabor towards the border.

There are many places on the highway where the RFDS planes can land..........

We were a bit late in the season for the wildflowers, but saw many of these trees in bloom............

A stop at the Caiguna Blowhole was interesting.........there are many caves in this area.............

There is little vegetation as we travelled further across the plain...........

Next stop was at Cocklebiddy, where there was power but no water, unless you paid for showers. Thankfully we had enough water for a few days on board.

Next day we arrived at the border about 2.30pm (WA time). 

We got fuel there, at $2.33 a litre. (Across the border at Border Village it was $2.80!!)

We then crossed the border and the time difference was 2 1/2 hours!! (and back to daylight saving time).

I shall finish this post here, and continue with part 6 of our trip back in SA.

Blessings, From Jude, oh and Baz!!

Updating the For Sale pages of the blog......

 I am currently in the process of updating the For Sale pages of all the fabric bundles and packs that I have for sale. This is a work in progress, so come back often to check for my product.

I will be the shop at the next SA Quilters meeting on March 6th and would love to catch up with you there.  As  I don't have room to bring everything to the meeting, if you are interested in any items, please contact me.

For all my blog readers, I shall be having a stock reduction sale on some lines very soon. Meantime, I shall get back to cutting and packing and listing more items for sale. 

Hope you are all enjoying this lovely weather we are having here in South Australia, as I am sure the hot has not gone away yet.

Blessings, From Jude

Going west again.........part 4.......Kalbarri

 Here we are, already half way through the second month of the year, and I haven't finished the report of our trip to the west. In the last trip post, we were based at Northampton for 2 nights prior to a day trip to Kalbarri..............

It was New Year's Day, the first of January and the weather was forecast to be HOT. We left the van at Northampton and headed through country to Kalbarri, via the coastal road............ 

We saw the signs to many mining sites, one being a garnet mine. This is the Pink Lake, which covered a big area........

We stopped at a lot of coastal areas, beaches and cliff areas...............

...............until we reached the town of  Kalbarri.

We parked in a shady spot in the town to  eat the lunches that we had packed.

Next stop was the the Kalbarri skywalk, in the Kalbarri National park.

....(not a real emu)............

It was very HOT by the time we reached the skywalk, and you probably could have fried an egg on the footpath................

...........the view from the skywalk was amazing, well that was after I got used to walking out on the platform and being able to look down...........

There is 2 platforms and you can see the second one in the following photo, and just how far out over the edge that it sits!!!

                             

This photo has been taken from the internet site, and gives you another perspective of the platform.

We did not spend a lot of time on the skywalk, because it was so hot, and were very thankful that there were icecreams in the engel freezer in the car. This was the first icecream I had eaten for more than 2 years!!

We drove back to the van at Northampton through the national park, (which had cost us $17 to enter.)

After a good night's sleep with the air con on all night, it was time to head in the direction of home. (insert sad face).

I will be back soon with Part 5.

Blessings, From Jude 

I am still here.............

 As I have had more than one comment recently that they keep looking at the blog to see if we are home from our travels yet, perhaps I better check in and reassure you all that I am home and well.....

My last post was on the 1st January wishing you all a Happy New year, and now it is the 8th February!! Where does time go to?? All I can say is that the days are full and there is little sitting around happening here. The holiday has finished and reality hit.

We arrived home on the 16th January, and I will post the remaining part of our trip, sometime. We did detour down around Eyre Peninsula on our way home, and spent time with my brother and his wife. We then headed to the Barossa to catch up with family, before spending some time at the caravan park in Murray Bridge.

We caught up with my Queensland cousin and husband who were also spending time in Murray Bridge visiting rellies..........

We visited my brother and his wife who had recently moved into their new house in Murray Bridge.

Before we headed for home we received the news that Mum had fallen, (outside shifting the hose, so she didn't trip over it!!). She spent some time at the emergency dept at the hospital before being discharged with no broken bones, although a lot of bruises!!

Then it was time to drive the 2 hours south to home, and unpack the van, put the washing on and get our heads back into "normality' and "reality"!? There was 6 weeks of mail to go through and it was exciting to open the latest copy of Newsfromjude blog book. The previous publishers of blog books are no longer printing them, so I was anxious to see how the new company went. I am very happy with the result, and hope to work out the 'system' better next time I get one printed. This book is good quality and is a little longer than the last ones.

I can recommend this new company.........https://intorealpages.com/

So what else have we filled in time with since we came home?

My QLD cousin and hubby called into Bordertown and spent the night with us on their way north again.....

No sooner had we arrived back in town, we packed up again and went back to Murray Bridge for the  Australia Day weekend........ we had a 70th birthday party to attend, and of course it was a long weekend!! We like the MB Marina Caravan Park and it is not far from Mum's place........

We went to church with Mum and Barry caught up with his Uncle and Aunty who also live in MB.

It was good to take mum out to lunch instead of spending time in the hospital with her!!

In between the travel I have spent time with Max, who had a 2 month holiday!! I wondered if I would remember what to do??....quilt photos will come in a separate post...... I was very happy to visit my hairdresser for a long overdue treatment.......

and much time has been spent sorting and cutting fabrics in preparation for another market day that is happening next month.........stay tuned for updated For Sale pages on the blog and a good sale.

Last week the weather was very stormy with a lot of lightening in the area...... and we went for a drive to the farm to check on things........got a couple of interesting cloud photos......

The lightening has started a few fires around the district and over the border into Victoria there has been some large fires with a lot of countryside burnt out.

Time to finish this post and head to the kitchen...Barry's brother has arrived and a cuppa is on the agenda.........be back soon.

Blessings, From Jude

Happy New Year........

 

                                Wishing all my blog readers a Blessed, Joyful. Peace filled 2025.

                                                   Blessings, From Jude