Leonora to Esperance and Cape Le Grand

Hello all
Heading South from Leonora towards Esperance gave me welcome relief from the incessant heat since leaving Victoria.

After a couple of days in Esperance doing some Laundry, and getting the vehicle serviced, I stocked up and headed out to Cape Le Grand and it's stunning white beaches and granite outcrops.

Lucky Bay, Cape Le Grand

With only one camp site free when I arrived, I had a choice............Lucky Bay or Lucky Bay.........Le Grand Beach seems to be constantly full. Maybe it's time Parks WA time limited stays there to give everyone a fair go.

Lucky Bay Cape Le Grand

Lucky Bay

Lucky Bay

it's legal to drive on some beaches here

After a couple of nights camped next to a lovely couple from Bellingen in NSW it was time to move on again, back to Esperance again, due to no sites available at Le Grand Beach.

Whistling Rock at Thistle Cove was Whistling

Frenchman Peak

 If you look closely at the skyline there are dots............these are people climbing the peak.

Frenchman Peak

Once back in Esperance I took the opportunity do drive the Coastal Scenic Drive.

Twilight Beach, Esperance

Twilight Beach, Esperance

While the Camper was off the Ute In Esperance, I took the opportunity to check all the wiring on the Solar on the roof. Whilst I was unable to find any problems, I unplugged both panels and reset the Solar Controller. 
I still don't know what the problem was but whatever it was is now fixed. An overcast day at Le Grand and I was getting 18volts from the panels, today, 25c I was getting 21.5 volts, so maybe it was just the extreme heat?
Tomorrow I am heading to Stokes National Park and westward towards Hopetoun.
 Bye for now.

Norseman to Leonora (includes Lake Ballard and Gwalia mine)

Hello all
Heading North from Norseman, it was a quick restock in Kalgoorlie, before heading futher North, trying to beat the heat.

Lake Ballard Sculptures

Lake Ballard

Lake Ballard

These sculptures are by Anthony Gormley and placed at Lake Ballard in 2003. The sculptures were made using scans of local Menzies residents.While they are worth the visit I am puzzled why they weren't  placed on a perfectly good salt lake a few kilometres out of Menzies, instead of 51km along a gravel road.

Lake Ballard

Next day it was off to Gwalia, a couple of kilometres from Leonora. Sons of Gwalia mine operared from 1896 until 1963 and produced over 2.5 million ounces of gold. The mine has reopened and is still being mined underground now.

Sons of Gwalia Mine

Gwalia Mine Museum

Most of the mine workers were immigrants  from Italy and Yugoslavia. Berwick Moreing & Company bought the Mine in 1898 and appointed  Herbert Hoover as Mine Manager, he was later to become the 31st President of the United States.

State Hotel Gwalia

General Store

Guest House

After Gwalia, it was back to Kalgoorlie and the Super Pit.

Super Pit Kalgoorlie

Super Pit Kalgoorlie

Since January it has been a steep learning curve with my Solar. I thought I had solved the issues I was having by mounting the panels on the roof. I partially have but not totally, Parked up in Gippsland, where Summer was a Wednesday, and temperatures just over 20c the panels were putting out over 21volts. Travelling in 39-40c temperatures, with inside camper temperatures  I guess well above 50c, the panels are harvesting 12-13volts. This is enough to sustain my usage, but not charge my battery fully. I now understand that the hotter it is the less efficient the solar panels are.
I  am heading down to Esperence tomorrow, so the cooler temperatures down there will give me a better indication. I am harvesting between 60-85 amp hours but my consumption because of the heat is sky high. In saying this though, camped up with just the freezer running off the battery should be better.
I had forgotten what an amazing place for sunsets Western Australia is.....every night is amazing.
Bye for now

Ceduna to Norseman WA

Hello All,
Upon leaving Ceduna I glanced at my Satellite Navigation and it made me have a chuckle.

Yep, I  need to turn left in 1209 kilometres........................

The bad news is............it is still stiffling hot, the good news is................hot means easterly winds, so I have had a tailwind all across the Nullabour.

Nullabour Links Golf Tee

 The Highway only cuts through about 80km's of true Nullabour Plain (Treeless) so I had to spend a night at Nullabour Roadhouse right in the middle of it.

Nullabour Roadhouse Sunset

 It was off to the most spectacular part of the trip, where the road hugs the Bunda Cliffs.

Bunda Cliffs

Bunda Cliffs

Note the vehicles in the adjacent carpark to get some scale, there are views like this, a few hundred metres off the highway for several hundred kilometres.

Bunda Cliffs

Getting closer to Eucla the Bunda Cliffs finish and a more gentle slope to the ocean occurs.

After stopping for a very thorough inspection at the Quarantine Checkpoint at the Western Australian Border, it was on to Eucla for lunch. The time zones have my electronics totally confused, the first several hundred kilometres of Western Australia have Central Western Time, which is 45 minutes in front of Perth and 45 minutes behind Adelaide.
Crossing the Border my Sat Nav and phone went straight to Perth time.
After a bite to eat, I headed to the old Eucla Telegraph Station.

old Telegraph Station

from there it was down Eucla Pass below the escarpment to Madura Pass, climbing back up onto the Tablelands and on to Cocklebiddy for the night.I have been surprised by how little traffic is on the road, but I suppose it is summer and off season.

Murra-El-Elevyn Cave at Cocklebiddy

Next was 90 mile straight (144.6 kilometres) without so , much as a bend. Although I think the engineer had a sense of humour as, at the Western end there are two bends, just as it finishes for no apparent reason.

90 mile straight, Nullabour Plain

Tonight I am sweating it out at Norseman. Tomorrow I plan to head to Kalgoorlie, Leonora, and Lake Ballard as the weather forecast is for low 30's for the next few days. It was 47c in Leonora today!!
Tuesday, Wednesday next week the temperatures are planned to soar into the 40's again, so that gives me a few days there before heading down to Esperence and Cape Le Grand.
Bye for now.........................

Barmera to Ceduna

Hello all
I have survived the heat so far, but the worst is yet to come..............
I have been covering a lot of territory I have covered in previous trips, subsequently I haven't been taking many photos.

After overnighting in Port Augusta with a lovely sea breeze, I headed off to Poochera for the night.

The big galah at Kimba SA

 The Poochera Pub and Caravan Park has been purchased by Jeff and Karen, who some of you may remember from Mt Dare on the edge of the Simpson desert, or more recently have been running the Tennant Creek Caravan Park. The Pub will reopen in a few weeks and the Caravan Park is already open for business. It is no Big4 but is basic, and spotlessly clean, so if you are passing by drop in and support these lovely people.
 Tonight I am at Ceduna mentally preparing myself for the days ahead...............Friday's forecast is 44c dropping to 25c overnight and Saturday 44c, with 28c overnight.......that's warm!

The video above is of Ceduna foreshore. I will probably head to Cactus Beach or Fowlers Bay tomorrow before heading across the Nullabour.
Bye for now

Traralgon to Barmera (SA) on the road again

Hello all.
After about a five week break in Gippsland it was time to head West.
Gippsland has had a very mild summer (I believe it was a Wednesday! ) when it hit the high 30's but the rest of the time had me looking for warmer clothes.
This all changed the day after I left.........
Well 11 months and 1 day after leaving to head up to the Gulf and Cape York the new adventure began.

Night one was spent in Macedon, a cool night but warm weather forecast ahead, just how warm was another question! I arrived in Kerang to 37c, then Mildura where I slowly started to cook alive.

From there the road ahead doesn't get any cooler.......I am currently in Barmera (SA) slowly melting.

There looks to be no respite ahead either, Port Augusta is forecast 42c, the only break will be Ceduna with quite mild low 30's forecast.
I think I might be spending a few days there to rehydrate!!
Looking ahead towards Kalgoorlie, 44c forecast later in the week for my arrival.
This together with finding out that a lot of the National Parks in lower WA, and as high as Kalbari are closed,  either from fires or Rangers being reassigned to fight the fires does nothing for my plans.
What I wouldn't do for a beach and a sea breeze right now..........
The good news is the solar modifications I made are working a treat, even in these sort of temperatures and are keeping the battery well charged and the fridge and freezer going.
They are both working pretty hard in this heat.
I will update again shortly, when I have a few photos, at the moment it's too bloody hot to get out of the vehicle 😤
Bye for now.....

Mini Update

Hello All
I hope you all had a great Christmas and even better New Year.
Welcome back for this years adventures..........

I have been quiet for about a month now, staying clear of the holiday season madness. That doesn't mean I have had my feet up and relaxing. I have been catching up on a few projects I wanted to do while parked up in my sister's paddock.
First project was to sort out issues I was having with my solar set up.

before

I had a 200w folding solar panel set, I was finding that in the heat up north, that unless they were out a great percentage of the day my battery was going backwards. I am running a 3 way fridge plus a Waeco freezer.
Even while driving, and the vehicle charging, I would arrive at my destination with less battery power than what I started with.
First step was to get rid of the fairly basic solar controller. By updating to a 3 stage adjustable solar controller my battery not only charged a lot faster but to a higher voltage.
OK this was a definate improvement, but doesn't help on days I am travelling and can only put the panels out for a short part of the day.
After chatting to the ever helpful Tanya, Kevin and Rob at PalominoRVAustralia I decided to pull my panels apart and mount them on the roof.

2 x 100w panels now roof mounted

after

3 stage programmable solar controller

I tested the system out today, on a 32c humid day I turned off the 240v power and left the 3 way fridge on 12v and the Waeco freezer running. The solar controller was in float mode (trickle charging), after 10 minutes it switched to bulk charge mode and bought the battery voltage back up nearly 1 volt with both fridge and freezer pulling off it.
This exercise simulated, maybe stopping to do some shopping or stopping at a lookout and it held it's own.
Camped up with the fridge running on gas I should now have adequate power reserves with the added bonus, of now having 200 watts of solar pumping into my battery while I am driving along. I should now be able to head off to Western Australia in the next week or so with confidence the solar will now do the job.
While travelling I get quite a few people inquiring about that strange blue bag in front of my camper, so I though I would revisit that here.

strange blue bag

 It is a custom made Diesel fuel bladder (second fuel tank) made to my specifications by Fleximake in Dandenong. When I run low in the main tank, I place the bladder hose in the fuel filler of the Ute, and gravity does the rest. This gives me approximately 1200km between fills, Fleximake told me the capacity was about 60 litres, I have had 70 litres in it, and there was room for a little more, but the last 20 or so litres are very slow to fill because of frothing of the diesel.
The other project I had was to modify the rear door vent, the original vent was plated tin and painted white. It had gone rusty and the paint was flaking off. After one attempt at repainting I decided to fit the issue once and for all. The vent fitted in the USA where the camper is made is a bastard size too, so to overcome this I covered the hole both sides with 5mm poly sheet. On the outside I fitted a readily available aluminium vent size from Bunnings.

outside

On the inside I decided to go down a different route, fitting a house ducted heating vent with open/shut functions.

inside

With this setup I can now close the door vent when travelling on dusty roads to stop dust being sucked in.....problem solved. 
While I was in Hervey Bay I had a Satellite Navigation 7 inch touch screen fitted in the dash.  The standard Great Wall sound system makes an excellent paperweight.

before

As I have previously said......everything can be improved. Whilst the new sound and navigation system has been excellent I was still using my Hema Navigator on the windscreen for country areas. 
I aquired an SD card incorporating both Hema and IGO mapping. After quite a bit of rehashing I now have IGO8 street mapping and Hema off road mapping in the 7 inch touch screen in the dash.

after

IGO8 mapping

Hema mapping

I am house and dog sitting for a couple of days, then pland to do a couple of nights up in the High Country to road test the solar setup.
One for all the Great Wall knockers out there..............after almost 40,000k (this trip) of heat, dust and corrugations with up to 850kg on the back, all with standard suspension, I crawled under to Ute and had a good look around and not so much as a weeping shocker.....nothing......a good robust Ute that gets a bad wrap a lot of the time.
After that it off into the sunset towards Western Australia. I plan to head towards the Murray River for a few days before heading across the Nullabour Plain. With floods emptying water into Lake Eyre I am very tempted to do a detour to see that but looking at the weather maps, they are getting 45-46c days which doesn't impress me much.
I will keep an eye of the temperatures as I get closer. 
Bye for now.........