We are still here!

Although it may seem like it we have not abandoned this blog! We are still alive and kicking. We are still in Kalgoorlie which seems to be a place that reels one in then traps them.

We are doing work towards our second year visa. We were initially going to be taking part in the grape harvest near Margaret River which would have argua been a nicer choice than what we are doing but hey.

We are working at Kalassay, part of Beurau Veritas. It is part of the massive gold industry around here. The reason we decided to do it is that it is slightly related to both my geography degree and more related to Angies geology degree. Plus we are close to Angies cousin where we spent Christmas.

Work is hard and long, 10 hours a day starting at 6 and we are often doing overtime on Saturdays. We are saving lots of money though!

Anyhow we are back to not having any internet again except for on Our phones. We are living in a unit in a caravan park. It is nice to have our own space.

Anyhow, that's it for now!

Broome to Exmouth

This is going to be a bit of a blast from the past! This is a post that I started way back when we were in Coral Bay. The computer battery ran out before I could finish. It is going to be mostly pictures with little descriptions. All of the pictures are from the drive from Broome to Exmouth and the Ningaloo Coast.

This is looking northeast along 80 mile beach. This was pretty much our only stop the first day of driving. It is very much like cable beach in Broome, but is a full 80 miles long. One can drive on it but as we dont have a 4wd we did not.

Looking out at the sea from 80 mile beach.

This is Port Hedland. It is not a particularly nice place, but great if you like ships!

The drive south from Port Hedland to Karijini is just spectacular scenery, at least when you can see it through all the road trains! This section of road was just chockers full of them!

The view from our campsite back down towards the highway.

Enjoying some Matsos with a view.

Sexy Lexi.

The amazing Karijini entrance gate.

Dales Gorge

Fortescue Falls.

Scruffy Graham going for a hike.

Angie overlooking Dales gorge

Amazing view!

Natural seams of blue asbestos.

Hancock Gorge. Amazzing hike.

Scramble or swim!

Spider walk.

Just after Kermits Pool

Stack-o-rocks.

Beautiful! The gorges are nice too!

Lizard!

Giant Shrimp in Exmouth

Even scruffier Graham!

Sunset never gets old!

Crabs in the campground eating ants! So funny!

Little geckerkins!

Emu

Even more even scruffier Graham just after snorkeling.

Abe Lincoln Graham half way through shaving.

There are a lot more things to say and pictures to post but I will leave it at this for now as my finger really hurts for some reason.

At the Cousins

So! Here we are again! We are back in Australia and away from the craziness of Bali. We will be back there I am sure. We had a wonderful time, but it is certainly nice to be back in a place where you can walk down the street and not be accosted or have to worry about falling into the sewer.

We spent our last few days in Bali after Padangbai back in Ubud for two days then back in Kuta. In Ubud we stayed in the very wonderful guesthouse Rena House, and had a lovely time there. We met a woman from South Africa who was staying there and we spent heaps of time chatting with her about travel and the world. It was good fun. We also had lunch a couple more times at our favorite lunch place on Jl Bisma.

Since the airport is right in Kuta we went back there for the last two days. The first night we stayed at the very lovely and decently priced Serrella Legian which we had been to the first three nights in Bali. The last night we splurged and got a really nice room at a 4 star place in the city. It was suuuper nice. It was the kind of place that serves you a welcome drink on the way in and then someone takes your bags to your room. It was a pretty cool place to spend the last day.

The flight back was great too. On the way up it had been dark the entire flight, but on the way back down we left early afternoon and landed just before sunset. We drove back to the caravan park in Freo for the next couple nights exploring Freo and seeing some of our friend before heading off to where we are now.

We are at Angies cousin's house in Kalgoorlie. It is quite a nice place to be. We were expecting super hot temps, but they are having a cold snap this week (highs of low to mid 30s instead of the 40s). It is really nice to just spend the days playing with the kids and relaxing in the pool.

The drive out here is kinda neat. The 600kms from Perth follow the 30 inch water pipe that brings water all the way from near the coast to Kalgoorlie and all the towns in between. It is just amazing how tenuous a link it is! If it breaks the towns have about 48 hours of water in reservoirs but then they are all out. It started operating in 1903!

We are also upgrading the van a bit as we have acquired a second battery so we can run the fridge and things overnight! Yay! We have also had a chance to do some little niggly bits of maintenance and fixing uping.

A pretty cool thing here that we have seen is the Super Pit. It is a huge open pit mine just to the south east of the town. It is massive and so deep! It is really cool watching the 200 ton dump trucks crawling like ants from the bottom to the top. Such a huge hole in the ground.

We are finally getting a bit of a christmas feeling here too. There are cookies and a tree and giftys. It is really weird though how it is hot.....

Anyhow, I am going to jump in the pool now!

Street Scene

We have now come to our last morning in Bali! It feels like we have been here for such a long time, but on the other hand it feels like we just arrived. Walking last night I finally remembered to take a picture of the crazy traffic that is Indonesia.

This is just what it is like trying to walk down the street. Scooters all around squishing through cars, other scooters going the other way on the sidewalk. It is pretty incredible, but the most amazing thing to us was that we saw no accidents and in fact almost no cars with scuffs or dents.

And that the drivers seem to all have a somewhat zen like calm about them. People on scooters just pull out in front and they kinda just go around, then there is a huge pile of gravel on. The road and everyone just sorta squishes around it. It was pretty neat.

Lovely Ubud

We have just a few days left in Bali now and for the past two nights after Padangbai we have returned to Ubud. We liked the street we were staying on before so much we are actually staying on the same street again. We have also found a very nice place to stay. It is called Rena House and it is just lovely and cheap with good food and people and views. It is surrounded by rice paddies and when it is not raining there is a great view of the volcanoes in the not too far distance. These are some pictures from the balcony!