BARN HILL - 28 JUNE TO 28 JULY 2014

Well, here we are in Barn Hill, three and a half weeks into our stay.  The time has just flown and we are wishing we could stay here for longer.  It is hard to say why we love it here so much.  There is a beautiful beach which extends both north and south with wonderful rock formations, no flies and no mosquitoes, Tai Chi each morning, the bowling green is fairly well covered with grass, fresh bread, vanilla slices and lamingtons each day all cooked at the station, and the people here are very friendly.  Perhaps the best way is to try to do it with pictures rather than words.

The road into Barn Hill - 10km of dirt with speed humps and gates

 

 

Our campsite

 

The caravan park

 

 

The caravan park

 

 

THE BIRDLIFE:

Osprey

 

Pied Oyster Catchers

 

ON THE BOWLING GREEN:

 

Social bowls competition is held each Thursday.  On our second week of competing my team actually won the finals - more a matter of good luck and good team mates than good playing on my part.  Our third week here was the Barn Hill Championship which went over the whole week.  Brian's team unfortunately was knocked out in the semi finals.

 

Brian on the green

 

 

The bowling green could do with a bit more grass

 

My winning team

 

 

ON THE BEACH:

 

 

 



Lovely rock pools at low tide

 

 

 

 

 

 

Steps down to the beach

 

 

Over 20 boats went fishing on this day

 

 

Walking on the beach

 

Another view of the stairs to the beach

 

 

 

There are some amazing rock formations along the beach - you may have to use your imagination to see some of the shapes I see!

 

 

Labrador

 

 

Owl

 

 

The Sphinx

 

 

There have been many wonderful sunsets over the last few weeks.  We often walk down to the top of the steps at sunset with a drink in hand and enjoy the spectacle.

 



 

Stairway to the sun

 

Sunset through a wine glass!

 

 

As I mentioned, there is a Tai Chi group each morning which has quite a good following:

 

 



 

 

 

Brian and Neil - not quite in sync

 

 

Market day is each Sunday morning.  Brian sets up a stall each week and has been going quite well.  He has almost sold out of all his stock.

 

 

 

 

At happy hour on Friday night we join in a game of Left Right and Centre.  This is a dice game which requires no skill, just a certain amount of luck.  There are generally two tables of up to 20 people and it costs $1 to play, so the winner wins the centre of $20.  Lots of laughs.

 

 

 

So, only five days to go before we leave this magical place.  Then on to 80 Mile Beach for a week.  We have caught up here with several friends that we have met along the way, plus the other regulars who come to Barn Hill every year.

 

18 - 23 April 2010

We left Tassie on the overnight ferry to Melbourne which was extremely rough. 4 metre seas with 4 metre swell! It pitched and rolled all night with waves crashing over the bow. We were glad when we entered Port Phillip Bay and had calmer seas for the last three hours of the crossing.

We headed straight out of Melbourne and along the Great Ocean Road which was really spectacular. Even though we have all seen the photos, in real life it is awesome. In any event we will bore you with even more photos






We stayed at Port Campbell which gave us good access to most of the viewing sites

It was very cold and windy that day

We played the Nullarbor Links Golf Course from Ceduna to Kalgoorlie, the longest golf course in the world - over 1300 km. The first two holes were at Ceduna Golf Club followed by a hole at each of the road houses across the Nullarbor. Synthetic greens and tees were OK, but the fairways were just scrub.

The Dingo's Den hole at Nullarbor Roadhouse is renowned for the local crows who fly down after each shot and steal your ball. Helen lost 5 balls and Brian lost 3 before we figured out a system to beat the crows.

About to lose my first ball.

The fairway at Border Kangaroo hole - it rained the night before to create this water hazard

South Australia/West Australia border - getting closer to home

Correct golf attire is essential

The 18th hole at last at Kalgoorlie's Hannans Golf Course

The highway is used for emergency landings of the RFDS

Getting closer - only 723 km to go








We stopped two nights at Kalgoorlie/Boulder and just happened to be there on the morning of the magnitude 5 earthquake which felt like it was right below our caravan. The most significant damage was in the main street of Boulder and our caravan park was only about 1 km down the same road.

Kalgoorlie has many wonderful old buildings from the gold rush days

The post office

Town Hall

The York Hotel

The Exchange Hotel

Main Roads Board

It's still the wild, wild west

Not far now

The big smoke in the distance

Home with out family again. Jill organised a fabulous welcome home lunch

We have been back in Perth for a month now (sorry it took so long to prepare the last blog) and have been enjoying our time catching up with family and friends. However, we are not used to this cold weather so we will be heading north again at the beginning of July for two to three months, back in Perth about mid September.