Untethered

We left the cool breezes of the Southern Ocean and headed back into the toasty Outback of Western Australia.  Driving north 250 miles through the interior desert (temps at 104), our destination is Kalgoorlie.  It a gold  mining town and has been for more than 120 years.  The area is the richest square mile on earth and is called the Golden Mile because more than 60 million ounces of gold have been extracted from it.  Back in the gold rush days, there were 80 separate mining operations extracting gold but in '89, a company purchased all the leases and turned the area into one giant gold mine called the Super Pit.  This mine is still very lucrative producing approximately 600,000 ounces of gold each year.  We had to go check it out! The Super Pit is almost a mile deep Haul Truck holds 229.5 tons of ore at a time Safety first when you are going to see the Super Pit Given where we'd been recently, Kalgoorlie (pop 30k) felt like a happe...

We left the great forests heading east to visit the much touted area of Esperance.  Locals told us that the area was amazing and we were not disappointed.  Back on Hwy 1 It was a 400 mile road trip through some incredibly isolated land. First we traveled through part of Western Australia's wheat belt where winter wheat is grown.  For hundreds of miles, we saw nothing but the golden stubble fields of the harvested grain.  Homesteads here are very far apart - even further, we think, than in the great wheat belt of Montana.  Then the landscape changed to high plains scrub that is diverse, complex and so very different than anything we have in the US.  Our first stop took us to Bremer Bay.  This was a place that Dan had promised me wouldn't be quite so remote.  Turns out that Bremer Bay is a thriving metropolis of 231 residents.  We stayed at the only motel in town which also had the only restaurant in the area. Thankfu...

We are in the old forests of SW Australia.  Here giants that were growing before Aussie was discovered by Europeans still stand in all their glory.  Somehow they escaped the saws that felled so many of their brethren.  We are grateful that they were spared.  This part of Oz has changed little since the continent separated from Antarctica making it a UNESCO hot spot of biodiversity.  It is a magical forest that brings calm and quiet to all who listen. 135 ft tall & still growing 500+ year old Tingle Tree Our cabins on this part of our journey provide endless wilderness entertainment.  TV, Wifi & cell phone service are all spotty so we are living off the grid.  Kangaroo TV kept us laughing as we watched the baby joey's test out their legs in the evening across the meadow. Did you know momma roo's are pregnant almost continuously.  Check it out on Google! If you been watching the news, you know that many parts of Aussie ...

We are trekking down the SW Australian Coast which has a temperate Mediterranean climate making it the perfect place for vineyards.  There are dozens of them in the area along with micro breweries. It's been fun to learn about the vineyards and enjoy some very lovely bottles of white and red wines. Palmer's Vineyard - our first tour! We even found a boutique gin & whiskey distiller and couldn't resist visiting Giniversity!  Their gins are filled with botanical and citrus notes with some smokey undertones.  Lovely in a gin & tonic! The coastline here is breathtaking.... filled with rocky outcroppings and windswept scrub punctuated by pink, yellow and purple wildflowers. It is just now early summer this far south so the big whales have not yet arrived.  Humpbacks, Blue and Wright whales all use this area for their calving grounds. Silver Gulls say hello This is surfing territory as the waves are good sized most of the year.  They te...