Since we got back from our road trip, we haven’t gone anywhere (with good reason!). That being said, we’ve been getting a bit antsy here in our apartment for the last 6 months. Given the low number of COVID-19 cases in Queensland and specifically in non-Brisbane Queensland, we decided to get out of the house for a week (well 8 days).

To catch everyone up, Sara got a 6 month contract job at the end of June and is going into the office 2 days every other week (otherwise working from home). I’ve been doing a little side work remotely for my old employer in Melbourne for a few years now – and thankfully that has increased to a bit more than 1/2 time currently.

So, since we both can work remotely, why not get a bit of a sea-change and work remotely from somewhere other than our apartment? Somehow we settled on the town of Sarina Beach – about an 11 hour drive north of us.  I figured it was about the furthest we could get away from Brisbane in a day’s drive. We found a nice little ocean front hotel there with an onsite restaurant.

We left Brisbane early on a Saturday morning for the long slog north. Luckily we had some recent experience with long drives – this one would be right up there with our longest days from our Aussie road trip. We arrived in Sarina Beach early in the evening and checked into our room (and checked out the view!)- then quickly made our way to the onsite restaurant for a delicious dinner.

On Sunday we found the “Big Cane Toad” in Sarina after having some delicious pies for breakfast from the Sarina Pie Shop. It was nice to mark off another “big” item 6 months after seeing the “Big Winch” in Coober Pedy.

Then we ventured a bit further north to the big city of the area – Mackay.  We had lunch and explored the river walk that runs along the Pioneer River.

Most of the week was for working, but I snuck out for some golf on Tuesday and Friday afternoons at the local course.

We also had time to go for long walks on the beach while looking out for crocs, since we were in “croc country“.

On Thursday we took a long lunch at a hotel recommended by Sara’s friend – the Eimeo Pacific Hotel. We both got the Wagyu burger and a beer.

On Saturday, we explored the Eungella National Park, which was about an hour and a half from our hotel. We did the hike up the Finch Hatton Gorge, which led us to two waterfalls and some swimming holes.

Next we refueled with some more tasty pies from the local hotel – this time topped with peas and gravy. Yum. Then we did some brief exploring in the other main area of the national park, up a steep windy road to the town of Eungella.

There were promises of a platypus sighting in the creek – and we actually managed to see one! We are typically unlucky when it comes to shy Australian wildlife. They are much smaller than I had imagined.

On Sunday it was time to pack up and head back to Brissy. Thankfully the drive was uneventful minus a few idiot drivers (clearly not us!). Now we are trying to figure out when and where we should do this work-cation next.

We’re in Broome, WA now, way ahead of where we are on the blog. It’s my turn to try to catch us up.

The last post left us in Ceduna, South Australia, about to cross the Nullabor Plain and make our way into Western Australia.  We decided to spend two nights while crossing to allow us to stop whenever and still not drive in the dark.  You don’t want to drive in the dark in rural Australia because sooner or later you will hit a kangaroo (or a camel, emu, cow, wombat, etc.) and have a bad time.

We set our first stop to be in Eucla, WA, which is 492km from Ceduna.  We stopped at a few view points along the way to take in the Bunda Cliffs and to break up the drive. There were a handful of flies at each stop that incited a bit of fly rage. Little did we know we had no idea what fly rage was just yet.

At the SA/WA border we got a picture of the “Big Roo” and one of the holes of the “Nullabor Links” – a golf course that spans 1,365km.  I thought about playing, but decided against it since the last three holes were north of the route we were planning on taking and you know, snakes.

We made it to Eucla fairly early, but a bit later than we estimated since we learned it was in a weird timezone (UTC +8:45) and not Perth/Western Australia time (UTC +8).  We had planned to use the pool only to find out it was closed. So after setting up camp in the most wind protected place we could find, we made dinner and turned in fairly early.

The next morning we skipped the pay showers ($3 for 5 minutes!), fueled up by the “big whale”  and got on the road with a plan to make it to Balladonia (another 492km day).  The stretch of highway from Caiguna to Balladonia is the “Longest Straight Road” in Australia which seemed hilarious after a whole lot of long straight roads.

We got to Balladonia quite early (~1pm) and it was really hot, and the only thing in there is the roadhouse / caravan park.  We couldn’t think of what we’d do with all that free time, so we decided to keep going.  I had read about a small community run caravan park in Salmon Gums, WA so we decided that would be our target – a further 316km.  We stopped at an underwhelming viewpoint in Norseman, WA (which is considered the end of the “Nullabor” drive). An hour more found us at the caravan park (only $10 for an unpowered  tent site!) in Salmon Gums.  We set up camp, had dinner and then set out to the local hotel to have a beer.

Given the extra ground we covered, we only had an hour of driving left to get to our next stop, which was Esperance.  We planned to stay two nights there and given our string of tent sleeping and the forecast rain, we opted for two nights in a hotel.  We got there before noon, and did a quick loop of a tourist drive to kill time before check-in.  We were not disappointed – except for “Pink Lake” which hasn’t been pink for over 10 years but they haven’t bothered to rename it.

The next day we went for a run and then I played golf while Sara walked around town.  After that we didn’t do much as it was raining most of the day, so we just enjoyed our time in a non-tent structure.

Our next stop was Albany – about 5 hours away, but first we traveled the opposite direction to check out a nearby national park, Cape Le Grande, where roos sometimes lounge on the beach. The weather was pretty iffy, but we went for it anyway.  Sadly no roos, but the beach (Lucky Bay) was beautiful even in the misty rain.

I had to drive the whole day because something was wrong with our seat and it would not go far enough forward for Sara.

In Albany we stayed at a caravan park that was right on the water.

There was a thunderstorm the first night followed by some ridiculous winds that made sleeping in a tent quite challenging. After having our coffee and breakfast, we visited a local Suzuki dealer and they fixed the seat issue quickly and free of charge!  We went and visited a few spots in the local national park, then explored the cute downtown area.  Next we stopped and had a beer at a local craft brewery, Wilson Brewing Company,  before heading back to camp to make dinner.

From Albany it was another 5 hour drive to Perth (the capital of Western Australia), with a stop at another national park, Porongurup National Park, along the way for nice long hike to a neat viewpoint on top of some rocks.

We spent 3 nights in Perth where we explored the town a bit, took in a Women’s Australian Rules Football match at the fancy new stadium, and checked out a few craft breweries, Bright Tank Brewing Co and Blasta Brewing Company, both highly recommended if you find yourself in Perth.

After Perth we were off to Jurien Bay – only about 3 hours away.  On there way there we stopped at a few national parks.  First, one that had koalas.

Next, one that had the pinnacles – they were quite amazing.

Unfortunately, this is where the flies really begin for us.  We thought they were annoying along the Nullabor, but we had no idea. When I say flies, there are a lot of them and they buzz your ears and nose and are really annoying. More on that later.

In Jurien Bay we camped at a caravan park near the beach.  We got set up quickly as we have gotten quite good by now at setting up camp. That night the winds came and made sleeping nearly impossible.  The wind was gusting up to 65kph (40mph) at times shaking the tent and just generally making a lot of noise.  Quite annoying.

We were staying two nights in Jurien bay, so the next day we explored a nearby town, then spend some much needed time on the beach relaxing and swimming in the ocean. It was very hot that day and didn’t cool down that much, which made sleeping a challenge again.

Next stop, Kalbarri, about 4 hours away.  On the way, we stopped at a pink lake that was actually pink.

We hooked up the chromecast and caught up on some new Brooklyn Nine-Nine episodes and got some much needed sleep in a hotel after two nights very poor sleep in Jurien Bay.

After a robust sleep, we were off to Carnarvon, 4 and a half hours up the coast. On the way out of town, we stopped at a few coastal spots of the local national park.

We planned to stop at some of the cool-sounding inland gorges of this park, only to find out it was closed for the week for feral goat eradication – I did not anticipate that as a reason for a park closure.  It was a bit rainy, and this seemed to bring all the roos out of the bush and into the road.  I had to stop and honk at a lot of roos as they didn’t bound off when the heard me coming.

I now understand why there are so many dead kangaroos on the side of the road, as the big trucks don’t stop, they just mow them down.

Back to the flies, for anyone doubting how bad they are, here’s a taste:

Well, now we are only two stops away from being caught up – that’ll have to be in the next installment!