The Pinnacles - Perth - Margaret River

Our last blog took us from Kalbarri away from the coast to Mullewa into the mid-west wheatbelt area looking at the beautiful rolling hills and fields of green crops, and searchingor wildflowers.

Leaving there, we headed back west to the coast and then south, to follow the coast road from Dongara down through Jurien Bay to Cervantes. With fine weather still prevailing, we set up the van in Cervantes on Thursday 20 September and drove down to have a look at the Pinnacles. I was a bit "Ho-Hum" about the prospect of this place, but was quite surprised - it was very impressive, as a couple of our photos below may indicate. The National Parks people inWA (D.E.C.) do a fine job in the maintenance of their parks that we have visited and this was no exception. The Information Centre and presentation of the park here was especially well done.

Our intention was to move on down to Perth the next day, but the forecast was for gale force winds and rain from Jurien Bay (just above us) right down through Perth and the South-West corner.We listened to it getting worse through the night in the van park at Cervantes, where we were reasonably sheltered, and by morning, at M's suggestion, we elected to stay there another day and postpone the next leg by 24 hours. That turned out to be a good decision because when we got to the planned van park in Swan Valley, Perth there had been hail and high wind damage the night before. They get some mean weather blowing in from the Indian Ocean across the South-West corner in WA and we dodged a bullet this time.

We took full advantage of the good weather following the bad spell, Saturday at Kings Park with their great displays of native wildflowers, a tour up the Swan River on Sunday and then by mini bus through a number of wineries (dropped back to the van park by the bus) and then some train trips through Perth and Fremantle over the next few days, interspersed with some necessary rest days.

We left Perth after a week and drove on down to Quindilup, near Dunsborough on Geographe Bay, right at the foot of Cape Naturaliste. This bottom left hand corner of Western Australia, the "bump" that sticks out, has Cape Naturaliste at the top and Cape Leeuwin at the bottom, encompassing the Margaret River area, so famous for all the wineries and beautiful dairy country. We were very fortunate to have made friends earlier with another couple in an adjacent camping Bay at Karijini National Park when we were there many weeks ago. They had invited us to park our van in front of the shed on their property at Quindilup and use this as a base for touring the Margaret River area. We were very pleased to accept that invitation and  would have had lots of difficulty finding somewhere to stay if it had not been for that offer as our visit clashed with a long weekend and school holidays. Murray and Barbara have turned out to be wonderful hosts and we have started a friendship which I am sure will last.

We spent a week there, touring the area and then moved on down to Augusta at Cape Leeuwin on Friday 5 October, booking in to the Flinders Bay caravan park which is right on the beachfront looking south-east across a large bay into the Great Southern Ocean, such a deep blue. We are 10 minutes drive around to our right up on to the lighthouse on Cape Leeuwin. We will spend another week here exploring the Cape, walks and caves, and maybe another winery and the cheese factory back up at Margaret River. When we leave here it will be to head east, the direction for home (but some ground to cover yet).

Here are some more photos below.

M standing in front of some of the "Pinnacles"

Looking back over the Pinnacles, a rich yellow clay colour to the white sand dunes and the Indian Ocean beyond

Kings Park, Perth. The displays of native wildflowers in this massive park are legendary

The heavy metal canopy over one of the entry bays had these intricate cut-outs, very effective with the light coming through. What can you see, kids?

A Donkey Orchid in Kings Park. Can you see the donkey's head and big ears, kids?

 

This is a contorted flower stem (or "kangaroo tail") on a Grasstree in Kings Park. It looks like a green snake writhing up.

A Flowering Gum in Kings Park

This is the mini-bus group for our wineries tour in the Swan Valley out of Perth. Here we are at the last port of call, a brewery, as a change from the wine. The pommie with the beannie on the right wasn't fussed with the wine all day, but he sure enjoyed this stop. It's probably evident that we all had enjoyed ourselves for the day! The first 2 and the 5th from the left are all young English doctors, working out here. The young fellow is working for the RFD service.

A couple of geese for the kids to see - this was at the brewery and I think they were intent on a hand-out from people on a bus.

One of the exhibits at the Maritime Museum in Fremantle is Australia II, of America's Cup winning fame. The figures are artificial, very lifelike.

The secret weapon, the Winged Keel

Heading out for our walk the length of the Busselton Jetty in Geographe Bay, near Cape Naturaliste. At 1.8kms, this is the longest jetty of it's type in the southern hemisphere, so we were told.

The train bringing passengers back on the jetty (we walked!) Needed to walk off all the wine and cheese!

A baby seagull and mother on a part of the old jetty still standing alongside the current one. The nest is apparently down in the crack you can see. This is the first time we have seen  a tiny seagull chick in our lives.

Looking for a bit of shelter under Mum!

The lighthouse at Cape Naturaliste. We went for a guided tour here.

The natural "canal" at Canal Rocks" in the Cape Naturaliste - Cape Leeuwin National Park. There is a warning sign here that if the decking is wet you must not proceed out on to the walkway

This is taken from the middle of the walkway and shows how the seas come over to fill the canal (which goes through into the bay behind). This is the Indian Ocean, but the seas were only slight this day.

Another photo for the kids. This is a ram at the working sheep station and wool factory in Margaret River

M checking out a fleece

Count the kangaroos, amongst the field of flowers and rushes. I dont have a total to check you with, there were too many!

A Bob Tail lizard that crossed our path. Intrepid M jumped out to photograph it, and it turned around and gave her the "Gape", as below in the exhibit at the Pinnacles

A couple Honey Possums in an exhibit at the Pinnacles. Can you see them? We have a beaut DVD of wildlife and flowers from here for the kids to see.

About the Honey Possum

This is NOT another Honey Possum., although he's a honey. Note the technology - the screen for the rear-view camera on the back of the van

A Spider Orchid on Murray and Barbara's place

I called it a Blue Crane, but its a Heron or Egret (still checking)