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)

Kalbarri to Mullewa and the Wildflowers

On 12 September we moved on down from Shark Bay to Kalbarri, a relatively small fishing and tourist town in a very pretty seaside setting, where the Murchison River runs out through what looks to be a dangerous bar, into the Indian Ocean. Apart from the river entrance there are high cliffs north and south and the town is virtually ringed by the very large Kalbarri National Park. We have been looking forward to getting to Kalbarri. We were fortunate to get a good site in the Tudor caravan park, with sun coming in the front and our backs to a sometimes strong and cool wind. I put the annex up, opened at the front, to give us more protected space outside. We stayed for 6 days here.

Time was spent exploring the national park over some day trips and one energetic day on a canoe safari, upstream on the Murchison. We joined 11other people and were taken in a 4-wheel drive bus, with the canoes on a trailer, about 20kms up the river and canoed back down about 12kms, with a couple of stopovers (one for a BBQ breakfast) and then met the bus at the final point to travel the last bit the easy way. That was a lot of fun, but as the group were self-supporting, M and I in our canoe felt a bit obliged to stay close to a mother and two young (adult) daughters, from Singapore, in the one canoe, and no previous experience. We helped them out with some judicious hints along the way and they were going well in the end, once they learned to keep the thing relatively straight!

We had another especially good day out in the National Park where we visited some absolutely beautiful heathland and wildflower country, culminating in a climb to a rocky escarpment overlooking the river, way below. Have a look at the photos of one view here through what they call "Nature's Window".

We moved on yesterday to Geraldton, just briefly there to some shops, it's a big town, then away from the coast 100kms into the wildflower country to the east, to Mullewa where we have stayed a couple of nights to do a long day today exploring the wildflowers. This has been great, as will be seen by some of the photos below. M is catching up tonight with her wildflower records and I am getting another post into the blog, before moving on down to Perth tomorrow. We will have one more stop down somewhere near Jurien Bay or Cervantes, then into a van park in Perth, up in the Swan Valley, on Friday.

I had better see if I've got any tidy clothes anywhere ... I think there is an iron under the bed, or there was when we left...

The Natural Bridge at Kalbarri (Dont forget you can click on any of these photos to enlarge them)

Lichen on rocks in Kalbarri National Park

Murchison River from the escarpment lookout

Another view from the escarpment

R and M in "Nature's Window"

The view without intruders (did they fall backwards?)

Grass Trees in the Park - there were many

Setting out for the canoe safari

R unloading our canoe (these are the only 2 photos as we put the camera back in the bus then!)

The "Pink Lake" at Port Gregory , south of Kalbarri

A closer view of the pink water - it is even more pink than the photos show, caused by a natural occurrence of beta-carotene in the water

Carpets of everlastings near Mullewa

And they tell us it has been a poor season because of the lack of rain!

More of the same - so much colour!

Wreath Flowers on the roadside

Close-up of a Wreath Flower

M amongst the Wreath Flowers and others

Quobba - Shark Bay

Our last blog post was at Carnarvon. While we were there we spent a day driving up the rugged coast to the north, to an area known as "Quobba". This is an area that featured in a TV documentary a few years ago about people who had been visiting there for years and "free camping" in the nooks and crannies along the coves and beaches, and the authorities were taking steps to stop this. Well, it has been regulated somewhat, but not stopped. It  now costs money and has some minimal health services, but there are still makeshift shacks and camps there (a bit like the camps in the dunes north of Stockton NSW)  plus some more up-market travelling rigs. It's listed in the Camps 6 travelling guide that we use a lot.

Anyway, we visited there on a day trip only, and there are some photos below. We had a close call driving,  nearly cleaning up 4 wild goats, including a young "kid", that chose to appear out of the scrub and cross the road in front of us, in line, but fortunately just beyond a cattle grid that I had slowed down for. I didn't know M used words like that!

M visited the Gwoonwardu Mia (Gascoyne Aboriginal Heritage & Cultural Centre) - just opened 2 months ago, completely run by Aboriginal people - their stories, art, cuture and interactive displays were so well done, so moving..

We went to the growers markets on the last day - cheap bananas, greens and preserves - not to mention donuts.  The Anglicans were there doing the BBQ and an older Anglican lady selling her books of handwritten prayers and cards and inviting us to Church.

After Carnarvon, we moved on to the south, a bit over 300km to Shark Bay, where we are having a lazy day, the last of 4 days in a van park at Denham. We have a great site with a view out across the bay to the West. The Cape that we can just see on the horizon is the furthest point west on the continent and is near where Dirk Hartog left his pewter plate (1616) many years before Cook laid his posession claim on the East Coast.

Shark Bay really is a beautiful place, listed World Heritage, with a great variety of natural scenery, wildlife and marine life. We attended a church service at the little Anglican Church, made out of calcified shell blocks, here in Denham on Sunday and yesterday spent the day driving around the Francois Peron National Park, over 100kms of rugged sand tracks to the furthest point north, Cape Peron. There are some photos below and M will provide some more info.

Warning sign at Quobba Point, near the blowholes,where the big waves roll in from the Indian Ocean
(the sea was as flat as a pancake the day we were there)

The first blast from the blowhole is air, forced ahead of the water

...and then the water seems to recede back into the holes

The information plaques on the memorial to HMAS Sydney

The memorial looks out over the Indian Ocean opposite where the battle was fought

Down now to Shark Bay, a stop to look at the wildflowers on a claypan in the Francois Peron National Park. You can see the nature of the sand tracks in the background that we were following - we were able to stop here because of the hard surface of the pan - some of these pans (called Birridas are either salt or gypsum).  The exciting sand tracks  made it necessary to keep driving momentum so I could not stop and take picures of all the wildflowers but I was just awed by the vegetation patterns - red sandy plains dominated by desert-adapted acacias and hakeas and grevilleas at their most northern range on the peninsula.  The Shark Bay daisy (a creeper) that shows its mauve to pink flowers in and above the other  shrubs.  Interspersed amonsgt the wattles were pink parakeelyas and red Eremophilia glabra, white smoke bush and lambs tails.  The spinifex here is the green furry kind that hugs the sides of the track underneath the other shrubs - just beautiful. As you looked across the landscape you could see a rounded carpet of green, greys, yellows and white of all shades - stunning - one can never tire of seeing such beauty.

These are actual animal tracks in the sand just near the claypan. There is a multitude of small native animals around here, and some ferral cats and foxes, unfortunately still - although the baiting program has almost eliminated the foxes but the cats don't take baits so they are trying other methods.  The bilby and mallee fowl have been sucessfully reintroduced in the Project Eden program because of the successful reduction in feral animals.  The Project also hopes to introduce the captive bred banded hare wallaby and mala as well.

This is "Big Lagoon", the first place we visited in the park

Cape Peron, right at the top - stunning colours!

Picnic lunch at Cape Peron - we watched a dugong swim buy here while we ate our lunch

Looking for Dirk Hartog (wrong Cape!)

A sign on the walk. "Wanamalu" is the aboriginal name for the cormorants (see below) - great walk through the flowers on a red sandy track - we saw a blue Varigated Wren and a lizard or two.  Ron had seen a Woma python on the side of the road earlier.

Another sign at the top of the Cape that describes the meeting of the sea currents that bring such diverse marine life

On the walk. Look closely and see the myriad bird life at the water's edge, mostly cormorants (click on these photos to enlarge them)....not my best side..

Mostly cormorants - We stood at a lookout at the end of the Cape looking down into the clear waters below.  You could see the line of the sea grass bed about 200m from the shore. While we were here we watched a school of hundreds of fish milling around the rocks close to the shore - then we saw the shark - about 10-12 ft probably a tiger shark gliding along the gutter between  the sea grass and the shore - the fish were hiding in the shallows.  We saw a sea turtle and some baby black rays all staying in the shallows away from Jaws.

This is a view from the caravan park in Denham where are now. We are up on a higher level, a sort of plateau in the park towards the back, that has his magnificient view across the bay. We leave here early in the morning for Kalbarri, about 400km to the south