Bells Beach. Only for the dedicated in this weather.

Bells Beach

Bells Beach

The Graet Ocean Road is rated one of the great drives of the world and we certainly agree. The scenery is spectacular and the towns inviting. Anglesea, Lorne, Kennett River, and Apollo Bay are worth exploring at another time.

Drove the 17km in to Cape Otway lighthouse, a beautiful and historic place,well worth the visit.

The modern equivalent

Cape Otway

We pushed on to a free campsite at Panmure, just outside Warrnambool.

Panmure

Then on to Warrnambool, a large and modern rural town. Fuel up and move on.

Tower Hill is a volcanic crater, now a lake, with a very energetic walk to the lookout. Worth the effort.

On to Portland for lunch. An interesting town with some beautiful old architecture and lovely harbour.

Whale skeleton from the whaling days of Portland.

The Flintstones car

A sad end for a Hills hoist.

Into South Australia and hassles with the COVID entry \240application. The form was very clunky and kept freezing. I think Collette is still an illegal immigrant.

We found a free campsite on the beach near Port Macdonnell. Quiet and flat. The beach was covered with kelp but the smell only stayed with us for an hour or so.

Another comfortable night and an early start for Mount Gambier tomorrow.

Port Macdonnell. Lots of kelp and lots of smell.

Crayfish capital of South Australia

Mount Gambier was a surprise package and a place to come back to. A beautiful town with a lot to do. One of the sights was Blue Lake, a naturally made lake which is the local water supply.

Blue Lake and pump house

Blue Lake

Another amazing attraction is the Sink Hole, again naturally occurring but developed into a resting place in the heat and attraction.

Sink Hole

Wild bee hive in the sink hole

Just outside Mount Gambier is a man made gorge, built in the late 1950’s to drain some swampy farming land. It is an engineering wonder that would not be permitted today.

We followed the coast through Beachport, Robe and Meningie. This is a spectacular coastline which again requires significant exploring.

Found another excellent free camp at Narrung. The road continues on via a free ferry service that runs 24 hours on demand.

The man made gorge.

The ferry crossing

Late lunch at Moonta Bay

This is a surprise town that spring up from a very boring drive out of the way to get there. It has a rich mining history around copper and was once a more profitable mine than all other SA mines combined.

Moonta Bay has some very interesting architecture from the late 1800’s, both in the Main Street as well as residences around the town.

Moonta Bay

After a stroll through town and leaving some retail dollars behind we again hit the road. By this time our planned camp spot was not going to be reached until about 6 so we pulled up short in a tine one pub town called Mundoora.

It will be a comfortable night ready for a big and boring drive tomorrow down into the Eyre Peninsula.

Camped up at Mundoora in an historical park full of old farm machinery. Worth the $10 donation.

Downtown Mundoora

Port Pirie railway station, a real surprise.

Then on to Port Augusta for fuel and coffee. Not much here to see. The drive into PA was into a significant headwind that reminded us just how devastating they can be to fuel consumption.

Double decker freight cars. A first for me.

Morning tea in PA by the river.

Port Augusta

On to Whyalla with a tailwind to even out the day. We stopped for lunch and a walk. Nice town with some great architecture but miles from anywhere.

HMAS Whyalla, the first boat built here in 1942. A corvette minesweeper.

Whyalla beach

Port and marina

Fishing platform

WW II bunker

It was then a rush to get to Port Lincoln before dark. Alan and I were both over the driving with 50k to go and gunned it home. To hell with fuel economy.

We are having 2 nights in Port Lincoln as there is quite a bit to see and we need some time to re organise.

Whalers Way

This is a day’s worth of exploring some of the most rugged and magnificent coastline Australia has to offer. The scenery is spectacular and, most surprising, the variety and beauty of the vegetation. The rest of the story I will tell in pictures.

Fishing Bay and overlooking the old whaling station

A natural swimming hole for the adventurous

Swamp honey-myrtle, a species of Melaleuca

Several fur seals

Creeping mirrorplant

Dragon’s blood

Hottentot fig

After Whaler’s Way we took a drive into the Lincoln National Park to Cape Donnington.

Contender for the ugliest lighthouse contest

Well named

Sea spurge

Coffin Bay. Emus came to town

Further up the road we came to Elliston and explored the adjacent peninsula and its artwork. This 20 minute detour took up an hour. The seascapes were awesome and the artwork very interesting.

Didn’t quite get to Streaky Bay but pulled up about 30km short on a private farm. The main attraction here is ‘Murphy’s Haystacks’, a natural phenomenon that I will bring you tomorrow.

Murphy’s farm stay.

It was a driving day with not a lot of sightseeing expected. We called in at Streaky Bay but it didn’t rate a stop or photograph so on to Smoky Bay for morning tea.

Smokey Bay jetty and swimming nets. Lots of bities down here.

Smokey Bay

Smokey Bay is renowned for its oysters. In the half hour we were there we saw 10 boatloads of oysters come ashore.

Next stop Ceduna, the start of the Nullarbor. We needed gas, diesel, water, groceries and lunch so a decent time in town was called for.

Water filling station before we hit the Nullarbor. $1 coin in the slot gets you 150 lt.

Our lunchtime outlook over the Ceduna jetty.

Ceduna beach

The girls had found another farm stay at Coorabie, about 150 km from Ceduna. It was an easy drive, bit of a tailwind to help the fuel economy. Lots of roadworks and trucks but we pulled into camp about 3.30 to have a relaxed rest of the afternoon.

Tomorrow we hit Western Australia and have to surrender all fruit and veggies to border control. Collette was determined that our home grown potatoes and garlic would not suffer that fate so a lot of peeling, pickleing and eating was done.

Sundowners

Guard dog on the farm stay last night.

The road into Coorabie was awful, very rutted and dusty. Barely got over 30 kph. We would have very much liked to have a look at Fowlers Bay but another 30 k on that road was too much to contemplate.

So it was hit the road and try to chew up some k’s. The Nullarbor at this stage is still quite green and well covered with small trees. We had expected a lot more sand. First stop was a sign indicating the start of the treeless Nullarbor.

Sure enough not many trees for a while. Next stop was Nullarbor Fuel Stop where diesel is $1.929. A careful calculation said I needed only 25lt at that price to make it to Eucla where it was $1.76.

The new roadhouse.

The original roadhouse

From Nullarbor the road follows the coast closely and there are numerous lookout points along the way. The coastline is rugged and spectacular and collapsing.

The Nullarbor vista

Finally we reached Border Village wher the WA border control is very thorough. Firstly your COVID entry permit is carefully checked then quarantine people confiscate anything fresh.

12 km on we arrive at Eucla, looking forward to filling up with fuel at $1.72, the cheapest for 700 km. Eucla is dry with no diesel until 5 pm that night. So emergency drum is used to make it another 68 km where the line up for diesel is impressive. At least it didn’t run out while we waited.

Our free campsite was another 20 km down the track. It was a bush retreat on the edge of the highway, dry and dusty but welcome.

The Nullarbor, a lot of nothing.

My view for 9 hours. Very little changed.

We eventually made it to Norseman where we filled up with water before settling into our free campsite, sponsored by the shire.

A surprise hitch hiker in our door.

Tomorrow we have a look at Norseman before an easy 200 km to Esperance.

Celebrating the camel history of the area.

The horse the town was named after.

Main street

Memorial garden

Montbretia or Sword lily

On the way to Esperance we came across Scaddan and a park with murals telling the history of the area.

We hit Esperance on lunchtime and took a little longer to set up camp as we will be here for two nights. Then into town for some replenishment of supplies, broken bits and haircuts. It rained most of the afternoon so good timing.

More grass. Yay!!!

The dusty Nullarbor gets on and in everything. I had just oiled this gear set up.

This is a park with great access on sealed roads, plenty of walks of all grades, and fantastic seascapes. We started at Le Grand beach.

Le Grand beach, very ordinary given what was to come.

Next stop Hellfire Bay.

Hellfire Bay

Signs warn rock fishermen to rope themselves to anchors because of sudden and unexpected freak waves. Anchors are places at all the good fishing spots.

Budgie delight. A huge cuttlefish.

Then on to Thistle Cove. Here the rock formations were amazing including the whistling rock.

Frenchman Peak

Whistling rock reflects the ocean sounds like a huge speaker.

Thistle Cove

Rosemary grevillea complete with bee and ant

Next stop was Lucky Bay, named by Matthew Flinders because he chose to anchor here instead of risking the reefs and rocks out to sea. He stayed 4 days and collected 130 plant specimens, 100 of which were unknown.

Lucky Bay just took the breath away

We decided on a walk along the beach to the rocks, 5.5 km return.

Busy beach

Shellfish encrusted cuttlefish

Alan cooling his heels. Water straight from the Antarctic he reckons

Oyster catcher

Some brave souls swimming

Lunch was on the headland with a magnificent view over the whole bay.

WA has its own Great Ocean Road which starts in Esperance and travels west for 20 km. The brochure says this road has fantastic scenery and gives the best sunset over the water so gave it a go.

Very fancy lookout platform

Beautiful beaches and wild seas

Sounds inviting

The reefs and rocks are dotted all over the sea. We could see huge breakers on the horizon about 12 km out. Navigation would have been very challenging.

We hung around and waited for sunset. It did not disappoint.

Tomorrow we head towards Albany.

Morning tea

Most of the day was overcast so the big scenic shots were not great. However we had a feast of fauna to wonder at. The variety and beauty of the native fauna here is amazing.

A shortcut to Hopetoun took us on a dirt road and a decent hill and lookout. It was mostly an old mine but more wild flowers were around.

Outside Hopetoun we came across some farm gate art.

Vans dumped. Now for the Fitzgerald River National Park.

Endless beaches

The parks are brilliantly landscaped and maintained. Very well thought out and designed.

Contemplating the monument to photographers who fell over the cliff while their wife yelled “Honey watch the edge”.

The pink lake

Comparing the lake’s pink to the benchmark, Collette’s fingernails.

Hopetoun beach

At Ravensthorpe we came across some beautiful silo art. The subject matter and colour toning suited the landscape perfectly.

Morning tea was just down the road at an aboriginal memorial site. In the late 1800’s there was an altercation and then massacre. A horrible and embarrassing tale.

The ‘T’ tree

Wild desert melons

Lunch by the river outside Albany

A golf course outside of town allows campers to stay for $15 per van per night. Facilities are very modest but we can run generators and it is close to town.

We are in a secluded bush site that offers privacy and should be very comfortable for a few nights.

It wasn’t as big an ooh aah day as previously and I am not sure if we are just getting blasé or it just wasn’t as good as previously seen. Anyway it was a great day out with lots more great views.

More great islands

More great beaches

There is a guy fishing on the point out there

He has a life vest but can’t tell if he is tethered to the rocks

One of the great attractions here is The Gap and The Natural Bridge.

The Gap

The Gap

The Gap viewing platform, newly constructed, said to hold 4 adult elephants. But will it hold me?

A lot of power here.

Right beside here is The Natural Bridge.

Natural Bridge

A lot of money has been spent creating a top attraction. This is all stone table and chairs.

A bit of a climb takes you to a rocky top with two lumps of old concrete, all that is left of the radar station. But the 360 view was awesome.

Albany

One of the lumps, looking south

Looking west

Our lunch area with a view

Then a 50 min drive to Cape Howe National Park. Not nearly as much to see here.

Launch platform for hang gliders overlooking Shelly beach.

Shelly beach

Tomorrow we are staying around Albany to catch up on some museums and shopping and car service. It is expected to rain all day so not many outdoor photos.

This is beautifully and extensively done, a great tribute to the ANZACS with personal stories being told. New Zealand was as much presented as Australia which was great to see.

The names of all who left Albany for WW1 in 1914 move continuously under a water feature. It takes 11 days to cycle the complete list. A third who left didn’t come home.

Looking out over Albany harbour from the ANZAC centre where two huge convoys formed at the end of 1914 to transport men and horses to the war.

In the old barracks is a photographic story of high explosive and gas bombs still being found.

The current photos are set brilliantly with photos from the war.

This really is a great exhibition and worth spending the time here. I came away feeling frustrated at the stupidity of this war, but also proud of the story and history portrayed.

Next was the convict gaol. This was in interesting hour but not very photogenic.

Alan and I then left the girls to explore the shopping potential and headed out to Mount Barker and Plantagenet Wines for a tasting.

It was worth the visit. Then some BCF and Bunnings for basics.

Tomorrow we visit the whaling station, the last in Australia to close in 1978. Then we head toward Margaret River to visit a few more wineries.

The last of the whale chasers

An amazing collection of shells

A steam engine from one of the boats

Fleecing area in front of the factory

Boilers for whale oil

Humpback whale

Sperm whale

Collette couldn’t resist the slide

After retrieving the vans and loading up with water we headed off towards Margaret River. First stop for lunch was Denmark, a surprising town with a beautiful park for lunch, a brewery, several wineries, and a quilt shop.

Another highly recommended attraction was the Valley of the Giants Treetops Walk. Here a walking platform (see through) threads its way among the giant Red Tingles, up to 40 m above ground. It is a spectacular walk but I am very pleased we had the place to ourselves as the movement of the walkways is very pronounced which Alan took great delight in proving endlessly.

Not happy Jan

Karri she-oak

Grandma Tingle

It was getting late so we took off for a camping spot beside the visitor centre in Northcliffe. This is just a sleep place but toilets and water are supplied and it’s free. But the best part was the pub. We walked the 500m and had a great feed. Girls night off.

Tomorrow we start exploring Margaret River region as there is lots to see, do and taste.

Can you see the rungs on the outside?

That’s Linda

They said the view from the top was amazing.

While in Pemberton we decided to do the tramway Forrest experience. Should have read the reviews better. This was overpriced and remarkably underwhelming, made even worse by the incredibly bored and bad mannered lady who took our money. Managed a few photos though.

Extremely neglected display before we boarded.

A purpose built replica

The Cascades, our stop half way

A few arty railway photos

With the rail line behind us we made a beeline for the camp in Alexandra Bridge, set up the vans and headed out to explore Augusta and its surrounds. First stop Cape Leeuwin lighthouse.

Cape Leeuwin lighthouse

Water wheel to pump fresh water in 1890’s

Mutton bird

Our first look this trip of the Indian Ocean

The only thing to look at in Augusta is the beach.

Interesting design of a beach house

Augusta beach

We headed north to find Hamelin Bay, a summer holiday Mecca for the locals.

Hamelin Beach

Kelp gull

Alan looking for Manta Rays

Like this one

Tomorrow more Margaret River.

Alexandra Bridge, or all that is left of it.

It was unfortunate that we hit Margaret River on. Weekend as this is a real tourist hot spot. It was busy in town and the wineries were well attended. Sometimes you just can’t plan it perfectly, specially us Grey nomads who can’t remember what day it is.

We made it to Margaret River in time for coffee and fund raising cup cakes. The girls then headed off to check out the town while the boys started the hunt for the perfect Margaret River Red.

Margaret River, prosperous, busy, lots of money here.

Our first winery was Cape Mentelle where I bought my first Chardonnay since 1989. It was very fine.

Cape Mentelle

Excellent wines, on the high side price wise, worth the visit.

Down the road to Leeuwin Estate, another old favourite. Beautiful grounds, excellent wines that I mostly can’t afford any more.

Thus ended a very enjoyable morning. We collected the girls and headed to our camp site at Prevelly. The camp ground is at the beach but protected behind high sand hills.

We plan on two nights at this ground as there is a lot to see and drink around here. Also we are in need of power. Both vans depend a lot on solar to keep the batteries charged but I think it has been at least a week that we haven’t seen sun,

Collette offered to be our driver for the rest of the afternoon so we could enjoy our wine tasting guilt free. Both Alan and I had listed Vasse Felix as our top visit in Margaret River so that was next call after a late lunch.

Vasse Felix

The Vault

The tasting bar was very crowded and we had to wait 15 minutes for elbow room and to be served. The wines were so so and expensive and the service snooty. Nothing like we had expected. Doesn’t pay to have high expectations.

Meanwhile the girls visited the vault and Janet Holmes aCourt picture gallery with which they were very impressed.

The Vault

A stones throw down the road was Evans & Tate which has been a well priced staple foe many years. This was much more fun with only a few other tasters, an excellent and knowledgeable hostess, and wines that tasted great and we could afford. More our style of winery.

Not flash but does the job. A fun visit.

The back deck

Back to the vans for dinner and to plan our attack on the region tomorrow.

My new T Shirt

Our campsite in Prevelly

Meanwhile Alan and I continued the search for the best red on Margaret River. First up Sandalford Wines. Our hostess here was terrific, serving up some excellent wines and also some great tips for the afternoon tourist agenda.

Sandalford

After Sandalford we felt like a beer so the Cheeky Monkey Brewing Co was around the corner. Some good beers in a beautiful setting. We could have easily settled in for the afternoon.

Cheeky Monkey

Tough life on retirement

Last for the morning was Mad Fish and Howard Park wines.

Another good range of wines, good quality and good price range.

Back to the vans for lunch and to pick up the girls. The afternoon was devoted to sightseeing the coastline and sights up to Cape Naturaliste. A quick look at Gracetown didn’t even warrant a photo so on to the Wilyabrup cliffs, a very popular abseiling site.

And another beach

The Yallingup Ceese Co was next and we sampled a lovely soft cheese with a few wines.

It was almost dark by the time we made it to Cape Naturaliste lighthouse. Couldn’t get very close.

Then a quick look at Eagle Bay.

Then back to Margaret River for pizza at Pizzica. Thanks Philip for the recommendation. Great pizza in a unique setting.

Damn good pizza!!!

Scattered throughout the town are these cow statues. Last night while driving through Alan thought one was about to step onto the road in front of him.

Busselton is a city of oboist 18,000, servicing an region of about 40,000. It is a beautifully laid out and presented city, particularly around the foreshore and town.

The key attraction though is the jetty, originally built in 1911 to handle the growing trade. It has been rebuilt since but still retains its original character. It is 1.8km long.

Unfortunately the observatory was closed due to imminent bad weather but the walk out to the end was very worth the $4 each.

Busselton beach with a big storm brewing on the way. We expected to be wet by the time we got back.

Shark proof swimming area

Bird with attitude

The old jetty remains still good for something

A crack team

That’s why I drink red

The town has an historical area utilising the old buildings for history, craft and theatre.

Some great bronze statues throughout town

The park and playground were a kid’s dream

The old court house, police headquarters and holding cells

John Bussel, who with his brothers, founded the region

Bond store. The floor is lumps of timber on end to hold the weight

Alan asked a question. Big mistake. He had to be rescued or he would still be there next week

Lunch at Wyalup Rocky Point. This is just as we came into Bunbury

Made it up to Preston Beach about 3.30 with the storm chasing us all the way. There was some impressive thunder and lightning but in the end it was very mild and all over in 15 minutes.

We are at a 24 hour only free camp, right on the beach. Basic amenities but the roar of the ocean to put us to sleep.

T

The jetty to get a better view

Thrombolites

The run through Perth was non stop for photos but a little stop at Aldi for provisions and BCF for gas, none of which were photogenic.

Further north we found the Pinacles. These are lumps of limestone that remain when the remaining sand is blown away. (Very simplified version. If you want more, google it).

About 2m high

It was Collette’s “Just do it” pick

The sun was setting so we hightailed it to Cervantes and a very comfortable caravan park. More from Cervantes tomorrow.

A western sunset over Cervantes beach

Grigson’s Lookout. This cairn was built in 1879 as a surveyors marker for the area.

Salt lakes

We kept driving past these huge sand hills

Morning tea was at Port Denison, a lovely port with a strong fishing community, both private and business.

Port Denison

Geraldton is a decent size city that was far more attractive than we expected. Also lots to do and requires time on our return.

There is a memorial to HMAS Sydney II which was sunk with all 640 hands in 1941 off the coast of Geraldton.

Geraldton port

The Sydney was sunk in 2500m and not found until 2006. Later in 2015 it was able to be explored. The 3D film is shown at the Museum of Geraldton and is amazing.

It is a great museum, specialising in history of the area and the sea. One of the exhibits deals with many of the shipwrecks off the WA coast including the Dutch merchant Batavia.

Bristol Tourer operated by WA Airways as a mail carrier from 1921, a year before Qantas. Charles Kingsford-Smith was one of the pilots.

From the shipwrecks display

Tonight we are in a remote National Park just south of Kalbari, right on the beach. Tomorrow another big driving day, aiming for Carnarvon.

Lucky Bay

Couldn’t resist another sunset

Kalbari and its surround was hit about a month ago with a cyclone that selectively tore strips out of the community. It is very heartening to see the restoration work being done but there is still so much to do. We didn’t stop except for fuel.

Kalbari

It was a big driving day with over 600 km completed. We overnighted on a 24hr roadside stop about 40 km south of Carnarvon that was somewhat noisy but OK. Tomorrow Karatha.

Some beautiful rivers

Vast landscapes of flat with the occasional hill. It has a beauty all its own.

Camped up at Mi Pool, just south of Karatha

The start of some interesting hills

Ashburton River at Nanutarra

Nanutarra. Don’t come looking for a town cause this is all there is

Robe River

Camped up at Miaree Pool, just south of Karatha

Right at the port is M

The salt drying ponds. I will let the stats tell the story

Some awesome stats

Dampier is the second largest bulk shipping port in the world. (The largest is Port Headland just up the road). But more importantly, it is famous for Red Dog.

More trains.

236 cars, 100 tonnes per car, $140 per tonne. About $m4.5 per train load

The harbour at Dampier is quite beautiful, obviously very deep, and well protected.

Some great playgrounds and picnic facilities at the beach

Coffee at last

Right at the port is Murujuga National Park where aboriginal art is shown on rock mounds that have been untouched for many thousands of years.

These piles of rocks look like they have been mined but are totally untouched

The other beach at Dampier.

Karatha is another prosperous town, looking very modern. We did some essential re supply of provisions and water then headed to Port \240Headland where we can stay for free, with about 50 other vans, at the turf club. Another big driving day tomorrow.

Lots of open space and red dirt.

We arrived about 10.30 so spent some time setting up for 4 days and doing some of the little maintenance jobs that always spring up. Some major cleaning was also in order.

About 3.30 we headed into town for fuel and to finally catch up with Niki and Peter. We had planned on dinner in Chinatown and had a walk around before hand.

Unfortunately all the shops were closed And there is a lot of road works going on.

We knew very little of the war in Broome. It was bombed 4 times with about 100 loss of life.

Sculptures in the local red dirt

Pearl diving history is everywhere

Dinner at last. Some authentic and very good Indonesian food.

This is an excellent tour that lasted nearly 3 hours. We looked at the process of creating cultured pearls followed by a boat trip, morning tea, pearl anatomy and finding a pearl, followed of course by a pearl shopping experience. All the girls did very well.

Oysters ready to give up their pearls

The jetty. Note how many steps you can see

Our boat driver explaining the process, and Annie, our Dutch tour guide

Over adventurous Land Cruiser

Digging for pearls

Success

3 hours later note the visible steps. Tide variation today was 9.6m

Back to Broome where we had an excellent lunch at a kebab house. Then a visit to the Broome museum.

An early decompression chamber. It’s introduction in the 1930’s saw the death rate for pearl divers go from 126 per year to 1.

A good story by the girls who manned the telephone switchboard

Boat tree

A jetty to nowhere. The tide does get there eventually.

Cable Beach is reknown for amazing sunsets over the beach, camels on the beach, and dining with a great view.

Cars on the beach for the sunset and the camels

Camels on the beach. The sunset was a non event due to cloud.

A very popular resturaunt.

Food was OK

Tomorrow Cape Leveque

Sign at the exit of aboriginal communities

It wasn’t the cape drive we expected. Instead of showing off the coast, the road went straight up the inland with dirt tracks leading off left and right.

Our first Jabaru

The one and only roadhouse

We were allowed into the Lombardia aboriginal village. I have no idea what made this one any different but it was worth the look. The main feature is the paper bark church.

Checking into the ‘visitors centre’

Local craft shop

Paperbark is used to line the ceiling

Red dirt everywhere

Right at the tip of the cape is the lighthouse, again on aboriginal land but run as a remote resort. We paid our $4 each for the privilege of walking to the beach for lunch. Very pretty spot but strictly 4WD to get in.

Glamping

A little further up the road was another pearl farm and tourist spot. Good for a look and a coffee.

Great system to move the boats around

Time to head back to Broome to catch the full lunar eclipse.

B

Broome jetty. Very tightly controlled and under the eye of Border Force and Commonwealth Biosecurity

Some amazing rock formations along the coast beside the port

Caught up with Mary and Tony at Matsos, a great place for lunch and a beer.

A bit more shopping for the girls and a few beers for the boys at Roebucks Pub.

How much more can he drink?

One of the big attractions at Broome is watching the “Stairway to the Moon”, where the full moon rises over the water. There is a food market as well to make a night of it.

Some indigenous entertainment as well. He sang as the moon rose over the water.

Good crowd, both locals and Grey nomads.

Stairway to the Moon

We said our goodbyes to Niki and Peter. Tomorrow we head south for Karijini National Park.

The police escort got us off the road for this one. Lots of wide loads and 60m long road trains.

Ready for a walk

We had climbed 700 m

White ant hills everywhere

Hamersley Range has some beautiful colours

Jofree Gorge and falls lookout. The gorge walk was closed as they were creating a new stair access

Looking for a good walk after several days in the car, we attacked Kalamina gorge, a 3 hour grade 4 track.

It was a good climb down into the gorge to start the walk

Solid iron rock

Some amazing rock formations

A few wer feet

A vein of asbestos

It was a very cool swim but very refreshing

Hamersley gorge has the reputation as the best. The colours were great and the swim holes excellent but as a gorge we all thought the others two were better.

The big thing Hamersley has going for it is the easy 400 m access.

Before we got to Hamersley we stopped at the lookout to Marandoo mine site. When we look at these sires and the vast untouched area all around, you realise how little real impact mines have on the overall area.

He blends very well

Hamersley gorge

It was a very cool swim

The colours and hills of the Hamersley range

Red corrugated roads, real fun in this area

House creek, full of red mud from the recent rain

Coral Bay. Very overcast. Snorkeling was in the bay in front of the car park.

Wall to wall caravans

Bullara Station is a great place to stop. It is an operating cattle station. There was free damper and a concert at 5, both of which were very good.

He drew a good crowd and the kids loved dancing to his music.

The bottle tree

Boule

Collette cooking up a storm

Our neighbours

Shocking haircut

Learmonth and the air fields. This was just the start of some surprising military and US forces history and present in on the peninsula.

Once settled into the campground we took off to explore two canyons on the edge of the National Park. The first took us along the ridge line for some spectacular views.

The next was a very rough drive up the Shothole canyon.

Tomorrow we explore Exmouth and the rest of the National Park

C

It is a large array of support towers for the central Very Low Frequency communications tower. This facility was built in the late 60’s during the Holt administration by the US navy to improve their communication abilities with their submarines.

The facility was run by the US until the late 90’s, during which time they had a large presence here. Australia now runs the facility. In fact, Exmouth was built specifically to support the facility and it is still the main employer of the town.

On the way to the VLF towers was a large white box situated on a far hill with lots of No Entry signs. This is an Australian US defence project which monitors space activities including space junk returning to earth. It was relocated from New Mexico in 2006. Another defence project in the area.

Also at the point was the 1907 wreck of the SS Mildura. Not much left now but apparently the most torpedoed boat in history as it has been regularly used as target practice by US submarines.

Nearly gone

Lighthouse Bay

Turquoise Bay where the snorkeling was great

Collette showing off her new warm rashie

After our swim and lunch we continued on to the bottom of the park, Yardie Creek.

Yardie Creek beach

The sand moves a lot. This was the path

Lots of fossils in the limestone

Yardie Creek

Rock wallaby

A few more beaches and home for dinner.

Oyster Stacks beach

Apparently once covered in oysters

Very friendly if there are some crumbs around