Log 29-09 Swan Valley

Our week at Goomalling has been great, shared dinners with Sally & Dave, trips to surrounding towns, shopping in op-shops for the upcoming safari to Kalgoorlie, lots of chats with members of the solo’s in our club & just relaxing in the now pleasant weather (6º to 25º each day).  Not to mention the inaugural fete at Goomalling where we bought a dartboard & other junk. Another place we found hard to leave.

Our next destination was New Norcia, a Benedectine monk village. It was composed of the abbey, monastery, colleges, hotel, flour mill, bakery, museum & post office. After touring the village, trying out the hotel & inspecting the abbey, we settled in for the night in a paddock near the monastery. Bells had tolled on the hour & ½ hour all day but thankfully not at night. The next morning Libby was up early & went to mass in the abbey.

A bracket on the bike lifter had broken away & we had to have it welded before going on the safari which we had booked into. We looked up ‘welders’ in the yellow pages & must have rang a dozen before we found someone to help us out. He was on the outskirts of Perth so, after the repairs, we headed off to the nearest c/van park for the night. Next day, with all the huge shopping centers around, it was like Xmas, we looked in shop after shop for a few hours. We then proceeded to our next c/van park for the night.

Filling in the day before the start of the safari we went to Whiteman Park in the Swan Valley. What a park, huge, well laid out with an animal farm, birds of prey section, museum, novelty shops & cafes, even a train ride round the park (which we did twice). We spent the whole morning there until it was time to go to the start of the safari.

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Model of York r/way station

Sign on building, York

'Rusty' at Dowerin

They have 2 gauges on the rail here

Hotel at New Norcia

St Gertrudes, New Norcia

Stations of the cross painted on the wall, Abbey, N.N.

The Abbey, N.N.

Monastery, N.N.

Cross in Abbey

Loco at Whiteman Park

In museum W. park

In museum, W. park

Log 20-09 Goomalling

Since leaving Denham (our most Westerly point) there has been a noticeable change in the topography & flora, there are now rolling hills & vast fields of grains. In both temperature & outlook it is much like Queensland.

Since Kalbarri we have stopped at several places, Coronation Beach with it’s lookout that we had to climb to get phone reception. Geraldton (pop 50,000) is a beautiful little city, small enough for the country feel, large enough to have all the usual facilities that we are used to & house prices similar to Gosford. Dongara where all the trawlers put to sea, we stayed at Port Denison C/van park which was right on the ocean.

From Dongera we returned to Geraldton then set off inland stopping at Indarra roadside stop & the next morning of to Mullewar. This town has 50% of it’s population as indigenous people & despite being a very small town has the most magnificent church deigned by the priest (John Howe) that built & ran it. The guide told us that he designed 22 churches, 14 of which were built. We found out the church which we admired in Geraldton was one of his & also the church in Yalgoo. We stayed at Yalgoo for 2 nights as the c/van park there had a relaxed homely feel about it with very friendly tenants & managers.

Pushing on in a roundabout way towards Kalgoorlie we next drove to Mt.Magnet, got fuel & some supplies & were heading East when we received a phone call from Sally suggesting we visit the down South where a safari was being organized from Perth to Kalgoorlie (normally 600K’s) over 1400K’s of back roads. We were only 500K’s from Sally so we turned around & headed South stopping for our first night at a place called Kirkalocka Station, we thought a station stop would be a nice change. What a laugh, firstly it cost $25.00 a night, electricity was restricted to lights & fridge only, there was no drinkable water &, to have a shower, you had to first heat the water in this big, oven like thing with a 200lt. drum inside that was the water supply fed by a tank, by lighting a wood fire underneath. There were several of us there & the conversation centered around who was going to get up first & light the fire.

The weather was getting decidedly cooler now, in the low 20’s. We were on a narrow country road surrounded by vast fields of wheat & canola (which looks lime green as it has a small yellow flower), beautiful countryside. It was very windy & after 3 hours driving we stopped on the roadside for a cuppa. We had just pulled up when we were deluged by a fierce storm, the wind shaking the truck around a rain lashing about us, the road turned into a torrent & visibility was reduced to almost nil. The temp dropped even further & it was cold! We pulled into the little town  of Dalwalinu  & into the first c’van park for a hot shower & power for the heater.

Goomalling was only another 120K’s & we arrived Monday morning, there was a spot next to Sally & Dave which we took. Sally immediately told us to hurry & get set up as we were going out for lunch to the Station Café. It’s only open 1 day a week & run by a different charitable organization each time. Well, we had a delicious 3 course lunch for only $17.00 each. There were several CMCA members at the park, all staying for a while so we decided to stay for a week. Sally & David, who were going the next morning, decided to stay on as well.

One good thing, the rain has driven the flies away.

Sorry the photos arte mixed up, had a bit of trouble uploading them.

Church Mullewah

Wreath flowers, Pindar

Wreath flowers, Pindar

Lunch at Pindar pub

Dominican chapel, Yalgoo

The only pub at Yalgoo

Jokers tunnel

Other end of tunnel

Water heater at Kirkaloka Station

Station cafe at Goomalling

Coronation beach

The climb to make a phone call at Coronation beach

Greenough village

Greenough village

Catholic church Mullewah

Church

Church

Log 11-09 Kalbarri

Leaving the NP we stopped at Exmouth for water, supplies & a final cup of coffee, we met a couple of fellow campers from the park, Chris & Patty & they offered to let us leave Wherearwee at their place in Perth when we fly out, how nice is that!

Backtracking along the peninsular we passed Coral Bay & turned on to a sidetrack, 11K’s of corrugated gravel & sand to 14 mile beach where we stayed 2 days. We arrived late afternoon & the wind was fairly howling along. It has been windy for the last 10 days or so. (Our latest is ‘WA – windy always’). We thought it was just August but the locals say not so. We booked for 2 days but decided to leave in the AM if it was the same. Fortunately the wind dropped off a bit the next day & we were able to enjoy walking around the area & picking up myriads of shells along the beach. Another touch of paradise.

We spent the next 2 days at Quobba Point, a similar type of place but with the added attraction of the blowholes.

Then on to Carnarvon where we booked into the Coral Coast Caravan Park for 2 days as Libby wanted to get a haircut, unfortunately there was only one hairdresser in town & she worked from 9:00 to 12:00 Mon to Fri. We checked the towns sights & did the ‘food trail’ to all the growers. Bought bananas for $7.00 a kilo then found that they were $4.00 at the markets, not to worry as they were delicious (so were the chocolate dipped bananas we tried).

Moving on we next stopped at Gladstone Lookout for a night, not the best place in the wind but we had happy hour with some nice people, slowly the motorhomers are gathering as we get closer to Kalgoorlie & the rally.

Driving into Denham there were several nice roadside stops but they required a permit. So we went into town to obtain same & found that we had to pick one site & then only for one night. We picked Eagle Bluff, it sounded nice & was the closest to town. We also wanted to stay at Peron Nat. pk. But found we had to have a 4WD as it is very sandy. So we went on to Monkey Mia, we had found out that you can no longer swim with the dolphins & a trainer picks out 1 person (usually a child) to help feed them. Although, up until now, it has been free, there is now an entry charge. Truly not worth the time or effort to get there. Returning to Eagle Bluff we found it to be every bit as beautiful as the name. Unfortunately it blew a gale during the night & with the howling of the wind & rocking of the van, we never got much sleep.

Up early the next day we continued down the road to Galena Bridge, on the Murchison River, picked a nice spot along the bank & stayed for another 2 days, once again meeting up with the people from Gladstone Lookout.

Kalbarrie was our next stop, or rather Waggoe homestead wher we stayed the night. While in town we visited the national park as there were a couple of gorges there. Stopping at the entrance we asked the ranger what the road was like, he said corrugated but no trouble as a couple of hundred do it every day.

Well, there followed 64K’s of corrugated, potholed, sandy road. To try to smooth out the road we travelled at around 80 KPH, overtaking cars, bouncing around  a bit but getting there & finding the gorges well worth the hassle. They were Round Gorge & Z Gorge, designated by the course of the Murchison River flowing below. The town itself (pop. 2000) was another pretty little seaside tourist town with its outdoor cafes etc.

Have I mentioned the flies, they must come with the wind, & by the million. In our eyes, up our noses, in our ears & so irritating that we’re wearing face nets.

At 14 mile beach

Quobba blowhole

The blowhole

At the entrance to Quobba

1 mile wharf, Carnarvon

Gladstone lookout

Gladstone lookout

Shark Bay, Denham

Aquarium, Denham

Eagle bluff

Our camp at Eagle bluff

Murchison River

Our spot on the river

The old & the new bridges

Loop Gorge

Loop Gorge

Murchison River, Kalbarri

Natures window, Z Gorge

Log 31-08 Cape Range National Park

Cape Range NP sits along the Western edge of the Exmouth Peninsular, it is a long narrow park approx. 54K’s long by 5K’s wide. There is wildlife here, wallabies bounce into the camp around dusk, look questioningly at us, then continue on their way, joeys can be seen in some of their pouches. The odd emu wanders along minding it’s own business. But it is in the ocean that one sees the main preponderance of life, the peninsular is fringed along the shore by many beaches & protected by the Ningaloo reef, varying from 20mt to 500mts off shore. Corals, brightly coloured tropical fish, schools of large pelagic fish, turtles & stingrays populate the reefs.

We had to wait till 8:00 for the park to open, while there we heard that if you are found at the entrance before 6:00 AM you can be booked for camping illegally. When it was our turn to be checked in (you had to wait at your vehicle), we were given an hour to drive to, & book in, to our allocated site (42K’s into the park) or otherwise the site would be allocated to someone else, talk about little Hitlers! Anyway, our site was at Osprey Bay, it’s like Coral Bay but without the village & the reef’s about 300mts out. We booked in for 5 days with the option to extend (28 days max). With a daily average temp of around 32º, snorkeling has been a daily occurrence &, with so many accessible points, we have travelled on the scooter to different places almost every day. On day 4 we drove Wherarwee the 80K’s back to Exmouth for water, gas, a few purchases & to book a flight back to Sydney for Zim & Dan’s wedding as it is clear we are still going to be in WA come December. We also did a small shop for a couple of others in the camp area. When our 5 days were up we booked for a further 7 as there was so much more to see & besides, one of the roo’s allowed Lib to feed her today so we are now becoming accepted by the locals. (This was followed by a reprimand a few days later for just giving the roos water).

In the evening & at night there are so many roos on the road that a couple said that it took them 1 ½ hours to return from town as they could only manage 30 to 40KPH, & there has been an incident of a young fellow being injured in a collision with a roo on his pushbike.

Well it’s been 12 magic days, checking out the other sites, travelling back 80K’s to Exmouth on the scooter for a day’s outing where we intended to take the computer so that we could update the blog but it wouldn’t fit in the scooter or our backpack. We’ve been swimming & snorkeling almost every day, happy hour with up to 22 people, all with their own stories, & an ever changing group. All though we see whales & dolphins regularly, one day there was a pod of 6 travelling North & on the same day we saw a dugong & several dolphins in the bay, also one of the group, a solo that calls herself Bundy (she has a big white bundy bear tied on the front of her vehicle) went out fishing in her kayak & caught a huge spangled emperor, she ran through the camp shouting “I’ve got dinner”. We all gathered round, congratulated her & then watched as John filleted & skinned it, later on someone stepped on a stingray & had to be taken to hospital for observation. So much activity, I think it’s time for happy hour.

Wow! What a last day, whales have been cavorting all day just outside the reef. Leaping out of the water & crashing down on their backs, sometimes doing a somersault & diving back in, tails waving in the air & slapping their fins on the water. There have been adults with their calves following suit. It started around lunchtime & has continued till after sunset. A great finish to a great time.

It’s hard to pack up & leave but tomorrow’s the day.

Coral Bay
On the Exmouth peninsular

Coral Bay

At the entrance

Osprey Beach

Yardie Creek

Yardie creek gorge

Sandy Beach

Sandy beach

Welcome to Torquoise Bay

Sunset at Osprey
this sun was blood red

Another sunset

Happy hour watching the sun set

Ningaloo reef

The oyster stacks
the reef is very close in

Torquoise bay

So cute, we'ed love to adopt her

A day at the beach

'Bundy' with her spangled emperor

Libby & new friend

Another sunset, another happy hour