Friday, October 29, 2010
Perth
We arrived in Perth on Sunday night and are staying with Rick and Anne in their new house in Melville. Ray and Trish arrived on Monday night and we went to Bec and Dan's for dinner - they live in an amazing apartment on the Swan River in the city.
We have been having a lovely time in Perth, although the weather has been a bit cool, and we had some rain on Wednesday night. Joe and Sara came today for the weekend. Its good to see them again.
Lancelin and the Pinnacles
We met up with Rick and Anne at their caravan at Lancelin last Friday night and on Saturday, we drove up the new coast road from Lancelin to Cervantes, stopping at The Pinnacles. This photo shows us there, with Mark Holman. Its a very interesting place and had been fairly hard to get to, before the new road. The colours are so different to those in the Pilbara and the Kimberley. The wildflowers are still pretty good. Alan and I visited a bio-diversity hot-spot at Leseuer National Park and were amazed at the number of flowers still blooming as late as it is.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Western adventures
For the last few days we have been in the Shark Bay region of Western Australia and I have to say it is absolutely beautiful. It really has pristine beaches and clear, clear water. Initially we went to Steep Point, which is the western most part of the Australian mainland. Alan recalled seeing the Leyland Brothers visit there in 'Wheels across the Wilderness', all those years ago. It was a long, sandy drive in, but the camping there was just marvellous and we felt we were truly the only ones there at the edge of the world. After two nights there, we moved around to Denham, on Shark Bay. Today we saw the dolphins at Monkey Mia and then drove to Cape Peron, where from the lookout at the top of Skipjack Point, we watched as sharks, manta rays and turtles swam amongst schools of fish. It was like watching one of those wildlife documentaries as we saw a dolphin swim around the school of fish, separate one out, chase it and catch it! Absolute magic!
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Ningaloo Reef
Everything you have heard about Ningaloo Reef is true! It is a beautiful place. You can just snorkel from the beach over coral reefs. The sea is really that amazing colour and there are lots of pretty tropical fish. Its the wrong season for the whale sharks though, sadly, and the turtles are just starting to come to breed - next month they start coming ashore to lay their eggs. We did see whales though. We camped for two nights right by the beach in Cape Range National Park and we did just walk in from the beach and snorkel over a coral reef. It was just lovely. Tonight we are at Carnarvon.
I have put two photos on this blog, even though they sometimes post in funny places ( ie not where I put them on the draft) One is of Alan looking like Indiana Jones in the Temple of Doom, when he is actually near the Woodside Plant near Dampier looking at the Aboriginal rock carvings. The other is of the Mildura wreck at Ningaloo. The ocean is such a pretty colour, and a nice temperature too.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Karratha
We did end up staying overnight at Tom Price, but we caught up on the news, watched a bit of the Commonwealth Games at the pub and did some washing, so it wasn't all bad. We also drove up the top of Mount Nameless, which is of the highest mountains in WA. As you would expect, the view was amazing. We could see the mine. Not an enormous pit like Newman, but it looked like the whole side of a mountain range was being removed. We drove along the Rio Tinto private railway service road to Millstream National Park and as this photo shows, the road was very close to the train line! And there were plenty of trains, so Alan was enthralled.
Millstream Chichester National Park was also a very pretty place, but the campground was very crowded, so we only stayed one night. We've been in Karratha two nights now and have explored Port Sampson, Cossack, Roebourne and the Dampier peninsula and today saw the Aboriginal petraglyths (stone carvings) and swam in the beautiful warm waters of Hearson's Cove.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
waiting, waiting. . ..
We are currently sitting under a tree at Tom Price, waiting for the diesel truck to arrive. Its quite pleasant, but my patience is getting thinner as the computer battery slowly dies. We have been camping at Karajini National Park in the Hammersley Range in WA. What a lovely place, and you know I had hardly heard of it before we started planning this trip. Then, everyone said 'you must go to Karajini' and now I know why. The campground is very basic - no water, no rubbish bins, little shade, rocks and dirt, but its semi-desert and it soon grows on you. The gorges cut deep below and you have to climb way down to them, but there is permanent water and waterfalls down there. It looks like its all iron ore, like the rest of the Pilbara with red and blue rocks, crushed down by the ages. This photo is of Rock Arch Pool in Kalamini Gorge. We went there yesterday and Alan had a swim, but the water was a bit scummy for me, although it looks pretty inviting in the photo. When the diesel truck arrives, we will go to Millstream Chichester National Park, if we can get there before dark.
Friday, October 1, 2010
Broome and beyond
We couldn't have a photo of Broome that did not involve camels or sunsets, could we? We resisted going for a ride ourselves. I really loved Broome - not just because we stayed in a fancy resort, but because it had a lovely relaxed feel about it. We were lucky to have been there for the Staircase to the Moon phenomena -it was sensational - just like the photos that you thought had been touched up - they weren't!
Alan and I left Broome on Sunday and went north initially - to Cape Leveque - a lovely spot, but a dreadful road. We stayed at Middle Lagoon - very pretty, run by a local Aboriginal Community. It had the edge of no-where sort of feeling about it. We went back through Broome and stayed another night, this time in a very crowded caravan park at Cable Beach. We are now heading south down the coast - its so lovely.
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