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Posted 29th Nov 2023.

Nick:

“For all of the time that we have been travelling up north in this great continent I had been concerned about the oil leaks from the diffs, the gearbox and transmission. I can hear you saying it is a Land Rover and it is supposed to leak! Upon inspection in Kalbarri I discovered that a switch on the transfer case was leaking but of course one cannot buy Land Rover parts up north so whilst in Perth I purchased a new switch and installed it, no more gearbox leaks. Upon arrival in Narrogin I serviced the car, changing all of the oils, filters and greased all of the bits that are supposed to be greased. I changed the pinion oil seal on the front diff and that worked well, but there was a persistent leak from the rear diff so I took the diff centre out and replaced the gasket between the housing and the centre as well as the pinion oil seal, took it for a drive and realised that the oil was leaking from the dome on the rear of the casing. Upon close inspection we realised that there was a crack in the housing. Charlie and I tried to weld it up but the heat opened up a 180 degree crack on the casing. No option but to pull the whole diff out of the car and strip it completely, Charlie then did lots of short tack welds and then I threw it back into the car and assembled all of the bits again. We have done over a thousand Kms since then and we have been oil leak free which is a bit of a first for an old Land Rover. It was a big job, made easier with Charlie’s extensive range of equipment and welding skills. “

We took a drive to test the car. Charlie showed us a huge Wandoo tree which is only known to the rangers who work there. Dryandra National Park is not famous for massive trees like those down at Walpole, so this was a pretty special specimen. We came across some lingering spreads of wildflowers, despite the hot dry conditions. But we never found that elusive Numbat that Charlie calls a Neverbat.

After a wonderful month in Narrogin, most of October in fact, we said a fond farewell to Charlie and Lynda. We headed to Busselton to meet up with our friends, Marilyn and Andrew (Mandy). Andrew had just completed 4 gruelling days of cycling the Cape Leeuwin to Cape Naturaliste competition, and for an old boy, did remarkably well.

We stayed on the foreshore of Geographe Bay in a shady campground. There was a cycle track along the foreshore, so 4 of us cycled the 12 km return trip to the jetty a couple of times for coffee and snacks. Marilyn was on a hired ebike that had a weird way of taking off like a rocket when least expected. Needless to say, Marilyn was the one who fell off, but it was the train tracks on the jetty that got her. After already having 2 broken ankles, it was a relief to see she’d survived this mishap with all bones intact.

In Busselton, we did the usual things like the walk to the end of the jetty. The foreshore precinct was terrific with nice cafes, a brewery and tourist shops. Charlie and Lynda joined us for 2 evenings. We enjoyed an exceptional dinner in Dunsborough at the Blue Manna Bistro. And the next day did a tour of wineries, a brewery and assorted attractions around the Great Southern region as it is now called. For each winery visited, we passed at least 5. Needless to say, we now have some special wines to bring to the Christmas table. But the fun had to end, as Marilyn and Andrew headed back to Suffolk Park and Charlie and Lynda back to Narrogin, leaving us and Swifty to carry on with our trip around Australia.

Being November now, we seem to choose campsites where large school groups congregate for end of the year activities. At Margaret River we stayed in a Nature Park, tall timbers, birdlife, a few wildflowers, fresh air, bike tracks and hiking trails, and a group of rowdy year 6’s. The camp kitchen complete with table tennis was open, rustic and noisy, right beside our camper. Oh well, we could escape during the day. The famed surf beach at Margaret River was heaving, very windy, sunny, spectacular but lacking in surfers. We indulged in a couple more wineries, some of them with an atmosphere of wealth, marble pavers, clipped rosemary hedges, roses galore, long polished timber bars, towering warehouse cellars and very expensive wines. 

We took a day trip to Cape Leeuwin. On the way we stopped in at Hamelin Bay, a small holiday spot that we’d stayed at in 2001. Memories of very young grandchildren (Jeremy) crawling, and being covered in black sand, and manta rays, sprang to mind. We pressed on to Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse. The sense of danger in the rough seas, the persistent howling wind and the remoteness made me realise just how resilient the early pioneers had to be. The children living in the rudimentary houses near the lighthouse were driven in an open horse and cart for 10 kms to Augusta for school. We had lunch in the pub at Augusta, but morning tea in a cafe with the weirdest arrangement of chairs that I’d seen anywhere. It was like they’d been given 8 or 10 dining room tables and chairs, then mixed them all so no chairs matched at the same table. I suppose you then have a choice, like Goldilocks, to sit on the most comfortable for you. It was a lovely day out, so we could handle the children’s noise at the camp in good spirits.

It was time to move on to Albany where Nick (brother-in-law) and Biddy’s (Nick’s sister) house awaited us. Biddy showed us as much of Albany as possible in the few days she was there before heading back to Fremantle to work. Many dog walks on beaches, cafe breakfasts and meeting her friends for g&t’s on the verandah. 

Then the real work began. Nick and Nick…so confusing….got into house renovations. Their 1897 house overlooks Princess Royal Harbour and is a short stroll to the centre of Albany.

“My” Nick and I love Albany and find it a very active community, with most weekends crammed with events. Such as the monthly car rally on the foreshore, the annual Ag Show the next weekend, regular farmer’s markets, an annual vintage motorbike rally and hill climb event, and we haven’t begun with the Christmas celebrations yet. There are a few pubs nearby, often with live music and many good restaurants that we’ll slowly sample during our 3 months here.

The Entertainment Centre is just walking distance away..we spent a delightful afternoon listening to the WA Symphony orchestra playing Mozart, Beethoven and Dvorak. It felt like a small version of the Lincoln Centre in NY.

One of the abiding strengths of Albany and surrounds is its glorious harbour and its historical roots to early settlement in WA. There are hundreds of old houses, most well restored, fitting memorials to the early days of the mostly English migrants. There are many museums, all recording in minute detail aspects of early settlement, like the whalers, the convict past, and the WW1 departure of troops in ships going to the Middle East. The National Anzac Memorial is particularly well done with stunning views over King George Sound. The Fortress nearby has great displays also, including the women’s rose garden. This is the only time I’ve walked into a garden and been knocked over by the rose perfume without leaning down to smell an individual rose.

The Museum of Albany has a poignant history of white settlement and its impact on the first nations people. The importance of the birds, animals, plants and sea creatures to the indigenous people in creating their stories in this naturally rich environment struck me, and now I’m seeing so many references to endangered species here and feel ashamed at the destruction white settlers have caused. 

The Stirling Ranges, just 100km north of Albany, are highly regarded as wildflower hotspots. So we set off, full of anticipation. But alas, the peak had passed and we didn’t see any massed displays of colours as we’d expected. However, some of the views were visually beautiful and the overcast day probably helped with the photos. There were some small treasures I found which always makes the drive worthwhile.

Around Albany there are many coves and beaches to explore, all within an hour of where we are staying. One morning we drove west past Cosy Corner and Shelley beaches to West Cape Howe National Park. A 4WD only track of steep hills and deep sand, it tested my metal, but Nick wasn’t phased as he guided the Landy up, over and through some pretty formidable tracks. We saw no-one else who was as determined as us to get to this most south westerly point in WA. The destination was stunningly awesome, isolated and blowing a gale as is typical along this coast. I was glad to get back to a firm gravel road after this little adventure.

Going east around Princess Royal Harbour out towards the Whaling station is Torndirrup National Park. Here we found The Gap and Natural Bridge, along with many other tourists and day trippers, then further along to Salmon Pools, all rugged coastlines with white sandy bays, rough white capped dark blue seas and azure water near the shore. Further on we got to Misery Beach, apparently voted the best in WA! I’m not sure about that, there are so many to choose from. 

We took a day trip with Biddy and Nick to Mutton Bird island beach. It was sensational, I’d vote that my favourite so far. I would add that the winery we later visited in Denmark called Single File was outstanding – the waiter bought the wine for tasting to our table out on the lawns, he served generous amounts and didn’t request payment as was normal at most other wineries. Bid’s dogs were welcomed and a bowl of water provided. It’s the small things that matter and make you want to buy their wine, which was very good.

We have spent quite a few hours in Albany on our bicycles. I’m so glad we’ve carted them all this way, through the dusty Pilbara and Kimberley when we doubted we’d done the right thing. There’s a great track from Bid’s house around to Emu Point, a delightful breakfast place, and the 18km ride is a good bit of exercise. Once the weather warms up a bit, a swim at Middleton beach on the bike track will definitely be a winner.

Walpole

After a week on our own, we decided to hook up Swifty and park at Walpole for 6 nights. 

It’s only about 115kms west of Albany on the other side of Denmark. Our quiet spot under the Peppermint trees not far from Nornalup inlet was a perfect base camp. The bikes came in useful again to explore the area with the Munda Biddi Trail linking up most of the villages. We took the kayaks out one day along the Frankland river, considered so beautiful that in the early 1900’s the Minister for Lands and Agriculture James Mitchell made an on-the-spot decision to set aside the area for conservation. Hence the beginning of the Walpole Wilderness. Anyway, after I’d gone upstream with Nick for a few kms, we returned to Nornalup launching ramp, put my boat back on the car, then Nick paddled 9kms to the river entrance and along the inlet to Coalmine beach where we were camped. Once on the inlet, the wind was gale force, pushing him along on white water waves, surfing. My dare-devil husband!!! He did the 9kms in 70 minutes!

There are many beaches along this sw coast, the best for swimming has to be Greens Pool. But others we visited included Peaceful Bay, Conspicuous Cliff, and my favourite for visual appeal was Mandalay.

I have always loved Banksias and love their forms – not only the flowers but also the leaves. Here are a few I’ve found recently.

The other big drawcard for Walpole is the Valley of the Giants Tree Top Walk. This walk over the crowns of giant red Tingle trees is truely awesome but more impressive is the Ancient Empire walk around the bases of these huge trees. How could the early explorers not value such amazing specimens and feel ok about clear felling hundreds of hectares of Native bushland? However, there is a sense that this whole region is a tinder box waiting to burn. The saving grace is that most Tingles will survive, as is evident by the hollow burnt out roots of some 50 metre high thriving trees.

One other important track is the Bibbulmun, a 1000km walking trail from Albany to Perth. Many times we’ve come across this track during our time in the Great Southern region. Once again we encountered a school group. Two buses parked alongside Swifty at 6.00am with the motor running for 20 mins while about 60 Wesley College boys loaded their packs and boarded for the trip home, having walked the Bibbulmun during the week. That was friday morning. On sunday afternoon the same 2 buses pulled up beside us and disgorged another large group of Trinity boys. I’m so pleased they are able to experience this wonderful area, slowly, on foot, no doubt without technology in their packs one would hope.

One other fabulous tour we did at Walpole was WOW wilderness ecocruise. For 2 1/2 hrs we were thoroughly entertained by Gary Muir. He could have been a circus performer, a comedian, a teacher, but he was an historian, environmentalist, and harbinger of so much local knowledge that I felt exhausted as well as exhilarated by the end of the tour. I sought out his book at the Visitor Centre the next day, with the bizarre true story about the suitcase discovered in a local boatshed that had papers, letters and photos from the early 1900’s about a local man who was a friend of Tolstoy. The Russian connection is fascinating and when Gary tells it, it is pure theatre. 

Whilst on the boat we were served homemade cake for morning tea. Gary says it was made by 4 generations of his family – his mum, his niece, his grandfather and himself. What a man.

I’ve probably reached my limit putting this blog together, and you dear friend and reader, probably have also. I’ll sign off now and wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Next blog will be in 2024.

Love from Jen & Nick

Kalbarri to Perth, Narrogin and more….

Posted 13th October 2023

This blog is a wildflower extravaganza, I can’t help but show you just how beautiful, unique, prolific and awesome they are. I hope that you can see their awesomeness too, through my camera lens. I’ve attempted to name most of them, but cannot guarantee 100% accuracy.

We headed down the coast road from Kalbarri to Port Gregory, an insignificant place where the pink lake was more interesting than the town. Not far from the lake was the old remains of the Lynton Heritage Site where, from 1853 – 1856 they would hire out convicts for service to the early settlers. It was a bleak place, where we could read haunting stories of known convicts and the wretched life they led. We happily left there for a lunch pitstop by the sea at Horrocks, nice little holiday spot.

The aim then was to head inland to search for wildflowers. Mullawa to Mingenew was written up as “the true heart and soul of Wildflower Country”. Along the roadsides we spotted some small drifts of flowers, but felt a bit cheated in our search. At Mullawa, there was a lovely gallery open as part of an “Open Studios” week. The artist, Helen Ansell, was there, her paintings were bright and bold and very flowery, and the coffee and cakes were great. But we were informed that it was a bad year for wildflowers in this region due to a lack of rain. We saw that even the papery everlastings were wilting. Not to be deterred, we pressed on towards Mingenew, and bang…STOP the car!!! there was a fabulous patch with native blue everlasting daisies…the only ones we’ve seen all the trip. As we found numerous times, each stop revealed far more than we’d expected, or could see from the car as we raced past at 95kmh.

We spent an entertaining night at Three Springs pub, a quiet town famous for its Talc factory. We’d parked Swifty in a free camp site managed by the local council. It was the night of an AFL semi final with Port Adelaide and Brisbane, I think. The few ragged characters propping up the bar agreed with us and supported anyone who could beat Port. Not much happens in Three Springs, we were obviously ring-ins, but the locals liked to have a yarn with us. I’m sure they had no idea where we’d come from even though we told them. We all had a win, Port Adelaide was finished for the year.

From there it was random where we went, but we found some great patches of flowers as we headed back to the coast via Eneabba and ended up at Leeman on the coast. Even less was happening in Leeman than in Three Springs we discovered. We were one of 2 campers in the entire park. It was the week before school holidays and we were assured this place was now fully booked until Easter!! Found that hard to believe.

Leeman was our base to explore magnificent Lesueur National Park, world renowned as a global diversity hotspot, and this proved to be true. The Park contains 10% of WA’s known flora. The 18km one way drive was spectacular. We walked around the 3km Gairdner Loop Trail and found a black Kangaroo Paw much to our delight, along with many more stunning gems. Nick enjoys the searching for small treasures as much as I do and strides away while I take photos…then I’ll hear…”come over here.” Then he’ll stride off again while I take the photos and the process repeats and repeats. I’ll let the pictures from there tell the story.

Next we stayed at Lancelin, after popping in to see what Green Head, Jurien Bay, and Cervantes had to offer, which was mostly crowded caravan parks without vacancies. We did a quick pitstop at Lake Thetis to see thrombolytes, living fossils, like the strombolites at Hamelin Pools near Shark Bay.

But of course, the must see destination on this part of the Coral Coast near Cervantes is The Pinnacles. It’s hard to say what was there, what we saw, even the displays in the visitor centre said that the experts really don’t know what the Pinnacles are. To us they looked like petrified wood, a forest fossilised in time in an isolated desert environment…a pretty weird but awesome place in fact. 

Lancelin was only a couple of hours from Perth. We needed to do the mandatory detour to the Land Rover shop in Perth for car parts, then we had to drop Nick’s bike in for repairs. Arriving back in lovely Fremantle, we settled in with Nick’s sister Biddy and her husband Nick and two boisterous dogs for a few nights.

We took ourselves for a tour around old haunts where both of us had lived, like Cottesloe, Shenton Park, and Claremont, back in the 60’s and 70’s. We spent an afternoon at beautiful King’s Park for the ultimate wildflower experience of Perth. Yes, they were stunning in the flower beds, but I do prefer finding gems out in the countryside, along back lanes, and in small conservation parks. We rode our bikes along the Fremantle foreshore, enjoyed the seaside coffee shops and mingled with the crowds at the historic old market. The Applecross market on Saturday morning was most enjoyable, and gave us a glimpse into the wealthy suburbs of Perth.

We moved on to Narrogin to stay with Nick’s brother and sister-in-law. Narrogin is in the heart of the wheatbelt, it’s a conservative Liberal town where 90% of people turned away from us when they saw our “YES” badges. The purpose of staying here for 4 weeks was for Nick to help Charlie get one of his fleet of inactive vehicles working again. His garden has 4 old Land Rovers and the tractor, his shed has 2 Land Rovers (one being Rosie the fire engine), also Alice the Sunbeam Alpine, a 1976 P6 Rover, and a Wolseley 6/80 from 1953. His shed complex is like Aladdin’s cave, mysterious, filled with wonderful boy toys and machinery. Nick and Charlie are a great team and will both be rewarded with a rest after we leave.

About 30kms away is Dryandra Woodland National Park. This 28,000ha woodland is Charlie’s workplace. He took Nick and I out one day in search of wildflowers, of which there was an abundance, but also looking for the elusive Numbat. He eluded us this time but a sweet little echidna was a good substitute for now. Narrogin has another great little parkland at Foxes Lair, walking distance from the house, where orchids and wildflowers are sprouting everywhere.

We took a day trip to Bunbury. Morning tea in Collie, a well known coal producing town. It was a clean charming town, bigger than I expected with an historic feel around the train station. The rolling hills, lush farmlands with freshly mown hay and roadside wildflowers made for a very pleasant drive to Bunbury. Lovely to sit in a cafe on the beach whilst enjoying a seafood lunch. A visit to St Aidan’s winery was a treat, furnishing us with a box of prize wines, of course.

While the boys worked on Landrovers, I visited Foxes Lair again with my camera. Being now the second week into October, the orchids are just about gone, but another wave of flowers were showing their tiny faces. Trigger plants, many not higher than 1-2cm, were spreading like a carpet under the trees and shrubs. Very hard to photograph, my poor knees can’t cope with getting down low, and if I did, I would probably get stuck there. But I do appreciate now how the plants change as Spring rolls on, and I’m most grateful I can spend a few months in WA seeing so many different flowers.

I’ll end this blog with a report on our visit to Barna Mia, a predatory-proof animal sanctuary nestled in Dryandra Woodland. There are 5 species of native marsupials there … bilby, boodie, woylie, quenda and mala..their indigenous names. Using special red torches, we sat quietly waiting for one to appear. Bilby, boodie, woylie and mala all showed up and they are very cute. Bilby came hopping up the path towards us, what a treat to see him! There is a challenge out now to see a numbat, which is not nocturnal, so our last week in Narrogin will be an interesting search.

As we begin to experience 35C days here, we know summer is on the way. Hayfever season is in full swing, so Nick will love being down by the sea in Albany in a couple of weeks.

Much love to all

Jen & Nick

Before departing from Point Samson, we took a couple of day trips. One was to Cossack, an historic town where gold was discovered briefly, but pearling became it’s prime industry. The delightful little museum in a solid ironstone building built in the 1890’s, displayed stories of key figures in the establishment of the town. Malays, Aboriginals and Japanese people exerted a strong influence on the survival of the town, which at one stage had 3000 people. However the pearling industry lost out to Broome’s larger businesses, and the death rate amongst the Asians who dived for shell was particularly high, so the town declined to just a few families. I appreciated the display cabinet with broken crockery, not what your normal museums would show off. The mother-of-pearl buttons was a memory from long ago.

Another day trip was to Karratha, a large regional town that even had traffic lights. It was Sunday, so the town was quiet. I wanted to go to Murujuga National Park on the Burrup Peninsula. I knew it was threatened by mining expansion. In 2020 it was added to Australia’s World Heritage Tentative List, “the first step to have the unique cultural, spiritual and archaeological values of the area internationally recognised.” Before venturing into the Park, we had a  cuppa at Soak Cafe in Dampier, a very civilised town with red dog featuring at it’s gateway.

Then on to Murujuga. What an eye popper…the most massive Woodside gas plant was on the west shore of the narrow Peninsula, on the east was the NP and a beach we could access. From the shore we could see the gas flame peeping over the sandhills. The walk to the apparently thousands of rock art was a little underwhelming. They were petroglyphs, etchings into the rocks, but only a small number were obvious where the boardwalks were. I really hope the status of the Park’s art works is high enough to justify the World Heritage rating.

Leaving Karratha we had about 500kms to get to Bullara, so free camped amongst the gum trees on the first night. Bullara Station stay is a well oiled machine, catering to probably 200 campers at a time. There’s a terrific cafe for homemade cakes, scones, bread and meals, they serve dinner every night. We were parked out on the back boundary, next to a 1951 Austin truck wreck, much to Nick’s delight. He sneakily salvaged a windscreen wiper motor from the truck which will fit perfectly in an 80” Land rover! The wind blew, the dust permeated everything. We’d planned to spend a day in Exmouth and Cape Range NP, but alas, a truck with LPG on board crashed on the one road into Exmouth, closed the road for 24 hours. That was that!

Bullara to Coral Bay was about 250kms, mostly past dry dead looking scrub, flat country with no charm at all, except the occasional red sand dune. So coming into Coral Bay was like walking onto a movie set, it felt unreal. Here was a very small enclave of houses, shops, caravans and restaurants, nestled into white sandy dunes with a vivid turquoise bay complete with fishes, coral and turtles. Just burying my feet in the fine white sand as I walked to the warm water for a swim was heaven.

We stayed 4 nights here and relaxed fully into a seaside holiday mode. Bill’s Bar did an excellent meal one night and the Bakery had all the vanilla slices and cheesecake that Nick loves with his coffee. 

We took a 2 hour tour in a glass-bottom boat to view the coral and fishes. Snorkelling was also part of the tour. Nick declined – too cold he said. I had one of those experiences Julia Baird talks about while snorkelling, one of awe! The massed tropical fishes and the diverse collection of corals was a sight to behold. I couldn’t get my GoPro to work so I have no photos, but I have the richest of memories to call on. 

We spent a couple of hours in our kayaks on Coral Bay, but the wind had come up and I was a little wary about venturing too far off-shore. Just lolling about on the sand, people watching, is an easy pastime on such a lovely beach. But once again we had to move along, heading south, knowing we wanted to be in Fremantle in 20 days time. 

The drive was once again dead boring, flat country, no trees, and shrubs not as high as the car, most of them appeared dead, although I suspect they perk up when it rains. But now we were seeing carpets of wildflowers. I’m lucky that Nick is happy to stop when I yell STOP.

We arrived next at Quobba Station, a rundown ex-sheep property, perched on a red rocky cliff above the Indian Ocean, which was pounding the cliffs. The Blowholes nearby are blowing mist high above the sea, just like the whales off-shore, who are loving the rough windy conditions. The wind was most annoying, but gave us an insight into the power of the sea on this remote shore.

Hamelin Pools Caravan Park was our next stop. What a place! Very close to the 3.5 billion year old Stromatalites. These ancient landforms slowly grow on the tide line in the highly saline bay. Unfortunately, a cyclone had wrecked the boardwalk to view the stomatalites, and a view from the beach behind the wire barrier didn’t cut it. But the experience at the caravan park was unique. It was formally the Telegraph station for communications between Perth and Broome, and is now the only remaining station on that line. The museum housed many and varied dusty old relics of pre mobile phone days. The delightful old dear who ran the park had a shop for supplies – imagine an overstocked Mullumbimby Op-shop. Another quirky feature of this park was the shell block quarry. In the early days, buildings were constructed with these blocks but nowadays only historic buildings in Shark Bay use them.

We decided to drive to Steep Point, the most westerly point in Australia. It was 154km from Hamelin Pools – let’s do a day trip we thought as we packed the thermos and sandwiches. It was overcast and very windy. Off we set, managing quite well for the first 100km, then over the causeway onto Steep Point. Tyres deflated, we knew it was going to be rough….hell, not that rough…the corrugations were monsters, it was doing my head in. I wanted out so we turned, about 40km short of Steep Point. Nick was disappointed, the car was delighted. We went over to the Blowholes and False Entrance and called it our mostly westerly point of the trip, even brought out Priscilla to celebrate, like we did at Cape York.

We booked 3 nights at Denham on Shark Bay, could have stayed more, it’s such a lovely little town. The ghastly wind had dropped and the azure blue seas were calm. The Discovery Centre Museum in town was excellent and gave us a good start to explore Shark Bay, apparently named by Dampier because of all the sharks he saw!

It was AFL finals and the Dees played, and lost, to Collingwood. There was a fabulous community space at the Seaside caravan park, with large screen TV and a couple of comfy couches. We sat in the back row on chairs, some crusty old fishermen/locals sat on the couches. Nick was a bit disappointed losing the game. Anyway, next night was another final, there on the couches were the same people. And again for the two other games the next day. We asked them who their team was…”we don’t have a team, we just like watching footy!” Reminded us of the old codgers at the bar in ‘Jack Irish’ who followed Fitzroy. A young girl came in one evening, a bit like the lolly girl at the pictures, offering free cockles she’d collected and cooked with her dad…yummy. Such a nice atmosphere.

Anyway, first morning we got to Monkey Mia by 7.45 to watch the dolphins being fed. Quite a large crowd, very regimented experience, absolutely no touching the dolphins, who were only given one fish and told to go off and find their own food in the wild.

In the afternoon we kayaked on Big Lagoon, in Francois Peron National Park. The lagoon was multi shades of turquoise, white sandy beaches lined the shore below the red ochre cliffs. We had the water to ourselves. Such a special time.

Next day was the bigger drive to Cape Peron at the top of Shark Bay. Some road corrugations but not too bad, very sandy though. What a thrill to be there though, the colours were vibrant, the day was calm, warm, perfect. From Skipjack Point we watched fishes, a shark, stingray and maybe a dugong swimming in the crystal clear water. It was very hard to leave there, but we went to South Gregories beach, parked on the sand with our lunch, and swam, all by ourselves. And to cap off a great day, we found some Desert Kurrajong trees as we drove back. We’d read an ABC article about them and had been searching the landscape for these trees, with lime green leaves more like maples than an Aust native.

The 375km drive to Kalbarri from Denham was reasonably smooth considering we weren’t stuck in a headwind. More and more wildflowers appeared, especially along the road into Kalbarri. Our campsite was close to the Murchison River.

We took a drive out to the Skywalk and Nature’s Window, in Kalbarri National Park. It was a hot day, the landscape was almost treeless, but the wildflowers and shrubs were prolific. I must have jumped in and out of our car 30 times to bend down and take a photo of a flower, my body was wracked that night, but my heart was filled with joy.

Kalbarri has an awesome coastline, wild, rocky and pristine. Early one morning we launched the kayaks to explore the Murchison river. The river was mirror calm, fish were leaping, I felt very peaceful paddling until my flippers got stuck in a sandbar. But now I feel confident to fix the situation on my own. Later we drove to and explored many of the coastal inlets and particularly loved the Blue Holes, rock pools with many fishes and sponges that is a designated Marine Reserve. Our friends arrived this afternoon and stayed in the same park as us. We dined out for Julie and Nick’s birthdays at Finlay’s, a quirky seafood/brewery restaurant, a great night for us all.

Today the weather has turned. It is the first time we’ve seen rain, since Cairns, 4 months ago at least. Nick washed the car in the rain. The wind is gale force, so I’ve taken advantage of being stuck inside our little rocking van to write this blog.

This might be the last blog for sometime, maybe not. We are heading inland of Geraldton in search of wildflower meadows and orchids in a couple of National Parks not far from Kalbarri. Then we reach Perth next week and end our months in the little caravan while we stay with relatives. Thanks for all your comments, I do appreciate them and am aware of the struggle wordpress presents to some of you.

Love from us both

Jen & Nick

Part 3 Weipa, Chilli Beach & broken donuts.

Alas, it was time to move on. We had pre-booked a campsite at Cairns anticipating our return date to be May 29th…we had to push that ahead to June 3rd. 

So, leaving Seisia, with no problems getting over the Jardine River. Magic stop for a swim at Fruit Bat Falls, not far from Eliot Falls which we’d stayed at earlier. A bus load of tourists stopped by at the same time, most carried their striped fold up chairs down to watch the Falls…what a pity for them. Refreshed, we ground on through hundreds of kilometres of the red dust, stopped briefly at Bramwell Junction for lunch, then continued to Weipa on the west coast. The caravan park was quite full but we managed to get in. It was the first time I’d felt that the annual nomad mob had arrived at the Top End. 

We asked about a mine tour but alas, it was not happening on the sunday. Disappointment. But wait…a lovely young lady, named Megan, wandered in to our campsite asking if anyone wanted to do a mine tour tomorrow, she had 5 places left. What luck, right place right time. We said yes of course. George was happy to do his own thing for the morning.

Weipa Mine & Town Tour was very interesting, not only did we drive through the bauxite mine in full operation, but we also had a tour around the town, along the coast to learn about the birds and fish, into a pristine piece of bush to learn something about bush tucker, and of course a lot about the settlement history, the fact that Rio Tinto manages the town along with an indigenous representative and that there’s no Council. Rio builds everything the town needs in order to keep workers happily living here. It seems to work.

The sunsets over Weipa are awesome. After the sun disappears, there’s about half an hour of the sky turning a deeper and deeper red, extending it’s magnificence far longer than expected.

Time to move south, actually from Weipa, as the bird flies, we were in a straight line east by the end of the day. But it took us 300km of dust, river crossings, potholes, and corrugations before we reached Chilli Beach. The country was beautiful with grass trees dotted through the bush, small mountain peaks, rocky outcrops, and termite mounds. I’m intrigued by these, they’re like sentinels standing in the bush, often in red ochre colours, among spindly black and white trunks of hundreds of gums. The more I looked the more I saw human forms, like statues of Mary with robes spreading down to the earth. Some very large mounds looked like Gaudi’s La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, which I would imagine was inspired by nature. They also reminded me of free-form honeycomb. What else can a passenger do but imagine things when travelling all day? Having months ahead of passing more termite mounds than I can fathom, who knows what I’ll see in them next!

Anyway, Chilli beach is remote, always windy. In 2019, cyclone Trevor pounded the coast, the devastation is still obvious. Massive trees were uprooted, palm roots were undermined leaving groups of them precariously hanging on to the shore. We had a campsite well protected from the never stopping winds. Bush Turkeys proved great assets for games of bullseye. The boys climbed palms to get coconuts and Marilyn made scones for morning tea. Dinner on the second of our 3 nights was roast pork…under the stars. 

We did a quick trip to Portland Roads, a lovely little fishing village that had been a military base during the war…no evidence of that now, even the jetty had been dismantled. But sadly the Cafe wasn’t opening for another week or so.

Lockhart River. This town is an Aboriginal settlement with all the services anyone needs. Fuel was $2.85! By now we were accustomed to paying $7 for 2 litres of milk, so how the locals manage such high costs, I do not know. We found the art gallery where we could peruse the original artworks easily but found it difficult to find someone to serve us. The standard was not great – the best we’ve seen in a gallery so far were at Port Douglas. I could easily have purchased any of the paintings there, if I had a rich benefactor. The other claim to fame for Lockhart River was it’s prominence in WW2. Americans were based in the military base there with the Aussies. There’s a very impressive airstrip, some good interpretive signs and a canon. Loved the outdoor waiting lounge for the current airport passengers. We had our picnic lunch by the sea where large lichen covered rocks lined the shoreline. The drive back to camp (40km) through thick rainforest and savannah grasslands was always interesting, although we saw very few animals. The kangas here are small pale grey, like little wallabies. Next morning we headed off south again.

Crunch time – literally. Driving the 185km of red gravel, potholes, river crossings can become tedious…we were cruising at the front of the group at about 60kmh when crunch, we hit the deepest culvert with the sharpest edge, hard. Smashed the side mirror but annihilated the back passenger side tyre. Roadside stop and quick swap over, but also filled the horrible hole with shrubbery, then found the yellow sign that should have warned us, chucked in the bush nearby. So replaced that in the hole also. But regarding our car, that’s just the beginning….Nick can write next.

Just after wrecking the tyre by putting a slash in the side wall, I noticed that the Tachometer had stopped working, it is driven electronically off the the back of the alternator, then I noticed that the battery light was on as well and the voltmeter was not the usual 13.5 volts. We continued on the minor road from Chilli beach and out to the Peninsula Development Road and headed south to Musgrave Station. By the time we got there the voltmeter was reading 8.5 volts with the car still running. My right hand man Andy and myself set about rigging up a solar panel to charge the battery, we isolated the primary battery from all of the ancillary stuff, cable tied the panel to the roof and hey presto we have charge to the main battery. A hybrid car. We drove about 800 km without the alternator working back to Cairns. Going up a steep hill north of Mareeba the rubber universal joint on the rear tail shaft destroyed itself and had to be replaced. Loosely referred to as the donut, this is the second one we’ve had to replace, so will carry plenty of spares for the next leg of the trip. Back to Jen.

It was at Laura that the boys rigged up the solar panels to our roof rack, but we needed a tow to jump start the car – hence the picture of George’s car with the tow rope. I had to sacrifice a visit to the Quinkan Cultural Centre and  gallery in Laura due to car issues, but I wasn’t going to miss the rock art at Split Rock. Walking up was hot, steep high steps, all to see these ancient paintings on the rocks in caves, but so so worthwhile. The Quinkans by the way are the spirit people. The interpretive signs were great, as we didn’t have time to go with a guide.

So off we headed, a long slow 139km to Musgrave without enough power to use the a/c, so open windows and dust was our lot. At 5.00pm we set up camp in a big paddock behind the old Musgrave telegraph station – it was actually good there. Almost full moon, clear starry sky, warm, quiet, showers & loo nearby. Stocked up on one bottle of wine and $7 bottle of milk. (Wine $30)

Mareeba next before going down to Cairns. Mareeba campsite was run by a German couple, who George seems to attract. In the morning she came over with cup cakes for his 79th birthday.

Sadly, farewelled our travelling buddies for the past month…might see them again in WA!

Cairns – a time to regroup for us, maintenance on the car, wash clothes and sheets and car and Swifty. Catch up on calls to family, get out this blog using the caravan park internet. The Rhodes are doing their own car maintenance in Atherton. Nights with tropical rain, days with humidity…gotta love Cairns!

Thanks for reading all 3 blogs, if you did! Who knows where we are going next…westwards anyway.

Love & cheers. Am loving your comments.
Jen & Nick