Kalbarri to Perth

Thursday 2^nd August.  Today we left Kalbarri and headed south.  We called into Geraldton to have Darryl’s INR done but there was NO where to park the car with the van attached.  The streets were very narrow and there was a lot of road works being done.  We gave up and drove up to the HMAS Sydney II Memorial on the top of Mt Scott.  What a fantastic memorial. 

 entrance to the Memorial

 



There are props from a ship at the base of the light posts and there are rope holders (don’t know their real names) down the path leading to the memorial. 

Overlooking the bay there is a structure that looks like the bow of a ship with depth markers up it.  There is a statue of a lady looking out over the harbour and a pool with a seagull in it. 

 

 

The pool is made of circles that get smaller and deeper and represents the souls going to the bottom of the ocean.  The big dome over the memorial is made up of 645 seagulls, one for each soul lost. There are two walls which list all those on board the HMAS Sydney II – in alphabetical order.

Although most archaeological evidence suggests Aboriginal settlement of the Geraldton area extends back at least 40,000 years, it is probably not until the 17^th century that Europeans took an interest in the area.  The first official visit to the area was made by a British Captain, Phillip Parker King, in 1822.  In 1839, Lieutenant Grey and a party of 12 men were shipwrecked and had to walk back to Perth.  The following year H.M.S. Beagle charted Champion Bay and in 1849 John Septimus Roe, Western Australia’s first Surveyor General, surveyed the town site.  The town was named after the Governor of the colony, Sir Charles Fitzgerald.
We left Geraldton and continued on our way to Dongara and then onto Cliff Head North Rest area.  This is right on the beach front and as we drove in we saw three squalls out to sea and it wasn’t long before we were getting wet J.  Our friends Faye and Arthur were staying in Geraldton for a few days.
We went for a walk and found ‘our’ spot for the night.  By night fall there were about 30 vans and motorhomes in residence.

 an oil rig out in the distance

 What a sunset!!!

Friday 3^rd August.  Today we headed toward Cervantes.  This is the home of ‘The Pinnacles’ and also some Stomatolites.

Native Wisteria

native Wisteria

Old Man's Beard

 

The main attraction of the Cervantes area is the Nambung National Park with its famous Pinnacles Desert.  In this area of varied coloured sand there are thousands of limestone pinnacles, which range in size up to 5 metres tall and 2 metres thick at the base.  They were formed thousands of years ago when ancient plant roots formed a weak cementation of calcite within the dunes and have been exposed by wind and shifting sands.
Unfortunately we could not take Buster to either of the sites. L.  We were told that the National Parks office had some free kennels, where it was possible to leave him whilst we went out to see the desert and the stromatolites.  We left him in the shade with plenty of water and spent a couple of hours exploring the natural wonders.

Darryl near a pinnacle

me near the same one

everywhere!!!

 Old Man's beard in full flower

 Stromatolites

wattle :P

 

 view from the park at Cervantes

 

  Back to the parks office and collected Buster and back to the park.  We had to be very careful when taking him for a walk in the park as there had been rabbit baits laid.  Unfortunately no one could tell us what they looked like so that we could ensure that Buster didn’t eat any. 

Saturday 4^th August.  Today we head to Perth and will be able to spend some time with my cousin Alan and his family.  We left Cervantes at 9am and with frequent stopping for wildflowers, buying fruit from the roadside and chatting to a truckie for about an hour and a half – we FINALLY arrived at the Kingsway caravan park at 2.30pm. 

leaving Cervantes

a huge WHITE sand dune

 

thousands of Grass Trees

 yellow Kangaroo paw

 a White-tailed Black Cockatoo

 We checked into our site and were a little disappointed in the park L. The grounds need a good clean-up and the sites mowed.  The amenities are large and airy but look dirty with lots of cobwebs.  Apparently there used to be a lot of permanent residents here and the owners decided to give them all 3 months’ notice to find somewhere else to live.  The case went to court and some of the residents still remain.  A lot of the sites are not able to be used by vanners as the fronts of them have been terraced or have a huge drop off from the concrete slab.

Canarvon to Kalbarri

Friday 27^th July.  Today we headed south from Carnarvon to Hamelin Pool via the Overlander Roadhouse.  We have seen some interesting countryside today.  We stopped at the Gladstone lookout and were amazed at the collection of rocks in the 2 cairns that had messages for deceased relatives. 

There is even a Gnomeville that is dedicated to those who have departed this earth.  The view out over Shark Bay was amazing and Gnomeville has got a prime position to continue looking over the scenery.

From here we drove to the Overlander Roadhouse and we had to stop a few times as we had spied wildflowers on the edge of the road.  By the time we reached here we had found 9 different flowers…  a great day J. 

 We turned westward after the roadhouse toward Denham and then turned north to the Hamelin Pool Telegraph Station, situated on Shark Bay.  On the drive in there were fields of yellow flowers – against a green backdrop they were beautiful. 

Hamelin Pool is the home of the Stromatolites (living rocks) and compacted tiny shells.  The compacted shell has even been cut into large bricks and many homesteads and the church in Denham have been built from them.   There are about 6 different shell brick pits along the foreshore but they are now only cut to maintain those important buildings that have already been built.

compacted shells

shell brick 'mine'

Hamelin Pool is home to the most abundant examples of living stromatolites in the world.  These creatures are monuments to life on Earth over 3500 million years ago; a time when no other complex creatures were present on the planet.

Walking out along the boardwalk to see the stromatolites was great and the interpretative signs really helped. 

panorama of the stromatolites

 On the walk back to the camp site, we came across another 8 different flowers.  Some of them are so tiny that you could quite easily miss them (unless they are growing in a cluster).  It is the time for the wildflowers from July to October and it depends on how much rain has been had recently as to how many flower.

stromatolites

 flowers

We then returned to the vans and were joined by four other campers for happy hour – it was only as it was getting colder and much darker that we adjourned to have dinner J.

Saturday 28^th July.  Today we headed into Denham where we will stay for two nights before leaving Faye and Arthur and heading different directions, whilst here we are going to visit Monkey Mia.
We booked into the van park and then went for a nice walk along the foreshore and visited the Church made out of the shell bricks and also the Pearling Restaurant. 

the walls are made from shell bricks

the font in the Church

the walls of the restaurant

 Amazing what they could do with those bricks. We also visited Shell Beach - cockle shells 10metres deep and the beach is 120 km long!!!!

the beach is over there...somewhere! This is ALL shells

beautiful clear water

a handful of shells

enjoying sitting on the shells and in them....

On the 25^th October 1616, Dirk Hartog, Captain of a Dutch trading ship, landed at Cape Inscription on what is now known as Dirk Hartog Island and was the first recorded white man to set foot on Australian soil.   Captain Dirk Hartog commemorated his visit by nailing a pewter plate on to a post – 150 years before Captain James Cook landed.   Denham derives its name from Captain H.H. Denham, who charted the whole of Shark Bay in 1858.   Adjacent to the main road is the stretch of unique Australian Coastline known as Shell Beach, comprised of countless millions of tiny shells.  The shell build up is 25 – 30 feet deep [8 – 9 metres].

Back to the van and an extended happy hour with Arthur, Faye and Gianna (Jan).  Jan is a 73 year old lady [travelling Australia in her homemade camper trailer] who stopped whilst we were taking flower photos and asked if she could tag along with us for a while – why not!!!
Sunday 29^th July.  Not a good day for Barb L.  She has had the spins all day so the others went out to Monkey Mia and on to Little Lagoon, before returning to the park and settling in for the afternoon.  Whilst at Monkey Mia they managed to get some nice photos of the dolphins but said it was a big rip-off.  EVERYONE had to pay the $8 entry fee to the resort to be able to walk on the beach and see some dolphins.

Monkey Mia, WA’s famous wild dolphins appear regularly to interact with visitors, they are fed each day between 8am and 1pm but they may come in and out all day long.  If you swim, the dolphins may wish to join you.

Monday 30^th July.  Today we left at 8.30am and made our way south.  We stopped at the Overlander Roadhouse and filled all the vehicles with fuel and then headed south.  After 47km we pulled into the Billabong Roadhouse to get a photo of OUR Billabong at the Billabong Roadhouse J. 

We then continued on our way for another 115km to stay at the Galena Bridge Rest Area on the Murchison River.  What a lovely spot.  Lots of camping areas on both sides of the river and also up on the ridge.  We had a lovely campfire here with Marie from Perth, Gianna from Sydney and Faye and Arthur.

Tuesday 31^st July.  Ben arrived back in Australia this morning from the USA.  This morning we said farewell to Gianna as she was heading off to Geraldton and then on to Perth. Marie is going to call into Kalbarri – so we may see her later.  We travelled the whole 88km into Kalbarri – albeit with many stops on the side of the road to take photos of the wildflowers. 

Over the centuries the coastal cliffs of Kalbarri have seen many shipwrecks. The history of the area dates back to 1629 when Commander Pelsaert marooned two unfortunate men, Wouter Loos and Jan Pelgrom, for their part in the Batavia mutiny and massacre at the Abrolhos Islands. A plaque on a memorial at Wittecarra Creek commemorates this historic occasion today.  In 1696, the Dutch navigator Willem De Vlamingh landed here in search of water and in 1712 the Dutch East India Company ship, ‘Zuytdorp’ was wrecked nearby.

We would stop to take a particular flower and find about 4 or 5 others at the same time. 

 Banksia

We arrived at the van park at 11am and promptly set up camp before going for a walk to the Information Centre and then along the beachfront.  We had a lovely time letting Buster have a bit of a run in the sand.
Back to the van and met up with Faye and Arthur, then Faye and Barb headed out to the Natures Window.  A natural rock arch that superbly frames the upstream view, and is a 400 metre walk from the carpark.  Absolutely ‘gorge-ous’! 

Faye and Barb in the Nature's Window

On the way there was 26 km of corrugated sandy road and on the way back out it started to rain – only light at first but once we reached the asphalt it really pelted down. When we got back to the van the guys said it had been raining constantly for about ½ hour.

Darryl and I (and Buster of course J) are sitting in the van listening to the rain with the heater on :P.

Hoping to go to the Hutt River Province tomorrow, the only area in Australia that has its own currency, stamp and individual ruler!!!!!