Day 18 – Kalbarri
– 2 km
Today was a rest day and so we had a well-earned sleep-in
and then headed into town for a café breakfast.
A lazy day today. At about 5:15
pm we headed over to the headland for the sunset.
Day 19 – Kalbarri
National Park – 140 km
Stopped in town to watch the Pelicans being feed
and then on
the road to Kalbarri National Park. Went
to the furthest lookout first which was Ross Graham Lookout. Great view but the
bonus was the walk down to the river.
Next stop was Hawks Head where there is a
rock outcrop that is supposed to look like a Hawks Head and in a way it does
but you would probably not pick it without knowing the name first.
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| Can you spot the Hawks Head?? |
Had morning
tea in the shade looking out over the river and gorge which is spectacular.
Headed to The Loop / Nature’s Window. At the turn off to The
Loop there is a sign “Rough Road in 12 km”. I had checked with National Parks
and they said it was rough but OK for a 2wd with care. Well, it is about 15km
of constant corrugations and rough corrugations at that.
Had lunch before doing
the walk to Nature’s Window which is the main tourist draw card in the area.
The car park, picnic area is very modern and the path to the lookout is a tar
path. A pity they did not spend some of the money on the road!! Was it worth
the drive? Maybe the first time but not again!!
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| Nature's Window. The actual Nature's Window itself is below the flat rock in the centre of the picture. |
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| The river to the right of the top picture |
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| Nature's Window with Murchison River behind |
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| Grass Trees on road out of Natures Window |
Day 20 – Kalbarri
to Denham – 414 km
Weather was very variable this morning including rain,
sunshine, cold, overcast, sunshine and round and round again.
Stopped at Hamelin Pool and had a walk to the Stromatolites.
Interesting, but not all that exciting but at least it was only a short detour
from the main road. Also checked out where they quarried the shell bricks that
have been used to build many buildings in the area.
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| Stromatolites |
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| Shell Brick Quarry |
Stopped at Nanga Bay and used the undercover picnic table
right on the beach. Beautiful clear blue water and glorious sunshine!!
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| View from shelter at Nanga Bay |
Stopped
at Shell Beach where the beach is made of shells (who would have thought with a
name like that!!).
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| Shell Beach |
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| Shell Beach |
A quick trip up to Eagle Bluff, to look over the bay where
Joy spotted a Shovel Nose Ray.
Next stop
was Ocean Park Aquarium where we joined the continuous tour seeing lots of fish
but the highlight for Les was the shark feeding.
Arrived at Denham and booked into our beach front unit. Takeaway
seafood for tea sitting on the patio and watching the twilight as the sun had
set by now.
Day 21 – Denham to
Geraldton – 464 km
We had decided last night that we would aim for the second
feeding of the dolphins at Monkey Mia. Apparently they do up to 3 feedings, at
any time between 8am and 1pm, with the exact times being determined by the
dolphins, and when they decide to show up. By the time we had driven to Monkey
Mia, battled with the system for paying for entry ($8.50 per person, a self-serve
system, with instructions on a big board that didn’t match the instructions on
the envelope that you put the money into), parked, and walked over to the
beach, it would have been well after 8:30am. We both wandered around a bit –
Les to read a sign near the beach, and Joy to read the board that records the
times of the feeds for the last week, along with the numbers of dolphins and
people at each of those feeds.
When Joy turned around, all the people on the beach were
lined up and the ranger was talking – she had missed the fact that the dolphins
had shown up! Les was already down there, and had saved Joy a spot in the line.
All the people have to line up along the beach and the
dolphins are in charge. They go where they want to go. There were about 5 dolphins
there. At one stage, they were chasing fish (and catching them!).
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| Dolphins hunting fish |
They were
quite active, showing how quickly they can go from dawdling around to flat out.
One of the dolphins cruised up and down the line of people.
After about 20 minutes of the ranger talking about the
dolphins, they were ready to feed them. At that point, everyone has to step
backwards out of the water, and make a bit of noise doing it, as that is a
signal to the dolphins that they are soon to be fed. At that point, a couple of
dolphins that were way out, came barrelling in – one did some beautiful jumps
on the way!
A small number of people were chosen to feed the dolphins.
They only feed selected dolphins, and only adult dolphins, as they are managing
the situation so no dolphins become dependent upon the food from this. It was a
wonderful experience.
We were back on the road at 9:20am, it was time for morning
tea, so we stopped at Denham and had a café treat – cappuccino for Joy,
strawberry milkshake for Les and an apple slice to share. Yum.
Backtracking down the coast today and along the road between
Shell Beach and Nanga Bay, we had another emu sighting – this one was extra
special because it was an adult and 5 or 6 little babies! The adult was a male
– how could we tell? Because we know that the male is the one who looks after
the brood once they are hatched.
Afternoon tea stop – Galena Bridge Rest Area. This is a HUGE
area where 24-hour stops are allowed. It is quite a nice area, there are
toilets, and quite a big area for caravans and campers. And boy, was it busy,
although there was still room for more. Probably 30 or more caravans and mobile
homes, etc. and still only about 3:30pm.
Overnight at the caravan park at
Geraldton.
Day 22 – Geraldton
to Cervantes – 347 km
It was going to be a full day, but we were only travelling
about 350km. But we were stopping at a national park that is known for its
wildflowers, so there was a lot to see. But at least this morning we didn’t
have to be on the road until 8:30am – that’s a bit later than the last few
days.
The first stop on our travels was the Leaning Trees of
Greenough. There is a serious sea breeze around this part of the world, and you
can tell by looking at the shape of the trees. The most impressive of them is
pretty much growing horizontally.
After a morning tea stop and lookout stop we headed down the
road to the Lesueur National Park. The road into the national park is dirt, and
because of the rain, both last night and during today, it was a bit slippery.
But once you get to the national park, the road through it is sealed! Mind you,
we weren’t even in the national park when we stopped to take photos of flowers
– just on the side of the road – and we were there for 20 minutes!
The road through the national park is one way and 40 kph
limit, so you don’t have to worry about meeting cars going the opposite
direction, which is a good thing, because it is hard to concentrate on all the
driving when there are so many beautiful plants (and flowers) to look at.
Our first official stop on the drive was at Wilson Lookout.
We had lunch (in the car because there weren’t any tables, or anything really,
where we could sit ourselves down to make and eat lunch), then did the short
walk. It was supposed to be fairly short (2.5 km), but it ended up taking us
about an hour. The walk was good, though, and there were so many interesting
plants and flowers along the way.
On the road back to the main road we stopped along the road,
once again to take photos – one of what looked to be a plantation of ti-trees,
and when we got out of the car for that, found some kangaroo paws that were
just asked for their photo to be taken.
Made it to Cervantes just after 4pm. We quickly checked in, and
then headed out to the Pinnacles – we wanted to see them in the late afternoon,
as they apparently look good then. But because there was so much cloud, we
didn’t get the colour we were hoping for. It was still good to see the
formations, but not as good as expected.
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| The Kids at the Pinnacles |
We went back to Cervantes and picked up some takeaway for
tea and ate it in the comfort of the B&B we are staying in.
Day 23 – Cervantes
to Fremantle – 290 km
Woke to a partly cloudy day but it had rained overnight
which was good as it had washed the salt spray off the car. This morning we did
not have to worry about breakfast as it was part of the accommodation as it is
a true B&B. We had cereal, boiled egg, homemade bread (as toast), fruit,
yoghurt, tea, coffee, fruit juice and muffins. As we could not fit it all in we
took the muffins for morning tea (the hosts knew we took them as they were
about to tell us to take them when Joy asked if we could!). Set off to have a
look at Lake Thetis and the Stromatolites. The road to the lake was dirt (or
that should read MUD) so the car got a bit muddier then it already was. The
Stromatolites are smaller in number then at Hamelin Bay but look better even
though the water was murky.
Back on the
road and down to the Pinnacles again. This time we got to see them with
sunlight (compared to cloudy yesterday) and you can notice the difference.
After a drive around the Pinnacles we stopped at the “Discovery Centre” which
has some details about the formations (they still cannot decide how they were
formed) and a souvenir shop.
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| What is he doing??? |
Arrived at Bells Rapid in an outer north east suburb of
Perth and had lunch by the side of the Swan River. This section of the river is
part of the Avon Descent . After
lunch we did the River Walk which took just over an hour. While there were some
wildflowers, not as many as up to this point in time.
Headed to Fremantle and had several downpours of rain and
got caught in a traffic jam and we were still 30 km from Fremantle. Give me the
country every time!!
Arrived at Fremantle at 4:30 and booked in to accommodation
and then did the shopping for the next week. Tried to find a butcher but none
to be found. The supermarket sells meat in bigger amounts then we want. After
doing some Googling back at the accommodation have found the nearest butcher is
about 3.5 km away!!
Day 24 – Perth –
51 km
Since the prediction was for clearing showers, we thought
we’d take the morning to catch up on things like the washing (Les did this
while Joy read her book), the diary (Les did this while Joy read her book),
renaming and viewing the photos from yesterday (Les did this while Joy read her
book), and investigating where the best place to park in the CBD was (Les did
this while Joy read her book).
Once all that was done, we drove into the CBD after a couple
of stops along the way – one to buy some meat from a real butcher (yes, we
found the one that was 3.5km away, and we put the meat into the Esky with some
ice bricks), and one to Spotlight so Joy could buy some thread for her
cross-stitch.
By the time we had navigated our way through the freeways
and off-ramps and one-way streets and road works, and finally found our
preferred parking station, it was about 1pm, so first thing to do was to find
somewhere for lunch. The whole experience of driving into the city, then
finding somewhere to eat, was a nasty reminder of the rat-race. Perth is no
longer the simple country cousin of Sydney – it is a real big city. Yuk.
After lunch, we walked up Hay St to the Perth Mint. Along the
way we noticed some lovely old buildings that we wanted to check out properly
on the way back. The Mint itself is a lovely old building, as well as a very
interesting place.
We did the tour, which took over an hour, and included being
shown a gold pour. Our guide was quite entertaining, and was also the person
who poured the gold. The gold that is used in the gold pour is the same that
has been used for the last 18 years (I think that is what he said). It gets
melted down in the furnace, poured into the mould, then cooled down for each
tour that goes through – that is 7 times a day! Over the years, the purity of
the gold has gone down, because of impurities that may have come from the
crucible it is melted in. It has also reduced slightly in weight, because some
of the gold stays in the crucible, and some gets spilled when it’s poured. The
crucible lasts about 2 weeks before it has deteriorated and can no longer be
used. They then send it off to be crushed up, and the gold that comes back to
them from that is worth about $200 (I suppose this depends on the value of gold
at the time).
The guide also told us that the Manager (?) of the Mint when
it was built lived in the residence over the mint. His wife did not have
visitors as they would not come to visit while the mint was working (upper
class snobs!!). So the Manager decided that each Tuesday at 2:00 pm all the
work would stop and the staff went to the pub across the road. The manager’s
wife had her friends over for a few hours. The staff then came back at 5:00 pm
to sign off. If they could sign their name or close to it they got paid to 5:00
pm. If not they only got paid to 2:00 pm!
After the Perth Mint Tour, we wandered back along the Perth
CBD streets taking in the old buildings. They are quite lovely. Joy commented
on how clean they are – much cleaner than the stone buildings in Sydney.
By then we were ready to leave the CBD before it got too
busy on the roads – didn’t want to get caught in peak hour! We made it home by
around 5pm or so. All in all, we did OK – no arguments between driver and
navigator, and we made it to where we wanted to be without too much stress.
Day 25 – Fremantle
– 0 km
We headed off on foot to the bus stop at about 8:30 to catch
the free bus to Fremantle. Unfortunately the first free bus on Saturday is not
until 10:00 am !!! so we decided to walk to Fremantle. It took about ½ hour to
get to Fremantle so we were very early for the first tour which was at 10:00
am. The first tour was about the prison in general and its history right up to
1991 when it closed. We then had a 30 min wait for the 2nd tour
which was more based on some of the prisoners that had escaped (or tried to
escape) from the prison. We had the same guide for both tours.
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| The most photographed toilet in the prison |
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| A bench seat in one of the exercise yards marked out as a chess board |
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| Can't you read!!!!! |
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| Some prisoners were given special permission to paint their cell walls and here is one result |
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| Part of the prison is now used as offices for various businesses including a massage business in the cell on the far left |
We had lunch at 1:00 at the prison café before being
released on parole. We then wandered the streets of Fremantle looking for a
Chemist to fill our prescriptions. It appears that all the chemists are located
in the same area. Also all the banks are in the same street and most are next
door to each other.
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| How backpackers have changed!!!!! |
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| What more can I say! |
We then headed back to the Fremantle Markets which was very
crowded so we did not stay for long. As we had been walking a fair bit today we
decided to take the free bus home. After about 5 min wait we jumped on the bus
and 10 minutes later we were home.
