Joy and Les Holidays 2014 Blog 2 – 10/8/14 to 15/8/14

 Day 12 Kalgoorlie – Trip to Lake Ballard – 412 km

Today we visited Lake Ballard which has 51 statutes of the local town folk. Along the way we spotted a Wedge Tailed Eagle along the side of the road and managed to get some photos.

Wedge Tail Eagle

Arrived at Lake Ballard at 11:25 and walked to some of the sculptures and also climbed the small but steep hill near the car park. 

Menzies

Lake Ballard

Lake Ballard - Les found a friend!

Lake Ballard from hilltop

Lake Ballard

Lake Ballard

Finished on the lake and got back to the car at 12:35. If you walk to all 51 of the sculptures it takes between 5 & 7 hours. Stopped at Goongarrie Homestead and had afternoon tea and a look at some of the old buildings and machinery before heading back to Kalgoorlie.

Goongarrie Homestead

Goongarrie Homestead

Day 13 Kalgoorlie – Royal Flying Doctor Service Base and Super Pit Tour – 30 km

Today we didn’t have anything planned until a 10:15am tour of the Royal Flying Doctor Service, up at the airport, which is only about 1km away. That meant a lazy start to the day. It was a grey old day, and quite cool, and  we were the only people on the tour, so got very personalised service.

RFDS Plane - cost about $7 million fully equipped

Sign on plane door!!!!

The tour cost $5 each and consisted of a bit of a chat to start with, a 10 minute DVD  and to the hangar to look at one of the planes they use. It was a very interesting tour, and because we were the only ones on it, we got to ask all our questions, about the RFDS and other things, including the Super Pit, because the woman who took the tour had worked there.

By the time we got out of the tour (11:45 – we got more than the standard 1hr), it had rained heavily, and was still raining. Having found out that our tour of the Super Pit was cancelled because of the rain, we had a free afternoon.

We went up to the viewing area for the Super Pit, so we could compare how it looks now, after the blast we saw on Saturday. We could see the difference, where they had been digging and carting the ground away. It was bitterly cold up there, but we were fascinated by the activity that was happening in the pit. Joy thinks there are some inefficiencies in their operation – both the diggers and the carters have periods of inactivity when they are waiting for each other. You can’t keep a business analyst down!

Top - Before Blasting
Lower left - After Blasting
Lower right - 2 days later

Day 14 – Kalgoorlie to Merredin – 410 km

After the disappointment of missing the Super Pit Tour yesterday we woke to a beautiful clear day. Arrived at Karalee Dam and had morning tea. We then went for a walk to the dam, channel and the rock area that was used as a catchment area. They built a stone wall all the around Karalee Rock and the water was sent down a channel made of half pipe to the dam. We have found many wildflowers at this location so spent just over an hour at the dam and surrounding area.

Karalee Dam inlet

Normal Plant - Orchid

Weird Plant - name unknown

Next town was Southern Cross and about 25 km or so east of Southern Cross we noticed farmland which is the first cultivated farmland since near Ceduna. Next stop, Baladgie Rocks and could not find any picnic tables, etc so sat in the car and had lunch as it was very windy. After lunch we walked part of the way up the rock and also part of the way around the rock. Again, many wildflowers.

Baladgie Rocks

Weird Truck!! Spray Vehicle

Next stop was Sandford Rocks where we found even more wildflowers including ones we had not seen before including some orchids.

Day 15 – Merredin to Wongan Hills – 398 km

Woke to another beautiful morning, with just some light cloud. Waited for IGA to open to buy bread rolls and  were not the only ones as there were about 10 people waiting out the front of the shop!!! Headed out of town to Elachbutting Rock. Had morning tea and started a short walk when a couple who were camping there came over and had a talk to us. Just as we were about to leave a local and 2 of his friends visiting from Victoria arrived. As we could see us staying for hours we politely said goodbye and left.  Back at the start we did the Monty’s Pass and Wave Walks. Monty’s Pass is where a part of the rock about 30 metres long has fallen off the rock and formed a tunnel. Very impressive!! The Wave is like a smaller version of Wave Rock but must of the taller “rocks” we have seen seem to have a wave formation.

Carpet of flowers

Elachbutting Rocks

Rainbow Wave

Monty's Pass entrance

Monty's Pass exit

Elachbutting Rocks

Orchid

We then headed off to Beringbooding Rock running 1 hour behind schedule but worth the time overrun. At Beringbooding Rock we had lunch and then did some walking on the rock. They have formed a dam wall around the rock and the water is directed into a 2 ¼ million gallon tank! The tank is still in good repair other than the iron roof and is still used today mainly for firefighting (we believe).

Beringbooding Rocks. Note wall build about 1/2 way up to channel water to tank.

Next stop was at Pergande Sheep Yards which is the remains of a set of sheep yards which are built from upright slabs of rock sourced from the local area. Also there are the remains of the original homestead.

Pergande Sheep Yards

Larry working holding the gate open at Pergande Sheep Yards.

Day 16 – Wongan Hills to Geraldton – 495 km

Woken to another beautiful but windy day. By now we are getting good at packing the car after having a 1 night stay and so we are ready to head into town to buy some bread rolls, photograph some flowers and get fuel (well that’s what we thought!). The Bakery & Café does not make bread or bread rolls!!! But we did buy some treats for morning tea. When we went to get fuel you have to swipe your credit card before you get fuel. True self serve!!

First stop at the top of Mt O’Brien where you get a full 360 degree view of the local farm land with wheat, lupin, canola and sheep. 

View from Mt O'Brien. Yellow patch is Canola

Stopped at the Wildflower Farm near Coomberdale. Interesting to see what she does including shipping flowers all over the world in full size shipping container but we spent most of the 1 hour watching Mike Leyland Video about the wildflowers in WA.

Gum Tree Flower, Note size based on bee inside the flower. Very large flowers.

How close do you want to get?

Weird Australian Native Plant

Weird Australian Native Plant

Weird Australian Native Plant 

On to Coalseam Conservation Park which while small at between 700 & 800 hectares has magnificent wildflowers and a great view and a HUGE number of annoying flies!!!

Carpet of flowers on the hill at Coalseam Conservation Park

Carpet of flowers at Coalseam Conservation Park

 Coalseam Conservation Park

Carpet of flowers at Coalseam Conservation Park

 A quick stop at the wind farm near Walkaway where there are 76 windmills. This is enough power to cover about 100,000 houses!!

Windfarm

 Then Geraldton and our first sighting of the Indian Ocean. We arrived just after the office closed so had to get the keys from the safe. More self serve!!!

Day 17 – Geraldton to Kalbarri – 198 km

We only had about 200km to go today, but still had an early start as we had many lookouts to visit, and of course along the way we were liable to be stopping to take more photographs of flowers.

Had morning tea at Port Gregory, at the picnic tables right on the shore line. There was a fishing boat in, unloading their catch into a truck, so that kept us mildly interested for a bit.

Unloading the Fish of the Day!!

On the way out of Port Gregory, we stopped for a while at a place where we could get a good look at the Pink Lake. It was fairly pink today, but we’ve seen photos where it is bright pink – almost unbelievably pink. Still, the pink we had was good enough for us. The lake is VERY salty, and the salt collects on anything in it, creating interesting shapes on rocks, branches etc. As the water in the lake was very still, there were also some great reflections.

Hutt Lagoon - Pink Lake

Hutt Lagoon - Pink Lake

Hutt Lagoon - Pink Lake

Hutt Lagoon - Pink Lake

Hutt Lagoon - Pink Lake

60km to go to get to Kalbarri. But our first official stop was the lookouts in the Kalbarri National Park called Island Rock and Natural Bridge – some 10km or so out of Kalbarri itself. Before we got there, though, we had a number of unofficial stops along the side of the road to take photos of plants and flowers – there are so many different ones, and some of them are seriously weird.

Natural Bridge as its name suggests, a natural bridge formed in the rock of the coastline. We did see a whale blowing a fair way out to sea. There were heaps of hawks of some sort, being quite active – some actually mating! 

Natural Bridge

Falcon in full dive mode

Island Rock

Next was Grandstand and Shellhouse being more interesting coastline. Again, we saw some whales – still some way out, but being a bit more active, slapping fins on the surface and making lots of splashes.

Since it was quite late by now – 1pm – and sunny and quite hot, we went to find somewhere sheltered for lunch. Les noticed a covered picnic table at Red Bluff Beach, so we ate our lunch there (the bread rolls from Northampton IGA were very yummy), looking at Red Bluff, and out over the water where Les noticed a pod of dolphins. We thought we had been quite lucky today, seeing as many whales as we had, and the dolphins.

Eagle Gorge and Pot Alley. The rocks and landforms are very interesting – red, rocky, layered. On the way out, we stopped along the access road so Les could get some photos of some plants and flowers he thought we hadn’t seen before. 

While he was doing that, he looked up and saw some BIG splashes, quite close into the coast. So he quickly got Joy out of the car, and we watched there for a bit while a whale was performing. It was amazing! Breaching, fin slapping, great to watch. The whale was moving north, so we quickly got into the car and headed to one of the lookouts further north, hoping we could see more of the whale.

 So we drove to Red Bluff lookout, and hurried out to the closest viewing point. Sure enough, the whale had made it down that far. It was still playing around, putting on a performance. We watched for a while, but it must have tired itself out as it just did the fin-slapping, not the breaching. Still, we think we are extremely lucky to have seen such a thing.

We went to our accommodation Pelican Shores Villas in Kalbarri. It is a very large villa, and quite comfortable. Once we had unpacked the car, we went into town and found a café where Joy had a cappuccino and Les had a milkshake while we did the menu for the next 5 nights, and the shopping list for the groceries. Then to the butcher, then IGA, then back to the villa to properly unpack, and settle in for the night.

Today, it was very sunny and quite warm (about 27C, we think – quite hot for this time of year, according to the waitress at the café we went to). We both were wearing hats, luckily, but didn’t think to put on sunscreen. Since we were both in shorts and short sleeves, the first time on this trip, we both got sunburnt arms and legs. We will have to remember the sunscreen tomorrow, as it is predicted to be another sunny, warm day.