Once we left Karratha we really started into the wildflowers
– boy, does that slow the trip down! In and out of the car so many times.
The terrain was a little different as we left Karratha as we
found ourselves driving over very large parallel sandhills. We checked out the various free overnight
stops along the way and decided we’d spend a night near the turnoff to Exmouth.
Wrong move! It had a toilet and a dump spot (for portable toilets) but was
right on the road and so we decided to give it a miss and did another station
stay at Giralia Homestead. Before we moved off David had to help a Belgian
traveller change a tyre on his car (couldn’t find where to p;ace the jack – different in Belguim).
Giralia is one of a couple of large stations that cover most
of the north-west cape. It no longer runs stock and relies on tourists coming
to stay – very basic, but clean, so it covers all our needs.
We called in at Exmouth to see what was about for us to have
a look at. It is a VERY new town and exists purely for tourism. There are a
couple of very large caravan parks, a decent shopping centre and so many places
offering tours. The tours are largely related to whale watching, swimming with
whales, whalesharks and manta rays, snorkelling around the coral reefs and
turtles.
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| Emus on Parade in the road into Exmouth |
We spent five nights at Tulki Beach in the Ningaloo Reef
National Park. A walk along the beach at both high and, in particular, low
tide, allowed us to see a variety of corals, big blue sea slugs, turtles,
stingrays, fish and a number of reef shark. A short drive from our campground
had us on a gorge walk (Mandu Mandu Gorge) and then snorkelling at Oyster
Stacks (here it was only possible when the tide was above 1.2 metres or the
coral would take chunks out of you!) and then Turquoise Bay. At the latter, the
beach was divided in two by a point where there was a break in the reef. On the
southern side it was possible to float along with the tide looking at the coral
and the vast array of fish, although everyone had to get out before they went
too far and could be pulled out to sea. On the other half of the beach it was
possible to just snorkel around without any difficulties. This was a very pleasant way for David to
spend Father’s Day.
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| Campsite at Tulki Beach |
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| Taking a walk along Tulki Beach |
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| Mandu Mandu Gorge walk |
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| David coming into shore at Paradise Beach |
On a trip into Exmouth to see about doing a whale watching
sunset cruise we decided, as the weather was great and we were having a great
time snorkelling and just relaxing, that we’d book another couple of nights at
Yardie Creek (as far as we could go with our caravan). We had a good time out
on the catamaran for our whale watching. Another group had booked for the same
time and we were going to share with them. The other group decided to change
their time and so we had a private cruise. (This meant that the catering of
heaps of prawns easily fulfilled Sonja’s desire for a feed of prawns – of which
she ate nearly all of them)! We saw about half a dozen whales – a couple being
mother and calf. This meant we had to drive about 50kms in the dark back to our
site. Usually this would be fine, except for the hundreds of kangaroos we had
to keep our eyes open for so we didn’t have an accident on the way back – a slow
trip!
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| Shothole Gorge just out of Exmouth |
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| Mother and calf |
Our move down to Yardie Creek was easy (only another 30kms
down the road) but it was now overcast and the wind had come up and made it
very uncomfortable. We walked along the river gorge rim and along the beach. One
night of this and we decided to pack up and go into Exmouth to a caravan park
and do the washing (including our hair, as it hadn’t seen fresh water for 8
days….). The only good thing about the wind was that it did blow away the sandflies,
midges and mosquitoes that had been giving Sonja hell for the past week or so!
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| View of Yardie Creek and beach from lookout trail |
After leaving Exmouth we headed down to Coral Bay. This is a
very beautiful place, but the camping area is quite limited and VERY packed in.
We had a brief drive around Carnarvon before heading to a free overnight rest
stop at Edaggee – lots of flies here, despite the strong wind! Every time we
got in or out of the car we had to spend ages trying to get rid of the pests.
Very cold night – thank goodness for our heater!
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| Boat harbour at Coral Bay |
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| Colourful lookout on the way south |
Strong headwinds tended to slow us down quite a bit, as did
the fact that we were now well and truly into the Spring wildflower display.
With all the rain over the past months (particularly further south) it is the
best wildflower display for years. While it is now late in the traveller’s
season, we couldn’t get into some campgrounds as they were full. This was okay
when there were great places provided by shire councils and Western Australian
Main Roads Department – either free or a nominal fee. Some local communities
had decided to allow free camping (Latham and Kulin – showers and toilets!) or
cheap (Cadoux - $10 gave us power and use of their new sportsground
facilities). Our ‘Camps 7’ book and Wikicamps phone app. were great, but they
still didn’t have all of them noted. We stayed a little way out of Geraldton,
at Fig Tree Rest Stop, and the next morning while driving around
Geraldton, we found a free one at the
port (too early in the morning for us to use as we have to speed up and head
south to get down to Esperance and then home – holiday is gradually disappearing!)
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| Wildflower colour |
On our quest to see as many wildflowers as we could, we
headed to Pindar. We unhitched our van and left it at Pindar township to go out
along a corrugated road. Here we saw an extraordinary display of hundreds and
hundreds of wreath flowers. These were growing just along the side of the road.
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| A pink carpet |
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| One of hundreds of wreath flowers on the roadside near Pindar |
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| A view along one side of the road |
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| Beside Pindar Common |
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| Donkey Orchid at Buntine Rocks |
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| One of many bottlebrushes |
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| Don't know the name, but it was quite stunning |
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| Everlastings |
There were many other wildflowers as we drove along
throughout the day in an array of colours – yellows, reds, pinks, blues and
some areas appeared to be covered in snow because of the large areas of white.
We picked up a wildflower route book from the Geraldton
Tourist Bureau and used it to help our direction of travel.
As we headed further south, we noted, as expected, that it
was becoming colder. The doona came out the night we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn
and David had to start putting on a top when he got out of bed! Sonja insisted
the diesel heater go on at night and first thing in the morning! She also
changed over her summer clothes for her winter ones. In some places we followed the Rabbit-Proof Fence - the name giving the reason for it being there. We came across a couple of rabbit traps that were used to capture rabbits by funneling them into a large enclosure.
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| Rabbit Proof Fence sign |
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| Rabbit trap along one section of the Rabbit-Proof Fence |
We had a free night in a self-contained park in Kulin. This
town has a great community spirit that is displayed along the ‘Tin Horse
Highway’. There is a horse racing event here in early October, and to advertise
it, an artist was asked to design a tin horse to be put on display. The idea
caught on with all the community and there is now a large number of them along
the eastern and western sections of the highway leading into the town. It has
developed into a competition between the east and west. The community has
raised a large amount of money from their bush racing meeting and plaques have
been placed around the town denoting how the money has been spent.
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| One of the many pieces of artwork along the Tin Horse Highway |
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| Kangaroo Paw |
We travelled through Ravensthorpe and visited a wildflower
display that gave us a good indication of what wildflowers we had seen (and
missed). We bought a book to help identify the several hundred we had seen (and
photographed).
Although we were only a couple of hours from Esperance,
David decided he was a bit too tired to drive the full distance. So, we headed
down to the coast, intending to stop at a national park. On travelling out
along the road we discovered there had been so much rain over the past couple
of months that the causeway we had to cross had deteriorated so much that the
road was closed. That meant a return trip to Hopetoun to stay at a caravan
park. Lots of strong wind and our first night of rain for a long time.
Hopetoun is only a couple of hundred kilometres from
Esperance, but because of all the wildflowers on the way, it took us almost
seven hours to get there!
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| Hopetoun - the start of our cold, WET times |
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| One of the many, many Australian wattles | |
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| Scarlett Banksia |
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| Unknown Eucalypt variety |
Our time in Esperance has had us parked in the backyard of
Peter and Kerry (Sonja’s brother and sister-in-law). We’ve done a tour of the
port, and the Historical Museum, seen some of the beautiful beaches, found lots
more wildflowers, had an overnight in Kalgoorlie (where we caught up with
Sonja’s nephew Mark and his partner Nicky) and spent a day wandering around
Cape Le Grand National Park.
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| One of a variety of Spider Orchids found at Helms Arboretum |
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| White Spider Orchid |
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| Unknown Orchid variety |
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| One of many orchids |
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| One of many callistamen |
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| One of the beaches around Esperance |
In Kalgoorlie we had a good look at Super Pit No.1, a
massive hole in the ground that makes the huge ore-carrying trucks look smaller
than toys. Mark took us out to a great meal at one of the local hotels before
we went to have a look at their nice new caravan – a few metres longer than
ours and has an ensuite (Sonja’s a bit jealous). We had breakfast with Mark and
Nicky the next morning while Peter and Kerry went off for a couple of
appointments. We had a look through the Kalgoorlie Museum before setting off
for the 4+ hour drive back to Esperance.
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| Superpit 1 at Kalgoorlie - note the truck circled in the centre |
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| In the sccop at Kalgoorlie |
Our time at Cape Le Grand was done on a great day
weather-wise with lots of nice sunshine. We visited a number of stunningly
white beaches with brilliant aqua-coloured water. David did a couple of walks,
including the strenuous trek up to the top of Frenchman Peak. We had lunch at
Lucky Bay where we had to literally fight off a kangaroo that had decided she
wanted some of our roll. She became quite oblivious to her joey that was
wanting a feed of its own and tried dragging at our tablecloth while David
tried to move the plates away and Sonja swatted her several times to make her
stop. She tried a second time by nudging under Sonja’s arm to get at the food!
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| Helfire Bay |
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| Lucky Bay |
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| Unwelcome lunch guests |
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| Frenchman Peak |
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| On top of Frenchman Peak |
We had a couple of drives and some short walks around
Esperance and both had our hair cut. We spent a couple of hours in the museum
where they have a display of the Skylab that fell down around the area in 1979.
Lots of rain over the last days here, but it’s been a very relaxing time. I've included only a few of the hundreds of wildflowers we have photographed on this section of our trip - probably have enough to make a book of them!
