Cape Range National Park – Esperance in Wildflower season

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.

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.

Campsite at Tulki Beach

Taking a walk along Tulki Beach

Mandu Mandu Gorge walk

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!  

Shothole Gorge just out of Exmouth

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!

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!

Boat harbour at Coral Bay

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!)

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. 

A pink carpet

One of hundreds of wreath flowers on the roadside near Pindar

A view along one side of the road

Beside Pindar Common

Donkey Orchid at Buntine Rocks

One of many bottlebrushes

Don't know the name, but it was quite stunning

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.

Rabbit Proof Fence sign

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.

One of the many pieces of artwork along the Tin Horse Highway

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!

Hopetoun - the start of our cold, WET times

One of the many, many Australian wattles

Scarlett Banksia

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. 

One of a variety of Spider Orchids found at Helms Arboretum

White Spider Orchid

Unknown Orchid variety

One of many orchids

One of many callistamen

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.

Superpit 1 at Kalgoorlie - note the truck circled in the centre

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!

Helfire Bay

Lucky Bay

Unwelcome lunch guests

Frenchman Peak

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!