Francois Peron National Park

PERON HOMESTEAD What a lovely start to our day out with Jan and Russ, we had a soak in the artesian hot tub with the water at 40 degrees then a hearty barbeque breakfast. What made it even more nice was the fact that we were the only ones there.
CAPE PERON POINT reached by a four wheel drive track so only a few other folk out here. Once again spectacular colours and lovely clear water where we spotted manta ray close to the waters edge and at other spots we sighted dolphins, tuna and whiting.

CAPE PERON looking west. There were a couple of people fishing off the rocks and then we saw some very adventurous people launch a blow up boat and we hoped that they were only just going around to beach with their gear for a spot of fishing, otherwise they would of been swept out to see with the strong Leeuwin current.

SKIPJACK POINT it was interesting how all these birds were lined up in their breeds, then a bit of activity occurred once one of them caught a fish.

SOUTH GREGORIES a sample of the coastline, you wonder how many years old this formation is with all the shells in the rock composite and then there are stones, shells and coral scattered beneath it.

BLUE TONGUE LIZARD footprints on the track.

Where the Desert meets the Ocean

RED CLIFFS near Monkey Mia how stunning is this? The opposite of where the rain forest meets the ocean in North Queensland. Last night it blew like I don't know what and today has been the same, half expected our washing to end up at our home on the Gold Coast.
Unreal how you can have a rock compacted with shells adjacent to the red one.

JAWS! We met up with Jan and Russ and went to the local aquarium, it was very good with shark feeding and different tanks home to local fish and sea snakes. There was a lovely deck for the coffee shop but a bit draughty to partake.

Be afraid...very afraid.

Shark Bay, Denham

INDIAN OCEAN at Denham this is the view from our site, which is in the most western caravan park in Australia, tough but someone has to do it. A really nice friendly park and we have caught up again with fellow caravanners Jan and Russ which has been lovely. This country is very small as we have met up with then in Tasmania, Victoria and twice now in Western Australia.
HAMELIN this is an old quarry of compacted sea shells, they compact down with rain and were cut into bricks. The area is now world heritage listed so they are no longer able to do this. In the bay next to here are more stromatolites - the world's oldest living organisms like we saw in the lake near Cervantes.
EAGLE BLUFF more of the amazing WA coastline, the water is just so clear and the dark patches are sea grass. 10% of the worlds dugong population live in this area, can't blame them.
SHELL BEACH the white is from small cockle shells which are up to 4000 years old and 5 to 10 metres deep in parts. Next to here is a section where they are collected and make shell grit like you buy for the base of bird cages.

Kalbarri National Park

HAWKS HEAD at Kalbarri National Park. The whole area was spectacular with these stunning gorges and the Murchison River winding it's way through, although today the water was pretty stagnant.
RIVER BED at the Ross Graham lookout, incredible how this tree grows amongst the rock.
ROSS GRAHAM LOOKOUT at this section of the gorge the river bank is very sandy. Debri is scattered quite a way up on the banks showing where the river has been.

THE LOOP to access this section of the National Park you travel down 26kms of corrugated road and they were not joking about the road being corrugated. Loved the varying colours of the vegetation and earth.

NATURES WINDOW section of the gorge.

NATURES WINDOW with Mr and Mrs Cara Van.

Z BEND this area was really spectacular as you looked each way at the bend.

RIVER at the base of the gorge, we hiked, note hiked, not walked down to here which was about 1 kilometre deep and it was well worth the effort.

Just part of the hike we did through the gorge down to the water.

Stunning Coastline!

POT ALLEY, KALBARRI BLUFFS What a great drive it was today from Geraldton to Kalbarri with rolling hills, sheep and then these stunning colours in the cliffs. It was a photographers paradise and there were actually several groups at each lookout which made a change from visiting sights and being the only ones there.
POT ALLEY it felt like we were in an area where the Grand Canyon, Nevada, USA meets the ocean.
EAGLE GORGE interesting how the colours changed along this coastline.
ISLAND ROCK this part of the bluff was at the Southern end and more pale.

PINK LAKE, Port Gregory and it sure did live up to it's name today with the water this colour due to the naturally occurring betacarotene content. Port Gregory seemed to have a few holiday homes and a caravan park and no doubt great fishing.

Sun City, Mid West

LEANING TREE at Greenough Flats, as you can see the area has a lot of high winds from November to April, not good for the vegetation, yet this tree still grows, but fantastic for wind surfers.
ST FRANCIS XAVIER CATHEDRAL, Geraldton. Construction was commenced in 1916 and completed in 1938, the architect was John Hawes who was responsible for the design of several buildings in this city.

INSIDE the Cathedral, very unusual.

POINT MOORE this is the tallest metal lighthouse in Australia at 34 metres high. There are a few shipwrecks off this coastline, which isn't surprising with all the reefs.

HMAS SYDNEY MEMORIAL a very impressive structure with the dome's silver seagulls, each seagull represents the crew etc that perished when the ship sunk just north of here at Shark Bay. The bronze statue is a Mother waiting for her son or husband to return safely.

Back in Time

GREENOUGH HISTORICAL SETTLEMENT is north of Dongara and is a street with at least a dozen heritage listed buildings. During the 1860's it was a thriving agricultural area and in 1888 was flooded with the population dropping dramatically in the early twentieth century. Since the 1970's the buildings have been bought and restored.
ELLENDALE POOL driving through farmland and past the Alinta Wind Farm that has 54 of the world's biggest wind turbines you come across this spectacular rock wall. The water is a permanent pool and there were several caravans there with their generators running, no facilities and busy waving off the flies. A lovely spot to visit but not our idea of a spot for camping.
LUCKY BEACH another spectacular spot we came across after going down another gravel road and 4 wheel drive track. The noise of the waves crashing against the rocks was very impressive.

LUCKY BEACH CARETAKER Looks like he has been dressed from items washed up on the beach, we found three thongs and donated them to his footwear collection.

Indian Ocean Road

LEEMAN The Turquoise Coast has some lovely bays, rugged limestone coastline and several islands offshore. it is freaky watching the waves breaking several metres high out on the reef, just visible in the distance. The area is a cray fishing spot so a few big boats moored and surprisingly not many people out fishing yesterday.

SANDY CAPE More of the variety of scenery with some of the sand blows. Driving in to here we saw a feral cat and coming out a fox. Most national parks and reserves have signs up showing that poison has been laid as foxes pose a big problem to wildlife and stock.
There are also a lot of salt pan lakes and lime and gypsum being mined.

STOCK YARD GULLY CAVE After going down a gravel road and then 5km's of 4 wheel drive sandy track we reached this area, you follow the sandy creek bed to enter the 300 metre cave that as the title reflects is where the stock route was. I was very privileged and Paul let me drive out on the sandy track.

We have found the roads in Western Australia excellent and hardly any traffic.

Nambung National Park

THE PINNACLES DESERT We have based ourselves at Jurien Bay on the Indian Ocean Road and handy to The Pinnacles. As you can see there is a road through The Pinnacles which is just brilliant as you can stop along the way and have a wander.

Yesterday was an exciting day for the area as there was some much needed rain, so there will be some very happy wheat farmers out there.

ME STANDING BEHIND ONE OF THE ROCKS There is a new information centre at the entry to the National Park and then a 1.2km walk which takes you through the centre of The Pinnacles.
MORE,

MORE,

AND MORE!

LAKE THETIS near Cervantes, these formations are stromatolites and are the oldest known living single celled organism on earth and grow around the edge of the lake.

Darling Range

MUNDARING WEIR We have had a lovely few days looking around the area where Nicola and family live and Nicola took a couple of days off work which was great.

This dam was built about 100 years ago and is the source for the 650km water pipeline that goes to Kalgoorlie as well as serving the local area. The water is so low at present that you can see the sleepers of the original train line.
LAKE LESCHENAULTIA a freshwater lake fed by five streams. This is a really popular spot in the summer time for bathers and canoeists as in the summer they have temperatures up to 45 degrees.
1895 RAIL TUNNEL in the John Forrest National Park, it must of been at least 500 metres long and the ceiling with all the brick work was very impressive. When walking through it was pitch black in the middle.
SIMON with the cute family dogs on their property at Bakers Hill. When you drive through these towns you think that there is only the hotel, general store and servo but venture out and in Bakers Hill there are several new subdivisions with homes on 5 acre blocks.