Author: Catherine Anderson

Catherine loves painting and photography as well as the great outdoors. Cycling, kayaking, pack-rafting and hiking are favourite activities as well as scuba diving when the location permits. A self confessed geek, she’s the reason details are included in our stories!
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Day 96: 2 September – Arriving in the big city

Author: Mr A

From: Cervantes

To: Roleystone, Perth

Distance: 231km

A short cruise down the coast had us arriving at the Pinnancles, an alien looking landscape of limestone rock formations protruding from the desert.


The origin of their unique structure is still unknown, and little work has been done to understand them. This trip has really underlined the incredible diversity of our landscape here, and how much of its formation remains lost in the 500 million years of its evolution. 


By mid afternoon we were entering our first city for three months. Closer to Jakarta than Sydney, the fact that we’ve driven here (the long way!) makes it all the more rewarding. We headed to the hills where we had arranged to visit friends of friends, Andy and Caroline. We watched the temperature drop on the Cruiser’s thermostat as we climbed up the tree lined roads. By the time we had arrived it was late afternoon and around 12 degrees! 

They had a fabulous roaring fire on the go and we settled down with a bottle of red to get to know each other. They have travelled over 64,000 km around Australia, yup that number is not a mistype. What an incredible journey, all written up in their blog (https://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/kangaroojack/). It’s just wonderful for us to meet new people like this and get an insight into their lives. There was certainly a lot of common ground around how health issues focus the mind on living life to the full while we can.  

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Day 95: 1 September – First day of spring…

Author: Mrs A

Location: Cervantes

Distance cycled: 12km

A blustery, showery day met us as we awoke this morning, making it very hard to muster the energy to get out of bed and greet the world. But we did, jumped on our bikes and explored Cervantes, heading first to Lake Thetis home to more ancient stromatolites. 


A 3,500 year old stomatolite in the rain:


From there we cycled back to the coast to the Lobster Shack. This is home to a multi million dollar business, fishing for and processing Western Rock Lobster (known locally as ‘crayfish’) – most of which are exported live overseas. They also have a very basic restaurant where their chefs cook up the locally caught lobsters for visitors. We had to try it out.


Verdict: delicious! I’m looking forward to cooking the one in our freezer soon…

The sunshine disappeared after lunch, replaced by ever strengthening wind and increasing showers. We decided to give up our cycle exploration and retired to the mobile apartment for an afternoon holed up with chocolate and binge watching some of the Netflix we downloaded in Geraldton! 

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Day 94: 31 August – A recovery day…

Author: Mr A

From: Geraldton

To: Cervantes

Distance: 230km

Dusty…very dusty…after last night’s wonderful dinner with the Sivrights. We stopped by their lovely home (incidentally its for sale if anyone looking for a cliff top, ocean views property in a gorgeous beach suburb of Geraldton – long shot I know!) and showed them round the Zone. Well it does show itself off rather well :). We left with the addition of a frozen crayfish for a future dinner!

We continued south past a ‘famous’ leaning gum tree, practically horizontal from the strong southerly winds they get in summertime in these parts. It was a good metaphor for how we both felt after the alcoholic excesses of last night!


We stopped in Dongara for some hangover food – fish and chips – they were awful! Fussy Poms, I know. Back on the road we followed the very scenic Indian Ocean Drive down the coast, pulling up for a quick nap right on the beach. Well an hour and 40 mins later we were up and at them.


Arrived in Cervantes and set up quickly at the RAC park there. Pretty ordinary.  Cervantes is named after a shipwrecked whaling ship of the same name, and these days is more famous for its cray fishing, stunning beaches, islands and natural beauty.


So we forced ourselves out for a late afternoon walk along the beach, that blew the cobwebs away finally. Back at the van I’m contemplating a beer 🙂 

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Day 93: 30 August – Entering the stalker’s lair…

Author: Mrs A

Location: Geraldton

We had booked our Toyota Landcruiser in for a service this morning, so that is how our day began, dropping it off for its mid-trip check up. While the mechanics were checking it over, we settled ourselves down at a busy little cafe in town, next to a wi-fi hotspot, and enjoyed some food and drinks while making good use of the speedy network. 

Geraldton was one of the first locations in Australia to receive the NBN (National Broadband Network – nationwide fibre optic high speed internet) and this is our first opportunity to try it out – it’s impressively fast, and we managed to download lots more from Netflix.

The car passed its service with flying colours with no serious problems identified. 

Our next task was a lot more nerve wracking, and the major event Mr A alluded to yesterday. Mr A’s driving licence expires in October, and in order to get a new one, he needed to pass an eyesight test. As many of you are aware, Mr A suffers from a rare degenerative eye disease, Pigment Dispersion Syndrome (PDS), and has lost some of his peripheral vision due to that. 

Over the past few weeks we have been discussing what we would need to do if he was unable to continue to drive…how I would need to learn how to tow and park the caravan – something that so far only Mark has done.  So, into the opticians he went. 

Forty-five minutes later I get the call – he has passed! What a relief! He can continue driving for another five years…


And so we returned to the campground. Yesterday we mentioned the stalker who approached us in town. Well he and his wife invited us over for dinner tonight. We quickly Googled to confirm there were no outstanding warrants, before bravely accepting.

We jumped into a taxi and headed across to the other side of town to Greg and Claire’s home. They live in a gorgeous big house overlooking the Indian Ocean, a koi pond in the front garden and tastefully decorated. It was funny being in a house again – reminding us our entire living space is about the same size of their kitchen! 

We had a lovely evening, good wine coupled with delicious homegrown olives, endemarme and cheeses, followed by a seafood paella. Lots of laughter had, enhanced by the timely message from friend Paul in Sydney:

‘Just read the blog. Run away from the man in the car. Have you not watched the movies?’


A fun evening discussing travels and adventures, and new friends made. Awesome! This is what travelling is all about…

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Day 91: 28 August – Not your average Monday…

Author: Mrs A

Location: Kalbarri

Distance kayaked: unknown – time 3 hours

Distance hiked: 4 km


In spite of hearing rumbling thunder all around us, we made the decision to head out on to the Murchison River estuary for an explore in our pack rafts this morning. Lightning strikes were seen in the distance, but for the most part it was dry for our paddle. As always we were lucky enough to see lots of birdlife including pelicans, kites, a kestrel, turns diving for fish and more. And no other boats on the water.


We weren’t lucky the whole time though, with the clouds taking a sudden turn and then dumping their cargo on our heads. We returned to the car, deflated the boats and went back to the mobile apartment for hot showers and lunch.


After drying off and warming up we decided to head off again, this time in the car to see more of Kalbarri National Park, the coastal aspect. And what a coastline it is. This seems to be south-west WA’s answer to the Great Ocean Road, without the flies and icy cold winds, with rock formations including the likes of ‘Island Rock’, ‘Natural Bridge’, ‘Castle Cove’, ‘Grandstand Rock Gorge’ and ‘Eagle Gorge’. There is an 8km walk along the cliff tops linking all of these, but we didn’t have time to do the whole thing, so did short walks between sections.


There has been quite a bit of money spent on these decking walkways – stunningly crafted along the edge of the cliff with no barriers, tastefully designed to complement the scenery. As we walked along whales breached and fin slapped out at sea and a number of kestrels swooped artfully along the sheer walls. We even saw a stunning bright blue Splendid Fairy Wren – sadly too far out of reach of my camera to get a good photo.


And there was non-feathery wildlife also. At one lookout we arrived to find a rock wallaby waiting for us in the carpark, while at another an echidna strolled nonchalantly across the road in front of us. Just magic!


Our final evening at Kalbarri finished with a lovely sunset and the promise of more storm activity tonight to see us on our way south. We really feel we have only touched on the surface of Kalbarri – there are so many paddling, biking and hiking opportunities here, a week or more would have been better. 

Regardless, tomorrow we head off towards Geraldton via Northampton to adventures new.


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Day 89: 26 August – Beautiful Kalbarri

Author: Mrs A

Location: Kalbarri

Distance cycled: 17 km

Mr A woke up early and full of beans so set about cleaning the van, car and mountain bikes all before 7am! Of course I couldn’t really just stay in bed, so before long all the washing was on also, and Mr A heading off to the nearest bakery in town for freshly baked bread.

So by 9am, we were breakfasted and all tasks done, so we leaped on the bikes for an explore. First impressions are impressive. Kalbarri is a very small sleepy village, with about 6 places to eat out, either small cafes or pubs other than one, a single souvenir shop, two tiny privately owned local supermarkets (extremely expensive of course), and little else. There is a fishing fleet at the marina, and a fabulous coastal cycleway all along a stunning coastline. Kalbarri is where the Murchison River meets the ocean – the very same river we camped and hiked beside in Wooleen Station winds its merry way down to here. Hard to imagine!


The town reminds us of a smaller and quieter version of Coffs Harbour in NSW, probably as it would have been about 20 years ago. It sits in the midst of a national park – with walks along the coast as well as along the Murchison River gorge. 

There is even an ice creamery here – Mr A was excited to try a couple of flavours (Nutella and caramel ice cream), but I am sorry to say their sorbet choice extended to a single orange variety which was extremely sickly and tasted like it had been in the display unit a few too many months. Straight to the bin.

We cycled along a lovely shared pathway which follows the coast to Red Bluff, where the stunning turquoise waters meet the iron filled rock of the cliffs.


We were recommended a new eatery to dine at, ‘Upstairs Restaurant’, which had only opened in early July. We checked it out for dinner tonight. The chef is Spanish, trained in a Michelin Star restaurant in France, and the owner a young Iranian lady who has moved up here from Perth. She has brought a lot of class, with tablecloths (I know! in WA!), an excellent menu and wine list, and incredibly cooked food. Having skipped lunch, we were hungry and booked an early meal to watch the sunset over the sea. The owner had some time to chat about the challenges of starting a new business in a small town. Apparently she was told ‘It’s all too much for Kalbarri‘ – but being booked out for weeks on end and getting rave reviews on TripAdvisor suggests otherwise. We told her to stick with it.

The food was brilliant, and the Clare Valley Shiraz-Tempernillo blend we had with it was ideal. We shared some tapas for entree (hummus, baba ganoush, olives, olive oil and balsamic served with delicious bread from a Perth bakery plus fresh local king prawn skewers) and had separate mains (a half rack of glazed pork ribs with salad and crispy potatoes for me, and a whole crayfish tail for Mr A with salad) – exquisitely cooked.


A lovely night and back in the mobile apartment before 8.30pm! 

Need to burn all this food and drink off tomorrow – we are planning to head into the National Park for some hopefully tough hiking!

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Day 88: 25 August – Back to the coast

Author: Mr A

From: Wooleen Station

To: Kalbarri

Distance: 415 km (220 km more than planned!)

Our final dawn at this station was shepherded in with a storm rumbling overhead, complete with rainbows. The raw beauty of this place just takes your breath away, and Catherine doesn’t have much breath to play with in the first place 🙂 

One last look down the stretch of the Murchison River that had shown us so many different moods in our few days here. 


We hitched up with our usual mixture of feelings when we find a special place. A bit sad to leave, knowing its very unlikely we will ever see this place again, and excitement for what’s ahead. We retraced oursteps to the Murchison Roadhouse. Now if anyone of you have occasion to refill the tank in these parts we can thoroughly recommend the place. Diesel at $1.29 a litre, cheap for this part of WA, spotless facilities, free Wifi that actually works and flowers in the garden! 

Ms Google was taking us to Mullewa, a tiny settlement that would break the otherwise long trip back to the coast. We arrived to find our unpowered site was on a hot, shadeless and dusty gravel car park across the road from any facilities in the main park…so we left in disgust. Why we should pay the local council $20s to stay in a car park I’m not entirely sure. A quick call to our next park and they were able to extend our stay to tonight…so off we roared. 

The most dramatic change in landscape occurred half way to to the coast. We went from the red dirt plains and acacia of the last few months up over a hill and this verdant scene opened up. Fields of yellow rape seed – our first cultivated non-grazing land since leaving northern NSW in early June. 

We arrived at our caravan park in Kalbarri pretty tired and quickly set up, heated up some pre-cooked yummy Spanish Mackerel  curry and flopped in front of the iPad for our nightly injection of Suits. 

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Day 87: 24 August – Hiking the Murchison River

Author: Mrs A

Location: Wooleen Station

Distance hiked: 13 km

Our faithful weather station predicted another day of cloud ahead so we decided to keep things simple and follow the river upstream, checking out visitors of a feathered kind as we went.


This river is a lifeline this time of year, when it becomes a collection of ever decreasing pools. The further upstream we walked, the smaller they became.

Birdlife really does flock here, with more pink cockatoos, ring-necked parrots, black swans, ducks, herons and even a pair of black-breasted buzzards with eggs in a nest. Masked woodswallows, zebra finches, grass wrens, a flock of white-browed babblers and many more brightened our afternoon as we picked our way along the banks and across the sandy river bed.

Along our travels we sprinkled the native grass seed we had been given on arrival – hopefully some will germinate when the wet season arrives and there will be a posititive reminder of our visit for future generations to experience. 


We returned to camp for hot showers and a chilled out rest of the day and, despite the largely overcast sky, another fabulous sunset.  Our weather station is promising a return to blue skies and sunshine tomorrow, as we head off to pastures new.

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Day 85: 22 August – Goin’ bush – Wooleen Station

Author: Mrs A

From: Denham

To: Wooleen Station, Murchison, WA

Distance: 343 km

Travel time: 7 hours (including lunch, breaks)

The alarm was set last night and we were up bright and early at 6.15am for showers and to pack up to head inland. We knew we had a big day ahead of us plus needed to top up with water at the desalination plant. A quick call into the bakery as we left town gained us some freshly baked rolls for lunch and confirmed the ladies working there are always wearing their grumpy-pants.


Before long we were heading up the Butchers Track, 144 km of orange dirt road through a nature reserve. The road was dead straight, the landscape the same the whole way, and you could be forgiven for thinking we were on a treadmill going nowhere. But we did eventually reach the end, and turned onto another orange, straight road. Despite this, the road was in good condition and only one vehicle passed us all the way. Our lunch spot was a flat clay pan at the side of the road, feeling beautifully remote.

Finally we arrived at Wooleen Station. We had been told about this location by other travellers around multiple campfires along the coast, who advised us it had been covered on Australian Story (an ABC television series) on several occasions. The station’s website was impressive, talking about stunning scenery, birdlife and an environment slowly recovering from over 100 years of abuse by overgrazing of cattle and sheep, as well as a huge increase in grazing native animals (predominantly kangaroos and emus) brought about by the introduction of permanent water sources. We were intrigued.

First impressions were good, with a fine welcome at the homestead, where we were handed a pile of walk and mountain bike trail leaflets and encouraged to explore.  We were also provided with a pack of seeds each, and asked to scatter them on our travels around the station to encourage native grasses to return.

It was another 14km to our riverside campground, on slow going farm tracks. By then we had really had enough of being in the car and were ready to arrive. We pulled into camp and first impressions were quite underwhelming. 

We are beside the Murchison River on heavily eroded sand and clay, with little view (on the site we picked, anyway!). We felt conned – we could get a better campsite than this for free, never mind the $30 a night we have paid. We cracked open beers and read some of the literature we’d collected. We felt better – the money from our camp fees goes towards improving the station and returning the Murchison River to its former glory – a tough target to reach, but admirable work all the same.

We decided to get off our bottoms and see the river. It is only about 10 metres away after all, a short walk down the sandy bank…and wow! Fabulous light and scenery awaited us, five black swans swam up the river, whistling kites soured overhead, a pair of Major Mitchell pink cockatoos landed beside us in a tree. Across the bank we saw a pacific heron and a little egret hunting for fish, and a flighty back wing stilt in the shallows. All this on our doorstep, plus more. It really is a beautiful spot.


The light was incredible – the sun low in the sky, bouncing off the water, the salmon-pink river banks and lighting up everything around us – a photographer’s dream. The last time I felt this magical feeling was in Windjama Gorge in the Kimberly, under very similar lighting experience. As the sun set we were in for a fabulous treat. It was extremely hard to pick a single photo to represent it – like a 20 minute firework display across the sky and reflected in the still pools.


We showered and home cooked a vegetarian Pad Thai for dinner (a Jamie Oliver recipe) with a glass of Shiraz – ‘Cat Among the Pigeons’. Delicious. I think we’ll be ok here for a couple of days after all.

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Day 83: 20 August – Another day, another shark…

Author: Mrs A

Distance driven: 12 km

We decided to stay in Denham another couple of nights, not quite ready to leave this beautiful area. As the campground is fully booked, we had to move to a new unpowered site just up the hill. Once settled we decided to explore the Denham locality a bit further.

Our first stop was just south of Denham, a typically quirky Australian feature – ‘the thong shack‘ (flip flops, not underwear!) right behind yet another stunning beach, and providing a great lookout along the coast beyond the rubber footwear.


From there we headed a short distance south to the Ocean Park Aquarium. This is not your typical aquarium – it is run by marine scientists, and many of the creatures have been rescued and are being cared for until they are released. 

Their speciality is sharks, and they have quite a number in a huge pool fed directly from the ocean, but in addition there are stone fish, eels, turtles, rays and many other fish and sea snakes on site. 

We learned a lot about them and also thanked our lucky stars we didn’t take our pack-rafts paddling in the Little Lagoon estuary – it’s full of poisonous stone fish! Ugh! Can you spot the fish in the picture below? We’re not sure we would. Once disturbed, these ugly beasts throw up a number of poisonous spines. Apparently the pain is excruciating, causing tissue damage and potential amputation, if not, death. Not pleasant.


We enjoyed a delicious and affordable lunch with an incredible view (are we still in WA?!) before returning to camp for the afternoon. Mr A relaxed with a good book while I got started on my presentation for my Chicago visit.

We finished off the evening with a seafood pasta coupled with an Italian Pinot Grigio and a fabulous sunset.

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