Category: Australia

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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 92: 29 August – A touch of civilisation

Author: Mr A

From: Kalbarri

To: Geraldton

Distance: 150 km

The storm raged in the early hours of this morning, the rain smacking against the van roof and reminding us again how pleased we are to have swapped the canvas of our beloved Ultimate camper trailer for the Zone RV’s fibreglass! A wet pack up with canvas…yuck.

It was an early wake up today with 17 German very close neighbours on the next pitch to us. They were all travelling together in this “unique mobile capsule hotel” (http://www.uniqhotels.com/rotel-german-bus-hotel)  – a bloody great bus. So just after 6am it was clashing pans and cooking a breakfast for their hord of hungry folks (yup…that’s a lot of sausage). I listened in on one conversation between the English speaking driver and a passenger who was complaining how she hadn’t really enjoyed the trip because…Australia was so big!  Mmmm..bit of Googling beforehand might have helped when booking. Imagine sharing a bus for 3 months with 16 other fellow passengers 24×7. My idea of hell but it takes all sorts!

We pointed south down the coast, sadly the rain was pelting down so we didn’t get to enjoy the incredible scenery we had passed yesterday on this stunning road. Surely this area is going to explode with tourism in the coming years, it has so much to offer. 

We arrived at our park in Geraldton at lunch and headed into town…our first “real town” since leaving Sydney at the end of May. We parked on the front and immediately noticed a wifi network….logged on with low expectations and WOW!!! We had several episodes of Suits downloaded in a flash…rather than the hours/days we normally take at the speeds we have seen on caravan parks offering “free wifi” since leaving home. Brilliant…we love this town already! Apparently its provided by the local council. 

Then this guy who has just parked next to us lowers his window and says “It must be Catherine and Mark?” Well…we wondered if he was a Council ranger about to arrest us for not just web browsing but downloading a TV series….but no….he had been following our blog and recognised us. A little spooky right. Australia is a big place but you can’t hide 🙂 We felt nearly famous!

We head into the shops…everyone is super friendly and helpful, and there’s so many choices of places to buy things from….could those two things be connected? I even got excited to walk through a Harvey Norman store…all that stuff for sale. It feels like we have been an age away from that world.  


Coles was our next treat. Oh so much choice, They even sold Scotch eggs (minor addiction). I even got a haircut. I’ve been trying to find someone to cut my hair since Broome, in the intervening 1,916km not one town had an appointment that involved waiting less than a week for a quick trim. If we start running short of cash I’m going on a hairdressing course and our Zone will become the Cutting Zone.


Well then it was back to camp, we’re staying at Sunset Beach Caravan Park, and it lived up to its name. One sunset to order for Mrs and Mr A as we wondered along the beach, pondering how this trip is changing us, because it is. I’m going to save that for another day. I have a big event coming up tomorrow which could change everything again anyway….so lets hang fire on those thoughts until we get that out of the way…

  

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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 90: 27 August – Exploring Kalbarri National Park

Author: Mr A

Distance hiked: 10.5km

Flights climbed: 24 floors

Kalbarri National Park is 40km out of town, but a world away from the coastal scenery we had seen here. Towering walls reared up from the Murchison River. 


We set off on a walk called the Loop – yup – no one way stuff for us today. The river looked so pristine below as we peered over the edge of the sheer cliffs.It was a fabulous walk, one of the best day walks we have have done on this trip. Only a kilometre from the crowded car park and ‘Nature’s Window’ and we were alone, only seeing one other family during the 4 hour walk. 


After heading along a ridge line we climbed right down to the river. 


A game of swans (yes that’s right – look it up) sailed regally along the river. The cygnets just picture perfect.

We followed the river as it bent around, eventually leading us back to almost the same spot we had started from….very convenient. We got back to the car as the first spots of rain fell – perfect timing. 

The colours of the spring flowers as we left the national park were incredible, splashes of pink, yellow and white wherever we looked. It seems Western Australia’s famous wildflowers are beginning to finally show themselves.


We had decided on a fish and chip supper this evening, purchased as the sun set behind rain laden clouds. We were woofing these down by 6pm in the mobile apartment as the rain beat its tattoo on the roof. 

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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 86: 23 August – Wooleen Station wanderings

Author: Mr A

Location: Wooleen Station

Distance hiked: 8 km

I pulled down a blind in the van and was greeted by leaden grey skies – quite a shock to the retina after our months of being greeted by another blue sky day. Nothing was encouraging us to venture out too quickly…so we didn’t. A late breakfast and then we drove back to the homestead feeling we should at least chalk up something today.

A walk was chosen from a couple of detailed booklets we had been handed when we checked in. It was really well documented history lesson on the property, showing us old graves, the remains of various ramshackle buildings and even the 1800s rubbish dump! It was such a dull day it just exacerbated the feeling of desolation that hangs around these stories of battlers against the odds of the vagaries of drought and floods in outback WA. What these people went through to try and eke a living beggars belief. 


We saw zebra finches taking a morning bath, and an as yet unidentifed interloper (in photo below for Rosemary to identify ;-)). 


We headed back to the comfort of our van both quiet and thoughtful, thinking how lucky we were. The temperature here regularly climbs beyond 50 degrees in the summer – that’s Celsius for our overseas readers. There would be no relief at night either with the temperature staying over 40 degrees. Imagine that with no A/C, fridge, cold beer! These settlers trying to make a new life here must have yearned for a “hot” English summer day that some of them would remember from their previous lives. 

A quiet afternoon in the van, my achievements only including knocking a glass of diet coke all after the ever so patient Mrs A. This was followed by me trying to “mend” her prized kitchen device, the hand operated food processor. That ended in her throwing it away. I had succeeeded in turning it from a partially fiunctioning device into a number of never to be re-assembled parts.

We finally headed out again late afternoon, before things got too worked up.  We walked up the Murchison River and spotted some Major Mitchell pink cockatoos, which immediately shook off the rather somber mood we had been in today with their pompous, strutting and waddling gait. We spotted heaps of other birds including black swans, welcome swallows, herons and ducks.


The sun was going down as we headed back to our little paradise on wheels for…..homemade chorizo pizza!!! 

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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 84: 21 August – Walking the beaches of Shark Bay

Author: Mr A

Location: Denham

Distance walked: 7km

We spent the morning getting organised for our final push down into Perth. Areas we want to see researched, campsites reviewed on WikiCamps and booked, road conditions checked (been some heavy rain up here), and scheduled our trusty 200 Series in for some TLC at Geraldton Toyota. 

The weather has been pretty chilly and windy, but we dragged ourselves out for a walk this afternoon and so glad we did. Heading down the to the beach, a short walk and we come across a mob (flock?) of five emus strutting around in the scrub. 


Further along the beach we were rewarded with a stunning late afternoon light show, captured exquisitely by Mrs A of course. 


Tomorrow we leave the coast for a few days and head inland again, a whole new adventure!

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