Wednesday February 26

Hard to believe that it is already more than two weeks since we left home!

We have just arrived back in Esperance after a week in Cape le Grand National Park, camped at the unbelievably beautiful Lucky Bay and two days a bit further east at Cape Arid National Park.  Lucky Bay is, as you can see below, just ‘picture perfect’ - no wonder so many people raved about it to us!

 

Lucky Bay

Lucky Bay - look carefully for the caravans amongst the trees!

More Lucky Bay

Lucky Bay from the Rossiter Bay walk

 Lucky Bay again from the Rossiter Bay walk

Just one more - the eastern side of the bay

The view from our campsite

Celebrating our arrival in the first national park of
our trip - thanks Bron & Glen!!!!

Apart from the snow-white silica sand, created by erosion of the huge expanses of granite which seem to flow down in to the sea, these parks are heathland ecosystems, which I have decided are a real favourite – a huge diversity of beautiful nectar-producing flora  and amazing, tough plants adapted to survive wind, sandy soils, salt and frequent drought.

Even though it is not ‘peak’ flowering time, the Banksia speciosa (Showy Banksia) and at least three eucalypt species (beyond it being evident that two of them are yates of some sort, the interpretive information available doesn’t allow me to identify them, which is very annoying!) are flowering profusely so the campground and surrounding areas are alive with noisy, aggressive New Holland Honeyeaters and Red Wattlebirds.  We can also hear many other birds, but our lack of identification skills and the excellent ‘keeping everyone else at bay’ skills of the honeyeaters means that we are not sure what they are.  Happily though the Willy Wagtails and White-browed Scrubwrens hop all around us and seem immune to their antics.

Showy Banksia

New Holland Honeyeater feasting on the nectar in the eucalypt

Insects are a valuable addition to the diet!

White-browed Scrubwrens were a delight 

Munji flowers

Some of the prehistoric-looking, semi-parasitic Munjis (Western Australia Christmas Plant) still have flowers and the large seed cases are also attractive in their own right, whilst a few of the mid-storey plants are flowering as well. Would love to come back here in September and October, when the weather would be much less appealing, but the flowers would be incredible.

Munji seeds

A 'grove' of Munji

Native Honeysuckle

Verticordia species

Eucalypt species

Smallish monitors frequently wander through the camp and cause the birds to launch into a frenzy of warning and scolding. I was amazed one afternoon to watch a Red Wattlebird dive-bombing one of these potential marauders and its attack was so effective that the monitor changed direction completely.

A group of Western Grey Kangaroos also lives around the campsite and they are, of course, very used to people and are often to be found sharing the shade of campers' awnings.  They (and the birds) obtain their water supplies in this very dry environment on the beach, as all along the front of the camp ground fresh water seeps out of the sand and creates pools and rivulets amongst the piles of seagrass and the sand.  The drying seagrass is obviously a food source as well, as the kangaroos forage amongst the large piles on the beach

Lunch time!

This certainly is the time of year to be here though – temperatures in Perth have been over 30, but we have had around 24 for most of the time and for three of the days at Lucky Bay the wind was very strong and quite chilly.

Murray has done lots of walking – from Lucky Bay to the next bay, Thistle Cove, to Rossiter Bay to the east and up Frenchman’s Peak, which affords great views across the heathlands.  He has also kept up his daily swims, with the exact spot chosen to avoid being swamped by choppy seas and has managed a bit of fishing, although this has been made difficult by the on-shore winds, so only one small Sweep has made it onto the menu. I have done a bit of walking, but in deference to the still-healing leg, have been ‘sensible’ (I have come to hate that word!).

 

Thistle Cove

Whistling Rock, Thistle Cove

One-sided Bottlebrush, Thistle Cove walk

Thistle Cove walk

Rossiter Bay walk. The holes in the granite were created by wave action when sea levels were much higher

Frenchman's Peak

Views from Frenchman's Peak

More views from Frenchman's Peak

Scott, Sally, Chelsea and Sami

As always when travelling, we love the opportunities it provides to spend time with some terrific people, especially in the national parks campsites, as those who visit these places and are not concerned about the ‘limited facilities’ tend to share our views on life (and if that sounds pretentious, I will swap it around and say that we tend to share their views).  At Lucky Bay we struck the jackpot with our neighbours  - ‘Syneysiders’ Sally and Scott and their gorgeous girls, Sami and Chelsea, who are on a seven month trip ‘around’ Australia, and Julia and Selgai from Munich, who are spending a couple of weeks here. We had lots of fun getting to know them all.

Julia and Selgai with Sal, Scott, Chelsea and Sami

Cape Arid is also a beautiful place and on arriving in the park on Monday morning a question that had occurred to me about whether we were trying too hard to see ‘everything’ was quickly answered – absolutely not! This is a different environment to that at Cape le Grand. Still stunning beaches and rocky headlands, but the heathlands include extensive stands of Showy Banksia which are flowering profusely and many large Grass Trees, which have incredibly thick leaves. As the camp site is actually amongst the banksia woodland, my collection of photos of WA flora has grown exponentially. Oh dear – get the reference books ready Scott!

Yokinup Bay from Cape Arid National Park campground

Thomas River and Yokinup Bay

The campsite

Grass Tree starting to flower

Banksia speciosa (and bee)

Following the obligatory swim and lie on the beach on our first afternoon, during which we amused (wrong word really – their bites are not particularly amusing) ourselves by providing many dead March Flies for the local ants to cart back to their larders, Murray was very excited to catch two Australian Herring from said beach - he had to abandon the rock fishing as the local crabs were dining out handsomely on his bait! 

Murray off for a swim!

Our first taste of Australian Herring and very nice they were too!

My clever plan to sit outside in the evening and keep my eyes peeled for any of the local populations of nocturnal Honey Possums, Chuditch and Quenda or Southern Brown Bandicoot which may have been wandering about was quickly abandoned due to mozzie attacks - the minor disadvantage of camping here near the Thomas River, which is not actually flowing into the sea at this time of year.  Any feelings of disappointment were quickly put into perspective when I remembered that the ever-present Camp Hosts had advised that my chances of seeing any of these creatures were decidedly remote and that the Thomas River Estuary promised opportunities to see even more wading birds than the Hooded and Red-capped Plovers and Sooty and Pied Oystercatchers we had spotted as we walked down to the beach. Mind you, as it is permissible to drive on the beach here, as has been the case with most of the beaches we have enjoyed thus far, and I would assume that it is highly likely that any of the identified endangered birds which manage to lay eggs would have them squashed by some passing 4WD,  it is incredible that we were seeing these birds at all.

Sooty Oystercatchers 

Our second day in the park was devoted to more extensive exploration and we enjoyed the Len Otte Nature Trail, designed and established by Len Otte, the first resident ranger in the park, in 1979. It was the first nature trail in any WA national park. The interpretive brochure Murray had picked up in Esperance was not as illuminating as it should have been as only two of the original twelve stops described are now marked on the trail, but luckily our ever-growing knowledge of the local flora, fauna and geographical features allowed us to do our own interpretation. We even found ourselves remembering important bits of information about heathland species that Alan Tinker had shared when we were at Western Flora Caravan Park in 2012.

 

One of the many Zamia Palms (really cycads!) we saw

Views to Yokinup Bay

Feldspar intrusion in the granite gneiss - more questions which require explanation!

Hakea clavata - has the thickest leaves of any Hakea species and looks
very much like some sort of succulent 

A visit to the river before the all-important morning coffee was very worthwhile as we saw a pair of Cape Barren Geese feeding on some shrubs on the opposite bank.

Tuesday afternoon was spent walking along the coastline to Dolphin Cove and as we traversed the many granite outcrops we were astounded yet again by the amazing views and marvelled as always at the forces of nature which have created this landscape. How we need a geologist travelling with us to answer the myriad of questions which continually arise!

Dolphin Cove

Looking back to the beach in front of the campground

So here we are back in Esperance for just one night, to stock up for our visit to Stokes National Park, catch up with everyone and update the blog. We will spend two nights here before going on to Fitzgerald River National Park.  More beautiful beaches and amazing heathlands to endure – we trust that you are appropriately concerned for our well-being!

Sunday February 16, 2014

Arrived safely in Esperance yesterday, but I will do the right thing and provide a little about the remainder of the five days travel that brought us here.

Our last post left us hoping to make it to Ceduna on Wednesday, which we did, initially through a very smokey landscape due to the bushfires.  As we had been able to explore the interesting places along this route as we travelled home in 2012 we drove straight to Ceduna, where it was a mere 33 degrees and extremely windy, arriving mid-afternoon.

Set off reasonably early on Thursday, with the aim of getting to Eucla that day. Reaching Nullarbor and the treeless plain yet again reminded us of the size of this country and its amazing range of ecosystems. It was very hazy along the coast and we were glad that we had enjoyed such great views of the Bunda Cliffs last time.  Still couldn't resist a look as they are SO impressive, even through the haze.

A lunch stop here enabled us to gobble up the last of our prohibited provisions before crossing into WA with its well-policed quarantine restrictions.  Was very windy and much cooler than it had been inland.

As we continued across the Nullarbor we saw our first wildlife - an almost white dingo, one snake which Murray skilfully avoided and two Shingle-back Lizards.  Crossed into WA at Border Village and as we were doing well decided to travel on past Eucla, where the road drops down onto the Roe Plains.

The weather was, as forecast, quite overcast and after Mundrabilla Roadhouse it began to drizzle lightly. Spent the night in a very salubrious roadside stop on the Roe Plains and, astute travellers that we are, realised that we were now in a very different time zone.

The fact that we had suddenly lost 3 hours (no daylight saving in WA!) meant that we were on the road very early WA time on Friday.  As it was very overcast, there were no impressive views to enjoy as we drove up the Madura Pass and back on to the Nullarbor Plain.  There was much evidence of heavy rain the previous day, so we were grateful for only drizzle.  As we drove along we once again relished the opportunity to learn all sorts of fascinating stuff by listening to Radio National (there will have to be a revolution if Abbott and Co tamper with our ABC!) and by launching into a DIY Talking Book - which involves me reading Hugh Mackay's latest and very thought-provoking book, 'The Good Life', aloud. By the time we get home we will be barely recognisable - much wiser and better informed!

As on our previous trip, we enjoyed the fascinating changes in vegetation as the soil types change and once again loved the mallee landscapes with their mallees and salt bush understorey.

Saw a group of four Australian Bustards on the side of the road and the another two further on, both of which appeared to have a strong death wish!  This photo is the not the result of my action-woman photography - I have pinched it from our last trip to remind you of what these imperious birds look like.

Based on a recommendation from friends Jenny and Brian Thomas, we decided to spend the night at Fraser Range Station about 100 kilometres west of Balladonia.  This station of some 440,000 hectares is in the Great Western Woodland, the world's largest eucalypt forest and was the first station settled on the Nullarbor.  Happily the current owners are committed to repairing the damage of decades of over-grazing and to preserving the significant history still evident in the stone buildings, tanks and other stuff.

One of the many beautiful Blackbutts 

View across the station from the range

We grabbed the opportunity to have a walk around and Murray climbed to the highest point around the station camp site, afgter which we walked down to the old dam for a bit of our very amateur bird spotting. Saw some Port Lincoln Ringnecks, Pied Butcherbirds and Black-faced Cuckoo-shrikes.

Next morning saw us on the road early yet again, so we were through Norseman and heading south towards Esperance before we knew it.  Arrived in Esperance before lunch and decided to spend a couple of nights here catching up with the kids (how old do they become before we stop referring to them as our 'kids'?) and Scotty, stocking up for our time out at Cape le Grand and Cape Arid National Parks and doing the blog.

All the tourist propaganda describes these parks and their beaches as superb. Given that those here in Esperance have taken our breath away, we can hardly wait to see what will surpass them!  You will have to wait until we come back from our visit to do your comparison as we doubt that there will be any phone reception out there for us to connect to.

So, until next the next post, here are some views of the sixteen beaches around Esperance with their white sand and unbelievably turquoise water to whet your appetite . . .

The 2014 trip to WA begins . . .

Tuesday February 11, 2014

Wacko - under way at last!  Left home at midday yesterday and made it to a roadside stop just east of the SA border last night.  Had forgotten how noisy cavalcades of large trucks which travel all through the night can be!  On the plus side, we were awake and ready to hit the road nice and early this morning!

Roadside stop

Put in a big day today, which was very admirable given how little sleep Murray reckoned he had last night. Travelled north to the Murray River at Loxton, then took the very pleasant trip along the river to Morgan. Crossed the Murray here on one of the great free ferries that can be found all along the river in South Australia.

The ferry!

Lunch on the banks of the Murray River at Morgan

From Morgan we drove to Burra, then headed north east to Crystal Brook, where the smoke from the nearby fires in the southern Flinders Ranges was very obvious, as were the many fire trucks and fire-fighters.
Once we joined the highway near Port Pirie the view across the ranges towards Laura, where the fire had again crossed containment lines, certainly made us think about the people whose homes and properties were under threat.

The fires from the highway near Port Pirie

Arrived here in Port Augusta at about 5pm. The temperature was a very impressive 45 degrees - OK for us, but not so good for those fighting the fires!  We have even resorted to the air conditioner, the first time it has had a proper run since we bought the van however many years ago.  Off again on the 'how fast can we get to Esperance' trip in the morning - hope to make Ceduna tomorrow.

Sunday November 4

Here it is – the next blog post and sadly, this will probably be the last one that describes new and exciting discoveries!

From Eucla we were once again underway at the ridiculous time of 6.30am and crossed the border into SA a very short time later, putting the watches and clocks forward a further 1 hour 45 minutes.  If we hadn’t already gained two hours crossing into WA back in early June, we would have been seriously sad about losing so much time from our already well-advanced three score and ten allowance!

As that huge piece of limestone which makes up the Nullarbor Plain now comes right to the coast and the Eyre Highway goes along that coast, there were important sight-seeing opportunities ahead.  Interestingly though, the landscape was still not bare and boring – it was reasonably well-vegetated with what looked to us like mallee scrub and, as such, afforded much potential for discussion about why this was so!

Lookout 1 was soon reached, so we duly pulled in and walked the short distance to the viewing point.  Here we were able to look west and see the start of the Bunda Cliffs, where the limestone plain drops beween 40 and 90 metres into the Southern Ocean for an unbroken 200km from here to Twin Rocks at Head of Bight.

Lookout 2, further along the highway, gave us a chance to see the cliffs booth west and east and what an impressive sight and one which evoked the same feelings of standing on the absolute edge of the continent that we had what seems so long ago on the west coast.  The colours in the limestone were beautiful and it was awe-inspiring to look down and think about the forces that have been at work for so many millions of years to shape this coastline.  We learnt from the interpretive signage here that the sediment which falls into the ocean as the cliffs are eroded is carried away by the sea (we didn’t learn that, as we did already know a few basics!) and much of it is dumped at the Head of Bight and forms the extensive sand dunes there.

 

I feel honour-bound at this time to point out that all photos that look like they have been taken from close to the edge are Murray’s work – I am still far too cowardly for such antics!

Lookout 3 allowed us another opportunity to exclaim about these cliffs as they wind their way to the Head of Bight – a more than impressive sight! 

 

Next milestone was the ‘town’ of Nullarbor (in reality just a roadhouse).  Just before reaching the place we passed a sign telling us that we were on the Nullarbor Plain and explaining the origins of the word -  nullus arbor, Latin for ‘no tree’ and thought that maybe we were finally going to see the sort of landscape we had expected.  And this is exactly what happened for what was, in terms of our whole trip ‘across the Nullarbor’, a relatively short distance. 

 

Back at the interpretive signage we had also been informed that the small drought and salt-resistant bluebush and salt bush of these plains thrive in this arid environment by drawing moisture from the atmosphere through their leaves and absorb the equivalent of their own weight each day – more amazing plants!

Just 14km out of Nullarbor we took the short drive down to the Head of Bight, where white sand dunes and beaches meet the Bunda Cliffs.  Despite the fact that the Southern Right Whales (the species that was so nearly completely wiped out by whaling) had already de-camped for Antarctica with this season’s offspring, which we had expected, the views were fantastic - the end of the Bunda Cliffs and the sand dunes formed by those eroding cliffs!

 

Leaving the Head of Bight we continued on our journey east and were surprised to soon leave the dry plain behind and begin to travel through undulating country (sand dunes?) covered with very healthy coastal mallee.  Citing the already well-utilised information garnered from the interpretive signage once again, this transition occurs where the Nullarbor’s soil changes from a limestone to a loam base, so we were a little bit pleased with ourselves as our earlier discussions had canvassed this possibility (without naming the soil types!).

It seemed no time at all before we suddenly found ourselves in wheat-growing country and were, as usual, asking how could country this arid possibly support a viable grain industry.  As in so many other grain growing areas, the land has been pretty thoroughly cleared over the years, so our joy at driving through extensive areas of natural vegetation quickly evaporated.

As had occurred the day before, we continued to travel east, not because the area was uninteresting but because there was nowhere we really wanted to stop.   The result was that we found ourselves in Ceduna a couple of nights sooner than we had anticipated, so we stopped there for two nights and had a look around. 

Walked around the town and were horrified to be reminded of the existence of sparrows and starlings – those damn Acclimatisation Societies have a great deal to answer for!  The harvest has just started so these feral birds are reaping the benefits of the fallen grain as trucks move vast quantities into the silos and bunkers. 

The port here exports gypsum, grain, mineral sands and salt and I was once again reminded of my ignorance of our history when I read that both Matthew Flinders and Nicolas Baudin had also been involved in the ‘discovery’ of this coast.  I loved the mosaic lighthouse!

We drove out to Denial Bay, where the oyster farms are located, but had no luck in finding someone who was selling them (had to resort to the seafood shop in town) and from there went around to Davenport Creek.  This estuary supports the most westerly areas of mangrove in SA and the beach is an important feeding and breeding area for little waders such as Red-necked Stints and Hooded Plovers.  How they manage to survive being run down by the Red-necked Locals who still feel the need to drive on beaches rather than use their legs and walk is a complete mystery to us though.

The beach was just alive with little birds hunting for food, running hither and thither to keep just ahead of the waves and sorting through the huge piles of seagrass.  We managed to identify Ruddy Turnstones, but are not sure of these other two – once again, we need proper bird watchers with us.

Left Ceduna and moved the vast distance of 110km SE to Streaky Bay on Thursday.  Unfortunately the weather had taken a turn for the worse and the sky was cloudy and the wind extremely cold.  Being so totally unaccustomed to such temperatures, we took a very dim view of the whole thing. 

Spent Thursday and Friday walking around the town, which has some beautiful old buildings and finding the seafood shops, as we always must do when in a fishing area.  The caravan park is right on the beach, so we were able to keep a very close eye on the weather too.

Breakfast time!

These totem poles on the foreshore are pretty good!

One incredible thing in Streaky Bay is the Powerhouse Restored Engine Museum, in which over 400 engines dating back to the early 1900s have been restored to working order.  The whole thing is done by 6 retired old blokes and it is just fascinating - even for someone like me who knows nothing about engines.

On Saturday and Sunday we went further afield and as the weather had improved considerably - 35 degrees then 41, we were pleased that we were near the sea and able to cool off!  Saturday saw us doing the Cape Bauer Loop Drive, where we wandered paths and boardwalks to enjoy the sights of Cape Bauer (more rugged limestone) and Whistling Rocks and the Blowholes.  As the sea was so calm, the Blowholes were not blowing, but the Whistling Rocks were really interesting – small tunnels go under the limestone shelf and come up through the limestone cliffs, so as the incoming waves force air through the rocks ‘whistle’.  On the rock ledge there were tiny ‘blowholes’ where water was shooting up, even in these calm conditions.

Cape Bauer.

 

Whistling Rocks.

After lunch, we ventured out to the Westall Way loop and checked out some beautiful beaches, with huge white sand dunes.  Next stop was Smooth Pool, a stunning lagoon inside some magnificent granite rocks at Point Westall.  A group of young blokes had collected some black and green-lip abalone, so Murray was determined that we should get back here!  From here we drove to Tractor Beach for a swim – not a tractor in sight, but the water (which was very shallow) was very refreshing.

Saturday night we treated ourselves to a meal out at Mocean, a seafood restaurant right on the beach and next to the jetty and very nice it was too!

On Sunday we set out on a longer trek south to Murphy’s Haystacks, a collection of ancient wind-worn inselbergs.  These pillars and boulders are ‘only’ about 100,000 years old and were buried by dune sand some 30,000 years ago.  Subsequent erosion has gradually revealed the pink granite forms, which stand starkly against the cleared landscape.  Local legend has it that the name came from a Scottish agricultural expert who saw the pillars (on Murphy’s farm) in the distance and was very impressed, remarking . . . ‘That man must harrow, look at all the hay he has saved’. 

 

Further south at Point Labatt, we marvelled at the Sea Lion Colony from the lookout above.  It is a magnificent location – extensive granite rock ledges and large flat rocks and many male, female and young Sea Lions were taking full advantage of the sun and lying on the rocks in exquisitely restful poses.  Every now and again the restfulness was disturbed by a young one which clambered out of the water, crying for mum (or so we presumed).  No-one was putting their hand, or flipper, up so mum must have decided that it was time for some independence!

 

This one is a male.

 From here it was back to Smooth Pool, where Murray donned the wetsuit and fins and managed to track down some large green and black-lip abalone.  He had consulted the young blokes about the relevant regulations, so there was no concern about not doing the right thing!

Smooth Pool

We then hot-footed it back to the van to try and get the awning down and cleaned (the rotten feral starlings have crapped all over the van and car – we knew we hated them!) and the chairs and table packed away before the predicted thunder storms arrived.   Having achieved this, all we need to do was get this blog posted, as tomorrow morning we leave Streaky Bay and make for Port Augusta, or environs.  Might even stay the night in Mount Remarkable National Park, where we met Sue and Ian right back at the beginning of this adventure.

Next report will be from home, just to wind things up, so stay posted . . .