Colourful Kalbarri

The trip from Denham to Kalbarri was an easy run with many beautiful wildflowers along the way.

Just before turning off the highway we encountered some fields of wheat - our first in almost 4 months. Farms instead of Stations, ordered fenced paddocks, tree lined drives which led to houses you could actually see - we had reached the settled lands and already were missing the wilderness and wide open spaces - perhaps not so much the dust and corrugations.

 We have been to Kalbarri before, when the kids were very little and we were tenting, and in some ways it feels as if we have completed our journey and it is time to head for home - if only we had a home. At least the house is up to floor level - the poor weather has caused many delays.

Kalbarri - beautiful expansive gorges, wonderful wildflowers, a wild coast with massive waves crashing on the reefs, sculptured cliffs, pelicans gliding on the estuary - quite a magic place. We walked, rode, explored, and relaxed.

 

 

 

 

 

World Heritage Drive

...Hamelin Telegraph Station is the first stop on the Shark Bay World Heritage Drive. Leaving Wooleen Station early in the morning we said farewell to Anne and Roger who were travelling South to look for wildflowers. We had thoroughly enjoyed our 6 days with them and hope to catch up with them again later in the trip. We took the road back to Murchison Settlement and several kms north of the Roadhouse turned West on to Butchers Track. The track was sandy in parts but generally in good condition. From Wooleen to the North Coast Highway was 190km and we did not see one vehicle! We did see some beautiful wildflowers including masses of yellow everlastings and pink daisies.

 

 We travelled north on the Coastal Highway, back over the 26th Parallel (we were back in the North West), and then west again on the Shark Bay Road which was the start of the World Heritage Drive. Over the next 3 days we thoroughly enjoyed exploring all of the significant sites on this drive.

 

Hamelin Pool Stromatolites

Shark Bay is one of only two places in the world where living marine stromatolites exist. The living fossils contain microbes similar to those found in 3,500million year old rocks - the earliest record of life on earth. We stayed next to the historic Telegraph Station which was a link in the line from Wyndham to Perth, and also linked with the overseas line at Broome. The walk to the stromatolites  took us past a quarry where large blocks of cemented shells were mined.

 

 

 

 

Next morning we made a return visit to the beach and stomatolites before breakfast and at 9,00am set off for Denham. along the way we called in to Shell Beach.  A beach made up entirely of tiny shells from animals known as Hamelin Cockles. The discarded shells have heaped into piles up to 10m thick and in some places the beach is 1km wide. The shells are mined for shell grit and paving material.

 

 

 

 

 

Eagle Bluff  was our next stop with a boardwalk around the top of a dune that overlooks shallow water and meadows of sea grass. We saw a couple of turtles swimming and many cormorants on the 2 rocky islands.

 

We arrived in Demham, a quite lovely holiday town, for lunch then caught up with domestic jobs. Later in the day we rode along the waterfront and spent an hour in World Heritage Discovery Centre. The Centre includes an excellent museum which covers all aspects of the Shark Bay District. Our entry entitled us to a revisit the following day.

Shark Bay World Heritage Discovery Centre

View from Denaham main street


We spent a very enjoyable morning at Monkey Mia despite the early start and the freezing wind. The Dolphins are fed at around 8.00am which meant leaving Denham soon after 7.00am. There was quite a lot of standing around waiting with a large crowd and the feeding itself was over pretty quickly. We did get a good look at them. After a coffee to warm up, we went on a sand dune walk which was lovely. Quite a few flowers, especially the big mauve daisies, six sightings of the Thick Billed Grass Wren which has come back from being extremely endangered in the National Park. Lovely views out to sea and a walk back along the low tide beach. In the afternoon we spent atwo more hours at the World Heritage Museum with a short break for a Magnum ice-cream.

 

 

 

Next morning was a 9.00am start at the Ocean Park Aquarium where our tour guide was a marine biologist. He was able to explain the habits and defence mechanisms of a variety of marine creatures. Highlights were the squid and seeing how they change colour as a defence mechanism and as a means of communication; the stone fish and the speed with which they take in any prey that swims past their noses; the lion fish with their poisonous feathery fins; and the cleaner fish who hold cleaner stations for large fish to come to - a bit like a car wash. After all this and also watching the sharks being fed, Merilyn says she is never going into the sea for a swim again - she'll stick to Huddart's pool.

First stop on our afternoon drive was at Little Lagoon and a walk along the bank of the clear water creek that connects the lagoon with the sea. Almost perfectly circular in shape Little Lagoon was once a land locked gypsum pan that was inundated by the sea several thousand years ago.The pristine waterway is a natural nursery for several fish species.

 

Then on to Peron Homestead Historic Precinct and a walk around the shearing sheds and associated yards and buildings.

 

 

After three days we are moving on but feel that we might come back one day. There is still much to discover and it is a very lovely place. A flight over Dirk Hartog Island and a catamaran trip from Monkey Mia are both appealing.

 

 

Inland Circuit

Our journeying over the last week and a bit has seen us staying at 4 stations, a roadhouse, another lovely  National Park, and a coastal holiday town. Much of it we shared with friends Anne and Roger from Tasmania. We managed to fill the van with a lot of red dust!

Quobba Station - North of Carnarvon the plains and red sand dunes go on and on and then stop abruptly at the coast with its rocky shelf and spectacular waves. On the way to the station we admired a spectacular blowhole and then set up camp just over the first sand dune. In the afternoon we drove further up the coast - more huge waves breaking over huge rock shelves and also a stockpile of Rio Tinto salt from nearby Lake Macleod ready for shipment overseas. We also visited a lonely memorial to the seamen who died on H.M.A.S. Sydney in WWII. The Sydney was sunk by the German raider Kormoran off the W.A. coast and all hands were lost. The Kormoran also sank and the survivors came ashore near Quobba Station.

 



Bidgemia Station - East of Carnarvon, 11km further on from Gascoyne Junction. Anne and Roger arrived just as we started lunch, they had come from Mt Augustus. Our camp was next to the Shearers Quarters overlooking the Gascoyne River bed and we made good use of the Camp Kitchen. We walked West along the river bed before afternoon tea and East afterwards. The river bed is about 600m wide in places and two years ago, after a cyclone, the river flooded and rose halfway up the walls of buildings. The owners retreated to the top of a water tank and were rescued by helicopter next day. The station was pretty and tidy and they have almost recovered from the flood.

 

Kennedy Range N.P. -  60km north of Gascoyne Junction. Very remote, arid country with wonderful gorges. On top of the range the country is undulating with red sand dunes. Hardly any visitors and not many birds - spectacular and silent. Over our 3 day stay we hiked into 3 gorges, climbed to the top of the range, rose early for a sunrise from a lookout AND found the nesting site of some Dawson Burrowing Bees. These are Australia's largest bees and nest in individual holes in the ground. We had seen a video about them whilst in Carnarvon and Anne and Roger had found out about them at Mt Augustus on the same day! We were very excited to find their nesting site (Roger had been given information on where to look by a Ranger at Mt Augustus) and we were glad they didn't sting because they were very big. It was very interesting to watch these big bees pop in and out of the holes where they lay cocoons filled with honey. The indigenous people cook the grubs still in their mud cases as a delicacy. All of the gorges were impressive but Honeycomb Gorge was so interesting with it's sculptured walls. The temperature was over 30 degrees C every day.

 

 

 

 

 

Murchison Roadhouse -  About 360 km from the Kennedy Ranges. Dirt roads all the way, many interesting stops, only saw 3 other vehicles, travelled from the Gascoyne Region into the Murchison Region and below the 26th parallel - officially out of the North West. When we pulled into Murchison Roadhouse we decided to stay because the grass was green, the showers hot, we could go out for dinner (no cooking or washing dishes) and we could have a latte after visiting the local museum next morning. A real oasis.

Merilyn Driving

 

Old well on stock route

 

Wooleen Station - only 50 km east of Murchison. We were welcomed by Frances and the dog 'Poppy' a kelpie who loved to chase sticks and golf balls. Frances and her husband David have featured twice on 'Australian Story' over the last 18 months. They are making great efforts improve the condition of the de-graded land , whilst still keeping it as a working cattle station. Tourism has become am important part of their business. After setting up and having lunch, armed with a mud map, we took ourselves to two pools along the Murchison River where we were able to see some good birds. Back to camp for afternoon tea, a walk around the Station Museum and off again with the mud map across a dry lake bed and to a spot where we could watch the sunset.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next Station was Hamelin Station, Hamelin Telegraph Station ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wonderful Cape Range N.P.

First stop after Onslow was Exmouth - a relaxed holiday town. No high vis jackets, utes with flags, big trucks etc. but plenty of vans, motor homes, grey nomads and backpackers. Some nice homes being built on a large marina estate - blocks between $350,000 and $450,000, several new resorts, many businesses associated with diving, game fishing, boats chasing whales and a fairly busy port with huge prawn trawlers and large tenders which service the off shore oil and gas rigs.  Also very evident are the huge masts of the Harold Holt Communication Centre - the central mast, one of 13, is the second highest structure in the Southern Hemisphere. They communicate with navy ships, navy bases and submarines around the world and also of course with Canberra . We enjoyed our two days exploring the area, despite probably being in a nuclear target zone.

Then it was time to try and get into Cape Range National Park, which is on the western side of  North West Cape . Enquiries at the Information Centre informed us that we needed to line up at the Ranger's Office at about 7.00am and the Ranger would allocate sites at 8.15am when he/she knew the number of vacancies - there had been only 10 vacancies that day. We were also told that if we arrived much before 7.00am we could be fined for illegal camping. So next morning we were up at 5.30am and out at the offfice at exactly 7.00am to find ourselves 10th in line! We popped the van up and had breakfast and waited anxiously.  At 8.15am a Ranger slowly moved down the  line of cars, we prepared ourselves to be turned away, but he got to us and said there were 14 vacancies that day. We were in!! We were allocated a site in Ned's Camp, the first camp  in the park, and it was just lovely. Our site, one of 15, was fairly sheltered and only about 30 metres from a pristine beach. The surf was spectacularly breaking over Ningaloo Reef, about 500m off shore, and the lagoon was turquoise blue and calm. From our van we had a good view across the car park to the sea. Camp Hosts Steve and Kerry were very welcoming and it wasn't long before we were meeting neighbouring campers. We only booked for 2 days but kept extending and stayed for 8. We walked on beaches, up gorges, along ridge tops and around a mangrove lagoon. A 2 hour trip on a glass bottom boat was lovely and also allowed us to snorkel over the coral reef. Happy Hour at 5.30pm each day enabled us to chat with other campers, some of whom came every year and stayed for the maximum 28 days. We met some lovely people. From a hill near the lighthouse ( where we went to make phone calls) we could watch humback whales on their annual migration to breeding grounds up the coast. We were given some lovely fish for tea one night - the fishermen in camp caught fish every day from their small boats or canoes, although sometimes they lost their fish to sharks. The whole experience was a lovely holiday within the holiday. We would like to come back.

We were a bit sad to leave but ready to move on. Carnarvon is quite a lovely place. Lot's of plantations, orchards and vegetable gardens. We are eating good tropical fruits and lovely fresh vegetables. Soon we are to catch up with our friends Roger and Anne in the Kennedy Range N.P., inland from Carnarvon - back to red dust and rocky roads.