August 2022 – Chris & Merelyn's Travels

Aug 29th

The last couple of days we have been staying in a R V park in the small town of Dumbleyung, Just a couple of shops, a pub and a nice park.

Some of you may have heard of Donald Campbell. Back in 1964 he broke the land speed record on Lake Ayre and the water speed record on the Dumbleyung Lake .

There is a replica of his Blue Bird boat in town as well as lots of mementos of the occasion. A Museum has a movie, which we watched, of Campbell and the event.

There are a lot of lakes within an hours drive, so we left the van for the day and drove out to Lake Grace. The wildflowers are a bit different to the ones we found on the coast, I guess its because of the salt flats they are growing on.

This tinny on the bank shows where the water level was up to in the foods of 2006. The lake level is well down at the moment.

Most of the roads are good gravel, but then some are defiantly no go zones, as we found out. I think we should have realized when we bypassed this make shift bridge

While we were out we also did some of the wildflower trails. Hope your not sick of them yet….

One of the trails that was sugessted to see flowers, was along the rail track. I was busy taking photos when along came a train, yea , some different pics.!

As well as the flowers,we also came across an old water tank that would of been used for the steam trains back in their day.

It was a big day out, and I was glad to get back to the van, also to see a rainbow over the park we are in.

Another drive today out to the lake where Donald Campbell broke the world record. There is a monument up on the hill overlooking the lake. We drove the lake circuit and through lovely farmland and had nice views of the lake from the lookout.

On the boat ramp from which the Blue Bird was launched.

A small town, in the middle of nowhere, with an interesting piece of history. Glad we stopped in. We will move on tomorrow…

Aug 27th

After spending two days in the park at Fitzgerald, we have moved up North a bit to a RV park at Dumbleyung . We only stopped once to get fuel at Jerramungup. A bit cold today, with some lite showers of rain this afternoon.

If you like bush flowers then scroll on and I will show what I found around the last bush camp. Lachenalias growing wild, reminded me of my childhood home. Mum had them growing on both sides of the front path to the house.

And freesias, one of my favourite scented flower.

And wattle trees in bloom, my sinuses’ haven’t let me forget that we were camped in a park surrounded by them. AhhhChooo.

These little orchards are commonly called Donkey Orchids. They seem to be the first orchards to flower each spring, and the easiest to find.

Some Daisys and other flowers, that I don’t know the names of, also put on a good display.

While wandering around I try not to tread on anything that’s flowering, even the ground covers , they are so delicate. And some things not so delicate, but well camouflaged.

All the gum trees are out in flower as well, so many different colours and shaped gum nuts.

The WA orchid, is harder to find as it is a bit early yet down south, and the flowers are green before they open, this one I found must have been in a warm spot, compared to the others.

The one below, is the only one I found of this type, a Caladenia orchard. It was growing out from under a fallen tree.

A couple of not so good pics, of the canola in the paddocks as we drove today. Bring on tomorrow…

Aug 25th

Today we left Hopetoun and travelled through the Fitzgerald National Park. All I can say is, if you have the chance to go there in spring ,do it. We were probably a little early, but there was still plenty of wildflowers out. Absolutely butiful.

At the top of the range we stopped and did the short bush walk, and looked back over the Hopetoun area.

We walked bush tracks as well as some beaches. This is by far the most beautiful area we have been to this trip.

I hate snakes !! But even this little horror didn’t spoil my day, although I did give him a wide berth. Yuk !

It is only about 80 km, through the park, but it took us all day, so much to see, as we stop along the way. Bush and sea cliffs, beaches and even caves in the rocks. Oh and have I mentioned bush flowers, yes lots of bush flowers.!

Even after we had stopped at all the recommended places, we found we were still pulling up on the side of the road, as we saw a different coloured flower in the bush. It’s not just me, Chris points things out and stops.

At the end of the National Park we started to see the farms with the canola in flower. What a beautiful day, time to find somewhere to camp.

We found a large bush area that was once the Fitzgerald school site. More from around here tomorrow. The sun is setting on what was my kind of a good day .

Aug 24th

On the way again, we left Esperance and headed south towards Hopetoun. A town that became one of our favourite places to visit since 2007.

On the drive down we called into the farm gate art stops, quirky things made out of old machinery. Strange but worth a look.

I can’t resist taking photos of the wild flowers, each time we stop, so there will be plenty from now on, spring in WA is the the best.!!

I think this is meant to be a helicopter, but the little lamb was what caught my attention.

There is a new RV area behind the sand dunes, so we are parked up for a couple of days. The town has changed so much since we were here the first time. Back in 07 it was mainly gravel tracks through sandhills with a pub on the beach front. Now there are more houses, shops and a park. The pub is still the most prominent building in town.

It seemed quite safe to unhook the van and go for a drive, so we went out to some of the other areas close by. The fields of canola are beautiful at the moment.

thats supposed to be a bull in the paddock , then an all year round Christmas tree!!

Last time we were here the gravel road came through this area, now it has been made into a bird sanctuary and a new bridge and road built.

The beach behind us became quite rough a couple of nights ago, all night I could hear the waves dumping. A bit different to our bush camps.

Then just like that, it calmed, and today we walked into town for a coffee, a sit in the park, then came back to the van along the beach. Just perfect.

Can you see why we love this place?!, even the seaweed is beautiful to me on a day like this. Tomorrow we move on….

Aug 22nd

How lovely is Esperance WA. Time to get the car serviced, so we booked into the Bushland caravan park for a few days.

Car done and it was time to do some day trips. The coastal areas are spectacular down South here. The water is a brilliant blue.

As well as the ocean views, the bush walks around the rocky cliffs are worth doing. We found lots of bush orchids starting to flower, as well as most shrubs already in bloom.

So many nice little beaches that you can get down to. Coming back up in summer may be a different thing.

I have to say I love the contrasting colours of this photo. The rock, the wattle, the green, the blues.

The birds are also enjoying the early spring.

What was supposed to be a 20 minute walk, took us about 2hrs by the time we chatted to others, and walked the bush looking for different flowers, and of course taking lots of photos.

I took the stairs down onto this beach, better than some of the cliffs we’ve gone down.

This beach looked inviting, but the stairs… yeah/nah.

Last sunday we thought we would have breakfast down at the jetty. Butiful day again but WA doesn’t have Sunday trading, and that included the Jetty Cafe . So we just had to walk the Jetty on an empty stomach.

We ended up staying 5 days days in Esperance, its a lovely waterfront town . And we had good weather !

Aug 17th

Well the end of the Nullarbor..the next stop was Norseman, on our previous trips we hadn’t taken time to look around, so this trip we did.

There are quite a few nice murals and a horse monument for a horse that dug up a gold nugget while tied up to a tree.

Being a mining town, you have to be prepared to sit and wait as trains with over a hundred or more bins rattle by. We drove up to the lookout, which has a good view over the mine. We also did a short bush walk around the hill top, viewing more of the area.

Later that day we took the heritage trail south from Norseman , stopping at all the points of interest . Mostly old mining shafts and machinery.

Some old bush graves, and a cement cricket pitch from the 1890s

Also a tunnel. Probable not very interesting to some, but we love wandering around the bush and finding whats still around after 200 years.

The heritage trail finishes at the small town of Dundas, so we went out to the lake to camp for the night. We settled into a nice spot overlooking the lake, then went for walk, such a beautiful, quite warm evening.

As the sun was setting I went back down onto the lake to take some photos . I did notice that some clouds were starting to appear in the west, and rather quickly.

As I was walking up the cliff towards the van , Chris met me with the news that heavy rain was expected overnight. Best we get back to the main road as the few kms to the lake were boggy on the way out. No argument from me, didn’t fancy being stuck out there.! We packed up and came back out to where the road was ok, and camped beside another lake. It rained all night.!

Next morning the sun came up over the lake, still some rain clouds , but out rainbow was there too.

One of my favourite sights is seeing the paddocks of canola in flower.

We had breakfast, and was almost back on the main road to find the road had been closed . Ok ,back back, find a track and get out of there and on our way again.

Later that day we arrived in Esperance, we booked into a caravan park for a few days . Needed to get car serviced. Think we will stay till after the weekend, so Chris can watch Carlton play footy. Not much internet and phone service is intermittent. Oh well ,thems the breaks.

Aug 14th

Another cold night on the Great Australian Bight, and we woke to a foggy morning over the ocean.

We were on the road early, only stopping at one more viewpoint before Ceduna, A nice white sandy stretch of beach.

Then on to Ceduna, where we drove out to the coast and parked, before trekking through the sand hills to see the remains of the old wharf.

Somehow we ended up about 500 mtrs, further down the beach, and so had to walk along the water edge dodging the waves, as it was high tide, till we got to the wharf remains. Then photos.

Still no rain, but those clouds are still hanging around.

On the way back through the sand hills we stopped for a look around the old Telegraph Station ruins, they are slowly getting covered with sand as the years go by.

And we still have a rainbow guiding us. Sometimes you just have to believe in the heavenly signs.

Crossing the Nullarbor, there is a whole lot of nothing, but we love it, and take time to have some fun, and can always find a quiet spot to have a fire and camp the night.

The next morning the clouds had past, and we were back to a sunny day to do some rock hole walks around Fraser Range.

The water holes can be quite deep and provide water for the bush animals during the dry times. The countryside is starting to get that WA feeling about it now. And the bush is springing to life.

There is a number of landing strips, on the straight roads as you cross, and as for the Eyre Highway, it’s great, not like the ones we have over east.!!

One last stop before Norseman, was at Jimberlana Hill. Chris went for climb, I thought about it, and we had a lovely chat around a fire, with other caravaners that night.

Chris’s view, from top of hill.

The next day was too good to be travelling, or maybe we just didn’t want to do civilization yet, so we stayed put for another day /night.

Aug 12th

Penong was our next place to stop and view an assortment of windmills. A beautiful day and no wind, oh well you can’t have it both ways.

That night we found a bush camp, just east of Yalata. Rather cold down the Aussie Bight area, so the best place to watch the sunset was from bed. Its a hard life.

Then we started across the Nullarbor. A quick photo then we turned off the highway and out to the Head of the Bight. It was bloody freezing down on the boardwalk , but the whale watching was spectacular.

There had to be at least 50 mums and their young, just off the cliff edge, lolling around. We were told at the centre, that it is the nursery, and they hang around there till the young are old enough, to move on. There have been two white ones born this season and we were fortunate to see them both. One put on such a display, diving under the mum and trying to roll her. Amazing , you could hear the two of them bellowing as well , or maybe the mum telling it off. The display went on for about half an hour. Just a few of the photos I took…

ugly baby eh🤣 mum must of heard me as she turned and headed straight toward me.

oh, I forgot there was a reasonable view back to the east as well . We travelled further along the Bight, then turned onto a track to go out to the Bunda Cliffs to camp, stopping along the way at Wigunda cave.

The track in was very ordinary, and the weather was starting to close in. So we found a sheltered spot in the sand hills, and hoped for the best.

The cliff edges are very unforgiving if you venture too close. A lot of the areas that you could go out to and camp, are now closed off.

The sun going down wasn’t all that good, but then it was brilliant as the glow shone on the clouds passing over us, and still no rain.!

Next morning we woke to a sunny day. The cold front had past, so we went for an early walk and some photos.

Some of the shrubs in the sand dunes are starting to flower. Just love how they survive in the harsh conditions.

On the road again, and then into another viewing spot further along the Bight.

A few more stops, before we decided to camp off the coast that night, so pulled into a bush camp to shelter from the wind. A cloudy sunset to the West, and a full moon rising in the East. The end to another good day of travel.

Aug 6th

Still enjoying the Gawler Ranges, we did another day drive from Wudinna, first stop was Brazil rocks. As we climbed around, we must of been in the vicinity of an Egle nest. A pair of Egles kept hovering around, and swooping as if to scare us away. Very hard to get a good photo, but we both had fun trying.

Next was the very popular tourist stop at Pildappa rock. We climbed up and walked the legth of it as well as walking around the base of it. Great views and different colours of the rock, depending on which way they face. Its also has some nice camp spots, around the base.

A short drive away was Tcharkuldu rock, so another climb and more photos .

Thankfully , it was easier climbing, as Im starting to feel the effects of all our rock hopping of the last few days.

I recon this one below would look good in Jake and Kates front yard.

As for this little fellow, he was not happy at having his afternoon siesta being disturbed, he was a cranky little sh..

So that was our look around the Gawler Rangers. Glad we took the time. The next morning we left Wadinna after taking a snap of the granite statue, a tribute to the farmers.

As we headed for Ceduna, the predicted strong wind was getting annoying, so we had a quick cuppa in a park, then pulled into a roadside clearing and stopped for the day/night.

We have been so fortunate to have dodged the bad weather SA is getting. We were quite happy to sit it out, especially when the evening was as beautiful as this.

With some extra time, I have taken a few photos of our travel map, I record a trip map on Wiki camps. Not sure how many kilometres we’ve done, but we have sure covered a lot of ground. And enjoyed seeing places we hadn’t been before.

The next day we went down to Smoky Bay. Still a lot of building going on there. Tried to buy some oysters, but there wasn’t any, due to the boats not going out in the wind the previous day.

We booked into a caravan park in Ceduna early and filled in the rest of the day driving around, there’s more houses, more people, but not much else changed, since our last trip.

The following day we went for a drive around to Denial Bay. Still cold and windy around the beach areas.

From there we drove out to the old Mackenzie farm. We were able to walk all around the remains of the shearing sheds and stone wells.

Amazing all the fencing had been done with small poles and wired together.

I was taken by the sad remains of a windmill that had been left to fall face down on one of the rock wells. I like windmills…. wish I could take it home….

As you walk onto the farm there is a plaque that the family has put in memory of Mac. Macs slogan, if you can read it, it could also be applied to many toils in life.

Today we prepared for our Nullabor trip, I cooked some meals for the week ahead, while Chris did the washing. We went for a drive to fuel up and seen some windy mobiles on a fence. Bit of a laugh as its been an almost perfect day, mild, sunny and no wind. Took one last photo down on the waterfront. Filled the car up at $1.99, on the Nullabor it is up to $3.00. We will leave Ceduna in the morning and head for WA .

Aug 2nd

For a moment I thought we had landed on the Moon. Normally I would say, yeah/nah to going to look at a geological site, but it was quite impressive with all the different rock formations and colours in the early morning light.

We are staying at Wadinna, and had taken the day to venture up into the Gawler Ranges for the day. Love getting out in the never, never and seeing what nature has to offer.

The roads in the ranges are all gravel, some good, some 4 wheel drive only, and some so corrugated, that we were down to just walking pace. Lots of emus and roos, and I also saw a wombat, head for cover as we drove past.

Our next stop was up in the ranges, we walked up to the Kolay Mirica Falls. A big walk of over 2hrs and some great scenery.

Before getting to the top it was like walking through natures garden, I was in photographers heaven

It was a beautiful day, walking up the rocks, although steep, they were mostly dry, so not slippery.

Getting through one area was a bit out of my comfort zone, as the ledge was narrow, with a decent drop below.

We climbed and rock hopped toward the top of the cliff. Almost to the top, I felt I had done enough, it was getting rough going and much dryer. Chris said, don’t stop now your almost to the top, so a couple of photos and breathers, I made it to the top.

The top of the cliff was covered in smaller rocks and some bush, which we had to pick our way through. As for the view, it was nothing spectacular.

As like most climbs, when you get to the top there is a monument of some sort, here was no different. Like I’ve done in other places around the country, I found a heart shaped rock and placed it on the stack in memory of Jodie, who inspires me to do these things and live life large.

Going down was easier than going up.

Even the narrow cliff edge wasn’t so challenging.

One last pic of natures garden, before going to a lookout not far away and having a well earned lunch. No cafe out here, bring your own pie and sauce. The bush flowers were better than the view.

Next was a short bush walk to Smooth Falls. No running water, but some very unusual rock formations. Amazing that they are still all just hanging out and haven’t fallen down over the years

One more stop before we call it a day. A popular site is the Organ Pipes. Not a long walk, it starts out as a bush walk through rather thick scrub, then a reasonable climb up through the rocks, till you reach the base of the wonderful formation of rock walls, looking just like organ pipes.

Chris also stops for a breather, while I take photos.

Before making our way back down, we took a selfie and commented on how fortunate we are to be doing this. On the way back I got this peaceful photo of a mum and her young one, having a pick on the side of the road. I think it sums up my thoughts, peaceful, natural beauty, is all around us, you just have to look for it.

Cute eh !

Thats it for now.