DONGERA/PORT DENISON

Just a short drive of 70 kilometres down the coast from Geraldton are the twin  towns of Dongera/Port Denison.  We chose to spend a week there, before heading to Perth.  Dongera is a pretty  little town, lined with Moreton Bay figs. It has quite a few historic buildings, and several shops.  Port Denison is about 5 kms. to the south, where the Irwin River runs into the sea.  Not so many shops, but plenty of houses.   It also has a sheltered bay for the many crayfish boats that work in the area.  Although they catch lots of crays, it's just about impossible to buy them locally, as it seems they are mostly exported live. 

Our caravan park was located next to the beach, and we could hear the waves crashing on the beach.  They have a bit of a problem, in that parts of the footpath between the park and the beach have been washed away, so they've built a huge rock wall to delay the inevitable.

Weather wise, some days were sunny, but we had the wettest day since leaving home during this week.  Not bad after 22 weeks on the road. 

We spent another day driving out to some small towns in the east.  Very pleasant countryside - more wheat and canola.  It took us a while to work out why so many large groups of birds, particularly galahs and corellas, were in the middle of the road.  But we guessed that they were feeding on seeds that must have leaked from the many grain transport trucks we saw along the way.

 

As well as seeing many more wildflowers, we came across some quandongs - a fruit I'd hard of, but never seen before.

On another day we drove south along the fairly new Indian Ocean Road to Jurien Bay.  We'd heard that a popular pastime in this town was skydiving, and happened to be eating our lunch right opposite the beach where some parachuters landed.  The first man landed next to us after coming down really quickly.  We discovered that he was filming the paying customer, who came down a little slower, strapped to the other parachutist. 

 

GERALDTON

As we drove south from Kalbarri, the countryside started to change, and we began seeing crops of green and yellow (canola).  Definitely felt like we'd left the outback behind us.  The weather also confirmed that, with cooler days.




Geraldton was the largest city we'd visited since Darwin.  It's a large port, and looks as though it's thriving at the moment.  Set above the city on the highest spot in town, a monument to HMAS Sydney dominates the skyline.  It is made up of several elements, with the most prominent being a dome made up of pressed metal seagulls - one for each life lost when the ship was sunk.  It was very impressive.








Another prominent feature of this city, is a tall lighthouse - and its little replica close by.

The wind in this part of W.A. is well renowned, and we experienced it while there.  It reminded us of our time living in Perth, when our side fence blew over!  There are not too many tall trees growing, but those that manage to reach any sort of height don't always stand up straight.

 

We spent a few days looking around the city, and also drove out to the east, where we were surprised to see acres of farmland, with many more wildflowers along the side of the roads.  We hadn't realised how far north the cultivation extended - even though this year W.A. in general has had very low rainfall. 

 

 

KALBARRI

WILDFLOWERS,  WIND  AND WHALES

We started to notice more wildflowers growing on the side of the road as we got close to Kalbarri.  Later, when we went into the National Park, we saw an even greater variety.  We loved seeing them, but don't ask us to tell you what they are!! 

The town of Kalbarri is on the mouth of the Murchison River, so is sheltered from some of the winds that blow in from the west.  But it was still quite windy while we were there. 

We were lucky enough to see some whales, a fair way out to sea, from several viewing points up on the cliffs to the south of the town. 

We also saw a baby whale playing in the breakers close to the river mouth, but didn't manage to catch it with the camera.

Just over the road from our caravan park was the spot where they feed fish to the pelicans each morning near the beach.  While we were there, only one turned up - and it was a fairly young one.  It had a bit of competition with the local seagulls, but the pelican won every time!

We had a great day at the Kalbarri National Park.  There were some beautiful views - more gorges, but with more growth than we'd seen further north in our travels. 



There's a terrific Parrot Wildlife Park close to the town, which we thoroughly enjoyed.  There was a great walk-in aviary, with birds flying close overhead.  And I didn't even panic!  Most of the birds are Australian natives, and as you would imagine by the name of the place, mostly parrots.

 But they did have a few finches, so Geoff took careful note of  how they had their aviaries set up.

They also had some exotic overseas parrots, and Geoff managed to get up really close and personal to this macaw.

DENHAM  (SHARK  BAY)

This lovely little seaside town is about as far west as you can get without a boat.  It's hard to keep saying how beautiful the coastline is, but every time you drive in from the inland highway, it's like another wonderful surprise greets you as you see the clear blue water.  On the way in to the town we stopped off at Hamelin Station, which was the site of an old Telegraph Station. 

It's also the site  of the amazing Stromatolites, and if you are like us and didn't know what they were - they are an ancient form of life that grows in the sea, very slowly.  Hamelin is one of the only sites in the world where you can see them.  Later on in Denham, we learnt more about them at the Discovery Centre, which houses wonderful displays of flora and fauna of the surrounding areas.

We enjoyed our day driving through Francois Peron National Park.  The roads are very sandy, so tyre pumps are provided at the start of the tracks where you can deflate your tyres before starting out, and reinflate them on your return.  Unfortunately for one couple we came across bogged in the sand, no amount of deflating would have helped them, as they were driving a Hyundai sedan on a clearly marked 4WD track!  Despite offers of help, they had decided to wait for the Ranger to come and pull them out.  We think they would have had to dig deep to pay for their retrieval costs.





We made it through the sandy tracks O.K.



 

Big Lagoon in Francois Peron N.P.


Another attraction in this area is Monkey Mia where they feed the dolphins.  We had visited it on a previous trip, so we gave it a miss this time.

The sunsets are beautiful all along the west coast, and Denham was no exception.

Some kind person had left this recliner at the beach so you could put your feet up and enjoy the view.

CARNARVON

After travelling so many kilometres through low growing saltbush, it's quite a surprse to see bananas growing as you get close to Carnarvon.  They produce lots of different fruit and vegies around this area.  The Gascoyne River supplies the water, but you don't get to see much of it, as it  mostly flows underground. 

Another sight on the way in is the large space tracking dish.  Buzz Aldrin recently visited the town to open a new space info centre - all developed by volunteers. Lots of interesting information about Australia's part in tracking the American spaceships during the space race.




A couple of grey nomad astronauts

We took a drive out of Carnarvon to Quobba Point to have a look at the blowholes, which were quite spectacular. 

Others we spoke to later saw several whales in the area, but despite searching the sea with his trusty binoculars, Geoff didn't spot any.  The only wildlife we saw was on the drive back - wild goats, bustards, emus and strange looking brownish coloured sheep with long tails.

We enjoyed our few days in this town, which is currently undergoing a huge upgrade.  There's obviously millions of dollars being poured into it, and it will be great when it's finished. 



CORAL  BAY

We think we understand why the Dutch didn't settle on the west coast after bumping into it in the 1600's.  It is very flat, with low vegetation, and no hills.  Several hours driving through this countryside is a bit on the boring side.  And it's a long way between any sign of habitation!  So it's a lovely relief to reach any sort of town.  Coral Bay is only small - actually it's a couple of caravan parks, a hotel and a few shops.  Of course its main attraction is the water, with colourful coral and fish really close to the shore.  We have to admit that we didn't swim or snorkel this time - it was a bit too cool for us.  But we did enjoy several walks, paddling along the shore.

Speaking of water - it's in short supply here, so apart from drinking water, all washing etc. is done using bore water - quite salty in the showers. 

We were disappointed to find that the communication tower needed repairing, so TV and radio reception was non-existent.  We missed some of the Olympics, and had to make do with eating under the stars at the local hotel.  It's a tough life!

P.S. Just when I thought I knew what I was doing, this blog post decided to print out entirely in capitals, and I have no idea why.    Aren't computers wonderful?