Lots of History

On Sunday as we sat huddled in the caravan as the wind roared and the rain poured down, we reflected that since leaving Karen's in April, we had been exceptionally lucky with weather.  For that reason we couldn't complain too much about the one terrible day.

We had left Kalbarri on Saturday, knowing from the weather forecast what was to come.  Originally I had planned to camp at Hutt River, but with 30 k's of dirt road I decided it wouldn't be pleasant pulling the van through mud caked roads.  So I changed our plans for somewhere on the sealed road that gave us power at a low cost.

Lynton Station met all the criteria.  The weather was still beautiful when we arrived but we were still grateful for the lovely green grass around us.  There were only three other vans here and it is a lovely peaceful place.  Apart from that I was amazed at the history that is here.  Lynton Station was a convict hiring depot from 1853 to 1856.  Western Australia was never a penal state, but because of a labour shortage, ticket-of-leave prisoners were highly sought after.  The hiring depot was the base for these workers.  There are quite a number of buildings  here.  The prisoners lived mainly in tents for the majority of that time, and ironically when a building was finally completed, the depot was shut soon after.

Some of the remains of the convict hiring depot

The driveway at Lynton Station.  I wonder which way the wind blows.

Amazing little gecko in one of the toilets.  Perhaps this is where aboriginals got the idea for their art. 

Also on the property is Samford House sometimes known as Lynton Homestead, a magnificent building with an equally magnificent view.  The house had been deteriorating as the years went by and back in the 1990's the owners had a dilemma.  The house needed urgent repairs, but no funding was available for privately owned properties.  So they made the decision to hand the building over to the local council so that grants could be obtained to repair it.  This is still an ongoing job, but the verandah has been redone and a new roof put on.   There is even wiring roughed into some of the rooms.  I wasn't overly impressed with the snake on the wall however.  We were able to identify it later as a carpet snake.

Beautiful Samford House

Carpet snake on the wall

Keystone with date

Sanford House is just up the hill from the camping area, and close by are the old stables and a mill.  All of the buildings were full of lots of interesting historical information.

We also drove in to Port Gregory, stopping in amazement at the bright pink of Hutt Lagoon.  The colour is because of an algae growth, which produces beta carotene which is farmed here and exported overseas.  What an unusual sight.

Hutt Lagoon - the pink lake

Waves breaking on the reef at Port Gregory

Of course, Sunday was a right off as we spent the day locked inside with books and the TV.  When we woke up the sky was still clear and we thought we could have done something for the morning, but by the time we finished breakfast the first drops were falling.   It stopped raining for a while just after five, and I laughed when I saw all the caravanners had ventured outside.  Not for long though, as the rain started again soon after.

By Monday morning, the wind had eased and the rain had become an occasional shower, so we packed lunch and made our way to the Principality of Hutt River.  I remember reading about this when it was seceded from Australia.  There is quite a bit of the history of how and why this happened and it was very interesting how Prince Leonard outsmarted the government.  We were privileged to meet Prince Leonard, who gave us a personal tour of the artifacts in one of the buildings.  He is now 89 and a remarkable and highly intelligent individual.

Arriving at the Principality of Hutt River

Meeting his HRH Prince Leonard

The Government Building i.e. the Post Office

There is a lot of artwork.  Some amazing metal sculptures and a huge head carving of Prince Leonard.

Nowadays, the Principality seems to be more of a tourist attraction.  I asked how many tourists they receive, and  he told me currently about 25,000 a year, but it used to be 60,000 when many large tourist coaches came through.  Nevertheless, it was an interesting place to visit.

We left there, and made our way back west to the coast, to call in to some of the spots we weren't able to go with the van.  We found a shack town hidden away on the coast.  There must have been over 30 huts there, some quite impressive structures.  The sea here was quite fierce after yesterday's storm, so our original plan of fishing here was cancelled.  Instead we went back to Port Gregory where we had a rather late lunch and Jim attempted to fish off the jetty there.  Nothing much happening there, so we headed back to Lynton where we took the walk up past Sanford House to the lookout.  The view from here was fantastic, and there is a wonderful memorial to the previous owner here.  After all yesterday's rain, there was an obvious demarcation of dirty water out on the shore line.

Memorial to Ron

View to the sea from the lookout.  Notice the brown demarcation of the dirty water coming from the creek after the heavy rain,

From the lookout looking down to the camping area in the trees.

We left Lynton Station on Tuesday morning to sunny weather again.  We called in for some bread at Northampton, driving through the main street to look at the many historical buildings there.  Then it was on to our destination of Coronation Bay.  This is a very popular camp ground at a low cost.  It was originally set up for kite riders but the caravanners now know all about it, and it is quite difficult to get into as there are only 21 sites.  We arrived at what we thought was early, to discover that some had already arrived before us.  The caretaker told us to drive through and see if there was anything left.  Unfortunately the only place that we could fit was on a terrible slope.  We parked there and walked around in the hope of finding something else, but no luck.  We got the van as level as we could which wasn't easy.  It was a nice enough place but we didn't have a really good feel for it, and as Jim couldn't catch anything, we decided to only stop the one night.  We did some walks along the beach and to the lookouts. Wednesday then it was on to Geraldton and some retail therapy.

Coronation Bay campground.  Our van in the foreground.

Denham to Kalbarri

Thursday 11th September, and it was time to leave the town of Denham.  We packed everything up, then walked the short distance to town for fresh bread and the tourist info centre to buy our camping permit.  From our previous reconnoiter we had chosen Whalebone Bay as our best alternative.  We are only allowed 24 hours at one site, we can't move to another the next day.  Such a shame as we were the first there for the day, so got to choose a great spot.  We had checked out the wind forecast and got the compass out, so chose the spot right on the water with a hill behind us to break the wind.  We also angled the van around for the best wind position.  How good was this!!  For most of the day, apart from a few day trippers who drove in and straight out, we were the only ones there.  I walked to the top of the cliff and the water was so clear to look in to.  Then to top it off, Jim caught a 60 cm tailor, dinner for the next two nights.  He also caught a large shark, but just before he got it in, it broke the line.  

Shark fighting

Whalebone Bay from the clifftop

But of course, the next morning we had to move on.  I had done quite a bit of research and decided on Tamala Station, a very remote place that would require over 30 k's of rough dirt road to get there.  Our first stop on the way was at Shell Beach, an usual place that like Hamelin Pool, instead of sand, the whole beach is deep with tiny cockle shells. 

The road to Tamala wasn't as bad as I expected, but the last few k's of driveway to the homestead was.  Once we had paid, we were able to help ourselves to free firewood, take our key to the locked gate and find the campsite we had booked, about 8 - 10 k's away. 

Tamala has many camping sites, some only single sites, but I had chosen Tent Landing that has a bit of luxury in this stark, remote place. There is a drop toilet and water taps (non drinking) around the camp. 

Unfortunately, Jim was not the least impressed with my choice.  With the dirt road, the long driveway, and then what he felt was an unimpressive beach outlook, he wasn't too happy about the three days I had paid for.  The camp area doesn't have a beach, the whole bay is low cliff, about 2 metres high, and Jim couldn't see that this was at all good for fishing. It also didn't help that the wind was roaring.  There was only one other camper here, and we found a top spot, very level and closest to the water. It was too windy for Jim to even try and fish, so we took the car and drove around the rest of the point, checking out the other camping areas.

But tomorrow is always another day.  We got up to a lovely calm morning and out went the rod.  By lunch time this terrible place had produced four very large, very nice fish.  First a blue lined emperor, otherwise known as Black Snapper, then 2 Black Spotted Tusk, and then a Long Tom.  All were over 40 cm.  I had stocked up at the butchers in Denham, so I kept moving meat to the freezer, as well as freezing some of the fish. 

Camping at Tamala

Two of the catch

Campfire and fishing, what more could you want

One of the reasons for coming to Tamala Station was the closer proximity to Steep Point, the most western mainland point.  However, when we got to the station, we were told that the road there was in very bad condition.  It was over 100 ks of which 70 were very badly corrugated, and it was currently taking more than half an hour over what it should.  Did we really want to do over 200ks of rough road just to take a photo, or should Jim stay and catch more fish.  I moved more meat into the freezer.

At least with no shortage of water here, I was able to take the opportunity to wash floors, and clean things like the oven and the BBQ.  And it isn't hard to sit and look at the beautiful coloured water either. We had now travelled to our furthest point west.

Monday morning our three nights were up and time to move on.  After taking our key back to get our deposit, we headed down the road.  Which way should we go?  Isn't great to be in that situation that you can chose a direction at the last minute.  We decided when we got to the highway again, we would head north about 60 k's and stop at Gladstone.  We weren't able to stay there on the way to Denham as the road had been closed due to the rain.  On the 6k dirt road in, we could easily see why it is closed so easily.  There were some very deep ruts left from wheels driving in the mud.

Once at Gladstone it wasn't hard to find a site.  Although there were quite a lot of vans there, the area is huge and spread along the beach.  But the tide was out, and the water was a long way from the shore.  Jim still got his road out, but without any luck.  Talking to others, apart from those with boats, there hadn't been many fish caught.  

The jetty at Gladstone at sunset

We only stopped the one night, and Tuesday we were southward bound again.  Just over 200 k's was enough for us, and we pulled into an excellent 24 hour rest area on the Murchison River.  Some of these that Western Australia has are quite amazing.  This one was on both sides of the river and has only recently had more facilities put in.  In total there were nine toilets, and there were tables and chairs and a lot of covered areas as well.  There were probably 20 - 30 vans etc there, but from what I have read, that would have been a quiet night, and there was certainly heaps of room to fit plenty more in.  

View across the river to our van at Galena Bridge rest area

We were up early Wednesday morning and on our way to Kalbarri.  The wild flowers are starting to come out, and the drive was quite a treat.  We detoured into part of Kalbarri National Park and found beautiful views at Eagle Head and Ross Graham Lookouts.  Due to our early departure, we were in Kalbarri by ten.  After booking into one of the parks, a load of washing done, we walked into the shopping area for some bread for lunch.  We couldn't believe it when we got back.  It was so lovely and calm when we left and blowing a gale when we got back.  WA is certainly unpredictable with its winds.  We put our plan of visiting the coastal area on hold, as gusts of nearly 50 degrees didn't appeal.  Instead we looked around the rest of the town, doing some shopping, and as the wind eased late in the afternoon, we went to some of the closer coastal highlights.

One thing that was exciting to see was the caravan park flyer telling us that every tap in the place had beautiful Kalbarri spring water.  Carnarvon was the last time we had filled our tanks, and we had been very careful with what we used.  The water supply in Denham is desalinated, a costly enterprise, and although we could run the water through our van, filling of tanks and containers was banned.  Where we couldn't connect to a water supply we used their shower facilities.  But we had gone the last six days using our tanks so we were getting low.  Another good thing about the park was the free wifi, a chance to update our phones and computers.

Kalbarri town and the mouth of the Murchison River

View looking back toward the town

Thursday was a very full day.  In the morning we were up early looking to beat the heat and the wind as we  headed to the gorges of Kalbarri National Park.  Our annual pass has well and truly paid for itself with the parks we have now been to.

We headed west first to The Loop.  The most famous feature of the park is here, Nature's Window, a rock formation that beautifully frames the Murchison River in the gorge below. After visiting all the lookouts here, we headed east to Z Bend.  Spectacular scenery in both place

Lookout at The Loop

Murchison River gorge

Nature's Window

Z Bend

s.

On the way back to town, we detoured to Murchison House Station, an historic homestead dating back to 1858.  They have camping here, and we had thought about staying, but in the end it was easier to stop in town with power and water connected.  But the historic aspect of the homestead had me interested, so we did their self guided tour.  Considering the price included a pretty good morning tea which included home made muffins and biscuits, it wasn't bad value.  The station has had a varied history, at  one stage being owned by an Indian Prince, the 8th Nizam of Hyderabad.  Prince Raj had a penchant for large machinery especially ex WW2, and he had quite a lot shipped to the station, many of which are still there.  I hate to think what it would have cost to get these huge monsters to the station.

The original building at Murchison House

Shearers quarters

By the time we had finished our tour, our morning tea was closer to lunch.  A quick trip back to the van to bring the washing in, and we headed out again, this time to the Rainbow Jungle.  This is a parrot habitat and breeding of endangered species.  We spent the rest of the afternoon here, loving the bright colours of the parrots.  The majority of parrots are Australian, but there are a few macaws with their breathtaking colours.  The highlight was the open air enclosure where the birds are flying around you.

Friday we thought to beat the wind again by visiting the coastal cliffs early.  But the wind beat us this time as it came up very early.  It didn't detract from the wonderful scenery.  A highlight was the last lookout, Red Bluff, where three whales were swimming past close to shore.  Down on Red Bluff Beach we could see four fishermen risking their lives on the rocks for the big fish that got away.  We couldn't believe how they were standing on this rock area with the waves coming in.

Natural Bridge

The clifftop boardwalk

From the boardwalk

Three whales

Four crazy fisherman

Shark Bay

Our second trip to Carnarvon was just a quick one nighter, and Saturday morning we were on the road again.  Over night we had been surprised to hear quite heavy rain, and discovered they had received about 13 mls.  It was quite surprising as we headed south of Carnarvon to see that the water just lies in the paddocks.  We thought it would be sandy, but many areas must be very much clay.  Not far down the road one of the roads to the free camps we had visited a few days before was closed to traffic.  We had heard that it takes very little rain to close many of the dirt roads in the area.

Our day's destination was Wooramel River Retreat.  This is another station campground, but this is a new venture and has only been open for four months.  What a lovely peaceful place it was.  They have put in all weather campsites along the river bank with fire pits dotted along.  Not quite what you might expect, as they have been in drought since 2010 and the huge river is a big sandy patch.  But the large river gums make for a beautiful sight.  They use artesian water that comes from 300 metres down.  A feature of the property are two artesian spas.  This was  great way to spend the afternoon, and I was quite surprised to discover I had been in there for an hour and a half.  After this we lit our fire, with lots of wood available close by, and had a lovely evening sitting by it.  We talked to the owner for a while, and she told us their future plans.  They have just put turf lawn in near the spas and will be setting up a happy hour area with a big fire pit.  Another amenities block will also be built in this area, There are also eco tents for those without their own camping gear.

Tranquil camp site by the "river"

When we got up Sunday morning, we donned our bathers for an early morning dip before leaving.  How disappointed we were to discover the spas had been emptied, perhaps to be cleaned.

The empty spas

The plan for the day was easy, just 30 kilometres down the road to Gladstone Camp.  But for once our plans came astray.  The road in was one of those affected by the rain, and there was a big closed road sign.  A quick rethink of our plans, and we continued on to Hamelin Pool, part of Shark Bay, with a side trip to a lookout on one of the few high spots in the area.

View from the lookout

By the time we had set up and had lunch, the weather was deteriorating.  It was raining intermittently and the wind was increasing.  We waited for the rain to ease, and walked over to see the famous stromatolites.  These can only be found in two places in the world.  They are micro organisms and believed to be the oldest living organisms on earth, although they really don't look any more than rocks.  By this stage the wind was still increasing, and we looked at the boardwalk over the stromatolites and knew there was a good chance of getting wet.  At least at that stage it wasn't cold yet.  And sure enough, on the way back some of the waves did get us.

Saturday afternoon

And Sunday morning

 Hamelin Pool is unique in other ways, which is the reason the stromatolites grow here.  Because of the very low precipitation and often high temperatures, the water here is twice as salty as normal seawater.  The water can also get as warm as 45 degrees.  This also means that there is not a lot of sea life.

Stromatolites - even if they do just look like rocks

We continued the loop walk which took us along the beach and then through a fascinating quarry.  The beach in this area is made of up millions of tiny cockle shells, sometimes to a depth of ten metres.  Over the years these have solidified into limestone, and the early settlers cut these into blocks which they used for buildings.  They were fascinating and we thought would make a fantastic feature wall.  Unfortunately you can't do this any more of course.  

At the quarry

As it got closer to dark, the weather kept deteriorating.  For the first time in many months, we ate inside the van.  It was quite a wild night, but nothing compared to what we read they had further south.  By Monday morning the rain had stopped and the wind eased.  The tide was also out, so we ventured down for a much better look at the stromatolites.  This time they were mostly out of the water, and there was  no chance of any waves getting us.  At the start of the boardwalk we saw a dead sea snake.  It must have been washed up over night.

Dead sea snake.  Notice the tail for swimming

By the time we were packed and back on the road, the weather was again taking a turn for the worst, so it was an easy decision to continue on to Denham and a caravan park with power and water.  One of them was offering a pay 2, stay 3, so that was good enough for us.  Once we were set up, we went for a walk around the township.  It has a small supermarket, but a surprising number of eateries.  I guess it is a very tourist orientated town.

After lunch it was on to Ocean Park, a very informative aquarium featuring local marine life.  They have a tour guide explaining lots of interesting facts on the exhibits, and as they just keep cycling through, swapping guides every now and then, you can join the tour at any time.  But of course one of the highlights was the shark feeding.  Something else that fascinated us was the stone fish.  No wonder they are so easy to step on, some of them we had trouble seeing even though they were pointed out.

Ugly stone fish

Shark taking the bait

After leaving there, we went to Eagle Bluff, where an impressive  boardwalk has been put along the top of a cliff.  In good conditions you can see straight down and see all the marine life, including sharks and dugongs in the water.  But the weather was too windy and not sunny enough.  Maybe we will try another day if the weather improves.

Before heading back, we drove further out, driving in to a lot of the beaches to inspect the camping areas there.  They have a 24 hour limit and we are thinking of stopping at one on our way out.

Tuesday we left early and spent the whole day at Francois Peron National Park.  After the first 7 kilometres to the old homestead, the rest of the park is 4WD only, many of these very sandy tracks. We headed to the very top, Cape Peron, first.  This is where the warm waters meet the cold and can produce strong currents, so no swimming anywhere near here.  We took the 3 kilometre return walk to Skipjack Point, looking down into the clear water from the cliffs above.  When we got to the Skipjack Point Lookout, we were amazed how clearly we could see mantra rays, sharks and turtles.

Track through the National Park

Heading upwards on our walk

The cormorants that the walk is named for

View to Skipjack Point from the walk

On the way back to the car, I got my wish for the day, as there, right in the middle of the path, was a Thorny Devil.   He thought he was so well camouflaged that he didn't move at all, even when Jim had the camera about 40 centremetres from him.  Such a remarkable looking creature.  Soon after we saw a small bearded dragon and back near the homestead was a goana.   Lots of wildlife for the day.

Our Thorny Devil

Backtracking, we drove into all the campground/day areas, and eventually stopped at South Gregories for lunch and for Jim to try his fishing rod.  No luck, so after about an hour we decided to head on and look at Herald Bight on the other side, especially as it sounded like that side was more sheltered from the winds.  Big mistake.  The track just ended in super soft grey sand.  No warning, no where else to go.  So we tried to do what it appeared previous tyre tracks had done, and loop out.  He got about two thirds around, and could go no further.  Lucky we always have the shovel on the roof, so Jim got out and shovelled the sand from in front of the tyres.  Another metre or so was obtained and we sunk again.  This continued for about three times until we finally hit harder sand.  While this was going on, I was standing outside listening to the mosquitos buzzing my ears, so as soon as he hit the firmer ground, I yelled out to just keep going, and got back in once he was back on the track.  We won't be marking that one as a future campground, although we couldn't even see where the campground was.  I assume somewhere along the beach as there were no signs.

Our final stop for the day, after reinflating the tyres at the compressors they have very nicely installed, was at the Homestead.  Most of the National Parks seem to have been previous homesteads.  This one had a bonus, an artesian bath.  On with the bathers, but we found it just a bit too hot, and couldn't stay in for too long at a time.  But it was a nice way to finish the day.

Wednesday it was time to see one of the reasons this area is a tourist mecca, so it was off to Monkey Mia.  We were lucky to see the final dolphin feeding of the day, and found the experience better than we were expecting as the guide gave quite a lot of interesting information about the dolphins and what they have learnt in the 40 years that dolphins have been interacting with people in the bay.

Monkey Mia dolphins

After the dolphins went their way as soon as the fish buckets were empty, we walked out on the jetty and spotted a turtle right next to us.

Apart from the dolphins, there really isn't a lot to Monkey Mia, so we were gone by lunchtime.  We stopped at the pretty Little Lagoon on the way back, and a little further on we had lunch at a viewing area where the channel to Little Lagoon comes in.  After we got back to the van, Jim happily packed his fishing gear while I sorted the washing and shopped for supplies as we won't have any shops for a few days.

Dinner was a social occasion with the park putting on a sausage sizzle with the proceeds going to the Royal Flying Doctor Service.