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| Two Rocks Water Front north of Perth |
Dunsborough to Cervantes
We departed Dunsborough in pouring rain and headed north for ten days of sightseeing. Nick kindly lent us his vehicle, a Toyota FJ, which is a land cruiser type concept vehicle ,a popular choice down this way, performed well in the wet conditions in deed in all conditions. As we planned to call into Perth on our return to Dunsborough, we drove straight through on the motorway, with atrocious weather, there was no reason or logic to stop before we had a late lunch north of Perth at Two Rocks also known as Atlantis Beach. What an interesting area this was reminding us of a beach in Portugal we had visited with all the limestone sculptures. The area was created by Alan Bond when he was trying to set up a location for the America's cup back in the 1980's.
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| The Pinnacles dwarfing Bill |
After a nice pub lunch we continued north to Cervantes for the next two nights, the weather improving, instead of constant rain, we just had torrential downpours as squalls came through. The weather had been predicted not to be great with storms coming in, but it is winter and it was marginally warmer than back in New Zealand.
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| Possibly fossilized tree trunks |
Cervantes is a little coastal town / fishing village, perfectly located for the next day's visit to the Pinnacles, which we had been told was a "must do". We weren't disappointed. The Pinnacles in the Namburg National Park are natural limestone structures formed approx. 30,000 years ago, the actual formation of the pillars still not fully understood, possibly an ancient forest's tree trunks & roots being fossilized and these structures now eroding out of the wind swept sand. These moving desert like sand dunes constantly changing exposing then re covering them with the passage of windswept time, was found by Europeans in relatively modern times,1950s ,but having been a place of Aboriginal significance for many thousands of years. As winter had already been pretty wet in this area, the road that most people drive around to see all the pinnacles was closed so we were able to walk the 4km road around them. A lot of the National Parks over here charge you to enter, which isn't a bad idea to cover the costs of maintaining and protecting such sites, often doing amazing board walks to compliment the many tracks. Locals can get annual passes which would certainly be the cheaper option, but as we were just tourists, we paid our $15 vehicle fee and entered the park.
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| Spring bloom of Rapeseed |
The colour is amazing with the yellow of the desert through to the white sand dunes. The sun appeared through the squalls to allow us to capture the Pinnacles perfectly. It certainly is an amazing landscape. It should also be mentioned that many tracks are very "lumpy " to say the least, and with little signage to differentiate, would have you turning back especially with pushchairs or elderly in tow....😖
We returned to Cervantes for a late lunch at the famous (apparently) Lobster Shack. The West Coast Rock Lobster (same as our Crayfish at home) are a big part of Western Australia's economy so there are plenty of lobster fishing fleets along the coast line indeed with some of these recently formed settlements being founded by the state governments to consolidate the industry.
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| Kalbarri Sky Walkway |
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| The Mighty Murchison River |
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| The red rock gives quite a contrasting landscape |
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| Kalbarri Natures Window overlooking the Gorge |
We went mid afternoon and were surprised that there were still so many customers, as we were off season for tourists, with the shack still having 60 odd customers. My meal was delicious 😋 - Bill having a Fish Burger as he's not keen on crayfish - all the more for me.
The next day we drove north to Geraldton where we would base ourselves for the next 5 nights to enable us to look around the area. This is 7 hours north of where we are staying with the Kids, which Bill & I thought was far enough north this trip. But the Locals (The Kids) are happy to do 11 to 14 hours a day to get away on holiday!!
Port of Geraldton is a major west coast seaport for mining exports / fishing /wheat & sheep/ and tourism but reasonably small with only 40,000 people. We based ourselves right in town near the revived waterfront which is lovely to walk around and access cafes, shops & supermarkets. The recent revitalization being driven by the removal of the extensive railyard which divided the town from the seashore - thus freeing up large tracks of well positioned land for the enhancement of the towns population.
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| Lunch on Kalbarri Beach (Murchison River Mouth) |
Geraldton sadly had a grand evocative memorial to the HMAS Sydney, which sunk on 19 Nov 1941 after an altercation with a German raider, with all 645 souls lost.. a salient reminder to us in NZ of the proximity of that war and how badly our cousins across the ditch were affected on their own shores. A solemn place to stir thoughts.
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| Spotting Whales as they cruise past close to shore |
The coastline along the mid-western section of Western Australia has extensive reefs, so was and is, a mariners nightmare with many ship wrecks along this section from the early 1600's. The Western Australian Museum in Geraldton has great exhibitions and information on these past ship wrecks and the early days of European settlement assisted by the Aborigines' of this region, the Wajarri People who had been living in this area for the past 40,000 years. This, for those not already informed, is by far the longest and oldest single inhabitation of any where in the world -truly a remarkable history.
Part of the attraction for us coming here was to visit the Kalbarri National Park with it's Walkway Skytrail which takes visitors out over the Murchison River Gorge - 80km of gorge on the lower Murchison River. This in no way resembles say the Buller gorge of NZ or the Murchison river.... though being of great length and catchment its flow resembles a very modest river in NZ easily being crossed, re-crossed and entirely unsuitable for any meaningful kayak or rafting trips😉. However not to sound disappointed ..with the large open weathered terrain that this gorge is domiciled in the Park has brilliantly created spectacular viewing platforms to show the environment in all its natural beauty. The platforms were well worth the visit, challenging for those that were height averse and the interpretive panels and displays giving excellent stories of the areas formations flora and fauna. And of course the indigenous and recent populations.
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| Stunning cliff top walkways |
The next day we ventured on up the coast to Kalbarri proper, a little seaside resort with good surfing, a small fishing industry and an active tourist offering. The climate here was a step up from Geraldton (2 hours back down the track ) hence its popularity as a destination with the motor camps and motels doing good trade to the extent that we made our base choice of Geraldton, being a more economic proposition for us😌
We had a picnic lunch on the beach under a shade looking at the new developments going on and also quizzically viewing the buildings in need of repair looking severely dilapidated, to find out later that the whole area had been dealt a severe blow from Cyclone Seroja , April 2021. And guessing that the isolation of the area was behind the dearth of Tradies, hence repairs not being affected in a timely fashion.
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Bill & Steve enjoying each others
company 😆 |
A highlight of Kilbarri was the panoramic cliffs overlooking the Indian ocean...giving stunning views of migrating whales blowing and breaching, with calf and mothers as close as 100m offshore quietly cruising along. This is normal this time of the year and a driver of some of the tourism, as in Kaikoura's Whale Watch, there are many boat tours available to take you up close and personal if so desired..🐳🐋
It was time to head south, having planned two nights in Perth staying with Em's parents Leanne & Steve. We wanted to have a day just meandering around central Perth and it's lovely waterways but unfortunately the weather was not playing ball. We woke to another very wet and cold day so we changed our plans and visited the newly renovated Perth Museum - perfect day for the visit. L&S not having visited their local Museum, joined us for the day. The museum had reopened at the end of 2020 after a 4 year renovation where 4 heritage buildings were incorporated together - they did an amazing job. In the center of the museum now is the old Perth Gaol - built in 1855. Interesting mixture of architecture and a perfect way to preserve these old buildings. There are 8 permanent gallery's which none of us completed in our 3 hours, so will have to return another time. It is very well done. We all met up for a debrief and a wine/beer in a warm dry little local pub. A great way to spend such a wet and cold blustery day.
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| Walking along the Swan River to the south of Perth with Steve |
That evening we managed to catch up with Bill's cousins Joanne, Mark & wife Fiona for dinner. It's been 3 1/2 years since we last caught up with M&F, but 36 years since seeing Joanne. So there was a bit of catching up to be done.
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| South Perth on a sunny day 😎 |
After a lovely walk around Steve's local walkway on the Swan River and a coffee with fabulous toasted sandwiches, it was time to return to Dunsborough. The sun finally came out. Typical on the last day!
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| Bill, Mark & Fiona, Me and Joanne |
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