Grampains National Park (3 nights)

This national park had a big fire in January this year so the northern part of the park was closed but there is still heaps open for access.  We camped at Jimmys Creek, a very well laid out area with pit toilets and a funky bush shower (I used it but the boys seem to be comfortable going 3 days without a shower!).  For two of the 3 nights a family from Mornington Peninsula were camped next to us, it’s the school holidays in Victoria and they were giving their recently acquired camper trailer an outing.  The kids all had a blast, there were also four boys from Geelong there so it was great fun for the boys.  We had some good laughs while yarning around the camp fire, eating olive damper and roasting marshmallows.  Kangaroos and kookaburras hung out at the camp as well, quite social creatures, the kookaburras in particular are attention seeking and very loud with their evil laugh, but I adore them!

the two camper trailer families

The bush shower

industrious children

The days were stunning, warm and sunny but the first night was a frost!  We did some good walks and got amazing views across the park.  There were lakes and waterfalls – heaps to see! We saw another echidna, he walked out in front of us on the track, we stopped, he saw us then turned around and walked back into the bush, it was classic!  There weren’t any koalas to be found here due to the fire and recent floods which was a shame.  There is a town in the middle of the park called Halls Gap, it was very busy due to the school holidays with people everywhere eating the local treats, ice creams and fudge.  We had a wind up radio with us so we tuned in to find out the election results – interesting!

View over Halls Gap township

cool lake

views looking south over the Grampains

Natimuk (near Mt Arapiles) 1 night

Mt Arapiles is a massive outcrop that is one of the rock climbing meca’s of Australia.  John and I used to climb back in the days (John more so) and realising this place was on-route back to Melbourne was a bonus!  After a day travelling across from Adelaide we arrived to find masses of climbers camped in the State Forest camping ground at the foot of the mount.  It was another book on-line job and really designed for tents not anything being towed, so we headed to the nearest town to find a caravan park.  Natimuk is a cute little place about 5kms away and the caravan park was next to a lake, man was it cold at night, we woke up to find ice on the table etc.  Anyway we packed up the next morning and headed back to Mt Arapiles to watch some climbing, it was a beautiful day and there were climbers all over the show.  I have highlighted a few on one of the photos below with red circles.

A smaller outcrop before arriving at Mt Arapiles

spot the climbers!

Adelaide (4 nights)

The highlight of this stay in Adelaide was seeing so many koalas in the wild (not in a zoo or wildlife park).  We were camped next to Belair National Park in the Adelaide Hills and went for walks koala spotting, on one walk we found 13, some with babies!  

Spot the koala

the koala in the previous photo

Koala with a baby!!!!

Lorakeets in Belair National Park

We also visited the South Australia Museum in the city centre, we had been there at the start of the trip and asked the team at their info centre to help identify a spider we had photographed.  So Enzo took the opportunity to ask them about a dragon we had seen at Coffin Bay.  The chap looked at the photo and said it looks like a Ctenophorus decresii (Tawny dragon) and Enzo said “Yes that’s what I thought but it isn’t known to be in that area according to the field guide”, the chap pulls out his guide (the same one) and says “yes, you are right, let’s ring the states expert”.  So the expert listens to the details and concludes it is a Ctenophorus fionni (Peninsula dragon) but the colouring is different than usual and could he have a copy of the photo!

We checked out Port Adelaide and went for a trip down the river spotting dolphins and hearing about the various port activities.  Also went to Semapore Beach, great new playground there.

appartments on the waterfront at Port Adelaide

Progress Report

We are back in Adelaide! I have just added posts for crossing the Nullarbor, Ceduna, Coffin Bay and a random campground.  From here we head to the Grampians and Great Ottway National Parks before arriving in Melbourne and sorting out our gear.  I will add posts about Adelaide and these parks once we get to Melbourne.

Just over 2 weeks before we fly home on 5 October.  We are pretty much over camping now, the weather is just not that brilliant, very cold at nights! We are excited about coming home and sleeping in beds and not sharing bathrooms with strangers!

Random Campground on a farm (south of Port Augusta) (1 night)

Having turned up at Mount Remarkable National Park not realising you had to book a campsite online beforehand – doh, we ended up at this eccentric camp site with great shelters and campfire setups (we made pizzas in the campoven-yum).  We were the only guests until a young chap turned up later, the place is run by a classic cowgirl who walked around drinking with her dogs and cats in tow.  The toilet and shower block was new and obviously future proofed so it could be used for housing very tall animals, say giraffes.  Overall this place was good value and extremely quirky!

Coffin Bay National Park (2 nights)

The weather finally settled down so we headed to Coffin Bay National Park for some bush camping.  Brilliant spot, emu families wandering around, kangaroos grazing with their joeys on-board – mega cute!  There were lovely fairy wrens flitting about, the males are a brilliant blue.  We also found great wee dragons and heath monitors.   There were lovely beaches and it actually got quite hot in the sheltered bays!

Once again a social place with a family we had met in Perth turning up on the second night.  They had suffered a broken suspension leaf on their camper trailer since we saw them, some bolts had worked loose on a 4WD road we decided not to take!  We shared our campfire with a young French couple keen to enhance their English, and the boys wanted to enhance their French – “what’s French for weirdo?” ummm.  

Baby emus

kangaroo mummy with joey

Fairy wren

some sort of dragon

at the beach

Ceduna (2 nights)

Ceduna is a port town where grain is exported, there are massive grain silos here and at towns along the entire south coast.  We stayed for 2 nights to de-Nullarbor, i.e. get more fresh food and do loads of washing.  We went out to Decre Bay and found an echidna strolling along the rocks, it was great to see one during the day as they usually cruise around at night and we have only seen one other at Francis Peron while out with torches. We also found some seals.

Grain silos at the port and mosaic lighthouse

Echidna

Seals 

Crossing the Nullarbor (Norseman to Ceduna- 1200km) – (2 nights)

After heading north of Esperance by 200km you reach Norseman, if you then head east this is considered the start of the infamous Nullarbor (we named it ‘The Nothing’ – because at times that is all you saw out the window).  Nullarbor is Latin for ‘no trees’, There are actually some trees on the plains but not many until you reach the eastern end and approach Ceduna.  There are a series of plains and very long straight sections of road.  One straight is 146km, the longest straight length of road in Australia.  Under the plain are limestone systems with caves galore, Andrew and Karen and girls (the Bunge Bungle family) are cavers so were off to explore some caves, hopefully we will see them again and hear all about it.  

Nullarbor plains in the background

  At one stage I said to John “Imagine cycling this road!” and then up head we came across five mature males on road bikes in matching tops, it had just changed to a head wind for them!.  Anyway at Ecula while visiting the telegraph station ruins we met the support crew for this group, identifiable as they were wearing the same tops.  They told us these guys were riding from Perth to the east coast over 30 days (about 3000km) to raise money for an autism support organisation – what legends!  There were also two other cycle tourists on the road carrying their gear in panniers, I think I prefer the idea of a support crew.  Another sight on the side of the road was a family of emus, the babies are so cute!!!!

cyclists on Nullarbor encounter a headwind and stop for a rest!!

Emu family

Telegraph station ruins at Ecula

At about 720km we crossed the Western Australia – South Australia border, the clocks went forward 1.5 hours and you can’t take fruit and vege across the border (although they do the eastbound check at Ceduna later on). 

We stayed in 24 hour rest areas on the side of the road both nights, they generally have toilets and you can light fires.  We meet Jim and Jenny from Tasmania at the first stop and ended in the same spot the second night so shared a fire and yarns with them.  Their best yarn was the one about being in Berln when the wall came down and seeing an east-west romantic reunion on a train.  They are both teachers so very patient with the kids and their random yarns.

The highlight of the Nullabor is a visit to the Head of the Southern Bight where there is a couple of boardwalks and lookouts for whale watching between May and October.  The Southern Bight cliffs are dramatic and stunning and scary all at once! We were very lucky to see at least 10 southern right whales and their calves resting in the bay.  Binoculars were a must, you could see them so clearly.  Photographing them was a struggle but I managed to capture a calve doing a backflip!  The kids seem to be more impressed with the painted dragons and bobtails they spotted on the paths!

Southern Bight cliffs

Southern right whale calf doing a backflip!

Painted dragon

Esperance (3 nights)

The day we left Albany it was very stormy so we ended up driving all the way to Esperance rather than stopping for a night along the way.  The drive was scenic with the countryside very striking, the huge rapeseed fields against the stormy skies!. 

Rapeseed fields

The camping ground we stayed at was on the waterfront of the town and was quite social as we ended up running into the grey nomad crew we met at Walpole (still partying up!!) and a family we had met at the Bungles Bungles.  The latter had pretty much been on the same route and it seems we just kept missing each other along the way.  They had some classic stories to share including the tow ball incident – they had gone to hitch up their caravan in Carnarvon and the found the tow ball was gone, someone had stolen it and they had to spend several day there tracking one down so they could continue.

There is a Great Ocean Drive circuit to see the local beaches, wind farm and the Pink Lake.  The beaches have a sugar white sand and this makes the shallow surf an amazing brilliant blue.  It would be great to be in the summer and actually swim in the sea! The town’s waterfront area is getting a huge revamp, it will look great when finished.

At the end of the town jetty

We made a day trip out to Cape Le Grand National Park on a very windy day.  We did a few short walks and checked out all the bays with their beautiful beaches, again that awesome white/blue contrast.  Unfortunately the wind meant we didn’t see any wildlife that day, the day before a lady told us they had seen kangaroos on the beach!  The wild flowers were great though. That night the wind really got going, it was the most brutal we have experienced on this trip, not good in a tent!

Hellfire Bay in Cape Le Grand National Park

pretty!

always looking to be non-compliant

Albany (6 nights)

We don’t want to leave Albany, it’s a great place!!! We are camped at Middleton Beach camping ground which is in a calm bay where whales come in to shelter with their calves.  We have seen a few of these whales and early one morning I saw a seal swimming around a lady’s legs while she took her morning dip (6.30am and very cold!!).  There is a hard core group of people here that do this every day - very keen! 

There is a great walk-cycleway from the beach around the point to the town centre and one day we saw over 20 lizards lounging on the side of the track and in the early morning/evening you see bandicoots scooting about, they are really cute!  What wasn’t cute were the magpies up at the War Memorial that tried to take food out of our hands as we ate our morning tea, we had to retreat to the car and still they intimidated us by perching on the wing mirrors and glaring in at us.  Speaking of birds, there was a bird in the Norfolk pine next to our camp site that makes a repetitive, resonant “whoom” sound during the day starting at 6am.  I caught a glimpse of this fellow and was able to identify him as a ‘common bronze wing pigeon’.  Then when people walking past stopped and debated what it could be, I would put them out of their misery and tell them what it was.  Anyway several days later I was talking to someone and they informed me they had labelled me the ‘Pidgeon Lady’, this cracked us up given we label people like that too (as described in an earlier post), and frankly it could have been a worse name!  Our latest favourite bird is the white cheeked honey eater - beautiful!

Magpie intimidation

Lounging lizards

White cheeked honeyeater

White cheeked honeyeater

John and Leon have been on a downhill mountain track several times and they have made a short film which we will attempt to put on youtube and post the link soon.

On November 1^st it will be the 100^th anniversary of the ANZAC troops leaving from Albany for Gallipoli.  Heaps of things are going happen here that weekend and efforts are in full swing to finish various works like the upgrade of the Princess Fort (meaning we couldn’t visit thatL).

We visited Whale World at Discovery Bay which is based in the old Whaling Station that only closed down in 1978.  It is interesting to hear about the stations history but so sad that so many whales were hunted and killed.  The whaling industry put so much pressure on the humpback population that in 1962 they were protected and could not be hunted, instead they moved onto sperm whales.  What eventually closed the station was the cost of running the place as they used crude oil to fuel all the plant. The price of crude oil went sky high and the station could not make a profit.  Near Whale World are the well know cliff features the ‘Gap’ and the ‘Natural Bridge’, checked them out but it was so cold in the wind we didn’t linger.

The Natural Bridge

Whaling ship at Whale World

We headed north yesterday to visit the Porongurup National Park where there is some stunning granite domes (670m high).  You walk through the lovely karri, jarrah and marri forest and then scramble over some boulders then climb up a 7m ladder onto Castle Rock where a walkway protrudes from the rock, with a glass balustrade.  It is totally amazing but you do need a head for heights (I am marginal!).  The weather couldn't have been better for the views!

The Castle Rock Skywalk

View from Castle Rock towards Stirling Ranges

Balancing Rock

We are now heading towards Esperance but will probably stop somewhere on the way for the night.

Walpole (2 nights)

Given the weather we headed east sooner than we planned, we had thought we would bush camp in the Leeuwin-Naturaliste National park but camping with no facilities in the rain and cold did not appeal.  We still checked out the southern-most part of the area via Margaret River (more wineries set in picturesque countryside), Augusta and Cape Leeuwin (another lighthouse) and Pemberton.  We had now entered the beautiful Southern Forests with the giant karri trees, most of which are now conserved, historically this area was logged extensively.  Pemberton still has a timber mill and lots of the cute timber cottages are still there from the days when there was a huge mill workforce in the town.  Mountain biking is now one of the key attractions in the area.  

rows of cute timber cottages in Pemberton

There is a 60m high tree called the Gloucester Tree which was used as the forest fire lookout back in the days.  The spiral ladder up the tree is still there and you can climb up it if you wish.  Much to my horror Leon set off up the tree but I then noticed that the sign said “wear sturdy footwear – no thongs” (that’s jandals in NZ language and he was wearing some!) and “Climbing is not recommended for children”, of course when I called this out to him I switched “not recommended” for “not permitted”.

Leon starting to climb the Gloucester Tree 

We finally made it to the Coalmine Beach camping ground in Walpole by the end of the day.  The camp kitchen was covered but a few walls were missing allowing mozzies in to attack their latest victims.  The rain continued through the night but wasn’t too bad for our day of exploring the Walpole area.  The forests are just amazing and we found another forest fire lookout at the top of Mount Franklin.  There was an ‘art loop’ walk where a number of sculptures were installed including this long mirror with etchings of the history of the forest (timber days through to conservation).  The Tree Top Walk (600m long, 40m high suspended walkway) through the giant tingle trees was also pretty cool.

The tree top walk

double trouble

driving through the giant karri trees

We have seen lots of crows on our trip and despite their evil appearance and scary croaky bird call we haven’t experienced any issues with them, until now…I had left a closed carton of eggs outside on the table and had popped over the kitchen for something and when I got back the carton was lying open 5m away with the 4 remaining eggs gone and a crow watching my reaction.  I am now looking out for those sneaky characters!