Weeks 17 & 18 - Mullewa to Mandurah (via New Norcia and Perth)

Well here we are again and this blog covers the Wildflowers in
Mullewa as well as our journey south to the beautiful city of Perth.
So firstly let's take a walk through the wildflowers in the bushland
areas around the township of................

Mullewa

There were two walk in Mullewa - the Wildflower Walk just across

from the only caravan park in town and the Bushland Trail and
these photos show just some of nature's floral displays on both
trails. As both are in natural bushland and not in gardens, there
are no gates and no entry fees.

Where oh where will I point the camera!

There is a variety of colour in these fields and I've posted some

of it. You'll just have to come and see them for yourselves but

do allow a few days to get here and make sure you come after a

good season of rain which the area has experienced this year.

 Mullewa is also known for this beautiful church - Our Lady of Mount

Carmel, designed and built by English born Monsignor John Hawes

who studied architecture in London before becoming an Anglican priest.

After spending time as a missionary, he converted to Catholicism 

and then headed to Rome.

In 1915 he was invited to work as a country pastor in Western

Australia but was keen to develop his architectural skills so he expressed 

 his desire to build a Spanish Mission style cathedral in Geraldton. He

then designed and commenced the building of St Francis Xavier Cathedral

in Geraldton in 1916, a photo of which is in our previous blog. In his

24 years in Western Australia, Monsignor Hawes was responsible for

designing and building over 16 churches in the mid-west region.

 He was also well known in Mullewa for his love of dogs and horses.

Above is the main altar of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Mullewa.

This is a close-up of the side altar to the left of the main altar. 

Pindar

We took a short drive to Pindar just north of Mullewa and a

little further along a gravel track towards a sheep station, we

found the Wreath Flowers pictured above and below....

These wreath flowers are almost heart-shaped.

The Wreath Flowers seem to grow well in red earth and our car

again took on a red appearance but that's part of this country

and we've grown quite used to it. But hang on we're

not saying that we'll miss it when we head south!

As we left Mullewa we noticed this mural on the wall at the 

town hall which hosted the Wildflower Show for the week.

It's certainly a striking memorial.

From Mullewa we headed south-west towards Jurien Bay,
 Cervantes and  a little further south to the.....

The Pinnacles

The Pinnacles, thousands of limestone pillars rising out of the

bright yellow sand, are located in the Nambung National Park

about 20kms south-east of Cervantes and 270kms north of Perth.

Good photo spot through this hole in one of the pinnacles.

This 4km long track allows you to drive around stopping along the

way to walk among the pinnacles, but there is also a separate

walking track which covers about one kilometre.

Many of the pinnacles tower above the car while there are

also thousands of smaller ones in the desert floor.

It's getting closer to sunset now but the clouds are building on the

horizon so we'll leave you with this photo at The Pinnacles!

Leseuer National Park

Leseuer National Park is situated just west of Jurien Bay and

is one of the most significant reserves for flora conservation

in Western Australia. The photo above shows Mt Leseuer

in the background and the whole field covered in grass trees

which are plentiful following fire in the park.

Here are just some of the flora in the park.

Stockyard Gully National Park

About 50kms along a gravel road north of Leseuer National Park 

and after a short section of 4x4 driving, we found Stockyard Gully 

National Park and this photo above is the entrance to a 100m long

underground tunnel you can walk through. The choice is to

walk in water in spots or climb over rocks. We chose the latter

and occassionally our shoes did get a little wet.

There's just a bit of light near the exit of the tunnel at Stockyard

Gully. When Leigh and John from Coffs Harbour (a couple we met

on our travels) and Gerry and I were in the middle of the tunnel, we 

switched off our headlamps and it was so totally dark that we could

not see our hands in front of our faces. On the walk notes it does

state that you need a torch to do this walk and we certainly agree.

Sandy Cape Recreational Park

This was our campsite at Sandy Cape Recreational Park

(CAW426) on the shores of the Indian Ocean and this camping

area has no power but generators are allowed and it does have

environmental toilets. From this park we drove to the Pinnacles

and the Leseuer National Park.

At Sandy Cape a new boardwalk was constructed out of recycled plastic

and built on top of the sand dunes in the park and it offers magnificent

360 degree views of the area. Above is the view to the north

and below Gerry is looking to the south.

This easterly view from the Boardwalk Lookout looks towards the

campsites and maybe you can just spot some white dots in the centre

of the photo which are some vans behind the dunes. It was a beautiful,

natural and quiet camping spot and you could hear the sound of the

waves crashing from the front and back beach during the night.

We left Sandy Cape to travel inland towards New Norcia

and passed through the small township of Moora where this

great mural on the wall of the council building caught my eye.

From here we continued on to.....

New Norcia

'The Benedictine community of New Norcia' is the official title of

the group of Roman Catholic monks who have owned and operated

the small town of New Norcia, located 132kms north of Perth in

Western Australia, since 1847. Below are two of the town buildings.

The building above is St Gertrude's which was used to house

the female boarders during their schooling.

Ildephonsus College was the accommodation for male school boarders.

The forward moving Benedictine community have continued to grow

strong through tourism and their various product lines including bread,

wine and food. One of St Benedict's rules, when he founded the

Benedictines in Italy over 1500 years ago, was that all monks should

greet anyone who arrives at their monastery gates as "if it were God

Himself who had knocked". So when you arrive at New Norcia, the one

thing you won't be denied is hospitality. Today New Norcia has over

700,000 people visiting the town each year.

Visitors are also able to join the monks in prayer services.

The 'Vespers', sung evening prayers with the monks in the monastry 

and 7.30am mass in the Abbey Church the following morning provided

an experience of a different kind and were certainly very reflective. 

Following 'Vespers' we had dinner at the hotel and met up

with some OZ Opera members on their Australian Tour, who just

happened to be singing and relaxing around the hotel piano.

We enjoyed a drink with them and were invited to meet with them 

at the 'after party' following their performance in Mandurah which

is our next destination.

How could we resist such an introduction to Opera!

On our 'Oz Tour' so far we've had some great opportunities and

we're grateful that we've been able to enjoy these special moments.

Following a night to remember in New Norcia, we headed off

in the morning towards the beautiful city of Perth and came across

this great signage to the Bindoon Heritage Museum! The posts

must be pretty strong to carry the weight of the Austin A30

which is also known as a 'Baby Austin'.

Perth

Perth is a beautiful city with the contrast of modern and heritage

buildings. It has a great public transport system as well as a great
cycling trail network which is fantastic for commuting as well as 
leisure riding.

Perth's city skyline as viewed from King's Park.

In King's Park which is on the hill above the Swan River, stands

this statue of Victoria, Queen and Empress from 1837 - 1901

during which time Australia was colonized and federated.

 King's Park also has beautiful wildflower gardens.

From King's Park you can see where the Swan and Canning

Rivers meet. The Kwinana Freeway bridge spans the Swan River.

The meeting of the two rivers that forms this vast expanse of

water, symbolises the strength of unity in Nyoogar culture.

Nyoogar is the generic term for the indigenous people of

the south-west of Western Australia.

This is St Mary's Cathedral at the top end of Murray Street.

The cathedral has undergone extensive renovations with  side wall

extentions as well as stunning changes to the inside of the building.

The Fire Station from 1899, situated on Murray Street

is now a Fire Brigade Museum.

Oh it was tempting for an old firey! Just to ring that

old historic fire station bell would be something.

And you'd thought he'd stopped arson around!

This is the Trinity Anglican Church on St George Terrace.

Trinity Arcade Cafe is on the right side of the church.

The Cloisters on St George Terrace, is one of Perth's finest historic

buildings and it displays both Gothic and Tudor stylistic influences.

It was built for the first Anglican Bishop of Perth 1856 - 1875

Mathew Blagden Hale who opened a secondary school for boys.

Apart from being used for different schools since then, it's also

been used as WAAF Barracks, a Dutch club, kerbside cafe and

commercial offices. It was planned for demolition but a public

campaign put a stop to this. Retention of 'The Cloisters' was 

important as it's a link to the early history of the city.

This is Miss Maude's Swedish Hotel on Murray Street built

in 1911. We enjoyed a smorgasboard lunch with swedish delicacies

and the food was absolutely delicious. And to top it off the seniors

discount meant we got our glass of wine free!

On the TransPerth system they've got some great signs in

both trains and buses which give quite clear messages.

We found them humourous so we hope you do also! You'll

need to check out the faces as well as read the messages.

Below are a few more to enjoy.

Sorry about the reflection on the two above caused by the

sun reflecting on the glass.

This last sign was in front of a double train seat and it read:-

'This seat is reserved for seniors, people with a disability

and parents carrying young children. Please make this

seat available for those who need it. Thank you.'  

I just love the expression on the baby's face.

We'll leave you with this blog here in Perth as we're now

working on the one in Mandurah. At the moment we're

in a great camp spot in the Leeuwin Naturaliste National

Park just 20kms south of Margaret River and we have a

reasonable internet signal but not a good phone one. 

Once again we've parted from our travelling group because

of work enquiries here in WA and we may not meet up

again this time until the next caravan rally in October.

Keep safe and till next time, Gerry & Maria

Week 16 & 17 Carnarvon-Denham-Kalbarri-Geraldton

We're continuing our journey southward and have up till now enjoyed
warm, sunny weather. It's been wonderful for touring and we've certainly
become quite used to this warmer climate but thankfully it's not been
above 30C too often. While in Geraldton a cool change arrived and we 
had to get out something other than shorts, t-shirts and sandals.

Okay we know you're all waiting for the next episode so on we go
then with our blog as we travel along the Indian Ocean......

Carnarvon

This sign is the introduction to Point Quobba just north of Carnarvon at

the Blowholes. The surf can be very dangerous and people have been killed

when they've stood too close to the huge waves which happen at varying times.

Here is the largest Blowhole in action but it's only low tide now. Imagine

then how dangerous it would be for those people standing on the rock at

high tide when  water sprays up to 20 metres into the air and onto the

ledge with great force from the blowholes and the waves.

There is a sign before the rock ledge warning of the danger here.

Gerry's standing on another rock ledge near the Blowholes as

this wave crashes over. We both got wet!

This sign along the coast near Point Quobba has the shape of the HMAS

Sydney (11) cut out of the metal. It looks like the writing is light blue in

colour but just like the ship it's been cut out of the metal. The light blue

colour is the sky behind it. In 1941 HMAS Sydney was caught in a battle

with German cruiser HSK Kormoran. Both ships sank with apparently no

survivors from HMAS Sydney's complement of 645, whilst 80 perished

in Kormoran leaving some German survivors. The absence of Australian

survivors left many questions on the precise circumstance of the loss

which continues to arouse controversy.

Now for a bit of 4-wheel driving just a little further up the coast.

"Let's try this track." Gerry said! Then.... "Oh we're stuck!"

 But it didn't take too long to get back on track. His excuse for

taking this track was that it looked more interesting than the

first track which was not as challenging.

The rear right wheel is certainly not in its usual position! 'But hey that's

what 4-wheel driving is all about isn't it boys?' Funny how the rear

wheels kept sinking further when Gerry initally tried to drive out of it.

Let's start by clearing out some of the sand from under 

the left side of the car where it's bottomed.

This is the condition of the track! Piece of cake hey!

After all that excitement it's time for a bit of lunch at this stunning

section of coastal scenery on the Indian Ocean. Cape Cuvier in the 

distance is where salt is loaded onto boats at the jetty.

There were several boats anchored off-shore awaiting loading.

 

                                                       

                                       It's amazing how these wildflowers flowers can grow

                                           so well in such rough, rocky, coastal terrain.

Shark Bay

Shark Bay was discovered in 1616 by Dutch Captain Dirk Hartog

who stepped ashore at Cape Inscription (Dirk Hartog Island) to

become the first recorded European to set foot on Australian soil. 

Dutch Captain De Vlamingh revisted the site in 1697 and  the

Vlamingh lighthouse in Cape Range National Park bears his name. 

The Aboriginal name for Shark Bay is 'Gathaagudu' meaning 'two

bays'. The Malgana tribe are the traditional owners of Shark Bay.

 

Shark Bay's Hamelin Pool

 Hamelin Pool has this long boardwalk for viewing Stromatolites.

Stromatolites are rock-like structures built by microbes

(single-celled cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae).

Shark Bay’s stromatolites are only 2,000 to 3,000 years old, but they are

similar to life forms found on Earth up to 3.5 billion years ago! They

provide a unique insight into what the world was like at the dawn of time.

Above are living Stromatolites and below are some red capped

ones that stopped growing about 500-1000 years ago when the

sea level fell. The reason for the red cap is uncertain but possibly

due to pigment of visiting bacteria.

Perhaps the scientists among you may appreciate this information!

And while we were checking out the Stromatolites, this little

guy has perched himself on a rock to check us out! Or should I say

glare at us! Doesn't look too impressed does he?

Also at Hamelin Pool, this old little grave tells a sad story of a tragic time

for the parents of 7 month old Thomas who died in 1898 from either

typhoid or cholera while travelling with them from the Old Port of

Cossack to Denham.

This is a Shell Quarry at Hamelin Pool.

The compacted shell was once quarried for building blocks but it's now

only used to repair any historic buildings made out of shell in Denham. 

A close up picture of a shell block. Shell grit has been mined at

Shell Beach since the early 1960's - see below....

Shell Beach is an amazing pure white beach that has been created

naturally from hundreds of millions of tiny shells (Fragum cockles).

Masses of shells have been drifting in for about 4000 years and

they are five metres deep here and still piling up.

Shells in the ridges gradually cement together. 

The water at the beach is crystal clear and it's apparently an ideal

swimming and picnic spot. I guess though it wouldn't be good

for bathing a-la-naturale! A bit rough for that maybe??

(Oh well at least we had Cable Beach and Doolena Gorge!)

Here's a close up picture of the tiniest shells. Loose shells are used

for footpaths and parking areas as well as landscaping around buildings.

Denham

Denham is the small town on Shark Bay which has limited shops

but it's a picturesque seaside village and a great opportunity

for a little time on our bikes. You can tell the weather's still

warm by Gerry's Karumba uniform - at least that's what Keith

calls it. We'd no sooner arrived in Karumba when Keith announced

it was time to wear his uniform - by that he meant a singlet top.

That's about all you need there apart from shorts. Karumba was 

some time ago now but Gerry's still enjoying his uniform Keith.

And here's another photo of the sleepy village of Denham.

Monkey Mia

Yes like all the other tourists before us this was one of those places you just

have to visit. At around 8am dolphins gather close to shore knowing that

they will be fed at that time. They left after getting their fish but about an

hour later they were back for more. This time most of the crowd had left

and I was offered the chance to feed a dolphin.

You must hold the fish under the water for the dolphin to take

it and you are asked to not touch dolphins for their own protection.

However it was still a good experience just to be near them.

It was as though he came back to say thanks! I think you'd agree

dolphins are beautiful creatures.

The next day we headed for the Peron Homestead a former

sheep station located in the Francois Peron National Park.

The artesian hot tub of naturally heated water was about 40C

and we could only take it in short bursts but it was certainly

very relaxing. While we enjoyed the hot tub, right behind us

the emus were enjoying their bath.....take a look below....

First one's under and it must have been good because it

wasn't long before.....

 

they were both in up to their necks! We didn't think emus

were into swimming.

Kalbarri

 Kalbarri is another great little seaside place to visit. We could

have easily stayed on here for longer as it's not just a place for

adventure, but also a good spot to just relax or take a leasurely

stroll around the town.

Wildflowers in Kalbarri line the bike/walk path to Red Bluff.

The colours of Kalbarri's Red Bluff above and below....

Check out the thin wedge this guy is standing on! There are warnings

all around here to stay away from the edges as underneath the

limestone is quite soft and crumbly and can break away at any time.

Beneath the Red Bluff lookout.... and below....

....atop the Lookout with a view of the Kalbarri township at

the mouth of the Murchison River at the inlet at top of photo.

Kalbarri National Park

Nature's Window is one of the features in the

park and below is the lookout at Z-Bend.

We loved the view into the valleys below. This is one trip we chose to

take with a tour company as it was the only opportunity to canoe the

gorge. The 4x4 bus took us into an area of the national park which is not

accessible to the public.

After a steep descent into the valley, we walked along the river to get

to the spot where the canoes are stored and after a short lunch break...

....we were off to collect our canoes.

The beauty and serenity of the gorge - that's the tip of our

canoe and below we're gliding in underneath the rock.

Here we are rowing together. We canoed for 6kms in the

 gorge but you could do a shorter distance if you wanted.

The total hiking distance was also 6kms. 

After the canoe trip we had a steep climb back out of the gorge.

Our hiking boots came in real handy. These kids also managed it

with some help from the tour operator who was a real character.

Part way to the top we had a good view of the gorge below

where we enjoyed the canoe trip. Now we move on to.......

Geraldton

In Geraldton we stayed at the Bellaire Caravan Park on

Point Moore (see black dot at left of photo) in between

Pages Beach and Greys Beach. It was a great spot and only

a 2.5km walk into town along a walk/bike path.

A very nice park with large, grassy sights.

Geraldton's St Francis Xavier Cathedral, the corner stone 

(white patch at bottom left) was laid in 1870 in the original

cathedral but relaid when it was rebuilt in 1916.

This stained glass window in the cathedral was donated

by the wife of a man who died in 1889 at age 60. This

window along with others also donated early last century,

have started to bulge out from the heat of the sun but

that's not bad considering how old they are.

Geraldton's Victoria House Visitor Centre was originally

the Victoria Hospital built in 1887.

With our bikes parked outside, it was time to enjoy

a coffee with some delicious apple strudel at 'The Dome'

on the waterfront before heading back to camp.

We departed Geraldton on September 2nd and have been

to the wildflower district as well as New Norcia and are

now in Mandurah. Once we get more photos sorted there'll

be another blog update but it may still take a little while as

we've been quite busy sightseeing and enjoying this

wonderful country as well as catching up with my

sister Ronni and her partner Brett here in Mandurah.

And just a message for all our footy mad family,

 GO CATS!

Luckily we've been able to see quite a few of the

 games up till now with our Satellite TV Dish.

Till next blog.......Keep safe.