Hi Everyone,

It has taken a while to get this uploaded for various reasons but here it is, our last trip of 2016.   Please let me know if you have any problems viewing this blog and any comments you may have on how it could be improved.

We have not done much travelling this year for various reasons so thought that we ought to get away for a few days before the school holidays started.   We have often driven through places on our way up and down the state, one of them Greenhough,  a restored and maintained 19th c village just south of Geraldton.   So we had Greenhough as a target destination and could have driven there in a day, being less than 500 ks, but in the end it took us six days to get there – we were in no hurry.    Here is t route we took.  

We didn’t leave home ‘til past 1230 and wanted to get round Perth before the traffic built up.   In fact it wasn’t a problem and we had cleared the city limits by 2 o’clock and were heading up the Great Northern Hwy  (out of interest this road goes north to Broome and then east and north to Kununurra, where it becomes the Victoria Hwy and carries on into the Northern Territory).

Pat, aided and abetted by WikiCamps had sorted out our camping spot and after a diversion into Gingin (truly it’s the name of a town, look it up) for a cup of coffee, we arrived there mid afternoon and had time to set up camp by wine o’clock.   The site, Willowbrook Farm, was part of an old station (farm type) and is unremarkable but ideal for a couple of nights.    In the corner of the camping area is a little graveyard containing the graves of some of the pioneering family who opened up this area in the 19th century.   This woman died in 1912 when the area would still have been very isolated, the nearest medical support two or three days away by horse and cart!   

On Thursday morning we went to The Gravity centre. This turned out to be a really interesting place where scientific principles were explained with hands on experiences. Einstein’s theory was the main theme but of course many other things were discoverd along the way and since then. We had the place to ourselves and we tried out all the experiments!  There was a school party somewhere on the site but they were elsewhere. We climbed up the leaning tower (45m high, 222steps, 15^o learning that the higher we went the older we got, well that’s relativity for you!  After all this information we had lunch at cafe  before heading out to the coast to Gilderton, a small town at the mouth of the Moore River.    We had been here before so its really just a quick look to check if it has changed much.   We find a lot of these places expensive but I suppose the season is pretty short and people have to make a living.  There is a caravan park here, right down on the beach but our neighbours at Willowbrook Farm, who were heading here for a meeting of their 4WD club weren’t looking forward to it as, apparently, there are too many rules!

On the way back to the camp site we had a look at a another potential camping site called ‘Back to Nature’, It looked nice and in a quiet spot, unfortunately sites weren’t level – we have ways of evening things up a bit but not as much as lot of this area required, we mark it on our maps for future reference.

By the time we got back it was wine o’clock.    Had a chat with the neighbours exchanging stories of our days adventures.

Friday we head north for a few hours to what we hope will be our next camping site.   We say hoping b22ecause you never know whether it’s going to be any good ‘til you get there, though in this case it got a good rap on WikiCamps.    We visited Eneabba on the way and had to drive halfway up a hill in the streets of Eneabba to find a decent telephone signal so we can catch up with emails etc.   Lake Indoon turns out to be fine when arrive, it is a fresh water lake almost circular and probably 3ks across, there are only two other campers there and after a wander round decide on a suitable spot overlooking the lake at the top of the low sand hills that go round the lake .   The sand is quite soft so and we spend a bit of time shunting the van around to get the best position and make sure it is level.    After all that effort it’s time for a cup of tea (a bit too early for wine) and check out the view from the van.

Quite soon it is time for a glass of wine, to watch the sun go down, eat and sleep.   Rough this but someone has got to do it! 

 

 

                                                                                                                                 

On Saturday we decide to head for the coast, crossing a salt lake on the way, to a place called Leeman, which is a fairly typical small west coast town, originally it would have been a collection of fishing ‘humpies’, basic shacks made up of timber and tin sheeting.   There are still many of these places up and down the coast which historically, would have been well out of sight,  down long 4WD tracks but the relatively recently constructed Indian Ocean Drive has made them obvious and they are mostly eyesores!

Leeman, however, has smartened itself up a bit and now caters for the massive influx of people over the Christmas and Easter breaks who come with their boats for the beaches and the fishing.     We took advantage of the lull before the storm and had lunch and another coffee here.   Diesel was only $1.13 here and I figured I would fill up here on our way home, I didn’t expect to need to fill up but at that price it was worth it.   Back in time for a walk part way around one side of the lake before a cuppa and a bit of reading.   We were halfway through our wine this evening, when a bloke walks up and tells us that he’s got himself bogged round the far side of the lake and would like me to go and see if I can get him out. The front of the car was below the waterline.  You cannot refuse such a request, it might be me who needs help next time.

 The sketch shows just how bogged he was , his rear chassis was hooked up on mud bank so his rear wheels weren’t even touching the bottom and the far bank was probably too steep to get up anyway.    He said that they had walked the crossing and his wife had persuaded him that that they could do it!   The big problem was how to lift the back first so that we could get a snatch strap on it.   In the end I shortened the tow rope and managed to get his rear wheels up the bank.   Then we took the tow rope off and put the snatch strap on.   Snatch straps are very strong nylon woven slings.   The principle is that as you stretch it it stores up energy which it eventually transfers to the vehicles, hopefully this is enough to achieve the objective.   Well in this case I thought the strap was going to break but suddenly the rear end of the vehicle leapt into the air about 3’ as it came over the bank. 

A good effort and a good result, let’s hope he has learned something from the incident.    It was nearly dark by the time I got to finish my wine but I felt happy that I had helped a fellow traveller – next time it might be me.

On Sunday we decided to visit Stockyard Gully Cave.  This involved an 8k trek down a good but narrow 4WD track, tyres down to 30 psi and traveling in low 3/4.  It was mostly sand and rocks as you can see from the video.    Check out this link.  Stockyard Gully Track  I’ve still got to polish out the scratch marks on the side of the Troopie!We walked to the wide cave entrance above which was a wild bee nest so we didn’t hang around.   We walked through the cave with our torches (several people were using their phones as they were probably used to the more popular caves which are all lit up).  It was cool and showed how the water had worn away the rock surfaces. At the exit was another bees nest and large boulders to clamber down to reach the path along the dry river bed and then back to the car.

 

 

Monday and it’s time to move on, we have decided to make for Cliff Head which is about 40 ks south of Dongara, we can stay there for a couple of nights and take a trip up to Greenhough tomorrow.   We arrived just before lunch time and took our time about deciding where we were going to park.   In the shelter of the cliffs it would have been pretty hot, so we opted for having a fairly stiff breeze blowing into the door side of the van.   Mostly this wasn’t an issue as the wind usually dropped off in the evening.  

 

We thought the colours and textures on this part of the beach were rather picture worthy.

Not many other people around and we walked up the beach, into the wind, to the Cliff Head South camp and had a look round but decided that we’d picked the right one.   On the way back, down wind, we watched a number of Nankeen Kestrels hunting along the cliff edge.   We didn’t think raptors congregated like that but then the Whistling Kites in Mataranka were very community orientated.   When we got back to the van we spotted a large bird, another raptor which on checking the bird book we identified as an Osprey.   Of course, these birds are rare and protected in the UK and I only remember seeing the odd one on the Broads when I was a boy.    It was quite a long way away and we only have a pretty basic camera and it was facing away from us so photography was difficult, this was my best attempt.  Tuesday as planned we set out for Greenhough, via Port Denison and Dongara for a visit to the information centre, the Post Office and a local cafe, arriving at the historic settlement of  Greenhough Central around 1100.

It seems that it is always windy on this part of the coast and here was no exception but it did at least keep the temperature down a bit.    The village, dating back to 1860s , is run by the National Trust and local Shire and is very interesting.  Most of the buildings have been reasonably well preserved and you are allowed to go in them all and they have tried to provide both written guidance as to what you are looking at  and in many cases, contemporary items relevant to the usage of that particular building.  Some of the buildings were still in use up to about 1958, either as schoolrooms or Community Centres, but both the Anglican and the Catholic churches are still in use on a regular basis.    The Courthouse and Jail are very well preserved and both the churches are in very good condition with stained glass wndows.   We had the whole place to ourselves, apart from the alpacas, and spent a long time wandering around the old settlement.

 

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Both churches had a bell on a ‘gibbet’ outside, the Anglican one does not appear to have any inscription but the other one is a Murphy bell dated 1872.

After lunch we head off south to Cliff Head about 80 ks with a head wind all the way and we’re thinking that if it’s like this tomorrow when we have the van on the back it’s going to be hard going and a high fuel usage!

Back at Cliff Head the wind is still blowing quite strongly and I decide to go for a walk up the beach, I haven’t gone far when it feels like drops of rain – but rain it is not,  overhead a flock of cormorants have just got airborne and have decided to lighten their loads!!!   Well it is supposed to be good luck isn’t it?

Wednesday –  we start heading back to Karnup, though we will stop overnight somewhere just north of Perth.    We stop in Leeman where we thought we were going to get cheap diesel but its gone up by 15 cents a litre since last Friday so we don’t bother.    We do need some water though and we swing by the Tourist Information and fill up a tank there. It’s while we’re waiting for the tank to fill that Pat spots an Osprey feeding two chicks in a nest on top of an old telegraph pole.   The adult soon disappears but another is preening itself and keeping an eye on the nest on top of a lamp post not far away.    The two youngsters look as though they’re pretty close to leaving the nest.

 

We’re fascinated by the chicks, they’re really alert and following all the action but seem completely unfazed by the traffic and people walking by and me taking photographs, a wonderful experience.

Back on the road and a run of about an hour and a half to the place we had thought to camp tonight but it is rather exposed on the side of a hill with a windfarm behind it and we think we’ll move on.

Pat has another option about 20 ks further on and when we get there it looks a bit better and we stop under the trees and get a bit of shade. 

The bird incident must have been good luck because we had the wind mostly on our port quarter, whilst not ideal but it’s far more economical than the opposite quarter!

There is another caravan there and I go and have a quick chat, the owner has a similar tow vehicle to mine so we have some common ground.   Then it’s time for afternoon tea and a bit more reading.

Later our fellow camper turns up with his tinnie and chair and we realise that it’s wine o’clock already.   We chat for about half an hour mostly about campsites and places to go.   Then it’s dinner time.

Thursday – we’re heading for Perth down the main drag stopping in the Swan Valley to see if we can get some bee pollen at the Honey shop they don’t have any but we have an early lunch.    The traffic is not too bad but reminds us why we like the outback,  We get home about 1400, which gives us the rest of the afternoon to unload most of the stuff from the caravan.    We had a good trip, leisurely enough to be stressless, yet achieving the objectives plus a few bonuses, like Stockyard Gully Cave and of course, those Ospreys.  

 

Before we sign off, at the moment we  have a small flock of Red-Tailed Black Cockatoos in a eucalypt in the garden, they only go for this one tree and just tear it to bits, why, we don’t know but it might be for moisture or some specific nutrient.

Happy New Year Everyone