Wild flowers

There is a great variety of flowers in bloom, don’t know what most of them are, but they look great. Many were spotted on our morning walk, a trail just along side the caravan park. 

We drove out to Mingenew, spotting flowers everywhere, some regular old cape weed daisies too. At Coalseam Conservation Park, the foxglove, below, was a common site. It was a very popular picnic venue today, for Father’s Day. 

Russell asked some guy if he knew anything about flowers. It ended up that this couple were from Strathfieldsaye. Lots of Bendigo people not in Bendigo!

A drive to the next town, Mingenew, for a late lunch at a very popular bakery. 

Crops are grown everywhere in this area, the value of cereal crops to the area symbolised by this sculpture. 

Canola crops are doing well too.

Other views from Mullewa. 

A local priest (1914) designed and built the church. Designed many others throughout Australia. 

Dinner at the Railway Hotel - Sunday special was the roast lamb. Half the town were in for Father’s day.  At 6 pm, there were only a couple of serves of the roast left. Luckily we got in early!

Off to the coastline once again tomorrow, to Cervantes. (The Pinnacles are on our “to visit” list). I’m sure we will see a few more wild flowers on our journey. 

Bye for now. 

Coral Bay - Murchison River - Mullewa

I know, it’s been a few days since I posted anything. Time gets away!

Wednesday - we left Yardie Homestead, headed for Coral Bay.  The weather was windy, which made for an uncomfortable drive. We had a light shower of rain, followed by a dust storm.  Even clouds, which we have hardly seen since we left. 

On arrival at Coral Bay, we had hoped for a kinder breeze, but not so.  The neighbours said that the weather had been ordinary for weeks. Oh well.  You can’t dictate the weather. Notice the palm tree below!

The usually, very protected Bay was quite choppy. No snorkelling, swimming or boat trips today. Only sand blasting when we were walking along the beach. 

Coral Bay is a very popular seaside location for WA retirees (and others). We could only get 2 nights here as it is booked out most of the year. The people behind us have been here for 7 weeks and this was their 31st year of coming here. It is a pretty spot but not a great deal here. A pub, an IGA supermarket (which sold everything), a newsagent, a mini mart, a bakery, a couple of dive shops, a couple of cafes, 3 caravan parks, a resort and not much more. 

The wind was strong today, but not the reason why this wind tower was down. 

On Thursday, we headed out for an encounter with manta rays, which are residents here all year. We are a little late for the whale shark encounters. The weather was okay, but still a bit of a swell inside the reef. The snorkelling at the first spot was quite amazing, seeing many reef sharks (harmless).  1 turtle swimming alongside the boat. Later, the spotter plane comes over to find the manta rays and guides the boat to their location. In we jump, following our guides and photographer, chasing the mantas.  They are so graceful, not to mention large. The water wasn’t very clear, which was a bit of a shame, but, still great to see these creatures. The last snorkelling site was great, but it was hard work as the current and swell made for a difficult swim. Overall, a good day, but better weather would have made it more comfortable. (Photos are on a USB stick and can’t post them until I am on a computer, not iPad)

Our plans after Coral Bay have altered a little, as we got the very sad news that Russell’s brother in law (Noel) passed away suddenly on Wednesday. We will get to Perth a little earlier to fly home for his funeral.  Our hearts and thoughts go out to Marg and Marcus. 😘 Such a shock to everyone. 

From Coral Bay, we headed south and free camped at Murchison River (with about 60 other vans).  It was a good location to light a fire. There had been quite a bit of rain the previous couple of days, a few puddles evident. 

We have crossed back over the Tropic of Capricorn, how that seems to change things. The weather has turned cool, and the scenery has greened up!

We are now heading into the “wild flower” country.  We have headed inland from Northampton to a town called Mullewa. 

Everlastings daisies everywhere. White, yellow and pink. 

A short drive out to Pindar, the home of a unique plant, the Wreath flower. It grows on the side of the road for 1.5 km and nowhere else. The roadside is graded once a year, and these amazing plants just keep popping up. 

The caravan park here at Mullewa is full, so we are in the overflow area, about 20 other vans here. Drink o’clock at the caretaker’s site, a couple from QLD, who spend a couple of months here during the busy season. It would be a quiet park for about 10 months, when there are no wild flowers out.

More flowers in the next post. 

🌹🌺🥀💐

Exmouth/Yardie (Ningaloo Reef)

The journey from Tom Price to Exmouth was long (600 +kms) but not too arduous.  We got on the road just after 7.30 am. Plenty of stops, change drivers regularly and listen to podcasts. That certainly has helped while away the kms on this journey. A couple of good ones have been “Dirty John” (an American one), “The Teacher’s Pet (an Australian cold case investigation),  Annabelle Crabbe and Leigh Sales, “Dead Wrong” and “Australian True Crimes”.

Exmouth is another “purpose built” town.  Military bases and Naval Telecommunications (by the Americans) were the origins. In the mid 1960’s, the Harold E Holt Naval Telecommunications Towers were built. The main tower is the second highest structure in Australia, about 375 m high. Eureka Tower in Melbourne is about 300m. 

The town was built after the towers and completed in 1967. 

The free roaming emus are a regular sight, even down the Main Street.  This one, and another, were just roaming alongside the road on our way out to the lighthouse. 

Exmouth is on a point that faces the East. The gulf is quite sheltered and a fisherman’s haven. 

On the other side of the point, facing West is Ningaloo Reef, a world heritage listed area. 

The point was also a strategic military viewpoint during WW 2. Sandbagging still remains around this weapons structure.

Looking North

Westerly view with a few gnarly waves. 

The marina at Exmouth.  Lots of houses have been built along the arms of the marina. Not cheap!  

Exmouth Golf Course

Whale watch sunset cruise. 

Plenty of whales to be seen. Hard to get the good pictures though!

Another sunset!

We had the bonus of a sunset to the west over water and a full moon rise to the east over water on the same day!

On Monday, we moved on to Yardie Homestead Caravan Park, about 30 mins from Exmouth!  A big day.  This place is just outside the Cape Range National Park. There are about 150 camping spots along the beach area in the NP, but they are usually booked out from April to October.  This place is quite large, plenty of sites available (some drinking water available, and limited power. We chose not to have power as all you could use was the refrigerator, and lights. Anything else would over load the park’s generator.  Using gas and battery power, works fine for us. This park is also a good base to visit all the accessible spots along th Ningaloo Reef. 

Getting ready to snorkel off the beach at Ningaloo Reef (Lakeside). 

You only have to go out about 10m and there are amazing fish swimming around you.   The darker patches are the coral areas, with an abundance of fish. Russell saw a reef shark (harmless) yesterday. We did spot a turtle from the shore, but didn’t see it when we were in the water. 

Oyster Stacks at hightide.  It was a bit harder to access the water because of the rocks, but it was amazing marine life. I reckon I was in knee deep water when I saw the first fish this morning. 

Sandy Bay for our picnic lunch. 

Whilst sitting here, we spotted whales breaching into the air from a km away. It was on the other side of the reef.  We were stunned that we could see them. They threw themselves that far out of the water. 3 times within a minute!  If they had done that near the boat on Sunday’s cruise, we would have been swamped. (As well as dacked ourselves).

More emus.

Sandy Bay, the water colour is amazing. 

Yardie Creek.  Crossing for the experienced. This guy is wading through, assessing the best course of action, as they are parked on the other side. It is tidal, so care needed. 

He almost got stuck on our side, but worked hard to get up the hill. Might have made it tough for the next person going through, as he spun the tyres and gouged a fair hole. 

Back at Oyster Stacks after the tide has gone out, about half way.  We snorkeled around those rocks this morning, now exposed, so you get an idea of how far we were out, not far!

A funny story from Monday morning, before we left Exmouth. I did another load of washing, as we don’t have power here at Yardie Homestead Caravan Park. Let’s call it my E2 moment. I loaded the machine, turned the water on, power on, select cycle, push go. E2 flashes up on the panel and beeps away. Turn off, try again, rebalance load, try again, same thing keeps happening. Back to basics, get out the instruction and troubleshoot!  E2 means - close the lid!  Duffus!  So now if one of us does something “dumb”, it will be forever known as an “E2” moment. 

Packing up tomorrow, heading to Coral Bay for a couple of nights.  About 200km as we have to back track trough Exmouth.

Bye for now.