Australian Walkabout

11^th October– 27^th October

This was the last leg of our trip to Perth. Yup, we finally made it, and checked ourselves into Fremantle Village on 11^th October. We had the usual medical and mechanical check-ups, and were keen to have a look around Perth, but we’ll get to that later. First, we had a couple more stops on the way. An overnight stay at Boscabel Hall and a few nights at Boddington.

Not much to say about Boscabel Hall, other than it’s a really good overnight stop. A big open area, nice, and a few birds.

Then we came upon Boddington and what a lovely little town this is. Very pretty, beautifully kept, and with a river flowing through it, plenty of birds. Way over the other side of the river bank I spied a nest and a couple of young Spoonbills; one of my fav waders. ☺️

This is a very popular spot, with a lovely rose garden nearby, so parking spots at the 72 Hour RV camp site, are at a premium, so get in quick.

So, back to Fremantle Village. I don’t think that the Fremantle Village caravan park is actually in Fremantle. You drive past the “Welcome to the City of Cockburn” sign, then put the indicator on to turn into the Village. Cockburn is a light industrial area, and not particularly pretty. Still, it was a short drive (about ten minutes) to South Fremantle and another five to the Fremantle harbour area, the starting point of the Americas Cup yacht race Yet another five minutes gets you to North Fremantle train station which offers $2 per day parking, and an easy train ride into the city of Perth.

We had booked in at Fremantle Village for two weeks, having organized some repair work on the car and maintenance on the caravan. True to form, even though the car repair had been arranged a couple of months earlier, communications between the repairer and the insurance company had ground to a halt so we extended our stay another week to get the work done.

That too, was in vain and now we’re going back on the 21^st November to get the work done. 😒 Nothing’s ever easy when you live on the road.

During our three weeks, we did quite a lot of exploring. Including several hours roaming Kings Park, in particular, the Botanical Gardens. We’re at the tail end of the wild flower season, but the park was still stunning and we saw some different flowers.

The caravan maintenance went without a hitch. Tony from Westcoast Trailer & Caravan Service, came to us and did a great job with the van. He fixed the brakes, re-packed the wheel bearings, and gave Chunky Bum a thorough going over. Sadly, he found a few more problems and parts needed to be ordered. Luckily, we will be back on the week beginning the 21^st and can do the work while the car is being repaired.

Perth city is… well it’s a city. It certainly didn’t grab us the way Adelaide did, but the area around the river is quite lovely. I was able to catch up with an old friend, and that was wonderful.

The 21^st of October marked one year since my operation, and I’m pleased to report that my latest check-up was all good, and both Peter and I are fighting fit, and still loving life on the road.

We spent a fun day in Mandurah, visiting the Giants of Mandurah, if you want to learn about them, follow this link – https://visitmandurah.com/giants-of-mandurah/

We only saw three of the five, as we had a better offer to have lunch with Peter’s cousin. It was great to catch up, and the lunch was delish.

We did a few day trips around the area, and into the city and of course a day trip to Rottnest Island. It’s a thirty minute ferry ride over to the island, then you can explore on foot, bike, bus, or a combination of these. We did the foot and bus combo and had a great day. The bus took us past an Osprey nest that he said had been in use for about 100 years. Each season, the breeding pair will do a bit of maintenance on the nest and raise their young. This year they have two bundles of feathers to feed.

And I’ve saved that best till last. Rottnest island was discovered by a Dutchman, Willem de Vlamingh. He thought the island was overrun with rats, hence the name, Rottnest (Rat’s nest) Island. What old Willem thought were rats, are the cutest little marsupials called Quokkas. I’m pleased to say they still live happily on their island.

22^nd to 25^th September

This post is going to be short on words, long on photos, and not a bird in sight. My headliners are just a few of Western Australia’s wild flowers.

First off, a little about Lake Grace. It’s southeast of Perth and for the most part, is a system of dry salt lakes, but when in flood, Lake Grace forms two very large inland lakes. The lake is known for its colours, pinks, mauves, and greens, but like all salt lakes, the depth of colour relies on the environment. When we were there, we saw shades of pink, but I have to say, nowhere near as impressive as Lake Bumbunga.

We stayed at Lake Grace for three days and spent most of the time hunting wildflowers. They may not move very fast, but…you really have to hunt them down. Here are some of the roads we took.

Now to the main event. There are a lot of images, but I did cull them…a lot, so there could have been a lot more. ☺️ If you make it through them all, I hope you can find your favourite. I know which one mine is.

To date we haven’t seen fields with massed flowers, wrong place, wrong time, but along the roadside near Lake Grace we got an idea of what the massed flowers would look like.

I must say, I have never seen a flower with such vibrant blue as these, and they have not been photoshopped at all.

One of the magnificent things about some of these flowers, is their uniqueness.

The first flower in this set is my personal favourite, and Peter found it for me. It is so delicate and pretty and perfectly formed, I just love it.

These too, are particularly delicate, and what is hard to tell from the photos, is that some of these individual blossoms are no larger than my little finger nail.

Here are some more unusual flowers. The first is so intricate and delicate, whereas the second could be formed in wax.

Purple is one of my favourite colours, and these flowers celebrate the colour in style.

Red and yellow, a match made by Mother Nature.

The first images in this set were a much bigger blossom, about the size of my clenched fist, spldi almost succulent petals, whereas the next are delicately feathered, they look so fragile.

And last but not least, the humble white flower, not so humble, just lovely.

I hope you made it to through them all, and like me, were blown away by this small selection of WA’s wildflowers.

20^th – 22^nd September

Wave Rock: I think most Australians would have heard of, if not seen the iconic photos of people “surfing” the wave (I know my mam and dad did). 😊 So, we were excited to visit and “surf” the wave ourselves.

Let me tell you, it’s not as easy as it looks, that slope is deceptively steep, and even though we don’t look as though we’re very high on the wave, we were slipping down even as the photos were taken.

Wave Rock is an impressive rock formation, and the colours of the striations, especially when the sun hits them, is pretty awesome, so we couldn’t understand why they’d build an ugly wall across the top of it.

Our first thought was that it was built to stop people falling off, (those of you who know me well, will know my thoughts on that). But that isn’t the reason.

You can walk up on top of the wave, it’s not a pretty walk, industrial looking stairs, high, wire fences and lots of Keep Out signs. But the reason for this, and the wall, became clear when we reached the top. Off to one side of the wave is a dam and those ugly walls act as a waterflow management system, ensuring that as much rainfall as possible flows into the dam. So, I can live with the practicality of the walls, though they could’ve made them prettier. 😉

The top of the rock was similar to McDermid Rock, though not as impressive. Still, we wandered around up there for a couple of hours, enjoyed the views, and spotted our next destination way off in the distance.

At the base of the Humps is Mulka’s Cave, one of the oldest rock art caves in southern WA and well worth the look.

The Humps is another big rock formation and by far our favourite. Bigger and bolder than McDermid Rock and Wave Rock, with more troughs, and gullies, peaks and oases, we stayed up there until the sun was low in the sky.

There was something prehistoric about this landscape, I mean can’t you just picture a herd of Brontosaurus wandering about in the valley below? We didn’t see any Brontosauruses, but found some boulders to play on. What can I say? We’re easy to please. 😊

The water in the ponds was crystal clear and delicious. As fresh as you can get, at least, that’s what Peter told me.

There wasn’t a lot of wildlife to be seen, but this bird of prey, a Brown Falcon I think, kept me busy for a while.

I stalked this bird for thirty minutes or so, got a few shots then decided to park my bum on a rock for a few minutes. I hadn’t been sitting long when I realised that the hunter became the hunted. I was minding my own business, enjoying the view when my peripheral caught a movement. I turned to my right in time to see the falcon coming at me, in a head on attack… No Kidding! At really high speed he passed over my head so close that I thought I’d lost my cap. I thought Peter would come running to my aid, but the sound of his laughter in the distance told another story. Falcon 1 – Jo 0

In this area we stayed a couple of nights in Hyden at a little spot called ‘The Camp’. It’s a lovely little town and they’ve done up a really good display of the local characters from years past… kind of a rusty history told in rusty sculpture. Really good.

9th – 12th September 2023

I’ll start by saying Lake Ballard must be one of the most visited, remote, tourist sights. We were there for three nights, and there was a constant stream of day trippers and overnight campers, and for good reason. It’s a relatively short drive from Kalgoorlie (207 km) and on sealed roads most of the way.

The drive will take you through the little town of Menzies, once a bustling town of ten thousand, now a home to a meagre 103 residents. There is a lot of history here and of course, they still have a pub and the beer is icy cold. 🙂

Lake Ballard is just another Salt Lake, so why is it so popular? I’d say ethereal sculptures (placed strategically over ten square kms of Lake Ballard) are the draw card. These fifty one sculptures, created by Sir Anthony Gormley, seem alien in nature. Couple that with some striking hills, perched on the otherwise flat salt pan and you have a landscape with a distinctly off-world feel. The lake is mostly an ochre colour but if you get the lighting just right, it turns a delicate shade of pink.

If memory serves, all fifty one sculptures are based on residents of Menzies, plus a couple of ring-ins. Each had a full body 3D scan (naked). The data from these scans was reduced to 1/3 actual size and used to create the steel alloy statuettes. We walked to twenty four of the statuettes, and viewed forty one from the hill top.

The first day we arrived, we had glorious weather, with a sky that screamed…”Shoot me”. So, I did. Along with the statues and the landscape. In a way it’s a shame that the area is so popular. When the statues were installed, the lake was a clean white salt bed, (I saw some photos) but now, with all the foot traffic, the salt has been replaced with dry, ochre/pink dust.

That first day, we also had a lovely sunset to enjoy, all in all, we had a lot of fun and we were up early the next day to enjoy the sunrise. Yes, I know that’s unusual for us but the photos below are proof – we even got the early moon being chased by Jupiter.

The weather wasn’t so kind the following two days. It was hot and windy. Each day, between 10:00 and 10:30, the wind arrived. The atmosphere was full of fine salt and sand particles…so was the caravan. But we still went out and had some fun.

We took the opportunity to fly the drone from the hill top, and we got some decent shots. It’s a shame drones are banned in so many areas, because you don’t often get a chance to see an area from a birds eye view.

There hasn’t been a lot of wildlife around, but there have been a few lizards, and I have to say, the WA lizards have a bit of attitude. These little guys, about twenty centimeters from nose to tail, are not afraid to stand their ground.

After playing with the drone, I thought I’d get my Lens Ball out. You get some good effects with this, and I had a bit of fun with it. Hugo even managed to drag himself out of the caravan, though the wind was causing him a bit of grief, he didn’t want to miss out on meeting the “aliens”. I swear, that bear will believe anything you tell him.

We would have stayed longer, but the fourth day showed no reprieve from the wind. We’d worn our broom down to a nub with all the sweeping, and we were getting tired of eating sand/salt/dust, (it was that bad) so we stowed away our goodies and hit the road again.