McDermid Rock & The Breakaways

15^th – 20^th September

Our next stop was McDermid Rock, followed by The Breakaways. We didn’t know what to expect at McDermid Rock, other than a bush camp near a big rock, but we were looking forward to getting away from the wind and the dust and the sand blasting from Lake Ballard. We had to go via Kalgoorlie so decided to make the most of civilization and clean the van.

As you can see from the photos, yet another plan was foiled. 😊

Anyway, we arrived safe and sound, having traversed more corrugations, fallen trees and washouts. We set up camp and in short notice, decided we’d have to stay a few nights.

We spent hours exploring McDermid Rock, it was steep in places, but we were able to pick our way along, up, over and around the rock.

We were fascinated by the many water holes and mini oases on the rock. These small patches of flora cling to life on this otherwise barren rock and they remined us of the rockpools you often see on a rocky coastline, little Eco systems all on their own. The water holes and the oases, I am sure, make life a little easier for the birds, lizards and…tadpoles.

There were a few lizards in the area, I identified two distinct sub-species. Pretty Boy (Ornate Lizard) and Stanley, (Crested Dragon – feel free to correct me if I’m wrong). Until I was able to go online to identify them, I had to make up names for them. Pretty Boy and Stanley seemed to fit. I’ve become quite fascinated with our scaly friends, there are so many variations in colour size and behaviour. And like my friend from Lake Ballard, I’ve no idea what he was, these little guys don’t back down.

We are discovering that the tourism marketing team in WA, just as in all the other states, do a great job with their glossy tourism magazines and brochures, to make things look bigger, better and bolder than they actually are. We have followed a couple of the wildflower trails and have seen none of the massed, open fields of wildflowers…yet. However, there is indeed a wide variety of beautiful flora in WA, you just have to go off the beaten track to find it.

A group of Twitchers pulled in next to our camp one morning, and we got to talking to them. They had come here specifically to see a Chestnut Quail-Thrush. Peter picked their brains and got directions to the last known sighting, so next morning at 06:30, we went hunting Chestnut Quail-Thrushes. Peter spotted three or four, I only saw one female, but did manage to get a few shots before it scurried away through the scrub. It may surprise you, but I did a bit of bird hunting throughout our stay. I didn’t get many but there were a couple of new sightings for me.

I was happy with the Super Blue moon shots I took at Kalgoorlie, thanks to some advice from a fellow traveller, 😉 so I decided to try my luck for a few night shots while at McDermid Rock.

I couldn’t get the lighting right on this first shot, but I love the way the old moon is still visible by Earth-light (sunlight reflected off the Earth to the moon and back again).

Reluctantly we left McDermid Rock and made our way to The Breakaways. So very different from the Breakaways at Coober Pedy, but very interesting. The Breakaways might have been better named the Drop-offs as the entire area appeared to be a giant sink hole. Well worth checking out even though we only stayed for one night.

We decided to try some more night shots and this time we got technical, we dragged the telescope out (Celestron NexStar8 SE,) then connected my camera (Canon 5D,) to it. Next we connected the camera to my laptop. We certainly need more practice using this technique, but love the results and I think we might be doing it again.

So, unless we get picked up by some little green men for being too nosey…we’ll check in again soon.

See you out there somewhere

On tow and on the go!