NW WA Tour - Carnarvon to Geraldton

Friday 5 August

Out of Carnarvon and south again soon leaving the fruit and vegetable farms and into heathland again. This later became scrub with more swathes of white and yellow daisies and purple pea flowers.

We stopped for pastries and coffee at Wooramel Roadhouse and were able to see the daisies close up.

There had been quite a bit of rain overnight with large pools of water lying around. We also saw more feral goats.

We stopped for a few hours at Hamlin Pool where we walked to the stromatolites, had lunch at the tea rooms and had a tour of the museum. While walking around Gill and I were amazed by the call of the Chiming Wedgebill bird in the scrub.

We found lots of wildflowers we'd not seen before on this trip so we are really coming into the wildflower areas.

On then to Shell Beach where there were another huge variety of wildflowers and a wide beach of small cockle shells.

Scaevola sp

Diplolaena grandiflora ?

Stylobasium spathulatum (Surianaceae)

Onward ever onward along the peninsular toward Denham for the night, our most westerly overnight stay on the trip. We are back in heath and, except in the few large river beds, have not seen trees for days.

We turned off to Eagle Bluff which was certainly worth the visit. From the boardwalk high above the water we could see right to the bottom of the water below. We saw large fish jumping but apparently had just missed a dugong and some dolphins.

At last we headed for the motel 1.5 hours later than planned. We have not had very much free catch up time in the last few days so blog work is well behind.

Saturday 6 August

Up early this morning to be out to Monkey Mia and the first dolphin feeding of the day. It was fun to watch and they are certainly beautiful animals. About 8 dolphins came in but only 4 are fed at each session.

After the feeding Gill, Carol, Glenda, Geoff, Lesley and I walked to the bird hide. Unfortunately there was no water in the dam so very few birds around. However, on the return walk we almost bumped into two young emus who ignored us completely and kept on feeding.

Back to the visitor centre to meet for a cuppa before leaving. Just near the Highway 1 junction we clicked over the 6000 km reading for the trip so far.

Billabong Roadhouse was our lunch stop. They had lunch ready for us when we arrived so it was a quick lunch stop.

We then headed past more swathes of white and pink ankle-high flowers after lunch. We are also seeing a few more trees now for the first time in days. Cultivation came as a surprise just before we crossed the Murchison River after weeks of scrub and heath.

We visited Hawks Head lookout in Kalbarri NP and enjoyed both the views of the river (with black swans) and the amazing array of wildflowers that are now blooming. So many plants that I can't even guess the names of. One particular one smelled very strongly of honey. Gill later found it online as Grevillea candicans.

Grevillea candicans

Guichenotia sp.

On to our motel at Kalbarri to settle in and have a very enjoyable, very simple, early dinner. I think we are all tired of huge restaurant style dinner that drag out till way past my bedtime.

Sunday 7 August

We had a sleep in this morning and did not have to be at breakfast until 7:30am – luxury!

Then it was a walk to church at St Marks Anglican followed by morning tea. The service was quite traditional anglican but with the minister on guitar for the hymns because his organist was sick. There were so many wildflowers in the church garden we spent a lot of time dwadling through taking photos.

Back on the coach for our 1.5 hour drive to Geraldton where we had lunch on the waterfront at Skeetas. The meals were very up-market and far too big but delicious. I contacted Graham and made plans for meeting up tomorrow.

We then drove around to our motel, the Ibis Styles on the highway to Perth. Joan and I were first to the laundry so now our room is looking much like a chinese laundry again.

After sorting a bit Joan and I went for a short walk down to the beach. The dune is very steep at the edge and I guess it might all be washed away one day. When we saw rain heading for us across the bay we hot-footed it back to the motel to prepare for dinner.