This is Australia - As a Grey Nomand: Part 11 Carnavon,Denham, Kalbarri and Geraldton Western Australia

Red Bluff Panorama where red dirt meets sea

We loved WA it is really a beautiful place,  and they  cater so well to the tourist, everything is well sign posted, tourist offices provide heaps of good information on things to do in the various local areas, and no matter where you go here there is a fantastic view, beautiful scenery, incredible drives that take you to spectacular coast lines or incredible mountain ranges plus this part of the drive had prolific wild flowers, this is where you see them everywhere you look.  I have to move this journey along a bit so will put a few places in together.

Murchison River Panorama

From Coral Bay we headed to Carnarvon,  and once again there were fantastic day drives (some however were quite long on sandy tracks, but they provided some great experiences, including blow holes (only a few kilometres from the town center), to Red Bluff – quite a drive but worth it.  This is the Gasgoyne region and Murchison River a major food bowl for WA and crops abundant so a very pretty landscape oh and I cannot forget the space station – a lovely exhibition here.  

Panorama of Denham foreshore 

 Denham, was our next stop and a lovely seaside town, again there is heaps to do here (but this is where we first hit rain), we had been lucky to date that everywhere was dry.  Again a lot of great day drives coming into Denham – all with lovely walks and exciting things to see – it is a place that you could spend a significant time at. 

Shell Beach

From the stromatolites (the oldest living thing on earth), to shell beaches (that are so white, and the shells go forever),  fantastic broadwalks that show you the beauty of this World Heritage listed area, the aquarium  and of course wild flowers everywhere, there is just so much beauty in this area.  The only thing I will say that disappointed us was Monkey Mia – you see this place all the time on TV etc and it was a real let down for us – would recommend if you want to spend time with dolphins, you go to either Tangalooma (in Queensland) or I was told Bunbury was better for this activity.

  

I think this is what we loved about WA is the coastal views coupled with the inland views all magnificent.

Panorama of Natures Window Kalbarri

Lets talk about Kalbarri – such a beautiful place again many days were spent here on this water front town,with again spectacular inland and coast drives, viewing platforms, walks and we finally saw our first whales frolicking off the coast line, bird sanctuary, but the walk to natures window in the national park was probably the best for us, just beautiful.  The national park has several great walking trails, viewing platforms etc, but again the coast road does as well, you can either walk the entire coast or drive to the various smaller walks dotted along the coast.

Unfortunately for us, the rains where now beginning to set in, so off we had to go, camping is fun, but not when it is pouring – we headed for Geraldton  to get the car serviced and ready for the drive across the Nullarbor – more on that in the next blog.  It was pouring in Geraldton as well so cabins it was – this is quite a big town center and one that is good for a general stock up.  Generally though this whole part of the trip was full of the beautiful wild flowers , and coming into Geraldton you got the back drop of the canola fields as well providing the most incredible yellow and green background.

We have been travelling now for 9 weeks and while some people say WOW you did that quickly, we felt we stayed in most places long enough to see and do everything in the area, there were definitely times however in this drive where there was nothing along the way other than a petrol station, and given we didn’t want to do the free camping sometimes you just had to suck it in and do the 800k days from one place to the next.  Also the beauty of a camper trailer is you can go the speed limits so you just get places faster than those in a van.

More of Dereks finds - he has been having a great time with his metal detecting.

I suppose the only regret I have is not doing Karijni National Park – we were told it was 4wd only access, but after having long past it, many others in 2wd said we would have made it.

This is Australia - As a Grey Nomand: Part 9 Wild Flowers of WA

So just to mix it up a bit, I will do a post just on the WA wild flowers.  Anyone who knows me, knows I love my flower shots while travelling.  Why?  The flowers of an area help me to remember the area better, they show a different side of a place other than just the tourist shot, and besides, WA is renowned for its wild flowers and especially in July-September it is the best time to see them.  If you are lucky enough to be in WA at this time you will not be disappointed they are in abundance.  Here is a collection of my wild flower shots from our trip.

I think you might be able to tell the few shots at Ayres Rock and Kings Canyon (obviously not in WA, but beautiful nevertheless).

So here is a bunch of flowers for all of you or if you want to see all 300 odd here is the linkThe Wild Flower Collection - WA

Don't ask me what their names are, to buy a book on the WA wild flowers costs about $20, so decided while it would have been nice to know the name of everything - we would just enjoy their beauty.

This is Australia - As a Grey Nomand: Part 8 Karratha Western Australia

Panorama of the Karratha Pilbara Region

While we didn't get to Karratha in a day - I am trying to concentrate on the major places we stayed, more than the in between towns like Port Headland (which we stopped at on our way to Karratha), some towns like this are just big mining towns with not a lot to offer - and are not setup for tourists (so be aware pre-booking isn't a bad idea in a town like Port Headland).

Karratha and Surrounds - Welcome to The Pilbara

Karratha was that surprise town for us, after Port Headland we really were not expecting too much from it and apparently only a few years ago it was hard to get any camping spots here as they were all taken up with miners, but this was a town like Broome for us so much to do, great camp site with an ensuite (haven't had one for weeks now), lovely people and just a fun place generally and we stayed here much longer than we anticipated 6 nights I think.

Panorama of The North West Shelf Project

There are some fantastic tourist drives in this area all under 100ks, and the tourist information centre provides great maps, everything is once again well sign posted, and easy to find.  One of the major areas to visit is Roebourne, which leads off to Cossack  (more on that in a minute), Sampson Beach and Cleverville - we spent a few days in this area as it was very pretty, lots of beaches, beautiful waters and generally interesting, it was a shame though we were not there for the staircase to the moon where the reflection looks like a staircase up to the moon, happens monthly though.

Cossack is incredible, the old town buildings with information on who lived there etc walk it or drive from one place to the other, very pretty environment as well.  We headed down to Sampson Beach for lunch - nice pub here overlooking the ocean.  In fact this whole area was lovely - there was a good caravan park in Sampson Beach as well for those who prefer beach camping.

Some finds at Sampson Beach

Derek did a lot of metal detecting in this area - and he found a wing off a toy plane, we made a joke that it might be the wing off the missing MH17 flight, but overall he did really well on these beaches. It was now that he started learning that it is not just beaches where there are finds to be found, but parks and more especially caravan parks (over $70 in the play ground of the camp site)- while you may have a laugh at his finds I didn't pay for laundry once during the trip and I used the dryers at the van parks as well, so usually about $20 a week was spent on these, plus we often got free lunches and dinners from his finds as well.  Metal Detecting paid off well in WA and overall throughout the trip.

Another great thing to do in this area is visit the North West Shelf Project - incredible, lots to see and do here as well so we were kept pretty busy.  Once again made lots of friends here and the Big 4 Caravan Park was nice, full of friendly people all with a story, so nightly drinks around the BBQ where par for the course here.

Everything is big here, big trucks, big views and big mining, we loved our Karratha time and is a town and area full of surprises.  The wild flowers were becoming a part of the landscape as were some of our feathered friends - a few wood pigeons who had no hesitation in sitting with us on our arms at the camp site.