13 Dongara and Pinnacles to Perth

This is the final post of our wonderful journey from Darwin to Perth. 

From Kalbarri we had one night in Geraldton, a town about the size of Griffith, for some pathology tests in preparation for my planned sinus surgery in Sydney, then we stayed at Dongara for church on Sunday and had coffee on Monday with BCA minister David and Traci Mitchell. 

 Dongara is at the mouth of the Irwin River and we found a great birdwatching spot.

Our caravan Park was right on the beach, this may was fishing in the strong wind.

From Dongara to Jurien Bay, cold and wet and windy, so no photos. But we had one fine day to visit Cervantes and The Pinnacles, an amazing area of an eroded protruding petrified forest (one of the two theories).

We drove on a designated path through this National Park and could get out and look at the formations.

A pity we only had brief sunlight to bring out the best of the photos.

The whole coast in the top map is lobster (Crayfish) territory. Most are exported live to Asia and Europe from Perth. We had a quick tour of the Lobster Shack, but the cold windy weather meant the catch was small and we didn't see much.

Finally we arrived in Perth, repacked our bags, gave away many items like extra blankets we had accumulated, has morning tea with Rob and Kaye Healey (BCA State Officer for WA) and caught the plane to Sydney, arriving Sunday evening. 

Sadly Sydney rail had weekend trackwork on the line to Macquarie Centre, where we were staying, ready for my sinus surgery Monday. We survived two bus trips and an extra train journey to Macquarie Shopping Centre, even had a lovely security guard put us in his Golf Buggy to get us to our nearby apartment.

Surgery went well, now recuperating and will have family time on the weekend, see the Doctor on Monday, then start driving home after an amazing 3 months. 

We hope you have enjoyed the pictures. God bless, Peter and Lee

12 Carnarvon and Kalbarri

From Exmouth to Carnarvon we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn, ie similar to Rockhampton in Qld. The weather is now getting a lot colder and there always seems to be strong winds.

We free-camped at a nice spot where the Uke came out, as it did most nights.

Look closely. As it gets dark and Lee plays, I eat cheese and biscuits and cook sausages on the portable stove. There is a stove inside, but outside is better. Towards the end, I need light from our magnetic torch.

We walked out this long jetty at Carnarvon, now just for tourists and rather run down and VERY windy.

Carnarvon supplies bananas to the rest of Australia when the Qld crop is finished, It also has a lot of other fruit and veg, a bit like Hay, but only on a larger scale. It also depends on irrigation water. Note the sailcloth windbreak.

Carnarvon was one of three Australian sites that helped put a man on the moon. The others were Parkes and Tidbinbilla near Canberra. We looked at the discovery centre.

and went for a "ride" in the space simulator.

On the way to Kalbarri, we stopped at a camp spot on the Murchison River, the first river that wasn't just a dry bed or string of water holes. Several beautiful birds came right up to our van, including this Blue Wren (different from the others) and this red robin.

Kalbarri is a lovely holiday spot, with coastal cliffs, fishing and the Murchison River Gorge.
We limited ourselves to the coastal cliffs.

Kalbarri is probably the site where the first Europeand (Dutch) set foot on the Australian Mainland. Read the plaque for details.

Finally, a photo of a small boat navigating the entrance to Kalbarri Harbour.

Wonder of wonders, we are up to date. We left Kalbarri this morning, and I am sitting in the van in Geraldton Caravan Park. It is Friday afternoon, we have to be in Perth in a week. This will probably be the second last blog, unless I decide on a special one with the best bird photos you haven't yet seen,  from the whole trip.

11 Exmouth - Ningaloo Reef

We left the Pilbarra for the amazing Coral Coast, particularly Exmouth, Coral Bay and Ningaloo Reef. Ningaloo is a fringe reef, which means the coral reef starts hard against the shore at low tide mark. The outer edge of the reef is marked by the white waves, breakers, not very far out to sea.

The reef area is a World Heritage Site. We went out on a boat with underwater windows.

The coral is not as colourful as the Great Barrier Reef, and it is hard to catch its beauty.

The reef is not threatened because the land is very dry and there is only one creek producing runoff into the ocean.

There were lots of very large and tiny fish.

We also rented some gear and went snorkelling.

A kind volunteer loaned Lee a small board with a window in it.

This might be Lee snorkelling just off the rocks.

There were lots of beaches all along the coast, many with small campsites. Here is one beach in the National Park.

We also spotted lots of beautiful birds, including this blue Wren

and this Australasian Bustard, just like the one that had its photo in the Hay paper 2 weeks ago.

The journey is nearly finished and I am still behind in these blogs. Maybe I can also post the next one today, from Exmouth to Kalbarri.

10 Karratha area

We had a very long day driving to Karratha. Saw some Sturt Desert Pea at one short stop.

Karratha is a very new town between Dampier and Point Sampson. Both these ports have iron ore loaders, here is part of a train more than 2 km long, heading to Dampier.

Dampier is also the base for the North West Shelf LNG Project, Natural Gas is extracted from under the sea floor 150 km offshore from Dampier and treated to remove other gasses at Dampier, before it is either piped to Perth or frozen and loaded aboard special ships for export.

These are photos from the LNG information centre at Dampier. One is a model if a gas platform, the other shows the undersea pipes out to the drilling platforms.

The flame from this stack at Dampier can easily be seen at Karratha.

There is a Christian Seafarers Centre at Dampier. Jake De Salis is chaplain, we had lunch with Jake and Jenny in Karratha.

Lee attended a Women's Conference at Karratha Anglican Church, which was on that weekend. The speaker was Monica Short, from Sydney.

Peter helped in the kitchen. Here is the Minister at Karratha, Les Gaulton with his wife, Jenny.

After the conference weekend, we went to Point Sampson and attended evening church at Wickham, and next day had a big fisherman's basket lunch with the Minister, Richard Goscombe and his wife Tracy.

We have had many great sunsets, I think this was from our caravan park at Karratha.

Next, we leave the Pilbera and head south to Exmouth and Coral Bay.