After a cool night - it got down to 11 degrees !! - we got up about 8am , having had a really good nights sleep !! Hooray !! Breakfast out of the way , we had to get ourselves back in travel mode .
That accomplished , we headed off through the Ferguson Valley and up to Wellington Dam . The road taken , took us through Dardanup - a small town surrounded by a lot of dairy farms with very green fields - something that’s a bit out of the ordinary at the moment - WA has been in drought for about 3 years . They utilise water channels , similar to the way things are done in the Riverina in NSW , water floods in to the fields through access gates and metering wheels from the main channel beside the road , and can be directed to whichever field they want .
The road started climbing , and the fields started to go grey - dead grass grey - the only parts that were green , were beside the roads and in the bottom of the valleys . Stopping at the top of one rise gave us views back to Bunbury and the coast .
Gum trees have been and are still blossoming . The gum nuts are huge !!
The road was winding and up & down , leading us through the Wellington Forest - mainly Jarrah . There is a Discovery Centre in the middle of the forest which we had a quick look at , but there was a school class on excursion there , so we decided to head off again , leaving that section of forest all to them .
Not far up the road is Wellington Dam on the Collie River . The road in takes you down to the river at the base of the dam wall , across a bridge , beside the pumping station and up to a kiosk and viewing areas . The dam is V shaped and quite impressive . There is an outlet at the bottom spraying a large tube of water out - almost like someone has pulled the bath plug out !!
At the top there is also the quarry where they jackhammered and dynamited the rock that they have used in the wall . The walls of the old quarry now form a solid amphitheatre and picnic area .
The magpies over here are different from over east , with a section of solid white running from the top of the back of their head to half way down the body .
Heading off , we drove beneath the dam wall again and turned off toward Honeymoon Pool. Not knowing what to expect , we were pleasantly surprised to find an area called The Rapids , and rapids there were swirling and bouncing down & over the rocks - we have finally found a river that is flowing , clean and you could swim in !!!!! Reflections in the water were also pretty good . It would be awesome on a hot day !!
Back in the ute and about 1klm down the road is another area called Big Rock - and for good reason . This rock went from the river to the top of the ridge - about 500m . Very little vegetation , but always with grass trees - there are millions of them in WA !! There is also a shelf of rock about 300mm thick perched on a few other rocks - almost like a diving board .
On the road again , this time about 2klms down an area called Little Rock - it only goes about half way up the hill . There is one large pool , some small rapids and then another good size pool . The water is crystal clear , you can see stones & sticks on the bottom quite easily , and is up to 3m deep in places .
Continuing on , we finally found Honeymoon Pool , which turns out to be a rather large camp ground for tents - they don’t have caravans in there ( apart from the camp hosts ) . It finally dawned on us after walking around the area and seeing nearly all the sites with multiple tents on them , that this is the Labour Day long weekend in WA - so everyone is out camping , fishing , boating and whatever else they do this weekend - a very busy weekend - and we forgot about it - could be interesting where we will be for the next couple of nights!!! Hopefully we may be able to stay here another day or so !
This campground is beside another section of the Collie River , has a large timber deck area with stairs either end for entry into the river - what a great spot - except for long weekends !!!!
Next stop was the King Jarrah - a tree that is around 400 years old . We were expecting to find a very large tree , and it was , not as large as we’d imagined though . It stretched upwards about 45metres , was about 4metres thick at the base , and had many battle scars from fires and fallen branches - still impressive , and gives you a whole new view on how old the forest actually is !!
The forest floor is covered in leaf litter and grass trees , a lot of what we have driven through today has had a fire go through it in December , and has a lot of regrowth now happening .
The next spot we stopped was different to say the least . We came out of the forest area and into a place called Gnomesville , yes you have read it correctly - Gnomesville !! And what would expect to fine here , yep , gnomes occupying the side of the road beside a roundabout . We saw some as we approached , but were taken by complete surprise at the amount of them - there are thousands of them , and they come from everywhere and anywhere - people from all over the world have placed gnomes here - who knows why - they have just done it !! Here is one photo of one small section .
The area covers approximately 2 acres !!!! You could spend a lot of time there if you are interested in gnomes , unfortunately for us , we could take or leave them - we left !!
Bunbury was the next stop so we could get some late lunch - which we ate beside the Lions lookout tower . We ventured up the spiral staircase up to the very windy top platform , for great views of the coast to the north past the port , views over Bunbury and the estuary , the lighthouse and a very large Indian Ocean stretching off into the horizon .
The traffic in town was quite hectic - everyone was getting away for the weekend , so that contributed to the extra traffic , and it was Friday afternoon as well !! After filling with fuel , we headed back .
We found a few links back to NSW today - we went through Picton , Henty & Wellington - not bad seeing as we didn't leave WA !!!
Trying to get some accommodation for the weekend was a tad difficult - everywhere appears to be booked out - on the coast or inland - there’s sport or music festivals or food festivals - to be continued ???
Todays map link :- Sorry not working tonight !!! - bloody google !
No comments:
Post a Comment