Okay here we are again , there's been a bit happening of late and we've been a bit preoccupied , however , here's an update .
We left Cliff Head and went down to Green Head , a little town just starting to grow a bit . One of it's attractions is Dynamite Bay , a nice little protected bay where you can swim & snorkel - when it's warm enough !!
The weather has been rather cool , even the locals are getting sick of the cold & the wind - it just doesn't want to give up .
We got the bikes out and rode around the bike tracks that lead from the boat harbour , around Dynamite Bay , to lookouts on both sides of the bay and further to the south .
This is Anchorage Bay , or the southern end of it at least . Green Head was an important crawfishing town , with a processing plant and many old sea shacks . Crayfishing has stopped here due to the larger & more efficient processing plants at Geraldton & Port Denison .
After a couple of days we headed south again to Jurien Bay , we've been here a few times and don't mind it at all - there's an excellent fish & chip shop in town as well . We headed north , about 16 kms to Sandy Cape - there's a very popular campsite there , everyone comes up from Perth for the weekend , so I would recommend mid week as the best time to stay here . It was an overcast day , but the beach was excellent stretching out from the southern headland , a nice quiet bay .
There's a great bike path that we'd ridden before , it stretches from the jetty in town and heads south in and around the sand dunes . This is the beach at what was the end of the track last time we were here - now however the bike track continues on down the coast for another 7 klms , for a total length of 12klms .
This is the latest section as it heads south , we were only 30 to 40m away from the water - beautiful .
Another day we went for a drive east to check out what looked like a new subdivision , not that new as we found out , but the track led us down through a bush track - not open for 2wd cars - 4wd only !! Came across more wildflowers , our first yellow kangaroo paw .
The smokebush looked great lining the track .
We came out on another road that led back south , so headed that way , finding another road that went up a hill to where they were harvesting wheat . Wind turbines are situated on the hills a little further to the east .
This is the view back west toward the coast .
There are thousands of grass trees around here , and they are out in flower at the moment . This one had a huge wasp feeding on it , there's a fly just above and to the left of it to give you some scale .
I played golf at Jurien Bay and caught up with one of the locals that we met in Newman . It's a funny little golf club , like most on the coast they aren't flush with money so they let the grass on the fairways go to seed to reseed them . The grass therefore was little longer than usual but still okay . The greens are sand and they just held the WA sand green state championships here . The funny part - with the fairways being too long on some holes , we only played 13 holes instead of the normal 18 . I managed to win the day with 32 points - think they thought I was a bit of a burgler , but it was one of those days when everything worked .
We left Jurien and went all the way to Cervantes - bit over 20klms , big day !! After setting up we headed back toward Jurien looking for a track that could take us to where the bike track finished . After bouncing our way down a couple of rocky & sandy tracks , we turned off onto another narrow track that had trees growing right beside the tyre tracks . They were growing back in & over the track and there was no room for another vehicle , all the time Lyn was driving we were keeping an eye on where we could turn around if needed , but before long we'd found the track was getting tighter and tighter so I went for a walk to see where it was going . After about 30m the track ended , fortunately there was an area to turn around - with a 5 point turn , then battle the trees again on the way out - we never did find the right track .
One of the big attractions at Cervantes has to be the Pinnacles , so we went back again . Choosing to go for the drive around before going into the visitors centre was a great choice , we spent a good 3 hours wandering around .
It was different to the last time we were here , some areas were newly uncovered with the recent rain & winds blowing the sand around . This was one of the great views to the white sand dunes in the distance
This is looking out toward the ocean , probably only about 4klms away .
The weather still isn't behaving , we flipped a coin to see whether we'd stay a bit longer or head down to Perth . The forecast wasn't much different for either of our choices , so we packeting dup and headed to south of Fremantle for a few days .
A couple of days here saw us getting the bikes out again , riding down to Coogee Bay Marina , then heading back to Fremantle . This is an outstanding mural on a building in South Fremantle .
This is the shipwrecked remains of a ship used for cattle transport near C Y O'Connor Beach .
This is Coogee Bay Marina , quite the popular new area , the marina has very few empty berths , and there's new apartment buildings beside it as well a new subdivision .
We left Fremantle and moved closer to Emma , she joined us in a quick trip back to NSW for her cousin Becky's wedding , and of course to meet her niece Isla who is now 8 months old . Yes we were there for the same reason as well - the wedding and to get to know our grandaughter Isla , of course we went to see Justin & Taylor as well !!
The wedding went well , the 6 days spent together was special as well , and over way too soon .
Time since has been spent assisting with some gardening & revamping the lawn at Emma's , getting some polish onto the roof of the van and catching up with friends .
Now to get organised for our family christmas !!
To all who read this blog , have a wonderful Christmas and New Year , see you next year !!!
Cheers Alan & Lyn 🥂🍻😎
