11/12/22 Back in the city

 

 Hi there , yes been a bit slack and haven't been terribly active . Blogs will have a rest while we enjoy the company of our family over Christmas - our London based son & wife and granddaughter will be here with us for 3 weeks .

  Wishing you all a wonderful festive season , stay safe & well and enjoy yourselves . 

  Blogs will resume in the new year .

  Cheers Alan & Lyn

2/11/22 Port Gregory

 

    Although we have gone to Geraldton , we decided to head back out to Port Gregory and Pink Lake , as it is really pink at the moment . It was a better day for the drone as well , the wind has relented a bit , instead of the roaring gale it's been what feels like forever ! We drove down past the lookout and headed down the track to the lakes edge - it was a lot wetter than usual , so care had to be taken where we drove . Stopping short of where we'd been to before , it was far too wet and the prospect of being stuck here wasn't appealing . A track led us to the edge of the lake and some wildflowers lined the edge .

   While the wind was down , the drone went up to reveal the beauty from above , the blue ocean , white sand dunes , green foliage and the brilliant pink lake !

    This is looking back at Port Gregory , it's a small village nestled into the sand dunes .

    Photos done , we headed out to the natural lagoon & boat harbour . It's a very protected area for the cray boats that are based here - there's a reef about 600m from the beach that forms a great barrier to the ocean .

    The jetty is interesting , well built with lights so they can unload / load any time of day .

    Shame the sand has decided to reclaim the beach and leave the jetty high & dry , definitely no boats going to use it !!

   Too good an opportunity to miss , the drone went up again for a view of the lagoon and the entry / exit to the ocean .

   This is a different view of Port Gregory and Pink Lake .

   We had lunch beside the beach , before heading back toward Geraldton , with another view of Port Gregory Road and the lake .

    Stopping at a few different places on the way back in to Northampton , we found some everlasting daisies .

    Another stop was at a memorial stop , and a horse drawn plough .

    The highway didn't excite us much , so we headed out to Nolba in the Chapman Valley . It's a cropping area , with canola , wheat & lupins being the main crops . Canola has nearly finished being harvested , the attention will now turn to the wheat harvest . Road trains are busy carting the seed to the depot in Geraldton , so it's a bit busy vehicle wise .

  Coming into Nabawa , I spotted what's left of this old shed - remnants of cyclone Sera last year !

    Beside the road there were swathes of this purple flower , which is actually a white flower with purple foliage .

   And with that , we were back in town . Time has been spent doing some maintenance , an occasional bike ride - when the wind was down to a dull roar , and a few games of golf ( not great , but what can you expect when you play 2 games since February ! )  , and reading some books . Plans have been made for next year , so you'll have to wait for that to happen . 

  Here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1lNzQZRSJ2sLpctmZMa4fp_ktAGbPfDI&usp=sharing

27/10/22 Kalbarri Cliffs

 

  

      Okay here's a review of our week in Kalbarri . Not much has happened due to the incessant wind , 30-40 kms/hr most times and gusting stronger . We have however , got some reading done , and managed a couple of bike rides - they were tough to start with , but excellent on the return with the wind behind us . This next photo is the Murchison River and the parkland beside it , there's a bike track that runs all the way around the river and up to Red Bluff - about 4klms away .

    Here's what was a fishing /viewing platform at the river mouth , it was destroyed in the cyclone last year and still hasn't been replaced .

    Speaking of the cyclone damage , there's still plenty of houses and units that still have damaged roofs and walls . There's plenty of new steel girders and roofing products lying in driveways , waiting for tradies to come & repair the damage , still it's been over a year and a half since the cyclone !!

   Another day we went up to the coastal cliffs NP and stopped in at Pot Alley , it was still windy , but the walk down to the beach was reasonably protected . Here's the view from the carpark .

  

   This is the start of the walk down .

    The track follows this creek bed down through the multiple layers of different coloured rocks .

    The wind and water have undercut a lot of the cliffs near the beach , forming beautiful patterns on the undersurface 

    The swell was certainly pumping in , this is not a place you'd want to end up in the water - you would be pulverised on the rocks .

    There's a life buoy here for the intrepid rock fishermen & women or unaware tourists that get swept off the rocks .

   The next 3 photos are the same wave crashing in 

    Some lucky people paid to go on an afternoon cruise in the wind and swell - we were quite happy sitting on the rocks watching all the action . You can see the white caps behind the boat .

    After heading back up to the ute , we drove around to Island Rock and stopped in the shelter and watched for a while , we felt it was a bit too windy and exposed to go for a walk along the boardwalk .

    Another day we had some offshore winds creating plumes of spray coming off the top of the waves at Back Beach .

     We managed to find some flowers we hadn't seen before .

    

    These ones were just on the edge of the road .

    And this is the closeup of them .

    That's our week , uneventful as it was , we head into Geraldton for a week or two or three . Here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1q48sZsid_rEpI5YMI2wUw4YOxh7qC78&usp=sharing

24/10/22 Galena Bridge to Kalbarri

 

   I hope the wildflowers haven't put you off , because there's more to come as we head in toward Kalbarri . All these are flowers beside the road , I didn't have to walk far to get them all . I won't prattle on about them , here they are .

  The flowers can be seen all the way to the horizon - they don't normally show up this well on the photos .

    All of these photos are from Kalbarri NP , the road passes through it .

   I noticed this strange little beetle ??? chewing away at these flowers - must have been tasty . It; got a great colour scheme - zoom in and have a look .

    We continued on into Kalbarri and got a site for a week - it's a lot quieter than we expected , and also a lot cooler !! Temperatures are up to 25 and down to10-14 overnight , seems when we got to Carnarvon there was a line we crossed and the weather south of that was about 10 degrees cooler during the day and night . We can't complain , we did want it a bit cooler , shame about the south to southwest winds that come with it though - 25 to 40 kms/hr wears you down when it blows all day & half the night . 

22-24/10/22 Carnarvon to Galena

 

   After staying for a couple of extra days still waiting for the parcel , it was time to head off again . This section of road from Carnarvon southward is a tad , well , boring . You are driving through desert and it's totally uninspiring . Hence no photos from this section . We had a look at a few campsites along the way , but kept going to a site we've stayed at a few times - Nerren Nerren Rest Area . It was a busy stop this time , with about 10 others staying as well .

  Next day we headed further south to another free camp at Galena Bridge , we had a couple of stops along the way , the wildflowers were out everywhere . This plant did have some yellow flowers , but it was the thorns that got my attention . When I looked at the photo on the computer I found a tiny seed that had obviously got stuck on the furry leaf . 

    Here's some yellow everlasting daisies .

   There were masses of flowers beside the road , and further into the bush . The late rainfall has made a huge difference to what we've seen before .

    There were lot's of these as well

    Next stop , we went for a walk up a track for about 500m , all the vegetation looked like it wanted to be there and was thriving . there were plenty of different types as well - here they are -

   

  This one looks like it's a spotty flower , but it's white with the dark spots being the stamen of the flowers . 

   Always good to have some variation in colour .

   This is the Smoke Bush .

    All the natives thrive in the cream coloured sand .

    A different type of everlasting daisy .

    And being further south , we have arrived back in the northern wheat belt .

    These little yellow flowers were only about 20-30mm above the ground . They created a carpet of yellow .

   Getting to Galena Bridge , we made our way to a section that is quieter than the main area . This Desert Rose was right beside our van , here's a photo of 3 flowers in different stages closed , nearly open and fully open .

   We even had views down the Murchison River . 

   Our afternoon was spent reading and going for a walk down the river and around to a gravel road and back again . Fortunately for us we didn't get any neighbours - nice and quiet .