10/2/22 Murray River - not the one you're thinking of

 

   Okay , we're back in the van and on the road again , well not far down the road while we wait for some new solar panels to arrive . We're staying at Pinjarra Holiday Park just out of Pinjarra , on the banks of the Murray River . There's a river walk on the property , so we headed out for a wander before it got too hot - the weather is just being constantly hot , still in the mid to high 30's ! The river is badly blocked up with fallen trees & branches , area's where all the timber has been caught are around each corner . The river is in a 5 - 8m deep valley and was flooding above this valley during winter last year .

   The water is clear and obviously reasonably healthy , supporting many fish - we could see several schools of fish up to 50cm in length .

   Back to the van and time for some reading and the air conditioning .

  The sun sets over the dry grass and parched paddocks to end another day 

  Here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1Q3b2UTzZO7IyLwMs1WnX0Z3-A_lSK2xc&usp=sharing

24/1/22 Around the estuary

 

     Heading south around the estuary , we found this spot that looked interesting , lots of dead tree stumps poking out of the reeds beside the water .

    Island Point was our next stop , and here it is , and thats the island . It's a popular spot for people to go crabbing , the water isn't too deep and there's usually plenty of crabs .

   From here we headed toward Lake Clifton and discovered an old lime kiln . There's also a 500m walk to the lake where they used to get the lime slurry from . 

  This is the other side of the building .

   We headed off down the track toward the lake and found a few little flowers .

   It was a pleasant walk down to the end of the track , and that's where it gets weird , this is the end of the track 30m short of the water - if you look really hard you can see some water through the trees !

 The only way we could see the lake was to manoeuvre the drone up through the canopy of the trees and watch from there . These are all freshwater lakes and are found quite often in WA not far from the ocean - income cases right behind the sand dunes of the beach .

 Lake Clifton stretches up to the north and also down to the south from here , boating , swimming , fishing isn't allowed .

 This is where they used to get the lime slurry from , and this is the only way to see it - from above . The remains of the old pipeline jetty can be seen in between the two dredged areas . The slurry turned out to be inferior , so the dredging and kiln operations were scrapped .

   Another day , another drive , we headed to South Yunderup to have some lunch at the Sandy Cove Tavern with Jo & Mark - friends we met at Bonney's Ski Park . After a very nice lunch , we headed around to North Yunderup . At the end of a dirt road you find yourself at some of the waterways that flow into the estuary . The Serpentine River is one side and the Murray River is on the other .

    This is the Serpentine River looking to Coodanup on the left and Furnisdale on the right 

    Coopers Mill is just over the water from where we could drive to - one of the early flour mills .

   That's it ,we haven't been doing a lot due to the excessive heat we've been having of late - week after week of mid 30's , and the Fremantle doctor has deserted us , so no cooling afternoon breeze , it's turned us into hermits . Here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1Nu0nesMbBK7AzfSXuyK0B-qplAsT7K-q&usp=sharing