30/11/23 Peppermint Grove Beach

 

  Whilst in Bunbury , we headed down the coast to a great little spot called Peppermint Grove Beach . There's a small village , but the beach is excellent , with very few waves so nice and easy for swimming . Here's a few of the locals enjoying the beach , when we arrived there was only 3 other people and 2 dogs using the beach - fine by us !!

    There's a playground , Bbq's and picnic tables - not a bad view .

   Here's a couple of aerial shots showing our beach off .

   Beautiful spot !!

    After some beach walks and a swim , we had lunch beside the playground , then headed up to the lookout . About 120 steps up to the top got the heart rate up sufficiently .

 360 degree views from the top looking all the way round Geographe Bay to Dunsborough .

   And north up to Bunbury 

   An excellent day out , we headed back north to the van . Here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1iQ72Rdxu6I33pqe1HhWWIlIkIYT-qCw&usp=sharing

29/11/23 Bunbury , Collie River

 

      From Jarrahdale we headed south to Pinjarra , so we could catch up with Emma and get a parcel we were waiting for . It was good to see her and we had a reasonably quiet night . 

   Next day we headed off to Bunbury where will will stay for a couple of weeks . The drive was uneventful - which is always good !! Finding ourselves at Australind at 10:30am , and not being able to check in till 12noon , we stopped at a nice park to while away some time while we waited . There's an interesting sculpture further down in the park , that we wandered down to . It has indigenous input , and represents the area , food sources etc . Looks like it's all been laser cut and assembled - it is impressive !

    The following photos are around the Collie River , from the bike tracks that we covered a lot of .

    The Christmas Bush is out in flower again and looks great . There were several large trees of them along the rivers edges .

    Another view of Collie River and the bike track .

   We swam , rode our bikes and did some shopping in the crazy sales for some things we required , and generally relaxed - we're a little bit lost at the moment after our time in the goldfields - if only it wasn't so hot out there we would probably still be there !! Here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1w9ziMhlGTt4vz2JWORWQj2O0eI5I0SM&usp=sharing

18/11/23 Jarrahdale

 

  Moved down to Jarrahdale , up on the Darling Scarp (ridgeline that runs for quite a distance from north of Perth to past Bunbury ) . We stayed at the free camp they provide for 3 nights . It is beside what was a timber mill . The forest around here is quite nice with lots of Jarrah forest . Trails lead into the bush from the campsite , here's what it looks like .

       There are some small buildings as well , fenced off now , but these were the single mens accomodation , with a communal ablutions block beside them . Shame they are starting to fall apart .

   Still , they are in a beautiful setting .

    Not far from those huts is the old mill , it was one of the newer mills that was electrified . The roof is falling in now , but this structure is where the timber was stacked after being cut . The centre is a large turntable that turns to allow the cut timber to be stacked in the appropriate section , then removed for stockpiling outside .

  Here's an unloading / loading crane in the yard .

   They loved their belts & pulleys .

   There are thousands of wattle trees reclaiming the areas around the old mill . You can understand why there are so many when you see how many seeds they produce . Here's just a small section of one tree !!

    Even though it's past spring , there are still some wildflowers to be found.

    And of course there's hundreds of grass trees around as well , flower spikes pointing skyward .

 

    We headed down to Serpentine Dam one afternoon , it's a bit neglected when compared to other dams in the area . This is a close as you can get to the edge of the dam wall - you can still drive across and there's a parking area on the southern side , so you can walk to have a look . The dam is fairly full at the moment .

    We visited Terry & Robyn another day before moving on further south . Here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=19X4FXKjW7nRRTNIESZrN5zDeYg8_rEY&usp=sharing