14 Feb 19 Around the forest

 Back again , we are feeling a little bit stagnant and stuck at the moment - but that hasn't stopped us from getting over ourselves and getting out & about a bit . 

 After one of our appointments we headed out on the bikes at San Remo , just north of Mandurah . There's a bike track that follows the beach just behind the dunes , a nice ride up & down the coast .

 On another excursion we headed to Henderson - a sparsely populated area on Warnbro Sound . There's a majority of industrial works here - the next photo shows Henderson Cliffs and a lot of industry in the background . The cliffs are limestone and very porous , and fragile as well .

  Looking to the north toward an area called Naval Base - there's a lot of boat construction taking place - large catamaran ferries and the like . As you can see the water is crystal clear .

 We've been fortunate to be able to watch the jet sprint boats racing right next door to us . These boats & drivers are amazing , the boat in the next photo has been a constantly quick boat over all the rounds we've been to - they were doing an extremely good lap last week , but clipped the tyres on the side of the track about 80m from the finish line . It flipped once , hit the ground and rolled 3 times before coming to rest on it's side on the finish line . We feared the worst but both driver and navigator came out without any broken bones , just some bruises . They were lucky - but treated really well - they were taken to hospital in the rescue helicopter . They will be back racing again , such is their love of the sport .

 The track is changed each meeting , making it interesting for all the competitors and spectators alike.

  The Ski Park is a purpose built set of 5 interlinked lakes for water sports - predominantly water skiing , wake boarding and barefoot skiing . It is also very popular for family recreation as well . This is one of the lakes 

 This is another .

 And this another - practicing his slalom skiing .

  In some of the ponds over the back of the grounds there are hundreds of water birds - pelicans , cormorants , heron , ducks & water foul .

 Here's a view from the drone .

 And of course the obligatory sunset .

  Another day we headed down to North Dandalup Dam - a relatively new dam ( opened in 1994 ) in the scheme of things - it looked very new .

 The water outlet tower looks like something out of science fiction movie .

  Below the dam is a beautiful picnic area , nice sandy beach , steps into the water and Bbq's & tables - there's also rather large signs saying swimming not allowed due to amoebic meningitis all around the area - such a shame it's a beautiful spot . 

 From here we headed to South Dandalup dam - a much older version and the water level was down about 12m from full , and looked like it hasn't been full for many years .

  

  It was great for lunch , we had it all to ourselves .

Not far away is Marrinup Falls , so we made our way their through some very dense forest . A 1.3klm loop track took us down to the falls - they were a bit dry , like most waterfalls in WA at the moment . This shot from the drone shows where it falls down the rock face in the valley .

 There was a pool of water at the base - it was flowing in December apparently .

 There are thousands of Honky Nuts all over the ground and can making walking a bit hazardous - here's 2 of them in Lyn's hand .

 There were a few flowers about , this one sitting all by itself on the edge of the track .

  This grasshopper has some great camouflage .

  Not far up the road is Marrinup POW Camp No 16 - well all that's left are the foundations of the many buildings . They housed prisoners of war from Germany and Italy , it could accommodate 1200 prisoners . Their are tracks through the forest that lead you around the camp .

       Their are hundreds , if not thousands of grass trees here and in this area - this one related to Cousin It from The Addams Family .

 That's it for the moment , here's a map link :- https://drive.google.com/open?id=1w0JcoQGXAaB1MbUFP8YtnuT2QbBEgMid&usp=sharing

25/1/19 A new year

 Well what a christmas we had , a wedding and christmas !! The wedding was of our son Justin & Taylor his beautiful fiancée . It was a surprise wedding , we had come together for Isla's 1st christmas and Taylor's mother & grandfather  & stepfather were here as well . The ceremony took place at Point Peron on the beach at 5pm - a bare foot wedding . A spectacular day was had by all and great memories created .
  Christmas followed a couple of days later and we all gathered again for another great day , Isla's 1st christmas was enjoyed .
  We have stayed put for the early part of the holidays , letting everyone get back to work after their 2 week break before we headed off again . We did drive down past Mandurah to Halls Head for some fine views of the coast . The weather has been the opposite of what's been happening over east , with the south west winds coming most days , usually in mid morning . Temperatures have been in the mid 20's and only the occasional day in the 30's - quite strange for this time of year over in the west .

  Time to head further south , not far , just down to Waroona Dam where we stayed for 5 nights . It's very popular with water skiers , so there were plenty of boats , we did go for a swim there though .
 We caught up with a couple that we met at Musgrave Station Cape York and spent some time with them . We arranged to go crabbing in the estuary with Mick and his son in law Mike the next day .
  Before we were due to go out in the boat , we went for a drive to Nanga Brooke - the site of an old timber mill & township for the workers . The town & mill were burnt down in a bushfire a long time ago , now there are camping spots there - it's not national park , but a reserve looked after by National Parks - you have an entry fee to pay unless you have a park pass , and also pay to camp there . The only facilities are competing toilets and some large flat sites for vans & tents , then there's another area near where the old mill was that you can camp anywhere . There were lot's of people camped here . We checked out Murray River - a crystal clear river that was flowing slowly through the forest .

 There are lots of different areas to swim at and also camp at , this one was Island Pool . 

  We kept going to Dwellingup and back to the dam for some lunch before heading back to Mick & Sue's to go crabbing . It was Wednesday , so if you are licensed for it , you can use a net to catch fish - Mick had a net so that was loaded into the boat with the crab pots & scoops , some food & drinks and we were off . Lyn stayed with Sue , while the boys headed off in with the boat .
 We arrived at Herron Point and launched the boat , the water was shallow for a long way and the tide wasn't long past low tide so we had to walk the boat out about 100m before there was sufficient water to drive it . We were joined by 3 dolphins swimming around in the channel that we were crabbing in , swimming happily under and around the boat as we moved around - not good for crabs , and definitely not good for nets !!

 The crabs seemed to be hiding for a while and their size when we did get some was just under minimum so many were thrown back . Then it was my turn dragging the pots up , crabs started to appear in the pots & we had about 7 after 2 runs , the next run we got another 7 and Mick put his net out to try his luck with some fish . The crabs started to appear then and we had 20 in the crate - here's the funny thing , if you are in a boat you can only take 20 crabs , but if you are walking around with a crab scoop you can take 10 per person - so a family of 5 can take 50 crabs .
 The net caught a couple of tailor and a couple of crabs that were thrown back , and as we had our quota , we headed for home . Crabs cooked , boat & gear washed down , we all sat down for a feed of blue swimmer crab and a couple of beers .
  Leaving Waroona Dam we headed up to Nanga Brooke campground for 3 nights . It was only 25 kms away , but a world away from everything - no tv , no mobile reception , no distractions . It also got quite warm , up in the low 30's for the 3 days . Emma , Mike & Pepper came for a visit and a swim and lunch .
 This was our campsite - they were 15m x 8m , plenty of room .

Then there's the view from above , courtesy of the drone , that's us at the top of the photo .

 There were a few flowers about , here's some of them .

  This is a photo from Brockman Dam , just south of Yarloop below Waroona . The water was clear and a beautiful aqua green colour , not what we expected to see in a dam . You can camp here as well , there's toilets , but nothing else . As can be expected , plenty of boats & skiers .

  Back to the Murray River , and we went for a paddle up the river each of the next 2 days , it was great getting back into the kayak again .

 Came across a few ringneck parrots having a drink .

 There are plenty of obstacles in the river causing us to stop and get out , drag the kayak through the shallow sections and over some trees as well .

The Nanga Mill campground , and where we are has a spring fed creek running through it and into the river . The water is clear and cold !! Superb Blue Wrens are quite at home here , these were quite happy bouncing around the place .

 This is a section of Nanga Brook , quite a bit of water coming down the rocks for a spring fed creek .

  Here's some more shots from the paddle .

 Battling through the hot days , we enjoyed a float around in the river to keep us cool , this is a wonderful spot to camp .

  Leaving Lane Poole Reserve , we headed down to Pinjarra Holiday Park for a week . It's  a 600 acre farm that has a lot of horses , a few donkeys , and probably some other animals further out that we didn't see . 

 There is an old brickworks factory there - or what's left of it anyway , this is part of the roof section .

 Must be some heritage order on it as a lot of the walls were propped up to stop them falling over , it did look good though .

 Well we are now back in Baldivis again , some repairs have been required - shower leak , a new tv aerial to be installed , and one of our supporting jacks broke , so that had to be fixed quickly - all the fun of being on the road !!! 

 That's it , you're up to date again , I'll try to update more frequently , but no promises haha . Cheers 

5/12/18 Catch up time

  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 🥂🍻😎