Day 44 - Friday 26 February - Dongara (Sea Spray Campsite)

A whole day off .... beach walk in the morning, Internet, swimming pool and beach walk before sunset

View from fishermens' shed, at "our" beach in strong afternoon wind.

Nobody but us ....

..... and a lonely fisherman.

View from the same fishermens' shed -

Day 43 - Thursday, 25 February (Dongara)

OThis morning Hans is all dressed up - for his birthday.

Breakfast in the sun with (light weight) gifts ....

.... like cream for the feet.

 

Last night was freezingly cold (15*C).  The eiderdown came out very quickly.

Shopping prawns at Geraldton Harbour.

Coffee break in Greenough Historical Village with Anglican church and "leaning" trees.

 I was moved by this text .... Onwards, onwards, onwards.  One could feel the dry heat and lack of  water.

Hans explaining ....

Shopping Melons along the Hwy.

 

We are close to Dongara, where we will spend at least one night. 

Beach view from the dune in front of our campsite at "Sea Sprau" - no cars, no neighbours.

And tomorrow maybe some photos of ME !

Day 42 - Wednesday, 24 February (18 kms north of Geraldton, at the noisy North Western Hwy)

Today I will write and document as we go.  Hans does the driving and there will be little to see.

We are in for a long and dreary strech today direction Geraldton and the "Batavia Coast", where we travelled 3 weeks ago.

 

A typical " Roadhouse", in this case Wooramel.

 Strychnine to kill Dingos in the dry bush savanna.

  

There are many signs but extremely little wildlife in this part of Australia - till now we saw only green parrots, pink kackatoos, seagulls, eagles, some bats, a few emus a and a couple of kangaroos.

Mostly cattle and sheep.

Lunch a Billabong (waterhole) Roadhouse.

,

Afternoon break with black swans at the Murchison River at Yandi (Bush camping)

Old road - new road, 12 meters above the river.

After 6 hrs of travelling we are back in the "wheat belt" and the civilisation of Northampton, but we head for the Coast just north of Geraldton.

 Preparing the "house".

It is very windy and almost cold.

Day 41 - Tuesday, 23 February (Carnarvon)

Hard to get up at 4 am, but we are on time well before the sun rises.  

The full moon is about to set.  Absolute silence and then we are rewarded with a magnificent sunrise.  The mountain is colored in all shades of red with touches of black (Magnetite or ironstone).

Hans is always a bit ahead of me.

It is difficult to leave this beautiful place, but the return of the flies helps us run away.

The road to Carnarvon doesn't offer much distraction.  One only stop, at the Claypans, where we had hoped to see the Burrowing Bees nesting.   A big and handsome, 1 cm large, Australian native bee, which burries one egg at a time in an up to 15-30 cm deep hole dug in the stonehard clay.  Up to 7 holes before she, most of the time, dies from the effort.  The dormant larvae stays underground for almost a year before appearing, as adult, in July.

       

 

Claypans, but no sign of bee nests.

Early arrival to  "Wintersun campsite" in Carnarvon.  Water, lots of it.  Everything gets washed -  we, clothes, hair and even the car.   

Supper in town on the "Harbourside Café" with Pink Snapper and French fries.  They are just as good as in Belgium.

An sunset walk along the Gascoyne River.  The gum trees are huge with white stems.

 

We end this eventful day quietly in bright moonlight - with a last glass of white wine.

 

Day 40 - Monday, 22 February - Kennedy Range National Park (Bush camping)

Our next destination is Gascoyne Junction, 265 kms east of Carnarvon.

We spend the hot afternoon hours at the Roadhouse pool before driving 60 kms north by dust road to spend the night at "Kennedy Range National Park".  We saw the name on the map.  The books don't mention this park at all.

Dust road through desert and then, all of a sudden, big trees and a lot of green.

"And the River runs through it"

We shall do "Bush" camping.  This means no drinking water, no shower, no flush and no toiletpaper.

So here we are, on a remote campsite in the red sandstone mountains.  No other cars or campers.  We have it all to ourselves.   There is time before supper for a walk in one of the deep gorges, where the temperature reaches more than 55*C at noon.

Sunset in "our" gorge and, to make the setting perfect, the moon is full and up for our supper.

Like in Paradise there is a snake in the form of hundreds and hundred of flies.  In mouth and ears and eyes - all over.  We must dig out the face nets and accept with a smile.

- just a minute without the net.

We intend to get up early to watch the sunrise tomorrow morning.  Maybe from another gorge a few kilometers to the East.

Hans has a surprise for me ..... there is a built-in, open air shower with the car, just a few liters per person, but what a good feeling.

Day 39 - Sunday, 21 February - (Carnarvon)

Best day ever -

Sunrise at Coral Bay.

From my morning walk before breakfast.

Too big to take home !

A hige wave did "take" a tourist - in 2012, I think.

Although the wind is not strong, the sound from the Blowholes become extremely intense as we approach the end of the cliff, by foot.   There  is no word to fully describe the forces of the nature on this particular site.

20 m higher than us, like a Geyser or a vulcano of water.   There is one big Blowhole and 3-4 smaller ones.  The force of the Ocean pushes the water under the cliff and up through these holes.

An inferno from which nobody could possibly escape before being crushed agaist the cliffs.  The red sandstone is sharp and unforgiving.  We are about 15 m above sea level and the waves are powerful.    

The wave that left saltwater between these rocks could have been a "killing" one.

The rest of the day is non eventful.  We want to reach Carnavon and to camp there.  A good place for shopping fresh fruit and vegetables - and fried chicken.

The red sand dunes and the scarse vegetation over the remaining kilometers remind us of Gondwana, the ancient country of which Namibia is part.   As we have read, Australia was attached to Africa (as one Continent) before "sailing" off towards the south-eastern part of the world we know today.  Could that explain why the landscapes are so very similar in West Australia and in south east Africa ?

We cook supper with a couple of other campers in the campsite half open air kitchen.  We are now in a position which allows us to pass on tips to other travellers.   

 

We have 250 g fried Scallops each for supper together with salad and multigrain bread fresh from the baker this morning.

Life is good to us.

Day 38 - Saturday, 20 February - Coral Bay (People's Park Campsite)

Early off to joun a half day snorkling trip to the Ningaloo Reef, which is said to be as spectacular as the Great Barrier on the East coast.

Happily there were quiet some clouds and not too much wind.  

No photos, sorry -

Day 36 - Thursday, 18 February - Coral Bay (People's Park)

Carnarvon is a nice place with water all around.  Ocean and River Carnarvon.  830 kms long it is very large where it runs into the ocean.

The main street, Robinson Street, is large, too.  40 meters.   It is now a boulevard, but in the early days just one large street.  

Carnarvon was in fact the last station on the camel transport route.  The carts would unload the wool at the Jetty and the camel drivers needed a large street to turn their cart.

The "One Mile Jetty" built in 1897 is 1.493 m long.   Cattle and sheep would walk the pier to be shipped to Fremantle.  That was the beginning of shipping live stock.

We walked it in the early morning.

It needs a bit of repair -

- here and there.

A most interesting Shearers museum.  A shearer would work 4 x 2 hrs a day interrupted with 3 x 2 hrs "smoko".  The shearing took place in this huge hall.

The train museum was closed.

Sitting a window at the "Backpackers", local Daren with friend and son.

Hundreds of termites over a stretch of 10 kms.  Otherwise 275 kms of boring road.

We are happy to find a shaded campsite at "People's Park", where we will stay a couple of nights surrounded by seagulls and beeeaters.