Mingenew to New Norcia

Mingenew, Morawa, Dalwallinu and New Norcia

 

Western Australia has over 12000 species of Wild Flowers and here we hope to see some of them and the spectacular colours along the way.....

17th September
Our journey to Mingenew for a two night stay, is quite short this morning and we decided to have a stop on route at a small tourist point of interest called Depot Hill. Here, we had a walk along a made pathway and saw such beautiful sight of Gods own creations, an area that looked like a blanket but with the most amazing colours, it was stunning. This area only takes about 30 minutes to walk and take photographs which is a must. 
















 




Many different colours

 













We found the little Shire Caravan Park where we managed to get hooked up to electricity, surprisingly, as there is an Expo in town and we expected the CP to be full.  We set up and then took off on a little tour of the area, we climbed up to the local lookout on Mingenew Hill, then looked at the Expo but Richard wouldn't pay the $20 each entry fee!! We found the wonderful bakery that everyone talks about on Wikicamps and had a coffee but we didn't succumb to the amazing looking cakes, the bread looked very good too.
A trip the following day (Friday) was taken out to Coalseam Conservation Park a journey of 120kms round trip. Here, we found two new camping grounds, one near the old Miners shaft sites. So much history here and so many flies, once again our headnets were used.



The fly nets are absolutely essential here!

The Coalseam Park has been laid out really well by the Conservation people and we had a walk along another pathway that again showed amazing views of this area... there was the Irwin River that had no water just the dried up river bed.  Today is Friday so this evening we decided to treat ourselves and partake of the caravan parks evening meal of fish and chips at the cost of $34 for the two of us, very nice too.




Stunning wildflowers

Morawa
On our travels south we had many conversations with other Grey Nomads as to their journeys into the WA wildflower regions and it is during these conversations we were told about the very rare and beautiful Western Australian Wreath flower. The plants flourish on disturbed ground, at the roadside, where a grader has been levelling the dirt. Flower fanatics come from all over the world to catch a glimpse of these beautiful plants that's if they can be  found. We found the Morawa Shire CP, it is being looked after by Bronwen and Ken who have a 3 months contract. Bronwen never stopped, the CP had some very nice cabin/unit accommodation that is used by various people who come to the area and here this week would be the school dentist and their assistants....
Whilst Richard organised and set up the caravan Helen ventured out to the local IGA as it would close at 12:30, it is Saturday in the outback!! Helen also found a very nice Tourist information office with a lovely lady who generously gave us a mud map of the area and she pointed out where our Wreath flowers would be found, we had two places to visit. We were soon on the road, it was as the lady said about 34km trip to our first location, no one was on the road this afternoon it was very, very quiet.
 

A very rare Wreath Flower
 



Another amazing Wreath flower










We were so pleased we had actually found these amazing plants. We looked at our mud map and plotted another route along red dirt roads to find the next location of wreath flowers. On route we spied a few more motorists, obviously looking for the same plants and flowers that we had found. We stopped at a touristy spot and found a large cairn that is said to have been erected by an explorer John Forrest and his Aboriginal companion.



We found this Cairn, a tribute to an
early explorer, Sir John Forrest.









 

 

 

A top of this hill was again the most amazing abundance of wildflowers.

 

 

 



We ventured on and looked intently for our next wreath flowers, we thought we had missed them or they just weren't around, so we decided to drive very slowly and at last we sighted another row of them. We think ourselves extremely lucky that we have seen this wonderful species.














Our next town for one night is Dalwallinu and what a lovely little town and once again we visited the Information office for a local map and any info the kind ladies who work in these remote offices, could give us. We had intended to have a good look around the area but we made our way to the local Hotel and had a spot of lunch and ended up talking for over 2 hours to a lovely couple from Mandurah. They too are touring the local area by using Bed and Breakfast establishments. We swapped names and emails and said goodbye, hopefully we will see them again.

Dalwallinu, the main street and another old tractor!

New Norcia
Even though we have been to WA a number of times and have relatives here, we have never heard or been told about New Norcia until recently on our travels. It was a must visit for us. We arrived early, well for us 11a.m. is early. We found the camp ground and set up using what looked like a cricket wicket as a nice slab for us to step out on. We had some nice neighbours too. We knew we had to book for the tour that was at 2pm and so headed off to the Information Centre and Museum where we could book and pay for the tour and our $10 for the campground. We also received a voucher for 10% off for food at the Hotel and so we decided to treat ourselves once again this evening.

Our pitch and the cricket wicket!

New Norcia is the only Monastic town in Australia. It started in 1847 by two Spanish Benedictine Monks, the town has amazing Spanish architecture, including two schools, an Abbey and Old Mill, a wine press, a hotel and the Monastery. At the moment there are 11 monks in residence including the Abbot, the schools are now closed but are used for visiting school parties and accommodation. Some of the buildings were used as an Aboriginal Orphanage, there is now a Museum and Art Gallery. There was an exhibition of past competition winners who had loaned their works of art. These paintings, mostly, depicting representations of many verses from the Bible.

The Good Samaritan, Helen's favourite

Another area of the Museum showed paintings that have been bought and collected by the Monks over many years. It was quite something and we highly recommend a visit.


Our walking tour of the town took 2 hours with our guide giving lots of useful information on how the town began. Back at the Information office we placed our order for bread (to be collected in the morning) that is baked to the original recipe of the first monk who resided here. Please take time to Google the town, you will be fascinated.

We enjoyed a very pleasant meal at the hotel and a nice evening with some people from our tour.

The Monastery

The tomb of Bishop Rosendo Salvado
of New Norcia

The Old Mill

Picture of the boys orphanage

The next morning we left late as Richard once again went off chatting to some new neighbours who arrived early. They are Kiwis too... again swapping of names, emails etc was done and we headed on our way further south to a Bush type camp for a week, here we will be closer to our son and Grandson. After this week we head off to our house sit for the month of October!






























 

Geraldton

Geraldton
9th - 17th September

We left Kalbarri early in fact, just after the electricity had been cut off, most of the town and caravan parks were going to be without power today. On the road south this beautiful morning we could see lots of black smoke in the distance over towards a wind farm! Richard thought it was a bush fire but it looked like it was isolated to a small area, we couldn't work out what it was that was burning.


Smoke from the fire




There wasn't much traffic on our route, I think we saw just one ute and caravan coming from the coast at Horrocks, it seemed so quiet. We enjoyed the scenery, as usual it was ever changing and the flowers continued to amaze us, the colours were stunning. We had continuous views of the sand dunes and sea especially driving through the lovely little town of Drummond Cove, this is where we encountered more traffic than we had seen for ages! We approached a set of traffic lights, our first ones in months! Helen spotted the big Green Shed (Bunnings) and no doubt we will be calling in there to buy something for the caravan! Our sat nav was continually guiding/telling us to take the route through the city centre but, no we didn't. Our chosen caravan park was just a hop, skip and jump from Pages Beach with beautiful white sand. We checked ourselves in and found our pitch which was a double concrete base, we had only had a spot like this once before up in Point Samson, we loved it and manoeuvred the van into place, pulled out the canopy and added the guy ropes as it was quite windy.
We had booked in here for 8 days with the intention of meeting up with Helen's cousin Jacquie, her husband Bob, and hopefully will see their three boys and families.
A visit the next day to the rellies and with our laptop, ipad, phones in hand we could log on to their Wifi and backup everything, needless to say this took hours.

Returning to the van, we had new neighbours who had travelled from Kalbarri ,they told us that the bushfire south of town (so it was a bushfire) had cut off the electricity for another day.

It was great to see our family here and yes we did meet up with all their boys and children. In between time we visited a few places.



Pathway to entrance of HMAS Sydney Memorial
showing the "Dome of the Souls"

The stunning memorial to the crew of HMAS Sydney II stands a top of Mt Scott overlooking the port of Geraldton and every morning there is a guided tour explaining why the Sydney is special to the town. The Sydney built in Wallsend on Tyne in 1933 and was originally intended to be a Royal Navy ship HMS Phaeton but she was purchased by the Australian Government while still under construction and launched in September 1934 as Sydney II.
She made three official visits to Geraldton and the people knew her as an old friend.  On the other side of the walls that you can see surrounding the dome are the names of every man who died. The names are in alphabetical order, not in rank, the captain was Joseph Burnett from Victoria.

The flag poles set in upside down propellers

Our guide told us that the people who designed this memorial are a married couple Charles and Joan Walsh-Smith from Gidgegannup.

There are 5 elements, the wall, the dome, the bronze statue of a woman, the stele and finally after the wreck was discovered further funds were raised enabling the fifth element the illuminated Pool of Remembrance. 

On November 18th 1998 the site was dedicated and a moment occurred which inspired the sculptures Charles and Joan Walsh-Smith. Just as The Last Post was played, a large formation of silver gulls flew slowly and silently over the crowd. They had already decided on a circular theme as a symbol of eternity and circle of life, these gulls offered yet another strong symbol as they traditionally represents the spirits of those lost at sea.

Close up from under the dome "Souls in Flight"
also showing the continuously lit flame that was
ignited from the unknown
soldier memorial at Kings Park, Perth

 














The "Waiting Woman" who represents
all the women who waited in vain
for the return of their loved ones.

A better shot of "The Waiting Woman"





 



























Towering above every other element of the memorial is the stele. A stele is of great importance used to mark graves, it is always a vertical structure and usually stone.
Based on the symbolism of standing stones as grave markers, this vertical element in steel is a representation of the prow of the HMAS Sydney II. It makes such a dramatic of statement of commemoration and provides a major focal point that is seen from far and wide.

Another tour the same day was down at the old Gaol, again we had a local guide explaining that WA was, at first a free state meaning just like South Australia they didn't want any convicts but they realised that by allowing some to come to WA in certain areas buildings and roads could be built.





We saw three outside exercise areas and tiny cells but most of the cells are being used now as small craft workshops, with people selling their wares, a quaint little place.


Helen and Jacquie took a trip out toward Greenhough and visited a small cottage museum again with lots of history on the area and how floods in the past have affected the local farms. We saw many photographs of families who had lived in this old house/cottage.






















We had a lovely morning on the beach with Bob and the two dogs Dusty and Sally.... Richard had an especially good time on the Quad bike, it didn't take him long to master the driving of it and I took my life in my hands and rode pillion with him... great fun.

Rich and Bob discussing the finer points
of Quad biking

one of the routes take

Sally and Dusty walking with Helen



Dusty in foreground and little Sally
having a little rest



A BBQ with the family and friends enabled us to talk with family and see their wonderful children, Richard had numerous games of snooker and pool with Bob, Damien, Mark and Justin. We had a beautiful time with all of them. See you again this year hopefully Andrews family and have a great wedding Justin and Robyn!!

Next stop looking for wild flowers and the infamous Wreath Flower!!

 

 

 

 

Kalbarri

We left Hamelin Station at around 9.15am and set our GPS for Murchison Caravan park, a journey of around 270km. We started to notice a significant change in the flora and fauna. Wildflowers were starting to become abundant, different colours galore.
Kalbarri is a tourist town, situated in the Kalbarri National Park. We were soon set up there on a nice level pitch. A very busy caravan park with grass!
We knew that some friends of our son Jonathan, Roger and his wife Kathy, were also staying here. We soon met up with them for a catch-up chinwag!
That night, we had intended to have a good feed of barbequed steak but we spent so long with Cathy and Roger that it was getting too late to barbeque, so we had beans on toast instead, yum! BBQ tomorrow night.

A visit to Kalbarri National Park was definitely a to do thing, first we turned off to a high 360 degrees lookout point.  


The view from our first stop






We paid our entrance of $6 to the Ranger on duty at the entrance and travelled 12kms on bitumen then 14km on dirt to our first stop, the Loop is 1km return walk from The Loop car park brings you to one of WA’s most iconic natural attractions. Views of the Murchinson River is breath taking and after clambering over rocks we were greeted with the sight of what is known as Nature's Window. This natural rock arch frames the river perfectly and is the main photograph opportunity in Kalbarri National Park. For an unforgettable gorge adventure, follow the 8km Loop Walk. Here we literally bumped into Greg and Pam, friends from way back and Hamelin Station...  
Lots of photographs taken and then a short up hill walk to the car and drive to our next view point of the Z bends. The Z bends is considered by many to offer the most breathtaking view in the park, the Z-Bend lookout can be reached by a 1.4km return walk from the car park. Gazing down, the gorge plunges 150 metres to the river below where river redgums create a striking contrast against the earthy Tumblagooda sandstone.





































































The Z bends





























































Kalbarri National Park is located 485 km north of Perth. The major geographical features of the park include the Murchison River gorge which runs for nearly 80 km on the lower reaches of the Murchison River. Spectacular coastal cliffs are located on the coast near the mouth of the Murchison River and the town of Kalbarri. This National Park is one of our favourites and if you ever get chance please take a look around it.
Photographs of just a few of the flowers we saw.



There are quite a few turn offs along the coastal road so we had a few amazing walk along the cliffs, Red Bluff was a spectacular area and again the ground covered in various colourful flowers. 

A paved 1km return walk takes you to the lookout where panoramic ocean views from the top of 100m cliffs make it a perfect vantage point for spotting marine creatures, from dolphins to migrating humpback whales. At its base lies one of Kalbarri’s most popular beaches for swimming, snorkeling and fishing. You can take the 1.8km return walk to the beach, the way is steep and rocky but well worth the effort.
A pod of dolphins were having a play around quite close to the shore everyone stopped and took photos. 

 

Our neighbours had told us about a local attraction called the Rainbow Jungle, well, a visit to this lovely and well done aviary (for want of a better word) was taken. We had a great afternoon here with all the various birds and the other odd bit of wildlife.

 



Kalbarri is a beautiful town and there is so much to see in the area, we will be back one day for sure, but for now we have to move south, next stop Geraldton....Ranger is being services on Friday!!!