Jun 2007

We left Horrocks this morning. We passed through Northampton to top up the fuel tanks. Northampton has a lot of lovely old buildings. The two pictures show the old convent and church. These are both made from the local stones of the area and are lovely. The convent is currently used for back packer accommodation.

After Northhampton we headed north for the long drive to Carnarvon. Along this road there is not much to see. The shrub is very low and there are very few land type features. There was lots of road kill along the way. Most were kangaroos, but there were a few emus, an eagle and a cow and a calf. Glad to not have been driving in the night. We saw lots of goats and some cattle along the side of the road. We stopped a few times along the way for breaks and lunch. There are some great camp stops along the way that you can pull off and camp at overnight, so we might take advantage of these on the way home.
We arrived in Carnarvon at around 4:30, checked out the tourist information centre and then found a caravan park close to town. Today (Thursday) we changed our plans and are to stay here for an extra day until Saturday. On Saturday we will move onto Coral bay and stay for a week before heading back home. It rained all night last night and is still raining this morning.

On the way from Dongara we dropped in at Geraldton to do some shopping and to fill up with fuel. Below is a picture of the lovely Catholic Church in Geraldton.

When we arrived in Horrocks it was past 3 PM so we decided to stay here rather than push on to Kalbarri. We still had about 90 minutes to get to Kalbarri and we like to be setting up around 4pm.Horrocks is a fishing and holidaying spot about 70km north of Geraldton. It is a very pretty and quiet place. It is also the base for a number of crayfishing boats. There is not much to do here if you don’t like fishing but the place is pleasant and peaceful. There are lots of fishing shacks. We sat on the beach with a glass in hand viewing a lovely sunset on the both the nights we were here. The coast here is also a path for migrating whales. From the beach we could see the splashes of a whale frolicking around jumping out of the water. Unfortunately it was a long way out so we could not see much except the splashing. A guy was doing some net fishing down near the jetty and he pulled in about 20 good sized whitings and a few herrings.

On Tuesday we took a trip up to Kalbarri via Port Gregory. Port Gregory is another small fishing settlement about 40kms north of Horrocks. Port Gregory is also the site for an unusual industry. The area has very salty lakes where a microscopic algae grows. The algae turns the lakes orangey-pink which you can see a bit of in the picture. The algae are harvested and the orangey-pink colour which is beta-carotene is extracted. This is used in vitamins and food colourings. Amazing.

Kalbarri is located on the mouth of the Murchison River. The approach to Kalbarri is along a set of high cliffs. These are very spectacular as you can see in the pictures. While on the cliffs one of the other tourists noticed a whale splashing about. It was quite a way from shore, but this time we could actually see the shape of the whale out of the water. Even though they were still a bit far away it was still quite exciting. We were amazed to see how Kalbarri has grown since we were last here about 7 years ago. There are houses being built everywhere with a huge sub-division being built down past Red Bluff. We had lunch in Kalbarri, did a bit of shopping and then headed back to Horrocks. It was a great day and even though we have been to this area quite a few times we saw a lot of things we have not seen before.


Tomorrow Wednesday we pack up and head off to Carnarvon. We have booked ourselves into Coral Bay for at least 4 nights starting on July 29.

We originally booked into Dongara for 3 days but after the third day we extended for a further 3 days. Dongara is now a major crayfishing (lobster) spot in WA. It is a pretty little town that was a key trading and supply port to the Fremantle colony in the very early days of the Western Australian settlement when sailing ships plied the waters. The main street is lined with magnificent 102 year old Moreton Bay Fig trees.

The Seaspray Caravan Park at Dongara is very pleasant. It is right on the beach. The first night the owners put on 3 good sized Snapper so having some fresh fish was fantastic.

The Irwin River reaches the sea here and at present is blocked by a sand bar forming a nice lake that is great for birds. There were about a dozen black swans in the estuary. We wandered around the estuary and down to Port Denison which is about an 8km walk. Along the way we came across a large group of pink and gray galahs resting in the trees.

The weather in Dongara wasn’t very good. The strong winds continued and it was still cold. We had patches of sun on the last few days but most of the time it was cold and windy as you can see in the picture of Brian. Even though the weather was not very good we still had a great time. A lot of it was spent walking around town. We only used the car one day while at Dongara to pick up groceries and alcohol. Anne got a chance to get her sewing machine out and using it in the van has worked out pretty good. Brian has to perch on the end of the bed to use the computer which is not too bad so we will need to think up a few different options for that. You can see the laptop perched on the small bench just above the sewing machine.

On Monday we left Dongara for Kalbarri with a visit to Horrocks and Port Gregory on the way. We ended up staying at Horrocks.

After the visit to the local “Patchwork” shop we pressed on toward Dongara.

On the way we stopped in at the Coalseam Conservation Park. This was the first place in WA that a coal seam was found that was of a production capacity. The founder was given 2,560 acres of land for his efforts. This is a lovely park and would be even more lovely during wildflower season. The park has good facilities for barbecues and a picnic day out. We saw a few kangaroos hopping around. The Irwin River “flows” through the park but as you can see it is very dry and in some places very salty.


After Coalseam we headed onto Dongara via Mingenew travelling down a few gravel roads. This area is also very dry as can be seen in the photo.


In Dongara we are staying at the Seaspray Caravan Park which is right on the beach. We took a long walk along the beach and around the river conservation area. Back at the park we planned to have a barbecue with steak sausages and salad. When we went to the park’s camp kitchen area the owners were putting on a free feed of sausages and fresh whole fish so we put our meat away and had fish and salad. The fish was local Snapper and was beautiful. We sat around for an hour or so talking with others there, sharing thoughts and ideas. A really great night. We have booked in here for 3 days so will be here until at least Friday, but who knows.

All is going well with the car and van. No more problems and we haven’t broken anything else thus far.

Northam had a Toyota dealer so we stopped in to get them to have a look at our fuse problem. The mechanic had a look and took some time to find the culprit. Eventually all was fixed. It turns out the mechanic was from Friesland in the north of Holland. He moved out here with his wife and 2 kids about 4 months ago and was living in Goomalling. We had a good chat. He was quite surprised to find that Anne can speak pretty good Dutch. We wished him the best with his future in WA and headed off.

After fixing the car we headed up through the mid-west wheat areas of Western Australia via Goomalling, Wongan Hills, Ballidu, Pithara, Dalwallinu and Wubin ending up in Perenjori. This area is where a large amount of the wheat in Western Australia comes from. Unfortunately this year they have not had much rain so it is quite dry and many of the farmers have not been able to sow their crops. If they don’t get rain with the next few weeks they will have no crop in for the year. Last year many did not get crops in either or had very poor crops that were not worth harvesting.
At Goomalling we stopped for lunch at the train station cafe and had a lovely, hot carrot soup followed by Devonshire teas. Outside the station was a magnificent white gum tree that had many forks and a lot of character in its bark.
The wheat silos at Goomalling are quite interesting as they are a conical shape rather than the normal longer shed style that is prevalent around most of the wheat belt area.

The Perenjori caravan park was empty. We had a choice of any spot we liked. The only other person in the park was in an on-site cabin. We walked into town (900 metres) and had a drink at the local pub. They had a great fire burning in the bar. We had a chat with a few of the locals and the barmaid who was an Irish lass over here on a working holiday. Once again it was very cold and windy but not as bad as in Northam. We didn’t need the heater on. Perhaps we are getting used to it.