PERTH TO SANDY CAPE TO CORONATION BEACH

 

TUESDAY 2ND JULY   -   We left Perth at 10am, later than we normally like to leave, as there was a “farewell committee” to see us off with lots of people from the park gathered around the van chatting as we were leaving.   It felt good to be heading off again, although a bit sad leaving our friends and family behind.  By the way, apologies to the friends we wanted to see but ran out of time to visit.  It was a beautiful sunny day and we drove on the freeways until we picked up The Indian Ocean Drive – a $98 million coastal road that opened in September 2010 and stretches for 268 kilometres from Perth to Dongara.  We stopped at Moore River Bridge about an hour later for a cuppa.  It’s an overnight stop by the river, quite a small but pretty spot.  There were a few campers there enjoying the view and the sunshine.  We drove on to the small fishing town of Lancelin 110 kilometres from Perth and had a drive through the town which was very pretty.  We stopped off at Wedge Lookout with magnificent views of the Indian Ocean and Wedge Island and headed to Cervantes, 198 kilometres north of Perth.  We drove further on to Jurien Bay and passed The Lobster Shack (fresh and cooked seafood) that Daniel told us about and had been to a few times.  Jurien Bay is a very popular tourist area and close to The Pinnacles which are huge, natural limestone formations (some up to 5 metres tall) in Nambung National Park  and are a major tourist destination in Cervantes and Jurien Bay, attracting over 190,000 visitors every year.   We went 11 kilometres north from Jurien Bay to our destination Sandy Cape Recreational Park.  It was a 10 minute drive along dirt road to get into the park.  There were lots of large parking bays on a first come first served basis – no bookings.  There were a few other vans parked but it wasn’t very busy then and we had a good choice of spots to set up.  We found a suitable spot and after we were set up went for a walk to explore our surroundings.  We were so close to a beautiful long beach with sand dunes to the left hand side.  Over the other side of the dunes was another magnificent beach.   They were all so breathtaking.  There was a fairly newly built board walk atop of the dunes with seats at either end and a viewing platform overlooking the aqua seas and rocks where fishermen were throwing out their lines.  It was a beautiful, peaceful, serene place.  It was $15 a night with toilets and an on-site ranger.  The camp gets very busy during school holidays and is a very popular and well known spot with everyone we’ve talked to.  We had happy hour with our neighbours Kevin and Gaele and lit a welcoming camp fire as it got cold at night.   We only stayed here for 2 nights as we were keen to get to our next destination Coronation Beach Camp.  There are only 20 available spots at any one time and school holidays started the next day.  We wanted to be certain of getting a spot before the school holiday rush began.  We would have liked to stay a few more days at Sandy Cape.  We’ll try to stay there when we come back to Perth later in the year.  It was lovely to be so close to the ocean again and to be able to hear the waves crashing whilst we were laying in bed.  Life just doesn’t get much better than that!!!

THURSDAY 4TH JULY   -   We left Sandy Cape at 8.30 for our next destination Coronation Beach Camp Ground 11 kilometres north of Geraldton a large regional town, the capital of Australia’s Coral Coast that starts in Cervantes and stretches for over 1,000 kilometres all the way up to Exmouth.  It has a population of 40,000 people.  It is also known as the gateway to The Abrolhos Islands.  We were anxious to get there and find a spot before the mad school holiday rush began as we’d been told that people drive long distances, even as far as Broome, during holiday times.   Once past the town of Geraldton, we noticed how bright and brilliant green the fields were on either side -  quite startling so. The turn off from the main road was actually tarmacked, for the first time, and was a short 7 minute drive into the camp ground.  We found a suitable spot and set up. We were told there had been many improvements around the place with playground equipment, sheltered seats and large rotundas along the beach front.  There were toilets and a dump point and a resident caretaker.  It was $14 a night, with a maximum stay of 30 days in any 12 month period. It was quiet and very scenic and it was lovely to see the ocean on our doorstep once again. There was a steady stream of caravans and campervans coming into the camp ground during the day.   There was also a day parking area as you came into the camp for people to use for picnics, water sports or swimming that weren’t staying. 

ANOTHER GORGEOUS SUNSET

A BEAUTIFUL SUNSET SKY

HOW GREEN IS MY VALLEY?

FRIDAY 5TH JULY   -   We went for a drive around to Northampton – a 20 minute drive from Coronation Beach.   It is one of the oldest settlements in Western Australia. It was a very small town but there was a dump point and a tap to fill up water tanks behind the park and there was a steady stream of caravans pulling in to do so.  We drove on to Horrocks a sleepy little fishing village with really old fibro shacks along the beach front.  Behind the shacks there were lots of new houses with many more being built.  It was a very pretty place.  We had a picnic lunch overlooking the ocean and drove to Lynton where we came upon the funniest looking trees that grow absolutely bent over to protect themselves from the harsh winds.  They grew in rows and rows and we were astonished looking at them. We then drove 45 minutes north to Port Gregory another fishing town, past The Pink Lake which was very pink in places.   It gets its pink hue from bacteria caught in the salt granules and is supposed to be best seen at sundown.  The beach and jetty was full of boat trailers and boats.  It was a very wide flat beach with calm water.  Fishing is obviously the main attraction here with a caravan park and very little else around.  The caravan park had no drinking water and like a lot of places in WA relies on boar water and you supplying your own drinking water.

THE PINK LAKE

THE BENT TREES

SATURDAY  6TH JULY   -   We decided to drive to the produce markets in town and get some supplies. They were a bit hard to find and we had to ask in the Tourist Information Centre where they were located.   They were at the back of town in a park and were very small – about 8 stalls in all (hence the reason we couldn’t find them as we were looking for lots of market stalls and people to guide us to them along Marine Terrace by the foreshore).  Nevertheless, the fruit and vegetables were really fresh and very cheap.  Everything I bought was really tasty.  We’ll be going back for a bigger shop next time before we head further up the coast.  We had to go to the launderette in town after the market and had lunch in a lovely café whilst waiting for the washing to be done.  That’s the only disadvantage of bush camping -  we can’t use the washing machine in the van as it uses too much water (about 80 litres per wash).  We have two water tanks underneath the van and they each hold 80 litres.  We now have five 20 litre containers in the back of the car for drinking water and to top up the tanks underneath the van for showering and washing up etc. whenever we need to. We can survive bush camping for over a week now without needing to worry  about water supplies.  We also have a 20 litre jerry can for petrol for the generator.   Speaking of which, we had to buy a new one last week as the Kipor one we had has been playing up since we set off 3 months ago.  Richard has nursed it along and done as much surgery to it as he can with the tools he has with him.  We have to have a totally reliable generator to survive bush camping, so we had to bite the bullet and got a Honda 2KVA which was on special (fortunately for us) at Geraldton Mowers last week.  It’s much quieter than our Kipor 2.6KVA, lighter, uses less fuel and is smaller – all round a good investment.  We probably should have got the Honda to start with.  Everyone we meet swears by their Honda.  It also seems to run the air conditioning ok (which was a major reason we bought the Kipor in the first place to have the power to run everything we needed).  Oh well, live and learn. 

MONDAY 8TH JULY   -   We went to the hill at the top of Geraldton to visit the HMAS Sydney II Memorial.  It’s a very poignant memorial site, commemorating the 645 seamen who lost their lives in a battle with the German raider HSK Kormoran during World War II in 1941.  There was a Wall of Remembrance with all their names and photos of the ships.  The most striking feature was a magnificent huge tall silver dome, featuring 644 seagulls resting on top of six white pillars.  The 645^th seagull stood 2 metres tall coming out of a pool of water – the pool of remembrance “closing the circle”.   Another feature was a life-size bronze statue of a woman gazing out to sea, looking for her loved one across the ocean.  It was a beautiful memorial but saddened us right to the core thinking of all those poor men lost at sea together and the loss to their families .  The wreck of The HMAS Sydney took 66 years to be found buried 2,468 metres in the ocean.  This was also the first memorial to be recognised as a memorial of national significant outside of Canberra.

THE POOL OF REMEMBERANCE

THE WOMAN WATING

TUESDAY 9 TH JULY   -   We went for a drive through The Chapman Valley Way.  It’s an agricultural region renowned for its rich soils and beautiful landscapes and many people are moving to the serenity of the area to escape the city.  The rolling hills and lush green fields were superb and full of scampering lambs and sheep.  We followed the signs from Geraldton and followed the scenic drive through to Northampton.  The whole drive took about 45 minutes and we stopped in a gazebo in Centennial Park for a picnic lunch.  It was pretty deserted so luckily I had packed a picnic lunch or we’d have been starving.  We passed by the lavender farm and saw lots of lavender growing in the fields.  On the way back to Northampton we had to stop for a big flock of sheep crossing the road.  The two sheep dogs were herding them around and the farmer was on a quad bike.  One of the dogs gulped mouthfuls of water from a nearby water trough and the other jumped on the back of the quad bike to oversee things.  The sheep were funny to watch – if the leader broke into a canter, all the others did exactly the same, if the leader stopped or slowed down, the rest followed the leader’s pace.  We were stopped a good ten minutes whilst this was taking place.  Most of the sheep we’ve seen in Western Australia have  dark brown faces and others have very pale skins.  We haven’t come across these varieties before.   

We had 2 days of heavy winds and rain and the forecasts for Perth and the South were even worse, with hailstones and low temperatures.  It was definitely time to don our trusty husky jackets for a few bracing walks along the beach.  We had to roll up the awning as the winds were gusting.  The temperature dropped very noticeably and by Friday of our second week, we were enjoying warmer weather, still quite fresh, but the strong winds had eased .

I’m very pleased to tell you the satellite dish is working a treat and is easy to set up and find all the channels.  Richard was told when he bought it, he’d be in line for many free beers helping out frustrated caravanners that hadn’t purchased the more expensive satellite finder box.  We have come across them in many places almost tearing out their hair with frustration as they couldn’t get the angle right on their dish.  Funnily enough, our first night at Coronation Beach, Richard got his first “freebie” helping our neighbour with our trusty $150 top of the range locator box.  We laughed saying he needed only another 23 satisfied customers to score his first “free slab”.  At long last, our investment seemed to be paying dividends!!!

I hope you’re noticing a remarkable improvement in the quality of the photos in the last two blogs (otherwise, it’s been a waste of money buying the expensive gear).

Richard’s been busy photographing birds (the feathered varieties) whilst here.  There have been lots of eagles, cormorants and zebra finches.  We used to have two pet zebra finches in our first home at Revesby called Woodstock and Peanuts (from the cartoon which you may or may not remember).

ZEBRA FINCHES

BIRD IN FLIGHT (NOT  SURE WHAT VARIETY)

I think I mentioned before that we’re reading lots of our newest favourite author – Lee Childs.  We found a great second hand book shop in town and have almost got his entire collection now.  Just for a change, inbetween reading Lee Childs, we both read the last Bryce Courtney book – Jack of Diamonds - which we both really enjoyed.  He’s a very easy to read author.  This book had lots of twists.  It was very sad finishing the book to know it was the last one he wrote (and would ever write) before he died.  There was a poignant epilogue at the end of the story, saying that he knew he didn’t have time to write the sequel, so he wrote a brief outline of how the story would have continued.  He also said  it had been a privilege writing for us all and was obviously aware that he didn’t have much time left.  I had bought it for Richard for Christmas and we’ve been carting it around ever since unread.

Well that’s all for this episode.  Look forward to telling you all the latest news in the next blog.

SALLY DE-STRESSING

NEXT WEEK:   We’re heading further north to Kalbarri for a week and are looking forward to exploring Kalbarri National Park which is supposed to be awesome.