Tuesday, November 19, 2013

CORONATION BEACH TO DONGARA



 CORONATION BEACH TO DONGARA


MONDAY 4TH NOVEMBER   -     We left Coronation Beach at 9am for our next destination 100 kilometres south to Dongara  – 355 kilometres north from Perth and a 2 hour drive from Coronation Beach.  We arrived at Dongara Tourist Park about 11.30.  It was on the point at the end of town by South Beach.  It was a roomy park with a new shade cloth bbq area filled with big colourful ceramic pots and plants and ferns that looked very cool and attractive.  They had also recently put in new cabins, painted bright yellows and blues on the ocean front and were making lots of improvements around the park.  When we checked into reception the lady at the desk told us “There’s a little bit of weed on the beach, but further down it’s ok to walk on”.  We soon found that to be somewhat of an understatement as you couldn’t see any sand underneath the solid mass of weed right along the entire beach.  There was a tiny track just about wide enough to walk along,  but try as we did, further along the beach was just the same and impossible to walk on.    We gave up and came back to the van.  We were parked on the corner of the upper level which was well maintained and grassed.  It was $35 per night to stay there and wasn’t very busy.  It was a short walk to the harbour and local supermarket, bakery and pub.  There was a little beach along the harbour that wasn’t cluttered with sand and we took Sally there for a few walks.  We could also walk along the boardwalk and around the obelisk at the top of the hill -   a memorial to those lost at sea.   The main street had a grassy strip with huge Moreton Bay and Port Jackson Figs, planted in 1906.  They were spectacular to see, so big and tall and majestic.

The population of Dongara is about 4,500 and was named The Irwin Valley in 1839 by Lieutenant George Grey after his friend Major Irwin.  In 1852 the town was surveyed and named Dhungarra, which was later anglicised to Dongara.  In 1864, the tiny town settlement had its first mail service by horse from Perth via the stock route. 

The annual festival The Blessing of the Fleet is held each November to mark the beginning of rock lobster season and to wish the fleet a good season. It was being held on 9th November this year.







TUESDAY 5TH NOVEMBER   -   We went for a drive to Ellendale Pools a 1 ½ hour drive from Dongara, located in the Geraldton area of Greenough , a popular cheap camp area where you can stay for $6 per night for a maximum of 3 nights.  It was a lovely scenic natural watering hole with giant gums and a rocky gorge.  There was a long dirt track into the camping area.  It was a hot day and the place was full of flies.  We were pleasantly surprised to see Wil and Terri there,    a couple we’d met at Cleaverville Beach near Karratha in September.  We had a picnic lunch with them and caught up on all their news. 






On the way back, we stopped at Altina Wind Farm with 54 turbines towering 80 metres high with a rotor diameter of 82 metres and a blade length of 40 metres.  Each blade weighed 7.5 tonnes.  From farther away, it was hard to imagine they were so huge.  Up close, they’re enormous.





RICHARD UNDERNEATH  PART OF THE ROTOR BLADE



We stopped off at the Caltex Service Station for one of the famous Rosie’s home-made pies.  Several people had recommended us to try them for ourselves.  Richard had the steak and kidney pie with a thick fluted high crust, full of chunky meat and kidney.  I had a cheese and spinach roll.  They were both delicious and so fresh with fresh flaky pastry.


WEDNESDAY 6TH NOVEMBER  -  We left Dongara for our next destination Sandy Cape, 100 kilometres south from Dongara. We were looking forward to revisiting Sandy Cape as we’d enjoyed two lovely nights there at the beginning of our trip north from Perth.   An hour after we set off, we were driving up the long dusty dirt road (which seemed longer and more corrugated than we remembered it).  The camping area was quite busy and we quickly found a suitable spot to set up for our overnight stay.  We went for a walk along the beautiful white soft sand beach and up over the dunes on the left hand side to the viewing platform with a complete 360 degree panoramic view of the whole turquoise bay.  We were rewarded with a lone dolphin coming to the surface and swimming up and down briefly.  There was a new caretaker on site and the fees were $15 per night.  It was a beautiful spot and certainly worth the shaky drive up to the camping area.  We had a few more strolls along the beach in the afternoon and chatted to some other people camping there.  It would have been great to stay another few nights. 
















THURSDAY 7TH NOVEMBER   -   We left Sandy Cape to visit our friends Denise and Ben an hour south in Seabird.  They had a lovely house overlooking the ocean.  We had lunch with them and went for a walk around the area which is very quiet, but very pretty, with miles and miles of pristine beach up and down the coastline.   Denise is a very good amateur photographer, so Richard and her had lots to talk about and look through her collection of photos, many of which she’s won awards for.  We had happy hour on the grass overlooking the ocean and a lovely chicken pasta dinner that Denise had made for us.  We had parked our van on the roadside outside their caravan park and slept there overnight.


FRIDAY 8TH NOVEMER    -   We said goodbye to Denise and Ben and hoped to catch up with them soon again.  An hour and a half later, we arrived at Bonneys Water Ski Park in Perth in the suburb of Baldivis, 15 minutes from Rockingham.   It was a water ski park for jet skis, wakeboards and water skiers set on 150 acres, owned and run by the Bonney family since 1985.  There were 5 man-made lakes, taking up 110 of the 150 acres for water sports and a paintball facility at the back of the park.  There was also a caravan park behind the lakes.  The owners were only allowed to have 15 caravans at any one time and don’t take bookings.  We had to ring up 2 days before we wanted to arrive to see if a spot was available.  The owners were very helpful and friendly and made sure we were happy with our spot, which was very spacious.  We quickly settled in and went for a walk around one of the tranquil lakes with bbqs , picnic tables, ducks and moor hens splashing around in the water.  It was very peaceful there.  Four of the caravans were there long-term, our neighbour had been there for over 6 months.  It was $30 per night for a powered site and good value for Perth and was pet friendly (most parks in Perth are more expensive and definitely not pet friendly).  

We decided to take a drive into Rockingham for fish and chips for tea and were surprised to see how busy the place was with families sitting on the grass by the ocean having take-away dinner and the kids running around and chasing the flocks of squawking seagulls.  There were lots of people having Friday night drinks and others were walking, cycling and jogging past on the esplanade. There were lots of cafes, restaurants, ice-cream parlours and take-away food shops and no shortage of customers.  We really enjoyed the big serving of cod, garlic calamari, chips and mushy peas and couldn’t finish all the chips, the seagulls got our left-overs.  We went for a stroll up the esplanade and had my favourite rum and raisin ice-cream before we headed home totally full up. 


SUNDAY 10TH NOVEMBER   -  It took us 15 minutes to drive from the ski park to Success to have lunch with Daniel, Min, Bob and Shelley and to see their house which was a lovely spacious 4 bedroom place in a nice area.  It was great to see them again and we had a leisurely bbq lunch and left very full up.  


NEXT WEEK:   We’re meeting up with our friends Alan and Sandra and the Busselton Caravan Club at Collie River for 3 nights, then going further south to a farm stay at Big Valley in Margaret River.

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