Rockingham 30th October

Hi folks,

 What a great day, we took the Sea Lion - Penguin Tour from Rockingham as we see plenty of dolphins at home and the cost was double for that one.
 While we were waiting for the glass bottom boat etc to arrive a dolphin started feeding in the 1.5 mtr deep water around the jetty, swam under us and around the sea grass beds which abound here. She got a couple of cobbler (cat fish) close enough for us to see her mouth open then she moved away a bit before we saw 2 fish going flat out along the shallow water next to the beach, the dolphin absolutely hit the after burners after them, under the jetty and about 50 mars up she nailed one in a shower of water then cruised back a bit then off again but only a short distance before she nailed the second one, spectacular to see and we didn't have to fork out the extra dollars to see it.
 A short cruise across to the small rocky islands to see the sea lions, all males as the females are up at Jurien bay.  While looking at these rather large blokes, a sea eagle swooped down and took a King Skink from the grass/herbage stuff and swung back towards his mate to share it, this freaked out the pigeons which also nest on the rocky ledges, much to the disgust of the NP Rangers. It was fantastic to see these magnificent birds so close.
 Then onto the Island to see the breeding sites for the gulls, turns, pelicans and penguins, this place is an absolute treasure. They have 9 captive penguins in the discovery centre which are fed hourly and are rescued birds which wouldn't survive if returned to the wild. We have seen them before in Tasmania but not this close, the Ranger gave a talk on their life cycle etc which was interesting to say the least.
 Kath and I had a stroll down the beach and soon found a gulls nest with 3 eggs then a bit further on was another with 1 egg and a chick, the parents carried on a bit as I took photo's.  Down at the end of the beach where the rock outcrop extends into the sea I noticed a fairly well used track in the sand/rock and with a little investigation found a pair of Fairy Penguins in their burrow sitting on eggs, wow what a find that was !  a few quick photo's and away from them before other tourists saw me and stared looking for them selves, as they are shy birds this added attention may have disturbed them. The best part is that the wild life is not afraid of humans and tolerated us getting up close and personal with them.
When we returned to Rangers hut I showed her the photo's and she remarked " you were extremely lucky to see that as they are mostly still out at sea feeding"
 We spent most of the day over there exploring and trying to get photo's of the Terns and Pelican rookery but they are in a roped off area. We could see them from a distance so had to be content with that. We also asked why there were so many Dead Sea gulls on the beach and were informed that 3 reasons 1. Botulism 2. Starvation due to the high concentration of birds over the food resource and finally just natural attrition, it didn't seem to have the same effect on the other species of birds though.
Free Camped back at Jarrahdale  where we met up with two Scottish travellers, had a pleasant few hours with them discussing Scotland and each others travels and experiences, the bonny wee lassie described the cold wind as 'Baltic' apparently likening it to the Baltic winds experienced over there but I do't think we come even close to those.
 Travelled down to Manjimup this afternoon and found a fresh fruit and veg place called " The Spud Shed' prices were way below Coles,Woolies or Aldi etc and fresh as. Apparently there are few of them and most of the produce sold is grown by the owner as well as the beef and lamb, sea food was supplied by local people an couple are even open 24 hrs !
Well Kath was happy to see her nickname so we did a rather large stock up, at those prices who wouldn't.
Any way we headed south, visited the Thrombolites at lake Clifton before  free camping at the John Tognela  rest area tonight.
Off to see some more lakes and National Parks tomorrow.
Stay safe and be happy.
Bob n Kath

                                                  dolphin flat chat after a feed

                                          a pair of sea eagles

                                                 about to enjoy a fresh fish brekky

                                                    the boss of this beach

                                                         the boys just chilling out

                               a few pelicans waiting for the next school of bait fish to appear

                                                       chick and egg

                                this little bloke has zjusthatched and is still wet

                                          sea gull

                                                         a little Turn

                                    the Turn nesting area, literally hundreds of them

                                           bad hair day - bit windy

                                                looking south from Penguin Island

                                                          Jarrahdale sunset

Rocingham 29th October

Hi all,
Everything is travelling well this end.
Left Jurien Bay after being forced to pay $20 for an O/N camp at Sandy Cape, we were told in town at the Info Centre where the free camp was so thats where we went, apparently wrong info as the Camp ranger from further down the point came up and demanded payment, a few lessons in public relations wouldn't hurt him. What the hell it was a quiet place and the huge sad hills are pure white, they are actually pure lie stone weathered from the cap stone.
They go for over 100klm along the beach front, further down the developers knock the tops off, cap it with sand and there you are - $175000 for a 18 perch house block.
Stayed at Moore River and into Yanchep Nat Park for the day, absolutely amazing place there, first declared a preservation area in 1898, bloke by the name of McNess built his house there and quite a few out buildings, used by the Air Force during WW2 as a Hospital/recovery Centre, Radar and Radio location after which the buildings were then returned to National Parks, we explored the limestone caves which are actually situated inside the water catchment for Perth. Over 500 caves in there, they used to have flowing water and springs but the water table has dropped far enough now for them to disappear so the NP people pump a little bit up and have a pretend pool and spring in there.
Decided to stay overnight there, excellent camp ground and close to the Yanchep Tavern situated within the grounds so I took Kath out to dinner. Just hd to check each other out as the kangaroo ticks were out in force, big buggers too. The bird life there is varied and undisturbed by people, great to see. The various wild flowers along the road make for interesting driving.
Back up to Ledge Point Friday night after further exploring the NP and met up with friends from Innisfail who lives over here now, met their little bloke for the first time - he is 7 months old now. Justin took us up along the beaches and sand dunes etc to get some photos, the dunes are open to the public and believe me they are well utilised, able to hire sand boards, quad bikes, dune buggies, kite surf and wind surfers at various places along the kilometres of beaches and dunes. It was great to so many families enjoying themselves out there.
All in all we had a great weekend catching up with them.
Down to Perth today and had the new gear box checked and the oil changed, all good. Lunch in town, visit to the Info Centre and out to Jarradale Free camp tonight and off to Penguin Island tomorrow to see the fur seals and penguins.
The wind hasn't let up and the nights are cool enough for a good sleep.
Stay safe and happy
Cheers
Bob n K

ath

Jurien Bay 22October18

Hi folks,
Man what a few week it has been for us, firstly we required a new gear box, recondition the transfer case, machine the fly wheel and a new pressure plate for the clutch, all up over $7 grand.
However we are up and running again so it won't dampen our spirits in any way.
Left Carnarvon behind and headed for Shark Bay, the road into False Bay/ blow holes was great until we reached the Ranger station - sign said lower the tyre pressure here. Not for this black duck, I don't drop them until I have to, the road went to absolute crap from there on so we only did the blow holes and gave Steep Point a miss, didn't want to put up with those huge corrugations low tyre pressures generate.
Headed out and visited Hamblin Pool stromatolites, shell quarry where some brain dead cretin had dug their initials into the shell block face. Tootled around the corner to shell beach and were amazed at the size of this place, miles of beach made up of tiny shells the size of a little finger nail, the numbers beggar belief, visited Denham for fuel and then back to the Ocean Aquarium for an educational tour, my mouth watered at the sight of the huge coral trout they were feeding there. Well worth the modest fee charged though. Had a few encounters with the local wild life along this section, first was an encounter with a western brown snake, shifted a shingle back lizard off the road before he got skittled, got some great shots of an echidna having a feed beside the road before wandering off then there was a rather large fat woolamai python crossing the road who didn't take kindly to being moved on, cranky cow had a go at me and the truck, beautiful colours as it had not long shed it's skin.
Left Shark Bay behind and followed the Indian OceanRoad south towards Geraldton, a RV friendly town or so they said, well we didn't feel like 'camping' in a bloody car park or boat ramp parking bays with a 400mtr walk to the closest toilets which were locked at night ! so onwards we sailed, come across a little thorny devil on the road but unfortunately by the time we turned back to shift it, a following car ran over it, dam shame as they are really striking little lizards, We visited Rainbow Jungle Parrot Avery for a few hours, they have a huge variety of birds involved in a captive breeding program as well as the more common species. We spent the night at the Principality of Hutt River where we enjoyed the hospitality of Prince Grahame, a really nice down to earth gentleman in every way, his Dad Prince Leonard in 92 and still going strong but abdicated last year to make way for the next generation. Lazy day with a short drive down to Port Gregory and the Pink Lake, we were both stunned by the depth of colour there, the pink is vibrant and all because of tiny algae, had to put the drone up to get a better perspective o f it. On to 7 Mile Beach free campfire the night, now that was a breath of fresh air in more ways than one, tad cool but the view was fantastic, we ran into a couple we had met in Broome who are also doing the circuit so it was really a great night catching up on each others adventures.
The wild flowers all along the road were nothing short of amazing both in colour and variety, from huge Banksia trees to tiny ground cover, Geraldton wax and 4 different colours of kangaroo paw, the other grevillea has a local name of smelly socks, when it first opens up it has beautiful nectar smell but after a few days that changes to - oh yeah those socks that really need a wash.
At the lookout behind Geraldton we came across an apiarist trying to remove a feral bee hive from amongst the large rocks, down the hole and bringing out pieces of comb and lavae cells, they didn't appear very happy about it so e left him to it.
We arrived in Jurien Bay this afternoon and had a quick look around before heading out to Stock Yard         National Park and into the cave, there are numerous bee hives just hanging from the rock face, some in rock crevices but most are just large combs under small overhangs.
The lime stone cave is about 250 mts long but an interesting experience none the less.
Tonight we are back near Jurien Bay before heading towards Cervantes tomorrow.
Thats about it for now, we are both healthy and happy and hope you are as well.

Carnarvon 9th Oct 18

G'day all,
Kath and I planned to o'nite at the Burkett Rest area and move on to Exmouth tomorrow,  all went well, we pulled in and parked up, I asked Kath to move the truck back a bit to clear a bush when it made a clunky grating sort of noise from the gear box.
Now that doesn't sound good so I tried to use the front wheel drive in case it was the rear diff, no different - grate crunch.
Luckily we had mobile service there and so a call was made to RACQ for assistance, yes no trouble Madam, we will look after it and you.
Now this entailed a 240k tilt tray transport to Carnarvon for repairs.
Long story short, tilt tray arrived at 8am next morning, 3hr drive to Carnarvon, booked into the Best Western and a hire car, all covered by our RACQ Ultimate Membership !  Huge relief and thanks to RACQ for their help.
That was Tuesday, Wednesday the box was removed and cleaned, Thursday to Perth for assessment - box totalled U/S. New box required with the uprated transfer spline. Oh well nothing we can do about it so we left it in their hands and visited the Space and Technology Museum, this showcases how the town was involved in all the Apollo Missions etc, OTC broadcasts etc, brilliant displays, huge dishes and associated electronics - some of the old valve type stuff. Easily spent 4 hours there before we took a stroll along the town walk and ended up at the Harbourside Restaurant for dinner - bloody awesome seafood there.
Checked in with the RAC about time frames for the repairs - next week at the earliest so RACQ extended our Accomodation so we decided to have a look at the Quobba Blow holes, not as big as the ones at Steep Point but very impressive none the less, spent a few hours up there, stroll along the beach and enjoyed the views from the light house. Pub Grub tonight - average food.
Advised by Terry (RAC boss) the box will cost $6300 to replace, may be a bit more if the clutch requires any parts - it is the original as is the throw out bearing. Wait and see now.
 Visited Miaboolya Beach this morning (Sunday) it is about 30 minutes north and is clothes optional, windy and cool so we we had the place to ourselves (clothes and all) went for a 3k stroll along the beach, very clean and found some nice shells and Kath came up with a well used bong on the high water mark!  Best I could do was find a small sea snake (Yellow banded 50cm) on the beach, it had been washed ashore with the rough seas so we returned it to the water, beautiful little creature.
Quiet afternoon with little else to see or do until tomorrow, hopefully some news as when we can get mobile again. RACQ has extended our accomodation to Wednesday. We are so glad we upgraded our RACQ membership to Ultimate Cover prior to leaving home. Would have been a great deal more expensive otherwise.
We will keep you posted.
Few photo's from Carnarvon.

                                                  Blow Holes - people give a perspective

                                                                          and again

                                                                    rough seas

                                      blow holes from a distance with cars etc for perspective

                                                         quiet, clean beaches

                                                                different wild flower

                                                                          grivillia flower

Dampier 7th Oct 18

Hi folks,
Continuing on from Karijini NP was an adventure in it's self,  Tom Price is a very clean and tidy little town, very friendly and helpful people.
We went to the Info centre to get a road pass to use the RioTinto Rail service road in lieu of the "main Road", cost - donation to the FRDS. No worries there so off we went, the service road runs beside the  Rail line and this gave us plenty of opportunities to photograph the ore trains, all 1.5 klm of them, Kathy tried to video one with her phone and it timed out before the train passed !
Once we reached the end of the permit road we started the 'main road', the road to hell more like, it has been a long time since I have traversed a road as corrugated as this one, huge deep corrugations for kilometres, 15 to 20 k's at best. We eventually arrived at Millstream NP and decided that will do us for one day, pulled into a camp site and thought we had a dead kangaroo in it until we got close, her head shot up and she gave us the dirtiest of looks imaginable before hopping away. Not the best managed Park we have been in as there were quite a few blue burr (rally poly) plants growing in the prepared camp sites, prickly little buggers so it was shovel time before setting up.
Generators permitted until 8pm in the park but the big one for the Rangers house can run 24-7 it seems.
The road from hell lasted another 50 km before the black stuff started and then it was a cruise run to Dampier, quite a few Sturts Desert Pea flowers along the road so it was very pleasant. Beside the entry into Dampier is a small park with the Red Dog memorial and the trees story of his life, and aa heap of Pea flowers in the Traffic Island. Drove up to Karratha for the night and found the Info Centre was closed as end of Tourist season, short hours when available is not a good look, the van park is not much better being beside the industrial area so it was an early wake up with all the reversing beepers etc.
The landscape changes with every turn, masses of wild flowers, small bird life and magnificent panoramas. They had about 20mm of rain a few weeks earlier and that triggered the flower flush and the green tinge to everything.
We are heading for Exmouth and the whale watching etc.
Stay tuned

                                                                   the Desert Rose

                                                        rock  strata in a gorge

                                                   Different colour - light red centre.

                                                          the Pilbra vista

                                                         Red Dog at Dampier

                                                             Black centre pea flowers at the entry Park- Dampier

the iron ore dust is everywhere !