Wild Flower's,And more Wild Flower's

·       Northampton

·       Coronation Beach

·       Ellendale Pool

·       Coalsteam Conservation park ( Geraldton)

·       Lake Indoo

·       Western Flora C.P (Eneabba)

It’s been nearly 6 weeks since the last time we plugged into power, we have been stopping at freebies, national parks and unpowered sites in caravan parks, we broke our run at the Northampton Caravan Park, (Being a Saints fan there was no point in having power). We have been reliant on solar and W A has not let us down. Up to date we have had lots of sun and only a little rain.  We drove through Kalbarri National Park (the start of wildflower country) to the coast and down to Northampton. 

Isopogon

Our camp at Coronation Beach (30 mins out of Geraldton) was quite pleasant until the wind got up so we decided to move on and try inland. Ellendale Pool (about 40 mins west of Geraldton) in the Wheat Belt Country was a beaut little camp reserve.

Coronation Beach (near Geraldton)

The wild flowers at Coalseam Conservation Park were absolutely brilliant. Carpeted sprays of bright coloured native wild flowers, something of a spectacle!

Wildflowers at Coalseam Conservation Park

And more wildflowers at Coalseam

Oh and more wildflowers

The problem at the moment is when you are driving down the road you can see that the vegetation on the roadside changes or something different catches your eye, so we stop and spend the next half hour walking around the scrub snapping pics of flowers (white, yellow, orange, red, purple, pink and brilliant blues) in bloom. Such variety in species and the orchids are an unexpected treat.

We had the pleasure to stop at a caravan park called Western Flora C.P.  What a wonderful experience for a couple of amateur native flower lovers. The van park offer a guided walk each night with the owner around part of the 140 acre natural scrubland and gives insight into the ways the native plants operate in their reproduction, name, aboriginal use, what animal feeds off etc. All inclusive of your $28 camp fee, a little rustic feel to the place, nice stop.

From  here we will do more wildflower hunting – just can’t get enough of all the spectacular colours.

Verticordia

                                

Calothamnus

Eremophila

Drosera stolonifera

Macrocarpa (there is one of these at Weeroona College)

Catspaw

Spider Orchid

Verticordia

Wreath Flower

Lechenaultia 

Flame Grevilla

Donkey Orchid

White Checked Honeyeater 

Spider Orchid

Calytrix

The Pilbra and gasgoyne

·        Herbert Reserve

·        Karijinni

·        Cleaverville Beach

·        Dampier

·        Bruboodjoo Point

·        Bush Bay

·        Hamelin Station

On the road again –  we have covered a bit of ground since leaving Broome – 7.5 hours to Herbert Reserve a freebie next to a river on the main highway. The Pilbra region is full of road trains and industry (Port Headland).  Our aim is to get to Karijinni National Park, another 3 hours in the car and another chip in our new wind screen!

Karijinni National Park is the largest WA National Park with some fantastic gorge walking/ crawling/wading.   More corrugated red dirt roads.   Very picturesque with the deep reds of the Pilbra rock and the brilliant white of the ghost gums. The Gorges were really challenging to scramble around the rocks and wade through the ice cold water, a lota fun!  We saw two people become suckers to the icy water.

George at Kilijilli

Kirrabilli National Park

The white of the Ghost Gums against the red of the Pilbra

Action Mum

No stoppin her

It was challenging

" I'm over this Red Dirt"

Onto Dampier (just west of Karratha) which is another industrial town situated on the end of a peninsular surrounded by islands (The Dampier Archipelagos) quite pretty if you take in the tankers filling with iron ore.  Also the home of the north west shelf gas plant.  While we were there I was lucky enough to score a seat on a little tinny for a fishing trip off shore, Brilliant! The variety of species was extraordinary.  I pulled in about 8 different types of fish. A couple of times I hooked up on fish that were just too big to bring up .

A Spanish flag

Fish o man

Denham view from our camp

Bruboodjoo Point was a great spot to stop and do some day trips into Exmouth and the Cape Range National Park, Ningaloo Marine Reef and also Coral Bay. The snorkelling amongst the fish and coral is pretty awesome! This local campspot was cheap and really peaceful just behind the sand dunes of the beach.  The beaches are just beautiful with torquiose water.  Fish that swim around your feet, sting rays, turtles and the odd whale playing way out.

Here we are on Hamelin Station at the entrance to the Shark Bay area.  A day trip in to Denham and Monkey Mia (the free beach beside the fee paying resort – we’re not cheap skates) oh and the bogging of the Santa Fe in sand . The wild flowers are here! 

Cleaverville Camp

Sturt Desert Pea Nice

Boodajoo Point

Looking out to Ningaloo Reef

The Swimming holes up here are Great

Kimberly's and around

·        Timber Creek

·        Kununurra

·        Wyndham

·        Fletcher Creek             

•                 Bungle Bungles
•                  Derby
•                  Broome

            

After Katherine we headed over the border.  The drive through the Kimberly region is an awesome visual landscape of constant red rocky mountain outcrops.  Some of it looks like it’s strait out of an old western movie.

We did a big day of driving with a stop at a road house in Timber Creek then on to Kununurra.   We just gained 2 hours and would have lost all fruit and veg at Border if we weren’t prepared.  We did some walks around Kununurra, looked at the famous Lake Argyle  and re stocked supplies. (Di was hoping for a pink diamond from the Argyle Mine but the budget wasn’t going to stretch that far)

This  what our view out the van at Kunnanara 

On to Wyndam, our first industrial town port. Our caravan park was an interesting place with a resident Donkey (Fuzzy)  which casually strolled from camp to camp, helicopter landings and the locals turning on the noise overnight.

Parrys Lagoon out of Wyndam

Parrys Lagoon The Boab trees are odd

Pelicans on Parrys Lagoon

The Bungle Bungles (or should I say Purnululu National Park) road is through the Mabel Downs Station which was another test of our faithful little tug pulling our home through some 6 Creek crossings, it's safe to say our navigator was a little tense -52km and about 3 hours later. A couple of days to do the walks on offer and take in the spectacular rock formations and colours of the Kimberly’s - 350 millions years old. Then back out over the creeks and corrugations. These gravel roads take their toll on the vehicles, bits of them lying around all the way out. 

The Bungles rock is unusually layered

The unusual rock formation at the Bungles

Hiking the southern end of the Bungles

Bungles

Sunset from our camp at Bungles

Derby Pier , massive tides

Another massive day on the road to Derby,  another industry town . We took a day trip out to Windjana Gorge.  This gorge is part of the Devonian Reef  so you could see shells in the rock that are millions of years old.  There were a lot of Fresh water Crocs (at least 25 on one river bank), the road out was the worst road yet with big corrugations, we were over it! 

Freshie on the move

Sun baking Freshies at Windjana

Its a hard life being a photo model

Here we are in Broome. It’s understandable why the interest in this place.  Cable Beach is a nice spot to stop for the day on the beach the water was so blue.We stopped at the Broome Pistol Club, which was a little unusual with the gun noise; you get what you pay for, it was the cheapest in town. We caught up with  the Beales at a Cable sunset, (Bendigo mates parents) nice to see a familiar face.While we were in Broome we saw some Dinosaur prints in the rocks, which you can only see at low tide.

Million year old mud

Dinosaur Footprints at low tide

Broome Pier

Cable Beach waves were great for body surfing

A day on Cable Beach

nice soft beach to walk on, Cable

Us and the rest of the world watching the sunset on Cable

Couldn't go without the pic of the camels on cable beach

Iconic Camels on Cable

Sunset over Cable

WA Coast the land of sunsets! - probably many more to come - sorry

Hooroo

Beautiful Bower Bird Bower Brilliant!

Nice Ring Neck