​From one of extreme to another! 14-16 August 2017

Steep Point, WA 2017  Hooray we made it! (still working on perfecting the selfies)

We made it to Steep Point! The most western point on the Australian continent! 280 odd Km there and back, up and over sand dunes, across clay pans, along beaches and rocky outcrops and through sand dune heathland. It was awesome and Lindsay got us there are back! Brilliant driving and a brilliant car. An exciting day!

Some place we felt like we were driving through the Sahara. Great rolling expanses of sand dunes with not a stick of vegetation.

At times we had to take a stab at choosing which track to take. Fortunately we only made one wrong turn. 

Lots of deep sand track to reach this wind swept rocky point. Lindsay did an amazing job.

We've now driven to all the cardinal points of Australia - next?
So many many roads to drive, so many rivers to cross tra la la. We have tackled some of the more challenging roads - Oodnadatta, Birdsville, the road to 'The Tip', Gibb River Road, the Savannah Way (mild), road to Steep Point, Cattle Water Pass (though Harts Range - road now closed!), the Tuwakam track. And circumnavigated Australia on Hwy 1. Took us a few years but we completed the circuit when we arrived at Shark Bay - and we celebrated with champers of course!

Next on the list is the 1000 odd km Tanami Track - in a few weeks time! We are very excited at the prospect. Just threw the next couple of pix in for interest - I don't have a pic for the most eastern point but we'll go back there sometime and then ......

We drove to the 'end of the road' at Cockle Creek. There are no roads further south so we walked to South Cape Bay, Tasmania 2013  We didn't venture down onto the beach the cliffs were too scary.

Standing at 'The Tip', Cape York Peninsula 2015

​A sample of WA's wild flowers   14-23 August 2017

I stood for ages watching this native bee visiting these sweet little beauties (I don't have a name for them - yet). 

These beauties speak for themselves - just look into their faces. Suffice it to say my iPhone camera is running hot at the moment! There's way too many for me to post to my blog so I have created an album on Flickr follow this link to show you some of the gorgeous flowers, plants - and yes insects I have snapped! I hope to get back later with names for these lovely creations at some stage but ......

Burchsrdia rosea - Pink milkmaids

Just look at the centre of this little beauty.  I'm still trying to find this one in my book.

Caladenia flava - Cowslip orchid

Chamaelaucium uncinatum - Geralton wax. Absolutely amazing design!

​Shark Bay World Heritage region  14-16 August 2017

These are the cardiid cockle shells. They are tiny and so delicate. Seems a shame to walk on them.

The Shark Bay Heritage region is unique for a number of reasons - the tiny Cardiid cockle shells for instance. They have been deposited on these shores for over 6000 years. Through the magic of chemistry they become glued together forming huge deep banks up to 9 m think of soft limestone they call coquina. This was once quarried and used as building material but is now protected.

Here Lindsay is walking out in the huge expanse of sweeping Shell Beach on L'Haridon Bight - the entire shore is made up of those same cardiid cockle shells. The beach is a series of deep banks of compressed shells. The reflection of light off the shells is dazzling.

This looked like an archeological dig but the foreshore of Hamelin Pool was once the quarry where blocks of coquina was cut to built houses etc. the only blocks of this soft limestone that is quarried here today is for the repair and maintenance of historic buildings in the immediate area.

The shorelines around the northerly facing fingers of land which form the Shark Bay region are also piled with low, slowly shifting dunes of those tiny cockle shells with a few larger shells poking out here and there. These little creatures continue to thrive here, albeit not growing very big, because the high salinity of the waters means they have few natural predators. Those same conditions were also ideal for the survival of the Cyanobacteria which built the stromatolites.

Our faithful beast resting on the beach while we explored.

The shell banks are like sand dunes and like sand dunes they collapse as you walk on them. Quite a phenomenon!

The surrounding water is twice as salty as the sea, UV is extremely high and temperatures soar. So what survives has adapted to these conditions in strange forms and with weird flowers and fruiting mechanisms. Even settlers managed to adapt to the harsh conditions. In the late 1800s and early 1900s camel trains brought wool from pastural leases to Flagpole Landing where it had to be rowed out to small sailing boats which then took it a further 200km to ships moored outside the Bay. You need to see the distances to really appreciate what that must have meant.

The scrub around Hamelin Pool looks rather desolate but when you step in and peer into the plants and flowers it is fascinating. No more pix of flower throats for now though!

But maybe this one!? A samphire of some sort. What a curious-looking scrap of natural beauty it is.

And this chenopod found poking out of the cockle shells. Only a mother could love those spikes! But it has interesting little seeds. Sorry for the blurry pic - it gets so that I simply cant bend low enough!

Bore water and dodgy electricity notwithstanding, it was an amazing place full of fascinating things related to both man and nature. We followed the call of the chiming wedgebill which seemed to beckon you into the bush and photographed plants we've not seen before. A truly special unique part of Australia.

Hamelin Pool 14-16 August 2017

Some of these living fossils are now more protected since the erection of this board walk out over the microbial mats and  stromatolite structures.

Living fossils! Stromatolites - not us cheeky! We camped in one of the few places in the world where these ancient life forms still exist - Hamelin Pool in World Heritage Shark Bay.
WA is internationally significant for its variety of stromatolite sites and Hamelin Pool is one of the most interesting of those sites, for me at least. It is home to the most diverse and abundant collection of living stromatolites in the world it seems. Wow and again, wow!! And just by the way, north of Hamelin Pool scattered throughout one of my very favourite places, the Pilbara, are many many stromatolite fossil over 3000 years old. The oldest known fossils in the world. Australia! what a mind-blowing, amazing place.

Seen through the water, some of these stromatolites give off bubbles of oxygen. We were limited in what we could see because we stayed on the designated board walk. But they are such very interesting phenomena.

So what are stromatolites? they are layer upon layer of Cyanobacteria (remember those dark stripes in the Bungle Bungles? These are similar creatures). This primitive life form is similar to the earliest organisms that appeared on earth 3 odd billion years ago, organisms that produced oxygen for subsequent oxygen-dependant life forms.

Not as spectacular, these Thrombolites at Lake Thetis south of Hamelin Pool at Cervantes, are cousins of the Stromatolites. They form cluster structures. Like this one, many that we saw were damaged. It is only recently that these phenomenal 'organisms' have been more treasured and protected. Last time we were here, you could simply walk around and over them as you pleased.

This thrombolite was exposed as the waters of Lake Thetis receded at Cervantes. There are quite a number of these around the lake but it is difficult to locate them.

The stromatolites at Hamelin Pool have survived for 5000 years or so. We'd arrived at World Heritage Shark Bay! Ten years since we were first last. And no we didn't go to Monkey Mia.

​Carnarvon - what an interesting place! 11-12 August 2017

The weather was damp and overcast but there was a beautiful pearly quality to the sky and a quiet that wrapped around you

It sits on part of the west coast where the central desert reaches right down to the sea. We were battered by high winds and drenching rain not long after we arrived. Their winter! Quite refreshing to swap hot humid weather for cool humid weather! The weather kept us inside one day but the next day we took a trip to see One Mile Jetty - one of the longest in WA.

One Mile Jetty. No longer used except as a tourist attraction. The weather prevented us walking out on it.

We were surrounded by plantations- banana palms, mango trees and large vegetable gardens. It seems that Carnarvon supplies 70% of WA's winter veggies. Amazing given it's located on the edge of the desert. But the highlight for me was the OTC Dish and Space and Technology Museum.

We spent a couple of hours there but we could happily have stayed half the day, because there was so much to see. Some of it new and fascinating and some quite nostalgic like lying in a 'replica' Apollo capsule to watch actual footage and audio of the moon landing with Neil Armstrong. I videoed their video! It's an absolute must if you ever pass by this way.

The planetarium at the OTC museum showed images from the first landing on the moon. It took us way back half a century.

This display was set up to replicate the time when the first satellite TV went to air. Love that TV! Some of you will recognise the style of furniture

The Cassorn 'sugar scoop' radio receiver/antenna.

As I keep saying travel is such an education and as the kilometres have passed under our wheels I have become more and more proud of our wonderful country and staggered by our reluctance to celebrate our nation's achievements. Maybe we should blow our trumpet a bit more!

Back to the coast

​Back to the coast - early August 2017

Colour and design are two of Mother Nature's cleverest tools - we have been witness to so many we are overawed! This is the flower of the Butterfly Bush discovered on a rough track into the dry bed of the Beasley River.  

Heading back to the coast, we stopped overnight and set up camp next to the Beasley River. It was a dry extremely wide riverbed but the size of the bridge spoke volumes. I also noticed along this road quite a few large groins leading up to many rivers/creeks which reinforced that these rivers are mighty when in flood.

Overnight camp in a delightful spot near the Beasley River.

This is the bed of the Beasley River. A stone quarry when it is dry!

heading back to the coast along the Nanutarra road. we were reluctant to leave the silence of the Pilbara.

But Onslow.... it was a quick in and out. Parks were full so we camped out on the oval! Another showerless night and not a lot to see. So next day we headed to Exmouth.

Onslow was a disappointment. The only interesting thing was this strange tree and its fruit. No idea what it is.

Zoom in and see how much of WA is desert. not too many good roads up through the inland parts of the state..

What a surprise! Again the place was near to bursting but we got a spot at the Yardie Homestead (the property dates back over 130 years) for a couple of nights - did washing and showered!! Hooray.
Travel is such an educational experience! I discovered that during WWII the North West Cape was a US sub base and the legacy today is an airstrip and defence base at Learmonth. While the Exmouth Gulf wasn't suitable for a longer term sub base, the Japanese thought it proved a threat and as a result there were aerial bombings of the area. There was however a highly successful mission into Singapore launched from this location - Operation Jaywick. The Cape was also an important international communications link and tracking station during and after the war.

The Ningaloo coast.

I am constantly reminded of how much I don't know - that doesn't worry me it just makes me curious to find out more!

The skipper on the glass bottom boat was a wealth of information. 

This is Todd giving us the safety talk  

The water is turquoise and just beautiful dotted with lots of white water craft.

Unfortunately things looked murky through the thick glass. It looked better through my mask!

But to less cerebral pursuits! I snorkelled on Ningaloo reef, the largest fringe reef in the world! It was amazing albeit a little overwhelming because the sea was little choppy and kept swamping my snorkel. Breathing, spitting water, clearing my mask and breathe tube while trying to keep afloat and hang onto my camera - a comical sight I'm sure. But I got back to the boat in one soggy piece quite happy that I had been swimming with coral dwelling fish. Through the glass bottom boat we were on we saw 1000 year old coral, bright boiled lolly fish and even a couple of turtles. It was a terrific day topped off by seeing lots of humpbacked whales off shore including a mum and bub playing in the shallows - absolutely intriguing and rather special.

Along all the roads we keep an eye open for flowers and interesting plants.  Most people focus of the flowers but dome of the leaves are amazingly beautiful.

My back is constantly sore from bending down looking at wee flowers. These little beauties are about 2-3 mm wide. Gorgeous!

​Still in the Pilbara - 3 to 8 August 2017

Mulla mulla dominated but Sturt's desert pea was a vivid splash of colour along many of the roads. Yellows, whites, purple, pink, silver, orange - the roadsides were ablaze with colour and shapes. Hard to count the number of photo stops we made to enjoy it all.

Having been 'over-ored'! we headed east from Karratha on the coast to Karijini NP, the western half of it - we will visit the other half later once we've visited family in Perth and head back north east and then south east for home.

We're in Millstream-Chichester NP heading for Python Pool. Gorgeous!!

Python Pool and those white dots on the far side are my legs! I swam across and hefted myself into a rock ledge to catch my breath and admire the towering cliffs. The pool was dark, bracingly cold and exhilarating but I daren't put my feet down for fear of touching something in the murky depths - a python, a water monitor. It was wonderful!

Just for interest Karijini NP in the Hamersley ranges is the second largest in WA. It has many steep, deep gorges lined with layers and layers of rich Pilbara iron ore. Some of the canyon walls are zebra striped in colours ranging from chalk through yellow and pink to deep rust red.
The rock type in the Hamersley Gorge is sedimentary Banded Iron Formation. You can see the differently coloured stripes. Pretty. There were people swimming in the water holes at the bottom of the gorge. It was way to steep for me to attempt unfortunately but I was happy just looking at this awesome rock face. Quite spellbinding and awe inspiring particularly seen against a cerulean backdrop of a cloudless sky. Glorious! ​

Hamersley Gorge .  The colours were dazing in the sun
.  You could imagine how Lang Hancock was capture by the area - the iron almost leaps out of the ground at you.

The rocks and hills are spectacular, but the plants particularly the flowers drew my attention. Surprise surprise! Mulla mulla everywhere - Tall, Royal, Mat, Tangled, Tassel top, Weeping. I discovered that Mulla mulla is the floral emblem of the Pilbara - stands to reason. I have photographed and identified over 50 different varieties in the two weeks since we hit the Pilbara that includes the Kapok bush (a weed) which, it is said, the Afghan cameleers introduced way way back - the camels saddles were stuffed with it. Plus the ubiquitous spinifex - clumps, stiff, 'soft' 'porcupine'. And other prickly things like Roly Poly bush. All these prickly numbers seem to leap out and stab you for no apparent reason. Needless to say we don't go frolicking through the bush!

We've been travelling in spinifex grass country for 100s of km. The hills look amazing covered in pale green and ecru spinifex amongst the red earth and dark rocks. Quite stunning. There are a number of different species of spinifex but this one is the type that grows out from the centre into huge circles most often with a dead centre.

Ah my favourite fruit - the humble fungus. This is a Gasteromycetes AKA a puff ball. Not sure what but it could be what is commonly named a 'Horse-dropping' fungus. Not pretty but one of Mother Nature's wonders!

The Tall mulla mulla. They dominated in this area but the Mat and Tangled were everywhere too. Zoom in and lol at the astonishing structure of these flowers.

One if the delightful things about this stunning countryside is the relative isolation. Of course you are aware that there are monstrous big mines in the area but it is quiet and restful. We had a few roadside camps and loved it - campfires, damper, just hanging out. One shower in 6 days! Good thing we didn't have neighbours eh!?

Camp fires and champagne but of course. And we watched the sunset

Lindsay quietly contemplating life! In the last 6 months, we have travelled over 25,000 km with this amazing man behind the wheel. What a champion!

Have campfire so roll out the damper. This was yummy!

Then it was back to the coast for an overnight stop in Onslow for quick look see before scooting south to North West Cape and Exmouth.