Explore Australia

Hutt River Province

Posted on April 18, 2015 by John Sear

On April 25th this year a big celebration will commence for the 45th anniversary of the founding of the Hutt River Province. Following a dispute with the government over wheat quotas Leonard George Casley created an independent sovereign state in Hutt River on April 21st 1970, to avoid imminent legislation. Hutt River Province is approximately the size of Hong Kong and has its own stamps, money and has representatives across many countries worldwide. We were greeted by a spritely 89 year old Leonard himself who ushered us into the chapel where one of his “Prince” sons gave us a tour of the artwork, prince and princess thrones before handing us back to His Royal Highness Leonard to talk a little about his collection of artefacts and the influence the province has had worldwide. Due to the David and Goliath nature of the Province it has attracted much interest worldwide over the years and many countries have donated gifts, or sought interactions in one way or another that has resulted in a very interesting collection. HRH Leonard relishes in spinning a yarn and wasn’t afraid to drop a name or two in the process. There were references to Prince Charles (he has one of his artworks), King Juan Carlos of Spain, and many more.

HRH Leonard has a keen interest in Art and Science. The chapel has religious themed paintings, the characters being modelled on actual people, all of which is explained on the tour. He has also written some very mathematically based papers on life forces and natural constants, with one area devoted to highlight this.

Full details can be found on their site http://www.principality-hutt-river.com/

 

Welcome to Hutt River Province
With HRH Leonard
Princess Amanda?
Princely pose attempt

We had a fabulous time here. It is impossible to do it justice with a short blog so Fifty Toes just recommends you visit!

 

 

Categories: Adventure, australia, Australian Outback, Big Lap, Discover Australia, Explore Australia, Inspiration, Journey Narrative, Kids Travel, Travel, Travel Adventure, West Australia | Tags: | Leave a comment

The Pinnacles, Nambung National Park

Posted on April 15, 2015 by John Sear

We left Perth late as there were a few last minute errands that had to be run, but the Pinnacles were still targeted for a visit. We arrived in Nambung National Park late in the afternoon and it was horribly overcast so the light was not optimal for photography, but the park is stunning. The rock pinnacles appear to be growing from the desert floor, and are the product of an unusual geological process that started with submersion of forests in sand, conversion into limestone over the millennia, and subsequent erosion of surrounding sand over more millennia has left the petrified sentinels littered across the landscape as it is today. The park has walking trail and drive, but you are free to explore on foot so long as you don’t climb the rocks. We walked and drove around twice and reluctantly left as darkness arrived. The flies were revolting, even immune to our special cedar and rosemary cream (that worked fine until now), taking delight in sticking to our faces, shirts, shorts, basically everywhere.

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We still had 50km drive to the campsite at Sandy Cape, just north of Jurien Bay. Camp went up and the flies descended on us. Apparently they had only arrived the day before. We put our light on and then super-sized flying “bulldog” ants descended, so we beat a hasty retreat to the trailer for the night.

Next morning, more rain and flies, so the full awning was put up. We revisited the Pinnacles once more, headed into Cervantes, then Jurien Bay for fish and chips.

Stockyard Gully Caves are one of the few free entry caves in the area accessed by 4WD track and the next morning we left early armed with torches and raincoats. From the carpark a pleasant 300m walk down the dry (despite the rain) river bed brought us to the first cave. A powerful torch is required as it is pitch black and approximately 100m long. It emerges at a rockpile which we climbed down and walked on to the next two caves. The last one has no exit and is home to a colony of bats so access is discouraged. All of the entrances to the caves are adorned with large beehives, and the hum of bees as you approach is very discernible, making the kids a bit uneasy. We pressed on uneventfully and had a very enjoyable morning’s exploration there. No flies in the caves either!

On our way home some Geocaching took us to some marvellous beaches and lookouts in and around Green Head. The water was perfectly calm and our camp host informed us on our return that there was a storm coming with potential windspeeds of 100km/h. Whilst a lot of rain and wind followed the worst of it blew south of us and we prepared to venture further north.

 

Categories: 4WD, Adventure, australia, Australian Outback, Big Lap, Discover Australia, Explore Australia, Inspiration, Journey Narrative, Kids Travel, National Park, Natural World, Photography, Photos, Travel, Travel Adventure, West Australia | Tags: , , , | 1 Comment

Perth- a very brief visit

Posted on April 14, 2015 by John Sear

As well as servicing the car and trailer we spent some time exploring a few spots in Perth. Amanda’s school friend Justine and other half Steve kindly offered to put Fifty Toes up in their house so for us this was a luxurious treat.

First stop was a visit to Point Walter on the Swan river where we were lucky enough to see a small pod of dolphins cruising slowly back towards the ocean. The kids swam and then fished off the jetty with tackle they had found and extracted from amongst the pylons and wooden boards. A few toadfish was all they could catch but their squeals of delight were a pleasant change from the fighting squeals we often get in the car.

Rottnest Island Quokka
Black Swan, Swan river !
King Skink, Rottnest Island
Boabtree, Kings Park
Fishing at Point Walker
Oscar watching a quokka
Hannah and quokka
Xavier befriending a quokka
Mr Spin!
Little Parakeet Bay
Justine,Steve and boys
Kings Park flora
Rottnest Island Lighthouse

I took the boys to SciTech where three hours just evaporated as we immersed ourselves into a really hands-on scientific experience. The boys favourite was the slime show, but we watched the planetarium show as well, and spent most of the time playing with things like gyroscopes, plasma balls, speed radars (for the record I threw a tennis ball at 100km/h), and much much more. it was so engrossing I forgot to even take any photos. Great value and well worth a visit for all ages up to teens and beyond.

We spent some time in Fremantle too. One of Xavier’s best friend’s family flew in from Sydney and we explored the markets that have everything from fresh tropical fruit and vegetables to indian headdresses! Fish and chips is a local institution so we sat on a boat in the harbour and listened to the live music as we ate our lunch.

Then we had to visit Rottnest Island. An early start saw us boarding the ferry at 7.30am and queueing to hire bikes by 8.10 on the island. First stop, Little Parakeet bay for some snorkelling, then off on our bikes again. Quokkas are the endemic marsupials of the island and we found heaps of the tame little creatures everywhere. Their cute faces and endearing nature could not be missed resulting in many stops along the way.

Oscar, though, was the only one with the willpower to make it all around the island on his tiny single gear bike, once again showing us his enthusiasm on two wheels. Whilst the others turned around half way the two of us got to the western end of the island where we saw the seal colony, king skinks, and even another dugite that I nearly trod on.

That night, we enjoyed dinner with Justine and Steve in Fremantle and saw some of the street theatre festival that was on for Easter. Mr Spin span out his show for too long but his final stunt was good, juggling with a glass of water balanced on his forehead whilst riding a 7 foot high unicycle!

Time was fast running out but we had time to visit Kings Park, commanding glorious views over the city CBD and the Swan river, amazing botanical gardens, and catch up with two new sets of friends from Cape Le Grand.

Dale and Mel had invited us over for a barbeque which was a lovely opportunity to catch up while all the kids paired off again and went wild in their swimming pool.

Ian and Jackie had pretty much been feeding everyone at the Cape Le Grand campsite and after having us over for dinner one night, insisted we stayed with them before leaving Perth so after farewelling Justine and Steve we visited them again just as the weather started to deteriorate again. We’re hoping they join us on the Gibb River road in a month or so!

 

Categories: Adventure, Animal Action, australia, Australian Outback, Big Lap, Discover Australia, Explore Australia, Journey Narrative, Kids Travel, Natural World, Photography, Travel, Travel Adventure, West Australia | Tags: , , , | 3 Comments

Exemplary Customer Service in Perth

Posted on April 5, 2015 by John Sear

We had to head to Perth to get the Pajero and Camprite trailer serviced before we commence the journey north and possibly the most eagerly awaited part of our trip. Both have performed excellently to date but I had a list of items to follow up with for both.

I wanted to ask further questions about the problems with had with fuel consumption in South Australia and had been tipped off about possible carbonisation of an inlet manifold. We had also recently become aware of a recall notice on the model. I finally wanted to resolve the issue with our towbar being too low, and Mitsubishi Melville instantly gave me confidence with their understanding of each issue and ability to address them. We also needed to perform a tyre rotation having just clocked another 10,000km.

The Camprite trailer went in first and it was great to meet the team in person, as we had only had spoken by phone from the east coast. Matt patiently listened to my list, had a quick look at the trailer and spotted a couple of things we had missed, again assuring that they were all fixable. We left it in his capable hands and I took the boys to SciTech in the city.

Looking like new again
New steps

The next day was the Pajero’s turn. They kindly agreed  to complete the service by 2pm (so I had time to pickup the trailer on the other side of the city) and went through my list of items. They couldn’t put in a second battery, but I was less concerned about that. Phillip from Mitsubishi drove me back to the house, where we were staying and also picked me up promptly at 2pm. Everything was fixed up and the spare tyre lift meant we were set to fix our towbar issues.

Being the afternoon before Easter holidays, traffic crossing town was heavy and Matt at Camprite was patiently awaiting our arrival to pick up the trailer. It looked like new! Our damaged rear steps had been replaced with the new design and all the other items on the list had been addressed, leaving us a little time to fix the towbar. Matt optimistically thought it would be a quick reversal of the towbar, but that proved more difficult requiring some heavy duty hardware and hammering for quite a while to remove. Reversing it didn’t solve the issue as the tongue was not long enough so Matt quickly drove up to get one. He returned empty-handed and we jumped into the car at 4.40pm to try a different place. Success!

The tongue then needed machining the edges of the tongue to allow it to be inserted easily – more time passed.

Finally by 5pm the job was complete, Matt was still smiling, but we were so grateful that he had stayed back to help prepare us for the next stage of our journey.

Thank you very much Camprite – your attention to detail was probably the best we have ever encountered and thanks also to Melville Mitsubishi for your prompt, friendly and efficient service.

Categories: 4WD, australia, Big Lap, Camper Trailer, Car, Discover Australia, Explore Australia, Journey Narrative, Kids Travel, Mitsubishi, West Australia | Tags: , , , , | 5 Comments

Back to Margaret River

Posted on April 3, 2015 by John Sear

Our friends from Margaret River, Mike and Rhonda, invited us to visit them in Margaret River and given how close it was, and how much we had enjoyed the region we did a little back track. Mike is a surfing legend, with many titles to his name, including a number of appearances representing Australia. They now both dedicate their time to surf coaching and helping with the organisation of events such as the upcoming Drug Aware Surf Margaret River Pro 2015 at nearby Prevelly Beach.

Coffee at Rivermouth
Main Break action
A flare prompted a sea rescue
Main Break action
The Box

The morning we visited the beach the surf was pumping, the most impressive I have ever seen, with plenty of breaks everywhere for everyone from Beginners to Legends (a plaque above the beach tells you where to surf, assuming you know where you stand in the scale, Beginner, Rookie, Master, and Legend). Main Break and The Box were producing some nice waves and a constant stream of locals were arriving to make the most of it. There were boards that has lost their owners and broken boards floating past, some great barrel action and then a flare went up in the sky behind the Box. A rescue operation followed and we watched a jet ski retrieve a local fisherman from his sinking dinghy. It all happens at Prevelly Beach!

A few hundred metres away we found a cool coffee van at the Rivermouth break. At this time of year the river fails to meet the ocean, stopping just behind the beach. A little further north Gracetown offered a smaller but clean wave for a number of surfers.

Kids in Cowaramup
Meelup Beach
Mike’s cool 50’s board
Mike and Rhonda
Eagle Bay
Welcome to Cowaramup

Travelling back down to Margaret River we had a quick diversion up to Cape Naturaliste National Park to see some of the beaches we hadn’t seen yet. Eagle Bay offered us a few Geocache opportunities and a collection of small picturesque beaches with glorious white sand and azure water lapping on to the shore. Meelup Beach was hosting an end of Nippers season event with massive inflatable floating toys. The kids made us stop, and following the fastest change witnessed to date, were in amongst the fun before we gather our towels. Many thanks to Smiths Beach Surf Lifesaving Club for allowing us to join in the fun.

We also had to visit Cowaramup, where locals have installed at least 25 (our count on one drive past) fibreglass cows throughout the town. Not pronounced as it looks, it means “Place of the purple crowned lorikeets”. Many of the places in this region end in “up”- an aboriginal word meaning “place of”.

With so much to do in this area time flew and it was time to finally say farewell to our friends and Margaret River. Time to hit the big smoke again up north.

 

Categories: Adventure, australia, Beach, Discover Australia, Explore Australia, Journey Narrative, Kids Travel, National Park, Travel, Travel Adventure, West Australia | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Unreported shark attacks along the south coast!

Posted on April 1, 2015 by John Sear

On our travels along the southern coastal bits of the country we have noticed an alarming number of shark attacks that go unreported. The evidence of these attacks can easily be found as the poor victims body parts are strewn across many of the beaches we have visited.

I have even personally witnessed one such attack in the water in Sydney and can report that luckily the victims are already deceased. The sharks are actually just doing their duty of cleaning up the dead carcasses of cuttlefish. Cuttlefish have a relatively short lifecycle usually only living 2-3 years. They breed and die shortly afterwards, providing a vital food source to any hungry scavengers. All that is left after the clean-up process is the brittle internal cuttlefish bone that can be found washed up on the beach. We have frequently found these cuttlefish bones bitten in half, or covered with shark teeth indentation marks (see photo).

Basically it is the case of nature taking its course and nothing sinister as the heading might have implied.

Victims of shark attacks

Victims of shark attacks

 

Categories: Animal Action, australia, Beach, Discover Australia, Explore Australia, Journey Narrative, Kids Travel, Natural World, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, West Australia | Tags: | 2 Comments

Diving Busselton Jetty

Posted on March 29, 2015 by John Sear

Busselton Jetty is 1.8km long and has it’s own train service to deliver tourists to the end where they can visit the underwater observatory. I wanted to scuba dive the famous jetty and with the nearby Dive Shed having trolley and gear hire I was keen as mustard to get in the water.

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Unfortunately my camera strobe malfunctioned during set-up so I had to improvise by using a torch instead. This meant increasing my ISO settings and opening up the aperture, not what I like doing for underwater shots, but I was stuck with what I had. I put the trusty Canon 100mm macro lens on and started the long walk from the dive shop.

The Dive Shed rent out trolleys to transport your gear to the dive site, and whilst I don’t mind a bit of a walk with my gear I was glad I rented one. The entry pontoon lies 200m from the end of the Jetty, with two well designed ladders for exiting with fins on.

The underwater life lived up to expectation. Whilst many old jetty pylons lie on the floor providing cover for many different critters, corals, and sponges adorn a large proportion of the upright ones. Many of the fish were new to me, being Indian Ocean based but there were a few familiar ones and I was happy to find a number of very colourful nudibranchs(sea slugs). The water was shallow at 8m, allowing along dive but after 2 hours in 19 degree water I was ready to get back in the sunlight to warm up. Visibility was pretty good (over 10m), the only thing you need to be aware of is to keep over 10m away from the underwater observatory (for obvious reasons).

A big thumbs up to the Busselton Jetty dive and thanks to The Dive Shed for being so helpful with the gear and briefing of the dive site.

Categories: Adventure, australia, Big Lap, Discover Australia, Explore Australia, Journey Narrative, Natural World, Photography, Photos, Travel, Travel Adventure, West Australia | Tags: , , , , | 4 Comments

Margaret River

Posted on March 28, 2015 by John Sear

Using Conto campsite as our base we ventured into Margaret River to see what was on offer, and there was definitely something for everyone.

We started the morning with an educational trip to Australia’s first commercial Silk Farm, called Silk Road. The operation has been going for two years and is very much still in expansion mode. The lifecycle was explained to us, with displays that show the eggs, caterpillars at different stages, cocoons (in various different colours), and plenty of completed products for sale. Because they are not yet at full production they give all their cocoons to Asian countries, and they receive products back that include their silk. In addition to woven silk products, they have an array of mulberry products, chutneys, jams and teas, all of which can be tasted. To make the operation viable all year round the mulberry trees are grown in hothouses in the grounds.

Interesting fact : Did you know silkworms are fully domesticated by man, the moths cannot fly and do not live in the wild?

Easter “Minion” Bunny
The Chocolate fondue
Voyager Estate
The Chocolate Factory
The free chocolate tasting samples
At the Chocolate factory

Next stop was the chocolate factory just a few hundred metres down the road. It was like opening the door to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, with wall to wall displays of Easter eggs, chocolate bunnies, nut clusters and more… Huge bowls of free tasting samples were a big drawcard for the kids, but we had to stay and sample the chocolate fondue. Having dipped crunchies, apricots, lolly snakes, marshmallows and glace cherries, Oscar paused when sampling the nougat, face suddenly changed and went green. Luckily quick thinking from Amanda got him out to the garden before he regurgitated the lot on the grass. What a waste, but the rapid change on his face from rapture to revulsion was hilarious to watch!!! A few more samples on the way out and we were on our way.

Time for some wine tasting. The “golden triangle” refers to the wine region that Margaret River sits in the middle of. Blessed with perfect climate assisted by ocean on two sides, some of the countries best Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon blends. Two of the best known vineyards were our first stops, Voyager and Leeuwin Estates. The former employ 7 gardeners and the result is an immaculate grounds, well worth a wander before you taste the wines. With a restaurant and private tasting room available there are plenty of options. Leeuwin Estate also has a restaurant, concerts in the grounds and an impressive art collection in the cellar, as well as the Art Series wines that incorporate the  artwork in the labels.

Final stop for the day was a quick cheese tasting and the family vote went with the smoked cheddar.

On another day we visited Woodlands and Cullen vineyards, the former being partially organically farmed, the latter taking a biodynamic approach. The quality wines resulting from both these vineyards is testament to the passion and commitment of both operations.

Categories: australia, Australian Outback, Big Lap, Discover Australia, Explore Australia, Journey Narrative, Kids Travel, Travel, West Australia | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Heading to Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park

Posted on March 25, 2015 by John Sear

Still in the forests a damp night was spent at Big Brook Arboretum campsite. Venturing into the Arboretum the following morning unveiled luxuriant colours in the bark patterns, vibrant orange bracket fungi, water droplets hanging patiently from the underside of the fungus, and abundant birdlife all around. Unfortunately for us the birds could be heard, but not seen, as most of them appeared to be high in the tree canopies.

Big Brook Arboretum
Bracket fungus
Big Brook Arboretum
Big Brook Arboretum

Still in Warren National Park a trip to Beedelup Falls was required, but the relative lack of waterfall in the area meant it didn’t offer much to photograph. The kids had fun on the suspension bridge, then Xavier slipped into the river and we decided to press on again.

Turning west towards the coast again we had the Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park in our sights, and Conto campground. One of the features of this region is the abundance of Grass Trees, with their fire-blackened stems and almost spherical arrays of leaves sprouting from the top.

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Conto was such a peaceful spot, one or two nights ended up being a five-night stopover. Despite the presence of many caves in the area, with nearby Lake, Mammoth, and Jewel caves being the tourist showpieces, we felt we had seen enough caves recently and saved this for next time. Instead we used Conto as a base to explore nearby Margaret River (next blog), do some more geocaching, and a bit of fishing. With our Camprite trailer next to a water tap we could sit and watch all the wildlife come for a drink, from swarms of bees, to western rosellas, splendid fairy wrens, and silver eyes. Golden Whistlers and scarlet robins danced around the branches overhead.

More importantly it was time to get some schoolwork done so the distance education packs were brought out to get ahead of the curriculum before Easter break.

Categories: 4WD, Adventure, australia, Australian Outback, Big Lap, Camper Trailer, Discover Australia, Explore Australia, Journey Narrative, Kids Travel, Mitsubishi, National Park, Natural World, Photography, Photos, Travel, Travel Adventure, West Australia | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

Further adventures in the SW forests of WA

Posted on March 25, 2015 by John Sear

The next day we witnessed the devastation of recent fires in the region, particularly in the D’Entrecasteaux National Park. At first our road leaving camp was green on one side whilst the other side was charred and devastated. Amazingly, it was not barren though, and typical of much of the bush here, fire plays a huge part in the natural cycles. Though the fires had torn through huge areas of forests in recent weeks, and we even witnessed many trunks still smouldering and smoking, with the rains of recent days the grass trees were all flowering, and new growth was already appearing from the trunks of many eucalypt trees.

Flowers follow the fires
Regrowth begins
Trees still smouldering
Flowers emerging
Fire damage
Fire stopped at the road

We took time to visit two local icons, the Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree and the Gloucester Tree, two of three giants in the forests that you can climb in the Warren National Park. Not for the faint hearted, the Bicentennial Tree was “pegged” in 1988 and has 165 steel spikes hammered into the trunk in a spiral up the tree to a height of 75 metres. With no safety harness, climbing is not recommended in wet or windy conditions, or for those who fear heights. With combination of all three how could I refuse? Firstly though, we had to beckon the kids down, who were already fearlessly climbing up towards the first platform. Despite the rain the views above the canopy were fabulous, with the exception of the vertical one down. Descent was interesting as with each step backwards you get a good view to the ground between each spike! Happy to have survived the challenge I then watched as a man calmly ascended in bare feet. The Gloucester Tree was very similar, not quite as tall, but a single climb to the viewing platform, and an easier climb due to less of a spiral making it more ladder-like.

Bicentennial Tree
View over the canopy
The Gloucester Tree
Barefoot up the Bicentennial Tree
Stick Insect

Halfway up the first tree, much to Xavier’s delight I found a stick insect that obligingly took the fall to the ground where Xavier pounced on it for close examination. Another great day in these majestic rainforests of the south western region of West Australia.

Categories: Adventure, australia, Australian Outback, Big Lap, Discover Australia, Explore Australia, Journey Narrative, Kids Travel, National Park, Natural World, Photography, Travel, Travel Adventure, West Australia | Tags: , , , | 2 Comments

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