National Park

Kalbarri National Park and surroundings

Posted on April 20, 2015 by Fifty Toes Walkabout

Murchison House Station borders Kalbarri National Park making our exploration easy. On our first day plan was hindered due to flooding of the river preventing access to Nature’s Window, so we drove along the coast to see the Natural Arch, Island Rock, Mushroom Rock, Rainbow Valley, Red Bluff and Eagle Gorge.

 

Thorny Devil
HawksHead
Standing in the Pink Lake
Did I mention the flies?
Natures Window
Thorny Devil
Pink Lake, Port Gregory
Natural Arch
Ross Graham
Kalbarri NP flower
Natures Window
Ross Graham
Island Rock, Kalbarri
Loop walk by the Murchison river
Our walk ended here
Kalbarri coastline
Murchison River in flood

On the side of the road to one of the sites we found the cutest Thorny Devil which made Amanda’s day. The coastline is stunning and the geology changes frequently, presenting different rock formations, and colours all within a short stroll from the car park.

Another excursion saw us driving back to Port Gregory to revisit the Pink Lake there. The Pink Lake in Esperance hadn’t been pink and driving past Port Gregory the first time it hadn’t looked much better. Assured that it wouldn’t disappoint in the sunlight we picked the day and wow was it pink (especially with polaroid glasses on).

The Blue Holes just outside Kalbarri provided an opportunity to get some snorkelling in and despite the small area it was full of sweetlips, cod, mullet, small crayfish, nudibranchs and heaps more. The funniest thing I ever saw were the people sunbathing in bikinis with fly nets over their head. I wish I’d taken a photo! Did I mention the amount of bushflies around now. Between the march flies (slowbiters), bushflies(just pesky), mossies (discrete biters) and now sandflies (small sharp biters) our patience is really being tested.

When the road re-opened we made an early start to capture Natures Window before the hordes arrived, and there were hordes by the time we returned from The Loop walk. The Loop walk stopped abruptly by the river where the trail sign pointed into the river (see photo). Z Bends provided an outlook over the river and a walk took us down a shaded chasm to the water. People abseiled down the cliff face as we wandered past.

Hawks Head juts out above the river valley at another site, but for me Ross Graham was possibly the most photogenic, after Natures Window. The National Park was stunningly beautiful and hard to do justice through a camera lens, but well worth at least a couple of days exploring.

 

Categories: Adventure, australia, Australian Outback, Big Lap, Discover Australia, Explore Australia, Journey Narrative, Kids Travel, National Park, Natural World, Photography, Photos, Travel, Travel Adventure, West Australia | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

The Pinnacles, Nambung National Park

Posted on April 15, 2015 by Fifty Toes Walkabout

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

Back to Margaret River

Posted on April 3, 2015 by Fifty Toes Walkabout

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.

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

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.

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

Heading to Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park

Posted on March 25, 2015 by Fifty Toes Walkabout

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
Big Brook Arboretum
Big Brook Arboretum
Bracket fungus

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 Fifty Toes Walkabout

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.

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

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.

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

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

West and back into forest

Posted on March 22, 2015 by Fifty Toes Walkabout

Just west from Cosy Corner lie the towns of Denmark and Walpole, surrounded by some large National Parks that protect the huge forests of Karri and Tingle trees. We stopped in Denmark to do a few geocaches, and marvelled at the ingenuity of some of the hides.

Circular Pool
Tingle Tingle tree
Elephant Cove
Greens Pool
40 Toes getting wet!
Valley of the Giants
Circular Pool
Grandma Tingle
Elephant Cove

Very close to Denmark were the appealingly named Elephant Cove and Greens Pool, both lying a short walk from one another in William Bay National Park. The former, with a little imagination, looks like a herd of elephants wallowing in a waterhole, but with only rare glimpses of sunlight and lots of wind I failed to do it justice with my photos. Even the inviting Greens Pool couldn’t tempt the kids for long on a miserable day! We resorted to the natural setting of the Denmark maze with our friends Alex and Karin and their two kids to kill a bit more time.

The Walpole-Nornalup National Park has many attractions but perhaps the most popular is the Valley of the Giants, and with resident stars called “Grandma Tingle” how could we miss this. The red eucalypts, or Tingles are huge, soaring over 60m into the canopy, have girths up to 20m at the base, and can live for over 500 years, surviving repeated bushfires over that time. The walk through the forest took us around and even through a number of giant Tingle trees and the rain drizzled down through the tree canopy above us.

A little further up the road a short walk took us down to Circular Pool where all but ten of the fifty toes went for a swim in the refreshing and surprisingly warm waters. We had one more stop for the day at Tingle Tingle tree, where we had seen photos of VW combi vans parked inside the hollow, and people on horseback passing through. Time for one more geocache and onto Fernhill Falls to camp for a night.

 

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

Albany and surrounds

Posted on March 20, 2015 by Fifty Toes Walkabout

After Skippy Rock we arrived late at Normans Beach in Two Peoples Bay (the other person being Betty) to grab the last spot in the campsite. Amanda came face to face with the biggest Dugite we have encountered yet. At almost 2m long we witnessed it hot in pursuit of a big black skink, chasing it up a tree. When the skink could go no further it leapt out from about 3-4m, belly-flopped onto the ground and scampered off. The snake exited the tree equally ungracefully and chased after it, as we all took a big step back to watch the action unfold before us.

Bandicoot
West Cape Howe National Park
Whaling Station at Frenchmans Bay
Shelley Beach, West Cape Howe
Albany Brig
Salmon Rocks, Torndirrup NP
4WD track in West Cape Howe
Two People Bay NP
Piranha Letterbox
Beach fun in Whalers Bay
Big Dugite!

With little camping close to Albany we drove to a cute little place, appropriately named Cosy Corner and ensconced ourselves for a few days to explore the area. We enjoyed Albany, visiting a few times, for library work with kids, shopping and a bit of geocaching and exploring. A nice sized town, big enough to have all we needed but not too big to get lost in. Xavier became the expert in finding nano-sized geocaches though we were beaten by one near the Opera house.

Fishing was pretty quiet along the beach despite the fact the salmon run is due any day. We checked out nearby West Cape Howe national park to see if the fishing was better there but despite the numbers of fishermen it was still a bit quiet at Shelley Beach. I noticed a 4WD track into the park that proved quite  challenging, but we were rewarded with magnificent vertical black granite cliffs at West Cape Howe. Being late in the day the family didn’t want to risk going further in the sand – they still don’t have faith in the trusty Pajero, even after 4 months.

As a cyclone bore down on the north west coast of WA we started getting a bit of rain. We drove around Torndirrup National Park near Albany, and some brief intermissions of sun allowed the kids to enjoy the azure waters of the beaches in Whaler Bay. Salmon Rocks, rather appropriately, had yielded two monster salmon for one fisherman, and we watched another battle a large eagle ray to the beach where it snapped his line. The old whaling station nestles into the end of the peninsula with a large whaling ship on display for exploration. In Frenchmans Bay, we drove to a bird hide to try and add a few new birds to my list (buff banded rail was the only one) and catch a geocache. Luckily for a guy down there we showed up and got his car started for him in a very quiet street. Another attraction there were the blowholes that, despite a small swell, roared periodically, giving everyone a bit of a scare the first time they went off. Throw big swell and water into the mix and they would be quite an impressive spectacle. The natural arch was closed unfortunately.

At night we got frequent visits from an oversize bandicoot and Cosy Corner was a popular venue for the kids with hideouts abounding in the bush.

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

Farewell to Le Grand

Posted on March 18, 2015 by Fifty Toes Walkabout

After ten relaxing days at Le Grand campsite we felt the need to keep moving. We haven’t been in WA for long and there is so much to see. We had a big dinner in the camp kitchen on our last night with our new friend Jackie cooking up a delicious Thai green curry. It was a lovely evening with great company. We’d seen so many great people and the kids had had loads of playmates.

 

John and Roy Gill at Skippy Rock
Big Dugite
Le Grand Beach
Little Hellfire Beach
Cape Le Grand Kids
View from Frenchmans Peak cave
Sunset on Young River
Another snake!
Mundawarnup watches Le Grand

We had also found five species of snakes, most of them passing through our site, tiger snakes, dugite, python, ringed brown snakes, and another short plump brown snake that our neighbour Rob nearly trod on.

Having had ten days of poor fishing we had to go to Stokes Inlet where we had been told you can catch your bag limit of black bream in 15 minutes. Stokes National Park was a short drive west and we set up camp before heading to the infamous Young River. Hannah had caught 3 fish before I could even get a line in the water, though nowhere near the fabled 40cm length that inhabit the waters. Everyone managed to catch several before Oscar hooked a big one that snapped his rod that he bought with his own money only the previous week. He was so distraught but still managed to land his 28cm fish for dinner. Oscar’s challenge complete again, catching and eating a fish.

With Amanda keen to get to Albany to pick up the kids schoolwork we were up early to head for Albany. Unfortunately for Amanda my curiosity took us down a 4WD track to a place called Skippy Rock. The campsite, perched above the beach was deserted except for a very friendly camphost, and we decided to stay. Roy, the camphost, took us fishing, and I caught two lovely fish for the BBQ later, a 44cm flathead and a 39cm silver trevally. No photos but they tasted delicious.

Roy was full of stories and despite being a mad keen fisherman, he was a gold prospector from Kalgoorlie who had even starred in a recent movie, Goldtown. He even had some small pieces of gold to show the kids. Everyone wanted to stay longer but schoolwork was beckoning and we were two days into the new fortnight.

Categories: Adventure, Animal Action, australia, Australian Outback, Beach, Big Lap, Discover Australia, Explore Australia, Journey Narrative, Kids Travel, National Park, Natural World, Photography, Travel, Travel Adventure, West Australia | Tags: , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Postcards from Hannah and Xavier

Posted on March 6, 2015 by Fifty Toes Walkabout
Xavier at Wave Rock
Seadragon find at Thistle Cove
Whale bone at Thistle Cove
Nullarbor Links golf
Hannah at Lucky Bay
Nullarbor links golf
Fun at Thomas River

Postcard from Xavier

Recently we arrived at Four Mile beach. We set up camp and walked to the beach. We all thought it was the best beach because at the start they saw a snake and when they got on the beach Dad and Mum found dried seadragons. The cool bit was that it was Valentine’s Day. Then the next day my Dad came to the beach with me and found his favourite animal dried. It’s a leafy seadragon, but its head fell off.

I wish I could go back soon.

Postcard from Hannah

Recently I have been across the Nullarbor. The first stop was Cactus beach. It was really nice and it was really good because we met some kids from Perlubie Beach and they were coming to Cactus beach. We were very lucky to get some friends to play with that we already knew. After Cactus we went to see Fowler Bay. We didn’t stay there, though we stayed somewhere nearby that was called Fowler Bay National Park. It was full with rubbish but we made sand dune houses out of sand. We had a factory, a toy world, and a caravan park. We mainly spent all of our time up in the dunes.

In Eucla we met a girl called Amber. She owned a park. She let us feed the chickens, the sheep, the geese and the horses. She even let me ride the horse, let me look at the  sheep, geese, and the chickens and horses. Amber has two horses and they are called Dolly and Matilda. We rode Dolly because she was a 20 year old pony and Matilda is a lot wilder than Dolly. My favourite horse was Dolly because we got to ride Dolly and feed Dolly.

Amber does school of the air. I would think it would be awesome to do school of the air.

We fed Matilda an apple and some horse biscuits. We only fed Dolly horse biscuits when Dolly was good and did what we said.

Categories: australia, Australian Outback, Big Lap, Explore Australia, Journey Narrative, Kids Travel, National Park, South Australia, Travel, Travel Adventure, West Australia | Tags: , , , , | 6 Comments

Esperance and surroundings

Posted on March 4, 2015 by Fifty Toes Walkabout

We finally had to leave Quagi to re-stock supplies and get some water in the tanks again. A couple camping next to us kindly donated an inflatable boat for the kids that they no longer needed.

Mt Arid peak
Lucky Bay
Dolphin bay
Dunn Rocks camp
Brumby in front of Frenchmans Peak
Emus in dunes at Dunn Rock
Quagi beach rocks
Wreck on Quagi beach
Wharton Beach break
Salmon at Dunn rocks
Mt Arid peak
New Holland Honeyeater
Wild brumbies
Hellfire bay
Mt Arid western panorama
Dugite at Cape Le Grand
Beach at Thomas river
Chilling on the beach boulders
Boating in Thomas river
View east from Mt Arid
Sand storm at Dunn Rocks
Hannah and friend at Lucky Bay
Stonehenge, Esperance
Lucky Bay
Wharton beach

Next stop was Cape Arid National Park and a campsite called Thomas River, ideal for the inflatable boat. We drove the length of the beach, over 24km, then along some 4WD tracks to beaches beyond. Ranger Jo, who was brilliant with the kids told us how to get to the Mt Arid walking track, and even lent us some boogy boards. The next day we conquered the mountain which offers amazing views over the picturesque beaches and park. The mountain itself is very barren with little vegetation and lots of bare rock but well worth the 3 hour return walk. Back at camp I even managed to catch some super-sized herring that were delicious. From Cape Arid it was tempting to head further east to Seal Creek, but we chose to turn back West, passing through to see Duke of Orleans bay and Wharton beach which must rate as one of the most beautiful beaches in Australia, with its pure white sands stretching into the distance. Our next destination was Cape Le Grand National Park and Dunn Rocks, where we could camp on the beach. We arrived as the worst winds we have encountered so far whipped up from the south, giving us a true desert sandstorm experience that piled several tonnes of sand in a pile behind the trailer annex. There were thousands of mouse footprints on the sand in the annex the next morning and it began to look like we still had a stowaway! The weather improved though and before long we were swimming and fishing and the salmon finally arrived for us to start catching dinner! The kids loved playing on the rocks by the camp and Hannah even found a python in a crevice. She also found the mouse again and after it bit her a short chase across the sand saw it dispatched with my leather sandal. No more footprints since! From Dunn Rocks we had planned to head back west beyond Esperance again after checking out Lucky Bay and Le Grand beach campsites, both of which tend to be quite hard to get in at. Arriving at Le Grand first we fell in love with the place and grabbed the last camp spot, a sheltered little spot between the trees, 50m from the beach and with a kids hideout amongst the scrub. Lots of snakes here, a couple of coastal pythons and plenty of Dugites, apparently number 13 on the list of world’s most venomous snakes. Late one evening I stumbled out of the tent to hear the pitter patter of footprints scuttling into the undergrowth, and fearing another mouse infestation I grabbed a torch in time to see a crab disappear into a hole in the undergrowth. Phew! With the crabs and snakes I think we’ll be mouse free for a while. Rob and Kris, who we met crossing the Nullarbor, were at the same campsite, told us that there were wild brumbies that visit the beach daily. Hannah was thrilled and makes it her daily ritual to get as close as possible. It’s just a matter of time before the carrot supply gets raided. The kids have finally been introduced to Geo-caching too and with a few nearby we should be teaching them how to navigate expertly very soon.

We visited nearby Lucky Bay, famous for photos of kangaroos on the beach, but found a cramped and crowded campsite, a beach covered in knee-deep weed, very swampy and compared with other beaches we have seen, only worth the visit for the “kangaroo on a beach” photo. At least some of the roos were obliging on that front

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

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