Samphire Cove

We also visited Samphire Cove to see what was happening here. We didn't much at all in the way of waterbirds, but there were a few old friends to see.

Above is the Magpie Lark in the midsts of his mating demonstration. Flapping his wings and making his call, he hopes for a mating opportunity.

Creery Wetlands

In Mandurah we visited the Creery Wetlands. Along the long board walk across the samphire out ot the water's edge we found a Splendid Fairy Wren. The male is bright blue all over. The Superb Fairy Wren on the east coast is only partially blue and merely superb. Being all blue makes you splendid.

Grasstrees

In a section of the highway between Perth and Cervantes is a field full of grasstrees. These are odd plants. Taking often more than a year to germinate and growing about a centimeter a year, these plants with grassy fronds on the top and tree-like trunks below are very common in the perth area. Because they grow so slowly, the ones in cities are transplants. We see trucks hauling them about nearly everyday.

Cervantes

Cervantes has a nice beach with a few holiday homes nearby and a pleasant holiday park.

Lake Thetis

After leaving the Pinnacles, we headed on over to Cervantes, a small town on the shore for a look about. We brought sandwiches and drinks so we had no need of a place for lunch. We just wanted to see what there was to be seen.

On the way into town, at the edge of Nambung park we found a muddy dirt road leading out to Lake Thetis.

The Pinnacles Desert at Nambung National Park

Our destination on our long northward journey is Nambung National Park near the coastal town of Cervantes. Here we find the Pinnacles Desert. This is a place filled with an endless array of limestone pillars.

Cockatoos at Seabird

Once we moved on from Rockingham to Mandurah were we have only a house a few fish to watch, we have more freedom to explore.

Just a note about Australian pronunciations. The emphasis is almost always on the first syllable. We naturally say Man-DUR-ah. Here is it MAN-d'ra with the last half of the world really shortchanged.

With our new-found freedom, we decided on a long day out and drove north of Perth along the coast. We turned off the Indian Ocean Highway toward the small coastal village of Seabird looking for diesel for the ute. Instead, we found a sizable flock of Carnaby's Cockatoos.

Perth Royal Show

The Perth Royal Show is everything you'd expect from a state fair in the US. In addition, there are more exotic critters such as camels on display.

Rockingham

Our house sit in Rockingham is in a house a block from the beach. It was not hot, but the weather started warm enough for shorts. Later in the visit, the weather turned colder and windier (as you no doubt saw on Instagram  - steve.whisnant - if you are following along there).

Road Trip!

Our time in Western Australia is nearing the end. We have places to be and things to do. There is so much of Australia we have not yet seen, we're going to go see some of it.

So, we are hitting the road on our biggest adventure yet. After our drive west sleeping in our tent, we've decided that we are ready to jump in with both feet for the full(er) Aussie experience.

Greenbushes Cemetery

In our drive through the countryside, we came across the Greenbushes Cemetery. While it had many of the usual sorts of cemetery art, it was also interesting with some of the markers being unique in our experience.

Muir River Observatory

Leaving Albany, we headed inland toward Bunbury and Rockingham. We found along the way the Muir River Observatory. This is a boardwalk from which to see Lake Muir and the surrounding area.

Lockyer Bay

The town of Albany is larger place than Esperance.  Esperance is clearly a beach town that really exists only for the holiday crowd. Albany is more substantial with some industry scattered about. Yet, it too, had the feeling of being a place were visited after the bomb was dropped. The people were nice and the businesses open (mostly), but the streets were pretty empty. Kind of creepy.

We took a drive along the shore and found ourselves in Lockyer Bay looking at a Great White Heron fishing.

Anzac Centre

After leaving Esperance, we headed west to Albany, another town on the souther coast. This is our last stop on the shore before heading inland to cut across the corner (as it were) to head to Perth.

Here, we visited a museum dedicated to the Anzac corp from WWI located on Mount Clarence in Albany. I didn't take any pictures since it really didn't lend itself to that. It was an excellent museum and told the story of these brave people very well.

Upon entry, we were given a card with a photo of the one of the Anzac's. At selected locations around the museum we could put this card on a reader and up would come a file of information about this person. We could read about and connect with an individual. This was really great.

There is an excellent memorial to all the fallen. In a room overlooking the shore is a table-height display with all the names slowly scrolling along on a screen. As the names run along the length of the table toward the window, there is water flowing over the names and all a small waterfall at the window end. It was a very moving experience to stand here and feel the connection between the large number of people lost and the sense of inexorability as the water just flowed for ever.

Although Albany is a long ways from much of what might bring you to Australia, this is a place that you shouldn't miss.

Eleven Mile Beach

The Eleven Mile Beach comes at the end of the long shore line drive just before it turns inland and heads back to Esperance. This portion of the beach is largely covered with various succulents and bush, making access difficult if not impossible from the land side in many places.

Observatory Beach

A headland a bit farther along the beach is Observatory Point and the beach here is very protected (even from the sun). This is called Observatory Point because the island just offshore is Observatory island.

Fourth Beach

The Twilight Beach Road is one long stretch of beaches. This one is called the Fourth Beach for some reason or other.

More Beaches along the Twilight Beach Road

As the day got later and the sun lower, the beaches began to take on a different character. A bit further along the Twilight Beach Road from West Beach, we continue to find beautiful places.

West Beach, Esperance

As the day was getting on, we left Cape Le Grande and headed back to Esperance. There is a nice scenic drive along the beaches here and we took this to see what we could see. There were indeed some excellent beaches. the sand was not the snow-color we saw on Cape Le Grande, but it was beautiful nonetheless.

Hellfire Bay

We drove around to yet another of the magnificent beaches here a Cape Le Grande, Hellfire Beach. The name seems to be related to the sighting of St.Elmo's fire here by some early sailors.

Lucky Bay

The stop at Lucky Bay was our first encounter with the blindingly white sand found on the beaches here.

Thistle Cove

After our visit to the modern marvel of WA's Stonehenge (!?), we continued on the Cape Le Grande. Here we found some exquisite beach and great scenery. Our first stop was Thistle Cove.

Stonehenge

Now for a little trip back in time. Just outside of Esperance, WA is a complete reproduction of stonehenge. The one found in Wiltshire, UK. Built ca 5000 years ago. For some reason I do not understand, a new one was quarried and built in Australia. I guess it is to make people like me pay to see it.

Between Norseman and Esperance

After a tiring day driving to get to Norseman, we found ourselves in a curious town. Clearly mining is important here. It is a nice sized little town of round about 1,000 people. what made it feel odd was that the streets were empty. It kind of felt like we arrived after the evacuation. Even the birds were quite.

Going in a store - the grocery, for example - was a bit better, it was clear that we are out on the edge of civilization. Our hotel was nice enough, but very old (from the '30s) and was a bit scary from the outside. But it was the only place in town to stay.

The 90 Mile Straight

For those of you who are hooked on the metric system (as am I), that's a 146.6 km straight. this is the longest section of straight road in Australia. It does go up and down as the land mildly undulate, but it does not deviate from a straight line.

Madura Lookout

After leaving Eucla, we embarked on our longest day of driving in the trip...about 7 hours. Thus we stopped very little along the road. One stop we did make was near Madura.

Pretty soon after Eucla we saw a ridge running along side of us, very roughly paralleling the road. We had the sea one side (even it we could not always see it) and this ridge on the other. In Madura, we headed inland and uphill and the road came out on top of the ridge. From this point we headed inland toward Norseman and away from the water.

Eucla

After our drive through the nullarbor, we crossed the state line into Western Australia. the next outpost of civilization is the village of Eucla. We rented a campsite for the evening in the caravan park and found ourselves on a hill overlooking the foreshore and the beach.

The Nullarbor

On the sixth day since we left Phillip Island, we finally entered the nullarbor. The name comes from the latin for 'no trees'. And it lives up to the name.

Whales!

As teased in the previous post, there were whales to be seen at the Head of Bight. The southern right whale comes north to the bight to calve before heading south for the summer to feast in the rich cold waters of the antarctic. We were able to see at least 9 whales on our visit, mostly mother and calf pairs.

Head of Bight

Between Tasmania and mainland Australia is the Bass Strait. Just to the west of this is a region called the Great Australian Bight. You can tell on map where this is by the northward bulge in the coastline as you head west from Port Lincoln. The northernmost point in this bulge is called the Head of Bight. This is coastline at this place.

As a teaser, you will notice that we are not alone. There is a whale just off-shore in the above photo. More on these critters later.

Fowler's Bay Cemetery

We did find another cemetery, much to your relief. This is another small one that I managed photograph all the markers (but I don't present them here).

Shorebirds at Fowler's Bay

Behind the sand dunes at Fowler's Bay are a series of shallow ponds and the birds like this place. We saw a flock of that I think are Sharp-Tailed Sandpipers wandering about the edges of one of these ponds.