WA Midwest trip

Day 1 21/09/2009
Perth -> Nerran Nerran Rest Stop (40km south of Billabong Roadhouse)

Finally on our way today after a crazy week at work for me and in the kitchen for Blaine (prepping and cryovaking most of the meals for the trip). Headed off at the respectable time of 8:30 after getting some final supplies from the shops and squeezing 2 weeks worth of cold and frozen food for our family of 4 into our 60L Waeco. Have also packed a lettuce from our garden in a self-watering pot, to hopefully get some nice, fresh greens towards the end of the trip!

Windy but fairly uneventful drive through intermittent showers all day. Clocked up the k's easily and got to camp around 4:30. Even had time to get a rig photo for my Exploroz profile!



Did see some interesting things during the day though:

- Flock of 8 Carnaby's Black Cockatoos just after Northampton
- Interesting toilets at Northampton (see photo below)
- Mother emu and family of 5 chicks crossing the road just south of camp (Thea, our 3 yr old daughter, has current favourite soft toys that are a mummy and baby emu)
- Numerous frogs at the camp site, which (after careful stalking and investigationing on my part) were found to be calling from under the ground!



We really hope Denham has a decent playground for the kids - been promising them since they got up this morning that we would take them to one, but got poor directions in Dongara and didn't find them until it was raining heavily again!








Day 2 22/09/2009
Rest Stop -> Big Lagoon

What was meant to be a bit of a cruisy day to day turned out to be more difficult than it should have been...

Packed up and headed off about 8am, after Tom, our 4 yr old, asked what his cereal was; 'Nutragrain' I replied, 'Neutral brain?' he said. Thea also spotted a splendid fairy wren (or at least a blue bird as she put it), which was a good find as they're fairly uncommon this far north (we are towards the northern end of their range).



Easy drive through to Denham (via Eagle Bluff to look at possible camping sites), quick play at a playground, lunch from a very grumpy lady at the bakery then drove to Monkey Mia. Found out that trailers are not allowed at unpowered sites and of course the powered sites were all booked. But we did manage to get a spot on a cruise for the following day.

After a few false starts/closed tracks, made our way through to Big Lagoon. No problems with the drive, despite all the 4WD and high clearance only signs, with the exception of a small section at the campground itself. Most of the other people here had been stuck there on their way in too! I managed to burn out most of the clutch trying to extricate us (Rooby was fine through most of the sand, but not much grunt in the really soft stuff!)

Anyway, setup camp, quick swim, saw the local bungarra and then piled in the tent for a late afternoon nap!

Day 3 23/09/2009
Big Lagoon -> Pimbee Conservation Park

What was meant to be a cruisy day turned out to be a lot more productive than expected.

Headed back to Monkey Mia for the dolphin feeding - missed the end of the first session but saw most of the second session, which had a lot less people. Saw three dolphins, including a 1 yr old and a pregnant cow, due to give birth any day. Had to leave for our cruise before the actual feeding occurred but learnt some interesting facts about the Monkey Mia population. The feeding and interaction is heavily regulated as, after it became popular, mothers would leave their calves to come in for the food and attention. The survival rate dropped significantly due to a combination sharks and starvation. Interesting that the species closest to humans on the plant in terms of intelligence and social interactions would leave their babies for a free feed and some attention. Anyway, got some nice photos



We headed of on a lovely cruise on the catamaran 'Shotover', basically sailed (yes, sailed, not motored) around the bay for a few hours chasing dugongs. Saw plenty, including several mothers with calves. There were only seven people on the cat, including the crew so there was plenty of space to laze around in. We've decided that when we get a yacht, it will be a cat and we will have to get a crew to sail her too! Anyway, the crew were very chatty and informative and the 2.5 hours just flew by. The kids enjoyed playing on the netting, seeing the dugongs and eating their lollypops.



After the cruise, we headed back to camp for lunch (including fresh lettuce from out lettuce plant) and packed up. The plan was to drive to Gladstone Bay to camp for the night, but the road was closed (yet another gate we're learning the foibles of using maps to plan camping sites, particularly Natmap). Headed along our planned path, through Meedo Station and setup camp just inside Pimbee Conservation Park, in a little clearing off the side of the road. Nice and remote - unlikely to have any other people within 30km of us. Natmap redeemed itself by proving very good in combination with Oziexplorer to navigate through the maze of station tracks.



The rig has help up fine through the 4WD track to Big Lagoon and the rough gravel roads to Pimbee. The kids are still enjoying the driving, but we are getting tired of listening to Peter Pan!








Day 4 24/09/2009
Pimbee Conservation Park -> Kennedy Range National Park

A very easy driving day today - only 160km, albeit along some rather rough gravel roads.

Had a leisurely start at Pimbee, with Blaine taking the wheel at about 9am to lead us through to Gascoyne Junction. Uneventful drive, with minimal wildlife on the road but we did see a few pairs of wedgies as we neared Gascoyne Junction. With only 2 cars to share the road with the whole way from the highway yesterday (including one that passed us as we were packing up camp), we definitely felt like we were getting into the outback somewhat.

After ice creams, an abortive phone call to Grandma and Pa (the phone box wasn't working!) and topping up our water, we headed in to the Kennedy Ranges. While it was no where near flowing, there were some decent sized pools in the Gascoyne River. Nice to be in river country again - the trek inland to Gascoyne has been between vegetated sand ridges, with little in the way of watercourses and trees and extremely arid for most of the way.

Setup camp, had lunch and treated ourselves to a lukewarm shower before our afternoon rest. The camp site is nestled right underneath the entrance to Temple Gorge. More people than I expected, but nicely spread out and a nice quite place so far.



Walked into Temple Gorge for our afternoon activity, with plenty of opportunities for photos of rocks, flowers and family.



Late dinner (treated ourselves to a Nandos substitute - peri-peri chicken from Leonards) and bed for the kids. We were treated to a dragonfly making its home for the night in our annex.

















Day 5 25/09/2009
Kennedy Range National Park

Our first day this trip without moving camp! The more sedentary day has made a nice change of pace.

We covered the remaining walks today - headed into Honeycomb Gorge this morning, managing to apparently scare off a few tourists in the process (took one look at us and the kids and left). On the plus side, we heard a flock of ring-necked parrots (28's, probably the Port Lincoln variety from our location) but on the minus side saw a small herd of goats too.



Blaine looked after the kids for a bit while I went up the Escarpment Trail on my own. Tom probably would have managed it but getting him down safety would have tried my nerves a bit I think. Was treated to a nice panorama at the top to the east, as well as a Wedge-tailed Eagle gliding right over my head while on top, less than 10m away from me! A patch of rock from halfway up appeared to be from the base of an old sea floor, with a fair few ripples and heaps of worm tracks.





Draper's Gorge followed after our standard lunch and rest routine (except for Blaine - currently engrossed in a book, so elected to skip the afternoon nap today). Some more pretty photos of rocks, flowers and family took us through to dinner time.

Had the kids laughing through most of dinner and bed time over nothing in particular - we're all relaxing and having a nice time together.

Day 6 26/09/2009
Kennedy Range National Park -> Mt Augustus National Park

What was meant to be an easy day today was a bit more tense than planned after 2 flat tyres!

Left camp at 8:45 after a leisurely breakfast and packed - only took 45 minute to pack up a complete camp, so we're getting better. Drive was going well until ~30km south of the Lyon Station turnoff - blew the sidewall in our reaR LHS tire. Changed over no problem but left us with 250km of driving with no spare (budget for the trip didn't quite cover the additional rim and tyre I'd hoped to get)!



Made a few stops along the way, including at a windmill for the benefit of my sisters English boyfriend, who want's to see what the 'outback' really looks like. We're getting as many stereotypical shots as we can!



Were greeted shortly after at the Lyons River to a decent pool of water backed up against the causeway. Did a quick bird survey - there were several varieties of ducks, finches, etc as well as pelicans, a black swan, an egret and a few rainbow bee eaters!







Cruised into Mt Augustus a little while later, to a slow leak in our rear RHS tyre from the last patch of rocks! Fixed it with our recently purchased puncture repair kit after setting up camp and, 4 hours later, it's still holding firm! Apparently there ís a guy that works at the station that can fix sidewall punctures, but he takes a while to get things done; will try and find him first thing tomorrow to repair the other tyre.

Easy afternoon around camp, making the most of the ablutions, calling Grandma and Pa and letting the kids explore a fair bit. Amid being Peter Pan and Wendy, they dug up a wheel brace for an old truck - the nuts would be at least thrice the size of the 19mm ones on our little Rooby! Tom is very excited that we can bring it home as a feature for our garden.














Day 7 27/09/2009
Mt Augustus National Park

Leisurely start today, waiting for the 'tyre man' (still don't know his name!) to recover a bit from his 4-day bender to get a replacement on the tyre with the split side wall. By 10am, we had a second hand tyre fitted - slightly smaller diameter than our others, but enough to limp into Meeka should we get another flat. My plugged puncture is still holding fine too. Also found a recently hatched moth on one of the rubbish bins.



Had decided by late morning to leave here a day early, with the dismal condition of the park (one of the toilet blocks has blackwater just going onto the ground), very odd collection of people running the place and the outlook from our tent being over a mound of dirt with liberal sprinklings of broken glass and other rubbish.

Headed off after this decision to see Flintstone Rock (Beedoboondu), a rock over a small gully making a little cave-type space with rock carvings, Eagle Lookout and Cattle Pool. Weren't particularly impressed with any of it and came back to lunch and rest.



Woke up to a couple of hours messing around with the kids, mostly drawing on each other and playing Uno. Tom in particular is getting better at legible writing, with assistance on the spelling. Thea did a good drawing of herself holding an echidna - very easily recognisable as a person with something in their hand.



Blaine convinced us to head off late afternoon to a couple of the smaller (i.e. several hundred meter) walks with more rock carvings (Mundee and Ooramboo). We had a lovely time - each of the walks started in a creek line, with white gums, etc giving a very nice setting. Managed to get some great photos of a Brown Falcon on the track into Mundee - happily perched on a stag as we drive past. Some interesting carvings at each of the places - a few of them looked like animals, profile of Mt Augustus, rocky outcrops, etc.







Drove back slowly on dusk, seeing a feral cat and Tom getting ridiculously scared over being bitten by a few mozzies in the car! Back to showers with kids (complete loads of frogs in the toilets), dinner and bed.






















Day 8 28/09/2009
Mt Augustus National Park - Nolan Lake

A planned moderate driving day turned out to be a long driving day - 700km, on variable gravel roads.

Packed up and left Mt Augustus just before 8am - definitely getting efficient at de-camping. Headed through to Meekatharra, going east of the main track and through another out-of-the-way conservation park. Heaps of bird life and some mulla-mulla like flowers, only on much bigger bushes. Plus a few homesteads and some large, flat clay pans with almost no vegetation.



Arrived in Meeka just before 1pm to find the town mostly closed - forgot about the Monday public holiday. Filled up and grabbed some lunch before heading north towards Bilyung camping area (90km north). Sounded like an idyllic water hole from the camping guide but turned out to be dry, dusty with broken glass scattered through most of the sites.

Headed south, past several more camp sites that were either similar or turned into truck rest bays. Wound up at Nallan Lake, 20km north of Cue. Arrived just after 5pm, with the kids travelling really well all day - almost no arguments, each had a good rest, etc. We're very proud of both of them, considering the day wound up being pretty much 9 straight hours in the car!

The seasonal lake was fairly full from recent rains - with a few carpets of red, pink and purple wildflowers to boot. Lovely spot. Setup camp while the kids played in the water, chatted to our neighbours (helped them to identify a bird the saw at the Gascoyne River as a Western Bower Bird) and early to bed, with both Blaine and Thea feeling delicate due to upset tummies.

















Day 9 29/09/09
Nolan Lake - Walga Rock

Woke at 4am to the sound of rain on the canvas, but had a cruisy morning breakfast of pancakes and some bird watching at the lake, before steady rain, yes rain, set in for the morning. Madly shoved the tent away and set off for Cue. Once arrived, grabbed petrol and directions to the local park (no luck on the spare tyre). Kids very happy to play on the playground while Blaine checked weather, email and bank on the intramenet!



Shopping for supplies next, and got everything on the list except the can-opener! Seems no-one in town had one after the long-weekend. Up the strip again for water, down again to the caravan park for it, and in general conversation with the owner found out that camping at Lake Nollan was illegal. Apparently some id***t had camped out for 18 months, set up a vegie garden and chicken coop, and when asked to leave finally, threatened to kill the council member. So, the CEO decided that no-one could camp there, but the signs keep getting ripped down.

Anyway, up the strip again for hot chips and mocha, and then down again to post a postcard to Grandma and Pa. Cue was a wonderful, bustling but very friendly township and puddling around for a couple of hours was very enjoyable. Highly recommend Cue over Meekathara for refreshing the supplies! Finally we were ready to head out to Walga Rock, where the sun came out for about an hour. Heaps of birds, wonderful paintings from ancient times. Headed to the south side to set up camp, had a wander, lunch and then a wonderful afo-sleep. The weather and wind had set in by then so curling up warm was great.





In the afternoon, I took Thomas up to the top of the rock - Thea's boots were hurting her feet. He climbed so well, and we saw a euro too. The girls had fun playing Uno and Thea draw extensive pictures on Blaine!





Dinner and movies in bed since it was chilly, windy and wet!









Day 10 30/09/2009
Walga Rock - Coalseam Conservation Park

A longer driving day today, with some nice surprises thrown in.

After a very wet night (had to get up to rig an internal pole in the tent to ensure we didn't get flooded), had a nice, warm, filling cooked breakfast and packed up amidst intermittent showers. Drove off at 8:30, seeing heaps of euros and wallabies around the rock, as well as several hopping along the very steep sides.

Drove off towards Yalgoo, via a Tantalum mine by the side of the road and a visit to Dalgaranga Meteorite Crater, a 25m wide crater in the middle of s large pastoral lease - smallest verified meteorite crater in the world. Pretty little spot, with some interesting history regarding the discovery and subsequent study over several decades.



Left the crater through intermittent showers to see a Australian Bustard in the middle of the road, which are rare near settled areas. We then saw a second one further along - just outside of Pindar!



Drove through to Yalgoo along some of the best gravel roads I've been on, including a freshly graded section (we passed the graders on the way in). Arrived in Yalgoo late morning and for $10, had use of the superb local caravan park. Small, with grassed area around the incredibly well-kept ablution block. Spent an hour or so cleaning out the car, filling up the water tank, charging the batteries and having one of our most enjoyable showers for a long time (been too cold the past few days for a solar shower). Definitely recommend Yalgoo as a good stopping point.

Left at 12:30 for Coalseam Conservation Park. Fresh sandwiches for lunch on the road, a diversion to see some Wreath flowers north of Pindar and we arrived at Coalseam mid afternoon. While we have missed the first crop of wildflowers, it's good to see there are still a lot of them around.



Coalseam is much nicer than I expected, with nicely undulating landscape, gum trees (haven't seem too many for most of this trip), carpets of yellow wildflowers and generally all-round nice scenery. I was only expecting the standard conservation park fare of a flat piece of bushland with a granite outcrop in the middle!



Wandered to the old coal shafts after setting up camp and spent a fair while 'stalking' a flock of red-tailed, black cockatoos to see of they were breeding or not. Also saw a Crimson Chat and many other birds - been a good day for ornithology!















Day 11 1/10/09
Coalseam Conservation Park

What a relaxing day!

Not much of a sleep-in, due to the lively dawn chorus, but had a yummy French-toast breaky, then headed off to the Irwin River Lookout- and its 'medium' grade walk. Was very short, easy walk to a lookout of the park. Very nice breakaway and forest outlook. Blaine tried hard to set up some photos of the kids amidst the wildflowers, but they didn't really co-operate!



Headed into Mingenew for supplies, and ended up staying about an hour and a half, chatting to the lady from the tourist centre, and eating yummy treats from the bakery. Worth a stop for sure. I had only passed through the town in the height of summer, and found it dry, dusty and closed mostly. Lovely people and place in season. Wandered up to Mingenew Hill, with the hope of seeing some Blue Enamel Orchids, but after 40 minutes of searching in the long grass, Blaine had to admit that they were probably not there.

Headed back to camp for some lunch of sausages and fresh salad. Ahh - simple pleasures in the wilderness!

After a long afternoon nap, Blaine took Thomas for an explore up river and I hung at camp with Thea. We played Uno and read for a while. Blaine and Thomas had a nice walk, flushing a big boomer roo out of the river, there for a drink.



Dinner and bed after watching some more Black Books.











Day 12 2/10/09
Coalseam Conservation Park - Home

This morning was started with the debate of coming home early, not to displeasure at our trip, but more from sheer laziness on our part in not really wanting to set up camp again! Plus we've missed the best of the wildflowers in the northern wheatbelt. We decided to go via Dalwallinu to see if the orchids were still going at one of the outcrops near there, since Blaine is always on the hunt for them. We thought we would scope the place out and decide on camping later.

That decided, we had a lazy breakfast and pack up before heading off. After the first big flurry of bird life the first afternoon we were there, we didn't add anything new to our survey. Our packing up is definitely getting easier, we think because we are keeping camp more organized, and everything now has a designated place.

Traveling out to Dalwallinu was uneventful, and we got there just before lunch. The kids played on the playground and we got a fair meal at the cafe there. The lady at the tourist centre said that the orchids had pretty much dried up, so we decided to head straight home after lunch. We think we might try Narrogin's Dryandra Woodland next weekend for Blaine's orchids!

The Great Northern Highway was a little annoying with all the road works, but the drive was pretty good. All I have to do now is convince Blaine for us to get Nando's tonight for dinner and the trip will have been a great success!

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