Western Australia
Submitted: Sunday, Nov 13, 2005 at 17:17
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pafc
This one is for the WA crew. I have a month to travel around Western Australia, My partner and I can leave straight after xmas and have to be back end of Jan. We live in
Adelaide. We are thinking of hugging the coast to enjoy the beaches. I have couple of questions, how high up the coast can I travel before I hit the wet season, is a month resonable amont of time to explore the coast, where can I get good tourism information traveling by 4x4. I know I can't travel to high, to wet, or out back, to hot. Any info to make this hliday enjoyable would be great.
Cheers...........
Reply By: Jeepster - Sunday, Nov 13, 2005 at 17:45
Sunday, Nov 13, 2005 at 17:45
Hi, having lived in the northwest during the wet seson for 5 years, I can say that travelling right up to
Broome is possible depending on when the wet starts. But when it starts it can affect the North of the state down to
Port Hedland. It's a matter of watching the weather conditions. The time frame you have would be limited for seeing a lot of WA. best start in the south around Margaret river area and perhaps get up as far as
Exmouth and then return. The coastal route is best for sights, but inland via
Meekatharra and
Newman is quicker but featureless.
hope this helps
AnswerID:
139188
Follow Up By: Motherhen - Sunday, Nov 13, 2005 at 18:50
Sunday, Nov 13, 2005 at 18:50
Re comment on coastal v inland
routes: I prefer the inland route - far more scenic than the flat coastal route for just "getting there" (different if you want to go to beaches and lovely
places like
Kalbarri and the
Ningaloo coast). I wouldn't tackle it in summer though - i hate the heat.
We toured in January this year so hugged the South Coast - through the Southern Forests around Pemberton,
Northcliffe and Walpole, through
Albany an along the coast as best we could as far as East as Cape Arid NP. Spend some time in the Karri forests.
Cape Riche between
Albany and
Bremer Bay is a pleasant community run
campsite with a bay for swimming, and good bush walking
trails -
wildflowers still out down that far (also
wildflowers in the Fitzgeralds NP). Loved Cape Le Grande NP but the
camp sites were full so we didn't stay to enjoy the beaches and walks.
As "locals", we were picking mainly spots we hadn't seen before, so we travelled along quite quickly, so had time to see some of South Oz too - where we enjoyed travelling mainly around the Eyre Peninsular and a bit inland.
Enjoy your trip. Motherhen
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Follow Up By: V8Diesel - Sunday, Nov 13, 2005 at 20:40
Sunday, Nov 13, 2005 at 20:40
Motherhen, I concur. The coast road up north bores me to tears. Gt Northern Hwy is a much better way to go IMHO. North will be hot with flies at that time of year.
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Reply By: Exploder - Sunday, Nov 13, 2005 at 18:28
Sunday, Nov 13, 2005 at 18:28
Down south on the cost
Esperance,
Albany, Margaret river and
Augusta, are all good, not the best time to see the south west as it will all be dry, At lest you will be able to swim.
Up north,
Kalbarri (Manly for the gorgers),
shark bay area,
coral bay and
Exmouth are all good spot’s and broom if you have time.
It will be Hot. As for the wet season I have headed north as far as
coral bay 3 times in the last 4 years at the same time as you will be going. On the 3 trip we coped the tail end of a cyclone when at
coral bay it rained on and off for 2 ½ 3 day’s but it was still a good time..
On the way back almost to
Carnarvon some sections of the road where flowing with
water in up to 150 metre sections at a time, needless to say the main Hwy way was about the only road not closed. In the 8 times I have driven across the Gascoyne river that was the only time I have seen it flowing it was a awesome sight!!
Inland has some good spot’s as
well but it will be dry dusty and hotter.
AnswerID:
139192
Reply By: Ray Bates - Sunday, Nov 13, 2005 at 20:12
Sunday, Nov 13, 2005 at 20:12
If I were you I would stay in SA for the four weeks. Four weeks is not enough to see much of WA. Come over when you have more time. It will be an expencive trip for you. It would take you at least three days to get here and three days back. That would only give you twenty-five days here. Unless you plan to stay in one or two
places, forget it.
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Follow Up By: pafc - Sunday, Nov 13, 2005 at 20:50
Sunday, Nov 13, 2005 at 20:50
Thanks for your replies, Ray I wasn't planning to try and see all of WA, we are visiting friends in
Perth, and want to see some country we havn't visited before. I'm not sure we will have time to go above
Perth.
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Follow Up By: Member - Davoe (Widgiemooltha) - Sunday, Nov 13, 2005 at 21:57
Sunday, Nov 13, 2005 at 21:57
1n 1998 I spent a month in oct/nov.
Places i went were
Dongara,Gerldton,
kalbarri,
Coral bay,
Exmouth, Canarvon and the
Blowhole coast, Sharkbay/
monkey Mia,
Onslow, Karatha/
Dampier,
Millstream chichester, Karanjini including Mt meharry. All in under a month with more than enough time to get a good look around
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Reply By: Brad, W.A. - Sunday, Nov 13, 2005 at 20:49
Sunday, Nov 13, 2005 at 20:49
In Jan/Feb you would be better off staying around the south coast, that time of year in the Nor West is very hot, you are better off traveling up there June, July, August and September (I.M.O). There is a lot of beautiful locations and sights to see from the WA/SA boarder all the way around to the lower south west region to occupy your 4 weeks of travel. It would be more comfortable and enjoyable.
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Reply By: maroni - Monday, Nov 14, 2005 at 11:40
Monday, Nov 14, 2005 at 11:40
stay in the south west at that time of the year , might be hard to get into some of the caravan parks around
busselton,margaret river.make sure you go the
bremer bay and
albany,
esperance,really beauitful, much nicer weather.
AnswerID:
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Reply By: Spango - Monday, Nov 14, 2005 at 13:28
Monday, Nov 14, 2005 at 13:28
PAFC, if you came as far north as I am in
Exmouth in January, whilst hot on the
Exmouth side of North
West Cape, on the
Ningaloo side it can be up to 12 degrees coolers.
Cape Range National Park at that time of the year is relatively quite not full of tourists.
Cheers
Spango
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Reply By: Member - Jay Gee (WA) - Monday, Nov 14, 2005 at 14:50
Monday, Nov 14, 2005 at 14:50
I would tend to agree with Ray
Bates' response from above. You won't have enough time. Have you seen all of SA? In particular have you seen the section of coast from
Port Augusta to Port Linclon to
Streaky Bay to
Ceduna. This section of coast is one of SA's best kept secrets. I reckon I could easily spend 4 weeks in that area.
Anyway - back to WA. In the time you have available -
Esperance,
Hopetoun,
Bremer Bay,
Albany,
Denmark, Walpole are all worth stopping at.
If you have time continue onto
Augusta, Margaret River,
Busselton and Bunbury.
By then you will run out of time.
Jeff
Jeff
AnswerID:
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Follow Up By: Member - Davoe (Widgiemooltha) - Monday, Nov 14, 2005 at 16:04
Monday, Nov 14, 2005 at 16:04
Agree with you there. I have spent the whole month of my holidays from
port Lincoln to
Streaky bay in 95 and 96. Most
adelaide folk dont know there way past
port Wakefield
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Reply By: Member- Rox (WA) - Monday, Nov 14, 2005 at 22:46
Monday, Nov 14, 2005 at 22:46
pafc, my 2c worth. As a general rule south in Summer & North in Winter (dry). Coming from SA I would explore the SW coast E.g.,
Esperance, Isrealite bay, Baxter cliffs. If you want to fish on Remote beaches & catch big fish then I can Highly recomend this coast. You could travel down from Ballidonia or even further east & travel to the Baxter cliffs then do a beach run to Isrelite bay (say 100kms) then into Essperance via coast , cape Arid or via Road. If you want some track plots & Way points let me know. You wont have much trouble down there but I still recomend a
HF radio.
AnswerID:
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Reply By: muzzgit (WA) - Wednesday, Nov 16, 2005 at 01:26
Wednesday, Nov 16, 2005 at 01:26
Maaaate. Just make your way slowly to Denmark/Walpole and maybe Pemberton, and see how much time you have from there.
It's all lovely, plenty of relaxing to do here.
Depending on your accommadation, if you're
camping, the options are endless, and for information I would go straight to the CALM office in each town to find out what, who, where, and when.
Take your time and enjoy. The south west is one of my favourite
places on this planet.
AnswerID:
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