Righto, part two was a bit longer as I have written this with no kids badgering me, so I have split it in two.
We spent a week or so with my Dad in
Perth. One of my “must do” things was to get down to our property at Dwellingup to see how the bush regrowth was going after the fires in February. My Dad had been overseas at the time so I bolted across from the east coast to find our getaway cottage razed to the ground. Gut wrenching. I salvaged what I could but too many memories made it a very unpleasant experience. Anyway....suffice to say that the watsonias have come back in full strength so we did some spraying. The kids and I had a beaut swim in the now swollen
creek but the place (60 acres) had a strange feel too it.now. There had not been a fire through Dwelling up since 1961 when it destroyed the town.
We also went for a sail on the Swan down to the left bank, snorkelling etc. and visited what was left of Steve's Hotel in Nedlands......just a bottle
shop now. Most pubs I frequented in
Perth are now gone.
From Dad's we left for the SW via
Pinjarra, the prime beef county of Waroona, and turned off at Balingup to travel through the
Blackwood River valley to
Nannup. We stopped for lunch at the picturesque “Wright's Bridge” and relaxed by the
Blackwood to the sound of the birds. It was wonderful to back in this magnificent part of Australia with the trees getting taller and thicker as we made our way south. Onto Pemberton via Beedalup Falls. I checked in town re the accessibility to Moon's Crossing, our intended
camp for the night. “Yes, DEC said there was a
big tree across the track but it has been cleared now, but don't try crossing the river they say it is up too high.” Good, we can get to
camp okay then. We stopped off at the
Gloucester Tree to show the kids. I was very pleased to hear my (nearly 9yo) daughter express her keenness to climb it. I have done this many times before but what a great experience helping escort your own kid up and back, yes she made it and was wrapped as was her proud Dad!
So we headed off down the track out the back of the area to Moon's Crossing.
Well, about 8km from
camp, there was a huge tree across the track, huge. We had not seen any evidence of others being cleared so was this the one that was supposed to have been cleared already? Way too big for a drag chain and probably about an hour's work with a (large bar) chainsaw, with no way to get around it. So, I consulted the gps and we picked our way through the various fire
trails to approach the
camp from the other side, off the highway. When we arrived I surveyed the river. I had not done this crossing before so did not know where the traps were but the
water was running
well and indicating a lot of rocks and holes. The
camp on that side was a bit risky with large branches overhead so we ended up in a fee
camp in the
Shannon National Park that night.
Recommended is the Great Forest Drive in the Shannon, which we did the next day on our way to the beautiful
Fernhook Falls north of Walpole. The magnificent WA wild flowers kept up with us as they had since we crossed the border at Docker River. We walked amongst the gigantic Tingle trees and sat mesmerised at
Circular Pool as the tannin soaked waters moved about, foam covered, like an Olympic Games opening ceremony performance.
From there to the wonderful “Tree top Walk” where you can peer DOWN the trunks of the magnificent karri, marri, tingle and jarrah trees. A great idea and you can go around it as many times as you like. About 600m in length at a maximum height of 38m above the forest floor. Importantly, this is (assisted) wheelchair access. The spans are quite long and do sway a bit so some people (as we saw) may get spooked a bit but give it a go because this is a very different way to see the bush.
Our destination for
camp was
Shelly Beach, I had rough directions so in my haste, took the wrong track and ended up in black sand atop
Dingo Beach. I was in a very tight and sandy turning area when I made the decision to head down to
the beach. After only a few metres I saw GU heading up. I tried contacting the driver without success (he was not carrying a UHF,) so waited for him to let him know I will lower my pressures some more and reverse. Don't know why I suggested this, too courteous? I think so. After I had reversed back up, with the trailer, in the black sand.....I let him pass. But, when I went to reverse back into position, crunch! That did not sound good. I got out and looked underneath to find one of the bloody koppers logs sticking out of the sand about a foot, with my right CV joint parked on top of it.....errrr.....Anyway, I got my various wood blocks out of the trailer and jacked the car up. After taking a breather and going over the options, I decided I could safely reverse off the jack without risking damage as the jack would fall safely and I would clear that bloody post. Thankfully it worked. Then I found I had not enough room to manoeuvre around with the trailer to exit. So, I put the trailer out of the way, disconnected it, then repositioned the car and used the trailer chain to drag it into position so that I could reconnect the treg. Bloody hell, everyone ready now? So I gave the finger to the koppers log and off we went to
Shelly Beach, and what a beautiful spot. We had it all to ourselves (except the wind.) The kids loved it, such a contrast to any other
camp so far on the trip, they set about collecting shells and building “
Coober Pedy style” homes in the sand. And what a magnificent place to be at sunset and sunrise.
I had spent a lot of my youth in and around
Albany but I thought that Torndirrup NP and
Whale World would be enough for the kids. There appears to be no
free camping in
Albany so we would just spend the day there and move on. We showed the kids
The Gap and
Natural Bridge, two
places that I have always held in awe. I remember once when I saw a fella put his four little kids on
the Natural Bridge, then move back some 20m off the Bridge to take a photo of them. I was stunned at the sheer madness of that.
Well, I certainly would not do it.
Whale World is a must if you go to
Albany. A very clean and
well presented facility with plenty to learn about. This was of course a significant part of
Albany's history and a lot of people were unemployed when the whaling stopped. But, as former skipper Ches, Stubbs, says in his book, “I remember”, “the Conservationists were right, it had to close sometime, but with their influence it finished too suddenly. The whaling fraternity of
Albany never had time to adjust. They became a lost race.”
After showing the kids around town a little more, we headed off to Waychinnicup NP, where I planned to
camp at the inlet of the river. The tracks that I had planned ended at a
locked gate. Dieback control, fair enough. I found the way in via Cheynes Beach road. This is a magic spot. I could have spent a week there easily. There is a lot of flora and fauna to observe here with some tight bush offering them lost of protection. The inlet is a picture, I will return here. We were visited by a little fella whom I could not identify but later decided must have been a Southern Brown Bandicoot. Kangaroo Risotto for dinner.
Although this
camp was so beautiful, I could not keep my mind off Cape Arid. We headed off the next day and made
Thomas River camp in good light. Fortunately, the site furthest away from the others, particularly the group sites, was vacant. There were a few people there already including one group with a very unquiet generator running nearly 24/7 but it did not bother us where we were. I took the kids onto
the beach after dark for a night adventure. They made their own fun in the wonderful expanse of white sand with the waves crashing in the dark. The next day was spent almost entirely on
the beach, of course.
Rock pools were explored and flotsam and jetsam examined. Then I saw a new rock out of the point. “Look kids!” I yelled. For the next hour we watched in awe as two Southern Right cows and their two calves, played about in front of us. For most of the time, one pair was only about 30m from us off the rocks. What an amazing experience, the kids were jumping with excitement and I was glad to have a digital camera.
After a couple of nights here I had planned to take the
Israelite Bay track along Fisheries Rd, then up the Gora Track. Some ominous clouds were moving in so I checked with the
Ranger and erred on the side of caution, being on our own, four little kids and towing. So, I thought it would regrettably have to be Parmango Rd instead. We got to Condingup to refuel (although not needing fuel) but by 0800 it had not opened so we headed back to Parmango. I noted that the weather back east seemed to have improved so I rang the
Ranger again and he confirmed this and believed that with my setup I would have get through no worries. That was wonderful news, so back we went. The initial 50km or so was sandy with many large bogholes but most had diversions around them, and some diversions around the diversions. It was on this track which I felt more remote than any other on the trip. We headed north up the Gora track at the Pt
Malcolm junction. A very slow drive and I wonder what DEC will do here because very soon it will be overgrown. The bush had come back strongly since the fires last November and in particular, the eucalypts. It appeared a 100 series or the like had been through recently as there were many saplings snapped along the way. At times we were at less than walking pace. Native Fuschia etc. coloured the way. We had lunch at Mt Ragged and continued to explore the natural and historical sites along the way. Watch out for washaways and potholes just north of Mt Ragged, some are marked with stick bundles but some aren't, nasty ones too. Could easily have spent a couple of weeks or more out here. Tookle Jenna,
Pine Hill, Balbinya, Deralinya (good restoration work guys!) etc, We disturbed four
brumbies at Balbinya and were amazed at how people can bring in copious amounts of beer bottles yet not take them out, easier to dump them in some rustic old iron tubs. We fuelled up at Balladonia and picked our way back into the bush from whence we came, to
camp for the night.
The next morning we headed off to
Cocklebiddy Cave. Along the way I stopped at a drill hole on the Nullarbor. It was about 100m off the road. I popped a little rock into it and waited. 12 seconds later I heard a deep “plop.” The
cave is not signposted at the hwy, you need to know roughly where to turn off, a gps helps here. There are signs everywhere that the
cave is closed and do not even approach
the entrance. An awesome sight indeed, especially in such flat land, it just opens up to swallow you. We walked around it and I descended to just the first
sign as any further would have been vulnerable to falling rocks. Heavy rains have made the walls so unstable that rocks could fall at any time. I noted many recent ones. There is a fence and (presumably locked)
gate at the bottom where the “throat” of the
cave disappears into darkness. I believe the underwater tunnels stretch for over 6km with only a few air chambers along the way, and people have travelled these! There was a death or two a couple of years ago after a flood so access is still banned. I can't see it being opened again, the place looks too unstable. Further along the highway we visited another awesome, albeit much smaller,
unnamed cave, just before Cocklebiddy. No fences here, not
well known enough.
Later that day we introduced the kids to the brilliant, white dunes at
Eucla. A good place to tucker them out, they loved it and learnt to keep their mouths closed! I took some cardboard with me but perhaps not big enough. I remember having great fun with lino on the
Geraldton dunes as a lad. The telegraph station appeared a bit more exposed than when I was there 12 years ago. One thing at
Eucla I was very pleased to see was the playground which had equipment that would not last 2 seconds in
Sydney parks. I mean, the steep, shallow metal slide of death, the squeaky old, thigh pinching swings, and my favourite, the devil's see-saw! We used to ride up these on push bikes and come crashing down the other side when we tipped the balance over. Wonderful to see! We made
camp that night in a fantastic spot about 5km north of the highway, deep into the scrub and sheltered from the wind. I put a lamb roast on and satphoned a couple of people to let them know that I was in the bush on the Nullarbor, with a beer in hand and the
camp oven ticking over nicely. What a beautiful night it was.
Part 3 in few mins.