Saturday, Jul 28, 2012 at 16:38
Hi Cooby
You should be able to pick up a booklet of WA’s Wildflower Trails from an info centre somewhere along your trip into WA. The book lists many trails you can traverse, meandering through the country. The dirt roads were in great condition Sept/ Oct 2011.
The trails are broken up into sections & list some of the many flowers you should be able to see. Unfortunately we were many weeks too late to see many of the Orchids listed in the book.
Will you have time to head a few hundred kms further north of
Cervantes?
Wreath flowers are in abundance beside the road 10 kms north of
Pindar – about 110 kms east of
Geraldton. We free camped at Wilroy
Nature Reserve – camps 5 spot 378, 19 kms south of
Mullewa. This area was like staying in a lush flower garden.
As Rod suggested take a visit to
Eneabba Western Flora if you can. Besides taking in a tagalong tour with them, they do wildflower talks with a leisurely walk each afternoon. You will look at flowers very differently after this free tour.
Driving through the areas East & NE of
Jurien Bay is really pretty with many nature
reserves, conservation parks & numerous National Parks, with
wildflowers unique to some NP’s.
I especially visited numerous NP all over WA & walked dozens of trails.
Stirling Range NP in the south north of
Albany have wildflower walks until end of October (I think ?) & will show you many orchids.
Cape Naturalist &
Cape Leeuwin NP’s were also spectacular. Some of that area west of Margaret River may have been destroyed by fire in Nov 2011, so I’m not sure how much has been affected. You should see whales off the coast there, heading south from their northern winter migration.
We also visited the smaller NP’s along southern WA besides the NP’s around Walpole. Near
Albany, I loved Torndirrup,
Two Peoples Bay, Waychinicup & Porongurup NP’s &
Cape le Grand near
Esperance.
Fitzgerald River NP, east of
Albany, had restrictions in 2011 in getting in to it with DEC’s efforts in trying to control dieback, but another flower Royal Hakea is unique to this NP. We fortunately called ahead to stay in the Quaalup Retreat & were given a code no* to get through the padlocked gates. The other camping areas near Pt Ann may now be open which looked like a great spot to stay. (long story, but we were escorted to these areas last year in groups from Quaalup. There was no other camping in Fitzgerald NP at the time)
There are many, many other great spots to see & stay at, but hopefully a wildflower trail booklet will guide you in where you could
camp for the night.
You’ll have a great time as I did. (my husband Rod was over the
wildflowers within days, but in his generous nature took me to the areas I wanted to see)
I have
blogs on
wildflowers of WA – broken up into 5 sections.
Visit www.ournomadicways.blogspot.com
Hope this is of some help to you
Cheers Sue
Whilst I have been writing this
John & Val have made great like minded suggestions.
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