Perth and Nearby

Toodyay

19 – 21 September 2018

Where to next? We headed west towards the coast, and hopefully, warmer weather. After lunch in Merredin, which had a terrific car park suitable for lots of caravans and long vehicles, right opposite the shops, we decided that Toodyay sounded like a nice spot. We had met someone from there many years ago, so had heard of it. That seemed like as good a reason as any to go there.

There were lots of eye catching wildflowers by the side of the road.

We were so happy to be able to see drifts of wildflowers after being told by many people that we'd be too late.

Western Rosella. My first WA endemic for the trip.

We found the perfect caravan park, in a bush setting, with lots of bird life, friendly locals and heaps of flowering plants. Naturally we decided to stay two nights. Mick spent most of the time wandering around the park with the camera and was rewarded with photos of three new birds for the trip.

Another new bird for me; Carnaby's Black Cockatoo.

Rufous Treecreepers were common around the caravan park and posed obligingly.

A nest building Striated Pardalote.

This bird came almost too close to focus on.

Another new bird; Western Thornbill.

Tree Martin

Grey Shrike-thrush

We went into the town for coffee and visited the op-shops, coming out with a haul of very reasonably priced books, and also visited the Christmas Shop.

The Christmas shop.

It’s a nice little town, and one we would happily stay in again. While we were there, our mate in Perth suggested that, as we were so close, we should visit. Being a long weekend, and the start of the school holidays it seemed like a good idea, so after 2 lovely nights in Toodyay, off to Perth we went.

Perth

21 – 24 September 2018

We set off for Perth, headed for Kings Park to spend some time there at the Botanic Gardens. After getting lost in the park looking for suitable parking, we found a nice picnic area and had lunch. We eventually found the bus parking area where we were told we could park with the trailer and walked the short distance to the Botanic Gardens and their wildflower display. We killed a few hours in the park, and then headed over to another spot Mick had heard about – Herdsman Lagoon.

Kings Park

Perth city and the Swan River from Kings Park.

Eucalyptus flowers

A drift of spring flowering native flowers.

Native flowers at King's Park.

Black Swan cygnets

Australian Wood Duck

Freckled Duck

Australian Shelduck male

Australian Shelduck female

Glossy Ibis

Dusky Moorhens

Little Egret

Nest building Great-crested Grebe.

Full frame Great-crested Grebe

Blue-billed Duck

Musk Duck

Over the course of the weekend, as well as spending time with friends, we made a number of visits to Herdsman Lagoon, as well as Jackadder Lagoon and Lake Monger. All are known birdwatching spots.

Herdsman Lagoon is an iconic Aussie birding location. Many waterfowl that are usually very shy can be seen close up around the lagoon. This is because of its location in suburban Perth and the constant human traffic in the surrounding park. Australian Shelduck are usually unapproachable but I was able to get full frame shots of the male and female. In many areas there is lawn right to the waters edge allowing a nice low point of view. My favourite place on the trip so far! Mick.

After an early morning visit to Herdsman we shopped, fuelled up and tidied up the car ready to hit the road again on Monday morning, taking our chances with the school holiday crowd. We called a couple of caravan parks on the coast north of Perth, but most were full. We did get a booking at Leeman, so that’s how we decided where to stop next. We had booked a campsite at Cape Range National Park near Exmouth for 1 October so had a week to fill in.

Leeman

24 – 25 September 2018

We made our way out of Perth via the Indian Ocean Drive and called in to a number of the places we had hoped to stay at. We thought it was worth checking them out for the trip back this way. We visited Lancelin, Cervantes and Jurien Bay. All look like great places to stay – out of school holidays. We found a quiet spot for lunch at Thirsty Point at Cervantes – the rest of Cervantes was very crowded and there was no parking for the trailer close to the beach.

Cervantes. A beautiful day for our drive north.

The jetty at Cervantes.

We arrived at Leeman, and it was not as crowded as the places we had visited on the way, perhaps because it’s smaller and the beach isn’t as beautiful as some. We went for a short walk on the beach near the caravan park, but there didn’t seem to be much there. Only when we were leaving in the morning did we see the parks and walks further north along the beach.

Leeman. Some of the beaches we visited were covered in dead seagrass.

While we were in Leeman we rang to try to get a place to stay in Kalbarri. We lucked out as the caravan park had just had a cancellation. Good timing.

Western Australia's Goldfields - Kalgoorlie and Boondi Rock

Kalgoorlie

17 – 18 September 2018

We hadn’t decided whether to have one night or two in Kalgoorlie, but on arrival, we both agreed one would be enough. Getting there at lunch time meant we could get a load of washing done, as well as some shopping and sight-seeing in the afternoon and then move on to somewhere nicer. Kalgoorlie is unmistakably a mining town.

Although hoping to see some WA endemics all I found were feral Laughing Doves in the caravan park.

We went for a nice walk in Karlkurla Bushland Park – a lovely bushland park on the edge of town. Crisscrossed by walking paths, this seems to be well used by the locals. On the way home, we stopped for the obligatory look at the Superpit mine. It is enormous and a hive of activity. You can check at the visitor centre in town for the blasting times each day if you want to see that particular bit of theatre. We didn’t.

A very large hole.

After fuelling up, we set off early for the relatively short drive to our next campsite at Boondi Rock.

Boondi Rock – Boorabbin National Park

18 – 19 September 2018

After a short and unsuccessful search for a coffee shop in Southern Cross, we found our way to the campground at Boondi Rock. The only other campers were wearing fly veils so we knew what we were in for. We left the table and chairs inside the camper trailer tent and made our lunch inside. This campground is beside a dam, and looked like it might be a very popular spot but there was only us and one other couple so it was quiet and peaceful.

Information signs.

Red-spotted Jezebel

We did a bit of exploring, including a walk up the rock. There is a simple but very effective system of channels around the rock, consisting of short walls, which directs the rainfall into the dam. Very clever and not something we had ever seen before. The views from the top of the rock were fabulous and there were lots of flowering plants around, but not too many birds.

We came across a pair of Splendid Fairy-wrens on the rock.

Singing Honeyeater was one of the few species of bird around. They were very common through most of our trip.

Grevillea. We started noticing more wildflowers in the landscape.

Wild daisy

More flowers.

Water falling on the top of the rock flows down these channels to a dam.

On top of Boondi Rock.

Ornate Dragon

Part of the catchment system.

Lichen

We lit a fire, cooked a camp oven stew for dinner and once again we endured a cold night but the afternoon and morning were glorious. Unfortunately the number of flies around had us packing up after only one night.

Across the Nullarbor - Border Village and Fraser Range

Border Village

15 – 16 September

From our short detour to Fowler’s Bay we returned to the Sturt Highway and headed west across the Nullarbor. We found a nice rest area for a lunch stop and then detoured again to The Head of the Bight. This tourist facility is built on Yalata land, and has boardwalks and viewing platforms that allow fabulous views up and down the coast – and the promised whales were right there in front of us. We saw at least 6, including 2 mothers and their calves, one of which lolled and played close to shore for most of the time we were there. This is one detour that was definitely worth the drive – but we really needed our warmies and beanies as well as binoculars and cameras.

The distant rock in the next image taken with the 500mm lens.

One of the walkways that lead to viewing platforms.

Southern Right Whale calf.

This Southern Right Whale calf was very active.

Mother and calf.

A close look at the rugged cliffs of 'The Bight'.

We braved the cold and windy conditions to walk to most of the lookouts.

Typical of the lookouts on the crossing.

From there we drove on to Nullarbor Roadhouse where we refuelled – at $2.05 per litre, this was the most expensive diesel of the trip so far. We decided to press on and eventually made it to Border Village, right on the border of South Australia and Western Australia. We stayed in the campground and decided on a meal from the roadhouse restaurant to make it an easy camp. The meals were surprisingly good and reasonably priced, especially given the remote location.

Australasian Pipits were fairly common.

The night was, as expected, extremely cold and in the morning my weather app informed us that it was 3° but it felt like -0.5°. Glad we had set up to have breakfast inside the tent with the heater on. My hands nearly froze as I collected the tea and cereal, not to mention diving into the fridge for the milk!

An Australian Magpie encountered on one of our lunch stops.

We decided to make this a big day’s drive so set off early – we weren’t really sure what time it was as we were on the border between two time zones, all our clocks and watches said different times and I was totally confused. We did discover that WA uses two time zones, and that we needed to turn our clocks back 45 minutes, but the electronic devices didn’t recognise that time zone and had us on Perth time – back another 45 minutes again. No wonder I was confused.

Fraser Range

16 – 17 September 2018

Our first stop for the day was the Quarantine Inspection Station, 50 metres down the road where we surrendered our one remaining potato and onion, as well as our honey. Travellers should be aware of the restrictions and try to use up anything that might not be permitted, before entering WA (or other states and fruit fly restriction zones).

We stopped for a morning coffee at the roadhouse at Cocklebiddy, then found the Baxter Rest Area for lunch. Picnic tables, a toilet and lots of space made this an ideal spot, except for the resident magpies who sat on the table and at our feet looking longingly at our sandwiches. They weren’t cheeky enough to snatch and grab thankfully.

From there we stopped at Balladonia Roadhouse for an afternoon coffee. We had a quick look in the museum that houses a range of artefacts, local history and even a piece of space junk from Skylab that fell from the sky in 1979.  We then continued on to Fraser Range.

The caravan park is located on a sheep farm and is very well set up. After a friendly and professional welcome we found a nice spot with lots of trees around. We went for a bit of a walk and returned to find the local crows had helped themselves to the curry I had left thawing out on the bench. I usually put frozen food in a plastic container to prevent just such an occurrence, but had forgotten to this time, Bugger! Lucky I had another one in the freezer.

Most people crossing the Nullabor camp at a roadhouse or free camp but this place has a little more character.

Lots of travelers have left their mark on the camp kitchen table.

After dinner we made our way to the communal fire pit which was very well set up with a wind break and some rustic seating. A nice way to end the day. In the morning we decided to head for Kalgoorlie, for no other reason except we had never been there before.