International travel and farm stays

After Coral Bay we continued down the WA Coast to Carnarvon where fresh fruit, vegetables and seafood is plentiful.  Following the Gascoyne food trail we visited some of Carnarvon’s plantations and enjoyed the local produce.  It was good to be able to purchase fresh fruit and veg, and bananas only cost us $3 a kilo, the cheapest we have had in such a long time.

We also immersed ourselves in the local history, at the Carnarvon Heritage Precinct, located on the site of the 1890’s Port of Carnarvon.  We visited the Railway Museum, home of the fully restored Kimberley Steam Train that operated from the jetty to town in the 1950s.  The town’s One Mile Jetty, built in 1897, is one of the longest jetties in the southern hemisphere.  We then took a ride on the quaint “Coffee Pot” train, down the jetty.  We also watched a video of the finding of the wreck of HMAS Sydney and visited a memorial for the ship which sank off the Carnarvon coast.

Another attraction in the Carnarvon area is the blowholes, they form a natural spectacle as the powerful ocean swell is forced through sea caves before exploding out through holes in the rock.  Sometimes the water jets erupt into the air to a height of 20 metres, creating a spectacular sight.  It took ages to get the best photo by which time Marty was saturated by the spray.

After Carnarvon we travelled to Shark Bay, Western Australia’s first World Heritage listed area staying at Denham as it is the main service centre for the area.  On our way into Denham we stopped at Hamelin Pool to look at the largest and oldest living fossils, stromatolites that dot the shore of the pool in rocky lumps.  Shark Bay is one of only two places in the world where living marine stromatolites exist.  These living fossils contain microbes similar to those found in the earliest record of life on earth and they grow in Hamelin Pool because of the extreme salinity of the water.  They look like misshapen rocks so it was fascinating to know that they are actually living creatures.

Shell Beach Conservation Park, near Hamelin Pool, is as the name implies, not your everyday sand beach.  Instead it’s a beach made of trillions of tiny shells, all only from one type of animal, the Coquina.  The shells have accumulated over time to create this unique environment.  It is estimated that in some spots the shells are ten metres deep.  The beach stretches for 120 kms.

The highlight of visiting this area are the dolphins of Monkey Mia as they are famous for their daily ritual of swimming to shore to interact with humans.  As the bottlenose dolphins are wild, numbers and the exact time of their visit varies, but usually starts at 7.30am.  Seven dolphins regularly visit the beach with up to 20 others visiting occasionally.  Monkey Mia dolphins are protected by the Department of Environment and Conservation.  Visitors get the opportunity to feed the dolphins under the supervision of the National Park Rangers.  Despite the huge crowds I was picked to feed a dolphin.  I felt so special.

After feeding the dolphins we joined a perfect nature Dugong and Dolphin cruise on an 18 metre sailing catamaran.  While it is said that are up to 14,000 of the world’s dugong population thrive in Shark Bay Marine Park, we only managed to catch a glimpse of the slow swimming, extremely shy, large docile marine mammals that, grow to about 3.3 metres and weigh an average 250 kg but it was enough to impress us.  The trip included a visit to a local black pearl farm to see how black pearls are cultivated in Shark Bay and I even got to meet Farmer Jamie from the Farmer Wants a Wife who is one of the pearl farmers. 

 At the end of the cruise Marty and I got to have another go at boom netting off the back of the boat.  I hung on for dear life while Marty found an audience to perform to. 

After two nights at Shark Bay it was time to break camp again and move on to Kalbarri. 

 Kalbarri National Park is a truly spectacular park situated on the Murchison River.  Over the past 400 million years the river has cut magnificent red and white banded gorges for kilometres, as it makes its way to the sea.  We were able to explore the depths and heights of the river gorge and sea cliffs.  We went to Nature’s Window, a natural rock border that beautifully frames the rugged upstream view. 

 We also went to Z-Bend and climbed down 150 metres or so to the river below.  Z Bend has some of the most breathtaking scenery in the NP and the river is bordered by majestic river red gums. A lovely spot.  We also went to Ross Graham and Hawks Head lookouts for similar wonderful views of the river.

Kalbarri’s coastal gorges feature magnificent, towering cliffs that plummet to the waves below.  From Red Bluff, the spectacular coastal cliffs extend 13km.  As the coastline slowly yields to the force of the Indian Ocean, the fracturing and decaying of the cliffs has sculpted precarious rock formations with stunning views.  We went to a number of lookouts on the coast and saw the fantastic cliffs and schools of dolphins in the ocean far below.  We also got lots of good info on the various ship wrecks off the coast in this area including the Batavia and visited the site at Wittecarra Creek where two young sailors from the Batavia were put ashore.  They were never seen again but are believed to be the first white men to set foot in Australia.  Maybe it was the enormous quantity of flies that ate them!!

Kalbarrie

Kalbarri Coastal cliffs

We also had our first international leg of the trip with a visit to Hutt River Province, founded in 1970 under the Sovereignty of Prince Leonard and his wife Princess Shirley.  We got a visa (lucky they except foreign currency) and had a good chat with Prince Leonard about the circumstances surrounding the property seceding from Australia.  We found out that he even declared war on Australia.  The prince is 86 years of age but still sharp as a tack.

From Kalbarri we made a quick trip to Geraldton via Port Gregory and the Pink Lake.  We visited the HMAS Sydney memorial, the lighthouse and the museum in Geraldton but didn’t stay long due to the predicted storms.

Whilst we have visited some great places on the trip one of the highlights has been the great people we have met.  At Kalbarri we had three wonderful evenings with Grant and Donna from Berri in SA and we will visit them when we are in SA.  Another great couple we met at Dale’s Gorge were Michael and Julia, wheat farmers from Marchagee/Coorow.  We accepted their invitation to stay at the farm and whilst the rest of the area was soaked by rain we were nice and dry in their enormous steel shed.  We spent two great days with Michael touring his properties.  Hopefully by now the rain will have eased and he will have been able to begin harvesting his wheat, barley, canola and lupine crops which only need to dry out to be harvested.  We got a real good snapshot of modern farming life: margins, machinery and manpower. We also had a tour of the old Coorow pub which is owned by the community and has been beautifully refurbished.

Back on the coast we put up the trailer in the backyard of Michael’s parents, Bevan and Molly, place at Leeman.  We used this as a base to visit the Pinnacles, the unusual rock formation near Cervantes for which there is no generally agreed scientific explanation.  We also visited the coastal towns of Jurien Bay, Lancelin and Cervantes.

Then off to Perth.