Hawkes Gorge - Ross Graham Trail

Kalbarri’s terrible weather and closed roads continued through to the morning we left.  On the road heading north out of town there was one tarmac road which was open that went to Hawke’s Gorge and Ross Graham River Trail so we decided to stop and see an “actual gorge”!

As our first Gorge of the trip Hawke’s was quite pretty and the sun shone through the cloud for 30 seconds allowing us to take a photo.  The river at Ross Graham’s trail (named in honour of the first headmast of the Kalbarri school who died at the age of 30) was also very pretty and the track was
only a bit muddy down to where it was lined with rocks.  We took a few photos before heading of on the 660km day trip through Carnarvon to Coral Bay.

Carnarvon cow

Having done the trip along this highway to Coral Bay through Carnarvon we knew that the road was littered with goats, sheep and cows on the loose that we had to keep a look out for.  Road kill is everywhere from Kangaroos (which come out on dusk and feed on the new grass at the edge of the road), to livestock and then Feral goats (which are by far the cutest… though they tend to also be the most elusive to photograph!).

We pulled in at Carnarvon just after 3pm and stopped for fuel and a greasy roadhouse lunch.  After phoning B to see how she was coping with running the office without us (as we only had a mobile signal within 5km radius of big towns) we headed off for the 250km trip to Coral Bay which we hoped to

Cute Calf on edge of road

reach before the last check in time of 7pm.

Roadkill kangaroos were everywhere along the road after leaving Carnarvon - literally every 50 metres on both sides of the road.  The carcasses where lined with crows and wedge tailed eagles soared overhead in many places.  Coming across a very fresh kangaroo in the middle of the road we saw a wedge tail actually sitting in the road.  Cliff took photos while I slowed down.  He got some great shots of it taking off.

As we finally turned off to the Coral Bay Road which is 90kms long headed towards the coast darkness was just starting to fall.  The signage warned that

Is this my best side?

there were cattle on the road and every couple of kms we had to slow down to pass them on the edge of the road or even on the road.  We stopped to take a photo at the Tropic of Capricorn which is about 20kms shy of Coral Bay.

We arrived at Coral Bay at 6.30pm extremely tired from our 8 hours on the
road.  Tomorrow morning we head to Millstream!

Crossing the Tropic of Capricorn

Beautiful Wedgetail

Angry Kalbarri Ocean

Sunday morning’s weather continued in the same vein as the previous day but instead of sunny periods followed by rain, the rain was constant and the wind relentless.  In a 5 minute rain break I walked the 200mtrs to the cafe and bought take away coffee to drink with our bacon and egg sandwich for breakfast.

We drove 1km South of Kalbarri town site to “Rainbow Jungle” which is the most amazing parrot santuary.  It was established 23 years ago and is designed around various ponds, fountains and jungle like plants including huge golden canes.

Purple Crowned Lorikeets

There were 3 main sections of caged parrots, each with individual large flight cages containing just one type of parrot.  Each section had a theme that was centred with a water feature.  Our favourite was the balinese pond which was bordered on two sides with palms with a fountain at the end and beautiful purple water lillies.  The pond contained goldfish and large koi.

But by far the most impressive was a huge walk through avairy with 100 parrots ranging from larger groups of small of Purple Crowed Lorikeets, pink and green Princess Parrots, red and green King Parrots, and noisy Hooden Parrots. Some of the parrots were very friendly and they flew so close to us their wings

Bali Pond

brushed us.  The little Purple Crowned Lorikeets flocked in the dozens and fought noisily over a bowl of sugary necture that was secured to a fence.

Luckily there were many covered areas amongst the displays and we mostly were able to keep out of the rain (which didn’t seem to bother the parrots none).

We then headed south of town to The Loop turn off where we intended on seeing the gorges and The Loop (and the eye of the needle rock formation) however, because of the extent of the rain all gravel roads in the town were closed and barricaded.  We were fairly disappointed at this because, although we hoped they would re-open, instead the rain picked up as the day rolled on and by 5pm it was completely

Walk thru avairy

dark, blowing a gale and so much rain that the undercovered balcony outside our unit turned into a fish pond.

On watching the news and going to the bom website we decided to upgrade our tent site at Coral Bay (where we are headed in the morning) to an tiny villa.  We

Where is Wally?

were grateful that they had one left and as we had pre-paid for the camp site it was an easy process.  Considering it is 700km trip we plan to leave early in the day because if the wind and rain continues as it has been today it will be slow going with the camp trailer.

On reaching Coral Bay we will see where the weather front is progressing and will plan our next leg dependent on the rain’s course.  If the rain is heading

Crocodile?

inland we will continue North and hopefully wait out the rain before heading down through Murchison and Karrijini.  That’s the best thing about a ‘camping trip’ with no particular destination… we can make it up as we go along!

Irwin River Esturary, Dongara

The Irwin River Esturary is at the Northern end of Dongara and is very picturesque with treed banks and the ocean in the background. We left Dongara at 11am and headed north to Greenough.

Greenough is one of the windiest places we’ve ever been too.  It is so windy that it is renouned for trees that grow across the ground rather than up.  There are paddocks of trees that have their trunks bent over just a foot or two off the ground with all their branches towards the east.

There are lots of old buildings in Greenough most built in the late 19th century.  Many of the buildings were built by prisioners and although there are lots of ruins, there are also many buildings that are still standing and have been repaired to a usable state.  The Central Greenough Historial Settlement has a group of a dozen buildings.  Three of them are beautiful churches, several small homes, a hall and a larger white building

Central Greenough Mill

which orginally houses a store, post office, old police station and the old gaol.  The goal is quite eerie and dark, the air musky, and all the cells incredibly small and lacking in light with a tiny, high window the only respite from the dark.  The cells are lined up down the left side of a long hall with incredibly high ceilings.  At the end of hall is a tiny exercise area with walls built of rock, no roof, a tiny toilet room.  the excercise area is about 5mtrs square.  Being a prisioner of this place back in the 1880’s would have been very nasty.

Of course, like with many of these historical places, they rely on public donation to keep the buildings in repair so there is a $6 entry fee per person and one has to enter (and exit) the site through the ‘gift shop’ in case one wishes to partake in one of the locally made giftwares!  It is very strange weather and dark clouds quickly blow overhead and light rain falls followed 10 minutes later by brilliant sunshine and no wind (jackets on, jackets off, jackets on!!).

Church, Central Settlement, Greenough

We head down the road to see the “Leaning Tree” which is a perfect representative of how so many of the trees of Greenough are.  It is one of the bigger, and closer to the road, versions and a plaque is proudly errected at the site.  Unfortunately they fail to advise site seers of the prickly plants which line the car park and I gain a dozen spikes that go through my jeans and into my left knee.  They make me very ichy but luckily, on pulling up my jeans, I find them easily visable and easy to pull out.

At 1pm we reach Geraldton.  Geraldton is a nice port city.  Cliff used to live here when he was in grade 5 and still remembers where his family’s home is.  We drive up the the HMS Sydney Memorial and as we get out of the car the rain pelts down.  We take photos of the memorial, which is quite uniquely designed with a dome of artistic metal

Inside Church, Greenough

with a marble floor.  The view to the ocean is good from here (what appears to be the highest point in Geraldton) and we can clearly see harbour port.  There are several huge ships anchored off shore.

We head towards Northampton and arrive at 2pm.  We follow the scenic drive to Kalbarri through another coastal area called Leyton.  On the hills overlooking the sand dunes there is an old settlement ruin.  There is a tiny limestone home, several others that only have footings remaining, another building which is just one large room and behind that yet another old gaol.  This goal is very dilapidated but you can still clearly make out the cell walls, tiny windows and just how tiny the cells would have been.  It is unlikely that a prisoner of this goal would have even been able to lie down in their cell as they are merely a metre and a half in dimension.

Grey Co Greenough

On the flats, north of the buildings, is an old graveyard with two tiny graves and a larger grave.  The headstones are made of limestone and we are unable to make out any of the engraved text.  There is also an unmarked grave that is only marked by a circle of stones.  As we turn east we see, at the top of hill, we see “Ron’s Memorial” which is noted on a sign nearby.  The memorial appears to consist of a dummy sitting on a bicycle looking towards the ocean and we can clearly make out a grave stone.

On the hill the other side of the settlement is our first Geocache.  Cliff finds the cache fairly easily as it is hidden under a pile of rocks, 2 metres from the base of a tree over looking the settlement.  He writes on the log inside the cache container (which is an old army ammunition one) and we remove an old half penny marked 1961 (one of two inside) to take to another geocache that we fill find later.

Wesley Church, Greenough

We arrive in Kalbarri at 4pm and although at this point it is sunny, it is incredibly windy.  The Kalbarri settlement is far more sprawling than I remember from when I visited back when I was 18 (25 yrs ago).  Cliff too had holidayed here once before over 16 years ago and we head towards the Murchison caravan/camp ground at the far end of town.  When we get there the place is fairly full, with the exception of the first row of sites closest to the ocean.  It is very clear to see WHY these sites are vacant - the horendous gale!   We pay our $56 dollars for our 2 night stay and drive to site number 19.  While I head off to check the shower block Cliff sets about parking the camp trailer.  He asks a nearby camper what the weather has been like and is told that it has been so windy the past few nights that their caravan rocked back and forth all night so much he thought it was going to blow over.  We decide to reconsider our decision to stay here and drive back along the main road to see if there is a vacancy at a motel.  As luck would have it there The

Old Goal, Central Greenough Settlement

Murchison Motel has a vacancy of a top storey apt facing the ocean.  Unlike staying in Perth, we are not required to give any details or pay any money when checking in!  The apartment has a lounge, kitchen, bathroom/laundry and two bedrooms.  It is quite homely and clean.  As the night wears on and the wind increases we are glad that we are not inside our flappy tent….. there will be plenty of time for that in the next 12 days but as we head up the coast and then inland we hope that the wind will reduce to make camping more pleasant (though if it does not we will be camping anyway).

Cliff cooks our ‘camping standard’ of steak and vegetables for dinner and we sit back on the comfy sofa for the evening.  Tomorrow we will have a full day to sight see around Kalbarri.

Geocache, Leyton Ruins

View from Geocache, Leyton Ruins

Leyton Prison Ruins

Leaning Tree, Greenough

Police Kitchen, Central Greenough Settlement

Old Millhouse, Dongara

Spent the morning packing the camp trailer with check list of water, fuel, spares, bedding, food, clothes, camera, laptop, sat phone.  Finally we hitched up and headed North at 3pm towards our first overnight stop at Dongara 359kms from Perth.  With each kilometre travelled, the sky became more ominous and rain threatened.  The wind was blowing strongly by the time we reach Gingin and the rain started pouring down as darkeness came early.  We headed through Regans Ford, Mugumbar, Cateby and as we got to Eneaba the rain was coming straight and slamming at the windscreen like ball bearings and we had to travel at 60kms (instead of 110!).  Finally we arrived at Dongara at the Old Millhouse Motel at 7.15pm.  This motel is stuck in the 70’s, a very basic bed and tv with 70’s tile bathroom, as we had stayed there a couple of years earlier (on our Coral Bay

Millhouse pigeons

Camp Trip) we knew that it was nice and clean and also cheap at $88 for the night.  We had Thai takeaway from the local cafe (the same place we bought our morning coffee) which wasn’t too bad.  Certainly it was not great but was a 6/10 (and beat any normal Chinese takeaway).

The Old Millhouse Motel (circa 1894) is named such as it is positioned right next to The Old Millhouse!  There are quite a few old Mills in the area between Dongara and Greenough and they are all quite beautiful works of architecture.  They are all similar in design, square, tall with a mix of limestone and red brick in the late 1880’s to around 1940’s.  On all of the Millhouses we have seen, large flocks of pigeons are the only remaining residence.

Omelette

With the last handful of home grown mushrooms I decided to make an omelette for breakfast last weekend.  I diced the musrooms, garlic, 1/2 red chilli, small onion, red capsicum and bacon and cooked in a hot wok with olive oil until slightly soft.  I cracked 3 eggs and added cracked pepper (no milk) and placed this evenly into a hot (pancake) pan.  I added the pre-made filling to one side and a sprinkle of grated cheese and some diced parsley.  I put a glass lid over the omlette for couple of minutes until it set and then flipped the 1/2 with no topping over to make a traditional omelette shape.  Very tasty!

Laksa Ingredients

Home made Prawn Laksa is my favourite type of soup.  The best shop bought Laksa, by far, is from the “Saigon Noodle House” in Northbridge but only when made by my favourite chef.  If he is not on then the Laksa is ordinary.  Laksa at home is a little different from ‘the real thing’ because generally I don’t bother making my own Laksa paste or prawn stock instead I use an authentic Laksa paste purchased from an Asian Grocery.

I get all the ingredients ready up front because it comes together very quickly and is ready in about 15 minutes from start to serve.  I use about 250grams of shelled king prawn which I had to a hot oiled wok with diced garlic, lemon grass, finely chopped coriander stalks and one small red chilli.  I use two large table spoons of Laksa paste and stir for 30 seconds and then add 1 tin of coconut cream and the juice of one lime and wait for it to

Sams Laksa

come to the boil.  I then add a couple of cups of water (no need for stock because the Laksa paste is very strongly flavoured).  I then add thinly sliced mushrooms, bamboo shoots, some green beans and 1/2 of the spring onion.  I then add the fresh noodles.  I prefer to use rice noodles rather than egg noodles but traditionally at noodle bars they seem to use egg noodles.  I find egg noodles too heavy and prefer rice noodles and more veges in my Laksa.  In this Laksa I used Japanese udon noodles (they take on the Laksa flavour very quickly and do not get gluggy as I find the egg noodles do).

I place a big handful of fresh bean shoots into the bowl and add a generous abount of the noodles and veges and then spoon in the Laksa soup.  To garnish I love to add some sliced sping onions, slice red chilli and a generous amount of coriander leaves.  I like my Laksa strong in flavour and chilli spicy hot. Best eaten with a ice cold red back. Slurpingly good meal!

Stuffed Prawns at Joe

Bike Ride Friday and J, P and I decided to do a longer ride today seeing as I was finally over my flu.  We set off at 9am from Brentwood and followed the river to Fremantle.  We had lunch at Joe’s Fish Shack.  They advertise a lot on the tv and their menu looked pretty good.  We had trouble deciding what to have.  Normally we try to stick to non-fried food for lunch (too hard to cycle home on a stomach of fried food!) preferring salads.  However, as we were at a seafood restaurant we decided instead to have seafood!  J ordered a salmon steak which was served on peppery mash with vegetables.  It looked great and she said it tasted lovely.  P and I couldn’t decide so we each ordered a meal and thought we’d share.  I ordered the stuffed & battered prawns and P ordered pepper squid.  The photo is my meal with 3 prawns (gave 3 to P) and some of the pepper squid.  There was a mountain of chips on mine and I only managed to eat about 10 of them.  The prawns were very nice and stuffed with spinish and bacon but after two of them I started to feel the icky oily affect of the fried food.  The squid was mostly ‘baby octopus’ and unfortunately the peppery batter was not the least bit battery. 6/10.

Ingredients - Mushroom soup

Our

Cream of mushroom soup with sauteed mushroom garnish

home grown mushrooms became mushroom soup tonight.   I sliced the mushrooms and set aside 1/4 of them.  Dice two potatoes, one sliced leek, dice 1/2 small red chilli and several garlic cloves.  Add all ingredients to hot wok with olive oil and cook for a few minutes, add knob of butter and cook for further 5 minutes then add water to just cover and simmer for 10 minutes until all veges are soft.  Set aside into a bowl and then cream with food processor.  Put the set aside mushrooms in hot pan with olive oil and diced parsley and sautee until brown.  Plate the soup, add a sploosh of cream and top with the sauteed mushrooms and a parlsley sprig.  Eat with crusty bread.  Delicious!

First Mushroom Crop

Watching mushrooms grow has been amazing.  Mushrooms literally grow before your very eyes.  Even checking them at a 2 hour interval you could easily see their growth.  By day 6 they were just about ready to harvest but we waited until Sunday afternoon to do it.  By then the buttons had mostly opened up.  The first crop weighs a little under a kilo so already the yield value is greater than the purchase price of the mushroom farm.  Growing mushrooms is great fun… you can grow them inside (I grew mine in the bathroom - under the towel rack!), they don’t get attacked by bugs, they grow very fast.  I find I can be a little impatient waiting for veges to grow enough to harvest so the mushroom experience has been great!

Stormy skys over Avalon (Mandurah)

Last weekend was a long weekend.  We went to watch the Dockers play (Aussie Rules Football live) on Saturday night against Richmond.  It was a great game to watch, with the exeption of 1/4 where Richmond scored 6 goals straight.  Instead of the Docker laying down and dying they rose to the challenge and the game after this was just fantastic to watch and very exciting…. unfortunately 1 1/2 minutes before the end Richmond got the goal which put them 3 points in front.  The umpiring was very uninspiring and uneven and in the dying seconds of the game Dockers marked it in their goal square but the umpire called ‘play on’ and then the siren sounded. So another loss… but at least the games have been enjoyable to watch because they do not give up!

Sapphire Skys over Avalon

So…. we got home from the football about 10pm and thought “let’s go to the beach house”! So Cliff and I packed a few things and headed off…. we arrived at 11.30pm.  The weather took an immediate turn for the worse and storms set in the the remainder of the 36 hours we were there.  The lightening over the ocean was amazing.  The black, dark grey and sapphire blue storm clouds were extraordinary.  The thunder scared Mahli, who spent most of the weekend hiding under a blanket.  We managed a couple of walks on the beach in amongst storms (cos there is no way I would be outside when I can SEE lightening!).

The lightening was so severe that a passing helicopter which was flying along the beach decided to land on the nearby school oval and didn’t take off for an hour and a half when the weather had cleared sufficiently.  I wouldn’t want to be sitting in a tin can 100 metres off the ocean either during a lightening storm!