Welcome to Cape Le Grand – with a lucky hike

  
The Seafront Caravan Park at Esperance has a 1:00pm checkout time, so we set the alarm for 6:30am and took the 4WD down to Cape Le Grand National Park. We knew that Lucky Bay facilities were closed for upgrade works, but we hope to see the “whitest beach in Australia” by hiking in. This we did, over granite rocks with spectacular views and a variety of wildflowers. Lucky Bay itself was a bit of a disappointment with a lot of dead sea grass covering the section of beach that we reached, but we could see the white sands gleaming alluringly in the distance, we just didn’t have time to reach them.

  
The wildflowers included chittick;

  
Leschenaultia;

  
A tea tree with large blue flowers;

  
And sticky tailflower.

  
When we returned to the car, we found that the ranger had closed the track we had been on between the time we left and the time we got back. So we were lucky to have made it to Lucky Bay. We celebrated with coffee from a vacuum flask and fruit, before picking up some last minute shopping, filling up with diesel fuel and towing the van out right on 1:00pm.

We camped last night at the start of the Nullarbor Plain, among salmon gums that gleamed like rubies in the setting sun. The myriad stars shine above and the campfire warmed our spirits. We love the isolation and sense of total freedom.

  

Natural gardens in the rain and Hippo Rock

Today it has rained seriously from morn till night. Despite this, we walked to Hippo rock, a short distance from the camping ground at Wave Rock. The track was wet.

We drove past soggy emerald green wheat fields and stopped for lunch at Pallarup Nature Reserve. After beef and noodle soup with cheese toastie, the rain abated briefly leaving great conditions for a photo shoot, with raindrops dripping from wildflowers and creeklets flowing over the granite rocks. We saw our first orchid – sorry the photo is on an unconventional angle – as it was I had to lean over double to avoid damaging it or its neighbours.

  

The picture below is Hippo Rock, Hyden, this morning.  

Here are two random photos of mallee plants in the rain.

   
 

We are now at the southern port of Hopetoun. To reward ourselves for spending a day in the rain, we decided to have dinner at the pub. The meal was fantastic, but it took us 20 minutes to find our way out of the caravan park, which is an absolute maze!

Wildflower madness today in southwest of WA

We’re following the Indian Ocean Drive from just south of Port Dennison (after I uploaded yesterday’s blog via the free wifi on the foreshore). Coffee stop was at Cliff Head, where I photographed a clematis flower while David chatted with campers.

  
The coastal drive is really interesting and apparently only recently sealed, so we had to stop briefly at Leeman, or Snag Island as it was called until 1972. It’s a quiet little seaside town with a cormorant-covered island just off the end of the jetty.

Then to Point Louise just north of Green Head for lunch and a rock clamber in the sunshine, gazing across to the next little holiday settlement.

I had read about the Lesueur National Park and was keen to visit it, which we did. It was a wonderland of wildflowers, with over 900 species. I found and photographed about forty in bloom today.

My favourite was the Djanda, which has lovely pinky flowers and the sun behind the leaves shows the grains.

  
This is a zamia, an ancient form of plant called a cycad.

  
I loved the banksia that looked like an acorn.

  
There was a healthy early nancy, showing that spring isn’t far away. It is often called the ‘harbinger of spring’.

  
The kingia is an interesting tree-like grass.

  
I’ll finish with this feathery flower.

  

Window into Kalbarri wildflower feast now!

Kalbarri National Park has over 600 species of wildflowers. After lunch the dirt road into a natural feature called Nature’s window was opened, having been closed for the morning due to yesterday’s rain. We climbed to the window, along with dozens of overseas and local visitors.

More wildflowers plus Emus

We did a wildflower walk at the town of Mullewa east of Geraldton in Western Australia. I don’t have a good book to identify them and the interpretation signs had worn out in the extreme conditions, so just enjoy!

  
These fluffy everlastings are known as Pom-poms.

  
At some spots, the roadsides were lined with Emu Trees which were in bloom. I can’t work out how to rotate the picture- sorry.

  
This creamy flower is either a grevillea or a hakea. It graced our lunch spot by the roadside.

  
And just to show you the day wasn’t entirely about wildflowers, these curious emus circled our caravan three times when we were washing up this morning at a bush campsite. I snapped them through the perspex windows, but amazingly the photo worked out. We are now camping in a caravan park by the seaside a Geraldton, having topped up our water supply and done a load of washing. After three days of bush camping, we are glad of some modern amenities.

Wildflower time in the West

Western Australia is renowned for its wildflowers and yesterday and today we were fortunate enough to be touring the northern part of the wildflower region just as the blooming has started. These were photographed in the Sandstone area yesterday, but I have others on my camera waiting to download, so stay tuned for the next blog!

  
This is a Splendid Everlasting.
  I think these are Pink Sunrays. 

Fraser Ranges to Kalgoorlie – colours of red earth

We had no data connection at Fraser Ranges farmstay so we have some catching up to do with blogging. My data allocation for the month is also running out, so I’m trying to ease off. This isn’t easy as we have seen so many wonderful sights. For instance, the red-trunked eucalyptus trees were so eye-catching against the red earth and blue bush today. And yesterday the Western Grey Kangaroos were so cleverly camouflaged against the red granite of the Fraser Ranges.

  
  
There were also spectacular wild flowers and yellow puffballs not much larger than grapes.

   
 

French Island – near but different

Today we had an overseas trip in a day, crossing by ferry from Stony Point to the Tankerton Jetty on French Island, Victoria, Australia.

We were participating in a survey with the Friends of French Island.
The island has some unique features:
– It is in Westernport Bay which is a RAMSAR wetland
– The swamps abound in wading birds: the group recorded green shanks, dozens of spoonbills, hoary-headed grebes and various types of ducks, including Australasian Shovellers.
– There are no foxes, therefore the indigenous potoroos continue to thrive.
– two thirds of the island is national park, with abundant vegetation, including over 100 varieties of orchids.

We visited a landowner who showed us a tree that had been shattered by lightning a few days prior. I’ve included a photo.

It is not included in any local government, the 120 permanent residents pay no rates and must provide their own water and power.

It certainly made an interesting day’s outing. The ferry connects to a station on the mainland so you can actually get to it by train.

Snakes alive

Yesterday we had a field trip at Mt Martha nature reserves for our Habitat Management course. Spring is a great time for indigenous chocolate lilies, the great cormorant, the red-bellied black snake, green comb spider orchid and clematis, not to mention tiger slugs!.

Flags at Cabbage Tree

Yesterday we drove from Lakes Entrance along Highway 1 to Merrimbula, stopping for roadside breaks. One was near a signposted Cabbage Tree Palm Walk outside the village of Cabbage Tree. We didn’t have time to do the 5km walk into the cabbage tree palms, but were rewarded with a fine display of mauve flags, native flax (Dianella), Showy Guinea Flower, blue love creeper and other wildflowers.