Date 6th July - 7th July
Can you believe it -we have already been on the road for over a month, travelled 9,000 kms. We are heading north up the coast of Western Australia. Totally amazing experience, learning a whole lot about camping, setting up camper trailers, learning to live in small compact space with each other, meeting wonderful people and seeing the most amazing scenery - the majority of which is natural - can't believe how blessed we are to live in this country. Totally looking forward to the next part of this trip.
We were up early and packed up. First stop was the Stoney Creek Caravan showroom in Perth, where we bought a new pole & had a broken winch replaced. Whilst they were fitting the winch, Michelle was trying to convince me to upgrade to a fancy 17 foot off-road caravan... maybe in a few years time.
We took the Indian Ocean Drive north and stopped in at Yanchep National Park. There we did the woodlands walk - we were lucky to see so many different coloured wildflowers - some were just starting to bloom. The walk took us through an area with hundreds of grass trees - it looked very prehistoric.
After we finished the walk, we went to the Koala enclosure, saw some sleepy ones. We then had a look around the large grassed area with a lake. The whole park reminded us of England's parks that we used to enjoy visiting and a place we will come back too.
We're heading to a Farm
Nambung, Western Australia
Weather - 8℃ to 22℃, clear blue skies
Total Distance Travelled - 9,900 km
Staying 2 Nights, Nambung Station
We wanted to come to Nambung Station because it has access to a part of the Pinnacles that is only accessible if you stay on the farm and go on a tour. Sounds like a catch, but it wasn't.
Nambung Station is a 43km drive from the coastal town of Cervantes. As we drove to the property along a graded dirt road, we went through an area that will look magnificent in a few months time, called the Southern Beekeepers Nature Reserve, full of banksia trees, just starting to bloom. Already Michelle is asking to come back in wildflower season, as she is loving taking photos of all of these flowers - by the time we got to this nature reserve it was already getting late so no photos were taken (Michelle wasn't happy 🥲).
Arriving at Nambung Station, we found our spot, and set up. We met the farm manager, and a few fellow campers around the fire after a quick walk around the farm.
Next morning, we went on a tour of the property. The manager drove his off-road buggy with one family in it, whilst we followed in our 4WD, connected via UHF radio. We went to the "Painted Desert", a part of the pinnacles in Nambung National Park. The property owners retain exclusive access to this part of the park, in return for giving the land back to National Parks.
The Painted Desert was a golden colour, with the whitish pinnacles being natural limestone structures. They were formed about 25,000 years ago when the sea covered this land and left deposits of seashells which formed the limestone. Over time, coastal wind blew away the sand around them, leaving the pillars exposed.
After our fascinating tour with Gerry, we drove to Jurien Bay, to get a camper leg repaired (long story). Whilst waiting, we went down to an old jetty on the bay - this is a stunning little town that if we had time, we would have spent more time at. We also saw a pair of Oystercatcher birds that were nesting on the sand.
Once our camper leg was like new, we ventured into Cervantes to the "Lobster Shack", and had an amazing lunch.
After our yummy lunch we went for our 2nd view of pinnacles in the Nambung National Park. We're getting the value out of our WA parks pass. There is a 4km track where you can drive through the pinnacles, stop for photos and walk around the pinnacles. It was like walking around a movie set instead of something real.
We decided to have a bit of fun with the photos - one of the photos can you spot (Ollie (Mike), long story) a bit like Where's Wally. We hadn't done this with the drone before putting ourselves in but have decided that it's a rather handy tool than using a iPhone for a selfie.
We know we have put a awful lot in this post - more than usual, but it's an area we didn't expect to be so fantastic, full of things we wanted to photograph. It's begging to be photographed because it's so beautiful over here. People were saying going up Western Australia's coastal drive was boring - We are waiting for that, because we love it so far!
We hope you enjoy something a bit different - the DJI Mini 3 pro drone put together a video of the pinnacles - sorry try to add some music next time.
We hope you enjoy something a bit different - the DJI Mini 3 pro drone put together a video of the pinnacles - sorry try to add some music next time.
We're having a lot of issues uploading and putting the post together . Some places like the farm we had no internet - then we can have short burst of internet. Uploading of photos and videos takes the internet connections we have to a whole new level, very frustrating 😫🤬😡😩 at our end, because we want to put posts up more often than we are able to.
Hope you enjoyed the desert - We are off to some World Heritage sites on WA's Coast - should be unreal.
Cheers,
Mike & Michelle
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