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Published: September 9th 2007
King of the castle
Just after we nearly rolled her trying to get up a big dune, thankfully you can't see my pants..Having finished working at Dandaragan about a week ago. We Finally had Jessie ready to leave Soulhaven. It was nice to be back on the road, just a shame the weather was horrible, the wind was howling and the rain lashing down. We popped in to see Ledge point on the way to Lancelin, not really a lot to see there so carried on our way to Lancelin. Where we camped the night and also enjoy a meal out at the local pub to celebrate being back on the road.
The following day we attempted to drive the track from Lancelin to Cervantes. Keen to try out our 4WD skill we headed up in to the sand dunes to try and find the start of the track. On the third sand dune in we almost came a cropper finding ourselves sideways on a steep part of a sand dune. After a brief moment of crapping ourselves we managed to recover our composure and regain control of the car, thankfully staying on all four wheels. Shortly after our scare and over the next sand dune we found the start of the track the wedge island. When we arrive having picked our
Splash
Yey! Puddles!! way through the sand, we discover the remotest place you could possibly want to live a real shanty town hicksville. Upon trying to leave we found it near impossible to find our way back out, or the way onwards to the pinnacles. After searching across yet more sand dunes and getting ourselves quite lost the only track we found was the one back to lancelin. So we were forced to head to lancelin. Having camped in lancelin the night before, we decided to push on to Cervantes via the Brand Highway. After driving past a couple of roadhouses due to high fuel prices, we are forced to do a slight detour to get fuel at Badgingarra roadhouse, high price or not as we were on vapour. Fortunately they were cheaper. Knackered after a long day we decide to camp there the night there.
On Wednesday, having failed the day before in our attempt to reach the pinnacles via the 4wd track, we went in on the main road. The pinnacles were Fantastic. It’s Fascinating to think that they had been thousands of years in the making. Zoe thought that fair few of them resembled a certain part of the
Dinner
Cooking dinner at Badginggara. yummy male anatomy. Even so the park was beautiful and at times resembled something from a Star Wars set. After the pinnacles we stopped in a Hangover bay for lunch of tea and toast. It really lived up to its name, it was miserable thankfully we were under a shelter when the rain started coming down, else we would have got really wet. We had a look in Cervantes; there wasn’t much there, just the normal small town stuff and some things called stromatolites in a lake, apparently some sort of living rock. We didn’t understand or see anything in particular. Then it was off to find a place to camp for the night. We took a gamble and went up to try and find Curakineyung but couldn’t find the camp site, so pushed on to the next site on our list, just past Jurien bay a place called Sandy point. Which turned out to be great. The camp site is miles from any where, nice and quiet; right next the beach, sheltered by sand dunes and has big overhanging trees. It was a great find and hardly on the map.
The following morning we woke to find ourselves still
Pinicles
Zoe with some rather odd shaped rocks.. at the glorious campsite of the night before. After having a proper look around sandy point, we headed in to Jurien bay, where we had a lovely walk along the beach. When we returned to the car Zoe received a phone call from Tiff (Who she was working for on Middalya station). Most of the Hearman family have moved from Middalya (just past Canarvon) to their new farm, just north of Geraldton. So we arrange to see them on Saturday evening. We then went to look around town in a hope of finding me a surfboard and wetsuit. No luck, but we did find out that Geraldton would be the best place. With that in mind we carry on our journey north, along cockleshell gully road. Where we come across a scenic drive around Lesueur National park, which was full of wildflowers in bloom. So armed with cameras we enjoyed a beautiful walk among them. We then carried on along cockleshell gully road until we reached the track to Stockyard gully caves where I gave the car to Zoe to try her hand at driving off road her first 4wd track. She did really well negotiating the sandy rocky track.
ponder
so thats the meaning of life... (at the pinicles) At the end we found the entrance to the Stockyard gully caves which were stunning, but we quickly discovered that we would need a bit more light, than that of the one wind up torch to venture any distance into the caves but that was all we had with us. So we didn’t venture far inside. They looked pretty cool from the out side anyway so we weren’t disappointed. By the time we had finished at the caves it was nearing the end of the day, so we carried on heading north to camp at cliff head.
Friday we headed to Port Denison/Dongara a twin township. The Port Denison side was really beautiful with a little fishing fleet in a little harbour, really quite quaint, the sort of place you could quite happily spend retirement. We first found our way to a little beach side café called the “little starfish.” we enjoyed toasties of a crayfish with cheese and prawn with cheese, yum. We only had to go round the corner to find the next beautiful view. Where we looked out over the towns harbour and the reef just off the shore. As we were admiring the view a
Pinicles
Really felt like a Star wars set seagull landed on the rocks in front of us with an octopus in his bill, he looked very happy with his handy work and was busy trying to gobble it down while the octopus kept wriggling and grabbing him as he was trying to eat. It’s a bit difficult to eat your dinner when it’s slapping you round the face, let alone trying to hide it from the other seagulls. After watching it for a little while longer we took a stroll down the rocky break water where we had a delightful chat to an elderly couple who were fishing from the rocks. They shared lots of great information with including some great tips on fishing, which should help us in the future. After leaving the couple to their fishing we head into Dongara and take a walk down fig tree lined high street. With fishing on our minds we brought fishing for dummies book and also a cloth patch for Zoe to add to her collection. After our little shopping trip we took a short walk along the beach, the weather had picked up a bit and it felt like almost shorts and t-shirt weather. When we arrived back
Pinicles
getting all arty. thought this one was quite good. at the car Zoe spotted a wildflower centre on the map about half and hour east in a place called Mingenew. The name did it for us! We had to go and have a look. Only when we got there, there was no sign of any wildflower centre. After a half hour search we stop in town to ask at the tourist information centre. Only to find that closed. So we went to the bakery instead for tea and cake, yum, yum. We enquired with the lady there about the wildflower centre, but she didn’t know any thing about it, although there was a little walk around a playing field, where there were some flowers, oh well. Tea and cake was nice. That evening we camped at S-bend camp site just south of Geraldton. It was nice to have a shower as we had been staying on free campsites for a couple of days and we were starting to stink a bit.
The next day headed into Geraldton to do a spot of shopping. As it would be the last city we would be seeing in a while. I was looking forward to getting a surfboard, so the first
hmm
now i did feel inadequate.... shop had to be a surf shop. After having a good look at what they had, I decided I would have a think while we got some the other shopping. A couple of hours later after treating ourselves to a new fishing rod (we now have one each) and also a snorkelling set each, I had made my decision, so we headed back to the surf shop. After which it was time to shop for the essentials (food, beer and fuel etc..) before leaving Geraldton. Stoked I finally had my board we headed 20km north to catch up with the Hearman family on their new farm (Wataki). It was great to meet Tiff and the Kids as I had heard so much about them. Doug is still at Middalya until it’s sold.
It was Sunday and we were woken by a knocking on the back doors and an “I can’t get in…” from the out side. We had pre-empted the early morning wake up call and locked the back door. They didn’t notice the front was unlocked. After a quick breakfast it was time to feed the sheep. So me, Zoe and the four kids (Jack, Ben, Alix and
Beautiful
'ello darlin' their friend Tegwin) and Meg the dog piled in to the back tray of an old Toyota hilux Ute with Tiff driving. We collected the hopper from the shed, which was filled with a mixture of barley and wheat, before we drove out in to the field. The sheep knew exactly what was going on and all came running to the get their feed, all except a few stupid lambs that had separated from their mums and couldn’t figure out how to get through the open gate. Even when we tried to herd them through, they didn’t manage it. So we left them to find their mums while Tiff took us for a thrill ride up this silly steep rocky hill. On the back of the Ute we were all holding on tight. By the time we had bounced our way to top of the cliff we had started to loose our grip on both the kids and the Ute. But it was a great laugh and the kids all thought it was great. Before heading back to the house, we gave it one last go at moving the lost lambs. With Tiff on foot, and me driving the ute
Stromatolites
We had no idea what they were but they were there (aparently). Cervantes. we manage to reunite them with their mums. The rest of the morning we spent rearranging Jessie. Trying to get at least one of the spare wheels off the roof as we are informed it will make her top heavy and could be dangerous. So we took heed. During the afternoon were taken for a tour of farm. Which compared with Middalya I was told is tiny. But the scenery is beautiful and they are right on the coast. Later in the afternoon after we wish a fond farewell to the Wataki mob and we hurry on up to Kalbarri to meet up with Charlie and Natalie at Red Bluff caravan park.
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james
non-member comment
so jealous
mate that looks like your having so much fun, hope all is well say hi to zoe,bit jealous this country sucks but at least i have a nice new car to drive about in.(bmw 330ci coupe m-tec) keep posting them pictures, hope to hear from you soon. james