Coalseam to Perth

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Heading south again, we hoped to camp at another wayside stop, this time on the Murchison River. However, it was still cool and windy, so we headed on to Kalbarri and stopped at a motel there. It was not a good choice as the Hotel next door had live music for the Friday night partiers.

The weather still looked a little overcast the next day as we headed into Kalbarri NP, but the wealth of wildflowers lifted our spirits. Some spectacular kangaroo paws caught our eye as we entered the park and the carpets of flowers were beautiful as we walked around the Loop Walk, a walk inside a loop on the Murchison River, which starts at the famous Natures Window. Fortunately, the sun came out during the walk and we were hopeful of being able to camp that night, but by the time we got to Northampton, it was cool and windy again. We found a cabin at a caravan park with lovely views across the dunes to the ocean north of Geraldton to rest our weary limbs.

The next day we went into Geraldton and looked around their excellent museum which has artefacts from three Dutch East Indiamen that were wrecked off the coast here - the most famous being the Batavia. We then drove to Greenough, an abandoned pioneering town now run by the National Trust, for a very interesting walk around and lunch in the new visitors centre. The weather forecast was more promising, so we stocked up with food and headed for Coalseam Conservation Park.

Coalseam is noted for its wildflowers, with carpets of everlastings and many other pretty flowers. Unfortunately, weeds such as Pattersons Curse and Cape Weed have taken over in places, but the flowers and many parrots were a delight. The camp site at Coalseam was good and we had a lovely first day there relieved that we were able to camp again, but the wind picked up on the second afternoon and it started to rain just as we were packing up our tent to leave the next morning.

Showers spoiled some of our plans to view wildflowers on our way south, but we were able to visit the wonders of Moore River NP before finding a motel in Gingin. We called in for a lovely walk in another National Park full of beautiful wildflowers, Walyunga NP. We walked along the Swan River and through a loop through the bush before a heavy shower caught us in the open.

Then on to Scarborough on the beach west of Perth to meet Terry, an old colleague of John’s, for dinner. One thing leads to another - Terry reported that Doug, another old colleague of John’s, was now in Perth, so a lunch was arranged the next day. We also visited Terry & Sue who we had met at Rocky Pool camp site near Carnarvon. The day of social events was rounded off by attending a book launch in Fremantle. A teacher contact that Helen was keen to meet was attending the launch of ‘Cities as Sustainable Ecosystems’ at Curtin University and invited us along for an entertaining and instructive evening.

We now head east towards the Avon Valley for the final of Helen’s courses at Goomalling.

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Comments

[Arthur & Marjorie]

Wild flowers
We continue to enjoy your 'blog' and look forward to the next chapter! Soon you will be in territory we shall recognise - look out the the wild orchids south of Perth which I found stunning! Alas, your rain in WA has fizzled out before it gets here - we are going thorugh a very dry spell again. Marjorie