Thursday, Oct 30 - exploring Margaret River area

Pics: Bushlands woodlands, Surfin' Prevelly, Lunch at Vasse Felix, Buffeted by a gale at Sugarloaf

OMG - Sun! Well, really partly cloudy, but it was so nice to see some blue sky that we were thrilled after about ten days of drizzle and rain. Bob and I took a pre-breakfast walk around the Bushlands property and encountered a kangaroo family of a mother ‘roo with one joey looking out of her pouch and an older one outside grazing. We walked some of the trails on this 45 acre property of old Karri Eucalyptus, saw orchids, beautiful ferns, returned back for breakfast and then headed out.

We dropped Mark at Mammoth Cave, one of a series of caves in this area, and we headed to the coast. We drove to Prevelly Park, a world champion surfing site, and watched surfers riding enormous waves and walked along the beach for an hour.

We picked up Mark and headed north to the town of Dunsborough to arrange a pelagic tour for the boys tomorrow. Feeling peckish, we looked for a vineyard with a café (there are over 100 on this section of coast) and drove into Vasse Felix, one of the first wineries in the area. Beautiful grounds and a very fancy restaurant! We ordered three “starters”, since we didn’t want to stuff ourselves, and had one of the best lunches ever (right up there with Paarl, Hil).

I had shaved yellowtail king fish, with green ginger sorbet, wakame and shiso salad, Bob had seared scallops with iberico jamon, sw. corn pudding and truffled air(!) and Mark had a great green salad (not a easy thing to come by in OZ). We shared it all around and had a fabulous lunch with a glass of champagne.

The rest of the day didn’t go quite as well: we reached the little town of Dunsborough and found the oceanfront road where the charter is supposed to leave tomorrow and drove back and forth spotting little boat launches and exquisite beaches with stripping of turquoise and dark blue in the ocean - very tropical - and finally saw the boat, Naturaliste Charters, anchored off shore but no office. Finally after asking a lot of people we found a tourist office in town and made a booking for tomorrow morning. It was four already, but we drove to Cape Naturaliste and Sugarloaf Rock where the Red-tailed Tropicbird is supposed to nest. The road was closed so we had to park some ways away and hike a mile to the Rock overlook. Lovely vegetation, but blowing a gale by the time we got there….and the birds, sensibly, were elsewhere.

Headed home, stopping in the very cute touristy town of Margaret River and picking up a box of fried chicken and chips at Chooks, the local KFC. Cuba Libres, chicken and bed!

Wednesday, Oct 29 - Cape Leeuwin

Pics: Leeuwin Lighthouse, Rock Parrot

Well, it was raining when we got up at 7:30, but we had a great day anyway. Mark made delicious banana pancakes which we had with “maple flavour” syrup. We packed and set off at ten. Unfortunately we never got to meet our hosts, Pam and David, who run the boutique winery next-door which would have been interesting…also we might have gotten hold of a few replacement light bulbs!

Off through more lovely Eucalyptus park land for about 120 km to the town of Augusta and the Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse. The lighthouse sits on the southwest most point of WA where the Indian and Southern Oceans meet and here it always blows a gale! It was raining on and off but not cold at all which made it quite tolerable, as long as you held onto your hat. I signed up for a lighthouse tour and the boys went off to bird.

I and the others on the tour climbed the 179 steps to the top with our guide, Bill, warning the men not to hit their heads on various low points - a little irritating as I was a good six inches taller than any other participant! - and stepped out onto a platform and were almost knocked down by the force of the wind. Great views of really fierce waves. The lighthouse was electrified in the 90s and up to that time quantities of kerosene had to be hauled up those steps!

I found Mark and Bob and we walked back to the ticket office/café, but on the way, just peacefully eating seeds in the lawn were two Rock Parrots, a bird we were hoping to see, but not nearly so easily! They are olive green with a turquoise band over their bills and turquoise in their wings. Just lovely! They totally ignored us so we were able to really study them well. We finally got to the café and had a very good lunch of tuna and spicy curried-egg sandwiches and mochas.

We drove north about 20 miles north to the Bussells Bushland Cottages - the boys were worried because this is the cheapest place I booked (3 nights for the price of 2) - but it looks like the best place of the trip. We have a spacious rammed earth cottage and just now as I’m typing a family of ‘roos hopped by looking in the door as they went! Then a Port Lincoln parrot stopped by for some seed! Too cool!

I did a couple of loads of laundry and, when Mark finally came back from emailing and shopping, made pork chops with rice, onions, gr pepper and tomato. TV and bed.

Tuesday, Oct 28 - Pemberton

Pic: Katy's Marron, Blue Loft Cottage

Awoke to pouring rain and thunder! Drove into town to a bakery where Bob had a delicious slice of pizza and a custard tart and Mark and I had muffins. We split up and Bob and I walked in the rain to a tourist information booth for maps and hiking guides and settled into a store with an ethernet connection and caught up on emails. We met up with Mark who had discovered that Simpson, his wonderful 15-year old cat, had been dropped off at his house on Sunday due to a miscommunication! Due to the wonders of Skype, he was able to talk to his neighbors who will feed and care for Simpson until we return. Whew!

We decided to try and take some walks in the national parks nearby as it was only drizzling. We drove the Karri forest loop through tall beautiful salmon-colored Karri eucalypts and finally saw the Varied Sitella, a small black and white bird, that Mark and Bob had been trying to find. We drove by the fancy Karri Valley Resort and made a reservation for dinner. Bob and I drove home, stopping at the Beedelup Falls for a quick walk, and found ourselves on a wildly swinging, narrow suspension bridge over the small falls, made it over and returned to the A-frame to change and back to the Resort. I finally had a chance to order “marron”, the local crayfish and got one that weighed one pound! Just like a “chicken” lobster and quite good, although the thorax was filled with salmon mousse and I didn’t get to find out if marron have tomalley or not.

TV, bed and hopefully a sunnier tomorrow.

Monday, Oct 27 - Valley of the Giants National Park

Pics: Treetop walkway, Slender-billed Cockatoo, me in a tree

Cool and partly cloudy. Ate breakfast and cleaned up, said goodbye to Eugene and Eddie, and to Jody, and set off at ten. We cut across town to the scenic coastal route west. Our first stop was at Wilson Inlet at the town of Denmark. We were afraid it would look like Solvang, but it was instead a trim tiny seaside town. The White-winged Triller was a new life bird. We stopped a few more times, and then I insisted that we not delay getting to the Valley of the Giants National Park as it kept looking like rain.

We got to the park and got tickets for the Tree Top Walk, an amazingly well-engineered walkway that gradually climbs in swaying sections to 120 feet, so that shortly you are up in the tops of the Red and Yellow Tingle Trees, a type of very large Eucalyptus. Suddenly at the top of a dead snag we spotted the Slender-billed Black Cockatoo, a huge black parrot with a very large bill hidden in its fluffy black face feathers - a really dramatic sight that ordinarily we would have just glimpsed from the ground.

We returned to the Visitors’ Centre and grabbed the sandwiches we had brought and walked onto the Ancient Empire boardwalk through groves of enormous, buttressed trees. Al, a ranger, came and told us about the trees and efforts to save them, reduce salinity in the surrounding farm land and generally preserve the environment.

We had another 100 miles to drive so we set off through parkland and tree farms, finally reaching Pemberton, a small town in timber and wine country that looks pretty nice. I had selected a 2-bedroom chalet, called Blue Loft Cottages that turned out to be quite a ways out of town, in the middle of the woods across the street from an avocado grove. Very cute, brand new A-frame house with a loft bedroom up a spiral staircase and another bedroom down.
I cooked sautéed chicken with veggies and made mashed potatoes and we watched Austin Powers, pt 3.

Sunday, Oct 26 - Porongurup N P

Pics: Poronurup flower, Windrush Winery

Little wind and clearing. The boys set off at 6:30 for Two Peoples and I stayed in bed which felt ridiculously luxurious! Up at eight, Bob and Mark returned at nine, and we had bacon and fried eggs and set off at 10 for Porongurup National Park about 25 miles north of Albany.

When we drove up into the small mountains of the park we could see the Stirling Range about another 25 miles to the north of us. Although the parks are close together, the flora is very different. The Porongurups receive much more rain than the Stirlings and have beautiful, very tall and straight Karri eucalyptus. The whole park had burned over 18 months before, but the trees are very fire resistant and are recovering nicely. The smaller plants look pretty weedy , although we saw some pretty flowers but we didn’t see any of the many orchids that are supposed to grow there, but maybe the fire has something to do with that. Lots of bird songs and we saw several Western Rosellas, orange-red parrots with yellow faces and green backs.

We drove on to the town of Mt. Baker and asked someone for a restaurant recommendation and she suggested Windrush Winery, down a long dirt road. We finally found vines growing and turned into the winery and lovely modern tasting room and café. We were greeted by David the owner and tasted four very good and inexpensive wines (USD 13-14) and then went into the café where his wife Caroline served us a very good lunch of Turkish bread with dips, stuffed mushrooms for me, lamb kabobs for Mark and chicken salad for RR.

After our leisurely lunch we drove back to Albany and birded a marshy area for an hour or two finally returning home for toasted cheese sandwiches and bed.

Saturday, Oct 25 - Albany

Pics: roos!

Torrential rains over night. Up at five again, this time to fierce winds and off and on rain. We drove to Two Peoples Bay again so that Mark could see the rare Western Bristle bird ( he heard it, didn’t see it) and we all could try for the even rarer Noisy Scrub-bird that had been thought to be extinct from the mid-1800s until it was discovered in the early sixties (if its call is so noisy, which it is, how could it have been missed for a century??)

It had been so warm lately that I didn’t wrap up enough and it was Cold out there and I stayed in the car much of the time. . We passed a field full of kangaroos which was a wonderful sight. I hope they were wild and not farmed roos, but great to see them anyway. We drove to a nearby gas station/general store and restocked for breakfast and bought some local beer and wine. Returned for breakfast about eight.

We set out for town at noon as it was too windy to do anything else. I returned to my scuba shop to blog and Mark found an internet café and then we shopped and wandered up York Street, meeting Bob, who had driven off to see more of the coastline, at the Library at two.

Stopped at a large IGA supermarket to do a major restocking and returned home. Bob and Mark walked down to the nearby bridge to look for shorebirds and I stayed in to nurse the cold I’ve had for the past week. Finally had enough time to cook the Brucato’s famous BTOR (beef tips over rice) with green beans. Bob and I sat down to eat at seven and after a bit, were joined by Mark who had become lost after driving off to check out some swamp for rails and crakes.
Good dinner, if I do say so, and afterwards, Mark managed to light the fireplace stove, which is our only heat. It’s surrounded by a fence (some kind of safety device, I guess) which make it very difficult to build a fire.
Tonight is the beginning of daylight savings, so the sun won’t come up until 6:15 - much better!

Friday, Oct 24 - exploring Albany

Pics: Eugene, Oblong Turtle

Bob and I got up at five as we had planned to drive out to a nearby point and search for the rare Western Bristlebird… Mark left a note that he wanted to sleep in and was worried that all the rain would have made things too muddy. So we set out and found Two Peoples Nature Reserve without any trouble. It was not raining and the roads were all surfaced. We stopped the car in a car park where the Western Australian birder Frank O’Connor had successfully seen the bird about 9 years ago and there he, or his offspring was! Got good views and returned back to find Mark up.

We decided to drive downtown, get breakfast and use an internet café for the morning. Found a very Santa Cruzian café and had croissants, porridge, and scrambled eggs with chorizo sausage. Excellent! We agreed to meet at noon by the library as you can often hook your computer up there. I couldn’t, but found a scuba dive shop where I finally could blog a bit. Meanwhile RRZ looked for seabirds at The Gap in Torndirrup National Park.

We met up and drove to Lake Seppings next to a busy road where a birding trail was listed. Saw the Red-winged Fairy-wren and then spotted a very large foot-long turtle with an enormous neck as long as her shell, and then several more. They are migrating across the road to a golf course where they lay their eggs. We were worried for their safety, but then saw several “turtle patrol” volunteers slowing down traffic and guiding the turtles across! Pretty cool!

It gradually cleared and then became very windy, but still warm. Returned for naps, then set out for a Japanese restaurant at Emu Point where we got wonderful bowls of comforting seaweed soup and OK mains. Unfortunately, no alcohol whatsoever.

Thursday, Oct 23 - to Albany

Pics: Scarlet Banksia, King Lizard, Banksia sp.

Overcast and drizzling when we got up. Combined leftovers (steak, bacon, eggs, potatoes, onions) for a tasty breakfast, cleaned up, packed and set off at 8:30, heading west to Albany. The coastal highway, as in much of Australia, is 20-30 miles inland with roads leading of it to the shore. This isn’t great for tourists, but really preserves the coast line from over-development. We drove down to a fishing camp on an large tidal inlet which looked very much like South Dartmouth, and down several other roads through increasingly lovely coastal shrub preserved in small national parks. This area hasn’t burned as recently as Fitzgerald, nor has it experienced the die-off of that area and we saw some lovely red Banksias and other flowers.

We finally wove down to Waychinicup NP on a rocky lagoon and sat by the warm water to eat sandwiches…and suddenly spotted several 1-2 foot long black glossy lizards sidling up to us, obviously interested in our lunch! Fortunately they weren’t too aggressive, but they did hang around and watched us closely.

We continued westward until we reached the outskirts of Albany, the second largest city of WA with 29,000 inhabitants and found Coraki Holiday Cottages scattered on the shore of Oyster Bay. We settled into No. 4 which has a kitchen, living room, laundry and porch overlooking a pen with two pet emus who come over to inspect you for food which is a little disconcerting as they are almost six feet high.

We cleaned up and drove into the downtown on York St. which takes about 20 minutes from our cottage. It started to rain quite hard so we ran down the street and found Nonna’s which had been recommended by the hotel manager. Well, our waitress was enthusiastic and cheerful, but the meal lacked any flavor whatsoever. Returned home for chocolate and bed.
Pouring rain in the night. We are at last in the green, wet part of WA

Wednesday, Oct 22 - Exploring Fitzgerald River National Park

Pics: Royal Hakea, Bremer Bay

Up early at six. Clearing and warm. After breakfast we drove out to explore the Fitzgerald River National Park, a World Biosphere Reserve, due to the great number of plant species. We drove through low scrub stopping to bird and admire the variety, although subtle, of plants. Much of the park has been burned in the last few years and other parts have been affected by “Die Off” Phytopthera, a fungus similar to the Sudden Oak Death Syndrome in California, which is killing off much of the vegetation. Much of the park has been closed off to entry and in other places hikers have to wash their shoes before entering to reduce the spread of the fungus. We saw several kangaroos bounding off into the bush and two beautiful yellow and blue-black Tiger snakes (highly venomous) sunning in the road…Mark did everything but pick one of them up in his enthusiasm to photograph it!

We stopped at Point Ann and climbed up to an overlook where we could see miles of white sand beaches, turquoise water where we hoped to see Southern Right Whales and their calves, but instead we watched a meter-long monitor lizard walk along the cliff tops grabbing insects out of the air.

We continued north through the park to Highway 1 and turned west to the town of Jerramungup where we stopped at a gas station/café for diesel and ordered and tried to eat the worst hotdog/chili chicken burger/grilled cheese sandwich possible, but fortunately were able to finish up with Magnum Classico ice cream bars so drove away happy.
We returned to Bremer Bay and left Mark who had cleverly taken his computer along, at the public library where there is fast wireless.

Bob and I shopped for food, picked up Mark and drove to the estuary to look for shorebirds. As we parked we spotted a Red-capped Parrot eating grass seeds. This parrot has a red head, purple breast, green wings and is just amazing! We spotted beautiful pelicans, terns and other birds until it got too dark. We returned to the cottage and Mark and Bob took over the barbeque chores for the t-bones and I cooked pasta and carrots. Good dinner, TV ( 2 ½ Men and Simpsons), and then the three of us sat around the dining room table to write up our notes….RRZ has seen 126 species!

Tuesday, Oct 21 - to Bremer Bay

Pics: ouor cottage at Bremer Bay, Southern Ocean view

Overcast, but warm. Up at 5;30 and out for a walk around the retreat. I finally got good views of the Elegant Parrots - beautiful, yellow parrots with bands of turquoise across their bills that grazes quietly on the ground. Bob spotted a hole in a tree and was lucky enough to spot a Australian Owlet- Nightjar peeking out, a very cute fuzzy owl-like bird.

I cooked French toast with jelly for breakfast and we cleaned the cottage and packed up and left this wonderful nature reserve about ten. I drove southeast away from the Stirling Range Mountains and once again into flat wheat fields and scrub. We stopped to bird several times and were amazed to see that none of the highway signs are full of gunshot holes as they are throughout the American West and by the lack of trash. The population density is much lower, but even so…

We arrived in Bremer Bay about 2:30. Bremer Bay is a strange little town right on the coast of the Southern Ocean. There are three places to stay: Bremer Bay Caravan Park, Bremer Bay Resort, and Bremer Bay Beaches Resort and Caravan Park, all hidden in the six foot high coastal scrub, none with an ocean view and very confusingly named. Finally sorted it out and got our BB Beaches Resort 2-bedroom chalet, a very nice house with front porch, TV and full kitchen, but a mile from the water!

Mark took a nap and Bob and I drove off to find the ocean. We suddenly emerged onto a small fishing harbor with a pure white beach and turquoise water. The absolutely clean sand “crunched” beneath our feet and we found giant limpet shells - quite tropical and warm (67 water, 73 air) considering it’s the same latitude as San Luis Obispo. It’s a very complicated coastline here and there are islands and coves and beaches everywhere you drive.

We drove into town to the one general store and stocked up on food and rum. Got two T-bones for tomorrow as our cabin comes with an enormous grill. Returned back to the cabin where we all took showers and dumped all of our clothes in bags and sprinted over to the large coin laundry facility - four machines!! Laundry issues resolved, we had drinks, out to dinner at the Bremer Bay Resort for amazingly good food: chicken and pumpkin curry, pork ribs and lamb cutlet. Rain, thunder and lightening.

Monday, Oct 20 - Orchids!!

Pics: The "Trek", Orchid: Scented Sun, Xmas Leek, Purple Pansy, Butterfly

I walked over to the office to see about a orchid tour and chatted up some of the Trek guys. Apparently they spend all year decorating their trucks, get a ton of sponsors, and drive around WA raising money for and visiting kids with cancer. I passed by men dressed as Superman, Vikings, Pirates, etc. . Pretty amusing stuff.
At nine Bob and I joined seven others by a small van and Ayleen, one of the Retreat owners and a botany enthusiast, took us on board and drove us short distances up the road stopping frequently for us all to jump out and see some spectacular orchid. They’re all very small, 1- 2” across, but wildly gaudy. She also pointed out many other flowers that we had been puzzling over. Every color of the rainbow and very complex structures. We returned at noon just as it started to rain on and off.
I took advantage of the rain and went to the office to struggle with their computer. At 3:30 we realized that the café across the street was closing in half an hour for their day off tomorrow. We had a breakfast hamper from the Retreat to finish, but no alcohol, so we got the café to bend the rules a little by ordering two bottles of wine, drinking a glass out of each and carrying them to the car, as they don’t have a Take-Away license. Most of the wine of OZ now has screw caps but we realized too late the red wine we had picked had a cork which by then had been discarded so we had to balance it carefully (and illegally) back to our cottage.
We made a bacon and potato frittata for dinner. Had a slide show and played sudoku.

Sunday, Oct 19 - Exploring the Stirling Range

Pics: Southern Cross flower, Western Blue-tongued Lizard threatening my foot! (Mark Holmgren photo), Cowslip Orchid

Poor night’s sleep for both of us as the beds have heavy quilts on them so we were either boiling or freezing. Mark came over from his “dorm” room (actually a four bunk room which he had all to himself with a slight hike to the bathroom) and on our little two-burner stove cooked up eggs with potatoes, green onions and mushroom- all leftovers from previous meals that we had carried along in our cooler bag. Thus fortified, we walked over to the office and signed up the a birding walk at eight. About ten of us set out for a walk around the property and got good views of a lot of birds that we had seen previously, but also several active nests which was very interesting.

Afterwards Mark and I spent an hour in the office sending out blogs, UC business, etc. Bob thought that was a poor use of the day so we piled into our car and took the 40 km loop drive through the park. We stopped several times and hiked a bit, checking out the amazing flora of the region. The hills resemble the chaparral-covered slopes in California on first glance but when we walked around, we were stunned by the diversity of plant life. Eucalyptus of every height and shape, bottle brush, acacia, tiny orchids, etc. It was really amazing; everywhere we turned we saw a new plant. We also saw quite a few new birds, but there are far fewer species of birds than plants.

Mark screeched to a halt when he spotted what turned out to be a Western Blue-Tongued Lizard that swelled up its body and flashed its bright blue tongue at us. Quite a sight!

We kept seeing large decorated trucks coming towards us and apparently there is some kind of road race of funny trucks marked with “The Trek“, which it kicks up a lot of dust as they race along.

Got back at 5;30 to find all the trucks parked at our Retreat with music blaring! Hope they don’t plan on partying all night! We walked over to the Café and had a very good dinner of spinach, tomato and cheese tart, herbed chicken pie and cannelloni. Back to our cottage; the middle aged truckers seem to have crashed as well. Found blankets, got rid of the quilts and slept much better.

Saturday, Oct 18 - to the Stirling Ranges

Pics: Eden Valley Farm Stay,

view of the Stirlings, Short-billed Black Cockatoo

After all the rum and beer and wine consumed last night, none of us was able to get up at the 5:30 alarm. We gradually assembled at seven and I put together a “health” breakfast of yogurt, bananas, juice and sweet rolls…not appreciated by the others at all!!

We had arranged to go for a hike on the property with Barbara at 8, but she arrived at 7:30 with the news that her 102-year old mother-in-law had fallen and an ambulance was on the way, and that she would have to go in with them to the hospital. The boys went off to check out another wildflower area for birds and I took a break from birding and did a little cleaning and bed stripping as poor Barbara is expecting a man and his children from Singapore to arrive at 2 pm. Barbara’s daughter told me that the MIL was being flown to Perth as her hip had been injured.
Bob and Mark arrived back at 10 having photographed a wonderful orchid they had found. We packed up the car and left as there was no way to find out now what was happening to Barbara and Mrs. Harris. Wonderful stay at a lovely farm!

We drove south on back roads, checking out some salty lakes, but not finding much in the way of birdlife. We drove through the town of Lake Grace which appeared to be completely deserted, but after inquiring at a gas station, we were told that the entire town had gone to a soccer game! The gas station sold pretty good chicken burgers so the famished boys were satisfied.

After miles more of Eucalyptus woodland and wheat fields we finally saw mountains on the horizon. A real thrill after all this flatness! We pulled into the Stirling Range Retreat, a combo trailer, tent, dorm and cabin facility that caters to bird and flower watchers. Mark got a dorm room for the night and we checked into a “rammed earth cottage” which turned out to be a concrete one-room cottage with queen and bunk beds with a tiny stove and frig and bathroom. Tiny but well-designed. The only internet access is a computer in the main office, so we shall see if we can blog or not.

We walked around until dark and saw wonderful gatherings of Short-billed Black Cockatoos flirtatiously preening and feeding each other.
Good dinner at tiny Bluff Knoll Café across the street.

Friday, Oct 17 - Dryandra State Forrest

Pic: Western Grey kanagaroo, Thick knee (click to enlarge) Pind Eucalyptus!

[Finally! real wireless (10-23) and a birding break!]

Overcast and cool when we arose at 6. Eggs with mushrooms and onions and seedy rolls. Off at 8 through Narrogin to the Dryandra Woodland State Forest where we pulled into the Visitors’ Center and immediately spotted a pair of Thick-Knees with one chick, flattening themselves to the ground, completely camouflaged. We drove through the forest of mid-sized Eucalypts stopping many times to bird. With Mark’s tapes we were able to call in many species and Bob ended up with five new life birds. We had lunch by a rectangular pond, a remnant from the old steam engine train days when they cached water to supply the passing trains. The woods are very dry and the wildflowers are small but colorful; hopefully better south of here.

We returned to the Farm at 5:30 after shopping and had rum and cokes and various beers with Barbara who told us of her life in Perth and retirement on the farm. I made Julia Child hamburgers with wine sauce, fried potatoes and avocado, tomato and green onion salad. Spent the evening around our cozy iron stove.

Thursday, Oct 16 - to Narrogin

Pics: Shingle Lizard, Cream Buns, Eden Valley Alpacas




Clear, getting partly cloudy; 75 degrees. Mark got up at 5:30 to do a little birding, but we slept in, packed up and checked out at 7:30 when Mark returned.

We drove east on good back roads about 100 km to the town of Moora where we had heard that we could get fresh baked pastries at the Pioneer Tea Room. I finally had a cream bun which I had heard of for years but wasn’t sure what it was. A lovely soft bun filled with rich whipped cream and jam! Wonderful! And a jam tart and hot chocolate which came in a tall glass of hot milk with thick melted chocolate on the bottom. I was bouncing off the walls with that sugar high!


The countryside got much lusher with tall gum trees and wheat fields. Mark pulled off suddenly and we saw a foot-long Shingle Lizard by the side of the road! It tried to scar us off by hissing and sticking out its blue tongue!


Bob started driving as we worked our way south through Wannamal, Toodyay, the pretty old town of York and Pingelly where I took over the driving at last. There is so little traffic that I figured that even I could handle driving our huge car on the “wrong” side of the road. At Norrogin we turned north a few miles to the Eden Valley Farmstay and pulled into the drive of a 100 yr farm house with an even older cottage behind it. Amy, the sheep dog, raced over to greet us and we watched some parrots for a while until Barbara Harris appeared, very embarrassed as she had fallen asleep.

Not surprising as her husband is out of town on a geology trip and she is in charge of their 300+ acre farm, 400 sheep, cows and a few alpacas, plus the B&B She took us for a drive through fields to show us the friendly herds and the wool barn. She is a spinner of wool and she is hoping that I can fit in a visit to her spinning studio. No wireless!
We drove back to Norrogin for food shopping and pub dinner at the Duke of York Hotel.

Wedneday, Oct 15 - Cervantes

Internet access pretty spotty lately! Will try and catch up...text for now..photos later...

Margaret pointed out that I made a terrible error with the Browns....of course they beat the Super Bowl champs, not the hapless Jets....RR had forgotten to edit that blog!



Up at 5:30. Misty and dripping. We drove to Meanarra Hill in the Park and birded as it gradually cleared. Returned to town and walked down to the river mouth where it was lovely and sunny and too early for the flies to be out. Back to our apartment and in the spirit of cleaning out the frig, cooked up onions, green pepper, ham, cheese and eggs. Cleaned the kitchen and packed the car and we were off at ten.


We drove east through the Park stopping to bird and walk down to the river at Ross Graham Overlook and reached Rt 1 and headed south. Passed through the old town of Northampton where during October the townspeople drape their quilts over the town hall to air them out after the winter. Unfortunately it is scheduled for this Saturday and we can’t wait for this bizarre sight. Headed through Geraldton and stopped for lunch at Greenough, a pretty reconstructed 19th century village, which we didn’t have time to more than glance at, but did have lunch. Mark consumed an enormous cottage pie and we had soup.


Mark misplaced his precious ipod car radio player which allows us to hear tons of wonderful music, NPR shows, and all the Australian bird calls while we drive. He tore apart the back of the car until Bob spotted it lying next to the front seat where M had been almost sitting on it. We continued on south, leaving the main highway and the road trains for an almost deserted beach highway that cuts through miles of low scrub and brilliant white dunes and tiny beach towns. Amazing that so much beautiful coastline can still be undeveloped.

We reached the town of Cervantes and managed to rent another Best Western apartment, and Mark was able to cancel his dorm room that he had reserved in another hotel.

We immediately set out for the famous Pinnacles N P nearby as the sun had an hour until setting. Drove through more scrub until suddenly we were in the open, with a bright yellow sand floor and thousands of limestone columns 1 - 4 meters high filling the landscape for many acres. We were hoping for the setting sun to illuminate them and it did a bit but there were lots of clouds on the horizon. Even so, it was a truly other-worldly sight and reminded me of some scene in “Babar” Really wonderful!

It was getting dark so we returned, and spotted a lovely reddish Tammar Wallaby (2-3‘ high ‘roo) standing by the side of the road.
Home for cubas, computers and some chicken risotto, and bed.

Tuesday, Oct. 14 - Kalbarri National Park

(pics: Roadside plant, Birders, Kalbarra National Park)

We all got up at 5:30 to try and beat the wind. Grabbed a cup of Mark’s macho coffee and drove down the coast a few miles to the southern edge of the park. Wind increasing, but made it to several overlooks with views of craggy rocks and crashing surf and quite a few Euros. Hiked down into a canyon and got good views of one of my favorite birds, the Fairy-Wren, this time the Blue-Breasted…really lovely!

We got out of the wind only to find ourselves brutally attacked by the infamous tiny Australian flies!! They don’t bite, but their goal in life is to crawl up your nose, into your ears and lodge themselves behind your glasses and they can literally drive one insane! Bob’s fly net was still safely packed in his suitcase and Mark doesn’t have one, as yet, but I got mine out and I survived. The boys had to flee so we returned to the car and drove back for breakfast at 9:30. Delicious eggs scramble with onion, green pepper and cheddar cheese, beer and coffee. Perfect!

Bob realized that since we’re 15 hours ahead of California, that Monday Night Football was happening as we breakfasted…and the Browns were playing the NY Jets, so we logged onto my computer and found that the Browns were leading at the half. Bob figured that they would soon be mashed by NY, but when we checked after breakfast…the Browns had won: 34 to 17!

We worked on our computers and photos during the heat of the day (95) and didn’t set out until 2. This time we drove into the inland part of the park. We drove about 20 miles through flat scrub with glimpses of pink, yellow, and red flowers. We suddenly emerged onto the lip of the beautiful canyon of the Murchison River which winds in looping coils through the plain. The walls of the canyon are red and streaked with white and black and resemble Utah. Mark spotted a kangaroo on the other side of the river lounging in a cave in the shade..more sense than we had!

It was too hot to take proper hike, but we took a few short walks to the edge and rejoined Mark who had been birding and he showed us a place where we saw wonderful view of several new birds: the Black Honeyeater and the beautiful Pied honeyeater which has a blue patch of skin below its eye.

We drove back to our nice condo at five and washed up and organized our gear and had Cuba Libres. Finally we decided to go out to dinner at 7:30 and were wondering if anything would be open in this tiny town in the middle of the week. We pulled into the Grass Tree Café and they were bustling. Got a talk outdoors and shared a delicious plate of spring rolls. Service was very slow but finally Bob got Creamy prawns, and Mark got seafood pasta and I got crab in Singapore chili sauce. First I got a big bowl for shells and pliers, a pick and a bib! Finally a big bowl arrived with large pieces of crab sitting in hot delicious sauce. I’m very good at dissecting lobster but delicate crab shell covered in chili sauce is quite another thing! I did very well, but ended up covered in sauce up to my elbows! Quite a sight, but well worth it! We finished by splitting a milk chocolate/ginger parfait! Quite an amazing dinner considering we are really off in the boonies

Monday, Oct 13 - Geraldton to Kalbarra

(pics: freighter ouot of Geraldton, the Pink Lake, a grevelia species)

Bob and I got up at 6 and got an omelet at the Best Western restaurant. It was completely clear, but windy. We walked across the street to an old hermitage and birded a bit. Called Mark who was still getting his stuff together. Finally met up at nine and packed the car and drove south of Geraldton to the coastal road where we parked and walked out onto the beach. Can see why it’s called the Turquoise Coast as the water is amazingly beautiful. We can also see why it’s called the Shipwreck Coast as there are numerous reefs off shore with crashing surf and spray.

We drove up to Geraldton and through the harbor. Although it only has a population of 20,000, it is a major fishing and freight harbor on this lonely coast. Enormous red and green buoys line the channel to guide the freighters out to sea between the reefs; lobster processing plants and grain elevators line the shore.

We continued north about 60 miles, stopping to bird in the increasingly howling gale. At Port Gregory we stopped at the Pink Lake, a large estuary filled with algae that turns the water bubble gum pink. Lovely black and white Stilts with bright red legs were wadding making quite a lovely sight.

We finally reach the little holiday town of Kalbarri at the mouth of the Murchison River and found our Best Western where we had reserved a nice two-story apartment for the three of us, complete with kitchen and a washing machine!! It was way too windy to hike, so Mark remained there to do some of our laundry and take a nap. Bob and I drove into the Kalbarri National Park a little ways. Scrubby brush and red dirt. Saw our first ‘roo of the trip! Always a thrill. Probably a Euro, a reddish 4’ high kangaroo. We were pretty tired and hungry so we returned to town stopping at a pretty-well stocked IGA grocery and got dinner and breakfast stuff. After driving around a bit we located a drive-through liquor store and got the important stuff: beer, wine and rum!

Returned home to find our laundry neatly hung up behind our casita and relaxed with rum and cokes. I sautéed some onions, green pepper and garlic and then some beef strips and tossed them with some pasta flavored with a tube of Italian herb mix. Not great, but did the trick! Mark left after dark to try and see some mammals on the road with his spot light and we collapsed into bed.