Departed Hyden this morning, southward bound for Hopetoun on the south coast, west of Esperance. Cold day, again! No unplanned photo stops today, just a coffee stop at King Lake. As we neared Ravensthorpe we started to question why we were going to stay at Hopetoun - further 50km - & then drive back to Ravensthorpe for the Flower Show & Market Day tomorrow!?? We quickly decided it would be far better to stay in Ravensthorpe & do day trip to Hopetoun on Sunday. Booked into Ravensthorpe Caravan Park for 3 nights - & John did phone Hopetoun CP to let them know we had changed plans. Quickly set up the 'Penguin' before going back into town to look at the Craft & Quilt Show, the Ravensthorpe Wildflower Show & a local Art Gallery. The Ravensthorpe area is noted for its biodiversity & there were over 700 speicies named & displayed! [I didn't actually count them, just read it on brouchure!] Booked in for a 40km 4WD tag along tour to Ravy Range, leaving from the town at 11;30 tomorrow morning, $20 pp includes picnic lunch & entry to Camel Museum. Took few photos around town - flowers & a feisty little Shingle Backed Lizard - before returning to van for the night.
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| Around Ravensthorpe town: Eucalypt tree trunk; Eucalypt blossoms, yellow & red;Dainty Blue Orchid; Shingle Backed Lizard; Floral display at Wildflower Show |
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Headed in to town after breakfast to have a look at the Market Day stalls in the Town Hall & get organised with the 4WD tour group. Well, the market day was pretty well non-existent & confusion reigned about preparations for the drive! All vehicles had to have under-body high pressure wash before entering Ravy Range so as not to contaminate the area with the Phytopthera Die Back pathogen. This pathogen can be picked up from soil, especially damp soil, in contaminated areas & would be disasterous if taken into disease free areas. [For more information/education about this have a look at this web site http://www.dwg.org.au/ ]
It was finally decided we should proceed to the washdown area where we met the tour leader, Keith, a member of the State Emergency Services. The landcruiser was duly hosed down & quite a bit of mud came free. Then headed back to park at the meeting point, early, of course, so there was time to have morning tea at the town hall. The trip finally got under way about 11:50. We travelled in convoy to the Camel Museum, nestled at the base of the Ravy Range & then on to Archer Drive to the Ravensthorpe Range Lookout. There were lots of flowers out & the scenery from the lookout was very picturesque. We continued on from here along 4WD tracks, stopping at points of interest such as flowers, mallee fowl nest mound & at an abandoned vineyard for lunch at about 2:15! From here we followed more 4WD tracks down some reasonably steep slopes to the main road. Really nice day!
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| Ravy Range 4WD tag-along tour; View from lookout; Flowers |
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Drove to Hopetoun. Appeared to be sleepy little coastal town with not much happening on Sunday morning. Very overcast & quite chilly when we arrived. Then we found a nice cafe with great coffee, once again! We were planning to have lunch here but not sure what to do till then as we were unable to access Fitzgerald National Park due to road closures! Noticed another cafe advertising Roast dinner lunches for $15 - thought this sounded good as we don't cater for roast dinners in the van! By this time the weather had started to clear so we had a drive around to look at the coastal scenery & of course, more wildflowers, which were quite prolific in some areas. Took photos of another Shingle Backed Lizard who was lolling about in the middle of the road & it became quite defensive, waving his blue tongue at us when I tried to get him to move off the road! It finally decided to wander slowly off to the side of road. Back to main street for our roast dinner which was delicious! Made a few detours to known wildflower spots on way back to Ravensthorpe. Light tea tonight - soup & rice crackers followed by strawberries & icecream. Bit of packing up as we leave for Esperance tomorrow.
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| Hopetoun & Fitzgerald River NP area: Wattle; Mt Barren; Shingle Backed Blue Tongue; Bush Boronia; John at beach near Fitzgerald River. |
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| Flowers around Hopetoun & Fitzgerald NP area: Lambertia; Pink Pimelia; Grass Tree; Pea Flower [one of many types!]; New Banksia; Busy Bee; Cats Paw [small kangaroo paw]; Yellow Cottonheads. |
Not a long drive from Ravensthorpe to Esperance, only about 190km. John forgot to fill up with fuel when we left, so we stopped at a small place called Munglinup for fuel & coffee. I think the roadhouse was the only commercial building in the 'town'. The guy there was multi-skilled, he filled the car, made the coffee & settled the accounts - he said his wife taught him everything!! Met a few other travellers in the park over the road while we drank our coffee - couple from Canberra, two couples from Qld & two from Victoria. There are so many Qld registered vehicles here I am not sure who is still in Qld!!
Arrived safely at Pink Lake CP & settled onto our site. Lunch in town & bit of a look around. Warmer day in the sun but the wind was really cold. Usual evening, game of Anagrams [John complains I win too often & he thinks he has 'lost Excalibur'], computer time & reading. Only photos today was this frog - I think it is a Western Tree Frog.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Big washing day, again! Clean sheets, towels & clothes. Not only clean, but dried on a clothes line in the sun - something I really missed with apartment living in Perth & some CP's don't have clothes lines [or it's too wet], only dryers. While the washing fluttered in the breeze we went for a drive to a wetlands sanctuary to see what birds we could spy, only to discover the birds are really not there till November [to April]! So we saw a pelican, some ducks, which flew away & glimpses of LBB's [little brown birds] in the trees. However we did see more wildflowers, surprise, surprise!!! Two types of Spider Orchids, a few small pink orchids & dozens of yellow Cowslip Orchids. Also some nice new Banksias starting to come out. Just about trod on another Shingle Backed Lizard who was lying in the sun near some flowers I was looking at! He was quite feisty & showed us his blue tongue, just like his "cousins' photographed on previous days. Looked at a couple more spots around the wetland lakes but not much activity. Home for lunch via Bunnings to pick up a few 'plumbing bits for the van drain'. Washing retrieved , folded & put away; bed made & off to Woolies for some food supplies. Shopping eventually stored away, which required some re-organisation of the food cupboard. Decided to have an outing to the Movies tonight. Saw 'The Sorcerers Apprentice' - quite good, light hearted, fun movie!
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| Wetlands at Esperance: Lake Tranquility;Spider Orchid; Cowslip Orchid; Green Bug on Dryandra |
Friday, September 24,2010
Hi everyone! Hope you are enjoying the blog so far. My apologies for being a bit behind with the entries at the moment - there are so many places to go & then so many photos to sort & choose which ones to post on blog! I will try to get Wednesday, Thursday, Friday & Saturdays posts up before we leave Esperance as I am not sure how much internet access I will have as we cross the Nullarbor.
I believe some of you are finding it difficult to add comments to blog - please try again as I have now adjusted the security levels. Email me if that is easier, love to hear from you! Regards, Heather
trying once more
ReplyDeleteRobyn