Peelies travels

I've spent quite a number of nights of my life under canvas and a large proportion of those have been 'in Europe'. The first camping trip was to France in 1978 and most recent was last year, 2012. Ever since those early days, we had a list of items that had to be packed so that nothing was forgotten. The assumption was always that there was no way a forgotten item could be replaced whilst on holiday. When camping in the UK and Europe, you always have to be on the lookout for the weather, no matter what season or location. I suppose Greece and Turkey might be more predictable but in the areas in which Dawn and I have camped, extending to Poland, and former Yugoslavia, there's always the expectation of a thunderstorm and the hailstones and winds to go with it. The weather in WA is different, as once Spring turns into Summer, even as far south west at Margaret River, the temperature rises and the rain stops. The temperature in early summer in Perth is in the high 20...

w/c 4th November 2013 Moving south of Perth and Fremantle, you encounter a wholly different country to that of the arid coast of mid WA. That area could be refered to as north west Western Australia; this new area is most definitely the south west. On a map of this huge country, it's an insignificant area, but it is of course quite big. It's over 300km from Freo to Cape Leeuwin, the point at which the Indian and Southern oceans meet. To get there it's a beautiful drive through rolling countryside of bush, woods and vineyards. At this time of year it is most definitely Spring and the weather reflected this. During the next few days the maximum temperature varied between 20 and 16 deg C, which feels very cold when you have been wearing shorts for nearly a month. The beaches of the south west continue to be stunning and nearly empty of course, but in places there are gneiss outcrops which have created a spectacular coastline. It did rain a little, but really only right...

Saturday 2nd November 2013 I wasn't particularly excited about going to 'Freo'. I hadn't done much reading homework in advance and I just thought it is a fairly busy port. I wasn't expecting the mix of culture and architecture that we found on our first walk around. There are many Victorian and Edwardian buildings, many a legacy of the gold rush. We headed straight for the visitor centre and a nice guy called Alan (ex Pom) gave us the most detailed descriptions of what to do and where to go, that the open air stalls just outside had all packed up whilst we were in there. He did direct us to quite a number of sights and it was nice to wander around in the afternoon sun. There were of course a fair few distractions along the way... Coffee is taken on Cappuccino Strip... ...and beer is drunk at Little Creatures, a very cool brewery that forces you to sample seven beers before you are allowed to buy any! In a corner bar within the market (The Market Tavern), th...

Geraldton is known as 'sun City' and it's very obvious why. I've never seen such a beautiful sea surrounding a built-up area. Perth and Fremantle clearly get votes, but the beach just south of Geraldton where we stopped for a picnic lunch, really is spectacular. It is several miles of pristine white sand, open to the ocean rollers and with spring temperatures in the mid to high twenties, it was lovely. The objective was to visit the Pinnacles at Cervantes, to arrive mid afternoon. Most of this coastline is formed of massive sand dunes. They stretch for mile after mile, pushing up from the bush at the side of the road and occasionally forming really high mounds. From a distance they look like a glaciated area of mountain. The Cervantes Pinnacles are a vast area of limestone pillars that have been exposed from within the sand. Origins are unclear but they are thought to have been formed in the Cater   Quaturn  Quaternary period which is apparently 1.8 million years ago ...

Sunday 27 October 2013 Continuing south on the North West Coastal Highway we passed east of Kalbarri National Park and just before 28deg south, took a right to go northwest through the park for 65km, to hit the coast at Kalbarri. This is a "popular holiday destination" according to the notes on the map, which conjures-up images of hoards of people all crammed into a seafront strip. Well this Western Australia and things don't work like that. The photographs say it all really...   This is the mouth of the Murchison River, the first we've seen with any visible water. The Indian Ocean is to the left of the left picture and the town is on the south side (to the right) and the river mouth is a lovely place to enjoy the water. There's a great beach, water craft to hire and the pub is just across the road. Pelicans come onto the verge at the edge of the beach for an extra feed each morning. Intrepid explorers once walked from here to Perth, about 500 km away, afte...

Continuing south from Coral Bay, we re-joined the North West Coastal Highway at the Minilya Roadhouse and then it's a mere 139 km to Carnarvon. Here we bought fresh fruit from one of the many plantations that line the river (which looks dry but there is water in there somewhere). One of the items we purchased was prepared mango, frozen for convenience and our later delight. Have you ever eaten anything better than defrosting mango when the temperature is in the mid thirties?? It was delicious. Just another 206 km south is Overlander Roadhouse and that was our turnoff to Shark Bay Marine Park. Our first stop was at Hamelin Station, another ranch but in complete contrast to Bullara in the north, this is an ultra modern campground in an utterly arid ranch. I honestly don't understand how any livestock can be raised here. There is nothing on the ground just a load of stumpy bushes. The facilities are perfect and maintained by a farm employed husband and wife team; similar to ot...

21 October 2013 We left Exmouth for the second time, bound for Coral Bay, a much recommended location south of the North West Cape and Ningaloo Marine Park. Coral Bay is very remote as it is 152km south of Exmouth and 247 km north of Carnarvon. So you take your pick when you need to go shopping. At Coral Bay there are two campsites, a smal hotel and a backpacker hostel, plus some accommodation for seasonal workers. That's it! It's a two minute walk to the beach...and it's stunning. The lighter colour water shows where the shallow water is covering soft sand and the slightly darker area is over coral. After our snorkelling experience the previous week, it was a little strange to go back into the water and we had several sessions before we felt relaxed. I have also found myself watching and listening to other swimmers far more than I should! We signed-up for an outer reef snorkelling trip of six hours. The attraction was the possibility of swimming with manta rays and...

The first stop on the slow journey south from Exmouth was to a homestead - Bullara Station, www.bullara-station.com.au This is a large ranch which offers a variety of options to stay: Shearer's quarters, places for caravans, trailers and they also accept the occasional odd mad English campers. We keep telling people that were are camping-with-a-tent and not a camper-van. The place was almost deserted, as the holiday season this far north is almost over. Temperatures are now rising and will exceed 40 C frequently through the next few months. It provided our first dark nights with the Milky Way easily visible and a waxing moon (doing it from the opposite side too). Bullara is about 95km south of Exmouth - a mere 60 minutes at a steady pace. It's a mixed cattle and sheep farm employing a couple working as farm hands and temporary Backpackers otherwise known as WWOOFers (Willing Workers On Organic Farms), who are working for board and lodging in order to get some sort of credit t...

Exmouth (pronounced as in eyes, nose and mouth), is on the eastern side of a peninsula which forms the Gulf of Exmouth to the east and the Ningaloo Reef to the west. It's a major centre for watching whale-sharks, humpback whales and turtles, as well as for exploring the coral reef itself. The first wildlife we saw were emus, at the side of the road outside the town. Later we saw one walking up the main street. We finally saw kangaroos near the visitor centre at the reef. We haven't been driving at night so that probably explains why we've only seen dead ones at the side of the road. Kangaroo dung is similar to that of rabbits - just bigger. It would be wrong not to mention flies. It's not that there are lots; there aren't. It's just that they have very specific behaviour and that is, they fly straight onto your face. They don't fly around, they go straight for your nostrils, eyes or ears. That's why we are perfecting the Ozzie wave. They are much ea...