Pemberton: Heritage Tram and mountain biking

We also did the Pemberton Historic Tramway tour. This was pretty cool, probably not as good as the puffer billy through the Dandenongs or the steam train from Port Augusta to Quorn (neither of which we did, but both looked pretty awesome), but this was a fair bit cheaper and took us to parts of the forest we wouldn't have otherwise seen. We got a very good commentary as the tram went along. It stopped at the Cascades which are quite pretty and crossed over a couple of rivers. It was a very enjoyable trip. And I finally found out what the pink, purple and white flowers I've been seeing everywhere are. It turns out they are Watsonia, and are an introduced species. I kinda guessed they must be as they grow like weeds along roadsides and the edges of train lines, anywhere where there is clearing.

Rory in train heaven

The view down the line

The Cascades

The cascades

One of the bridges

Some pretty cool topiary

Watsonia

We also tried mountain biking after the fun we all had at Margaret River. Unfortunately there was no easy track this time, so we played around on the down hill course that had jumps, turns and other things. It was fun but I could only do small parts of it as the jumps were way too high for me to even contemplate attempting. But they kids had fun and I think the biggest kid of all, Greg, did too.

Perth Part 2: Kings Park, Perth Hills and Ikea

Kings Park is a very beautiful green space in the middle of Perth. It covers over 4km2 and incorporates a treetop walkway and glass bridge, Botanic Gardens and 3 pretty cool playgrounds. There were wild flowers galore blooming in the Botanic Gardens and they were so stunning. Unfortunately I only had my phone to use as a camera. I intended to go back with our digital SLR but never got the opportunity. The views from the tree top walk over south Perth and the old Swan Brewery were lovely. And, of course, we spent quite a bit of time at one of the playgrounds for the kids. We went to the nature playground, which included a stream and pond where you could build dams and catch tadpoles, climbing ropes in trees and towers. The kids loved it and were very sad to leave, which is kind of funny as they have had lots of opportunities for nature based play (except rope climbs in trees) throughout this whole trip.

This is a gum nut just starting to blossom

 We drove up into the Perth Hills one afternoon and found Mundaring Weir. This is pretty amazing because it is the water supply for Kalgoolie and Coolgardie, 530kms away! It is located in a really pretty valley and was a very pretty place to explore. It was a little bit of a lucky find.

 

We also drove along the coastline from North Freemantle to Scarborough Beach, taking in the famous Cottesloe Beach, and while it was all very pretty it was too windy and cold to truly enjoy. It seems like it has been very windy on the coast ever since we left Exmouth about 6 weeks ago! I have to say, the WA coastline is beautiful but we haven't been able to really enjoy it because of the wind.

The caravan park we stayed in was about 5kms from Ikea. That was rather exciting for me, as a trip to Ikea is a good 2 – 2.5 hours from home normally. So, we found ourselves having dinner there twice during our stay – a dinner of meatballs, of course! The second night we went, we arrived at the restaurant just in time for Toy Story 4 to be starting in the kids area, so we all had dinner while the kids watched the movie. Part of me can't believe we sat in the Ikea restaurant long enough for the kids to watch a full movie! (I kinda want to hang my head in shame)

Kalbarri National Park and Wildflowers

Kalbarri is another one of those places I have wanted to visit since doing research before we left home. The National Park photos I had seen always looked so interesting. What we hadn't planned on was getting there while the wildflowers were in bloom and oh my! They are beyond beautiful and so hard to comprehend. In the National Park, and on the roadside, everywhere you look there is an abundance of blooms in white, red, cream, pink, yellow and orange.

We stayed at Murchison House Station, a working station that has been in operation since the mid 1800s. I'm not sure if they run cattle or sheep, as we saw signs of neither, but it was a nice place to stay and a welcome change from caravan parks. For $27.50/night we had a lovely riverside campsite with a nice view and access to fairly old and run down, but clean, showers and toilets. It wasn't luxury by any means, but it was lovely to be away from people and not staring at other caravans, and the showers were hot! They had alpacas and goats in pens near where we camped and the kids loved them, especially the goats. Rory now wants a baby goat that says "maaaa maaaaa" to him, as there was a baby goat that would call out to us when we went near the yard. At first he was scared of them all but he soon overcame his fear, even of the ones that got out of the yard. He would walk up to them and pat them happily after the first day.

There aren't a lot of walks to do in the Kalbarri NP. There are a couple that are 500m - 1.2km and then there are a couple of longer walks and a 2.4km gorge walk to the Murchison River. Everyone but me is over gorges; Tilda even going so far as to saying she never wants to see another gorge again. Rory would have done the gorge walk with me because it involved climbing down ladders, but I'd have never got him back up again without carrying him. So we stuck to the top, shorter walks. The flies were horrendous and walking was almost hazardous with so many trying to get up your nose or in your mouth or ears. Quite a few people were sensibly wearing fly nets and the rest of us just suffered.

The wildflowers were spectacular! None of the walks took you through wildflowers really; the best ones were along the roadside on the way in. We stopped frequently to take photos because it is so foreign to us to see so many wildflowers blooming together like that.

There were just fields of and fields like this

These amazing flowers were white or purple, or in this case half and half, all on the same plant

This pretty plant is called Stinky Socks... for good reason! At night the smell it puts out is disgusting. We had to shut all the windows and vents to keep the stench out of the van

A close up of Stinky Socks

The walks were to lookouts over various parts of the Murchison River, WAs 2nd largest river. It was a bit of a surprise to see water in it after seeing nothing but dry rivers for the past month or two, apart from the Ord River.

West Bend Lookout  

Z Bend Lookout

Z Bend Lookout

Z Bend Lookout

One of the key photo opportunities at Kalbarri is Nature's Window, a rock formation that perfectly frames the river. This was by far the most popular, and populous, walk of all. It is an interesting phenomenon but not especially beautiful. I think, if the wildflowers weren't blooming, it would have been an OK experience, but not a fantastic one.

Francois Peron NP

The Francois Peron NP is an adventure in 4WD, if nothing else. The track is sand, beautiful red sand, and quite deep in some places. I love that National Parks have provided 2 air pressure pumps so you can pump up your tyres once you are finished and leaving the park. It took about an hour and a bit to drive the approx 40km to the tip. The drive is actually pretty good, with the road graded down to clay for much of it, although it is slightly corrugated. There are a couple of bits where the bumps are so big you really get bounced around, like some really bizarre ride at an amusement park. You got bounced so much your bum left the seat and your feet left the floor. I laughed and Rory slept through it all!

There are 2 car parks at the tip. One right at the tip gives you a short walk to the top of a sand dune to overlook Shark Bay. The wild flowers were beautiful and we all had a great time following animal tracks in the sand. We found definitely lizard tracks and the tracks of what I thought were some sort of hopping marsupial. (After a visit to the Homestead I think it is probably the Hopping Spinifex Mouse). Tilda found a burrow that had tracks leading away from it... she has great eyesight. She's always spotting interesting and small things.

We then drove to Skip Jack Lookout. This is more formed, with a boardwalk and 2 viewing platforms. On a good day you are meant to be able to see sharks, turtles, manta rays, eagle rays and dugongs from the look out. It was too windy when we were there, the sea was a bit choppy and the sand was churned up. I spotted 2 eagle rays, which was very cool. Unfortunately we didn't see any other sea life, but we did see an abundance of cormorants. According to the information sign, the cormorants normally go about their business fishing amongst the sea grass, but if they are up on the beach there are tiger sharks in the water. They were all on the beach, but it could have been a result of the time of day, rather than the presence of sharks. Who knows? Regardless, the views were pretty special.

Just near the car, TIlda spotted a little wren in the bushes. It was tiny, probably only 6-7cm from head to tail. As I watched it a second one came along and at first I thought it has regurgitated food to feed its bub but as I looked closer they were wrestling over a green caterpillar.

We also visited the Peron Homestead. This was originally a sheep station.... and looking at the vegetation I have absolutely no idea how they farmed sheep! It is so barren and dry and hostile, not to mention the fact it is covered in low scrub and the chances of ever spotting sheep in that must have been virtually zero! We toured the shearing shed, which was really well designed given the age and when it would have been built in the 1800s, the cook house, sheep yards and horse yards. You can't visit the old homestead as it is used privately today by Parks. There is an artesian bore on the site and they tapped it when the homestead was operating, using the water for everything except drinking. It is quite minerally, but they used it for watering the sheep and horses! They have capped it now to slow the flow and have a hot tub that the public can use to enjoy the 40 degree water. Tilda, Rory and I went in, but it really was too hot for the kids and almost too hot for me.

Old kerosene fridge in the cook house

Shearing shed

There were some wild flowers blooming. We had seen some at Karijini but I didn't get any photos of those as I kept assuming I would see more, so I took photos of these ones, just in case!