Navigating the Covid Maze July - August - September 2021

 Geraldton to Perth then onto Esperance

Spring is in the air, only a week away, and with WA being famous for magnificent  displays of wild flowers all through spring we were hopeful of seeing some early seasonal blooms. To enhance our chances we chose a slightly longer 100km route from Geraldton to Perth along a section of the 'Wild Flower Trail' which criss crosses through large areas of central and southern WA. Maps of these trails are readily available and under 'normal travel free circumstances' wild flower enthusiasts flock to WA traversing the wild flower trails.

So our detour had us head east from the coast at Dongara, 65 Km's south of Geraldton, for a short 55 Km hop to Mingenew and onto the wild flower trail south for 322 Km's to the outskirts of Perth. The one 'minus' we had as to the success or otherwise of this venture was spring being just around the corner. Would we be too early? Yes we were, but it was worth the chance. We saw early signs but nothing compared to the displays on offer in full season. In fact, we saw more wild flowers further north from Coral Bay to Geraldton which made sense with the weather being warmer. Despite this the detour was worth while for what the country side had to offer.

We saw examples of much varied flora, along with wildlife, on our trip too which I will dedicate the final Blog of this series.

East to Mingenew

Mingenew cafe

We chose to stay south of Perth for our 3 night stint, in a park cabin 10 min's south of Freemantle at Woodman Point, next door to Coogee Beach, not to be confused with Sydney's Coogee. We stayed locally except when catching up with family for lunch, one day being with Ngaire's niece and her family and lunch the next day with my nephew and his partner. 

We had visited Perth in 2015 on a 10 day fly-drive holiday and explored the south west from Albany along the coast and back up to Perth. Our short stay on this occasion was more a rest stop and catch up.

Great park and cabin 

Scenes in walking distance to our cabin.

Heading to Esperance. Must be winter?

Coffee break, Blue Wren Cafe, Dwellingup.

Dumbleyung Lake Nature Reserve

South Coast H'way to Esperance - H'way No 1

Welcome to Esperance

Our motel room

From the backdoor

Foreshore opposite our motel

Shipping waiting for tugs into port.

Docking

A bit different - coppers pull up in the middle of the road and start breath testing. No signage or traffic control, just flashing lights.

Stormy walk for takeaway.

Esperance hosts a local museum that is the best we have ever encountered through regional Australia. The range and extent of the exhibits has to be seen. A must do if visiting.

A 'VC' up close

Born in Subiaco 1918, farmed at Esperance after the war and died in 1989. Awarded VC for action against the Japanese in North Borneo May 1945

Coastal scenery

Esperance was in the top 5 of places we stayed but after a too short 3 night stay it was time to head a little further north before turning right onto the Nullarbor.

 

Navigating the Covid Maze July - August - September 2021

 Heading South from Broome

It's mid August and our time in Broome has come to an end. This is a bit of a watershed time in the trip. Heading south is a turn around, with us leaving the tropics with the subsequent fall in temperature, along with the realisation that we have passed the halfway mark. The upside to all this being lots of sights and places we have never seen or been too still to come.

Our first stop over was Karratha, 835 Km's  from Broome, being the longest leg of the trip. Due to the extra night at Halls Creek we had just the one night instead of two originally booked. The trip was drawn out with a scrub fire closing the H'way south of Port Headland. When first seeing the smoke a good distance away it was apparent that it was a major concern but only realising that we were to be held up listening to the 'truckies' on channel 40 on the 2 way radio, another handy resource to have on trips such as this. It was an hour and a half before we were able to get through. We turned around out of the queue back to Port Headland to a shopping centre and had coffee and a look around to kill the time.

Port Headland to Karratha and down to Geraldton is iron ore and other mineral mining country with turn offs all along the H'way to the various mines that are scattered all through the Kimberley's and Pilbara. Big trucks, big machinery, big trains and big ships are the order of the day in this neck of the woods, or more to the point, no woods! The country is as vast and open as the 'toys' are big.

Sandfire Roadhouse at Eighty Mile Beach 320 Km's from Broome

Pardoo Roadhouse 460 Km's from Broome

Held up by fire South of Port HeadlandFinally on our way

Karratha Port

Empty Ore Train heading East to the Newman mine

Next Stop

RAC Ningaloo Reef Resort - Coral Bay

Ningaloo Reef

Whale watching boat trip

Whale watching

Just enough water inside the reef close to low tide to get back 

Safely docked

Next stop Geraldton

Our three nights at Coral Bay exceeded our expectations. Coral Bay, with the beautiful Ningaloo Reef, is a gem located in the harshness of WA's Gascoyne Region 1200 Km's north of Perth.

As we head south on our 700+ Km leg to Geraldton, it is from here that we farewell warm days and pleasant evenings  as we enter the final weeks of the southern winter. 

BUMMER!

But there are worse places than Geraldton, which was our first taste of a large city since Darwin. Being further south than we had been for a month the absence of the laid back, easy going ambiance of the tropics was very noticeable. Our 2 nights and having a full day to explore was a nice break.

Great little cafe

Scenes around Geraldton Wharf and foreshore.

Next Up Perth