Up down and around a bit in South West W.A

[OZDUCK]

I have posted a few photos of our trip in the South West of W.A with a visiting German friend in the "My Office" thread over the last month or so. Now I will add a bit of commentary and a lot more photos of some bits of W.A that many of you may have never visited. Be warned there are lots of photos of wildflowers to come.

To give some context, we first met her at the 2022 Berlin reunion of the German side of my wifes family. She and my wife are related via a shared ancestor sometime in the 16th Century. My wife always claims to be puzzled that people can't see the family resemblance between a tall, blond, blue eyed German and a dark haired Eurasian. We met her again a couple of times during our visit to the German Christmas Markets in November/December last year. She is a keen hiker and lover of all outdoor activities and we enticed her to visit W.A with offers of plenty of those sorts of things. She was able access enough annual leave to spend a month in W.A. Her first day in Perth was marked by probably the worst weather we have had all year. Rain, wind and storm were the order of the day.

Just a few photos in Perth before we head north.

Come to sunny Australia we said. Beautiful blue skies and calm seas we said. So off to sunny Cottesloe Beach for a PERfect scenic viewing.






The next day was a lot better and after lunch at at a boutique brewery in the Swan Valley for her to meet our family we had a bit of a walk along the Swan River at Victoria Park.

Optus Stadium and the Matagarup Foot Bridge in the background



We saw a cormorant just finishing off an afternoon snack. The lights of the WACA are in the background

 

[OZDUCK]

The next day we headed of to Geraldton via The Pinnacles

Our first stop was to pick up another 'cousin'. She is from the Sabah side of the family and her family connection to my wife is a common ancestor in Malacca around 1790. We loaded everything into my trusty 2005 WL V6 Statesman and headed off. Fully loaded it still gets around 8 litres per 100km sitting on 110kmh.



But not before confirming the overseas meme that kangaroos hop down every suburban street in Australia. She lives in the northern suburbs of Perth (Ellenbrook) and her large property backs onto 'The Vines' golf course.





On the way there we passed a couple of signs showing the Western Australia is beginning to realise that not everyone is a local.





There is now a pretty flash information centre and café at the park.



Normally you can drive a circuit of the pinnacles on a sand track. But on this day it had been closed due to the heavy rain over the last few days. It was still a pretty easy walk to see the sights.





The Indian Ocean is in the distance

 

[OZDUCK]

Pinnacles cont.









The Pink and Grey Galahs seem to have a liking for this area

 

[OZDUCK]

After leaving the pinnacles we had a quick stop at Cervantes to see the cray boats at anchor before stopping at Green Head for some lunch.







Then just south of Geraldton at Grenough we stopped to show our visitor the 'leaning tree'.





In Geraldton we stopped at a very nice and near new Air BnB. $519 for two nights for 4 people in 3 separate bedrooms.





St Francis Xavier's Cathedral Geraldton

 

[OZDUCK]

Sunset, again, from the HMAS Sydney Memorial above Geraldton.







And moonrise





The Big Marble

 

[OZDUCK]

While at Geraldton we did a day trip to Mullewa about 100km east of Geraldton to see the wildflowers.

Four trailer road trains operating to Geraldton harbour run at about 20 minute intervals all day long.



We stopped at the Mullewa Tourist Office and they gave us a good briefing on where the wildflowers were at their best and also warned us about some closed gravel roads.

The scenic drives are well signposted



Our first stop was at the Coalseam National Park. The recent heavy rain had knocked some of the roads about a fair bit.



The closed river crossing. I think the levels had dropped a bit since the closure sign went up. The 4WD in the picture on the other side of the river drove through just after this photo was taken.




There was plenty of evidence on the riverbank that flooding had occurred.



Our foreign visitor was going to hire a 4 WD for a 3 day farm stay north of Yalgoo in a few days time. She had not driven a right drive vehicle for some years and had never driven on gravel so I let her get some practice. She adapted pretty well - except for the old trick most of us seem to have with the wiper and blinker controls being on the 'wrong' side. I had to pull her up a couple of times at first for drifting to the right hand side of the road when coming out of a T Junction but she did pretty well. I shared the driving with her and my wife later in the trip and the only time I had to yell was at a big roundabout in Esperance when she looked left for oncoming vehicles rather than right.



Our first large scale sign of flowers

 

[OZDUCK]

There will now be a lot of photos of wildflowers

One of the spots recommended to us by the Mullewa Tourist Office was the small 'settlement' at Canna. There was some very useful information about where the best flowerings were to be seen. Unfortunately the dam road was flooded out.


















\