Weird and wacky

Rain. Full bodied drops of camper cleansing rain. Aaaahhh bliss. Nothing like a rainy day, gazing out to sea as the wind whips its fury across the crest of a wave. Passing through coastal cray fishing towns we landed at Jurien Bay. A smaller town than we had presumed, but a great vantage point to discover the weird and wacky of WA.

It's raining- on our way to Jurien Bay

Stockyard Gully National Park- a natural gully once used to yard droving cattle, is home to some secret caves. A walk along the gully floor leads you 300 metres through the main cave. Armed with torches we trod the sandy floor- it was seriously pitch black inside.

Inside the Stockmans Gully Cave
Stockmans Gully, leading to the secret cave

The old limestone walls were nothing special to look at, but the sheer size of the cave, which appears out of nowhere was pretty cool. Lucky the day was rainy, as a swarm of bees have set up camp at the far entrance, but where stilled in the wet weather.
Returning home, we detoured through the ‘drive through’ Lesueur National Park. We have now seen many wildflowers along our travelling route, however the wildflowers in is park where pretty special. The park actually contains 10% of WA’s flora, including plants found nowhere else in the world.
Lesueur National Park

Sweeping valleys of shrubs and flowers are enclosed by a ring of hills and plateau’s, segregating the plants from beyond.
But it was Nambung National Park that had the wackiest feature. The Pinnacles- limestone pillars rising like gnarled fingers grasping for air out of the yellow sand dunes. Scientists are not really sure how they formed and the mystery of these thousands of structures may never be solved. We had both heard of the Pinnacles, but were shocked to see how many there were and how yellow the sand, given the surrounding white sand dunes.

The Pinnacles

The weird and wacky delights continued with a viewing of more stromatolites and their cousins- the thrombolites. Were stromatolites grow in layers, thrombolites grow in clusters. They all end up looking pretty much the same though- like lumps of rock.

Stromatolite and Thrombolite

Things are not always as they seem though- the lumps of wood lying on the road were actually Bob Tailed Skinks, there were so many of them, we were constantly dodging these slow lizards so as not to run over them. Some we had to stop to move out of the way, although they were not always agreeable to being moved off the warm road.

Bob Tailed Skink- not happy about being moved out of the way

As we head south, to the bottom of WA, we have truly left the outback behind. Although we still peer out of the window to endless countryside, it is no longer the wild Australian bush. We have now entered the ‘country’ with her man made fields, chopped trees and livestock. Our drive south, was a big one covering nearly 500 kilometres in one day. Weary and in need of a warm shower, we decided to stopover at Kojonup for the night. The brisk evening added to the Blue Mountains feel of this town, but 1970’s style buildings and plentiful sheep had us elsewhere.
Refreshed it was onto Albany. Now at the southern most point of WA, the coast is broken up into many bays with granite islands rising out of the sea. It is a spectacular coastline and was the last sight for many Australian soldiers who were to die at Gallipoli.

View across to ANZAC monument and out to sea

Albany is actually the town where the first dawn service was held in 1918, now a tradition of every ANZAC day. Mt Clarence, rising majestically above the town, was where the people of Albany gathered in 1914 to watch the convoy of ships destined for Egypt. The soldiers were then trained there before landing at Gallipoli. Now it hosts a monument to those who will never return to the harbour and a poignant spot, reflecting the ANZAC spirit.
Albany and her surrounds are full of natural beauty, including Little Beach. Finally, I had found a great beach.




Little Beach, Albany




The water was so clear and blue it looked like a jelly slowly wobbling, as the waves lapped the shore. Alas, the weather was not commensurate to my beach ideal. So, it was off to admire the coastal cliffs. With surging seas straight from Antarctica, the huge granite boulders of the coastline have been weathered into many interesting formations.

Natural bridge formation, Albany coast

A wind farm takes advantage of the weather here, the turbines towering above the mesmerising granite strewn landscape. The granite strewn Albany coastline