Rottnest Island

Posted on October 27, 2011 by onlinewheatleys

A holiday from the holiday, that was the plan. We had booked a week on Rotto a few months before we set off in July and thus it became a bit of a milestone as a sort of halfway mark.  A week of comparative luxury that included 4 solid walls, 2 separate bedrooms, not having to go outside to go to the toilet. It was also on a beach. Lots of pluses to look forward to.

After dropping Jake at the Jayco Day Spa & Wellness Centre where he was staying for the week, we boarded the ferry and powered out to Rotto.  Our first mission was to collect our bikes in order to get to the villa and to conduct all our island travels.  It was not hard to embrace the cycling lifestyle again, especially as our riding has been non existent since half a tonne of iron ore dust coated the bikes in the Pilbara. BloggiE got into the action, upgrading herself to a larger geared bike and in no time was powering around the island and up the hills.

Back in the saddle again.

Our Villa.......called Bricks on the Beach (Clay su Mer)

Cycle exploration - checking out the old barracks

The next day we awoke to a strange phenomenon. The sky was covered with a strange grey substance that dropped water from way up on high. No beach, no bike rides, so we jumped aboard a speed boat for some adventure whale watching. If we were to get wet we might as well combine the activities. We had a wild ride out, jumping over the waves and riding the swell. We spotted some humpback whales, young calves breaching and playing. Unfortunately we also got caught in a squall so after the whales disappeared we quickly headed back to shore and calmer waters.

Whale Ahoy !

 

Wet n Wild Whale Watching

The gloomy weather passed and we were back outside to continue the sun, sand and sea lifestyle.

After the rain.

Our dear old mates Barrandgirl and entourage arrived on Wednesday to join us in soaking up some of the Rottnest vibe.  A few days were dedicated to riding around the island, swimming at some of the many beautiful bays, checking out the Lighthouse, coffees at the bakery and dinners together.

Tour de Rotto

 

Frolicking at Fays Bay

 

Team Rotto at Wadjemup Lighthouse

More beaches to discover.

Mermaids on the beach

A visit from the local wildlife

We found that there is something very holidayish about Rottnest Is. Maybe its the beach/island location or the no cars/bike ride everywhere concept. It definitely made us feel like we were on holidays from the holiday.

The holiday vibe!

Fortunately our time of bricks and mortar will continue in Perth as we catch up with old friends and enjoy walking down the street to grab a coffee.

Posted in Spike | 1 Comment

A Journey Through the Pinnacles (or…These Flies!!!!)

Posted on October 26, 2011 by onlinewheatleys

A huge drive. Two days to do it – and in 1300km, so much time in the car.

On the second day, we took the newly opened Indian Ocean drive between Dongara and Perth – straight down the coast. On the brand new stretch was the turn off to the Pinnacles and with a serious dose of cabin fever, we took the exit to stretch our legs as much as check out (what is possibly) the most visited rock formations on this side of the continent.

As we drove past the checkpoint into the National Park, the Ranger told us we could drive around the Pinnacles (but we would have to unhitch our camper), or we could walk. At 1.5kms, we chuckled, popped on our walking boots and made jokes about doing this sort of walk before breakfast in the Kimberley! I mean who exactly would want to drive for 1.5km, when you could walk around such an iconic tourist attraction?

We alighted from Tug and immediately understood. Beseiged by flies, we rifled through the bags and supplies in the boot for the, as yet, unused fly nets that were stashed somewhere for just this sort of crisis. There was nothing fashionable about it. Just relief from those flies.

Protection from the hordes.

The Pinnacles themselves struck us as small after our adventures, and the cars driving the rest of the tourists around the small area, kept getting in our way and our photos. It was kind of interesting that there were lots of them and in some areas, they had flat tops. The biggest upside was the 1.5km walk after 2 days in the car.

Limestone Pinnacles, like a graveyard with yellow sand.

So many of them...good in big numbers.

I guess when we pass this way again and are seeking out Kalbarri and Shark Bay, we’ll have already ticked this one off the list!

Posted in Kate | 3 Comments

Cape Range

Posted on October 23, 2011 by onlinewheatleys

We hooked up and headed North once more towards Exmouth and the underwater world of Ningaloo Reef.

Thanks to new friends at Coral Bay, we were given the chance to stay in Cape Range National Park. There is a complicated system for getting a camping spot there and we feared that during school holidays our chances would be very slim, but thanks to the generosity of our camping neighbours we headed off to stay at Osprey Bay.

We drove around the point of North West Cape and down into one of the southernmost campsites in the National Park, where we were greeted by our camp host, Rob. At Osprey Bay there are 16 campsites, well spread apart, each with a view of the saltbush and coastal scrub, and the waters edge beyond. Rob settled us in and gave us tips on what to see and do while we were there.

Jake, catching the sea breeze at Osprey Bay.

We barely had time to set up beside the sea before the kids appeared fully decked out in wetsuits and ready for a swim in the bay. BloggiE felt very excited to have our own beach. The water wasn’t too cold (well unless you had recently been in the Kimberley!), so we spent the afternoon watching the sea life and drifting with the current around the little beach of Osprey Bay.

Osprey Bay

A little rocky outcrop lined the beach and at low tide the small sand beach was crawling with green and black crabs.

In the evening, at twilight, the moon rose over the distant hills and we watched the scrub turn red and gold as the great disc rose in the sky.

Uninterrupted view of the moonrise

Oyster Stacks was our top recommendation for snorkelling in Cape Range and was not disappointing.

Look like a few submerged rocks?? Secret reef, teaming with life!

Rocky to get in, but brilliant coral, green, luminescent, pink, purple, blue. Lots of schools of darts, tiny aqua fish and others to swim through. Fantastic coloured parrotfish, butterfly fish of all types, clams, a living Nemo experience.

Starfish of the rockpools

BLoggiE and Kate check out Oyster Stacks

Unlike the Great Barrier Reef, you don’t have to travel far from the shore to see the coral and sea creatures. You can pop your gear on at the beach, swim out for around 25mtrs and begin to explore. The water at this time of year is warm and means that if you keep moving, you can enjoy a good amount of time snorkelling. It was the wind that came up each day that eventually spelled the end of each diving session.

Just like the brochure! Turquoise Bay...

We headed to famous Turquoise Bay, where the sheltered beach offered protection from the wind and current. And just a few metres out…. the reef again.

Out to the deep...

Spike (and axo1000) returned from their adventure spotting an enormous cod under a ledge, together with some sting rays.

And when we got back to shore… hundreds of day trippers had appeared on the beach. Lucky we took our photos early!

It was turtle nesting season and we spent some time spotting them in the water and at the edge. Late afternoons, we took books and drinks to edge of Osprey Bay to enjoy the light.

The entrance to our very own beach.

BloggiE on the Rocks.

As the nights came, the wind whipped through the camper. We even had to sleep with windows open to stop them turning into a sail! As we lay inside listening to the blustery weather, blankets under our chins, it was the first time we had wondered if Jake would be OK. Luckily, when it came to pack up, the poles were still straight, the canvas was in one piece and we were thankful that Jake had sustained no lasting damage.

With our days running out in WA it was time to begin our mad dash to Perth, our half-way home-away-from-home!

Posted in Kate | 8 Comments

Coral Bay

Posted on October 21, 2011 by onlinewheatleys

We are relieved that we have got out of the red dust and are on the Ningaloo coast. It is blue and sunny (as always) and instead of driving we cycled around Coral Bay. On our first day we met some lovely people who were traveling for the Perth holidays. The next day we walked out to the beach and did some snorkelling; the really good thing about coral bay and Ningaloo reef is that the coral is on the beach. So we put on our masks and snorkels and set off. There were fish all colours and sizes; there was even a fish about 55 centimetres!!! Dad had to dive down to the bottom to get his snorkel (but only once).

cold, but fun

Every afternoon at 3:30 pm there was fish feeding. One afternoon we went and I got to feed a fish. The fish swam in between your legs and and around your body.

feeding the fish

Nearly every afternoon all the children played a game of cards (once I showed our friends some gamewright games they wanted to play more.) First we played Three of a Crime ; a mind boggling game with oddly shaped people. Next we played Sleeping Queens; a royally rousing card game. After, we played Frog Juice; a clever card game of spells & concoctions. Last we played Zeus on the loose; a fun card game including the Greek gods.

Mount olympus goes to 37. . . . .

One day our friends Molly, Olivia and me all built a hideout. We used vines for curtains and a large stick for a bench.

Friends

Team Coral Bay

 

One afternoon axo1ooo hired a skimboard. So we had to go down too. I have to admit he is a natural at skimboarding.

launching. . .

going great. . .

Excellente!

Tune in next time,

BloggiE©

Posted in BloggiE | 1 Comment

Karijini

Posted on October 16, 2011 by onlinewheatleys

Ya’know, I think Karijini (ka-ri-JEE-nee) was named and discovered by  Karen and her Genie. Karijini is in the Pilbara, in the middle west of WA. There were gorges (again). And places that you went for walks on (like everyplace we’ve been to).

Karijini  is a national park and therefore all the living stuff in it is protected. There is so much spinifex grass that I think the spinifex are plotting to take over the world, allying themselves with all the red dust, starting with Karijini.

Dales gorge was the first gorge we went to at Karijini.

Dales Gorge

 

Fortescue Falls in Dales Gorge...all to ourselves!

Oh, Them.

 

Not much further, a walk away, from Fortescue Falls was the Fern pool. Much better for swimming than the Falls.

The Fern Pool

The boy and his bird. The bird and his boy. Which ever you want.

Pied Comorants are one of my favourite birds. It was amazing to get up so close to one.

We also walked in another gorge called Weano. The walk was more interesting. We had to wade through water,  jump from rock to rock across the streams, walk through really narrow passages and climb down walls to get to the Handrail Pool.   The Handrail Pool was “geniously” named because you had to hang on to a rail to descend on a steep surface.

Walking on water - I mean, wading through water

Decsending down into the Handrail Pool.

We spent afternoons having drinks, going to lookouts and me, carving. One afternoon a massive Willy-Willy formed and ripped through the campsite. It crossed through our campsite but Jake withheld and there was no damage done, but some other people were not so lucky and it blew over their whole tent. Mum and Dad had to go help them set back up.

View from Oxer lookout.

There were lots of other things we did in Karijini like, making nunchucks, (tune into axo1000’s say #3) walking, sitting, talking and playing cards. They were all a good pastime. See’ya!

axo1000

And no I didn’t forget the

TEEHEE!

Posted in axo1000 | 2 Comments

Both Sides of the Pilbara

Posted on October 10, 2011 by onlinewheatleys

The Pilbara is a unique place.  We have travelled down from Port Hedland, visited Karijini, checked out Tom Price and a few other towns on the way.

At first it seems quite harsh and desolate but spend a few dusks and dawns in the place, you then start to see the richness of the colours. The deep red of the earth, the green dotty spinifex, the purple  hues of wildflowers and the white Snappy Gums, come alive at these times, revealing an intense beauty.

The colours of the Pilbara

Mulla Mulla Wildflowers

Quintessential Pilbara Landscape

One afternoon we conquered the highest mountain in WA, Mt Nameless, to look out over the beauty of the Pilbara and admire the scenery…..

Speechless about the view from Nameless

Turn around on the top of Nameless and you can see the whole Pilbara and all that it represents….

The Other Side.

Mining infrastructure and shrinking hills

With the natural beauty, thoroughly explored on our trip so far, we descended Nameless, with the intent of discovering the economic wonder of the Pilbara. We got ourselves into the Pilbara’s second natural environment, the Iron Ore Mine.

Tom Price Mine may not be the biggest but it was one of the first and highest quality mines. Started by Hamersley Iron, now owned by Rio,  Tom Price Mine is one of 12 (ish) iron ore mines operated by Rio. I would expect BHP has similar if not more mines in the area.  At Mt Newman, BHP run the largest Iron ore mine in the world.

At Mt Tom Price near-pure Haematite was discovered in about 1962. The beautiful hills of the Pilbara have since started to be exported to all and sundry.

On our tour of the Tom Price Mine, we donned the hard hats and safety glasses and saw close up, the mining process and discovered how enormous these operations are.

Ready for action !

 

First blast out the hill and load up the Haematite...

Truck it down to the processing plant in the biggest trucks you can find...

Stockpile it, crush it and blend it with other deposits from the mine. Load up the trains...

Hill formerly known as Mt Tom Price

At 26,000 tonnes of ore per train, 4 trains per day from Tom Price mine only, the stuff just keeps heading down to the ports. Trains are generally 230 cars, over 2km long on average and run on the largest private rail networks in the world. It works out about 250 million tonnes per annum for Rio and over 300 million tonnes for BHP.

Down at Port Hedland, we saw the ore coming into town and heading out to sea.  On Saturday night, with the wind howling around us, we lay in bed and listened to the trains rolling in and out of the Port most of the night. The skyline was lit up like Sydney…..24 hrs a day, 7 days a week, the ore keeps coming.

Watching the hills of the Pilbara float out to sea. The winds of change!

Get the longest trains you can and take the ore down to your very own port at the coast...

Use the biggest thingamy to unload the trains at the port and....

Load up a ship bound for.....

Make sure its a really big ship....

and, count your profits and royalties as it sails away on the high tide.

Seeing the scale of mining operations both at the mine and all the way down in the ports, you see that there is incredible economic activity happening here. Everywhere new infrastructure is being put in, ports doubling in size, new rail yards, etc etc. massive investment continuing. When will it end ? Avoiding forecasting the demand side of the boom, the word from the Pilbara (obviously derived from mining interests) is that there is enough iron ore to last well over a hundred years at this rate.

So get up to the hills of the Pilbara before it becomes the Pilbara Plains !

Posted in Spike | 14 Comments