Toodyay

We have now left the WA coast and headed inland, happy to be away from the constant coastal wind. On our way we stopped at New Norcia, which is a monastery settlement built by Benedictine monks in the middle of the 18th century. There are now only about a dozen monks, but the monastery still owns all the land in and around the town, and the only residents are the monks themselves and the people the monks employ to do all the work. The mission was founded to minister to the local aboriginal people and to provide an education to both the aboriginals and the settlers' children. At one stage there were four completely separate schools run by the monastery - aboriginal boys were taught to be farm hands and tradesmen, aboriginal girls trained as domestic servants, white girls taught refined arts such as sewing and music and white boys actually given what we would consider a proper education, including such esoterica as reading and arithmetic. Over time the schools were merged and the overt discrimination was dropped. Once the supply of teaching monks started to dry up in about the 1970's, and the monks had to hire lay teachers and actually pay them a salary, the schools became uneconomic, and the buildings are now hired out for things such as school camps and company seminars. We did a tour of the town, which included entry into one of the monastery prayer rooms, the town church and several chapels in the old school buildings. The nativity fresco on the wall of the church (shown above) has a distinctly Australian feel!

Toodyay (pronounced 2jay) itself is only about 90 km east of Perth, and has all the hallmarks of a weekend getaway and Sunday lunch town - lots of cafes and museums in quaint restored buildings, all with lovely big verandahs. There is also a rail connection for commuters into Perth

which runs morning and evening. The Avon river runs through town, and through a national park about 30km west of town. We went to the park thinking there'd be interesting walking tracks, but apart from one not very interesting lookout there was virtually nothing to see. You certainly couldn't do any bush walking - notwithstanding the flyer on the park boasting of its 'wilderness values', in fact the area was an army firing range mid last century, and there are signs warning you not to leave the road due to the possibility of 'unexploded ordinance'. We didn't have to be told twice.

Having got so close to the city we decided to drive to the suburban outskirts, and experienced our first big city shopping centre since leaving Darwin nearly 3 months ago (and Darwin isn't really a big city anyway). We felt like country cousins, getting excited by so many shops in one place! We also filled up the Patrol with fuel, diesel was the cheapest we have seen on the trip since long ago Port Augusta, and 10 cents cheaper than even here at Toodyay.

As well as doing the history walk around Toodyay, we also drove up the Avon Valley, which is quite pretty and green, dotted with historic towns, and several wineries. It was certainly a much more civilised tourist experience than most we have had so far on this trip!

Jurien Bay

Jurien Bay is only 250km North of Perth, so is well and truly in holiday and weekend away distance. When we arrived it was still the end of the WA school holidays and the park was heaving with families and kids, 2 days later we were almost the only people here. We had been hoping to have a game or two of golf while we were here, but found that the local course had sand greens. However, John was so desperate to get a club back in his hand he decided to play in the club's Saturday competition anyway, a bit of an experience for someone who has only ever played on grass. Interesting, but probably not to be repeated in the near future!




Just south of Jurien Bay, Nambung National Park is home to The Pinnacles, a collection of weird rock pillars sticking up out of the desert. Elsewhere in the area it is scrub and grassland, including heaps of wildflowers, but just in this one patch it is classic desert country. There was a brand new visitors centre giving both Aboriginal and scientific views of the rocks and native flora and fauna, and very well set up walking and driving trails, winding their way around and through the rock formations.



The whole area around Jurien is classified as a 'bio-diversity hotspot' and there are more species of plants in the area than in a tropical rain forest. Accordingly, there are several national parks set aside to preserve the various ecosystems. One such park is Lesueur NP, where we did an interesting 8km walk to the top of a flat-topped mesa, providing panoramic views across the countryside and down to the sea. We also went to Stockyard Gully Reserve and did a walk through a cave cut by a creek - luckily dry at the moment. The part through the cave was about 250m long, pitch black of course. We only had one torch with us so held hands tightly to make sure neither of us wandered into a wall or hanging stalactite (or got taken by monster bats). Unlike our previous cave walk at Tunnel Creek (see Derby), we were the only ones there, so we weren't helped by other people's torches. It felt a lot longer than 250m before we turned a corner and saw the glow from the other end of the tunnel!



We also had an its-a-small-world experience while in Jurien. As we were driving out of Stockyard Gully, on a VERY rough 4wd track (probably the main reason why not many people visit) we came across a camera bag, just sitting in the middle of the track. It looked like quite an expensive camera, certainly a lot flasher than our little pocket job. There was no name or phone number in the bag, so we handed it in to the police station at the nearest town. The next day we got a phone call from the owner thanking us for handing it in. As John was on the phone Wendy could hear the conversation in stereo - it turned out the people who lost it were in a tent right behind our van! They hadn't even realised the camera was missing - he must have put it on the bumper bar of his car after they had done the walk at the cave and then driven off with it still there. The police had looked at the photos on the camera and recognised one of the people - it turns out the camera owner had visited his brother recently and taken a couple of family snaps, the brother was a policeman and one of the police at the station we handed the camera in to recognised him from a training course they had done together. How lucky was that!



We have updated the mailing list at the bottom of our blog slightly, please note for correspondence.

Dongara

Dongara is a small fishing and tourist town. The main industry is rock lobster fishing, but unfortunately the season doesn't start until November, so we didn't get to try any. They have a Larry the Lobster Big Thing at the entrance to town, but it is very much a little brother of the one at Kingston (see our post on Kingston SE - Murray Bridge for a photo of that Larry). We only spent one day here, just enough time to have a game of golf and do the history walk around town.

Kalbarri

Kalbarri is a tourist resort at the mouth of the Murchison River, surrounded by the Kalbarri National Park. It is now school holidays in WA, and the town and caravan park are heaving with families and kids, who seem to all start screaming with excitement at 6am. We spent 3 days here and could have doubled that, particularly as it has quite a nice golf course. However, we only got in one game of golf, and spent the other days exploring the national park.

The park has 2 quite distinct sections - inland around the Murchison River hinterland, and a spectacular section along the coast south of the town of Kalbarri. The river has cut some spectacular gorges, and there are numerous lookouts and short and long walks. The most famous feature around the river is called Nature's Window, being a natural loop worn through the rock that gives a view along one of the river gorges, we only had to queue up for a little while to get the above photo without any other tourists in it! From there we did an 8 km loop walk, which was probably just 1 km too far. The walk went along the top of a ridge, then dropped down to the river before climbing back up to Nature's Window. We were both drooping severely by the time we got back to the car park.

As well as going for walks, we also decided to do a canoe safari down the Murchison River. We were taken by 4wd from town to a spot up river, given some brief instructions, then sent off downstream in canoes. The two of us shared a canoe, and we managed to paddle downstream as a team without too many cross words. Being school holidays, the tour was full, and the other canoes all had some combination of Mum, Dad and the kids. Typical overheard remark was 'paddle faster Dad' from the 6 year old sitting snug in the front while Dad did all the work at the back of the boat! After about 45 minutes we pulled into the bank where the organisers had barbecued a major breakfast - eggs, bacon, baked beans, toast and hash browns. Very welcome after our hard work! Then it was back across the mud (note how far down John's feet have sunk in the photo at right) and into the canoes for another 45 minutes, after which we beached the canoes and were taken back to town. We had a great time, although it is going to take a few days for our shoulders and arms to recover!

The coastal section of the national park has spectacular limestone cliffs, with sea stacks, natural arches and secluded beaches. We did a couple of interesting short walks, deciding not to do the longer walk on offer as the constant sea wind was just too wearing. All in all Kalbarri has a lot to offer, and may well be on our revisit list for the next trip around Australia!

Denham (Shark Bay World Heritage Area)

Denham is the only town on the Peron Peninsula, most of which has been designated a World Heritage Area for outstanding natural and historic values. Denham is also the most Westerly town in Australia, so after this we will be heading gradually eastward again.

The most famous thing about the Shark Bay WHA are the wild dolphins that come into the bay at Monkey Mia daily to be fed. There are apparently around 16 dolphins that visit regularly, but only about 6 of these actually get fed. The Department of Environment and Conservation have worked out a strict feeding regimen to ensure that the dolphins still get the bulk of their food from hunting, so they do not lose their wild instincts. DEC have also cannily worked out that dolphins tend to hang around in family groups with a dominant female, so they only actually feed a few of the matriarchs and still get the benefit of the whole family visiting the beach. School holidays have started here in WA, so there were heaps of people at the dolphin feeding, unfortunately we weren't one of the lucky few chosen to actually hand over a fish but it was still lovely being there so close to these beautiful animals.

Dolphins aren't the only wildlife in the waters of Shark Bay, it is also home to 10% of the world's dugongs, as well as turtles, rays and, as the name suggests, lots of sharks. Dugongs are large marine mammals, supposedly the basis of the mermaid myth, but having seen the rotund beasts in real life we can only think that those sailors must have been out at sea a LONG time to mistake them for beautiful women. We did an afternoon cruise wildlife spotting, and saw quite a few dugong. The cruise company was offering a deal whereby we also got a free 1.5 hour sunset cruise included with the afternoon wildlife cruise. We figured as it was free we might as well go along the following day, although we weren't really expecting anything special. We should have read the brochure more carefully, the boat was originally built as a racing catamaran and in the brisk evening breeze we hurtled across the water with spray flying. Exhilarating!

Another, more sedate, feature of the area is the stromatolites, spongy rocklike formations created by blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria, representatives of the very first life forms on earth. Nearby are areas where layers of shells up to 10 metres deep have hardened and bonded to form a rock like substance that looks just like a pile of shells. Early settlers quarried this for bricks, some of the very first buildings in Denham were made from these bricks and can still be seen.

Until less than 20 years ago the peninsula was a pastoral property, and the original homestead is now open to visitors. Wendy was going to pose for a photo with her legs in the tub filled from the water drawn up from underground springs under the property, but the artesian water was so hot that she couldn't get more than one foot in it! A very sandy 4wd track leads from the homestead to the very tip of the peninsula, where a walking track gave magnificent views into the shallow waters of Shark Bay. We saw rays snuffling in the sandy bottom, dugongs wallowing, sharks circling and a dolphin chasing, and ultimately catching, some prey fish. All in all we had a terrific time in one of the world's truly magnificent natural wonders.