Kalbarri to Cliff Head

September 25 to October 2

  

Kalbarri Cliff Coastline

We packed up Sunday morning and departed Kalbarri. There are numerous headlands and points of interest to explore as we drove south. We stopped at Island Rock and did the headland walk to Natural Bridge, fantastic cliffs. Hutt Lagoon further south at Port Gregory is known as Pink Lake for a good reason, its pink! A bacteria occurs naturally which forms beta carotene and is harvested for processing.

Hutt Lagoon - Pink Lake

We visited Lynton Station, where the Port Gregory Convict Hiring Station once stood in the 1850’s. The ruins have been uncovered and some have been restored after much lobbying and fundraising from the Station owners. It is now a self-guided walk with interpretive signs explaining the history. Convicts nearing release were housed here and hired out to assist farmers and miners.

We drove through Northampton and stopped overnight at another great roadside parking area on a ridge overlooking a farm.

Port Gregory Convict Hiring Station ruins

Our plan Monday morning was to leave Australia for a short while. We visited The Principality of Hutt River, 75 square kilometre property which successfully seceded from Australia in the 1970 and is now an Independent Sovereign State. It is a fully functioning independent state, has its own government, currency, stamps, flag, even their own passports which the residents travel under worldwide.

The land owner Leonard Casley had a beef with the Australian Government and very cleverly orchestrated the secession to prove a point. We had the pleasure to spend about half an hour with Prince Leonard, now 91, as he showed us some of his prised mementos, photos and letters. His extended family now operate the Principality and it is fully self-funded through tourism and agriculture. A very interesting and enjoyable morning.

An audience with Prince Leonard

We drove into Geraldton in the afternoon with a number of chores to complete. It was a public holiday (Queens Birthday) Monday, and ALL the shops were shut! Woolies, Coles, everything, all day! Fortunately Geraldton are about to become an RV Friendly Town, and have just designated a 24 hour overnight parking area right on the waterfront next to the port operation (we fortunately stumbled on it). I am guessing it will be officially announced next month, as it isn’t showing up on my camp site locator Apps. The WA Government have spent a massive amount of money on rejuvenating the whole waterfront area, finishing in 2014, and have done a wonderful job.

We stayed overnight and completed our chores throughout Tuesday as we also played tourist. We planned to visit Greenough (pronounced Gren-uf, the things you learn) but were running a bit late so drove a little further inland to stop overnight. On the hills behind Greenough is a large wind farm (windy …. Here …. Really?,. see photo of tree for proof) and a very nice rest area right next to one of the wind generators. The wind blew all night and there was a constant background “whoosh” of the blades, but we had the best night’s sleep! No ill effects from a wind farm for us.

Greenough Historical Village

Wednesday we visited Central Greenough Historic Settlement, a village of 11 buildings owned and managed by the National Trust since 1975 and maintained to prevent further deterioration. The area was settled in the 1860’s and thrived on agriculture.

In the afternoon we drove to Seven Mile Beach, about 11km (7 miles, nice) before Dongara. This is designated free camp spot for self-contained RV’s, and as you can see from the photo, pretty darn nice. Unfortunately the wind just keeps blowing 30km/h from the south, and with the air temperature maximum at 19⁰, not ideal for beach activities.

Real tree, real serious winds around here. 

Thursday we drove into the twin towns of Dongara and Port Denison. They are two small coastal towns, separated by a river, and would be quite easy to drive through and keep travelling down the road. But unlike most WA towns, they are a registered RV Friendly Town. Not only do they offer free camping at Seven Mile Beach, and three other beach parks south of the towns, they offer one night only (in a 28 day period) free parking at their oval in town. They have a ranger tracking RV’s to keep everyone honest, which is great. This encourages travellers to stop and spend some money (they have a very good IGA), which we did.

They have a number of walks around the coastal dunes and the river which we did, and they have free WiFi in Dongara main street and along the foreshore in Port Denison. We decided to drive back to Seven Mile Beach for Thursday night, and use our one night in Dongara on Friday night.

Seven Mile Beach free camp.

We did plenty of beach walking (in two jumpers and beanies on one walk) at Seven Mile, drove into Dongara for more WiFi downloading and shopping, and parked at the oval. We had planned to have a meal in town since we were about 200 metres away, but the weather closed in and we got a lot of wind and rain so we stayed in.

Saturday we walked to the markets in Dongara before heading to the foreshore for more WiFi and “office work” before driving 30km south to another beach free camp, Cliff Point.

There are numerous four wheel drive tracks parallel to the beach that travel for kilometres accessing small camp spots. We walked a number of these as the beach was thick with washed up sea grass. The weather still isn’t too kind, 35km/h winds, 19^o tops, rain squalls in the evening.

On Sunday we decided to stay another night as the weather is a bit kinder and we are still in no rush to go further south.