January 8th, 2025
We left the Cape Leeuwin light house and began the drive up the west coast of Western Australia and the first stop was Hamelin Bay Beach to see if we could spot some sting rays at the beach.
We were in luck, after parking, Doug asked a woman and she pointed us in the right direction. Right at the boat ramp were four rays. There were about a dozen people snapping photos and trying to touch them. We do not agree with touching wild life in nature and we did not want to get stung by the tail so we just took photos and video. Due to the movement of the water, the videos turned out better than stills due to the moving water.
The beach here is very nice, but today although it was sunny it was not all that hot (maybe 20C / 70F) and, of course, windy.
Then it was a “delicious” spot: The Margaret River Chocolate Factory. Our friend, Annette, had recommended this spot and we saw the “Chokka Quokka”, picked up a couple of things, (one as a gift for our friends in Perth), had a taste and left.
This is another big wine region in Australia and so we passed by a lot of wineries and vineyards:
Then we drove to Yallingup Beach to see the rock pools and where you can snorkel. While it was quite lovely, as was the beach, we didn’t stay long as we felt it was too cool to snorkel (for us!) and we had to be in Busselton by 2. We also saw the historic Caves Hotel.
We mosied on up the cape to a look out to see Sugar Loaf Rock:
and the lovely coloured water up there.
Then it was nearly lunchtime and our friend, Monique, had recommended stopping in Dunsborough at Occy’s for lunch so we did that. We got there at 11:40 and they don’t open till noon but we were able to sit in the outdoor seating and peruse the menu so we were ready when the waitress came over at 12:01. We both had burgers and they were quite good, as were the fries.
We left Dunsborough around 12:45, stopped for cheap diesel at $1.68 before parking at an all day free lot in Busselton. We walked over to the Marine Discovery Centre, didn’t have time to see it all (but it’s not impressive) and then over to the Jetty to catch the train that takes you down the jetty to the Underwater Observatory.
The jetty is quite historic and the train on it is a solar powered electric train! It takes you the 1841 m to almost the end and then your tour of the centre begins.
It was hit by a cyclone in 1978 and sections were rebuilt; then in 1999 a fire caused by fisherman did some damage. In 2002 the town started to build museum and it open the following year.
Fun facts about the build:
- 12 m / 40 ‘ tall
- 9 m / 30’ wide
- 30cm / 12” thick steel reinforced concrete walls
- weighs: 500 tonnes
- windows are 10cm / 4” thick acrylic made in Japan
- 12 seabed anchors were drilled 18 m / 59 ‘ deep
You are taken down three levels to the ocean floor (it’s very shallow here – only 9m deep!) and you can observe the marine life through about 8 different windows. The pylons have grown their own reef system on them and there’s plenty of fish, coral etc.
(Keep in mind that the photos are taken through the glass so not that sharp and the deeper the level we were at, the more opaque the water was.)
Box fish
Old wives
Red lipped Asidian
You stay down there about 45 minutes total and take the train back down the jetty.
You can have a peek here for more photos of our time on the Margaret River Peninsula.
As mentioned in the last post, Fran struggled to find us a place to stay the next two nights but we ended up in Bunbury at a designated RV parking area set aside by the city. You need a permit to stay here and you are allowed to stay 48 hours so we took that. It’s a block from the beach and faces west so since we are finally on the west coast, we hope to get some sunset action. It’s of course, windy but still sunny and it reach 25C / 78F today.
It was nearly 5 when we got here so we had a very full day. We drove a total of 234 km / 146 mi today. Now we get another day off driving tomorrow.
After our usual morning routine, we went into town to try and get a few things done/purchased and to get the new COVID shot. Even tourists can get the shot free here in Australia. Fran found a pharmacy online that didn’t require appointments, so we went over there first; no problem. We just had to be put into the system, have not had a shot in a year nor had COVID within the past six months and within 15 minutes we were both vaccinated, waited 15 minutes and were out of there. We hit the Woolie’s for a couple of thing and the liquor store for some NA beer. The Peroni NA was on special and Fran could use her Woolie’s card which had a $10 off coupon on it so Doug got 12 of them for $10!
Next we went to a hardware store to get some parts to fix a light that appears to have died and then it was back to the parking area. We spent some time, walking the beach, reading and chillin’ that afternoon. It never felt hot enough that we needed to go in the water.
As mentioned, you can only stay 48 hours with the free permit so we moved on on Friday. We had a couple of things shipped to our friend’s place in Perth but only one had arrived. We began the drive up there, hoping the other would arrive this weekend.
After stopping to dump and fill, we realized we should try and get a ferry booking for Rottnest Island which is off the coast of Western Australia near Perth. This the place to see quokkas. We had hoped to go Sunday or Monday and we only want to go for half a day; it’s about seeing the quokkas and maybe hitting a beach to snorkel so we don’t need all day. Bookings for the times we wanted were pretty much gone so we looked for tomorrow and managed to get the time we wanted and we had to choose a time a little later than we wanted to go back but this gives us a bit more time to swim/snorkel if we choose. It’s not cheap: $120 return for the both of us, and its $20 each to get on the island (it’s a national park but one of several where there is an extra fee). There are no cars allowed, so it’s a walk on ferry. You can rent bikes or take one of the electric buses to get around but what we want to see is within 2km of the ferry so we’ll just walk.
So our first stop today after taking care of business, was in Lake Clifton to see Thrombolites. You walk out on a boardwalk over the water to see them.
Thrombolites are rock-like structures lying just off the beach under the water’s surface. Thrombolites are a particular form of microbialite (rock-like structure built by micro-organisms) that have a clotted internal structure. Thrombolites were among the first creatures on earth to produce oxygen, making all subsequent life possible. In fact, their ancestors predate man, dinosaurs and plants.
The word thrombolite is derived from the same root as thrombosis which means clot. Scientists believe these living fossils are one of the first life forms on earth, dating back 570 million years & they are found in only a handful of places on the planet.
The Thrombolite ‘reef’ at Lake Clifton is over 2,00o years old, over 6km long and up to 120m wide, and is the largest in the southern hemisphere.
On the walk back to the car we saw so many spiderwebs!
This was a short stop and then we moved on to the city of Mandurah in the hopes of seeing dolphins in the bay/estuary but luck was not with us. We took a stroll through a trendy area that reminded us of False Creek in Vancouver.
And this was the only dolphin we saw (we knew being mid-day our chances were low but it was worth a shot!
We saw these little boats for rent; they have onboard bbq’s!
Fran realized that her Garmin watch had popped out of its band (a non Garmin strap she’d been using for over 18 months) so we checked both the front of the rig and the back with no success. It wouldn’t sync to her phone so it had to be out of range. Luckily, there was a shop like a Best Buy called OfficeWorks (which was where Doug got his new laptop from last September) nearby that carried the same watch in a proper strap and it actually was a bit cheaper than on Amazon.com US. It was an unexpected expense, but these things happen.
This link will take you to more photos of these part of the blog.
We continued north to Shoalwater, where Monique & Paul live and they welcomed us warmly with open arms and we met their dog, Elmo – a Labradoodle who is quite cuddly and gentle mannered. We met them in 2017 in Cuzco, Peru – they were travelling on motorbikes.
The weather continues to be quite pleasant with mid 20’sC / 80ish F during the day and cooling off reasonably well overnight. We are still very close to the ocean so there’s still a breeze much of the time which helps a great deal (as well as keeping off the flies!).
They have a big paved area in the back of their house where we were able to park and we could hook up water and power. They are in the middle painting the interior of their house and still offered us a room, but it’s just easier to sleep in our own beds, in our own home! One of our packages was there are after parking Doug got working on installing the new fans. They were for the back of the fridge to help it work more efficiently. We had done this back when we had Tigger and keeping the air moving away from the back of the fridge helped it a lot.
Doug got the fans working in theory before installing them but had some issues; Paul is an electrical engineer and suggested he needed a wiring diagram to see how they are configured. Doug found this later that day and got it done on Sunday.
We had a lovely dinner made and served by Monique that night and caught up on our lives since first meeting.
Saturday morning we were up early to get into the city to catch the 7:30 am ferry over to Rottnest Island. It filled up quick with ticketed passengers and we actually left 11 minutes early!
We had perfect weather, just warm enough to want to go for a swim but not so warm it was uncomfortable. As soon as got off the ferry, we found a loo, and right outside the building was our first quokka sighting. They look like dwarf kangaroos! The first Europeans who saw them thought they were cat-sized rats.
These cute creatures are often touted as the “happiest animals on earth” as it can look like they are smiling (we didn’t see that ourselves – the two next two pics are from online).
The quokka is a small macropod about the size of a domestic cat. Like other marsupials in the macropod family), the quokka is herbivorous and mainly nocturnal.
The quokka’s range is a small area of southwestern Australia. They inhabit some smaller islands off the coast, particularly Rottnest Island near Perth and Bald Island near Albany. Isolated, scattered populations also exist in forest and coastal heath between Perth and Albany.
A quokka weighs 2.5- 5 kg / 51⁄2-11 lb and is 40-54 cm / 16-21” long with a 25-30 cm long / 9-12” tail, which is quite short for a macropod. It has a stocky build, well developed hind legs, rounded ears, and a short, broad head. Although looking rather like a very small kangaroo, it can climb small trees. Its coarse fur is a grizzled brown colour, fading to buff underneath. The quokka is known to live for an average of 10 years.
After a month of gestation, females give birth to a single baby called a joey. Females can give birth twice a year and produce about 17 joeys during their lifespan. The joey lives in its mother’s pouch for six months. Once it leaves the pouch, the joey relies on its mother for milk for two more months and is fully weaned around eight months after birth.
Despite the information above, while the quokkas on Rottnest Island do nap during the day, they are often up and about because they have become quite used to people and know that they can be a source of food. They are very easy to find and we saw many. We saw a couple more in the small shopping area as we began a walk around the area within 2km of the ferry terminal. The island is small but too big to navigate on foot in one day if you want to stop and do anything so we had planned not to rent bikes for the six hours we’re on the island and just walk.
We walked around a couple of the salt lakes, saw quokkas in the wild rather than trying to get food from the tourists (even though there are signs all over the place saying don’t touch or feed the quokkas!).
Then we lost the path and had to back track a bit and made our way over to see a couple of beaches.
On route to the last one, we were passing some cabins and spotted a brown snake around a bicycle. We told the family that was outside the cabin and we watched it move its way along the concrete fence. As you all know there are many venomous snakes in this country and the people thought it was either a eastern brown or a dugite and both are the types you do not want to get bit by. They called the rangers and someone was going to come take a look and perhaps move it on.
Upon arriving at the beach, we settled in the shade under a tree with wooden seating at Basin beach, got changed and got out our snorkeling gear and took the plunge into the water. This beach has areas of rock, reef and sea grass.
While the water was a bit cold at first, it felt comfortable. It was rather murky due to the number of people and Doug gave up after 3 minutes because he’d forgotten to shave down his mustache down a bit so the mask wouldn’t leak. Fran stayed out for about 20 minutes but saw mostly white or silver fish and the water wasn’t really clear enough to take photos. There was one school of small tetras and she thinks she spotted a ray trying to get under the sand but overall it was disappointing. The beach is small with pretty white sand and the view is lovely.
Around noon we packed up and went over to find some lunch and see more quokkas. We had pizza and beer at Frankies; Fran tried the Quokka Beer and she enjoyed two of them!
We saw a few more of the cute happy animal and after getting an ice cream for dessert, we then just walked around taking photos, not getting too close and we managed to find a mama with a joey in her pouch:
We headed over to the ferry around 2 and departed on time with a full boat.
Here’s the link to more quokka pics.
We stopped on the way back to Monique and Paul’s to get some parts Doug needed (not very successfully). and enjoyed another nice dinner with them. Fran took a swim in their small pool to feel refreshed and after dinner we enjoyed a soak in their hot tub before bed.
Sunday was another perfect weather day; little breeze, full on sun and not too hot. Doug attempted a long run and Fran went to the beach for a walk/swim with Monique and Elmo. They live two blocks from the Shoalwater Marine Reserve which is a nice beach with shallow water.
We saw the shark patrol helicopter fly over while we were out there. Apparently if they spot sharks, they will sound an alarm to let swimmers know to be aware. It’s rare for a great white to be in these waters but not unknown. They mostly get hammerheads and tiger sharks – both of which are generally harmless to humans.
The rest of the day was uneventful except Doug’s package did arrive; on a Sunday! He managed to get the fans working as well but we didn’t luck out on the light fixture replacement so we’ll need another part to get that working. Fran managed a load of laundry since we’ll leave tomorrow.
We had a pleasant evening with Monique and Paul (and Elmo!) and after joining them for a bit at tea time next morning, we departed with hugs and farewells.
We actually remembered to take a photo!
It promised to be warmer today and we weren’t sure how far we’d drive. First things first, Doug needed a part or two from the hardware store, then we went grocery shopping before going to visit King’s Park in downtown Perth.
We got parked in the big lot, had breakfast and then took a walk around the park; it reminded us of Vancouver’s Stanley Park with lots of trees, picnic areas, water and city views and much of our walk was through the botanical gardens where we saw lots of native plants and a 760 year old baobab tree moved here in 2008 to save it from the development of the highway where it had grown for centuries.
The park has a famous raised walkway that takes you through the eucalyptus forest – did you know there are more than 700 species of these trees in Oz?
We saw ponds and fountains:
and lovely views of the city from a few lookouts.
We returned to Matilda and drove out of the city northbound and first stop was about 50km / 30 mi north to a dump point which we really needed. After looking at the forecast and seeing it was not going to cool down much tonight, we decided we’d need a campground and found one in the small coastal town of Lancelin that had vacancies for tonight (their website said 4 night minimum so Fran called and that got us in).
For more pics of Perth click here. (this has a few photos from the next town in the next blog as well.)
