Friday, September 11, 2015

Friday, Sep 11th, Mt Barker, Australian Southwest

Greetings!

Days of driving doesn’t make for many photos.  We made it from Denham to Wave Rock in two days, and have an extra day in the area south of Perth as a result. Wave rock was interesting, but not as much as Pat wanted.  The rock was smaller and less of a geological hit than expected, but nearby Mulka’s Cave (with painted hand prints) made up for it.




We enjoyed the photographers on the rock, each trying to construct their compositions of strangely shaped granite.  I especially liked the Japanese wedding model and her director.

We drove southwest for a hundred miles this morning, and visited the Ravensthorne Wildflower Festival.  Exhibiting 700 species, and including a Devonshire tea service, the town wildflower society hosted an outstanding presentation in the town community center.  Nearby, a quilt show complemented the festival.


Our destination today was Bremer Bay.  At the western end of the Fitzgerald National Reserve, we hoped to get a space and then see what has been called the largest collection of wildflowers in Southwest Australia.  Radio commentators were predicting thundershowers, and two days of heavy rain, and our caravan park managers were cautioning trying to get into (and out of) the park tonight.  I wanted to check out some nearby coastal beaches and bays which featured little surfing icons on the map, and we had a late lunch overlooking two of them.  Taking a risk, we decided to drive to the park entrance and see if we could make it across 4-wheel drive dirt roads to a popular bay an hour away.  Taking exactly the time possible to get there and back (we jumped out of the car, took a photo, and headed back), we made it just before the park closed and the rains began.

Today, we drove to Porongorup National Park, in the Sterling Mountain Range.  The granite skyway walk was a bit too high for us, but we did see some great views from the trail, and saw some awesome karri trees and more wildflowers.  We're checked into the Mt Barker Caravan Park, stocked up on food at the local IGA Store, and are using the wifi in the town's library.   The clouds and drizzle are beginning to get more serious, and we'll probably just hang out here for a few hours.

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