Entry 20 – 2026 – September – Geraldton to Busselton – Western Australia.
After our tow tug had experienced a lack of power recorded during blog 17. Our human senses had become more attentive towards our tow tugs performance.
There seemed to be an ongoing, lack of “oomph,” during those rare times we were in need of maximum power output.
We like to look after our equipment, deciding to replace the problem parts with new.
We spent a couple of days at the largish town of Geraldton where our tow tug obtained the required mechanical attention.
It was appreciated when “Sam,” from Geraldton Toyota provided good advice on a fix. He managed to slot us in, with-in 9 days of our request, considering their booking system showed no available time lines for over 3 weeks.
Geraldton was a largish town with a busy port, exporting grain and minerals.
We chose a caravan park to stay overnight closest to the Toyota Dealer.
The tow tug was left at the Toyota Dealer around 8 am. Unfortunately, they took longer than expected, to facilitate the repairs.
The caravan park was biting at the bit for us to vacate the site for new arrivals. By the time we departed it was a bit late to be heading out.
We decided to look at Geraldtons free RV camp site for the night’s camp location and were lucky to obtain a vacant position of the allocated eight spots.
Driving to our camp site stays at Geraldton, the caravan park was on the southern side of the port silos and the free RV camp site was at the northern end of the port silos.
During the night at the caravan park, located about half a kilometre past the port silos, we were constantly being woken by loud train horns and other noises from the port.
The free 24-hour maximum stay camp was at the towns recreational boat ramp car park.
We actually slept better at the free camp site. And the views from our caravan window were satisfyingly delightful. We could see the tug boats, large ships and had ocean views.
With all our supplies replenished we headed down the road a bit to our next destination. We set camp at Cliff Head Campground, a quiet non-commercialised location.
Cliff Head Campground provided ocean views to the west and bushland views to the east. There were some other campers scattered along around a 2-kilometre stretch of ocean frontage. Most non-visible from our camp site. It was a delightful setting.
We could see a non-moving shape far out to sea. Binoculars revealed it to be an oil rig platform. Google showed it to be a decommissioned oil rig about 11 kilometres out to sea. The estimated decommissioning cost was about $200 million and allegedly the companies responsible had gone into liquidation.
We were camped at the southern end of the Cliff Head campground with some options to stretch out your legs on walkabout. Walking north along the foreshore there was a section requiring some negotiating between the ocean waves lapping at the cliff edge. There was a sprint across a sandy section between the waves and then some zig zagging between some large rocks.
The rocky point blocked the view of the beach between the southern and northern ends of Cliff Head.
Once we were past the rocky point onto the northern section we were greeted by a pair of osprey birds, monitoring our progress.
We enjoyed the serenity on walkabouts and the general scenery.
For us, Cliff Head Campground provided a relaxed atmosphere with satisfying viewing. There were quite a number of similar camp locations between the town of Dongara just north of Cliff Head and south till you reached the outer suburbs of Perth with a population of around 2.3 million people.
Most of these campgrounds were an unstructured allocated area to set camp, most with a long drop loo provided. Rangers patrolled daily, collecting campground fees, ranging from $20 to $30 per night.
All of these campgrounds with an imposed maximum limit of 4 nights stay. Many we thought worthy for consideration of a quiet nice location.
Our next stop down the road a bit was nearby the town of Jurien Bay, at Sandy Cape Campground. It was about 200 kilometres north of the outer suburbs of Perth with a noticeable increase of people about.
Sandy Cape Campground had an allocated 110 sites, with timber railing or bush dividing many of the sites. There was about an additional 110 sites available along a couple of 4wd tracks disappearing into the sand hills. All sites with a requirement for online bookings.
On the day, there was only one site available big enough to fit our rig. Luckily our close neighbours either side were quiet campers, as hopefully we were.
Of interest there was still a volunteer campground host who provided assistance with advice and guidance. Bookings and payment via the electronic website were a 100 % responsibility of visitors.
A conversation with the campground host showed the recent introduction of online bookings had provided an improved persona of people utilizing the campground.
There was no ocean viewing from the campground with a smallish sand hill separating the campground from the ocean.
Not long after we had set camp a couple of busloads of school children arrived setting camp about a 100-metres from us, thankfully out of sight, though we could hear them.
There were plenty of activities keeping the school children busy.
When the kids were at camp consuming their lunch, we ventured out to explore the beach and nearby lookout.
There were no defined walking trails at Sandy Cape Campground. It was a beachside location with large sand dunes. The viewing was quite satisfying. We walked about regularly in a different direction each day. Along the beach, down some 4wd tracks, into the sand dunes or along the many tracks to various camp locations.
There seemed to be quite an amount of people about and we weren’t inclined to wonder around with our camera in hand.
Our time at Sandy Cape Campground was enjoyable. Possibly, we were lucky with no problem people close to us. Though, noise from some groups could be heard from far away.
With Perth around 200 kilometres down the road, there was a requirement to plan ahead, including advanced bookings to access campground stays. With the dramatic increase in the volume of people about, there was a requirement to conform to a more structured life style.
We were entering a period of travel time with little flexibility.
Our next booked location about 200 kilometres down the road was at Yanchep National Park. We had initially thought this to be a reasonably easy day’s travel timeline. Reality was very different.
About three weeks prior we had made a campsite booking at Yanchep N.P. with the option of only two available sites left to choose from. Grr.
Entering onto the main highway from Sandy Cape campground there was a noticeable large volume of traffic about. Thus, the need to elevate our level of concentration during our drive time.
We found ourselves driving past locations we liked the look of; many we would normally stop and spend time exploring.
About 60 kilometres down the road was the much publicised “The Pinnacles.” It was a location we couldn’t drive past without some exploring.
The Pinnacles is the title given to a unique and intriguing landscape where thousands of largish limestone pillars rise from a yellow sandy desert scene.
There was an option of a walking trail or a driving track for exploring. The driving option was for cars only. No caravans or large vehicles were permitted. We decided to try the walking trail and if we wanted, we could do the drive after.
We walked through the pillar covered landscape, intrigued by the sight before us. It was fascinating viewing.
We were content with a couple of hours spent wandering around the impressive landscape, deciding the drive option unnecessary for us.
We continued with our required drive time, enjoying the sights of some special unique scenery around us.
Western Australia has vast sandy coastal plains and desert regions. Residents of Western Australia have a colloquial nickname of “Sand Groper!”
The soil is suitable for the unique grass trees. At times we seemed to be travelling through a landscape covered by thousands of grass trees. It was more fabulous viewing, most satisfying.
As per normal we would have loved to stop and spend time soaking in the special scenery. But there were negligible safe stopping locations. All of our photographs taken at speed of a setting flashing by.
A bit further up the road we spotted signage notifying of a pending viewing area. We were grateful to have had time to adjust our speed and safely turn off the highway.
It was one of those split-second decisions to action a “let’s have a look.” There was even a designated caravan parking area. Within a couple of minutes along a walking track our feel-good neurotransmitters were being tantalised with lots of wows.
Nilgen Nature Reserve provided another fantastic √ breaking up a long day’s drive.
Late afternoon we arrived at our booked campground at Yanchep National Park. This was another wow factor location.
It had quite an impressive bush landscape. Kangaroos would appear on the nearby grassed flat areas in the late afternoon, beginning their night time feeding stint.
There was a viewing area where we could look for koalas. As the sun was setting, we saw koalas stirring from their days sleep time and climbing down from their high perching positions to where they would obtain a meal of fresh gum leaves.
There were many different options of walking trails through various different landscapes. We chose a wild flower trail.
Over the last three weeks, we had focused on wild flower viewing as they are generally visible for only a short period of time each year. Their appearance being season dependable.
We had been very lucky to be in this region of Western Australia during the same time line as the emergence of wild flowers, after some good seasonal rain fall. The talk amongst the farmers showed their crops growth were indicating it to be a bumper year.
Yanchep National Park had quite the infectious atmosphere where we seemed to be constantly in conversation with other happy people. It was a location we would be happy to return, again and again.
It was time to make our way closer to our next important stop over. It had required a booking and payment back in January.
It was a day’s drive time we weren’t looking forward to. There had been quite a lot of research conducted on the best route.
We drove from the northern reaches of the busy city of Perth, with the day’s destination in the southern outskirts of Perth.
We had chosen to stop at the town of Mandurah for a couple of nights. Mandurah is home to an estuary twice the size of Sydney Harbour. Mandurah population was a bit over 100,000. There seemed to be hundreds of water ways with possibly thousands of houses with canal frontages.
Mandurah promoted itself as a location to discover “The Giants of Mandurah.” It is a free outdoor exhibition of giant wooden sculptures, scattered about Mandurah’s vast wetlands.
There was a requirement to attend Mandurah’s visitor information centre to obtain a souvenir guide which provides coordinates to help you find the giants locations.
There were five different locations with a “giant,” cleverly hidden around Mandurah. Each one positioned to showcase the city’s iconic landscapes.
There were designated carparks and then a requirement to walk various distances up to about four kilometres to view each giant. There was no reference to distances between the location of each giant but we thought we had driven around 30-50 kilometres to view the four giants located nearby the centre of Mandurah.
SANTI IKTO Giant walk did require negotiating some steep slopes. We were glad we did this walk during our first day at Mandurah as it sapped a fair bit of our energy.
SEBA’S SONG Giant was positioned on the water’s edge over looking an estuary. Best viewing from a boat. We saw a few boats deviating to travel close by. Steve scampered down the difficult rocky ledge, positioning himself as close to the water’s edge as possible for our photographic memory.
LITTLE LUI Giant required some walking distance, luckily without the energy sapping slopes.
YABURGURT WINJAN CIRKELSTONE Giant was the most accessible with a walk of around 500 metres.
Viewing the above three giants involved about four hours of drive/walking time for us. We were feeling weary by the time we had completed our task for the day.
The fifth giant was located about 32 kilometres south of Mandurah. We managed to speak with someone who had visited this giant. The provided description to locate JYTTE’S HYTTE (The Secret Giant) involved quite a walk.
We were content with our viewing of four giants and decided to forego giant five at this point in time.
We departed Mandurah the following morning, on a Friday.
It had been several weeks previous since we had started to plan this leg of our trip. We had discovered it to be a long week end and most locations had been booked out. The caravan park we had stayed at in Mandurah were expecting about fifty caravans to arrive on our departure day.
We were in need to find somewhere to stay for three nights before our next booked location. Our research showed there were a few options down the road for free camps, most with 24-hour limits.
About 50-kilometres down the road we set camp in a gravel surfaced paddock area at Preston Beach. Our research showed it can be very crowded during long weekends. The weather forecast was for cold, wet and windy conditions. We thought the predicted weather conditions could be advantageous, a deterrent with people not so eager to be out and about.
There were half a dozen other caravans already present. A council ranger attended recording vehicle registration numbers of those present. Steve had a polite conversation with the ranger who advised they would be in attendance each day over the long weekend. Steve managed to obtain an extension of 24-hours above the 48-hour limit to stay put. It’s nice to occasionally be provided with a benefit for being polite.
By sunset the camp grounds outer perimeter was full of campers.
It was bitterly cold during Saturday with The Bureau of Meteorology showing an outside temperature hovering around 13 C degrees most of the day, and a chill factor where it felt like 8 C degrees.
The day coincided with the Australian Football League grand final day. It was nice and comfortable within the confines of our caravan and we watched the whole football match. There was some “footy food,” during the match and we enjoyed some Cocktail Frankfurt’s at half time.
Around 120-kilometres up the road was our next planned destination, Busselton.
