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.
