Swan Valley

Western Australia is ENORMOUS!
After entering WA on 30 August, we are on Perth's outskirts. 

We're in the Swan Velley, the wine and food region on the outskirts of Perth. For our Sydney friends, think Hunter Valley located at Hornsby.

Wine, breweries, chocolate, providores, 2nd hand shops... it's all here.

It's hot; mid to high 30s to low 40s as a heat wave is declared for this part of Australia. 
We're in a caravan park with a pool, power and the air con running.

As well as swimming in the pool and reading and sitting in the shade, we did a few of the historic walks and drives around the area. 

It's windy of an afternoon and evening, so we brought the awning in once the sun went behind the trees each afternoon. 

We drove up to Yanchep for a looksee and lunch.
Urban sprawl in Perth is vast. It's certainly a growing city. 

Love the way this pub in Caversham has been restored.

Chocolate and wine. Always a good combo.

Breakfast.

Next stop, Perth.

Tuarts Reserve and the monastic town of New Norcia

Still north of Perth, we left Jurien Bay for a bit of free camping a little farther south.

We pulled in to a lovely little spot a bit inland from the 70+ kmph winds smashing the coast. Tuarts Reserve has room for maybe half a dozen self contained vans... no toilets or water, just a nice setting. 

Met a great couple there from the Hunter Valley - will definitely stay in touch with Dallas and Tania.

The only real sound here was the hum of bees in the hollows of the trees around us.

We drove south for a day trip to Lancelin. Good weather for kite surfers and sail boarders. Although a fair level of skill required!

Hot chips Friday.
We watched one kite surfer get dragged half a kilometre along the shore as he tried to regain his feet and get the kite up again. He was eventually rescued by someone on a jet ski.

The sandhills behind us are a sledding playground.  Not a really pleasant day to do it this day, with the sand blasting every part of your body.

The wind-driven sand is gradually swallowing some of the bush farther inland. 

After two days here we drove inland for a couple of hours to Australia's only entirely monastic town.

Just shy of New Nortia we saw this... not sure wth is going on here with the bath, shower and toilet in a field by the road!

In its heyday, New Norcia must have been something! The size of the church, monastery, flour mill, three schools (white girls, white boys and aboriginal children) and abbey etc. is amazing.

That night was, we think, the windiest night we have ever experienced camping. The van was really buffeted and fly screens were blown in, chairs blown around. Beautiful temperature though before a scorcher the next day. 

Given the forecast temperatures in the high 30s, we did the (walking) town/monastic tour the morning after rather than in the heat of the afternoon before heading down to stay in the Swan Valley Sunday afternoon. 

The girls' school 

Girls' chapel 

The boys' school. Not as grand as the girls'.

The abbey. Still a dozen monks remain. 

The church, still celebrating services each weekend. 

The girls' school.

The school that was built to teach the aboriginal children. Typically these students were part of the stolen generation, coming from a far away as The Kimberley. 

The monk who started this place was a bit ahead of his time, paying native people to work, refusing to try to make them become Christian and allowing them to practise their own spirituality.

Can't say the same for subsequent leadership.

I've decided I like the Benedictine monks - expected to work, be self sufficient and not ask the community for money or charity!

On to the Swan Valley.

Jurien Bay

We headed to to the beachside town of Jurien Bay. It's two hours north of Perth so is a popular spot for weekenders, and is growing at a good pace. 

After a bit of free camping we pulled in to a park beside the beach. They had a three day mid week Black Friday deal so we grabbed that. 

There's no surf to speak of along these thousands of kilometres of WA coastline. Reefs a kilometre or two out to sea take all the energy from the waves. 

Really like this idea. 

Another coastal town where the foreshore has been done really well. Heaps of places for families and groups to picnic, BBQ, kick a ball and play.

Stockyard Gully Cave is a 300 metre long tunnel that is a flowing creek when it rains. The bees at each entrance... huge hives. 

We drove south to the Pinnacles National Park. 

We have fond memories of the kids playing hide and seek last time we were here 20+years ago. 

Stromatolites are significant because they represent the oldest evidence of life on Earth with some of them up to 3.5 billion years old.
We missed seeing them at Hamlyn Pool near Shark Bay because the walkway was damaged by a cyclone three years ago.
To be honest, they're not much to look at but as they are very significant but extremely rare it was good to say we've seen them!

We did a tour of The Lobster Shack at Cervantes. Really interesting. Massive operation in a huge industry. It was good to come away with a better understanding.

A slow start to the day today as we're only moving 20km south-east to a free camp for a few days' relaxation after this strenuous stop 😉

Lake Indoon

The shire websites says Lake Indoon is a popular camping area.

We stayed four nights under a few large gum trees by the lake; one night we were one of four, two nights solo and the last night one other.

A beaut spot with lots of bird life.

Toilets and gas BBQ... bonus!

We're north of the fires further down the coast that has forced the evacuation of Cervantes, but can see the smoke and occasional plume indicating a real flare up. 

Over the roof of the car... they aren't clouds. 
That's smoke from significant fires well south near Cervantes. 

Its a freshwater lake but brackish. Also, with signs indicating the potential of elevated levels of bacteria in the lake, we won't be swimming. 

We relaxed, read, cooked, ate and walked.

Bushfire smoke = good sunsets. 

We did a couple of drives to towns around the area.

The Big Tractor, a new addition to Carnemah.

As recently as the 80s, many of these towns were really thriving. This last 20, 30 or 40 years or so has seen a dramatic decline in their fortunes as families sell up and farms are consolidated into huge agribusinesses.

These towns all over Australia are dying. Many try to remain viable with various enterprises, and some have worked, but those towns that are more than a couple of hours from a city, and/or not on a major road, are becoming ghost towns. 

We drove south to Jurien Bay where people from Cervantes were being evacuated to because of a significant fire. 
We spoke to a local at Mitre 10 who said that the people here at Jurien were quite worried about the fire coming all the way to them like it did a few years ago. 

There are some enormous salt lakes 

The grand old homestead at Carnamah has been restored

We watched this enormous grain train taking on its load of wheat. It's a slow process as the train never stops, inching along as it's filled from the hoppers. 

With a change in the weather forecast,  we moved a little south to Jurien Bay. It's only two hours from Perth so a bit of a growing holiday town.