We stayed a couple of days in Esperance, and then moved on to Fitzgerald River National Park. This park has the largest species biodiversity of anywhere in the world and has particularly interesting flowers. Even though we were there in the autumn and not the height of spring, there were plenty of unusual flowers to see. Like the Royal Hakea, a plant named in honour of Queen Victoria. Some say this is because it is like her – upright and prickly.
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| Royal Hakea and other wild flowers |
The weather was squally here with huge seas and high winds the first day, but we did some exploring and hiking the next day. Climbing over huge rocks at the edge of the ocean, we came on the Western Australian solution to rock fishermen not being washing into the sea. They have imbedded large rings in the rocks and fishermen are instructed to tether themselves to the rings.
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| Anchor ring for fishermen |
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| Safe rock fishing in WA |
We passed through Hopetoun, where a coffee shop/grocery store owner explained that the hundreds of 10 kilo boxes of rice he had stockpiled were insurance against the next 6 months when aircraft fuel is going to run out and we will face famine. I wonder if he knows something we don’t. The soothing sign “Remember that Jesus loves you” was visible as we left the shop.
On our way north to Hyden, the home of “Wave Rock”, we passed miles and miles of broadacre farms that stretched to the horizon. Every little town had huge grain storages, both permanent silos and temporary plastic covered hills. Between this and the Eyre peninsula area of SA, the grain exports from Australia must be mammoth. I guess the problems in Ukraine will be good for Australian farmers.
Wave Rock is what is known as an inselberg, a large lump of rock sticking out of a plain. This one has eroded so that the one face looks like a breaking wave. It is very unusual and beautiful. A local high school teacher who was a hobby photographer entered a photo of Wave Rock in a National Geographic competition in the 1950’s. The photo won first prize and started a wave of tourists who wanted to see this natural phenomenon. The economy of Hyden is now split between agriculture and tourism.
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| Wave Rock |
From Hyden we took the 300 km Granite Woodlands Discovery Trail, a gravel road, back to Norseman. This road passes through various changes in landscape, and has lots of wildflowers, more inselbergs, some stunningly eroded cliffs or “breakaways”, and free campsites along the way. Apart from the dust and a fine coating of mud on the car from a few rain showers, it was a good shortcut.
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| The Breakaways |
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| The Breakaways |
We took 3 days to recross the Nullarbor, nothing much new or exciting to describe except for a stop at Head of the Bight where there is a big whale watching area. The Southern Right Whales come here at this time of year to calve off the cliffs just east of Nullarbor Road House. We were lucky enough to see a couple of whales and a calf, although they did not get too close. Out photos look like floating logs, but they were fun to watch swimming and spouting.
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| Southern Right Whale off Head of the Bight |
We took the ferry back across the Spencer Gulf, spending the night before at Cowell. Cowell is the source of much very good quality Australian jade, and I bought a couple of carved jade whale tales to make into necklaces. Cowell also has many beautiful old stone buildings, a feature that we noticed throughout South Australia. Even many old barns are carefully constructed of stone and still in use today.
Our next stop was West Beach in Adelaide, where we spent a week exploring the city. We rode bike paths along the coast and the River Torrens; got free seniors transit passes and used them to visit the centre of the city. We walked around the Botanic Gardens which contains 3 spectacular glass houses and the Santos Museum of Economic Botany. This is a restored 19th century museum devoted to plants that are of economic use, the last of its kind in the world. The antique display cases were almost as beautiful as the contents.
We also visited the Art Gallery of South Australia which had 2 modern Japanese art installations. One was a room size web of red wool by Chiharu Shiota called “Absence Embodied” and the other was a mirrored room of reflections by Yayoi Kusama called “The Spirits of the Pumpkins Descended Into The Heavens”. As well, there was a beautiful gallery of 19th and 20th century Japanese pottery. Next door was the South Australian Museum, with a magnificent 3 story display of ocean flora and fauna from the surface to the deepest depths. The giant squid was a favourite among the children visiting there.
Not to short change the preforming arts, we got tickets to a bluegrass evening which was part of the Adelaide Cabaret Fringe Festival, and very good it was too. We also visited the Jam Factory Craft Centre which houses a shop, hot glass studios, jewellery workshops and wood workshops.
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| Absence Embodied |
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| The Spirits of the Pumpkins Descended Into the Heavens |
Moving along we stopped in Handorf in the Adelaide Hills. It is an arts and craft town, similar to Tilba Tilba NSW or Montville QLD. Lots of lovely little shops and galleries, although the weather was foul; it poured rain most of the morning and discouraged strolling around the pretty streets. We drove on to Nuriootpa, where we camped for a couple of nights to sample some Barossa wine. Once again our trusty bikes carried us around Nuriootpa to wineries, a brew pub, a bush botanic garden and the labyrinth. A labyrinth is not a maze, but a mediation path somewhat like a mandela where you walk and contemplate.
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| Labyrinth at Nuriootpa |
We also booked ourselves into Penfolds winery to do a wine blending afternoon, where we were instructed in how to make a Grenache/Shiraz/Malbec blend. It was lots of fun and we got a small bottle of our own personal blend to take home, as well as a free cellar door tasting afterwards.
From the Barossa we travelled to Peterborough SA which used to be a large rail centre in the days of steam. It is a town where all three gauges of track met and locomotives were maintained and repaired. In the early 1970’s, at the end of the steam era, the centre was closed. It has been reopened as Steam Town (museum), and they have ongoing projects to preserve the buildings, roundhouse, turntable and old rolling stock. Very good tour, and a “sound and light” presentation that was a glorified movie but told the history of rail in the area very well.
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| Turntable at Steam Town, Peterborough |
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| Engine at Steam Town, Peterborough |
From Peterborough we came back into NSW at Broken Hill and travelled on to Orange. Here we found an odd city that has few bike lanes or facilites for bikes in the downtown, but 10-15 bike trails in the areas around Orange. We did the one urban trail that started from downtown and went south through a number of parks to a beautiful old site called The Springs. This was an important water source and camping spot for aboriginal people as late as the 1930’s. Right next to The Springs was Philip Shaw Wines, where we had a lovely wine tasting and cheese plate in the middle of our ride. Needless to say, the ride home was somewhat slower than the ride out.
We camped one night in the Warrumbungles and made a brief visit to Siding Spring Observatory, planning to return later in the year and spend more time there and in the Piliga forest. We went on to Moree and spent a couple of days trying out the hot springs. We wanted to see a few galleries, but 4 of the 6 on the gallery trail were closed. Ditto the Artesian Aquatic Centre. The 50 metre pool has been torn up as it was leaking and cracking. No one seems to know if or when it will be rebuilt. We did mange to find a few of the lovely art deco buildings that haver been preserved in Moree, but Moree on a winter Saturday is one of the quietest places we visited.
Heading home tomorrow.
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