Coalseam

If you can only visit one spot to see wildflowers, it must be Coalseam Reserve. I had heard of it before, but never known exactly where it was. It’s rather off the beaten track, but well  worth making the effort. I drove west from Morawa towards Mingenew and then made a sharp right towards Coalseam. It was a beautiful sunny morning and the whole trip was a landscape photographer’s paradise. The bitumen road into the reserve got narrower and narrower till it petered out entirely and gave way to gravel. Fortunately this had been graded recently and there was only one water crossing to contend with. My first stop was the Irwin Lookout.

You walk along the cliff edge to see the River Irwin down below. There are carpets of everlastings all around. 

Next stop in Coalseam Reserve was Miners Camp. This is the site of the original seam of coal after which the reserve is named. It didn’t prove to be productive as a coal mine, but has proved its weight in gold as a tourist attraction. It’s possible now to camp there overnight if you are self sufficient.

Poor quality coal from the mine shaft, top left.

Conglomerate lumps of rock near the river bed.

I had my picnic lunch with some people on a day trip from Geraldton. They come every year to Coalseam and said that this was the best they had ever seen it.

I dragged myself away finally as I wanted to reach Geraldton in time for a walk along the seafront before the sun went down. After checking in at the Ocean Centre Hotel, I set off towards the Port for a change and walked along the Esplanade Jetty. This is a fairly new development opened in 2014. At the end is a telescope pointing at some rocks where sea lions bask in the sun.

Looking back to my hotel from town beach.

There were two sea lions basking on the rocks but only visible through the telescope.

Three tug boats on standby in the harbour.

Shades of yellow

It was a very cold night again in Dalwallinu: only 3 degrees which is colder than a fridge. But the sun soon warmed up the day as I checked out of the Wheatlands Motel and set off on my travels north.

I am still fascinated by trying to get the perfect shot of the canola fields. A professional photographer NaturebyNathan has done it but I can’t match his.

My first stop on the wildflower trail today was the Mia Moon Reserve west of Wubin. There is another large granite rock with wildflowers all round it:

There were lots of yellow everlastings everywhere, but even though orchids were promised, I only spotted a small clump of donkey orchids:

By the car park were some useful information boards:

This flowering shrub was just where I parked my car:

It’s Hakea Recurva and very prickly. I also saw many more sundews, but these were more advanced than yesterday’s. This one was already in flower:

On the road again, I stopped briefly just before Perenjori at a siding known as Maya. Parked there was an ancient piece of machinery, adapted from a military tank for agricultural purposes. It allowed farmers to quickly clear the land for crops:

In the background is an ubiquitous grain silo. These are all the way up this road, which follows the railway line. When co-operative grain handling was introduced it transformed life for farmers. Previously they had to man-handle bags of grain themselves, which was back-breaking work.

I had lunch in the park in the centre of Perenjori and then called at the Tourist Information to ask where I could see the elusive wreath flowers. These used to be seen easily on the roadside, but so much road improvements have gone on that the soil has all been disturbed. I was directed to a quarry on Bowgada Back Road and found a little cluster of them all on their own:

I arrived in Morawa before 3.00 pm and found the motel all locked up: no check-in till 4.00 pm. What’s more there was no wi-fi! On the plus side I had a lovely hot shower and went to IGA to buy a weight-watchers curry to heat up in the microwave. Also staying here are three couples who decided to pretend they are camping and built a bonfire on the waste ground just behind:

Around Dalwallinu

Late yesterday afternoon I went into Tourist Information to check on the best places to see wildflowers. The lady was a mine of information and marked up my map in lots of sites. It wasn’t easy to decide which spots to visit. It had been a very cold, clear night when I emerged from my warm and cosy unit to use the “facilities” at 5.30 am. One man was already sitting outside drinking coffee! The day warmed up quickly though. It was perfect weather for exploring.

After enjoying my usual breakfast of muesli, yoghourt and banana brought from Perth, I set off south at 8.45 to go to Petrudor Rocks:

The top of the granite rock has many natural rock pools.

An array of sundews, which used to be made into red ink.

The sundews send up these sticky creepers.

A few pink everlastings.

Next on my list was Xantippe Water Tank on the Dalwallinu to Kalannie Road. This was designed to collect water draining off rocks and hopefully to supply Dalwallinu in the early days, but this never eventuated. There were lots of wildflowers round about it.

Brilliant white "pincushions".

The old water tank.

Xantippe is the only Australian place name starting with X.

Dalwallinu is known for wattles.
There are many different varieties.

Wattle close-up.

I returned to Dalwallinu to make lunch in my unit, then set off north to Wubin and beyond to see Jibberding Reserve which came highly recommended. There were large swathes of white and pink everlastings. These have jumped to the start of this post for some reason!

Wildflower trails

August is the month when carpets of wildflowers burst out in WA. I’m off to see some of them. My first trip up north was in 1997 with 3 girlfriends. I remember this well because of a big shock on the way home. We stopped for a break and someone told us about the death of Princess Diana. We could hardly believe it and rushed home to switch on the TV.

1997: me among the wildflowers

Back to 2021 and in the midst of COVID-19, I feel fortunate to be able to leave Perth without the lockdowns in the Eastern States. Last time I went on holiday at the end of April, I packed up in about 10 minutes to get away before the borders closed. Today I took about 2 hours and only left the house at 11.30.

The Great Northern Highway was extremely busy with road trains and big trucks. There were also a lot of potholes in the road, some of which had been hastily filled in but many still needed attention. I’ve never seen this before. It must be the result of subsidence after the heavy rainfall in the last few weeks.

I stopped at Bindoon to buy some freshly picked mandarin oranges as it’s the season and then continued on to New Norcia. There were fields of yellow as far as the eye could see, with the canola crop in flower:

New Norcia looked very forbidding on a miserable afternoon

St Josephs

There was a lot to see in New Norcia, but I missed the tour starting at 1.30 pm and in any case it was a long tour and it was drizzling. I continued on my way to Dalwallinu. I was booked in at the Wheatlands Motel for 2 nights in a “budget room”. This room has no ensuite and the facilities are across the car park in the old and abandoned town swimming pool!  I had been warned that they are a bit chilly at this time of year, so I certainly won’t be going out in the middle of the night!

Walyunga

Every sunny day is precious just now. Cold mornings and blue skies mean a bushwalk somewhere. Today it was Walyunga National Park. The river was flowing as fast as I’ve ever seen it and the whitewater rapids resembled snow and ice shooting past.

This is part of the course for the Avon Descent later this month, when kayakers take life in their hands shooting these rapids on a two-day event. I had hoped to see some people practicing, but I suppose they are all at work on a Thursday. Part of the walk trail up to Syds Rapids was supposedly closed because it was flooded at one point, but nobody was taking any notice of the red and white tape across the track. I imagine it was a remnant of the storms two weeks ago. There were lots of trees down.

In the past I’ve done the entire black Echidna Trail with the bushwalking group. It is very strenuous with a stiff uphill climb away from the river. Today I was happy to simply walk along the river as far as Syds Rapids and back again.

For casualties in the Avon Descent

The track alongside the river

Tiny black bracket fungi on a log

Route of the Avon Descent