Date of Adventure about 29 January to about 23 February 2025
This posting is just a way to cover some time that has been interesting but not super exciting and to get some of the photos into the blog so you guys can see what Australia is like. After crossing the Nullarbor the only really exciting trip was a drive to Israelite Bay from Esperance. I’ll do a posting of that trip after I get some of this stuff taken care of. Just to put it all in perspective, before getting down to details the travel has been mostly on tarmac. I’m in a place where kludging a map is not reasonable so you can look it all up online. Google is your buddy here. The travel was: End of Nullarbor in Norseman. Then drive down to Esperance. Esperance is supposed to be a really great place but I was a little disappointed. Camping is difficult. I camped about 30 km out of town in a nice campground but it was pretty expensive. From there I went to Israelite Bay. You’ll have to wait until I post that trip. Then over to Denmark, which is named for a person, not for the country of Denmark. I thought Denmark was a nice town with little cafés and shops. I camped at a vineyard that was nice even though the campsites were really close. The wind blew like snot!! In fact I’d been in wind for a while, that’s part of the reason I didn’t care that much for Esperance. From there I headed west with the plan of camping on the beach at a place called Black Point. Apparently it’s a basaltic cliff over the Southern Ocean. Well, I didn’t make it because there was a bush fire in the area and when I got about 30 km away the smoke was serious and I was supposed to turn right in the direction of the smoke. Even though none of the roads were closed I decided to give up and head on towards Margaret River. Earlier in the day there had been a lot of side roads that were closed because of fire. Since I use an app that gives information about fires, cyclones, etc. I checked and the general area I was headed wasn’t closed but it did get closed two days later. Anyway, on to Margaret River. This is a wine region and I will say that I really liked the town and the wineries. Again, camping choices were pretty limited for my types of campgrounds. I did camp in a “caravan park” about 10 km out of town. Campsites were closer than I like but it was well done, cheap, and they have great, hot showers. That’s not a trivial thing when you travel the way I am. So I spent six nights. This is definitely a resort/tourist area. I really liked the town of Margaret River. And the wineries were just great. There are a couple of famous capes along the ocean here. Cape Leeuwin has a famous lighthouse and it’s the point where the Southern Ocean meets the Indian Ocean. And then just up the way is Cape Naturaliste with another lighthouse and some famous rock formations, including Sugarloaf Rock. It ain’t the Sugarloaf that I knew as a kid.
I’ve left Margaret Bay, headed to Perth to take care of some small things. I’m camped in a National Park, in a serious gum tree forest with no internet. I’ll probably manage to get enough of this together that I can get it online in a few days or so. I’ll drive a few km away to where the trees have been cleared so Starlink will work. Damn you Elon!!
OK let’s get to the pictures with little commentary so you can see what it’s been like.
At one point, before Norseman I’d planned to drive down to the ocean and camp on the beach. Well, I got to this point and the track was really gnarly. It was evening and the wind was blowing like crazy so I didn’t take the track in this photo to the beach, I turned around and found free camping along the road.
Norseman is pretty uninspiring but it’s the end of the Nullarbor, maybe plus a little. But like a lot of the towns I’ve been through it was a mining town. Gold was found in the area. They have maintained a 30 km unsealed road with a lot of remnants and ruins from the days. This one is interesting and a little hard to see. Originally there was some gold mined here but it gave out and later they started open digging for iron. That’s a pretty big change.
Like all of these remote old mining places there are frequent graves that are pretty interesting.
Along the route there was a headframe for one of the gold mines. This is interesting because almost all of the headframes I’ve seen in the US are made of wood. I don’t know when this one was used but it’s mostly metal
And as I was kind of looking for a campsite in the area, by the dam that was used in the early times, I encountered this guy on a web that crossed the track. I’ve seen a few spiders since I’ve been here but I think this might be the largest. It was weird because even though I shook the web around this dude didn’t move at all.
Just driving around I’ve run into all sorts of public artwork. Some pretty cool and some just ordinary.
The last couple of weeks haven’t had as many abandoned homesteads and old mines as I had in the Flinders and east of here but they crop up from time to time. Here’s one that I really wanted to explore but there were no trespassing signs on the fence. That’s not something I see a lot of, no trespassing.
The little towns are actually quite different and interesting but by now I’ve been through so many of them, I think I’m getting just a little jaded. But still… Here are a couple of pictures I took in Salmon Gums. For the uninitiated, gums are eucalyptus trees and there are literally over 100 varieties. Most look quite different from those in California. But up close they have the same leaves and similar bark.
Here are a few pictures taken close to a campsite I was in after Denmark. It is along a pretty dry river, although there’s still water in the pools. And it gives you some idea of the eucalyptus forests.
There are interesting hotels (with pubs) and roadhouses all along the trip. At first I’d stop at a lot of them but I’m getting a bit more discriminating… Too much beer!
Margaret River is a nice town. And it’s close to Cape Leeuwin where the Southern and Indian Oceans meet.
North of Margaret River is Cape Naturiste. It’s popular as well especially for Sugarloaf Rock
Of course part of my reason for visiting Margaret River was to try out some of the wines. Most of the vineyards I visited were small, boutique places. But the first one I stopped at, just because it was on the way, was pretty fancy.
I stayed in Margaret River long enough to get to their Saturday morning Farmers Market. I’ve been to a few markets. This one is small and doesn’t have the strict rules that Santa Fe Farmers Market does but they make a big effort to keep it local. It was an opportunity to get some non-supermarket food.
And the scenery has been different and inspiring for the majority of the trip
