Mount Brown, Shire of York, Western Australia

Gorgeous property, Shire of York

It's still warm in Perth, not horrendously hot like a couple of months ago but still warm. 

The sun lingers into the early evening warming clothes that dry on the line and the mornings are cool, hinting that Autumn's near.

This weekend for a change the sky was grey and cloudy, so we took out our hiking boots put gas in the car and set off. Approximately 97 kilometres east of Perth in the fertile Avon Valley is the small Shire of York. 

York town hall 

Back in 1829 when Western Australia was founded it quickly became evident that more suitable land was needed to support the growing population. At the time, the first explorers begun their search over the rocky Darling ranges. 

Then shortly after in 1831 the first settlers arrived and immediately begun farming along the banks of the local Avon river. The historic town of York is now the oldest inland town in Western Australia but additionally long before European settlement it was also regularly visited by the ancient migrating aboriginal tribes; the Nyungar people. 

What interested us about York was the old aboriginal folk legends.

Long ago in the Dreamtime, the Hills People used to meet the Plains and Valley People at the foot of Walwalling for games and sports.

Wunding was a handsome young warrior of the Hills People who excelled in the skills of spear throwing etc. Lots of the young ladies had their eyes on him. However, Wilura, a beautiful young girl from the Valley People was the one he loved. In their family groupings this would have been a forbidden relationship. The two decided to ignore the taboo and they eloped together.

When it was discovered that Wilura was missing, the Valley People demanded the return of the young girl. The Hills People said they didn’t know where the young couple were. The Valley People didn’t believe this and they declared war.

The Hill People came down over the slopes outnumbering the challengers and a bloodthirsty battle ensued, with the Valley People doing badly. They called in their Muburum (wise man) and asked him to use his magic powers. He was able to change all the Hills fighting men into blackboy bushes. To this day you can see the wide band of grass trees where in the Dream-time the warriors from the hills were coming over the top of Walwalling and down the eastern slope, and they stand there still.

The Muburum then turned his powers on the two missing young people who had caused such bloodshed, and pronounced a curse on them. Their dead bodies were found later and his curse was that the man’s spirit would stay on Walwalling (Mt. Bakewell) and her spirit was sent to Wongboral (Mt. Brown) and that they would never meet again until the mountains crumbled together. (Acknowledgement to the Shire of York tourism board).

Walking the Mt. Brown trail

Where are we? 

Our little car quickly chugged over the Darling ranges, across the Avon Valley and into York. Our Saturday mission was to hike the 7.5km return trip up Mt. Brown accessible from the Avon Park. Following a printout of instructions that got a little wet in Johns backpack when his drink bottled started leaking, we parked the car at the north end of town and crossed over the Avon river. It was suddenly a little chilly, the wind picked up and rustled the fallen leaves but we carried on. The instructions were informing yet haphazardly unintelligible; (The rectory with its long-abandoned tennis court is on the right and Holy Trinity Church (1853) on the left. You will arrive at a Y fork, take the left road). We lost the track maybe back at the cemetery where we should have turned in a 'e' shaped formation? 

But we kept trying to read the instructions: The way ahead is barred, turn right and almost immediately right again onto an unsealed firebreak track into the bush of Mt. Brown. But we didn't even know at that time what an unsealed firebreak looks like? We couldn't see any form of path... were we looking for a path?

Putting the map back in the bag we just starting walking in an upwards direction keeping a lookout for kangaroos and the elusive echidnas! As it looked like we were nearing the top of the hill something smelt delicious, we sniffed and sniffed some more, it was such a sweet smell. Pleasant and sweet, was it the large black soldier ants that scurried across the dry ground? How strange. Further down the track we saw an information board that we were in a plantation of jam trees, called so for their rich raspberry jam smell! Of course! Our stomachs started grumbling.

Arriving at the top of Mt. Brown after a navigating nightmare

Soon enough we reached the Mt. Brown summit and lookout platform and even though it was still grey and cloudy we had a great view over the town and valley. Looking out across towards Mt. Bakewell we searched for an interesting geological feature (as the information board told us) which was meant to look like a man-made road that the aboriginal people attribute to their mythical Serpent, the Wargul. We couldn't really see it, but nevertheless we might have just needed to be closer.

York- Main street

Beautiful verandas around the town hotel

Coming back down into York we had a short walk around the town. The small houses were adorable and down at the far end of town it seemed everyone was out and about attending the children's rugby matches. 

It didn't look like much had really changed in the town for years, well kept and attractive the town boosted an 1840s court house, police station, stable yards and old town hall, it even looked like they had original light posts. We grabbed some lunch from a small bakery and headed back towards Perth.

Lake Leschenaultia

Welcome to Lake Leschenaultia

As we came over the Darling ranges we veered off for a short break at Lake Leschenaultia. A former man made dam in the Shire of Mundaring was built as a reservoir to supply water to the steam trains travelling the Eastern Railway in the late 19th century. 

Since 1949 the large historic lake has been used for recreation purposes and was were we dipped our feet and rested under the cool shade of a gum tree.

We chose not to stay long it was very busy with kayakers, children feeding geese and walkers. 

Getting back on the road we retuned to Perth in no time! It was a great little trip! 

Tot siens,

John and Kara

Down by the water 

Hot and sticky Singapore

Enjoying the city sunset, Esplanade Mall

The past two weeks have whizzed by in a whir of excitement. Our travels, in lieu of a birthday celebration have recently taken us north of Perth to the South East Asian country of Singapore!

Singapore, well promoted as a clean and green city, surprised us with its amazing underground rail transport system, its diverse ethnic and multicultural neighborhoods and the distinct wealth distribution between them.  On reflection, Singapore is (and probably quite accurately) a shoppers haven! Before arriving Kara had several preconceived ideas that Singapore would be covered in orchids, huge hotels and be hot and sunny.  So, surprisingly, we were slightly excited to arrive into Singapore at the beginning of a huge thunder and lighting storm with torrential rains!  The storm eventually abated after some amazing lighting and the weather remained very humid. We also had the opportunity to stay away from the main touristy hustle and bustle in a small hostel right in the centre of 'China town'. I guess in its own way it was also pretty crazy and wasn't at all close to the image of 'clean
 we were expecting.

Below are several photos highlighting some of the great times we had in Singapore. Overall we must admit that the entire week was amazing, but was built around an array of local (and international) cuisine that was dying to be tasted (turtle soup, shark fin soup, chilli crab, fish head soup, chicken and rice, and seemingly a large selection of ofal... hmm). Lucky we managed to do lots of walking or else we would have come home several kilos heavy, for sure!  One of the most memorable experiences was our fish foot spa! Where small little fish 'suck' the dead skin off your feet, yeh... its as uncomfortable as it sounds. John was even game enough to give it a try but I think we left there feeling a little violated. We did get the chance to see some beautiful orchards at the Royal Botanical garden and even drink New Zealand beer on the beach in Sentosa Island! 

Back to Auzzie!

Tot siens,
John and Kara

Duck and rice from the Chinatown hawkers centre- YUM! 

Taking a stroll through Gardens by the Bay

Johns foot during a 'fish spa'- yes human flesh eating fish
 all in the name of beautiful feet /'science'

Hanging out with the locals in little India

Singapore's highest building, One Raffles Place

Enjoying a Singaporean sling, Raffles Hotel 

Singapore at night, Marina Bay

Tucking into a local delicacy, red bean ice cream with bread

A baby Merlion, Singapore's iconic attraction, Sentosa Island

Eating shrimp dim sum dumpling at Tim Ho Wan
(after being first in line), Plaza Singapura 

We had time for a bit of snake charming,
Kara with the local boa constrictor 'Charlie Brown'

After a long hunt, John eating the much anticipated satay chicken

And lastly! Kara getting stuck into the local delicacy- Durian! (yuck)

Easter Weekend (The great migration South), Western Australia

 This blog is a short update on our Easter weekend adventures! As with many southern hemisphere countries, Easter is the longest holiday period until Christmas. The consequence; everybody takes the opportunity to maximize their time off work!

In Perth we joined an annual migration south, named locally as ‘the great migration’. Like birds, flying to a water hole we voyaged to the Margaret river, one of Australia’s most renowned watering holes (for wine that is!).

Ice cream stop at Busselton beach

On Thursday evening we combed the last of the local inorganic collections for some foam mattresses- check! Packed our tent, cooking stove and other necessities (such as our treasured aerator) and called 10 fully booked campsites. To our luck we managed to get a booking and had a back up option prepared. 

On Friday morning we ventured south, traffic was heavy but moving at the limit. We stopped regularly at the free roadside coffee stops and made our way to Bunbury, then Busselton, checking out the beaches. 

As intrepid travels we moved down the peninsula before stopping at Lake Cave- one of the greatest places we have been. Taking a tour into the cave was breathtaking (literally), the cave was 11 stories underground which equates to about 500 stairs.

Chilling in the autumn vines,  Bettany Wines

After checking out several national parks in the area, we then moved south to Augusta where our campsite was- and was probably the most daunting finding (a 14acre campsite with approx. 600 campers if not more) it was like a mini community… and all sharing 8 toilets. 

From Augusta over the weekend we travelled to Margaret River- tasting the wares on offer. Not only does Margaret River make wine, the area comes with over 10 micro-breweries as well as free chocolate, nougat, cheese and ice-cream tastings.  As a point of difference wineries also offer olive and olive oil tastings and dips/chutneys etc. Although we aren’t really wine connoisseurs (yet), and we didn’t quite make it to half the wineries in the area, we were surprised that there was little diversity in wine variety. You had a choice of sparkling, semillion, chardonnay, merlot, shiraz and cabernet sauvignon OR a dry red, or sweet red (which was a mixture of everything) ek. So maybe we aren’t experts… but we could be turning into wine snobs! We’re just saying, with the beautiful Mediterranean climates maybe some temprenillo or granache might have been nice?

Master Chef John cooking up a hearty breakfast

The natural beauty of the Margaret River region was also surprising, the coast line was stunning. The water was crystal clear with patches of the most amazing colours. We spent several hours hiking around both ends of the peninsula as well as a tad of rock climbing (to get a better view). The weather, although regarded as cooler in the south remained a calm 28 degrees (with even some cloud on Saturday morning!).

Overall it was a fabulous weekend, we met lots of friendly local Auzzies (some who took delight in showing us a massive crab they caught), spent several nights camping under the full moon and took part in the ‘great migration’. 

   

Check out some more of our photos below!

Tot siens,

John and Kara

Amazing stalactites in Lake Cave

Deep in Lake Cave

Visiting Cape Leeuwin lighthouse, southern most tip of the
Margaret River peninsula 

Walking down to the estuary 

Checking the waves at Redgate beach, Prevally

Some awesome wave action, Canal Rocks

Time to try some famous Margaret River Shiraz,
Brookland Valley Vineyard

Missioning along the coastal track at Cape Naturaliste,
northern most tip of the Margaret River Peninsula

Dinner along the waterfront at Spur, Mandurah

After a long weekend, it was nice to get home and shower! 

Western Australia Update (Easter Edition)

Evening light display, Kings Park

The last few weeks have been reasonably quiet in the world of John and Kara. We seem to have slipped into a bit of a routine and have put our travel adventures temporarily on hold in the essence of earning some savings. We've been putting off writing this blog, because we feel we haven't done 'much'. In fact, sitting down to write this blog, really hit home how quickly our life has become monotonous (even in a new country). 

We have reflected over our experiences in the last several weeks and realized we are doing the same things over and over (shopping in the same places, driving the same way to work everyday, going for the same walks every evening etc).    

So we have made the effort to shake things up a bit, after some consideration we said goodbye to our generous ‘Perthian’ hosts and have relocated to an eight-room house closer to Perth City. Kara took a job in the city but has since resigned from her role and is looking for something a little different and with more 'people' interaction. 
John’s role remains status quo atm (see us heading to his work ball) and we’re going to make an effort to see more of Western Australia (no snakes yet...)

Overall, March has been a reminder that we need to make more effort. Not only our aim to gather new experiences but make sure were spending time with important people. This new revelation gave Kara the push to arrange to meet her new little nephew and while John was at work join Mila and Judiet on a trip to an animal farm.  

Baby Jaco

Kara and Mila feeding the lambs

This aside, Perth is slowly cooling! Hurray! Perth’s hot weather has been unbearable. 

Bootcamp! Spot John in the blue shirt

Daily temperatures are now only peaking at 38 on hot days and 34 on cooler days with much more milder mornings (between 12-20 degrees). 

A fortnight ago we also had rain, the first in over four months- what a relief that was. Generally though we have focused on plenty of healthy eating and regular exercise (check out John at bootcamp).

John and the gang bring it in

That was a tough one!

We would like to wish everyone a safe and happy Easter. Next month we are off for a short stay in Singapore! Also stay tuned to hear about our Easter adventures.

Tot siens,
John and Kara

Numbung National Park, Western Australia

Watching the Perth sunset

Another hot, dry, sweltering weekend! This relentless weather doesn't seem to be cooling off, leaving us little option but to only head outside in the cooler evenings, after sunset. We spend the beautiful twilight evenings walking around Perth's lamp-lit streets, strutting over the front yards full of beige sand. 

The sunsets in Perth seem to last forever and are absolutely magical, showering the sky in oranges, pinks and purple hues. 

After a busy week at work for John we decided to take some time this weekend for a relatively impromptu camping trip up the North West coast. 

King Neptune watching over the Indian Ocean

We packed the car with the bare essentials. A mini two person twelve dollar kmart tent, swimsuits, a towel, our little black gas cooker, frying pan, the duvet from our bed, some pillows, a couple of beers, a can of tuna, a bottle of wine, six eggs and a packet of cheese sausages. Sorted. 

The sun bore down as we drove off, probably blistering our sad little burnt car further. Counting our lucky stars that we seemed to avoid most of the Friday traffic and off we raced through the city. 

Two Rocks beach

Our car chugged it's way North, driving along the coast until we reached Two Rocks marine park, where a ginormous King Neptune head bore down on us! We stopped to investigate although we didn't realise until later that we had wandered into an abandoned and derelict theme park. Built by Japanese investors in the 1980s it's been all but left to ruin. As the sun began to set, we took out a couple of Coronas, our can of tuna and sat down on the beach for dinner. The sky was beautiful and the birds seemed to dance and play with each other before us.

Back in the car later, we drove on. When we arrived at our planned destination, the small coastal village of Guilderton, the campground was full! But not disheartened we decided that roughing it a little wouldn't be so bad- it was only one night! Back off the main road we had definitely passed a rest area that looked passable as a place to camp. Turning around we found it just three kilometres down the road and a small sign indicated we were by the Moore River. It looked good, a little too much gravel perhaps, but enough bush to make our site secluded and there was even a large concrete table to cook breakfast on. 

Getting ready for a night of camping

A quick night cap

The next morning we woke with the birds after a freezing cold restless sleep, constantly woken by trucks barreling past bouncing along on the tarmac.

Sausages for breakfast! 

It was just before sunrise while the sky was still a hazy grey blue. We brought out the little cooker and packet of cheese sausages frying them to a nice golden brown colour.

The eggs, fried on the dry pan.

Not only had we forgotten oil, we'd also forgotten the coffee, oh dear. It was a bit much for our foggy brains to comprehend.

Our day was just beginning, it was another 85kms to our destination: Nambung National Park. If we didn't make a stop for coffee the ride might get ugly, tensions were already high with the lack of caffeine flowing through our bodies. 

Shortly after our breakfast, which we ate sitting in the car to warm up, we ventured off in quick search of a good tree/ablution block. 

Roadside bush

As well as the tree we found an interesting information board that explained that Moore river (National Park) had once been the location of a Government-lead aboriginal camp. The settlement was first opened back in 1918, with the intention to be a farming area for Aboriginal people, with local schooling and health facilities and employment opportunities. 

But, during the 1920s its purpose shifted: residents were often brought there against their will and it grew to become an orphanage, creche, relief depot and home for old people, unmarried mothers, and the sickly. Many Aboriginal and mixed-race children were also sent to Moore River, usually forcefully, as part of the Stolen Generations. Other than a mass of trees and some clearings, there was very little to show that once hundreds of people had lived there.

Keep an eye out! 

Soon we were on the road again driving past the vast Indian Ocean and to our right, nothing but dry barren land. We were on our way to the Numbung National Park. 

The park is a drawing factor due to it's wide collection of thousands of naturally formed Pinnacles, resembling a landscape from another planet. The unusually shaped limestone rocks 'pinnacles' take on an array of interesting formations; many have been given interesting names for their similarities to animals and everyday life objects and some look like hard erect appendages jutting out of the sand.

Playing around in the pinnacles

The pinnacles are made of a limestone which is believed to have originally come from sea shells. However, scientists are still unclear on how the pinnacles were formed into the tall solid individual objects we now see.

Hectares of pinnacles

The theory which sounded coolest to us is that the pinnacles are preserved tree casts that were once buried thousands of years ago. Due to natural processes the trunks hardened and then several millennia later wind erosion brought them out from under massive sand dunes to their present day level. However the dunes shift so much annually it's said that if you return years later you could be looking at an entirely different landscape as new pinnacles are uncovered and others reburied. 

That''s a strange sight

John and Kara kangaroo hunting

By the time we arrived, the park information centre had just opened. We continued driving through the entrance gate into the desert, the wheels of the car slipped on the soft golden sand. 

The first records of Europeans at the pinnacles dates back to the 1650’s, when the north and south coast were first chartered by the Dutch. They believed this area was a lost city. Local aboriginal people also believed that the pinnacles were the transformed bodies of the dead. As we drove through the large park we contemplated both interesting ideas. The landscape was serene and the pinnacles huge! Between them we saw an array of live. Shy grey kangaroos bounced past and large brown birds flew over our heads looking at the mice scurrying between rocks. There were animal footprints softly marked into the sand and plenty of tire tracks.

A quick rest stop

We stayed over an hour, driving around then hopping out at different locations to play around the rocks before finishing off with a quick look in the information centre.

Leaving the park, we drove on along the desert-like highway, closer towards the coast. The warm air rushed through the car as we opened the windows. We really needed a coffee. It wasn't long before we finally reached Jurien Bay and falling from the car we skipped into a local cafe. 

At the Jurien Jetty Cafe we bought two ice coffees sat outside on the picnic tables and watched the calm ocean water frolic against the sand. 

Ice coffee all round! 

Jurien Bay

Cervantes Bay

Jurien bay was first settled around the mid-1850's and in 1885 a large jetty was constructed which lead to the growth of a small fishing village. However due to poor water supply the village remained small and shanty for generations. Today it's a booming holiday resort area with absolutely stunning clear water, a surrounding marine park and temperate weather year round. Not surprisingly there isn't much to see in Jurien bay. It's quiet and a perfect place to escape the hustle and bustle of city life. We walked down to the water and checked out the jetty but decided to move back down the coast and pick up lunch in a small town called Cervantes.

At Cervantes Beach, Jurien Bay

Cervantes, in the Shire of Dandaragan has a population of 472.  There's one small strip of five shops, neatly in a line next to each other, a church, community hall and a petrol station. We stopped for a short rest under a massive pine tree, pulling the duvet from the car and napping under the hot sun.

Lake Thetis

John in front of the stromatolites

After a short rest that didn't at all help refresh us, we went to explore Lake Thetis on the village's east side. This unusual saline lake is one of the few places in the world with living marine stromatolites. 

We didn't really know what those were, so when we arrived we hovered around the information board umming and ahhing. 

The board read: "stromatolites are layered bio-chemical accretionary structures formed by the trapping of sedimentary grains in nutrient poor, alkaline water". Well, we weren't really any closer to understanding, so following the wooden boardwalk we checked out these old rock structures. 

That's just what they looked like! Weird shaped rocks like as if some animal had come and dug a hole in the mud, perhaps a dog burying a bone. For something said to be billions of years old, it was sure growing slowly! We walked back to the car chatting about which route we should take back to Perth.

Amazing sand dunes in the distance 

We decided to drive more inland, which was a good choice. 

It was hot and with the windows down because of our hobo air conditioning, the warm wind blew through the car. But we sat back and let it run over our skin. Winter's coming and who knows how cold it will soon get?

Tot siens,

John and Kara

The long empty road home