Friday 2nd January 2015 – Augusta to Cape Naturaliste - showers then fine & clear

Our road trip today.  We couldn’t get mud maps to drop down further in size to keep the whole trip on the screen.  Trust me down the bottom is Augusta.  The single road out to the left below the cape is Sugarloaf Road.  We have now covered a major part of this region.






























We headed off this morning to Cape Naturaliste which is around 100 klms north of Augusta.  We wanted to do the walks around the cape.

The tracks total distance around 11.8 kilometres.  We were going to walk the tracks over two days, but when we got there and started, we decided to do a circuit of the  cape tracks. We short cut 330 metres, so walked near on 11.5 kilometres.  It is hard to imagine that this was the distance, because there is always something interesting to look out and before you know it you are back at the start. There were a few climbs but the grade was not too steep.

 

I have outlined in purple the route that we took.  The views were absolutely amazing.  We walked the track clockwise.

























This stop was called “The other side of the moon”.  Down below there was no flora, and it looked like the moon surface.

This photo was taken higher up the cliff where vegetation has taken a hold.







The day hasn’t started to clear yet.  We didn’t have any rain on our walk, but it was overcast.






























Lots of spots to view the cliff fronts.  It is all limestone.

What a dinky lighthouse, it is surprisingly short compared to Cape Leeuwin. It doesn’t need to be high because of the height of the cliff, but we were certainly glad that we toured Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse instead of this one. 

 

 

 

The track passes near the lighthouse, this is a view from the track.  The track was very different in lots of areas.  It started our as bitumen, then compacted earth, then sand, then limestone obstacle course.

You will see this point in the next photo from the other side.


























I noticed something in the water near the rocks and saw a seal swimming and lazing in the water.  It was only one that I first saw, but then I realized that there were several there.



  
Not seeing any yet?

There were a lot Sea Lions there.  It wasn’t until we started to walk back up the hill to continue on the main track, that we could hear them way down below.  Obviously the breeze was carrying their noises.

Their rocky outcrop island had a nice safe swimming area in the middle safe from sharks.

We viewed the seals from this headland.  It was a surprise to see the large cave when we walked around to the next bay.

 

 

 

 

 

The ocean was so calm, that you could see the breezes whipping across the top of the water.  The only problem was the large amount of bush flies annoying us.  The bush fly swat was getting a work out.  It’s good that they are free and there is one on every tree.

 















The caves were high up and also here is one down at sea level.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I spotted this ship, I told Glen that we were going to win lotto on Saturday Night – yes we have a ticket and the first thing we would do would be book a cruise on the ship that cruises the Kimberley.  That would have to be next season.  I just thought it was some rich persons toy.

 

 

 

 

Well guess what! – when we checked our photos this is THE KIMBERLY QUEST!  Obviously down south out of the cyclone area.  Well I hope that this is a omen for our ticket :)

 

 

It’s clearing up and turning into a nice day.  What the!  We have just turned off Sandy Way and this is our street?  Limestone Avenue, really ?

If you fall over your own feet, this one isn’t for you.  It looked more daunting than it was.  There were plenty of little sandy gaps to step into.  Obviously over the years the sand has been dispersed from between the sandstone layer.  I noticed that there were plenty of fossils in the limestone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then drove down to Bunker Bay.  How beautiful the colour of the ocean and the white sand, but the water is too cold for our liking.

 

 

There are a lot of granite outcrops and you can see the rocks under the ocean make it appear darker to where there is just sand.

The photo on the right still shows the limestone cliffs and then it just changes into Granite outcrops.















Now we have driven back to the other side of the cape to Sugarloaf Road.  Simply Stunning scenery.

Sugarloaf Rock is the most southerly nesting site of the Red Tailed Tropic Bird.

 

We didn’t see any birds on the rock.  It is massive, but there is nothing to show you how big it really is.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

View further along the coast and one of the car park.  Certainly great parking and toilet facilities.  We are now going back to the other side again to take a loop road out to the beach and down to Dunsborough.


















The photos above were taken at Eagle Bay and the one below is Castle Rock.

This is the coastline along from Cape Naturaliste to Dunsborough.

Dunsborough is quite big, lots and lots of shops.  All spread out over a fairly large area.  We stopped into the tourist information centre and decided to visit the Silk Road – a silk farm and then head back to the Venison farm that we saw on the drive over.

This has to be the best display of red kangaroo paw that I have seen.  It was in the garden outside the Silk Road building. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Everything at the Silk Road was very expensive, far more than it should have been.  We thought that they would have hundreds of mulberry trees as they advertise as the only Australian silk producer.  Reality is that they have one small hot house (see below) of mulberry trees.  They sell the cuttings which they have put in a pot and have taken root for $25 !  Basically Mulberry trees are the easiest thing to grow so it was with total disbelief that I watched a guy pay this.  They send the cocoons overseas to be mixed with more and the product is made overseas and sent back.  They are on a mission to get to the stage of only having their cocoons produce the silk.  The tiniest jar of Mulberry jam was $9.50.

 

 

Glen is in the hothouse with the entire farm stand of Mulberry Trees, and above right are some of the farm workers.  The farm has been featured on Landline.  I really find it hard to believe that they are producing Australian silk. I wondered how they were making money, obviously it is selling Mulberry Tree cuttings.

The Venison Farm

Nice shop, friendly owners.  We bought Venison Sausages which we had for dinner tonight and they were delicious.  We also bought Venison Chorizo Sausage which will keep for up to 12 months (I doubt that – we will have eaten it well before then :)

Pity it takes so long to get anything back to the East Coast or I would be buying off these guys.