Hopetoun, WA

Flathead Point just metres from our camp site on a perfect windless day. Hopetoun has a number of bays with crystal clear blue waters, white beaches, rocks and reefs, many of which fall within the Fitzgerald River National Park. Hopetoun was established in 1900 servicing the Phillips River mining district and became a shipping port for the gold mining industry until 1936 when it was closed. A nickel mine in the area has recently been closed for repairs following the explosion of one of the tanks.

Ratings: CP ** Surroundings *****

The wild and beautiful 5 mile beach on a cloudless summer day.

This Black Bream was caught in Culham Estuary but set free and returned to its natural habitat. The fisherwoman isn't ready to consume her first catch!

Serendipity at Flathead Point! Dolphins enjoying the calm early morning before the predictable strong afternoon winds blow in.

Ravensthorpe, WA

Alongside the camp kitchen.  Quiet and peaceful with plenty of birds at the dam.

Ratings: CP ** Surroundings **

Reflections on the lake at our caravan park with its abundance of birdlife.


Micah enjoying the warmth of the sun on the lawn leading down to the lake.

Bremer Bay, WA

Very crowded over NY14/15 and by far the most expensive at $65 per night 

Ratings: ** Surroundings *****

The stunning colours of the Australian landscape captured in an image at the sheltered Native Dog beach on a windy day. Moments of quietness away from the noisy exuberance of holiday makers staying in our camp! This beach got its name from the dingoes which inhabited the area before the settlers arrived. Most of the dingoes were shot by the farmers in the 1960s because they attacked their sheep but the problem remained with feral dogs (the result of the remaining dingoes interbreeding with domesticated dogs) continuing to attack the sheep.

A 2 kilometre walk from the campsite through bushland opens to reveal this picturesque bay.

Short Beach which was my favourite beach...rock pools to explore (back to those childhood days!), the silica white sands, swims in the cold azure blue waters of the Southern Ocean and casting out a line with the sun coming up over the ocean.

Jerramungup, WA

Ratings: CP ** Surroundings *

An array of honey eaters waiting for us to fill the bird bath on a very hot day: New Holland, Brown and Brown- Headed honeyeaters. We stayed at the small town of Jerramungup on our way to Bremer Bay. The town was established for returning servicemen who were given land there in the 1950s. The Aboriginal name apparently translates to "the place of upstanding yate trees" which are a type of eucalypt.

A Western Grey mother and joey keeping cool among the yate trees in 40 degree heat.

Porongurup, WA

Balancing act on a very difficult site!

Rating: CP ** Surroundings ***

No Micah... not to the village; let's go to Castle Rock! That's our travelling home in the background.

Time to reflect on this ancient landscape after a 570 metre climb. Karri and Marri forests lie below Castle Rock in the Porongurup Ranges and, in the distance, the Stirling Ranges rise from the plains. The Aboriginal name for the Stirling Ranges is apparently Koi-Kyenunu-ruff meaning 'mist moving around the mountains' and Bluff Knoll (Bular Mial) is sacred and home to a powerful ancestral being.The Porongurups are around 1000 million years old and the granite domes were formed from a massive bubble of molten rock that rose from deep in the earth's core and pushed upwards. Weathering sculpts the exposed rocks into rounded shapes and valleys.

Kaleidoscope of colour as the sun sets behind the Porongurups.