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Western Australia

Bibbulmun Hike Yoyo Part 1

Albany to Northcliffe

You might be wondering what a Yoyo hike is, it’s doing a hike all the way in one direction then turning around and walking back again, up then down. So I’m off, over 2000km to walk carrying everything I need for the trip, over 3 and a half months of walking. Leaving Albany on a short and easy day to sand patch hut only 13 km or so, arriving three hours later, way too early at about 1pm I’m tempted to keep walking all the way through to the next hut at mutton bird but it’s another 13 km and the rain is coming down so I decide to stay. Continue Reading

August 2, 2021 by joel

Food for Bibbulmun hike

A big part of any Bibbulmun hike is food and there are a few ways to go about it. Many like to buy their food in towns along the way and are happy to do this for the whole hike. Personally I’ll be doing this for most sections when it’s only a three or four days between towns, but the majority of my food is pre-organized, pre-packed and dropped into visitor centres, accommodation in towns or in buckets along the track. Continue Reading

March 26, 2021 by joel

Bibbulmun Again

Time to do it again. The property where I’ve been staying off and on between traveling has been sold so it’s time to move on but I figure before I go I’ll have another crack at the Bibbulmun track, only this time I’m setting off planning to do it both ways, walking from Albany up to Perth and then walking back down to Albany, over 2000km all up and I’m estimating that it will take me about 4 months to complete. The picture above shows everything I’ll have with me except for my food, not a lot, but it’s a telling image when you think that this is really all you need to live for quite an extended period of time. Continue Reading

March 9, 2021 by joel

Flowers And Borders

You may be wondering what this is, it’s a flying duck orchid of the Paracaleana genus of orchids which rely on mimicking wasp species for fertilization. The big warty “head” of this duck orchid looks like the female of a wasp species, an unsuspecting male wasp flies down and tries to literally pick up what he believes to be a female, the warty head flicks around swinging him under to the business part of the flower, to pollinate it or collect pollen to spread to the next flower he tries to “pick up”. Continue Reading

November 26, 2020 by joel

Fossicking in W.A.

Fossicking for anything other than gold within Western Australia is a bit of an oddity, something you rarely hear about, especially in the lower half of the state. In fact I’d passed over the idea of fossicking for rocks and minerals here almost completely, but while visiting friends in Kalbarri we went for a look at some old lead mining areas near by and we found some lovely samples of lead and different forms of copper.

September 22, 2020 by joel

Rocks n Birds n Plants

I’ve been tumbling rocks constantly for the last few months since I bought the tumbling kit. After years of collecting rocks while travelling around the country, it’s great to finally be able to see some of them at their best, polished and shining. These ones above were from Tassie along the north coast where there are a couple of fossicking areas, I believe most of them are jasper, though there’s some agate in there and petrified wood as well. Continue Reading

August 13, 2020 by joel

Plants and Birds

Taking photographs is one of the ways to keep myself amused while the lock down is still on, although it’s slowly letting up with W.A. opening some of it’s internal travel restrictions. Just outside of the cottage where I’m staying there’s a birdbath that’s proving to be a great joy with a wide variety of birds visiting it through the day. Continue Reading

June 21, 2020 by joel

Corona Lock down

Obviously social distancing rules don’t apply to everyone, that’s one crowded bath. So how hard is it when your living a “van life” to suddenly be required to lock down and not go anywhere? A large part of life in a van tends to consist of using public spaces and places so to have these taken away puts you in a bit of a pickle.

June 6, 2020 by joel

Kings Park Spring 2019

I’d visited Kings park perhaps six weeks ago and there were quite a few flowers out but it was still winter, now it’s officially spring the blooms were far more impressive.

October 25, 2019 by joel

A Trip North

I left Perth of a mission to drive the loop up towards Broome hugging the coastline before returning down the inland route following the wildflowers, a great trip of diversity. Beautiful ocean views, rugged coast lines and pristine beaches followed by wide open inland spaces with endless skies and carpets of colour. It was a good test for the van, over 5000km in just over a month through a wide variety of country.

August 30, 2019 by joel