-- From Exmouth to Geraldton
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The road tracklog from Exmouth to Carnarvon on December 08 from Carnarvon to Geraldton from 09 to 14/12/2009 |
On December 08, it was a long driving day after having published new pages of my website in Exmouth from where I left around 11 am. to arrive in Carnarvon around 5 pm. Australian roads are endless and soporific.
En route
towards Carnarvon
08/12/2009
Shark Bay World
Heritage area
Francois Peron National Park
Monkey Mia Reserve
Shark Bay World Heritage Area incorporates two parallel almost islands in an exceptional marine environment of salinity allowing the study of the evolution of the life on earth starting from the stromatolites. Moreover this area includes Monkey Mia Reserve where dolphins move and François Peron National Park of the name of the French naturalist, François Péron, of Baudin's expedition.
Hamelin Pool, les Stromatolites
On 09/12, on the way towards Monkey Mia Reserve I stopped in Hamelin Pool -second captain of Baudin's expedition- to look at Stromatolites. They are fossil constructions containing of bacteria similar to those -cyanobacteria- alive 3,500 million years ago. They were the first alive beings appeared on earth. The visit is done by a boardwalk with explanatory panels, alas out of aluminium, difficult to photograph in full sun. Rather than to plagiarize them I deliver you some pictures of them.
Stromatolites
Shark Bay
09/12/2009
Stromatolites
Shark Bay
09/12/2009
Stromatolites
Shark Bay
09/12/2009
Stromatolites
Shark Bay
09/12/2009
Stromatolites
Shark Bay
09/12/2009
Stromatolites
Shark Bay
09/12/2009
On December 10, it was a day of visit in Shark Bay World Heritage Area without true blow of heart. Initially in Monkey Mia Resort the daily "Dolphin Circus". The four animals were called by an ultrasound scan then a spectacle with comments and in reward some fish given by spectators.
Dolphin circus
Monkey Mia
10/12/2009
Dolphin circus
Monkey Mia
10/12/2009
Thirsty pelican
Monkey Mia
10/12/2009
At the beginning of morning I visited Peron Homestead which recalls local aborigine's life and colonizers breeding sheep. From 1991 the site was transformed into park. The exhibition is rather poor and is not worth a visit except to travel in the park with 4x4.
Peron Homestead
Francois Peron NP
10/12/2009
On the move I stopped in Eagle Bluff Lookout of which a boardwalk exhibits some explanatory panels about the site. The sea-bed is covered with marine grasses which maintain a high salinity and give an exceptional turquoise colour. Covered surface is the most important in the world. It is possible to look at rare species, alas I was not lucky. With the authorization of Visitor Centre in Denham I bivouacked at Whalebone Bay.
Eagle Bluff
Shark Bay
10/12/2009
Eagle Bluff
Shark Bay
10/12/2009
On 11/12, it was still a long driving day with straight lines of more than 50 kilometres lengh. A few kilometres away in the north of Murchison River cereal cultures appeared. I bivouacked at Galena Bridge over Murchison River which had water!
Black swans
Murchison River
11/12/2009
Kalbarri National Park
The park has splendid landscapes on seashore as well as red sandstone cliffs bordering the Murchison River. As other parks some projects of repopulation of fauna are in hand with the dispersion of more than one thousand of poison types to kill predatory brought by settlers, cats, foxes and others.
On Saturdays 12, it was a long morning of visit in Kalbarri NP, by strolling from a lookout to another. It was very interesting as well, as elsewhere, by landscape and flora as by always very didactic panels. But nothing exceptional, it is very difficult after having seen Kakadu NP in Northern Territory and Karijini NP in the Western Australia. No I am not blasé I tell the things such as I feel them. Admittedly the park has a Window cut in the rock. I remember my journey in the Great American Parks that Window is cut by wind and that Arch by water, or maybe vice et versa. The memory is changeable. In the afternoon I arrived in Kalbarri Town to pay visit, as usual, to Visitor Centre then to a cybercafé before putting my truck in a caravan park.
Ross Graham
Kalbarri NP
12/12/2009
Hawks Head
Kalbarri NP
12/12/2009
Z-Bend
Kalbarri NP
12/12/2009
Géologie
Kalbarri NP
12/12/2009
Kalbarri NP
12/12/2009
Grass tree
Kalbarri NP
12/12/2009
During the Sunday morning of December 13 I coasted along Kalbarri Costal Cliffs from lookout to lookout by traversing trails for reading, with great interest, panels giving a true geology course of in situ. If Australians do not have past to expose on the other hand they can intelligently exploit the beauty of this continent usurped the natives, Aboriginals, of which the rights were recently recognized. This coast belongs to the maritime history by many shipwrecks which plunged it into mourning the oldest and the most known is the Dutch ship the Zuytdorp in 1712.
Red Bluff
Kalbarri Costal Cliffs
13/12/2009
Naufrage du Zuytdorp
Kalbarri Costal Cliffs
13/12/2009
Tumblagooda Sandstone
Kalbarri Costal Cliffs
13/12/2009
Rainbow Valley
Kalbarri Costal Cliffs
13/12/2009
Skolithos
Kalbarri Costal Cliffs
13/12/2009
Skolithos
Kalbarri Costal Cliffs
13/12/2009
Island Rock
Kalbarri Costal Cliffs
13/12/2009
Natural Bridge
Kalbarri Costal Cliffs
13/12/2009
Natural Bridge
Kalbarri Costal Cliffs
13/12/2009
On the way I stopped in Northampton visiting Churches, a Masonic Hall as well as the oldest pub, Miners Arms.
Miners Arms
Northampton
13/12/2009
Reaching Geraldton I climbed the hill of the HMAS Sydney Memorial dedicated to the shipwreck of the vessel in 1941 after a naval battle with a German ship.
HMAS Sydney Memorial
Geraldton
13/12/2009
The Cathedral St François Xavier is remarkable by its Byzantine cupola and its Roman arches.
Cathedral of St Francis Xavier
Geraldton
13/12/2009
| Geraldton, le 2009/12/13 |
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