Wed, 21st Dec, 2016 Jarrahdale RV area, Jarrahdale, WA (exploring Rockingham)

Cool night – van closed up and in winter PJs. Perth forecast for 41 today, Armadale is 42 which we are nearer. There is also a storm predicted for this afternoon so left the windows open a bit and the vents on ‘rain’ just in case.

Back to the highway then west towards Rockingham following the old timber rail line from Jarrahdale to Rockingham. Stopped at a rest area just past Mundijong to check out the history information.

Turned around and drove through Mundijong – the old tavern.

Old cars are popular garden ornaments.

Continued on to Rockingham then turned north to Kwinana Beach to check out the wreck of the SS Kwinana. 

They have filled in the hull with concrete but you can still see bits of the old ship. Steve doing his Titanic impersonation.

Lovely beach for swimming though the water is still cold – we forgot our togs!!

Mangles Bay, Cockburn Sound and Garden Island Naval Base info.

Further up was industrial wharves – we think they are unloading coal.

Looking across to Garden Island where the Stirling Naval Base is. There are two bridges and a causeway to get over to it. During WW2 Garden Island was the base for the allied submarines special reconnaissance group ‘Z Force’ who trained there. I wonder if they are same Z Force we had at the House on the Hill in Cairns.

Zoomed in on some ships there.

Further north is an oil refinery.

Then back south is a grain depot with its own loading wharf. Pretty blue and white.

At the other end of the Kwinana. The water is so clear.

Steve made money today – he calls it icecream money. Found it on the ground – finders keepers.

Had a cuppa in the park though the flies are driving us made. I thought they wouldn’t be so bad by the coast. Still nice temperature as the breeze is cool.

Drove around the industrial area. There are high pressure oil pipelines buried by the road so that might be to do with the refinery.

Back past the grain silos.

Next stop was the Naval memorial park.

Lots of plaques for all the different ships – found the Kanimbla.

HMAS Sydney and Perth both lost lots of lives.

More plaques due to other wars.

At the other end of the park was the top of a submarine.

Next to it was a big gun off the HMAS Derwent.

A couple of Mussel farms near the grain wharf.

Lovely stretch of clean sand and beach back to Rockingham.

Zoomed in on one of the bridges that connects the mainland to Garden Island Naval Base.

Through Rockingham following the coast road – plenty of boats.

There are a few saltwater lakes around here too.

Onto Cape Peron road past the entrance to the bridges to the Naval Base. The temperature sign said 33 degrees, 11am. Stopped at a carpark then followed the track to John Point. Scanned around from the Indian Ocean, John Point with Garden Island, the bridge, causeway with the industrial area in the background then around to Rockingham township and boat moorings.

The flies were driving us made – need to make sure we have our fly nets too! Found a ‘swish’ which kept them under control.

Followed the track a bit further around to check out some young ones leaping off the rocks.

View back to John Point.

All the shags on a rock.

Continued around the cape.

Mushroom Rock – aptly named.

London Bridge!

Into Shoalwater Bay.

Great rock formations.

Point Peron ‘K’ Battery.

Great view back to Rockingham with the Darling Ranges in the distance.

The next battery is sliding down the hillside.

Further over is another one on the highest sand dune.

It is starting to heat up now so we skipped walking up to it. No breeze this side either.

Around to a suspended lookout over the rest of Shoalwater Bay.

Cape Peron has a narrow neck – looking across it back to Rockingham.

A couple of islands in the bay – one is Bird Island.

Lots of places for people to explore and climb up. Not sure if Mr Percival will be happy to have a visitor.

A boat cruised around the island then disappeared into it.

There is a snorkeling trail too – not sure how that works!

Back down to the road to continue back around to our truck. Found the stairs to the ‘battery’ but we decided we didn’t need the exercise!!

Lunchtime so we drove back into Rockingham and found Churchill Park near the beach – free parking too. Cute little jallopys.

Plenty of fun for the kids here. Mad dogs and Englishmen are out in the midday sun!!

A plaque commemorating Captain Stirling landing on Garden Island in1827. He brought the first settlers to Garden Island in 1829.

A big Jarrah at the end of the timber trail.

Not sure exactly where those three jetties were.

Found a nice spot under the pine for lunch with a great view.

Sat watching the antics on the water playground for a while. Can feel it is certainly getting hotter today – the breeze isn’t as cool anymore. Headed back to Shoalwater Bay then around into Safety Bay which has Seal Island and Penguin Island. Not sure which one is Seal Island as there are four.

There is a ferry across to Penguin Island but as we have seen heaps of penguins we aren’t going to bother – the penguins would all be hiding in this heat any case.

These fishing maps are great for working out what we are looking at.

Cute B&B – Manuel’s Towers.

Headed back home, glad the air conditioner is working well – over the Kwinana Freeway.

Back to Jarrahdale then we turned off to follow the scenic drive to Langford Park. Across the disused railway lines that carried timber then bauxite.

Lots of new growth Jarrah.

The Park was empty but looks like the locals burn out their tyres here!! Lots of tracks heading into the bush – probably fire trails following old logging trails I suppose.

Back to the van for a cuppa, 39.6 degrees in the van at 3pm. The shade is just coming over the van now. Opened up the van to let what breeze there is flow through. Got out our humidifying fan (we bought when we were hot, 45 degrees, in Mildura) and I got to work on the hundreds of photos for yesterday’s outing.

Steve wandered over to chat with the couple in a huge bus/motorhome. Steve mentioned detecting and they were interested in that too so he got out my detector to show them. Black clouds started to come over then some thunder and then wind but no rain.

I joined the others for drinks. Tino is originally from Switzerland and Petra is Austrian. They can only visit Australia on a 90 day visa but love it so much they bought the bus last year and have come back this year to continue their travels for another 90 days.

Lance & Janet came back and joined us so we had a great afternoon/evening chatting. Laughing about ‘English’ words, jangles/thongs and how hard it is for foreigners to work out what we are talking about sometimes with all our slang words.

Janet had a Woolies Select personal spray ‘tropic strength’ which seemed to keep the march flies at bay though they did manage to find the bit of skin the spray wasn’t on. I compared it to Bushmans and it was stronger in one of the ingredients – maybe that’s the Deet part. Early in the arvo though Steve said there wasn’t any about till I came out about 5pm.

Late dinner which was fine as we had leftovers. All the windows etc open for the night, 10pm it was still 28 degrees. No blankets tonight!!