Daytrip 02-03-2025 – Brunswick, Collie, Arthur River, Williams

 

Today Karen and I had the day off so we decided to go for a drive out into the country, the trip today we thought we would go down Southwest Highway find a pub for lunch and visit Wellington Dam then Collie and head home via Arthur River on Albany Hwy.

 

It was quite a warm day today around 35 degrees most of the trip being the start of Autumn the fields and bush is all dry after a warm summer with hardly any rain, we fuelled up in Byford and continued along Southwest Highway, we didn’t stop much as the trip was nearly 500km long, more just to have a look what is around for future trips, scouting for old homesites to photograph and some granite outcrops, which I love to photograph.

 

Our first stop was for lunch as it was close to Midday when we left, we stopped at the Wokalup  Hotel to see what was on offer for lunch there, it was quite busy and it looked like the staff were run off their feet none of the empty tables were clean, and the menu was quite disappointing it didn’t have either meal that Karen and I wanted, so we left without buying a meal, originally the plan was to have lunch at a Pub in Collie, after leaving Wokalup it was nearly 2pm and most of the pub kitchens usually close for lunch at around 2:30pm to 3pm.

 

On our way to Brunswick, we decided to find a pub for lunch. We stopped at Brunswick Tavern and saw that the dishes we wanted were on the menu. With an hour left before the kitchen closed, we chose to eat there. I had Creamy Garlic Prawns with rice, and Karen had a T-Bone with Creamy Garlic Prawns. We both enjoyed our meals, then we left for Collie.

 

 

As we were heading for Collie, we noticed a turn off to Honeymoon Pool so we to took a detour to have a look, we were thinking of going there for our Honeymoon after we got married, but we ended up getting a trip to Bali as a Wedding Present. The road to Honeymoon Pool is all sealed but it is a long weekend here in WA and it was quite busy people were parking on the roadside. We turned around and headed back towards Collie, our next stop was going to be Wellington Dam we haven’t been there for a while, the last photos I could find of that was back in 2015 deciding it was probably going to be busy there as well, we had decided to leave it for another day.

 

Arriving in Collie we had a drive around town and stopped to look at the old trains and to get an updated photograph of them not much has changed since last time we were here in 2015

 

 

I was going through my old photos a while ago and came across another photo  that I took in Collie a few years ago of an army tank it wasn’t the greatest of quality and I have always wanted to photograph it with better camera, we come across it again while we were driving through Collie so I had to turn around and get some updated photos of it, unfortunately it has now housed in a small garage like structure so it made photographing it a little more difficult.

 

It was nearly 4pm now and we still had around 200km before we would get home so we drove through Darken a small town with only a few houses visible from the road the road here was quite plain only paddocks and I think either canola or wheat fields which had been harvested, I was on the look out for some nice granite outcrops to photograph which I did not see any so far on the way. There was some roadworks going on which slowed our journey down for a few km but after that I started to see some Granite outcrops which I was keen to stop and take some photographs but due the roadworks was unable to do so, after we managed to pass the roadworks I started to see more Granite outcrops as we were getting closer to Arthur River but with  a couple of cars behind me I couldn’t really stop to take photos, I wanted to go to Arthur River as I recall when coming back from a trip to Albany with my daughter a while ago there was some old house ruins I wanted to Photograph. I didn’t end up stopping as it was getting late, we still had a long drive ahead of us.

 

On our way home we stopped at Williams for Ice Cream, I was going to stop at the river to take some photos, but it was bone dry I didn’t realize that it dried up in the summer not like The Harvey or Collie River which both still had some water in them as we drove over them. Williams was our last stop for the day, we were just focused on getting home there was still around 140km to go, and it was nearly 5pm.

 

Overall, it was a long but nice drive it is just good to get out of the house and just go for a drive, we used to do it a lot, now we struggle to find time to do it now we are both working rarely have the same day off.

 

All Images are Copyright Mark A. Gray - All rights reserved

Jarrahdale POW camp and Sullivan Rock

 Today My Daughter and I went for a drive in the Perth Hills, we took the daughters Jeep today which she recently bought and wanted to get some Practice in driving on gravel and Bush tracks, the road to the POW camp is not a bad road to drive on it just has a a few rough patches and a lot of corregations, still accessible via 2WD, we headed off about mid morning stopped at the shop to get some food and drinks for the esky, then we made our way to the Jarrahdale POW camp, as I have mentioned before I am starting to video our trips, which I have been doing for the last few trips but not publishing many I have put a few on Youtube, but they still need a bit of work, you can find some of them on the link below.

My Youtube Channel

Some of the footage is from a poor quality Dashcam, and some I have been using my phone, my daughter has bought me a DJI Osmo for my birthday which is in a few days so my next trip I will be putting it to use, still working on the videos hopefully things will get better as I progress.

Here are a few Pictures from The POW Camp   

After a short walk around taking a few photos and a test flight with the drone we headed towards Sullivan Rock, I haven't been there for a very long time I recall riding there one day on my Push Bike from the POW camp it was around a 16km return journey. On our way to the Rock we came across this little fella crossing the road.

We patiently waited for him to cross the road well until we were able to go around him without running him over, arriving at Sullivan Rock mid afternoon we went for a walk on top of it. I have mainly video footage from Sullivan Rock which is on Youtube

Here is a few Photos from Sullivan Rock 

After coming back from our walk on the rock we headed for home

All Images are Copyright Mark A. Gray - All rights reserved

Serpentine Falls

 Today The wife and I had the day off together, so we decided to go out for lunch and go for a drive to Serpentine Falls, we actually haven't been there for quite some time, we have been to the dam on several occasions, but not the actual falls. We stoppped at Jarrahdale for Lunch at the Jarrahdale PO kitchen great service and good food I ordered the Bahn-mi and the wife a cheeseburger meal, we both enjoyed it.

My lunch 

The Wifes Lunch

After finishing our meals we took the long scenic drive to the Falls, there is a pay station at the falls now, there used to be a ranger or someone manning the little office at the entrance to the falls there is a $17 dollar entrance fee at the time I made this post. We went for a walk to the falls and back and hung around for a little while then headed off home through Serpentine and the back roads.

Here is a few snaps from The Falls and Picnic Area 

All Images are Copyright Mark A. Gray - All rights reserved
 

Daytrip to West Dale, Brookton, York on the hunt for Canola Fields and Wildflowers

     Today my wife Karen and I both had days off from work so we decided to do a trip to go and look for wildflowers and have a look at the Canola fields as they are in bloom at the moment, we left around 11 am maybe a little earlier fueled up and headed off, driving through Roleystone along the Brookton highway keeping an eye out for wildflowers our first stop was West Dale at a lookout over looking Canola Fields, there is views almost all the way around except from the way we came. 

Here are a few snaps from the West Dale lookout

    I have recently Bought a cheapish drone to have a play with I hope to buy a better one in the Future the picture quality is not great on it but it is ok for viewing on smaller devices, I had hoped to put it up and take a couiple aerial shots but it was quite windy and I am still learning to fly it. I have also decide to take video footage of our trips, using my Phones and Cameras  I will put a link to it at the end of this post, please be gentle with me as I have no idea what I am doing yet very early stages, I used footage from my dashcam as well but again quality not great will upgrade at a later date.

    After spending around 10 mins or so Taking some Photos and Videos we headed of towards Brookton stopping a couple of times so I could get some photos of the Canola fields on the way some were in bloom and some were not.

 

    We arrived at Brookton to have a stretch and then we went for a drive to find something for lunch we had planned for a Pub Lunch at Brookton but neither were serving food today so we decided to try Beverley. 

A couple Snaps from Brookton Train Station which looks like its not in operation now all fenced off

  

    As we drove through Beverley (we didn't stop here today but have done in the past) looking for something for lunch didn't really fancy anything there, so we decided to go for lunch at York instead. As we arrived we went to find somewhere for lunch, we decided on Settlers House, we had a great meal, fast service, nice food and the atomosphere was great we really enjoyed it. 

Here are a few snaps from York  

  

It was getting late in the afternoon so we went for a drive to the river just for the purpose of  taking some videos of me going over the suspension bridge and then we headed for home we stopped at another Canola field on the way, and then made our way home overall I think the trip was around 330 kms or so.

Here is a link to the video this was the first time trying this so please be gentle I am still learning its a little shaky in some places I used my DSLR handheld for the videos in this trip. 

Fell free to add any suggestions in for future posts. The video is just under 8 mins

Daytrip to York Video

All Images are Copyright Mark A. Gray All Rights Reserved 

  

  

Out Exploring the Bush looking for Granite outcrops

 I have been doing a bit of research lately on granite outcrops near home in the Perth hills, today was one of the trips I had planned a while ago, we took the daughters Jeep today mainly because she wanted to go offroading in it but didn't want to go too hard with it. I been on Google Earth trying to find the easiest way  to get to the locations that I seen, I have gone passed the track a few times recently and never ending up going down it, I had planned it in recent trips I have been on but usually try to do too much in one day and usually run out of time, my average day trip can be anywhere from 150km to 400km even more a couple of times. Our first stop was a Granite out crop I really wanted to see, although it took us four tracks to find it, I forgot to set my maps for the journey properly. The first track we went to was the right one but there was a downhill part that looked a bit sketchy for the first time offroad not knowing the car properly but we ended up climbing it on the way out. Here is the pictures after we eventually found it.

     

      After spending a little while walking around taking photos, we decide to go for a drive around seeing what else we could find in the area, I spotted a little stream on the first track that I wanted to have a look at. After about 30 mins or so with know luck on various tracks some rocky, some skinny, and some that just literally go to a dead end we found the right track, which turns out it was the same track with the downhill climb that we decided not to go down, which we ended up climbing anyway, I found the spot I was looking for and it didn't disappoint, Here is a few snaps from there definstely on my go back to list.

 

After spending  a good time having a look around, we hopped in the car and did the climb, with no dramas at all we got straight up it was quite rutty in places, so after leaving this area we satrted to head towards home, as we were driving we came acoss a small outcrop on the side of the road we pulled over to see if there was anymore around, immediatley as we got out the car we could here a rush of water, there is a stream running along the road I just had to have a look with no visible path to go on I carefully walked thrugh the bush and it was only a few metres away, a little hidden, almost flat waterfall,

 

I stuck around for a few minutes taking some phots and a couple videos one slow mo which turned out ok, I also did some videos from this trip just to see if I could make a short movie of the places we visited some still shots and others videos it didn't turn out too bad. I will probably add videos from future trips as well on a Youtube channel, but that is still work in progress, I only have a cheap dash cam when I can upgrade to a better one, the quality of the dash cam is really only good for viewing on mobile devices or on your computer in a small window.

After this stop we heading for home, overall it was a good day out.

All Images are Copyright Mark A.Gray - All Rights reserved