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

Blog Update - Cairns Holiday Last year and my latest interest

    Hi all, so Last year we went on a holiday to Cairns to see my other 2 children we had a great trip and I plan to share some of that trip on here, which I didnt' think to do at the time while eveything was fresh in my mind I will do my best to cover what I remember, I have a lot of photos from that trip so each post will be one day at a time, I will get these posts up when I have caught up on all my recent trips I have done a few recently.

      I have taken an interest in Rock Hounding, geology and the formation of our country so my next few posts will be from trips out in the bush while I have been looking for Rocky outcrops to photograph mainly Granite but some of the formations are not bad some not so great , I still have many trips planned to explore the bush a little more, Geology is a real interesting subject, I am really new at it and are still trying to learn what it is all about. 

    Unfortunately there is not many areas you can Fossick for rocks in Western Australia, but I do have Miners rights, and can Fossick on Crown Land, but hoping I will have many Photo opportunties while out amd about.

I have just been looking through my Photos and it seems I still have a long way to go to catch up on everything been out more than I thought keep and eye out for updates,

I have been going back in time, with my photos and starting my Posts from about 2011, I have been doing trips since about 2004 but images that i have taken are not the best of quality so i have skipped the first few years, so some posts may not exist as of yet but I am working on it and they will be added in the future with published dates back to when they were originally done, I have noticed as I have been going through my photos a lot of the places I have been either no longer exist or have been destroyed or left to rot so to speak. Some places still exist but have been closed to the public for some time, I will keep checking on a regular basis to see it they have been either re-opened or repaired.

You will see regular updates on older trips as I publish them, the problem I have to write them as if they still exist well they did back then, its hard cause I know a few of them no longer exist, but trying to write about them as if they are still here.

Please take care when visiting some of the places that still exist to ensure that generations to come can enjoy them as well, a lot of places closed due to fire or vandalism or just people breaking the law, and lack of maintenence. Take care of our National Parks which are slowly being destroyed by off road vehicles doing the wrong thing or motorbikes tearing up the trails I enjoy off roading myself but I stick to the main tracks, i have visited Boulder rock and seen 4WD's climbing it, a recent trip there shows tracks where the roack has been chipped or scratched and tyre marks up it.

 

Trip to Mundaring Weir and long drive home

   Today the wife and I had a day off together doesn't happen much anymore, we decided to go for a drive and went to Mundaring Weir another place I haven't visited for a long time, this time it was the wifes idea to go for a drive, so I packed the car we picked up lunch on the way and stopped at Mundaring Weir to have lunch. After We had something to eat  I went for a walk with the camera, here are a few snaps from there. 

I have also picked up a cheap Dash Cam which Might be usual for when I do offroad trips to add to the blog or might start a Youtube Channel this was the first trip with the Dash Cam quality is not great but perfect for viewing on your phone etc.

  The Trip home was long detour through some of the back roads and ending up on Toodyay Rd  going home from there found a few more places I would like to visit and have a look around if possible in the future although a few might be on Private Property.

All images are copyright Mark A. Gray all rights reserved

Daytrip Nth Dandelup dam, Sth Dandalup Dam and Waroona Dam

   Today my wife and I decided to go for a drive around some of the dams, our trip included Nth Dandalup, Sth Dandalup and Waroona Dams, We picked up some lunch on the way down and stopped at Nth Dandalup Dam, where we ate, I had a wander around and then we headed off, Unfortunately I don't have any photos of Sth Dandalup Dam as it was closed on the day we went and no Photos from Waroona as we didn't stop we had to get back home for the kids but it was still a nice drive.

Here are some snaps from Nth Dandalup another regular stop We do

All Images are Copyright Mark A. Gray

Daytrip out and about in Jarrahdale

Today was another planned tripped visiting Serpentine Dam, Jarahdale POW Camp and a part of Wungong Dam, I have planned a few more for the future now that the hotter weather is over it is time to get out and about again, I did a few small detecting trips over the summer in the bush and the beach, finding the usual stuff but nothing real exciting. Today was a reasonably short trip I reallly just wanted to get out and take a few photos something I haven't done for a while, I have been playing with camera at home and recently went to an old lake which I believe has been around for well over 200 years according to old maps I have seen, the older landscape was different, and some of the trees very old ( See Lake Coogee Post published 3 December 2023), I have a bad knee at the moment so it is a little bit hard to walk too far. My First stop was at Serpentine dam we have had a few dry months and I was curious to what the waterlevel was, after taking a few photos I moved on to the lower picnic area, when the original trip was planned the first stop was going to be the Serpentine Pipehead dam which was closed, after a little research it seems that they are not in a hurry to open it agin anytime soon I used like going there it was a really nice spot just to go and wander around for a while, here are a few pics from that Dam and Picninc area.

My next stop was the Jarrahdale POW camp I go here reglularly as there is usually lots of birds and things to photograph but it has been very quiet ther the last few trips and it is getting more and more overgrown, the dissappointing thing is there have been people camping there recently and lighting fires there was a guy there today sitting near a small fire he had made. I didn't hang around for long I had a quick walk around took a few pics and moved on. Majority of all the ruins are still how they were last time I was there. 

My next stop was Wungong Dam it has 2 access points on either side of the dam I have not been here or many years and have been meaning to stop and have a look around, the road across the dam is closed for vehicles but you can still walk along there, I stopped at one of the picnic areas which has BBq's and toilets and a couple walk trails from it, i had a little wander around took some photos by this time it was getting late in the afternoon and gates are closed at 5pm. These picture are from a lower Picnic area of the dam I think. I visited the main park of the dam on a later trip.

I will plan another trip again there another day and spend a bit more time wandering around.

All Images are Copyright Mark A. Gray