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

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