Thursday 18 June 2020

Nth Dandalup Dam to Jarrahdale

HI all,

     I had and early finish at work one day last week, I knew the day before that is was going to be an early one so the night before I studied the maps and looked for an alternate route home, and decided to take a detour to Nth Dandalup Dam and follow Scarp rd. exploring a few tracks on the way, Scarp road is mainly a good gravel road (although some parts of it are a sealed) through some of the darling scarp ending in Jarrahdale. As far as I know it goes as far south as Sth Dandalup maybe even further.

   I had finished work by 9am so it gave me most of the day to explore, I had charged the cameras up, fuelled up the car, packed extra food and drink, I don’t have any recovery gear yet and fairly new to Four Wheel Driving, so I am still on a massive learning curve,  just sticking to the easy tracks for a while

   I left work and headed towards Nth Dandalup Dam, the first track I took was slightly uphill and was quite rough, a gravel Road/Track it was rocky and there was some skinny parts and sections where the road has eroded away from water running down the hill, I followed the road until to Scarp rd.  After travelling on Scarp Rd for about 5 mins my first stop was at Nth Dandalup Dam, a nice picnic setting with Toilets, Tables and BBQ’s there is a small stream that runs along the side of the picnic area where I believe people swim in the warmer months.





Nth Dandalup Dam Built in 1994

I stopped for something to eat and had a bit of a walk around with the camera, then headed back up to Scarp rd. and continued driving towards Jarrahdale, there wasn’t a great deal of things to see along this stretch I detoured on a few tracks for a bit of exploring in the bush as I approached Serpentine River there was a steepish hill going down towards the Serpentine River the bridge crossing is  close to the Pipehead Dam and then another climb uphill, the road was in good condition passing a flock of Carnaby Cockatoos on the way through.


Small stream I came across while exploring

My next stop was the Jarrahdale POW camp that I often visit when exploring the tracks its right in the middle of the areas I go so a great place to stop for a few minutes there is a pit toilet there and it is also an access point for The Munda Biddi Trail, I often see cars parked there but no-one around most of the time they are riding on the trail , I stopped for about 5 mins or so to have a drink and something to eat, my next stop was going to be Sullivan Rock, on Albany highway the road travelling to Sullivan Rock from the camp is a gravel road and at the time me driving through was badly corrugated bouncing the car all over the road,  I had a drive to look at the picnic area and kept going, the picnic area is a basic area with tables and Chairs and old wood BBQ’s which look like they haven’t been used for a while.

 

   My next stop had planned to be Wungong Dam I haven’t been down that way for years ever since my high school days when I used to stay at a mates house some weekends, I ended up detouring to Canning dam on the way where I went to check out the lower Picnic area, It has Tables, BBQ’s, Toilets and a few walk trails for a quiet stroll, it is a smallish area but very quiet and nice, I never went to the dam this time and headed back towards Albany hwy. Arriving at Wungong Dam I was unaware that the road no longer goes through and is closed, so I took a few snaps and headed off again, there was also Toilets, BBQ’s, and tables in the picnic area,  I started to make my way home after that but took a drive to the other side of the dam to have a quick look, there was a group of people riding motorbikes there so I never bothered stopping for photos and then headed for home.


Wungong Dam

That night the family and I decided to go for a drive to Kings park picking up Pizzas on the way through, we sat and had something to eat and I took a few snaps and we went for a drive to the Optus Stadium for a look then headed home

 


View of Perth from Kings Park



The Optus Stadium at Night



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...