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.
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.
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.
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 |