Yalgorup National Park

Finally, I moved from Dunsborough! I really liked it there and the rest did me good but I could feel roots growing so off I cleared yesterday morning. And as mentioned already, I was becoming a bit lazy and YHAing it. It started because it was cold down on the south coast, and continued because my back was sore, but now its all sorted, no more excuses and it's back to camping.

I genuinely like camping. No really, I do. But it is so easy to succumb to the relative comforts of a proper bed. But then again, once I'm in the tent, I wonder why I wander away from it.

So for two nights, it's back to real basics in Yalgorup National Park, on the coast and just south of Perth. A long drop toilet is the only facility here, and it's out in the wilds, right by a lake and it's beautiful.

There are about ten lakes here which make up a wetland system, the water coming up from the ground in the winter and then evaporating away in the summer. Its brackish water and a conservation area for migrating birds. There are also the usual creatures - wallabies, bloody possums, crows which sound like Kenneth Williams in Carry On films, and this little fella.

Turns out she is  a quenda, formerly known as a bandicoot but reclassified in the zoological stakes for some reason. A bit like the artist formerly known as Prince I guess. Anyway, she - Glenda the quenda- kept me company last evening, although I haven’t seen her today. 

However, I have seen this little devil - just caught him burgling my tent and stealing some bread. 

A possum of course, very cheeky, very sweet and surprisingly tame. After  a trip across the keyboard, he’s now sitting in the tree about 2 m away as I type this, watching me in case I have any food. I don’t and I wouldn’t give him any if I did as feeding wild things is not the way to go. 

I took a ride up the coast a bit today to Lake  Clifton to see the thrombalites. Well actually, what you see is the structure that they build, they being tiny microscopic creatures, too small for us to see, and this lot are about 2000 years old. 

They make little mounds that have solidified over the years, and look pretty weird.

They’re thought to be the oldest living organisms on earth and responsible for generating oxygen which encouraged the first sea creatures to emerge from the water. That was several million years ago of course, and these mounds are made  by descendants of the original thrombolites.

Further up the coast near Denham, similar structures             ( strombalites) live. I’m not sure what the difference is but I think its something to do with the actual structure of the mound that they create. But both places are two of the few  in the world where they exist.

I had a walk through the adjacent bush too, through the Tuart trees, which actually look more similar to European trees than gums but are still part of the eucalypt gang.

And these balga trees which the local indigenous people used to use for making spears. They mixed the fronds with roo poo and charcoal to make a superglue, which the early settlers also used to varnish furniture.

I was hoping to see some of the monitors which live amongst them but although I heard much shuffling and scurrying from the undergrowth, I didn’t see any. They probably heard me coming, what with footstep vibrations, and there was evidence of their recent diggings, but they kept hidden.

Tonight there will be a lunar eclipse, which will be a penumbral eclipse here - not a full blackout because the line up wont quite cut out all of the sunlight which reflects from the sun. but that's all academic now anyway because clouds have come over and its raining! Thanks nature, nice one; and there would have been a red moon too.