If you go up the Brand Hwy, then you would have seen these pure white sand dunes off to the right. They run almost right up to the highway and are hard to miss.
The shire has been kind enough to create an official parking area in front of them as many people stop each day and wander over the traffic into the dunes.
There’s dunes as far as you can see so it’s a crazy spot to take photos. Take some sunnies because not only is it bright, but the sand can whip up with the wind and blow into your eyes pretty easily.
There’s some nice flowers and a few native fruits around the dunes if you hunt around.
In this rainy September, I visited Mingenew and the Coalseam Conservation Park to see the wildflowers again. This is the second time I’ve been and it’s a mission to get there from Perth.
About 4.5 hrs north of Perth, the conservation park is a concentrated area of wildflowers that carpet the hills. We’ve been staying in Eneabba, but this time found a campsite in the park – Miners. We’ll be using that next time as it’s right in the park.
The flowers are worth a visit, once in your lifetime if you can make it – do the trek. It really is spectacularly stunning to see rolling hills of everlastings. Get planning!
This time I took the zoom and macro lenses and spent a bit of time trying to capture the amazing views and some footage of the flowers in the breeze. It would be a great night time shoot under the moonlight. This September has been wet and there are some shallow water crossings that are a bit of fun. Ruts can develop in the middle of the unpaved crossing so it pays to walk it first.
If you get a chance, head to Miners in the park and walk east upstream. It seems to be a little less popular with visitors and we found some flowers that weren’t in other locations. It also has a shallow stream flowing along the very visible iron and sand deposits in the embankments. Geologists do group tours there, that tells you something.
It’s worth a full day to just wander slowly and take it in. There’s a lot of people that rush to the lookout, snap away and then head home. But if you take your time, there’s so much to see. Peregrine falcons do hunt the cliffs and I’ve been hoping to see one, no luck yet. I did spot one of my faves though, the crested pigeon.
If you take the Mingenew exit, you pass by a crazy escarpment that looks like something out of South Dakota.
We went up to Eneabba and stayed in the Western Flora Caravan park for the night. The is the third or fourth time we’ve stayed there and it does the job.
It’s a cheap, no fuss park where prices are reasonable, the hot water isn’t on all night and the donga rooms are just big enough to fit two adults. It’s minimal and a great place to stop if you need a place to crash while on the road.
Eneabba is 280km or so north of Perth and for many phone service providers, it’s a signal blackspot unless you’re on Telstra, so download your map and directions before you enter the area.
It’s Yamatji country and the scrub is described as kwongan, sandy soil, species-rich temperate shrubland. It’s the beginning of the wildflower area up north and you can wander around the caravan park and see some nice ones.
The yongkas (kangaroos) love this area and the caravan park is handy for them with all of the tracks / roads cut through and around it. They’re wandering the park every morning it seems, along with the rabbits, native birds and lots of other animals. I’ve seen echidnas there sometimes.
This morning was a wet September / Djilba morning and the kangas were feeding on new leaves off the park shrubs. Faces were wet and joeys were peeping out of the pouches. They are pretty friendly and will let you get within a couple meters.
If you have a chance, head up there and stop over at Western Flora.
It’s a warm June in Boorloo and the weather is still so good and the water so warm, we’re all still swimming. This is the first year I’ve experienced this to the level that it’s still comfortably cool enough to swim.
I took a quick walk along the beach and shot seaweed as I went. I think I made the mistake of shooting mainly towards the sun and so got quite a bit of glare on the weed. The other issue I noticed is the colour dropping out around the glare. So I’m getting some grey splotches.
Anyway, I love the details in these and there are some amazing compositions. It’s given me some ideas and inspiration for shapes and colours to use in my next set of artwork.
