Last night I went to take a look at the moon rising over the Ocean.
I have only recently heard of this place, and it is within 100 Kilometres of my home base
I am not sure if it is supposed to be a State secret, or perhaps I was just a bit slow in coming forward, as I have lived in WA for 51 years
The place I went to was Meelup Beach, situated about eight kilometres from Dunsborough, in the South West of WA
The address for a GPS is Meelup Beach Road, Naturaliste WA
There is a sign on Meelup Beach Road pointing to Meelup beach There are toilets and BBQ at the car park All the roads, as well as the car park, are bitumen The car park is not flat
The water last night was flat so it was more like a pathway, than a staircase to the moon
I would assume the dates to see this phenomenon, would be the same as the ones advertised for Broome
I have no idea if official free camping is allowed, as although I saw no signs in the car park, I have heard from other travellers, that there is no free camping allowed anywhere in that area
I was the only person there, so obviously not many people know of it
Leaving just after dawn, I saw one live Kangaroo, between Dunsborough and Busselton, and two freshly hit ones, between Busselton and Bunbury. I assume it would be beneficial to drive to the conditions
There are 5 places you can see the stairway to the moon up at the north west - See This Link. At Hearson Cove you can see it twice on the same night. There is a link on that site for the dates.
I have waited a bit before replying, as I had intended to go and take a picture from Meelup Beach this evening, with my new toy. I have purchased a 16 Megapixel x 36 zoom camera, (from the local post office) to try and drag myself into the 21st Century
My previous err camera is a (nearly 20 years old), 3.2 Megapixel aim and shoot, so my pictures of the moon last month were err rubbish There was cloud on the horizon, and I never saw the moon until about two hours after it had risen
Unfortunately this evening (full moon), there will be cloud, and tomorrow evening there will be rain, so I will not be returning to Meelup Beach this month
Perhaps the staircase to the moon, down here in the south, is different than up north, or perhaps it is more spectacular, when the moon is on the horizon
My understanding it is the mud flats that make the photo.Mind you I am not the photographer in this instance and it is the better half that is responsible for most of the photo's appearing on this web site. My contribution is bringing them to this web site for the benefit of other "Grey Nomads".
Thanks for that info, it is appreciated
I did read something about mud flats, but thought that it was just the moon reflecting from the wave crests, which outlined the stairway
I have been through Port Hedland several times, but for some reason, never at the time of the full moon
My Broome moon experience was some what a waste of time, needless to say I was let down. If you go to the end of the port Melbourne pier when the tide is out, it looks the same to me lol. To make my evening worse, I was stuck in an hour traffic jam ggrrr. I'm sure I chose a bad month, and was unlucky, but as much as I love Broome, I won't be rushing back to see the staircase!!!