Perth

Back into the big smoke, Perth really is an impressive city with its big skyline right on the Swan river. We were originally going to stay with my Aunt and Uncle but she unfortunately is really sick at the moment so we stayed out in the Swan valley nearby and stopped in for a few visits. They loved seeing the boys and it was great to catch up with them. We also caught up with another friend of mine (and bridesmaid) Melainie and her husband, Barry for dinner for a couple of nights. They have 2 boys so it was fantastic as they all got along really well so we just had a great time catching up while the boys entertained each other.

Melainie, Barry, Lachlan and Jeremy

During the days we managed to pack in a fair bit, we went to AQWA a great aquarium with lots of sharks , stingrays and a great touch pool………..there’s nothing quite like patting a stingray?!

We also spent a day down in Fremantle, went to the old prison did a great tour through the old cells and exercise yards, a very bleak place. Woodsy tried to put Toby in solitary confinement but he managed to escape. Had fish and chips on the pier, (actually I had seafood chowder it was YUM). Went to the Shipwreck Galleries for the final bit of the history lesson from all the monuments and places we had seen up the coast. Fantastic place, they had so many artefacts that had been salvaged from the WA shipwrecks plus the history behind it all, as well as the salvage stories. They actually had part of the stern of the Batavia reconstructed from the timbers pulled from the water. It was incredible. The poor old Dutch had a terrible time on the WA coast.

We also had one beautiful afternoon when the sun actually shone up in Kings park, had lunch and walked around. The views of the city were great, the park is really lovely, all the wildflowers are out on display……..even the boys appreciated them so they must be good.

 AQWA

Touch pool at AQWA

 Freemantle Prison

 Nice lunch at the boat harbor in Freemantle

 Samuel and I in jeans for the first time since leaving home

 Stern of the Batavia

This is the closest the boys got to seeing a Quokka

 Kings Park

Now the reason I mention the one beautiful day is because the rest of the time it rained and on our last night it rained and rained and there were storm warnings of winds up to 100km/hr so we took the awning down so it wouldn’t blow away and wouldn’t you know it…………that’s where all the rain came in, in a BIG puddle right in the middle of the floor. At least there was an industrial strength dryer close by the next morning, it worked overtime. So the sun came out and dried the canvas briefly and we made a run for it east as fast as we could, only the next night we had 50km winds near Wave Rock and honestly we sat awake all night wondering if we going to wake up in some paddock over the road. (But it was a beautiful drive on the way there and we went through the lovely historic town of York – no castle – and saw the rabbit proof fence.)

 York Town Hall

 Dog Cemetery in Corrigin

our camp at Tressies museum. Almost blown away overnight

Pinnacles

We left Green Head and once again meandered down the coast, stopped into very pretty Jurien Bay for a coffee and found a cafe conveniently next to an excellent playground……….courtesy of royalties for regions again.

We then made our way to the Pinnacles. I don’t think any of us were quite prepared for what a different and amazing place it was, and YELLOW, really YELLOW. It was quite bizarre walking and driving amongst them.

Once again we found another quiet (but obviously really busy during the summer) little seaside town called Ledge point, nice overnight stay. Made full use of camp kitchen again

 Jurien Bay, nice park

 The Pinnacles

Kalbarri to Geraldton

Left shark bay area and went for a look at the Kalbarri NP. Unfortunately the best sights in the park were only accessible by tour as new access roads are being constructed. Boys were disappointed also as the walks are quite short and they wanted a longer walk of course. Toby did spot an Echidna from the lookout which we added to the others we have seen on our travels. The weather also came in bad here with high winds and some rain so made good use of the camp kitchen for the two nights. Boys enjoyed the jumping pillow.

Took the coast road from Kalbarri to Geraldton. On the way we saw a pink lake, called into a really nice little coastal town called Horrocks plus the early 19^th century convict hiring depot at Lyndon River. Had lunch at Northhampton, another well preserved town with lovely old buildings.

Had two full days in Geraldton which made for a busy time. This is the biggest city between Perth and Darwin with a population on 35,000. Really nice city with a new updated foreshore (courtesy of Royalties for regions) great parks etc. We visited the HMAS Sydney 11 memorial for a tour which was excellent as the guide explained the significance of the planning materials and design of the memorial. The tour also followed up on what we had read some time earlier up the coast. From here we straight to the WA Museum  - Geraldton, this had excellent displays on the HMAS Sydney and the shipwrecks of the WA coast – Batavia, Zuytdorp etc that we had learnt of earlier along the coast near shark bay. The weather here was bad as well with wind and rain again. The car had a service also while in town. Packed up and headed south. Drove along the coast, called into Dongara and Port Dennison for lunch. Camped in a very small park at Green Head. Very quite but nice much like Port Vincent, overflowing during summer and Easter.

 Kalbarri NP

 Geraldton

 Replica of the Batavia longboat

Camp at Green Head

Shark Bay

Headed into the area and our first stop was Hamelin station (500,000 acres) ………..fantastic station stay made all the better by the great caretakers Julie and Arnie Petersen………..(yes  radiographer crowd that would be ex FMC Julie, I nearly fell over when I saw her behind the desk, it was great to catch up with her. They are both looking very relaxed and enjoying their seachange). The station has fantastic facilities with probably the best kitchen we have seen and well used every night by all the campers making for a very social night. We went and saw the stromatolites in the super saline Hamelin pools, these have only been there about 6000 years but are one of the earliest forms of life and their ancient predecessors gave us oxygen in the air…………….. very important I think. We then checked out shell beach………..a whole beach made of tiny brillant white cockle shells – Beautiful. We camped for a few days in Francois Peron National Park on Big Lagoon………… yep it’s a big lagoon! We saw the dolphins at Monkey Mia which was not trashy touristy as expected but fabulous and well done by the NP rangers and volunteers, Woodsy and the boys got picked out of the crowd to hand feed the wild dolphins, all very controlled and limited so they stay wild. We loved Cape Peron and its very sandy tracks. The boys tried fishing off the end with no success but we saw turtles and rays and lots of fish teasing them from the lookout. On our way out we rescued a Chinese couple who hadn’t let their tyres down for the sand (and then realised that the sandy tracks were quite beyond them so turned around). There was a great little museum on all the history and shipwrecks of the area and a Marine park with marine biologists who gave you the full run down on the locals swimming in the bay as well as a cool shark feeding session.

Our last fabulous day in the area was spent with a great couple of people we had met while travelling, we had a little convoy of 3 out to Steep point the most westerly point on mainland Australia. Safety in numbers as the track out is very sandy and at least if any of us got bogged we would have some help, however we all made it easy…………..the Ssangyong sailed through. Just an amazing drive, past beautiful bays and beaches, through dunes, fabulous views of Dirk Hartog Island and then finally spectacular cliffs with waves crashing.

 Peron NP

 Shelter Bay - near steep point

 Zuytdorp Cliffs

 Looking onto Dirk Hartog island

 Lachlan fishing at Cape Peron

 stromatolites at Hamelin Pool

Boys feeding the dolphins at Monkey Mia

Carnarvon and Quobba

A quick stop in Carnarvon, checked out the harbours, the One mile jetty and the huge market gardens and banana plantations. The boys especially enjoyed the OTC dish (huge old satellite dish) and museum all about Carnarvons involvement with NASA including Apollo 11 mission. We had a few days at Quobba where we nearly got blown away (camper held in place by every rope and peg we had) but made the blowholes particularly impressive. Saw some surfing out at Red Bluff………….boys reckon they want to take it up now, good luck with that. On the way back through Carnarvon we made sure we sampled some of the local fruit icecream – mango, strawberry, custard apple and black sapote…….YUM!

 Space centre

 Quobba blow holes

 camp at Quobba - very windy

Cafe at Red Bluff