Perth - Darkan - Perth

We arrived in Perth just over two weeks ago now and have been staying most of that time with a friend Hester who lives in East Fremantle.  We have stayed a lot longer than planned in this part of WA because the weather has not been very good here. We have been taking advantage of having a house to stay in while we have been waiting for the weather to not only warm up but also fine up.  Perth is a really nice city and we have been really lucky because Hester lives only 100m from the Swan River so we have been enjoying lots of walks along the banks of the river. Hester also has 2 skateboards which the boys have made great use of when we have gone for walks and also in the park across the street.

Aidan and Cody have made friends with a lot of the local kids which they have met while riding the skateboards and playing basketball in the park across the road; once again it shows how small a world it is – one of the friend’s parents grew up in Bathurst!

Aidan and Cody skateboarding along the banks of the Swan River

The other things we have done while we have been here include – visiting Kings Park (which was beautiful), we went to a couple of beaches and watched the kite surfers (it was too cold to go for a swim), wandered around Fremantle Markets a couple of times, went to the Maritime Museum to see the Australia II yacht and went for lots of walks along the banks of the Swan River and around Fremantle. Aidan and Cody particularly enjoyed playing a few games of table tennis on the free tables provided in the middle of the Fremantle plaza.
We disappeared from Perth for a few days in the middle of our stay here to head south east to visit another friend down on his property in Darkan. The weather was wet cold and pretty horrible most of the time we were there, but we had a great few days catching up with Jeremy and getting to know his wife and kids. While there we helped muster in the sheep so that they could draft of the ones for sale and the lambs so that they could be processed (vaccinated, tagged, tailed etc). Aidan and Cody really enjoyed helping out with all these jobs. They were also lucky enough to see a calf being born – in the end it had to be pulled out using the ute. They also had a ball getting filthy helping Jaime dig out a rabbit warren, unfortunately there were no rabbits to be found.

Aidan & Cody pushing the sheep through the yards

Helping Jeremy choose sheep for market

We are back in Perth and have given up waiting for the weather to get better, so we are just going make a run for it – we will travel through the south western corner over the next week and if the weather is bad we will just travel quickly.  

Geraldton to Perth via Pinnacles Desert

The pink lake on the way to Geraldton

We headed into Geraldton for the day to do a bit of shopping. We had to go and buy jumpers, warm socks and a beanie each because although the weather is warming up for people who live around here, it feels a lot cooler for us in the morning and at night time. We also bought a kite, seeing as it is so windy we may as well make the most of it!

We then drove out west of Geraldton and found a campsite in the countryside near an old pioneering well, it is out this way that the wildflowers are meant to be the best, so we went to check them out.

Wild flowers west of Geraldton

We then made our way down the coast checking out all the little coastal towns on the way. As you may have heard us mention, it is a bit windy over here and to prove what we mean check out the photo of one of the trees we found on the side of the road just south of Geraldton! All the trees along this coast line are leaning over because of the constant strong southerly winds which occur in this area. If the wind is so consistant it can do this to the trees we don't know why anyone wants to live here!

One of the many trees growing sideways because of the strong winds

We found a nice little lake to camp by for the night and then continued exploring the towns down the coast line. All the towns are all very small towns and the coast line is very beautiful - the reef continues down the coast, which is called the Turquoise Coast and justly named. Aidan and Cody enjoyed one of our stops, at Jurien Bay, where they had fun on the beach practicing their Kip Ups, which they can now do. (If you are wondering what a Kip Up is - look it up on YouTube). They were very impressed when 2 parachuters landed on the beach next to them!

Cody doing a Kip Up

On the beach at Jurien Bay

Aidan doing a Kip Up

While in the town of Cervantes we bumped into a traveller we met in Broome, who joined us when as we explored the Pinnacles Desert (which is a great place), and then joined us at a brook side campsite for the night which was a couple of hours north of Perth.

In the Pinnacles Dessert

We headed into Perth the next day to stay at a friend’s place, in East Fremantle for a few days.

Kalbarri

Jaime and the boys in Kalbarri National Park

We continued our journey south, camping the night on the banks of the Murchison River, where we bumped into some of our friends from Ningaloo, and enjoyed a night around the campfire with them. The next morning we headed into Kalbarri National Park and went and saw “Nature’s Window” and the gorge formed by the Murchison River. It was a very picturesque river and gorge but we have had enough of gorges and decided not to spend too much time there. We visited the town of Kalbarri which is a lovely sleepy village on the coast where the Murchison River meets the sea. The coast line is quite spectacular here. We travelled on that afternoon, past some pink lakes and found a place to stay near the town of Northampton. The countryside has now changed dramatically, and you could easily believe you are driving through the central west at the moment. The weather actually feels about the same too, although warm during the day there is an annoying wind all the time which is cold!

Sitting in front of Nature's Window in Kalbarri National Park

Nature's Window

Looking down the coast at Kalbarri

Steep Point

We would have happily stayed a couple of days in Denham and done some fishing around Shark Bay but it was very windy so we decided to move on. We had a quick stop at Shell Beach; this place was great as there wasn’t any sand just billions of small cockle shells.

Shell Beach

We then dropped in at Tamala Station where we left the trailer so that we could drive out to Steep Point for the night. Steep Point is the western most point of the Australian mainland. It was very beautiful scenery out there but it was really windy while we were there and the wind was cold! But we signed the visitors book and checked out why this place is also known for being a great fishing destination – we could see huge fishing swimming around in the water, and Jaime and Aidan even spotted a Spanish Mackerel shoot across the surface and catch a fish. It was just too windy for us to stay there and fish, we would have been blown off the cliffs!

Camp site out near Steep Point

Steep Point - Western most point of Australia

Cody signing the Visitors Book at Steep Point

Here is a quick video message from Aidan and Cody from Steep Point - sorry if it is a bit difficult to hear them - it was very windy!
(Note: The error with this video has been corrected)


While drivng back from Steep Point, we did have a lot of fun driving over the sand dunes and we stopped a couple of times so that we could run up and leap off the top of the sand dunes and slide down the side.

Cody and Aidan leaping off the top of a sand dune

Jaime and the boys flying off the top of a sand dune

Denham & Monkey Mia

After leaving Point Quobba we travelled on and spent the night at a free camp about 20 kms outside of Denham at a place called Fowler’s Camp which was really nice as it was right on the water’s edge. The only problem was that when the wind blew it got cold. We headed in to Denham on Father’s Day and drove on out to the well known Monkey Mia.

Campsite at Fowlers Camp outside of Denham

When we arrived they said that the dolphins had only just arrived in at the beach for the day but they didn’t seem very interested in feeding. We headed down to have a look, and although the dolphins were swimming around close to shore, there were a lot of people around and we have already had some great experiences with dolphins so we didn’t hang around very long. Instead we enjoyed cuppas and milkshakes up at the cafe overlooking the water.

Monkey Mia is a really nice place, but we decided to drive back into the quaint little town of Denham for the night, where we used the time to catch up on washing and school work.

Enjoying a cuppa at Monkey Mia on Father's Day

Carnarvon & Point Quobba

We left Coral Bay and drove down to Carnarvon, where we did a bit of shopping and went and checked out the 1 Mile Jetty, the Coffee Pot Train and learnt all about the HMAS Sydney II which was sunk by the German's off the coast of Carnarvon, killing all 642 Aussies.
We then drove back up the coast a bit to stay at Point Quobba for the night. There is meant to be some great snorkeling here, but it was very windy and overcast with some light rain so we didn't get in the water. It was strange to get rain again as we haven't had rain since we were in Cairns at Easter! Unfortunately we now are out of the dry season and back into normal weather patterns. It was still windy and overcast in the morning so after checking out the blow hole, we decided to move on. We are making our way today down towards Denham.

Blow hole at Point Quobba

Coral Bay

After an emotional goodbye at Cape Range National Park we drove out through a ‘guard of honour’ of our fellow campers and then headed down the coast to Coral Bay. Coral Bay is a really beautiful little bay which is also part of Ningaloo Reef. It just costs more to stay here as you have to stay in a caravan park. We had one night here, enjoying a day on the beach, snorkelling, watching the Spangled Emperor fish feeding on the water’s edge and having a bit of fun sliding down the sand dunes on cardboard.

Leaving Mesa Camp in Cape Range National Park

Coral Bay

Fish Feeding Coral Bay

Cape Range National Park - Ningaloo Reef

THIS PLACE HAS BEEN THE HIGHLIGHT OF OUR TRIP!!

"Oh What A Feeling" On the sand dunes last night at Mesa Camp - We loved Cape Range and Ningaloo Reef!

We loved Cape Range National Park which is on Ningaloo Reef. We have spent the last 3 weeks camped here and it was very difficult to leave, we could have easily spent the maximum 28 days that you are allowed to camp there, but we knew we had to move on as there is still a long way to go before we are home again.

There are a number of camp sites in Cape Range National Park, which are situation in the sand dunes overlooking the various beaches. We spent our time at Mesa Camp and were extremely lucky as the people that camped there with us became family while we were there. We had so much fun with them all that it was very sad when saying goodbye to everyone, but we have already made plans to see a number of them once we are home again.

So what did we do there – well, we did a lot of snorkeling, our two favourite spots were Turquoise Bay and Oyster Stacks. The coral reef is just off the beach and in fact comes right up to the low tide mark at some places. So you simply put your snorkel gear on at the water’s edge and swim out. We saw so many amazing fish, from tiny little electric blue coloured things right through all sizes and colours, we even saw a reef shark (Cody was the one to spot the shark first he screamed "SHARK" very loudly and clearly underwater!). One of the highlights was certainly when we were lucky enough to swim alongside a turtle. There was lots of coral of course, a great big blue star fish and some sting rays, to name just a few of the things we saw. The colour of the water was incredible and unfortunately our camera was not able to capture the true colour – but it just shows that places like this are ones you have to experience for yourself.

We went out fishing a number of times on the boat and our incredible wildlife encounters continued out there. We saw whales every day, and they were often within 30 metres of us, but one day we were lucky enough to have a whale and her calf swim under our boat, they were only 2 metres under us and in only 10 metres of crystal water so we could see them clearly! We had giant sea turtles swimming around and under us all the time, dolphins were everywhere, we even spotted a couple of sea snakes and flying fish and were also lucky enough to have a Dugong swim around under our boat.

But of course the main reason for going out on the boat was to do some fishing and we did. Aidan and Cody both pulled in impressive sized Spanish Mackerels and Aidan also brought in a nice shark. We caught Spangled Emperors, and lots of Chinamen Cod and some huge squid (which managed to squirt their ink all over the Jaime, Aidan and the boat!). All of these were beautiful eating and we actually shared quite a bit of it with our fellow campers.

While at our campsite Aidan and Cody began doing some fun skipping competitions with the camp ground host who had a brought along some skipping ropes (mind you the camp ground host was in his 70’s, but extremely fit!) Over a couple of days this turned into a daily training workout or ‘boot camp’ session which had a number of fellow campers training as well. We would have a half hour circuit training each afternoon, followed by a swim in ocean and then set up all our chairs and have ‘happy hour’ for a couple of hours each night.

Near the end of our stay a couple of other families arrived and the boys had a great time playing with all the other kids on the beach. They would all go off hunting sand crabs at night with head torches and bring back a big bucket full of crabs to show us their catch. A ‘grey nomad’ lent them a kite and all the kids spent hours on the beach flying the kite on the windy days. A kite surfer arrived one afternoon and after he had finished kite surfing on the water he let all the kids have a go of the kite with him on the sand dunes, they all couldn’t stop laughing each time they got airborne across the sand.

While we were there we celebrated Jaime’s birthday, with a few drinks and a cake etc. But on our second last night we also celebrated Cody’s 9^th Birthday with a bang! He was one very lucky boy, who got spoilt rotten by all our fellow campers (a lot of who admitted they were missing their grandkids so wanted to spoil our kids instead!). We had planned to just have a little cake and some chips and lollies at ‘happy hour’ and get everyone to sing him Happy Birthday. Well everyone else decided they wanted to have a big party. He was unexpectedly given presents by all of the other campers and everyone brought along plates of party food and our camp hosts insisted on providing a cake – which turned out to be enormous! The celebrations started early and went well on into the night! All Cody had originally wanted to do on his birthday was swim on Ningaloo Reef and get a packet of Tim Tams so that he could have his first ever Tim Tam bomb – well he did both those and a whole lot more!

Ningaloo

Exmouth

We are back on line again. While we were in Exmouth, the boys met a fellow camper in the caravan park who showed them a piece of gold he had found while prospecting. It weighed 20 oz and was valued at $45,000! Unfortunately, he didn't want to say where he had found it! They also enjoyed feeding his pet Galah and some wild Correllas. We had a change of plans while we were leaving Exmouth, we didn't head down to Ningaloo Station, but rather spent a couple of nights at Yardie Homestead, near the gates to Cape Range National Park.

Aidan and Cody with the Gold Nugget worth $45,000