Kalbarri - WA

13th October - 17th October 2014

Kalbarri is yet another stunning location on the WA coastline.  We stayed here for 4 nights which gave us time to see all the touristy stuff and relax a little!

Our first day was spent driving along the coast and checking out the various lookouts.  We stopped at Natural Bridge, Island Rock, Eagle Gorge, Red Bluff, Jakes Point and Blue Holes.  Jakes Point is a popular surfing spot with massive waves for experienced surfers.  Two people have died here doing what they love.  Blue Holes is a popular snorkeling and swimming spot which is enclosed from the surf beach.

The next day we drove out to Kalbarri Gorge and was surprised to see some greenery on the mountains surrounding the gorge.  Very different to the other gorges we have seen.  We were really impressed with the roads and walking tracks in the gorge.  Our first small walk was to Natures Window which is a great spot for photos!  Our next walk was the Z Bend which was a lookout over the Kalbarri Gorge.  The walks were relatively easy but the heat was insane.  There were signs advising that the gorge is 10 degrees hotter than the Kalbarri town temperature and it definitely felt it.  There were no trees to shade the heat and no breeze. One of the information boards had a newspaper article printed on it, about a tourist dying from heat exhaustion whilst walking the gorge! I could imagine how that could occur!

Our next stop is Geraldton for a bit of retail therapy!

 Kalbarri Coastline

Blue Holes

Jakes Point

 Jakes Point

Jakes Point

Kalbarri Gorge

Natures Window

Natures Window

Z Bend Lookout

Murchinson River winding through the gorge

Kalbarri Gorge

Denham - WA

10th October - 13 October 2014  

We arrived in Denham and was pleased to get a beachfront site, our outlook was beautiful!  That afternoon we had a quick look around the town of Denham, which is a little fishing village.  Later that evening the wind picked up and was unbearable to even sit outside, now our beachfront site was not looking or feeling that appealing!

The next day we headed off to Monkey Mia quite early to see the dolphins.  We arrived at 7.30am and the dolphins were already swimming around the bay.  It was a nice change from Tin Can Bay (QLD) where we sat for hours waiting for the dolphins to arrive!  Monkey Mia's dolphin feeding was very different from Tin Can Bay.  It was quite a long process of listening all about the dolphins which would have have been good if we could hear what was being said!  After all the lead up they have a few volunteers with a bucket of fish for each dolphin.  Each dolphin is allocated three fish and there are only a max of 5 dolphins to feed.  Ashton was lucky enough to feed a dolphin but on some days they had over 230 people in attendance, so your chances of feeding a dolphin are very slim!  

We were all feeling a little under the weather at Denham, so we took it pretty easy!  We did go to Ocean Park which is an awesome aquarium.  They have a guided tour which goes for 1hr with a Marine Biologist who explains everything about the mammal we were seeing.  During the talk he would feed the mammal so we could see them interacting.  All the way from a little clown fish, all the way up to a shark!  It was a really interesting and worthwhile tour, the kids especially loved seeing the sharks!

We are all quite excited to leave windy Denham behind and head to Kalbarri.

Our awesome beachfront spot!

Monkey Mia 

 Ocean Park - sharks!

 Feeding time!

Carnarvon - WA

7th October - 10th October 2014

We stayed 3 nights at the Top Tourist park in Carnarvon and it's definitely one of the better parks we have stayed in on our travels.  It was very clean and the showers were awesome!  I think Ashton had 6 showers in our three night stay!  They also rewarded the kids for "doing the right thing" ie wearing bike helmets or picking up rubbish.  The kids scored a free icy pole for this and l think Ashton ended up with 4 in one day! 

We were also able to wash the car and caravan.  Stu tried his best to get rid of the red dirt, but I'm sure we will be finding red dirt in the car and van for a long time to come.

We went to the One Mile Jetty but everyone was feeling a bit lazy after a busy day, so we didn't walk it but just looked from an observation point.  We also visited The Space and Technology Museum which was originally opened by Buzz Aldrin and a second stage opened by Andy Thomas in September 2014.  Carnarvon had a tracking station which opened in 1964 and operated for 11 years. It help track the Gemini, Apollo and Skylab missions.  The Museum also had a very cool simulator which you could sit in and envisage you were blasting off from earth to the moon!

Our next stop is Denham.

One Mile Jetty

Space Museum

The Thompsons!

Apollo Simulator

Andy Thomas Handprints "Sept 2014"

Buzz Aldrin Handprints

Josh & Ash having a ride on the golf cart at the caravan park!

Coral Bay - WA

4th October - 7th October 2014

Coral Bay didn't disappoint with its beautiful beach fringed by the Ningaloo Reef.  The water was so clear you could simply stand in it and watch the fish swim by.  The snorkeling was great for kids as you could see lots of coral and fish right off the beach, without swimming out a huge distance.  The fish and coral were simply amazing.  At 3.30pm each day they have fish feeding on the beach and all the fish come in for a feed, big and small swimming in the shallows around your feet!  

Most of our days here were spent at the beach, swimming, snorkeling, kite flying and the boys even joined in on a game of beach cricket!  We did do a glass bottom boat cruise which was great to see some huge coral out in the deeper waters.  We did cross a piece of coral which they referred to as "Ayers Rock".  It was massive and is sometimes visible when the tides are very low.

Having come from a relatively quite camp at Osprey (max 20 camps) we found this park extremely busy, as l think most of Perth came here for the school holidays.  We were very happy to move on to somewhere a little quieter!

Our next stop is Carnarvon.

Daily Fish Feeding

Fish Feeding

Coral Bay

Coral

Beautiful Fish!

Coral Bay

Cape Range National Park - Osprey Bay WA

1st October - 4th October 2014

This has to be one of the most beautiful camping spots we have been so far.  Our view is of the beautiful Ningaloo Reef.  The colours of the water are stunning, something you could sit and stare at all day.  A family we had met in Lake Argyle told us this was a lovely place to camp and even told us the best site number to get!  

We had an awesome three nights here spending the days snorkeling, fishing, swimming and enjoying our surroundings.  We could snorkel straight off the beach where we were camped and we saw some pretty huge fish!  We were also lucky enough to see a whale swimming by in the distance.

Stu did a bit of fishing off the rocks, he only caught one fish but enjoyed the outlook anyway!

Another popular snorkeling spot was Turquoise Bay, it was more popular for coral rather than fish but whilst snorkeling Stu and Ashton spotted a reef shark.  Stuart got some great video of the shark and was actually swimming after him, Ashton and myself on the other hand was out of the water quite quickly!

We met a lovely family who were on holidays from Albany.  Mark and Jo had 3 girls Devon, Cleo and Winter.  The kids had lots of fun over the three days we were there and we hope to call in and say hi when we visit Albany.

Our next stop is Coral Bay which is a continuation of the Ningaloo Reef.

Our camp

Stu admiring the view

 Josh & Stu doing a bit of fishing

Snorkeling 

Snorkeling

Amazing Coral

Turquoise Bay

Osprey Bay

Osprey Bay

Kite Surfers at Turquoise Bay

Exmouth - WA

30th September - 1st October 2014

We stopped in Exmouth for one night just to do some washing, have a shower and get some food and water!  We weren't too enthused to stay any longer as it was very expensive and the caravan park was very busy being the WA school holidays.  One thing funny about Exmouth, was that there were emu's wandering around freely everywhere!  You even had to wait for the emu's to cross the road whilst driving!

Our next stop is at Cape Range National Park.

Pretty sign to welcome us!

The big prawn!

The Exmouth locals!

Barradale - WA

28th September - 30th September 2014

We stopped here to break the drive to Exmouth.  It was a nice big free camp with heaps of room.  The boys did a lot of bare foot kicking of the footy!  We decided to stay two nights to catch up on some school work, and it was a great decision as there wasn't any distractions anywhere!  The odd cow or two and that's it!  The boys worked really hard and got lots of work done almost like a normal school day!

Our next stop is Exmouth.

This dry arid land is a river in the wet season

Barefoot footy in the red dirt!

Our home for two nights!

Tom Price - WA

26th September - 28th September 2014

It has now been 5 days since we had a proper shower and l was really looking forward to arriving in Tom Price to get clean!  However when we arrived there was a bush fire on the ranges over looking the caravan park.  I really didn't want to stay there but we didn't have much choice.  We needed to stock up on food, water and do our washing.  There was nowhere else for about the next 500 klms! The lady at the office talked about the evacuation procedure more than the points of interest in Tom Price.   She assured us we would have plenty of warning if needed to evacuate!  I wasn't very re-assured by this.  Most people were hooked up ready to go and here we were unpacking!  We kept a close eye on the flames and they seemed to be burning out so we continued to unpack.  Over the course of the day the fire burnt itself out and all was good!  I could relax again!

After the fire saga we took a drive up to Mt Nameless which is the highest peak in WA and had some awesome views of the town and the smoke surrounding us.  We also had excellent range as we were right next to the phone tower!

The rest of the time was spent shopping, washing and watching the footy grand final.  I think we were the only ones in the Tom Price caravan park with any interest in the AFL!

Our next stop is a free camp.

Huge machine that was used in the Rio Tinto Mine

A lovely welcome to the caravan park, smoke and flames!

View from Mt Nameless of the bush fire

View from Mt Nameless of the Rio Tinto Mine