Coral Bay to Tom Price

We stayed four nights in Coral Bay and had our first glimpse of the Ningaloo Reef.  Coral Bay is a small town with two big caravan parks and we wouldn't recommend staying during school holidays as it was very busy and loud. Flynn did however join in the caravan park school holiday bike ride and thought it was great with all the big kids!  (oops- all the photos looks like he is going the wrong way?)  The beach is really nice, its a big lagoon surrounded by reef, so is very protected and great for kids.  There are large spangled emperor fish that are fed each day off the beach, and you stand in the water to watch them.  They swim around your feet and go into a bit of a frenzy when the food arrives- brushing against your legs; not the most pleasant experience!  We took the boys in a glass bottom boat and saw heaps of fish and coral and had a glimpse of a very fast moving turtle.  The boys were really interested in fish and coral for ages.  We found a quieter beach outside of coral bay and went fishing in the afternoons.  Nick didn't have much luck here catching fish, but he did catch the most enormous mussel attached to seaweed and coral.  It was so big that it could have fed us all, but we weren't sure what we would do with it, so threw it back.

Next stop was Cape Range National Park, near Exmouth.  We booked for 5 nights and decided to stay an extra three as it was so great.  Cape Range is also part of the Ningaloo Reef, and the wildlife here was amazing.  We snorkeled each day at Turquoise Bay where we saw many different tropical looking fish, coral, starfish, stingrays, sea cucumbers, and lots of other things that we didn't know what they were!  We both also saw reef sharks, which was not at all what I wanted to see and sent me swimming back to shore pretty quick.

Yardie Creek Gorge, Cape Range NP

Kyle, Dylan and Greg

Turquoise Bay

Sturt Desert Peas

Flynn has his own rod!

Bath time for the boys

We met another couple, Greg and Ruth with two boys Dylan and Kyle who are in primary school.  Dylan and Flynn hit it off and played non stop for about 2 days until they had to leave.  Poor Flynn was very upset.  Nick went fishing for a day with the boys and took Flynn so Aidan and I had a lovely time relaxing and reading on the beach (he ate sand).
We saw some great things off the beach here- jumping fish, a turtle popped its little head up to watch us while we were swimming one day, blue swimmer crabs on the rocks and a pointed nose shark in the shallows (not sure if that is the technical name).  The fish swim in the shallows here too, they seem inquisitive, and Aidan loved seeing the fish.
The boys seem to have come along in the last few weeks, with Flynn talking in sentences and singing his favourite song, and Aidan trying to stand.  Flynns favourite song is one that his Dad made up, which goes 'I like singing in the morning, I like singing in the day, I like singing in the morning, sing sing away'.  Flynn sings it very loud and as he got a good response from a lovely couple, Graham and Edith that we were camped with, I'm afraid that we are stuck with it for a while!
Reluctantly it was time to leave Cape Range, with no food left, little water and in need of a hot shower, we hit the road to Tom Price.  Its been a long two days of travel.  The scenery has changed a lot and we are seeing gorgeous reds in the rocky landscape, and the wildflowers and flowering grasses are spectacular.  There are patches that look like a blanket of purple amongst the red, and a white grass that also contrasts the red beautifully.  We stayed over night at a camp ground and met Michael and June again, who saved us a spot.  The boys discovered the red dirt and before we knew it, it was everywhere!

Aidan sleeping in the car....aaahhhhh!

Playing in the dirt

We arrived in Tom Price today and it was a rush to shower all of us, wash heaps of clothes, mop up the spilt honey and clean out the red dirt.  We treated ourselves to dinner out at a sort of cafeteria that feeds the Rio Tinto miners, but is also open to the public; pretty good food and busy with lots of miners and their families having dinner.
Tomorrow we are off to Karijini for a week and looking forward to seeing some gorges and swimming in their pools.

Kalbarri to Coral Bay

After a quick stop at Geraldton to re-stock, we were off to Kalbarri, eager to see the national park that so many people have told us about.  We had a great few days exploring the park, which is made up of beautiful gorges with the Murchison river flowing through it.  The land is rugged and rocky with shades of reds and browns, and we were lucky enough to see some wildflowers.  It was quite busy here and Flynn made lots of friends at the national park, and ditched Mum and Dad at lunchtime in favour of having lunch with another couple!  There are lots of retired people missing their grandchildren here and as Flynn is so friendly, he was given a biscuit, a piece of cake, a block of chocolate (yes a big one and mum and dad were pleased!) and a drink, all in one day by separate people.  Not to mention being pushed around the car park at a quick pace, in his pram by a very fit Grandpa who loved hearing the squeals.

Flynn and I did a small walk down to the river on our last day and it was so lovely to see how Flynn loves the outdoors.  We sat on the edge of the river throwing stones in for ages and Flynn was laughing at the sounds they made and the splash.  Actually I think he was laughing at himself saying 'plop' very loudly for each stone that was thrown in.  

We changed our plans regarding where we were staying next due to a late start in the day.  Nicks phone completely packed it in and he spent a few hours speaking to Johnny in Taiwan who fixed it.  We made it to the Billabong roadhouse for the night.  Nick met a local in the bar (they were the only two in there) who was an interesting (actually no, sad) character.  He lives on a property in this remote area that his father built up but is now run down.  He has been unable to get work for several months and spends a lot of time alone on the property.  He visits the roadhouse once a week to buy alcohol, a bag of potatoes and a bag of onions, which is what he lives on.  He also kills a lamb and that feeds him for a couple of months.  The roadhouse is his only outing and only social engagement each week.  Made us wonder how many other people live such isolated lives.

Natures window

After the Billabong roadhouse we were all looking forward to a quiet night in a bush camp somewhere.  We were lucky enough to get into Fowlers Bay, which is 25kms from Denham in a world heritage area. You need to book early to get in, and there is a $1000 fine for not having a permit.  There is no cost to stay here, and they only allow very few people, so we had a grand total of 5 people to share the bay with, and it was spectacular.  We went for a long walk around the bay and enjoyed some sunny weather.  The boys loved the freedom after a busy caravan park at Kalbarri.  We watched a spectacular sunset and chatted to our neighbours.

Our camp at Fowlers Bay

I found a crab!

Next we headed to Denham which is a costal town about 20kms from Monkey Mia.  It is school holidays and very busy, but we are staying right on the beach again.  We headed to Monkey Mia the following morning to see the dolphins being fed, but unfortunately it was raining and windy and the dolphins didnt come in, even though we could see them swimming further out.  It did give us plenty of time to read up about the dolphins though, and at Monkey Mia they are studying individual dolphin behaviours, which is aparently quite rare.  

Nick is not one to let a bit of rain get in the way of seeing the dolphims, and although we were due to check out of the caravan park by 10am the next morning, Nick got Flynn up at the crack of dawn and headed out to Monkey Mia.  It was a nice morning and they saw about eight dolphins who were feeding in the shallow waters.  Flynn was pretty happy to have seen them, and let me know that there werent any 'raaaaagh' sharks, only dolphins. 

Rainbow in stormy sunset sky

We had planned to stay just over 150kms away from Denham, however there was a lot of rain and the campsite we planned to stay at was flooded, as was the nearby roadhouse.  Guess what- there was nothing else for miles and it was so wet that there was no way we could stay off the side of the road anywhere, so we just had to keep going.  The flooding was amazing- we went through about four floodways that were somewhat deep and flowing pretty fast.  So we kept going and made it to Carnarvon for the night.  After a re-stock of everything again, we headed out to Quobba Point.

For a minute, we wondered where we had arrived.  Was this some sort of weird community by the ocean with tin shacks and lots of sea shell windchimes?  There was a huge long line of caravans and tents all fully kitted out like they were staying there for a long time.  Finally we passed the 'ranger' who was about 90 years old with leathery brown skin wearing a fake red leather cap.  Lovely lady who pointed us in the direction of a spare spot.  We soon realised that we were in heaven.  What Point Quobba didnt have I was wondering- actually there were no showers, no water and only 3 toilets, so it was BYO for everything.  So we set up the van and strolled across a sand dune to the beach to have a beer before dinner and the boys were having a great time.  We were watching some big sea birds dive into the water and come out with fish, avoiding the waves, and thought this was fantastic.  Then we saw a shark swimmimg around in the waves, not sure whether he was trying to get the birds or the fish we could see jumping.  Then we met our neighbour who pointed out the whales in the ocean.  When we looked we could see their spouts everywhere!!  Amazing place.  So I could go on and on but quickly- we met heaps of people, playmates for Flynn, fresh fish from the neighbour and Nick caught his own!, went and saw a lighthouse, blowholes, swam and snorkled each day in nearby lagoon and Nick had some fishing lessons.  Met a real character- Bob- see below, who has been travelling for 14 years and we shared a camp oven meal with Michael and June who loved the boys and made damper with Renee and Paul and their kids.  Camp fires each night and fantastic weather.  Now we know why people look set up for the long haul- they are!!

Our camp- Point Quobba

Fish freshly caught from our neighbour

Flynn and Keelee

June and Michael and Aidan

Nicks fish- cooked on an open fire that night

Beck made damper

Our friend Bob

Renee and Paul

Wow- lots to write about.  We are in Coral Bay at the moment, but will save that for the next one!  

Margaret River to Geraldton

Our next stop was Perth and we caught up with our friends, the Shearers once again.  We stayed longer in Perth than expected to have the car serviced and our awning fixed (it broke in the strong winds).  We had a bit of time looking around Fremantle and exploring the market.  The market was a little disappointing with fantastic fruit and vegetable stalls, but not many arty/ crafty/ hand made stuff and it seemed to have lots of imports from Bali.  Nick had a fun night out at freo with Ross and visited the Little Creatures Brewery.  Lets say that he had one too many beers and it was a terrible night, the two of them had to wait for a taxi in the pouring rain.  Neither of them could remember the name of the caravan park and they had to wait for a cab driver that knew which caravan park they were talking about by describing it!  Kristy and I on the other hand had a much less exciting, but very enjoyable night out to see a movie, Oranges and Sunshine.  Great movie, but very hard going!

We stayed long enough at the Perth caravan park for Nick to meet about 195 of the 200 permanent residents, enjoy the Saturday morning egg and bacon roll at the community hall, play bingo and win the meat tray for the week!!  I lost Nick and the boys for a few hours one day and found them having cups of tea with Jock and his wife in their little cabin at the caravan park.  Flynn and Aidan were being doted over by Jocks wife and Nick had his feet up on the front porch!!  Poor Aidan has been a bit unwell in Perth with high temperatures, and has been unsettled at night for about two weeks now.  We are looking forward to a good nights sleep.  We have had a lot of rain and windy weather in Perth and are looking forward to some better weather, unfortunately our next stop isn't much better.

 We stayed for two nights in Cervantes to explore the Pinnacles.  It rained, no, it poured!  And we wondered what we were going to do all day in a caravan with the boys, however we decided to go to the Pinnacles and see what we could from the car, which was a great idea.  There is a drive that you can take right through the pinnacles, and it was amazing to see the rain in the desert- the water was absolutely flowing and was very pretty.  The rain stopped for a while so we went for a 1.5km walk which was accessible to the pram, so Aidan would stay nice and dry with the rain cover, and we had our rain jackets.  It absolutely poured again during the walk for about 3 minutes, long enough for all our pants to soak through and Flynn to start sobbing, but when it stopped there were puddles to play in!  The walk was beautiful with a great big rainbow in the sky after the rain, a few wildflowers out, and the rock and sand sparkling after the rain.  There were also huge clumps of centipedes around which Flynn loved but the rest of us weren't so keen on.  Flynn loved playing hide and seek in the pinnacles, and there was a fantastic discovery centre with all sorts of stuffed furry animals and reptiles, which was really interesting.

We then travelled on past Jurien Bay to the Sandy Cape recreational park where we stayed for two nights.  It was a beautiful spot, right on the beach, and it was so nice listening to the waves as you go to sleep.  We had a big walk along the beach and found a huge sand dune to climb and roll down.  There was also a gorgeous little rocky arch on the beach and lots of different sorts of sea weed and sponges washed up to explore.

The next day we visited the Stockman's Yard Cave National Park.  It was our first taste of four wheel driving and we had to stop briefly to read the manual, and change to low range, but after this all was grand!  It was a fairly sandy, rocky track to get to the cave.  The cave is about 200m long and you walk along a small river bed and through the cave and out the other side.  It was a bit of a difficult walk with little kids along a steep sided creek and there are warnings about quick sand on the creek bed at the cave opening, and a local warned us to keep away from the side of the creek- so we did!!  Serious- quick sand!  You have to take a torch and walk through in bare feet as the creek flows through it.  It is large inside, with a sandy floor and very dark and quiet.  There are a few small stalactites (I think they are the ones hanging from the roof), and nothing else- no animals, no noise!  Flynn and Aidan weren't worried at all, Flynn loved shining the torch.  I have to admit that I was a bit jumpy and glad to get out the other side.  We then took the loop back to the car, I wasn't too keen on going back through.  

Thats about all for now- just a little something about our scrabble tournament.  I haven't played enough scrabble against Nick to realise how frustrating it is!  Nick is usually very competitive and strategic when playing games, and scrabble is no exception.  Nicks strategy is to score as many points as possible and aim for the extra points square regardless of whether he is putting a 3 letter word on the only part of the board with a possibility of being 'opened up'.  I however try to have a bit of a balance!  Isn't it nice that your only concern is having to get up before your partner to make breakfast because you lost scrabble the night before!