8 days in paradise...

Our next stop was Coral Bay.  Quite simply put we spent 4 days in paradise.  It was hard to leave.  The drive to Coral Bay from Hamelin was interesting.  Hamelin it self is quite remote (but probably not by most WA standards!) – an hour from Denham (a small town) or south down the coast a 3 hour drive to the next big town or 2 hours north to the next big town – with not much in between!!  It was roughly 450km up to Coral Bay, and with the exception of Carnarvon (where we spent 3 hours – about 3 hours too many) we didn’t see much. A few roadhouses, not very many cars, loads of bird of prey and lots of lots of land.  It was the drive that finally bought up the question (from Olivia) of “why is Australia so big and why is so much of the land not lived on?”  So it was to our surprise (and somewhat horror) when we pulled into Coral Bay to find is swarming with people – where did they all come from???  With only 2 caravan parks to choose from it was an easy decision.  The town is tiny – 2 holiday parks, a resturant, a pub, a small supermarket and a hand full of other shops.  You can walk the length of the town in less than 5 minutes.  All of this is hugged tightly to the main attraction – the stunning beach and Nigaloo reef only 20 metres off shore.  We spent 4 days snorkelling, sunning ourselves in the 33 degrees and generally living the life.

From Coral Bay we moved up the coast to Cape Range National Park – a national park on the border of the Nigaloo Marine National Park.  Two wonderful places.  We loved Cape Range – we did a few gorge walks and spotted some rock wallabies – beautiful little creatures.

We also walked up along Yardie creek gorge - stunning.

We did some more exploring of Nigaloo – including a Whaleshark tour.  WOW WOW WOW.  We had 5 dives with the sharks and the biggest was around 7 – 8 metres.  Olivia and Alice were brave and swam with them too – the sharks are harmless, if not a little intimidating.  They are the most graceful, effortless creatures I’ve ever seen – totally uninterested in us – even when the boat dropped Alice and me off right in front of it’s mouth – to say I kicked for Australia, to get out of the way, would be an understatement!!  We managed to get out of the way and enjoyed watching it from the side.

We even made our own whaleshark..

It was hard to say goodbye to Cape Range, even though there were only pit toilets and no showers, we had another wonderful 4 days of being in the sun and by the sea.  Our campground only had 9 sites and a viewing platform up on the dune (only 20 metres from our tent) to watch the sun go down.  ‘Happy hour’ was from 5 for all those staying and stories were swapped about each persons adventures of the day – followed by the sunset - magic.  We meet some fun people and had lovely camp hosts who seemed honestly sad to see us go – like we were the only people who had ever come to stay.

But on we must go – if only for a shower!!

A.

Lancelin to Monkey Mia..

Just north of Perth we stopped in at Lancelin to try our hands at sandboarding.  After warning the kids to expect to get sand in every part of their body and clothes ….. eyes, ears, hair, nose, pockets, shoes…we hit the slopes..... and sand DID get EVERYWHERE...some were even surprise to find their undies full of sand!!!

Despite all that is was rated as COOL!!

After Andrew did a quick recovery of a tourists vehichile, that he’d driven over a small sand hill and into a ditch (hopefully that’s the only time we use the snatch straps), we were on our way again.

We stayed in Jurien Bay and from there visited the Pinnacles.  I wasn’t sure what to expect – when you’ve seen something in pictures so often and have an idea in your head – you never know whether it's going to be true or not to the real thing.  We were all amazed, by many aspects – the land size, the quantity, the remoteness and seemingly unique only to that area (although who knows what lies beneath the expansive sand dunes all around).  It’s quite a sight.  If you can imagine land strectching for miles with low native scrub covering it and then almost out of nowhere are valleys of sand with huge mounds sticking out of them – quite a sight.  Little research has been done so there is no explanation for their formation – but that doesn’t take away from the extraordinary sight.  One that has to be seen really – the photos don’t do them justice.

The following day was Alice’s birthday – 9!!  Pancakes and special treats all day.  She had a fun day – thanks to all her special friends for their cards and the gifts that had been delivered via various means.  She certainly didn’t miss out!!

We headed north from Jurien Bay to Kalbarri.  The town of Kalbarri is just on the border of Kalabrri National Park, yet another amazing national park in WA.  We only spent one day in the park but that was enough to witness is beauty.  Yet again the pictures don’t seem to do it justice.  The Western Australian landscape, although harsh in many aspects, is quite soft and beautiful.  The native bush here is so different to that seen on the East coast.  It’s doesn’t grow very tall, which allows you to see as far as your eye can see.  We’ve said so many times how beautiful it would be to return in wildflower season.  We can see snippets of colour here and there – delicate bright colours – one can only imagine would it would look like in the height of the season.

 After a day of walking in the national park it was time for a quiet fish as the sun went down....

Our next stop was Hamelin Station -  our fist station stay and to be honest we stopped here as they had a huge indoor kitchen and eating area – the only way to get away from the flies.  There has been a plague around this area since the cyclone earlier in the year.  Although they are getting better it's impossible to cook and eat outside.  From here we made the 1 hour journey further north along the peninsula to Monkey Mia.  What a morning we had.  In recent times the feeding at Monkey Mia has been heavily regulated and they only feed 5 of the returning dolphins now – and only adult females.  They found that if they feed new mothers then their young never learn to find food themselves and the young were dying in huge numbers.  On top of that they only feed them three times between 8 and 12 noon.  We missed the first feed so we were banking on the right dolphins coming in again.  They did not disappoint!!  On the next feed there were 3 dolphins to feed – but probably a total of 8 – 10 dolphins swimming around.  Out of the 40 or so people there Alice was chosen to feed Nicky. 

Then on the last feed of the day at about 10:30 Olivia was chosen to feed Piccolo.  An amazing morning in a beautiful place. 

Margaret River and Perth

Our four days in the Margaret River chalet with Andrew’s parents seemed very removed from the previous 3 weeks on the road in the tent.  Isla was most excited about having stairs in the house!  We were just excited about the house part!

Our first full day together was Olivia’s 11^th birthday.  We enjoyed a pancake breakfast and then headed north to Busseltown.  Busselltown’s claim to fame is its 2km long pier – rich in history, which was interesting to read about in the information centre.  We took the little train out along the pier and back.

After a tour of the old Goal and a birthday coffee we headed west to Canal Rocks.  We have been amazed at the beauty of the WA coastlines.  Both in the ruggedness and in their pure white sandy coves.  Canal rocks were a perfect example of rugged coastline.

While ‘the boys’ went out fishing ‘the girls’ took a trip to Donnybrook ‘to pick apples straight from the trees and eat them!’  The girls could hardly believe their luck – fruit for the picking….and eating!  They were in heaven.

A couple of winieres were enjoyed and some local produce sampled – our kind of heaven.

We moved onto Perth for 4 days – the most important day being Andrew’s 40^th.  The day before we spent on Rottnest Island – what a gorgeous island, with spectacular scenery and rich in history too.  The girls (except for Isla) loved the Quokkas. 

We spent Andrew’s birthday in Perth……

…and then joined his Mum and Dad for dinner out in Fremantle.  In hindsight we would’ve been better off staying somewhere down near Freemantle as we seemed to spend our time heading back down there – what a gorgeous place Freo is.  In parts it felt a bit little New Orleans.  We had a lovely meal and the girls played in the sand pit at Little Creatures – a perfect end to a lovely day.

We bid Andrew’s parents farewell the next day and headed for the Aquarium of WA, which claimed to have the longest underwater tunnel in an Australian Aquarium.  We were really impressed with it – the girls loved it and we did too – winner all round.

And thus ended our time with Andrew parents and our time in the ‘big smoke’.  Time to head back out into the land of long straight roads and roadhouses!!

Till next time.

A.