The Ryan's on the road.: 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.