We packed up in the morning and asked the van park owners if we could have a late check out so we could go into church at MR without the van on the back. They were pretty laid back so it was no problem.

We enjoyed church again. It was only a small congregation, but very friendly and the church had a similar feel to ours. They have a shared lunch after the service on the first Sunday of each month, which it was today. They invited us to stay for lunch, which we did. Michael and Sam went back to pick up the van while the lunch things were being heated up and set out. Hannah and Beth enjoyed playing with 2 other girls from the church. Lauren and Sam chatted for a while and then played some table tennis in the area where the youth meet. By the time we got away from church and picked up a few more groceries, it was later than planned that we were heading towards Shannon NP. It was about a 2 and half hr drive through some lovely forest scenery. We reached the lodge where we were staying about 5.30.

The place where we were staying was called Shannon Lodge. It is located in the Shannon National Park, about 50km out of Pemberton. It is managed by the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) which also manages all the NPs. It is near the campground in Shannon NP, but is quite a distance from the campsites so is very private. I had read about it in the Lonely Planet guide and thought it might be a nice break from the caravan for a few days. It is only $66 per night which is less than what we’ve paid at some van parks. The down side is it is not powered, but there is a power inlet so that a generator can be used to provide power for short periods if necessary. Since we have a generator, this would be our backup. Also, the kids (especially Hannah) thought it would be fun to stay in a house without power and use candles at night. There was a pot belly stove for cooking and a fire driven hot water system, so you could have hot showers etc.

We’d been given a code for a key box for when we arrived, so we were able to let ourselves in. Because we arrived later than planned, Michael had to get straight into putting on the fire, and I decided to do dinner in the caravan still and just use the gas hot plates. Meanwhile the kids took all the sleeping bags and pillows in to set up the bedding and then Hannah and Beth rode their bikes around for a while. It was good that it was still light until about 6.30. As it started to get dimmer, Michael put the generator on for the house. I had dinner ready at 6.30 and we ate in the house. Then we got everyone in their PJs ready for bed. Hannah was keen to turn the generator off and just use the candles, which we did once everything was setup ready for bed. There were 2 bedrooms in the house, each with 2 beds and then 2 extra beds in the family room. Michael and i had a room to ourselves,which was a treat after all these months in the caravan. Lauren and Sam had the other room tonight, but were going to swap with Hannah and Beth the next night. We all went to bed reasonably early that night, except Hannah took a while to get to sleep. It was nice and warm.

Today we planned to see the sights south and southwest of MR.

We started by heading across to Caves Rd again, west of MR. We drove south along here for a while and then turned off onto the unsealed section called the Boranup Drive. This was a very picturesque area of Karri forest. We stopped at one point where Sam remembered a path they had ridden along and wanted to show me how pretty it was – so we went walking along for a while. We also stopped to look at the top of a limestone cave called Bride Cave – one the guide had pointed out to Michael and Sam yesterday. It was only accessible by abseiling down into it. We just stood at the top and looked down into it.

We joined back onto Caves Road again just at the point where there was a place called Boranup Maze. It was a hedge maze made by a private family on part of their property and they had an honesty box for people to pay to go through. The kids had fun going through and finding the middle, while Michael and I sat in the lovely garden and relaxed.

We then drove further south to Hamelin Bay on the coast. This place is renowned for Mantaray swimming in quite close to the shore. We didn’t see any while we were there. We had some lunch and then, because it had warmed up quite a bit today, some of the kid’s had a swim at the beach.

We then drove further south again to Augusta, the most southern town on this part of the mainland. We continued along the road out to Cape Leeuwin, the most south-westerly point of the Australian mainland, and where the Indian Ocean meets the Southern Ocean. As expected, there is a lighthouse here. We were planning just to walk out to the lighthouse, but found out you have to pay just to walk out there ($22 for our family). So we decided we would just get a photo from the carpark again.

We drove back to Augusta and stopped at a pretty little park beside the sea to have afternoon tea. Then we drove to the town jetty to do some fishing. A cold wind was coming up by now, so we didn’t stay long at the fishing. The kids were keen to go ‘home’ to the van park, so,that’s what we did. Hannah and Beth had made friends with a family of 4 girls (from age 9 down to 4) so were keen to play with them again.

It had been a lovely stay in the Margaret River region and the Big Valley van park had been a great place to base ourselves. We felt like we were feeling enthused again after our ‘lull’ in Perth.

Tomorrow being Sunday, we wanted to go to church again, so we looked up some churches and times and planned on going to the Rivers Life Centre (another Churches of Christ church) tomorrow at 10am, before driving on to our next location.

On our second day here, we had a break from sightseeing and did some fun things that the kids had been keen to do for a while.

Sam had asked to do some mountain biking in the area. We had looked up some websites to try to find some information on bike tracks in the forest, and it seemed that the bike tracks were hard to find and it could have been easy to get lost. But there was a company which took guided mountain bike tours and supplied all the equipment. So we had made enquiries about this. It turned out that Michael and Sam both did a guided tour through the Boranup Forrest which started at 9am and ended at 1.30pm (not riding all this time, as some of it was travelling to and from the tracks). They both enjoyed it, although Michael’s comment afterwards was ‘It’s not something I would get right into as I’m not that much of an adrenaline junkie’. Sam said they went through some very pretty forrest, although they were going so fast and had to concentrate so much that they didn’t get to look at it closely. They both looked quite exhausted when I picked them up at 1.30, and Michael was sore for a couple of days. But it had been some good father and son time.

Lauren had been keen to do some horse riding. And whenever she mentioned it, Hannah also piped up and wanted to join in. So we had looked into that here also. Only the afternoon times were available for that, so us girls had a relaxing morning while the boys were out. We dropped them at their meeting place at Margaret River in the morning, went to book exchange (got a few more books and exchanged some) and then went back to the van park. Lauren and I did a few loads of washing and Hannah and Beth played in their tree cubby house. At 1.00 I left Lauren and the girls watching a movie and went in to Margaret River. I did some grocery shopping before meeting the boys. Then we went back to the van park. We had a short break there before it was time to drive to Jesters Flat, the horse riding place we were going to – only 10mins away from Big Valley. Lauren was booked in to do a ‘Drovers Tour’ horse ride at 3.00 – this was advertised as joining in with rounding up some cattle. It went for an hour and a half. It wasn’t as exciting and challenging as the brochure made it sound, but Lauren still enjoyed the chance to be back on a horse for a while. Hannah and I went on a 1 hour ‘Country Lane Tour’ which was basically a walk down a back road through some lovely scenery and then through some nice forest, and we were able to have a couple of trots. Hannah felt very comfortable on the horse, and the guide said she seemed to have a natural style with horses. It was a lovely afternoon and I enjoyed the chance to have a ride through some beautiful scenery. I’d like to do more horse riding when we get back home. Meanwhile, Bethany had a ride on a shetland pony, being led by Michael. She really enjoyed this and had a trot a couple of times also. Sam went along for the walk with Michael and Bethany. There was also a great treehouse and tyre swing near the waiting area, so Sam enjoyed playing here also (as did the girls when they weren’t riding). Also at the waiting area was a large fire pit with a warm fire that had apparently been going since April – they just kept adding wood to it. They were very friendly staff and a nice environment, so it was a lovely afternoon.

Then it was home to the van park for dinner and bed.

Our first day in this region saw us heading north for a day trip. We drove the 10mins into Margaret River township itself, but didn’t stop as we decided we would come back to that. We continued north along the Bussel Hwy, passing through some quaint little towns and, after about 40mins reached Busselton.
The main attraction we wanted to see here was the long jetty. It seems it is the longest wooden jetty (pier) in the southern hemisphere (whereas the Lucinda jetty in Qld is the longest jetty of any material (in this case steel) in the southern hemisphere). We had some morning tea near the beach and walked over to the shore end of the jetty, but decided not to pay the money to go out onto the jetty (since we’d done that at Canarvon on One Mile Jetty). It was quite busy at the foreshore here (school holidays I guess), so we soaked in the atmosphere for a while, then hopped back in the car.

We then drove southwest along the coast for about 20mins to Dunsborough, the next seaside town. We found the foreshore drive and found a lovely little bay and park which seemed ‘tucked away’ from the crowds. We spent a relaxing and enjoyable hour or so here with the kids playing on the playground and on the sand. It was a bit cold for a swim and they seemed happy without swimming, which was good. We had our sandwiches for lunch here. Eventually we needed to round them up so we could keep going with seeing what we planned to that day.

We drove another 15mins further west then out to Cape Naturaliste, which was the most northwesterly tip of that southwest WA region. There was a lighthouse here which you had to pay to walk out to, so we just took a photo and looked out to the ocean from the carpark.

Next we turned onto Caves Rd (so named because there are a lot of limestone caves in this region) and headed south along the coastline. All the coastline along here is renowned for its surfing beaches. We called into Yalingup, the most northerly township along this stretch of coast. It had some breathtaking views of the ocean as we drove down into the township and we parked at a lookout area and enjoyed the views for a while.

Then we continued south along Caves Rd, passing many wineries and pretty scenery. We planned to head back to Big Valley, but first had promised the kids a treat at a lolly shop in Cowamurup (one of the little towns just north of Margaret River – the owners at Big Valley had told us about it). So we found a road that took us across from Caves road on the west, back to the Bussell Hwy near Cowaramup. We found the shop called Candy Cow (everything in Cowaramup is cow related and there are life size statues of cows all around the town). It was a lovely old fashioned lolly and fudge shop. You could taste test different flavours of fudges. Each of the children chose a bag of lollies of their liking (Lauren kept saying ‘How am I supposed to choose just one?’). Michael and I decided to get something from the bakery as our treat. Then we all headed back to the van park to have our treats (with a cup of tea for me).

The kids enjoyed some time back at the van park. There was a big pine tree right next to our caravan which made a great little cubby house for Hannah and Beth.

My reading and research led us to decide to try to find a nice place to stay in the southwest region that was fairly central and we could do some day trips from. I found a place that sounded nice and was good value. It was called Big Valley caravan park. It is about 10mins out of the town of Margaret River. It is actually a working sheep farm, which has a campground on the side. It was only $36 per night for a powered site (one of the best value on our trip). We rang this morning and booked in and they gave us good directions.

We didn’t get away from Perth until 11.30 as we had a bit of shopping to do and so on. I thought it would take over 4 hrs to get to Big Vally, but it was only about 3 hrs, which was a nice surprise. The distances are a bit smaller down here than they are up north. The countryside as we got closer to our destination became a bit more ‘English’ – quite green and lush, with cows and sheep grazing. Lauren, in particular, made note of it and how much she liked it.

We arrived and set up and breathed a sigh of relaxation because it was such a lovely place which just oozed that feeling of ‘slow down and relax’. I loved the sounds of the sheep bleating and the sights of rolling green pastures. There was lots of space between caravans, lots of trees, lots of rustic but efficient facilities, and friendly and laid back staff. I felt pleased to be there and looked forward to travelling around and seeing the region.

Our time in Perth was partly sightseeing and partly trying to rest and re-energize. I feel like we have all lost enthusiasm for travel now, and are ready to go home. But we still want to make the most of the time we have left and make the most of the things we will still see between now and when we get home.

So some of the things we did in Perth are:-

– Went bike riding along the Swan River and in Kings Park. We did this on the first full day in Perth and it was a beautiful day for it – about 22 degrees and sunny. We took the kid’s 4 bikes into the city in the car and parked at the bike hire place near the Swan River. We then hired a bike for Michael and I, and got a map for riding along the river foreshore and then into Kings Park and back. It was about 30km all up. The foreshore was mostly flat, but Kings Park had some hilly sections. We were surprised at how far above the city Kings Park is. We entered from the western end of the park and soon came to the ? Area of the park. This was a lovely spot. There was a cafe here and the kids were all very hungry, so glad for a hamburger or hotdog for lunch. The playground area was amazing – an island in the middle with a play area, as well as heaps of different play spaces around the island. As it was Saturday, there were lots of people and families there. It had a lovely atmosphere about it. We rode through to the eastern section of the park where there were some lovely wildflowers in the gardens. We went fairly quickly through this section, as we were trying to get the hire bikes back on time. We actually had trouble finding a good exit from the park to get back onto the river foreshore bike track. Our map wasn’t very good for this. Eventually we did find our way out and rode back, stopping at the bell tower to have a look.

– We went to church Sunday morning at a Church of Christ in Como, South Perth (just south of the Swan River). Interestingly, it is called Lifestreams Christian Church (our church at home is called Lifestream Christian Fellowship). We enjoyed the service and enjoyed a cuppa and cake afterwards. Hannah and Beth really enjoyed children’s church again.

– We went to the Fremantle Port area. Michael and Sam went and had a look at the Maritime Museum and did a submarine tour, while the girls and I went to the E-shed markets. Lauren really enjoyed this as it reminded her of Paddy’s Markets in Sydney, which she had been to a couple of times on a Girls Brigade weekend away. We found a few bargains and enjoyed the retail therapy. Dad and Sam enjoyed their time too.

– Our 3rd day in Perth, the tiredness caught up with me. I felt I couldn’t go out to Kings Park again like we had planned. So Michael took the younger 3 out while Lauren (who was also wanting a rest day) and I stayed home. As well as having a snooze, I also needed to do some planning for the rest of our trip, as I hadn’t done any reading on the area south of Perth before leaving home.

– That afternoon was quite hot, so we took the kids to a swimming pool in Fremantle – it was called Fremantle Leisure Centre. It had a 50m pool, a 25m pool and a water play area. The water play area had a really cool ‘turbo pool’ which I hadn’t seen before – it was like a permanent whirlpool set up in a side section of the pool. I had a turn in this and quite enjoyed it.

– Our last day in Perth, we did some schoolwork in the morning and then took a train ride from Fremantle into the city (Hannah and Beth couldn’t remember being on trains in Brisbane, so they enjoyed this). We went to a place called Scitech – a science and technology centre. This had been Michael’s suggestion and I had thought it might be too much like Questacon back home. But it turned out to have quite different exhibits and the kids really loved it. There was a planetarium theatre there which we all went into first. Apparently Lauren and Sam had been in one like this in Brisbane when they had visited Nana and Papa on their own. But it was the first time I had seen one and I found it really amazing, the technology they had to show us the different parts of the universe. I learnt quite a bit.

We had a slow start to the morning. Then drove into Toodyay town centre, parked and had a look around.

We had a walk through the old flour mill in the centre of town, which still has working machinery. We saw the different machines and learnt about the different stages of the milling process. We then walked along the main street and looked in a few shops. We stopped at the bakery and bought some pies and sausage rolls for lunch later on.

We then hopped back in the car and took a drive along the little country roads. Our plan was to find a nice picnic spot to sit and have our lunch. But we drove for about 40 mins without finding anywhere nice to stop and everyone was getting hungry. So we ended up stopping at the oval in the little town of Bindoon. We had our lunch, and then, because there was a cricket pitch in the middle of the oval, Sam wanted to have a hit. So we got the cricket bats and ball out and had a hit for 15mins or so.

Then it was off to Perth. We had rung up to book a van park that morning, but many places were booked out – WA school holidays were about to start and the Perth Royal Show was starting. We ended up being able to book in to a place at Fremantle, called Fremantle Village Caravan Park. They only had ensuite sites left, but gave us a discount on that due to the ensuites being fairly old. It took us about an hour and a half to drive to the van park in Fremantle. It was getting to late afternoon, so there was no more sightseeing for the day. We did our usual routine and looked into things to do in Perth.

It was still very cold the next day, and windy. And there were showers on and off.

Our first stop after packing up was to drive to a lookout just outside Cervantes. We looked out over the ocean, the town and lots of wildflowers.

We then drove to the Pinnacles., in the N NP. We got a map of the area and parked at the carpark. We could either do a walk through the Pinnacles or drive around (but would have had to take the caravan off and leave it). We decided to do the walk first and see if we still wanted to do the drive after that. When we got out of the car, we decided we needed our beanies (as well as our jumpers). We hadn’t expected to be walking around the Pinnacles with beanies on. We did a quick look thought the interpretive centre and then did the walk. It was pretty amazing to see these formations sticking up out of the ground all over the place. The walk took about 40mins and we got back to the car just as it was about to start raining again. We decided not to do the drive.

We then drove further down the coast towards Lancelin. This town is known for the sand dunes nearby, where people go 4WDing on the dunes or sandboarding. Sam was really keen to try sandboarding. Unfortunately, as has happened a few times on our trip, the weather was going to be against him. Due to the rain, the sandboard wouldn’t have slid very well down the dunes. We drove to see the dunes though, and Michael and the kids went for a walk and run up and down.

The next place to visit on our plan for the day was the Avon Valley. This is an area northeast of Perth city which is around the Avon River and is quite pretty. We had looked up a caravan park at one of the little towns around here – one called Toodyay (pronounced Too Jay). We saw some wildflowers as we drove along. We arrived at Toodyay nearing 5pm, so it was the usual set up, dinner and nighttime routine. Tomorrow we hoped to look around Toodyay and have a bit more of a drive around the Avon Valley before heading into Perth.

The bad weather continued today, with some rain showers on and off. It wasn’t too much of a problem though, as today was mostly a driving day (with a few stops).

We headed south from Kalbarri, and our first stop was Point Gregory near Pink Lake. As we drove past Pink Lake, it really did look pink in some parts and from some angles. This is due to a certain bacteria being trapped in the salt granules.

We had considered going to visit a place called Hutt River Province, nearby this area. It had been interesting to read about it. It is actually a sheep farm which succeeded from the Australian nation back in 197?. Due to some legal wranglings, this place was now it’s own province with its own stamps and currency, and with the farm owners being king and queen. We ended up deciding not to take the time to go and visit, but it had been interesting to learn about it.

Our next stop then was Northampton, a town with some heritage- listed buildings in it. We had a drive though and took some photos and stopped there to buy some drinks to have with our sandwiches for lunch.

Then it was on to Geraldton, another 50km away. We were planning to o some grocery shopping there and also visit a 2nd hand bookshop which we’d read about in Lonely Planet guide which had shelves of books floor to ceiling. It was probably the largest city we’d visited in quite a while. We found the grocery store and all helped with the shopping and then went and found the book shop. We weren’t disappointed by this shop. It did have lots of books and was quite well organised, compared to other 2nd hand book shops we’d visited. It had quite a good children’s and teen’s section and we found a few good quality books. We were probably there for about 40 mins, but then had to get going, as we still had about 200km to travel to get to Cervantes.

The next main town was Greenough, which was about 50km away. The Lonely Planet guide had said there was also a good 2nd hand bookshop there which had rare and out-of-print books. I would have loved to have stopped there also, but knew that would be pushing the patience of others and it would have made us later to get to our night stop. So we kept driving. We were driving through landscape which made us think of England (I guess the English names of Northampton and Greenough suited). There were also some wildflowers along the way as we drove.

We drove past Jurien Bay and on to Cervantes, arriving about 6.15pm at the van park. I rang to order pizza as we were driving in to Cervantes, and was able to go and pick it up after we had set up. The cold front that was coming through was even colder by now – it was jumper and beanie weather when we arrived at Cervantes. We had pizza for dinner and then it was bedtime routine. We were glad we had a warm caravan in this cold, windy weather.

We all liked Kalbarri. The little township was nice and had an attractive foreshore by the Murchison River Inlet, with the surf beach a little further out. It was a great place for young children to swim. Not far out of the township the cliffs rose on either side and there were some spectacular views of the ocean, the bays and the coastal heather. On either side of the township is the Kalbarri NP. The northern part of the park follows the route of the Murchison River through gorges and spectacular cliff views of the river. The southern part of the park follows the coastal route with 6 or 7 stopping points for short walks or great lookouts.

Our first day at Kalbarri we did the following:
– Went and saw the pelican feeding which is held daily at the foreshore at 8.45am. It started in 1975 when a shop owner on the main street used to walk across the road most days to feed the pelicans at the beach. Occasionally he couldn’t make it there to feed them, so they started to walk across the road to his shop instead, causing a traffic jam as people stopped and watched. So since then , different volunteers have continued the pelican feeding. The volunteer gives a talk about the pelicans for 15 mins or so as they all arrive and then the children can line up to take turns at throwing a bit of fish to them.
– Went for a drive into the northern part of the NP. There were a few different lookouts, but we just went to 2 of them – the loop trail lookout and Nature’s Window. Nature’s Window is a natural attraction pictured on many of the brochures of the NP. It is a protruding outcrop of rock with a hole in the middle large enough for a few people to sit in – if you sit in the hole, the surrounding rock forms a picture frame. We took some photos there.
Just the drive to the lookouts was lovely as we went past many lovely wildflowers.
– We went back to the van for a rest in the afternoon.
– Mid-afternoon we planned to hire a catamaran on the estuary of the foreshore, but the hire place was closed when we got there ( despite the sign saying it was open until 5pm). So instead we went for a drive to look at Jakes Point which is the surfing beach just north of the township. We found the beach, but it was quite rocky in places, so wouldn’t be good for beginner surfers (who might accidentally surf onto the rocks). We drove to the next beach along, but by now the weather had turned quite windy and the surf at this beach was quite rough. So we all just waded our feet and enjoyed the view of the Red Bluff cliffs.
– The kids were then happy to go back to the caravan park for a swim in the pool. And then it was into baths and dinner etc.

It rained quite a bit overnight, which was the first rain we had had in about 2 and a half months (since Qld).

On our second day in Kalbarri, the weather was a bit iffy. We had some showers on and off. So some of our plans changed. But this is what we did:
– Went for a drive into the southern part of the NP, stopping at a few of the coastal cliff lookouts – Red Bluff, Rainbow Valley, and Eagle’s Gorge. There was information about some of the shipwrecks on the cliffs in this area – the 2 most well known were the Zuytdorf and the Batavia. Looking out to the seas and cliffs, we could certainly see how it would have been (and still would be) a treacherous place for ships in a storm.
– Went to see about hiring a catamaran again – but the rain started up as we were planning to do the sail.
– We went back to the van to have lunch first. Then when the sun came out again, we went down to the boat hire pace again – he was closed up again ( and it was only 1.30pm) – how frustrating.
– So then the kids had a play at the playground on the foreshores and a swim in the calm water estuary area.
– Sam spotted a squash courts sign and suggested having a game of that with Michael. It turned out to be run from the pub and was only $7 per hour ( including hire of ball and racquets). So Sam and Michael did this, while Hannah, Bethany and I went for a bike ride along the foreshore and Lauren, who was feeling tired, rested at the van. Hannah, Beth and I enjoyed our bike ride as it was an easy path and the girls are both riding very well now without training wheels. We came back to the squash court after 45 mins, so that Hannah could have a turn of squash (which she’d wanted to try).
– Then it was back to the van park for another swim before dinner.