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.

Today was planned as a driving day to get to Kalbarri, our next destination, however we ended up making a few sightseeing stops along the way – all still in Shark Bay. These were some of the stops we hadn’t made on our way up the peninsula the first day.

So first we stopped at Eagle’s Bluff, which was a steep cliff with a boardwalk perched high above the bay below. There were great views across Shark Bay to Useless Loop. Much of the waters below we’re quite clear and we had a good look for any sharks or manta rays or other marine life, but couldn’t see any.

We then stopped about 15mins later at a place called Shell Beach which is an amazingly white beach that has been created naturally from hundreds of millions of tiny seashells (Fragum Cockles). We made pictures in the shell sand and splashed our feet in the shallows of the water. This is also where the fence for Project Eden is constructed as it is at the narrowest part of the peninsula.

Then we drove back to Hamelin Pool and decided to stop there again as we’d seen some things in the gift shop there that we wanted to have another look at – we’d hurried through a bit last time. We also had lunch while here.

Then it was time to make haste for the remaining 200 or so km to Kalbarri, as it was almost 2pm by this time.

Nothing much of interest between Overlander Roadhouse and Kalbarri, apart from noticing more and more wildflowers on the side of the road. This was a nice sight.

We eventually got to Kalbarri about 4.30pm and did some research on caravan parks and settled at staying at the Tudor Caravan Park, as it had a pool, playground, and jumping pillow – and when we rang them they offered to give us a discount on the children. So we went and set up. We had a good location again right across from the playground and jumping pillow. The kids enjoyed these for a while before dinner.

Lauren, Sam, Michael and I had a fun game of 500 tonight – we’ve often been too tired to play cards, but we made the effort tonight and it was fun.

We had a slightly less busy day on the Saturday. It was my turn to feel a bit unwell, so I stayed back at the van while Michael took the kids down to the playground at the foreshore and then to the Shark Bay Discovery Centre which had a lot of information about the history and natural resources around the area.

They learnt that Shark Bay meets all 4 of the natural values criteria for a World Heritage Area (there are only ? Of these in Australia). These 4 criteria are : 1) Natural Beauty – there is much of this at Shark Bay, from the white beaches to the red headlands and cliffs, from the glittering sands and shells of the fringing islands, to the red sands of the Peron Peninsula, from the oddly shaped claypans called ‘birridas’, to the turquoise coloured Big and Little Lagoons. 2) Earth’s History – the stromatolites. 3) Evolutionary Processes- some marine species and some land species are distinct to this area due in part to the isolation of the area, and also due to the environment created bybthe presence of vast amounts of seagrass. 4) Threatened Species – it is the last stronghold for 5 critically endangered mammals, and is also a haven for the endangered humpback whales, dugongs, loggerhead turtles and green turtles.

They learnt that Shark Bay has the largest bed of seagrass (which dugongs, whales and turtles love). They learnt about Project Eden, whereby a feral-proof fence has been erected across the narrow section of the Peron Peninsula to keep out feral goats, cats and rabbits etc. Once all the feral animals were gone, they reintroduced the threatened mammal species from the nearby islands onto the mainland and they have been increasing in number.

They learnt that the western most point in Australia is called Steep Point. It is on the most western and less inhabited peninsula of Shark Bay and is hard to get to (we didn’t go there). Interestingly, you need a permit to go there as it is private property. Also on this same peninsula is a place called Useless Loop. It actually has a salt harvesting industry there.

They learnt about the first explorers to arrive in this area – Dirk Hartog (Dutch) in 1616 (stepped ashore at what is now called Dirk Hartog Island). Then Dutch Captain De Vlamingh revisited the site in 1697. It was then visited in 1699 by William Dampier, the first English captain to explore the WA coast. It was Dampier who gave Shark Bay it’s present name after noticing the prolific number of sharks in the area.

They then came back to the van for lunch and a rest. Everyone was feeling a bit tired today. We had planned to go for a drive into the Francois Peron NP in the afternoon. We had found out that for some of the more northerly tracks it is recommended that you have certain types of recovery gear with you (as you are driving through a lot of sand). We didn’t have all this gear, so had thought we might just visit the Peron Homestead and then Big Lagoon. We got away a bit later than we should have and so just ended up going to Peron Homestead. This was enjoyable though. It had an artesian hot tub (like a hot spa) where we all had a relax. We saw a whole group of emus drinking from the creek where the spa water ran off. Then we had a look at the sheep shearing quarters which was quite interesting and Michael gave them all a lesson on the sheep shearing process. It was getting too late then to venture further into the NP, so we headed back to Denham.

We had thought we might get fish and chips for dinner and eat them while fishing off the jetty. However there was quite a cold wind blowing back at Denham and so instead we got fish and chips and went back to the van to eat. This was the first part of WA where we started to need our Long pants and jumpers again. It was still warm during the day, but the mornings and evenings were cool, especially if there was a wind.

From my reading, I had learned that the dolphin interaction takes place usually 3 times a day from around 8am to 12 noon. Because the dolphins are actually wild, the exact times that they come in to the shallows are not controlled by staff. But the dolphins are so used to doing this now, that it is a reasonably regular pattern that they follow. It is very rare for them not to come in at all. The first interaction and feeding usually takes place around 8am, but we had read that it gets so busy at the first one and it is often better to wait for the 2nd or 3rd interaction. So we didn’t get there until 8.30am. It was a 20min drive from Denham to Monkey Mia. There was a small fee to get into the Monkey Mia Resort area.

The first feeding was just finishing as we arrived. We went and read some information about the dolphins, and specifically the 5 female dolphins that they feed here. Apparently practices have changed significantly here over the last 10 yrs or so. Previously they would feed any of the dolphins that would come into the shallows and also visitors were allowed to touch and feed the dolphins. But they found that as the visitor numbers increased, the dolphins were being handled too much, so they moved to a ‘no touch’ policy. They also found that by feeding any of the dolphins and feeding them any time of the day that they came in, the dolphins started to act like they were begging for food, rather than being able to forage for food themselves, like wild dolphins should. So they changed the policy to only feeding dolphins from 3 family lines and only 3 times per day maximum and only in the morning, not afternoon. They feel this is a balance between encouraging the dolphins to still come in to the shallows and ‘interact’ with the visitors, but to continue to be able to maintain its survival skills for the wild and pass on foraging techniques to its young. So when they notice 1 or 2 dolphins coming in to the shallows, one of the staff goes down to the water to ensure no one touches it and to check if they are going to settle and stay in for a while. They speak with other staff via walkie talkies. Once they decide the dolphin/s are going to stay for a while, the ‘interaction’ begins. One of the senior staff stand thigh deep in the water and instruct us visitors to stand in a straight line about knee deep in the water. The staff member has a microphone which they use to speak to us about the dolphins. They do this for 20mins or so while the dolphins swim around. Sometimes they are joined by other dolphins during this time. But generally only the 5 that are fed come in quite close ( and not always all of them). After this time, some volunteer staff come down with buckets of fish – usually only about 4-5 fish per dolphin. They stand at the same depth of water as the senior staff member, facing the crowd. One volunteer stands beside each dolphin ( the dolphins know what is happening at this point). Then the volunteer with the bucket chooses a visitor from the crowd to come and give the dolphin a fish. About 4 people are chosen for each dolphin – a man, a lady, a child, and then someone at the volunteer’s discretion. Considering there can be 100 or more people at some feedings, and sometimes only 2 or 3 dolphins, only a minority of the crowd usually get to give the dolphin a fish.

So we had spent a half hour or so looking through the displays and information, and then started to go down to the beach near the interaction area where the kids played in the sand for a bit and Michael and I sat down on towels to watch. Not long after sitting there, we noticed some dolphins playing around in the water not far out from the beach. It started off as 2, then became 3, 4, 5. This was fun to watch. After about 10 mins, 1 of the dolphins came in closer to shore and one of the staff members went down to the water and more people started to gather. We went down to the waters edge as well. After another 5-10 mins the interaction started. We ended up with 4 of the female dolphins that they feed, and one had a baby with her. I took lots of video during the 20 mins, knowing we would have to edit it. When it came to feeding time, Hannah and Beth were both chosen as the child to feed a fish, so that was exciting for them.

After the dolphin interaction, we walked down the beach a bit to where you could swim ( outside the interaction area). The kids had a bit of a play in the shallows for a while, and then decided to go up to the pool for a swim ( day visitors to the ‘resort’ were able to use all the facilities. The main pool was a bit cold, but there was also a warm spa tub there. So the kids enjoyed this. We had read that there were BBQs for use, so had brought some sausages to cook for lunch. We did that, and had lunch at a table near the pool. Then the kids were happy to spend another hour and a half getting in and out of the pool and spa and sun baking. Sam and Michael also had a half hour game of tennis during this time as there was a tennis court right next to the pool which we could also use – there was no charge for the court or racquet hire. So it was a reading few hours.

Eventually around 2.30, we thought it was time to go. We got back in the car and started driving back towards Denham. We had passed a place called ‘Little Lagoon’ on our drive this morning, which we liked the look of, so decided to stop in there on our way back. It is almost completely round and is quite shallow (only about 3m deep throughout). You could see the lagoon from the main road, so it was just a short drive to the edge. There were driving tracks along the edge of the lagoon and you are permitted to 4WD along these. So we did this for a while, and found a spot we thought we’d like to stop and try fishing (in the creek area leading from Little Lagoon to the ocean). We didn’t catch anything, but it was fun (Lauren even went for a swim to unsnag us).

We drove back to the van park and then it was the usual night time routine.

Thursday 20th September was another driving day. We didn’t leave Carnarvon until after 10am because I had to stock up on a few more grocery items and we got the kids started on some schoolwork before driving today. It was 325km to Denham, which was where we were going to stay. It is the most westerly town in WA (and therefore Australia) and seemed like a good place to base ourselves for a few days to see things around the Shark Bay area.

We drove straight through to the Overlander Roadhouse which was 200km from Carnarvon, and was the turnoff from the North-West Coastal Hwy onto Shark Bay Rd, which took you out onto the first peninsula. The area called Shark Bay is actually made up of 2 peninsulas and a number of islands on the most westerly part of WA. The whole area is World Heritage listed and there are a number of places of interest to visit, not just Monkey Mia. After a brief toilet stop and stretch of the legs at Overlander Roadhouse, we started the drive along Shark Bay Rd.

We decided to stop at the first tourist attraction, Hamelin Pool, which was only 25km along the road. The Hamelin Pool Marine Nature Reserve is the name of the bay area at the very south-eastern end of the first peninsula of Shark Bay. It is one of only 2 known places in the world with living examples of marine stromatolites. These dome-shaped structures are formed by tiny single-celled organisms called cyanobacteria that can tolerate the highly saline waters of Hamelin Pool. We parked in the visitor parking area and went to the store to find out about viewing the stromatolites. I was expecting we might have to pay to do the boardwalk, but we didn’t! It seemed a fairly casual setup as there weren’t many signs around telling you where to go. The lady at the shop showed us a map of where we could walk – either do a 20min walk to the boardwalk area, which included a lookout area and a shell quarry. Or you could drive closer to just do the boardwalk. We decided to do the longer walk. The shell quarry was quite interesting. The Shark Bay area has lots of tiny seashells growing in parts of it, and these were once quarried for building blocks to be used in buildings. We came to the boardwalk and walked along viewing the stromatolites – they looked a bit like cauliflower coral growing in the shallows of the bay.

It was then straight through to Denham where we checked in to the Shark Bay Caravan Park and set up. The ground in all the van parks is tiny shells mixed with sand. That evening I did a bit of reading up on Monkey Mia – the facilities there and how it all works. We planned to go there for a few hours tomorrow.

On the Monday, we drove to Carnarvon. It was about 350km from Exmouth. We had to spend a bit of time in Exmouth first, restocking with some groceries and refilling the van’s water tank. Then we were off and driving, with children doing schoolwork for a while. We drove straight through without stopping. We arrived at Carnarvon around 3.30pm, and checked in to the Coral Coast Caravan Park. We were able to choose our site, so chose one near the playground. We were also close to one of the amenities blocks, so that was good. One other thing about this caravan park which the kids liked was it had a new modern amenities block which had its own little room with a bath in it. It was funny how all of the kids (including Sam) got very excited about the idea of a bath. This is something they had been missing from home. We also all enjoyed washing our hair in a shower which didn’t have salty water:).

Our first full day in Canarvon we did the following:-
– Went to the historic precinct which was near the One Mile Jetty. This is one of the longest jetties in WA. It has train tracks running along one side of it and a little 2 carriage train, called the Coffee Pot, runs people out to the end of the jetty and back on an ‘as needs’ basis – no timetable. It was $7 for adults and $4 for children to ride on the train. Lauren and I decided to walk out to save some money (walking is $3 for adults, children free – I guess they are needing money for some restoration work). So Michael, Sam, Hannah and Beth rode on the train out there. We had packed morning tea and some fishing gear, so it was good they could take those on the train. Michael and Sam swapped with Lauren and I on the way back, so we all got a turn on the train.
– We did some fishing from the end of One Mile jetty. Sam had been interested in trying some fishing now that we were back on the coast. We had bought some hand reels at Exmouth, but this was the first time we had got around to using them. No luck catching anything though.
– We visited the Lighthouse keepers cottage museum just near the jetty. No cost for this.
– We drove to the end of Pelican’s Point and saw the stretches of sandy beach there.
– We drove to the small boat harbour and tried our luck fishing there while we had our lunch. There were definitely fish there, and they kept nibbling at the bait, but not taking a big bite on the hook. Sam and Hannah seemed to be the 2 die-hard fisher-people – they wanted to keep going, but eventually it was time to move on.
– We drove along North River Road and South River Road where most of the fruit and vegetable
plantations are located. Some have roadside stalls to sell produce, so we bought some. We found out about the plantation tours which are conducted at Bumbak’s plantation – they are conducted on a Mon, Wed and Fri at 10am and go for 1 hour. As today was Tuesday, we could do the tour tomorrow. We decided it was worth doing.
– We drove to the satellite dish which had been operational at Carnarvon for 20 yrs from about 1965 to 1985. It was part of Nasa’s program, particularly the Gemini and Apollo programs. There is a museum near the site of the dish which houses a lot of old equipment and has some display boards. It was updated a few years ago and they had Buzz Aldrin open the new updated building. We had read that it was open from 10-3 but when we arrived about 2pm, the managers were just leaving the building and said it actually closes at 1pm. So we decided we would come back tomorrow.
So then we headed back to the van park, and had some downtime.
Then late afternoon, Lauren and I went to the shops, while Michael took the other kids swimming at the van park pool. Lauren wanted to look at Target for some new swimmers, so we did that first, and then did some grocery shopping at Woolworths. We got back to the caravan park in time to do dinner and the usual night-time routine.

Our second full day at Carnarvon, we had a few things planned:
– I took the 2 keen fisher-people (Sam and Hannah) to do some early morning fishing at about 7.30. We planned on trying a new spot, but because it was low tide, these places were limited, so we ended up back at the same place as yesterday – and the same result – nibbling fish but nothing caught.
– I had rung the visitor centre to enquire about a 2nd hand bookshop and had thought they had told me it was open from 9-12. So we wanted to go there before going to the plantation tour at 10. But either I misheard or they gave me wrong information as they didn’t open until 10am. So the kids went to a playground for a while instead.
– We then did the plantation tour at Bumbak’s. We found it really quite interesting and learnt some things about fruit growing. Some of the things we learnt include:-
* There are about 80 plantations in Carnarvon, but they are much smaller than the large plantations in Qld. However, because Carnarvon has such perfect weather for growing, they can use more intensive horticultural techniques and produce more in less space.
* The temperature in Carnarvon is about 28 degrees all year around ( maybe getting down to 20 some days in winter and up to 35 some days in summer). And the soil is good for growing. So this is why there are lots of plantations here. Carnarvon produces 70% of the state’s winter fruit and vegetables.
* Water source – Carnarvon sits at the mouth of the Gascoyne River. This is an ‘upside-down river’ in that the water sits under the surface of the ground in the 80cm or so of sand. So it looks like the river is dry, but the water sits in the sand. Each plantation has an allocation of 72, 000 Kl of water per year, so they have to be water efficient. The last 2 years they have had to buy town water rather than use the local river water because a flood in 2010 brought excess clay into the river and now the river water is too salty.
* Bananas – those grown in Carnarvon are called ‘William’ bananas – they are smaller than the Cavendish (those grown in Qld) because they have adapted to needing less water. They have a 22 month life cycle (compared to 10 mths for Cavendish). Each banana tree only produces 1 bunch of bananas. Then the tree needs to be cut down and a sapling shoot can grow and start the cycle again. We saw the ‘flower’ of the tree before the banana fruit started growing. Then we saw the baby banana fruit growing inside the flower. We saw how the outer leaf of the flower rolls outwards and the bananas bend towards the light as the rolled up leaf exposes more light. This is why bananas bend.
* Mangoes – they get 1 crop per year. From when the tree flowers to when the fruit is ready to be picked is about 12 weeks. The flowers are pollinated by blow flies. About 100 flowers start to grow on each branch, but most of them fall off whilst still small buds. Only 5 flowers stay on per branch to grow to mature fruit. Most growers who sell to the large supermarkets pick the fruit in bulk whilst still green and then they are gas ripened (don’t have the nice smell and flavour). This plantation checks each of their 100 trees about 10 times over a 2 week period and only picks the fruit when it is tree ripened (the sugar levels have built up enough to promote ripening and so it is more sweet and flavoursome).
* Grapes – they only grow table grapes, not wine grapes, as the weather is too warm for wine grapes. They have 1 crop per year from the vines. The different stages of horticulture are :- the flowers bud, the lower leaves need to be removed to provide better visual access and prevent mildew, then bunch selection (removing the bunches that weren’t going to grow in the right shape), then bunch trimming (using small clippers to remove some of the grapes in a spiral fashion – otherwise the grapes squash each other as they grow), then they shape the bunches to the shape and size that the customer likes. Then they test them with a sugar level tester – if the sugar levels are right, they test them for correct acid levels before they harvest them. This is all very labour intensive, but produces a good result.
– After doing the tour we all chose an icecream from the shop – they had choc-coated bananas, choc-coated banana icecream, and choc-coated mango icecream amongst others – yum. We also bought some mango and apricot jam and some orange marmalade. The Bumbak’s make these ‘value-added’ products with what would otherwise be waste product (fruit that has nothing wrong with it except that it doesn’t look right for the market).
– We had then planned to go to the satellite dish museum, but I wasn’t sure whether the 2nd hand bookshop closed at 12noon or 1pm. So Dad dropped Lauren and I back into town to the book shop, and then went to the satellite dish museum with the others. They were gone for an hour, but Lauren and I made good use of that time to look in the book store and then browse some other shops.
– We then went back to the van and had a rest again.
– Then Michael took Sam and Hannah for another fishing expedition to a different spot. This time they had some luck – Sam caught a fish! – it was only quite small, so they threw it back. But it was the first fish Sam had caught, so was exciting for him.
– Meanwhile I got dinner ready and went and chose a DVD from the van park office – ‘Waterhorse’- one that none had watched before. So we had a movie night that night, which was fun.

So that was Carnarvon – next to Shark Bay.

We spent 2 days at Carnarvon. We rode in a little train on a long jetty. It was called the Coffee Pot train. It was fun. We also drove on a bridge that felt like riding on a very fast camel (Mum’s note – it was a causeway over the river and the concrete joins made smooth lopping bumps). We went to a fruit plantation. We saw what the bananas look like when they are babies – cute. I had a chocolate coated banana icecream. We climbed up to the halfway platform of the old satellite dish. It looks like a big cereal bowl. We went to a space technology museum there which had been opened by Buzz Aldrin (but I called him Buzz Lightyear). Today we are driving to Shark Bay. I hope we don’t see any sharks up close.

The Coral Coast in WA is beautiful. We went to Coral Bay for 1 day and then a lighthouse caravan park for 2 days. We went snorkelling at Coral Bay, at Turquoise Bay and at Oyster Stacks. When I wanted to have a close up look at some fish, I dove deep down into the water. We saw heaps of fish, all sorts of different colours and sizes. I saw lots of Zebra fish. At Turquoise Bay, the water was a beautiful blue colour and the sand was very white. We saw some big goannas walking across the road on our drive there. We also saw some humpback whales out at sea while we were looking at the ocean. We played tennis at the caravan park, which was fun.

It was only 152km to Exmouth, so there was no rush in the morning. I took Hannah and Beth for a swim at the van park’s pool while Michael and the others packed up. Also Lauren and I took another trip to the little shopping arcade to a shop called ‘The Mermaid’s Cave’ where Lauren wanted to get my opinion on choosing some souvenir gifts for her friends.

Then we drove to Exmouth. Because it is a peninsula which obviously is exposed to much salt water and air, the landscape was very low scrub, and particularly sparse scrub as we got further north. We passed the Learmonth RAAF Air Base about two thirds of the way along. Michael had had some dealings with this defence base in his work. We came into Exmouth, which was bigger than Coral Bay but still small enough to only have an IGA, not a Woolworths or Coles. We needed to fill up the van’s water tank at the visitor’s centre, because we had emptied the tank at the Coral Bay van park. All the van park’s in this region have very salty water, so they only supply drinking water at certain tap points around the park. This was the same at the van park we were about to go to, so we needed a full tank. We also needed to do some grocery shopping at the IGA in town. We hadn’t made sandwiches for today, so we needed some lunch. We went to Brumbys and got some pies and sausage rolls and ate them at the outdoor setting. We then did our grocery shopping. We also did a little bit of browsing through other shops and bought some little gifts for school friends. I also bought some new thongs. Then we piled back in the car and started driving the extra 17km north west of Exmouth to where we were going to stay at the Lighthouse Caravan Park. This van park was right near the northern tip of the peninsula (the north west cape) and was at the base of the hill on which the Vlamingh Lighthouse was perched. This lighthouse was not operational anymore, but still looked spectacular to see on the wind-blown, scrub-like landscape.

The kids had a swim that afternoon and then we had an early dinner. After dinner, it was still fairly light, so we decided to drive up to the lighthouse hill and lookout over the cape. It was very windy, but a great view.

We planned to have 2 full days in this region, as further around the west of the peninsula was the Cape Range National Park, which reportedly had some beautiful beaches with the Ningaloo Reef just off the shore. It was just as well we planned for 2 days, as Lauren felt quite unwell the first full day we were there and ended up staying at the van and resting while we had a visit to the national park. She then joined us the following day. The national park entrance was 23 km from our van park. We bought a 28day pass to cover all the NPs in WA as we thought we’d be visiting others.

Our first full day we made 3 stops in the NP. The first was at Mangrove Bay. As the name suggests it is a large mangrove area. They have made a bird hide here, so we took our binoculars and looked at the birds for a while. We then went to the visitor information centre. They had displays about the different marine life in the area. We talked to the staff about the snorkelling places and got some advice on doing the drift snorkel at Turquoise Bay. Our next stop was then Turquoise Bay itself. This was another place mentioned in the ‘Are We There Yet?’ book. The water really is a beautiful turquoise colour. The bay has 2 sections of beach, one on either side of a ‘point’. The ‘drift snorkel’ area is the side where there is always more of a current, flowing south to north. So you walk 100m down the beach, walk into the water and go out about 100m to where the reef is. Then you drift with the current as you snorkel along over the reef. We all had a turn doing this, even Hannah and Bethany as we had swimming noodles with us for them to float along on. It was a great experience and we saw lots of coral and colourful fish. Sam and Hannah liked to dive down amongst the fish at times or go closer to the coral. Even Michael came in – he had to to look after Beth – so that was great too. We spent some time just relaxing on the beach and had our sandwiches and then headed back to the van. We had a relaxing afternoon.

The second full day Lauren came with us. We headed to a place called Oyster Stacks which was a bay just south of Turquoise Bay. It also has good snorkelling, but you have to be there at high tide, which was 10.15 that day – we got there about that time and it was pretty busy. The difference with this bay is that it has a rocky edge, so you have to negotiate the rocks before you get in the water. Then there are a few larger rocks in the water with oysters growing on them and the fish swim all around. You only have to be 2-3 m from shore to see quite big fish under the water. The area where the reef lies is shallower than at Turquoise Bay, so you see the coral up close. Some of the kids opted just to have their usual swimming goggles and no snorkel so they could just dive down whenever they wanted to. We then went back to Turquoise Bay as Lauren wanted to see it. We decided to try snorkelling at the bay side this time, where there was no current – Lauren was fine with this. It was a prettier area to swim. The water was sooo clear – just like on the pictures of pacific islands.

There were some other areas we could have visited in the NP – more bays, as well as some gorges further south. But we felt a little bit over gorges at present and were happy to go back to the van and have another restful afternoon. We rested for a couple of hours and then all got in the car for a drive to see the surf beach down the road a bit. Then we drove to the tip of the cape where the wreck of the cattle ship ‘Mildura’ remains not far off the shore. It was wrecked here in a storm in 1908. While looking at the wreck, we also saw quite a few whales breaching out in the deep ocean.

We went back to the van park and hired some tennis racquets to play tennis at the park’s courts – it was 5pm by now so a cooler time to play. Hannah and Beth had some shots with Dad for the first 20mins or so, then I took them for showers while Dad, Lauren and Sam played, and then just Lauren and Sam. They all seemed to enjoy it.

We had our usual night time routine and prepared to move on tomorrow, down to Carnarvon.