Kalbarri - Perth

(Photo: The Pinnacles)

Kathy - It is amazing how quickly our sojourn in Kalbarri ended. We had a great time with the Dickins. We toured gorges, visited beaches and cafes, sought out the wildflowers and visited a parrot "zoo" - Campbell was very taken with the Macaws until their beaks got too close!

We left Kalbarri on the warmest day we'd had there and spent the day in the car travelling to Perth via The Pinnacles which were much more interesting than we anticipated. Rhys and the kids played 40-40 and in the process Campbell managed to go missing for 15 minutes (he thought he'd hide a really, really long way away) and then lost his sand coloured crocs which apparently he left them behind a small pinnacle. Do you know how many small pinnacles there are?!

We're now in Perth. When we first drove in we couldn't get over all the traffic, houses etc. By the next morning Rhys and Campbell had hit the shops and checking out JB HiFi, Anaconda etc. Its good to see they've adapted back to urban life so quickly!





(Photo: Kings Park)

Today we went to Kings Park which was great - lots more wildflowers and some very interesting garden designs and sculptures which we plan to shamelessly plagerize in our garden (Julie Bishop move over!). We happened to bump into a family from Woolongong at the Park who we seem to be stalking and had coffee while the kids played. Hi guys. Maybe we'll see you in Kalgoolie. We then went on to Freemantle for a nice urban foodie lunch - v. nice.


Tomorrow it is meant to rain in Perth - the only capital city in Australia expecting rain! We're not sure what we'll do as we're so unused to rain. Then we're going to stay with our friends, William and Merran, for a couple of days before heading off to Kalgoolie and then home. Hopefully we have a chance to send another blog before we get home but otherwise we'll catch up some time after 3 October.

(Photo: Lunch in Freemantle)

Quobba - Kalbarri

(Photo: Blowhole, Quobba Station)

Pippa-We went to Shark Bay after spending 1week in Exmouth. When we got to Denham we set up next to a Campbell friend Andrew. We went out for tea with Andrews Family. At the Old Pealer Café Restaurant. The next morning we went to Monkey Mia to see the dolphins but it was a bit commercialized for me we didn’t get to pat them. At sea world the dolphins are much better there. We went all the way to Neren Neren stop for the night. We went to Kalbarri the next day. We meet the dickens there. We have been doing lots of stuff.

(Photos: 1. Shell Beach, Shark Bay 2.Stomatolites, Hamlin Pool, Shark Bay )

Campbell - we went to monkeymia and saw the dolphins. We drove to Kalbarri met the dickins. We did 8 km on a gorge walk. There were lots of things to see. I saw a snake. We went fishing off a jetty. We caught lots of undersized fish. I was the first one to catch fish. Lucas caught the second fish in his lifetime that was very big but it snapped the line. We are staying in a unit.

(Photo: Nature's Window, Kalbarri)

Lachlan- we went to shark bay after Exmouth. We went to the visitor center it had lots of artifacts and information. For tea went to an old pearling shop made out of shell rock for tea. The next morning we went to see the dolphins. It wasn’t as good as it sounded. Then we went to eagle bluff. We saw sharks, stingrays and a black blob, which we think was a dugong. Then we went to shell beach. It was fully shells no sand to be seen. Then went to see some stromatolites. We bought some shell rock. That we stayed at a rest stop. We ate marshmallows with the best before date 5/8/08! Then we went to Kalbarri and met the dickens. We have done lots of stuff like go on a fishing charter and go on an 8km gorge walk.

(Photo: At Murchison River Gorge, Kalbarri)

Rhys – After Exmouth onto Quobba (aboriginal word for hitting someone). Amazing history of Europeans (mainly Dutch) crashing ships into a very rugged coastline, not a good habit! After a reasonable days drive we arrived at Quobba Station a “farm” that has 80km of coastline and is about 185,000 acres of land! Unfortunately the land is very low lying sand dunes covered by stumpy saltbush with an annual rainfall of about 350mm, very harsh country. Found a campsite behind a saltbush that offered a bit of shelter from the SE winds, which we have been battling since leaving cape leveque. In the morning I took the kid along the beach that was about 100m from our camp site, at the beach we found mountains of giant clam shells, each about 200mm long piled up as much as 1000mm deep in places. There must be millions of these things in the ocean. Walking up on top of the cliffs with an 8 –10m swell rolling in and crashing into the cliffs sending spray billowing into the air was very impressive. We spotted a pod of dolphins just offshore and witness them catch a large fish and toss it about. Then they proceeded to surf the waves in, which after a short ride would turn around and jump off the back of the wave, with such a large swell they jump left them 5-6m above the water, amazing sight! On leaving we visited the HMAS Sydney II memorial (my mums cousin was a crewman) then to the Quobba blowholes, another wondrous sight.

From Quobba we headed off towards Kalbarri arriving after we spent a night at a roadside stop. Kalbarri has it all Ocean, river, wildflowers, gorges and nice foodie places. We spent a marvelous week with Steve, Wendy Dickens and family, which was very good to see them and spend time together, it went so quickly. It was good enjoying the products Kalbarri has to offer with friends. We had only been catching little fish off the pier, and wanting bigger ones on the Saturday Steve, Lachlan and I went out on a charter boat the “”Kalbarri Explorer” to catch some big fish. Steve and Lachie catch some unfortunately I got seasick before I could get a rod in the water. As the trip was for 5-6 hours I spent it in contemplation assessing my life, hoping for time travel fast and maintaining to consistently vomiting into a bucket. I was able to get additional contemplation of life by alternating between having the shakes, hot sweat, freezing cold, visiting the toilet and vomiting, I believe I did it all well as next day on the pier fishing a fellow fisherman recognized me and commented on how “committed I was to the bucket “. Also was advised by the skipper of the boat that he had never in his “30 years at sea seen any body as sick”, comforting words. Guess it was not at all helped by already feeling a bit bilious from the chronic fatigue that I still have.

Tomorrow we are off to Perth then home, how quick has the last 3.5 months gone!

(Photo: Lachlan with his big catch!)

Kathy – Well, we’ve gone from camping in the outback trailer to living it up in an apartment in a resort since we last blogged.

After Exmouth we went to Quobba Station which is up from Carnarvon and guess what? It was windy! Fortunately it was just windy, windy and not gale force. The Quobba coastline reminded me very much of Victoria. Instead of turquoise blue sea and white sands we had big cliffs and a roaring sea. The waves were enormous and it seemed most of the coral reef on the coast – particularly the clams – was washed up on the beach.

From Quobba we headed to Shark Bay and Monkey Mia. At Shark Bay we actually had to put a jumper on – it was getting colder! Denham was a nice little town and we met our friends, the Dunfords and also Will and Tim, the bike riders we had met previously. We ended up having a meal with the Dunfords at a lovely little restaurant made out of shell rock. We took the kids to Monkey Mia while there to see the dolphins and were all suitably unimpressed! Much more interesting was the stromatolites at Hamlin Pool and Shell Beach which instead of sand the beach is very small shells. Very different.

From there we went to Kalbarri via an overnight stay at Neren Neren Rest Stop which was actually quite good and surrounded in wildflowers. Talking of wildflowers, we’ve been very fortunate to see lots of flowers and every 50 kms or so the wildflowers change. If you have the time I can bore you with thousands of photos of wildflowers from around Australia! There were lots of wildflowers along the road to Kalbarri which was fantastic.

At Kalbarri we met up with Steve, Wendy, Lucas and Lauren Dickins. We’ve had a great time with them this week. It has been great doing things with them. We’ve done, yet another, gorge walk which was great. We’ve hit the cafes and the beaches. Rhys and Lachlan went deep sea fishing with Steve although Rhys had serious sea sickness and didn’t even get to put a rod in. Kalbarri is a great place which had a great mixture of the outback with the gorges, nice beaches and a lovely little village with all you need. Very nice. But this has now come to an end and tomorrow we head off to Perth for a couple of days and then it is basically “Home James”. We plan to be back in Melbourne on or about 3 October. We are having those mixed feelings of looking forward to going home to our own house and seeing friends and family again but at the same time realizing that our great adventure is almost over. It has been such a fantastic time but it will be great to get home.

Ningaloo Station - Exmouth

(Photo: Turquoise Bay)

Lachlan – We went to Ningaloo Station. It was windy. We had lots of sand fights and lots of walks collecting shells. We found some nice ones. One day we went snorkeling and saw heaps of fish and coral and just as it started to get good a big grey nurse shark came over purple coral! So we changed our snorkel quickly to a shell collecting walk along the beach. Then we went to Exmouth. On the second day we went snorkeling at turquoise bay. It was really good snorkeling. Any type of fish was there. The current was strong. We saw parrot fish any colours. Then had a jellyfish fight.

(Photo: Lighthouse at sunset, Exmouth)

Pippa - Well we have been having fun going to the beach, snorcling, getting shells, patting a goat yes a baby goat! Lachie and dad saw a Grey nurse shark it can eat you. I like to go for a swim. I made pancakes on father’s day. We have been missing the gorges all ready. We prefer gorges than the beach. We are in Exmouth now. We went snorcling at Turquise bay the current was very strong. There where many different types of fish. There where Red, Blue, White, Yellow, Sliver, Purple, Spanish dancer, Black, Brown and Orange.

Campbell - I caught my first fish. It was windy. I we to get a reall.I went fishing. We caught nothing.

(Photo: Lachlan and Pippa at Turquoise Bay)

Kathy – Not more raves about turquoise water, warm sun and white sand you may say! Well, sorry. If you don’t want to read more about the above don’t read on. Ningaloo Station had all this and more and, even better, we were able to camp on the beach. There was only a small sand dune between us and the beach. The kids could play on the beach and we could supervise them from the comfort of the annex. There are many campsites at Ningaloo Station and apparently they get about 40,000 people through a year. We stayed at South LeFroy Bay which had the best snorkeling. When we got there it was pretty windy. The next day it was very windy and that night it was blowing a gale! People were saying the weather was “unusual”. Hmmm. Somehow we have managed to strike a lot of “unusal weather” (euphemism for extremely windy to the point of gale force) in WA. On the third day the wind died down and Lachlan, Rhys and I went snorkeling while Campbell fished off the beach. The snorkeling was sensational. Great coral, an amazing array of fish and….a 2.5 metre grey nurse shark! Lachlan spotted the shark and Rhys very quickly assessed it was of the humans are food not friends variety so we hot footed it back to shore with the shark following us at least half the way in. Don’t worry. Rhys had a pocket knife with him (as you do) so he was armed and dangerous if anything untoward was going to happen. We’ve since been assured by locals that the sharks up here are so well fed on the abundant sea life that they seldom take on humans. Well, I for one was not going to check to see if he was hungry. Talking of abundant sea life by the time we had returned Campbell had caught his first fish. It was an undersized perch but he was as proud as punch and was already talking up the bigger fish he had hooked which had got away. Apparently this now makes him a seasoned fisherman and he now feels qualified to wade into any conversation where fishing is mentioned!

After being sandblasted for three days we decided to forgo the beachside camp grounds at Cape Range National Park and opted for a sheltered caravan park in Exmouth. We met some friends of Campbell’s (and now ours) in the Exmouth Visitors Centre and found where they were staying and checked in there. We discovered that there were three other families we had met along the way there so the kids have had great fun playing spotlight at night with them. The park is right beside the local lighthouse which is a great whale spotting venue. We’ve gone up a couple of times and seen the whales and also viewed the great sunset from there.
I think the highlight has been snorkeling at Turquoise Bay (that is, apart from me getting a long-overdue hair cut and colour!). Although the coral and sea life were probably not quite as good as Ningaloo Station the only shark spotted was a reef shark which is apparently a shy creature and not likely to attack. Again it was the usual scenario - amazingly blue water and white, white sand. Rhys and Lachlan snorkeled for a long time and got some great underwater shots while the others did a bit of snorkeling and then enjoyed making sandcastles and jelly fish “farms” with other kids on the beach. We are hoping to go on a tour of the reef in a glass bottomed boat on Saturday but we are having “unusual weather” yes, you guessed it, very windy so we’ll have to see if conditions are suitable. After the tour we are planning to travel down to Quobba to see the blowholes then visit the dolphins at Monkey Mia before spending a week with Steve and Wendy Dickins at Kalbarri.

(Photo: walking along the beach at Ningaloo Station)

Rhys – for the first time I have read Kathy’s Blog, she does writ a lot better then me. As Kathy has so eloquently written about our diving experience at Ningaloo Station so I wont add more on that point other than I did not want to become shark food. We then took note of the school fish mentality and headed up to the top of North West cape where you could snorkel as a “school”of humans, less probability of getting eaten, particularly if you swim in the center of the “school”. Ningaloo Station would be a sensational place if you had a small boat. At North West cape there is more antennas than you can imagine, the military are quite active. Our two day stop over turned out to last about a week! Many things to see and do, I bet Exmouth will be a dramatically different place in 5 years time, so much development. Took the children fishing, don’t think I will live that one down. In the past when we have been fishing we have not caught much, it all changes when you catch a heap of fish. As soon as we packed up our fishing gear the boys were “angling” at going to our next fishing spot as soon as possible. The wind blows incessantly on the west coast, looking forward to get away from it. Tomorrow we are meant to be going in a glass bottom boat and go snorkeling (if the wind drops enough). After the boat tour we are hopefully going to travel Quobba where there is meant to be good scenery, fishing and camping. From there we a going to meet Steve, Wendy & Co for a week in Kalbarri which we are looking forward

(Photo: Pippa and Campbell at our Ningaloo Station campsite)

Port Hedland - Point Samson

(Photo: We couldn't resist this shot: Pippa at Port Hedland)

Pippa – We are going to go to Karijini N.P. We are going to go back to Gorges and walks. I got sick of beaches I like Gorges. We stopped at Ausi Road house. When we got to camp for the next 2 or 3 nights. We went to fern pool which is nice but still we have seen better. Campbell met some friends surprise, surprise. The next day we went to Circular pool which I found the best so far but it might change tomorrow. We played with Cam’s friends. We are going to go to some Gorges the walks are hard but it is well worth it. We went to Weano Gorge. Then we went to Hancock Gorge and did the spider walk. In the end that was my favorite gorge.

(This is a rock formation we came across at Karajini. We call it God's footpath)

Lachlan-We went to pt. headland. We saw a 5km long train. That night we went to a nice Chinese restaurant. The next day we went to a national park. We saw lots wildflowers. The stay at the national park we went to lot of gorges most of them colds. Today we went on a walk down a gorge which we could jump into the water.

(Photo: Fern Pool at Dale Gorge, Karajini National Park)

Rhys – from the picturesque industrial town Pt Headland to the Karijini National park we traveled into the wind, as did a large group of motorbike riders. Our economy was the worst have had so far 15.8l/100km. They guys on the bikes had the same problem most of them running out fuel and parked beside the road. We got ripped off for a 3.7kg LP gas bottle refill we paid $38 or about $10/kg, the best thing is that the biggest gas plant in Australia is only about 300km away and they sell it for about 0.03cents/kg.

Once we had set up we visited Dale gorge and swam in Fortescue fall and the Fern Pool, its amazing once you travel a bit south how much the water temp drops. Once again Kathy cooked a wonderful meal in our kitchen “under the stars”. With the moon not out the stars are amazing to sit and gaze up at, can you see the Emu in the sky? Ask me when I get home and can show you.

Next day when to all the gorges in the Weeno gorge area, very spectacular and a lot of fun squirming through the narrows, wading across pools unseen by the sun (very cold) then climbing through narrows supporting yourself off both sides then opening out on amazing pools that had vertical rock banks all around that were perfect to jump off into the water. The width in one area was about 600mm wide the bottom was solid rock worn very smooth by the water, it made a perfect slide, looks of fun.

From karijini to Tom price was one of our shortest lengths of travel in a day only 100km! Counted an iron ore train the had only 232carages! Was hoping to take the kids on a tour of the Hamersley Iron ore mine unfortunately the “bus” had broken down so we will do that tomorrow. We drove the Triton up to the top of mount Nameless the tallest mountain, hill rise in Western Australia. The altimeter in the car showed it at 1100m, the surrounding land is mainly at about 750m, which is quite high. Tomorrow we are going to travel down the track that runs beside the iron ore rail line to Karratha for which a Permit is required. I believe this line has the world record for the longest train at 6,700m long, we would love to see one of these.

(Photo: Lachlan at Hancock Gorge, Karajini)

Campbell – We went to Karajini National Park. I did a project for a Junior Park Rangers badge. We went to some gorges. My favourite gorge was Hancock Gorge. I liked the spider walk and Kermit Pool. You slid down small waterfalls into the pool. Most gorges were nice. We went to Tom Price. We drove up the biggest mountain in WA. We went on a mine tour. We saw big dump trucks. We saw lots of big diggers.

(Photo: Lachlan amongst the wildflowers)

Kathy – well I’m the last to write the blog which has been done over a few days so mine is the most up to date info! We’re now at Point Samson up from Karatha. We’ve made the diversion up here so Rhys can visit some clients. Point Samson is actually only about 300 km from Port Hedland but we came via Karajini National Park and Tom Price…and about 1,000 kms!

Karajini was such a contrast to the white beaches and blue water of the coast. Instead we had red dust, deep gorges, beautiful wild flowers, fresh water and no midgies! The gorges were some of the best we’ve seen. The landscape almost didn’t appear real. It was as though God decided to do some landscaping the plants and rocky outcrops are so nicely placed. Adrian and Sue, if you ever get the chance you should come up here you’d get heaps of great ideas!

The first day at Karajini we sent Campbell off on the bike to make sure we had the right track and then come and tell us. Well, he mustn’t have heard the bit about coming back and we finally caught up with him on some very gnarly tracks. I’m not sure they were really made for bikes!

(Photo: Campbell on his gnarly track)

I think our favourite gorge was Hancock. The circular pool, the Amphitheatre. Spider Walk and Kermit Pool were beautiful. The walks in were steep and quite challenging but you should see our toned legs! It beats a workout in a gym anyday.

From Karajini we headed to Tom Price. Tom Price is a surprisingly clean and neat town. We drove up Mt Nameless, WA’s highest “mountain”. From the top I was amazed at how hilly the surrounding area was. It appears quite flat when you are traveling on it. The mountain was also covered in some of the best wildflowers we’d seen yet.

The next day we went on a tour of the main mine at Tom Price. Rhys got to see some of his fans and Campbell got to see some big diggers and dump trucks. It is incredible to see first hand iron ore being mined, one of the main contributors to Australia’s economy remaining afloat!

After the tour we jumped in the car and headed down the track next to the rail line. It was a very interesting trip and we saw about 12 trains. The trains have about 230 carriages containing the iron ore. We probably saw some of the best wild flower fields along this track but not too many opportunities to stop and admire them as there was a bit of traffic on the track – mainly company four wheel drives and trucks.

We are now in Point Samson in a small resort which has really seen better days but at least keeps us away from the midgies!
We are heading down to Nigaloo reef next but are not sure whether we will break our trip somewhere along the way as Rhys has to see a client tomorrow.