Week 16

Broome 16^th – 24^th April

 We arrived at midday and head for the visitor’s centre for information on the local medical services before going to the Cable Beach Caravan Park.  Jake wasn’t well, so after a visit to the doctors and later at night a visit to the emergency department for a second opinion, it turns out he wasn’t handling the hot and humid conditions. He was back to his normal self by the time we left.

There is quite a lot to enjoy and see in Broome so we were happy to spend a week here.

The Pool at the park got a workout. At least twice a day to take the edge of the heat and humidity.
The air con in the van has not been turned off once since we arrived. It certainly made the nights bearable.

We drove onto cable beach on one day and headed north.  Besides seeing the beautiful view of the beach, we all got a view of different kind.  I can tell you that it was not a beautiful view…. Nudists hmmmm no one mentioned that cable beach(north) is also a Nudist Beach.

 

Thursday morning we visited The Mango Place, just out of town.  10 am in the morning isn’t to early for a sunrise cocktail, it had a little kick to it. The kids enjoyed a mango slushy…. Took a little while to get use to the taste.

We checked out the China town shops, but not too long, the Humidity was high and the kids had sweat dripping from their faces. All they were asking for is the pool.

At the visitor’s centre, there was also the  Pearl experience shop. On Mondays and Thursdays at 10:30am they give a talk. We learned about pearls….. This talk went on and on and on. In the end, Amity brought a pair of earrings.

 

Curtis gained confidence in the pool and is now able to swim with floaties on his arms

 

 

We just had to do a Camel ride on Cable Beach. It was great that we could all enjoy the whole experience as a family. We chose not to do the sunset one as it went for an hour and I couldn’t image Curtis being happy for an hour on a camel. Jake was very unsure of the experience he was crying for half of it, not liking the height, he was laughing closer to the end as the lady was talking about the poo bags hanging from their backside. Guy had to cover Zach’s eyes at one stage and I directed Amity and Jakes eyes into a different direction…. Yep more nudist… which is ok, but this lady (grandma) was walking around then bending over as the camel train went past… yep need to say no more….

On Saturday we watched the sun set over cable beach.

 

 We visited the Town beach and the waterpark. On the way back to the park we drove by the port and then over to the lighthouse and walked to the point to see Anastasia’s pool. It was dried out. Also saw the dinosaur foot print casts.

 

Week 15

We left late from Monkey Mia and travelled back past Shark Bay and visited Shell beach and Hamelin Pool on the way through,

  

Bush Bay – free camp 7th – 8th April

We didn’t want to stay in Carnarvon  so we stayed at a free camp location overnight called Bush Bay. The camps Australia wide book mentioned to watch the tide times… we didn’t take much notice of the warning as other people were already there setup. But there was evidence of dry seaweed further inland and crab holes all around the camp site. I kept the car hooked up and everything inside… just in case…I was confident the Prado would pull the van out if we woke up surrounded a foot deep in sea water… If I had to…

 

We spent a few hours in Carnarvon re-supplying food and fuel. Apart from the banana plantations there wasn’t much else to see. Whilst in town I replaced the Prado’s battery. Earlier at a roadhouse I had to jump start the car. After a few tests it looked like it was on its way out.

Coral Bay 8th – 9h April

After another long and somewhat hot and boring drive, we made it to Coral Bay. (insert of Curtis joining in on who can stretch their snake lolly the longest.)

 

We knew there was a resort there but surprised to see two caravan parks too. We enjoyed a swim and snorkel in the beautiful bay. The water was around 28 degrees so just perfect. Fish swam around us. It was a great way to spend an afternoon. Later we played in the pool and watched the sunset.

The next morning we went for another swim, it was already 30+ degrees at 8am and no wind at all.

 

Trying to stick to a tight budget we only stayed for the one night… we should have stayed for a few more, but  we left and headed north for another hot and long drive.

 

Exmouth / Cape Range National Park  9th – 11th April

We didn’t think too much of Exmouth, interesting town but nothing making us wanting to stay.

 

We continued on around the cape and setup camp at the Messa camp ground. With no power it was very uncomfortable for all, dealing with the 37 degree heat. It was nasty, we sweated all night. There was no relief. I wanted to go the next morning but Rach convinced me to give it another night… I’m glad she did, it got better. It was still hot but the wind calmed down and we spent most the day at the beach keeping cool.

 

 We explored the coastline and even gave snorkelling the Ningaloo reef again but after a minute Rach felt nervous staying in the water. Funny enough as I was standing a foot of water on the shore, a shovel nose shark came up to my feet and gave us a fright! “I told you something didn’t feel right!” said Rach shaking her finger at me. I could help but giggle, but agreed to cancel any further snorkelling. We were visited in the evenings whilst watching a movie by crabs scurrying past our feet and wallabies looking for water.

We packed up and left, but we had one more thing to do… A glass bottom boat tour over the Ningaloo reef. It was fantastic and our local guide made the experience fun.

 

We heard on the radio a Cyclone had developed about 1000km north west from where we were and was slowly heading our way.  The beauro didn’t expect it to get close to land. It wasn’t something we expected so late in the season but made me nervous anyhow. Do we stay, do we keep going or head inland? We decided to keep going.

 

Karratha 11th – 13th April

We hit the road again around 10:30 and drove 540k’s to arrive in Karratha at sunset. The scenery changed from boring to intriguing. First it was seeing trees again…then the darker red landscape to mountain ranges and then the iron ore mines. You really get a feel to just how big mining is to the area. It was like a hive of activity. Road trains, hundreds of mining vehicles with their distinctive white paint, black bull bar, high vis stickers and topped off with roof bar lights and flag pole.

 

The Big4 caravan park had a large sign “cyclone watch – all clear” Good enough for me. I stopped worrying.

Karratha itself was not what I expected. I could only describe it by comparing it to the gold rush days in  Victoria. A lot of money has gone into the town and still a lot of construction occurring.

Dampier

We just had to go and see  red dog. Jake was sad because red dog died.

 

Port Headland. 13th – 14th April

     Off again…  stayed overnight.... We were asked by a local in Karratha why we wanted to go to Port Headland. He said there was nothing much there. He was right. Nothing than a mining town. We stayed the night at the Big4 park and moved on the next morning to Eighty Mile beach, 250km up the road.. 

 

Eighty Mile Beach 14th - 16th April

 

Awesome fishing! But Zach and I didn't catch anything... 3 metre sharks swam by so no one was standing in the water. It was hot, too hot for the kids. lucky the air con was working well. One of the grey nomads fishing must have felt sorry for us. Once back at camp, he came over with two bags of fish! we were very grateful and they tasted just great in a red curry the following nights.

 

 

Week 14

Geraldton 2nd April - 4th April

Two nights was all we needed to see the sights and restock. Argh, the trains... all through the night. The caravan park we stayed at backed onto the main line to the port. It was also very windy.

The kids enjoyed the foreshore water park, going there in the afternoon after setting up. Having cheap Tuesday Dominos pizza with the Stephens Family. Our seat cushions finally arrived. YAY. After a play at the park we went and watched the sunset over the HMAS Sydney II memorial hill.

Kalbarri 4th - 5th April

We said good bye to Miff, Darren, Archie and Rosie. We will now be traveling faster than they are. We hope to catch up again on the east coast. We will miss them heaps.
So on the road again, we stayed at the Wagoe Station, 20km south of Kalbarri.



We had the afternoon to explore so we went for a swim at the town's beach. we were going to take a boat up the river but the wind made the water too choppy. Later on we drove into the National park and visited the "Nature's window." landmark. The flies were terrible so too the sandy dirt road in. (a few days later I found the fuel tank stone guard was about to fall off. The vibration had worked the nuts loose. Also the rear shockers have no paint left on them from all the stones.)



We then drove back past the town, to Red bluff, to watch the sunset, followed by a quick look the red colours at Pot Alley before driving back to camp in the dark.

 

 

Shark Bay - Denham 5th - 6th April

On the way we stopped at Eagle bluff and watched stingrays and a also a group of sharks swimming below. Curtis received a free blow wave from the strong winds.

 

 

 

Zachary and I were looking forward to Shark Bay and some great fishing but it was blowing a gale so all hope was dashed.

 

 



 

 

Monkey Mia - 6th - 7th April

We only stayed in Monkey Mia for 24 hours but within that time we did everything. We arrived at 10am, setup, then went down to the beach. Rachel was chosen out of 40 people, to feed the dolphins. It was a WOW! OMG! moment. But no camera! Still, a great memory to treasure forever. throughout the resort there were Emu's wandering everywhere. Beautiful flowers, a nice pool with hot tub and a great relaxing setup. We all loved it.

 

 

It was windy all day but by night fall, it dropped off. We ate out at the Monkey Bar and watched the sunset over the water.

 

 

The next morning there was no wind and we all got up early for the first dolphin feeding for the morning. so did everyone else it seemed. Out of the hundred people or so this time round, Amity was chosen to feed a dolphin! This time, we had the camera ready.

 

It was a great way to end our visit here. 

 

 

 

 

 

Curtis was even able to watch a turtle swim by the jetty! "Turtle... Turtle...Turtle! " he shouted.

 

 

 

 

Ahhh... yes...I do recommend that everyone should visit this place at least once in their life...

 



 

 



Week 13

Sandy Cape 25th March - 2nd April

Thing improved. The following afternoon was spent drying out everything and repairing Zach's tent.

The kids got together and made a tree house and a shelter out of branches..

On the Wednesday the two families went 4wd driving to find some better fishing spots north and south of camp.

We decided to sand board down the local sand dune. It was a lot of fun.

 

Yep...that's Rach eating sand in the below pic (lol)....

On Thursday we visited the Pinnacles...

That night, Rachel watched her first Sunset over the Indian Ocean....

More and more people flowed into the camp site.. it was now packed.

On Good Friday..  we had no fish to eat so dad and the boys with the help of Alex, let the tyres down, engaged low gear and ventured down and south along the beach. We spotted a man  pulling in Herring... so we joined in....

Dad got one.... Zach pulled in 19 of them!

Saturday morning was filled with more fishing and another 20 herring caught within 2 hours...

The Kids were a bit worried that the Easter Bunny would not know where we were this year... Sure enough... Sunday morning.... there were Easter eggs and big chocolate grins everywhere!

We joined Miffy and Darren in Green Head (30mins up the coast) for breakfast and let the kids join in an Easter egg hunt and egg an' spoon race too. Curtis caught on very quickly what to do...

Late in the morning we also visited the nearby Stockyard gully caves.

Sunday night we went into Jurien Bay to try a bit of Squiding but the jetty was packed some we didn't stay long.

Monday was spent getting some school work out of the way and sitting back watching the holiday makers leave....