Margaret River - Margaret you are so beautiful !!!!!!!!!!

Pulled into our home for next 3 nights called Taunton Farm Holiday Park while we explore all this beautiful region had to offer. Tuanton farm is a great place to stay with kids, there is heaps of room for them to run around, good playground and jumping pillow and they are able to feed the farm animals (pets) every evening which our city kids loved.

The town of Margaret River is a very busy town with heaps of different shops and restaurants, it reminds a little of Byron Bay. As well as having on of the best surfing beaches in Australia.

Just south of Margaret river are some great caves to explore. We had a look through the self guided Mammoth Cave, the girls really enjoyed the headsets they got to wear which explained the history and how the formations came to be in the cave.

Driving around we noticed a lot of multi-coloured cows - Margaret River was playing host to the "Cow Parade".  These cows are on display around Margaret River, later they are auctioned off with any money raised going to charity.

"Scuba" Cow outside Colonial Brewery

Today we spent some time around the vineyards and the little boutique shops.  We found another Chocolate Factory and this time we tried the Chocolate Fondue which comes with different fruit, marshmallows and nougat that you dip in the chocolate.

How fantastic but we all felt a bit sick with the hot chocolate to finish.

Fremantle

Nathan really enjoyed Freo on a previous visit so we decided to stay there rather that in Perth city. Fremantle has a very trendy cafe scene amongst the historic buildings and there are heaps of bars, restaurants and coffee shops.

We did the "Doing Time" tour at the old Fremantle Prison. It is hard to believe that this was still in use in the 90's. The prison was built in the 1850's using convict labour.

Fremantle Prison Chapel

I am beginning to realise that WA must just about be the home to craft beer in Australia. We visited Little Creatures and the famous Sail and Anchor in Fremantle for a fantastic ESB poured through traditional beer engine for a creamy brew and we followed it up with some great fish and chips at Cicerelos on the boat harbour. After dinner we payed homage to the great Ronald Belford Scott whose statue now has a home at one of his old haunts, the Fremantle Boat Harbour.

We had dinner at a Turkish restaurant and the Belly Dancer got Sami up for some belly dancing which was a great laugh. We also met up with our friends from NZ for a few drinks and dinner at the Coogee caravan park.

One thing we really regret is not having time to make it to Rottnest Island, oh well maybe next time. We ended up staying for 6 days with no shortage of things to do or see. Next stop Margaret River.

Geraldton - Toodyay - Avon Valley - Swan Valley

We only stayed at Geraldton for one night but would have liked to stay a lot longer. One of the highlights was the museum which featured a shipwrecks display. After Geraldton we stopped at the Pinnacles desert and enjoyed the eerie atmosphere between the ancient rock formations.

We are now on the final stretch south towards the big smoke (Perth), which is only around 2 hours away but decide we are not quite ready for the bright lights and glitz of the big city just yet, so we decide to spend a night in the Avon Valley National Park just North of the city.

Somehow, which is unusual for us (not) we took a wrong turn, got completely lost in some spectacular country and wound up in historic Toodyay. Dropped into the pub for information (as you do). Everyone knew about the National Park, but no one was quite sure exactly how to get us into it! One drinker drew us up a mud map showing the way to a free camp by the river so off we went, with the weather closing in, night falling and one headlight out.

Stayed a few days in Swan Valley enjoying the local produce.In addition to all of the fine wineries that the area is know for there is also a number of breweries. We enjoyed a great meal and some fantastic beers at Mash Brewery http://www.mashbrewing.com.au/ and also enjoyed some of the more "extreme" brews at Feral Brewing http://www.feralbrewing.com.au/ a favourite was the "Hop Hog" US Style IPA and the "Fanta Pants".

The girls loved the chocolate factory, trying handfuls of dark, milk and white chocolate samples. Their favourite was white chocolate, and we ended up going back on several days for a chocolate boost!

Kalbarri

Driving on from Monkey Mia to Kalbarri we noticed a complete change of scenery.  We were seeing more sedans on the road and not just 4wd and the red dirt was now changing to a lighter colour dirt with some grass and tall trees, oh how I have missed the grass!

Kalbarri is a lovely coastal town with good fishing spots and swimming beaches.  Its Western Australia's most popular holiday destination.

The national park is also a great attraction with great walks. We could only do the one kilometre walk as Sami swallowed a few flys at the start of the walk and from then on it was all over, she just wanted to go back to the car but every time she cried this out she would swallow another fly!!!

The view through Natures Window was possibly one of the best views of the whole trip, so it was well worth the whingeing we got on the way.

The pelican feeding was also another popular activity.  Volunteers have been feeding the pelicans here as a PR activity for the past 30 years and it is quite a treat for the kids (and adults) to throw a slimy pilchard to the hungry birds who queue up at 0830 for the 0845 feeding.

Carnarvon - Blowholes

We stayed in a free camp at Quobba point which proved to be another great spot away from the grey nomads at the established van parks and their rules and regulations!

There is a shanty town of fisherman's shacks similar to the shacks in the Royal National Park south of Sydney although here there is even a "tavern".

The camp is great although the since there is little maintenance done the "long drop toilets" no longer have much of a drop at all.

We visit the memorial for the HMAS Sydney, lost some distance offshore in a battle with the German raider Kormoran in 1941 during WW2. All 645 crew were lost.

The coastline is ruggedly spectacular and the blowholes themselves are awesome.

Quite a few people have lost their lives fishing the rugged coastline near the blowholes so we decide  to fish the beach, the fishing is great and as the magnificent sun sets again the lines are going off!

Monkey Mia

When you are travelling you get a lot of advice from people and I was amazed when a lot of people were telling us to give Monkey Mia a miss. They say its not worth the money, its too crowded. 

I am not sure it is the right thing to be feeding the dolphins but they have heaps of volunteers that are supervising the feeds and ensuring the well being of the animals is maintained. Most of what man knows about dolphins has been learned at Monkey Mia through this interaction with the dolphins. Its also better than seeing them in Seaworld or the zoo.

We arrived at a great time with the resort not too crowded and not too many people at the beach, we also experienced a mother with its new calf, which was born the night before. The mother was swimming up the beach right along the shore with its new baby.  It was like she was showing off her baby. It was a great experience and a great atmosphere with all the volunteers running around excited about the new baby in the family.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/11/19/3071304.htm

The girls were also picked to feed the dolphins. They were very lucky as they only pick 3 people out of the hundreds lining up on the beach.

We went for a sail on the Shotover a magnificent catamaran which I believe once held some ocean racing speed records.

We also got to see many Dugongs which none of us have seen before, which was very cool!

Monkey Mia is somewhere I have wanted to go since I was a little girl, now I can tick that one off my list.

Exmouth & Coral Bay

Thursday 4th November 2010

Exmouth

Long drive today to Exmouth, over 600k. We decided to stay in Exmouth for 3 days. Booked into a lovely caravan park which had a great pool.

This has been the first time we have seen emus in the wild up close.  They are everywhere, they come up to you in the caravan park especially if you have food.  Someone has been feeding these ones.

Spent the day at Cape Range National Park which is the coastline for the famous Ningaloo Marine Park.  We spent the day at Turquoise bay, this crystal clear lagoon is great for snorkeling. 

Beautiful colourful fish and coral with Green Turtles were some of the things we got to see underwater.  Emily has always enjoyed snorkeling.  Its great now we have Sami hooked as well.

We have now been travelling with a family from Christchurch who have 2 lovely boys.  They were in Cape York in September when they got a message to call home.  At that time they didn't realise that have been hit by a earthquake.  They called home and found out that their home has been destroyed during the earthquake.  They have decided to keep travelling, as they said its only a home and another one can be built at another time.

Coral Bay

We have decided to stay in Coral Bay for7 nights.  Sometimes you just have to have a holiday,even when you are on holidays! 

We have spent a lot of time in each town for a few days but we feel we need to stay somewhere for a longer period so we can just relax and not have to drive anywhere.

Our friends from New Zealand have also decided to stay for a week.  The caravan park is right on the beach which is a perfect place to stay.  The snorkeling is fantastic here, you just have to step into the water and the marine life and coral is all around.

It did hit home just how the west coast has not yet been overly exploited like the east coast. The major reason being a lack of fresh drinking water. The water here is drawn up from several kilometers underground and needs to be desalinated to make it drinkable, the settlement has it's own power station and desalination plant powered by several large wind turbines on the coast.

We also had a lovely boat trip in a glass bottom boat where we saw some of the 500 species fish that live in this area. 

We were all feeling very relaxed at Coral Bay, we could stay here for ever!

Pilbara - Point Samson & Cossack

On our way down to Karatha we stopped into the Whim Creek pub which is in the middle of nowhere for a couple of beers, it is said that if you do not have a drink here you will inevitably break down, so what could we do? It is also rumoured to have a ghost haunting the upstairs rooms and was once home to a beer swilling camel which needed to be relocated with cirrhosis of the liver.

The ghosts name is Thomas and was a former patron who was murdered in the pub. There is also a bird named after the the ghost, who loves to dance an kept the kids entertained for ages.

It cost only $10 to stay but the girls were a little scared. We ended up pushing on and staying for a few nights at Point Samson. Point Samson is 1500km north of Perth and was a sleepy fishing village but is fast expanding to accommodate holidaying miners and tourists.

It is a great fishing spot and you can snorkel the shallow waters straight off the beach.

We took a day trip from Point Samson to the ghost town Cossack. Cossack is a former pearling town (before the entire stocks were plundered and the pearlers moved north to Broome).

There are many finely restored buildings to be seen and many more are in the process of being restored.

We had to wait in Karatha for the windscreen to be shipped up from Perth so we went to watch the Melbourne cup at one of the many taverns, it was a little weird with the time difference as the pubs open at 11am and the cup starts pretty much straight away due to the time difference! Karatha is also a large mining town and we found that all accommodation is very expensive and miners will pay up to $2000 per week for a three bedroom house here! The caravan park is massive and expanding to accommodate more miners as all of the operations keep ramping up. We were cheered a little when the caravan park manager gave us some complementary meal vouchers for the miners mess for breakfast and lunch.

Pilbara - Tom Price

Well we felt a lot better when we arrived in Tom Price, there were no replacement windscreens available in Tom Price so we improvised with some cardboard carton and masking tape! We rushed straight off to tour the Tom Price mine site which is one of the biggest in the world, it has to be seen to be believed!



Don't let this happen to you!

We decide to try and source a new rear screen when we get back to the coast where it should be easier to source. Next large settlement on the coast is Karatha so it is time to head back towards the coast but the next stop will be Point Samson. 

Pilbara Rest Stop

Pilbara - Karijini National Park

We have travelled down from Eighty Mile Beach to Pilbara Coast and our first stop is Port Hedland. It is a bit of a shock to strike this full on mining settlement after spending time in the beautiful north west although there was evidence of the impact of mining on the area most of the way down. We stopped in Hedland and stocked up on supplies and agreed that we would not spend the night here and drove east to the Karijini National Park to camp the night and take a look around.  On the way out of town our front windscreen was showered with rocks from a passing road train leaving it badly chipped and cracked across the drivers side.

Karijini is the second largest national park in WA  and features plenty of amazing gorges, waterfalls and pretty rock pools all contrasting with the red terrain. We camped at Dales Camp which was great but the flies were abominable! And it will probably take a decade to get all of the red dust out of our belongings.

The next day we hiked down to Fortescue Falls and had a refreshing cool swim in the plunge pool beneath the falls and also in the quieter Fern Pool which the backpackers hadn't discovered yet.

The following day we set off to view some more gorges a little unprepared and without checking road conditions and 10 Ks down the road the rear windscreen exploded into tiny pieces of glass!

By the time we reached Tom Price the interior of the car had a 2 inch layer of red Pilbara dust and we couldn't recognise the kids. I think this was my first cry of the trip!

80 Mile Beach

27th October 2010

Arrived at 80 Mile Beach after an overnight stay at Port Smith where Nathan had a go at Mud crabbing but ended up fishing and catching some more Trevally.

This is an absolutely ffantastic stretch of coastline with an abundance of shells and great fishing.  We noticed while setting up that everyone was heading to the beach to go fishing so we quickly headed down the beach as well. In the matter of minutes Nathan had caught 2 threadfin Salmon.  One was 65cms so a great size.  This was the best fish we have ever tasted (being cooked and eaten fresh from the surf helped) even the girls liked it.

The tides in this part of WA are still massive and it is amazing to check out how quickly and how far the water recedes, while checking out another fantastic WA sunset over sea!

80 mile beach is not a great place for swimming.  Warnings all around to watch out for sharks and Nathan and the kids saw quite a few while they were fishing.  We also saw the evidence of last years cyclone in the area.  All the trees were stripped, nothing left.

It is really starting to get very hot up here, but at least it keeps the number of tourists down. Be a great place to visit again when the shade trees have recovered.

Cape Leveque

17th October 2010

Cape Leveque lies at the end of one of the worst roads in the Kimberley, on the very tip of the Dampier Peninsula north of Broome. We said goodbye to our little caravan for a few days and pull out our tent while we explore this remote area.

As we drive to Cape Leveque we notice a large bush fire.  We start to go through it but it looked quite thick and getting hard to see so we turn around and drive till we can get some phone coverage and ring the local information centre to see where the fire was coming from and if the road should be closed.  After trying a half of dozen numbers with no luck on whats happening we start heading back towards Cape Leveque, the smoke seemed to have cleared a little bit.

First few nights we stayed at Chilli Creek which is run by an aboriginal community.  The camp ground was OK but for $50 per night with no power I thought they would of left a little toilet paper for us.  Nathan did catch a few nice Trevally so at least we have dinner.

The next day we headed to Kooljaman at Cape Leveque which is a remote safari-camp in the isolated wilderness. The untouched beaches, with wide shady verandas to enjoy the spectacular views of the West Australia Coast. The camping is also cheaper and much better here, next time we will camp here.

We also stopped at another aboriginal community called One Arm Point.  Nathan and Steve had decided to do a little spear fishing. 

Shelter at One Arm Point

Steve was already in the water while Nathan was still looking around, when he noticed some fins in the water.  Steve also saw them and was out of the water very quickly. We also noticed it wasn't one fin it was 4 tiger sharks swimming around. 

"Turtle-Q"

There was a lot of turtle remains lying around the shelter where there was a turtle cooker  as well as the waters edge which should have been warning enough! Now we know why its called One Arm Point.


One the way back to Broome we stop into the community at Beagle Bay to check out the famous Sacred Heart Church

and its mother of pearl alter built by the German Pallotine priests and brothers with help from women from the local community back in 1915.

It would have been nice to spend some more time up here but we are low on supplies and regretfully have to return to Broome.

Beautiful Broome

12th October

We have turned the corner and we are now at beautiful Broome. With sunshine, pearls, and palm trees.  I loved it already and we have just arrived.

Nathan had a surprise for me and organised my mum and a good friend Sophie to spend a few days with us.  It was such a surprise. We also stayed in a nice apartment and we don't have to have baked beans or noodles for a few nights, this is fantastic.

The first night had a lovely dinner at the sunset restaurant with beautiful views of Cable Beach.

The next night we surprised the girls and went on the sunset camel ride on cable beach.  These camels are part of the original camel train Ships of the Desert.

With 22 kilometres of white sand and turquoise blue water, Cable Beach is a world famous place to swim and watch the sunset into the Indian Ocean on a tropical Broome night and what better way than on a back of a camel.

Nathan also had a place of interest, which was Matsos Brew House.  We spend a lovely night trying mango Beer and Chilli Beer while eating food from the curry hut.

Also spent a night at the Sun Theatre which is in the middle of China Town.  It is the longest running out door theatre in the world.  It is also right under the flight path so the movie is interrupted a couple of times by the awesome spectacle of the aircraft seemingly only meters overhead coming in to land at Broome airport.

On our last day we spent the afternoon at Willie Creek Pearl farm for a brilliant afternoon. All the girls now want is a pearl necklace. So instead of spending $65,000 we told them the ones from the markets for $15.00 were nicer. Early evening we watched the stairway to the moon, it was a little cloudy to see.  Jade kept asking if she could climb them. Later that night we went to see some Crab Racing which seems to be a bit of a Broome tradition, our little guy didn't do very well but its all for a laugh and the proceeds go to charity.

On the way out of Broome we hear that Cable Beach has been closed due to a large crocodile making his presence felt along the beach.