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.