De Grey River

After nearly a week at Karratha we headed onwards and upwards.  Stopping in at the historic town of Cossack allowed the boys to judge Dad in the old courthouse, but although they found him guilty they're the ones that ended up in jail. Cheeky monkey's!

We had been told to stay at De Grey river road stop on the way up and it was definitely well worth it.  A great spot to spy Blue Kookaburra's and dare I say it, a lovely spot to soak up the serenity!  Stephen took a few shots of some cars left behind some time ago (he's still looking for the all important abandoned Monaro - I'm not sure what he's going to do with one in the condition these cars are in - maybe the Monaro won't rust the same way ;-))

On our way to De Grey the day before we also stopped at Whim Creek Hotel for some lunch, amazing feed for modest price in a wonderful setting.  The boys checked out all of the old mining gear and had a chat with the resident cockatoo, the boys remember his name as Harry.  Definitely worth a stop when you're driving through.

Cyclone chasers and Karijini

 

Karijini was a ‘side trip’ from the WA coast.  Must say we’ve not heard a lot about the Karijini but Stephen had it on his ‘must do’ list.

After being evacuated from Cape Range in Exmouth (big prawn pic only one we got in Exmouth) due to Tropical Cyclone Quang we headed inland.  Leaving at 8am in the morning we arrived after many hours of fighting huge winds and a heap of rain at a free camp spot on the Nanutarra-Paraburdoo Road.  We really weren’t that far away from Exmouth but we arrived at 4pm, tired and really fed up of the noise of pounding rain on the car roof.

A fairly quiet night with not too much rain left us rested and ready to go further.

We drove through Paraburdoo, with all the houses going up in number, no matter what street they were on.  An interesting phenomenon we city folk haven’t come across before ;-)

And on to Tom Price, wow Coles is huge, is that sad I notice these things now.  Reasonably priced food is quite sought after in our life these days.  I do not like paying $15 for a small block of cheese. Grrrrrr

A lovely lady knocked on our caravan door at Tom Price and introduced herself and her children, they had seen us along the way and wanted to say ‘Hi’.  Jada mentioned the Karijini Eco Retreat sounded great so we decided to pop out there for a few nights.  It was in a great spot for the Weano Gorge (our favourite) and right on the Joffre Gorge.  Weano Gorge – loved it. Our first trail we took was to Handrail Pool – it was an intriguing name and one I really hoped would have been chosen due to an unusual natural phenomenon – it wasn’t – it had a metal handrail into the pool, or else you wouldn’t be getting back out of the pool.  Lol – it was amazing.  We had an absolute BALL going through the gorge, walls so close to you, you were able to hold onto both sides whilst walking through the stream, walls so high you could only see the top and the blue skies shining down on you. 

The next day brought a new adventure to Kermits pool. 

If we had thought we had had an incredible adventure the day before we had an even better one this day.  Even more stunning cliffs, more stunning pools, more stunning views.  A walk through pools and gorges brings you to a natural amphitheatre with waterfall.  Then we headed on down through a small gorge to Kermits pool where the boys all had a go at ‘bombies’ in the deep water.  This will truly be a day to remember, we loved this spot.

After popping back into Tom Price for a couple of things and a water top up we headed off to Dales Campground in the Dales Gorge area.  Camp ground hosts are in residence at present, so we were lucky enough to be assigned a spot and advised of all of the rules and regulations of the camp spot. 

We took off for a walk the next day to Fern Pool, Fortescue Falls, Dales Gorge and Circular Pool.  Fern pool is quite beautiful with a great deck and fish that nibble your toes (we had to pay for that in Thailand). Fortescue Falls weren’t huge as there wasn’t a lot of water running but they were still quite beautiful. 

It took us some time to walk through Dales Gorge, sighting lizards, butterflies and snakes on the way to Circular Pool.  The pool was quite spectacular but for some reason we all didn’t like it – it felt sad somehow – isn’t it funny how you get feelings from areas.  Fern Pool was the opposite – a very serene place.

So after many, many, many steps back up the gorge wall we went for a walk back to the campground. 

When we first arrived at the campground I picked up a couple of work booklets for the boys, they finished them a couple of days later and so we took them to the camp ground hosts and the boys received their Karijini Junior Ranger badges.  What an exciting time! All sewed onto their caps and they’re ready to go.

Its been really nice hanging out at Dales Campground for a week, although we are travelling around its still constant and can be quite tiring (does that sound pathetic, yeah well it is) so its nice to make camp for a week to settle in and get into a bit of a routine.

Coral Bay

Tropic of Capricorn - tick! hehe

 Termite mounds on the way into Coral Bay.  Excuse the closed eyes and mouths we didn't have our fly nets on and we were being buzzed to death.

We have arrived in Coral Bay. Its in the 30's, a little windy but thats WA, Oliver turned 10 on Monday so we did lots of 'Oliver things'.  The boy's have embraced snorkelling and won't let us out of the water, can't complain about that.

Although its nice to have infrastructure sometimes I really worry about Coral Bay, its just getting bigger and bigger and I don't understand why they can't just leave it alone. Greed? Demand? I'm not sure but its not the sleepy little hollow it used to be. But I still love it, just please stop building stuff.

Quobba

26th Pwhat I mean'll know arallel - Welcome to the North West - its official!

We've been up the highway so many times, usually in quite a hurry to get to Coral Bay and relax, that we have never stopped at the lookout on top of the 'flat hill'.  If you've ever been up this way you'll know what we mean.  Guess what? We stopped - can't say the photo does it justice but a great view over salt lake to the ocean. Tick!

We stayed the night at point Quobba, free camping, no facilities, but with an ocean view.  Not bad.  We were situated right next to the Blow Holes, they were really big. The day we had a look they were going full force, blowing water up about 15 metres. 

Our next night we spent at Quobba Station.  What a great place, reception was lovely, place was definitely a station and they were still fixing things up from the Cylcone, boy has that done some damage around the place, but a great feel to the place.  We parked our van up and took off for the day to check out Red Bluff and Gnarloo Bay.  Gnarloo Bay is beautiful, a real gem of a place and the station looked quite a great spot to stay if you wanted accommodation without having your own, beautiful little stone and tin huts with a view.

The beach at Quobba Station had the most amazing deposits of HUGE shells, they were everywhere and they request all are left there to retain the beach as it is.  The coast here has a real raw energy, its an angry ocean hitting cliff faces and the beaches look ragged.  Its really beautiful to see.

A great place to visit.

Shark Bay

The flies had heard of Denham and had decided it was their favourite spot.  MAN they were bad. Yuck, Yuck, Yuck.  Anyway enough of yet another Adult Tantrum.

We stopped at the Stromatolites at Hamelin Pool, fascinating!  Another awesome learning experience, we read about the microbial mats and stromatolites, then saw fish in the perfectly clear water and even a jelly fish trapped in a small rock pool at low tide.  A great close up of a very big jellyfish.

 The must do stop at Shell Beach enticed us into the water to get away from the flies, and it worked, for a few minutes. hehe.  What a magic spot and the water was the perfect temperature.

 Cape Peron at the top of the Francois Peron National Park is another spectacular West Australian highlight.  Viewing fish and reef through pristine, clear turquoise waters, standing on the edges of bright red cliffs.  What a beautiful part of the world.

The track out to Cape Peron was 40kms and definitely 4WD only, had a great time bouncing along the red sand.

We made a small detour to Bottle Bay for some snorkelling and exploring.  Stephen saw a sea snake (luckily on his own not with the kids) and made a quick exit from the water.  Next the boys had a great time seeing all manner of fish, then a couple of North West Blowies came along and ended that moment,  they're vicious things those ones - they really go for you.  A fisherman in the area had just lost the tip of his finger to one recently so we jumped out of the water.

Just a fly or two............

We were lucky enough to meet friends from 'home' here in Denham.  Sonya, Paul, Kyle and Aidan were on holiday at Paul's sisters for a week or so and we loved our stay with them for a few nights.  It was great spending time with them and the boys loved the boy company.

Thank you so much to Sue, Paul's sister, for putting up with us on her block.  What a wonderful time we had and such a blast from the past that we knew Sue from many years back.  We will definitely be back to Denham, it really was a gorgeous spot.

Heading on up.....

Kalbarri, flies and caravan park

Kalbarri was our next stop, we booked into a caravan park due to school holidays.  We thought it would be hard to get accomodation but it hasn't seemed to be the case luckily.

The boys hadn't seen Kalbarri so we took them out to the coastal gorges and the inland gorges, which Caleb was very unimpressed to see more walking involved.

There is a plague going on at the moment that we came across as soon as we hit Kalbarri, it wasn't as apparent in the caravan park itself but as soon as we hit the coastal gorges we understood why everyone was walking around with fly nets on.  The Flies are beyond belief.  We have spoken to heaps of locals since and they've never seen anything like it either.  The fly nets help dramatically but the little critters crawling all over your skin creep you out after a few days of it.  Adult Tantrum coming up - hehe

We have had a few laughs at peoples expense with many doing a dance before getting in their cars, trying valiantly to lose the flies before entering their vehicle.  It doesn't really work as it takes you another 20 mins to get rid of the ones that couldn't be 'danced off'.

After 5 nights at Kalbarri we headed to Denham, hoping the flies hadn't heard about it.......

Heading North - Woo Hoo!

We orignally 'moved into' our caravan on Caleb's birthday back at the end of February and heading North fitted into the theme - we left on Tash's birthday.  At least we will remember the big dates.

Heading up, we made camp at Point Louise in Green Head the first night after a day of driving and sightseeing.


The boys enjoyed learning about the Pinnacles and Caleb is gradually coming around to the idea that he will have to walk to see most things. 

The next night we came across a great free camping spot, Cliff Head, Stephen had read a blog where the couple raved about it and we must say we agreed.  Quite, tucked in behind a cliff, good fishing and had the weather been a bit nicer snorkelling would have been awesome too.  A great stop for 72 hours max, well worth a visit for self contained vehicles.

Thanks Dongara Council!