Cervantes (The Pinnacles)

As we headed further south, we drove through a couple of coastal towns and decided to stay at Cervantes near the Pinnacles. It was a lovely Caravan Park with a fantastic reception and coffee shop, here they displayed and sold many different types of shells. Again we woke up to another overcast day, ten minutes down the road we called into the Pinnacles National Park. You can either walk a two kilometre track or drive a four kilometre track. With the weather that day we wisely chose the car. Driving into the National Park, the road is lined with dense bush shrubs as far as you can see, as you get closer the Pinnacles pop out through the bright yellow sand. It was not too exciting, but it was worth seeing the natural landscape.

Geraldton

Well not much to report here, wet, cold and windy. We did however looked at the HMAS Sydney Memorial which sank at sea during a battle during World War 2, there were about 645 who died. It was a lovely memorial with birds symbolizing each soldier and a statue of a woman looking out to sea with a pained expression on her face, hoping the war ship would return.

I must say, as we have headed further down the coast the playgrounds have been very popular with our kids, lots of different equipment. The kids love to turn them into obstacle courses and see you can get through the course the quickest.

 

Cervantes (The Pinnacles)

From Geraldton we travelled along the coast and looked at most of the coastal towns, deciding to stay at Cervantes where the Pinnacles are. We travelled to the Pinnicales the following morning which were quite stunning in the natural light and very yellow sand. You can either walk through or drive a 4km track, we chose to drive due to the wind and rain.

From Cervantes and across to Gin Gin where we went to a Gravity and Science centre. We've ended our day at Rockingham south of Perth. This will be the base for our travels to Perth and Fremantle.

Kalbarri

Kalbarri is a quaint seaside town with many holiday units, holiday homes and three Caravan Parks, considering it’s a small town. You have Kalbarri National Park which we visited and had spectacular views from all lookouts. One walk we completed was called Natures Window, have you guessed yet? It’s a window within the rock formations, through the window you see the Murchison River and lovely red rock with shrubs. Another walk took us down to the river itself, while at the park it was quite warm, but as we returned to Kalbarri, windy once again.

Every morning on the Esplanade the resident pelicans are fed. We were able to walk over from our Caravan Park which was situated along the foreshore. At the beginning there was one lone pelican for breakfast, another one ventured over who was a female but the mean lone male pelican quickly shooed her away. He did not want any others sharing his brekky. During the feeding and the informative talk about the birds, four flew over the water, it was a lovely site because they are such large birds.

Ever since we left Coral Bay for Denham all we have had is wind, it hasn’t been too cold, but always windy. From Kalbarri we travelled south to Geraldton, rain, wind, rain, wind. That is all we have known as we moved down the west coast. From Geraldton to Cervantes, this is the base for the Pinnacles. Today we arrived at Rockingham south of Perth to 12 degrees and more of the same, rain and wind. The weather is looking up though Sunday 27 degrees and wait for it, Monday 34 degrees. We will be able to turn the heater off and put the air con on for a change. Very much looking forward to the warmer weather, crossing fingers for more heat and no wind or rain.

 

Denham and Monkey Mia

Monkey Mia is where we went to feed the dolphins, we waited about half an hour for them to come into the shallows. They apparently took their time because they may have been playing or catching a feed with a school of fish.

It was a perfect morning, no wind and the sun was shining. Unfortunately, the tide was out which makes the water a little murky and dolphins don’t always agree with that. Once they had arrived, buckets of fish were brought out for their feed. If you are one of the lucky ones to be chosen you were able to feed one of the five dolphins they feed. Three came in this morning, our dolphin wasn’t interested so we missed out on feeding her. They do bring their calves in but they are not fed, they need to be fed from their mothers and learn to hunt for themselves.

Later that morning we went on a cruise on a catamaran, to the black pearl farm and dugong spotting. We saw many dolphins, a few turtles and a couple of dugongs. Dugongs seem to eat and sleep most of the time, apart from when they come up for a breath. They are big fat brown lumps under the surface of the water. In the distance whales were spotted, so we went in chase of them, to see a mother and her calf gliding in and out throughout the water it was amazing.

That afternoon we drove back to windy Denham, boy does it blow here. Jumpers are coming out from under the bed, that is not a good sign. Now for the sights of Denham, we visited numerous lookouts, again the sand and water is stunning. Shell beach was great to see, it is covered in tiny little shells, and many people had written their names with them. We also went to the Aquarium where we were well informed about many different types of fish. They main event would have to of been the shark feeding, being able to see them up close and feeding.

Back to Denham where Jack is going to make his creation out of shells he collected from Eighty Mile Beach.

 

 

 

Coral Bay

What an exceptional place, just what I like, relaxing… Here we snorkeled, swam, read and relaxed. We went on a snorkel tour, here we were able to snorkel in two locations. The first was amazing, Marc and Ned spotted a turtle and a reef shark and swam along with them. We spotted quite a few turtles, they are quite cute when they pop out of the water for a breath.

One outstanding thing to do at Coral Bay is to ride the quad bikes. We rode through the sand dunes and along the beach, to watch a special sunset. Jack and I were together and we became bogged at the base of a hill. It was a slow ride to the top, but we made it with a lot of jumping and rocking the bike back and forth. It was quite funny if you had been there.

Overall, a place I would love to visit again, we secured a first row beach front site which made it extra special. Thanks to Vince and Donna the bottle of wine went down well while watching another exceptional sunset.

Exmouth

Now, this is a must see, the water is clear and displays beautiful shades of blues and greens. One side is the bay where many go fishing, the other side is the beach with amazing snorkeling and again crisp white sand and clear water. You could easily spend a week here, next time we will be more equipped for off road camping. We will definitely camp in Cape Range National Park, there are many beach sections along here.

Emu’s are common here, you need to be very careful when driving through Cape Range National Park. The park itself is the start of the Ningaloo marine area, our favorite spot was Turquoise Bay. We met many of our travelling friends here and had a wonderful time. Apart from snorkeling, one of the fun parts was hopping in the water at one end then drifting down a couple of hundred metres to the other.

The boys went on a half day fishing adventure and came home with zilch, nothing, zero. Could not believe it, sharks kept eating their snags.

One of the other highlights was a massive sand dune, you could see it from quite a distance away. The backdrop of the blue sky made it look picturesque. The kids had a great time climbing it and surfing down the other side.