Perth

Headed down to Perth on Friday – weather getting worse by the day!!!!!! Checked out the Swan Valley Breweries and the Chocolate factory (of course!!). Left on Sunday and headed down to Margaret River for a little R&D. Booked an apartment at a beach resort as the weather forecast was dreadful!!! SOOOOOOO glad we did as it has been miserable weather since we arrived. We all slept well in real beds (with walls around us!!!) and the kids had a lovely time in the spa bath!!

As miserable as the weather has been it was a perfect day for beer tasting!!! Checked out the local establishments along with the chocolate factory (again) and the cheese factory. Completely stuffed full now and ready for bed.

Heading off to Wave Rock (Hyden) tomorrow and then Esperance after that and hopefully we will hook up with the others for the trip back across.

Till next time love to all!!

xxxxxxx

Kalbarri & Murchason Station

After our delayed departure from Monkey Mia, finally made it to our next destination just after sunset!!!! Always fun (not!!!) when you have to set up in the dark, especially on a river bank with lots of dry sand (i.e. bog!!). Luckily our brothers in arms were already set up and ready to assist with torches and a bowl of spag for the kids. Our actual camp site was Murchison House Station – a small sheep farm of some 750,000 acres!!! You just pay them a small sum and set up camp on the river bank and have the use of their abolution block and camp kitchen. Lovely to have a camp fire again (along with the marshmallows) and get back to a bit of bush camping.

Kalbarri is a fabulous location as it has both fabulous beaches for fishing and surfing, as well as the national park which has some fabulous gorges, wild flowers and of course the Murchison River. First day we explored the town, bought a crab net (as you do) and went fishing!!!! All the kids caught something (all except the biggest kid of all – poor old James!), but of course none of it was big enough to keep.

Next day, left camp at the crack of a sparrows fart to head off on a canoe expedition down the Murchison River. Goes something like this – catch a bus up the river, row down for 4kms or so, stop off for a massive (and I mean MASSIVE) breakfeast and then row another 8kms to your final pick up location. All went well, kids loved it, Tristy sat back and sipped his drink as Ben and I paddled, Cam and Goose were in the other canoe (cam doing most of the paddling!!).

Spent the afternoon checking out the National Park – Natures window and Z bend Gorge – quite stunning and we saw 170 million year old bug footprints!!!! Wild flowers everywhere (and lots of elderly folk to go with them) and it is just the start of the wild flower season.

Headed off to Jurien Bay on Wednesday (we think – must be on holidays because we can’t remember the days!!). Windy, windy, windy – what more can we say!!!!!!! Checked out the Stockyard Gully caves and the headed down to the Pinnacles around sunset – oh my goodness they are stunning!!! We had no idea what to expect but they are just fascinating and they go on forever – it really is a desert. As we checked out these ancient fossils Angus’s first comment was “this is a great root dad!!!”. To explain – the Pinnacles are fossilized tree roots.

Shark Bay and Monkey Mia

After 7 weeks of favourable weather conditions we are finally experiencing a little unsettled weather. Yesterday started off sunny, clouded over, rained a little, cleared a little and continued in that pattern all day. Woke up and headed to the dolphins at 7.30am for their first feed of the day. Only had two mums and their pups but they were so close and very graceful. Then we headed into Fransoir Peiron National Park for a bit of 4WD adventuring but had to cut our trip short as we had booked to go out on a 60ft Kat in search of Dugongs! Although the weather wasn’t great (yes, windy and bloody freezing!!) we were not disappointed when it came to the Dugongs. There were plenty to see and the kids had a great time spotting them.

Kids went down to the beach at 8.30am this morning for the second dolphin feeding and all (Ben, Angus, Thomas and Elliott) got to feed a dolphin. There were five adults dolphins to feed today, so more opportunities to feed. They are very excited they got to feed them.
Would love to spend another night here but it seems all sites are booked out so it is off the Kabarri National Park.

Coral Bay W.A. (the place to stay)

Oh my goodness – what a well kept secret this place turned out to be. Only 150km south of Exmouth, we nearly didn’t bother going there but decided to leave Exmouth early and check it out. We are soooooo glad we did because within 15 minutes of arriving we had decided to stay for 5 nights.

The town consists of two caravan parks, half a dozen shops, a couple of restaurants and a small resort which includes the pub. There are no houses and the 100 or so staff/permanent residents all live in the permanent part of the caravan park. You don’t need your car because you just walk everywhere!!!!

We did quad biking along the sand dunes at sunset (Bill and Vettie looked after Tristy) and the following day we sailed on a 40ft Kat out to the reef and did some snorkeling. The water was just amazing, you could have been in your back yard pool, it was that clear!!!!! The kind of water you always see on tourism brochures but never seem to find on holidays. The kids (big and small) had a fabulous time and we were very sad to leave!! But we had a booking at Monkey Mia which couldn’t be changed!!!

Tom Price, a mining town...

Also stayed in Tom Price (mining town just south of the national park) and went on a tour of the Tome Price Rio Tinto mine. Very interesting and my lordy those trucks are big!!!! Tooke the 4WD track up to the top of Mt Nameless (girls at the wheel!!!!) and were rewarded with magnificent views of the mine, the town and the surrounding range.
Just arrived in Exmouth after some very boring driving (not much variety in the landscape out here). Set up camp and having a bit of a catch up now before heading over to the reef for a few days.
Catch you next time around

The Travelling Taylors XXX

Another Gorge or more gorgeous gorges!!!

Karijini National Park
This was on the original itinerary, then we decided we didn’t want to do dust again (after being on the coast). But after much discussion (among the three families and with other campers along the way) we decided to check it out. Very glad we did. The gorges were magnificent and the water holes were beautiful. The kids (big and small) had a great time swimming in them.

Cape Leveque

Our last night at Broome we enjoyed a play and dinner at the beach with our surprise visitors – the Gilbert family. The kids were very excited to catch up and it was great to catch up on some of the news from home with Jo and Graeme.

Headed up to Cape Leveque late Tuesday morning after stocking up on supplies. Cam wanted to call into the Willie Creek Pearl Farm along the way for a bit of a look. Had to follow the tracks marked with red and blue signs (since found out that means ‘wet’ season and ‘dry’ season tracks. Checked out the farm, had an ice cream and then headed back to the main road. A couple of KMs out Cam spotted a wild Brolga and took a side track to get a little closer for a pick. When he saw a big puddle ahead he decided that a U-turn was in order and that’s when the fun began. Although we were only 50m from the main road, we were on the salt flats and they were muddy!!!!!! As we tried to turn around we got bogged (van and all) and as much as we tried, the wheels just kept on spinning. As I went into panic mode, I headed back to the pearl farm (plenty of tourists were heading to the farm for the tours so I grabbed a lift) and rounded up some help. The owner grabbed his 4WD and we headed back down the road (funnily enough we were not the first people to get bogged!!!). By the time we got there another car had stopped to help and between all of us we managed to get out of the mess – only to head out on the “wet” season track (we came in on the “dry” season track) and consequently we turned left instead of right onto the main track. When we spotted water after only 50kms we decided to check the map and realized we were on the wrong road (hey, what’s and extra 120kms at the end of the day!!!). Finally arrived at Cape Leveque at 7pm (in the dark) but the day from hell was worth it when the sun came up the next day and we saw where we were actually camped. Our camp site was a beach hut (on the beach) and we ate bacon and eggs (cooked on the camp fire of course) watching whales play in the sea.

Headed to Lombadina mission to buy their special bread (sold out by the time we got there) and had a chat to the couple who run the general store – an ex Peninsula boy – James Shooter. They have been travelling for four years (the last 12 months at Lombadina) but are finally heading back at the end of the year as their oldest is heading into Grade 6 next year.
Went up to One Arm Point (another indigenous community) and saw the most amazing beaches. Turquoise blue water, white sand and the water was clear as clear. Took the kids to the hatchery to check out some marine life and then back to camp.
Next day we drove up the beach – again just exquisite. As it was low tide there was a lot of shell collecting and then some fishing. All three boys (Cam, Angus and Ben) caught fish – they were very excited. Turned out we couldn’t actually eat them as they were riddled with worms when Cam cleaned them up – but they’d had their fun!

Headed back to Broom on Friday for another catch up with the Gilberts before they headed home and we headed south.

Next stop was 80 Mile Beach (2 nights). More bloody shells collected (can you tell I am a bit over them now!) and they boys went fishing. A good eating haul this time (Ben was a star catching two out of the four Threadfin Salmon). Cam cleaned them up and we feasted on them for dinner.