Author: drewandgab

27th November

Just a random little post from a random little town called Cawarumup, where everything has a cow theme and cow statues decorate the town.

 

With Christmas coming up, most of the cows have been decorated for the occasion.

 

 

 

 

27th November

We arrived in Margaret River, met our friends at the Olive Farm where we were staying and jumped straight on a bus, ready for a day of touring the wineries and breweries in the area…perfect!!

 

We tasted lots of wine and bought a few to take home.

 

We had a lovely lunch and sampled some beers at a brewery.

 

After lunch there was cheese & chocolate factories and more beer & wine.

 

It was great doing the tour with others – fun for us and the kids had a ball hanging with their mates all day.

 

The Olive farm we stayed at was lovely. We camped in the middle of the Olive trees.

 

The farm extended back from the Olive trees, through tall plantation trees to the Margaret River.

 

We also had a couple of nights in Margaret River town and had an awesome Sunday session at one of the local microbreweries.

23rd November

Yallingup was our first stop in the region and it was just magical!! It’s a beautiful little coastal town with a stunning beach, which our caravan park overlooked.

 

 

It was nice for swimming. Drew and Cam got a surf too.

 

The next beach south, Smith’s beach was also beautiful and better waves for Matt.

 

We did a bit of exploring around the area in the few days we were here. It’s a very pretty area with wineries every few kilometres and a stunning coastline!!

Heading north, every turn unveiled another beautiful beach.

 

At Cape Naturaliste we did a lovely walk and watched the whales.

 

To the south of us was Canal Rocks, a beautiful area where the ocean has eroded the headland away to leave a series of crystal clear ‘canals’.

 

Further south, at Prevelly is the famous Margaret River main surf break. We loved reading about the old days and how it was discovered. The surf wasn’t happening on the day we were there but we saw a kite surfer manoeuvre his way from the beach through the gaps in the reef out to the break which was pretty impressive.

 

We have loved Yallingup!! It’s hard to leave, but looking forward to the rest of the Margaret River Region.

21st November

Today on our way south toward Margaret River, we called into King’s Park, where we wandered through the Botanical Gardens. It showcases all the state’s trees and wildflowers and has great views over the river and Perth’s city centre.

 

Perth seems like a beautiful city, but we are just not ready to be in a city yet!! We will come back again another time, but this time was just a fleeting visit. The main purpose of stopping in Perth was to catch up with friends.

We had 2 great nights with Dicko and Rosie and their little boys. They live in one of Perth’s northern suburbs. It was really lovely to catch up with them!! We had a bbq on the night we arrived and were treated with some locally caught crayfish.

 

We spent a day at Hilarys where Dicko’s dad has his yacht moored. The boys enjoyed looking around the boat before we headed to the yacht club for lunch. Later we wandered around the marina which has lots of shops and restaurants and large areas of parkland and swimming areas. It’s a very popular place for locals and tourists to head for a day out.

 

 

 

From Dicko’s we headed about half an hour inland to Bullsbrook, near the Swan Valley, to spend a night with Kaye and Vinn on the farm. When we arrived, the boys fed the cow and horses.

 

 

We spent the afternoon visiting the chocolate factories in the Swan Valley. The boys liked the free tastings and the cool sculptures made from chocolate. We bought a few goodies to put away for Christmas.

 

 

We had lovely night, enjoying Kaye and Vinn’s company over a few drinks and a beautiful home cooked roast. We finished the night by the fire under the stars.

 

 

 

 

18th November

Sandy Cape is a beautiful white sandy bay about half way between Geraldton and Perth. We have had a lovely 3 nights here; swimming, exploring and hanging with our friends.

 

Even though we are getting pretty far south now, the water is still warm and inviting and the kids have had a ball playing with their mates.

 

The kids also had a blast on the sand dunes!!

 

And the sunsets have been beautiful.

 

The surrounding bays are stunning also and there are some old World War II bunkers to explore.

 

We did a day trip out to see the Pinnacles Desert – an incredible yellow sandy desert, dotted with thousands of limestone pillars of different shapes and sizes. Some of them are huge, over 3 metres tall. It was a cloudy day, which made them look even more dramatic.

 

Sandy Cape has been the perfect way to end the wonderful couple of months we have spent on the west coast, on the Broome to Perth leg of our trip.

15th November

As we drove into Kalbarri last week we were almost disappointed to see clear cultivated land and wide roads – our first overtaking lane in months. These things were our first indication that the west coast might have a population bigger than the sleepy towns and coastal villages that have become the norm over the past few months, since leaving Broome.

It made us realise that we are not ready for the city and we have not yet tired of beautiful turquoise blue waters and white sandy bays and beaches, so we are in no hurry to rush this last little section of coast down to Perth.

Leaving Kalbarri, we drove just 30 minutes down the road to beautiful Lucky Bay. The campsite was open and spacious with each site tucked into a sand dune. Only $15 a night and the only other people camped anywhere near us were our friends, the Davies, that we met in Red Bluff and have now been travelling with for nearly 2 weeks. You can just see the white of our van in the photo below.

 

The beach is long and flat, and framed by huge towering sand dunes. It was a great beach for for walking and you can also drive on the beach. At the end of the beach is a beautiful sheltered bay protected from the open ocean by a rocky reef. It would have been perfect for surfing and for snorkelling had the conditions been right.

 

Unfortunately, we were not very lucky with the weather at Lucky Bay. We got 2 days of overcast weather and our very first rain in over 4 months. When the rain passed, the wind came. We made the most of it between showers and the kids had a blast being towed behind the car on their boogie boards and sliding down the dunes. We could easily have spent a week here, but with the weather the way it was we moved on after 2 days.

 

Heading south we stopped to see the Pink Lake at Port Gregory. There are a few of these lakes in W.A. The pink colour is caused by algae which becomes trapped in the salt granules. It creates a beautiful display of colours over across the water, from pink to purple and blue.

 

Our next stop was Coronation Bay. We arrived to find a pretty bay, but it was windy and the campsite really busy compared to what we had been used to. We actually turned around and were ready to drive on, but found out our friends had a saved us a camp spot.

 

We ended up having a lovely afternoon, with a pretty sunset from the deck and drinks with our friends under a beautiful starry night. This morning the kids had a great time splashing with their mates and skim boarding along the shore. Turned out to be a lovely overnight stop.

 

 

 

 

 

11th November

Kalbarri is a coastal town about 200km north of Geraldton. It is situated on a river. The surrounding coastline has stunning cliffs and good surf. Just inland there is a national park with beautiful rivers and gorges.

 

Heading south from Kalbarri, Red Bluff offers great views to the north of the beautiful layered red cliffs to the south and north to the surfing beaches. Drew and Cam got a surf one day at the famous Jake’s Point.

 

Further south the cliffs become steeper and more dramatic. The natural bridge and islands stack are evidence of the harsh conditions that have eroded the coastline.

 

Just inland at Kalbarri National Park, perhaps the most iconic image of the area is Nature’s Window. It sits high on the ridge and provides great photo opportunities of the river and gorge below.

 

Another area of the park called Z-bend (due to the shape of the river) has a great lookout with views down the gorge in both directions. We did a nice hike here too, through the narrow gorge walls down to the riverbed.

 

The main wildflower season is finished now, so we didn’t see the abundance of them that we would have seen a month or so ago. But we still got to see a nice splash of colour.

 

Afternoons in Kalbarri were spent down by the river with friends or back at camp where the kids were enjoying the facilities of the caravan park – their first pool and t.v. room for a while!

7th November

We have spent the past 4 days based in Denham exploring the Shark Bay World Heritage Area. It’s a pretty area, with beautiful sandy bays and beaches, loads of wildlife and lots of interesting sights to explore.

The geographical formation of the bays here mean that they are very shallow and highly salty. These conditions have led to some unique ecosystems in the area.

The stromatolites and microbial mats at Hamelin Pool are formed from bacteria and other microbes. I love it when we get to have a bit of a science lesson while sightseeing. The kids thought it was pretty cool that the sorts of bacteria in these formations has been in existence for over 3500 million years. They are among the most diverse in the world.

 

In the next bay, Shell beach is made from cockle shells, rather than sand. The shells reach over 9 metres deep in parts. Again, interesting to learn how and why this has occurred here. But the result was one of the whitest beaches we have ever seen, with super clear turquoise water.

 

Further up that same coastline is Monkey Mia, famous for the dolphins that visit daily. They have over 20 dolphins who come into the bay on a regular basis, so it’s a popular place to visit to see wild dolphins up close. They have 5 particular dolphins they feed each day – if they come to visit. We were very lucky the day we went because both boys were chosen to feed the dolphins, we got to see them up very close. The boys loved it!!

 

Our favourite place in the area was Francois Peron National Park. It is a stunning area of natural beauty and full of wildlife. I have done a separate post for it. Click here to read about it and see the pics.

 

Denham has been a good base. And we got to spend time with friends we met at Red Bluff too which was nice. In the middle of town there is a jetty and pontoon that the kids had a ball jumping and diving off. There is also a great “shipwreck” themed playground there, built all out of recycled wood.

 

Great place for sunset too.

 

There were also great views from the caravan park. The kids loved the jumping pillow. It became the meeting point each morning and afternoon for all the kids in the park to get together and play hide and seek or tiggy for hours on end.

5th November

Yet another stunning National Park!! So much natural beauty with a rugged coastline, red cliffs and beautiful turquoise bays. And the bird and marine life was prolific!

 

The whole National Park, which used to be farmland, sits on red sand and salt flats. Most of the roads are on the soft red sand, so you can only access the park by 4WD and only once you have deflated your tyres to around 20 PSI. There was some pretty challenging driving at times.

 

Our first stop on the east side at Harold Blight. We drove along the beach to a sandy point with a white sand, turquoise bay on one side and a bay flanked by a red sand dune on the other. There was amazing birdlife and loads of rays and shovel nose sharks swimming in the shallows.

 

On the west side we stopped at Gregories, another pretty bay, where we had a great snorkel.

 

At the top of the peninsula was Cape Peron with beautiful red cliffs and an amazing amount of birdlife.

 

The highlight for us was Skipjack Point, with lookouts over the surrounding bays and fabulous viewing of the marine life in the shallow waters below.

 

The rocks below were covered with birdlife and the water was abundant with marine-life. We saw turtles and sharks and lots of different rays. I particularly loved watching the eagle rays. They are so graceful swimming through the water and we even saw one jump out of the water.

 

We were very excited to see our first dugong on the wild.

 

It was an awesome day with so much beautiful scenery and wildlife – and an echidna next to the road on our way out just to top it off!!

 

4th November

As we often do on travel days, we stop at a major town en-route – in today’s case Carnarvon. We stock up groceries, petrol and water. Then rather than staying in town we usually continue down the road a bit and stay at a free road side camp.

There are two main benefits to this. The first one, obviously, is the fact that it’s free rather than staying at an expensive caravan park in town. The second reason is that it means we don’t have to unhitch our van so can get an earlier start back on the road in the morning.

We have been blown away with the facilities at the free road side camps throughout W.A. Most of the ones we have stayed at have had dump points for the caravan loo, long drop loos, rubbish bins, fire pits and picnic tables.

We have had campfires often thought the trip, but the kids seem to particularly love having one at free camps. When we arrive at a free camp they can’t wait to help Drew scavenge for wood and get the fire going. So most nights at free camps are spent around the fire. We usually have great star-gazing too since most of the rest areas are in the middle of nowhere.

 

Last night we were also treated to an awesome sunset and a brilliant moon rise over the bush.

 

W.A really looks after travellers. Not only with these well located, well provisioned free roadside stops. But most towns have parking areas near the shopping centres for cars towing vans. And it’s usually easy to find fresh water to fill the van tanks at the visitors centres or information shelters. It just makes travelling in this area even better than it already is!!