Lancelin to Bunbury

Its been a bit of a rainy time on this side of the globe, we’ve had bouts of intermittent rain for the last few weeks now but luckily with some nice weather in between. We left Jurien and headed to Lancelin to take our last look at the beautiful turquoise sea before going on to Perth City.

Lancelin Beach and jetty

Having a stop at Lancelin Pub

Lancelin

 We had 2 nights at a place called Karrinyup that is a northern suburb of Perth. We really scored with the caravan park there, being in the city pretty well, we thought it would be a bit average. However we had a fantastic site which, as you will see from the photos was right on the lake. Pippa got to feed all the wild birds including a HUGE pair of black swans, which frightened the living daylights out of her (at first). 

can you see us through the trees? nice spot

Pip escapes the swan

View from our site Karrinyup

We took the bus and train into the city and checked out a few of the sights. Pip was very impressed with the Perth Mint. She saw them pouring gold bullion which she thought was pretty cool and weighed herself on the $ scales converting her weight to value in gold. Apparently she is worth 1.143 million.

the Perth Mint

We stayed over with Haydn and Teresa for the remaining 4 days we were in Perth. They took us to the races, good shopping, and fed and wined us. We had a couple of days by ourselves to navigate the wine, chocolate and microbrewery trail, and the art galleries, museums and fore shores such as Fremantle. Perth is a really pretty and we’d imagine quite a nice city to live in.  

testing the chocolate at Swan Valley confectionary

Perth Museum

Pip n Heath at  Ascot Races

We left Perth yesterday for Bunbury. Now this is actually a beautiful spot! I could live here. Bunbury has great beaches, all the infrastructure of a large town, and great coffee and fine dinning precinct. Sadly we didn’t pre book a caravan park and due to the long weekend for CHOGM (the reason we left Perth) EVERYONE is booked out. We managed to get 2 nights at a park on the highway, which is very noisy. So a dinner out at Bianco gourmet Pizzas, a quick look around the town a few groceries and we are off tomorrow morning to Busselton, a whole 30 min down the road. I think we were actually lucky to get a site there too with everyone flooding away from CHOGM and the street closure chaos.

Jurien Bay

We have been at Jurien Bay now for nine nights and intend on departing here on Thursday, which will mean we have spent a day short of two weeks here.  This is the 43rd time we have stopped on our journey since leaving on the 13^th of May and hence our 43 post. It is Sunday after noon; Teresa and Haydn (friends we made in Point Samson) have left us once again post a weekend of fun. We have not been staying in the van on this stop as Teresa and Haydn have very generously offered up their holiday house for our use. I still can’t quite get over how fantastic they have been to offer this to us. We have met so many genuinely generous people on this trip its actually quite humbling. They have driven up from Perth (two and a half hours) for the last two weekends to catch up with us here. 

More generous people, drinks with Roz and Pete

It’s been nice to sit on a lounge (with foxtel) and sleep in a bed for a change but its back into our little van Thursday night as we head to Lancelin for a night or two before arriving in Perth on Saturday, where Teresa and I will go SHOPPING and Pip can once again catch up with Heath whom she got on with like a bomb.

Also we fortunately caught up with another family (Barb Rog Jack and Lily) we have been playing tag with on our way down the coast. We managed to catch up and do a bit of fishing, Jack very pleased with his first REAL catch (his other first catch was a puffer fish caught at Kalbarri, this one a whiting) good on ya Jacko! We won’t catch up with them again for some time as they head a little faster on their journey to get home to Victoria for Xmas. Pip sadly said her good byes to 8-year-old Lily who has been her best “friend” since they met at Coral Bay.

Jack's catch

The weather has been pretty good to us here with only a few odd showers earlier in the week. Pip has tried out every playground in Jurien including the skate park. The council has really put some money into the fore shores here with playgrounds galore, and all very new looking at that. It’s a really clean little town ( no ciggy buts )that pretty much has everything you need including some things you don’t need like FLIES! FLIES! FLIES! We have never seen so many flies as we have seen coming down the lower west coast. I think they started becoming a major pain in the butt at about Denham and have slowly gotten worse. They are annoying as they try with all their might to fly themselves UP your nose and in your mouth. Eeaakkkkk!!!! 

We took a short drive on Wednesday out to the Cervantes Pinnacles, which were quite amazing to see. Unfortunately we weren’t there at sunset but it was a grand sight all the same.

Catch you later in Lancelin XXXX

Oh and I almost forgot..... We all decided to head off to the beach this morning to do a spot of fishing. We took the cars to carry the drinks and fishing gear and headed to a beach the other side of the Jurien Marina.  As we entered the beach and  hit the very soft fine white sand I said to Mike, "should we let the pressure out of our tyres?" Nahh Haydn hasn't was the reply.. Seriously 20 meters later we were bogged. I hate to say I told you so, so I didn't knowing full well Haydn would make fun of us. Haydn and Teresa did a u bolt to see what was going on.. "I thought you said your car goes alright in the sand" says Mr J? Ha ha and on that he buried himself in the soft sand to the dif too. What a sight... Teresa, Pip and I got out of the cars in embarrassment and left them to sort it out. All in all it was funny and it amused a few people passing by in their NOT BOGGED cars.. I was so annoyed with myself as I forgot to take a picture of the two of them. hahahahahahahahah Hey Haydn! YOU GO ALRIGHT DON"T YAH!!!!!!!

Dongara Pt Denison

Well we didn't find Okabella, the haunted house until we were about 50 klm south of Northampton and on our way in the pouring rain to Dongara. It was a dirt road or should I say mud road due to the rain they have had over the previous couple of weeks so we gave it the big miss. Its our last night in Dongara which is quite a historic town, a great surf beach, a small marina and friendly little shopping precinct. Dongara Denison as its named sits alongside the Irwin river and port Irwin no longer used as a port mainly due to the treacherous reef that lies close to the shore line. There have been many a ship wreck and mariner mishaps along these shores. An old local tells us of how dangerous these waters can be even to the most experienced mariners, as this area is known for its rogue waves that can tip a lobster trawler on its side in the blink of an eye. He then points out a memorial of 3 men whom where his friends, all drowned in a boating mishap. Mother nature is definitely in charge around here. The winds here are also bound and fierce. There are trees permanently flexed or growing north facing due to the prevailing southerly s. Any hoo! enough of all that we have had a nice time here an are of to Jurien Bay tomorrow to catch up with our friends Haydn, Teresa and their son Heath. We are looking forward to having their company a few drinks and some good feeds. (Lobster season officially starts here on this coast line from Juiren up... on the  15 November, they say, imported internationally! must be good eh). Well guys here are a few pics of Dongara Denison. Catch you in Jurien Bay.

Denison Marina

Denison Dongara sunset

Sunset at Grannys Beach where we are staying

talk about a windy day!!

Horracks

Yet another move to another beautiful spot on the coast, water is of course so blue and clear. We will stop here for 2 nights on our way to Dongara. On the way here we called in at Port Gregory, which is home to the Pink Lake. Yes it is actually PINK!!!!! It’s pink hue is created by bacteria (Dunaljella salina), which becomes trapped in the salt granules. We are going to have a day trip around the area tomorrow. Hopefully I will get a chance to capture the beautiful wild flower images. (We are alos going to sus out, Oakabella Homestead if possible!! WA most haunted house............. Pics to follow in next blog ohhhaaaaarrrrrr).  

This last picture is of Mikes big breakfast.. Check out the SLAB of egg he made us eat hahahaa

So sorry about the previous blogs pictures we were having a major problem with down loading. I think we were just on the brink of being in a NO SERVICE area. So here are the remaining photos of the lovely Horracks.

Kalbarri

Our last day in Denham was spent doing a major sort out and re shuffle of the van. It was also the least windy of the 7 nights we spent there, and most spectacular sunset, with plenty of cloud in the sky to make it interesting.

Today (26 th September) we left Denham for Kalbarri, our first real show of rain since Yepoon. So much for winter hey! We set off at 7:30am from Denham, Pips breaky in a tupaware container, as once again we nearly had to pack her down with the van. She was pushing zzzzzz until 7:29am. She just had time to brush the pegs and have a loo stop before Mike was on the road “again”. First stop 40 or so Ks down the road to Shell beach. It was actually a great looking spot, especially with the dark storm clouds looming.

We then took the near 400 Km trip to Kalbarri with showers and dark storm clouds looming most of the way. Absolutely fabulous were the wild flower display on the trip in to Kalbarri, I am looking forward to getting some nice photos of them between here and Perth.  The wheat belt is obviously getting closer now as the wheat fields were prolific and equally as spectacular in the stormy light the day cast.

We set up at the speed of light to miss the rain.. we did it!, yay, nothing worse than a wet bed. After the rain passed we decided to take a drive and check out the town and also the cliff laden coastline.

We head off to a place called Red Bluff and just happened upon a whale pod. Probably about 7 or so in the pod. They were breaching, tail slapping and throwing their dorsal fins around like there was no tomorrow I’ve never seen such a magnificent display. Pip was getting annoyed with me saying “mum! all I can here is you going …..oohhh did you see that”. My reply “ this is nature at its best Pip”! In fact you not only could see it, but because a few of them were sooooo close to the cliff, you could actually hear them hit the water after they breached (yeah even with my hearing Margsie). Without a lie I “recon we saw one mother and calf breach at least 15 times in the 10 or so minutes I WAS ALLOWED to watch them. It was pretty windy and getting a bit on the chilly side (still in shorts but definitely the coldest day on the trip so far !!!!!).

Good weather prevailing we will head into the Kalbarri national park tomorrow. We have been in touch with Lil’s mum and dad (Pips new best friend) and we will all head off together for a day of gorges and adventure... (Next day) we had a fab day catching up with Rog Barb and the kids, went out to Kalbarri national park so Rog and I could take some great photos. unfortunately mine weren't that great. Some how overexposed them. But here they are all the same.

The road into the national park was about 25 ks of dirt YELLOW dirt?? Check it out in the top left pic. Great for the photos. We also had an afternoon checking out the other side of Kalbarri which is its 170 m cliff face, and did we see some marine life. Pods of 20 or so more dolphins surfing at Eagle bluff and whale after whale breaching and slapping themselves down the coast line, even saw a seal surfing the reef.. oh and the human kind catching some real tubes.

last but not least we took a trip to see the rainbow jungle which was also great, so much wild life in one day.. not to mention the FLIES, man we've never seen so many flies not even this many in the outback. We have a date with Rog and Barb and the kids at the tavern then dinner tonight, a spot of fishing tomorrow and its ofski again to our next destination Horracks beach.

no flies on me!!!

“It’s One o’clock in the morning” !!!! Monkey Mia last episode

Its 1 o’clock in the morning and a bunch (5) of German tourists have decided to set up camp in the space next to us. At first I thought the noise was a bunch of happy people passing by on their way back from the pub, it is Saturday night after all, but no the noise didn’t move on. A bit of jocularity I can take but the inflation of airbeds and banging of car doors starts to get on your “pip” after an hour. Mike bravely (5 to 1) yells at them to keep it down, “you’ve woken half the camp he states” (with a few extra inserts) I then inform Mike he just woke the other half of the camp !!!!! It’s after 2 now the voices have quietened but the car doors keep on banging…. So I’m up having a cuppa, I decide if you cant beat em join em.

We went to Monkey Mia to the feeding of the dolphins and were pleasantly surprised. We have met a lot of people who were disappointed in the whole setup, that in mind we weren’t expecting anything great. However like I said it was cool, one dolphin in particular put on a real show for us, coming within a foot of our legs. There were loads of people probably an easy 150 lined up along the beach and 9 fish to feed 3 of the 7 dolphins that turned up. I told Pip, “ keep your head up and smile nicely”. Yep it worked she got picked to feed one of the dolphins. It was a real treat to be one of the few picked to feed one, but I think she enjoyed the 25 minutes of interaction with the dolphins the most as they were seriously close enough to touch.

In the afternoon we decided to try our hand at fishing for whiting again.  We showed  Roger and Barb and their 2 kids our great fishing spot. Oopps! Where did all those fish go? We caught another 4 only 2 of which we kept but poor Rog and Jack (10yrs) had no luck. Bummer

We are here 1 more day then off to Kalbari, which looks fantastic. Hopefully it won’t be quite as windy there although i am betting its cold. Afternoons here are close to gale force winds, its no wonder that the wind turbines produce so much electricity here, something to the tune of 40% of the town requirements with 4 turbines. I suppose we cant really complain as we havent had a winter as yet.... and lets face it its only a few weeks now from summer! See you in Kalbari.

DENHAM - MONKEY MIA

On the way into Denham at the bottom of shark Bay is the Hamelin nature reserve and Hamelin Pools. We detoured to have a walk down to the STROMATOLITES, yes I know that’s a big word for this time of the morning. They are a living rock, which according to science have been here for over 3 billion years.  In short they are a composite of blue green algae and deposit oxygen into the environment. Cleaver little buggers and they look really cool too!!

We took advice from our new buddies Haydn and Teresa and booked ourselves into the top tourist park at Denham and yep it has the best position right on the beach or should I say bay, as this is “Shark Bay”. We got a spot right at the top of the park as its set in tiers, with a view to die for straight over the bay. That was great until about 5 o clock when the sea breeze grew and grew and the van flapped and flapped. The next day we were all packed up and on the road again for our shortest trip ever 32 seconds from hook “up” to hook “off”. Yep you guessed it we moved to a lower tier less of a view but only 20 steps to the sand and lots of shelter from the afternoon winds.

no view, shelter

view, no shelter

Early that morning after our second set up we took a drive to Eagle Bluff and walked on the Broad walk so as to get a view of the cove the bay and the SHARKS and there were plenty of them too. The walk is very high up from the water so it is difficult to actually take a picture of the sharks. I tried but they look like black dots so sorry guys!

The small tiny minute shells around here are unreal, they are perfect in shape and form but so so so so small. The early settlers used the shells to make house bricks (rather large bricks actually more like besser blocks) and built their homes with them. The ground around Hamelin is so compact with these shells that they had a small shell quarry where they simply cut square bricks straight out of the ground.

shell bricks

shell quarry

We are really enjoying the west coast the views at every stop are just amazing, and again we keep meeting amazing people. Whether its because we are all like minded I’m not sure???? But Ozzies I have definitely decided are a great bunch of people especially the travellers. Pip has caught up with Lily and Jack from Coral bay again which is great as the parents Barb and Roger are (not only similar age to us) but great value too.  Lily is an absolute brain child and although only 8 appears to write like a 12 year old …. Go Lily. Jack is just a lovely boy who is full of character. We went to the ocean park to hear about all the local marine life. The young tour guides (Ed and Wil) there were just fantastic, I was sure they were young marine biologist as their knowledge and articulation  was brilliant. Pip got to learn about all the marine life around shark bay. Next we went to Peron station (in the National Park)  to learn of the old days and the sheep shearing, we also watched a couple of male emus who were looking after their young (hear that boys! The males do the maternal thing or should I say paternal) chasing and fighting each other. They were a bit close for my liking; Mike however couldn’t get close enough.

jack, lily n pip

ocean park

ocean park

emu fight fight fight

Today we went fishing off the beach, a little way round from the caravan park. We were hoping to be a little more fortunate fishing here than we were at Monkey Mia yesterday where we saw lots of dolphin’s, (silly backpackers trying to ride them) star fish, and cone shells (very poisonous) but no fish. Alas we couldn’t stop them, today 10 whiting. Some we had to though back, way small but others good enough for a feed. We are heading back to the same site tomorrow arvo at high tide to do the same again with Roger, Barb, Jack and little Lily. I’ll let you know how we go. We are also taking Pip over to Monkey Mia again to see if we can catch the feeing of the dolphins. Stay tuned for the last episode of MM (Monkey Mia).

P.S I have been drinking way too much with all this socialising, only one day alcohol free so far uggghhhh….. might need to book in for a detox next year!!! ha ha ha ha  TTFN burp!#*

P.P.S All you Mike followers….Don’t you go thinking Mike has been any better either!!