Perth

It is getting colder, we can no longer be so smug when we see the Melbourne weather forecast, in fact you guys are getting warmer days than us occasionally now- good time for the caravan heater not to work!

I like Perth a lot, despite the traffic which was a rude shock. I love the huge width of the Swan River you feel like you're overlooking a bay but it's only a river.We spent our one afternoon here at Kings Park Botanical Gardens. They were spectacular, the wildflowers are out and beautiful with the varied colours. We also really enjoyed "The Lottery West Walk", shame about the name- it included a section that was elevated into the tops of the huge eucalypts that you walk through. It was constructed of glass and steel and was very impressive. The kids had a great time running around the beautiful gardens..definitely a great way to spend an afternoon in Perth.

The next day as we were preparing to head off to Margaret River, I texted my good friend Jaine for some tips knowing that she'd been in Margaret River in July. What a great surprise for both of us to discover she was actually in Perth visiting her new nephew. So of course we organised a coffee catch up , thanks Jaine for the great catch up it was so nice to see a girl friend, great cafe and we discovered a very cool hip and happening suburb, Highgate or is it Mt Lawley.

The Pinnacles

After Kalbarri we continued South along the coast to Cervantes. From here we went to explore The Pinnacles an interesting place which has thousands of limestone "formations" standing out og the desert floor. It looks quite spectacular, almost like a graveyard full of tombstones. The only downer was that it was raining, s phenomenon we haven't see for the last two months!On the upside there was a loop drive you could do through the Pinnacles so you could "explore" them without getting wet!

Funny how life works.....

Natural Bridge

We are at Kalbarri. It's a very beautiful spot where the Murchison River meets the Indian Ocean. There have been quite a few ship wrecks along this part of the coast due to the wild ocean, strong winds and unforgiving rocks and cliffs that make up the coast.We had a great day exploring the coast and its natural attractions yesterday.

Red Bluff

Mushroom Rock

Then today we went exploring the inland gorges of Kalbarri National Park. The terrain was  rugged , wild and windy in its beauty. We took the kids on a 8 km  loop walk across the cliff tops then down into the sandy creek bed then back up to the cliffs where we began. It was quite hard going especially for Harry's little legs but they all did really well and it's amazing what a packet of loo\llies can do in terms of encouragement. The kids were getting a snake lolly for each km mark they got to after the 4km mark. The walk was very pretty, the wild flowers are well and truly out.It was also quite an interesting walk as the terrain changed quite a lot as we progressed.

We were quite tired after the walk, so Harry and Emma didn't want to get out of the car at the next lookout Z Bend, Maddy and I went and had a look it was also very picturesque.

We finished off the day having a lovely meal at the pub with a family we have "met" here. The little girl actually goes to Harry's kinda in Inverloch but her Mum and I had only ever  said hi in passing .Harry spotted them in the playground on the first day we arrived running over to the van and telling me, "Mummy, Evie from kinda is here"! So I went over and said hi, and we got chatting, they are a really nice family and the kids are having a great time hanging out together too.

 So it's taken being over the other side of the country in Kalbarri to have a proper chat and to get to know this local family- at least we will be able to catch up with them when we get home, unlike the other great people we are meeting who are mostly from other states....funny how life works!

Monkey Mia

We didn't want to leave Monkey Mia. We had the best caravan site ever, right on the beach, we could see the ocean from our van and the dolphins, paradise.

We enjoyed seeing and feeding the dolphins. We've also caught up with our friends from The Gibb River Road which the girls were very excited about.

We then went on a great boat, a giant catamaran tour to find the wild ife in the ocea. We saw dugongs, albeit briefly, dolphins a huge turtle and the highlight a whale and her calf. They were swimming very close to the boat, I was amazed at huge they are. Apparently we were lucky to see one in Shark Bay that close in.

Another place we're definitely coming back to!

Coral Bay

We are well and truly on the move now, unfortunately we are out of time, so stays are limited to two nights max and only one night at places that don't sound so exciting.

Coral Bay isn't one of those places. We've just had a great day on a boat Eco tour (I'm till rocking- so excuse the typos). We were taken to some amazing snorkelling spots, we also went to a turtle sanctuary where we saw a lot of turtles swimming in the ocean and every now and then one would come up for air.

Then the highlight, swimming with the manta rays,. It was superb, there was a spotter plane that would communicate with the boat's skipper and then he would take the boat to the spot the manta rays had been seen then we had to quickly jump into the water and snorkel over and follow the manta rays. They were so elegant in the way that they glide through the water and fast. They were huge, over two more metes wide wing tip to wing tip. 

We then went to another snorkeling spot on the way home. Harry came in with us and had a great time with his noodle and mask and was very excited to see turtles and lots of fish.  

Exmouth

We loved Exmouth, it was a great combination between fantastic snorkeling and spectacular beauty as well as a great little, coastal town- complete with a great sea food restaurant that was so yummy the first night that we had to go back the second night.

The thing to do in Exmouth is snorkel, so we kitted ourselves out and headed to Cape Range National Park, we'd been told Lakeside was a good spot. You can just walk out from the beach and the reef is there 30m out, we saw amazing fish and great coral as well as a turtle.The only downside with Exmouth was that we weren't staying longer, we will definitely be back!

Natures Adventure Playground

Karijini National Park is awesome. We had a fantastic couple of days there in the eco tents(road too rough to get our van in -shame!)

We explored Dales Gorge on the first day which was a beautiful walk, we also found one of the best natural swimming pools we've seen -Fern pool.

The next day we had a great time doing some more adventurous wallks. Hancock gorge involved descending a couple of ladders then wading through knee deep water, scaling sides of rock walls ans at the end straddling canyons(the spider walk) before ending up at a magnificent pool , Kermit's Pool.

we then explored the next adventurous gorge, Weano Gorge to Handrail pool. This one started off with a deeper section of water you could either wade through and get wet to your chest, or wade across part of the way at knee height and then do some scaling along a very narrow rock wall. We all went for the last option except for Harry who had remembered that we still had boogey boards on the car roof and thought it would be a good idea to paddle across.

We then walked a bit furteh on rock scrambling, crossing streams on stepping stones before you come to a tricky narrow chasm you have to climb through and you get to a handrail which you climb down to get to the magnificent swimming pool that awaits you. That wasnt quite enough excitement for the kids so they decided to climb some of the rock walls that were surrounding us.

If you look carefully you can see Emma's head right at the top of the left hand column of rock, Maddy is mid-way, Pete is on his way to help Emma - not that she needed it but she was giving me a heart attack!

We all finished the day with that exhausted feeling of contentment you get after having a physically demanding but fun day.