Gracetown (exploring more sights)

After the best nights sleep in about 3 days we awoke to birds chirping and even a kookaburra laughing just lovely. We let Dylan sleep in as he looked like he was in a deep sleep. We all ahd breakie and showers and Dylan was still asleep, wow we thought he must need it. Or I was thinking he’s growing as we speak. Finally Mark woke him at 9.40am, now that’s affair sleep.Thats like 11.30am back at home, we said to Dylan, What are you going to do when its camp 2 days after we get back,everyone on camp will be waking you up. Miles you can have this job, just give him a short shove to wake him.We finally got going around 10.30am and bit lazy this morning and drove down to Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse about a 40min trip.Cape Leeuwin lighthouse is on the extreme south west point of Australia and is the biggest lighthouse on the Australian Mainland. We didn’t climb it just did the walks around and the lookouts as well as seeing where the Indian Ocean meets the Southern Ocean. Of course a photo for this was in order around the sign post. By the time we finished here we drove to Flinders Bay for some lunch,we always carry our lunch in the back of the car so we can stop anywhere. A lovely little park and it was sunny so of course,its lets sit in the warmth.

We then started to head back and dropped into ‘Jewel Cave’ and decided to do a tour here. This was fantastic and well worth it, seeing all the stellegnites hanging like crystals from the roof and some were metre and metre long. Our tour guide had said that they grow 1cm a year so therefore what we were looking at were thousands of years old. The cave was well lit up and had steps, actually 250 steps down into it to be precise, and of course another 250 to climb out again, our tour guide had said there’s no elevater out of here. Some areas looked liked coral on the cave and ere lit up with different colours made to look like you were under water,just beautiful. It was interesting that the cave had tree roots all the way through the ground to the cave and almost to the ground level of the cave inside. We could see the roots of the Karri trees and peppermint trees. Lily wasn’t sure of this at the beginning but by the end of the 1 hour tour she was off up the front of the line of people climbing the steps back out of the cave with no help and no complaining(Yeah).

We left the caves and went for a drive to Boranup lookout and through the forest of Karri Trees. They are just so tall and beautiful as you drive through the forest. Karri Trees are really straight trees and basically all look similar but even better when there is a forest of many . We planned on going to the Millars Icecream farm shop for the kids but it was closing in around half an hour and we wouldn’t make it in time.Lucky for us we hadn’t told Lily or it would have been screaming for sure. We did however have enough time to go to a winery caller the Voyager Estate, and were recommended to go there. The gardens and the vineyard was immaculate and had the 2^nd largest Australian Flag in the southern hemisphere flying high. We had a photo taken next to it, being soliders saluting our country.

Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse

Where the Southern Ocean and the Indian Ocean meet

Boys looking at the two oceans meeting

Inside the Jewel Cave

Back for dinner and cooking in the camp kitchen once again.We have been to many camp kitchens in the past 10 weeks and we have voted this one No.1 so far. It has everything. There was another fire and we toasted marshmallows once again. Uno was on again tonight and now the results  are so far leading is Oliver on 1098,Mark 1020,984 is Dylan, the fabulous Hayley on 809 and little miss Lily on 603. We will have more  games the following evening. 

A special Post about visiting Subiaco home of West Coast Eagles and Fremantle Football clubs

Outside Subiaco the paths have hall of fame walk.

Subiaco-Paterson Stadium

I can't believe I have forgotten to put in that we went and visited Subiaco Oval, as Oliver and Dylan wanted to see how big it was and the fact we had visited TIO Stadium in Darwin. We went to the West Coast Eagles Shop and they had their photo next to Natanu(don't know how to spell that name, you know the guy, the really tall black one), a poster that was. We had to go to security and sign us all in and go with a guy who let us into the stadium to see it. We asked if we could go on the ground, which was in fantastic condition but we weren't allowed. We had to just observe the ground, but at least we went and had a look. We are travelling the country seeing all the football stadiums, which one next, maybe Adelaide?.

Margaret River Region- We are in Gracetown

Our set up in Gracetown

Pack up morning and after such a terrible night, Mark said its 8am, we have 2 hours to get out of here. Great, kids were still asleep; I didn’t feel like even opening my eyes and it was raining and still blowing but not as bad. We got moving and the kids awoke and had a quick breakfast and they went to the T.V room to watch cartoons. It was good we could pack up without the kids there, but it was wet. We didn’t care it was wet, all I wanted was to get out of there, the wind was now really getting to us all, and puts everyone in a bad mood. We got out of the caravan park by 10.30am, so that wasn’t bad, and we headed south, hoping to maybe get out of this terrible weather. No, we went through hail not long after we started and it was cold. Through the heavy rain ahead we could see flashing lights, police or ambulance, and as we passed it was a terrible accident, a caravan completely smashed up and hardly recognizable, a guy was sifting through the remains obviously trying to selvage anything that was left. It looked to be a truck involved also. We could understand why this could happen as Mark had said he could feel the wind howling and I suddenly thought of the Lorimer family when they said their caravan was fish tailing and difficult to control. As it felt like we were back into winter we stopped off at Bunbury and went to the shopping centre. Mark and I wanted the biggest strongest coffee, as we had headaches due to lack of sleep. (Yes I have about 1 coffee a day now). We thought a lovely hot lunch was in order, so it was pies and sausage rolls. Back on the road and it wasn’t far to or destination Margaret River Region. I had spoken to a guy back in Kalbarri and he had said stay at Yallingup, so I rang on the way. No vacancies, only 1 night as it’s the Queens Birthday long weekend here and we wanted about 3 nights. I rang Tauton Farm, a place our friends the Lorimers had been but again she could give us a squeezed in site for 2 nights. We drove and turned left to go check Gracetown Caravan Park, we didn’t ring just turned up. It’s the long weekend and no powered sites. We need power, its freezing and I need my heater and plug in blanket. Ha Ha HA. The lovely lady had said we had no power site and then Mark suggested could we run a lead to get power. Yes this was possible, and we ended up staying here, and it’s a great site close to amenities and a huge camp kitchen… and guess what no wind it had died down and just a little rain. All set up and settled and our dinner in the camp kitchen and there’s a TV and an open fireplace, just beautiful. To it off we are here for Grand Final day and they are having a special day here at the park, a huge screen and free hotdogs, starting at 12.30am. Grand final is on early here as we are 2 hours behind you Melbourne people. Kids are happy there’s a park, blow up jumping pillow and when the people start flowing in for the long weekend I’m sure there will be a lot more kids around. We were the only ones in the camp kitchen at night with the beautiful warm fire. We had a kookaburra visit us while eating and a possum came in a little later. We wanted to watch footy show, but could only stay till 10pm, we were just exhausted. 

Fremantle- Bad weather

we saw where their hung the prisoners

Our tour of the old Fremantle Prison

Fremantle Prison

Inside the Prison

About to let the cannon off at 1pm.

t|This was at the round house, a prison first used many years ago

Oliver finding it difficult being trapped

Our 2-nd night was a better sleep, not as much wind but a little rain. We were going to check out more of Fremantle and headed to the ‘Fremantle Prison’. There was different tours you could choose from, like the night tours or tunnel tours however the tunnel tour you had to be 12 years and over. We did the ‘Doing time’, tour that went for 1hour 15mins.  Our guide, Brett, was very informative and did not stop talking and almost re-enacting moments in the Prison. The Fremantle Prison is not a functioning prison today but stopped back in 1991. There was a huge riot there back in 1988, and Brett explained all of this to us. The boys just loved hearing about it all starting with how the prisoners would come in and get processed and then given the green uniform and even moving through to the wash area, the bathroom. The cells was another interesting stop, when we saw how small they really were and it was like a prison out of a movie with it being 3 stories high. We moved on to the church were the prisoners would go and even today is used as people still like to get married in the Fremantle Prison. Very Interesting, and Brett had said jokingly, well why not get married in a prison as marriage is a life sentence. The tour concluded and we decided to head down to the ‘Round House’, and this is where everyday at 1pm they let off the canon. This was to let all the captains know what time of the day it was, so the tradition still stands. It was an extremely loud bang and Oliver and Lily were no where to be seen, actually seen way back with their hands over their ears. We went down the jetty and had lunch in the car watching boats on the water. After this we went to were Dylan wanted to go and that was the ‘The Maritime Shipwreck Museum”, I found this boring but the boys walked around and saw a lot of shipwrecks and old memorabilia. We were going out again tonight for a BBQ at another friends house that actually lived in Hilarys about 30min drive from Fremantle. We headed off to Trevor and Karen May’s house around 5pm and enjoyed a lovely dinner and chatted and chatted, as we hadn’t seen each other in years. Lily enjoyed her time with their daughter Sarah, and was in love with all her toys. It felt great being back in a house and then we had to return to the camper. Mark enjoyed seeing Trevor’s love, being his 1965 Red Mustang and Oliver was in his element as he made himself at home sitting back on the reclined couch watching and flicking through Foxtel. Dylan found a new friend with their grey cat, and it sat and loved Dylan to pat him. We returned to camp and Lily had fallen asleep on the way home, and she was the lucky one as we returned it was blowing and raining madly. We struggled to hold the poles on the annexe as they were going into the ground and the guide ropes were falling off. The boys were scared and for once I didn’t blame them, it was like a cyclone had all of a sudden hit us. The Camper was flapping, shaking and moving and Mark and I said we wouldn’t go to bed until it settled. The boys hid under the blankets as it was also freezing and Lily just silently slept through a horrendous night. We went to bed but didn’t sleep properly again as we were up again around3am, fixing the annexe. We were just OVER IT, and just wanted it to just stop. It continued all night and great we were to pack up in the morning.

Fremantle

 PHOTOS TO COME NOT MUCH COVERAGE

Okay, bad night sleep due to a lot of wind and Mark and I had been up several times in the night fixing poles and guide ropes that just kept coming out of the ground, we got up again at 6am had a vitamin B and coffee and actually went back to bed to catch some more well needed sleep. Kids were all asleep and they are waking around 7.30am and Dylan seems to be waking up last around 8am, which is actually 10am Melbourne time. I think he’s growing hence the sleeping. Okay we were going by bus and train and by the time we got moving we decided to go by car as it was raining on and off. We were off into Perth to see some sights, and were told to go to Kings Park. This didn’t take long, about 40mins and we parked the car and started to do a walk but it started pouring rain. We ran back to the car and drove around to the top of Kings Park Botanic Garden, where we could park for free and walk the surrounds. Wildflower Exhibition on so this was so pretty with all the regions with their specific flowers. We, of course have been to many of the regions, like the Kimberleys, Pilbara and the South West. The 17-hectare Botanic Garden was opened in 1965. It includes species from other Australian states and Mediterranean climatic regions; the main focus is on the stunning diversity of Western Australian flora. A waterway winds through a gully and above soars the elevated walkway offering views of the gardens and the river from within the tree canopy. We were able to do this as it didn’t rain all that much. After this went to have lunch at Zamia Café, well in the gardens that is, at the top of Kings Park. There was of course a fantastic park so the kids could burn some energy off. Mark and I had purchased a coffee and when Mark was getting it he notices the guy on ‘Sixty Minute Show’, Liam Bartlett, a reporter. After lunch, I really wanted to check out Myer Perth, and the shops, so we made our way into the hustle and bustle. We park and walk straight across to Myer.  Of course, can you believe it was running out of my Clinique products so I approached the counter and asked for samples, and was lucky enough to get be given some. It was good to be the customer and not the consultant, a Ha Ha!! The kids wanted to check out the toy department, so we let them have some fun. I guess they have missed these pleasures. We were having dinner tonight with Mick Blackford, as Mark had organized this with him and he only lived 10 mins away. About 6pm he arrived and we set off as Mick showed us around the sights in Fremantle and saw the Mansions around the river area. We couldn’t believe how huge these houses were, we kept saying they are castles. We then went out for dinner down at the Wharf and had a lovely meal, while we chatted and had a few drinks with Mick.  Mick being ‘Tony Blackford’s brother ,one of Mark’s mates. Thanks to Mick for the catch up and the sights tour of Fremantle. 

Perth here we come,The Bog Smoke!!

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Our tent set up before it started to rain and blow up

Heading to the big smoke, Perth and we are all a little excited as we were to catch up with people we know here and just the thought of a big town too. We headed to Fremantle to stay and chose the Fremantle Village Caravan Park to stop for 3 days. All set up and went down to the wharf area in Fremantle and had a look around, Lily spotted the park too, and again we said when we have looked around you can go to the park. Dylan was walking around with one thong as his had broken or actually worn out through all the walking and we hunted around to find a shop to buy more, couldn’t find a shop. We went to a shopping centre, don’t ask me what suburb or what shopping centre but there was, (a) a Coles supermarket and (b), a shoe shop we could get thongs, we were set now after also having a bite to eat at Bakers Delight.  Back to camp and oh yes, Lily did end up going to the park. Tonight we did all our cooking in the camp kitchen, which was so easy, and the T.V room was there also so we could all watch the big Brownlow Medal, along with our campers too. Well the rain started tonight along with wind and wind and more wind. We were constantly up and down all night as the camper was flapping, and rocking with the wind and rain.  Oh great we wanted to catch a bus and train in the morning but maybe we will rethink it. A sleepless night indeed. Oh yeah, Well done Jobe Watson on winning the Brownlow Medal, an Essendon Player, Whooh!

Waddi Farm Stay Resort

Okay we had rain again overnight, and we had to pack up today, but it wasn’t too bad as the wind intends to dry out the canvas. Packed up by 8.30am and we thought we’ll try the Pelicans once again at 8.45am as we left the caravan park and yes this time there were 6 Pelicans, so we did see more on this day the kids all threw them some mule, as they call it. Left Kalbarri and headed towards Jurien Bay, but weren’t sure if we were going to stay there or not. We had found in our Camp Australia Book a farm stay and we thought if we go slightly inland it would be something different. We stopped off in Dongarra for lunch and the bakery was open, always lovely to get fresh bread for lunch and of course around the corner is a park, how perfect was that. On the road again, and we had another idea, lets go to Jurien Bay and check it out and then drive to the farm stay which was not that far anyway, so we popped into to Jurien Bay only to see skydivers land almost on top of us on the beach. However the smell of the beach was enough to put us off. We just couldn’t stand the smell and we think it was the seaweed or algae on the seaweed. Thankfully we are not staying there tonight, we all thought. We missed the turnoff to ‘Waddi Farm Resort’, and drove 30km south and didn’t realized we had missed it, we turned around and came back until we finally found it. A 5 km dirt track into the farm, and there is only a couple there and a backpacker, and we could set up anywhere. This place used to be the biggest population of Emus in Australia. The wildflowers here are just amazing, and the colors too, pinks purples, even blue flowers and they are all wild. We set up but not fully and left the car attached as we would head off the next day to the ‘Big Smoke, Perth”. The kids went for a walk and found a barn and they looked through the window to see there was a pool table, foose ball table and Air hockey, but couldn’t get in and came back and got Mark.’ Dad can you take us to the games room, please”, so he did, They didn’t come back for awhile and when they did, it was funny really but it was locked up so Mark made Dylan climb through the window and open it up from inside. Well Dylan was so highly stressed as he thinks his broken into the games room. I had said when they returned; well by the sounds of things you did break it. Mark and Oli didn’t care but Dylan was so worried. The owner was half cut, when we arrived as we could smell the alcohol and cigarette smell on him, and even Dylan noticed. He charged us $30 for the night and when typing in the amount on the credit card he put $300, so there was the first sign he was pickled. The boys enjoyed the games room anyway, after Dylan got over his break-in. Bed early as it was the first night I felt really cold, as the sky was so clear, no clouds. I actually had to get out the heated blanket, which I first talked about at the beginning of the blog, and slept with that to kept slightly warm. Silence at night and we could only hear the odd cow.

Last day in Kalbarri

Awoke today and it was going to be just a relaxing day and we’ll do what ever happens or comes along. At 8.45am here in Kalbarri across the road from the caravan park on the beachfront they feed the pelicans daily. So of course we’ll go across as well  as about 40 other people. The lady that feeds them talked about the area and the pelicans and how you can distinguish a young pelican by its pale legs and the adult ones have grey legs. She had mule to feed the pelicans, a bucket full. The volunteers that come and feed the pelicans do 1 week at a time. Well we waited and waited and only attracted seagulls, so the volunteer and said for all the children to grab and mule and through them to the seagulls as there were no pelicans coming in today. They have been feeding the pelicans for 35 years in Kalbarri and in the same spot.  After about 20 mins everyone walked away, however we stayed and were talking to the volunteer and at about 9.15am one pelican flew in. Well at least we saw one pelican but couldn’t feed him as the mule had been given away. He must of slept in today along with his friends. We hoped to come back again in the morning, however we leave in the morning. 

I did 2 big loads of washing this morning and all bedding, getting all lovely and fresh for the trip home. 

The 1 Pelican that turned up.

'The Natural Bridge'

The Castle

Red Bluff

The Pirate Theme Park

Lily loved playing on the cars

Dylan jumping High

Oliver pulling faces

After lunch we had decided to do something and go check out the coastline down south a little, and it seems similar to the great ocean road.  Lots to see and do and many picturesque photos as well of,’Natural Bridge’,’ The Castle’, “The Grandstand”, ‘Island Rock’, and ‘Red Bluff’ just to name a few. We had then said to the kids, especially Oliver that they could go to the local, Pirate Theme Park that is now the Kalbarri Entertainment Centre. I had rung before we got there and we had 2 hours before it closes, as its Saturday. We scoot around to the centre and we are the only ones there, well is this saying something about this place or what. (Mark and I were tipping its no good), however we couldn’t disappointment them and had to go in and then it was $2 each to get in, yeah not bad, then if you want to jump on the trampolines its $7 each and then another $7 each to climb the spider web. We thought oh no, this isn’t so good after all. To top it off they only take cash, so in the end we scraped enough money together for the boys to go to the trampolines and then Lily wanted to play on the cars and the cubby. We were only there 40mins and we got out of there quickly. Down to drop off the boys who all wanted to fish at Chinaman’s beach and then I drove off to the beach park, yes another park, for Lily to play in. After awhile rain started and I knew I had to get back to get my washing off the line, so I had said Lily we’ll go and you can play again in the park at the Caravan Park. Great idea, and this is where she met another little friend her age a boy this time called Jez. He was Albany on a holiday with mum and dad and they both played chasey. Boys walked back from the beach and had left Mark down the beach, the boys wanted to know who was winning the football Hawthorn or Adelaide, and much to Oliver’s disappointment Hawthorn won.  We pack up and move on tomorrow and we have really enjoyed Kalbarri, a place we would come back too.

Kalbarri- Exploring

Black Boy, plant.

Nature's Window, posing for a magazine we were.

Kids in Nature's Window

The Family at 'Z' Bend.

One of the many beautiful wild flowers

Can you see the 'Hawks Head'

2^nd day at Kalbarri was going to be exploring the National Parks, so off we head to ‘Nature’s Window’ and lookout,along the way we stopped twice due to the many wild flowers and took photos and there was a field of black boys, don't know the real name for them but check out the photo.  An amazing rock formation,'Natures Window", where it’s a window with a view, check the photo. It was so windy up there though and the flies were once again annoying Oliver. He keep saying,” I hate Flies, they are going to eat me alive”. Even though the wind was bad it was still wonderful to look through ‘Nature’s window’ and actually see the river below and wild goats. Next stop was ‘Z Bend’, and we thought wonder why its called that, well we got there after a short 5 km drive and walked to the lookout and it was the river that is a ‘Z’ and we were in the middle of the ‘Z’ very interesting and again a lovely view. Next stop was to ‘Hawks Head’, and again we wondered mmm what’s this going to be I wonder, you guessed it a rock in the shape of a Hawks Head, however Dylan couldn’t see it and didn’t think much of it. Last and final stop in the National Park was to ‘Ross Graham’, and again we were a little puzzled on this one, on why this is called ‘Ross Graham’. Well an interesting story around this one as it was named after the first headmaster of Kalbarri Primary School, as he was a conservationist. This gorge area was a small river with a lot of birds, well it was supposed to be a lot of birds but we didn’t see many at all.  After a day exploring checked out Chinaman’s Beach which is near our caravan park (Murchison Caravan Park), and watched a boat come back into shore, this was dangerous as the waves were so high and the boats have to get through this in order to come back into the river to get out. The river meets the ocean and its actually called the washing machine as the waves come in at such a speed and are really high and the you have the river water that tries to come out meeting the waves. In other words the two waters against each other makes it look like a big washing machine. Don’t know why it’s called Chinaman’s beach then. Dinner tonight is going to be our ‘1^st’, take out dinner, fish and chips. I thought that wasn’t bad considering we have now been on the road 9 weeks, without any takeout dinner. We had this really early as Mark wanted to get to pub to watch you guessed it, football, Collingwood and Swans. Tonight we had our first real down pour of rain, quite heavy and then it cleared. We had heard that storms were hitting bad down south and we actually got the edge of it.  It cleared in time for bed and heard more overnight. 

Kalbarri

Left Denham, and we had to fill our water tank in the trailer this morning, all ready to go and we headed off around 10am. Some petrol refuel and a stop off at the bakery for some lovely fresh bread. Heading for Kalbarri, and a stop off at a free camp area for lunch, great spot especially for free. A lot of vans stop and toilets not too bad. Arrived kalbarri around 4pm and went to the Murchison Caravan Park, as its right opposite the beach, a little windy but suns out. Set up right next to the park, and Lily is really happy, only have to look out the window in the morning to see which kids are at the park. It makes it very easy for us having it there. Oh no, a slight problem, we have no lid on the water tank, where is it? Dylan had said he screwed it on but got distracted and it must of flown off while we were driving. Another cap need now for the water tank, lots of slight things happening like zips etc, at least no major problems. Mark went and bought bait straight away and wanted to go fishing, so Mark and Boys went straight across the road while I actually prepared dinner. I hadn’t done dinner in awhile so I thought I’d better. Boys came back and they had caught a sand whiting but too small to keep. Oh well better luck next time. Lovely town Kalbarri, will explore more tomorrow. 

Denham- Fancois Peron National Park-Cape Peron-Skipjack Point

We had decided the day before after a spectacular day that we would visit Francois Peron  National Park as our second day and travel to the top of Cape Peron and had heard that Skipjack point was well worth it, and this was only a matter of  2 km between the both. We set off at 10 am and it took about 5 mins to get there and drove into the National Park. A fee if course to enter of $11, into an honesty box, and then drove  to the homestead which is 4 km in from the beginning. This is where you get nervous as we had to deflate the tyres as we were to travel 4WD in sand. The last time Mark and I travelled 4WD in sand was up at the beginning of Fraser Island,Qld, and we got bogged and had to wait for kind people to help us out. So of course feeling a little anxious as we were about to embark on sand once again. The difficult part is ,you don't know what it's like until you come across it and it's all about quick thinking, just drive fast, is what I would say. 

Deflated tyres- check,read signs-check, read signs again- check, well we're off and here we go. A drive of about 40 km on a sandy track and it was one way, having turnouts every now and then, to let people pass. Driving along and it's all red sand, it's not bad as we go along maintaining speed of about 50 km an hour, and we can see on our map we are almost at the end of Francois National Park and at Skipjack Point, our first stop, until we hit a turn and it's so so sandy and it's looks like metres high. " oh my, just drive, fast really fast, as you don't slow down in sand", I would basically yell loudly. I hated sitting in the front seeing everything coming up and Dylan had said " I know now why these handles in the car are for, to hold on tight." I could tell Mark was a little nervous as he gripped the steering wheel and told everyone to be quiet, he was concentrating. There were dips in the sand as well as it being so sandy Snd we went up and down like bring on a roller coaster, even our fridge in the back we heard it jump up and back down. I had a headband on my head and it went flying into the back seat and Dylan even hit his head on the Dodd window. Oliver being in the middle had nothing to hang onto. Sliding, jumping, and bumping is how we described this trip down the         4 WD track to Cape Peron. I really felt for the poor car, but it has now been put to the test and can do some real4WD.  

We stopped at Skipjack Point first and this is a small boardwalk out to the edge of the coastline up extreme high and overlook the water looking down at the marine life. It was like a game, see who could see what. "There's a school of fish, there's a manta ray, oh look a shark", were some of what we were yelling out. We even had Galahs flying above us also.

It was so amazing, seeing the marine life. We hoped back in the car and drove around to Cape Peron, and this was the peak, and climbed up the red dirt to view the ocean again, and guess what we see Dugongs, wow, they are shy animals and look a lot like seals. Some people were fishing down below and we had thought maybe the Dugong might of swam away but they didn't just moved to the side and had fun swimming in a rip. The water here is crystal blue in close to shore and then becomes darker as you move out further. As it was crystal you could see more and that's why we happened to see so much. We had lunch here on a picnic table over looking the ocean, how lovely to have such sceanary.  That's it we are going back to Skipjack point to watch more marine life again, it was fun spotting it all. We arrived back and just missed dome dolphins playing , some old couple had said. They were chasing fish and through it up and caught it in their mouth. Now that would of been a fight to see. We could see dolphins from a distance jumping but not catching fish. We had better hop aboard the roller coaster and start to make our way back as it takes awhile and we wanted to check out the homestead at the beginning of the National Park. All aboard and strapped in, as we knew this time what to expect on the sandy road ahead. We start off and of course this is where it's really sandy, Mark fish tales slightly and the kids are saying " we are swerving at the back dad".  Mark concentrates, as he has precious cargo on board, ha!all of us.  

Speed, and keeping that foot on  the excelerator was the key and of course holding the steering wheel straight too. We did a fish tale and I could see a tree stump coming straight for me, as in we were about to drive into the bush. Ahhh, Mark had it under control, well that's what he said. Thankfully he's an experienced driver, thanks to the police force. We counted how many more sandy spots to go. Passed the last one and it was a relief, we had done it and an experience not to be forgotten. Drive back to the homestead and did our self guide around it. This had a artesian hot tub, bore water that was sunk 540 metres below  ground back in 1922, and used at the homestead to supply stock not for drinking it was too salty . The temp is constantly at 40 deg.

We were told to go down a track as there was a bird hide, we walked about 20 metres and was met with a 6 foot high corrugated wall with small openings for your eyes to look through. We all peeked and was met with Emu's just right in front drinking from the waters edge. I had never seen an Emu squat down on his knees before and drink, interesting.  Kids loved it, but had to be extremely quiet.  Over to the original sheep station that was here many years ago, boys loved this, working out the order of where the sheep first go and then to the holding pen, and then shawn and then kicked out the back into another pen, the along a concrete swimming area to be dipped in case they had lice . They really enjoyed the process and then there was the wool process as well. On the wall was how to shear a sheep and then the wool is sorted into grades. Dylan thought he would loved to have been a shearer back in those days. We walked over to check out the shearers quarters and could see how they lived etc. All very interesting and kids loved seeing this.

Now we inflate the tyres to the correct air pressure, there's an area where you deflate and inflate, and you can't miss it, it has a gigantic stop sign, making sure you stop.

A short drive back towards camp and we decided to check out the little Lagoon, which was near by. We could actually drive onto the beach and we could see right around the lagoon. We stayed in the car and viewed from there, kids wanted to get back, but Mark had promised Lily a play at the foreshore park early that day. Lily never forgets so we had to go. Must always keep your promises to kids. 

What we could see from the boardwalk

The Emus we could see

Driving on the beach at Little Lagoon

Hooray! Lily said. Now to sit back and watch the kids play and I had a chat to mum and dad on the phone, just keeping them in the loop of where we are heading next as our itinerary keeps changing.  Mark goes to  the so  called supermarket, here in Denham, which apparently is hopeless they have not much stock  at all and we need something for dinner, well he goes to the butcher and pays the price of course. If you wanted to open a woolworths or a Coles this is the place.  Okay  home for dinner. The end of our journey at Denham.  Sorry if I write a lot but remembering this is my diary. 

Denham Day 1

Awake nearly all night knowing the alarm will go off at around 5.50am, as I wanted to get up and shower and get myself ready to head off to Monkey Mia this morning. Lily was still asleep at 6.45am and we were all ready to go, wakey wakey Lily time to get up. She awoke and lucky for us, she was in a good mood and had breakfast and was ready by 7am. Lily later said to me,”Mum when I woke up and you looked at me, you looked so beautiful”, wow that melted my heart for sure. I know why she said that; I’d had a shower and brushed my hair.

We were on the road and headed to Monkey Mia, and sun was shinning it was a beautiful morning. They feed the dolphins 3 times in the morning and not always do they appear. But they stop at 12pm, so if we get there early we should be able to catch at least 1 maybe 2 feeds.
Well, the amount of people that were on the beach was around 60-70 and of course all had a camera, and the oldies don’t like to listen when told to step back.  We saw the first lot come in and just swim around gracefully, and that was great but then we were told to get out of the water and they come up closer. Only about 5 people are chosen to feed 1 fish only to certain dolphins. No male dolphins are feed at Monkey Mia as they become too aggressive. The first feed went so quickly and was over, oh dear that was it. We will wait and go to the next feed so maybe we’ll do coffee and then go and see them again. Well we checked out the shop and I had said we’d come back to the shop and then within half an hour it was time for the 2^nd feed. There wasn’t as many people but then became more popular as the next lot of visitors started to arrive. We knew how it worked this time and watched them come in and the dolphins, especially ‘Nicky” who was a pregnant dolphin at the age of 35 years. She previously had 8 other calves and 6 died and 1 disappeared so leaving ‘Finn” the only child of hers alive. Her calf is due November. ‘Nicky’s mother, Holyfin was 35 years old when she died and unfortunately due to a stingray barb through the heart.

It was so interesting hearing all about the families and how old they are. Life span is around 40 years old, but there is a male dolphin, ‘Real Notch’ that is 42 years currently.

It was time to all step out of the water while the handlers chose their feeders. Mark said to me,” He’s going to choose Dylan, as he had his eyes on him”, I had said” How do you know, there were about 50-60 people hear now”. Anyway all of a sudden this handler picked Dylan, oh wow, go for it Dylan. He was rapt he got to hand feed the Dolphin. Dylan had said,” They have such a hard suck on them, when they take the fish”. It was so quick that we only got a few photos, but did capture the moment. Dylan had said when we left home; I’m wearing a red t-shirt so I stand out. I highly recommend this to have something that is noticeable, as we think it worked. We still have a pass to go again tomorrow, but we think after today we don’t need to go again. We didn’t want to spoil that moment. We then went for coffee, sitting back on the couch on the beach and guess what, the dolphins were playing and jumping in the distance. Oh what a sight to see as you have your coffee. We went back to shop and picked up a few souvenirs. When came back to camp for lunch before we were to go explore some more by going to ‘Shell Beach and “Eagle Bluff’. I had to do washing we were running out of clothes so did that before heading off.

Shell beach is about 40 kilometres from Denham and is made up of millions of tiny cockleshells that have been washing up on the beach for approximately 4000 years. You can dig and dig in the shells only discover more and more shells. Collecting shells is prohibited. It did not prevent a couple of well-placed messages on the ground made up from the cockleshells. Dylan left a message for his class at school and Hayley left a message from ‘The Traveling Garrett’s 2012’. Mark went for a walk along the beach and counted 51 individual shovel nosed rays along the beach.

On the way to Eagle Bluff we saw an emu that appeared to have at least 7-8 baby chicks ducking in and out of the scrub when we stopped to take a look.   

Eagle Bluff is about 20 kilometres from Denham and is set up high on the western side of the peninsula and has a boardwalk built into the 300-foot cliff face. The boardwalk gives a Birdseye view of sharks, rays, turtles and dugongs swimming along the cliff face. We could see a dugong feeding on the weed beds, passing turtles and rays as it made its way back and forth along the shoreline. On the way back to the main road we stopped to watch a couple of Euros that seemed to watch us also.

Dylan feeding 'Nicky' the  Dolphin

Dylan so happy he got chosen to feed 'Nicky'

Nicky

Shell Beach

This is written in shells.

Upon returning to the park Dylan, Oliver and Lily all had a swim in the pool even though it was probably only 21 degrees. 

Arriving in Denham

Arrived around 3.30pm a little later than we wanted too but did , yes you guessed it, groceries, well some anyway in Carnavon. We kept driving and stopped at a roadhouse at around 1.30 pm for lunch but it was so quick as there were a lot of flies and we just wanted to keep going. Drive into Denham , which is out of The popular Monkey Mia, as we were told to do that. We stopped at the Shark Bay Caravan Park which is basic but lovely and clean and quiet. Lily wanted to try out the pool and so I took her straight away, that way she's out of the way of unpacking. Mark did the most and I did the usual the beds etc. we got dinner early and than we said we'll Monkey Mia, early in the morning.We hoped to leave by 7 am to get there, it was only 20 min drive away. Bed early, but I found it difficult as we had just spent 2 nights at Quobba where it was totally dark and silent and now back in a park it was bright from the toilet lights and people walking back and forth and you can notice them. Eventually I'm sure it was after 11 pm when I dozed off.