Geraldton, Kalbarri, Denham and Monkey Mia.

200 km outside of Perth we stopped in at Cervantes, for a bit to eat at the lobster shack, where the lobster is caught fresh and prepared on site.   Just up the road from here is the Pinnacles Desert which is very unique landscape of limestone spires.  As you can see from the second photo James was impressed and gave it the thumbs up. 

 

The next major town now is Geraldton where we spent a few nights restocking our fridge and canned goods (which includes beer as they are deemed ‘canned goods’ in our eyes) We took time out to have a quick look round although their wasn’t much for us to see.  But we were taken back by the war memorial for HMAS Sydney II (third &fourth picture). It was beautifully done, each seagull on the dome represents a sailor who lost their life aboard the vessel. Later on that day after spending a couple of hours going round the shops before heading to Point Moore lighthouse for a picnic. The picture of the yellow submarine is a complete mystery, I can’t even recall why it’s there (although I can tell you it had nothing to do with the beetles).  We finished of the afternoon fishing off the jetty before a quick down pour and a rare double rainbow finish our day off.

 

From Geraldton we headed to Kalbarri and the National park.  On the way stopping of in Port Gregory, to see the Pink Lake.  While in Kalbarri we got to see the rugged coastline  ( very simular to the Great Ocean Road in Victoria).  On our second day in Kalbarri we ventured into the national park to see the Murchison river gorges, natures window (see pictures 5 & 6 below), the Z bend and Hawks head, where we were able to get right down to the waters edge to cool off, sit on a rock and dip our feet in the clear blue river, relax  and take in the scenery

On our way out of the National Park we nearly ran over this horny little devil, who would of surely caused a puncture on a 4wd. We decided to stay an extra day when we found out we could go on a whale watching tour. OMG it was fantastic. It took us a while to find them (like looking for a needle in a haystack). Just when the captain was going to call it a day and head back to land we were suddenly surrounded by 2 groups of humpback whales, I think they were as interested in us as we were in them. We took lots of photo’s and video of them, to many to put on here, but those of you in England will get to bore you all when we get back.

We set of early to head for Carnarvon, but on our way changed our mind and took a detour to Denham, originally we decided not to do this as it’s and extra 260km out of our way, but as we were  meant to be following the coast and not wanting to miss anything we turned left off the highway to see what we could find;

On our way into Denham we stoped off at Shell Beach conservation park, where as it states the beach in made up of shells, but strangely all from one type of shell that are tiny. The biggest was no bigger than my thumb nail. (First 3 photo’s).  On our second day we headed into Francois Peron National park, this area was once a sheep station and some of the old buildings are still there for you to have a look around.  There is also a hot tub that is a natural artesian spa and a constant 40 degree and James’ first bath this year!!.

We then headed for Monkey Mia, where the dolphins come right up to the beach to be hand fed. This is actually a resort where you can stay and enjoy the clear blue waters, golden sands and the local Marine & wildlife.  It would have been way out of our price range, lol. (pic’s 5&6)

 

On our way back to camp we stoped off at Little Lagoon, where you can drive on the beach (to James’ excitement).  (Pic’s 7 &8)  A little bit down the road and off road again we found a nice place to spend a few hours fishing.  I caught my first fish and another 5 to go with it.  They were only tiny (no bigger than my hand) but I was happy with them .  James caught a flathead, which has spikes behind its head we later found out. But only after one of the spikes cut my hand and James ran off to grab a fishing book to identify if it was poisonous or not? (talk about closing the gate after the horse has bolted, no wonder he asked me to hold on to it while he took the hook out). He also caught a puffer fish, a few small ones like mine and a blue swimmer crab. Not a bad days fishing apart from getting slightly sun burnt.

All in all a detour was a lot of fun and we got to see some very nice places, very happy we did it……..Now on to Carnarvon.