Busselton WA (Sept - 7 days)

We were really looking forward to exploring the south west of W.A. and it did not disappoint. We really enjoyed our time in Busselton which was our base for exploring this south west corner. Our camp was at a terrific family friendly park. We relished our lush grassy surroundings with plenty of in-house entertainment for the kids.

We were thrilled to catch up with Tim’s aunty Sheryl and her Tim who were holidaying in the region also. We shared some great times in the Margaret river area and playing down at the beach.

Some of the many highlights of our stay here included visiting a working sheep station where the children got to hand feed sheep and lambs with milk. They were also put to work during the shearing demonstration with Harrison holding up a hefty sheep while the girls had to sweep and pack some wool!

We visited Nilgi Caves – an underground network of fabulously impressive limestone caves. We had to duck and weave our way through these amazing underground caverns. At one point we opted for the ‘adventure route’ rather then the stairs and crawled our way along a dark narrow tunnel which was incredibly thrilling for the children (less so for Tim and Kate who found the space a little too tight!)

The dairy land and wine regions meeting the sea in the Margaret River were just beautiful. We tasted local delights of wine, cheese and chocolate, and with purchased supplies enjoyed a gorgeous picnic by the sea. We played on the shores, climbed rocky coastlines and enjoyed many a scenic lookout.

Despite the windy and average weather we managed a walk along the Busselton jetty. At 1800m it is the longest wooden jetty in the southern hemisphere.

Our journey south continues onto Augusta and Albany.

Mandurah WA (Sept - 6 days)

Thinking we were heading out of the city into the countryside, we were surprised to find that Mandurah was really a satellite city of Perth (somewhat like Sydney’s Central Coast). With a population well exceeding that of Port Macquarie we were still surrounded by all the shops, conveniences etc. We stayed on the edge of town near the river, which sounds lovely but unfortunately for us they had just the day prior sprayed the river banks for mossies, stirring them up terribly! We did however find ourselves in one of the better park arrangements that we have encountered on the trip. We could spread out on a huge caravan site that was literally adjacent to the playground and jumping pillow. The kids were thrilled to have these at their doorstep. Georgie became impressively skilled at climbing the ladder to the top of the slide and whizzing down. Kate watched nervously at first as Georgie teetered at the top of the slide platform, but the big kids were never too far away, watching over their little sister. We visited the fascinating Abingdon Minature Village, marvelling at the perfect gardens housing old English model buildings. The kids excitedly whizzed through the garden mazes and we escaped the rain to the tea house for a scrumptious morning tea.

We took a day trip to Rockingham to visit Penguin and Seal Islands. It was a very short 5 minute ferry ride across to Penguin Island where we saw fairy penguins being hand fed. Ten are housed in a purpose built conservation hut on the island. They were adorable waddling from their little huts to the feeder for their lunch. There are some 1,200 that inhabit the island but are usually off in search of the fish in the day. We did spot two in little burrows as we walked across the island. We then took an additional ferry ride across a channel in the reef to Seal Island. On this particular drizzly day the wind and the waves were up. As we headed across the channel we faced a 4 metre swell which seemed much worse as the ferry had to negotiate the rolling waves side on. Kate was terrified but tried not to let on for the kids sake (as she mentally planned how two adults would save four kiddies, should we capsize!). The sea lions were stinky (said Harrison) and rolled belly up on the sea weedy shore. It was thrilling to see these creatures (as well as hundreds of pelicans, nesting seagulls and five skinks) on our adventures. We all loved the day!

Another outing we drove through the historic towns of Pinjarra and Dwellingup. The countryside was just stunning with green rolling hills, stony outcrops, streams, orchards, sheep etc. This was our coldest day on the trip so far. A chilly 11 degrees and very windy. We searched for a coffee venue and found ourselves at a little boutique winery serving coffee around a lovely fire. The kids sipped their hot chocolates happily and we even managed a five minute wine tasting! Such a different part of the trip compared to the dusty dry remote outback (which we did love!). Not until Perth did we seem to emerge from the dry landscape.

We really feel on the homeward stretch now which raises a mixture of emotions. One young man does tend to tear up at the thought of the trip coming to an end….

Perth WA (Sept - 7 days)

We had a fabulous time catching up with family while in Perth, this time Kate’s parents who had flown over from the Central Coast for a visit. They stayed in a cabin behind our van. The kids came and went from ‘our place’ to ‘Granny and Grandad’s’ with great delight. Georgie just toddled around and tapped on their door whenever she wished…very sweet!

We experienced our first real rain in Perth since the east coast. Initially a novelty this soon become a bit of a drag as we had wet bits everywhere and battled to dry our washing. We headed out whenever it wasn’t too wet. We loved strolling through picturesque Kings Park overlooking Perth and the Swan River. The kids really enjoyed visiting Scitech (a hands-on science exhibition) and discovering several of Perth’s many fantastic playgrounds. We sipped coffees and strolled through famous markets in Fremantle. The kids enjoyed a trip into the city with Granny and Grandad and Tim and Kate relished in a gorgeous dinner out at a winery in the Swan Valley one evening.

We had fun catching up with some old friends from Sydney days now living in Perth. We attended their church where Nigel is one of the pastors. All in all the time with family was just so wonderful, but we were feeling the itch to flee the ‘big smoke’ again. The traffic, noise, crowds and city pace was a little confronting after many months in small towns and often quite remote places.

Kalbarri & Cervantes (The Pinnacles) WA (Sept – 3 days)

We had a night at each of these two spots on route to Perth. The drive along this stretch was stunning, with an increasing number of wildflowers amongst pastoral land. In areas whole fields were washed with colour….purple, yellow, pink. Even the kids took in interest in the changing landscape at this point.

Kalbarri is a small town set on the mouth of Murchinson River opening out to the Indian Ocean. Here the mix of calm inlet waters and wild open coastal waters was quite appealing. The surf reminded us fondly of home, after mostly very calm ocean waters for a long time. We walked out to Red Bluff to look along to the coastal ‘gorges’ and visited a seahorse breeding nursery. It was fascinating viewing tanks full of varying growth stages of little seahorses which were being bred for retail, aquariums etc to conserve natural populations. It was very informative and the kids came away with the plan to add some seahorses to our to-be pet list.

Cervantes is another small coastal town some 250kms north of Perth. It is the closest township to the remarkable Pinnacles. Thousands of limestone formations stand out of the sandy desert, only kilometres from the sea. The big kids had a ball playing hide and seek amongst the pillars while we watched the sun set in the distance. It really was one of the most unique environments we have visited on the trip.

Denham & Monkey Mia WA (Sept - 7 days)

We spent a week at Denham in the heart of World Heritage listed Shark Bay. This was our western most stop of the trip. The waters here were again a beautiful aquamarine colour and crystal clear. Fishing (with very little success) and shell collecting were the key pastimes. On three occasions we drove to nearby Monkey Mia (a very small resort village). Here we got to enjoy the renowned dolphin visits. We were thrilled to see a six day old dolphin with it's mother in the close shallows on a number of occasions. One afternoon a group of dolphins came in to the shallows in search of fish. They would swim around slowly then dart off in pursuit of a meal. Harrison managed to catch up with them on a nearby sandy point. We weren’t sure if he was more excited about the fish or the dolphins splashing about! We hired a small glass bottom battery operated boat which was fun. Tim and Kate jumped in together and went stingray hunting.

We visited ‘Ocean Park’ a marine conservation/education park which was fascinating. The kids loved watching the sharks being fed up very close (peering excitedly from the footbridge spanning the shark pool). We learnt a great deal about many marine creatures native to the area, including stonefish and sea snakes which are present in the waters of Shark Bay.

Another day we went exploring in Cape Peron National Park. We drove some 110kms on rough and often sandy dirt tracks and along salt pans. This drive took us to various spectacular beaches and lookouts, including Skipjack Point where marine wildlife can be spotted from the headland on the change of the tide. We did see a dolphin and a manta ray and may have seen more if we didn’t have an adventurous little toddler on our hands in a ‘cliff risk’ area. The drive was lengthy but beautiful with more wildflowers dotting the dry landscape.

We soaked up one of our best outlooks on the trip at our caravan park in Denham, looking out over pristine Shark Bay. On the fourth day however the weather changed and we faced our windiest time yet. The wind built to a gale, rattling the van at night and flapping the bed ends without relief, to the point where we could not sleep for the din. At midnight we took down the annex which was struggling in the wind. This brought some relief. On subsequent nights we pulled the van forward so that the car could be parked to buffer the onshore wind (peaking with gusts up to 60km/hr). We also pulled the top down on the van which helped even further, but we did bump our heads a few too many times in our significantly reduced space! Our last evening in Denham the wind did die down to a tolerable level, thankfully!

On our way out of Denham we stopped off at the Stromatolites (ancient organisms in the saline waters) and ‘Shell Beach’ comprised of metres deep of tiny cockle shells producing a dazzling white shoreline.

Coral Bay WA (Aug - 3 days)

We spent a fabulous three days at the southern end of the Ningaloo Reef while at Coral Bay. We did some four-wheel driving around the sand dune country to discover some very untouched beaches and reef sections. The kids loved fossicking in the rock pools for interesting sea bits and coral. We did try a little snorkelling in the town bay, but after a short go realised that we were not in the best spot for viewing the reef. Annabelle and Kate inadvertently swam right next to a stingray at a depth of less than a metre, with Harrison on foot alongside. They made a quick turn around, relieved that Harrison had not stepped on it! The children delighted in the daily feeding of large spangled emperors which came right to the shore. They were told to dig their toes in the sand or they may be mistaken for a fish!

Our fourth and final family birthday for the trip (Kate’s) was celebrated here. Harrison and Kate went out on a snorkelling charter on the reef. The coral viewing from the flat glass bottomed boat was fabulous. The water was very nippy, and the swell and wind were up, but despite this the view under the water was calm and clear, teeming with colourful fish. After some time the local Spangled Emperors came to say hello, but unfortunately became a little too friendly. They circled around excitedly in great numbers. They are fairly big fish with decent thick lips. One of the other men onboard was apparently nibbled a number of times, but thankfully the Smeads escaped this affection! Harrison climbed back on board the boat first and Kate decided to snorkel a bit longer. After a while Kate asked the operator to kindly entice the school of fish away from the back of the boat so that she didn’t have to fight her way to the platform, but to her horror he thew burly her way, hitting her in the head. The fish launched at Kate as she frantically made it over to the back of the boat, throwing herself at the platform with several girlish squeals. It was very annoying that the operator was getting his kicks out of watching people fight their way through these fish.

We really enjoyed our time at picturesque Coral Bay and we were a little sad to leave this gorgeous section of the coast.