Geraldton to Perth - The trials and tribulations of caravanning!!

Oops the springs collapsed on the caravan - overweight or one too many happy hours perhaps???

HMAS Sydney II memorial in Geraldton

The Waiting Woman at the HMAS Sydney II memorial Geraldton

WA means "windy always" - even the trees are laid back

Hang gliding at Geraldton

Point Moore lighthouse - the beam can be seen 26km out to sea

The foreshore at Geraldton

The port at Geraldton

One of the lobsters at the processing factory - YUM!!

Sorting and weighing the fisherman's daily catch of lobsters

Two "raw prawns"

Oh no, not again - now the car!!!

Our camp site at Sandy Cape Reserve - Jurien Bay

Sandy Cape Beach - Jurien Bay

Jurien Bay

Well where to start this blog?? We left Kalbarri some time ago now and happily went on our way singing and munching lollies when Anthony who we were travelling with noticed that our springs on the caravan had flattened.  Immediately they all looked at me - what? I know I've been indulging in lots of happy hours but have I been that bad?  Or could I have packed too much?  Either way they needed to be replaced and I would be in trouble so we were hopeful of getting it done in Geraldton - gulping at how much we anticipated it would cost.  However the caravan people couldn't do it for at least 2 weeks so Charlie ordered the springs and after begging the caravan park for permission to do it there, Charlie along with Anthony replaced the springs at a lot less cost.  My hubby then decided that he wanted to know if we were overweight and if so by how much so off he went to the public weighbridge - You just don't want to know!!  Needless to say we had to get rid of some things, redistribute the weight in the caravan and hopefully now it is ok. I bet 99% of caravans on the road are overweight.

Anyway repairs concluded we then had a look around Geraldton.  It is a very nice port city.  The foreshore is lovely with lots of cafes and a water park for the children.  We also visited the wonderful HMAS Sydney II memorial.  It is beautifully done and would have been one of the best memorials we have seen.  This memorial honours 645 Australian sailors who were lost during a World War II battle in 1941.  The memorial features a dome of 645 seagulls, each of them representing a lost life.  The wreck of the HMAS Sydney II was discovered on 16th March 2008 ( a bit of a history lesson for you all).  Anyway it is worth a visit if you are ever in Geraldton and it is quite poignant to see the statue of the "waiting woman" looking out to sea waiting for her menfolk to come home.

We then did a tour of the lobster processing factory which was interesting to see all the lobsters from the nights catch.  Each fisherman's catch is sorted and weighed and then they are paid accordingly.  The price for lobsters fluctuates quite a lot so the price the Co-operative is paying daily is posted on the board and then the fishermen decide whether its worth getting out of bed and going to work or not - How nice would that be!!!

After a longer stay than we really wanted in Geraldton, we hitched up the van again and headed off to Sandy Cape Reserve at Jurien Bay.  This is a lovely camp spot right on the beach and at only $15 per night it is a bargain but unfortunately disaster struck us again.  Talk about the Griswalds, it seems to be "The Raphaels Go Caravanning" - perhaps they can make a movie of us.

We had just turned onto the dirt road going into the Reserve area and we heard an awful grinding noise coming from the front of the car.  Charlie stopped the car, then tried again and the same thing.  Anthony to the rescue yet again and the boys took the wheel off and found that the "C-clip" had come off from the axle.  After some bush mechanics they got the car mobile and we managed to get to the camp site.  We phoned a mechanic in Jurien Bay but once again, yes you've guessed it, they couldn't do it for at least 2 weeks.  We then phoned Toyota in Perth and booked the car in for about 10 days hence. 

We had a great time at the Sandy Cape Reserve, seeing dolphins, sea lions and all sorts of fish at the beach. It really was a perfect spot but we decided to leave early and make our way into Perth to be closer to civilisation and public transport for getting around as we didn't want to drive the car too much.  I was busy doing mental calculations about how much this was going to cost and whether I would have to do that awful four letter word - work.  Needn't have worried though because once the car was looked at in Perth, it was found that they had stuffed up at Mt Isa so the costs were all covered by them!! 

We had a good look around Perth which will be a separate blog and now getting ready to fly to Adelaide for Christmas to be with the family and grandies!!  Oh and by the way had a beautiful baby grandson born 2 days ago in the UK, Sam William - congratulations to Abbie and Matt.

On that note its Adieu from The Wandering 2s.

Kalbarri National Park - Mixing with Royalty and then Ghosts!!

Kalbarri - Murchison River and Ocean

Blue Holes Beach Kalbarri

Wildflowers Kalbarri National Park

Another wildflower

More flowers

Catspaw wildflower - unique to the Kalbarri region and is found nowhere else in the world

Wildflowers Kalbarri National Park

Fields of wildflowers Kalbarri National Park

Us at the Lookout Kalbarri National Park

Z bend Kalbarri National Park

Natures Window Kalbarri National Park

Z bend gorge Kalbarri National Park

Another view of Z bend gorge

Fire tree

A stone statue of HRH Prince Leonard of Principality of Hutt River

Personalised principality number plates

Charlie salivating over the Royal Rolls Royce

The official flag of the Principality

Us with HRH Prince Leonard -  When else will we get so close to royalty but should I have curtsied?

The Hutt River sign

The Pink Lake at Port Gregory

Us by the Pink Lake

Convict ruins at Lyndhurst Station

More convict ruins

Anthony and Karlas' rig and our rig

Oakabella Homestead sign - we camped for the night

The old haunted homestead

The tearooms at Oakabella Homestead

A sculpture $8800 price tag!!!!

Charlie being a "Ghost Buster"

A ghostly (or ghastly) figure on our ghost hunt

A ghostly handprint on the wall - Karla took the photos but it wouldn't email to me properly - Ghostly interference maybe - wooooooooooooo!!!

Well we arrived in Kalbarri and stayed in a lovely friendly caravan park called The Tudor.  Kalbarri is a beautiful little place which is located on the Murchison River where it meets the ocean.  There is also the Kalbarri National Park, home to the spectacular Murchison River Gorge, Natures Window and Z bend to name just a few.  The Murchison River Gorge has been formed over millions of years.  The beauty of this National Park is that all the walks to the gorges are very accessible and easy so no tramping for lots of kilometres, or rock hopping which suited me just fine!!  We were lucky enough to be here while there were still some wildflowers about and it must be spectacular at the height of the wildflower season.

The coastal cliffs of Kalbarri have witnessed many shipwrecks over the years and looking at the ocean waves pounding on the shoreline, you can easily see why.   There are scenic sites all along the coastal road which extensive views overlooking colourful coastal limestone and sandstone ledges.  It is a haven for surfers with some mad ones (in my opinion anyway) strutting their stuff at Red Bluff.

We just relaxed here (there's that word again) and Charlie bought himself a new fishing rod and tried his luck again but didn't get anything worth keeping.  We met up with some other people we met on the road, Lee and Bev and Mike and Zelma so we had a few happy hours of course.

We did a day trip to the Principality of Hutt River.  We had heard about this place and even seen something on the television some time ago so were eager to see it for ourselves.   Its what is called a "micronation".  The place is very run down.  Apparently a legal loophole allowed a farmer called Leonard and his wife to set up a separate "country" and it broke away from Western Australia in 1970.  Captain Stirling never proclaimed Western Australia part of British Territory so after lots of legal wrangling The Principality of Hutt River was established and gained itself Prince Leonard and Princess Shirley.  On speaking to Prince Leonard he told me that he had approximately 13,000 citizens world wide with about 30 living there on the farming land.  He has his own stamps, money, flag, a Rolls Royce with the royal flag and insignia on the side of it, special Principality number plates. 

When entering we had to have a visa with an entry date stamped on it and an exit date!!!  I even saw Princess Shirley stamping the actual passports of some Japanese girls but I wouldn't have been game enough to do that - I'll just stick with the visa and put it in my passport. I must say I found it very difficult to take it all seriously but looking at all the regalia around the place, it is all "fair dinkum" to use a great Aussie expression.  There were newsletters showing them dressed in all their regal robes doing a "Royal Tour" with lots of Heads of States of various countries!!

We left Kalbarri  and we called in to Port Gregory to view the Pink Lake.  This is an awesome sight and the colour is due to bacteria which is trapped in the salt granules.   After having coffee and cake (thanks Karla yet again) we plucked up courage and headed towards Oakabella Homestead at Northampton which is reputed to be the most haunted house in Australia. We camped there for the night in the paddock with Karla, Anthony, Maddie and Jayden. We loved the sign as we went in about the complimentary ghosts but as Karla and Maddie weren't too sure about this and would far rather have stayed at the Animal Farm camping ground, Charlie went back armed with his vacuum cleaner and became their very own "Ghost Buster".

It was very windy there and of course there were lots of jokes made about the ghosts not happy with us camping there!!  We went on a ghost tour at night but didn't see anything (or at least we thought we didn't see anything).  Karla and Maddie stayed at the gate and took some photos of the rest of us brave (or stupid) souls trekking around and got a photo of the 4 of us but the photo shows a handprint on the wall which is does not come from any of us - she tried to email it to me but it wouldn't email properly but I've included it in the photos - wooooooooooooo!!!  My daughter in law Sandy said when I told her what we were doing  "Have you guys lost your marbles since you've been travelling?!!!!"   Mmmmmmmmm I think we may have but its all good fun.

After a very windy night there with the wind (or upset ghosts) howling around the caravan, we left and headed into Geraldton where we had to organise to get the springs fixed on the caravan as they had flattened - YES ITS OFFICIAL - ONE TOO MANY HAPPY HOURS - I'VE BROKEN THE SPRINGS ON THE CARAVAN!!!

That's all for now so its Adieu from The Wandering 2s.





Quobba to Kalbarri - Amazing sights

Coastline at Quobba

One of the blowholes at Quobba

Tells the story

A girl still has to look good!!

Just liked them

Charlie with a "speed hump at Quobba

Blowhole

Charlie looking for clams at the lagoon at Quobba

A funny dunny

A salt lake at Lake MacLeod - part of the Dampier Salt Mine

Me at the start of the One Mile Jetty at Carnarvon

Looking at the antiquated kitchen at the Lighthouse Keepers Cottage Carnarvon

Yummy seafood lunch with Barb and Trev

Part of a whale skeleton and harpoon - poor whale

The foreshore at Carnarvon

The Communication Satellite Dish at Carnarvon

Entrance to the Shark Bay World Heritage Area

View from Eagle Bluff - Shark Bay - the water is soooo clear

Another view from Eagle Bluff

Shell Beach - Shark Bay

Shell Beach made up of all these millions of cockle shells

Stromatalites - the world's earliest living organism at Shark Bay

More stromatalites - different colour

Stromatalites - only found in 3 places in the world - Shark Bay the premier place

Entrance to Monkey Mia

Aristocat 2 - dugong hunting!!

The beach at Monkey Mia

Bottle nose dolphin putting on a show

Waiting for a feed

Laughing dolphin

Maddie and Jayden feeding one of the dolphins

Mother and 2 week old baby

Free camp at Murchison River

Murchison River

Kyaking on the Murchison River

Anthony and Charlie doing what they do best and putting the world to rights

Well where do I begin this blog - we have been to so many places since I last wrote something - I think I may have been a bit slack!!

WA is beautiful but someone said that WA stands for "windy always" and we certainly agree with that although it has kept the temperature down during the day and the nights are lovely and cool so we can snuggle down in the doona.

We stayed at Quobba Blowholes for 3 nights which is north of Carnarvon and just $5.50 a night (our type of camping).  This natural phenomenon is an awe inspiring sight to see.  Powerful ocean swells force water through sea caves and up out of narrow holes in the rocks and jets of water erupt into the air.  The literature states they can sometimes reach a height of 20 metres.  The coastline in this area is very rugged and very different to what we have seen up to now.  Just a kilometre away is a perfectly safe and sheltered lagoon where we went snorkelling again and saw lots of lovely coral and coral fish.  Unfortunately (well for Charlie, not the fish) it was a fish sanctuary so there was no fishing there.  We loved this spot.

We left there and made our way just 75 ks down the road to Carnarvon - we're not called The Wandering 2s for nothing.  We don't go very far in a day!!  Here we met up with a lovely family again who we met in the Cape Range National Park, Anthony, Karla and their 2 children, Madeline and Jayden. Carnarvon was a fairly interesting town on the Gascoyne River.  The Carnarvon Heritage Precinct which is located on the site of the 1890's Port of Carnarvon includes the One Mile Jetty.  There is a very quaint Coffee Pot train which runs along the Jetty which is one of the longest in the southern hemisphere.  Unfortunately some low life had burnt part of this heritage jetty a couple of days before we got there so the train wasn't running and we could only go half way along.  Apparently the same thing happened on the same day 3 years ago.  We also went to the Precinct museums and had a walk through the Lighthouse Keepers Cottage Museum which has been restored to the times of the pioneers who looked after the lighthouse, the Shearing Hall of Fame and the Maritime Museum, all very interesting.

We had a trip around the Carnarvon plantations and a few visits to the strawberry farm for some yummy strawberries and bananas at $3 a kilo - haven't had bananas for a long time before then!!  We were due to leave there but some friends we met, Barb and Trev, arrived the day before we were due to leave so we stayed an extra day and played more card games in their big bus, tasted Trev's home made spirits and had a beautiful seafood lunch with oysters and fresh prawns bought from the wharf.  If this is what's called "roughing it" give me more!!

After a week at Carnarvon it was time to move on to Shark Bay World Heritage Area and we stayed at the lovely little town of Denham. Met up with Anthony and Karla again. Denham has a lovely foreshore where you can picnic and watch the local fishing boats come in and if you are lucky and get there at the right time you can even buy fresh fish straight from the boats. 

We did the tourist sights and one of the most amazing was a place called Eagle Bluff which is approximately 20 km south of Denham.  There is a boardwalk which goes right along the cliff and the water is so clear that you can see sharks and rays swimming in the water.  Don't think I'll get in the water after that - I still remember the movie JAWS!!!  We also went to a place called Little Lagoon which is a lovely shallow lagoon good for fishing and picnicing.  Shell Beach was another special place as the beach is comprised of countless millions of tiny shells.  The beach has got ridges and ridges of these shells - quite remarkable.  We went and saw the stromatolites at Hamelin Pool.  Hamelin Pool is a historic telegraph station with the old telegraph station and post office still standing.  From here we went on to the boardwalk to view the stromatolites.  These creatures, yes they are classed as creatures, date back to over 3500 million years ago and are the oldest living organism on the planet.  Apparently you can only see them in 3 places in the world, 2 of them in the Bahamas, but the Hamelin Pool ones are the best and most accessible. 

The highlight of this area though was Monkey Mia and our visit to see the wild bottlenose dolphins which come into the resort 3 times a day to feed.  It is a great tourist attraction and there were plenty of people there at 7.30 am. including my grumpy husband!!! Didn't like getting up early - GET OVER IT CHARLIE!!!  One of the dolphins had given birth and there was a 2 week old baby star attraction so we didn't interact for too long with them as the baby had to be fed every 10 minutes and if the mum stays in the shallows putting on a show for the tourists, the baby can't get underneath her to feed but it was well worth the visit.  Monkey Mia resort is also a lovely resort.

From here we travelled on towards Kalbarri with, yes you've guessed it, Anthony, Karla and kids but we didn't get all the way to Kalbarri pulling in instead to a lovely free camp on the Murchison River.  It was a perfect spot and we just relaxed there (I'm still perfecting this), drank, ate and did some exercise in the form of kyaking.  Anthony has 2 inflatable kyaks which were great, I felt quite safe in them although it was a bit of a challenge for me getting in and out but then Charlie says I'm like a "cow with a gun" so the fact I didn't fall in is a miracle.  Anyway one of those is on our shopping list as there will be plenty more rivers for us to explore.  Karla is a really good cake maker so she has been making a few chocolate date cakes which of course we have to sample!!  Charlie and Anthony have really hit it off and when we mentioned that he was only a year older than our eldest son, he has started calling us Ma and Pa!! 

After a couple of days we headed into Kalbarri which will be another blog at another time.  So for now its Adieu from The Wandering 2s.

Anthony, Maddie, Jayden and back view of Karla