Wild Wet West

SUNDAY, 23rd October 2011

On our way out of Kalbarri we stopped past the Pink Lake for lunch, its obvious why it got its name, not sure what causes the colouring although there was a definite smell of sulphur in the air.

 Next up comes Geraldton, we checked out the local war memorials and Jace struck a pose.

But not much else here except for seaweed covered beaches.

TUESDAY, 25th October 2011

So time to move on and we stopped through Greenough for a picture of the leaning tree.  And to check out the historical village.

 The village is really cool, they have put a lot of effort into restoring the buildings and fitting them out.  Ella was having a bit of an emotional day so Ash tried to cheer her up with a hug.

 But we still decided to lock her up in the jail cells for a while!

 But the kids got their own back against Jace and locked him in for a while.

WEDNESDAY, 26th October 2011

 We drove through the Pinnacles, and despite reports that there wasn't much to see, we thought they provided a pretty impressive backdrop despite the looming clouds above.

 FRIDAY, 28th October 2011
In Perth today and I'm getting spoilt for my birthday.  We went into the museum and arts centres which had lots of markets and free kids activities on. 

 We took a trip into the city and were swamped by the crowds of the combined long weekend and CHOGM, not a good reintroduction to city living after so much remoteness.

SUNDAY, 29th October 2011

We spent today wandering around Fremantle markets and then headed down for some fish and chips on Cottlesloe beach.

MONDAY, 31st October 2011

We had to get a new timing belt on the car, so while that was happening we spent some time down at Scarborough beach.  There were thousands of ladybugs around which was unlucky for them because Ella is a fan of collecting ladybugs and over-caring for them, so most of them end up dead. Eating lunch was a challenge trying not to end up with a mouthful of flies or ladybugs - ewww!

 And my day ended with this....a face only a mother could love!

TUESDAY, 1st November 2011

We visited a friend as we headed out of Perth, and then completely missing the Melbourne Cup we made our way down the south coast and stopped in Bunbury for a few days.  We really liked the town.

Can you tell Ella's camera skills are improving? only slight fingertip infringment, but thank god its a shock proof camera!

THURSDAY, 3rd November 2011

We took a rainy drive up to Mandurah which we somehow managed to miss on our drive down, and I'm sure it would have been great if it weren't for all the rain. 

And then came back via the farmland surrounding Bunbury and stumbled across Gnomesville.  Quite an impressive collection going on here, started to spite the councils addition of an unwanted roundabout and definitely out of control now.  The kids had a great time exploring though we had to keep a close eye on Ash since he wasn't much taller than most of them!

SATURDAY, 5th November 2011

Ever onward we passed through Bussellton today and took the kids on a train ride out along the 2km long jetty, our mistake was thinking that they would be ok with walking back and the drama was reminiscent of the effort we had trying to take the kids out on the Hervey Bay jetty.  Guess we don't learn our lesson.

SUNDAY, 6th November 2011

Made it to the Margaret River yesterday and the rain and cold are a bit of a shock.  We wandered through the town then had a nice lunch sampling ales at the Bootleg Brewery, thanks to the kids playground there it made for a nice day out in comparison to the whinging they've been putting out the last few days.  I think the kids have well and truly had enough of travelling...but we still have to drive back over to the other side of the country before we are home.  Not too much to ask...right??

There was not much surf at the Margaret River mouth, but that didn't disappoint Jace since he wasn't going in anywhere near the man-eating sharks anyway.

MONDAY, 7th November 2011

We took a disastrous tour of Lake Cave, we were that annoying family that has crying kids in confined spaces so that nobody can hear the tour guide....so not fun!

We toured the rest of the south west coastline from the comfort of the car, the 100km winds and rain would have resulted in lost children (hang on, after the cave incident that might not have been a bad idea!  just kidding).

We camped overnight in Warren national park, and it poured with rain the whole night, we woke in the morning to ankle deep water through the whole tent, which made for fun trying to pack up, especially taking breaks for hail storms.  So we've decided to treat ourselves to a hotel tomorrow night.

TUESDAY, 8th November 2011

The skies cleared momentarily while Jace climbed to the top of the Bicentennial Tree some 60m high.

I was content to stay much lower, but I had to hold the kids back from getting too high! Monkeys!

Later on Jace took us down one of his typical goat tracks that leads to nowhere.  And then he had to figure out how to turn around with the trailer on the back.  I think it was something like a 100 point turn.

WEDNESDAY, 9th November 2011 

We crashed in the hotel in Walpole last night - it seemed like a great idea when we were watching the horizontal rain outside, but not the most peaceful night since the kids thought it was such a novel idea they were awake most of the night.

But anyway moving on, we visited the Tree Tops Walk and Valley of the Giants.  The kids did so much bickering in the fake tree garage that Jace and I decided to each do the walk separately while we used the trust DVD to keeps the kids occupied.

Jace thinks it was pretty amazing walking on a structure 50m up in the air, meanwhile the sway that got started every time the wind blew was a bit much for me, much happier on firm ground.

Back to the coastline we went down to Elephant Rock, but Ella was insistant that they were camel humps.  Still very picturesque, as was the small town of Denmark that we drove through.

THURSDAY, 10th November 2011

Next stop Albany. While we emptied out the tent to let it dry out, we took a quick visit through the town's monuments then headed out to Torbay Point (most southerly point of WA). It turned out to be spectacular coastline.

And we  were lucky enough to spot a bunch of seals swimming just off the rocks, you can barely make their heads out in this photo but we were up on top of the cliff.

FRIDAY, 11th November 2011

We left Albany heading for Hopetoun but ended up camping in the Fitzgerald national park instead. 

Jace managed to get his first major roadkill for the trip, but he was warming up to it, first he took out a blue tongue lizard, then a black snake, then a baby emu had a near miss and managed to run into te bush, but the roo was not so lucky.  All within 30km, he insists they were all unintentional.

 

Hammersley Inlet gave us a pretty awesome sunset, and the kids made the most of no neighbours with their dinner table antics.

SATURDAY, 12th November 2011

We went for a play at Hammersley Beach in the morning, Ella managed to wear herself out chasing butterflies, lucky for them she didn't catch any!

And then we drove North to Wave Rock.  Jace took his surfboard down but the wave was a bit too elusive to be successful, not much of a surfer I stuck to swimming.

 

Hyden had a whole village of tin sculptures and not much else.

MONDAY, 14th November 2011

Further north to Kalgoorlie now.  We took in the view of the Superpit, the kids couldn't grasp why the trucks were so small doen there.

Jace was quite impressed by the old school pubs, particularly the wild west.

We then went through the WA Museum to see the massive gold nuggets, and the replicas of the camps and conditions the miners use to have.  We all really enjoyed it.

TUESDAY, 15th November 2011

In Esperence now, trying to psych ourselves up for the Nullabor.

Cya

xx Carlie.