In preparing and writing this blog I now know how a puppy feels when it’s spinning around and around in circles chasing its illusive tail. It takes a week or two to finalise each update and during that time we see and experience new things that get added to the list of what to write about next… With each update we get closer to being current, but during the same time we get more out of date! Still, like the puppy, we have big smiles on our faces and are loving the lifestyle, experiences and friends we are making along the way.

The second part of the Great Update has us leaving Derby for Broome. For the first time we had a “friend of a friend” who had offered us some space to stay in the notoriously busy and expensive tourist mecca. Another contact from Hayley’s productive solo Darwin days and a friend of Ferns (who we would stay with in Perth) ran a factory and often accommodated travelling friends in a town where the tourist season can often result in extensive no vacancy signs. I’m not sure quite what we were expecting but driving towards the “industrial area” of any town is never a great sign for tourists and when we pulled into the commercial yard we were faced with nothing but piles of rubble, lumber and dirt. It took us around 5 seconds to pass on the kind offer and head back towards Cable Beach, where we could be closer to attractions as well as have things to entertain the kids (not that piles of dirt and rubble wouldn’t entertain the kids but a few more playmates around would be beneficial!). As one of our trip sayings goes – “happy kids, happy wife, happy life!” – and we have come to the conclusion that, while a more expensive way to travel, the caravan parks provide a safe and fun environment for the kids to make new friends and enjoy themselves. In the end we selected (we like to look around and choose nowadays) a very nice and secluded spot with greenery on both sides of us, which gave us a great outlook as well as some privacy in this large park.

We had a few things planned for Broome: one of Hayley’s cousins, that she hadn’t seen since she was a small girl, lived in town (I was secretly hoping that he had something to do with the brewery Matso’s but in the end it turned out not to be!); we had Kylie Barker coming to visit with us again (after meeting last time in Tasmania); and Hayley was returning to Sydney to surprise her brother Ryan at his 40^th birthday (I can let the cat out of the bag now, given this was a good few months ago!)…

On our first morning in Broome we visited the Courthouse Markets where the kids ended up with a frozen fruit smoothie (the best ever!), Hayley ended up with a coffee (the best ever!) and I ended up with a Vegetti (one of those turn vegetables into pasta that looks so easy when demonstrated and then when you bring it home works nothing like it should, definitely not the best ever!).

We also ended up with a beautiful picture of a Boab tree, just in case our own photos didn’t do them justice. After getting some tourist information and planning out the various stages of our stay we hit Cable Beach for the first time, taking a look at one of the iconic attractions of the area, which was only a short walk away from our campsite. Before long we were building sandcastles, catching waves and generally enjoying ourselves on this beautiful beach which has some spectacular tidal variations but always offers crystal clear water, plenty of sand and very safe swimming (well there was a croc towards the end of our stay, ill adjust that to “generally very safe swimming”) due to the very shallow transition out to sea.

The kids were catching wave after wave on their body boards and getting more and more adventurous! Both proclaimed they love catching big waves and when Hayley joined us after writing the Darwin blog update we all spent the first of many days lazing around in the water, playing in the sand and generally having a great time.

Cape Leveque, which is at the tip of the Dampier Peninsula, was an area we really wanted to explore. Loaded with advice from the tourist office we rang and managed to book a single night (it’s normally a 2 night minimum) in one of the amazing Safari Tents that they have at the Aboriginal owned “Kooljaman wilderness camp”. The trip up to Cape Leveque is part of the adventure, with the dirt part of the road offering up some very rough corrugations! We saw a number of vehicles with broken bits abandoned along the way, but thankfully we travelled both ways with nothing more than a few “woopty do’s!” (which just in case this is not the technical term means some large ups and downs that almost have all 4 wheels off the ground before coming back down for the dip and repeating over and over again!).

Stopping along the way at Beagle Bay, to visit the amazing church with its Pearl Shell Altar, helped to break up the trip and it was well worth the detour as it’s a pretty spectacular site and a good introduction to the pearling history of the area.

To further our knowledge of pearls we visited the Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm, which is the oldest pearl farm in Australia and one of the only working pearl farms you can visit. Set in the absolutely spectacular Cygnet Bay this Pearl Farm is testimony to the incredible hard work and vision of its founder who came to this beautiful setting in the 1940’s and decided to set up a “mother of pearl” collection operation in the crocodile infested waters (as you would!). Recognising that the area had some unique conditions to assist in the cultivation of Oyster pearls (rich and sheltered waters) he imported cultivation techniques and knowledge from Japan and after a couple of years at sea pulled in his first pearl “harvest”. From these humble beginnings the operation is now very professionally run and can even claim the largest “Pink Round Pearl” in the world, which is over 22mm round and worth millions of dollars!

Hoping that when we opened “our” Oyster shell we would see something rivalling this amazing find, we were immediately given a dose of pearl farming reality as our shell contained no pearl at all! Given this shell had been cultivated and cared for at sea for over 2 years before being opened, you can quickly see how important the process is to making sure you get something of value at the end. The insertion of the bead into the Oyster is the key – but you can’t tell if you have it right until 2 years later when you pull it from the sea and open it. As with ours, sometimes you get nothing, sometimes you get a non-round pearl and sometimes you get perfection (or pearl-fection as I’m sure its known!). All in all, the process is a fascinating one and had all of us enthralled for the duration of the tour!

After checking in at Kooljaman and being given a map to our “Luxury Safari Tent” we were very excited as we rounded the corner and came upon a magnificent tent with a phenomenal view! This tent was one of the more spectacular locations we have ever stayed in and we didn’t waste a minute of it, enjoying the beach, the view from the balcony and having a great time, despite the fact that we were still all in the same “room!”

After an exhausting day we all crashed early (I think we were all asleep by 8pm, maybe even 7:30!) but were up with the sun for a beautiful sunrise and breakfast on the balcony before heading back to the beach for another swim and then reluctantly checking out!

If we were disappointed to leave Cape Leveque that disappointment was quickly offset by the excitement of meeting Hayley’s cousin, Luke, and his family. Luke and Nic have three kids, twins Riley and Caleb and a younger daughter, Edie, and have been in Broome for 15 years or so. With all the kids around the same age they bonded quickly and had a great afternoon around the pool. Hayley loved catching up on all the years that had passed since she had seen Luke and it was great for the kids and I to meet part of the extended Wade / Hughes family. Growing up within a small family (I only have one uncle and aunt and three cousins in total), it’s amazing to see the other side, a family where relatives are spread far and wide around this country of ours… It’s a bit daunting to try to put all the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle together (second cousins twice removed and all that!), but it’s great to have friendly and welcoming family dotted around the place!

Kylie’s arrival signalled the beginning of our tourist fix for the area. Not wanting to do too much before she arrived we started with dinner at Cable beach (watching the camels as they paraded down the sand), visited Willey Creek Pearl Farm (what girl doesn’t love pearls!) and before long we were exploring some of the more historically significant parts of Broome – Dinosaur footprints!

It’s pretty amazing that you can see some clear evidence of Dinosaurs existence anywhere in the world – sure there are bones and fossils and re-creations of what they would look like and eat (not forgetting the Jurassic Park movies), but in some ways footprints, showing that these amazing creatures actually walked on the same land that we walk on today, seem so much more real and engaging. The entire Dampier Peninsula is home to a host of footprint sites, but one of the most accessible is at Gantheaume Point, where at low tide, after a short scramble down the rocks to the flats, you find yourself walking with the dinosaurs, albeit 130 million years apart!

When we first arrived we joined a few other explorers, all peering at and around the rocks, trying to work out what we were looking for. Part of the beauty of this site is that it’s very accessible, but not at all “touristy.” Because of the low key nature of the area, you are pretty thankful when a local (or someone who has seen them before) comes along and shows everyone where the various tracks are! Once you have seen the unmistakable three-toed prints made by a Theropod (a Tyrannosaurus type dinosaur), they become a lot more obvious, but without any signs or pointers it would be easy to miss them!

Struck by the mystery and romance of these Dinosaur discoveries we embarked on a slightly more commercial tour, by hovercraft, out to some more Dinosaur footprints… Half the fun of this tour is the hovercraft and despite it being a little cramped (and the driver being worried that Kylie looked a little green around the gills) it’s a pretty cool way to travel!

Although the driver wouldn’t entertain any of my requests for a few spins on the way back it was still a unique and enjoyable experience and got us even closer to more of these amazing reminders of the world long ago… Although hard to picture the completely different landscape that would have existed 130 million years ago, for some reason it’s not hard to picture the 20 different species of Dinosaurs that have been identified in this area, towering above us as they ventured along these shores in search of food, water and shelter. What an amazing time that would have been, no wonder John Hammond wanted to bring them back to life (warning – movie reference!)

The rest of Kylie’s visit involved the more social side of things. A lovely afternoon and dinner overlooking Roebuck Bay at the Mangrove hotel with Luke and family, a couple of nights of pampering for Kylie and Hayley at the Kimberly Sands resort (probably a touch more comfortable than the annex although that was handy for “naps”!) and finishing it all off with a visit to Matso’s for a couple of tasting paddles before the flight home. We all had a great time and a lovely catch-up with one of Hayley’s oldest friends, thanks for coming to visit Kyles!

The next day we were back to the airport to drop Hayley off. Headed back to Sydney for Ryan’s 40^th birthday (a surprise visit for his “Rock and Roll” party which looked amazing!) we had booked a return flight into Port Headland where we would meet up in a couple of weeks. The kids and I decided to stay in Broome until we could see the “Staircase to the Moon,” which happens over the mudflats in Broome a dozen or so times a year, so we extended our stay and spent our days hanging out with the cousins or down at the beach, either catching waves and playing in the sand, or exploring along the beach in the Jeep.

At one of our catch-ups with the cousins Luke casually mentioned taking the boat out crabbing and we all jumped at the chance. Having never been crabbing before I had no idea what was involved, but any day out on the water is a good day as far as I am concerned! Getting a relatively early start we loaded up the 5 kids and took off into the mud flats of Roebuck Bay with our pots. Luke’s version of crabbing is pretty high energy and we basically dropped half our pots down one estuary before heading out and around to another to drop the other half. By the time you had checked one set it was time to head back to check the others, so you were always on the go and enjoying being on the water without getting too hot!

There was a fair amount of excitement when we pulled in our first crab and by the end of the morning we had our catch of 2 crabs (well below the catch limits but fine for our purposes!) and we headed back to town to cook them up with some garlic and chili.

With the crabs on ice they slow down a bit so by the time we were home the kids were feeling brave enough to hold them out – I took a few photos to send to Hayley and she was pretty amazed at how large they were and how courageous the kids were being! April and Edie were the only kids adventurous enough to actually try some of the cooked crab when it was ready and they were rewarded with spicy crab that was fresh and delicious (if a little fiddly!)..

As the kids enjoyed being together so much we met up the next day also for the Staircase to the Moon markets down at Town Beach, which was enjoyable and a pretty spectacular site, even if the kids were more interested in playing than watching… Sometimes you want to explain to them that they are seeing and experiencing things that they may never see again in their lifetimes, but it’s hard to get them to appreciate how unique and amazing some of these experiences are. Still, it is all about enjoying life and they do constantly surprise us with references to things they have seen and done, so maybe more of it is sinking in than we think!

 

A final catchup the following night to show the cousins the van and around the caravan park (which we saw plenty of as April took off on her bike and promptly got lost in the darkness) and we departed Broome to head south and get a bit closer to the airport that Hayley was flying into.

80 mile beach had been recommended as a great place to fish as well as collect shells and so, as we pulled in, we sauntered out of the park and over the dunes to see an amazing beach, full of shells as far as the eye could see! With our bag at the ready we strolled up and down the beach, collecting shells, each of which seemed more amazing than the last.

On our return from the beach the wind had picked up and before long the awning looked as though it would need an additional support rope (I would normally put two on each side which I think is a bit of overkill, but in the harder ground and with no breeze to speak of on our arrival I had only supported one end!). As I stood there, ready to add additional ropes, I watched in horror and amazement as the wind picked up the non-supported side and flipped it up over and onto the roof! With dexterity I didn’t know I possessed I was up on the roof (one step onto the top of the bike rack and another onto the roof) and was supporting the weight trying to avoid any further damage! With the help of our neighbouring camper we brought the arm back down and assessed the damage, which was relatively minor all things considered! In the end we would need to replace the support arm, where the metal rivet had torn through the mount, but it was a relatively easy exercise and could have been so much worse!!!). Lesson learnt, back to the overkill for me!

With a box full of amazing shells (but no fish!) we headed to Point Samson, past Port Headland where Hayley was flying into, because I hadn’t heard anything about Port Headland that was overly positive or made us want to stay in town! In the end Hayley probably could have flown back into another town, but with the traffic coming through the fly-in / fly-out trade around this area the flights were the most reasonably priced for the budget conscious traveller! Point Samson proved a good base to explore the region from Karratha to Port Hedland and it isn’t hard to see why this is a favourite holiday destination as some beautiful beaches and coastline combine with a pretty decent pub in this small coastal village. After the non-stop action of Broome the kids were keen for some downtime, so they filled their days until Hayley arrived playing with the other kids in the playroom or out in one of the three inflatable water slides (only 2 motors were working but they were on a rotation basis!)… The Cove Caravan Park also had an adults only cinema room (meaning no kids allowed, not the other adult only!) where I was able to watch both the AFL and NRL grand finals with some like-minded individuals!

Knowing it takes a couple of days to re-acclimatise to the caravan environment after being away, we were booked in for three nights after Hayley arrived, to put a bit of a plan together and also celebrate Aprils 5^th birthday! We had a great morning opening and playing with presents but unfortunately Denver was not feeling well (at least until the chocolate cake arrived) so I took April out to a holiday workshop in Karratha, where she could do some art and craft, including making a birthday frog! We had a fun day, including visiting Dampier and the Red Dog statue that honours this wandering kelpie/cattle dog, but it’s not quite the same without your partner in crime!

After a few relaxed days of R&R (or because I have already used “relaxed” is that just now “R”?), enjoying the local area, including the beautiful (and wonderfully named) Honeymoon Cove, we were sufficiently rested for the next leg of our journey, to Exmouth, a town on the tip of the North West Cape. This drive was nearly 600k’s in a day and through a part of the country where you can travel for hours without seeing any signs of civilisation or people. Every few hundred kilometres you come across one of the outback “one-stop shop” roadhouses, ready to provide fuel, food and if needed, accommodation, to weary travellers. We stuck to the main roads and barely saw anyone for the entire trip, imagine how long you could go without seeing a sole if you got off the beaten track a little!

Exmouth is famous for being on the doorstep to the Ningaloo Reef which extends for 260km along the North West Cape and provides one of the world’s best reef experiences. Ningaloo Reef is Australia’s largest fringing coral reef (fringing means it grows from the shore so you can just walk straight from the beach to the reef) and it’s also very well known as an area you can dive with Whale Sharks. We were too late in the season for the Whale Shark experiences (that’s April to July if you are interested!), but we did see some Humpbacks from a distance as they started their annual migration. Even without close encounters with the whales this area was one of the most amazing aquatic experiences of our trip!

An early morning start at Yardie Creek (one of those places I had heard of but had no idea where from!) commenced an adventurous morning. After I had taken the Paddleboard down the creek for a look at the gorge walls, Denver wanted to have a go. Knowing he had managed it before, we let him jump on board and venture out onto the water. What we hadn’t counted on was the impact of the tidal flow and as Denver struggled to turn the board around to bring it back, he started to get swept further and further down the creek. After quickly assessing all the options, Hayley decided that the only alternative was for me to dive in and swim as fast as I could down the creek until I had caught up with him…  I wasn’t that keen to jump into the creek water (it doesn’t resemble the crystal clear water of the beach side) but faced with a choice of that or losing Denver into the distance I jumped in and probably broke my 400m swimming record in getting to him (albeit tide assisted so it probably doesn’t count!).

With the kids both a bit traumatised by the experience I loaded them both on board and took them for a soothing paddle back towards the river mouth. As we got towards the entrance the waves picked up and after a few wobbles we promptly tipped over and everyone got wet! At least we were able to have a laugh about that and everyone was in a much better mood as we headed back towards an area called Oyster Stacks, where some pristine snorkelling awaited!

Armed with our newly acquired snorkelling equipment we stepped carefully over the rough rocks and proceeded to snorkel around the coral “bombies”. More than 500 species of tropical fish and 220 species of coral make-up the marine park at Ningaloo Reef and it makes a spectacular sight as you float, swim and interact with these colourful and inquisitive fish in the beautiful turquoise water surrounded by the delicate and colourful coral.

April wasn’t too sure about the snorkelling side of things, but Denver took to it instantly and loved being immersed in this underwater world! Oyster Stacks is only accessible during high tides, so as the tide went out we reluctantly exited the water and made our way back down the road to the exquisitely named “Turquoise Bay.”

Turquoise Bay is a crystal clear lagoon with coral reefs teeming with fish and it quickly became one of our favourite places to paddleboard, swim and play over the coming days. Turquoise Bay has a “drift” current that allows you to enter the water at one end and then drift down over the coral or sand if you’re closer to shore. This drift also works for paddle boarding, so Denver was able to get his confidence back, even if I had to come and paddle the board back to his starting point against the strong current! A couple of times he got pulled out in a seawards direction he didn’t like, but was quickly able to master the instructions and work his way back to the safety of shallower waters!

Headed back to town after an exciting day we got our first glimpse of the resident Emu family with its cute baby Emu’s. We’d never seen baby Emu’s before and everyone loved them, they are just too cute for words! After that we saw them all over town, causing traffic chaos as everyone stopped to watch them and make sure they were safe!

Following a recommendation from a fellow traveller, we booked a glass bottomed boat trip out into the Tantabidi Sanctuary Zone, which turned out to be one of the highlights of the area. Combining a general area tour (shipwrecks, lighthouses and turtle sanctuary) with a glass bottom boat ride and snorkelling “combo” we enjoyed watching the coral and sea creatures appearing below us before getting into the water with the massive 1000 year old corals as well as turtles, huge gropers and school after school of colourful fish! Hayley and I took turns with Denver and then, when he went back to the boat to rest, we managed to see an Octopus swimming along before securing itself into its coral home. It’s not hard to see why diving is so popular, as this magical world really opens itself up as you head below the surface. The snorkelling around this area is one of the highlights of the trip (I was going to say top 5, but I’m not sure we haven’t already made that proclamation on more than 5 things!). Hayley really enjoyed the spectacular underwater world, so much so that I think we will be investing in an adult sized pair of flippers, to avoid the pain of her having to squeeze into Denver’s!

Exmouth is pretty unique in that on one side of town you have this magnificent coastline and beaches and yet just out of town in the other direction you can head into the mountains and see some surprisingly spectacular ranges. Driving up the escarpment in a single lane dirt road you get to see a host of beautiful gorges, which are as spectacular as they are unexpected. We didn’t really expect that much, but it turned out to be well worth the effort!

After enjoying one last swim in the “resort pool” and treating ourselves to a dinner at the on-site restaurant (I can still recall my amazing blue cheese pasta it was so tasty and decadent!) we had ourselves packed and ready to head off the next morning for the Carnarvon area. It would have been nice to spend some more time in this beautiful part of the world, including Coral Bay which is also spectacular, but we were limited on time as we had to be in Perth early in November to greet all our planned visitors!

Depending on your interests, Carnarvon has a few different things to keep you entertained! The area is a massive food bowl for Perth, providing a staggering 70% of all Perth’s winter vegetables, although our own efforts at sampling the local produce along the Gascoyne Food Trail were not terribly successful as most of the food loop was closed for the season! We did much better at 1 mile jetty where we got to ride the “Coffee Pot Train” for most of the jetty’s length, only walking at the very end due to safety concerns about the condition of some of the pylons. Jetty’s in the area needed to be so long because the transition into the water was so mild that big trading ships could not get that close to the shore. No longer used commercially they are now supported by historical societies and donations to help with their upkeep.

For historians and space enthusiasts the area is probably best known for its role in the NASA missions of the late 60s and its OTC dish, which towers over the town and provides a great reference point for navigation. The Space and Technology Museum celebrates the little known history of the role Carnarvon played in the manned space program and in the Australian communications industry (it facilitated the first live TV broadcast to the UK). The Carnarvon Tracking Station was located 10 kilometres south of Carnarvon and was commissioned to support NASAs Gemini, Apollo and Skylab programs. Commencing in 1964 and operating for 11 years, Carnarvon was the last station to communicate with the space capsules as they left the earth’s orbit as well as being the last to make contact before splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. During the Apollo missions, which most famously celebrated the Apollo 11 moon landing on July 21^st 1969, there were over 220 people based at Carnarvon to support these NASA missions.

The Space and Technology Museum was officially opened in 2012, fittingly by Buzz Aldrin, and it was a fascinating and hands-on insight into the amazing “space race” and this period of history during which seemingly impossible things were achieved! As amazing as it is to think of dinosaurs wandering the earth it’s seemingly as incomprehensible to think that humans were able to work out ways to fly to and land on the moon. Although it seems trivial these days can you imagine these pioneers as they first worked out how to propel units into this unknown area beyond our skies! They would not have known whether they could successfully get through the atmosphere, the impacts of gravity, what would happen out in space, or even what would happen on re-entry. To be able to put all of that together in a package that would form the foundations for space travel is nothing short of astonishing!

Stepping back into nature we spent hours at Point Quobba, where amazing natural blowholes can push water up to 20m into the air! It was a pretty stunning place and we had a decent swell that helped provide a reminder of the power of nature.

Heading north we passed Quobba Station (where they do balloon fishing and the Spanish Mackerel jump 8ft out of the water to grab your balloon suspended bait, although unfortunately not while we were passing!) and Red Bluff before settling into the pristine waters of Gnaraloo Bay for a play and a swim! When we arrived the beach, that I had expected to be empty (given the dirt tracks we had come in on), was filled with kite surfers out on a safari. Unfortunately they were just packing up so we missed them flying along on the water but at least it soon meant we had the beach to ourselves! We enjoyed a lunch, a swim and then a sand fight (naturally!) before heading back past the blowholes for a last look before heading to Shark Bay…

The Shark Bay World Heritage area is one of the few sites in the world that satisfies all four of the natural criteria to be listed as a world heritage area – natural beauty, evolutionary history, ecological processes and biological diversity. Shark Bay and Monkey Mia are well known for the abundance of marine life and we decided to base ourselves in Denham (as Australia’s westernmost town it’s very windy and great for the kite flying!) to explore the area.

Early the next morning we headed off to visit the Monkey Mia Reserve and watch the Indo-Pacific Bottlenose dolphins’ being fed (which also turns into a Pelican feeding if you’re not fast enough!). Heavily regulated now, after years of Dolphins becoming dependant on the human feeding, they have three feedings a morning at no set times so you are best to get in early and stick around! As it turned out on the second feeding of the day Denver and April were able to actually head into the water and “feed” a dolphin together. The dolphin, named Surprise, was a regular on that morning and we saw plenty of her as well as a couple of her family members, some turtles and Denver’s favourite, the “Blue-Spotted Ray,” during a few leisurely hours at yet another beautiful beach. While you can see how it would have been enjoyable for people to feed, touch and interact with the dolphins anyway they wished in the past, you can also see the other side, and it’s understandable that there is a protection program in place to avoid any long term damage to the dolphins of the area.

Seeing as the kids enjoyed interacting with the dolphins so much we visited the Ocean Park Aquarium that same afternoon. Thanks to having an absolutely fascinating and passionate marine scientist guiding us through the various underwater worlds we spent an absolutely wondrous few hours learning about and watching cuttlefish, stone fish, sea snakes, rays, turtles and sharks! The culmination of the tour was a feeding with the Tiger, Nurse and Whaler sharks which was a powerful display of these impressive animals, and brought the odd gasp from the crowd with their smart tactics to try to get the food on offer. Perhaps the most remarkable and fascinating display was that of the cuttlefish, who have the ability to change their skin colour at will. Their skin flashes a fast-changing pattern as communication to other cuttlefish as well as acting as camouflage from predators. Watching them change rapidly as they swam over different elements within the tank, even reflecting the pattern of their surroundings, was pretty otherworldly!

Continuing the marine theme we booked a trip out to see the Dugongs on the Aristocat II. Leaving from Monkey Mia we got to see the Dolphins again before heading out to the Dugong sanctuary via a black pearl farm where April and Hayley got little souvenirs. Throwing ourselves into the net at the front of the catamaran the trip itself was great fun and as soon as we found ourselves out near the sea-grass that the Dugongs love eating, the ocean came alive with turtles, rays and dolphins.

Before long we had spotted a Hammerhead shark underneath the bow (a pretty amazing sight!) and then the first Dugong making its way leisurely around the waters and sea-grass. It’s not hard to see why these creatures are known as “ocean cows” (and I would add “ugly ocean cows” at that!) but never having seen one in the flesh it was exciting to watch this fascinating creature making its way across the sea.

After the excitement of the animals it was time to cool off in the water itself, behind the boat in its boom net. Trying to encourage the kids into the chilly water Hayley jumped in first, but the look on her face gave it away and the kids wouldn’t go anywhere near the boom net after that! Still, inspired by Hayley’s enthusiasm, a few other blokes jumped in with beers and promptly got so drenched I have no idea how their beers didn’t fill with sea water! The video makes for great viewing, but you will have to make do with the description and a photo as its too large to share!

Two other attractions of the area that we took time out to visit were Shell Beach and the Stromatolites. Shell Beach (a very original name), is made up of trillions of tiny cockle shells, estimated to be up to 4,000 years old and 10 metres deep, which is impressive given the beach is over 100km long! In Denham there are a couple of buildings constructed from blocks of these shells, particularly the Old Pearlers Restaurant on the main street.

To see these trillions of tiny shells as far as the eye could see was certainly impressive (although nowhere near as comfy as sand!). The Stromatolites (which we had never heard of) were only discovered 50 years ago in Shark Bay and prior to that were thought to be extinct. Hamelin Pool is a beautiful spot and it is here that you can view what life on earth looked like 350 billion years ago (just a bit before the dinosaurs!). The Stromatolites are the beginning of life on our planet, as the original generators of oxygen, they created our oxygen atmosphere.

They also began the evolution of life from the water to the land, but to be honest are more impressive on paper than they are in the flesh, it’s no wonder they went undiscovered for so long! Still it is a beautiful setting and although not as impressive as dinosaur footprints they certainly were more important in terms of creating life on this planet of ours (and at once I can see a segue from all the main topics – dinosaurs, stromatolites and space exploration – and you thought I was just babbling on!).

Kalbarri was the next stop on our way down the west coast and we enjoyed exploring the National Parks of the area, including walks out to Z-bend and Natures Window (a natural rock formation that allows you to look through, like a window, to the gorge walls) as well as a quick look at “Pink Lake.”

I’m not sure who is in charge of naming things in Western Australia, but they certainly like their literal versions! The pink hue to the lake is created by algae and it certainly gives off a wide range of pinks depending on the time of day.

The next morning we fed Pelicans at the local feeding spot before heading to the bird park, where the kids were enthralled by Bessie the parrot. Rainbow Jungle Parrot Centre had been recommended to us by bird lovers in Alice Springs and it didn’t disappoint as we saw and interacted with a wide range of birds, from the kids favourite the King Parrots to the adults favourite, the Macau’s! Bessie provided all the entertainment, nibbling on the kids’ fingers and ears as she moved from hand to hand and even into Denver’s hood!

 

With our deadline to get to Perth drawing nearer there was just one other place we wanted to visit on the way (well two when Hayley saw the sign for the “Lobster Shack” in Cervantes!). Jurien Bay is a nice seaside town with a beautiful promenade that we spent each morning walking or riding along. Close to the Pinnacles it’s a great base to use to look at these incredible limestone formations. Rising mysteriously from the dune sands are thousands of pillars, some up to 4m tall, and they create an eerie alien-like landscape, especially if you visit for sunset! The Pinnacles date back millions of years to an epoch when the sand was beneath the sea. Each year the winds blow the sand to different regions, covering and uncovering new pinnacles in a micro version of the evolution which brought them out into the open many decades ago. Definitely one for the top five list!

 

Thanks for staying with us through the Great Update Part II. Reflecting on the puppy, chasing, tail scenario above I now have about a months’ worth of updates still to write about next time, but I’d like to catch up before Christmas so I don’t have to make it a new years resolution, I’m sure we will already have enough of those!