Back with Dave and Sara

We are on our way home again. We have travelled 10.500 kms sofar, had 2 blow-out tyres on the caravan, a broken window, paid up to $1.796 per litre petrol. Now back back in Mandurah where the price is back to $1.18. On the way we also bought our fruit and vegies by the piece e.g. $ 1.10 per one small tomato, 80c for one potato, 55c. for one onion, $1,25 per orange or apple etc., no wonder wages are high, they have to be. But here down south everything is back to normal, thank goodness.
Megan is a real joy.Feeds well and lets her mother get a good sleep most nights.She loves a little chat and gives us lots of smiles.
We went to the zoo on Sunday. Aiden covered 3 times the distance we did. He ran everywhere ! Megan looked around and enjoyed the trees. Perth's Zoo is in a very beautiful setting with giant Bamboo and lots of palmtrees. Lots of displays are in junglestyle, very much worth a visit.
Opa on baby duty.
After a couple of drizzly days, Perth put on a glorious day with warm sunshine. Lots of people about, but plenty of room in this zoo, we all had a great day and enjoyed the nights' rest afterwards.

Quobba

This is the look when you're in country where there are cattle - the flies get into your eyes ears nose and mouth.
Quobba Station is south of Coral Bay with a very rugged coastline in between .We camped near the blowhole. Here the sea is very calm - on the day we left you couldn't get near this outcrop and the water was spoutting up to 20 metres high.

I thought the sea was rough but the waves wash right over these rocks.People have lost their life when fishing here. It's the Indian Ocean and king waves can come up at any time.

The sanddunes were covered with wild flowers. They have had quite a bit of rain so these come up and bloom very quickly.The lighthouse in the middle was the only light at night -except for the stars.

Karijini National Park

Thanks to Annemieke we visited this amazing park - lots of gorges which had pools and streams at the bottom.Hank went for a swim in the cool water.As you can see it was crystal clear.
We went for beautiful walks.The hardest bit was to get down into the gorge.
The river at the base of this gorge is down about 700 metres.Quite often our legs were shaking just looking down over the edge.

This is Knox Gorge - our favourite walk - and we didn't meet anyone.We had a really good time,the weather has been warm and sunny ,except for a shower to settle the dust.We were covered in red dust and really needed a shower after 5 days.

Tom Price -the iron ore mine

On the 26th of July after many hours of driving we arrived at a small oasis. It is the town of Tom Price,where all the inhabitants are somehow connected with the iron ore mine. Vicki wants to take this monster for a ride, but there seems a bit of trouble.....
a loose nut
and a flat tyre and just when we left the jack at home. The machines here are enormous but in the inside of the open-cut mines they seem to be just little Tonka trucks
See if you can find Vicki driving the Tonka dump truck. Anyway the whole tour we did through the mine was very impressive. We also visited our friends Stephen and Barbara and their 2 sons who have establised themselves in this very interesting town.

Coral Bay or Paradise

What a life, but I suppose someone has to do it. This is at Coral Bay Beach. The coral reef comes right to the shore. It is very different from the Great Barrier Reef as the coral is all hard, but still very impressive.
Out of the wind and in the sun and crystal clear water. As soon as you go into the water, little fish will swim around your feet.
Off on a trip with a glass-bottom boat to see the coral and all the different fish swimming underneath the glass. We also dived into the water and did some snorkeling. The fish were being fed at the same time and they were swimming along side our bodies, some were up to a metre long, we also saw a turtle.
The sunsets here are spectecular, the evenings are very balmy. The temperature during the day is appr. 26 degr. Vicki got a new camera for her 60th birthday from the children and as you notice she is making good use of it. Thank you to you who put some comments on our blog. Until next time....

Into the tropics

In Monkey Mia where the dolphins come near the shore to be fed. We saw two dolphins appr. 50 cms from the wateredge. You can also make a 10 minute-safari on camels along the beach. Just about everything is a rip-off.

The pelicans are also hungry and want to be fed as well by the tourists. Monkey Mia: a nice spot.

We also had a look at Shelly-Beach, where there is no sand, just tiny little shells up to 5 metres thick. Although they mine this, for some unknown reason the little shells just keep accumulating.

In Carnarvon we walked along the 1.8 km. jetty, saw some dolphins play at the end of it and schools of tuna, they did not ask for money.

Rocky-Pool, part of the Mighty Gascoyne River. Here we met an english couple, who were camping there for more than a year. They have a house in Spain and a caravan in Australia and they divide their time between the 2 countries. We spent some time with them which was most enjoyable. In the meantime the midgies had a feast on our legs and arms, little pests they are.

Gorgeous gorges

Kalbarri was the next spot to be looked at. If you could not count up to twelve at the Apostles along the Great Oceanroad, W.A. pinched one and put him along their coast.
Then we drove to the gorges along the Murchison River, these were spectacular, even if we don't see anything else it was worth the trip.

A look out of Nature's Window.....

Now we are off to Monkey Mia and Denham.