Pemberton, WA

Pemberton is famous for its giant tingle trees and its beautiful forest and also the new Munda Biddi mountain bike track that weaves over 1000km through the South West of the country. We headed to the camp ground as even though the weather was still rubbish, we thought we should get camping again and not spend all our money on nice cabins. This is what we found at the camp ground!

This is the campground! The posts are the campsite markers. We are prepared for roughing it but this was going to be a challenge!

Thanks, but no thanks

So, after a visit to the visitor information centre trying to find somewhere to stay we ended up at Pemberton Farm Chalets in a 4 bedroom house! So much for trying to save the $$$ by camping again. But it was all that was available and it was a good price as everything was in a bit of disarray after 3 days without power and trees still down across the region. The farmer who owned the property was desperately trying to get everything in order before a busy long weekend in WA. The best thing about our house for 2 days was the open fire and our very own laundry!

Look at all that SPACE!

But the best thing about this place from the kids perspective was that there were a lot of baby animals to feed twice a day. Like any farmers, our daily schedule was based on the feeding routines of the animals. We had to be back home in time for baby lamb and baby calf to get their bottle.

Sophia with Lamby the lamb

Sami with TimTam the cow

Chris finally managed to go for a MTB ride on the Munda Biddi track but came across more than a few obstacles so it was a slow ride....

Another tree down across the trail!

 We visited a few of the sights around Pemberton- mostly to do with very tall trees.

The roads around here are beautiful

You can climb this tree to the lookout at the top. It's over 60 metres high and an old fire lookout tree.

We didn't climb all the way up, but we did go a few metres

We also did the Tree Top Walk 40 metres above ground. We had been told by lots of travellers that it wasn't worth it and a lot of money for a quick walk through the tree tops. We were going to just do the walk on the forest floor but couldn't help ourselves once we got there. May as well give it a go!

Old Grandma Tingle

And then it was time to head East for home.... on our way now!

Margaret River & Augusta

After the windy conditions in Perth, the weather was still destructively windy in the South West, so we checked into another cabin. This one was in Margaret River, right on the river, so we had a great view of the wind and rain and lots of fun playing with the ducks that visited us morning & night. It was a lovely spot (Riverview Tourist Park) and the cabin was a big 2 bedroom place so we were really starting to get used to having more space. Funnily enough, we were still missing the camper trailer and having all our things in a compact area. Our home is going to seem so ridiculously huge when we get back. The girls were very much enjoying TV though as we haven't watched any for over 50 days!

Margaret River is a great town. As you would expect, lots of lovely cafes and restaurants and of course, the wineries are all close by. We visited a few wineries- particularly the ones with good playgrounds. These wine makers know how to keep the parents happy! I worked in some nice restaurants in my early 20’s and I've always remembered the wines that were on our wine list. So I visited some of those wineries too. We also checked out a brewery or two but hit a major hurdle- the storms over the past few days had taken out power in a lot of places. Some areas hadn't had power for 3 days. There were trees- BIG trees- across roads and powerlines. Chris wanted to take his mountain bike out but the local bike shop advised against it saying the track was a mess with trees down everywhere. So glad at this point that we were in a cabin! We missed out on the chocolate factory and a couple more food shops as they were all closed due to the power outage. Thankfully, the cheese factory was still open so we stocked up on some great Margaret River Cheese Company cheese and enjoyed the local wine while overlooking the river.

We made the short drive to Prevelly, the coastal area of Margaret River. It was windy & wooly and there was no one out in the surf.

One of the great wet weather activities in the region is the underground limestone caves. We visited Mammoth cave as it’s self guided using MP3 players rather than a tour- it’s easier with the kids to take it at our own pace and the girls loved having their ear phones in listening to the commentary. We asked the older girls a few things later and they could recall great detail about the caves so that was their science lesson for the week covered!

On our way out of town we took a small detour through some giant Karri trees which were quite spectacular. Our trip to Margaret River was shorter than planned due to the weather but we will be back here one day to explore further. 

 

 

After leaving Margaret River, we headed to Augusta, the town at the South West corner of Australia. We wanted to see the lighthouse and the place where the Indian Ocean meets the Southern Ocean. That redefined our definition of windy! When given the option of walking out to the lighthouse in gale force winds or staying in the cafe to drink a hot chocolate, Chris & Sam took the lighthouse option while Sophia, Caitlin & I got that hot choccie! I have noticed that we have a lot more photos of Sam on this trip than the other girls- it is not because we play favourites, but because she tends to be the most adventurous and therefore is always with Chris who is the photographer of the family! We hope to come back for a better look in a few years and will check the forecast for winds and perhaps stay in something more solid than canvas ;)

Perth/ Fremantle

We had amazing weather for the first 51 days of our trip. Hot, sunny weather and we went weeks without seeing a single cloud. Then we hit Perth....and he heavens opened. The South West region of WA has had miserable wet & extremely windy weather for the last 7 days. When the weather guys are putting out warnings saying damaging and destructive winds are on their way and to move farm animals into barns, that means no staying in a camper trailer for us! So we got a cabin in a tourist park near Fremantle to wait out the storm and enjoy what Perth has to offer.

The luxury of a cabin to wait out the storm

Chris was working one day in the office and our car was also in being serviced which meant the girls & I had a day to explore Perth by public transport. We caught a bus to Fremantle and then a train to Perth City.

We then visited Scitech, a science and technology museum/centre for kids. It was FANTASTIC! The girls enjoyed it more than Questacon in Canberra and they really love that place too. I thought we would be there for an hour or two at most as it is not all that big, but it is very interactive and we stayed there all day. So much for a day to explore Perth, we only explored the inside of a kids museum! But the girls learnt a lot- they love science and they had something for all ages. The highlight was a who-dunnit mystery that you had to solve by being a spy and cracking codes. Definitely recommend it if your kids like discovering how things work. On our way home, we met Chris in Fremantle who had now finished work and picked up the car along with 4 new fancy 4WD tyres (that cost the same as the GDP of a small nation!) Fremantle is also fabulous. Lots of cool shops, cafes and restaurants and the town is absolutely buzzing with Fremantle in the AFL grand final. We were there over the weekend that 'Freo' played the Sydney Swans for a spot in the final. Everything was purple. Every shop had balloons and posters in the window.

Everywhere we looked- Go Freo signs. If I only I had bought the girls Swans gear with me!

 Every shop mannequin was dressed in team gear. The ponds in the parks were dyed purple. Even the beer in some of the pubs was purple (it sold out quickly apparently). So we knew we were in enemy territory as Sydney-siders and while I threatened the girls that I would yell out 'Go Sydney' in the main pedestrian area, the horrified look on Sophia's face was enough to let me know that was NOT a good idea ;) But Freo won and the city celebrated and it was fun to witness.

The other great thing Perth has is Kings Park. It's a huge parkland area right next to the city, similar to Sydney's Botanic Gardens but much bigger. It has lots of great areas for the kids. We visited the Naturespace playground which isn't a playground as such, but a natural area set out with log bridges, treehouses, streams and things for kids to jump over and under. 

They provide the basic structure and materials and then it was up to the kids to build the cubby- cool idea.

Fun on the 'rope tangle'

Then it was over to Synergy Park where we had a nice cafe lunch and a play in the park as the rain held off for a few hours. So glad we had the cabin as the wind was howling at night time.

All in all, a good time in Perth and somewhere I'd like to revisit with some more time. We always knew the last part of our trip would be rushed with not enough time for the South West corner,but its a good taster and we will be back to explore more in the future.

Shark Bay/ Monkey Mia

After leaving Cape Range, we stopped off in Exmouth to restock our food supplies and as it was my birthday, we had a lovely brunch at an organic cafe that was DELICIOUS. Good smoothies and great eggs benedict with smoked salmon on the side- my favourite brunch. The kids had a great play in the public water park too. The next couple of days were full of lots of driving. We knew we had limited time for this area as we want to spend more time in the Margaret River/ South West corner of WA so we drove and drove with a night in Carnarvon to break it up.

We were unsure about whether to make the trip to Shark Bay/ Monkey Mia. We had read mixed reviews about whether it was worth the 300km side trip. We have never been disappointed about making a detour in this trip so we went for it. Lots of people don't like the commercialisation of the dolphin interactions and say you can get the same thing down the road not in a resort, but we really enjoyed it and the girls learnt a lot about the dolphins and their environment and for us it was totally worth the 300km extra kilometres. We hadn't booked Monkey Mia resort and we called on the day to find it was booked out but Denham is only 27kms away so we stayed there and got up early to drive to Monkey Mia for the 7.45am briefing. They can feed the dolphins up to 3 times between 8am and 12pm. They only feed the female adults and they only feed them a tiny portion of their daily food requirements so they don't loose the ability to hunt for themselves. They don't feed the males as it can cause them to become aggressive and they don't feed the young so they learn to catch fish in the wild. For the last 12 years you are not allowed to touch the dolphins and as they are totally wild animals it can vary each day how many come in to feed. We had lots of dolphins in the bay diving and playing but 5 of the females come right in for a feed. Enjoy the pics!

 

 

 

baby dolphin (10 months old) trying to get milk from Mum but Mum not interested

 

Baby had enough!

 

A visitor on the beach

 

Pelicans, emus and dolphins!

 

 
 

 

On they way to and from Monkey Mia we stopped off at the Stromatolites (rock like structures grown from single cell bacteria). These ones are 'only' around 3000 years old but until about 500 million years ago, stromatolites were the only evidence of life on the planet.

 

We also stopped off at Shell Beach which is, you guessed it, made entirely of shells. It was a fun little detour to Shark Bay and Monkey Mia. Now it's time to make a move to Perth.

 

Coral Bay & Cape Range National Park, WA

Coral Bay is an unspoilt remote small tourist town on the Coral Coast of Western Australia. It reminds me of how some coastal towns on the NSW north coast were about 30 years ago- just a couple of shops and 2 caravan parks right on the beach. It’s really lovely and the best thing about it is that Ningaloo Reef is right off the beach so within 5-10 metres of the beach you are swimming amongst coral and beautiful colourful fish. We stayed at Bayview Coral Bay caravan park and after 4 nights of remote camping it was great to have hot water, flushing toilets, a swimming pool, playground and jumping pillow for the kids. Luxury! And we really needed to get some laundry done.

Wildflowers on the side of the road between Karijini and Coral Bay

The beautiful Coral Bay Beach

Sam paddling in the crystal clear water

After our mammoth 700km drive, we treated ourselves to pizza and chips for dinner after watching the sun go down on another day. We were only planning on a 2 night stay but we really loved it here so extended it to 3 nights. The bay is so sheltered and the water is an amazing colour. But nowhere is perfect and at night we discovered the only problem with Coral Bay- wind. Lots of wind. For the first time in over 6 weeks we had to dig the fleeces and warm clothes out because it does get cool at night. It’s been a while since we’ve felt cool. The camper trailer was blowing about, so also for the first time we had to put pegs and ropes to keep us from blowing away.

We went an a 2 hour glass bottom boat/ snorkelling trip that was a lot of fun. The boat doesn’t take you very far as you can see the edge of the reef from shore, a strong swimmer could probably swim to where to boat moored. However with the kids, it was the best option for us and they really enjoyed the glass bottom boat and seeing all the bright fish and coral. The coral isn’t colourful but it still is interesting and the fish make up for the lack of colour in the coral. Our skipper explained why the coral has little colour- the further away from the equator a coral reef is, the harder the algae on the coral has to work to photosynthesise . As Ningaloo is near the Tropic of Capricorn it is a temperate coral reef and the algae has to use all the colours on the spectrum to photosynthesise. When you mix all the colours together you get brown. So there you go- I learn something new every day!! Therefore the closer to the equator you go, the brighter the coral is likely to be.


The boat we went snorkelling from

 

From the glass bottom boat on our snorkelling trip

ignore the reflection of the people above!

 At 3pm every day they do fish feeding in the shallows at Coral Bay. They started doing it officially with proper fish food pellets as people were feeding them anyway with food that wasn't suitable so they turned it into a free attraction and use it to educate people about not feeding the fish other than at this set time. These fish are not shy!

They don't mind getting close to you at all

After a great 3 days at Coral Bay, we headed north to Cape Range National Park via Exmouth. It would have made sense to come here before Coral Bay but our desire  for showers and a laundry meant we had to back track a little bit. Cape Range is really popular for camping. There are lots of different camping spots in Cape Range. Some sites are first in first served but some sites you can book 48 hours in advance. We took this option and booked into Tulki campsite. Again it was really windy but it was also amazingly beautiful and remote. The best thing about this camp area is the other people who are staying there. As there is only 11 sites, it is like a small community. Some people come for up to a month at a time to fish, snorkel and relax. At 5pm everyday, all the ‘residents’ gather at a communal table  for happy hour to talk about their day and discuss where the fish were biting and where they recommend you stay at your next destination. All the best information can be gathered from your fellow travellers. We were the only ‘young ones’ there, the rest were retirees or close to retirees. They loved the girls and we had a great stay. However I was very jealous of their very fancy caravans when the wind started to blow at night!

The highlight of Cape Range for me was Turquoise Bay, where the water is (you guessed it) a brilliant turquoise colour and the coral is right off the beach. They have a bay area that is safe and flat and also a drift snorkel area where the current takes you along over the coral. Within a couple of metres of the shore are the most amazing fish and coral. I have been fortunate enough to do a bit of snorkelling at the Great Barrier Reef and overseas. Those areas were better for colourful coral however it wasn’t easily accessible and you had to do a tour to reach the good spots. Ningaloo is still great snorkelling and the best thing is it is right off the beach and easy to reach for everyone.

Turquoise Bay

Bit crowded!

You can see the waves breaking on the reef in the background.