Denham: Monkey Mia!

Denham (Shark Bay) is a small coastal town approx 30kms from the world famous Monkey Mia.

The whole area including Denham is world heritage listed for various reasons not just because of the Dolphins but also for it's marine flora and fauna.

http://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/places/world/shark-bay/index.html

and

http://www.discoverwest.com.au/western_australia/denham.html

We left Denham caravan park bright and early this morning to drive to Monkey Mia to see the first of 3 Dolphin interactions.  There is a resort at Monkey Mia with cabins, backpacker accom and camping (powered and un-powered) but we decided to stay in Denham so we could check out some of the other sites in and around the world heritage site.

One of the Dolphins has just given birth to a new calf and therefore they are restricting people from entering the water, you are no longer allowed to touch the dolphins and only 3-4 people are picked from the crowd to feed them!  

Guess what?  Jack was picked from about 100 people to feed the dolphins!!!!!  He was so excited and proud, but worried at the same time because his shorts might get wet! (that is our Jack for you)  

Picture taken right after feeding the dolphin!

below the Dolphin Jack fed.... it looks vicious, but poor photography to blame

This is the mother and new calf!  so cute and adventurous jumping around in the water.

We spent the whole day in Monkey Mia with some friends we have met along the way.  The kids had a ball playing in the shallow water and we collected pippy's from the shore and cooked them up in a delicious garlic and white wine mixture!  Delicious xxx

beach action Monkey Mia

Monkey Mia is great and I can see how people who come think it is awesome. But!  I think we have just been so spoilt with what we have already seen along the WA coast and all in it's natural environment.  I would highly recommend you to come and see it and enjoy the resort atmosphere, the food and beer was well priced and once you have paid your entry fee you can stay all day and soak up the fun!

In and around Denham there are some great things to do.  We went to:

http://www.allretreats.com.au/oceanpark/

 and watched sharks being fed.  The kids thought this was very cool.

Eagle bay. This bay is where dugongs and sharks come to feed from the abundant sea grass bay

Beach south of Denham.

We pack up tomorrow heading south to Kalbarri.  Not sure what Kalbarri has to offer yet!  But I am sure there will be another National Park to explore and many more beaches to collect shells.

Night xx

Up the BLUFF!

We have passed the tropic of capricorn! Thankfully the weather has remained warm and dry!  

All is going well and we are still continue to enjoy our travels and the kids are well and truly settled into "touring" life.  The WA coast continues to impress.  We have just returned from one of the most spectacular places we have visited. Red Bluff..... I know I am starting to sound like a broken record! 

Approx 160km's north from Carnarvon.

Check out the link below:

http://www.quobba.com.au/Red%20Bluff%202008/ocean%20view%20retreat%20spa.htm

Red bluff is part of Quobba Station - a working sheep station right on the WA coast.  It is a bit of a secret for many but well known to some particularly those that surf!

It has one of the best left hand breaks! we are not surfer's but those we have spoken too get very excited when the "Bluff" is  mentioned.  The Surf was not overly impressive when we where there but friends still managed to get out and "catch a wave"!

You do not have to be a surfer to appreciate this naturally beautiful place.  We passed our time by fishing everyday and catching fish! whale watching, swimming, and collecting shells and enjoying campfires at night.

The bluff is remote with no power or water, we had to take in all our own water.  Thankfully there is a huge ocean to collect water for washing up and the best long drop toilets I have come across - no smell!

Sorry for the quality!  Taken on my iphone

Jack with the best fish for the day a little trevally

Tight lines!

We saw whales everyday putting on the most spectacular performance of vertical jumps!

Woo hoo

Who needs TV when you have this on show every morning!

Emma helping Sophie bring in her first fish!  a little dart.

Sophie was so excited and proud!  Straight to the dinner plate.

We even saw some dolphins playing only a few metres from the beach. Just spectacular

Because the surf is out at the bluff, the locals leave their boards out on the point.  Can you see them camouflaged between the scrub

Friends catching some surf

This is the view from our campsite!  Yep unbelievable.  The point is the bluff hence the name!

View looking left down the beach

Yes this is the view from the long drop!  who needs a magazine in the loo when you have this?

It was really hard to leave the Bluff.  We met some fellow travellers who have decided not to leave! They have been settled at the bluff for nearly 4mths and have no plans of leaving anytime soon.  2 families camped together have decided the bluff is home or as they would like to say "The bluff is life!" they are home schooling there kids working on the station and doing general maintenance around the campground.   There are 2 permanent families at the bluff, one who has been there for 15yrs and have 8 kids!  you should see them carefree, sunkissed and happy. The other has 5 kids and these guys manage the camp ground and eco camping. Everyone we met was so happy, kind, gentle and hospitable, sharing a feed of mackerel with us and even inviting us to one of their birthdays.

If anyone would like to get away from it all and really get back to the simple things in life then the bluff is calling you!

We arrived in Denham today.  We will drive out to Monkey Mia tomorrow and check out what else Denham has to offer.  The 3G wifi network is not that great at the moment hence the delays in posting and we will be doing a bit of "free" camping as well in national parks as we go along and not in internet coverage.  Hope you are all well and are continuing to enjoy our travels

xxxx

Coral Bay & Exmouth

We arrived at Coral bay for the last week of the WA school holidays! hence very lucky to get a site - unpowered but at least somewhere we could wash our red dirt ridden clothes and soak up some beautiful sun and coral reef.

We decided to ride the last week of the WA school holidays out in sleepy little Coral bay as it is truly one of the most picturesque and easy places to visit.  Coral Bay is a tiny little town of approx 200 permanent residents which I am sure swells to many hundreds in peak tourist season and school holidays.

Coral bay and Exmouth are part of the Ningaloo marine park = Awesome snorkelling! and pristine beaches.

http://www.westernaustralia.com/Experience_Extraordinary/Pages/Ningaloo_Reef.aspx?CID=dgm:sem:aud1112:WA+Extraordinary+Experiences+Ningaloo+:Ningaloo+Reef


Coral bay has 2 Caravan parks a set of little shops including a fantastic bakery - We recommend the chicken & veg pie, sausage roll and choc doughnuts!

Ok now for some pics to get you excited..

We caught fish each time we went out off the beach.  Some small Trevally and Dart and a little long Tom which was thrown back. 

We fished at a place called Maudes landing pretty secluded and only a short drive out of town.

The kids had a ball playing in the sand

One of the best things about Coral bay is that the reef is accessible from the beach which is right in town! a quick 2min walk and you are there ready to snorkel and see some amazing fish and coral.  We have not snorkelled the Great Barrier Reef but our new Travel buddies have and they believe this is much much better!

It was great we rarely got in the car and enjoyed mornings on the beach an an afternoon exploring and fishing

This was one of our expeditions to a reef called "five fingers"  We did some sand 4WD which was a bit of fun, went in one way and managed to get completely lost and came out thank goodness but not where we  started! hmmmmm 

We stayed in Coral bay for the week and then hooked up and travelled north 152km's to Exmouth. Once all the school holiday makers had buggered off!

Exmouth is huge in comparison to Coral bay!  it has shops and houses and more than one road..

Vlaming head lighthouse.  We stayed at the Caravan Park just below this.

There is at surf beach in Exmouth and how cool is this little viewing platform

Memorial for a long lost surfer taken by the waves

Oh and we just had to take a pic of the "Big Prawn"!

By far the best thing we saw was the Turtles which had come up to the beach to nest!

This was amazing there was literally 15-20 turtles beached, either making there way up to nest or back to the water to begin the long journey home

Turtle 4WD

http://www.ningalooturtles.org.au/jurabi.html

Jack pretending to be a Turtle at Turquoise bay.  Another awesome spot to snorkel!

Sophie and Mum relaxing in the Sun. Slip Slop and Slapping

Oh yeah it is pretty......

We drove into the Cape Range National Park but we could not stay there even if we wanted too as it was all booked out.  The national park enables bush camping right on the sand dunes allowing direct access to snorkelling and recreational fishing

http://www.exmouthwa.com.au/pages/cape-range-national-park/

I have had lots of problems with the computer tonight so hopefully this will work!  Firstly it would not start and then I tried to sync my phone with itunes and now my phone is well lets just say stuffed! It is now nearly midnight and well past my bedtime!  We are off to Carnarvon tomorrow to get supplies and do some more beach camping and check out "Red Bluff and Narloo" region.  If need to call us I suggest you try Paul's phone.

Ciao xx

5 Today in Coral Bay! Happy Birthday Jack xx

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday dear Jack

Happy Birthday to you

xxx

Jack had a great day. It began with presents (thanks to Grandparents and Australia Post), fishing with the boys - no fish caught :( and ended with a little party with new friends with cake! yum yum  

(managed to purchase cake in Broome and freeze it in the Engel - thanks Engel)

We managed to suprise Jack with balloons and a little party when he got back from fishing with the boys.  He was very excited

We had to have the cake inside as there was 40kph winds outside nearly blowing us away!..... Thank goodness they have now settled

Jack told me this morning that today was like his "pretend" birthday because he thought he would not be getting a party or presents and that he would have to wait until we got down south!  Soooo

Thank you to all our family and friends near and far who made our boy feel very special on his birthday 

xxx

Cape Keraudren --- Karijini

Firstly we need to start with "Happy 5th Birthday Jack" Woo hoo!
Jack is very excited to be turning 5, he was lucky enough to open some presents thanks to Australia Post, Grandparents, Mum, Dad and Sophie and new travelling companions xx

We turned right from Broome and headed south down the WA coast to an over night camp at Cape Keraudren.  Very picturesque spot, where we could camp right on the oceans edge.  We have been very fortunate to meet and began travelling with the "Foots" (Emma, Adam, Anais, and Amelie).  The girls are the same age as Jack and Sophie and we seem to be heading the same way and just get along really well- So why not!

Our camp on the beach

Enjoying a refreshment before dinner

Collecting Shells

Sophie and Anais

http://www.eastpilbara.wa.gov.au/inter_site/php_scripts/see_ck.php

The only disappointing thing about this site was the long drop was pooey! (not long enough)

From Cape Kerauden we headed of south dropping into Port Hedland.  Port Hedland's is well known for it's Mining of Iron ore and Salt.  We felt very out of place as we were not wearing reflective work shirts and pants...

The whole of the Pilbara is Mining Mining some red dust and more Mining!

Big boat coming into Port Hedland

The kids having a well earned break from the car!

Heading East now we had a huge drive into Karijini National Park

http://www.westernaustralia.com/en/Destinations/Australias_North_West/Karijini_National_Park/Pages/Karijini_National_Park.aspx

This place really was spectacular and we are so glad that we decided to drive east and have a look.  We stayed 2 nights and walked into Fortesque Falls, Circular Pool, and Fern Pool.  

Fortesque Falls

Top of Fortesque Falls. Kids walked all the way!

Fern Pool

Circular Pool 

Escarpments

Beginning of walk down to circular Pool

Circular Pool

The walk down to the falls was a bit harrowing particularly with small children who want to jump from rock to rock!  Sadly only a few days before we arrived a father lost his life trying to rescue his son who had fallen down the escarpment.  The son (aged 7) is in a critical but stable condition in a Perth hospital.  We could see how easy this could have happened, and we were watching the kids and ourselves like a hawk.  Such a terrible accident in an extremely remote spectacular location

We formed a relationship with the red dust!  It stuck to our clothes, skin and hair....  Oh and just as we were about to leave camp (all packed up) Sophie managed to fall flat faced into the dust! hmmmm. I have spent today soaking our clothes with napisan and then washing them today! I wait to see if the red dust comes out.  

From Karijini we began the trek back over to the west coast through Tom Price stopping at Coral Bay.

This place is spectacular and we will tell you all about it very soon.  We are staying in an unpowered site, the only ones available as it is WA school holidays.  We have decided to park here for the week while we wait out the school holiday crowd!