Carnamah farm stay, Nov 9-10

On the way to our farmstay in Carnamah there were some nice wildflowers and huge wheat and canola fields.

We parked our caravan near an old shed at the back of the house. You might find this funny but the first thing we did was removing the spider webs from the toilet that obviously hadn't been used for months!

Shortly after we arrived, Angela the farm owner drove us to her canola and wheat fields. They were endless.
She let me go for a ride on their harvester from where I had a great view. It was pretty impressive to be in it.

We also had a look at her sheep. One lamb was lying on the ground and unfortunately was dead. How sad!
We didn't tell the girls though, Angela removed the little lamb discretely.

Back at her farm house, Angela showed us her chooks and baby chooks.The girls liked the baby chooks a lot and wanted to hold them.
Annabelle got the fright of her life: she went in one of the chooks house to look for the eggs but there was a chook inside who got caught by surprise so he flew out of the house and Annabelle ran backwards and fell down. Poor Annabelle. Must have been funny for Manfred to watch though. I missed it!

In the morning we went to the back of the shed to look at the sheep. One sheep got stuck in a piece of  broken fence as he was trying to eat the grass. Manfred helped him to untangle himself. Poor sheep had some wool well stuck in it! We doubt he would have been able to get out of it on his own. Manfred got called "Diego" the animal rescuer that day!

That afternoon it was hot so Angela kindly offered for us all to have a dip in her pool which we all enjoyed a lot.
The next morning, while Manfred and I were having a nice chat with Angela , the girls were in heaven in her kids bedrooms with all the toys. I thought we would never be able to leave!

The farm stay was a lovely experience and the timing was perfect as it was harvest time.

Geraldton & Dongara/Port Denison, Nov 5-9

The countryside on the way to Geraldton was very nice: there were lot's of wheat fields.

We had a few relaxing days in Geraldton. The girls had lot's of fun at the playground on the beach close to the city center. Beautiful playground I must say, with a water feature area too!


I had a look at the cathedral: it looked pretty stunning inside and from the outside.

We checked the farmers market on the weekend. One of the stall was a lady selling chooks, mostly baby ones.
What amazed Nina and Annabelle and many other kids is that she let them walk free around the cage.
She let the girls pat and hold one chook so they were over the moon. They were even trying to catch some of them.
I had a quick chat with the lady and she gave me her business card and said we could come to her farm in Carmanah if we wanted to. We took her up on the offer and decided to visit her farm a few days later.

A day before going to the farm, we stayed at Dongara/Port Denison, which was very nice.
We had one of the best spot in the caravan park: right on the beach! It was lovely to fall asleep with the waves and the stars that night were amazing!

Kalbarri town and national park, Oct 31- Nov 5

We stayed a few days in Kalbarri, lovely little town with a great bay. We thought it's a perfect holiday spot as there is quite a lot to do: boat cruise, fishing, swimming, cycling, snorkeling and hiking. Or it's a nice place to just relax.

The girls enjoyed the pelican feeding that happens every morning. Annabelle took the fish that was given to her and threw it to one of the pelicans. She was very happy. Nina however wasn't keen on feeding one...

We got the bikes out again (was about time!) and did a short ride on the cycling path along the walk.
Annabelle was so tired though that she actually fell asleep on the bike! Very funny to watch!

The coast is very nice and there are some great lookouts onto cliffs, natural bridges. We spotted a few whales one late afternoon!

The Kalbarri national park was worth a visit. There were still a few wildflowers, which was nice.

We did the short walk to the natures window with the girls. The site and the views from there were very nice. We also had a look at the Z bend lookout, amazing gorge formation (in a Z shape).

After we left Kalbarri and on our way to Geraldton, we stopped at the Pink lake or Hutt Lagoon in Port Gregory. The lake is pink due to a natural phenomenon that occurs when algae 'blooms' and produces beta carotene. Nina and Annabelle were very excited to see a pink lake as you can imagine.

Monkey Mia in Shark bay & Hamelin pool, Oct 23-31

We spent about a week at the Monkey Mia reserve, (in Shark bay) very famous for the dolphins.
They come to the shore every morning about 3 times and a few people in the crowd get picked to feed one of them some fish. Just amazing to be able to see them so close. Nina was one of the lucky ones to be picked on our last day!

I did a 3 hour cruise on a catamaran (without the kids) and we were lucky as we saw some sharks, a sea snake and some dugongs in the grass bank area. Dugongs are herbivorous marine mammals and Shark Bay is supposed to be the biggest habitat with about 10.000 Dugongs.
Manfred did the same trip on the next day.

We had lunch in Denham then the girls had a play on the playground by the beach. The weather was great so the colour of the water was beautiful.

We spent a bit of time in the Francois Peron national park; We visited the old sheep shearing homestead with a friend of Nina and her dad: the 3 girls had lot's of fun! We even had a dip in the warm water tub close to it (tub that has been a popular swimming spot for years). It was like being in a big warm spa bath!

We drove to Skip Jack point still in the Francois Peron park: there are 2 big stunning lookout where you can spot rays, manta or dugongs if you are lucky. The coastlines colours are amazing: turquoise water with red cliffs.

The morning we left Monkey Mia we visited Ocean World. The feeding of the sharks was impressive.
We saw a stone fish for the first time: they really do look like a stone and it is very poisonous if you step on them!

On our way out of Monkey Mia, we stopped at the beautiful shell beach. Imagine millions of tiny shells under your feet!

We then drove direction Hamelin pool to see the stromatolites, the oldest living organisms on the planet.
The water at Hamelin bay is twice as saline as usual sea water. Stromatolites are composed of bacteria and algae.

That night we stayed at a nice caravan park next to an old homestead. I had a look at the homestead with the girls and we tried to get close to the sheep so they were happy.

Carnarvon, Oct 20-23

The town was founded in 1883, initially as a port and supply center for the surrounding region.
Carnarvon was a great place to stock up on fresh fruits and vegetables. There are quite a few farms open to the public on both sides of the Gascoyne river. One of the farm had some yummy homemade ice-creams and other yummy produces!

"Carnarvons hinterlands produce superb fresh fruit and vegetables; avocados, mangoes, pineapples, paw paws, melons, beans, dates, jojoba, macadamia nuts, tomatoes and pecans. The constant supply of water from the Gascoyne River helps grow these crops, undoubtedly some of the best tasting produce in the world."
Quote from Discover West Holidays.

Nina and Annabelle were happy there as the caravan park had a jumping castle!


We had a quick look at the Tracking station. Now try to explain what a tracking station is, to a curious 4 year old girl. Anyway here goes the quote:
"The Carnarvon Spacecraft Tracking Station built by NASA in 1963 was used in the Gemini program, which was the second step in NASA's program to put a human on the Moon.
Following the conclusion of the Gemini program, the Carnarvon Tracking Station provided extensive support for Project Apollo missions to the Moon." quote from Holiday-WA.net.

We also visited the one mile jetty that has been a favorite fishing spot for many years.

From Carnarvon we did a day trip to the Quobba blowhole. It's amazing what the force of the sea has created.

Exmouth, Cape range nat. park & Coral bay, Oct 9-20

We stayed one night in Exmouth as the Cape range national park was full at the time we were there.

Next day we had more luck and we enjoyed our stay in the national park: one night at Tulki beach and 4 other nights at Pilgramunna, perfect spot with a sheltered beach at our doorstep.
The campground was very basic as it only had toilets. So we setup the shower tent and had a quick rinse at the end of the day.

We had a chance to catch up with our friends Leanne and Joey who were there for another day. They showed us the good snorkeling spots.
Nina and Annabelle had fun looking for hermit crabs between the rocks.

We did some great snorkeling at Turquoise bay (which had 2 beaches to choose from) and another place called Lakeside.
It's amazing at Ningaloo, no need for a boat trip, the reef is right next to the beach! We saw some nice corals and some beautiful colorful fish.

We met up with a lovely Danish couple with a little boy. We had snorkeling buddies, which was great!
I find it more reassuring to snorkel with someone else, especially since we have seen some reef sharks.

The national park also featured many emus and kangaroos and loads of galas.

We then moved  to coral bay, beautiful holiday spot that made us slow down again.
The snorkeling was nice too: the corals were very concentrated so it looked quite impressive.
Every afternoon, some spangled emperors are being fed: we had a look at the feeding a few times and the girls, especially Annabelle, were very excited whenever one of them came close or touched their legs.

Manfred went on a snorkeling tour to get a chance to see a Manta ray. He saw a pretty big one and some sharks. The boat even got close to some whales!

At Coral bay there was also a shark nursery that we could see after a little walk along the coast. How amazing to see those tiny baby sharks just a few meters off the beach!

Some travel mates told us about a great snorkeling spot accessible by 4WD only: Oyster stacks.
We had a look and it was a beautiful spot! There were pretty corals and fish. I was very pleased to see a big brown octopus hidden in a rock and a bright orange nudibranch!

The last night in Coral bay we went out to the Ningaloo resort for dinner.