Hi Everyone,

Well what a day we had today, we went out on a tour boat called Magellan to do some snorkelling on Ningaloo Reef. The day started at 7.20am when we were picked up and taken to our boat based on the reef. We took our own snorkeling gear and borrowed some of their flippers.

Once on the boat we took a short trip to part of the reef to view some of the coral and fish. We all had a great time watching the wonderful marine life, but this was just the beginning!

We had some morning tea on the way to the outside edge of the reef in search for some Whale Sharks, the biggest fish in the world. We quickly caught up with one and we entered the water to swim with these gentle giants. The first whale shark was about 7 metres long and the boys could not believe the size of the fish and how slowly it moved through the water, we were able to keep up with it and get some great photos and some video.

After our first encounter we found a 9.5 – 10 metre whale shark, the biggest the crew had seen this season, but it dived before we could get a good look at it and we can’t dive to depths of 1500 metres like they can. But then we found a third whale shark for the day and we enjoyed another great swim with the magnificent fish. Check out the photos below, it was amazing.

After our experience with the whale sharks we headed back to the inner reef. Along the way we managed to see a dugong with it’s calf, some turtles and a big tiger shark. The crew dived in to follow and film the tiger shark only to discover that it had a turtle in it’s mouth. The professional videographer filmed and took photos of us all day, including the whale and tiger sharks, and we will pick up our DVD tomorrow.

We have been on a high since coming back to the van this afternoon and will be doing some more snorkelling tomorrow as we have a day to drive around and see more of this beautiful Coral Coast of WA.

Check out the photos, and we have added some more to the previous posts, and if you ever have the chance to come over to this part of Australia between April to June make sure you do a cruise and see these beautiful fish and reef.

Until the next post, bye for now,
Tom, Karen, James and Matthew.

Hi Everyone,

Well after leaving beautiful waters around Denham, and some dolphin’s at Monkey Mia, we stopped at Shell Beach, to check out the Cockle shell beach and then continued north towards Carnarvon. This town was our overnight stop before heading to Exmouth today. There was not a lot to see here although we went on the Coffee Pot Train out along the One Mile Jetty and checked out the OTC dish, which we had a view of from our caravan site.

We managed to leave Carnavon early this morning to travel the 323km to Exmouth. Along they way we stopped at Coral Bay, which is about 150km south of Exmouth. This small town has the clearest water we have seen so far and you can walk out to snorkel around the Ningaloo reef. The kids loved it as we follow some beautiful fish around the reef for almost 2 hours. Sorry, I didn’t take any underwater photos but I will post some photos tomorrow night of Coral Bay and the most recent legs of the trip.

Tomorrow we are heading out to the reef in search of Whale Sharks. I am taking the camera and hopefully capture some great photos on the reef.

Bye for now,
Tom.

PS. We crossed the Tropic of Capricorn on the way to Exmouth today. We will cross it again on the way back home.

What’s up?

At Denham & Monkey Mia you can see lots of different things but most of all the marine life. First we went to an Ocean Park and saw squid, turtles, big fish, stone fish & lots of sharks. Then we went 4WDing to the Big lagoon & we saw some of the same marine life in the wild.  A stone fish, a turtle (as big as Matthew) & schools of fish.
The next day we were up early to see the dolphins at Monkey Mia. Two young ones turned up but they don’t feed littles ones, because they won’t learn to find food for themselves.  One had a chunk taken out of it’s dorsal fin, he was attacked by a bull shark a week ago. 2 more turned up later for a quick visit as we were leaving.

See you soon
James

PS How did the 125th year celebration go and what was in the time capsule?

Hi Everyone,

We had a great stay in Kalbarri and the Coastal and Gorge National Parks were magnificent. After visiting the Natural Brigde in Kalbarri, see some of the photos in James’s pervious post, we stopped at Chinaman’s Rock to take a few photos of some big waves. Have a look at the photos below.

Travelling to Denham, from Kalbarri yesterday, we stopped at the Hamelin Pool, once we entered the World Heratiage Area of Shark Bay, to have a look at the Stromatolites. We saw some in Cervantes, in Lake Thetis, but nothing like the ones in the Hamelin Pool.

We continued on to Denham and our caravan site for the next few nights which has a great view over the Indian Ocean. I have also posted a few photos just to make you jealous.

Today we visited an Ocean Aquarium and saw some interesting fish, including an injured Loggerhaed Turtle called Bob, all of which can be found around Shark Bay. This was great for our snorkelling/4WD trip to the Big Lagoon in the Francois Peron National Park later in the afternoon as we saw some of the fish, and a large turtle, that we had seen earlier at the Aquarium.

On the way back to our caravan we stopped to have a closer look at one of the huge windmills in the Denham Winddfarm. They provide power to Denham and the kids were ammazed at the noise that they made when spinning.

Tomorrow we are heading to Monkey Mia to see the famous wild Dolphins, hopefully the kids will get a chance to feed them. Anyway, check out the photos and we will update the site again soon.

Cheers,
Tom.

Hi guys,

Hey, guess what? When we were in Kalbarri we went to lots and lots of cliff lookouts. Later we went to the coolest thing, it’s a rock on the top of a gorge that looks like a window and every one calls it the Natures Window. We climbed down the gorge and back up it was pretty cool.

See you later,
James

Hi Again Everyone,

After having a lovely dinner at the Cervantes Bowling Club, which included Karen eating some cooked (not cold) WA Rock Lobster for the first time, we had a great nights sleep and headed off early this morning towards Kalbarri.

On the way we stopped in a town south of Geraldton called Dongara and managed to arrive just before the start of their 10am Anzac Day ceremony. We were able to watch the Ex, and current Servicemen and women march down the main street before attending the service in the local park. It was great for us to attend such a service together as a family and hopefully they will join me at a dawn service next year. After the service we had some lunch over looking the Indian Ocean.

As we travelled up the coast toward Kalbarri we noticed a number of strange looking trees they are called Leaning Trees. These bizarre looking trees are a natural phenomenon caused by the airborne salt content blown in with the winds off the Indian Ocean. The tree trunks lie horizontal to the ground and have become somewhat of an icon for the area around Greenough near Geraldton.

We also stopped to have a look at the Lynton Heritage Site. This is located near Port Gregory, just south of Kalbarri, and they are currently restoring a number of old convict built buildings dating back to 1853.

The weather was beautiful on the way from Cervantes and we are going to explore Kalbarri National Park tomorrow. I have updated some of the earlier posts with some photos, so check them out as well.

Cheers,
Tom.

Hi Everyone,

As James said in his previous post, we have been busy over the Easter weekend.
Last week we spent a few days in the Margaret River region of south west WA. We managed to drop into a few winerys, including the Palmer winery. We also stopped at a few brewerys and I picked up some Tom’s Amber Ale.

We stayed at a great van park that was located on a farm and the kids were able to feed some of the animals. After leaving Margaret River we headed north to stay in Falcon and visit my Aunty and cousins in Madurah on a Good Friday and Easter Saturday. Thanks to Larry and Linda for a great time and Olive and Kevin for dinner last night.

After saying good bye to everyone yesterday we headed north to Cervantes this morning. It was an easy trip on the new Indian Ocean Drive and we stopped at the Pinnacles Desert on the way. It was very interesting to take a drive around the Pinnacles before we stopped at Cervantes caravan park for the night.

Tomorrow we head up to Kalbarri for 2 nights. I will post some photos of the last few days once we arrive in Kalbarri.

Cheers, Tom.

Hey,

We have been busy this Easter and I have not been able to put up a post, so this is what we have done so far;

We went to Maragert River town and I found a monkey pillow (his name is Bananas). Later we went to a chocolate factory but I could not find Charlie or Willy Wonka, just kidding. While we were there we brought chocolate, white chocolate, dark chocolate and more, I know we are a bit piggy. Later we went to heaps of wineries but who cares about them?.(no offense wine drinkers)

The next day we went to the biggest play ground in Australia at Donnybrook. Then we went to my Aunty Olive’s place. Here we met 14 new relatives and we all had a BBQ. Thanks Aunty OL!
The next day we went on Dad’s cousin’s boat it was really great to be able to jump in the water off the back. Thanks Uncle Larry.

Now we are in Cervantes to see the Pinnacles. We went to a beach and I was stung by another Blue Bottle but I am Ok.

See ya,
James :0

Hi again,

We didn’t want to leave Denmark and the great caravan park, especially after visiting the local Toffee Factory and Annie’s Chocolate Lounge and Cafe. But, we had to make tracks to Margaret River via the Valley of the Giants and the Gloucester Tree.

The Valley of the Giants is located in the Walpole NP and is about 50km from Denmark. This is an unique forest of red tingle trees that can grow to a height of 70m and have a base with a circumference of 20m, hence the name Giants. We stopped at the park for some lunch (with some friends, check the photos) before going on the tree top walk. The boys really enjoyed walking throught the top of these magnificant trees and having a close look at them once we were back on the ground.

After visiting the Valley of the Giants, we headed to Pembertom to climb the Gloucester Tree. This tree was used as a bush fire lookout and you can climb to the top, which is 61m above the ground. We all managed to make it to the first landing at about 56m before James, Matthew and myself made it to the top. What a view and I was very proud of the family being very careful and working together to make it to the top. Check out the photos.

We are now in Cowaramup, about 10km north of Margaret River. We have a day of touring the area tomorrow before we visit my aunt in Mandura for the Easter weekend.

We will try and add some more posts as we head north along the WA coast after Easter. I hope everyone has a great Easter weekend.

Cheers,
Tom.

Hi again,

After leaving Lake Grace we headed south towards Denmark. On the way to Denmark we pasted through the Stirling Ranges National Park (NP), which is one of the most picturesque mountain ranges I have seen and unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to explore them more.

After passing through the ranges we stopped at Porongurup NP to see the “Tree in the Rock”, which is exactly as it is stated, a tree that has grown in a rock. Check out the photos, it is an amazing sight to see.

From Porongurup NP we dropped into a local winery, Dukes. Here we picked up a few bottles of wine and the boys picked some fresh apples to take with us from there apple orchard.

We then headed to Denmark and onto Ocean Beach Caravan Park, which was one of the best parks we have ever stayed in, dropping into Mount Barker Bakery on the way.

We stayed overnight at Ocean Beach before heading to Margaret River the next day.

Cheers,
Tom.