Coral Bay and the Ningaloo Reef

Oh my goodness! How beautiful is the place!!! It's almost as if no words can describe the beauty.

We were so lucky to get a spot for 6 days at Coral Bay on an ocean front site. The angels were looking after us as everyone kept saying that most sites need to be booked years ahead! We could not believe that we could fall out of our caravan, cross the street and snorkel in one of the world's most beautiful bays - until we discovered Turquoise Bay in the Cape Range National Park when we took a drive to Exmouth. Totally awesome!!

As we had not done any huge amounts of snorkeling before we were like 2 kids playing in an aquarium. We could not believe that anyone could ever eat snapper after swimming with schools of them in and out of our feet and legs!! We felt that we were rudely invading their space. It is just so good that everything is declared a marine sanctuary.

We had great neighbours who kindly shared their freshly caught fish with us. We made some great friends where mutual helping occured - fixing computers and piggy backing off satellite dishes. We shared a meal at the Ningaloo Reef resort with them where we heard a great guitarist and were surrounded by hundreds of young backpackers and travellers. Happy Hour it was!!

We were really sad to leave the Ningaloo Reef area and WILL DEFINITELY go back.

Even though Coral Bay was full (of people) it's amazing the way everyone shares and respects each other's space. On the beach at Turquoise Bay you could count the people swimming and snorkeling on one hand.

We didn't use our car for 5 days only our bikes which was good for saving petrol money - $1.74 per litre.

My only sadness was that we had never come here before!

Visiting Carnarvon

After driving through dry, arid country I couldn't believe the oasis that is Carnarvon. It is a small town lined with palm trees ( a bit bruisied and battered from harsh winds) and bush after bush of pink, purple and white bougenvillias. The people are the friendliest we have ever met and at every turn we were given help and information.

The plantations of bananas, mangos and countless other fruit and vegetables are absolutely amazing. The water from the Gascoyne River is micromanaged so that each plantation owner has enough for their needs - and 70% of Perth!! Walking around with a farmer's wife on her plantation was humbling to say the least. I will never take the beautiful fruit and vegetables that come from Carnarvon for granted again. I feasted on a perfect papaya, custard apple, avocadoes and pure mango ice-cream. Chris doesn't like soft, fleshy fruits so all the more for me!

Visiting the Carnarvon school of the air was also very interesting. We met a few of the teachers there who were only to keen to allow us to sit in on their "air lessons" which we did, listening to children from remote stations working with their teachers.

We could have happily stayed in Carnarvon with Chris keen to negotiate with the Ed Dept on reducing the delay on the phones for the kids and teachers at the school of the air! He was also invited to come down to the heritage restoration area to work with some laid back guys on restoring an old diesel shunter. They had an amazing workshed - sorry boy's playroom - which they disappeared into for a fair while! While I was waiting I climbed an old water tower where I could see the amazing view of the wetlands, Carnarvon town and the Gascoyne entering the sea. Carnarvon was not like I had expected at all though I hear the winds can be pretty bad. We saw a row of trees growing almost parallel to the ground as a result of the winds.

We drove down to a place called "Pickle Point" at the harbour and bought the most gorgeous piece of fish and freshly caught prawns - since we are not fishermen!! We saw huge, big fishing boats in the harbour which were awesome.

We'll have to visit Carnarvon again.

Shark Bay to Carnarvon

No wonder Shark Bay has been declared a world heritage area. It is magnificently beautiful!! The stark scenery contrasting with the ocean is breathtaking.

The little town of Denham was just up our street! Even though the caravan park was laid out on beach sand it was the cleanest, whitest sand ever. The contrast of the white sand and the blue ocean was a picture to behold. As we rode around the town we stopped at a funky little coffee place called "Clouds". We met an artist there who ran a small shop, studio and made coffee. I, of course, couldn't resist buying one of her clay statues. Chris ended up offering to help her install small lighting gadgets onto the back of her beautiful paintings. Down the track we will be in contact with her again.

It was very easy to drive to Monkey Mia from Denham (26km). We absolutely loved Monkey Mia and were truly touched by the awesome sight of the dolphins coming into the bay to "meet" with visitors on the beach and get a few fish to eat. I spent a good while chatting with one of the young volunteers who keep watch when the dolphins come in to the bay. Sometimes they don't come in for 3 days or more, but we were so grateful they came in on the day we were there. It was amazing!! We had the loveliest day and treated ourselves to a special cooked breakfast from the resort that looked out onto the pristine beach and bay. Chris had great fun "chatting" with the emus and watching a few topless backpackers on the beach.

We were sad to leave Denham and the Shark Bay Heritage area but looking forward to Coral Bay and snorkelling in the Ningaloo reef.

Just spent almost a week in Kalbarri in a wonderful caravan park. It's amazing that the one on the sea front is packed and this one has plenty of space with a pool and green lawns. Often we swam after a sweaty ride as it is pretty hot during the days. We spent a lovely evening yesterday with a teacher friend from Perth and her husband. They gave us lots of tips of what to expect if we come across sandflies. We also met a great bunch of backpackers who swopped music with us. They were concerned that their music would bug us. No problem to us at all. In fact they agreed to play some of our music on their system! What a great group of youngsters. One of the girls came and borrowed a pot and pan too. They will be off hitching further north today! We also sat with a group of young Irish musicians who played some haunting guitar tunes. Didn't feel like grey nomads last night!

We ride our bikes a lot. We are so happy to have them as we don't ever use the car in the towns. We rode to Red Bluff which has amazing scenery and was not difficult at all.

We will be leaving to go to Denham today - Shell beach, Monkey Mia etc. Hope it will be fun!

I can't believe we are going further and further north! As the lady at the last caravan park we stayed at said, "an endless summer!" That's what it feels like as the further north we go the warmer the temperature gets. It's much easier handling such lovely warm weather compared to rain and mud.

We drove through Geraldton very easily stopping at the car spares place, good old Bunnings and Repco and then did a food shop at Coles. Nothing wrong with the car - it just needs a service shortly.

We are now in an old, historic town (by Australian standards!) - Northampton. It has a lovely feel with old stone buildings up and down the streets. Tomorrow we will go exploring on our bikes after I have made our weekly bacon and egg breakfast.

Right now we are in the only caravan park just off the main road so lots of heavy truck noise but a beautiful sunset!

Chris is an absolute whizz at getting TV for us each night. Everyone here has a great big satellite dish but not us!! The gadgets and wires we have in the caravan are amazing. Our caravan is definitely home from home. We even have "the broken hi-fi cupboard" that we have always had!!!

We'll leave for Kalbarri on Monday when everyone has gone back to school. Hopefully we'll be the first of the grey nomads to get a good spot in a caravan park next week. We stayed at Kalbarri 13 years ago and loved it. Hope it will be good as we are staying for a week.

First blog!

I have just managed to get this blog going. I hummed and haahed about writing but I think it could be fun. Quite a few people have asked how they could find out where we are. Sooooooo, if you want to know, I'd be happy for you to read about our travels.

A little while ago when I went back to uni to do some studying the lecturer commented that I didn't look like a caravanner!! When I see some caravanners I know what he means! They are either way too well organised compared to us, or they have missing front teeth and starting on the grog by 2pm!!

Mostly, our caravan is very comfortable and we have everything we need. I think I did very well packing the cutlery and plastic crockery we needed. I know I packed too many clothes but at least we can go a whole week without doing any washing.

We spent a great 4 weeks travelling around Busselton, Margaret River, Denmark, and Pinjarra where we spent the weekend at Fairbridge music festival. The music was great, as usual. We treated ourself to a Andrew Winton CD which we played on the way up to Leeman - a small fishing village, south of Geraldton - which is where we are now. We rode our bikes all over the village this afternoon - so quiet and well kept. Tomorrow we will be going down to the jetty to see the fishing boats bring in all the crayfish. Kailis Brothers is there to collect it all!

We were expecting big storms yesterday but nothing happened. I am sure that as we go north temperatures will be warming up. In a way we will both be sad as we love winters in Perth. Hopefully I'll be able to swim in places like Kalbarri, Coral Bay and Monkey Mia where we will be heading in the next few weeks.