Wonderful Geraldton!

Before leaving Kalbarri we went for a drive out in the National Park to see the sights. Had a look at the Z-Bend and Nature's Window which showcase the Murchison river. Would have looked even better with some water flowing thru', but still impressive.
The Z-bend (not actually showing showing the "Z" bit)
Nature's Window
Laura and Will having a little rest in the shade. Isn't this rock face beautiful!

Well sadly we had to leave the Gray family in Kalbarri last Friday and move on. The girls exchanged friendship necklaces and although we were a little sad we look forward to meeting them on the road again some day.
This is the "Pink Lake" at Gregory, just south of Kalbarri.

Onto our next stop...Found Geraldton to be a great place with everything you could want in a big town, if somewhat spread out. Staying at Batavia C/Park which is a little out of town but nice and quiet and they say the pool is solar heated (but I have my doubts). Went for a trip out to Oakabella Station yesterday which is said to be a haunted house. The lady taking the tours was a real character and has a gift so can see the spirits. She was very interesting to talk to (as long as you used your manners). God help anyone who said "what?" instead of "pardon me?"...Laura, or parents who interrupted to answer for the kids...Deb! Other than that she was a delight and so knowledgeable about the station and the local area.
The barn at Oakabella. Notice how cold the kids look!
Inside the barn (now the museum). Notice the spot at the top of the picture?
One of the bedrooms where a bloke shot himself while cleaning his gun. Notice the spots in the top of my photo again?!
The lounge room where a baby died. Yep, more spots and blurry things! So whether or not you believe in spirits we were amazed with these photos, considering I've taken hundreds and hundreds of photos on this trip and not one has any spots in them, except these ones, go figure!

And best of all, the hot chocolate and delicious scones Loretta made and the family devoured with lashings of strawberry jam and cream. ALMOST better than Grandma's! I missed out but I have lost 1.5kg in the last fortnight so it's worth it.

FISHING
Hey, check out these rippers...Stevo has caught 12 tailor in the last 2 days (and lost 2 big mulloway, but we won't dwell on that). The freezer is full and we are eating fish at least every second day, yum! Go you great white hunter :-))


HMAS SYDNEY 2 MEMORIAL
This beautiful memorial in Geraldton is dedicated to the 645 people who died at sea in November 1941 on the HMAS Sydney 2, when they were bombed by a German raider (the Kormorant). The dome is made up of metal seagulls, signifying the exact number of people who passed away. The big tall "stele" represents the bow of the ship, and the bronze lady is for all the family waiting patiently for their loved ones to return home. It was well worth a look.

Hamelin Pool, Monkey Mia and on to Kalbarri

Left Carnarvon and next stop was Hamelin Pool, a nice quiet little caravan park about an hour from Monkey Mia. Met up with the Gray family (Georgie, Brett and kids) and stayed for 3 nights. Had a few day trips to Monkey Mia, Eagle Bluff and Shell beach. Also saw the "stromalites" which apparently are very rare bacteria colonies in the bay at Hamelin Pool (closely related to the first forms of life and which look very much like rocks if you ask me!!) It meant we couldn't swim in the sea at the caravan park because we could destroy the little critters but we didn't mind too much because it was freezing. Yes, you heard right - FREEZING!! The wind was blowing a gale and we had to resort to long pants and jumpers and extra blankets at night. Boy, I hate this cold stuff!! Really trying to put the brakes on so we don't hit too much of this chilly weather.
Anyway, enough of that, here are the stromalites which I'm sure you will be impressed with...Chris and the kids were so impressed they didn't even go to see them, they said take a photo so we can look at that. Ha ha.
Mmm, stromalites...

SHELL BEACH

Laura, Will and Emma at Shell Beach. It is made entirely from tiny little white shells and up to 10 metres deep in places. The shells stick together after a time and compact into a solid mass which was once used for a building material. Now it is only mined from a quarry at Hamelin Pool and only to maintain the historic buildings already there.
This is where the shell blocks are mined from.

EAGLE BLUFF

My wordy lordy me it was windy from the top of Eagle Bluff. Blow a dog off it's chain!

MONKEY MIA

Laura and Will feeding the dolphins A star fish

We went for a catamaran ride on "Aristocat 2" and loved it. Went over to the pearl farm and got to see how pearls are made and also got to meet "farmer Jamie", from the TV show "farmer wants a wife". Then we went looking for dugongs which I thought would be easier than it actually was. Apparently they are very shy creatures so they came up for a split second to get some air, then disappeared, usually just as I tried to get a photo! Did get to see a couple of them but would save myself the trouble next time.

Chris and the kids relaxing on the net at the front of the "Aristocat 2".

Towards the end of our cruise they put out the boomnet and Laura and Emma jumped on for a quick ride. For everyone else it was way too cold! Stopped at Denham on the way home and had lunch and a play at the playground (the kids that is, not me).

HORSE RIDING

After being so brave getting on the boomnet the day before Laura decided she would like to go horse riding so here we are...

Laura at the back and Emma at the front on their horses Mighty and Ruby

Heading back after a fun 20 minute ride. Look out Jane and Fiona, she's hooked and we told her to see you guys when we get back for some lessons!

So that's the trip so far. Off to do a little day trip tomorrow so I'll be back with some more photos soon. Hope this weather warms up, it reminds me why I've enjoyed being away so much :-)

Cheers to you all xxx

A fun time in Carnarvon

Right oh, we have had a week and a half in Carnarvon and we leave tomorrow so I'd better get some news and some photos on here...
Had a quiet first week, did a little sight seeing but not a lot to see really. Went around to the fruit and vegie stalls to stock up on some "home grown" goodies, took the kids to the park and the beach. It's a nice quiet little town. Chris went fishing and got a flathead (which I haven't eaten since we left home I don't think, yuummm). He talked us into going with him one day and it was the longest day of my life!! But the kids enjoyed themselves and buried each other in the sand as you can see below...

Chris and the kids swam out to a sandbank to cool off after fishing all day
And we got to see some wildflowers which are still out here and there around the place.

We went to the One Mile Jetty, which as you can see is a mile long, and had to pay for the privilege of walking out there! After the single flathead Chris had caught he decided to give the jetty a whirl and last night ended up with a mackerel and a long tom, and he's back there this arvo trying again. Got to give the man credit - he never gives up!

A few days before we were due to leave we got a call from Georgie (and Brett, Kyle and Emma, who we met at Pardoo) saying they were going to be in Carnarvon the next day, so we stayed a few more days and caught up with them. Kids had a great time climbing trees, swimming and generally having fun and the adults got to relax with happy kids who never complained once about being bored!!

We went to the Quobba Blowholes with them for a drive. I'm sure the blowhole is a lot more ferocious when the weather is rough. There are hooks on the tops of the cliffs for the fishermen to hook themselves to, and a massive sign as you come to the blowholes which says "KING WAVES KILL"!! And the girls are standing in front of the life bouys for anyone who goes over the side, YIKES!

The cliffs are pretty amazing and covered in oyster shells so if you were unlucky enough to go over the edge you would be cut to pieces trying to get back up. I vote for staying well clear of the edge!

Here we all are checking out the view (L-R) Georgie, Kyle, Brett, Will, Emma, Chris and Laura. Saw about 20 or more dolphins swim by, not too far out and it was fantastic to see. First time I have really seen any in the wild that close.

Hello Mr and Mrs Stevenson :-))

The land is like a moonscape, all holey rocks all merged together like they've been melted.

And here is the desperate fisherman who (against wifely advice) decided to have a little go at throwing a lure around...on the edge of the bloomin' cliff and nowhere near the life bouys! No wonder I have to keep dying these grey hairs. And not a single fish did he catch!
But all that stress wasn't in vain, Brett came up with a lovely trevally which he didn't want and gave to us, yummy.

Before we went home we all went snorkelling. This photo shows Chris and Will at the water getting their flippers on. We saw lots of exciting things - fish, sea slugs, clams, sea urchins, beautifully coloured coral. Amazing to see.

So tomorrow we leave for a little place called Hamlin Pool, just below Monkey Mia. Brett and Co. left today but Emma stayed with us and we will meet them again tomorrow and have a few days together.

Had a call from Betty today. She got some of our mail and apparently the kids both did really well on their NAPLAN tests so I guess that is proof enough that we haven't done any damage by bringing them on this wonderful adventure. We knew it was a good idea but it's nice to see it down on paper too. Well time for tea so I'd better go round up the mob and feed them, chow for now and cheers to you all xxx

Go back, go back!

Oopsie, I forgot to put some photos on from our stay in Exmouth.

This is the shipwreck of the SS Mildura, a cattle ship that went down a long time ago (don't ask me when, I can't remember!)

The Vlamingh Head Lighthouse

Laura and Deb up at the Vlamingh Head Lighthouse

This is the Charle's Knife Canyon (although Stevo tells me we don't have canyons, it must be a gorge) Anyway whatever it was actually called, it was amazing! You can see the road at the bottom where you can drive thru', but the poor kids had seen enough "rocks" by the time we got to the top that we didn't go down there. The view was beautiful.

As soon as we got close to Exmouth we had to keep our eyes peeled for emus, there were stacks and they wandered across the main road all the time.
As far as wildlife goes we also saw lots of wild goats and squillions of turtles and the occasional splash of a whale out at sea.

So then we moved on to Carnarvon...

Exmouth

Had 4 nights at Exmouth but didn't like it all that much to be honest, compared to some of the other places we've seen. Very remote and expensive, although Chris did a try-dive at the navy pier which he enjoyed. Also threw in a line but alas no luck with the fish, so we went swimming instead, much more fun! Stayed on the west side of the point at a place called Yardie Station Caravan Park where we were charged full price for a powered site but were only allowed to use certain electrical things like lights and fans basically. No air con or toaster etc. because their generator wouldn't handle it, and we were not allowed to use our own generator either...go figure?!! If we had stayed in town we would have been charged the $34 or $36 for a site, plus the usual extra $10/child/night, plus an extra $10/night because we were a big rig!! NOT IMPRESSED! Anyway we decided to cut our losses and leave although we were still waiting for mail to arrive. Had a night at Nanutarra Roadhouse to break the drive and although it was very, very basic we were happy to pay the $25 for the night.
Poor Will can only last about 10 minutes swimming in the sea, don't know how he'll survive when we get our first winter down home. Our very own little frog boy, just like his mother!
Laura and Daddy enjoying the water at the beach in Exmouth
Laura, aged 8.
Racing the waves and burning off some energy!
Gave the kids the camera at Nanutarra to take a few shots and these are some of the ones they came back with...
Will in front of a memorial at Nanutarra Roadhouse
Mum relaxing with a cool beverage
A self portrait by Laura Mae Stevenson (not bad I thought!)
Have I made mention yet of Caz and Craig's new addition and Nate's new baby brother? Gorgeous little Jamie John Baxter was born on Monday the 4th of October, much to everyone's relief but mostly Caz's I think! Have seen a few photos and can't wait to meet him in person in January.
Oh, other news just by the way...I am officially overweight and planning on losing 6 - 10 kgs. (All this wonderful relaxing lifestyle has caught up with me...Waaaahh!) Tonight I am joining the "Weighitup" website so I can get some good meal ideas and I've started walking in the mornings. Today I brought myself a new pair of sneakers and a set of bathroom scales so look out, no turning back. I put this on here to make sure I don't chicken out or give up, keep reminding me to try hard won't you. Chow for now :-))