Swan Valley WA

Sandy Bay Recreation Reserve WA

On the way to Swan Valley which is really close to Perth Team M stopped over night at a place called Sandy Bay. The caretaker told us about a small beach side spot which was really nice!
When it became dark the other side of the water the little lights of Greenhead.
We tried some more fishing and Luke caught a small puffa fish and everyone was really proud because it was the first fish we had caught on the whole trip so far.

Awesome camping spot!

Luke catching a fish

Geraldton WA

We visited the Museum and learnt about the Batavia.  This was a ship wrecked not too far along the coast, long before any Europeans had settled in WA.  Many people survived the sinking ship, but fought with each other over access to supplies.  The captain and a couple others had sailed to Indonesia in a long boat for help and returned to find many of the people murdered.
We also went to the HMAS Sydney Memorial site.  There was lots of information about the sinking of this WWII ship with over 600 people on board.  The centre of the memorial was a cool dome made of steel cut out seagulls, one for each of the people who died.
I went shopping with Dad to buy a hi lift jack.  Dad had to fix another leaf spring in the trailer.  The caravan park where we stayed had a big jumping pillow and a pool.  Luke, Tom and I went swimming - the water was a bit cold.  There was an awesome camp kitchen and I made a cake!  It was delicious.  

Monkey Mia WA

Today we said goodbye to the A-Team.
At Monkey Mia we went to see the Dolphin feeding which is where the wild dophins come up to the shore and people can feed them.  We were able to stand in the water near the Dolphins, we just had to watch out for crabs.  The rangers had a name for all the Dolphins and could tell them apart according to the marks and cuts on their fins.
After that we did some 4WDing to Cape Peron.  It  had a light house that was ridiculous - just a metal pole with a light on top.  To the get to the light house, we had to walk over the hot sand - it burnt even with shoes on. There was a nice view.  We camped near the water.  The ground was red sand , but the beach was white sand.  There was no fade between the colours, just red, then white with a tiny bit of mixing where you walked down to the beach.  The boys tried fishing, Dad only caught a rock. The water looked really nice, but was cool, so we didn't swim here.
While we were on the track, we helped a travelling German couple who were bogged in the soft sand.

Steep Point WA

Team A are on a tight schedule to get to Perth, so it was straight to Steep Point, the most western point of mainland Australia.  
On the way we had a late night stop over with the worlds slowest fast food.... pizza!  The order took nearly an hour to make.  While Mum was waiting, the rest of us played in a park as it got dark.  It was also really windy near the water here (Canarvon) that our thongs kept blowing away if you needed to take them off and we had to chase them.
On our way, early the next morning we visited a house made entirely of tiny shells and then we went to see the Stomolites - funny rock looking things made of  bacteria.
To get to Steep Point we took the four wheel drive track which was really long and there were some steep up hill sandy bits and Team A got bogged, but only once. For lunch we stopped at a pull over spot which happened to have an amazing! view, water hitting the cliffs below and some beautiful tall cliffs that framed the perfect picture. Then after some more driving we found the blowholes. A blowhole is a gap in the cliff/rock that goes all the way to the water and every time the water washes up against the cliff/rocks the air inside of the crack will be forced out making a WHOOSH noise.
When we put an t-shirt over the hole it would go flying! Then Dad put a decent sized rock on the hole and that got blown off to hitting Josh (Team A) in the foot.  oopps!
Finally we made it to the western most point of mainland Australia!!!!
That night we camped really close to the water, on the beach.  There were lots of star fish skeletons and a steep hill behind the camp area which you could climb and look at the view over Shark Bay. It was pretty and awesome.

Here we are!!

The awesomest camp spot!

The Stomolites

Best lunch spot!!!

Ningaloo WA

Ningaloo was one of the top ten places on my favourite lists because we went in a glass bottom boat, then jumped out and went for a snorkel, which was quite awesome, amazing and WOW at the same time.

We stayed at a camp host campsite which was super close to the beach and the beach had nice clear water (we did swim, roll in the sand and do some snorkelling over the seaweeds). Team M and Team A shared a campsite because they were so big and far apart.

The next day we went on the glass bottom boat which was AWESOME!!! Snokelling with all of the fish and coral were you could get up close, without touching was even AWESOMER!!! If you listened carefully you could hear all the fish eating away at the coral...yum,yum...  

Intense snorkeling...

After some intense snorkeling.

Karijini National Park WA

Karijini National Park was something really enjoyable. In Karijini we visited the Fern pools and the Fortesque Falls, I definitely enjoyed both of them. Fortesque Falls had a close look at the waterfall which unfortunately I forgot to go have a look at. Although at the Fern pools I made up for that forgetfulness when Dad, Mum, Luke and I swam over to the waterfall and sat under it, the water beat down on my legs so hard that they almost felt num when I try to swim back.

We visited the Hancock Gorge which is where the Kermit’s pool water hole is. I liked the walk to the pools a tad better than the swim in the pool, not because the pool was bad but on the walk we had to swim instead of walk because the water was too deep. Then after some more walking we (didn’t have to, but chose to) spider walked to the pool. At Kermit’s pool there were stable rock cliffs which towered over the small pool beneath. On the other side of the pool there was a guy setting up an abseiling course going further along the gorge.

We visited the handrail pool which did live up to its name because the only way to get in and out of the pool was to use the handrail going almost vertical up the rock wall with a few small steps. Dad and I swam to the other side of the pool, which was quite cold.

During the day we also visited some awesome lookouts.

 

Sitting in the Fern pool waterfall.