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.

Port Headland WA

 Port Headland is where we met up with one of Dad’s old work friends. We visited his family, ate cake and lunch, swam in their pool, bounced on the trampoline and generally talked.

We stayed overnight at the Cooks Point Caravan Park, were we had another swim, and then moved on the nexday.        

Toe Jam still stuck in Broome.                                                          

Eighty Mile Beach WA

Just a one night stop where we did go for a drive on Eighty Mile Beach. Eighty Mile Beach did live up to its name, because if standing towards the water and look left or right there was nothing, not any rocks/cliffs in the distance, no lighthouses no nothing. On the sand we played the ‘Run-and-Jump’ game which pretty much explains’ itself, drew in the sand and collected shells until it got dark.

Toe Jam still stuck in Broome.

Broome#2 WA

Coming out of Gnylarung we couldn’t go down the main road because of the fires, so we went on a back route to Broome which Dad defiantly enjoyed because he likes the challenge of not crashing the car.  The road we took was quite skinny, so skinny we had to fold the side mirrors of the car in to fit though some places.

We arrive in Broome the second time! Reason for this is that Heidi and Mat (Team A) had to fly back to home in NSW, and Team Toe Jam has blown a steering box and in Broome they could get it fixed. Since visiting again, we decided to stay at the same caravan park as the one we stayed in the first time we visited Broome, (different site though). It was just a one night stopover, restocked our food and started to drive down the road, while Tom Jam were still getting their car fixed.

Gnylarung WA

At Gnylarung Retreat we were able to camp just a small walk away from the beach, super clear water and when we arrived the tide was in so we didn’t have to walk half a mile just to get to it. We did swim and the water was really nice.

We were originally going to move to Cape Leveque which was just  as nice but much busier and it just so happened that  we decided to stay at Gnylarung Retreat  one more night. Heidi and I played a game where in the night time you go out and look for a crab, which wasn’t very hard because they were everywhere! Once you have found a small crab then you catch it without getting nipped at. Heidi drew a target like shape in the  dirt/sand, a small inner circle then a larger outer circle. We placed our selected crab in the inner circle and whoever’s crab exited the outer circle first won. Heidi’s crab won first and mine curled up in its shell and wouldn’t move which really wasn’t great for my career as a crab racer. We continued this game for a bit, and I went through  about 3 crabs before any of them would move, but Heidi on the other hand used her winning crab multiple times before one of my many crabs won.

FYI: We weren’t on the beach, and the crabs only came out at night time.

Broome#1 WA

We have arrived in Broome!  After setting up at the Cable Beach Caravan park we went off to the markets which was great fun and we watched the ‘Stairway to the moon’ rising up, it was pretty amazing to watch.

The next morning was my birthday! We ventured out to find the dinosaur foot prints which we did eventually see after some serious looking. The foot prints we saw were a little bit bigger than my foot, and we also saw a clam which was a pretty colour. Later we visited the town beach, the same beach we went to watch the ‘Stairway to the moon’ at and walked 1.4km to actually get to the water from the dry sand. It took us quite a while to make it to the water, with Tom and the sludgy sand/mud. Just as the water was coming back in we managed to see the crashed plane wreck which was one of the planes that had been bombed by the Japanese in World War II. Lots of planes had been sitting in the water when the Japanese bombed them. On the walk back we almost got beaten by the tide but made it back dry.

Derby WA

We arrive in Derby, Team M and Team A walk on the jetty (the water still has crocodiles in it). The jetty has some handmade bins for your fishing line. These bins were made by a local school, which I think is a really great idea for helping the marine wildlife.

The place we set up at was just out of derby. It was very close to the river with big saltwater crocodiles in it so we camped at least 30 metres away from the water. At night time Dad and I went for a walk along the river bank (not too close to the water) and with a torch shinning on the water you could see lots and lots of little red glowing spots which were all glowing crocodile eyes.          

Who wants to go swimming?

Windjana Gorge WA

Now this place was fun!  When the night came, at around 7 a whole heap of bats would fly over the freshwater crocodile infested creek and the crocodiles would jump out of the water trying to catch the bats, and would catch one if they were lucky. It was really interesting to watch the bats fly over and lucky for us we did see some pretty good SNAPS! But we don’t think any crocodile got a bat dinner that night.

In the morning we went on a walk though a big tunnel called Tunnel Creek, a small opening between the big rocks was where we entered. While being in the tunnel you couldn’t avoid not getting your feet wet, we did spot some small freshwater crocodiles hiding in the corners but none of them bothered us, so we were fine.  One of the places Sammy and I were standing in was so dark when you turned off the torches you weren’t able to see anything.

Silent Grove WA

Gibb River Day4

Bell Gorge was one of the gorges that was in Silent Grove, it had the coolest swimming spot I had seen so far. The water fall was not to its fullest  so we were able to climb up it, (which was a lot harder than it sounds). Special thanks to Wendy (Team A) for helping us up.  Once we (Josh, Luke, Heidi, Sammy and me) were at the top we jumped off, which was by far the most fun thing that day.

Manning Gorge WA

Gibb River Day3

 Before arriving in Manning Gorge we drove a short detour to Ellenbrae Road house station which was known for its fabulous scones. Which were absolutely FANTASTIC! I personally really enjoyed them and the fun/lush veranda we sat on and the friendly staff made the experience a whole lot nicer.

In Manning Gorge (Mt Barnet) there was a river/lake swimming spot with nice clear waters that also had for the people who were walking but didn’t want to get wet boat which was free to pull back and forth from side to side in the river/lake swimming spot. The little boat, clear water and the refreshing swim was my favourite part of this place.

El Questro WA

Day1 Semi-Gibb River Road

On the way from the Gravel Pit, on a dirt road we happened to break a hole in a tyre which we didn’t realize was there ‘til Dad sensed it. But even when Dad sensed it, it must have been broken a long time because the tyre was shredded! So when we arrived at El Questro Dad had to drive back to Kununurra to get a new spare tyre.

Not long after the shredded tyre,, we stopped to look at a prison boab tree. This boab tree, (just like other boab trees) had a fat base and as it went up to the top got quite skinny. This tree however was gigantic and had a hollow inside which squeezing through a small hole in the side of the tree.

El Questro had the best 4WD tracks yet! Only lost one tyre to a rock...just a small hole, (not as bad as the first tyre), and because that happened, Dad drove all the way back to Kununurra to buy more tyres. This time however, he swapped all of the road tyres for off road tyres which so far so good.

El Questro also had some nice swimming spots which some were thermal (with water) and some were just refreshing.

Wyndam WA

We, again, drove though Kununurra to get to Wyndam, were just before we reached our camp site, we watched the sun set over the water, standing on the jetty which I thought was quite nice  but we couldn’t go swimming because of the crocodiles.

When we reached the campsite we set up and because it was a free campsite,(which Team M and Team A know it as the ‘Gravel Pit’), then out came the porta potti!

Luke, Tom and Josh (part of Team A) had fun playing in the dirt and Sammy (also part of The A Team) and I watch the stars in the sky, which I personally thought was quite interesting.  

Lake Argle WA

We drove through Kununurra to get to Lake Argle.

Hello Team A! Lake Argyle is where we met up with the A team, (which are friends from home). At the Lake Argyle Caravan park there was an infinity pool which is a pool with an edge that isn’t there, and of course we did some swimming.

We also happen to catch a cane toad which later got the name of ‘Fungus’. Although unfortunately for Fungus, he got ran over by a car the next day, then placed in the bin.

FYI: So Team A and Team M could communicate, over the UHF radios’ our call names were Toe Jam (Team A) and Rubber Ducky (Team M).

Purnululu national Park WA

Welcome to Western Australia!

Driving through Kununurra we make it to the national park of Purnululu. In Purnululu we camped next to the river, which (when we swam in it) was a ‘thermal pool’ because of the lack of water...

We visited a few different places in Purnululu National Park such as lots of walking tracks; one of the tracks was called the Echidna Chasm which was a small walk through a very skinny path way between two very large rocks. There were also a few other walks which also had quite an amazing view. My favourite was (at our camp ground) a small walk up a hill which at the top you could see all the big hills in the distance. On the hills when the sun moved the shadows on the mountains changed, a bit hard to explain, but I really enjoyed the view.

Timber Creek NT

Stop over night, and had a quick swim in the pool.

Darwin NT

So much has been happening in Darwin, the awesome Swenson family have let us stay in their yard, and let us swim in their pool, which has been fun.
More to come.

Mataranka NT

Team Mataranka... oh hang on, Team M have stopped at the Mataranka Homestead, where there is a thermal pool on which you can get to without leaving the caravan park.

We did swim in the thermal pool which was very nice, almost like a warm bath (just the right temperature). We enjoyed the thermal pool and the caravan park so much we decided to stay two nights instead of one. While we had a whole day to do stuff we went to the other thermal springs in the area. Bitter Springs was a nice place where you could float down the river, get out at the end, walk back to the start then do it again. Great fun! 

The best bit was looking under the super clear water and seeing the, (what looked like hairy sausages) mossy stuff, (not sure how to describe it). Then after some more swimming, we headed back to the caravan park...for some more swimming.

Tomorrow...Darwin!

Having fun swimming under the water.
Kate and Tom.

Just chilling.

Some funky dance moves, (and the hairy sausages).

Lorella Springs NT

Lorella Springs was a nice place to visit, there was a warm spring that you could swim in, (which of course we did swim in), and plenty of other fun and interesting things you could do while there. However, for us we did not have time to do all of them so instead we packed up and then went to the Southern Lost City, which is a large clump of rocks that looks like the ruins of a lost city. We walked on the track around the rocks which wasn't that far, I got to be in charge of the camera, so I took as many photos as I could. The Southern Lost City is definitely something worth seeing.
When often looking for camp sites we try and go to the ones with showers and toilets, Lorella Springs did have showers and toilets, but not as you might expect. The toilets were pretty usual toilets, but the showers on the other hand the showers were like having a shower outside. There was walls, and doors, but the doors were slightly none reliable, as they were only shower curtains. As for a roof there was no roof, so if it did rain all your things would get wet, including you.
If we had a little more time we would have done a couple of the other things, but we did enjoy the experience of the bathrooms, and the swim in the warm spring.

'Like taking a warm bath'

Robinson River NT

Welcome to Northern Territory!

The very dusty Robinson River was just a one night stop. Just like Miyamba, to get to the site we had to drive across a river crossing, however, this time, we weren't allowed to swim or go near the water because of the crocodiles. Unfortunately/fortunately we didn't see any crocodiles inside or outside the water.

 It was a free camp site, which in our case meant, no toilets, no showers, and pretty much no anything. So out came the porta potty in the ensuite which was a little cosy but definitely a worth while experience.

Robinson River was empty, so we pretty much had the whole camp to ourselves. Even though it was warm enough to be wearing shorts and a t-shirt, we still delighted ourselves by have a camp fire. Roasting marshmallows in the fire was by far one of the highlights in Robinson River.

The set up.

We made a fire! Woohoo!

Boodjamulla (Lawn Hill National Park) QLD

Only an one hour drive from Miyamba to Boojamulla, Team M set up camp and then go for a 900m walk to  swimming hole called Indarri Falls. The swimming hole was not only refreshing but quite amazing. Green trees, plants, a few large rocks to scamper on and at last the Indarri falls, which wasn't actually that big, although still quite lovely to watch.Early the next morning, Mum, Dad, Luke, and me (of course) went for a 2km walk, called the Stack walk. Which was essentially a steep walk up the hill then a 1.6km walk around the top of the stack. On the top of the stack there were some great views looking out over the water!
Since it was Father's Day, after breakfast we gave our fabulous Father some handmade cards, which, (I'm sure he did) love. At around 9:00am Team M were finally ready to go canoeing. On my team I had the company of David and Luke. We discovered that canoeing is a lot more challenging than you may think. We managed to do around 400 crashes into the bank, which just so happened to have long spicky leafy things on it, (and I was at the front), also managing to do around 20000 floating around in circles. After a long and challenging canoe up the gorge we made it to the end of our track, not to mention the different levels of the gorge, on which you had to heave the boat out of the water and carry it up a small hill then set it back in the water. Overall definitely a worth while experience, some fun times had splashing the other boat with water with the paddles.
On Monday we pack up and set of the explore the next place!

Team Lightning, Mum, Dad and Tom.

Selfie in the water.

Swimming in the swimming spot.
(Really nice!!!)

Miyamba-National Park (middle of nowhere) QLD

It was literally in the middle of nowhere. Team M tough it up and camp two nights in the middle of the bush. With trees surrounding the whole area, two pit toilets and no showers, dirt everywhere and LOTS of flies, the team did however (in particular Luke and Tom) really enjoy the small river crossing, which was a great place to get your feet wet and maybe have a little splash around, though you had to be careful of the slipperiness.  The river crossing was half the fun, as watching the stars both nights was amazing and beautiful. The total darkness was also quite interesting, just thinking how much light brightened up the trees around a tent.

Flies, so many flies!

Cloncurry QLD

From Longreach to Cloncurry the air conditioner decided it was not going to work anymore, (just as the weather starts to cook you alive!) and sitting in the car for around 4 hours with five other sweating people was an interesting experience. Every now and then we would wind down the windows and let some refreshing hot air blast us, which believe it or not was actually quite nice considering the circumstances.
Finally we made it to Cloncurry all looking like tomatoes.
Fortunately at the camp site, there was a pool. Woohoo! Luke, Tom and I went for a swim, boy, did it feel nice!
Just a one night stop there, and we move on to Mount Isa to get the air conditioning fixed the next day.

Longreach QLD

While in our quick stop over at Longreach we revisited the Qantas Founders Museum.  As well as the usual inside things to look at, this museum also had a few outside features. Featuring: an 747 jet, (which is a really big plane), which I (Kate) enjoyed looking through the inside and the outside of the aircraft. There was a few other planes in the area that we could explore, one of those planes, was a plane that Michael Jackson had travelled and toured in. I found interesting that Qantas stands for: Queensland and Northern Territory Ariel Services.

Kate with an engine off a large plane

Selfie in the engine of the 747

Augathella QLD

Welcome to Queensland!
Just a one night stop at Augathella then around a 5 hour drive to the next destination, which was Longreach.

Lightning Ridge NSW

Stopping overnight a Gunnedah Team M move on to Lightning Ridge for a two night stop, during the days in between Team M experienced the Red, Yellow, and Green door tours. They ventured into the Chamber of the Black Hand, which is an underground mine with many genres of carvings in the walls, carved entirely by one man and his butter knife. Rounding out the day with a quick (and when I say quick, I mean quick!) dip in the 40 degree baths. Then they visited a hill on which they watched the sun set, which was beautiful.

After a long drive from Lightning Ridge, Team M has made it to Augathella in Queensland!