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?