Monkey Mia | Denham | Shark Bay

Shark Bay World Heritage Area

Stayed at Denham a few miles from Monkey Mia

Very attractive seaside beach. 

The rainfall here only averages around 200 mm a year, so don't expect too many green lawns!

water here is hard to come by.

But beer in the pub was good and caravan park easy walking distance.

Drove out to Monkey Mia to have a look a the Dolphin feeding, some interesting country side, and the colour of the sea, is a deep turquoise, to a dark blue in the deeper areas, very impressive.

The Monkey Mia experience I thought was a bit overrated, however the girls loved it,
and well run,  you can get a close look at the dolphins, if you like that sort of thing.























But there is plenty of other interesting stuff to see.
As I was walking along the peer, looking at the dolphins and turtles, an arm emerged from under the deck clutching a drink bottle.
When your in the wilderness, sometimes strange things happen, I have heard that!
But don't think even David Attenborough could explain this one!
And its before lunch, so no alcohol consumed yet.

Is anyone missing someone?
Did this man swim from a missing boat?
Or is it a Mermaid?
Do Mermaids normally have such hairy arms?
Why would you have a water bottle in your hand if you were a Mermaid, or have swum from a sinking boat?
Does anyone recognize this arm?
Am I getting too much sun?

So many questions, so little info.

At the moment in Denham they are running
The Shark Bay annual Fishing Fiesta,
some pretty good fish being caught.
Most are catch and release, they weigh, measure, take a photo and release most of them, and keep an odd one.
Looks like a lot of fun and area is well protected by Dirk Harthog Island from strong west winds.

Coming home from a look at the fish coming in at the fishing comp in Denham.
Another couple of very enjoyable days.

Choices | Mt Magnet, vs Gorges of Kalbarri

Road into Kalbaree national park

We have had a great stay at Kalbaree and a beautiful little harbour on the Murchison river.

The Bird Parks worth a look, but the
The Kalbaree National Park and the gorge are a must.

Kalbaree is a popular fishing spot, with the park full of fishermen that fish the Murchison river inlet, the Gorge is upper part of the system.

Usually a very productive spot, but talking to the fisherman next to us in the park, this year has been disappointing.

One of the difficulties in travelling is trying to fit everything in.

WA has an interesting Gold story, we had a taste of it in Kalgoorlie, but WA is so big, you need to do a separate Gold tour.

I would have liked to divert to Mt Magnet, and have a look at the Gold Mine, but would be a 700 km diversion, and couldn't get the Girls interested.
I wonder how much a plane ticket home would be? (just joking girls!)
I think if they had been following things on this company they would be far more interested!!

Mt Magnet is part of Ramelius Resources 

Bonanza Bedrock Gold Intersection | Milky Way | Mount Magnet

Gold Stocks are having a great run at the moment!

If it wasn't for a few gold stocks over the last 14 months, my portfolio would have struggled. see Stockgumble Performance page

Maybe we can go there next time?

Took the Girls to the pub for mothers day, and below was the view from the pub, not too bad at all!

Geraldton | Port Gregory | Kalbarri

Very interesting Drive along the 

coast, mostly small fishing villages dotted intermittently along the coast.

Port Gregory was interesting, seems to have a permanent reef that protects the port, 

Came across a pink lake, known as Hutt Lagoon, Mining company BSAF mine Beta Carotine here.

Hutt Lagoon is a pink lake, a salt lake with a red or pink hue due to the presence of the carotenoid-producing algae Dunaliella salina, a source of ß-carotene, a food-colouring agent and source of vitamin A. The lagoon contains the world's largest microalgae production plant, a 250-hectare (620-acre) series of artificial ponds used to farm Dunaliella salina.^[2]

Even the plants around the lake are pink, it reminded Butcho of the pink flamingos of Lake Nakuru in Kenya.
After his eloquent and detailed explanation of the place, I was expecting some pink Emus to come running past.

Pulled into Kalbarri, beautiful town on the WA coast, the places on the coast just seem to get better, it’s hard to believe, but you need to come and have a look!

Staying at the Tudor Caravan Park.

The manager has to be the closest to Basil Faulty I have come across on this trip.

We pull up at the check in, the girls go over to book in as usual, and about 30 seconds later this bloke turns up with a cb radio in hand, beckoning me to park my van.

I gave a short explanation stating that my wife was still inside, and I was waiting for her, but that wasn’t good enough! He just said Im going to park you now!  Quickly, follow me, hurry up hurry up!

So I followed him, not knowing what to think, my wife would kill me for abandoning her, but this bastard was going to kill me first if I didn’t follow him!

So away I went, deserting my bride, not knowing if I would ever see her again, down to the bottom of the park.

Basil had had enough of people that couldn’t park caravans, so gesticulated that I need to park here!

I thought that it was where he wanted me to put the van, but Basil assumed that every caravan-er was a simpleton and needed full instruction.

I lined up the van to back into his place, but I was 180 degrees wrong, he was instructing me where to drive the vehicle so I could then back the van into the correct position.

I had gone wrong big time, and I thought Basil was going to explode!

Now I have been driving trucks for 40 years, and even driven for Woolworths carting groceries, so I can drop a van onto a 20 cent piece, so this bastard is starting to get on my nerves.

But I didn’t want to drive any further to another park, so dutifully followed his instructions.

From this point on I did exactly what he said left hand down, right hand down, and parked, and that seemed to annoy him more!!

But I didn't let him get to me, and it was now my turn to have some fun.

Butcho has been driving trucks longer than me, so I thought I would amuse myself by watching him and Basil, see how they get on!

And yes, need I saw more, bloody amusing!

While Basil is giving instruction, he is also on the CB radio to the office.
Obviously to his wife, and she wasn’t taking any notice of him at all, very Faulty Towers.

Very funny indeed! Worth the visit!

Nice little park, and according to my wife, the people in the office are delightful!

Geraldton

Pulled into Geraldton, to stay the night and pick up some groceries.

Approximately 40,000 people live in Geraldton, so a major town that supports the Gasgcoyn area and farms inland.
There are plenty of caravan parks, but the navigator had picked one on the beach.
I was a little concerned as we seemed to be driving towards a peninsula that had mainly silos, trains and port facilities.


We pulled into Belair Gardens caravan park, big clean park on the coast line. and were directed down the back next to a big brick wall.
It wasn't long before we knew what the wall was for!

we had camped quite close to Geraldtons largest rail shunting yard.
So didn't sleep a lot, as they must have shifted every carriage in the yard at least twice overnight!

We proceeded to the HMAS Sydney II Memorial.
Click the link above to have a look a the story.



























Very well put together memorial of the loss of the HMAS Sydney II, that was sunk by the German raider of the coast not far from here, on November 19 1941,
All 645 men on board lost their lives.

Amanda's Pinnacles

Whilst we were in Perth, we parked next to a fellow that had been travelling for several months with his wife.
Had a good yarn to him about his trip, and compared caravaning notes.

That morning this fellow had gone to the travel agent to investigate the cost of buying his wife an Airline ticket, and sending her home.
Isn't that terrible?  I was horrified to think that someone would even contemplate such a thing!

Heading north from Perth to Geraldton, there are a couple of options, you can take the main highway inland, or the coast road.

Butch and I were pretty keen to take the inland road to have a look at some farming country.
However the girls wanted to take the coast road.

As we are Gentlemen, we took the coast road without protest.

But we were pleased we did, the coast road is an incredible drive, with some of the best Scenery so far.

Mostly spinafex type small scrub, that seems to burn fairly readily, but bounces back quickly.
The rough scrub was interspersed with great views of the ocean from time to time.

Along the way we called into The Nambung National Park, The Pinnacles.

This is a must if your driving past, so we unhooked the van and had a drive around the designated track around the park.

We stopped at Cervantes Caravan Park, on the beach,
a few kilometers down the road from the Pinnacles.

Cervantes is a fishing village on the coast famous for its lobster.
The fisherman have done well here with large double story houses on the beach, in a quite little community 200ks from Perth.
Specatular sunset, only beaten by a couple of beers and the Lobster, fish, prawns and oysters at the Cervantes Country club.

Not a bad day at all!

Images of Perth

I needed to catch up with a doctor in Perth, so we have spent some time here, 

The Doctor gave me a good report, so all clear to keep travelling.

Stayed at Karrinyup Waters Resort, great spot with plenty of local wild life. in the park.

Perth seems to still be doing well despite the falloff in mining in WA.

Caught up with Normie and Felicity Wells.

Norm gave us a great run around Perth, from North Perth down along the coast to Fremantle. 

He enlightened us on many things, one being the "Fremantle Doctor", which I thought was the cool breeze that made us all feel cooler.

In fact it was originally and correctly the Fremantle Docker" which came in the afternoon, and assisted the docking of ships! so I stood corrected, and can't wait to correct the next person that talks about it!

Another piece of info relates to a famous Australian Rules Footballer that came from here, 

Graham Farmer, Graham played for Geelong and had a legendary hand pass that many said went further than most blokes can kick the football.

Graham now has a freeway named in his honour, in Perth, at one point the freeway goes into a tunnel, that section is known as "The Polly Pipe", I thought that was pretty good, even if Normie only made it up himself!

Perth is a a very lay back city compared with Sydney and Melbourne, much less congested, and easier to get around.

It would be one of the few cities I could live in.

Thanks again Normie and Felicity for a great time!