Coral Bay | Exmouth

The Big attraction here is the World Heritage listed Ningaloo Coast

We called into Coral Bay however the caravan parks here were booked out, so its important you book if you want to stay here, the place is in a national park, so spaces are limited.

The Reason Coral bay is so popular is that is where the reef is closest to the beach, so you can easily swim to it and enjoy the view.

So we drove on to Exmouth, plenty of room here and nice spot at the RAC Cape Exmouth Holiday park.

The thought was that seeing we couldn't get into Coral Bay, we would Stay at Exmouth, and drive around to turquoise bay and do some snorkeling there to look at the Coral. ( that is the people that wanted to Snorkel).

I went into the information center, had a look at the display and immediately noted several ways you could die within the first few minutes of your swim, that's if you hadn't already drowned in the rip! Sharks and venomous sea snakes to name a couple,  but I'm assured its quite safe??

So not to be deterred , we put our intrepid swimmers in (certainly not Me!), and let them have a drift in the rip!

Neither reported seeing any coral, so not sure where they went wrong??

The other option you have is to Dive with Whale Sharks, this is reportedly a good trip, but will cost you Approx $300, and quickly books out, so must be good?

So we are having a day off to make sure we are booked into some venues and be at least 10 days ahead, so we don't miss out again! Whilst doing this we decided to have a drink with a few nibbles. This was very quickly detected by the resident Emu, who was cruising around.                                         The bird is used to people so was not easily deterred, he made a beeline straight for the bowl of crisps on the table.                   Butcho tried his best with some Emu whispering, which only seemed to inspire the Emu to greater effort.

The only way to get rid of it was to put all our food back in the caravan!

I feel a bit sorry for Butcho, who was only trying to protect us, but if you have a problem with Emus, I probably wouldn't call Butcho!

Being on our nations westerly most piece of dirt, the area has always had some strategic defence significance which continues.

Learmouth RAAF Airforce base, is nearby, and established in WWII with a memorial nearby, and has been recently activated in the search for the missing malasian airline plane ML370, couldn't see much activity, but there is a huge fuel dump there, if its full, looks like it would keep our air-force aloft for a few days.

And North of Exmouth on the peninsular the biggest Array of Antennas I have ever seen, The Harold Holt Naval Communications Station, apparently used for communicating with our submarine fleet.

Harold Holt Naval Communications Station

Interesting place but not too much else unless you love swimming and snorkeling.

Surrounding country is incredibly dry, so no agricultural activities except for some opportunity cattle grazing.

I

Carnarvon

Where the desert meets the sea is how its promoted, can't argue with that!
 pretty dry, but interesting countryside

Called into the Carnarvon Space Museum, well put together, and worth the visit.

The Museum is soon to be opened by The Last Man Man On the Moon. Eugene Cerman later this month.

Interesting history of the space race, and the part Carnarvon played in the moon landing.

I was impressed by the navigation aid that was out of the Gemini space craft, a couple of high school protractors mounted on a platform.

These blokes must have had some guts to ride in these machines.

 





Some Irrigation on the Gasgoyne river, which is completely dry, so all bore water I assume.

The trees have a bit of a lean to them, similar to much of the west coast, so I suspect there is a bit of wind here at times.

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.