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About Peanuts Travels


This blog shares my travel experiences esp in mountain trekking which I have developed a great interest since my 1st climb in Taiwan. Since then I
have been trying to climb more mountains whenever I can. And to couple my climbs with leisure travelling to places of adventure. The freedom of doing what
you want and where you want, is the true meaning of travelling.

Friday, February 16, 2018

Perth & Around

Perth (1~10 Dec 2017)

This is our 2nd visit to Australia and for this time round, we picked Perth for its family friendly experiences that it can offer from animals encounters, beautiful beaches to national parks. We have been doing self drive for many trips but this is the 1st one that we were bring our kid along. There was some worrying as to whether she could stand the long drive and the activities we planned out for her. We tried to plan for a variety of activities like short hikes, spending time at the beach, visiting animal farms, taking cruises and trying out the local food and sleeping in a foreign environment. In the end, all worked well and it was a good wrap up for the entire 10 days road trip.  This write can be used as a reference for families wanting to try out self drive road trips for the family with children and at the same time instill some sense of adventure seeking for the child.


Day 1: Arriving Perth


Landed at Perth Aiport
From Singapore, we took a noon 5hr flight and landed at Perth Airport around 5pm. Clearing customs was a breeze if you obliged by the rules if no foodstuff, plants or things that are organic in any sense.  Took us a while to get our pre booked car rental as there was a long queue and some logistical problem with the car rental company on child seat. Took us a total of an hour to get service by the counter staff. Instead of waiting we went to settle our dinner at the nearest cafe just besides the arrival gates of the airport.It was getting late and with more waiting for our rental car to be ready, it was better to settle our dinner before leaving the airport so that we could just check in to our airport motel for the night’s rest before starting our road trip around Perth. The food was good, maybe because we were hungry. After dinner and some more waiting we got our car finally, a Kia Sportage SUV.
It was a short drive of 10mins from the airport to the motel at Redcliffe area. Roads were clear of traffic at this time of the night. Our first night stay in Perth was the Ibis Budget Perth Airport hotel. A simple no frills hotel near the airport. Rooms are real small but for a rest stop, no issue but staying here for longer days, you would not feel that you are on a holiday. The hotel doesn’t have lifts and there are 3 floors. So we did some weight lifting as ours was on the 2nd floor.

Day 2: Perth, Caversham Widllife Park, Bullsbrooke Strawberry Picking


Our 1st night stay near the airport
Our rental car for the road trip.

It was a fine cloudless morning. The skies were blue, no a single patch of cloud in the sky. Sunblock was the next thing on our mind. A quick checkout and we started our official road trip around Perth. First stop was breakfast and we decided to go to the nearby cafe. A found a DOME cafe nearby in the area of Bassendean that offers good breakfast menu and they open early.  After loading our bags into the car, off we went for a short 10mins to the cafe.


Train cabin as part of the restaurant dinning space

The DOME cafe has a an unique decor. They have real train car moulded into the building structure, converting one of the train car compartment to a seating area for customers to enjoy their tea and meals there. Our 1st Aussie breakfast was refreshing for us. Well is was the 1st day breakfast, but back in our minds we know we would get sick of it after a few more days and missed the food back home.


Today’s itinerary was to visit the Caversham Wildlife Park, a short 20 mins drive from the airport; and to do some strawberry picking as well. All within short driving distance around Perth. And being close to Perth we were ready to experience lots of tourists as well joining us.

Caversham Wildlife Park


Road entrance to Whiteman Park

Animals crossings
Wildlife park entrance. Ticket booth to the left
Sheep sheering show

The park opens at 9am and we reached the park around 10am. There is a huge car park area near the car and tourists were starting to come in but in light batches as it was still early. The park is located in the Whiteman Park and entry into the park is free. Well some parks around Perth charges an entry fee for cars or number of people entering. This wildlife park is owned and run by a local family with no assistance grant from their government and looking at the scale and animals they have, i would say that is is quite an impressive achievement after reading about them and how they started by small and simple to the current size and turning it to a major tourist attractions.  Being a wildlife place with animals is a magnet for tourist families with children. Many tourists come to Perth with families. Publicity cost should be high as well as you can see this Caversham Wildlife Park big poster at the luggage collection area at Perth Airport.

Walking towards the sheep sheering show

Lamas

Nice furry wooly brown sheep.
White grey owl

There are many animal show times and feeding session all in intervals of 30mins to 1hr.  Shows are not run concurrently as you can see the same staff hoping from one event area to the other. There are sheep shows like herding and wool sheering, and other feeding show times. Meeting session with the wombats enclosure with other animals is a crowded attraction. There are snakes, possums, owls, parrots all within the same air conditioned tent. 


Going to meet the Koalas
Wide awake. Usually sleeping.

Meeting the Koalas and taking picture with them was also one of the crowd puller attractions. There is also the kangaroo patting and feeding in a big enclosure area where kangaroos are free to roam around. The sight of seeing a group of them running in a herd was fascinating in such a park environment. But when the sun approached noon and gets warmer, the kangaroos would just rest under the cooling shades of the trees within the enclosure. The feeds for the kangaroos are free flow and you don't have to pay extra for them. There is even a penguin enclosure with a nice pool for them to swim in. But when we were there, the weather was getting warm and with the strong sun, all of them were seeking shelter under the rocks deep within the building structure. Only a few penguins ( well just 2 of them) came out to swim and walk around the enclosure.

A small penguin enclosure. Hot day, all hiding under the rock cover


The good thing about this Caversham Wildlife Park is that after you paid for the entrance, all encounters, meet up session are included. Unlike some parks that we have visited around Melbourne is that you have to pay extra to get close up photograph taking with the Koalas. There is a small cafe for families to grab some sandwiches and ice-creams for the children near the entrance. And a always there gift shop just before you leave the park.

Happily feeding the kangaroo
More feeding (free feed)



More kangaroos (and a lot more)

We covered the major animals shows, had our playtime feeding the kangaroos and timely enough for lunch. We decided to drive to the nearby suburbs town area for lunch as there wasn’t much choices at the small cafe at the park.The cafe did have cold sandwiches, but travelling with children, we would prefer to get some cooked and hot food for them.

A quick check on google map shows the town of Ellenbrook and off we drove to Ellenbrook Central. We are not fans of fast food ( family standard, myself can’t say i am not), but trying to find food on google map, usually the places where fast food congregates are usually places where other amenities and F&B options are more readily available. Some small town we drove to was like very quiet and deserted. The only activity there that is triggering the traffic and human flow is the supermarket. Many cafes, restaurants and take-outs are usually closed. They operated either short hours in the morning or just the evening to night. Even the night ones are mere few hours maybe from 5pm to 8pm.  This is so much relaxing and family friendly compared to we city folks, especially from highly competitive countries like ours.

Amarettos Restaurant at Ellenbrook Central

Our first lunch meal in Perth. Not bad


Ellenbrook Central, with name of Central says almost everything about the place. And this was the place we had out lunch at a restaurant called Amarettos Restaurant. The staff was friendly, service was great. Maybe services tend to get more personal and cordial once you moved away from the cities. We ordered pastas and a burger set. Portion was good for a 2 mains to be shared with 2 adults 1 child. There was a free flow of ice water and the waiter has more than happy to refill it for us. It was a warm sunny day and water was the best drink at that point in time. Well beer was cheap and good too.

Bullsbrook Ti Strawberry Picking


Super sunny day for picking

Our next visit was Strawberry Picking at Bullsbrook.  There are quite a few strawberry picking farms around Perth but not all open everyday with some only open to public during the weekends. So we came to this Bullsbrook Ti Strawberry Picking farm after our lunch at Ellenbrook. It was a short 25mins drive from Ellenbrook to Bullsbrook. Using just google map ( well the entire road trip was using google map for directions, didn't even do any research of the route, everything time just key in the location and GO!) to find out way, it lead us to the farm without any mishap. It was 3pm at the farm, and the sun was burning. More sunblock was needed before we venture out of the car to the farm.

A box tray for the picking

Just too warm, need umbrella for the kid

Our take for the day. Wonder how others fill a mountain out of it
Cost of the paper carton tray for strawberry picking was $12 ( their website still says $10), and the entrance fee for adults was $2 per head. Children entry is free. It was a big farm with rows and rows of strawberries. We were suggested by the counter staff to walk to the far end near a mobile toilet to do our pickings. It wasn't long walk but with the warm weather and that period we went, it was all sandy and hot. There were no paths and so we were walking on the same soil that was use to grow the strawberries. It was like walking on sand dunes with your feet sliding as you walked towards the designated picking area. Due to the hot sun, the sand was hot. And for me and my kid, we were wearing slippers for that day and the kid was complaining the sand was very hot. We walked halfway and ended me carrying her to the picking rows.

Strawberries fresh from the stalk
Leaving with our harvest.

It took us quite a while to fill up our single tray. We saw others filling up their trays and making it above the carton tray edge. For us, it was back breaking to bend down to pick the strawberries, choosing the ripe and good looking ones. Although the sun was strong, the wind was strong too, and so it didn't get too warm while we were picking the strawberries. All in all we spent an hour at the farm before heading back to the comfort of our air conditioned car.

Our last stop of the day was to make the 2 hr drive from Perth area to Cerventes. A laid back fishing village with sandy beaches and turquoise waters. Actually all the coastal village and town up north comes with beautiful sandy beaches.   Cerventes is the village that lies along the new Indian Ocean Drive that runs from Perth up north to Shark Bay which was the place we were heading out and making the U-turn back to Perth. Cerventes is also the only place with food, fuel and accommodation for visitors going to the famous Pinnacles Desert of the Nambung National Park (This you have to pay for park entry).

And so after leaving the tray of strawberries in a stable place inside the car (well, the front passenger seat is the only seat not occupied), we started on the drive towards Cerventes. As we drove up north along the coast, we started to see sand dunes along the way and at one point after seeing a car and family parked along the road and playing in the sand dunes, we joined in as well, The sun was actually setting and the temperature was turning cold. I think it dropped from the warm of 32 degree when we were strawberry picking to a cold 14 degree Celsius. It was a daddy and daughter short playtime at the sand dune. After giving my fleece jacket to my kid, we staggered onto the sand dune. The area was huge and with the high hills of sands, it was like in some STAR WARS movie scene.

Sunset at the sand dune.
At the sand dune at sunset
Kid making a run from the "wind sand"
Walking back to the road where the car is parked

My kid was almost dressed up like a Jedi walking alone in the sand desert. The wind was blowing strong and we could feel the wind picking up the surface sands and beating it across our legs. There was so much sand blowing that my SLR camera lens screw thread has sands trapped inside. When we were done playing and walking back to the car, the sun has already set and cast a yellow golden skyline with the silhouette of the car on the slope of the highway road. At 730pm, we got ourselves check-in to our 2nd night accommodation, the Cerventes Pinnacle Motel. It was already completely dark arriving at the motel. In terms of room size, it was a far cry from the small Ibis Budget Airport hotel. Memories started coming back from our road trip days staying in motels in New Zealand South Island and our Great Ocean Road trip in Melbourne last year. Our kid love the big room and her own bed to jump onto.

The hotel has its own restaurant but last order closes at 8pm and we missed it by a few minutes. Luckily there was a bistro nearby and a quick 3 mins drive and we were there. It closes later around 9pm and when were there, there was good crowd there. Not too crowded, just a few Asian families touring like us and some locals gathering for a end of day drink and chat session. Food was good and maybe again we were hungry after a full day of driving and activities.

Day 3:  Visit to the Pinnacles Desert Discovery, Jurien Bay, Kalbarri

Cerventes Pinnacle Motel
Loading up for the day's drive (outside our room unit)


It was again bright and sunny today. Breakfast was from what we bought from supermarket the day before. Donuts and milk for the kid. Some biscuits and strawberries for all of us as well.  It was a good night rest here. Minus the spiders at the bathroom and corners of the ceiling, the place is quite a stay for families. Today’s highlight is the touristy but must visit Pinnacles Desert Discovery Park. Usually visitors to Perth will make their way here and U-turn after visiting this place and focus more on the south of Perth to places like Busselton, Margaret River and down to Albany.

At the Thirtsy Point

Thirsty Point Beach (Cerventes)
Her little sand dune summit
White sandy beach, clear waters

Running along the white sandy beach
Exploring on her own

Did some research before sleeping time the night people and decided to head out to the village beaches first. Found the place called Thirsty Point near the village. A quick few minutes and we were at the car park by the sea. This is our 1st beach visit for our Perth road trip. The skies were blue, the water was clear, the sand was fine and white and it was windy. All of us had a great time just wading along the beach. The water was cold, chilly but not to the extend of painfully cold. Our 5 year old daughter found it fascinating comparing to the warm water beaches we have back home. I think we spend about an hour before before heading out to visit the highlight

Park entrance fee booth. Has a staff manning the booth. Based on per car.


It was 9:45am and with a short drive of 18mins of 20km from Cerventes village, we reached the Pinnacle Desert Park. There is a park entrance fee collection booth manned by a staff during the morning and maybe the evening as well. Some parks operates the busy period and left unmanned leaving visitors to buy the entrance ticket via the credit card kiosk, or if all else not working, based on honesty to pay for the fee and drop it into an enveloped sea box.
The park is a drive through park, suitable for all ages. You can either stay in the car and enjoy the views or get out and walk on the grounds of these ancient rock formations sticking out of the desert floors. There are designated drive directions to follow and the driving path is usually for the space of one vehicle but at times widen up to a parking area for visitors to leave their cars to explore. We had our share of exploration, even playing some hide and seek with our kid by hiding behind those big tall columns.

Big open area of levelled walking space. Suitable for young and old

Playing hide and seek is possible

Wife and kid at the Pinnacle Desert Park

Weather was good, without a cloud in the sky and everything up in the sky is blue. The driving route is marked by rocks placed consciously by the park folks to ensure you don't cross over or knock into the column rocks. Some sections of the driving path requires the car to slowly go through them. Just take it slow and everything is fine. There are restrictions to the size of the vehicle that is allowed into the drive through park. Cars are fine, camper vans and buses are not allowed, but we managed to see a mini bus with load of tourists in the minibus transversing through the park. Maybe they are park of the park touring service. 2WD is fine in the park, no requirements of 4WD like some national parks that goes really off road and roads not meant for 2WD sedans or SUV.







Walking back to the car.(very warm day)

We spend about 2 hours exploring and taking photographs, covering every corner of the park that allows our car to go to. Around 11:30am, we left the yellow grounds of the desert to the gift shop within the park. There is a small but interesting museum about the history of the park and the pioneers that came onto Australia and the obstacles they faced with the terrain and the aborigines back then. A good place for some information. The gift shop, has usual is the exit point of the museum. There are souvenirs, clothing's, drinks and ice-cream; and in this warm weather, an ice-cream for the kid was a reward for her active participation running around exploring the dessert with daddy. Took a 20mins ice-cream and coke break outside the gift shop that has some benches overlooking the sea.


Pinnacle Gallery and Gift shop. 

Metalwork sculpture at rest area outside the gift shop

From here, we left the Pinnacles and started our journey further up north towards Kalbarri, planning to settle our lunch along the way. After leaving Cerventes, we were back on the Indian Ocean Road on the scenic highway 60 heading north. The next immediate village is Jurien Bay, one of the places i was planning to stay for a night for our road trip but didn't.

Jurien Bay is famous for its lobster and crayfish, and this is so true that the entrance from the highway 60 into the village has a gigantic lobster statue placed at the junction to welcome visitors into the village. Jurien Bay also boasts of its pristine white beaches and turquoise waters. With such positive characteristics of the place we decided it was worth to take a detour for lunch there. And so we choose somewhere near the sea and doing some adhoc google mapping found a cafe that was still opened at that point in tine (well, you have to check the opening hours of eateries and shop outside Perth as many close earlier and sometimes don't even operate at all).


Lunch time.

The place was called Jetty Cafe. It is just located besides the children playground at the Jurien Bay jetty. The place is a haven for beach goers. There is a holiday park just next to the cafe and very close proximity to the jetty and the sea. When we reached the cafe and ordered our food, while waiting I made a quick tour of the jetty and was shocked at the clear blue waters around the jetty. Seeing such blue clear waters gave me an urge to just jump into the waters. There were already some teenagers jumping off the jetty enjoying themselves in the blue waters below. The water was a little chilly but the sun was all out working hard to keeping everyone warm. I had to restrain myself from jumping into the waters as spending time washing up  and continuing on the drive to Kalbari might seem challenging due to lack of time.


At the Juiren Jetty Beach



So back to the cafe where we enjoyed the lunch by the sea. It was real warm with no clouds in the skies. We ordered fish & chips (started the counting already), bacon ham burger, plus a mango milkshake. I guess the cafe was there to cater to the nearby holiday park and beach goers. There was constant customers walking in but the food was average.


Lotsa work and care in having greenery in this part of the area.




Beach Change Room

Walking on the clean, white sandy beach
Strolling along the beach after lunch
The old abandoned jetty structure

After our lunch, we took a stroll along the beach near Jurien Bay Jetty. The sand was clean and pristine, the waves was great for massaging our feet. And so we pull up our bermudas and waded into the water. It was fun under a hot sun with blue skies, while our feet were soaking in chilly waters. Our kid enjoyed the most of this experience playing with the incoming and outgoing waves. Seeing our daughter having so much fun, we let ourselves temporally forget about time and just play at the beach until we think it was time to continue the drive. It was around 2pm that we were back in our car and continue on the drive up north. A quick stop at the Jurien Bay village for our first petrol fuel up. We were left with half a tank after our drive from Perth till there.


On the road again.


It was a non stop drive from Jurien Bay all the way to Kalbarri, passing through the trendy and modern seaside city of Geraldton. It has been small coastal villages along the Indian Ocean road, tranquil a little town with little industrialization. But come Geraldton, it is like leaving the dry dessert landscape and entering into a city with heavy industries, port, shopping malls and modern civilization with much commercial activities. It looked like a place where locals from the region comes here to work. A place that offer jobs to the locals.


A short rest stop

On the way to Kalbarri after Northampton

It was a drive through only, making a rest stop at a petrol station to get some bottled water for the next few days. Price of goods tend to increase as we get further up north into the more arid landscape. After passing through Geraldton, we continued on the highway 1 towards Northampton and from there we broke away from the north bound highway 1 and took the north west route passing through Sandy Gully towards Gregory and taking the only right turn at the lower tip of Hutt Lagoon to continue on the only route that leads all the way into Kalbarri. On this final lap of the route to Kalbarri, there was literally no other traffic besides us. It was like travelling for many miles before a single vehicle passes us.


Long straight road
A view of the late afternoon sun

Along the way there was this attraction called the Pink Lake. But to get a good viewpoint of the lake requires to detour from our route to Kalbarri and onto Gregory which is a narrow strip of land that forms the Hutt Lagoon where the Pink Lake is.  From the name, the lake gives off a pink hue when seen from far. The pink hue is created by an algae called Dunaliella salina.

It was already 5pm when we drove pass the intersection point that splits the road to Port Gregory and Kalbarri. Not wanting to reach our hotel too late as these coastal town hotels/motels usually closed around 7 to 8pm, we skipped the Pink Lake and continued on non-stop to Kalbarri. The road was long and at times it was a long straight road and with the sun setting, I couldn't help but to stop the car by the roadside to take some pictures of a car-less road that joins the brown earth and the blue skies. Finally around 630pm, we reached the coastal town of Kalbarri. Coming in from the less travelled route from Northhampton and Port Gregory. Another way into Kalbarri is to continue on highway 1 from Northampton and only making the left turn into Ajana and subsequent to Kalbarri. It is a choice between he coastal scening route versus the inland route passing through Binnu.


Approaching Kalbarri from the south
Our stay at Kalbarri

We checked into out hotel, called the Kalbarri Edge Resort Hotel. A lovely hotel in Kalbarri which i think is one of the better exterior looking hotels that looks new and classy. It has an Egyptian look on the outside, and couple with the desert like trees decorating the compound, it give a sense of an oasis in a desert. There is ample parking space, a nice pool for a few families to enjoy and a restaurant of its own which has quite a good rating from online review forums.

After getting our bags off the car and into the room, we headed out to the nearby restaurants at the town centre, which is just a few minutes walk from our hotel. But we drove instead as 1st day in Kalbarri, didn't know if we were going to settle for our dinner there in the first place.
Using a “follow the others” assessment, we joined the bulk of tourists and visitors and went into this hotel cum restaurant place for dinner. The place is called the Kalbarri Motor Motel. The frontal space of the established is totally occupied by the restaurant which sees a good crowd of diners and pub goers. It has a big cafeteria setup and a bar that is separated by the decor and color of the walls. It is able to separate out the family with children patrons from the more adult drinking patrons visiting the place.


Sunset at Kalbarri

Dinner time at the Kalbarri Motor Hotel Restaurant

Pizza, think it was Hawailan.


Surprising the food was good for me. We ordered pasta and pizza as the 2 mains. The portion was good and enough to feed the 3 of us. House beer was cheap compared to a coke or sprite soft drink and so we ordered just a small glass to try it out. This was the 1st glass of beer that continued on for the rest of our road trip, trying different local brew at different location. Some of them are available everywhere while some are specific to the area only.

After dinner,  we walked across the road to the playground area and our daughter just played happily on the swing in the dim light of the park lamps. Weather was much warmer that night compared to the other nights that we landed in Perth, as well as Cerventes. There were still some seagulls working hard at night time waiting for people give them a snack. There were many parrot like birds flying around the playground resting on the nearby trees for the night. Kalbarri is famous for these colourful red headed parrots flying around in the wild. There is also a place called Rainbow Jungle which is a parrot breeding centre and it is just a short drive from Kalbarri town centre. It is one of the Kalbarri tourist attraction that has the centre itself with the bird shows and a maze for those families with children to enjoy.


Day 4: Exploring Kalbarri: Wahoe Quad Bike, Kalbarri National Park

Weather was cloudy today as forecasted by the weather stations. Today we had the activities all planned out months ago. For the morning we signed up for the Wagoe Quad Bike Adventure tour, and for the afternoon, a visit to the famous Kalbarri National Park to see the rock formations, esp the Nature’s Window which is an attraction that is mentioned in almost all website describing Kalbarri.
We had the folks from the Quad Bike team to pick us up from our hotel at 8:45am in the morning. This is a standard practice for the customers who signed up for their activities and stayed in Kalbarri. So our one of the activity guide from Wahoe Quad Bike Adventure came around the town going to different parts of the town to pick up customers who signed up for the morning bike activity.

We left out hotel rooms and our car and walk to the nearby cafe. There wasn’t much choice to choose from as most cafes and restaurants are not open for the morning crowd ( which is usually very few and just the locals getting a breakfast on the go).  The cafe was called Angies which opens as early as 7am. We ordered a ham egg croissant and some bread toast. Food was simple and not bad. The place looked like it has been there for many decades. It does retain some of the charms of what an 80s cafe will look like and it feels like going back in time to the past like those cafe in the movies “Back to The Future”. After we finished our breakfast, there was still time for our kid to have a short playtime at the same playground by the beach.


Wagoe Quad Bike Garage and waiting area

ON time, our activity guide from Wagoe Quad Bike came to the main road of our hotel to pick us up with passenger van able to sit 12 comfortably. We went around town to pick up a few more folks that signed up the morning ride before heading south of town along the same Indian Ocean road away from Kalbari. It was about a 20mins drive to a place called Wagoe on the map, and from the main road, we turn into a dirt track leading into the farmland near the coast.   The Quad Bike office is actually located just besides the Wagoe Chalets, which also next to a working farm. I guess the place could be owned and run by the farm owner. It was a bumpy ride from the main road to the quad bike meeting point that lasted a short maybe 5mins. We were greeted upon arrival by the staffs and went into an open shack to do some paperwork and idemitf forms signing. A quick intro and instructions on how to operate the bikes and once done, helmets on and we were on the bikes ready to move out. We booked for a quad bike for myself, while my wife and kid were on a 2 seater buggy.


Add moving in a single file. No overtaking and speeding..

Worked our way up to the sand dunes


It was a slow start for me as the manoeuvring seems to conflict against my motorbike riding experience. It felt weird at first without the ability to see the front wheel movement as i rode on the bike. Took a while before i got into the hang of it and started to pick up speed and catching up with the rest of the group. We could only go in a straight line, playing follow the leader as the leader who was the adventure guide that picked us up from town, would assess the grounds and pick the route that will safe for us. We went from the farmland area towards the beach and getting onto the sand dunes areas, riding up and dune the huge sand dunes and at times the feeling was like riding in some Arabian desert. Some sections of the ride we went very steep sand dunes to stop at the top of the dunes to admire the beauty and the sea next to us. Although it was still drizzling and the skies were grey out, the fun wasn't dampened at all by the weather.



Cooling down time for the bikes after some heavy throttling.

At the beach next rocky waves

Waves smacking across the rocks
Our kid facing the waves.
Our highest viewpoint for the entire quad bike climb. It was a steep climb
On the way back to the farm.

From the sand dunes, we continued on to the beach and had a long tea break by the sea with the waves crashing on the rocks near us. This is the place where their advertisement brochures showed the blue skies and crashing waves with the quad bike in the picture. We had 2 of the 3 items in their brochures, except the blue skies.  The entire ride was about 2.5 hours ( hopefully i got the timing correct) and it was worth the money. Initially out perception of these activities would be fast and short, but in this case, it seemed we were stretching our money more for the fun we had.From the tea break point (after downing some nice chocolates muffins and drinks), we throttled on along the sandy beach back to Wagoe Chalets which ended the exciting bike trip. It was just good timing as the rain was starting to get heavier. Back at the parking shed, everyone was offered a lollipop to end the morning activity. A grateful thank you to the quad bike folks and off we boarded the mini-bus and drove back to town.

For lunch, many of the restaurants and cafe are still closed even for weekends, choices are few but more than adequte to get a proper meal. We had ours at a place called Gilgai Tavern, which opens for short periods of the day only. Well, the town is small and there wasn't much customer around to operate full day.

The weather was still gloomy and light drizzle at times. Our plan was to visit the Kalbarri National Park in the afternoon after lunch but the weather didn't seem very encouraging. Still we took the 40min drive out of Kalbarri. We reached the park entrance gate around 2pm. No staff was around to collect the per car entrance fee.  There is a ticket vending machine using credit card but not wanting to pay for the bank exchange rate, we opted for the last option of payment as instructed by the sign boards. Take the provided payment envelope, wrote our car details and payment value, put in the cash and dropped into the secure box (seemed to be fulled and wasn't collected for some time) next to the ticketing machine. It was quite a distance drive after clearing the ticketing station.

View from the Nature's Window car park area.
Well maintained path to the Nature's Window. Just some steps to climb back here.

About 28km all the way on sealed road to the car park of the Nature's Window attraction. Nature's Window is one of Western Australia's most iconic natural attractions which has a rock formation of a window like a natural painting. From the car park, it is a well path walk for families and children to the Nature Window attraction. Requires some careful footwork near the rock formation. Lotsa flies when we visited during that time of the year. Not sure if it is the same otherwise.

Me on the edge

Muchison river running across the Kalbarri National Park,
Just before the Nature Window rock formation (just round the corner)
Left turn and the Nature's Window is there
At the Nature's Window rock formation


From the Nature's Window rock formation, hikers who are physically fit and have the time can continue on the rocky path ( Class 4 trail classification) to hike "The Loop". It is a 8km loop hike along the ridges. challenging but impressive. Do prepare oneself adequately during warm summer as there are warning signs all over the place to remind hikers on the need to have enough hydration and preparation if one intends to do the hiker in these desert like terrain. Temperature can reach very high in hot summers and deaths has occurred before ( read from the information board).


Me and my kid
Walking a little further after the Nature's Window site.


Although the weather was not good for photo taking, the absence of the hot weather was a blessing. And with some light drizzle at times, the place was quite cooling when the wind was blowing. And so the 3 of us walked down the well maintained path and onto the rock path. The little one needs a bit of help at certain parts of the path, but other than that all is considered safe for kids.

As it was afternoon and gloomy, not much of a crowd there, just a family of two and a short wait and we got to get pictures to take with the rock window. We walked a little more along The Loop path, a good pair of hiking boots suggested. We went to the next lookout before turning back. Didn't intend to do the complete 8km loop hike with our daughter.


Z-bend lookout area. A bridge to the Island.

The narrow Z-nend gorge

Next stop was the Z-bend Lockout in the same national park. A quick walk of uphill back to the car park. A reprisal from the files attack once we were back to the car in the air-conditioning comfort. Although weather was cool, we easily worked out a sweat climbing back the steps to the car park. Down the down back to the only T-junction, and we continued straight south to the Z-bend car park. Construction was ongoing and the car park area was still yellow dirt. We could tell construction was underway even though no work was done since it was Sunday. Maybe in few months time, it will be as good and modern as the Nature's Window car park. The Z-bend lookout is a 1.2km return path. Some downhill walk to a lookout point which is standalone big rock overlooking the gorge which the Murchison River runs through. Lotsa hike opportunities if one is come here to do a simple day hike that grants access to the river.


The daring kangaroo. Staring at us in our car

Still waiting for us to drive off.

It was around 4pm when we started the walk back to the car park and the drizzle starting to become more of a light rain. We hastened our pace back to the car park. When the rain was falling, we noticed there were lesser flies around bugging us.  While driving back to Kalbarri town, it was meant to be an uneventful drive but while driving out of the national park, we spotted kangaroos standing by the side of the only road that leads out of the park. One of the kangaroo seems unafraid of our car and stood there keeping a close watch on us, like staring at our every move.  We parked our car by the side of the road and exchange stares with the kangaroo and took quite a number of picture of the animal.

By the time we reached town, the rain seemed to get heavier. As it was early for dinner so we went to one of the town's only 2 supermarket to get some ice-cream. It was chilly having ice cream outside the supermarket at a corner of the supermarket with shelter of course. Entire supermarket was quite deserted with a few locals coming in to make some quick purchase and off they went. We managed to just chill around town drove a little and ending at the same restaurant we had dinner on the first day of arrival at Kalbarri. Well they offer a good choice of food, serving even Asian dishes.  The rain continued into the dark and we have to make a dash in the rain to the car for the round the corner drive back to the hotel. 


Day 5: Exploring Kalbarri Coastal Cliffs, Driving up noth to Shark Bay World Heritage Area

Weather turning for the better

Walking around the hotel compound

Today weather was suggested to be good and so we planned for the morning to visit the Kalbarri Coastal Cliffs. The plan for the day was to reach Denham, our nights accommodation, and Monkey Mia for the sunset cruise into Shark Bay. It was a 4 hr drive from Kalbarri to Monkey Mia and the plan was to leave Kalbarri by noon.

Breakfast was done at the same Angies's Cafe just minute drive away from our hotel. They are the only ones that opened from 7am onwards. Knowing that the clouds would clear by 10am, we took our time to have our morning meal and followed by the always delightful for the kid, the nearby playground.

At the Kalbarri town centre beach

Seagull and many other seagulls

The wild parrots roaming the parks at the Kalbarri town centre
The Kalbarri jetty in the morning


Our first coastal cliff stop, the Mushroom Rock. it was 9am when we reached the car park area, a 10 mins drive from town. The trail to the Mushroom Rock needs some good footwear as the trail are rock paths, but it does help to make the place looks more natural. It was a gradual downhill walk towards the coast where the rock is located. From far you can actually see it. Well it is like a flat rock being perch on another rock column making it look like a mushroom. You have to go down to the coast all the way to see its real size. From far, it can be quite small. We didn't go all the way down, but got distracted to the wide open rock plateau overlooking the sea with the mushroom rock on our left. 

At the Mushroom Rock car park
At the Mushroom Rock car park
Walking to the mushroom rock
Mushroom rock in the distant.
The mushroom rock. (maybe we shd go nearer)
Rock formation near the coast of the Mushroom Rock

We returned to the car park to drive off to the next attraction, the Island Rock. I would it is a miniature version of the 12 Apostles in Melbourne. This Island Rock is one of the more prominent rock structure in the Kalbarri Coastal Cliff, and because of that I guess everyone to the cliffs must make the visit here.  The island rock itself was once a part of the coastal shoreline and over time due to the erosion by the pounding waves, now stands like an towering rock surrounded by water giving its name of Island Rock.  


The Island Rock
Zoom out Island Rock
Me on the rocks
The boardwalk
Rest shelter nearer car park of the Natural Bridge


Access to this area is wheelchair friendly with a breathtaking view of the Indian ocean and the cliff and the waters below. There is a boardwalk from the Island Rock car park all the way along the cliff to the Natural Bridge car park another short drive away. Walking along the boardwalk gives many opportunities to take pictures of the cliffs and the waters before. We came across a couple that was flying their drones over the island rock and the cliffs videoing the sights and sounds from above.


The Island Rock from another angle

Near the Natural Bridge after walking to end of boardwalk
The Natural Bridge

The Shellhouse Grandstand

Car park near the Shellhouse Grandstand

There wasn't much of a crowd as we were the only 2 cars in the car park and again we had almost the entire place to ourselves. We walked the 1.2 km boardwalk from Island Rock and slowly to the Natural Bridge lookout point. The lookout was a great place to spot dolphins and whales if it is in season. For us we know that it was not whale watching season as all the whale watch tours were unavailable. From here we made another nearby stop at the Shellhouse Grandstand. The viewing platform is just a few steps from the car park. A quick view of the majestic cliffs and we were back into our car to the next stop, The Red Bluff.


At the Red Bluff
Pathway to the Red Bluff viewpoint
Approaching the end of the walkway to the viewpoint (we are on the Red Bluff)

End of walkway to the view point (Red Bluf beach below us)


Kid playing on the low "wall"
Walking back to the car park, about maybe 400m.


The Red Bluff is much closer to town and we were heading back towards down. Following the brown road signage for tourist attraction, we turn off the main road onto the car park road to the lookout area. It was a 1 km return trail with a little gradient to overcome. It was sunny and windy by then and the coastline was just a beautiful blend of the blue skies and the sea below. Red Bluff has the highest elevation in the whole of the coastal area, and from the lookout we could the Kalbarri beach below us. Seeing some beach goers and the proximity of their cars park close to sea, it convinced me to make another quick stop out of our time tight driving schedule today for some beach fun for the kid.


Playing at the beach again

At the Kalbarri beach, background is the Red Bluff.
Car park is actually on the big red rock itself.
Kalbarri Beach (with Red Bluff in background)
Toilet break before the long drive ahead

After some photo shots, we walked back to the car park and drive down to the Red Bluff Beach. The car park area is actually on the red rock itself. Now we were looking from below the lookout point of the Red Bluff. The flat rock area where we parked our car was red in colour. Waves were thrashing at the edges giving it a sense of closeness to nature for a car park. We spend about 15 mins on the beach. The waves was good, sand was clean and white. A mere 15 mins was enough to get our kid into high spirits, and a little wet on the pants.

We drove into town to fuel up the car for the long drive ahead, 3 hr 50 mins on google map. Bought some Indian cuisine food from a shop sharing the same building with a petrol station. Waited a while for the food to get ready. The tempo here is slower compared to cities and the kitchen of the restaurant seemed to be more homely. And so we waited about 30 mins for the food to get ready and after which we rushed off onto the road that runs east, passing the Kabarri National Park and onto the north bound highway state 1.

As we drove further northwards, farmlands started to disappear and we were welcomed by a arid desert landscape. Halfway along this long North West Highway 1, it started to rain and got real heavy at times. The trenches on the sides of the road were flooding at parts along the highway. It was on and off shower until we reach the Billabong roadhouse which stopped but the skies were still dark and cloudy.  These roadhouses offer fuel, food and accommodation for the long distance drivers in need of sleep and fuel up.


Entrance into the Shark Bay World Heritage Area

We continued along this long stretch of the road until we finally reach the T-intersection with a big wall saying "Shark Bay World Heritage Area". There is a roadhouse at this junction called the Overlander Roadhouse. It has a good range of supplies and on the go beverage with rows of ice chilled beverages tempting anyone who needs to quench their thirst from the hot desert driving.
We made a left turn into the shark bay road, leaving the dark clouds behind us as we headed west away from the mainland.  We were heading to the only town in Shark Bay, a place called Denham. The road into Denham was long and straight, at time hilly when from far you can see the road runs like a roller coaster. This is the only sealed road on this land area leading deep further north west into Denham. On map, Denham is like a a narrow piece of land joined to the mainland by a narrow strip of land which is the Shell Beach Conservation Area. This is where the must visit Shell beach attractions. As we were rushing for our sunset cruise at Monkey Mia, it was a non stop all the way drive to Denham to check-in to our hotel first.

Our first sight of approaching the town was the big water tank structure that guarded the entrance into the town of Denham.  Our 2 days of accommodation at Denham is the Oceanside Village, a self-contained accommodation just located near the beach. As it would be quite late after we finished the sunset cruise, we wanted to avoid any inconvenience to the owner and so check-in and got our keys to the unit first before proceeding to Monkey Mia.  We collected the keys to our beachfront villa unit around 430pm and then drove to Monkey Mia which was another 24km drive. We reached Monkey Mia just before 5pm, with a buffer time of 15 mins on boarding of thr boat. The skies were still cloudy and the huge chunk of dark clouds seems to be drifting over from the mainland.


The Aristocat 2. Our evening cruise boat
Beach front at Monkey Mia
Looking out into the Shark Bay
Evening sun still blocked by the clouds

The cruise boat came to the jetty as stated 5:15pm and we were greeted by the captain of the cruise boat and his assistant. This is a complimentary sunset cruise for us as we booked the next morning Marine Life Cruise. After some safety briefing, we sailed into Shark Bay leaving the jetty. The waters were calm and very much greyed out due to the gloomy weather. We sailed far out into the bay in search of any sea animals like dolphins or dugongs or sea turtle.  The boat we were sailing is the Aristocrat 2. An catamaran style boat with a wide front area for guests to enjoy the front view. It also has a good cabin area in case weather gets bad and you have a shelter over your head. Monkey Mia area has another cruise operator which has a smaller boat with no cabin, but went for maintenance for the days we wanted to take the cruise out to sea.  The sky above us was still overcast with thick clouds but the far west seemed to open up and the sun would likely be able to shine though once it starts is descend. 


Evening sun gradually breaking though the thick clouds
Startlight of the evening sun

A small boat passing across the reflected sun rays


Add caption
Final moment before the sun sets below the horizon
Truly enough, as we sailed closer to sunset, the sun did go below the thick clouds and we were all rewarded with a stunning golden yellow sunset. We had quite a long time enjoying the sunset as the cruise made it way slowly back to the Monkey Mia Jetty. As we are on the eastern side of the land mass, we couldn't see the final moments that the sun sets into the horizon. Only those who are in the town of Denham would see a better sunset. Surprising, it was a long cruise totalling 2hrs out at sea. It was really worth the money for such a long ride. It was 730pm when we docked at the jetty. The captain of the cruise thanked all of us for joining them on the sunset cruise and advised us to drive safely for those heading back to Denham town. There is always the risk of animals like Emu and kangaroos straying onto the road and knocking into one of them can prove dangerous for the people in the car.

It was a total different experience driving in the night when the only light is your car's headlamps. and the eyes of the driver keeping a constant lookout for unexpected animals running across the road. Luckily it was an uneventful drive back to town. Denham was a small little town and the town centre is served by a single main road running a lot the beach. Not much choice of eateries and we just go for anything that is opened. We were caught by the lights of one of the hotel and the number of cars that were park there. This is Shark Bay Hotel, which has a restaurant cum pub that was still opened.  I was surprised by the friendly young chap serving us, wearing a smile even though it is "late" into the evening approaching their closing time.  The food was not bad for a place that we considered quite remote. And they served quite a variety of draft beer as well. 


We were hungry after a long day drive and activities and heading back to our villa was something to look forward to at the end of the day. The temperature was cold, guessing maybe 18 degree and the winding was howling. As we were trying to figure out how to unlock the sliding door to our beachfront villa unit, we could hear the sound of the lashing waves on the beach behind us.  Out unit was a big unit with 1 king size bed and 2 single beds, comes with a big kitchen area with sofa set and a Foxnet TV.  The wind was strong to cause some creaking sound of the roof and at times i wonder will they hold. They did of course and after washing up and some unpacking, all of us went to a deep sleep, ready for the next day of fun in shark bay. 



Day 6: Exploring Around Shark Bay, Cruise at Monkey Mia.

Morning at Denham, Better weather today
View of the seaview units of our motel

After a night of howling wind, we were greeted by good weather in the morning. I could see the clouds breaking up revealing streaks of blue skies. While the folks were still sleeping, i braved the cold morning wind to cross the road onto the beach. There was no one in sight and only occasional passing by of the morning dump truck. Today's activity was to visit Monkey Mia again for the Dolphin feeding experience, followed by our prebooked Marine Life Cruise into Shark Bay to look for sea animals. And for the afternoon to visit the nearby attractions of Shark Bay. As our daughter loved animals and birds, seagulls became her friend during our road trip. Seagulls were seen flying over our villa unit and off she went to do some feeding with some biscuits while we prepared our stuff for today activity.

Sunny day at Monkey Mia Beach
Monkey Mia resort area
Greenery is such a rare sight here at Shark bay

Dolphin feeding starts 7:45am at the shores of Monkey Mia. We drove off at 720am and reach Monkey Mia around 7:40am. There was already a crowd there, some who stayed at the RAC holiday resort at Monkey Mia itself, and some who drove in from Denham like us to join the dolphin experience activity. Entry into Monkey Mia requires an entry fee based on headcount and not based on the car like some national park.  For those coming into Monkey Mia just for the cruise did not pay for the entry fee as informed by the cruise operator.

Here comes the dolphines



Watching the dolphins from the shore
Made eye contact with the dolphin


With the rest of crowd, we waited until the park volunteers made the opening welcome message and started to invite visitors to slowly make their way onto the beach area. These dolphins are accustomed to the daily feeding routine and would swim in close to the shallow waters waiting to be fed. The park volunteers shared much information on these dolphins, their lifestyle, behaviours and all sorts of information on the dolphins living in the shark bay area. After quite a comprehensive run though, visitors were picked by the park volunteers to come into the water to feed the dolphins. The trick to get selected is to listen carefully to what the volunteers ask for. They have some guidelines to follow and so even if you have very eager looking children wanting to feed the dolphins, they wouldn't be picked. (if you want to increase your chances, you can drop me a private email if you like your children to get selected). Don't really agree the way it is done, but these are their guidelines to filter out the selection process. The dolphins were made not to over reliant on human feeding and so only allow a few feeding session up to noon time. For the rest of the day, the dolphins would know that they need to hunt their own food out in the bay.

Beach is filled with shells at Monkey Mia beach
The little chalet units at the small Monkey Mia resort area


After the dolphins feeding experience, we waited near the jetty for our morning cruise at 10:30am. The skies were clearing up and clouds were disappearing and when our cruise boat was ready to depart, the weather was at all time best for the morning cruise.

Our morning cruise docked at the jetty


The same captain with his assistant ran through their safety briefing with everyone and off we went sailing into the wide open shark bay.  Our daughter went straight for the front deck netting and jump into it, enjoying every minute of ride. At times treating the netting like some playground climbing out and climb back down to the netting.

Same boat, different lighting
View of Monkey Mia Bay from the cruise boat


We sailed again far into the Shark Bay, so far that i think i got reception for my hand phone coming from the mainland, maybe Carvarnon. I was on Vodaphone service which is not available in Denham and Monkey Mia area.  Our first animal encounter was the sea turtles, and then followed by the dugongs and finally dolphins. The dolphins in shark bay are all recorded and they are the ones that were part of the morning feed herd at Monkey Mia. Shark Bay itself in many parts are actually quite shallow. the different shades that we can see from the cruise shows the different in depth. There were a lot of sea grass and sometimes we saw rocks beneath the boat. The sea turtles and the dugongs would swim around these sea grasses.

Heading out into the open waters of Shark bay
Hunting for marine animals through his binoculars
Spotted 2 dolphins
Looking out for sea animals
Dugongs
The sail and the sky. Something more blue
More vivid colors

Back at the jetty of Monkey Mia
It was a great day for sailing into the open bay. The waves were calm and the sun was bright with minimum clouds in the sky. Sun block and a hat is a must if one doesn't want to get his or her skin burn and that include the hair scalp. I think we sailed for a good 2.5 hrs when we approached the Monkey Mia jetty. On the way back as we approached the jetty, we spotted a manta ray in the waters near the beach. Shark bay is full of sea animals.

Back at Monkey Mia, we went straight to our car and began our slow drive back to town for lunch. It was 1:50pm when we reached the town centre. We saw that the bakery cafe was opened and immediately want to quickly settle our lunch. The bakery was run by a new owner ( they call it new management) offering pastries as well as menu ordered hot food. We ordered some croissants, pastries and fruit juice for lunch. There was a pizza place along the same long building but they only opens for a few days over the weekend only. For tourists like us, seeing a cafe or restaurant that is opened for business is a blessing to us.

The town's only bakery (nice food)

Some tables outside the bakery for the alfreco dining

The food at this sole bakery was good and price was reasonable. Sometimes you think that food out here in this remote place will be expensive, but it didn't. There is conscious within these town folks here that helps to improve the reputation of the town and improve its economy.
After a wonderful lunch meal, it is to do a quick tour of the other attractions of Shark Bay that a 2 wheel car could go. Many places around Denham, esp the Peron national park would requires a 4x4 vehicle. So we searched around google map and notice this place worth a visit, Eagle Bluff, a 20min drive of 24km to a lookout point.


We left town going on the same highway that we arrived into Denham. There were only a few cars and some trucks on the road and it was a quiet drive on the road to the Eagle Bluff lookout. At the signboard that points to the lookout to our right, we turned into a dirt track and looking at the condition, it is meant for 2 wheel cars as well.  It is dirt track all the way to the look out area, at certain parts of the route requires a climb. From far it looked steep but as we got closer it was quite gradual. Since it was unsealed road, going slow is one way of preventing skidding. The unsealed road is rocky but not soft sandy to be stuck in. The ground condition was dry and solid so getting up to the top of the lookout wasn't a problem.  We drove about maybe 10 mins until we reach the car park area.

Eagle Bluff lookout
Eagle Bluff Lookout
A short boardwalk


The viewing was amazing up there. the wind was blowing strongly at the top with winds being pushed up by the steep side of the land. There is a nice, new boardwalk that runs along the steep hill above the waters below. It is not a cliff and actually just a steep rocky slope all the way down to the sea. From this lookout, we could see Eagle island just like a stone throw away. (it further than a stone throw). The island is just a mere 8m above sea level and is a nest for birds around shark bay. From the elevated viewpoint, we could see the clear turquoise bay below. We tried to spot sharks, mantra rays and turtles with out naked eyes, but guess would need binoculars to do that. We stayed until 3:30pm before heading back to the car park and off to our next attraction.

Restaurant's viewing desk at the Ocean Aquarium

We read about a nearby attraction which is the Ocean park aquarium that is closer to town and so made a short drive there to have a look. it is a small aquarium from the looks of it. We didn't have much information from the Internet to know how it looks like what it have. Upon reaching the place, we could tell it is a small business run aquarium, helping to boost up the tourism in Shark bay. It was about 4pm and they closed in an hours time at 5pm. So decided to give it a miss. There is a nice beautiful restaurant overlooking the sea below. It is a relaxing place to have lunch and tea break. They have a working kitchen for hot food and sandwiches and pastries, ice-creams and liquor that you can ordered and enjoy it over the stunning view.

Walking along the town centre beach front

A pirate hideout playground near town centre
Town centre beach front park

We drove back to town, parked our car back at the villa unit, and enjoyed a stroll down the only main street of Denham (Knights Terrace). Along the main street, they have a fairly new ( to me) playground of a pirate ship that i presumed could capture the hearts of many children, They could like the ship taking the wooden planks,  stair-craft logs up to the higher level platform. Of course swings are children's best friend at a playground. As it was still early for dinner, we decided to head back to our rooms, changed into swim wear and have some beach fun just in front of our villa unit. The water was warm even though the wind was blowing strong. With the sun and the warm sea water, the wind doesn't have much of an effect once we stayed submerged in the water. My daughter and I were all into the water enjoying the warm water of the bay. Waves were pushing inwards still and the shore was shallow. I was walking many metres away from the shoreline and looked deep but just standing up and i was above the water.  We played in the water until 6pm before going back to our unit for a quick wash up for dinner.

The Old Pearler restaurant
Sunseting at Denham

We walked in the sunset rays to a restaurant by the main road. It is called "The Old Pearler". This restaurant from the outside already is unique in its own ways. It is a stone cottage with big chunks of brick made from barnacles or similar look alike. The inside of the restaurant is small, maybe around  8 tables only. I guess usually reservations need to be made but for us since it looks like non peak, we just walked in and immediate have a nice table just next to the entrance. From there i could see the setting sun from inside. Price is on the higher side as the service here is very much restaurant grade and all food is freshly cooked and no fried stuffs. After placing our orders, I made my way back onto the streets to take pictures of the setting sun. It was cold out there as the sun was setting. Temperature was dipping slowly, accelerated by the strong evening winds.

Sunset at Denham



Once the sun set into the horizon, food was already served when i went back to the restaurant. The food was fresh and delicious. We ordered fish that was local to shark bay, plus some pasta as staples for the family. It was a cold cold walk back to our unit with the strong cold night wind blowing all over us. Street lamps were already lit and the roads were empty of cars. Everyone seemed to have gone to bed in this quite coastal village. It was back to packing up for the next day when we reached our villa unit. The next day we would be starting our return drive down south back towards Perth, making a rest stop at Geraldton.



Day 7: Returning South , Geraldton

Morning sun at Denham

It was great weather for the day as well. Skies were blue and the sun was up on time to warm the little coastal town up. It was only 6am in the morning but the entire town was already basking in the warm morning sunlight. I took a quick stroll to quiet beach, there were no traffic on the road that separated our villa unit and the beach. It was quite calming and relaxing knowing that the entire beach and the waves were all for myself to enjoy. Seldom able to get such a setting by the beach at 6am and the sun was already up.

Exploring the resort ground

Elevated units with a sea view

Entrance to the reception for check-ins


I did explore around the accommodation compound walking along the paved path. There are a number of units, all separated from each other giving the extra privacy. The setting was very much a tropical mood and with the blues skies and the color of the exterior of the individual small buildings, somehow is just all blended in well.

We packed our bags for the long day drive down south headings towards Perth, but planned on a rest stop at Geraldton. It is possible to drive all the way back to Perth but that will take about 8 to 10hours; and just didn't make safety sense and besides we had some areas that we would like to visit. So once all bags were packed and loaded onto the car, there was a sense of unwillingness to leave immediately, and so our daughter started her last feeding to the 2 seagulls that had been visiting us during our stay at Denham. It looked like the same old seagulls, but well, to me, all seagulls looked alike.

main street of Denham town

1st to do list for the day, breakfast. The 1st thought to mind was the same bakery shop that we had our lunch the day before. It was sure to be opened and so with a bags loaded car, we took the short drive along the same Knights Terrance to the Bakery Shop just few hundred meters down the road. We ordered a ham croissant, with some toast, and some orange juice to go along with it. It was a quick bite and after which we decided to explore around the town by visiting the Little Lagoon as our 1st stop in town. Denham being a dry arid coastal town, seeing a big lagoon is quite a surprise for me. I was constantly thinking where Denham gets its water supply and this big lagoon with a name that says "Little Lagoon", seemed to be the answer to my question. But i couldn't confirm as i read something about the town recycling some used water and such. During our stay at Denham, we drank all our water from the bottles we purchased from supermarkets, other than those that was served in restaurants and cafe. Not sure if we could drink or boil water from the tap, and we didn't had the chance to know.

Driving down the path to the Little Lagoon near Denham
At the Little Lagoon car park
Shores of the Little Lagoon
Kiddo playing with water and sand

From the town centre, we drove onto the same sealed road that leads to Monkey Mia, but stopped short just before the airport and drove into this big blue lagoon. The water was clear and the sand was clean as well. The car park area was good for 2 wheel cars ( unlikely for trailers and camper vans), with tracks that runs on the circumference of the lagoon that requires a 4 wheel drive vehicle. We could see in the near distance a few trucks park at the other side of the lagoon.  The waster was cool and so we had some water play at the shores with our kid. There was a bio toilet there but no water supply for extra clean up.

On the scenic route with Little Lagoon in the near distant

On the short scenic route around Denham

The only shelter along the scenic route drive. Great view of the bay
View from the shelter hut

We left the lagoon and drove on the "scenic route" road that loop around the town of Denham, bringing us to an elevated look out point on the Stella Rowley Drive road. It seemed to be a new sealed road to support future expansion of the town itself. From there we could see the stretches of the shoreline and the different colour shades of the sea.

At the end of the Knights Terrace road (end of town)
A morning cruise boat going out to see. Path has been man-made dug deeper to allow bigger boats to enter to the bay.


It was 10am and a final toilet break at one of the public toilets along Knights Terrace ended our last stop at Denham. The entire experience we had in last 2 days was that Denham is unique. A coastal town in water scare landscape and able to grow slowly over the years to what it has now. There was a mix of new and old buildings, but the town's infrastructure seemed to be recent and well maintained. Walking or driving along Knights Terrace gave me the impression of roads just newly laid. Public amenities like public toilets, playground and garbage management are all working like clockwork. And there is this constant construction work on the beach and the facilities near the beach front. Somehow this little town which marked our most northward road trip a special place.
And so a final fuel up at the Denham IGA-Express supermarket, we started the long drive towards the mainland and along the way stop at the famous Shell Beach & the Hamelin Pool Stramatolites. Shell Beach is just 35mins drive away at a distance of about 47km. This is a must stop place to admire the wonders of nature if one is in Shark Bay area.

Straight road leaving from Denham.

The beach got its name of "Shell Beach" is obvious as the beach is made up of millions and millions of white shells from some cockle species. The depth of the beach with these shells was said to be around 7 to 10meters and with a beach line stretching 70km. The beach was show cased in national geographic and named one of the top few beaches in the world. It was said that before Shark Bay became a World Heritage Site, the shells were used as building materials in the Shark Bay town of Denham.

At Shell Beach car park

At Shell Beach
Walking towards the sea

There is a big car park area at Shell Beach, although dirt track but good enough for 2 wheel cars to drive in. From the car park, it was a short walk to the beach and you have to go over a few small sand humps before reaching the shoreline. The weather was best for photo taking, zero clouds in the sky and crystal clear water washing gently on the shell white beach.  It was said that the salinity of the water is at a very high content and aid swimmers in staying afloat.

Far but still shallow in the waters of Shell Beach
Looking back at the beach while treading far away from the shore.
We are in a short discussion

When we were at the beach, not sure if it was low tide, but we could walk a hundred meters away from the shoreline and the water depth was like about ankle deep only. The water was warm under the hot sun and the wind was blowing strongly across the surface of the water creating wavy effect. There was guy on the beach doing some kite surfing on the shallow waters of Shell Beach.
We could easily count the number of people on the beach, maybe as it was off peak. For those intending to visit Shell Beach, do bring along food and water if you intend to stay there for hours. The landscape is pure sands of shells and the sea, with no shade, no trees or bushes, and no commercialization. We saw beach goers bring their own beach chairs, umbrellas and anything that makes them feel comfortable.

Shells and shells and all shells that make up the beach
Walking back to the car park

We spend about 30mins playing on the beach and left the place around 11:30am. We continued on the only sealed road that lead into the north western highway route 1; and just before we joined the highway 1, we made a short detour into the Hamelin Pool Stromatolites. 


Boardwalk into the rocks area to see the Stramatolites
All the Stramatolites.

Triangular shaped boardwalk at the Hamelin Pool

Back to the car park. Need some air con she says

From the car park, it was a short walk to the boardwalk area which runs like a triangle that extends into the sea for visitors to look at the strange looking rocks like gigantic tooth rocks embedded into the beach floor. From the informational signboard, it was mentioned that Shark Bay become a World Heritage Site is due to the this Hamelin Pool. We spent only a short 15mins walking around and taking pictures.

We hit the road again after visited the Hamelin Pool. It  was a short drive from here to reach the wide T-junction that shows where each side of the road leads to. At this junction, there are 2 big walls with the words of "Shark Bay World Heritage Area" guarding the road that leads into Shark Bay. Quite a grand entrance on a junction out of nowhere in a desert landscape.

At the major T-junction for the entrance into Shark Bay Area
At the T-junction of the North-South highwat

Overland Roadhouse

Simple lunch from the petrol station take out.

We took the right turn when approaching from Denham that points to Geraldton & Northampton. A short few hundred meters away from the junction stood the Overlander Roadhouse which provides basic accommodation and a petrol station with a well stocked supplies of drinks, snacks and hot food on the go. It was already 2pm and kind of hungry. We stopped there to get some food, fuel up the tank and rest for quite a while to cool down the engine and rest myself to prepare for the long drive south. We ordered some fries and pasta salad and ate it in the air conditioned comfort of the car. Our end of accommodation was Geraldton and it would take us another 3hr plus to get there non stop.


From the Overlander Roadhouse, we began the south bound drive. It was a long and light traffic road and fatigue could easily kick in. We took a few rest stops at the designated rest area which provides ample parking space, toilet facilities and some even BBQ facilities.  It was a drive and rest stops along the way until we reach the small town of Northampton where we took a longer break with a quick trip to the supermarket to get some sugary beverage to keep driving momentum going. Northampton is the nearest town to the north of the city of Geraldton. 

Stretch break at Binnu while heading south to Geraldton
From desert to greenery at the town of Northampton

Town garden where kids were having some fun running around

Beverage break with a nice cold mango juice for the driver
Arrived at Geraldton after a long day's drive from Shark Bay

From Northampton at 5pm, we reached our hotel, the Wintersun Hotel at Geraldton. After we check-in and moved in our bags, we just walked to the nearby take-outs to settle our dinner. It was a Chinese restaurant take-out where we dine at the shop itself. After days of fish & chips, pastas, it was quite refreshing to go for more closer to home of Asian fried rice and noodle. After dinner, we ended the day by driving out to the Coles supermarket to stock up on chocolates to bring back for friends and family.

Day 8: Geraldton, Fremantle

Today's driving time was about 4 hrs excluding rest stops and meals breaks from Geraldton to Fremantle. Breakfast was included for our hotel stay at the Wintersun Hotel, a simple continental breakfast of toasts, cereals, juices and fruits. The restaurant area was big for dinner events but for that morning, it was just us and a few families there enjoying the breakfast.

Rubik cube theme toilets

Lifeguard tower 

At the Foreshore Drive Beach
Seagulls feeding time

After breakfast, we decided to do a quick tour around the city of Geraldton and maybe visit some of the beaches nearby. We drove off at 8am and headed towards the city centre near the marina at Foreshore Drive and were actually just touring around in our car when spotted an interesting structure by the beach. It is actually a toilet but designed in a Rubik Cube. The area has a small garden by the beach and our daughter loves to feed the seagulls and so we hanged around the area for some time to enjoy the view there. There is a small stretch of the beach with a floating platform that we saw a couple going for a morning swimming.

At Pages Beach


Did a quick search on google map based on our location and the nearest beach, we drove about another 5mins to Pages Beach.  The beach itself is like a sheltered bay with a crescent shape shoreline. The waters in the near distant is turquoise and deeper blue further out.  One thing that is not so natural to the beach is the nearby light industry factories that is closed to the beach. There is some horse riding area near the beach. At the beach we saw a people riding their horses into the waters where there was a sign saying no horse riding in the waters. A quick photo shooting stop and we headed to the next beach on map.

Separation Point Lookout area

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We drove a place called the Separation Lookout Point. A elevated lookout area with a long stretch of the beach below us. There are tracks for 4WD vehicle  to drive down to the beach just next to the Batavia Coast Maritime Institute building.  The beach seemed to be a good place for sunset watching. From the lookout point , we could see the the crystal clear shallow waters near the shore, and rocks further away forming some wave dampening barrier, making the shallow waters family safe for children.

At the Tarcoola Beach

Tarcoola Beach

Out of the morning beach hunting, i think the next beach was the best among those we explored in Geraldton, the Tarcoola Beach. We parked our car by the roadside of Willcock Drive, and from made a steep sand dune descend using the designated path onto the long white sandy beach.  Wind was strong, waves were strong, the beach so was wide and we felt to open and free. Our daughter was so excited and started playing with incoming waves by running up and down the sandy beach.
Originally we planned for our night accommodation at Geraldton in this vicinity of Tarcoola Beach. There are quite a number of accommodations in the area. There is the African Reef Resort just down the end of the road of Willcock Drive, read about its review on unblock sunset from the resort. Maybe a good place to stay if we happen to come back to Geraldton again.

We fuelled up the car at a nearby petrol station ( realized that the local petrol station brands have fuel that are much cheaper than the bigger boys like Shell, Caltex, BP) called Puma and drove onto the Brand Highway 1 that runs south towards Perth. Today's end of day destination was Fremantle which is easily another 4 hours.

Approaching the Wind Farm

Exhibit show one vane of the wind mill

As we drove southward, we saw tourist signboard pointing to a Wind Farm tourist site. Thinking it wasn't that much of a detour and so we turned out of the highway. The directional signs took out into a quite small town called Walkaway. We entered into the small town that has only a few stores along the main road and it was like going back into the 60s. We passed a quaint elementary schools landscaped with enough greenery to give the impression we are not in a dry arid land.  It took us 30mins before we arrived at the Alinta Wind Farm site. It has a well maintained and clean toilet with water supply, a big car park area even it the place is just beside the main road.  The location is deep in the farmlands and most of the time, the road was free of traffic.

This is the first time we came so close to seeing the wind machine blade. The size was enormous just standing next to it. Many times we see is from afar and mounted at the top of the wind mill, it looked much smaller. Other than the wind mill that is just near to the car park, there were many wind mills scattered along the hill tops that overlook the lower lands below. From here, the only way back to Highway 1 was to go back the same route via Walkaway town and back onto the highway. It was quite different driving among the farmlands than the coast which pretty much was most of the route we took for our road trip.

Once we back on the highway, we continued south towards Perth. We didn't decide on where to go lunch and just based on time and where we were. It was about lunch time around 12 noon and we thought of just driving into Dongara since we haven't been there. From Google map we found this isolated cafe by the beach, known as the Seaspray Cafe. From some reviews, it was quire highly recommended. We loved the cafe by the beach concept and would like to have a meal overlooking the sea.  The cafe is not within the town centre but just besides the Seaspray Beach Holiday Park at the end of the main road from town. The holiday park looked new and well maintenance and the beach is like just a few steps away. A good place for our next trip should we come by the part of the area.

Seaspray Cafe

Inside the Seaspray cafe. Cosy and clean
Our Lunch


We parked our car just besides the cafe. It is a small cafe with maybe say 8 tables, and when we were there, there was only a table of 4 enjoying their light meal. The cafe has a homely beach decor and with the sea breeze blowing in, the whole place gives an unique tropical but cooling atmosphere inside the cafe.  We ordered their classic fish and chips and a buchetta toast with smoked salmon. I could say this place was the best fish and chip we had during our road trip up and down the Indian Ocean Road drive.  And with the beach so near us, it was play time again at the beach after our meal. The beach was clean and quite, Long stretches of white sand and the water is clean without any seaweeds or see grass like Shark Bay. Water is chilly along the western coast shoreline, unlike the warm water of shallow Shark Bay.

Seaspray Beach
At the beach again
Braving the waves

After about 30 mins of play time at the beach, back to the car we went and bid farewell to this beautiful beach. Not saying that this is the best beach, but is the feeling that every beach gives, this is a not to be missed beach and if possible would love to stay a night here.

From Dongara, it was a drive all the way to Fremantle. Took a few rest stops to stretch the legs and refresh the concentration level for the raining driving.  There is a point at a road junction where both ways lead to Perth and following Google Map, we took the shorted route which is the Indian Ocean Road on highway 60. It passes by Jurien Bay and Cerventes and down south enter Perth suburbs. We followed the GPS direction getting onto the multi lane highway that runs along underpass and bridges. Suddenly the feeling of city life came back to us when we were moving very slowly in the traffic jam on a 4 lane highway that leads into the city centre of Perth.

Gallery Hotel near Fremantle (Bibra Lake)

We reached our motel, the Gallery Hotel near Bibra lake. This is a good base to visit Fremantle which is just 7 mins drive from the hotel. Finding hotels in Fremantle that offers free parking is very difficult. Hotels were much costlier than those away from it naturally. This Gallery Hotel that we stayed is new, modern and utmost important, clean. Lotsa ample parking space and rooms and their bathroom were spacious. The modern deco makes it one of the better modern accommodations we had. 

Ferris wheel at Fremantle pier
The Kailis (our dinner place)
At the Fremantle pier restaurant area.
Dinner is served

It was 6:30pm after we checked and straight away we drove to the Fremantle and had dinner at one of the restaurant at the Fremantle pier. We parked at a multi-storey secured parking at Collie Street and from there a short walk across Freo Park, passed the Sky Ride Ferris Wheel and onto the Esplanade.  There were many restaurants along this stretch of the Esplanade and we ended up ordering seafood at the Kailis Fish Market Cafe. Well to speak honestly, the food was very average, and quality could be better. We ordered some grilled fish and fried calamari and after a few bites started to compare with the better food we had at Seaspray Cafe at Dongara. This Fremantle Esplanade area may have better quality food but the one we had is not to our liking. Well the crowd was there but guess not all crowds meant good food, some just there paying more for the atmosphere. After dinner we took a short around near Collie Street where we parked our car.  We walked along Terrace Street and realized there were a lot more food options along that stretch of the street and regretted over our last meet near the pier side. Looking at the food options and varieties, it seemed more exciting compared over the ones at the pier. Anyway to each his own.

We left Fremantle around 9:30pm and a short drive of 10 mins we were back at our hotel in the light industry area. Area was quiet but felt safe.

Day 9: South Perth, Busselton, Dunsborough

The family woke up around 7am, packed up our stuff and left the motel. We picked our breakfast around the usual big supermarkets like Coles or Woolsworth which usually has good cafes or bistro opening in the early morning. We drove to the Cockburn Gateway Shopping City where our breakfast was this little cafe called the Little Teapot Cafe. Found some good reviews and so we went there for our breakfast.  The cafe is located in a cluster of buildings that seemed to be offices, with the ground floor catering to service oriented shop like cafes, restaurants, laundry and others. The place was run by a few Asians who were friendly and food was good too.


Cockburn Gateway Shopping City

Original intention was just to have breakfast at the area, but since there is such a big Shopping City, so we parked some time for some shopping for the trip. Well, this is the 1st shopping mall we went into since our arrival at Perth. The road trip was very much a nature experiencing holiday.
It was 10am after we parked our car in the free car park in front of the shopping mall. When we walked into the cooling air conditioned mall, it was like back home visiting one of the mega malls. The crowd was starting to pour in as the car park and seeing more and more empty lots taken up.  Besides it was Christmas season around the corner and shoppers were starting to open up their wallets for gifts. We spend about 3 hours walking in the mall. Bought some stuffs for ourselves and also lunch from the food court. Chinese noodle was our on the go lunch (well we got a little sicked of fish and chips over so many days) and I bought myself a fish burger from McD.

From Cockburn shopping city, we drove back into nature by visiting Cape Peron, which is at the most western tip of the land near to Rockingham.  There is a lookout point with a extended platform overlooking the waters and corals below. After soon photo taking on the lookout point, we took a short walk closer to the sea. There was a path that lead us onto some rocky platform where the seawater meets the rocks, and further down the path led us to the beach of Cape Peron. As it was a weekend, we could see a small crowd of beach goers on the beach.


View from Cape Peron Platform

Extend out platform at Cape Peron
At Cape Peron
Beach area near Cape Peron carpark (short walk)

Back to our car, we had our packed lunch in the car. Enjoying the air-condition in midst of the sunny sea view in front of us at the car park. The Chinese teriyaki chicken noodle still tasted good after baking in the hot sun in the car. As for my mac fillet burger, it was the same scrumpy feeling and standard taste. Well fast food was meant to be taken fast, keeping it aside will degrade the quality. From Peron, we took longer to reach Busselton with stop rest stops along the way. We took route 18 from Rockingham and later linked to highway route 1 heading south passing Mandurah and Bunsbury.


At the Busselton jetty



Around 4pm, we reached the Busselton Jetty. A must visit place if visiting south of Perth.  Busselton jetty is a famous tourist attraction boosting of itself as the longest timber piled jetty in the south hemisphere. running a total length of 1.841km into the open Indian Ocean.

We parked our car just in front the jetty and walked a short maybe 200 metres to reach the jetty entrance. A ticket is needed for adults and free for children below certain age. The ticket allows multiple entries for the same day of purchase. There is an operating tram that takes visitors to the end of the jetty which housed an undersea aquarium. For us, the weather was good, and we took the leg power option to walk to the end of the jetty. At times, our daughter was so excited that we ran some distance on the jetty.  there are rail guards on both sides for the initial start which later left just one side only.  At mid way point, there was a group of teenagers using the jetty platform to do some jumping off the structure onto the blue waters below.


Midway along the entire jetty.

Jetty structure stretching out towards the sea.

Walking towards the end. Long but pleasant walk
Make way for the jetty tram


We took about 25mins to reach the end of the jetty. Some folks just stopped at Underwater aquarium building which to some looks like the end of the jetty. But in fact the end is another further maybe 200 meters to the end where there is Cities Directional Sign pointing to some of the cities in the world and their distances.


Not the end yet, but almost there

Marine Sanctuary (undersea aquarium)
Cities Directional Marker (at the end of the jetty)
Whales painted on the jetty platform at the end ( can be seen from Google Satellite images)
Walking back to the mainland (approaching red tram)
Walking back to land with the evening sun to our right.

We took slightly longer time to walk back as this time we didn't run for some stretches of the jetty. There were a few restaurants around the jetty entrance and dinner time was approaching soon and the restaurants were seeing more diners come in slowly.  The jetty entrance tickets offered some discounts or free glass of wine at the nearby Equinox Restaurant & bar. Didn't have the chance to look at their menu and was in a rush to get to our night's motel for check in to avoid inconvenience to the motel staff and maybe to ourselves.

It was a 30 mins drive along Caves Road that is the main road that runs from Busselton to Dunsborough which is where we were staying for the night. We managed to check-in to our motel at Dunsborough Central Motel with the reception still operating. This would be our last night in Australia and still owe my kid a swimming session. And so coincidentally the motel has a small swimming pool and there was still daylight left for us to do some swimming before dinner. And so a quick 5 mins change of clothes and off we jumped into the pool and had our 30 mins of swimming in the pool. Well the pool wasn't that huge but just for the 2 of us was more than enough.


Dinner place at Dunsborough

Our dinner
After the swim, a quick wash up and from the hotel we walked to the nearby cafe or restaurant for dinner. Surprising, the area where our hotel is located has quite a few big establishment for food and drinks. There were some Asian Thai takeaways as well but for the last long dinner, we preferred something more proper. And so we went into the more family friendly restaurant called the Dunsborough Tavern. Why i said it was family family? They had an indoor playground for the children. Although they sell liquor, beers and food, but i guess the concept of pub and restaurant can go hand in hand without any violation.  The food was good, we ordered Asian fried rice, BBQ wings and our last fish & chips, plus the local craft beer which the wife enjoyed a lot. And that wrapped up the last activity of the day before bedtime.


Day 10: Yanglingup, Bunsbury, Perth Airport

Finally the last full day of our road trip in Perth. Kinda unwilling to end the fun we had as a family on the road. We spend a little longer than other days of previous packing as we were packing for the return flight home. Today was a sight seeing day around Yalingup area and slowly to make our way back up north to Perth Airport.

For breakfast, we looked through some reviews and decided on the place called "Mealup". It is a modern cafe that serves the morning crowd, and into lunch time and close in mid afternoon usually. Business was good when we were there. Not sure if it was also because of the Sundays'market at the Dunsborough central.  The food was good and healthy with lotsa greens.

Saturday Farmers Markets at Dunsborough

Local craft work (nice)

After breakfast, we spent some time visiting the little stalls that were setup all around the central square. It was always fun and interesting to visit such Sunday or weekend markets where you can see the local handiwork, crafts and things that you wouldn't see in shopping malls.

From Dunsborugh central, we took a short drive up to the Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse. Once we exited the car park, there were flies everywhere and these were more aggressive than those from Kalbarri National Park. There were visitors slowly streaming in more the place was still very quite. No entrance fee or tickets were required but we could only walk to the base of the lighthouse only. It seemed that only paid session for the guiding tour would the caretaker bring you up to climb the lighthouse. There were no signs on the fee, and no one was around or have some sort of reception. When we were at the base of the lighthouse, it seemed the only guide was up in the lighthouse giving guide information to 2 person up there with him.

Cape Naturaliste Lighhouse

 After taking some pictures of the SugarLoft rock itself, there was a side dirt trail that led down to a closer vantage point to see the rock. For me I went further down towards the water area and came across some local folks carrying their catch up the same rock path that i came down. The rocks around the Sugarloft seems easy to climb and I tried and managed to scale up one of the rocks that allow a closer view of the Sugarloft rock. Just need some good traction shoes and for the coming down part, just be careful.

Sugarloft Rocks

Doing a little "hiking" for a closer view of the rocks
Up closer to the Sugarloft rocks
Me making my way down (see if you can spot me)

A short steep climb to the rock top. Really need good traction on the rocks.
Closest view I can get to the rocks.

Next stop, we left the coast and drove towards Yalingup to visit Ngilgi Cave. It was a shirt drive again taking the route 50 of Caves Road.  Ngilgi Cave is a family friendly cave for children as well, just need to supervise them and keep them in sight. The cave is an underground krast cave, rocks of lime stones and others. The Ngilgi Cave falls under the tourist attraction of Margaret River where Yalingup is located.

Entry to the cave goes through the ticketing area which is part of the same building that house the gift shop as well. The staffs are the ones that man the shop as well as the ticket sales. There are semi-guide tours every 30 mins that you can wait for the short introduction and briefing at the cave entrance (steps leading down the cave).  We bought the tickets and follow the joined with the group to make our way down the cave. You can actually bought bundle tickets that cover other attractions in the area like the other caves near Busselton. There seemed to be other caves to explore in the vicinity.

Before going down into the caves, all of us gathered at the metal stairs entrance for briefing on the caves, its history and what to look out for in terms of safety. Once that was done, we descent into the next briefing point at the bottom the metal stairway. It was much cooler in the caves, and minus the flies up on the ground.  The guide explained to us the information facts about the cave, how deep it is, how should we be exploring, and the highlights of the cave itself.

We were told of an amphitheatre cavern at the lowest chamber where they held events down there and even symphony orchestra down there. Couldn't imagine how they lower the piano down into the chambers, but it was fascinating to know of such an arrangement.  After the briefing we were free to roam on our own. The place is quite safe, just have to be careful of the head when going through the corners. The place was brightly lighted for everyone to navigate easily. Not much to navigate but just follow the railing path and directional arrow.

At the cave entrance taking the stairs down deeper.


Steep but well built with stairs and railings (mind the head though)


Exploring and exploring the caves.



Going back up to the surface
In total we spend about an hour exploring the caves and all the chambers. There were quite a number of stairs to climb and so the place may not be suitable for senior that has difficulty in climbing stairs. Other that that, all is family friendly and safe for the children. We exited the cave and were back at the gift shop rewarding ourselves with ice-cream from the gift shop.
Last stop for our visit in the Yalingup area, the Canal Rocks formation near the coast. This is an extraordinary rock formation in the shape of a canal and in times of wild weather conditions could churn up high waves lashing on the rocks there.

Canal Rocks Bridge 
Water is calm today with little waves (people were swimming still)


View taken from the bridge 


Sitting by the rocks, feeling the calm water in the rock pool
Quite unique rock structure at this park

When we reached the wooden bridge of the canal rocks, the weather although cloudy and drizzle at times, the waves were gentle and slow moving. Not much of any surfs or lashing. And so it was very safe to bring our kid to cross the wooden bridge to the other side of the rocks and did some simple climbing to area where the seawater gently washed up. The rocks were small and easy to climb. We could see other folks crossing some shallow waters and climbing onto one side of the canal rocks. Well the canal is formed by 2 parallel rock formation with water flowing between them and if you check on google map with satellite view, you could see the distinct parallel rocks.

We left the Canal Rocks at 2:30pm and make our way up north towards Perth. It was late lunch for us and would like to have lunch somewhere along the way. Preferring not to settle lunch at Dunsborough, we drove into Busselton and made our way to an Italian restaurant called the Vasse Bar & Kitchen which served pizzas and pastas. It was about 4 pm when we finished our mean and after that, it was a final visit to the Coles supermarket to buy a some final chocolates to bring home as we would be driving straight to the airport.

Bunsbury Lighthouse
Shaped like a rocket


From Busselton we left at 4:30pm and a 45 mins drive to Bunsbury Lighthouse to have a quick photo stop. But we ended up spending some time at the beach watching the waves coming in on the basalt rocks at the Wyalup Rocky Point. There is unique small canal formation that guided the waves coming in, channeling them into a narrow rock canal all the way up to the beach. Our kid was enjoying every surges that came in and at times splashes against the rocks besides them.  There were locals on comfortable chairs placed on the basalt rocks near the edge of the rock by the sea fishing and admiring the setting sun.

At the McCarthy Point Beach
Waves washing up the narrow rock channel forcing the waters to splash against the rocks


Me at the edge of the rocks.
Last sunset shot at beach before the drive back to Perth Airport



After leaving the beach area, there were seagulls and our daughter went into play mode again and went feeding them. It was about 6:30pm that it was time to leave for the airport. It would take about 2hrs to reach and for our flight at midnight, we would need to be at the airport by 10pm. Time was enough for us.  We left the the town of Bunsbury and tried to hit back on the northbound highway 1.  The road split before Mandurah between the Old Coast and highway route 2 which gave a shorted route to Perth Airport.  The sun was already setting and slowly as it set, we were driving with the golden sun setting to our left and in no time, dusk has set upon us and night time came.  There was a need to fill up more petrol for the car which original intention was to fuel up at Bunsbury but didn't come across along the way and was intending to top up along the highway route. But the one that is immediately after highway 1 split to highway 2 was closed, and that pushed us to go another 60km before we reached our schedule saving station.  That was the BP Baldivis station which has food service. 

It was about 8:45 pm and there was enough time for a quick snack for dinner. We ordered a Red Roaster platter for the family to share and after preparing and serving our food, the shop was closed for the day. Well there was still McDonalds' at the station which closed at a later time.
We left the petrol station at 9:10 pm and started the last stretch of non stop drive to the airport. When you are in a hurry, the distance seemed longer always.  With the fuel gauge up to just slightly below half tank, gone was the worries of running short of fuel.  Due to night time and lack of lights sometimes you don't know if the navigation is correct or not as we followed the instructions and drove onto dim lanes of the road leading to the airport. Road works was one that messed up the navigation for a short while, but in the end, after missing the rental return car entrance and making a big loop around the public car park, we finally  reached the car rental return bay, drop our keys at the care rental booth and off to the check in counters where the counters were just opened with a snaking queue. All time planned out was just timely and we were all cleared for the flight home.

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