Entering the North West

Here it is.  The “proper” update.

Well, since we left Perth time has just flown by.  We have been slowly making our way up the west coast and are officially in the North West now.  I won’t bore you with all of the details, but will instead fill you in on some highlights.

J enjoying South Beach

SOUTH BEACH, PORT DENISON.
One of our new favourite beaches.  There is something about driving onto the beach and choosing anywhere you like to pull up the 4bie and go for a swim.  Something we still haven’t gotten over yet.  We spent almost two full days at this beach watching kite surfers, swimming, playing scrabble, kicking the Wahu footy and enjoying the dunes.  If you happen to be in the area, definitely worth checking out!

Geraldton foreshore in the cyclone waters

BUSHFIRES AND CYCLONES
For a little while there we were warned of Cyclone Yasi coming south meanwhile we were detouring 150ks to get out of the way of a bushfire heading north.  Praise God that being in the middle of the two turned out to be the safest place and we weren’t directly affected by either of them.  Mind you, the Geraldton foreshore was spotted with locals taking photos of the mighty waves rolling in on their usually calm water front.  It was quite a sight to see!

Lookout over the Murchison River

KALBARRI NATIONAL PARK
Gorge-ous!  For a stunning view of the Murchison River as it winds its way through rocky gorges, we found ourselves admiring God’s creation just before dusk in the vastness of the Kalbarri National Park.  It was very hot even so late in the day.  We decided to leave the 9km walk up to other fit and keen tourists and stuck to a couple of short tracks instead.  Hopefully the photos will give you some idea of how impressive it was.

MONKEY MIA & SURROUNDS
A beautiful little corner of WA.  We spent a couple of days exploring the tiny town of Denham and spotting bilbies on the sides of the road (well we spotted one!), including a trip to see the dolphins at Monkey Mia and then a 4WD exploration of Cape Peron National Park and a lookout over the infested waters of Shark Bay.  The highlight of the dolphin feeding at Monkey Mia is where they choose a number of volunteers to hand feed the dolphins with a fish.  I was keen.  I stood in prime position, loaded my handbag and camera onto J in the hope that I might get picked and the volunteer stepped forward and picked... J!  Haha.  He very kindly deferred the honours to me - What a husband! - and so I grabbed the fish and put it right into the friendly dolphin’s mouth.  Check this out:

Russell exploring the coastline

CARNARVON & THE QUOBBA COASTLINE
The impressive rugged coastline and deep blue ocean immediately demanded our respect.  Not only was this the place we had our friendliest shark encounter, but the outrageous cliffs and powerful waters prone to king waves and dotted with bursting blowholes are reason for caution for any bystander.  While we waited for the relevant parts to be freighted to Carnarvon to mend our challenged air conditioner, we spent every spare moment taking in the awesomeness of the Quobba coastline.  We managed to dive the waters on two occasions and were astounded by the number of sharks (!), variety of fish and huge turtles that we saw. On top of this, just driving along the tracks we saw dozens of goats, horses, lizards, a wedge-tail eagle, sheep, kangaroos, cows, a thorny devil and emus.   Accessible by 4WD only and well off the main roads, it was a hidden gem.

CORAL BAY, EXMOUTH & NINGALOO REEF

JR's Gold-spotted trevally

Australia’s largest and most accessible fringe reef borders Coral Bay and heads up towards Exmouth.  We had an absolute ball diving the waters just south of the bay and managed to get ourselves a couple of nice fish for the freezer too.  We swam across beautiful staghorn and plate coral and with schools of tiny shimmering blue fish and entertained a couple of small reef sharks as they followed us right to the edge of the shore.  We seem to be attracting them!  It was quite a thrill to watch from shore as they fed on the fish carcasses we threw them and it wasn’t long before they were joined by 3 massive manta rays and then an enormous 1.5m+ Queensland Groper!  Spectacular!

By the way, you know it’s hot when your husband is wiped out for a few days from heat exhaustion!  Valentines Day was spent in the Exmouth Regional Hospital attending to JR’s raging fever, upset stomach and overall feeling of weakness.  The good news is that he is improving and even managed to squeeze in a dive today in Australia’s best game fishing waters around Exmouth.  From here we’ll make our way to Broome and then head straight to Darwin to begin work in March.

Ok, I think I’ve said enough.  If you want to see more photos, click this link: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3303922998596.293171.1283635428&type=1&l=8412ca7150 


Hope you are well!  Until next time,

R.

The Pinnacles, WA