The Road North.

We had enjoyed a great week with Ian at his house near Fremantle but it was time to head off again with the van in tow. We had considered going back east to Kalgoorlie to see the super pit gold mine but it was decided we should go north in search of warmer weather.

Cevantes

First stop after leaving Perth, a nice little rock lobster fishing town with a lovely caravan park just back from the beach. The local main attractions are “The Pinnacles” within Nambung National Park which are limestone pinnacles numbering in their thousands which you can walk around and then take the longer drive to see all these amazing structures. Another site to see is at Lake Thetis which is one of only four locations where Stromatolites (the worlds oldest living fossils) can be found.

Dongara

Another small fishing port connected to Port Denison on the south side of the river, this area was just nice to relax and check out the lobster boats unloading and try our hand at a bit of fishing. It was also here we met up with Ryan and family who we had being following since South Australia, finally we got talking and have continued to follow for the next couple of stays.

Coronation Beach

This is a cheap camp just north of Geraldton, usually quite hard to get into due to popularity we arrived to find a spot just right for us. With only drop loos and no power or water we were quite self sufficient, also able to catch some fish to keep the food stocks up. Unfortunately the weather did not behave and we had a couple of wet nights and cloudy days but the location made up for the drab weather. As we were only 20km north of Geraldton we took one day to go back into town to check out some of the attractions including the HMAS Sydney memorial and the foreshore area.

Leaving Coronation Beach with no sign of Jack and Vera Duckworth we thought we should check out Oakabella Homestead just up the road, the fourth most haunted house in WA from accounts was having a market day so safety in numbers we took a look. They had quite a lot of people in attendance already and a few market stalls including a bird of prey volunteer who let you hold a Kite. The scones with cream back at the tearooms made for a pleasant morning and not a ghoul in sight or presence.

 

Kalbarri

On the way to Kalbarri we stopped at the small community of Gregory for some lunch, a lovely little spot with beaches sheltered by an offshore reef, driving in you also pass Pink Lake, hopefully the picture does the sight some justice as it really was pink!.

At the mouth of the Murchison River lies Kalbarri, another fishing port with a large tourist industry in the summer months but still fairly busy during May for those heading up the coast. Just out of town is the Kalbarri National Park with its excellent views over the gorges that the Murchison River winds its way through on the way to the coast, also you get to enjoy seeing “Natures Window” and aptly named rock formation overlooking the river.

Back in town we spent some time checking out the coastal cliffs and even managed to see a couple of whales out to sea on their way north for breeding. In the evenings we enjoyed having a fish on the river watching the sunset, I even caught a nice size bream which we had for dinner.

Here we also got to catch up again with another family the Stenhouse’s and also Carmel and Des from the Hunter Valley who are friends of Kel’s parents, small world really.

 

Next stop Shark Bay!.