By this Author: anne.muld

Leaving Kalbarri and on our way to Northampton, we drove to Port Gregory. Port Gregory has PINK water in the lake, apparently due to the salt level. The ocean is very blue....

Pink lake

The Lake is actually flouro pink when the sun shines on it. The photo doesn't quite do it justice. It isn't inviting to swim in as it just looks bazaar!!!

more of the pink lake

northampton1 (14)

Other things I've learnt are "WA likes there lizzards frilled not grilled!" This is a sign that is on the roads all of the time. So I'm always on the lookout for lizzards, sheep, roos, cows, emus, goats etc etc on the road as referred to as "fresh meat". It is not real fresh as you have to hold your nose, turn off the fan in the car as the 'fresh meat' has been baked and now stinks!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are now travelling in the "Wheat Belt" of WA. Obviously it rains a lot more down this way as the wheat farms are lovely to look at. The red earth desert areas od WA are beginning to dwindle and fresh water is becoming more available to us. We no longer have to have salty, slimy showers from the artsian waters. The weather is still very hot. Usually 33 degrees in the day and the washing takes one hour to dry.

Another thing I have learnt about WA is that 'Highway One' is the best road in WA. It puts Highway one to shame in all of the other Aus states. The condition of it here is fantastic. The one thing you have to be careful of is RFDS planes landing on it (They do warn you by a sign to watch out for planes landing) and there are lots of cattle grids on the highway. You cruise along at 80 km per hour and them Bump you hit a cow grid!!!! Bertha is getting use to them but it wakes me up!!!!

Today I splurged and used a washing machine. I spent $3 on a load, usually we hand wash but once a month I give the towels a baptism in the washing machine. I sold my washing machine at home so I'll be use to the handwashing untill we can afford another!

We have arrived at Northampton for the "Äiring of the Quilts" which is on tomorrow.. FANTASTIC!!!!!

Tony viewing Port Gregory - Lovely to see the ocean is blue

We have been travelling slowly 80 km per hour due to a nasty head wind. We detoured from the highway to Kalbarri. Just what we needed. A site right on the river, front row and we are near the mouth of the river and ocean. We are protected from the winds and the weather is hot 33 degrees in the day and just a sheet on the bed at night.

from our van site. Lucky strike as it is still school holidays here.

There is a population here of 2000. There are all of the facilities you need as well. Shame it is so far away from NSW.

River view

It is a great place for boating, fishing and exploring as there is a great nation park near with lots of gorges.

Kalbarri (3)

Here are some of the natives. Tomorrow we head off to Northampton to see the annual "Airing of the Quilts"which is on Saturday...

native are very friendly

Monkey Mia Resort

Bottle nose dolphins have breakfast at 7.30am. We are staying at Denham which is at Shark Bay and Monkey Mia Resort is 20 km up the road. The resort is a lovely spot to stay at but because it is school holidays here it was all booked out. So we had breakfast with several dolphins and they all have names. There are 300 female dolphins than come in for a feed. Today only seven did. The resort has stopped feeding them so much so as they don't become dependent of the feed each day. They are only allows 4 fish each per day. They need 8 kilos of fish daily so they are given 20 % only.

Dolphins here for breakfast

We travelled down from Carnarvon and this is famous for the fresh produce farms especially tomatoes and bananas. The tomatoes are the best I've ever tasted. The wind blows a lot in this area and the freash water is scarce. Artesian water is supplied everywhere but it is salty and slimy. You do get use to it.

Tony having breakfast

Carnarvon has a very old jetty that is one mile long. We walked this and where blown all the way. A little tram runs along it as well as it was an old shearing town and the wool was sent out to the ships to go to market in Perth. Also it was known as a fishing village as well.

tram on 1 mile jetty at Carnarvon

end of jetty

Today, Friday 1/10/2010 is our last full day at this beautiful location. It is school holidays in WA and we are half way through them. We managed to get two weeks here even with one of these weeks being school vacation. It is a bit like winning the lottery as families swarm here and have annual holidays here for years. Also there are a bunch of AFS Interculteral Exchange students on Safari here as well. I had a chat with them and they were very impressed that I knew all about the program. Ther is about 30 doing travelling for 16 days from Perth to the national Park about 150 km away. They sleep under a big tarp at night time and all the girls hog the bathroom to make themselve beautiful every morning. Funny what 16 year olds are like....Memories.....

Tomorrow 2/10/2010 we move on to Canarvon.

Back to the old entry of Coral Bay posted 2 weeks ago..........

After happily leaving Karratha behind, we drove for several hours south to a beautiful peace of heaven called Coral Bay.

Me on my noodle bobbing around

The Ningaloo Reef is swimming distance here and the coral and fish are well worth getting wet for. The town is very small, just a few houses, but there is a very good backpackers accommodation and two huge caravan parks here just accross from the water. There are two grocery shops and half a dozen other shops as well as a hotel motel, all accross the road from the beach.

Coral Bay the best place to swim in WA

The WA Snapper are plentiful here and they are about half a metre long. They swim next to you and rub against you. They know this is a marine park and they are safe. They are little teasers.

WA Snapper teasing me

The water is fantastic to swim in as it is so clear. This is the first place we have actually swum in the Indian Ocean. we've always been a bit worried about stingers, crocs and sharks..... After leaving Cable Beach, Broome, the beach was closed due to a large salt water croc moving in. Barn Hill also had a 3 metre white pointer shark scene cruising around. Coral Bay seems to be very safe as there are little children swimming everywhere. We purchased a swimming noodle each so we could swim accross the coral and not touch it. The weather is beautiful here. 34 C in the day and about 16 c as night. This is a lovely quaint town and next time we come back it will probably be like Noosa QLD. The funniest thing about this place is they have the most fantistic grass. It is a saltine couch that is conditioned to being sprayed with the artesian bore water that the town uses for washing and showering. This water comes from 830 metres deep and produces water that is 65 C. So you have very HOT SALTY water on tap. Not need to boil water to wash up, you just turn on the tap. The grass is sprayed continuously with this water as the sprayers are very fine and by the time the water is sprayed in the air it is cooler so as not to burn the grass. When your walking past these sprayers and they hit your leg with hot water, it is a bit of a shock!! There is drinking water taps supplied also though out the caravan parks. We can only stay here for 5 nights as it is WA's school holidays starting this Saturday for two weeks and the accommodation is already booked out. Shame as we would of loved to stay here for 3 weeks.

Coral Bay

Tony taking in the view of Coral Bay

View of Coral Bay Town

After leaving Barn Hill we headed south and did an overnight stay at Pardoo Roadhouse. This was comfortable for one night. The roadhouse had a licence restaurant & bar. We met a lovely couple from Bunbury, John & June sure had a few tales to tell and loved to tell us about all the fish they caught and lived on solely for the last 2 weeks but also telling us how difficult it was getting their car and camper out of the place after having jacked knifed the van several times......I didn't even take a photo of Pardoo.

Port Hedland (9)

Harbour Sign

Next stop was Port Hedland. Well what can I say Industy, industry and more industry. We saw Dampier Salt company. Salt everywhere and mining cars, trucks also everywhere. Looked like Kooragang Island just bigger and mightier. We need gas but couldn't find it anywhere. The salesperson at the roadhouse said you wont find gas anywhere in Port Hedland as it is an island. You have one place only to get it until you reach Perth area and that is 15 km away at South Headland????? Off we go as we just stocked the fridge again, to South Hedland. Bingo they had a swap and go service and it was only $34. We thought we would be up for heaps more. We have full tank of diesel & gas, we are happy again....

Dampier Salt

Port Hedland has a population of 15,000 people. Very busy harbour, bulk carrier vessels of up to 260,000 tonnes and over 230 metres in length entre here through this narrow entrance adjacent to the main street. We weren't too impressed so decided to move on to Karratha.

Port Hedland (2)

This is from my window as we travel.............

Karratha was just 40 km down the road anyway. 12,756 population and heaps better shopping centre. About the same size as Jesmond centre. This town is apparently the main business are of this region. The Woodside's North West Shelf venture is off the coast here. (The gas in the ocean) as well as Pilbara Iron and Dampier Salt. All the cars are mostly miners vehicles, the caravan parks are full of these guys living there. I could live in Karratha if I had too, reminds me of Wagga Wagga. Two night will do! Take me to the tourist areas. The weather here is a pleasant 29 degrees.