On the way to Perth

Nature's Window: a hole in a rock

After leaving Shark Bay we continued our journey South along the coast.  One thing we hadn’t realised when planning the trip was that at this time of year, this area of WA is notorious / famous for wind.  Re-reading our guidebooks we now noticed that this coast is described as ‘windsurfer and kite-boarder mecca’. Great news for the boarders I’m sure, but when your home is made from several square metres of heavy, sail-like canvas, not so much fun.    We arrived in Kalbarri, a twee little holiday town, and it was blowing a gale. The whole time we were there the trailer creaked and swayed ominously.   

We ended up staying in Kalbarri for four nights, which was probably a night or two longer than necessary (though it is actually nice to feel like we have stayed somewhere too long for a change!).  We had the idea that we could wait out the wind, just like we did in Cape Range, and so enjoy a few peaceful days by the sea.  Whilst we were there we saw dolphins playing in the bay, went fishing (and caught nothing but blowfish), fed the pelicans, drank coffee and mooched around the shops. We also went into Kalbarri National Park and went to the big attraction there; ‘Natures Window’, which is a rock with a hole in it. I was pleased to find a second-hand book shop to top up our reading supplies.  As we drove out of town, he wind was still strong enough to blow the car and trailer around the road.

We were heading to what we hoped would be a more sheltered camp in the lee of a headland called Sandy Cape, only a couple of hundred km’s north of Perth.  On our way we called into Geraldton; a fair sized town which we decided had a really good feel to it.  We decided that the kids were in need of a history lesson and so called into the Museum of Western Australia which was well organised and we all enjoyed.  As we walked through the door the kids were offered a museum ‘bingo’ sheet. This treasure hunt style game had them tearing around the museum at break-neck speed, hunting down a series of exhibits featured on the bingo sheet, clearly much to the consternation of serious museum goers. Of course Jules and I just frowned and ‘tutted’ along with everyone else and pretended that the boys were somebody else’s’ children.   That night we stayed in a free camp a few km’s outside of Geraldton, sheltered from the wind behind some big bushy trees (sheltered, that is, until the wind changed direction at one o’clock in the morning and once again we were out guying down flapping canvas in our, erm, nightwear).

The Pinnacles: Rocks in the ground

Next up we had what turned out to be another four night stop at Sandy Cape Recreation Park.  This camp area is on the beach but nestled in behind enormous sand dunes (which the kids had a ball sliding down on boogie-boards) and it was indeed a more sheltered spot than our last few camps. We got the best camp spot in the whole site – next to the beach, away from the main site and under a beautiful old shady tree (other campers came to describe it as the ‘rock-star site’).  We could often see them eying our site enviously as they walked past on the way for a swim.  We also made a day trip down to the Pinnacles, which are a bunch of rocks sticking out of the ground (The sky was a bit moody and overcast whilst we were there so I am not sure we saw them, literally, in their best light.  We walked through them, which was OK, and then drove through them, which was more fun). 

Yes, Yes, another white sandy beach...

Sandy Cape was a great place to relax for a few days and also gave us chance to adjust our mindsets about the rest of the trip: Over the last few weeks, the scenery has changed dramatically from desert to farmland.  We are now clearly out of The Wild Places and although the South coast we will no doubt again offer some relatively remote spots, we are feeling like the rest of the trip will have a distinctly different character.

Something to do with Gravity...

Talking of a change of scenery; rather than heading straight to Perth after Sandy Bay, we headed inland slightly and made for a two night stop in the small Avon Valley NP, 80Km’s or so north-east of Perth.  On the way there we decided that it was time for the kids to have a physics lesson and so we called in at the Gravity Discovery Centre near Gingin, which is the public education centre at the Australian International Gravitational Observatory (AIGO) full of interactive displays about all things gravity and cosmology related .  Though their eyes did seem to glaze over when I tried to explain to them the significance of the search for the Grand Unified Theory, they did seem to enjoy chucking water balloons off the top of a 45 metre tall steel tower (the leaning tower of Gingin), all in the name of science of course.

Can’t put it off any longer. Next stop: the CITY of Perth!