To the Kimberleys and Back Again

Arrived at Tom Price and headed out to Karijini National Park. Took the long way round getting to the camp ground without knowing there was a short way and tarred way!! Got a flat tyre as we pulled into camp.

Spent the next day walking the Dales Gorge and visited all the pools. Pretty nice place to be. Girls did well on the walk, it was fairly rough going getting down in the gorge but not too bad once you get down. Only spend two nights as apparently all the other gorges would be unsuitable for a 2 year old to manage.

Its such a long way in to Karijini and out again. Well, all the roads are like that in WA. In between seeing the places you want to see there is just about nothing else.

In Port Hedland for the night and was lucky to get a site at the Caravan Park. It was booked out and we camped in the overflow area which was a car park. We thought we might stay 2 nights so we could get the tyre fixed and do some washing but at $70 a night for a powered site we changed our minds. If we hadn’t needed the tyre fixed we would have kept going. I thought at that price they should be doing the washing for me and bringing it back ironed and folded!

We spent half a day waiting for the tyre and then kept going.

Found another 24hr free “aussie” camp by the side of the road. We didn’t have a fire at this one but you could if you wanted to.

Next stop Barn Hill Station (Caravan Park $30 a night) just outside Broome. Great little spot. It’s very popular and is booked out in the peak season with all the grey nomads. Some of the vans have their own little gardens/veggie patch set up.

We arrived here at around 10am and the park was so quiet. Lots of caravans and only a few people to be seen. A few came out of their vans for lunch then quiet again. At around 4pm they all came out with their cups of tea and a few with cans of beer and I even saw a little glass of port, chair in hand and they all sat around for about an hour and then as soon as the sun went down it was all quiet again. Except for our kids……

We went for a walk down the beach and the coastline is amazing. Big cliffs of red, white and pink all along the beach. Kids enjoyed playing in the rock pools, collecting shells and looking for creatures in the pools. Definitely a peaceful little place to visit. Its been quite windy for the past two days here so not been able to get the boat out which is a shame. Will go for a fish off the beach later today.

And do some school work with the kids......

From Carnarvon we headed to Coral Bay. Wow! How nice is Coral Bay. Definitely in the list of Top Places to visit. No bush camping here either so it was another van park which was just about full but we managed to get a site.

We took the girls out on a glass bottom boat and they loved it as they got to see what all the fish and coral looked like under the water and the water is so clear and the spangled emperors swim right beside you. There is some amazing snorkelling around this area that’s for sure. We decided to only stay 2 nights and get back to some bush camping up the Ningaloo coast.

We took the coastal track up through the Ningaloo Station which was fairly corrugated. What a beautiful part of the coast with some great camping spots along the way. You can camp there for a fee which I think was about $20 per person for a week kids half price but you need a key for the locked gates and we didn’t fancy travelling back to take the keys back. Not sure if they had a key drop at the gates we just kept travelling through to Cape Range National Park.

We crossed at the Yardie Creek crossing which and managed to get a site at Lakeside just north of Turquoise Bay. Some of the camping sites here at the Cape Range National Park are now bookable online and I think in the future they will all be bookable online. Lucky for us again, we found a site that was available for 4 or 5 nights and the park is now full. Our camping ground, Lakeside has only 7 sites one of which is taken up by the Host. Our Hosts are Frank and Merle and they are lovely. Happy hour every day at 5.30pm and we all congregate together to have a beer, wine or a cup of tea if you like and watch the sunset or just sit around and have a chat.

Great snorkelling around this part of the coast. Turquoise Bay is superb. The water is amazing, so crystal clear and the colour awesome. The fish are amazing. Didn’t get to swim with a turtle but saw one in the sand hiding and while standing on the beach we saw them swim past.

We originally booked in for 2 nights, but then stayed another 2 nights. They had a 1.8m high tide which is a big tide for that area and there were two low pressure systems that whipped up a big swell out off the coast which pushed the tide up into the camp. The water was in our camp so the next morning after it went down a little we packed up and moved on. They will be experiencing the same thing this next full moon which will be a bigger tide.

Restocked and refuelled in Exmouth and headed toward Karijini with an overnight stop at Barradale by the River. A great 24hr free camp. Had a nice dinner and a little campfire for mother’s day. Drank far too much and woke up with a little headache. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of places you can have a campfire so we get a little excited when we can have one. The weather was perfect for it too, no wind and no clouds in the sky.

We booked ahead and got a place in Kalbarri for three nights (along with another ¼ of the population of Perth) and this was lucky as it was more or less still booked out for the rest of the holidays. It was a nice place. Great little spot for fishing. The Murchison River meets the ocean here. It was interesting watching the boats try to get outside through the bar. Not a place for the faint hearted or beginners. It was crazy stuff watching the boats try and time the waves right. Many a boat I would say has been swamped trying to attempt this. Clint wanted to take the tinnie out but the girls would not let him. It was scary stuff.

Got talking to some campers a few sites up and who were from North Arm Cove. Turns out they know some friends of ours, Sharney and Bails who know their other son from Hawks Nest and we had been camping with them also. Small World!

Next stop Shark Bay. We ended up staying at the Francois Perron National Park. It was such a nice change to go bush for a couple of days and a camp on the beach too. Had a fish, girls are the only ones catching anything might I add.

After two nights we headed to Monkey Mia for the dolphin feeding which the girls loved. Lovely spot there but it’s very annoying when such a nice place is taken up with a resort and you have to pay to enter just to get to the beach. We had already paid to enter the National Park but Monkey Mia doesn’t come under the same fee.

Clint reckons it’s not Australian! There is no more she’ll be right mate and fair go…No more Aussie Culture just a lot of rules and regulations and people capitalising on what should be available to everyone. Over populated, over regulated and over priced! From Clint.

The great aussie bush camp has turned into a 24hr overnight roadside rest area camp. It’s the only place you get to have a fire and an affordable camp and some of these stops are magic right by rivers but only for 24hrs. Not that I think they would regulate that too much as they are normally in the middle of nowhere.

Next stop Carnarvon for an overnighter and restock.

On the way in you can see where the floods had ripped through and washed out the roads. Drove in via Sydney HMAS Memorial Drive, a tree lined road with a plaque for every sailor that died nearly 700 of them.

Got some nice organic bananas, avocado and custard apples straight from the farm. Flood waters wiped out the farms and you can still see where the water rose to on some buildings which was shoulder height. So it was good to see the farms back up and running.

From Oodnadatta we set off for the Red Centre. Doesn't matter where you go out here, its a bloody long drive to get to anywhere and there is not much in between. Which is pretty significant anyway, just goes to show how big this country really is.

We drove to Erldunda which is the turn off to the Red Centre and camped the night there and did some well overdue washing. The caravan park was full of campers and caravans! And the next morning I think they started heading out well before sun up....not us though. I don't think we left until about 10 or 11am.

We went to Kings Canyon which is beautiful and busy. Couldn't do the walk around the top of the canyon as I don't think the kids would have made it up the first section but the walk up the bottom was pretty good.

We stayed one night there and then moved on to Yulara. Headed straight for the supermarket to stock up on supplies and ran into someone from Singleton, yep Singleton. Clint worked with him years ago. Turns out, that in the big big campground we were right next door. Small world.

We headed out to the Rock the next day and that was pretty good. Walked around it but didn't attempt the walk up. We would have if we didn't have the kids but I just don't think they would have made it up there. Its looks terribly steep. Girls picked themselves up some Rock for a souvenir but when we visited the Visitors Centre there was folder there full of letters sent with pieces of rock asking them to return the rocks. Apparently, they had all experienced bad luck. Some had returned bags of sand that were given to them as gifts but all the same story, bad voodoo. So, we ditched the rocks. Didn't want to mess the voodoo!!

Headed out to the Olgas for a walk around in the afternoon and was suprised to spot another familiar face coming in. Some old family friends of mine who ended up camping across from us.

I would have to say the Olgas was one of my favourites. The walk up the gorges is amazing. Its so hot and dry everywhere and up the gorge its full of greenery and crystal clear water. Very beautiful.

That night at camp we caught up with Michael and Karlene, it was so good to see them.

We hit the West Coast, Geraldton with the intention of setting up for about a week as we had been on the go since we left and wanted to kick back and relax by the beach. It didn’t occur to us at this stage that it was Thursday before Easter Long Weekend.

We stocked up in Geraldton had a bit of a look around the foreshore. They have a water park on the foreshore and the beach is really nice, right in town. We had plans on staying just north of Geraldton at Coronation Beach. We arrived at the turn off about lunchtime and the sign says “Camp Ground FULL”.

It was now that it occurred to us, Easter! Bad timing to say the least. Every car on the road had either a camper trailer, caravan, boat or roof racks packed to the limit, all heading north.

We decided to head up to Kalbarri and try our luck there. No chance! Everywhere booked out. The thing with this area also is you are not allowed to camp anywhere but the caravan parks which is a bit of a downer. Not like popping over to Stockton Beach and setting up camp wherever you want. We were not looking for caravan park accommodation and thought Kalbarri being a National Park would have bush camping. Not the case. You can imagine a bit of frustration setting in now, its getting late and we have nowhere to stay. Kids favourite question “Are we there yet?”……………

So we head back to Geraldton thinking everyone is heading north, we will surely get somewhere down South. On the way back we start making some calls, straight to the information centre and the answer is, totally booked out! The thought did cross our minds to head to Perth at this stage…..

We tried phoning some parks in Geraldton anyway and managed to get one night so we took it. As it turns out, 5 minutes later they phoned us back as they had a cancellation and we were able to stay 5 days which would get us through the Easter Weekend. Thank god!
So we set up along with a ¼ of the population of Perth….! It was busy busy busy but our site was directly in front of the Kids Playground and the amenities and the Park was on the beach so we were pretty happy with the score. It felt like we were camping in another country though, everywhere around us there were different languages being spoken and if you heard English they were English!

Kids had a great time playing with all the kids in the park and it gave us a chance to relax while they were occupied.

We visited the water park on the foreshore. The museum was a hit with the kids. Watched the Anzac Day March and found a nice spot out the front of a pub in the Main Street to get a couple of early Pints in. Got our picture in the Mid West Times, something about the Royal Wedding. The poor girl had to work on Anzac Day just to get 5 people to make a comment about the wedding so we helped her out and.