Taking a week off to take our relative from the UK on holiday to see some of the top end of WA....although I took a week off work.... I still managed to take my laptop to get some personal work completed...this being some writing and my Midwifery Practice Review (MPR), my aim was also to do some marking, but it was hard when in a car to give feedback as your writing ends up being eligible....so alas no marking got done.....We started from Perth, first stop was the Pinnacles are two-hundred and forty-five kilometres north of Perth on the way to Geraldton. Closest main town is Cervantes. The Pinnacles are seventeen kilometres south east of the town.
The Pinnacles are limestone formations. The raw material for the limestone of the Pinnacles came from seashells in an earlier epoch rich in marine life. These shells were broken down into lime rich sands which were carried inland to form high mobile dunes. The Pinnacles were formed from lime leaching from the sand and by rain cementing the lower levels of the dune into a soft limestone. The area has changed over the years and is becoming more tourist orientated....with jarrah paths and lookouts being new features... since I was last here....
Next was Jurien Bay....beautiful spot...where we stopped for a cuppa and some chocolate...followed by.... Dongara... just before Geraldton... Ian had to have a meat pie from the Dongara bakery.... we went through Geraldton to Northampton where we were stopping for a few days...to enjoy the region...
The Shire of Northampton encompasses the popular tourist destinations of Horrocks, Port Gregory, Kalbarri and Northampton. The area is extremely diverse from the coastal lifestyle of Kalbarri to the heritage trails through Northampton and tourism is a growing industry.....
The problem with travelling around Australia, particularly WA, is that the roads are very long, and the towns are long and far between.... its a dream to have my laptop so that I can write, do some filing, those menial tasks that you never have time to do.... it's a case of have laptop will travel... three of us where travelling and as our guest gets car sick unless she is in the front or driving...I elected to have the back seat... I was actually happy to get some work done with my laptop, listening to some music and just enjoying going with the flow...so for me it was a good compromise...
Kalbarri..nestled where the Murchison River flows into the Indian Ocean, two hours' drive north from Geraldton, is the ideally situated town of Kalbarri. This is one of Western Australia's most popular holiday resorts.
Nature provides visitors to Kalbarri with once in a lifetime experiences. The climate is warm and sunny for most of the year. It was an interesting climb to natures window....so beautiful but the flies were an absolute pest.....
We spent the night at some wonderful chalets in Denham Oceanside Village, opposite the beach... couldn't believe how windy it was....Denham is only 20mins from Monkey Mia... we needed to be at Monkey Mia at 7am to see the dolphins.. so we saw the sunrise.. beautiful but cold.....it was worth every moment when we saw the dolphins... Monkey Mia has also changed over the years....the first time I came here over 20 yrs ago, there were no rangers... the dolphins came up and you could swim with them.... slowly each trip to the area...I have noticed changes... some good and some not so good....now its very restricted when seeing the dolphins....there was a mother dolphin with two babies... I must admit when you first see the dolphin swimming towards you and you first spot the fin.... the word shark does come to mind.....
Next stop was Carnarvon....a bustling town with a wonderful Aboriginal Arts centre...well worth stopping there for meal.... fantastic....we also visited; the blowholes, beautiful coastline, banana and mango plantations (unfortunately for us it was not fruit season), walked the old wooden jetty (2mile)..... we had a great dinner at the Old Post Office... Canarvon is a town with so much potential....again well worth the visit....
My favourite stop was Shell Beach....... a secluded beach with thousands of white shells.....Formed from billions of tiny shells, aptly named Shell Beach in the Shark Bay World Heritage Area. Shell Beach is one of only a handful of places on earth where shells replace beach sand in such a dramatic and picturesque way.
The beach stretches for more than 100 kilometres with shells between seven and ten metres deep.
I walked on Shell Beach it is like no other beach. Incredibly, the beach is made up of shells from just one type of animal, making it truly unique. I could of stayed there all day......
It was back to Northampton.... then the 6hr drive home the next day.... all in all we covered about 3,000kilometers......and we didn't hit one kangaroo......
I made a photo collage of some of the places our guest visited whilst here.... amazing what you can do with Picasa from google.... I am learning all the time... fantastic program.....
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