Perth (1~10 Dec 2017)
This is our 2nd visit to Australia and for
this time round, we picked Perth for its family friendly experiences that it
can offer from animals encounters, beautiful beaches to national parks. We have
been doing self drive for many trips but this is the 1st one that we were bring
our kid along. There was some worrying as to whether she could stand the long
drive and the activities we planned out for her. We tried to plan for a variety
of activities like short hikes, spending time at the beach, visiting animal
farms, taking cruises and trying out the local food and sleeping in a foreign
environment. In the end, all worked well and it was a good wrap up for the
entire 10 days road trip. This write can
be used as a reference for families wanting to try out self drive road trips
for the family with children and at the same time instill some sense of
adventure seeking for the child.
Day 1: Arriving Perth
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| Landed at Perth Aiport |
From Singapore, we took a noon 5hr flight
and landed at Perth Airport around 5pm. Clearing customs was a breeze if you
obliged by the rules if no foodstuff, plants or things that are organic in any
sense. Took us a while to get our pre booked car rental as there was a long queue and some logistical problem with
the car rental company on child seat. Took us a total of an hour to get service
by the counter staff. Instead of waiting we went to settle our dinner at the
nearest cafe just besides the arrival gates of the airport.It was getting late
and with more waiting for our rental car to be ready, it was better to settle
our dinner before leaving the airport so that we could just check in to our
airport motel for the night’s rest before starting our road trip around Perth. The
food was good, maybe because we were hungry. After dinner and some more waiting
we got our car finally, a Kia Sportage SUV.
It was a short drive of 10mins from the
airport to the motel at Redcliffe area. Roads were clear of traffic at this
time of the night. Our first night stay in Perth was the Ibis Budget Perth
Airport hotel. A simple no frills hotel near the airport. Rooms are real small
but for a rest stop, no issue but staying here for longer days, you would not
feel that you are on a holiday. The hotel doesn’t have lifts and there are 3
floors. So we did some weight lifting as ours was on the 2nd floor.
Day 2: Perth, Caversham Widllife Park, Bullsbrooke Strawberry Picking
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| Our 1st night stay near the airport |
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| Our rental car for the road trip. |
It was a fine cloudless morning. The skies were
blue, no a single patch of cloud in the sky. Sunblock was the next thing on our
mind. A quick checkout and we started our official road trip around Perth. First
stop was breakfast and we decided to go to the nearby cafe. A found a DOME cafe
nearby in the area of Bassendean that offers good breakfast menu and they open
early. After loading our bags into the
car, off we went for a short 10mins to the cafe.
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| Train cabin as part of the restaurant dinning space |
The DOME cafe has a an unique decor. They
have real train car moulded into the building structure, converting one of the
train car compartment to a seating area for customers to enjoy their tea and
meals there. Our 1st Aussie breakfast was refreshing for us. Well is
was the 1st day breakfast, but back in our minds we know we would
get sick of it after a few more days and missed the food back home.
Today’s itinerary was to visit the Caversham
Wildlife Park, a short 20 mins drive from the airport; and to do some strawberry
picking as well. All within short driving distance around Perth. And being
close to Perth we were ready to experience lots of tourists as well joining us.
Caversham Wildlife Park
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| Road entrance to Whiteman Park |
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| Animals crossings |
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| Wildlife park entrance. Ticket booth to the left |
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| Sheep sheering show |
The park opens at 9am and we reached the
park around 10am. There is a huge car park area near the car and tourists were
starting to come in but in light batches as it was still early. The park is
located in the Whiteman Park and entry into the park is free. Well some parks
around Perth charges an entry fee for cars or number of people entering. This
wildlife park is owned and run by a local family with no assistance grant from
their government and looking at the scale and animals they have, i would say
that is is quite an impressive achievement after reading about them and how
they started by small and simple to the current size and turning it to a major
tourist attractions. Being a wildlife
place with animals is a magnet for tourist families with children. Many
tourists come to Perth with families. Publicity cost should be high as well as
you can see this Caversham Wildlife Park big poster at the luggage collection
area at Perth Airport.
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| Walking towards the sheep sheering show |
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| Lamas |
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| Nice furry wooly brown sheep. |
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| White grey owl |
There are many animal show times and feeding
session all in intervals of 30mins to 1hr.
Shows are not run concurrently as you can see the same staff hoping from
one event area to the other. There are sheep shows like herding and wool
sheering, and other feeding show times. Meeting session with the wombats
enclosure with other animals is a crowded attraction. There are snakes,
possums, owls, parrots all within the same air conditioned tent.
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| Going to meet the Koalas |
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| Wide awake. Usually sleeping. |
Meeting the
Koalas and taking picture with them was also one of the crowd puller
attractions. There is also the kangaroo patting and feeding in a big enclosure
area where kangaroos are free to roam around. The sight of seeing a group of
them running in a herd was fascinating in such a park environment. But when the
sun approached noon and gets warmer, the kangaroos would just rest under the
cooling shades of the trees within the enclosure. The feeds for the kangaroos
are free flow and you don't have to pay extra for them. There is even a penguin
enclosure with a nice pool for them to swim in. But when we were there, the
weather was getting warm and with the strong sun, all of them were seeking
shelter under the rocks deep within the building structure. Only a few
penguins ( well just 2 of them) came out to swim and walk around the enclosure.
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| A small penguin enclosure. Hot day, all hiding under the rock cover |
The good thing about this Caversham Wildlife
Park is that after you paid for the entrance, all encounters, meet up session are
included. Unlike some parks that we have visited around Melbourne is that you
have to pay extra to get close up photograph taking with the Koalas. There is a
small cafe for families to grab some sandwiches and ice-creams for the children
near the entrance. And a always there gift shop just before you leave the park.
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| Happily feeding the kangaroo |
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| More feeding (free feed) |
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| More kangaroos (and a lot more) |
We covered the major animals shows, had our
playtime feeding the kangaroos and timely enough for lunch. We decided to drive
to the nearby suburbs town area for lunch as there wasn’t much choices at the
small cafe at the park.The cafe did have cold sandwiches, but travelling with
children, we would prefer to get some cooked and hot food for them.
A quick check on google map shows the town
of Ellenbrook and off we drove to Ellenbrook Central. We are not fans of
fast food ( family standard, myself can’t say i am not), but trying to find food
on google map, usually the places where fast food congregates are usually
places where other amenities and F&B options are more readily available.
Some small town we drove to was like very quiet and deserted. The only activity
there that is triggering the traffic and human flow is the supermarket. Many
cafes, restaurants and take-outs are usually closed. They operated either short
hours in the morning or just the evening to night. Even the night ones are mere
few hours maybe from 5pm to 8pm. This is
so much relaxing and family friendly compared to we city folks, especially from
highly competitive countries like ours.
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| Amarettos Restaurant at Ellenbrook Central |
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| Our first lunch meal in Perth. Not bad |
Ellenbrook Central, with name of Central
says almost everything about the place. And this was the place we had out lunch
at a restaurant called Amarettos Restaurant. The staff was friendly, service
was great. Maybe services tend to get more personal and cordial once you moved
away from the cities. We ordered pastas and a burger set. Portion was good for
a 2 mains to be shared with 2 adults 1 child. There was a free flow of ice
water and the waiter has more than happy to refill it for us. It was a warm
sunny day and water was the best drink at that point in time. Well beer was
cheap and good too.
Bullsbrook Ti Strawberry Picking
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| Super sunny day for picking |
Our next visit was Strawberry Picking at
Bullsbrook. There are quite a few
strawberry picking farms around Perth but not all open everyday with some only
open to public during the weekends. So we came to this Bullsbrook Ti Strawberry
Picking farm after our lunch at Ellenbrook. It was a short 25mins drive from
Ellenbrook to Bullsbrook. Using just google map ( well the entire road trip was
using google map for directions, didn't even do any research of the route,
everything time just key in the location and GO!) to find out way, it lead us
to the farm without any mishap. It was 3pm at the farm, and the sun was burning.
More sunblock was needed before we venture out of the car to the farm.
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| A box tray for the picking |
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| Just too warm, need umbrella for the kid |
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| Our take for the day. Wonder how others fill a mountain out of it |
Cost of the paper carton tray for strawberry
picking was $12 ( their website still says $10), and the entrance fee for
adults was $2 per head. Children entry is free. It was a big farm with rows
and rows of strawberries. We were suggested by the counter staff to walk to the
far end near a mobile toilet to do our pickings. It wasn't long walk but with
the warm weather and that period we went, it was all sandy and hot. There were
no paths and so we were walking on the same soil that was use to grow the
strawberries. It was like walking on sand dunes with your feet sliding as you
walked towards the designated picking area. Due to the hot sun, the sand was
hot. And for me and my kid, we were wearing slippers for that day and the kid
was complaining the sand was very hot. We walked halfway and ended me carrying
her to the picking rows.
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| Strawberries fresh from the stalk |
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| Leaving with our harvest. |
It took us quite a while to fill up our
single tray. We saw others filling up their trays and making it above the
carton tray edge. For us, it was back breaking to bend down to pick the
strawberries, choosing the ripe and good looking ones. Although the sun was
strong, the wind was strong too, and so it didn't get too warm while we were
picking the strawberries. All in all we spent an hour at the farm before
heading back to the comfort of our air conditioned car.
Our last stop of the day was to make the 2
hr drive from Perth area to Cerventes. A laid back fishing village with sandy
beaches and turquoise waters. Actually all the coastal village and town up
north comes with beautiful sandy beaches.
Cerventes is the village that
lies along the new Indian Ocean Drive that runs from Perth up north to Shark
Bay which was the place we were heading out and making the U-turn back to Perth.
Cerventes is also the only place with food, fuel and accommodation for visitors going
to the famous Pinnacles Desert of the Nambung National Park (This you have to
pay for park entry).
And so after leaving the tray of strawberries
in a stable place inside the car (well, the front passenger seat is the only
seat not occupied), we started on the drive towards Cerventes. As we drove up
north along the coast, we started to see sand dunes along the way and at one
point after seeing a car and family parked along the road and playing in the
sand dunes, we joined in as well, The sun was actually setting and the
temperature was turning cold. I think it dropped from the warm of 32 degree
when we were strawberry picking to a cold 14 degree Celsius. It was a daddy
and daughter short playtime at the sand dune. After giving my fleece jacket to my
kid, we staggered onto the sand dune. The area was huge and with the high hills
of sands, it was like in some STAR WARS movie scene.
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| Sunset at the sand dune. |
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| At the sand dune at sunset |
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| Kid making a run from the "wind sand" |
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| Walking back to the road where the car is parked |
My kid was almost dressed up like a Jedi walking alone in the sand desert. The wind was blowing strong and we could feel the wind picking up the surface sands and beating it across our legs. There was so much sand blowing that my SLR camera lens screw thread has sands trapped inside. When we were done playing and walking back to the car, the sun has already set and cast a yellow golden skyline with the silhouette of the car on the slope of the highway road. At 730pm, we got ourselves check-in to our 2nd night accommodation, the Cerventes Pinnacle Motel. It was already completely dark arriving at the motel. In terms of room size, it was a far cry from the small Ibis Budget Airport hotel. Memories started coming back from our road trip days staying in motels in New Zealand South Island and our Great Ocean Road trip in Melbourne last year. Our kid love the big room and her own bed to jump onto.
The hotel has its own restaurant but last
order closes at 8pm and we missed it by a few minutes. Luckily there was a
bistro nearby and a quick 3 mins drive and we were there. It closes later
around 9pm and when were there, there was good crowd there. Not too crowded,
just a few Asian families touring like us and some locals gathering for a end
of day drink and chat session. Food was good and maybe again we were hungry
after a full day of driving and activities.
Day 3: Visit to the Pinnacles Desert Discovery, Jurien Bay, Kalbarri
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| Cerventes Pinnacle Motel |
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| Loading up for the day's drive (outside our room unit) |
It was again bright and sunny today.
Breakfast was from what we bought from supermarket the day before. Donuts and
milk for the kid. Some biscuits and strawberries for all of us as well. It was a good night rest here. Minus the
spiders at the bathroom and corners of the ceiling, the place is quite a stay
for families. Today’s highlight is the touristy but must visit Pinnacles Desert
Discovery Park. Usually visitors to Perth will make their way here and U-turn
after visiting this place and focus more on the south of Perth to places like
Busselton, Margaret River and down to Albany.
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| At the Thirtsy Point |
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| Thirsty Point Beach (Cerventes) |
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| Her little sand dune summit |
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| White sandy beach, clear waters |
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| Running along the white sandy beach |
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| Exploring on her own |
Did some research before sleeping time the
night people and decided to head out to the village beaches first. Found the
place called Thirsty Point near the village. A quick few minutes and we were at
the car park by the sea. This is our 1st beach visit for our Perth
road trip. The skies were blue, the water was clear, the sand was fine and white
and it was windy. All of us had a great time just wading along the beach. The
water was cold, chilly but not to the extend of painfully cold. Our 5 year old
daughter found it fascinating comparing to the warm water beaches we have back
home. I think we spend about an hour before before heading out to visit the
highlight
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| Park entrance fee booth. Has a staff manning the booth. Based on per car. |
It was 9:45am and with a short drive of
18mins of 20km from Cerventes village, we reached the Pinnacle Desert Park.
There is a park entrance fee collection booth manned by a staff during the
morning and maybe the evening as well. Some parks operates the busy period and
left unmanned leaving visitors to buy the entrance ticket via the credit card
kiosk, or if all else not working, based on honesty to pay for the fee and drop
it into an enveloped sea box.
The park is a drive through park, suitable
for all ages. You can either stay in the car and enjoy the views or get out and
walk on the grounds of these ancient rock formations sticking out of the desert
floors. There are designated drive directions to follow and the driving path is
usually for the space of one vehicle but at times widen up to a parking area
for visitors to leave their cars to explore. We had our share of exploration,
even playing some hide and seek with our kid by hiding behind those big tall
columns.
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| Big open area of levelled walking space. Suitable for young and old |
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| Playing hide and seek is possible |
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| Wife and kid at the Pinnacle Desert Park |
Weather was good, without a cloud in the
sky and everything up in the sky is blue. The driving route is marked by rocks
placed consciously by the park folks to ensure you don't cross over or knock into
the column rocks. Some sections of the driving path requires the car to slowly
go through them. Just take it slow and everything is fine. There are restrictions
to the size of the vehicle that is allowed into the drive through park. Cars
are fine, camper vans and buses are not allowed, but we managed to see a mini
bus with load of tourists in the minibus transversing through the park. Maybe
they are park of the park touring service. 2WD is fine in the park, no
requirements of 4WD like some national parks that goes really off road and
roads not meant for 2WD sedans or SUV.
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| Walking back to the car.(very warm day) |
We spend about 2 hours exploring and taking
photographs, covering every corner of the park that allows our car to go to.
Around 11:30am, we left the yellow grounds of the desert to the gift shop
within the park. There is a small but interesting museum about the history of
the park and the pioneers that came onto Australia and the obstacles they faced
with the terrain and the aborigines back then. A good place for some
information. The gift shop, has usual is the exit point of the museum. There
are souvenirs, clothing's, drinks and ice-cream; and in this warm weather, an
ice-cream for the kid was a reward for her active participation running around
exploring the dessert with daddy. Took a 20mins ice-cream and coke break
outside the gift shop that has some benches overlooking the sea.
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| Pinnacle Gallery and Gift shop. |
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| Metalwork sculpture at rest area outside the gift shop |
From here, we left the Pinnacles and
started our journey further up north towards Kalbarri, planning to settle our
lunch along the way. After leaving Cerventes, we were back on the Indian Ocean
Road on the scenic highway 60 heading north. The next immediate village is
Jurien Bay, one of the places i was planning to stay for a night for our
road trip but didn't.
Jurien Bay is famous for its lobster and
crayfish, and this is so true that the entrance from the highway 60 into the
village has a gigantic lobster statue placed at the junction to welcome visitors
into the village. Jurien Bay also boasts of its pristine white beaches and
turquoise waters. With such positive characteristics of the place we decided it
was worth to take a detour for lunch there. And so we choose somewhere near the
sea and doing some adhoc google mapping found a cafe that was still opened at
that point in tine (well, you have to check the opening hours of eateries and
shop outside Perth as many close earlier and sometimes don't even operate at
all).
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| Lunch time. |
The place was called Jetty Cafe. It is just
located besides the children playground at the Jurien Bay jetty. The place is a
haven for beach goers. There is a holiday park just next to the cafe and very
close proximity to the jetty and the sea. When we reached the cafe and ordered
our food, while waiting I made a quick tour of the jetty and was shocked at the
clear blue waters around the jetty. Seeing such blue clear waters gave me an
urge to just jump into the waters. There were already some teenagers jumping
off the jetty enjoying themselves in the blue waters below. The water was a
little chilly but the sun was all out working hard to keeping everyone warm. I
had to restrain myself from jumping into the waters as spending time washing
up and continuing on the drive to Kalbari
might seem challenging due to lack of time.
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| At the Juiren Jetty Beach |
So back to the cafe where we enjoyed the
lunch by the sea. It was real warm with no clouds in the skies. We ordered fish
& chips (started the counting already), bacon ham burger, plus a mango
milkshake. I guess the cafe was there to cater to the nearby holiday park and
beach goers. There was constant customers walking in but the food was average.
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| Lotsa work and care in having greenery in this part of the area. |
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| Beach Change Room |
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| Walking on the clean, white sandy beach |
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| Strolling along the beach after lunch |
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| The old abandoned jetty structure |
After our lunch, we took a stroll along the
beach near Jurien Bay Jetty. The sand was clean and pristine, the waves was
great for massaging our feet. And so we pull up our bermudas and waded into the
water. It was fun under a hot sun with blue skies, while our feet were soaking
in chilly waters. Our kid enjoyed the most of this experience playing with the
incoming and outgoing waves. Seeing our daughter having so much fun, we let
ourselves temporally forget about time and just play at the beach until we think
it was time to continue the drive. It was around 2pm that we were back in our
car and continue on the drive up north. A quick stop at the Jurien Bay village
for our first petrol fuel up. We were left with half a tank after our drive
from Perth till there.
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| On the road again. |
It was a non stop drive from Jurien Bay all
the way to Kalbarri, passing through the trendy and modern seaside city of
Geraldton. It has been small coastal villages along the Indian Ocean road,
tranquil a little town with little industrialization. But come Geraldton, it is
like leaving the dry dessert landscape and entering into a city with heavy
industries, port, shopping malls and modern civilization with much commercial
activities. It looked like a place where locals from the region comes here to
work. A place that offer jobs to the locals.
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| A short rest stop |
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| On the way to Kalbarri after Northampton |
It was a drive through only, making a rest
stop at a petrol station to get some bottled water for the next few days. Price
of goods tend to increase as we get further up north into the more arid
landscape. After passing through Geraldton, we continued on the highway 1
towards Northampton and from there we broke away from the north bound highway 1
and took the north west route passing through Sandy Gully towards Gregory and
taking the only right turn at the lower tip of Hutt Lagoon to continue on the
only route that leads all the way into Kalbarri. On this final lap of the route
to Kalbarri, there was literally no other traffic besides us. It was like
travelling for many miles before a single vehicle passes us.
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| Long straight road |
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| A view of the late afternoon sun |
Along the way there was this attraction
called the Pink Lake. But to get a good viewpoint of the lake requires to
detour from our route to Kalbarri and onto Gregory which is a narrow strip of
land that forms the Hutt Lagoon where the Pink Lake is. From the name, the lake gives off a pink hue
when seen from far. The pink hue is created by an algae called Dunaliella
salina.
It was already 5pm when we drove pass the
intersection point that splits the road to Port Gregory and Kalbarri. Not
wanting to reach our hotel too late as these coastal town hotels/motels usually
closed around 7 to 8pm, we skipped the Pink Lake and continued on non-stop to
Kalbarri. The road was long and at times it was a long straight road and with
the sun setting, I couldn't help but to stop the car by the roadside to take
some pictures of a car-less road that joins the brown earth and the blue skies.
Finally around 630pm, we reached the coastal town of Kalbarri. Coming in from
the less travelled route from Northhampton and Port Gregory. Another way into
Kalbarri is to continue on highway 1 from Northampton and only making the left
turn into Ajana and subsequent to Kalbarri. It is a choice between he coastal
scening route versus the inland route passing through Binnu.
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| Approaching Kalbarri from the south |
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| Our stay at Kalbarri |
We checked into out hotel, called the
Kalbarri Edge Resort Hotel. A lovely hotel in Kalbarri which i think is one of
the better exterior looking hotels that looks new and classy. It has an
Egyptian look on the outside, and couple with the desert like trees decorating
the compound, it give a sense of an oasis in a desert. There is ample parking
space, a nice pool for a few families to enjoy and a restaurant of its own
which has quite a good rating from online review forums.
After getting our bags off the car and into
the room, we headed out to the nearby restaurants at the town centre, which is
just a few minutes walk from our hotel. But we drove instead as 1st
day in Kalbarri, didn't know if we were going to settle for our dinner there in
the first place.
Using a “follow the others” assessment, we
joined the bulk of tourists and visitors and went into this hotel cum
restaurant place for dinner. The place is called the Kalbarri Motor Motel. The
frontal space of the established is totally occupied by the restaurant which
sees a good crowd of diners and pub goers. It has a big cafeteria setup and a
bar that is separated by the decor and color of the walls. It is able to
separate out the family with children patrons from the more adult drinking
patrons visiting the place.
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| Sunset at Kalbarri |
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| Dinner time at the Kalbarri Motor Hotel Restaurant |
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| Pizza, think it was Hawailan. |
Surprising the food was good for me. We
ordered pasta and pizza as the 2 mains. The portion was good and enough to feed
the 3 of us. House beer was cheap compared to a coke or sprite soft drink and
so we ordered just a small glass to try it out. This was the 1st
glass of beer that continued on for the rest of our road trip, trying different
local brew at different location. Some of them are available everywhere while
some are specific to the area only.
After dinner, we walked across the road to the playground
area and our daughter just played happily on the swing in the dim light of the
park lamps. Weather was much warmer that night compared to the other nights
that we landed in Perth, as well as Cerventes. There were still some seagulls
working hard at night time waiting for people give them a snack. There were
many parrot like birds flying around the playground resting on the nearby trees
for the night. Kalbarri is famous for these colourful red headed parrots flying
around in the wild. There is also a place called Rainbow Jungle which is a
parrot breeding centre and it is just a short drive from Kalbarri town centre.
It is one of the Kalbarri tourist attraction that has the centre itself with
the bird shows and a maze for those families with children to enjoy.
From the Nature's Window rock formation, hikers who are physically fit and have the time can continue on the rocky path ( Class 4 trail classification) to hike "The Loop". It is a 8km loop hike along the ridges. challenging but impressive. Do prepare oneself adequately during warm summer as there are warning signs all over the place to remind hikers on the need to have enough hydration and preparation if one intends to do the hiker in these desert like terrain. Temperature can reach very high in hot summers and deaths has occurred before ( read from the information board).
Day 4: Exploring Kalbarri: Wahoe Quad Bike, Kalbarri National Park
Weather was cloudy today as forecasted by
the weather stations. Today we had the activities all planned out months ago.
For the morning we signed up for the Wagoe Quad Bike Adventure tour, and for
the afternoon, a visit to the famous Kalbarri National Park to see the rock
formations, esp the Nature’s Window which is an attraction that is mentioned in
almost all website describing Kalbarri.
We had the folks from the Quad Bike team to
pick us up from our hotel at 8:45am in the morning. This is a standard practice
for the customers who signed up for their activities and stayed in Kalbarri. So
our one of the activity guide from Wahoe Quad Bike Adventure came around the
town going to different parts of the town to pick up customers who signed up
for the morning bike activity.
We left out hotel rooms and our car and
walk to the nearby cafe. There wasn’t much choice to choose from as most cafes
and restaurants are not open for the morning crowd ( which is usually very few
and just the locals getting a breakfast on the go). The cafe was called Angies which opens as
early as 7am. We ordered a ham egg croissant and some bread toast. Food was
simple and not bad. The place looked like it has been there for many decades.
It does retain some of the charms of what an 80s cafe will look like and it
feels like going back in time to the past like those cafe in the movies “Back
to The Future”. After we finished our breakfast, there was still time for our
kid to have a short playtime at the same playground by the beach.
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| Wagoe Quad Bike Garage and waiting area |
ON time, our activity guide from Wagoe Quad
Bike came to the main road of our hotel to pick us up with passenger van able
to sit 12 comfortably. We went around town to pick up a few more folks that
signed up the morning ride before heading south of town along the same Indian
Ocean road away from Kalbari. It was about a 20mins drive to a place called
Wagoe on the map, and from the main road, we turn into a dirt track leading
into the farmland near the coast. The
Quad Bike office is actually located just besides the Wagoe Chalets, which also
next to a working farm. I guess the place could be owned and run by the farm
owner. It was a bumpy ride from the main road to the quad bike meeting point
that lasted a short maybe 5mins. We were greeted upon arrival by the staffs and
went into an open shack to do some paperwork and idemitf forms signing. A quick
intro and instructions on how to operate the bikes and once done, helmets on
and we were on the bikes ready to move out. We booked for a quad bike for
myself, while my wife and kid were on a 2 seater buggy.
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| Add moving in a single file. No overtaking and speeding.. |
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| Worked our way up to the sand dunes |
It was a slow start for me as the
manoeuvring seems to conflict against my motorbike riding experience. It felt
weird at first without the ability to see the front wheel movement as i rode on
the bike. Took a while before i got into the hang of it and started to pick up
speed and catching up with the rest of the group. We could only go in a
straight line, playing follow the leader as the leader who was the adventure
guide that picked us up from town, would assess the grounds and pick the route
that will safe for us. We went from the farmland area towards the beach and getting
onto the sand dunes areas, riding up and dune the huge sand dunes and at times
the feeling was like riding in some Arabian desert. Some sections of the ride
we went very steep sand dunes to stop at the top of the dunes to admire the
beauty and the sea next to us. Although it was still drizzling and the skies
were grey out, the fun wasn't dampened at all by the weather.
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| Cooling down time for the bikes after some heavy throttling. |
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| At the beach next rocky waves |
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| Waves smacking across the rocks |
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| Our kid facing the waves. |
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| Our highest viewpoint for the entire quad bike climb. It was a steep climb |
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| On the way back to the farm. |
From the sand dunes, we continued on to the
beach and had a long tea break by the sea with the waves crashing on the rocks
near us. This is the place where their advertisement brochures showed the blue
skies and crashing waves with the quad bike in the picture. We had 2 of the 3
items in their brochures, except the blue skies. The entire ride was about 2.5 hours (
hopefully i got the timing correct) and it was worth the money. Initially out
perception of these activities would be fast and short, but in this case, it
seemed we were stretching our money more for the fun we had.From the tea break
point (after downing some nice chocolates muffins and drinks), we throttled on
along the sandy beach back to Wagoe Chalets which ended the exciting bike trip.
It was just good timing as the rain was starting to get heavier. Back at the
parking shed, everyone was offered a lollipop to end the morning activity. A
grateful thank you to the quad bike folks and off we boarded the mini-bus and
drove back to town.
For lunch, many of the restaurants and cafe
are still closed even for weekends, choices are few but more than adequte to
get a proper meal. We had ours at a place called Gilgai Tavern, which opens for
short periods of the day only. Well, the town is small and there wasn't much
customer around to operate full day.
The weather was still gloomy and light
drizzle at times. Our plan was to visit the Kalbarri National Park in the
afternoon after lunch but the weather didn't seem very encouraging. Still we
took the 40min drive out of Kalbarri. We reached the park entrance gate around
2pm. No staff was around to collect the per car entrance fee. There is a ticket vending machine using
credit card but not wanting to pay for the bank exchange rate, we opted for the
last option of payment as instructed by the sign boards. Take the provided
payment envelope, wrote our car details and payment value, put in the cash and
dropped into the secure box (seemed to be fulled and wasn't collected for some
time) next to the ticketing machine. It was quite a distance drive after
clearing the ticketing station.
About 28km all the way on sealed road to the car park of the Nature's Window attraction. Nature's Window is one of Western Australia's most iconic natural attractions which has a rock formation of a window like a natural painting. From the car park, it is a well path walk for families and children to the Nature Window attraction. Requires some careful footwork near the rock formation. Lotsa flies when we visited during that time of the year. Not sure if it is the same otherwise.
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| View from the Nature's Window car park area. |
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| Well maintained path to the Nature's Window. Just some steps to climb back here. |
About 28km all the way on sealed road to the car park of the Nature's Window attraction. Nature's Window is one of Western Australia's most iconic natural attractions which has a rock formation of a window like a natural painting. From the car park, it is a well path walk for families and children to the Nature Window attraction. Requires some careful footwork near the rock formation. Lotsa flies when we visited during that time of the year. Not sure if it is the same otherwise.
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| Me on the edge |
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| Muchison river running across the Kalbarri National Park, |
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| Just before the Nature Window rock formation (just round the corner) |
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| Left turn and the Nature's Window is there |
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| At the Nature's Window rock formation |
From the Nature's Window rock formation, hikers who are physically fit and have the time can continue on the rocky path ( Class 4 trail classification) to hike "The Loop". It is a 8km loop hike along the ridges. challenging but impressive. Do prepare oneself adequately during warm summer as there are warning signs all over the place to remind hikers on the need to have enough hydration and preparation if one intends to do the hiker in these desert like terrain. Temperature can reach very high in hot summers and deaths has occurred before ( read from the information board).
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| Me and my kid |
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| Walking a little further after the Nature's Window site. |
Although the weather was not good for photo
taking, the absence of the hot weather was a blessing. And with some light
drizzle at times, the place was quite cooling when the wind was blowing. And so
the 3 of us walked down the well maintained path and onto the rock path. The
little one needs a bit of help at certain parts of the path, but other than
that all is considered safe for kids.
As it was afternoon and gloomy, not much of
a crowd there, just a family of two and a short wait and we got to get pictures
to take with the rock window. We walked a little more along The Loop path, a
good pair of hiking boots suggested. We went to the next lookout before turning
back. Didn't intend to do the complete 8km loop hike with our daughter.
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| Z-bend lookout area. A bridge to the Island. |
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| The narrow Z-nend gorge |
Next stop was the Z-bend Lockout in the
same national park. A quick walk of uphill back to the car park. A reprisal
from the files attack once we were back to the car in the air-conditioning
comfort. Although weather was cool, we easily worked out a sweat climbing back
the steps to the car park. Down the down back to the only T-junction, and we
continued straight south to the Z-bend car park. Construction was ongoing and
the car park area was still yellow dirt. We could tell construction was
underway even though no work was done since it was Sunday. Maybe in few months
time, it will be as good and modern as the Nature's Window car park. The Z-bend
lookout is a 1.2km return path. Some downhill walk to a lookout point which is
standalone big rock overlooking the gorge which the Murchison River runs
through. Lotsa hike opportunities if one is come here to do a simple day hike
that grants access to the river.
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| The daring kangaroo. Staring at us in our car |
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| Still waiting for us to drive off. |
It was around 4pm when we started the walk
back to the car park and the drizzle starting to become more of a light rain. We
hastened our pace back to the car park. When the rain was falling, we noticed
there were lesser flies around bugging us.
While driving back to Kalbarri town, it was meant to be an uneventful
drive but while driving out of the national park, we spotted kangaroos standing
by the side of the only road that leads out of the park. One of the kangaroo
seems unafraid of our car and stood there keeping a close watch on us, like
staring at our every move. We parked our
car by the side of the road and exchange stares with the kangaroo and took quite
a number of picture of the animal.
By the time we reached town, the rain
seemed to get heavier. As it was early for dinner so we went to one of the
town's only 2 supermarket to get some ice-cream. It was chilly having ice cream
outside the supermarket at a corner of the supermarket with shelter of course.
Entire supermarket was quite deserted with a few locals coming in to make some
quick purchase and off they went. We managed to just chill around town drove a
little and ending at the same restaurant we had dinner on the first day of
arrival at Kalbarri. Well they offer a good choice of food, serving even Asian
dishes. The rain continued into the dark
and we have to make a dash in the rain to the car for the round the corner
drive back to the hotel.
Day 5: Exploring Kalbarri Coastal Cliffs, Driving up noth to Shark Bay World Heritage Area
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| Weather turning for the better |
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| Walking around the hotel compound |
Today weather was suggested to be good and
so we planned for the morning to visit the Kalbarri Coastal Cliffs. The plan
for the day was to reach Denham, our nights accommodation, and Monkey Mia for
the sunset cruise into Shark Bay. It was a 4 hr drive from Kalbarri to Monkey
Mia and the plan was to leave Kalbarri by noon.
Breakfast was done at the same Angies's
Cafe just minute drive away from our hotel. They are the only ones that opened
from 7am onwards. Knowing that the clouds would clear by 10am, we took our time
to have our morning meal and followed by the always delightful for the kid, the
nearby playground.
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| At the Kalbarri town centre beach |
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| Seagull and many other seagulls |
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| The wild parrots roaming the parks at the Kalbarri town centre |
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| The Kalbarri jetty in the morning |
Our first coastal cliff stop, the Mushroom
Rock. it was 9am when we reached the car park area, a 10 mins drive from town.
The trail to the Mushroom Rock needs some good footwear as the trail are rock
paths, but it does help to make the place looks more natural. It was a gradual
downhill walk towards the coast where the rock is located. From far you can
actually see it. Well it is like a flat rock being perch on another rock column
making it look like a mushroom. You have to go down to the coast all the way to
see its real size. From far, it can be quite small. We didn't go all the way
down, but got distracted to the wide open rock plateau overlooking the sea with
the mushroom rock on our left.
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| At the Mushroom Rock car park |
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| At the Mushroom Rock car park |
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| Walking to the mushroom rock |
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| Mushroom rock in the distant. |
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| The mushroom rock. (maybe we shd go nearer) |
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| Rock formation near the coast of the Mushroom Rock |
We returned to the car park to drive off to the
next attraction, the Island Rock. I would it is a miniature version of the 12
Apostles in Melbourne. This Island Rock is one of the more prominent rock
structure in the Kalbarri Coastal Cliff, and because of that I guess everyone
to the cliffs must make the visit here.
The island rock itself was once a part of the coastal shoreline and over
time due to the erosion by the pounding waves, now stands like an towering rock
surrounded by water giving its name of Island Rock.
Access to this area is wheelchair friendly with a breathtaking view of the Indian ocean and the cliff and the waters below. There is a boardwalk from the Island Rock car park all the way along the cliff to the Natural Bridge car park another short drive away. Walking along the boardwalk gives many opportunities to take pictures of the cliffs and the waters before. We came across a couple that was flying their drones over the island rock and the cliffs videoing the sights and sounds from above.
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| The Island Rock |
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| Zoom out Island Rock |
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| Me on the rocks |
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| The boardwalk |
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| Rest shelter nearer car park of the Natural Bridge |
Access to this area is wheelchair friendly with a breathtaking view of the Indian ocean and the cliff and the waters below. There is a boardwalk from the Island Rock car park all the way along the cliff to the Natural Bridge car park another short drive away. Walking along the boardwalk gives many opportunities to take pictures of the cliffs and the waters before. We came across a couple that was flying their drones over the island rock and the cliffs videoing the sights and sounds from above.
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| The Island Rock from another angle |
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| Near the Natural Bridge after walking to end of boardwalk |
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| The Natural Bridge |
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| The Shellhouse Grandstand |
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| Car park near the Shellhouse Grandstand |
There wasn't much of a crowd as we were the
only 2 cars in the car park and again we had almost the entire place to
ourselves. We walked the 1.2 km boardwalk from Island Rock and slowly to the
Natural Bridge lookout point. The lookout was a great place to spot dolphins
and whales if it is in season. For us we know that it was not whale watching
season as all the whale watch tours were unavailable. From here we made another
nearby stop at the Shellhouse Grandstand. The viewing platform is just a few
steps from the car park. A quick view of the majestic cliffs and we were back
into our car to the next stop, The Red Bluff.
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| At the Red Bluff |
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| Pathway to the Red Bluff viewpoint |
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| Approaching the end of the walkway to the viewpoint (we are on the Red Bluff) |
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| End of walkway to the view point (Red Bluf beach below us) |
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| Kid playing on the low "wall" |
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| Walking back to the car park, about maybe 400m. |
The Red Bluff is much closer to town and we
were heading back towards down. Following the brown road signage for tourist
attraction, we turn off the main road onto the car park road to the lookout
area. It was a 1 km return trail with a little gradient to overcome. It was
sunny and windy by then and the coastline was just a beautiful blend of the
blue skies and the sea below. Red Bluff has the highest elevation in the whole
of the coastal area, and from the lookout we could the Kalbarri beach below us.
Seeing some beach goers and the proximity of their cars park close to sea, it
convinced me to make another quick stop out of our time tight driving schedule
today for some beach fun for the kid.
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| Playing at the beach again |
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| At the Kalbarri beach, background is the Red Bluff. |
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| Car park is actually on the big red rock itself. |
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| Kalbarri Beach (with Red Bluff in background) |
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| Toilet break before the long drive ahead |
After some photo shots, we walked back to
the car park and drive down to the Red Bluff Beach. The car park area is
actually on the red rock itself. Now we were looking from below the lookout
point of the Red Bluff. The flat rock area where we parked our car was red in
colour. Waves were thrashing at the edges giving it a sense of closeness to
nature for a car park. We spend about 15 mins on the beach. The waves was
good, sand was clean and white. A mere 15 mins was enough to get our kid into
high spirits, and a little wet on the pants.
We drove into town to fuel up the car for
the long drive ahead, 3 hr 50 mins on google map. Bought some Indian cuisine food
from a shop sharing the same building with a petrol station. Waited a while for
the food to get ready. The tempo here is slower compared to cities and the
kitchen of the restaurant seemed to be more homely. And so we waited about
30 mins for the food to get ready and after which we rushed off onto the road
that runs east, passing the Kabarri National Park and onto the north bound
highway state 1.
As we drove further northwards, farmlands
started to disappear and we were welcomed by a arid desert landscape. Halfway
along this long North West Highway 1, it started to rain and got real heavy at
times. The trenches on the sides of the road were flooding at parts along the
highway. It was on and off shower until we reach the Billabong roadhouse which
stopped but the skies were still dark and cloudy. These roadhouses offer fuel, food and
accommodation for the long distance drivers in need of sleep and fuel up.
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| Entrance into the Shark Bay World Heritage Area |
We continued along this long stretch of the
road until we finally reach the T-intersection with a big wall saying
"Shark Bay World Heritage Area". There is a roadhouse at this
junction called the Overlander Roadhouse. It has a good range of supplies and
on the go beverage with rows of ice chilled beverages tempting anyone who needs
to quench their thirst from the hot desert driving.
We made a left turn into the shark bay
road, leaving the dark clouds behind us as we headed west away from the
mainland. We were heading to the only
town in Shark Bay, a place called Denham. The road into Denham was long and
straight, at time hilly when from far you can see the road runs like a roller
coaster. This is the only sealed road on this land area leading deep further
north west into Denham. On map, Denham is like a a narrow piece of land joined
to the mainland by a narrow strip of land which is the Shell Beach Conservation
Area. This is where the must visit Shell beach attractions. As we were rushing
for our sunset cruise at Monkey Mia, it was a non stop all the way drive to
Denham to check-in to our hotel first.
Our first sight of approaching the town was
the big water tank structure that guarded the entrance into the town of
Denham. Our 2 days of accommodation at
Denham is the Oceanside Village, a self-contained accommodation just located
near the beach. As it would be quite late after we finished the sunset cruise,
we wanted to avoid any inconvenience to the owner and so check-in and got our
keys to the unit first before proceeding to Monkey Mia. We collected the keys to our beachfront villa
unit around 430pm and then drove to Monkey Mia which was another 24km drive.
We reached Monkey Mia just before 5pm, with a buffer time of 15 mins on boarding
of thr boat. The skies were still cloudy and the huge chunk of dark clouds
seems to be drifting over from the mainland.
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| The Aristocat 2. Our evening cruise boat |
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| Beach front at Monkey Mia |
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| Looking out into the Shark Bay |
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| Evening sun still blocked by the clouds |
The cruise boat came to the jetty as stated
5:15pm and we were greeted by the captain of the cruise boat and his assistant.
This is a complimentary sunset cruise for us as we booked the next morning
Marine Life Cruise. After some safety briefing, we sailed into Shark Bay
leaving the jetty. The waters were calm and very much greyed out due to the
gloomy weather. We sailed far out into the bay in search of any sea animals
like dolphins or dugongs or sea turtle.
The boat we were sailing is the Aristocrat 2. An catamaran style boat
with a wide front area for guests to enjoy the front view. It also has a good
cabin area in case weather gets bad and you have a shelter over your head.
Monkey Mia area has another cruise operator which has a smaller boat with no
cabin, but went for maintenance for the days we wanted to take the cruise out
to sea. The sky above us was still
overcast with thick clouds but the far west seemed to open up and the sun would
likely be able to shine though once it starts is descend.
Truly enough, as we
sailed closer to sunset, the sun did go below the thick clouds and we were all
rewarded with a stunning golden yellow sunset. We had quite a long time
enjoying the sunset as the cruise made it way slowly back to the Monkey Mia
Jetty. As we are on the eastern side of the land mass, we couldn't see the final
moments that the sun sets into the horizon. Only those who are in the town of
Denham would see a better sunset. Surprising, it was a long cruise totalling
2hrs out at sea. It was really worth the money for such a long ride. It was
730pm when we docked at the jetty. The captain of the cruise thanked all of us
for joining them on the sunset cruise and advised us to drive safely for those
heading back to Denham town. There is always the risk of animals like Emu and
kangaroos straying onto the road and knocking into one of them can prove
dangerous for the people in the car.
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| Evening sun gradually breaking though the thick clouds |
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| Startlight of the evening sun |
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| A small boat passing across the reflected sun rays |
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| Add caption |
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| Final moment before the sun sets below the horizon |
It was a total different experience driving
in the night when the only light is your car's headlamps. and the eyes of the
driver keeping a constant lookout for unexpected animals running across the
road. Luckily it was an uneventful drive back to town. Denham was a small
little town and the town centre is served by a single main road running a lot the beach. Not much choice of eateries and we just go for anything that is
opened. We were caught by the lights of one of the hotel and the number of cars
that were park there. This is Shark Bay Hotel, which has a restaurant cum pub
that was still opened. I was surprised by
the friendly young chap serving us, wearing a smile even though it is
"late" into the evening approaching their closing time. The food was not bad for a place that we
considered quite remote. And they served quite a variety of draft beer as
well.
We were hungry after a long day drive and
activities and heading back to our villa was something to look forward to at
the end of the day. The temperature was cold, guessing maybe 18 degree and the
winding was howling. As we were trying to figure out how to unlock the sliding
door to our beachfront villa unit, we could hear the sound of the lashing waves
on the beach behind us. Out unit was a
big unit with 1 king size bed and 2 single beds, comes with a big kitchen area
with sofa set and a Foxnet TV. The wind
was strong to cause some creaking sound of the roof and at times i wonder will
they hold. They did of course and after washing up and some unpacking, all of
us went to a deep sleep, ready for the next day of fun in shark bay.
Day 6: Exploring Around Shark Bay, Cruise at Monkey Mia.
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| Morning at Denham, Better weather today |
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| View of the seaview units of our motel |
After a night of howling wind, we were
greeted by good weather in the morning. I could see the clouds breaking up
revealing streaks of blue skies. While the folks were still sleeping, i braved
the cold morning wind to cross the road onto the beach. There was no one in
sight and only occasional passing by of the morning dump truck. Today's activity was to visit Monkey Mia
again for the Dolphin feeding experience, followed by our prebooked Marine Life
Cruise into Shark Bay to look for sea animals. And for the afternoon to visit
the nearby attractions of Shark Bay. As our daughter loved animals and birds,
seagulls became her friend during our road trip. Seagulls were seen flying over
our villa unit and off she went to do some feeding with some biscuits while we
prepared our stuff for today activity.
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| Sunny day at Monkey Mia Beach |
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| Monkey Mia resort area |
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| Greenery is such a rare sight here at Shark bay |
Dolphin feeding starts 7:45am at the shores of
Monkey Mia. We drove off at 720am and reach Monkey Mia around 7:40am. There was
already a crowd there, some who stayed at the RAC holiday resort at Monkey Mia
itself, and some who drove in from Denham like us to join the dolphin
experience activity. Entry into Monkey Mia requires an entry fee based on
headcount and not based on the car like some national park. For those coming into Monkey Mia just for the
cruise did not pay for the entry fee as informed by the cruise operator.
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| Here comes the dolphines |
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| Watching the dolphins from the shore |
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| Made eye contact with the dolphin |
With the rest of crowd, we waited until the
park volunteers made the opening welcome message and started to invite visitors
to slowly make their way onto the beach area. These dolphins are accustomed to
the daily feeding routine and would swim in close to the shallow waters waiting
to be fed. The park volunteers shared much information on these dolphins, their
lifestyle, behaviours and all sorts of information on the dolphins living in the
shark bay area. After quite a comprehensive run though, visitors were picked
by the park volunteers to come into the water to feed the dolphins. The trick
to get selected is to listen carefully to what the volunteers ask for. They have
some guidelines to follow and so even if you have very eager looking children
wanting to feed the dolphins, they wouldn't be picked. (if you want to increase
your chances, you can drop me a private email if you like your children to get
selected). Don't really agree the way it is done, but these are their
guidelines to filter out the selection process. The dolphins were made not to
over reliant on human feeding and so only allow a few feeding session up to
noon time. For the rest of the day, the dolphins would know that they need to
hunt their own food out in the bay.
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| Beach is filled with shells at Monkey Mia beach |
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| The little chalet units at the small Monkey Mia resort area |
After the dolphins feeding experience, we
waited near the jetty for our morning cruise at 10:30am. The skies were clearing
up and clouds were disappearing and when our cruise boat was ready to depart,
the weather was at all time best for the morning cruise.
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| Our morning cruise docked at the jetty |
The same captain with his assistant ran
through their safety briefing with everyone and off we went sailing into the
wide open shark bay. Our daughter went
straight for the front deck netting and jump into it, enjoying every minute of
ride. At times treating the netting like some playground climbing out and climb
back down to the netting.
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| Same boat, different lighting |
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| View of Monkey Mia Bay from the cruise boat |
We sailed again far into the Shark Bay, so
far that i think i got reception for my hand phone coming from the mainland,
maybe Carvarnon. I was on Vodaphone service which is not available in Denham
and Monkey Mia area. Our first animal
encounter was the sea turtles, and then followed by the dugongs and finally
dolphins. The dolphins in shark bay are all recorded and they are the ones that
were part of the morning feed herd at Monkey Mia. Shark Bay itself in many
parts are actually quite shallow. the different shades that we can see from the
cruise shows the different in depth. There were a lot of sea grass and sometimes
we saw rocks beneath the boat. The sea turtles and the dugongs would swim
around these sea grasses.
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| Heading out into the open waters of Shark bay |
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| Hunting for marine animals through his binoculars |
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| Spotted 2 dolphins |
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| Looking out for sea animals |
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| Dugongs |
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| The sail and the sky. Something more blue |
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| More vivid colors |
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| Back at the jetty of Monkey Mia |
It was a great day for sailing into the
open bay. The waves were calm and the sun was bright with minimum clouds in the
sky. Sun block and a hat is a must if one doesn't want to get his or her skin
burn and that include the hair scalp. I think we sailed for a good 2.5 hrs when
we approached the Monkey Mia jetty. On the way back as we approached the jetty,
we spotted a manta ray in the waters near the beach. Shark bay is full of sea
animals.
Back at Monkey Mia, we went straight to our
car and began our slow drive back to town for lunch. It was 1:50pm when we
reached the town centre. We saw that the bakery cafe was opened and immediately
want to quickly settle our lunch. The bakery was run by a new owner ( they call
it new management) offering pastries as well as menu ordered hot food. We
ordered some croissants, pastries and fruit juice for lunch. There was a pizza
place along the same long building but they only opens for a few days over the
weekend only. For tourists like us, seeing a cafe or restaurant that is opened
for business is a blessing to us.
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| The town's only bakery (nice food) |
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| Some tables outside the bakery for the alfreco dining |
The food at this sole bakery was good and
price was reasonable. Sometimes you think that food out here in this remote
place will be expensive, but it didn't. There is conscious within these
town folks here that helps to improve the reputation of the town and improve its
economy.
After a wonderful lunch meal, it is to do a
quick tour of the other attractions of Shark Bay that a 2 wheel car could go.
Many places around Denham, esp the Peron national park would requires a 4x4
vehicle. So we searched around google map and notice this place worth a visit,
Eagle Bluff, a 20min drive of 24km to a lookout point.
We left town going on the same highway that
we arrived into Denham. There were only a few cars and some trucks on the road
and it was a quiet drive on the road to the Eagle Bluff lookout. At the
signboard that points to the lookout to our right, we turned into a dirt track
and looking at the condition, it is meant for 2 wheel cars as well. It is dirt track all the way to the look out
area, at certain parts of the route requires a climb. From far it looked steep
but as we got closer it was quite gradual. Since it was unsealed road, going
slow is one way of preventing skidding. The unsealed road is rocky but not soft
sandy to be stuck in. The ground condition was dry and solid so getting up to
the top of the lookout wasn't a problem.
We drove about maybe 10 mins until we reach the car park area.
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| Eagle Bluff lookout |
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| Eagle Bluff Lookout |
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| A short boardwalk |
The viewing was amazing up there. the wind
was blowing strongly at the top with winds being pushed up by the steep side of
the land. There is a nice, new boardwalk that runs along the steep hill above
the waters below. It is not a cliff and actually just a steep rocky slope all
the way down to the sea. From this lookout, we could see Eagle island just like
a stone throw away. (it further than a stone throw). The island is just a mere
8m above sea level and is a nest for birds around shark bay. From the elevated
viewpoint, we could see the clear turquoise bay below. We tried to spot sharks,
mantra rays and turtles with out naked eyes, but guess would need binoculars to
do that. We stayed until 3:30pm before heading back to the car park and off to
our next attraction.
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| Restaurant's viewing desk at the Ocean Aquarium |
We read about a nearby attraction which is
the Ocean park aquarium that is closer to town and so made a short drive there
to have a look. it is a small aquarium from the looks of it. We didn't have much
information from the Internet to know how it looks like what it have. Upon
reaching the place, we could tell it is a small business run aquarium, helping
to boost up the tourism in Shark bay. It was about 4pm and they closed in an
hours time at 5pm. So decided to give it a miss. There is a nice beautiful
restaurant overlooking the sea below. It is a relaxing place to have lunch and
tea break. They have a working kitchen for hot food and sandwiches and
pastries, ice-creams and liquor that you can ordered and enjoy it over the
stunning view.
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| Walking along the town centre beach front |
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| A pirate hideout playground near town centre |
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| Town centre beach front park |
We drove back to town, parked our car back
at the villa unit, and enjoyed a stroll down the only main street of Denham
(Knights Terrace). Along the main street, they have a fairly new ( to me)
playground of a pirate ship that i presumed could capture the hearts of many
children, They could like the ship taking the wooden planks, stair-craft logs up to the higher level
platform. Of course swings are children's best friend at a playground. As it
was still early for dinner, we decided to head back to our rooms, changed into
swim wear and have some beach fun just in front of our villa unit. The water was
warm even though the wind was blowing strong. With the sun and the warm sea
water, the wind doesn't have much of an effect once we stayed submerged in the
water. My daughter and I were all into the water enjoying the warm water of the
bay. Waves were pushing inwards still and the shore was shallow. I was walking
many metres away from the shoreline and looked deep but just standing up and i
was above the water. We played in the
water until 6pm before going back to our unit for a quick wash up for dinner.
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| The Old Pearler restaurant |
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| Sunseting at Denham |
We walked in the sunset rays to a
restaurant by the main road. It is called "The Old Pearler". This
restaurant from the outside already is unique in its own ways. It is a stone
cottage with big chunks of brick made from barnacles or similar look alike. The
inside of the restaurant is small, maybe around
8 tables only. I guess usually reservations need to be made but for us
since it looks like non peak, we just walked in and immediate have a nice table
just next to the entrance. From there i could see the setting sun from inside.
Price is on the higher side as the service here is very much restaurant grade
and all food is freshly cooked and no fried stuffs. After placing our orders, I
made my way back onto the streets to take pictures of the setting sun. It was
cold out there as the sun was setting. Temperature was dipping slowly,
accelerated by the strong evening winds.
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| Sunset at Denham |
Once the sun set into the horizon, food was
already served when i went back to the restaurant. The food was fresh and
delicious. We ordered fish that was local to shark bay, plus some pasta as
staples for the family. It was a cold cold walk back to our unit with the
strong cold night wind blowing all over us. Street lamps were already lit and
the roads were empty of cars. Everyone seemed to have gone to bed in this quite
coastal village. It was back to packing up for the next day when we reached our
villa unit. The next day we would be starting our return drive down south back
towards Perth, making a rest stop at Geraldton.
Around 4pm, we reached the Busselton Jetty. A must visit place if visiting south of Perth. Busselton jetty is a famous tourist attraction boosting of itself as the longest timber piled jetty in the south hemisphere. running a total length of 1.841km into the open Indian Ocean.
In total we spend about an hour exploring the caves and all the
chambers. There were quite a number of stairs to climb and so the place may not
be suitable for senior that has difficulty in climbing stairs. Other that that,
all is family friendly and safe for the children. We exited the cave and were
back at the gift shop rewarding ourselves with ice-cream from the gift shop.
When we reached the wooden bridge of the canal rocks, the weather although cloudy and drizzle at times, the waves were gentle and slow moving. Not much of any surfs or lashing. And so it was very safe to bring our kid to cross the wooden bridge to the other side of the rocks and did some simple climbing to area where the seawater gently washed up. The rocks were small and easy to climb. We could see other folks crossing some shallow waters and climbing onto one side of the canal rocks. Well the canal is formed by 2 parallel rock formation with water flowing between them and if you check on google map with satellite view, you could see the distinct parallel rocks.
Day 7: Returning South , Geraldton
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| Morning sun at Denham |
It was great weather for the day as well.
Skies were blue and the sun was up on time to warm the little coastal town up.
It was only 6am in the morning but the entire town was already basking in the
warm morning sunlight. I took a quick stroll to quiet beach, there were no
traffic on the road that separated our villa unit and the beach. It was quite
calming and relaxing knowing that the entire beach and the waves were all for
myself to enjoy. Seldom able to get such a setting by the beach at 6am and the
sun was already up.
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| Exploring the resort ground |
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| Elevated units with a sea view |
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| Entrance to the reception for check-ins |
I did explore around the accommodation
compound walking along the paved path. There are a number of units, all
separated from each other giving the extra privacy. The setting was very much a
tropical mood and with the blues skies and the color of the exterior of the
individual small buildings, somehow is just all blended in well.
We packed our bags for the long day drive
down south headings towards Perth, but planned on a rest stop at Geraldton. It
is possible to drive all the way back to Perth but that will take about 8 to
10hours; and just didn't make safety sense and besides we had some areas that
we would like to visit. So once all bags were packed and loaded onto the car,
there was a sense of unwillingness to leave immediately, and so our daughter
started her last feeding to the 2 seagulls that had been visiting us during our
stay at Denham. It looked like the same old seagulls, but well, to me, all
seagulls looked alike.
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| main street of Denham town |
1st to do list for the day, breakfast. The
1st thought to mind was the same bakery shop that we had our lunch the day
before. It was sure to be opened and so with a bags loaded car, we took the
short drive along the same Knights Terrance to the Bakery Shop just few
hundred meters down the road. We ordered a ham croissant, with some toast, and
some orange juice to go along with it. It was a quick bite and after which we
decided to explore around the town by visiting the Little Lagoon as our 1st
stop in town. Denham being a dry arid coastal town, seeing a big lagoon is
quite a surprise for me. I was constantly thinking where Denham gets its water
supply and this big lagoon with a name that says "Little Lagoon",
seemed to be the answer to my question. But i couldn't confirm as i read
something about the town recycling some used water and such. During our stay at
Denham, we drank all our water from the bottles we purchased from supermarkets,
other than those that was served in restaurants and cafe. Not sure if we could
drink or boil water from the tap, and we didn't had the chance to know.
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| Driving down the path to the Little Lagoon near Denham |
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| At the Little Lagoon car park |
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| Shores of the Little Lagoon |
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| Kiddo playing with water and sand |
From the town centre, we drove onto the
same sealed road that leads to Monkey Mia, but stopped short just before the
airport and drove into this big blue lagoon. The water was clear and the sand
was clean as well. The car park area was good for 2 wheel cars ( unlikely for
trailers and camper vans), with tracks that runs on the circumference of the
lagoon that requires a 4 wheel drive vehicle. We could see in the near
distance a few trucks park at the other side of the lagoon. The waster was cool and so we had some water
play at the shores with our kid. There was a bio toilet there but no water
supply for extra clean up.
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| On the scenic route with Little Lagoon in the near distant |
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| On the short scenic route around Denham |
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| The only shelter along the scenic route drive. Great view of the bay |
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| View from the shelter hut |
We left the lagoon and drove on the
"scenic route" road that loop around the town of Denham, bringing us
to an elevated look out point on the Stella Rowley Drive road. It seemed to be
a new sealed road to support future expansion of the town itself. From there we
could see the stretches of the shoreline and the different colour shades of the
sea.
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| At the end of the Knights Terrace road (end of town) |
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| A morning cruise boat going out to see. Path has been man-made dug deeper to allow bigger boats to enter to the bay. |
It was 10am and a final toilet break at one
of the public toilets along Knights Terrace ended our last stop at Denham. The
entire experience we had in last 2 days was that Denham is unique. A coastal
town in water scare landscape and able to grow slowly over the years to what it
has now. There was a mix of new and old buildings, but the town's
infrastructure seemed to be recent and well maintained. Walking or driving
along Knights Terrace gave me the impression of roads just newly laid. Public
amenities like public toilets, playground and garbage management are all
working like clockwork. And there is this constant construction work on the
beach and the facilities near the beach front. Somehow this little town which
marked our most northward road trip a special place.
And so a final fuel up at the Denham IGA-Express
supermarket, we started the long drive towards the mainland and along the way
stop at the famous Shell Beach & the Hamelin Pool Stramatolites. Shell
Beach is just 35mins drive away at a distance of about 47km. This is a must
stop place to admire the wonders of nature if one is in Shark Bay area.
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| Straight road leaving from Denham. |
The beach got its name of "Shell
Beach" is obvious as the beach is made up of millions and millions of white
shells from some cockle species. The depth of the beach with these shells was
said to be around 7 to 10meters and with a beach line stretching 70km. The
beach was show cased in national geographic and named one of the top few
beaches in the world. It was said that before Shark Bay became a World Heritage
Site, the shells were used as building materials in the Shark Bay town of
Denham.
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| At Shell Beach car park |
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| At Shell Beach |
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| Walking towards the sea |
There is a big car park area at Shell Beach,
although dirt track but good enough for 2 wheel cars to drive in. From the
car park, it was a short walk to the beach and you have to go over a few small
sand humps before reaching the shoreline. The weather was best for photo taking,
zero clouds in the sky and crystal clear water washing gently on the shell
white beach. It was said that the
salinity of the water is at a very high content and aid swimmers in staying
afloat.
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| Far but still shallow in the waters of Shell Beach |
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| Looking back at the beach while treading far away from the shore. |
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| We are in a short discussion |
When we were at the beach, not sure if it
was low tide, but we could walk a hundred meters away from the shoreline and
the water depth was like about ankle deep only. The water was warm under the
hot sun and the wind was blowing strongly across the surface of the water
creating wavy effect. There was guy on the beach doing some kite surfing on the
shallow waters of Shell Beach.
We could easily count the number of people
on the beach, maybe as it was off peak. For those intending to visit Shell
Beach, do bring along food and water if you intend to stay there for hours. The
landscape is pure sands of shells and the sea, with no shade, no trees or
bushes, and no commercialization. We saw beach goers bring their own beach
chairs, umbrellas and anything that makes them feel comfortable.
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| Shells and shells and all shells that make up the beach |
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| Walking back to the car park |
We spend about 30mins playing on the beach
and left the place around 11:30am. We continued on the only sealed road that
lead into the north western highway route 1; and just before we joined the
highway 1, we made a short detour into the Hamelin Pool Stromatolites.
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| Boardwalk into the rocks area to see the Stramatolites |
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| All the Stramatolites. |
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| Triangular shaped boardwalk at the Hamelin Pool |
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| Back to the car park. Need some air con she says |
From the
car park, it was a short walk to the boardwalk area which runs like a triangle
that extends into the sea for visitors to look at the strange looking rocks
like gigantic tooth rocks embedded into the beach floor. From the informational
signboard, it was mentioned that Shark Bay become a World Heritage Site is due
to the this Hamelin Pool. We spent only a short 15mins walking around and
taking pictures.
We hit the road again after visited the
Hamelin Pool. It was a short drive from
here to reach the wide T-junction that shows where each side of the road leads
to. At this junction, there are 2 big walls with the words of "Shark Bay
World Heritage Area" guarding the road that leads into Shark Bay. Quite a
grand entrance on a junction out of nowhere in a desert landscape.
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| At the major T-junction for the entrance into Shark Bay Area |
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| At the T-junction of the North-South highwat |
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| Overland Roadhouse |
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| Simple lunch from the petrol station take out. |
We took the right turn when approaching
from Denham that points to Geraldton & Northampton. A short few hundred
meters away from the junction stood the Overlander Roadhouse which provides
basic accommodation and a petrol station with a well stocked supplies of drinks,
snacks and hot food on the go. It was already 2pm and kind of hungry. We
stopped there to get some food, fuel up the tank and rest for quite a while to
cool down the engine and rest myself to prepare for the long drive south. We
ordered some fries and pasta salad and ate it in the air conditioned comfort of
the car. Our end of accommodation was Geraldton and it would take us another 3hr
plus to get there non stop.
From the Overlander Roadhouse, we began the
south bound drive. It was a long and light traffic road and fatigue could easily
kick in. We took a few rest stops at the designated rest area which provides
ample parking space, toilet facilities and some even BBQ facilities. It was a drive and rest stops along the way
until we reach the small town of Northampton where we took a longer break with
a quick trip to the supermarket to get some sugary beverage to keep driving
momentum going. Northampton is the nearest town to the north of the city of
Geraldton.
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| Stretch break at Binnu while heading south to Geraldton |
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| From desert to greenery at the town of Northampton |
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| Town garden where kids were having some fun running around |
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| Beverage break with a nice cold mango juice for the driver |
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| Arrived at Geraldton after a long day's drive from Shark Bay |
From Northampton at 5pm, we reached our hotel, the Wintersun Hotel
at Geraldton. After we check-in and moved in our bags, we just walked to the
nearby take-outs to settle our dinner. It was a Chinese restaurant take-out
where we dine at the shop itself. After days of fish & chips, pastas, it was
quite refreshing to go for more closer to home of Asian fried rice and noodle.
After dinner, we ended the day by driving out to the Coles supermarket to stock
up on chocolates to bring back for friends and family.
Day 8: Geraldton, Fremantle
Today's driving time was about 4 hrs
excluding rest stops and meals breaks from Geraldton to Fremantle. Breakfast
was included for our hotel stay at the Wintersun Hotel, a simple continental
breakfast of toasts, cereals, juices and fruits. The restaurant area was big
for dinner events but for that morning, it was just us and a few families there
enjoying the breakfast.
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| Rubik cube theme toilets |
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| Lifeguard tower |
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| At the Foreshore Drive Beach |
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| Seagulls feeding time |
After breakfast, we decided to do a quick
tour around the city of Geraldton and maybe visit some of the beaches nearby.
We drove off at 8am and headed towards the city centre near the marina at
Foreshore Drive and were actually just touring around in our car when spotted
an interesting structure by the beach. It is actually a toilet but designed in
a Rubik Cube. The area has a small garden by the beach and our daughter loves
to feed the seagulls and so we hanged around the area for some time to enjoy the
view there. There is a small stretch of the beach with a floating platform that
we saw a couple going for a morning swimming.
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| At Pages Beach |
Did a quick search on google map based on
our location and the nearest beach, we drove about another 5mins to Pages Beach.
The beach itself is like a sheltered bay
with a crescent shape shoreline. The waters in the near distant is turquoise and
deeper blue further out. One thing that
is not so natural to the beach is the nearby light industry factories that is
closed to the beach. There is some horse riding area near the beach. At the
beach we saw a people riding their horses into the waters where there was a
sign saying no horse riding in the waters. A quick photo shooting stop and we
headed to the next beach on map.
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| Separation Point Lookout area |
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| Add caption |
We drove a place called the Separation
Lookout Point. A elevated lookout area with a long stretch of the beach below
us. There are tracks for 4WD vehicle to
drive down to the beach just next to the Batavia Coast Maritime Institute
building. The beach seemed to be a good
place for sunset watching. From the lookout point , we could see the the
crystal clear shallow waters near the shore, and rocks further away forming
some wave dampening barrier, making the shallow waters family safe for
children.
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| At the Tarcoola Beach |
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| Tarcoola Beach |
Out of the morning beach hunting, i think
the next beach was the best among those we explored in Geraldton, the Tarcoola
Beach. We parked our car by the roadside of Willcock Drive, and from made a
steep sand dune descend using the designated path onto the long white sandy
beach. Wind was strong, waves were
strong, the beach so was wide and we felt to open and free. Our daughter was so
excited and started playing with incoming waves by running up and down the
sandy beach.
Originally we planned for our night
accommodation at Geraldton in this vicinity of Tarcoola Beach. There are quite a
number of accommodations in the area. There is the African Reef Resort just down
the end of the road of Willcock Drive, read about its review on unblock sunset
from the resort. Maybe a good place to stay if we happen to come back to
Geraldton again.
We fuelled up the car at a nearby petrol
station ( realized that the local petrol station brands have fuel that are much
cheaper than the bigger boys like Shell, Caltex, BP) called Puma and drove onto
the Brand Highway 1 that runs south towards Perth. Today's end of day
destination was Fremantle which is easily another 4 hours.
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| Approaching the Wind Farm |
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| Exhibit show one vane of the wind mill |
As we drove southward, we saw tourist
signboard pointing to a Wind Farm tourist site. Thinking it wasn't that much of
a detour and so we turned out of the highway. The directional signs took out
into a quite small town called Walkaway. We entered into the small town that
has only a few stores along the main road and it was like going back into the
60s. We passed a quaint elementary schools landscaped with enough greenery to
give the impression we are not in a dry arid land. It took us 30mins before we arrived at the Alinta
Wind Farm site. It has a well maintained and clean toilet with water supply, a
big car park area even it the place is just beside the main road. The location is deep in the farmlands and most
of the time, the road was free of traffic.
This is the first time we came so close to
seeing the wind machine blade. The size was enormous just standing next to it.
Many times we see is from afar and mounted at the top of the wind mill, it
looked much smaller. Other than the wind mill that is just near to the car park,
there were many wind mills scattered along the hill tops that overlook the
lower lands below. From here, the only way back to Highway 1 was to go back the
same route via Walkaway town and back onto the highway. It was quite different
driving among the farmlands than the coast which pretty much was most of the route
we took for our road trip.
Once we back on the highway, we continued
south towards Perth. We didn't decide on where to go lunch and just based on
time and where we were. It was about lunch time around 12 noon and we thought
of just driving into Dongara since we haven't been there. From Google map we
found this isolated cafe by the beach, known as the Seaspray Cafe. From some
reviews, it was quire highly recommended. We loved the cafe by the beach
concept and would like to have a meal overlooking the sea. The cafe is not within the town centre but
just besides the Seaspray Beach Holiday Park at the end of the main road from
town. The holiday park looked new and well maintenance and the beach is like
just a few steps away. A good place for our next trip should we come by the
part of the area.
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| Seaspray Cafe |
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| Inside the Seaspray cafe. Cosy and clean |
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| Our Lunch |
We parked our car just besides the cafe. It
is a small cafe with maybe say 8 tables, and when we were there, there was only
a table of 4 enjoying their light meal. The cafe has a homely beach decor and
with the sea breeze blowing in, the whole place gives an unique tropical but
cooling atmosphere inside the cafe. We
ordered their classic fish and chips and a buchetta toast with smoked salmon.
I could say this place was the best fish and chip we had during our road trip
up and down the Indian Ocean Road drive.
And with the beach so near us, it was play time again at the beach after
our meal. The beach was clean and quite, Long stretches of white sand and the
water is clean without any seaweeds or see grass like Shark Bay. Water is chilly
along the western coast shoreline, unlike the warm water of shallow Shark Bay.
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| Seaspray Beach |
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| At the beach again |
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| Braving the waves |
After about 30 mins of play time at the
beach, back to the car we went and bid farewell to this beautiful beach. Not
saying that this is the best beach, but is the feeling that every beach gives,
this is a not to be missed beach and if possible would love to stay a night
here.
From Dongara, it was a drive all the way to
Fremantle. Took a few rest stops to stretch the legs and refresh the
concentration level for the raining driving.
There is a point at a road junction where both ways lead to Perth and
following Google Map, we took the shorted route which is the Indian Ocean Road
on highway 60. It passes by Jurien Bay and Cerventes and down south enter Perth
suburbs. We followed the GPS direction getting onto the multi lane highway that
runs along underpass and bridges. Suddenly the feeling of city life came back
to us when we were moving very slowly in the traffic jam on a 4 lane highway
that leads into the city centre of Perth.
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| Gallery Hotel near Fremantle (Bibra Lake) |
We reached our motel, the Gallery Hotel
near Bibra lake. This is a good base to visit Fremantle which is just 7 mins
drive from the hotel. Finding hotels in Fremantle that offers free parking is
very difficult. Hotels were much costlier than those away from it naturally.
This Gallery Hotel that we stayed is new, modern and utmost important, clean.
Lotsa ample parking space and rooms and their bathroom were spacious. The
modern deco makes it one of the better modern accommodations we had.
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| Ferris wheel at Fremantle pier |
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| The Kailis (our dinner place) |
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| At the Fremantle pier restaurant area. |
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| Dinner is served |
It was
6:30pm after we checked and straight away we drove to the Fremantle and had
dinner at one of the restaurant at the Fremantle pier. We parked at a
multi-storey secured parking at Collie Street and from there a short walk
across Freo Park, passed the Sky Ride Ferris Wheel and onto the Esplanade. There were many restaurants along this stretch
of the Esplanade and we ended up ordering seafood at the Kailis Fish Market
Cafe. Well to speak honestly, the food was very average, and quality could be
better. We ordered some grilled fish and fried calamari and after a few bites
started to compare with the better food we had at Seaspray Cafe at Dongara.
This Fremantle Esplanade area may have better quality food but the one we had
is not to our liking. Well the crowd was there but guess not all crowds meant
good food, some just there paying more for the atmosphere. After dinner we took
a short around near Collie Street where we parked our car. We walked along Terrace Street and realized
there were a lot more food options along that stretch of the street and
regretted over our last meet near the pier side. Looking at the food options
and varieties, it seemed more exciting compared over the ones at the pier.
Anyway to each his own.
We left Fremantle around 9:30pm and a short
drive of 10 mins we were back at our hotel in the light industry area. Area was
quiet but felt safe.
Day 9: South Perth, Busselton, Dunsborough
The family woke up around 7am, packed up
our stuff and left the motel. We picked our breakfast around the usual big
supermarkets like Coles or Woolsworth which usually has good cafes or bistro
opening in the early morning. We drove to the Cockburn Gateway Shopping City
where our breakfast was this little cafe called the Little Teapot Cafe. Found
some good reviews and so we went there for our breakfast. The cafe is located in a cluster of buildings
that seemed to be offices, with the ground floor catering to service oriented
shop like cafes, restaurants, laundry and others. The place was run by a few
Asians who were friendly and food was good too.
 |
| Cockburn Gateway Shopping City |
Original intention was just to have
breakfast at the area, but since there is such a big Shopping City, so we
parked some time for some shopping for the trip. Well, this is the 1st shopping
mall we went into since our arrival at Perth. The road trip was very much a
nature experiencing holiday.
It was 10am after we parked our car in the
free car park in front of the shopping mall. When we walked into the cooling air
conditioned mall, it was like back home visiting one of the mega malls. The
crowd was starting to pour in as the car park and seeing more and more empty
lots taken up. Besides it was Christmas
season around the corner and shoppers were starting to open up their wallets
for gifts. We spend about 3 hours walking in the mall. Bought some stuffs for
ourselves and also lunch from the food court. Chinese noodle was our on the go
lunch (well we got a little sicked of fish and chips over so many days) and I
bought myself a fish burger from McD.
From Cockburn shopping city, we drove back
into nature by visiting Cape Peron, which is at the most western tip of the
land near to Rockingham. There is a
lookout point with a extended platform overlooking the waters and corals below.
After soon photo taking on the lookout point, we took a short walk closer to
the sea. There was a path that lead us onto some rocky platform where the
seawater meets the rocks, and further down the path led us to the beach of Cape
Peron. As it was a weekend, we could see a small crowd of beach goers on the
beach.
Back to our car, we had our packed lunch in the car. Enjoying the air-condition in midst of the sunny sea view in front of us at the car park. The Chinese teriyaki chicken noodle still tasted good after baking in the hot sun in the car. As for my mac fillet burger, it was the same scrumpy feeling and standard taste. Well fast food was meant to be taken fast, keeping it aside will degrade the quality. From Peron, we took longer to reach Busselton with stop rest stops along the way. We took route 18 from Rockingham and later linked to highway route 1 heading south passing Mandurah and Bunsbury.
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| View from Cape Peron Platform |
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| Extend out platform at Cape Peron |
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| At Cape Peron |
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| Beach area near Cape Peron carpark (short walk) |
Back to our car, we had our packed lunch in the car. Enjoying the air-condition in midst of the sunny sea view in front of us at the car park. The Chinese teriyaki chicken noodle still tasted good after baking in the hot sun in the car. As for my mac fillet burger, it was the same scrumpy feeling and standard taste. Well fast food was meant to be taken fast, keeping it aside will degrade the quality. From Peron, we took longer to reach Busselton with stop rest stops along the way. We took route 18 from Rockingham and later linked to highway route 1 heading south passing Mandurah and Bunsbury.
 |
| At the Busselton jetty |
Around 4pm, we reached the Busselton Jetty. A must visit place if visiting south of Perth. Busselton jetty is a famous tourist attraction boosting of itself as the longest timber piled jetty in the south hemisphere. running a total length of 1.841km into the open Indian Ocean.
We parked our car just in front the jetty
and walked a short maybe 200 metres to reach the jetty entrance. A ticket is
needed for adults and free for children below certain age. The ticket allows
multiple entries for the same day of purchase. There is an operating tram that
takes visitors to the end of the jetty which housed an undersea aquarium. For
us, the weather was good, and we took the leg power option to walk to the end
of the jetty. At times, our daughter was so excited that we ran some distance
on the jetty. there are rail guards on
both sides for the initial start which later left just one side only. At mid way point, there was a group of
teenagers using the jetty platform to do some jumping off the structure onto
the blue waters below.
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| Midway along the entire jetty. |
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| Jetty structure stretching out towards the sea. |
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| Walking towards the end. Long but pleasant walk |
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| Make way for the jetty tram |
We took about 25mins to reach the end of
the jetty. Some folks just stopped at Underwater aquarium building which to
some looks like the end of the jetty. But in fact the end is another further
maybe 200 meters to the end where there is Cities Directional Sign pointing to
some of the cities in the world and their distances.
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| Not the end yet, but almost there |
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| Marine Sanctuary (undersea aquarium) |
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| Cities Directional Marker (at the end of the jetty) |
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| Whales painted on the jetty platform at the end ( can be seen from Google Satellite images) |
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| Walking back to the mainland (approaching red tram) |
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| Walking back to land with the evening sun to our right. |
We took slightly longer time to walk back
as this time we didn't run for some stretches of the jetty. There were a few
restaurants around the jetty entrance and dinner time was approaching soon and
the restaurants were seeing more diners come in slowly. The jetty entrance tickets offered some
discounts or free glass of wine at the nearby Equinox Restaurant & bar.
Didn't have the chance to look at their menu and was in a rush to get to our
night's motel for check in to avoid inconvenience to the motel staff and maybe
to ourselves.
It was a 30 mins drive along Caves Road that
is the main road that runs from Busselton to Dunsborough which is where we were
staying for the night. We managed to check-in to our motel at Dunsborough
Central Motel with the reception still operating. This would be our last night
in Australia and still owe my kid a swimming session. And so coincidentally
the motel has a small swimming pool and there was still daylight left for us to
do some swimming before dinner. And so a quick 5 mins change of clothes and off
we jumped into the pool and had our 30 mins of swimming in the pool. Well the
pool wasn't that huge but just for the 2 of us was more than enough.
After the swim, a quick wash up and from the
hotel we walked to the nearby cafe or restaurant for dinner. Surprising, the
area where our hotel is located has quite a few big establishment for food and
drinks. There were some Asian Thai takeaways as well but for the last long
dinner, we preferred something more proper. And so we went into the more family
friendly restaurant called the Dunsborough Tavern. Why i said it was family
family? They had an indoor playground for the children. Although they sell
liquor, beers and food, but i guess the concept of pub and restaurant can go
hand in hand without any violation. The
food was good, we ordered Asian fried rice, BBQ wings and our last fish &
chips, plus the local craft beer which the wife enjoyed a lot. And that wrapped
up the last activity of the day before bedtime.
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| Dinner place at Dunsborough |
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| Our dinner |
Day 10: Yanglingup, Bunsbury, Perth Airport
Finally the last full day of our road trip
in Perth. Kinda unwilling to end the fun we had as a family on the road. We
spend a little longer than other days of previous packing as we were packing
for the return flight home. Today
was a sight seeing day around Yalingup area and slowly to make our way back up
north to Perth Airport.
For breakfast, we looked through some reviews and decided on the place
called "Mealup". It is a modern cafe that serves the morning crowd,
and into lunch time and close in mid afternoon usually. Business was good when
we were there. Not sure if it was also because of the Sundays'market at the
Dunsborough central. The food was good
and healthy with lotsa greens.
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| Saturday Farmers Markets at Dunsborough |
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| Local craft work (nice) |
After breakfast, we spent some time visiting the little stalls that were
setup all around the central square. It was always fun and interesting to
visit such Sunday or weekend markets where you can see the local handiwork,
crafts and things that you wouldn't see in shopping malls.
From Dunsborugh central, we took a short drive up to the Cape
Naturaliste Lighthouse. Once we exited the car park, there were flies
everywhere and these were more aggressive than those from Kalbarri National
Park. There were visitors slowly streaming in more the place was still very
quite. No entrance fee or tickets were required but we could only walk to the
base of the lighthouse only. It seemed that only paid session for the guiding
tour would the caretaker bring you up to climb the lighthouse. There were no
signs on the fee, and no one was around or have some sort of reception. When we
were at the base of the lighthouse, it seemed the only guide was up in the
lighthouse giving guide information to 2 person up there with him.
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| Cape Naturaliste Lighhouse |
After taking some pictures of the
SugarLoft rock itself, there was a side dirt trail that led down to a closer
vantage point to see the rock. For me I went further down towards the water
area and came across some local folks carrying their catch up the same rock
path that i came down. The rocks around the Sugarloft seems easy to climb and I
tried and managed to scale up one of the rocks that allow a closer view of the
Sugarloft rock. Just need some good traction shoes and for the coming down
part, just be careful.
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| Sugarloft Rocks |
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| Doing a little "hiking" for a closer view of the rocks |
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| Up closer to the Sugarloft rocks |
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| Me making my way down (see if you can spot me) |
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| A short steep climb to the rock top. Really need good traction on the rocks. |
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| Closest view I can get to the rocks. |
Next stop, we left the coast and drove towards Yalingup to visit Ngilgi
Cave. It was a shirt drive again taking the route 50 of Caves Road. Ngilgi Cave is a family friendly cave for
children as well, just need to supervise them and keep them in sight. The cave
is an underground krast cave, rocks of lime stones and others. The Ngilgi Cave
falls under the tourist attraction of Margaret River where Yalingup is located.
Entry to the cave goes through the ticketing area which is part of the
same building that house the gift shop as well. The staffs are the ones that
man the shop as well as the ticket sales. There are semi-guide tours every
30 mins that you can wait for the short introduction and briefing at the cave
entrance (steps leading down the cave).
We bought the tickets and follow the joined with the group to make our
way down the cave. You can actually bought bundle tickets that cover other
attractions in the area like the other caves near Busselton. There seemed to be
other caves to explore in the vicinity.
Before going down into the caves, all of us gathered at the metal stairs
entrance for briefing on the caves, its history and what to look out for in
terms of safety. Once that was done, we descent into the next briefing point
at the bottom the metal stairway. It was much cooler in the caves, and minus
the flies up on the ground. The guide
explained to us the information facts about the cave, how deep it is, how
should we be exploring, and the highlights of the cave itself.
We were told of an amphitheatre cavern at the lowest chamber where they held events down there and even symphony orchestra down there. Couldn't imagine how they lower the piano down into the chambers, but it was fascinating to know of such an arrangement. After the briefing we were free to roam on our own. The place is quite safe, just have to be careful of the head when going through the corners. The place was brightly lighted for everyone to navigate easily. Not much to navigate but just follow the railing path and directional arrow.
We were told of an amphitheatre cavern at the lowest chamber where they held events down there and even symphony orchestra down there. Couldn't imagine how they lower the piano down into the chambers, but it was fascinating to know of such an arrangement. After the briefing we were free to roam on our own. The place is quite safe, just have to be careful of the head when going through the corners. The place was brightly lighted for everyone to navigate easily. Not much to navigate but just follow the railing path and directional arrow.
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| At the cave entrance taking the stairs down deeper. |
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| Steep but well built with stairs and railings (mind the head though) |
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| Exploring and exploring the caves. |
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| Going back up to the surface |
Last stop for our visit in the Yalingup area, the Canal Rocks formation
near the coast. This is an extraordinary rock formation in the shape of a canal
and in times of wild weather conditions could churn up high waves lashing on
the rocks there.
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| Canal Rocks Bridge |
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| Water is calm today with little waves (people were swimming still) |
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| View taken from the bridge |
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| Sitting by the rocks, feeling the calm water in the rock pool |
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| Quite unique rock structure at this park |
When we reached the wooden bridge of the canal rocks, the weather although cloudy and drizzle at times, the waves were gentle and slow moving. Not much of any surfs or lashing. And so it was very safe to bring our kid to cross the wooden bridge to the other side of the rocks and did some simple climbing to area where the seawater gently washed up. The rocks were small and easy to climb. We could see other folks crossing some shallow waters and climbing onto one side of the canal rocks. Well the canal is formed by 2 parallel rock formation with water flowing between them and if you check on google map with satellite view, you could see the distinct parallel rocks.
We left the Canal Rocks at 2:30pm and make our way up north towards
Perth. It was late lunch for us and would like to have lunch somewhere along
the way. Preferring not to settle lunch at Dunsborough, we drove into Busselton
and made our way to an Italian restaurant called the Vasse Bar & Kitchen
which served pizzas and pastas. It was about 4 pm when we finished our mean and
after that, it was a final visit to the Coles supermarket to buy a some final
chocolates to bring home as we would be driving straight to the airport.
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| Bunsbury Lighthouse |
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| Shaped like a rocket |
From Busselton we left at 4:30pm and a 45 mins drive to Bunsbury
Lighthouse to have a quick photo stop. But we ended up spending some time at
the beach watching the waves coming in on the basalt rocks at the Wyalup Rocky
Point. There is unique small canal formation that guided the waves coming in,
channeling them into a narrow rock canal all the way up to the beach. Our kid
was enjoying every surges that came in and at times splashes against the rocks
besides them. There were locals on
comfortable chairs placed on the basalt rocks near the edge of the rock by the
sea fishing and admiring the setting sun.
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| At the McCarthy Point Beach |
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| Waves washing up the narrow rock channel forcing the waters to splash against the rocks |
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| Me at the edge of the rocks. |
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| Last sunset shot at beach before the drive back to Perth Airport |
After leaving the beach area, there were seagulls and our daughter went
into play mode again and went feeding them. It was about 6:30pm that it was
time to leave for the airport. It would take about 2hrs to reach and for our
flight at midnight, we would need to be at the airport by 10pm. Time was enough
for us. We left the the town of Bunsbury
and tried to hit back on the northbound highway 1. The road split before Mandurah between the
Old Coast and highway route 2 which gave a shorted route to Perth Airport. The sun was already setting and slowly as it
set, we were driving with the golden sun setting to our left and in no time,
dusk has set upon us and night time came.
There was a need to fill up more petrol for the car which original
intention was to fuel up at Bunsbury but didn't come across along the way and
was intending to top up along the highway route. But the one that is immediately
after highway 1 split to highway 2 was
closed, and that pushed us to go another 60km before we reached our schedule
saving station. That was the BP Baldivis
station which has food service.
It was about 8:45 pm and there was enough time
for a quick snack for dinner. We ordered a Red Roaster platter for the family
to share and after preparing and serving our food, the shop was closed for the
day. Well there was still McDonalds' at the station which closed at a later
time.
We left the petrol station at 9:10 pm and started the last stretch of non
stop drive to the airport. When you are in a hurry, the distance seemed longer
always. With the fuel gauge up to just
slightly below half tank, gone was the worries of running short of fuel. Due to night time and lack of lights
sometimes you don't know if the navigation is correct or not as we followed the
instructions and drove onto dim lanes of the road leading to the airport. Road
works was one that messed up the navigation for a short while, but in the end,
after missing the rental return car entrance and making a big loop around the
public car park, we finally reached the
car rental return bay, drop our keys at the care rental booth and off to the
check in counters where the counters were just opened with a snaking queue. All
time planned out was just timely and we were all cleared for the flight home.
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