The highs and lows of South West WA

If you drop a plumb-line down from Perth, the little corner of the state that would be west of the line is the south-west region - or Margaret River region. It has two little capes (pointy bits that stick out) - one at the top and one at the bottom, with a lighthouse on each. It also has about 150 wineries, which is ridiculous when it has only around 5,500 hectares under vine (compared with over 7,000ha in McLaren Vale or Barossa). Each of them seems to have a cellar door as well, and a restaurant or cafe, or maybe a maze or other "attraction". Luckily for them, tourism is faring better than the wine industry, and they probably sell most of what they make through the cellar door, but the amount of capital expenditure seems out of proportion.

Another thing the region has plenty of is surf breaks - at least 30 down the 100km or so of west coast. We thought about sampling them all in the way that some people might sample the wineries, but it wasn't really practical! We were staying at Yallingup - at the base of the northern cape on the west coast - and it had probably the best surf beach anyway. Yallingup is an Aboriginal word for "place of love" and we certainly thought it was pretty special. We were staying in a caravan park right across the road from the beach; near enough to hear the surf roar at night and for Andrew to walk barefoot across to the beach with his board. It was unpretentious, quiet, green and very scenic. It would have been perfect for a quiet few days relaxing by the beach.......... but that's not our style! We packed plenty into our three days, including climbing both lighthouses, exploring two caves (another thing the region has plenty of), snorkelling (in a sheltered lagoon inside the reef on the beach right in front of the caravan park) and (the highlight for the girls) visiting a working sheep farm and shearing shed. This was a great experience, as we were given a shearing demonstration but also shown what the rouseabout does (Kendall as a "volunteer" trying to sweep the floor with a "witch's broom" was very funny for the rest of us) and how baling used to be done by stomping on the wool (Kirralee loved doing this). Then there was bottle-feeding the lambs, watching the dogs round up the sheep into the pens, and feeding the sheep outside in the paddock............ I learned that you have to have a second type of dog to run over the backs of the sheep from the back of the flock to the front, because otherwise the front sheep won't move (if it can't see the dog then it isn't scared and doesn't move). You can't use a border collie because they don't run over the sheep - they only chase them.

The caves were very interesting, too - and we can all now identify the different features: shawls, straws and helictites as well as your basic stalactites and stalagmites. It was a nice contrast going from the "lows" of the caves to the "highs" of the lighthouses............. They were quite different from each other, too, showing how the characteristics of the site determine how the lighthouse will be constructed. Both had relied on three lighthouse keepers to work four-hour shifts for 24 hours a day, winding the mechanism and carting the kerosene up the stairs, until electric motors were introduced in the 1960s. Now they are deserted apart from the tourists, operating completely automatically, but still performing exactly the same function they have performed since they were built over 100 years ago. The Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse, at the bottom of the region south of Augusta, looks out over the point where the Indian Ocean meets the Southern Ocean - and you can see a small group of rocks where the waves come in and break over them from different directions (well - supposedly!). We preferred the Cape Naturaliste lighthouse, which was smaller (because it is on a big hill) but the tour guide was much more informative, the scenery was better, and there was a walking trail down to a clifftop where we saw lots of seals playing. It's a great spot for whale-spotting, too, because the whales apparently come in very close to the cape and then follow an invisible "turn left" sign and head down the coast to the southern ocean - but we didn't see any!

We went into Margaret River, but we weren't very impressed. Too "touristy" and quite pretentious with it. The number of "health spas", "boutique shops", "unique art galleries" and "trendy cafes" in the brochures was definitely excessive! We found a shell museum, though, in someone's house out of town and that was quite simply mind-blowing. The number and variety of shells was quite astounding. I am becoming a bit of a shell "tragic", I think. I can't believe how they are all simply the protective casings of very simple creatures called (unromantically) "molluscs" who have barely 10 different body parts and no brain to speak of. (Oops - I digress.) Anyway, the shell museum was MUCH better than the "Chocolate Factory" - which was just a shop with a window into the kitchen, selling huge amounts of overpriced chocolates and designer coffees to busloads of tourists.

Oh yes - and we did visit one lovely cellar door in Yallingup, where we stocked up on Sauvignon Blanc and Andrew was introduced to the delights of Muscat.

The Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse was a stop on our way out of the region, on the day when we had to turn east for the first time, and start heading for home along the southern coast. A sobering thought!

Captions for pictures

- Yallingup Beach special

- Kendall didn't enjoy being a rouseabout..............

........nearly as much as Kirralee enjoyed being a baler

- Beautiful flower on big trees in Caves Hotel gardens at Yallingup

- Typical surf at Yallingup: six to eight foot clean and off-shore

- Kirralee in a "tunnel" within Ngilgi Cave

- Lovely "shawl" formation in Ngilgi Cave

- Cape Naturaliste lighthouse built in 1903 (internal structure sent over from the UK!)

- Tahlia holding the $500, 1000 watt lightglobe for the lighthouse VERY carefully

- The Cape Leeuwin lighthouse - tallest on mainland Australia (also made in England)

- Where the Indian Ocean meets the Southern Ocean....... and so do we!

Heading south - and cooling down!

If you ever happen to watch/hear the WA weather, you will see quite a dramatic drop in temperature between Exmouth and Carnarvon, and again between Carnarvon and Geraldton. Exmouth is on roughly the same latitude as Alice Springs and Rockhampton, whereas Geraldton is about level with the Gold Coast. We were certainly beginning to notice the difference - being a lot more reluctant to get the bathers on and to sit outside after dark. Geraldton was also very windy (living up to its reputation) with this nasty southerly coming up every day in the early afternoon and blowing right through you. We arrived early-ish on Monday (13 Sept) and after squeezing into our spot in the van park we went for a drive south through Greenough ("Grenuff"), where we found the classic Geraldton leaning tree, a surf beach called Flat Rocks (which could have been called Flat Sea on that day) and the historical settlement of Greenough, which dates back to the mid-1800s. We did a tour around the eleven or so historic buildings, including the one-room school built in 1863, the courthouse/gaol, two churches (one Catholic one Anglican), a convent and a community hall. Obviously a very devout community! It was a lovely set-up, all contained in a big (fenced) field full of sweet-smelling cut grass (hay), where you could wander up a central road and into each building at your own pace, and the children were each provided with a worksheet with pictures of items they had to find along the way. This maintained their enthusiasm and ensured we checked out every single room.

On Tuesday we spent the day looking around Geraldton (well - Andrew found a surf beach in the morning, so he missed some of the sightseeing) and finished up at the museum (nice logo - the mUSEm with a magnifying glass around "USE") where the girls had another worksheet to do (we parents felt very virtuous!) and we found some fascinating information about historical shipwrecks along the mid-coast of WA - in particular dutch cargo ships travelling from Europe to the Dutch East Indies in the 1600s. They were definitely the first Europeans to set foot on Australian soil - long before James Cook - and how incredible to have been sailing regularly along this route 350 years ago! No wonder there were so many shipwrecks. Much more recently, the HMAS Sydney was lost somewhere between Shark Bay and Geraldton during WWII, with the loss of 645 lives, and Geraldton has a huge memorial to it on a hill overlooking the town. This puzzled me, as Geraldton doesn't really have much more of a claim to the ship than any other town in Australia (okay it visited here a couple of times) but it seems that they had a wealthy rotary club and managed to get themselves organised! (There is also a "cairn" on a dirt road between Quobba Point and Red Bluff, pointing out to sea in the general area that the ship was believed to have sunk.) Now that the wreck has actually been found, more or less directly out from Shark Bay, I suspect there is likely to be a shift in the tourism focus to that spot, but of course all these memorials pre-date that discovery in 2008.

So that was our whirlwind tour of Geraldton. On the way out, heading south again, we stopped at the Pioneer Museum and cemetery (also in Greenough). The museum was a cottage that used to be owned by John Maley - one of the leading families of the district, set up pretty much as it would have been from the mid-1800s. The family had 14 children, all of whom survived to adulthood and the mother had time to teach the girls to play the piano!!! I suppose having a maid and a cook helped, but still. I was humbled!

From Geraldton we went to Jurien Bay for one night, in order to visit the Pinnacles Desert a bit further south, near Cervantes. This we did on the day we arrived, which meant we saw it in the late afternoon and stayed there to watch the sun set. That was pretty special. It's a massive place - much bigger than I expected (and Kendall thought there were only three pinnacles altogether). There must have been 20,000 or more of them. All used to be under the sea, and the stuff in between has simply eroded away since the water receded. It's amazing what you can do with a little sand, water and wind, isn't it?

On the way south in the morning, we went via the Mount Lesueur National Park, which has a one-way tourist drive through the most beautiful wildflowers and scenery. It was just sensational. The 18km took us about two hours (and 200 photos!).

After Jurien Bay, we were headed for Mandurah, about 60km south of Perth. We had chosen this stop because we have a friend living there, and we'd decided to skip the "big city" because that could always be visited another time. However, we thought we'd be adventurous and drive through the city (with the caravan) so that the girls could at least get a general sense of it. This was a mistake! We connected up the GPS and we got into a terrible argument with her over a right turn and ended up going round in circles in the centre of Perth just before rush hour - finally finding our way out by ignoring her instructions and "recalculations". Then we ended up caught in rush hour traffic on the (wonderful) freeway heading south, made the mistake of listening to the GPS again when she took us off the freeway 30km too early (not knowing that it had been extended all the way to Mandurah) and finally arrived in Mandurah just after dark. At this point we discovered that the fridge had opened and a very sticky jar of chutney had spilt on the floor and over EVERYTHING; plus the power on the site wasn't working so I was cleaning up by torchlight while Andrew chased up the manager..... Oh well - things can't be perfect all the time!

Our day in Mandurah was another day of wandering around sightseeing. There was no surf at all, but the weather was perfect and we had coffee/ice-cream on the boardwalk over the lake in the middle of town, watching the pelicans and dolphins in the water. Mandurah is built around the Peel Inlet - and all these canals that run off of it, before it goes out to sea. The town also extends along a narrow spit of land, with the inland waterways on one side and the Indian Ocean on the other. Surf and snorkelling beaches all the way down the west side, and boating and fishing, plus walking and bike trails everywhere. And a fast train straight into Perth in under an hour. I could definitely live here - that's if I could afford the house prices!

By now we'd travelled another 500km or so due south, and the temperature was certainly dropping. We're still north of Adelaide (about level with Port Augusta) but only just! And while we have been extremely lucky in avoiding almost any rain at all, it's not really all that lucky for WA that they've had another very dry winter. Water restrictions persist and we're not allowed to clean our poor caravan anywhere. And didn't our car use to be white?

Captions for pictures

- The classic leaning tree of Geraldton

- Kendall in the dock; judge Tahlia presiding

- Geraldton docks overlook the central Town Beach

- HMAS Sydney memorial. Look closely and you can see it is made up of the shapes of 645 seagulls: one for each life lost

- Andrew giving the girls a lesson in the operation of a wheel band-stretcher at the Pioneer Museum, Greenough

- The Pinnacles

- And again

- There are just so MANY of them!

- An unusual pinnacle formation caused by extreme cold and oversized covering

- Wildflowers in Mt Lesueur NP

- Mandurah across the Peel Inlet lake

- Falcon Bay beach and lovely snorkelling pool (Mandurah)

Colourful Kalbarri

What a magical place Kalbarri is! You turn off the main road south, some 100km north of Geraldton, and travel about 50km west, mostly through national park - then suddenly you come upon this little town, sitting pretty on the coast at the mouth of the Murchison River, looking out over a beautiful, sheltered harbour and beyond to breaking waves and spectacular limestone cliffs. You can surf, fish, swim, go out on a whale-watching charter, explore the national park, see the most beautiful wildflowers, canoe on the river, ride horses or quad bikes and watch the pelican feeding every morning.

We ran into someone we know from Adelaide as soon as we arrived at the caravan park, so that quickly became a plan for a fish-and-chips supper at "Finlay's Shed" - where there's no table service, the napkins are rolls of toilet paper, and the food is magnificent. The chef calls out your number when your meal is ready - and when he called out for "number 78 to send Snap Crackle and Pop out to collect their kids' meals" he endeared himself to us forever.

After attending the traditional pelican feeding on the foreshore in the morning, we spent Friday in the national park, marvelling at the most beautiful wildflowers and visiting the main tourist attractions - the gorges, lookouts etc. Funny how we don't seem so enthusiastic about 2 hour walks anymore, though! On Saturday, Kendall and Andrew went out on a fishing charter with our friend who drove up from Perth, in a lovely 50' purpose-built charter boat, which also does whale-watching tours. Unfortunately, the fish were not very enthusiastic about being caught that day - although the boat got very close to some whales at no extra charge (maybe that's what put the fish off). Meanwhile Kirralee, Tahlia and I visited the Rainbow Jungle, which is "Australia's largest" parrot breeding centre. When we were there, it was also playing host to a sculpture exhibition, and the combination was just beautiful. The layout was lovely, with a mixture of cages and free-flight aviaries, hundreds of amazing, colourful birds and these great sculptures scattered throughout the park, in amongst the water features, along the paths etc. It was definitely one of the best places I've visited on our trip.

There's a "world class" surf break in Kalbarri, called Jacques Point, but believe it or not the swell was too big when we were there, so Andrew had to content himself with a few photos of it. At least he was sensible enough to know his limits.

On Sunday we went on a canoe safari along the Murchison River. This was okay, except that the river was pretty shallow (VERY shallow actually) and everyone got stuck several times and had to be pulled over sandbars barely six inches deep. It also rained briefly and was pretty windy. Still, the scenery was lovely, the guide was very knowledgeable and the hot breakfast of bacon, eggs and sausages on the river bank and the quick (cold) swim on the way back were highlights. On Sunday afternoon we braved the bitter cold wind and checked out the various scenic spots along the coastline, before another lovely meal out (what extravagence!) in the local pub. (None of us had fish, though.)

On Monday we packed up and hit the road once again; this time only a short hop to Geraldton. On the way we passed the strange pink lake at Port Gregory. It's pink because it contains beta carotene, which it is mined for. Yet another colourful image for our Kalbarri blog. I hope you enjoy it!

Captions for pictures

- Feeding the pelicans (half a slimy fish per child - yuck)

- Jacques Point looking very calm on the morning we left

- Wildflowers in the National Park (I've got hundreds more pictures if you are interested......?!)

- Famous landmark in the National Park: Nature's Window. This picture is at least as good as the ones in the tourist brochures!

- Parrots at Rainbow Jungle (I've got lots of these, too)

- Canoeing on Murchison River

- Swimming stop on the way back (just to prove that I am actually on this holiday!)

- "Island rock" along the coastline - also part of the national park.

- Pink lake at Port Gregory (it looks even brighter in "real life" but there were no decent vantage points)

Shark Bay via Quobba Point (where?)

The next major town along the coast was Carnarvon. Feeling adventurous, we had decided to stay out at Quobba Point, on the coast just north of Carnarvon, in a bush camp in the dunes - rather than in the town itself. (We'd been told by a couple of different people that Carnarvon was pretty average, whereas Red Bluff, 60km north of Quobba Point on a dirt road, was supposed to be a spectacular surf break...............) The camp site was okay - although by choosing a sheltered spot tucked in behind the dunes we sacrificed any kind of view of the ocean, which was only 100m away. Also I have to say that the girls and I are completely over non-flushing toilets and these put us off any bush camp sites. Still - we were out there with the sound of the sea, and a camp fire shared with our neighbours under the stars.......... not too bad! We only had one full day, which we spent driving out to Red Bluff, where there was not enough swell to ride, and further to a secluded beach on Gnaraloo Station where we found some beautiful shells and completely clear water, inhabited by lots of clams, crabs and other critters. We also spent quite a bit of time at "The Blowholes", where apart from watching water spray up 10m through holes in the rocks, we also saw turtles, jumping fish and (very distant) whales. Succour for the soul!

When we left Quobba Point, we called in at Carnarvon on the way down to Shark Bay - despite having a big distance to cover. We happened to turn up at the main tourist attraction, "One Mile Jetty", just as the restored Coffee Pot Train was leaving for its one mile journey to the end of the jetty, so we jumped on - giving us the satisfaction of having at least sampled Carnarvon!

We were making good time to Denham (the main town in the World Heritage listed Shark Bay area) until it took us half an hour to fill up with petrol at the Overlander roadhouse! Finally we arrived about 4pm, giving us just enough time to set up before happy hour!

We had two days in Denham, and to be honest we could probably have made do with one. For a world heritage listed area, we found it a bit of a disappointment. There were few beaches where you could have swum, even if it had been warm enough - and once we'd heard about the stonefish that are common in the area, I don't think we would ever consider swimming! (When you get stung by a stonefish, you don't die from the venom, you die from shock caused by intense pain, and in fact the story goes that people who have the experience fear most that they won't die, once the pain kicks in.) We went to the Shark Bay Heritage Centre on the first morning, which had some really fantastic information and displays - including stories of shipwrecks around the coast. Then we went to Monkey Mia, and hung around for an hour or so, waiting to see if the dolphins would turn up for a feed. They showed up at 11.55am, with five minutes to spare before the kitchen closes (the Dept. people only feed them a maximum of three times a day, only give them 1/2 of their daily fish requirement, and only feed them before 12pm). Actually the dolphin feeding was better than I had expected, since we'd heard a few sneering remarks about it being over-commercialised and a rip-off. There's just one dolphin "family" that comes in for a feed, and they all have names and records of their family trees maintained. They've been coming to the beach since the 1970s. One of them, "Nicki" has had 8 babies but only two (or possibly only one) have survived, because she is too busy coming to the beach for fish and doesn't teach her babies survival skills (apparently). Nearly all the dolphins we saw had some kind of shark-inflicted scar on them.

There wasn't much else to do at Monkey Mia, though, and it was very cold, so we headed out to the Francois Peron national park, where we could only get as far as the homestead because we didn't have a "proper" 4wd. The homestead had an interesting "interpretive walk" around the old shearing sheds, as well as a natural hot artesian pool, which was 40 degrees and quickly warmed us up! Even with a stop at "Little Lagoon" and a fishing spot on the way home, we were still back in time for afternoon tea and a stroll around the town (which took all of half an hour - and we left the girls in the caravan park by themselves with the walky-talky). The next day we visited the Ocean Park, which was a great place with tanks full of various local marine creatures - including turtles, lobsters, lionfish, barramundi, sharks etc. You get a guided tour run by a "qualified marine biologist" and it's pretty interesting (that's where I found out about the stonefish). The big act is the shark feeding, but I preferred the more subtle displays - like the squid that changes colour when it gets stressed and the clownfish that take food and carry it back to their "host" - the anemone. Did you know that clownfish can change sex from male to female and there must always be a dominant female in the group? When Nemo's mum was "taken" at the start of the movie, his dad should really have changed into his mum (boy wouldn't that have caused problems for millions of parents!).

We also went to Eagle Bluff, where you have an amazing vantage over a very shallow bay of amazingly clear water and are supposed to be able to see the "big four" - rays, sharks, turtles and dugongs. Except there were none around that day! We were done by lunchtime, so in the afternoon we thought we'd try fishing, but the wind was so strong it was hard to find a beach where we could cast. We went to one, and found that was where all the sharks were. It was literally crawling with Nervous Sharks, about 1 - 2m long, intermingled with some pretty big stingrays. But as soon as we put a line in, they all disappeared! (Kirralee said the guy at Ocean Park said they don't like squid, so maybe that was it.) We also checked out Shell Beach, which is unique in being formed from thousands and thousands of tiny cockle shells, and looks amazing with the contrast between the white shells and the turquoise water.

Finally, on the way out the next day, we checked out the stromatolites at Hamelin Pool. Stromatolites are sort of like coral - they are living structures formed in the sea, but these are made by very primitive creatures called cyanobacteria, which supposedly first existed 3,500 million years ago. The stromatolites in Shark Bay are "only" a few thousand years old, but are one of the only remaining examples of living cyanobacteria in a world where other lifeforms have out-competed them in most situations. (The water in Shark Bay is so salty that most other creatures can't survive there and eat the stromatolites.) I thought these innocuous looking things, that could have been slightly unusual rocks, were a highlight of the area - just because they were so subtle and their uniqueness was so understated. Up until the 1950s people were driving buggies over them, carrying wool over the beach to dinghies for ferrying out to small ships anchored off-shore. The track marks are still evident.

And that was Shark Bay! The Shark Bay Heritage Centre and Ocean Park were really good, the dolphin feeding was entertaining and Shell Beach was beautiful, but somehow it didn't quite live up to expectations.

Captions for pictures

- Blowholes at Quobba Point

- Great shot of the water spout taken by Kirralee (don't mind the horizon!)

- Red Bluff surf break

- Feeding the dolphins at Monkey Mia

- "Puck" one of the female dolphins

- Hot tub at Francois Peron homestead

- View of the bay from Eagle Bluff (no marine life to be seen!)

- Stonefish (yes, honestly - they encourage algae to grow on them to improve their camouflage)

- Shell beach

- Being buried in shells

- The stromatolites (uncovered at low tide)

Reef 'n' surf: Exmouth to Coral Bay

We were really looking forward to Exmouth - where there was supposed to be fantastic snorkelling on the Ningaloo Reef as well as great surfing. Exmouth is nearly on the tip of the North West Cape - a finger that sticks up on the western shoulder of WA - and according to our measurements, the furthest point on our route away from Adelaide "as the crow flies" (feel free to check this). The eastern side of the cape faces the sheltered Exmouth gulf, while the western side faces the Indian Ocean, but is protected from it by the reef - one of the only reefs in the world to be formed on the western side of a landmass. On the recommendation of someone we'd met on our travels, we had booked in to the Lighthouse Caravan Park, which turned out to be a great choice, because it is on the western tip of the cape, only 2km from the surf beach and much nearer to the National Park (which runs all down the western side) than the town of Exmouth (17km further south on the eastern side). There was a really great social atmosphere in the caravan park, too, and the girls quickly found friends, while Andrew found a surf buddy!

While we were there, we experienced the "Turquoise Bay snorkel drift", where you walk down the beach, swim out about 50m and then drift back up to where you started on the current. There were loads of fish to see, and I especially loved all the different types of coral, with their amazing formations and colours. We also joined a cruise in a glass-bottomed boat, which enabled us to observe and snorkel in deeper water - including going over a patch of 1000 year old coral and seeing a massive cod in a "cleaning station" where little scavenger fish clean the bigger fish of parasites, algae etc.

The weather wasn't great: it even rained on the first afternoon, just as we were about to have lunch on one of the beautiful beaches along the coast of the National Park (called "Sandy Bay" - they must have been expecting me). A funny effect of the short-lived rain shower was that all these wallabies appeared out of nowhere along the roadside - quite unusual in the middle of the day.

On the second day it wasn't warm enough to make swimming or snorkelling an attractive prospect, so we explored the inland parts of the National Park, walking along the Yardie Creek and then the Mandu Mandu gorge. Both were quite enjoyable and picturesque walks, but didn't manage to get us too excited; I'm afraid we've been spoilt by the gorges we've seen further north!

Andrew managed a few good surfs, and we also fitted in a round of mini-golf and some whale-watching from the lighthouse lookout (where everyone goes to get phone and Internet reception). Not bad for three days.

We had intended to skip Coral Bay and head straight for Carnarvon, but one of our friends in the caravan park said we'd be crazy not to at least call in there, so we did - and ended up staying the night! It was just such a beautiful bay and we wanted to snorkel, walk along the beach, watch the fish feeding... In the event, though, the highlight turned out to be a two-hour quad bike ride through the sand dunes, including watching the sunset along the way. We did go snorkelling, but the poor girls were so cold (even with wetsuits on) that they barely survived 10 minutes in the water, and didn't really enjoy it. I loved what I saw, but I stuck with them so only Andrew swam out further and saw some (apparently) really lovely coral and big fish.

The quad bike ride, though, was totally fantastic. We were lucky because we were able to book a seat for one child pillion with the tour guide, solving our usual problem of having one extra child. Neither Andrew nor I had ever ridden a quad bike before, but it was a breeze and such a thrill! Like a jet ski only better because there's a bit more skill involved in following the tracks and negotiating the sandhills (that's my opinion, anyway). I loved the combination of the physical thrill of the ride with the beautiful scenery of the sand dunes right next to the coast. I'd have to say it was the best thing I've done on this trip so far. Except maybe the Yellow Waters cruise at Kakadu. Or the Rim Walk at King's Canyon.......... How can I choose?!

Before we left in the morning we walked along the beach, fascinated by all the oyster shells cemeted into the rocks. Andrew watched a monitor eat a snake while the girls and I were shopping. We didn't leave until after 11am, putting the pressure on to cover the distance to our next stop before dark. We were aiming for Quobba Point - a bush camp on the beach just north of Carnarvon - and we didn't know what to expect in the way of campsites. It was the third of September - exactly two months since the start of our trip, leaving us only 5 weeks to go. A depressing thought!

Captions for pictures

- Sunset at Dunes (surf beach)

- Looking the part!

- Windsurfer at Sandy Bay (not the day it rained)

- One of many wallabies brought out by the rain shower

- Yardie Creek gorge

- At the top of Mandu Mandu gorge - amazing views across the coast

- Coral Bay

- Posing pillion passengers

- Millions of oysters cemeted into the rocks along the shoreline

- Monitor (after eating the snake)