Busy times in Perth - New Car and Catching up with Friends

After the second episode of the diff leaking just north of Perth, Phil felt he just couldn't trust it anymore so we decided to trade it in on a 200 series Landcruiser (2008 model).  Phil decided the diesel model was too expensive (an extra $15 000!) but is regretting that a bit as this petrol model is VERY thirsty!  Otherwise we are really happy with the new car - though it did hail in Perth the day after we bought it so Phil was running around putting tarps and picnic blankets on his new toy!!  Then on the 4th day after purchase it wouldn't start! Phil thought it was the battery but the dealership insisted on towing it back to their workshop as they couldn't send a van out!  Crazy stuff!

We ended up staying two weeks in Perth, with a side trip down to the Margaret River region, as my brother, Andrew, was going to be in town for a weekend from Switzerland.  We spent the time catching up with old friends - Sherryn Tosch, Cathy and Justin Cappa and Joe and Caro Sapienza from Darwin, Tasha Hendrick, from high school with her partner Margot and Jamie Von Nida and family from my uni days. It was lovely to meet his wife Shoni and son Harry.  Jamie is now a Dermatologist in Perth so I roped him in (he kindly agreed!) to remove a skin cancer from Andrew's face while he was in town!  Thanks Jamie!!   I'm very annoyed that I forgot to get photos with most of our friends!  Too busy talking...  Who me?!?!

The new car...

Oh Oh!!  Day 4 of ownership!!

Our campsite for 2 weeks at Karrinyup Waters Van Park

There was even a resident bunny rabbit who came to say 'Hello' one morning!  
Also plenty of  ducks wandering around!

He He!! Phil now needing reading glasses after always skitting about his perfect vision!

Jamie Von Nida, Shoni and Harry - an action shot as we were leaving!

Showing the great extension on the back of Joe and Caro's old Safety Bay home - right across from the beach with beautiful sunsets!

In Joe's shed - Phil take note!!!

I will never understand why so many rods are needed but I do like how these are stored!

We also had a lovely time catching up with Jacinta, Rick and their girls, who we had met in Coral Bay.  Andrew came along for our cruise along the Swan River with them and we all thoroughly enjoyed the day on the water.  We felt a bit posh pulling up to the Barrack St Jetty in our big boat and hoping out for an ice-cream!!

Chelsea, Sasha, Chloe, Jess and Jack with Tracy and Jacinta

The kids were practicing the Titanic poses!

Jack with Uncle Andrew driving!

Jack, Sasha, Chelsea, Chloe and Jess - up to no good!

At Barrack St Jetty...

Playing with Uncle Andrew on the Jumping Pillow!

Just after his facial surgery - oops!

We had a lovely afternoon at Perth Zoo with Jacinta and the girls

Never photograph animals or children right?  Jack had just upset Chelsea so we didn't manage to get them all together!

While waiting for Andrew to arrive, we popped down to explore the Margaret River Region and had a lovely time.  We could certainly spend longer in the area and plan to come back in the next few years to   see more of the South West.

Cows were everywhere in Cowaramup, near Margaret River

More Jumping Pillows at Taunton Farm Big 4, next to the Margaret River Cheese Factory

Very cool camp kitchen with an open fire!

Baby goat at Sunflower Animal Park near Margaret River

Jess was beside herself with joy playing with all the rabbits!

Jack and I were having fun too!

Dad then had his turn at the Cheeky Monkey Brewery...

Of course Jess found Red Dog's cousin to play with while I shopped at the silk and mulberry shop - Margaret River's Silk Road

Catching the train out to the underwater observatory at the end of Busselton jetty before walking back as such a beautiful day!

 http://www.busseltonjetty.com.au

It's the longest timber-piled jetty in the Southern Hemisphere at 1.8km long so a little horse race at the end was required...  Jess (as jockey) and I won!!

Kalbarri Kapers

Kalbarri is a lovely seaside town about 600km's north of Perth that I remembered really liking when I visited in the late 90's and it didn't disappoint.  However there were more dramas here with the loss of Phil's wallet for 24hrs!  Thank goodness someone had handed it in to police almost immediately but since the station was closed we didn't know until we had already cancelled all our cards etc.  We were standing outside the police station, about to ring the afterhours number, when the door opened and the officer said "Mr Phillip Nichols?".  He'd seen us drive up with NT plates so realised what we must be after!!  It was quite funny!

Kalbarri has the lovely Murchison river that travels through some more gorgeous gorges before ending up in a lagoon like estuary right where the town is situated and then there is a the reef break out to sea.  So there are both the lovely calm waters to swim or paddle board etc in and then there are the waves.  Also great fishing right in town! Our friend Rohan, who is a chef, got very interested in the idea of owning a cafe there but unfortunately it wasn't the right time for him to do so.

Kalbarri sunset

Kalbarri foreshore

The sand on the drive out to the gorges was an amazing yellow colour

Natures window

Now we can see the river!

We were very sad to say goodbye to Lleyton and Rohan at Kalbarri - will catch up on the Mornington Peninsula sometime!

Dolphins delight despite car troubles!

It really was all going far too well!  We stopped overnight in Carnarvon on the way to Monkey Mia and the next day we pulled over for one of Jess's slightly less frequent toilet stops and Phil smelt oil...
It was splattered all over the front of the caravan so after a few *(%$'s!!! Phil got underneath the Pajero and found the axle had pulled out of the diff!!  He was able to click it back into place but was worried about how much diff oil had leaked so we drove very slowly to the next service station, about 30km away.  Rohan followed behind us, using his CB to tell the trucks about the sick Pajero ahead!!

They were able to refill the diff oil and we limped along again but there was no further leaking so we decided to take the risk and drive in to Monkey Mia as we knew the kids would love it there.   We were thinking it might have been due to a bad landing when we had been 4WD'ing at Coral Bay so were hoping all would be ok - unfortunately it happened again about 100km north of Perth and Phil had found out on the internet that it was due to a problem with 04 Pajero's having a circlip that was too small and tended to pull out when under tow - this detail for those of you who might be interested in this sort of thing...

We stayed at the Monkey Mia Resort which I totally recommend as it is a lovely place by itself, with a camping ground and units right along the beach, a couple of bars and restaurants also with beach views and then there is the added bonus of seeing the dolphins on and off all day!  There were times when dolphins came into the swimming area and the people in the water got quite close - it was a bit cold and windy for us to hang around in the water though!  They had documentaries about the local area and about dolphins playing all day which the kids wandered in and out of and found very educational!

They will feed the dolphins up to 3 times in a morning if they keep coming back in, so if you are staying there you can hang around on the beach and will be amongst a much smaller group for the later feeds.  The first feed at 08:30 is the one where the tour buses come so there can be a ridiculous amount of people and no chance of getting picked.  We were lucking on our 2nd day that the dolphins came back a 2nd time and Jack got picked!  I managed a short video which I think is good enough to use as advertising footage!!  They only feed certain dolphins and only a small amount as they want them to catch most of their food naturally as they found the babies were dying as the mothers were hanging around the shallow water too much waiting to be fed and the calves couldn't attach to get their milk!

Jess loved this model of Nikki, the matriarch of the dolphins

With Lleyton and the dolphins!

Nikki was due to give birth any day after a 12 month pregnancy!

What an amazing experience!

They could use this video for an ad!

Beach at Monkey Mia Resort

With the early morning crowds...

Campground is right next to the beach!

We hadn't seen one of these German made tour buses before!  Not quite sure I'd like to sleep in one of those cubicles....

On the drive out from Monkey Mia, we stopped at Shell Beach which is composed of a huge, very shallow lagoon and the beach consists entirely of small shells.  Absolutely beautiful but the flies were horrendous!!  The kids were practically hysterical in the carpark but it was much better down on the beach thank goodness!

Shell Beach and Lagoon

Great action shot - thanks Rohan!

Coral Bay and Ningaloo Reef

I've been incredibly slack and am now writing these posts at the end of our trip...  Still a good reminder of everywhere we have been and all we have seen!

We really enjoyed Coral Bay which is a tiny town about 60km south of Exmouth.  There are two caravan parks and a small resort plus a few shops and some holiday homes - and that's about it! The thing about Coral Bay is you can walk across the road from your accommodation onto the beach and then swim straight out over the coral reef in a protected bay!  Magic!

We stayed for 5 days and it was unfortunately quite windy but we got a couple of good beach days in and met a lovely family from Perth - Jacinta and Rick with their 3 gorgeous daughters - Sasha (8), Chelsea (6) and Chloe (2).  This is where Jess finally came out of her shell and started playing with other kids and she hasn't looked back! We caught up with these guys later in Perth where Rick took us out on his boat for a cruise up the Swan River which was lovely!

We also ran into a 9 yr old boy, Lleyton who we had met in the pool back in Broome! He was from Melbourne and was travelling around with his Dad, Rohan.  We ended up travelling on to Monkey Mia and Kalbarri with them which was good fun! And very helpful as that was when we had car troubles and Rohan gave Phil a hand and pottered along behind us - more on this later...

Now for some snorkelling photos!  We brought an simple underwater camera but were not overly successful with our photography so I've only included the better ones.  You will notice that a lot of the coral is dead which is apparently due to a problem with the coral spawning back in 2002.  This was disappointing after growing up in FNQ and snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef but the fish were still beautiful and being able to access the reef directly off the beach was great.

Ningaloo Reef at Turquiose Bay, Cape Range National Park

This one looked cool!  I think it is a leatherjacket

Convict surgeon fish

Some colour!

We found Gill!!

The colours of the fish were amazing, perhaps more so due to the plain background....

Jack and I had a great time snorkelling together

Coral Bay

Every afternoon they fed hordes of huge pink snapper in ankle deep water off the beach at Coral Bay.  You could snorkel right among them which Jack loved.  Phil thought it was fun to through pellets right near my head so they would swarm me while I tried to take photos!  We went on the 'SubSea Explorer' which is a type of glass bottom boat and learnt lots about the fish and coral from our guide.  Jack and I braved the windy weather for a snorkel - but not for long!

Now this is a better view!

Jacinta helping with the constructions!

Each child had their own sand apartment!

Jess and Lleyton, Jack and Sasha on some blow up chairs donated by a wedding party - after Lleyton chased one all 

Fish feeding with Jacinta, Rick and girls

Getting swarmed by pink snapper!

It was a pity Phil and Jack's trip on this fishing boat was cancelled due to the wind! Jack may have finally caught some fish!

This pink snapper followed along with the Sub Sea Explorer

Loved this clip of Jess talking to 'Big fella'

Scissor fish

Amazing colours in this clam

A blue spotted stingray!

Sea urchins hiding under the rocks at 5 Finger Reef 

Beautiful starfish

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Imagine what it would have been like when all the coral was alive...

We also tried a spot of 4WD'ing while heading out to Five Finger Reef near Coral Bay and had a lovely time playing in the sand dunes!

Setting out with Rohan and Lleyton

Yay - you made it! 

Jetty at Coral Bay - you can't fish from here...

More amazing views!

That's a long way down - and up!!  Come on Jack!

Having a rest halfway!

But another great view on the other side!

One of the five fingers...   We went snorkelling in the little bay while they fished - what a lovely day!

Nature really is beautiful!