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| West coast of Western Australia |
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| Doug swimming with dolphins at Ledge Point, WA |
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| The Pinnacles |
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| Emu family on sand dune |
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| Some late blooming wildflowers at Kalbarri, WA |
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| Kalbarri cliffs |
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| Natural bridge at Kalbarri |
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| Z bend gorge, Kalbarri WA |
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| Lizard in woody leaf litter |
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| Stromatolites at Hamlin Pool, WA |
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| Our new home after rolling the camper trailer |
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After spending several weeks with Doug’s parents we set off to explore the west coast of WA up to Ningaloo Reef at Exmouth. We decided we would take a slow trip along the coast and popped our heads into many small seaside communities. We stopped at Guilderton where Doug had spent a couple of childhood holidays, much to Doug’s pleasure not a lot had changed and many fond memories came flooding back!
Next stop was Ledge Point for a swim and snorkel. We saw a sealion and then Doug found himself swimming with two dolphins. We travelled up to Lancelin and took a quick trip into The Pinnacles, which we had visited before, but decided was worth another visit. We travelled on to Cervantes, but decided to move on as we were kindly offered the use of a friend’s holiday house in Kalbarri, and so we had a pleasant but quick drive through Jurien Bay, Greenhead, Dongara and Geraldton to take advantage of a beautiful home. We spent a few days exploring the cliffs, gorges and beaches of Kalbarri.
Our next stop was Shark Bay to visit the dolphins at Monkey Mia. Sue had visited in 1991 and what a difference there was. Last time there was just a beach and car park, now there is a resort, and the town of Denham which had a very small population has grown significantly. We spent a couple of windy nights at Denham and then headed north again via Hamlin Pool, where stromatolites (living fossils) grow in the shallow hypersaline waters.
We went on to Carnarvon, where WA bananas are grown and are yummy! We spent a few days looking around and headed on again to get to Coral Bay and some snorkelling on Ningaloo Reef. We decided to do a loop of the peninsula and so went on to Exmouth and spent the night in a caravan park and then camped in the Cape Range National Park for 3 days. We snorkelled on the reef which was no more than 50 metres from where we could park the car. We had a wonderful time and are both very tan and sore from swimming with lots of colourful fish and coral for hours. Some of the highlights were skates and sting rays, a couple of octopus, Doug saw a turtle, thousands of colourful fish and swarms of larger fish which were happy for us to swim amongst them, until we realised we did not have the safety of numbers.
We packed up the tent and took the 4WD track along the coast back to Coral Bay, where a shower was very much needed. Some more snorkelling is to be done and then we will head inland for more awesome WA gorges.
