traveling0z

Saturday 2nd January

We leave Exmouth and head to Coral Bay - this place is PACKED with holiday makers which is a REAL pity as we would of loved to spend a few days here (next time round)  This is the most beautiful seaside village (on the Ningaloo Reef).

We arrive in Carnarvon and check in for one night only (the Big 4), we don't think much of Carnavon and are not going to pay $2 per adult and $1 per child to walk on a Jetty!!!

Sunday 3rd January

We leave Carnarvon and head for Denham.  We check into the Top Tourist park - Denham is a nice seaside town with heaps to do including fishing, kite surfing ect.  We travel out to Monkey Mia and are shocked at having to pay $15 for a day pass to walk to the beach??????  It is SO over rated,  we didn't bother going back the next morning for the "dolphin feed" as it was packed with tourists, your not 100% sure you will see a dolphin and they only pick 2 - 3 people from the crowd to do it, we had more fun at Nth Straddie a few years ago, fishing off the jetty (for free) and the cheeky dolphins kept taking our fish!!!!!

Monday 4th January

We head to Geraldton, spend a night at the Top Tourist park and head off in the moring for Perth.

Tuesday 5th January

Stop over night at Juiran Bay then head off to Perth in the morning.

Wednesday 6th January

Arrive at Caversham (20k's North of Perth CBD)  We check into the Perth Vineyards Holiday park (Big 4) for 3 nights.  We unhitch the van and check out a few of the local attractions including: Margaret River Chocolate Co.  The Honey Farm and the Lavender Farm.

Thursday 7th January

We head to the BIG SMOKE!!! Perth - what a lovely city, so pretty - you really have to see this place for yourself to appreciate it,  we have a lovely lunch at a Japanese Restaurant and stroll through the shops.  We then drive into Fremantle, another lovely place to see.

Thursday 31st December

We leave Karratha and head for Exmouth.  We stop at the Nanutarra Roadhouse for lunch VERY expensive.  We arrive in Exmouth and check into the Big 4 for 2 nights.

We have a quiet New Years Eve!

January 1st 2010

We head off to Turquoise Bay (Ningaloo Reef)  we have the BEST day snorkeling (none of us have done this before!!!) we saw: HEAPS of coloured reef fish, sea cucumbers, star fish and corals.   Turquoise Bay is just beautiful.

Sunday 27th December

We say a sad and teary goodbye to all the friends we have spent Christmas with (we will catch up again on the road!!) and head south alone.

We pull into Free camp 619 (camps 5) its a nice big area and we pull up beside the table and chairs under the shelter (no one else here).  There is a real nice cool breeze but the flies are incredible!!!  We have to sit inside - we play cards and do crosswords.  That evening the flies disappear, but the mozzies come out in full swing...........................  the breeze has gone so we get the generator out to run the fans.

Monday 28th December

We leave camp 619 and head south.  We stop at the Sandfire Roadhouse for Diesel, this place is all but demolished (it took the full force of TC Laurence) they are still selling fuel though.   We carry on through to Port Hedland, we did not like PH at all, its a huge mining town and the CP wanted to charge us $72 per night NO THANKS.   We drive onto Roebourne and pay $33 for the night at Harding River CP - nice park with a nice COOL pool.  PS The weather is VERY hot.

Tuesday 29th December

We arrive at Karratha around 10.20am, check the local Post Office to see if the kids school work has arrived (term 1 2010) it hasn't so we check into the BIG 4 CP - nice park, nice people.  Karratha is a nice town and for the first time in over 6mths you can buy Cask wine and before 12pm!! gotta love the restrictions up north.

Wednesday 30th December

We do a day trip to Dampier, Point Sampson and Cossack these are nice seaside towns and Cossack is FULL of history.

The old School house in Cossack:

Old Cossack Building:

We check the PO in the afternoon and the school work has arrived!! The kids are so happy - NOT!!!

Friday 25th December,

See's us celebrate our second Christmas on the Road!!!  The girls woke at 3am, 4am and 5am................. Not Happy Jan!!!!  We had a fantastic day!  all up there where 10 kids (youngest being 7 and oldest 15yrs!!!) we all had a WONDERFUL Christmas lunch (every family did a dish) we had the BEST spread of Roast Pork, Turkey, Chicken, baked snapper (done in coconut cream and fresh mango........................) prawn salad, potato salad, roast vege's and a few varieties of green salads.  We all ate heaps, then came back at 5pm to feast on the left overs!!!

Christmas Morning = 3 Happy Vegimites!!!!

Wednesday 23rd December,

The day Laura has been looking forward to for a loooong time!!!!  Redsun camel ride on Cable Beach.  The ride set off around 5.30pm for a leisurely ride along the beach - lovely evening for it.  They had a few Camel questions - Laura was the only one who could answer them (even amoungst all the adults) 1. what does a camel acutally have in its hump? - no not water its actually a fat store,  2. What is a camel with only one hump called?  no not a one humped camel...... its called a Dromedary and she won a HUGE stuffed camel (worth $64.95 - the ride only cost $60 for the two of us!!!) she is a regular Bindi Irwin!!! (Bindi the jungle girl is one her favourite shows).

Mum went with Laura, we where on one of the only 2 female camels, her name is Chloe, its only the 2nd day out for them since the Cylcone they are eager to get going!!

Getting on and off was a slight challenge!!!

After our camel ride we drove around Cable Beach and Roebuck Bay looking at the Christmas lights!!!

Monday 21st December

Well what a jam packed weekend...................  We have been watching the BOM very closely following the above cyclone for the last week and a half.  By Saturday morning Broome was on Blue Alert (the first of 3 warnings), by 3pm Saturday the cyclone had moved closer and the SES and police advised that Broome would go to Yellow Alert by the evening (the 2nd of 3 warnings - red being the 3rd and meaning the cyclone WILL hit and they will NOT allow you to leave town).  6 families had a meeting and decided that it was safer to leave now then wait till 12am or 3am when its possible we were in a worse situation.  It was POURING with rain and the wind was blowing a gale, however we all packed up the rest of our gear (by now this wasn't much as we had already planned for this move) and 6 vans and families headed North East to Willare or perhaps Derby.  Broome went to Yellow alert as we where leaving town, shops were closed indefinately

It was a very nervous 2hr drive with the wind blowing us around and the roads slippery wet.  We arrived at the Willare Roadhouse around 7pm everyone tired and fed up.  We free camped outside the roadhouse for the night, made poached eggs on bread and went to bed.

The next morning we decided it was still not safe to travel back to Broome,  the roadhouse let us have powered sites for the night (Sunday) for $25 a site (quite cheap) so we moved around the back to the sites, at lunch Brad, Julie, Dan and Matthew drove into Derby to get some supplies and internet access to find out what was going on.  They discovered that the road to Fitzroy Crossing was now closed, and it may be possible to go back to Broome on Monday.

Monday 9am after a VERY wet and windy night (apparently Willare had over 29 ml's of rain overnight) we head back to Broome, on the way we see the road to Port Headland has been closed, the cyclone is now a Cat 5 and headed straight for Eighty Mile Beach (they and surrounds are now on Red alert).  We got back to Broome around 11.30am still very wet and windy however for the moment all clear re: cyclone.

We hope all those in 80 mile will be ok. 

Monday 14th December

We have now moved to a much better CP (Palm Grove Caravan retreat) so much nicer than the first CP we were at, this one even has kangaroo's!!!!   We have spent the last week walking around the shops and sight seeing.  Monday nights are half price Pizza at LUSTRE Bar & Restaurant - they are the BEST pizza's we have EVER tasted, Caroline's favourite is Crispy Bacon, with Sea Scallops, Camembert and Spring Onion..............   The vegetarian pizza is an inch high with eggplant, roasted pumpkin, fetta, olives ect ect  the kids love the "Pig & Pineapple!!" ooohhhhh and its Monday today!!!  roll on 6pm!!!!  we went last Monday with Julie, Brad and the kids and for all of us ( 5 or 6 pizza's) and drinks was only $73 better than Macca's!!!

Anatasia's pool (a man created this pool for his arthritic wife "Anastasia")

We went down to Cable Beach, to have a picnic, play beach cricket and watch the sun slip into the ocean.......

Sat 5th, Sun 6th, Monday 7th December 2009

We spend the next few days checking out the local beaches - AWESOME.  We also check out the 2 major shopping centres - this is a real treat as being in Kuna for so long with just Coles, 1 country Target and not much else there is such a HUGE variety of shops here.  We all get some much needed new clothes, swimmers and thongs (for the 2 girls).

To Quote John Williamsons famous song "Welcome all to Broome" Red sand and blue sea's............

Friday 4th December 2009

We arrive in Broome around lunch time and check into a caravan park (won't stay here the 4 weeks as we intended, very cranky, strict and not too friendly at all) we will move on Friday 11th to another park.  Its lunch time and Guess What????? for the first time in over 5 mths we see the good ole golden arches!!!!  Yep You guessed it our 10th Anniversary/40th B'day lunch was at McDonalds!!!!! :lol:.  We settle quietly into our temporary home (apparently they don't like kids....... well they new we had 5 of them between us!!!).

Tomorrow is another day!!

Thursday 3rd December

We arrived last night at the Kimberly Entrance CP in Derby.  Today Jacob turns 15yrs (where did those years go), he got a digital camera, a really cool Billabong hat and a fully sic chain with an Onyx shark tooth!! totally gnarly dude.  The boys spend the day crabbing and attempting to fish, 1 large muddie and a few catfish later they return home.

We check out the local pool and the Boab Prison Tree said to be 1500 years old!!!

Friday 4th December 2009

Caroline Turns 40yrs today.....................  Matthew presented her with the most beautiful Boab pendant containing 2 diamonds!!!! Wow, she also received a gift voucher and some great bird books, so many different species here from Julie, Brad and the gang.  We also celebrate 10 yrs of marriage today!!! (Big day).

We leave Derby around 8.30am and head for Broome.