Western Australia Adventure - Part I

I know that we've been home for almost a month, but it has been a busy few weeks.  We had such a wonderful time in Western Australia.  We booked the trip to celebrate John finishing his thesis and his  30th birthday.  We knew that if we didn't get out to Western Australia before we moved, then we probably never would.  John was dying to see the Ningaloo Reef (the largest fringing reef in the world).  It was an adventure, that's for sure.

Day 1

Townsville to Perth

The first day of the trip was mostly traveling.  We flew from Townsville to Brisbane and then on to Perth, arriving in Perth in the early afternoon.  One of the best decisions we made was to get Alexis her own seat on the airplane.  She is such a wiggle worm and the extra room made a huge difference.  We had to wake her up at 4:45am to make our first flight and then she ended up only sleeping for about 45 minutes total for the rest of the day.  Even low on sleep, she traveled well.  We did end up with a few war wounds though.  My toe was first.  I tripped getting out of the taxi at the airport and stubbed my middle toe so bad that the whole toe turned black and I was limping for the next two days.  Alexis was next.  She kept tripping (maybe because she was so tired?) and ended up hitting her forehead twice in the exact same spot.  By the time we made it on the plane in Brisbane she had a pretty good scrape/bruise on her forehead and one on her knee too.  Lucky John made it through the day unscathed.

Once we were in Perth we headed straight to the depot to pick up our campervan.  We were a little nervous to start driving such a big vehicle, but John did great.  The smaller size vans we were originally looking for didn't have allowances for a car seat, so we had to get a larger one, but in the end we were happy to have the extra wiggle room.  Here's a look at the van:

(We set up our dinner table over Alexis' car seat and the front seats swiveled around to face the table.  Alexis and I slept in the double bed in the back and John slept in the loft over the front.  The net in the picture stopped stuff from falling out of the loft while we were driving.  Even though we had our own toilet and shower, we tried to use the bathrooms at the caravan parks when possible because cleaning out the toilet was not fun!)

We made a quick stop at the grocery store on the way to our first caravan park in Coogee Beach (just south of Fremantle).  Our priority was familiarising ourselves with the van and getting settled in so we had pizza delivered to us at the park.  The lady at the local pizza shop was so nice.  Their delivery driver didn't start for another hour, but we were starving and tired, so the lady delivered us our pizza herself.  How's that for service?  And the pizza was delicious.  After our yummy dinner we headed straight to bed.

Day 2

Perth/Fremantle

Alexis woke up at 4:00am Perth time.  We couldn't be too upset because it was 6:00am Townsville time, but we were pretty tired from all of the traveling the day before.  The biggest problem was that it was still dark outside and wouldn't get light for another three hours (and it was freezing)!  Trying to keep her happy in the campervan was a big challenge.  We were grateful for the extra room that the larger campervan provided.  And thank goodness that it had a T.V.!  We couldn't get any reception for the channels to work, but we were able to play the Wiggles DVD that we had brought with us.  It was a lifesaver and would continue to be throughout our trip.  I think that John and I now have that whole DVD memorised.  But, the sunrise was well worth the wait:

This was the sunrise at Coogee Beach.  It was my first time seeing the Indian Ocean.

As you can probably gather from looking and us, Alexis and I were freezing!  I had both of the sweatshirts on that I had packed.  I definitely didn't factor in the wind when I was packing.  Everywhere we went was windy, which made it feel a lot colder.  Thankfully, the farther north we traveled, the warmer it got.

Later that morning, we met up with our friends Peter and Dorothy who live in Fremantle.  They picked us up at Coogee Beach and were our tour guides for the day.  We started off with a driving tour of Fremantle and Perth.  We stopped at the Swan Bell Tower:

The Bell Tower was built to house the twelve bells of St. Martin-in-the-Field.  A gift from the UK and the only known royal bells to ever leave England.

We also stopped at Kings Park and the Botanical Gardens.  We saw the famous boab tree and Alexis had tons of fun running around.

One of the views of the Swan River from Kings Park:

There were some absolutely amazing views of the CBD, but unfortunately I didn't get pictures.

A trip to Fremantle would not be complete without a lunch of fish and chips at the famous Cicerello's.  They had great fish tanks inside the restaurant (and even in the toilets).  Alexis loved them.

After a stop at  at Cottesloe Beach and Mosman Park, Peter and Dorothy dropped us back to Coogee Beach for a much needed afternoon rest.  It happened to be Dorothy's birthday, so that evening we met up again for a birthday dinner at the Mexican Kitchen in Fremantle.  It was nice to go out to reasonably authentic Mexican food, especially compared to what we have available in Townsville.  We had a lovely time sightseeing and spending time with our friends.

View of the Swan River from Mosman Park.  That sandbar is a amazing!

Day 3

Perth to Cervantes

Day 3 started off with Alexis waking up at 5:00am throwing up.  Lucky for us she was only sick for a few hours.  Unlucky for us, a sick baby in a campervan makes for a very gross mess.  Before leaving town, we stopped to do some more extensive grocery shopping.  Which was lucky, because I forgot to get laundry soap and when we got to Cervantes, the town was so small they only had a small  (and I mean small) general store.  It made me wonder where the residents got all of their food/supplies.  It took us about three hours to drive to Cervantes from Perth (on the beautiful and just recently finished Indian Ocean Drive).  But it was a very picturesque town right on the ocean.  On the way to Cervantes, we stopped to see the Pinnacles at Nambung National Park.  The coolest part was that we were allowed to walk right through them.

Those black things are flies.  They would not leave us alone!

After our stop at the general store, we set up the van in the caravan park.  John took Alexis to a playground that they had right at the beach while I made dinner.

Day 4
Cervantes to Kalbarri

On our way to Kalbarri, we stopped in Geraldton to have lunch at the beach.  Alexis was in heaven because there were swings.

This was our view of Kalbarri driving into town:

When we got to the caravan park in Kalbarri, they had a nice playground and pool.  John took Alexis to the playground so that I could make dinner, but once Alexis saw the pool, she didn't want anything to do with the toys.  That girl just loves to go swimming.  We knew it would be cold, but she was persistent, so John got changed and I put Alexis in a swim diaper.  It was hilarious; she put one toe in and wouldn't go near the water after that.  It was freezing!!

Day 5
Kalbarri to Monkey Mia

After waking up at 5:30am asking for milk, Alexis went back to sleep until 7:30am!  It was heavenly.  She probably would have slept even longer than that, but John got up to use the bathroom and she woke right up.   Before we left Kalbarri in the morning, we made a quick stop at Back Beach.  It was beautiful.

We also stopped at the park in town for Alexis to go on the swings.  The Murchison River meets the Indian Ocean at Kalbarri and the park was right on the water, so that was fun to see.

On our way to Monkey Mia we drove through Kalbarri National Park.  We stopped at the Ross Graham lookout.  Alexis had fun walking down the trail:

The view of the Murchison River from the lookout:

Monkey Mia is located on the Shark Bay Peninsula.  Also on the peninsula is Nanga Bay.  We stopped there for lunch.  It was a beautiful beach, but there were so many flies that we ended up eating inside the van.

This picture is deceiving because the beautiful turquoise water looks so warm and inviting.  The weather was quite a bit warmer than in Perth, but the water was still freezing!  At this point, we were just crossing our fingers that we would be able to go in the water at Ningaloo.

Once we got to Monkey Mia, we wasted no time in setting up the van (hooking up the fresh water, waste water, power and gas) so that we could explore the beach.  The Monkey Mia Resort was a huge let-down (way overcrowded and dirty), but the beach was beautiful.

I'm so glad that I brought those sunglasses for Alexis.  I've had them for a long time, but she's never wanted to wear them.  I just threw them in the bag while I was packing.  Once she saw John and I wearing our sunglasses all of the time, she wanted some too!

 . . . Western Australia Adventure - Part II coming soon . . .