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We made it to Monkey Mia early and decided to put up the tent for a change. The weather was deliciously warm. We hired a double kayak and went for a 3-hour kayak down the coast, stopping occasionally at secluded beaches for a snorkel.

It is quite a neat place. You see dolphins swimming about during the day, right in close to shore. We were swimming and a dolphin came right up to us. I screamed a little and hid behind Mike. It was pretty neat though. The dolphin swam down the beach a little then came right by us again. I could have touched it, but we aren’t allowed to.

The dolphins come in every morning to be fed. They pick people in the crowd to feed the dolphins. It is a bit boring really. I think they should get the dolphins jumping through hoops to make it more interesting.

The Pelicans on the other hand were a laugh to watch. They were being fed at the same time as the dolphins and they are real characters. We found them far more entertaining than the dolphins.

Here they are all lined up like good little kids waiting for their food:

The restaurant at the resort that overlooks the bay and it does amazing food. It is gorgeous having dinner there watching the sunset over the bay.

We enjoyed the warm weather so much we stayed for 3 days.

The next blog will be snorkeling in Coral Bay on the Nigaloo reef

We arrived late in the day and found an amazing free place to camp the night just outside of Denham – on the road to Monkey Mia.

We camped right on the waters edge and cracked open our bottle of sparkling and watched the sun set over the ocean while listening to Loreena McKennett (ideal sunset music). It was a magical moment.

We cracked open a bottle of red and attempted some arty sunset photos.

I was a bit drunk and don’t remember much after that.

This is Mike’s explanation of events that I don’t remember.

Mike:

I was just sitting there, enjoying the solitude, the waves gently lapping onto the shore, when there was a sudden almighty crash. I turned and saw Jo, lying on the ground, still sat in her chair, looking rather bemused where she was and how she got there.

“I’m stuck and can’t get up? ” giggles Jo.
I just stared in total disgust.
“Help, can’t get up,” she exclaims.
I still just stared in total disbelief.
“Well bloody help me up, just don’t stand there,” she demands sounding rather agitated.

I still just stared trying to figure out how to get her up. Do I extract her from the chair first or do I pick her up chair and all. I decided on the latter and pulled on the arm of the chair and brought Jo and the chair into the vertical position

Jo then stumbled into her bed and passed out, leaving me to tidy up as usual.

Our next stop was Perth, where we had planned to camp a few days and catch up with nephew David, but the weather was crap, and the camping grounds cramped due to school holidays. We decided continue north in search of warmer weather. We stopped at the Pinnacles which are cool rocks sticking out of the ground. It felt like we were in an episode of star trek starring Spaceship Dory, Captain Mike and Navigator Jo.

We stayed at a campground near the pinnacles, right on the beach. We treated ourselves to crayfish, as this is where they get fresh ones. For $50 we got two crayfish, as much salad as we could eat, and chips. Pretty good value I thought.

The weather was still crap, so we continued heading north with brief stops at Kalbarri and Dongara.

The highlight was the Margaret River region, where we wined and dined for free. Wineries were only a few hundred metres apart, all offering wine tastings. And taste we did! We visited cheese factories that had a variety of cheeses on offer. The nut factory had some delicious assortments of sweet and savoury items. One of the wineries had bread, olive oil and dukkha. And to top it off we pigged out on free chocolate at the chocolate factory.

The south of Western Australia was pretty miserable. Wet and cold, so we didn’t spend too much time there.

The route so fat and we’re not even half way!!!

Just a short drive today, still on the south coast of West Australia. We had driven past so many wineries it was time to stop and do some wine tasting.

We stopped at Old Kent River winery, as we didn’t have to detour. As soon as we walked in we were greeting and handed two glasses and they just kept of pouring us wines to try. We tried sparking, sauvignon, un-wooded chardonnay, wooded chardonnay, 3 types of pinot noir and two Shiraz. The drinks just kept coming. I was rather tipsy by the time we finished.

The pinots were the best of the reds, but I decided the sparkling was my favourite so we bought a bottle of that. It was as good as Bollinger. I have a limited budget for buying wines so we have decided on only one bottle per winery.

We headed down to a caravan park in Peaceful Bay. It was only about 26 degrees, not warm enough for me to swim.

We tried out our new mozzie net and we think it will work a treat when we put it up the correct way. I think it will be a lifesaver when we get up north with all the mozzies and flies.

We cooked up some meat burritos for dinner.

We headed off early as the ranger told us they were burning off around the area.

It was a magnificent day, beautiful clear skies and temperature in the 30’s. We stopped in Albany and picked up some supplies, brochures and a mozzie net. It was for a specific gazebo, but we will make it work somehow. Albany was a nice town, right on the water. There were many shops and cafes so we decided it was best to move on before any more money was spent.

We found a free camping spot right on the beach in a place called cosy corner. We ignored the “no camping” signs and set up camp.

It was a gorgeous spot and about 34 degrees so we headed in for a swim (first time in the sea since Surfers Paradise).

We cooked up a Mongolian lamb stir-fry for dinner and it was pretty damn nice.

We did a morning walk around Wave Rock, Hippos Yawn, and some salt lakes. Afterwards we headed to Stirling Ranges national park to camp for the night.

Still haven’t free camped yet.

We forgot to buy fresh meat, so we fried up some salami and onions and had it with garlic mash and salad. It was dark by the time we got around to washing up and we boiled up some of the water from the camping ground, and when we shone our torch on it, it looked like we had just boiled up some mud. Yuck! Luckily we had our own water.

We met a couple that were travelling around in a house truck (kiwis obviously). They had taken 2.5 years to get from Melbourne to here. Guess they have a lot of spare time (and cash).

We had no camp to pack up so we were on the road by 8am. We stopped at the shell shop in Norseman to refuel (cheapest fuel in town!) and they offered free coffee. So we filled our mugs and were on our way.

Esperence is very much a beachside town, similar to Poole but not as nice. We took a 56km drive to the Cape Le Grand National park, where some of the nicest beaches in the country are. The beaches were beautiful. Snow white sand and brilliant turquoise waters.

It was unfortunate that the school holidays had just started and the camping areas were overflowing with campers. We took one look and trotted off outta there.

We stayed the night in an Esperence camping ground where we met this nice couple that have been caravanning around Australia for 30 years. Well not continuously. They know all the tricks and told us about free camping. Apparently there are loads of places you can free camp in Australia. They had come down from Brisbane and free camped all the way. This was their first night in paid accommodation. I really wish I had known about this before hand, we would have saved a fortune.

As we are on a very tight budget now (due to spending too much in the first half of the journey) we went out and bought the Camps 4 Australia wide book they recommended. It has all the places to camp, including free camps. We have stopped and looked at a few places and some of them look quite good. Usually there are no facilities, but sometimes there are toilets. We have potti so we are fairly self-sufficient.

We might try one out tonight.