Sunny Days!

Days 18 + 19: Denham / Monkey Mia

Finally we struck gold!! Sure, it hasn't been raining every day of our trip, but certainly every destination that we've stopped so far has had its fair share of cold and wet weather – but not Denham!

Denham is approximately 833km North of Perth on the Peron Penninsula – some may know the area as Shark Bay or Monkey Mia.

The drive from the coastal highway towards the penninsula is world heritage listed. I have to say when we first saw these signs we thought it was a little overrated as there wasn't a whole lot to look at. As soon as we got a glimpse of the stunning water though, we knew we were in for a little treat.

Denham is hub of the penninsula and we reckon the best place to stay. We stayed at a caravan park really close to the water and were in close proximity to the shops, food and information centre. Sadly Nick once again missed out on going on a charter boat (not enough people booked) but the area was great all the same.

There were a number of highlights from this part of the trip including attending the dolphin feeding at Monkey Mia (approximately25 km out of Denham). The sun was out, but the wind was freezing so stepping out into the water was a little bit chilly but certainly worth it.

After visiting the dolphins I dragged Nick out to the Ocean Park Aquarium for some shark feeding! It wasn't the fanciest of aquariums around, but we both agreed that it was definitely interesting and worth the trip. It wasn't just all sharks, they had fish and some invertebrates as well. The tanks weren't fancy (ponds in a tin shed) but the guide was great and made the whole tour very informative and enjoyable. Unfortunately they didn't have any tiger sharks in the shark pool at the time, but the others were definitely worth a look.

I don't know how we missed getting photos of the sharks, but this little guy was in one of their other tanks, he's missing a flipper so he'll probably see out his days in the aquarium.

There's some great national parks and 4wd tracks around the penninsula. We were a little hesitant to venture out on some of these 4wd tracks on our own after our Cape Arid experience, but we're very keen to return at a later stage with a second vehicle to get to some of the more remote sections.

The Wrap Up:

Glad we had: Somewhere to watch the 3^rd State of Origin match – Go Maroons!!

Wish we had: Friends!! (To drive out on the 4wd tracks with us and boost the numbers for the fishing charter – and to keep us company of course!!)

Lobster!!!!!!!!!!

Day 17: Jurien Bay

Well, it was time to leave Perth. Of course, as it has been for us for a lot of this trip, the weather fined up just as we were leaving Perth!  Unfortunately to keep on schedule we couldn't afford the time to stay in the region and head to Rottnest or for Nick to get on a charter, so we hit the road again and ended up in Jurien Bay.

On the way we stopped at the Pinnacles - basically a whole heap of rocks coming up and out of the desert sand.  It was pretty cool, and there's a good information centre on site explaining the history of the area and the theories behind the rock formations.  I don't know that I'd make a special trip to see them, but if you're in the area it's definitely worth a look.  Apparently they look even better on sunset.

 The pinnacles

More of the same (there's thousands of them!)

This one is just to give you an idea of what it's like. There's a 4km track that weaves in between the rocks (2WD access).  It's a bit hard to see in this photo, but if you squint you can see the ocean in the background - pretty amazing.

Not far from the Pinnacles is a little town of Cervantes - famous for it's lobsers!!

We've met some really interesting characters on our trip, none more so than the bloke who took this picture. He was an orphan who had been abused by the Christian Brothers.  You've possibly heard of the guy as he is one of the 9 who have made sure the world knows of all the atrocities that went on with the orphans whilst under their care.  It was terrible to hear about what went on and hard to know how to react except to thank him for sharing his story and to tell him how sorry we were to hear what happened to him.  Interesting times...

After Cervantes we headed up to Jurien Bay to set up camp for the night. Possibly the coldest we've been so far, but a nice time all the same.

The sun setting over the water as Nick fished off the Jetty.  He caught heaps of Pike but nothing too substantial.

The Wrap Up:

Glad we had: Fine weather!!

Wish we had: Warm bed!! 



Feels like home to me

Days 14 to 16: Perth

Home cooked dinners by Trude and Marcus (my gorgeous cousin and her fabulous husband); sleep ins; hanging out in PJs a little later than normal; a glass of wine or two and some lovely chats - theses were definitely the highlights of Perth! Yep, we were lucky enough to stay with these guys and had a wonderful time - they couldn't have made us feel more welcome. The weather continued to be pretty foul but we did manage to take a look around all the same.

The Aquarium near Hillarys Boat Harbour was really good, although we still think that the Sunny Coast's Underwater World is top-notch - we certainly are spoilt having this so close to home.

We also enjoyed exploring Subiaco and Perth on foot - including a trip to Kings Park where we stopped for a quick drink at the cafe and were served by Rachael from Masterchef! I thought it was a little rude to sneak a photo of her, and too embarassed to have her pose for one with me so you'll just have to trust me that it was her!

The view from Kings Park backdown to Perth (pics from the iPhone)

War memorial at Kings Park

We also filled our time with going out for eats, a little shopping, catching up with the lovely Richard and Heather, drives up and down the coast, and taking in the sunset over the ocean.

The Wrap Up:
Glad we had: Warm bed, and a place to call 'home' (if only for 3 days!)
Wish we had: Kept an eye on the street signs so we wouldn't have gotten a parking fine in Subiaco on game day :(

Rainy Days

Day 12 + 13: Fremantle

Well we left the lovely Margaret River Region in the hope of finding some finer weather in order to explore the portside of Fremantle.  Unfortunately, as seems to be the theme of this trip, the weather didn't improve so we were a little cold and wet, however we still managed to have fun all the same!

Some of the highlights:
- Little creatures brewery
- The Monk Bar (I'm starting to sound like a regular alcoholic!)
- The Fremantle Markets
- Exploring the cool streets with old style buildings - I've never been to the UK but it felt like it could have been a bit English)
- Walks along the jetty spotting fish, squid and crabs

We would have loved to have headed over to Rottnest Island as EVERYONE suggests that this is a 'must do' whilst you're in the area.  We could have gone, but the weather was foul and the snorkelling would have been no good - we are definitely hitting these shores in summer next time!

Sadly we have no photos of Freo as were on foot most most of the time (yes, even though it was raining!) so we decided to leave the bulky camera at home.

The only photos I do have are pretty boring - a view from our hotel room in North Fremantle.

The Wrap Up:
Glad we had: Haircuts!! (we were both well overdue plus we needed to get out of the weather!)
Wish we had: Remembered the name and pre-booked the Quest apartments right on the waterfront in the heart of Freo - it was booked out.  Also wish we had better weather for Nick to be able to go out on the charter boat.

It's been a while!!

Catching up on blogging:

Wow, who would have thought time would travel so fast.  We're now in week 5 of our little adventure with just over a week and a half to go. Sadly it's been sometime since I've had internet access so I'm going to attempt to group a few things together and post as many as I can whilst time permits. (I'm writing this from a Hotel room in Darwin whilst Nick takes in a spot of fishing!)