Nambung National Park

Tried to find somewhere in Cervantes. The caravan park asked for $69 so we booked the Youth Hostel at Lancelin. It's twice the price of pitching a tent, but gives linen, a roof over your head, plus a great kitchen stocked with free leftover bread from the local bakery.

Stopped at the Pinnacles in the Nambung National Park. It was a big surprise for everyone (not me I've been there once). We all snapped off a lot of pictures and ran around the rocks. They look like a sci fi landscape.

Right: Louis has a go at steering

Everyone was excited.

Ollie, Lou and me had a ride.

The timing was perfect for great colours.

We probably should have just walked it in hindsight. We took it in turns of walking or driving.

Pink Lake, Geraldton

Left: Pink Lake, Both algae and bacteria that thrive in super salty conditions give the colour.

In Geraldton, we booked a B&B at the tourist info. The owner is quite a character and let's say, not the most politically correct person.  Told us about about the gorgeous German backpacker and his sons descriptions of her body parts, so he "knew where he'd been". Marie handled it ok but was not comfortable. Ollie said Frank was annoying and swore way too much.

The B and B was pretty cool, a home from the 1880s, immaculately painted by the German backpacker, who must have been particular about it. It sat up on the hill with a nice view over town. He kept giving us crazier deals to stay, so we ended up staying two more nights. 

Wandered around town mainly, shopping a bit. The kids loved the park near the tourist info office. It was a relaxing stay. The main street is very nicely preserved, just needs a repaint of the gaudier stores.

Left: at the Geraldton Museum, the story of the Batavia. It was a flag ship of the fleet, a large one, loaded with silver coins to buy spices. It was stuck on the reef of the Abrolhos Islands. Abrolhos means keep your eyes open in Portuguese. The watch thought the waves were reflections of the moon. The ship broke up.

On the island, the captain set off to find help. The second in charge was mental and arbitrarily killed people etc. On the captains return, he and 5 others were hung. Everyone probably perished. There is a chance they might find the local aboriginal people.

Right: the HMAS Sydney II and the Kormoran. The German ship was disguised as a small cruise ship, until the victim was close. Steel plates dropped quickly, and the German flag went up, while they opened fire on the unsuspecting.

The Sydney's life rafts were all either blown up, or burned. All 645 people went down with the ship.

On the German side, the Kormoran lost 80, but about 260 survived.

It was the worst disaster the Navy has ever had.

Kalbarri National Park.

Kalbarri caravan park had a lovely sheltered spot for us, and a nice kitchen. The national park was spectacular. A great walk. No complaints from the kids.

Left: Nature's Window.

 At the Z bend.

The coastline near the town has a great little rock pool for swimming. Once again the wind, cold and stone fish deterred us.

The coast is beautiful.

Morris, one of Richard and Penny's dogs. Fergus was there as well, much more popular with the people being a beautiful border collie. We had dinner with them all at the local brewery.

Ollie's selfie in the tent.

The pelican feeding.

A visitor in our tent.

Near Nature's Window.

At the Z Bend walk.

Natural Bridge Kalbarri

Big Lagoon, Francois Peron

Today went back to Francois Peron National Park to see Big Lagoon. [get traditional name] It was too cold for a swim. We cooked up noodles in the shelter, using a towel to block the wind from blowing out the gas cooker.

On the way back, there was a car of tourists spinning their wheels in the sand, but staying stationary. We stopped to help, got them to roll back and forth, but their skinny street tread tyres were pretty useless.

We checked their pressure. One was at 30, another 26. We put them all down to exactly 16, and then they rolled on fine again, very grateful. They're braver than us, tackling severe sand with no clue how it's done and a limp all wheel drive.

Little lagoon was pretty, but no swimming either.We are now super paranoid about stone fish. Met a family from Wollongong next to us in the camp, and another from Brisbane two tents up. He works for the ABC so we chatted about the endless attacks on them.

Right: burritos for dinner. Ollie snapped his roll effort: artwork.

Francois Peron National Park

Went to the dolphin feeding again first thing in the morning, then to Francois Peron National Park.

Left: the naturaliste Francois Peron. French named every last piece of land or water they saw.

At the homestead shearing shed.

The homestead had displays of local wildlife and feral pests that eat or displace the natives, like the fox right.

Spent some time in the hot tub, hotter than a bath. You can only stay for about 15 minutes or so before it's just too hot.

The cape was a nice walk along the beach.

Drove up to Walyibidi (Cape Peron). The 30km road up was very sandy. Helped some guys in 4wd in the sand with our shovels. Their Maxxtrax worked well. Seems they just had their tyre pressure wrong, but they kept on wheel spinning their way along. People like this chop up and ruin the road in general.

Dolphins were checking us out. Were they asking for fish?

Left: Cape Peron.

Got to skip jack point. The boys stayed in the car. Saw a turtle, several dugongs, a big colony of birds and maybe a sting ray. Something jumped out of the water that was black and white, and shaped like that.

A cultural tour at Gutharraguda

A cultural tour with Capes. Ate fish, played digeridoo, listened to stories. Louis was the boss, helping with firewood etc. He called Ollie "Muscles" as he was wearing a tank top. Ollie didn't like that. We tried to play the didge, didn't quite get there, didn't make the dog put his paw over his head though.

He was great, very funny. His folks had 14 children. They hid in the bush to prevent the govt from taking the children away. We ate three excellent fish smoked over the fire with the scales on and guts still in. He took the skin off, and flesh out after. Delicious! We all sounded ridiculous playing the traditional instruments. Didge is for men only. So the ladies had to try to make noise on some shell.

Monkey Mia

Got to Denham in Gutharraguda (pronounced something like gooda thurra gooda). Gutharraguda is the Malgana name for Shark Bay, meaning two bays. In 1616 Dirk Hartog was the first recorded European to get to the country. There are 3 language groups: Malgana, Nhanda and Yingkarta.

At Monkey Mia, we see the dolphin feeding. Fishermen gave them fish in the 60s and soon they took to regularly asking for more. Now in the mornings they come and a few ppl get to feed them. Marie got picked, so me her and Lou walked out to give a fish to Piccolo who's female so should it be Piccola?

They got reliant on the fish. Fewer young survived. Since 1994 the giving of fish is strictly controlled by Parks and Wildlife. 15 of 17 dolphin young survived now, as good as the wild.

Spent the afternoon swimming in the pool, then paddle boarding. It's not too hard. We were standing up after a few minutes and moving ok.

Ocean Park Aquarium

We visited Ocean park Aquarium. Marine bioligists take you through the various tanks and explain about the sealife in each. Really great.

We started at the morey eel tank. Apparently, don't put you finger in their mouth. It's not going to happen unless you are feeding them for example. He said to google the video of man feeds Morey eel sausages. He puts his thumb in. They have a secondary set of jaws. You hear a "pop". This is his thumb going at the joint.

There are 3 times as much Calamari as there are humans, weight for weight. You can eat these - it's a very sustainable thing to eat.

Sea snake holds it's breath for 2 hours. They can shut cardiac supply to parts of their body. Each has enough venom to kill all 30 of us on the tour. Most venomous creature.

The manta rays have a poisonous spike that will hurt but not kill. They are like arrows and barbed. They go in easily but do not take them out as they will rip out your flesh. Leave the tips in, then go to a doctor, who will cut in to the point end and drag it out forwards. Steve Irwin was very unlucky to get struck in the lung area. Plus he pulled it out, and would have suffered serious injury from that. It is possible he would have died anyway. The larger ones are less venomous.

Golden trevally can see above water. They attack birds, bugs and flying fish. Watching them race to get the feed thrown over the water was very impressive, like some sci fi super power.

Sharks are misunderstood. They will only attack sick, weak or dead fish. They don't eat much. 200 people die from selfies each year, but very few from shark bites. Don't pay attention to the scary movies.

The pretty brown fish with the feathery quills are quite poisonous. They are in plague proportions where they've been introduced in other parts of the world. In Australia, the sharks are smart enough to eat them from the fleshy side, to avoid the darts.

Stone fish are the most venomous fish on earth. The spikes are intensely painful. The pain can last for 80 hours. They can kill. The way they kill is not due to effects of poison directly. People die from cardiac arrest due to pain. He's asked mothers who've been bitten to compare the pain. They said being stung is ten times worse. It's some kind of enzyme muscle break down toxin, I think?

There is an antivenene, but no cure for the pain. Morphia will not dull it. You can put your foot into hot water, say 55 degrees, to deactivate the enzymes. This is the only help. Don't do it too hot, or you cook your foot off, as has happened to many people. These guys occupy any tropical area, including the East Coast, as we found out after Louis asked. They have gone south to Trigg Beach in Perth, I guess due to the heating climate. The spikes are as sharp as a needle, and as tough as a nail. If they kill, it is due to the extreme pain. The victim goes into cardiac arrest.

Turtles are in trouble, from climate change, habitat loss, mainly from plastics in the ocean. They mistake plastic bags for jelly fish. They cannot burp or fart. Undigested food can cause gas that causes them to float. They cannot then dive to the depth to get food. They are magnificent creatures.