The Coral Coast - Western Australia

The Coral Coast the top Western Part of Western Australia famous for the Ningaloo Reef and the whale sharks.

Carnarvon - Fleur at the Space and Technology Museum, which celebrates the role that Carnarvon Tracking Station played in the manned space programme. Built to support NASA's Gemini & Apollo programmes it was the last station to communicate with the space capsules leaving the earth orbit, and the last contact before splashdown. 

Just to prove its not all beer and skittles on this jolly, a little bit of work having to change the shock absorber rubbers on Larry after some serious corrugations had reduced the originals to dust causing some major knocking noises. We ended up staying 6 days in Carnarvon to catch up on school work and caravan and car maintenance.

The Blowholes just north of Carnarvon with a sign to warn you of the dangers. Off the beach there was some good coral for our first family snorkelling adventure. Ellie said "That was the best thing ever" as we sat on the beach eating our picnic and watching some sort of shark swim past exactly where we had just swam.

Heading north from Carnarvon and crossing the Tropic of Capricorn, an imaginary line of latitude going around the earth at approximately 23.5° south of the equator. It is the southernmost point on earth where the suns rays can be directly overhead at local noon on the December solstice. We have left the southern temperate zone and entered the tropics. As this imaginary line is moving in a complex manner and not fixed, Penny, using all the things she learnt at university, has positioned herself on the actual latitude for 2014 and is demonstrating just how far out of position the sign is now.

Coral Bay in the Ningaloo Coast Marine Park, another Word Heritage area. The reef is one of the largest fringing reefs in the world and you get to it by stepping off the beach. Two days of snorkelling and swimming in the warm crystal clear waters with plenty of coral, fish and a few rays spotted. Fleur and Ellie celebrating what might just be the best beach so far! It's also worth recording that on day 104 of our trip it actually rained, for a full 10 minutes, our first rain on the trip so far, but not enough to wash the car or caravan. 

Turquoise Bay in the Ningaloo Marine Park - another full couple of days snorkelling at the many beaches up and down the reef, it is now starting to become a problem to choose the best beach, there may be too many to choose from. Trip Advisor voted Turquoise Bay the second best beach in Australia.

Sunset at the Vlamingh Head Lighthouse which stands at the northernmost tip of Cape Range on the Coral Coast. The Lighthouse overlooks Lighthouse Bay and has the distinction of being one of the few places in Australia where you can watch the sun rise and set. Another lighthouse landmark on our journey as we stop heading north and turn to head east.  

100 Days

Thursday 20 March 2014 is the 100th day of our big lap.

Current location - Carnarvon

Some statistics so far:

     Overall distance travelled - 10,835 km (6,732 miles)

     Route distance travelled (big lap) - 8,851 km (5,500 miles)

     Total fuel used - 2300 L (506 gallons)

     Average fuel Price - $1.66 L (90p)

     Number of different places stayed overnight - 36

     State/Territory boarders crossed - 5

     Amount of rain on lap - 0mm

     Hottest day - 46 degrees South Australia

     Mountains climbed - 4

     Hats lost - 3 (Fleur 2, Mark 1)

     Thongs (flip flops) lost - 3 (2 to wind, 1 to dingo)

     Number of days since paid employment - 105 (Mark) 6 years (Penny)

Shark Bay

Shark Bay - a World Heritage Area due to its unique and abundance marine life. To be inscribed, properties must be of outstanding universal value and meet at least one of ten selection criteria set by the UNESCO. Shark Bay satisfied all four of the natural criteria for World Heritage listing.

Denham - Having an evening beer at the most westerly bar, in the most westerly hotel (pub for those in the uk) in the most westerly town in the whole of Australia. At this present time there was no one drinking beer, in a bar, in a town, west of us until you get to South Africa and they would have been in bed so probably Brazil!

Monkey Mia - Home to the world famous Monkey Mia Dolphins. Morning time, Penny, Fleur and Ellie (specially chosen to feed the dolphins) unsure about who was going to hold the fish to give to Puck the dolphin. Puck who was born in 1976 and been coming to Monkey Mia ever since has never had to wait so long for her one fish breakfast.

Ellie playing Lego outside the caravan was surprised to find that one of the locals wanted to join in. Fleur had barricaded herself inside the caravan to watch from the safety afforded by the fly screen. 

Evening sailing in Shark Bay Marine Park, a major fish nursery with extensive sea grass meadows that provides the food for the wide array of marine life. We got to see a number of dugongs and dolphins along with a turtle. Both Mark and Fleur lost their hats due to the wind which are now consigned to litter this world heritage area.   

Shell Beach - an amazing pure white beach that has been created naturally from hundreds of millions of tiny sea shells (Fragum cockles) that grow in profusion in the bay. Extending 120km long and over 10m deep, scientists are puzzled by the proliferation and extensive deposits of these shells thought to be up to 4000 year old. Compacted shells were quarried for building blocks and the local church in Denham was constructed using these shell blocks.

Hamelin Bay - Ellie hanging out with the Stromatolites in Hamelin Pool. The living microbes that construct the Stromatolites are similar to the earliest forms of life on earth dating back 3000 million years and are responsible for the production of the oxygen in the atmosphere and therefore all other life. Not much to look at but one of only two sites in the world where they still exist. 

Central West Coast - Western Australia

The Central West Coast heading North from Perth, loads of deserted open roads, hardly any people and long open stretches of beaches, wheat fields and National Parks.

New Norcia - monastery settlement established in 1846 by Benedictine monks as an Aboriginal mission. Still in use today with 8 monks in residence. They also run the New Norcia Hotel and brew their own beer to sell at the bar, the Abbey Ale is indeed a fine use of the monks time and at 7% happy hour in the monastery must be fun. 

The Pinnacles Desert in the Nambung National Park features thousands of limestone spires up to five metres tall. The lime rich desert sand originated from seashells, which was compacted with rain and then subsequently eroded to form the individual pillars. The girls are playing hide and seek behind the rocks.

Geraldton - HMAS Sydney Memorial, which commemorates the 645 Australian Sailors who were lost in a World War II naval battle in 1941. The memorial contains a silver dome constructed with 645 steel seagulls and a statue of a women gazing out to sea. The wreck was not found until 2007 some 66 years after its sinking.

Coronation beach - overnight camping spot on the beach. Lovely free camp, very windy but the bay is protected by an  offshore reef so loads of kite surfers and windsurfers playing in the bay to entertain us for the day. View from the lookout with Carrie and Larry in the middle. 

Kalbarri National Park - over 1000sq km of bushland, river gorges and coastal cliffs. The Murchison River has carved a gorge over millions of years to form dramatic sandstone faces. Here Penny, Fleur and Ellie are sat within 'Natures Window' a natural rock arch forming the view down into the upstream side of the gorge.

Kalbarri coastal gorges features towering cliffs, and dramatic rock outcrops with names such as 'Mushroom Rock', 'Island Rock' and 'Natural Bridge' as seen here. Very similar to the Great Ocean Road in Victoria without the crowds of people but in their place the biggest number of flies so far encountered on our entire trip. We had to run from the car to the view, take the photo and then run back to the car before becoming fly food. 

Perth

Perth, the capital city of Western Australia and the worlds most remote substantial city. Closer to Jakarta in Indonesia than Canberra in Australia. Perth was originally founded by Captain James Sterling in 1829 and named after Perth in Scotland.

Freemantle or Freo, Fleur and Ellie with Bon Scott the former AC/DC lead singer and Freo's most famous son (he was born in Scotland). We ate fish and chips from Cicerellos which has been serving for more than 100 years right inside Australia’s largest fishing boat harbour (however the fish they served comes from New Zealand)

Fishing for our tea on Rockingham Pier, we all managed to catch a number of blow fish which are tiny and poisonous so they had to be returned - Ellie, Fleur and Penny managed to catch a proper fish although none were big enough to feed the family so were all returned to the sea to grow a bit.

Perth Zoo - Fleur and Ellie with Uncle Kevin and a gorilla, or is that Uncle Bry? A fun day spent learning about endangered species as part of the girls schooling. Perth zoo was first opened in1898 and is now dedicated to animal conservation.

Perth skyline looking north across the Swan River from South Perth. Interesting facts about Perth, it is home to the largest inner city park in the world - Kings Park which is bigger than New York's Central Park and Perth was nominated by U.S astronauts as the 'City of Lights' - as it stands out as the bright spot on earth.

End of a fun week in Perth with Penny's brother on Rockingham beach at sunset. Fleur and Ellie loved spending time with their Uncle whom they hadn't seen for a couple of years.