Karijini Nat'l Park and 80 Mile Beach

After Coral Bay, we drove 535 km to Tom Price, where we spent the next day exploring the wonderful Karijini Nat'l Park.
Even with two little kids, we could do some of the walks, and we got to walk through a river and swim in a little lake under a waterfall! If you want, you can take long and more challenging walks, but for us, this was just perfect!

The day after that, we wanted to drive to Port Hedland, but fellow campers at Tom Price advised us not to stop there. Port Hedland apparantly is nothing but a big industrial town/area, with nothing interesting to see. So, we ended up driving 670 km from Tom Price to 80 Mile Beach, yet another town (actually only a campground) in the middle of nowhere. But a very nice campground, 100 meters from the beach.
It's very hot and VERY humid this far north in Australia ... On our way to the campground yesterday late afternoon, we spotted several kangaroos and the girls where very excited :-) This morning, we went searching for shells at the beach and now Emma and Janne are playing underneath the sprinklers on the campground. Which is ok, because we are the only people here ...
One last thing needs to be said: Emma and Janne are doing SO great with the travelling! Even yesterday, when we spent almost 7 hours driving, with only two 15 minute stops, they didn't complain, hardly fought and just played and had fun!!

We've only got a few more days left DownUnder. Tomorrow, we go to Broome, where we'll spend our last day, before flying back to Melbourne and to Singapore. No pics this time, as I'm posting this one again from one of those (horrible) PIE-Link internet kiosks.

Coral Bay

After Monkey Mia, we drove about 350 km to Coral Bay. On our way there, we stopped at shell beach, a beach made up only of shells! The second stop was at the Stromalites (see picture above). These stones are actually built by bacteria, the same bacteria that formed the first life forms on earth, millions of years ago.

Coral Bay is another beach resort, be it more of a backpackers beach resort, with two camp grounds, one hotel and one big backpackers dorm. The first two nights, we stayed at the camp ground. After drying out all our stuff on the first day and having spent one dry night in the tents, we spent the second night in the rain. And in pretty wet tents, because we didn't get all our stuff in the tents before the rain hit. After that night, we spent one more night in a cabin. We don't like camping out in the rain ...
Coral Bay is quit touristy (not much else here, besides tourist accomodation and shopt), but it's very pleasant to be here. We did a 2-hour reef-touring boat trip and Karin did some snorkling. The boat didn't go all the way to the Ningaloo Reef itself, but the corals closer to the coast are quite amazing as well! We spent a couple of hours on the beach, a few at the swimming pool and play ground and we took a 30 km off-road ride, just for the experience. During that short ride, we saw a few wild kangaroos and one big lizard. Coral Bay, where the outback meets the ocean.

Monkey Mia

Yesterday, we drove the 160 km to Monkey Mia, via Denham. It was a very quiet and easy day, be it a bit blustery. Tropical Cyclone Nicholas is approaching Exmouth, which is about 600 km from where we are now. Winds have been pretty wild the last couple of days, but last night was one of the worst nights we had so far. Pieter and I hardly slept, as we were both worried our tents would be blown away. Fortunately, Emma and Janne (again) slept wonderfully and both tents are still there. To make sure we get a good nights sleep, we booked a cabin for tonight. In Monkey Mia Dolphin Resort, that definitely not a bad thing! Today, we spent a leisurely day in the resort, having breakfast (blueberry pancakes), lunch (potatoe soup) and dinner (lemon prawns/ceasar salad) at the restaurant on the resort!
This morning, we did what Monkey Mia is famous for; we went to the beach to look at the wild dolphins that visit there every day. Janne even got to feed one of the dolphins! Besides the dolphins, we saw a lot of pelicans and several emu's. Because of Nichalos, we might end up spending at least one more night at Monkey Mia. There are worse places to be stuck, but still, we would prefer to be able to move on.
Another advantage of our luxurious day at the resort, is that we were able to upload some images to earlier posts. Hope you'll enjoy them :-)

Cervantes to Carnamah to Kalbarri to Overlander

We're loosing track of the days a bit, as we should, because we are on vacation. Since our last post, we traveled from Cervantes to Carnamah, from Carnamah to Kalbarri and from Kalbarri to Overlander.

Carnamah (poppulation est. 490) turned out to be surprisingly nice. We didn't think it would be much, as the caravan park looked like a parking lot and except for toilet/shower, there were no facilities. But, on the other side of the cricket field, a 500 meter walk from the caravan park, was the public swimming pool, just right for the four of us. Next to it was the local bowling club, where we had a chicken schnitzel dinner (prepared by members of the bowling club) and a good feel for the real Australian country life.

Next leg of the trip was to Kalbarri, where we wanted to visit the Kalbarri National Park. In Kalbarri, we had dinner at the (again local) fishing and angling club. We pride ourselves in being almost real Australians by now :-) The Kalbarri National Park was our first test at 'off-road' driving. We had to drive almost 60 km on unpaved, sandy roads to get to the picknick areas and view points of the park. The landscape in this part of Australia is very Australian and very special. It's practically dessert, and thus VERY HOT, very dry and very windy. (Although locals informed us that the wind is mainly due to the tropical cyclone that's approaching Broome.) It is amazing to see how many colours the dessert has here. Colours of the stone and sand ranges from white to bright yellow, from bright red to dark brown/red.
That same day, we started driving north. This was real dessert country, with not much there but an occasional wild goat or roadhouse. The roadhouses are of various quality and the one at Billabong is probably one of the worst ... Needless to say we ended up driving further north then we orriginally planned, all the way to Overlander. Not much there either, but at least there was some (pretend) grass at the camp site and a decent cafe to have coffee at. Today, we plan to drive only about 150 km, to Monkey Mia, where we hope to see the sea again and maybe even some dolphins and camels.
If we missed a day, we apologize. As said, we're loosing track of the days a bit out here. But we thoroughly enjoy this very special experience, great country and friendly people :-)

As you can see, still no pics attached. As the owner of the Billabong Roadhouse would say: 'this is the dessert, love, no fancy, fast internet access here' ...

Pinnacles in Nambung Nat'l Park

We've already spent three nights in the tents. The first night was a nightmare; we didn't properly set-up the roof tent and the loose sunroof of the tent made a horrible noice because of the strong winds. Karin didn't sleep at all. The wind also broke one of the fiberglass poles of the little dome tent, so Pieter, who was in that tent, didn't get much sleep either. Fortunately, both Emma and Janne slept fine. Things improved considerably from there. We figured out the correct way to set up the roof tent and bought a new dome tent. Next two nights, we slept like babies (all of us). Oh, yes, one more thing: while I'm posting this blog in the local general store, Pieter is buying some nuts and bolts, to repair the ladder of the roof tent, which broke last night ...

Apart from this little setbacks, the Nissan is a great way to camp. It comes with all the necessary camping equipment; gasstove, pots and pans, plates, cups, bowls, cups and even a fridge! Once you got figured out where everything goes, it works very nicely.
The day before yesterday, we spent a day shopping for extra camping items and repacking all our things to ensure we'd have to most used items handy and all other things (e.g. warm clothes), tucked far away. Yesterday, we drove from Perth to Cervantes, to Nambung Nat'l park and the famous pinnacles desert. The pinnacles were very interesting and also kind of special, because it was allowed to drive through (a part of) the park, walk in between the pinnacles and even touch them. To our experience, this is usually not allowed in national parks.

Photo's will be added as soon as we have opportunity to resize them first. Uploading them full size takes too long.

Nissan Patrol finally on the move

Our 4-wheel drive was supposed to be ready for us yesterday. It wasn't. It arrived late yesterday afternoon and wasn't ready for us until 11 am today. Britz gave us a pretty old 4 berth campervan, which worked ok for one night. But, we had a fun filed afternoon yesterday, at the beach and a very nice aquarium in Perth (Aqwa). To top that off, the campground we found (at 8.30 pm) had a nice bath and even a playground next to our camper.

This morning, it took us two and a half hours to get ourselves and the Nissan Patrol ready to move again. Pfff. We brought way to much luggage (and we thought we were travelling light) and had to find space to put it all in. Surprisingly enough, it all fits now, including four camping chairs, excluding the picknick table. I wonder how long it will take us every day to unpack in the evening and to re-pack in the morning ... We will let you know, once we have internet access again :-)

Adelaide to Perth

As planned, we spent the morning walking around the north of Adelaide center, where many old and beautiful buildings are located. We took an easy stroll and many pictures and even had time to stop at Starbucks. Around noon, we had to stop by at KEA campers, to retrieve some items we had forgotten in the campervan. After that, it was off to the airport for our flight to Perth.
We flew with Sir Richard Bransons' budget airline, Virgin Blue, and it was a real pleasure. We were lucky, because the inflight intertainment on our flight was for free, where it is usually AUS$ 4.90. This was really nice, because the system was showing Nick Junior, a childrens channel. Furthermore, Emma and Janne got a flight certificate and one of the flight attendants painted their faces. The 2 hour 50 minute flight was over before we knew it.

Now we're in Perth and the plan is to stay in the area for a couple of days, before heading north. Temperatures are in the mid 30s and even higher up north.

Barossa Valley to Adelaide

Yesterday, we thoroughly enjoyed a day in Barossa Valley. It's a wonderful place to spend many more days than just one. The first thing we did was go to the Saltram Winery, as Pieter considers Saltram to be one of the best wines outside of France. After that, we made a 30 min helicopter flight over the valley, which we all thought was GREAT fun! Emma and Janne were not afraid at all, not even when the rotor blades started making a lot of noise.

We ate our lunch at Zinfanel Tea Room in Tanunda, which we can really recommend to anyone visiting the Barossa Valley. The food is great (mostly German) and the hostess is very nice. After that we visited the biggest winery in the region, Jacob's Creek. We mainly chose this winery (out of the fifty plus in the valley), because Jacob's Creek was the first affordable and good wine we could find in Taiwan. Now there's many more good wines for reasonable prices available. Unfortunately, we were too late to go to the Storybook Cottage, but we'll make it up to Emma and Janne by an extra beach visit on the west coast :-)

Today, Friday, the weather finally cleared up and it was a nice, warm day. We had to hand in the campervan before 1 pm, so we drove straight to Adelaide. The advantage was that we had a whole afternoon to do some sight-seeing in Adelaide. We found our first Starbucks of this trip and had a great fish-and-chips dinner. Adelaide has many beautiful old buildings, which we plan to see more of tomorrow morning. Tomorrow at 3 pm, we're boarding a flight to Perth, where we'll start our second leg of this trip. In a 4-wheel drive Toyota Landcruiser ....

And, as you can see, Karin finally managed to get some pics included in the posts! (Also in some earlier posts.)

Padtheway to Barrossa Valley, South Australia

Today, we made it to Nuriootpa, Barrossa Valley. It was a long drive, especially since we first had to visit a doctor in Keith this morning with Emma, who had a allergic reaction (skin rash) to something or other. We think it was a weed she fell in at a playground yesterday. We got some medicin, she seems to be ok.

The weather has been changing during the last two days, from hot and sunny, to rainy and windy and back to sunny (but still cool). The scenery is very Australian; big open grass lands, interlaced with flat, small towns. Locations of campgrounds are usually indicated as '1km SE (South East) of PO (Post Office)' or similar direction. Fortunately, they're usually not far from the main road. Tomorrow, we plan to explore the the wineries of Barrossa Valley, including (if all goes well) a 30 minute helicopter flight over the area! Hopefully the weather will be ok, so we can actually enjoy the flight and the views.

Maybe our next post will have a picture attached (assuming such thing is possible with these 'internet kiosks' and assuming that Karin can figure out how to work with her new photo storage gadget)...

We're in Australia

After a sleepless 8 hr flight (for Karin at least), we arrived in Melbourne and picked up our KEA 6 berth camper home. Pieter drove 75 km to Geelong and there we all collapsed at 10 pm. We slept until 10 am the next morning and that's when our vacation really started. The second day, we drove a total of 115 km, all the way to Apollo Beach. From now on, we'll have to do some more serious driving, to reach Adelaide on time ... Yesterday and this morning, the weather was wonderfull. We spent some time at the beach, at a playground and we drove along the Great Ocean Road. Very impressive indeed. Now it turned cool and it's raining :-( We're cozy in our camper home, playing games, cooking and reading. Hopefully tomorrow will be dry.

We're on the move!

Thursday, we said goodbye to our house on the Kao Feng Road. The movers pacekd everything with amazing speed in three days and on Thursday, we were there for the very last time. A bit strange, but not too. Yesterday, we said goodbye to Maggie and I said goodbye to my colleagues at ASML. To be honest, it was not as hard as I thought it would be. The real test probably comes in March ... Now it's Saturday evening, 9 pm, and we're at Singapore airport waiting for our flight to Melbourne to depart. We spent the whole day in Singapore, which was nice, be it a bit wet. Last night, we arrived at our hotel at 11.45 pm. Fortunately, Emma and Janne let us sleep until almost 9 this morning ... Our flight today will leave at 11.15 pm and we'll be in Melbourne 9.40 am tomorrow morning. It's (I think) about 8 hours. Should be ok. Next post from Australia!