North Western Australia Adventure

We've just arrived home from a 3 week road trip through northern Western Australia. June is supposed to be an excellent time to visit the region...unless there happens to be unseasonably bad weather and flooding of course! At times we were swimming along our bush hiking paths.

We splashed our way along around 5,300km of muddy roads to visit Karijini, Millstream-Chichester, Cape Range and Francois Peron national parks. This area of Western Australia is full of big skies, fabulous sunsets, gorges, beaches and mountains. There also seems to be an amazing array of rusty machinery and vehicles just abandoned where they fell.

We saw lots of wildlife including eagles, herons, kestrels, kites, dolphins, rays, whales, fish of all kinds, coral reefs, sea cucumbers, crabs, turtles, kangaroos, rock wallabies, dingoes, echidnas, monitor lizards and loads of other things I have forgotten. No snakes this time surprisingly.

We managed to do all the gorge walks in Karijini National Park although we couldn't get right into the end of a couple because the amount of water and slippery rocks made it too dangerous - several people have lots their lives here. Walking (swimming!!) whilst dressed in a wet-suit and hiking boots was a new experience for everyone.

Huge termite nests are everywhere

At Millstream-Chichester National Park the walks were a little less challenging. We explored the homestead and swam in the chilly pools and rivers.

Cape Range National Park is all about the beach and Ningaloo Marine Park coral reefs. Even half a year's worth of rain that fell in one day couldn't stop us. We took a very enjoyable boat trip down Yardie creek and saw many endangered rock wallabies, sea eagles and herons. Snorkelling was chilly but visibility was excellent, as was the marine life.

In Carnarvon we visited the Space and Technology Museum.

At Shark Bay we saw the sharks in the aquarium and visited Francois Peron National Park and Monkey Mia. We also took in shell beach and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites. Many of the buildings in the area are made from compacted shells that make up the beaches instead of sand. There were plenty of dolphins around a L got to feed one. Everyone loved soaking in the hot tub at Peron Homestead.

Shell block quarry

Stromatolites

We camped for a while at Oakabella haunted Homestead and saw an amazing sunset from Cliff Head camping area.

We hope to return one day and take in some more areas in the Pilbara region which we just couldn't reach due to the floods.

Caversham Wildlife Park

L is still very into animals so we took a trip to Caversham Wildlife Park at Whiteman Park. The park was much bigger than we expected and we had plenty of chances to get up close and pat the animals. The highlight was the kangaroo feeding. The park has a large walk-in area with many friendly kangaroos and wallabies who will eat from your hand.

We were also able to pat the koala, snake and wombat.

Lots of other amazing animals were on display including many birds, possums, reptiles, bats and more. Altogether a fun and education day out.

Long Summer

We're having an unseasonably warm Autumn here in Perth. Whilst the sea is not quite warm enough to swim in it's definitely ok for a paddle.

Cake Decorating

These school holidays the children took a cake decorating workshop. They made these fondant decorations and piped the icing.

A Day at Perth Cultural Centre

Today we went into Perth Cultural Centre to see several exhibitions. First up was the Museum of WA Discovery Zone in the State Library. The museum is still being renovated until 2020 but you can see some of the collections in the State Library.

These live in Perth but we have never seen one flying around

The typewriter was popular!

Still at the State Library we went to see the children's sketchbooks on show with over 100 others in the Propel Youth Arts Sketchbook Project. They look great all together.

Nearby is the Art Gallery of WA. The permanent collections have just been rehung and there are several temporary exhibition on including "A Window on Italy", "Year 12 Perspectives", "Tom Malone Prize" (glass), and "Julie Dowling" (Aboriginal Art). There was plenty we hadn't seen before. I had the zoom lens on so it was tricky getting some of our favourite large pictures in the camera frame!