Catch up !!!!

Well this was a long time coming .....
 Today is the 5th of July and apparently it is last day of school ! Don't really know the difference, we forget what day it is and wonder on the date !!

From our last posting in "On the Run" we were just north of Geraldton at 'Fig Tree' in the Chapman Valley.  A lovely little camping spot just 15 min out of Geraldton.  We did attempt to stay in Geraldton .... however the Ranger had a bit of a giggle at our expense ! We had pulled up on a parking spot next to the ocean (husband has so missed the waves) and took the car off and did some jobs and settled in for the night. Only to be woken up by the ranger knocking on the door at 7 am - how rude !  He says "Haven't had one as big as you here before...." he was going to call us a shark but said that doesn't fit so he called us a whale -"couldn't get more obvious unless you put a neon sign on top saying ,,here we are,," one of them even took a photo ! We were given 20 mins to move on, we pleaded for 1 hour to get it together and have what we have started calling "lock down." 

Lock down is pretty important ! 
Flying objects and rolling fruit are frowned upon, needless to say curb hopping is not the most enjoyable experience in the bus.

We did find a Bunnings in Geraldton - lets just say I'm glad Jurg's workers discount is still valid !

In Geraldton we visited the memorial for the HMAS Sydney and watched the sunset. It was quite moving looking at all the seagulls, they represent the 645 lost soul that went down with the ship.

!!DEUTSCH !!

Das Memorial von der HMAS Sydney. Einem Australischen Kriegsschiff das im 2. Weltkrieg versenkt wurde mit  der ganzen Besatzung.

 

From 'Fig Tree' we headed north through Northhampton and took the coast road to Kalbarri.   

We found a old Convict Depo 'Lynton' being restored, this is were the convicts were held as labour for the local lead mines. 

 !! Deutsch !!
Ein Gefangenenlager aus der weissen Besiedlungszeit von Australien 1853. Von hier wurden die "Convicts" aus Europa verteilt um in den umliegenden Mienen zu arbeiten.

Nearby was a homestead called Linga Longa open to the public (lovely old building) with the horse shed also restored and full of relics -  Gian-Luca saw an old twin tub, wringer washing machine and wondered if it was an old making pasta machine !

Waschmaschiene

On to Kalbarri with news that roads into the gorges were closed for road works :( oh dear we will have to come back :)  We stopped off for lunch on the beach and three quarters of the family attempted to have a swim - give you three guess who ?  They then all decided to try out the fishing ? mmmm nope no luck.

So we drove right through Kalbarri and the national park onto the free camp at the Murchison River crossing (Galena Bridge) - we have stayed here before - love it beside the river.  The kids gave the fishing another go ...... nope no fish !

Now it was Saturday and we drove straight through to Carnarvon and camped just north at Point Quobba.  

Wow talk about the migration of the grey nomads, there were 2 kms of vans parked up in groups and spread out.  I still haven't decided if the water is warm enough for me yet.  The other 3 give it ago and think it is perfect at 5pm - I decline again !

We were within biking distance to the Quobba Blowholes so our Physical Education was a ride and explore the beach on the way home.  The swell was up and the blowhole was ..... blowing ! 

We spotted some 'balloon fisherman' this was interesting to look at and see if they had any luck fishing for pelagic fish - nope no luck either !  

We purchased in Carnarvon a 14 kilo hand of green bananas. Waiting .......waiting .....

 

Wednesday we headed off to Exmouth, a bit rushed on this leg as we had the possible chance of Jurg working with a friend - however it has fallen through :(   

It was a bit hard to cruise past the sign to Warroora (south of Coral Bay) as this is a favourite place of ours. Good memories from 2 years ago travelling with the same Swissy friends coming out this time as well - we will meet them in Broome and my Dad will come from Perth then too. Just north of Warroora is the Tropic of Capricorn.

We pulled into Exmouth and were directed to a friend of a friends place to stay at.  Very lucky as there is no free camping here.  He has a business call Birds Eye View Ningaloo Microlight - he recently had a small article written about him in the latest Scoop magazine.  

We have been schooling and beaching.  

Our next day we schooled and Jurg dived the blue waters near Ningaloo Reef in a friend's boat.
In the afternoon we picked up Jurg and went to see the shipwreck SS Mildura, on the very most Northern tip of the Exmouth Peninsula.

We were waiting for the sun to set whilst walking the beach.  

 

On the way back to the car we saw a turtle in the shallow water and were able to walk out to it it was a Green Turtle. 

 Back on the beach, heads down, always looking for shells to appreciate (World Class Marine Reserve and nothing can be taken ! :( ) We almost stumbled on a sea snake - what on earth she was doing that far up the beach who knows.  We believe she is an Elegant Sea Snake - we kindly directed her to the water !

We have been to Cape Range National Park and visited Turquoise Bay -  we all (yep me too) swam, snorkelled and enjoyed the coral, fish, turtle and warm-ish water and beautiful day.

Merman ! Complete opposite of Mermaid !!

On the way home we had a classroom on the roadside as we encountered a Echidna on the road - apart from getting the cars to slow down and having about 5 cars parked at one stage, we had 4 children sitting on the roadside taking their art lesson - drawing the echidna. 

School Lesson

I had forgotten that they have a tail - it has been such a long time since I have seen one.  

 

This one decide to dig in so Jurg had to put on his diving gloves and move him to safer ground.

 

As soon as Jurg took it off the edge of the road and near a bush it headed straight for it and dug in.

On the way back to the bus we explored the Mangroves and waited for the sun again to set.

The wildlife on this side of the range is full of birds of prey and small grey kangaroos with a few Emus - it was a slow trip home so as to not hit any !

We have been to explore the Cape Range National Park, coming from the Gulf side.  The new car has been christened !  We went through some water and therefore mud and sticky mud at that - the tracks, strapped to the roof, helped us to get out !  I drove, lucky me, Jurg um mmmm got a bit sprayed with mud !!  

Then lunch and a trip up past small gorges and driving on the top of the ridge to look for caves we had been directed to via GPS coordinates !  Found a few and also found jeans would have been better - the spinifex is spiky ! It is so green after all the rain here - really nice sight.  We found some of the caves suggested and climbed in, squeezed in and throughm, the torch came in handy to see ! and find our way out again !! 
 

Jurg has, since the drive, given his a car a bit of love and attempted to wash the newly christened car - he is not particularly happy with his new pinstripes ! 

Wednesday, we were invited on a friend's boat - darling John Totterdell - JT -(from Esperance - a semi local here in Exmouth) His boat is registered as a Research vessel - his latest project is to tag the Ocars and he had a team come from, yesterday - Thursday, the US to tag and take tissue samples.  So yesterday we, 6 of us (our 4, JT and a friend) went to see what we could see.....
A quick swim in the shallows.
 

New species !

On the hunt are we going to be lucky?


We were lucky to be able to go on his boat to see if ID shots could be taken of any of the 'big things' out there !!  We were able to swim with a couple of Humpback Whales - boy do you have to be fast in the water to see them !  It helps if I'm not hyperventilating too - with a mask and snorkel it is a bit more pronounced ! Climb off the back of the boat in the deep deep blue water, not a very clear day - very cloudy sky.  The instructions are to swim like mad to 'hopefully' get in its way (hug ? get in its way .... what ? are you crazy ?)  I was doing fine, undtil (!) I put my head up our of water to see where the boat - should be ! and if I can see where I'm supposed to go and if anyone was near me - the JT yells 'put your head down' .... I can't, my chest hurts and I can't get enough air in fast enough !  Needlesss to say I missed that one !  I did get another 2 shots and yes I did managed to see the beautiful creature and YES it was BIG - can't say it was huge cause I saw the ba-by ! - albeit a big baby !

I promise that is us out there !

Watch out for the tail !

The next was a Whale Shark - a friend of JT's own's and operates a tour boat and let us in on the end of his tour to swim with the Shark - it is so much different then seeing a picture (duh George - I hear you say - SHHHHHH I was there ! )  yes I still had trouble with the adrenaline rush and the amount of air being taken in ! 

The last for today - I spotted something silver, tips sliding of something, in the water.  By this stages the children had taken their wet suits off and were dry and dressed in warm clothes (blue lips not being so attractive !) So there was a mad rush to get back into swimmers - no time for wet suits !!  Having to plunge back into the cold water (the first time in for me I was fighting little cramps in toes and calf - by now I'm acclimatised !) It was, they were Manta Rays and lots of them. Now these were not so threatening ! Only as long as me - although it was a bit disturbing as the 'fly' at you with their mouth parts open and you imagine sucking in as they go past.  Neesabella and I were heading back to the boat ready to get out and JT says 'there's one just there go out, head down'. So worth it, as we put our head down it is swimming on the side underneath us and turns and head straight and close under and is getting closer as it heads for the surface. Neesabella believes she it nudged her fin - JT hears squealing through our snorkel haaammmm however I'm sure it was only Neesabella that squealed !!!!!  Gian-Luca tried so hard to touch one I could see Jurg underneath and him kicking forward and it just flick a wing and off it went. Hard to imagine that get bigger than a car !

JT's friend, had a big underwater video camera, he got lots of ID shots of the big things !
 
It is a bit confusing, as you are well aware you are in there to see the beautiful (and huge) creatures and you know how big they are supposed to be ....... and you are really looking forward to seeing them, finally. However ......... I will have to do again and again and again - I don't think once or twice is enough even looking at the photos of us being there and knowing .... but ....

The children did so well swimming in the deep, Neesabella was a bit of a chicken but as long as she was with someone she was good.  Gian-Luca did exceptionally well spending a lot of time is with Jurg glad to see our swimming lessons are pay off !  Gian-Luca is looking forward to going diving with Jurg and using the gidgy !

I do solemnly swear that it wont take me this long to blog again ! it has been a long day to get it done xx   
Please reward us with comments !

ps - The bananas - all of them ...... are ripe ! excellent bananas coming out of our ears.