Day 83 - Fremantle

Kate: A lovely day in Freemantle.  We popped in to Steve's Perth Office which is just up the road from the caravan park.  It took a moment for Steve's team to recognise him I think - out of a suit, unshaven, "caravan" attire on.  Need I say more!  Lunch at Little Creatures Brewery was great.  Steve and the kids then visited his old school buddy, Macca, while I waited for a caravan service guy to fix the water pump which had stopped working. Bought thick flannelete PJs (good TT attire) today so hoping to be warmer tonight!



Maritime Museum

What is left of The Batavia after it was shipwrecked in the 1600's.  Ask Jasper the story.



Fremantle Warf  area




Little Creatures Brewery



Day 82 - The Pinnacles

Kate: A sentimental day. Our last sight before we arrive in Perth and what a fabulous place to end our natural attractions experiences - The Pinnacles. Made most famous by the Qantas advertisement with all those children hiding behind them!! So yes - we needed the obligatory "shot" of everyone peeking out. Quite amazing tourist experience, because, unlike when Steve was here last, you are now able to drive right through the Pinnacles, stop the car at various spots and wander through. They are a young natural attraction compared to others we'd been to - being only 50,000 years old!

Arriving in Perth was a bit of a shock to the system.  We hadn't seen a traffic light for a month or so.  The caravan park was advertised as the closest to the city - but is also the closest to the airport.  Thank goodness for ear plugs.  It was soooooooooooooooooooooo cold last night - zero degrees in our pop out bed.  Yep - Steve and I agreed we are definitely ready for some solid walls to sleep within.

Day 81 - Kalbarri - Jurien Bay

Kate:  Only one more night on the coast before we arrive in Perth.  A few more cliff views as we follow the coast down to Jurien Bay.  A quick stop at Geralton for lunch - great town with lots of character and old buildings.

Coastal cliffs of  Kalbarri

My beloved wildflowers

Francis Xavier Church - Geralton
(note nice clean car - not!)

Day 79-80 Kalbarri

Kate:  Rain, rain, rain!!!!  We are all feeling a bit damp and cabin fever is setting in.  So a day of non-touristy things.  We found a daggy outdoor "Indoor Play Centre" that the kids loved.  Instant coffee and the local Kalbarri Times for KK - great......!!!!!!

Waking to more rain, we punched through to Kalbarri National Park.  I had found out the day before that the wildflowers were late this year and nothing was out - boo hoo for me while the rest of the family quietly rejoiced.  A quick stop at the Wildflower Centre - also closed.  Then onto the National Park where all four gorgeous Kloss family members searched high and low for any thing that looked vaguely like a flower - bless them!!!!!

Some great lookouts with the realization this was the VERY LAST gorge we would be seeing on our amazing adventure.  Even the kids were a bit sad at this thought.  Maddy rellished her final ride in the "Maddy throne" while Steve quietly celebrated (and so did his back!).

The "Spider Web"

The flower Gods are not with Kate this trip!

Lookout in Kalbarri NP

Natures Window - Kalbarri NP

Em's photography is really good

Overlooking Z Bend

Z Bend

We found one!!!!

Day 78 - Shell Beach

Kate: We woke up to more crappy weather so decided to leave a day early and head down to Kalbarri where the National Park famous for it's wildflowers is. I am the only one excited!! On the way out of Shark Bay (World Heritage Area), we stopped at Shell Beach. See pics!

Jasper: I'll continue from Kate's and talk about shell beach. It was amazing how it was a beach with no sand but just lots of little tiny shells. Also we went out just as it stopped raining again.

Handfuls of little teeny tiny shells

That's not sand but shells the kids are running on
(Maddy - "wait for me...")

A flower on the path to Shell Beach!

Day 76 - 77 Dolphins, Dolphins Dolphins!

Kate: Monkey Mia would be the perfect place to stop if the weather was warm and sunny but unfortunately we had 4 days of wind and rain. Patches of sun but overall not great. We were hit by a storm one night where we felt the van swaying every huge gust. (We were only 4 vans away from the beach). Fortunately the heavy rain stopped just as it was starting to drip into our pop out bed!

The whole dolphin feeding experience is heavily regulated by the rangers and in fact only a few people are picked to actually feed the dolphins. We went two days in a row and I was picked on the 2nd day which meant J & M scrambled next to me to "help"! It was still pretty cool standing in the water so close to a dolphin. Dinner in the "famous" Pearl Luggers Restaurant, made of shell bricks and also Australia's most westerly restaurant.

Jasper: The dolphin feeding was a bit crowded and there were only a few people that got picked but it was awesome when we did get to feed them and it was cool because the dolphins were so close to us. But then there was that horrible weather that made us all have a bit of cabin fever.

A very controlled feeding of the dolphins on a stormy morning - where's that
 aqua coloured water that's in the brochures?

Em's favourite animal - the dugong

Nicky

Second try on day 2 - Kate was picked!!!!

An afternoon on the nearly tourquoise water

Captain Maddy

Weather deteriorating again - boo hoo

Dinner at the Pearl Luggers Restaurant - made of shell bricks

Caravan Driving Language - according to Steve

Caravan Driving Language
From the first day on the road, Steve has been very amused by the way every caravan/campervan driver coming towards you on the road, waves to you as you pass each other.  He now has a theory on all the different waves he sees:

Single Finger Wave - "I don't want to acknowledge you but I know it's part of the caravanning etiquette"

Solid Hand Wave - hand up for a couple of seconds, no waving

The No Wave - "I don't want to be here"

The Queen Wave - with a flick of the wrist forward (Steve uses this!)

The Safe Wave - four fingers wave while thumbs stay attached to driver's wheel

Thumbs Up - Only from other Range Rover drivers. We've only seen about five of these in three months!!

Enthusiastic dual wave - passenger and driver waves.  They've been on the road too long.