Cape Range National Park, Exmouth, WA

Cape Range National Park just outside of Exmouth, may be the most amazing National Park if not most glorious bit coastline in the country. For just over a week a typical day consisted of snorkelling of the beaches around the campsite, lying on the beach, tanning on the beach, eating at the beach, beers at the beach, fishing at the beach, watching kangaroos near the beach, sleeping by the beach, scuba diving off the shores of the beach in Lighthouse Bay...etc. The Ninglaoo Reef is off the coast here so wonderful marine life exists just beneath the water. I wish I could live here.

And this was where we spent 8 blissful days. The very first morning during a refreshing morning swim (a swim taken each morning thereafter) we saw a turtle, a variety of rays, hundreds of fish and little reef sharks in the shallow water here at the beach.

Beachside campsite at Tulki Beach.

Snorkelling then lying on the beach was the major focus of our stay in Cape Range. This was just one of the great snorkelling sites near our campsite, Lakeside. Saw all sorts of things here.

You could also do a drift snorkel here at Turquoise Bay. Octopus, Sharks sleeping underneath coral, hundreds of colourful fish, etc etc etc were found here while snorkelling right off the beach. The Ningaloo Reef is glorious.

terrorizing sea creatures.

kangaroo tracks in the dunes.

Yardie Creek Gorge, Cape Range

Besides snorkelling, walks were had in this glorious National Park.

during the walk, Alexi spotted this sleepy kangaroo. typically you only see them at dusk or dawn wondering about, usually darting across the road in front of cars... but apparently they take naps in the afternoon...

sadly we disturbed him and his friend underneath the bushes with all our carrying on...

Shark Bay

Shark Bay. Not as scary as it sounds. Contrary to the terror the name implies, the waters surrounding the Bay are clear, baby blue. and at a high vantage point you can see sharks and rays and all sorts of marine life swimming along. Another beautiful, relatively empty not of coast in WA.

Little Lagoon near Denham... pristine.

campsite at Fowler's Bay.

and in Shark Bay there is Shell Beach. a glorius beach whose sand is made up entirely of shells.

warm crystal clear water... cannot yet sick of it...

wonderful pelican.

Monkey Mia

Monkey Mia Dolphin. It was the first wild dolphin I saw up close and personal.

over the past 40, 50, 60 years (i wasn't paying full attention to the the dolphins frolicked in front of my feet) a group of wild dolphins have grown used to be fed fish out of the hands of people of the shore of the beach at Monkey Mia...they swim right up to shore, rather close to your feet to investigate pre-feeding.

dolphin.

and this is the moment that oh so many tourists wait for... to get chosen amongst the crowd... to be selected to touch a smelly dead fish and have a nice dolphin eat it out of your hand... to interact with the dolphin...it was nice.... though the national park volunteer coordinating MY moment felt the need to continually instruct: "into the water... put the fish into the water... put it in the water... in the water...the fish into.. fish... water.... in the.. fish .... water... put it in the water..."

Kalbarri National Park. Renowned for the depths and heights of it's red and white banded gorges... no too bad... the water was brown though from the flooding caused by the recent cyclones...peculiar landscape...

So much colour contrast...

Nature's Window in Kalbarri National Park... a short walk can bring you to some great places...

In Kalbarri National Park, the beautiful lookouts were tainted by the presence of thousands of fliess...

exhibit B

it's one of those things that guide books and tourist centers do not publicize.... the damn flies... they attack you... head for your nose, ears, eyes... 50, 60 at a time... the 7$ net... what a wonderful purchase....

To avoid the cyclone ridden northwest coast, we headed inland to what is called the Golden Outback...

In Cue, we were fortunate enough to be taken on a very exciting excursion. We were exposed to the art of detecting gold... A wonderful couple from Queensland shared their knowledge and lent their very expensive equipment to us... This was the gold hunting site...

Learning to listen for the sound of gold... The more chatting you do with people in Cue the more you realize that everyone has a Gold story... it is quite addictive. The entire time we were there i scanned the ground for glimmers of shiny rocks... many people have found bits of gold after heavy rainfall just as they were walking through a driveway...

that's right... that tiny discolouration in Alexi's hand is in fact a piece of gold... very exciting to find gold.... it's like finding money on the ground, accept no one else has ever laid eyes on this little bit before ever... if they had it would have been gone...

After accepting the fact that some of the main attractions that we came to see in the 'Golden Outback' were impossible for us to get to ...(damn cyclones)... we headed to another tiny town...

The town of Sandstone... we made it. Yet another town once boasting a large population due to the gold rush and various other types of mining... now I can stand in the middle of mainstreet at 9 in the morning to pose for a tourist photo without the slightest chance of bothering anyone...

Early morning we headed out to the Heritage Trail of Sandstone... lots of red rocks, breakaways and desert views...

and this is what we drove 500+ kms into nowhere to see.... the 350 million year old London Bridge... made from very old stone located in the middle of nowhere really. beautiful view.

The Pinnacles Desert in Nambung National Park.

So, the town of Franklin exposed a Canadian to life on a farm. There were sheep. There were chooks. And there were raspberries. I was only envolved with the latter. Rough work. Tough work. Never had a real sore back until the picking began. i ate alot of raspberries.

view from the caravan bedroom... too cold... too early....

farm-shave.

cold, tired morning picking....

entertaining myself post-picking. three beers and i was on the floor... it's the whole 5am thing... i became a lightweight... this picture was taken on St-Patrick's Day and is dedicated to my brother who celebrated in Montreal in my stead...

yes, on a daily basis, we woke up before the sun was up which gave us the opportunity to be privy to some beautiful sites. but these sites can get pretty old, pretty quick. i'm not bitter.

living quarters... i.e. trailer. i.e. trailer trash. to the left you get a glimpse of the washroom facilities. i.e. outhouse. oh yes, no hot water except during the day if the sun comes out and heats up that black pipe on the ground. either way it's a short hot shower, let me tell ya.... hot hot days, cold nights...

the regular midday siesta....

the office.