Westaustralia 19.05. - 31.05.2012 (English)

19.05.2012 Melbourne – Perth

From 8:00 am to 2 pm at the Melbourne Airport. Breakfast there. Flight from Melbourne to Perth at 2:00 pm. From Perth Airport to Perth City took a taxi to the accomondation.

That evening out for dinner in Beaufort Street. A lot of young party people are on the streets.

20.05.2012 Perth

Breakfast at Mc Donalds. Visited the City, walked along the Swan River to Kings Park, which has a beautiful Botanic Garden. Bushland Nature Walk in the Park. Nice view over the city, South Perth and the Swan River from the park. Walked to South Perth and back on the Ferry to Perth.  That evening we bought food in a supermarket for dinner and breakfast.

21.05.2012 Perth

After a coffee at Mc Donalds and a short breakfast we took a taxi to the rental company. After more then 1 hour waiting we get the campervan, a 2009 Toyota Hiace.

The brands Maui, Britz and Backpacker are all one company. I booked a car from Backpacker and get a camper from Britz!

Don’t book the camper over this homepage (agent): www.discoverycampervans.com . They are inflexible if you want to change your pickup or bring back times and charge 50 AUD changing-fees for the privilege!

After a stop at the supermarket for a big shop we head north. It wasn’t easy to find the best way, because the roadmaps we had weren’t the best. You can buy better Maps than provided by the car rental.

In the late afternoon we visited Yanchep National Park with a lot of Wallabies and active Koalas. We were alone in the park, no other visitors.

The day ends at the Ledge Point Holiday Park, www.ledgepointholidaypark.com . We prepared dinner in the camp kitchen.

22.05.2012 Ledge Point – Jurian Bay – Dongara

Visited Nambung National Park near Cervantes, part of it is a major visitor attraction, Pinnacles Desert www.naturebase.net.  Entrance costs 11 AUD/car. Pinnacles View Walk, very interesting landscape.

Overnight we stayed at a Dongara caravan park, www.dongaratouristpark.com.au .

23.05.2012 Dongara – Geraldton – Port Gregory

We visited the War Memorial in Geraldton. During World War II, the HMS Sydney from the Australian Marine sank after a fight with the much smaller German Kormoran. Very interesting, Google it.

We stayed in Geraldton for a coffee at The Dome near the beach. Experienced problems with getting access to the internet via phone.

Next stop is Coronation Beach, a nice and cheap campground near the water, but too many flies to stay there so we went further north to Port Gregory.

A very beautiful beach with sand dunes and a long reef  200-300 m out from the beach. We swam and enjoyed the sunset.

At the caravan park we had a lot of mossies and sandflies in the camper. Fortunately we had some insect spray.

24.05.2012 Port Gregory – Kalbarri

Today we travelled a short distance to Kalbarri, the next town north. Interesting coastline on the way, but a lot flies again. We stayed at Murchison Caravan Park. Perfect place, in the middle of Kalbarri, near the beach the shops and the library.

25.05.2012 Kalbarri

We visited Kalbarri National Park, to the north of Kalbarri township. The entrance cost 28 AUD/car. Then you follow a badly corrugated gravel road, 28 km to the Loop Walk and the Nature Window.

Again a lot of flies, but we wore mossie nets over our heads to keep them at bay. The walk took about 3 hours and required a reasonable level of fitness, sometimes you walk in deep sand, sometimes you climb along the Murchison River, and in places, squeezing between rocks.  It was warm enough to go for a swim in the river at about the half-way point.  In the hotter months, the walk would be unbearably hot at any other time than early morning or later in the day.

Afterwards we drove to a lookout and to the Z-Bend. All travel was on gravel roads and by sunset we went back to Kalbarri township to the same campground.

26.05.2012 Kalbarri – Denham

In the morning after a good long breakfast, we had a go at stand-up paddling on the Murchison River opposite the campground.  It cost nothing as it was a promotion by the distributors of Starboard. Good luck! We got on the road to Denham at lunchtime. It’s a long way, first stop at the Overlander Roadhouse to get Petrol. At Denham we stayed at a caravanpark near the beach. The office-staff were very unfriendly!

27.05.2012 Denham – Monkey Mia

We experienced our first free Emu in front of the Denham Visitor Center in the morning.

After getting some information, followed by breakfast on the waterfront, we headed to Shark Bay, Monkey Mia Reserve Resort. On the beach there were some pelicans and in the water near the beach, some dolphins. At sunset a lot of small fish were jumping out of the water.  

28.-29.05.2012 Monkey Mia

Around 8:20 in the morning we went to part of the beach where they have dolphin feeding.

After breakfast we rented a kayak for the day and paddled along the coast until we found a nice deserted beach. We relaxed, swam and read books.

At sunset back with the kayak to the resort. As we neared the resort, some Emus were running along the beach and dolphins were playing in the water. A wonderful day.

30.05.2012 Monkey Mia – Kalbarri

Before heading back to the south, we walked the short Wulyibidi Yaninyina Trail at Monkey Mia late morning. After swimming and a shower we drove back with stops at Little Lagoon, Eagle Bluff and Shell Beach. After visiting the Petrol Station in Billabong we picked up the hitch hiker, Ash. After sunset we arrived at Kalbarri. We did a quick shop at the supermarket and had dinner together at the caravan park.

31.05.2012 Kalbarri

The “nothing to do day”. Swimming, hanging around, library and bookshop for internet, lying on the beach, book reading and a short walk through Kalbarri. That’s it.