Progress report

We are currently in Perth where temperatures are much lower than we are used to, about 20!.  Been to the zoo, the Maritime Museum and the Mint so far.  We will be here until Wednesday so will post our adventures before we leave here.

I have added some pictures to the Shark Bay post (we had rubbish wi-fi when I did the post initially) and posted the Kalbarri and Cervantes stopovers below. 

Cervantes (1 night)

The landscape changed dramatically south of Kalbarri, we hit the wheatbelt so much greener and lusher, even some paddocks and sheep (creatures not much seen up north, although oddly there were some as you drive into Exmouth!).  Bends started to appear in the road and even small hills.  We called into Geraldton for lunch and checked out the HMS Sydney III memorial, a warship that sunk in 1942 after a battle with a German ship.  We stopped off at Cervantes for the night a seaside town close to the small Namburg National Park where the Pinnacles Dessert is located.  There are very strong Spanish and French connections with the town and we spotted a ‘Leon Street’, we pulled over to take a photo as you do.  In the quietness of the morning and the deserted residential streets there just happened to be a lady sweeping the footpath right next to the sign and a couple sitting on the veranda of the house right next to the sign observing all this action outside their house, the most seen for weeks! 

Leon Street

Pinnacles, with beach dunes in the background

Pinnacles

The Pinnacles were dramatic in the stormy morning light and again peace was shattered with the arrival of the Murray boys!

Kalbarri (3 nights)

Kalbarri is a small town on the coast and is surrounded by the Kalbarri National Park.  The key features of the park are the gorges and rock formations associated with the path of the Murchison River.  Natures Window is a popular spot where a rock has a hole in it and the view through the hole is pretty cool.  There is also a coastal element to the park with the stunning Zuytdorp cliffs (Zuytdorp was the name of a ship wrecked off the coast of Western Australia in 1712).  The flora of the park is also amazing with great wildflowers all over the place!  The boys were very pleased to have a jumping pillow and playgrounds at their disposal for a few days at the camping ground.

Natures window