Port Hedland, Karijini and Coral Bay (finished now - Sorry)

There is always comfort in camping next to other families while on the road. You can hear them go through the same issues you fight with your children over - it is great to know you are not alone. We met Dianne, Anthony and their 4 boys at Eighty Mile Beach and not only did the girls love having other kids to play with but we also loved seeing that other families go through exactly the same arguments - Dianne and I had a good laugh about it! These guys were travelling around the country to show their children what Australia is really like. There are more and more families doing this, we thought two girls were a handful!

After our short stop in Port Hedland and a few lovely treats for my birthday we packed up and were off to Karijini. We didn't know anything other than what other travellers told us - "You will love Karijini, you have to go there!" We were not disappointed! The one thing that has really struck me about WA so far has been the incredible landscape changes. You go from completely flat country into these incredible rocky mountains in the space of 2 minutes!

We arrived at the eco retreat at Karijini (we stayed in the camp ground) as we were checking in, Greg was checking the restaurant menu and guess what... They had Pavlova! I set him the challange to find me some pav for my birthday and he succeeded - he was very proud of himself! We returned that evening for the much awaited pav and after the girls had devoured half of it we realised that the cream was off. Rather disappointing under the circumstances!

Luckily we were looking forward to some walking and after working out that class 3 was suitable for the girls we were off. We were thinking we were a little over gorges until we got into these. On the second morning Greg walked through Hancock Gorge (too difficult for the girls) his comments were "Spectacular, heaven on earth, magnifico," you get the picture! He was sad we didn't have longer however when he gets the images together we will put them on the gallery so you get an idea. This shot was taken on that afternoon, we visited Fortescue Falls and Fern Pool (following pic). It was stunning, the layers in the rock, the plants and then coming out into a huge pool with waterfall that you can swim in (although it was freezing). There were little fish in the water that amused the girls and they nibbled on your toes

The scenery was amazing, the red rocks and red dirt with towering cliffs were really worth seeing. The down side to all of this however is the amount of washing you have to do and the red dirt is very hard to get out - I have never seen Jas and Jem so dirty and so happy!

From Karijini we travelled to Coral Bay. This was not a planned stop off on our itinerary however so many people had been telling us to go there that we thought we had better check it out. We arrived in this little town with 2 caravan parks and both were booked out! We managed to get a spot in the overflow camping for Bayside Caravan Park and set up. Shortly after setting up we said g'day to our neighbours over the fence (the divider between the park and the overflow section) and realised it was Dave and Barb who we met after our first week on the road at Rainbow Beach. It was great to catch up and the kids loved every second they could get to play. They travelled a different way to us and it was interesting to see the different locations. They have now been on the road for 3 months with their 3 children Frank, Sophie and Lucy.

We didn't really know what we were going to do in Coral Bay as we couldn't travel due to a broken brake line. We decided to take the girls out on a glass bottom boat cruise and try a bit of snorkelling. The tour was fantastic, the best part was seeing massive Snapper as soon as we got onto the boat! Jemma went all strange on us for the first 30 minutes of the tour, she was so worked up and energetic she just couldn't sit still and we were trying to listen to the tour guide. Thankfully she settled down or that would have been a long 2 hours.

While I wasn't sure if the girls would snorkel we got gear for them just in case. Jemma wasn't having a bar of getting into the water so I stayed on the boat with her. Jasmine geared up and got in the water with Dad, I was very proud as I could see she was scared (one of the biggest changes I have seen in her - pushing through her fear). She lasted a short time as her tummy had a small rash from her shorts and it quickly became very sore in the extremely salty water. She was happy to watch from the boat and I think Greg liked the chance to swim freely. The shot of Greg in the water was taken at our second snorkel location, he is surrounded by Snapper about 60cm long. They threw fish food at him from the boat so the fish swarmed and he loved it, he was heart broken that he had to get back into the boat with nothing for dinner though! We were unable to take to girls out in Cairns as most tours were too expensive, it was great to be able to take them out here where there were less people and the price was much more suitable for a family.

Coral Bay was incredible, the beach was shallow at high tide so there were plenty of areas for the girls to splash around. I went snorkelling from the shore and I even got to swim with a school of Snapper too as well as lots of other fish. There is plenty of coral to snorkel over from the beach also, for a family location this is fantastic. The Bayside caravan park was also great, there were two really big parks, a pool, beach volleyball area and they arrange all the tours for you. Just make sure you book well in advance!