Getting Cooler...

Those who have been following us from the southern states will be happy to know we are now spending more and more time in our tracksuits and Greg has pulled out the thermal underwear (very fetching). Still better than the snow I hear Canberra is having!!

From Coral Bay we travelled to Denham to visit the Dolphins at Monkey Mia. We were there for the first feeding of the day and were able to see 9 dolphins. Jemma was very sooky and all she wanted to do was take a photo of the pelican (in the opposite direction to the dolphins) and Jasmine just wanted to build a sand castle then got very upset when it was time to leave and she didn't get a photo of the dolphins - can't win! I am sure if we didn't get them out of bed so early they would have been much better and enjoyed it more.

We spent the rest of the day exploring Denham, the beach and the boardwalk over the cliff. While a nice area, in hind sight to be honest we would have missed this stop as there really wasn't much to see or do. Perhaps with older children it may have been different.

The wildflowers are starting to appear in great numbers by the road side now. It makes for much more interesting driving and the games have changed in the car to see who can spot a new flower we haven't seen before. They look lovely when there are lots of different colours in the one field, Greg has some shots that I am sure will end up on the gallery.

We have had some trouble with Jemma in the car the last few trips, her nose starts bleeding. She is never phased by it which unfortunately means by the time I realise what she is telling me she is already covered in blood! Luckily I always carry a box of tissues in the car, the only problem is that I can't always reach her and she is hopeless at pinching her nose to stop the bleeding, she always wants to look at the tissue. Greg came to the rescue with a tissue plug up her nostril which she thinks is very funny as you can see. The first time it happened I told her to put her head back on the seat and relax so it would stop bleeding, 30 seconds later I look back and she is fast asleep with the plug still in (yes, I took it out). We don't know if there is a reason the nose bleeds or if she is picking it? Jasmine said that she squeezed her nose and it started, so we will have to monitor that one closely I think.

After Denham we travelled to Geraldton. This was an important stop for me as I wanted to visit the HMAS Sydney II Memorial. My Great Uncle on my father's side, Raymond Reeves, went down with the Sydney aged only just 18. My Grandfather on my mother's side, John Grieve, disembarked at the Sydney's last stop. He was always part of the scuttling (boarding) parties for the Sydney and could never understand why or how the Sydney was close enough to be sunk. The Sydney was a big part of his life until he died shortly before Christmas, unfortunately he never saw the ship recovered.

To be able to lay a wreath in memory of my relatives on behalf of my family was an honour. The memorial was a fantastic tribute. There are more images on the gallery.

Geraldton was a great place and we would have liked to spend more time photographing, especially the industrial and shipping areas. The girls loved to see the road trains going past camp on th bridge (thankfully far enough away not to disturb us), we were told that soon you will see road trains with 5 trailers, to which the girls were amazed.

We are in Cervantes at the moment, just outside Nambung National Park - home of the Pinnacles! The Pinnacles are limestone rocks sticking out of the sand, doesn't sound too interesting however when you see them they are incredible. We have had some fun with Greg's shots here, mine are terrible as you can see and when he gets time to get the shots on the gallery you will see how great they really are.

Jasmine is getting very adventurous with her photography now. I took this shot as she climbed the rocks to get a "better shot." While in the Bungles Jasmine set us all up for her own shot, she used the timer and ran into the photo herself. They are great shots too. We witnessed Jemma lining Jasmine up to take a shot of her the other day too which was very cute - Daddy has certainly influenced them!

Make sure you check out the Competitions page to see the new comp we are running on the forum. Anyone who posts us a message on the forum goes in the draw to win a framed photo of their choice from our journey. Get posting! If you have already made a post, you are already in the draw.

Off to Perth in the morning and to buy more clothes for Jasmine (warm ones). She has one pair of pants I bought at the start of the journey and they are already 2 inches too short!