Geralton was a lot prettier than I thought it would be.  There is not much to do though, and the main attraction is the HMAS Sydney II Memorial.  We had a guided tour of it which is free and interesting.  Then we went to the library since they had free wireless internet and both my dad and Hendrik cannot live without internet for too long.  It was an awesome library.  One of the most modern ones I’ve ever been too they had board games and puzzles on top of books and magazines so I could have easily spent the whole day there and was not bored, even though I did not have my laptop with me. In the afternoon, we drove back down to Perth and stayed in a Big4 and had a typical Australian barbecue with shrimp and fish and too much food to finish.

HMAS Sydney II Memorial

The next morning we went to visit the King’s Park and the Botanical Gardens which really impressed me.  I thought they were comparable to Sydney’s, and from them we also had a wonderful view of the city.  After visiting the park we flew back to Melbourne.

Perth from the Botanical Gardens

Hendrik and I woke up early to go back to Monkey Mia to see the dolphins come in for feeding.  I was disappointed that we were not able to swim with them but seeing the crowd it was understandable that they could not let people swim with them or they would chase them away since there were about 100 people lined up along the shore ready for the dolphins.  Nevertheless, we were able to see the dolphins really close-up.

Then we had to start the drive back down south. On the way we stopped at Eagle Bluff which was a spectacular lookout.  We only saw one shark though, which only looked like a tadpole from the distance.  Next we stopped by Shell Beach which is a beach made up entirely of crushed shells, no sand.  It was very white, beautiful and peaceful, seeing as we were the only ones there.  If we had had more time I would not have minded going for a swim.

Alone, except for that guy.

The last stop on the peninsula was for the Hamelin Pool.  It is one of only a few places in the world where living marine stromatolites can be found.  Stromatolites look like rocks and are an example of the earliest record of life on earth.  They were spectacular in their own right, but by then the sun was beating down, and the humidity was rising.  Therefore, I was very happy to go back to the AC of the car and not spend too much time with the stromatolites.  Then we drove to Geraldton where Hendrik and I spent a long time in the Winstersun Motel’s pool, which was very refershing.

stromatolites

We drove to Monkey Mia in the morning, but not early enough for the dolphins.  The resort and beach were pretty and there were emus, pelicans, and Mallee Fowls wondering around the property.

Hendrik making a friend

We went swimming in the ocean which was very calm.  In the afternoon, we went on the Shotover dolphin/ dugong sightseeing tour  which was lovely and we saw lots of dolphin families and a few dugongs.  The dugongs did not come out of the water so it was impossible to take a good picture.

After the boat, we went swimming again in a shallow area of the sea by the shore.  The tide rapidly pulled the water so it was relaxing to lie on the water and snorkel as the current carried us.  There, we saw lots of small animals such as hermit crabs and snails.

Monkey Mia Sunset

We ate dinner at the Monkey Mia resort which was beautiful since we were seated outside with a view on the ocean and were able to see the sunset and two dolphins swim by close to the shore.

We set out in the morning and drove to Kalbarri,  On the way we saw a leaning River Gum tree which leans because of the wind on the plains.

River Gum Leaning Tree

Once we entered Kalbarri National Park there were a few lookout points by the cliffs along the coast, which were pretty but failed to be spectacular compared to the Great Ocean Road.

We reached the town by noon, had lunch, bought a lot of bottles of water, and headed out onto the unsealed most popular road of the park which is about 25 KM long.  Originally I thought we may need to rent a 4wd but it was not necessary.  I had not done my research for the climate though.  I didn’t think it was a desert, but it was, smack in the middle of summer and the temperature was extreme.  Signs said that it could get up to 50°C or 122°F, and I think it wasn’t too far from that today.

Our first stop was a lookout which was a 100m walk, and it was incredibly hard.  I felt as if I was in an oven, and that my skin was crisping, even though I was using lots of sunscreen and had my windbreaker on.  It was definitely deadly heat.  We arrived at Nature’s Window soon afterwards and as we got out of our air conditioned car, a family next to us was just getting into theirs.  The woman told us not to go, that it was too hot and that they didn’t make it to the window, and turned back.  It seemed ridiculous because the window was only 400m from the car park.  We think the she was more concerned for my dad since he is a heavy older man, and I was glad she scared him out of going because I did not think it was wise for him to go either.  He stayed behind in the shade, and Hendrik and I went, because I was really looking forward to seeing the window which was pretty much the whole point of going to Kalbarri in the first place. I had a hard time getting to the window and was dizzy and felt my muscles shaking when I finally reached it.

We sat in its shade for about 15 minutes drinking water.  We had brought 2 liters each for this short walk, and I wished we had brought more. Hendrik seemed fine though and was thriving in the dry heat while I was begging for some humidity.  As I sat in the window I dreaded the walk back since it was uphill this time and was literally scared of it.  The window was gorgeous and the view was amazing, and suffering in the heat was totally worth it.  When I finally made it back to the car I felt as if my insides were boiling and was having trouble breathing.  I had a headache and drank more water as I faced the air-conditioning which was on full blast but having a hard time being too cold in the desert.  It took a good half hour before I felt better.

It was the hottest place I have ever been to, and would have planned differently if I was to go back.  Preferably go there in winter and not at 3 in the afternoon in the summer.  Then again, that was probably the reason we had the window all to ourselves and didn’t have to share with other tourists.  We did not attempt the z bend, though Hendrik was ready to go and feeling up to it, but I don’t think I would have survived that 500m (1Km return total) walk.  It was a shame, but I don’t think it was worth risking.

There was no shortage of Yuka trees in Kalbarri

There was one more stop before leaving the park which was a lookout right at the car park so that was ok.  Then it was just a straight drive up North to our overnight destination.  There were hardly any rest stops or roadhouses, but we stopped at one rest stop because I had to go after drinking so much water, and there I found a goat sitting in the shade of hut where the toilet was.  It was the only shade for miles and someone had made it a bowl out of the bottom of a water bottle for it.  It had no more water so I gave it some and then some more until it had finished off a liter and all our water.

I felt so bad for the toilet goat

There was a \roadhouse nearby (nearby is about 40 miles) so we could stop there and get more water.  When we arrived there, Hendrik told the man who probably owned the roadhouse that there was a goat in the bathroom.  He didn’t think much of it, laughed at us when we said we gave it water, and said that sometimes goats from farms escape and that they get rounded up once in a while.  We had wanted a rescue party to be sent for the goat.

Sunset near Denham

By sunset we had reached the outskirts of Denham and arrived at our cottage at dusk.  I was shocked by the state of the cottage which was a complete dump since the website seemed nice.  It was dirty and falling apart.  The wind from the sea roared all night, and I didn’t know how it didn’t just pick the cottage up and make it into splinters.  Denham was tiny and since it was 9 everything was closed, and we could not find food anywhere so we had potato chips, which the one bar in town was able to sell us, for dinner.

Our cottage

We left Perth early and drove up North to Cervantes to see the pinnacles.  There is a small museum next to them which is nice to visit to get out of the desert heat.  There are two ways to see the pinnacles. One way is to drive.  There is a “road” made in the desert outlined with rocks, and Hendrik drove since this was the closest he could get to driving off road.

Driving through the pinnacles

The other way is walking.  We did both.  They were beautiful and I’ve never seen anything like it.  The desert in Western Australia was completely different than in the center.  Here it looked like the stereotypical desert, with soft yellow sand; the center had bright red sand.

Walking among the pinnacles

Next we drove up to Port Denison/ Dongara which was a lot smaller than I thought it would be and it was completely dead.  We went swimming in the Indian Ocean which was warm even in the evening, and the beach was abandoned.  There was pretty much only one open option for dinner which was a restaurant/bar near our hotel with an ocean view.  It was nice but really expensive for what it was.  What we soon noticed was that the more remote we were the more expensive everything was.

The moon Hendrik photographed

That night we went to see the stars since there were hardly any city lights and the sky was clear.  Hendrik was amazed by stars since he had never seen any growing up in Belgium, which is all lit up at night.

The next day I enjoyed the cold Jacuzzi at the hotel pool, which was really nice in the hot and humid weather.  Then we found a Laundromat in Darwin, which was a challenge, since the one we were sent to was closed and the other one was a bit out of town.  We did laundry in Darwin because there was nothing else to do but still kicked ourselves when we arrived in Perth and the apartment we were staying in had a washer.

Christmas decorations in Perth with the Bell Tower in the distance.

The following day we went sightseeing in Perth.  It was a very pretty city, nicer than I thought it would be so I was very impressed with it.  We visited the Bell Tower, Fremantle, and went swimming in the sea.  In the evening we came across a photography exhibition in the park, “Earth from Above,” which was neat and interesting.

Hendrik and my dad looking at the "Earth From Above" exhibit.