Port Hedland to Perth

We only stayed one night in Port Hedland and the only reason for that was for someone to come and look at the van for their friends in Perth who are interested in buying it. Can't say we were hugely excited by it, big mining town, not much else to do, but the van is nice and clean. We weren't thrilled by the caravan park either, nothing exciting and boy were the roads narrow, it would have been really challenging to park the van if it had been really busy (and our van isn't really that big).

That day we drove a few hundred kms down the road visiting the towns of Karratha and Dampier. We were amazed at the size of Karratha, we were not expecting it to be as big as it was and it is clearly growing based on all the construction going on. We just did a drive through as we headed up to Dampier, home of Red Dog.

We had shown the girls the movie Red Dog before we left on the trip so they were familiar with the story. We were super impressed with Dampier. They had a self guided tour of town based on Red Dog which takes you to key points around the town and gives you some history and other info about the town itself. In addition to this they had a brilliant adventure playground on the foreshore and further down the beach were lots of picnic areas and even fixed shade structures on the sand so no need for beach shelters. Really glad we stopped in to visit. There are some campsites nearby that look interesting that we might visit on our way back up.

That night we camped in a free campsite on the side of the road that wasn't bad but a bit windy and with a bit of road noise from the trucks trundling by. We did, however get the chance to have a campfire which was nice. In the morning we hit the road early to try and beat some of the wind as it was wreaking havoc on our fuel consumption. This didn't really work as it ended up still very windy so we pushed on through to Exmouth and the RAC holiday park there, our home for the next 3 nights.

We got ourselves set up and settled in and then got out our bikes and popped up the road to the visitor centre for some information, visited the big prawn, and then rode up to the local shopping area to pick up some bread and milk. We returned to the park to work out what we wanted to do during our stay. As the girls explored the park by bike they encountered some emus who like to wander the park, the next morning they were outside our caravan with their babies.

That morning we headed out to see if we could find somewhere to snorkel. Sadly it was very windy in Exmouth and the beaches all looked way too rough. We still drove around, stopping at the WWII lookout/lighthouse and some of the beaches. The favourite stop was at the Jurabi Turtle Centre where there was a great display about sea turtles and their life cycle. Sadly we did not see any turtles (although a few days after we left we discovered there was a spot we could have gone into where there were lots of turtles, so sad we missed it). We also did a drive through the Cape Range National Park.

That afternoon the wind died down so we started with a plan to ride our bikes, when we reached town beach and saw how calm it was we returned to the park and took the kayaks down for a paddle. We spent the afternoon paddling and snorkelling (well the kids snorkelled in a fashion). Jezy wasn't happy being tied up on the beach so she got her doggy life jacket and jumped on Dave and Charli's Kayak.

After some work the following morning we headed back into town so Dave could sample some of the the beers at one of the local breweries. Charli the turtle nut was enjoying all the turtle themed artworks around town and was eventually allowed to buy a turtle print quick dry towel. They also had a play on the local waterpark, pretending to be mermaids saving all the sea animals. While we were there Dave picked up some squid jigs having been given the tip that there was lots of local squid to be caught. Unfortunately our lack of skill prevailed and again we caught nothing!

The next day we left windy Exmouth arriving in even more windy Carnarvon. Sadly Carnarvon put us all in a bad mood. We had hoped to spend some time working for our accommodation at the caravan park but as we had to reduce our stay time due to our new vans arrival date in Fremantle being closer than anticipated this did not work out. We booked in for 6 nights but as the days progressed we regretted it as the wind was so bad that we ended up spending lots of time just hanging out in the van. We did have one day that we drove out to Point Quobba to see the blowholes and the girls had a small snorkel in the "aquarium". Charli was excited to find an old turtle shell that someone had left out on display and was fascinated by it. On our way back to the caravan park we stopped at the port and picked up some fresh local prawns that Dave and I enjoyed for lunch.

We had 2 other positives from Carnarvon. One was the excitement of securing a sale for our old van. Someone rang me and offered full price without even viewing it but also sent around a friend in Carnarvon to check it was legit. This was a massive weight off our shoulders knowing that the van was sold when we got to Perth. Our second positive was a visit to the Carnarvon Space Museum. The girls had a great time exploring the exhibits, especially the interactive ones. We also experienced take off in an Apollo module, watched the stars in the planetarium, and pretended to walk on the moon. It was a great couple of hours of fun and we got a break from the incessant wind.

We ended up leaving a day early from Carnarvon as we had had enough and spent the next night in a free camp about 100kms from Geraldton where we were due to stay with friends the next day. As we drove into town we were excited to see all the shops we hadn't seen for months, the most exciting being Aldi. After visiting Bunnings to collect some supplies to fix a couple of things in the van for sale, we arrived at the home of some friends where we were staying for the weekend. We were a bit unsure about the weekend to begin with because although I say friends it was a guy that Dave had worked with many years ago and kept in touch with and his family who the rest of us had never met. We were in luck in the end, everyone got on brilliantly, especially the kids. They had 3 kids of similar ages to ours and they all got along like a house on fire. I was also so excited to be parked in their front yard when I saw the view they had over the ocean - just stunning!!

Charli had been very concerned about Halloween coming up and whether or not they would be able to trick or treat, thankfully they were planning to go so the girls got to go along too. That morning we had our latest family trivia night (Halloween themed of course) where the girls presented a puppet show that had made up about the movie Hocus Pocus. We then headed out to explore the Geraldton foreshore, enjoying the fantastic playgrounds. Then the costumes and face paint came out and we trawled the streets collecting piles of sugar, they had a blast. That night the kids all had a sleepover in the living room watching a movie and eating far too much sugar.

The next day was miserable, it poured with rain pretty much all day, the first really wet day we have had since we left Melbourne. We had to dig out our warm clothes which had been buried in the back of our cupboards. It ended up a pretty lazy day, Elly and Chloe did some baking while Charli, Oliver and Mason hung out watching TV and playing games. Dave and I explored options for accommodation as we plan to go back for a few months for some work as Dave should be able to get plenty of work there. We didn't really see much of Geraldton this time but I'm sure we will see more upon our return.

After a lovely weekend it was time to head off, sad as we were to leave. We had been tracking the ship with our new van since its departure from QLD and were excited to see it moored at Fremantle so it was time to head for Perth ready to meet it, hopefully very soon!!