51. Perth to Exmouth

We managed quite well to get through the city and out the northern side of Perth. We found a very cheap petrol station, $1.44/ltr, so decided to top up. 

Cruising on we made few stops and stopped at The Pinnacles for a look.  The Pinnacles is a place where sandstone has created termite looking mounds in the middle of nowhere, quite amazing.  Some were very high.  While we were there I took a photo of an old lady and then she took a photo of us as a family; however she mustn’t have actually pushed the button. There was no photo. Quite funny though. Along the drive were some amazing sand dunes, beautiful water yet the landscape was still desert looking trees, not overly pretty.

We pushed onto Cervantes and watched about three cray boats coming in, loading and unloading crays.  There wasn’t much else in Cervantes so we left and drove on.

We pulled up at Jurien Bay and had a fish off the jetty while we watched the sun go down.  Very pretty.  Mitchell was catching bait fish on this small rig and I was using the live bait to catch bigger fish.  I caught two but threw one back and gave the other away.  Nothing to exciting.  We left just after dark and was going to stay at a free camp called Sandy Cape Recreational Park however heard the roads were very corrugated so we didn’t go in. Instead we pulled up at Sandy Cape Lookout Carpark. Not a bad little spot however as we were there illegally we left at the crack of dawn.

We drove all the way to Dongara where we stopped and had breakfast on the beach front. I did throw a line off the beach but there was nothing.  Bacon and eggs for breakfast was yummy though.

We got to Geraldton by mid-morning and thought this would be a good place to “stock up” with food and supplies before being ripped off the further we got north. So after leaving Woolies and spending $400, then walking over the road to IGA and buying meat for $90, and then fuel for $160, we were well and truly over budget but full of food!

We drove down the waterfront and tried to find places to put all the food we had bought, knowing it would be difficult.  We put some away and left the rest for later that night.  We had a bite to eat and went to visit Jim, Bev, Jim and Christine, before leaving Geraldton with Kalbarri insight.

We arrived at Kalbarri just before 6pm. It had been a very big day.

The van park at Kalbarri was along the river and we had nice views.  The next day we made the most of the beautiful weather and headed out to sightsee.  We drove along the corrugated road to Natures Window.  The gorge was spectacular.  We got some great pics.  We walked out to Natures Window and took some photos of us sitting in the window.

From here we drove south along the coast and popped our head into the many viewpoints along the coast.  We watched some people fish off the rock edge but they weren’t getting much at all.

We came back into town and saw Jim and Jim and co on the waterfront so stopped and said a quick hello, but they were continuing on.  Rod and I went for a walk through some of the shops and IGAs looking for bargains, but there weren’t any.  I did buy some line and a white bucket with a lid – to do the washing by hand.  Save some money.

We came back to camp and I went for a walk to the river for a look but wasn’t keen for a fish. There was no one there and it didn’t look that great.

Leaving Kalbarri we drove as far as we could towards Exmouth, with our new washing machine strapped to the drawbar.  We got to a property called “Gladstone” where they offer cheap camping.  It was meant to be $11/night but the toilets weren’t working so we asked for half price and he ended up giving it to us for free, as we were only staying a night anyway. Besides the roads in were terrible!

So here we were parked up on the side of the water, away from others. We hung our washing It was beautiful except for the flies.  We had fun making fly traps and I had a game of monopoly with the boys. I lost again.  Just before dark we went for a walk to the jetty and threw a line.  Hits straight away.  Mitchell caught one small fish and then Rhys caught a fish – an estuary cod! We returned and filleted the fish.

Early the next morning we went for another fish but the water was too low.  We chatted with these fellas we met the night before and they gave us two mullets.  I returned to camp to fillet all the fish we had and bag it up.  We left and headed north.

We stopped at Carnarvon and bought snorkles and goggles and grabbed just a couple of groceries.  We drove on and stopped at a roadside free camp, hung out our clothes, played monopoly, had showers and made fish burgers with our fish fillets.  They were quite yummy.

Thinking we were ahead of schedule we thought we would stay in Coral Bay a couple of nights so we headed for there.  Thank goodness it was only 12km off the main road because we drove in and out within a half hour.  Coral Bay was made up of two roads. One with two van parks on it and the other lead to the boat ramp.  Yep, sure the water looked nice but that was it. Nothing I would rave about.

So we rang ahead to Yardie Homestead to see if we could get in early and could so we drove onto Exmouth.  We got there and filled up with fuel, grabbed some milk and bread, filled up with water and headed out to Yardie Homestead.

PHOTOS: Perth to Exmouth and inbetween