My birhday today so the kids cooked breakfast, well I helped just a little.

J's work was having a few dramas so she spent much of the morning on the phone. Kids and I went and purchased some groceries and a cake for afternoon tea.

Went out to a great resturant on the water front for dinner. Good view, nice wine, good food and the kids, well 3 out of 4 is not bad!

First off to the Round house on the waterfront in Freemantle. This was on of the cities orginal jails and had an interesting history.

Then off to city this moring as we are hoping to make it to a concert at the Perth concert hall. The concert was called "Bach to the future" as was aimed at 5-12 year olds. First off went shopping, and then when we got to the show we found there were no seats available. Anyway while we were deciding what to do a nice lady came up and said they hold tickets for the show in case there are any issues or double bookings. Since we were there, as long as there were no issues we could have / purchase them.

2 minutes before the show we got our tickets, which turned out to be good tickets in the middle of the downstairs area.

Good show and I think the kids enjoyed it as well.

Pack up and hitch up the van for the move further down the coast. We have been supprised how cold it has got just in the last couple of days. Temps are now mid 20's where as just a few days ago day temps were in mid to high 30's. How quickly things change.

On the way down we revisited the Pinacles National park to see the visitor information centre as this was closed when we went the day before. Very organised for caravans, large park and they even supplied wheel chocks if you wanted them.

Visitor centre was interesting though contained very little on the Pinacles themselves as it seems they have no real idea how they were formed just a couple of ideas! Not often you see that conclusion in todays world.

Drive from there down to Freemantle. Josie makes me drive through as many small busy roads as she can, and a bit of freeway work as well, well that is what it felt like after the last month on driving for hours seeing 3 cars going the other way ....

Choose to stay in Freemantle so we could be close to the beach, rather than the airport (which seems to be the popular place for the other caravan parks).

Spent much of the day hanging around the park today and catching up on the washing and domestic chores, with quite of bit of office work added in.

In the afternoon we took a drive to see the pinacles, which are limstone rocks/ towers in a desert/ sandy area that look very cool. One the way back we stopped at Kangaroo point but did not see one Kargaroo (which I hear was unusual!).

Fist off this morning a visit to the HMS Sydney Memorial. This was created to comemorate the Sydney II which was sunk  70 years ago with the loss of all the personal (approx 320 People). No evidence was found for the wreck about from one body which washed up a couple of weeks later. The wreck itself was not found until about 200o.

The memorial was very well done, with permanently burning port and starboard lights, a ship bow, actual size amoung the different areas of the site. We were lucky enough to have a free tour running when we were there too.

Harry and Emily were most impressed with the automatic toilet, which had buttons for everything, including getting toilet paper AND automatically flushed the toilet when you washed your hands! Technology!

Parked Josie down the waterfront as she had some more work to catchup on and we wandered around the water front to the Museum. On the way we came across the Clipper Round the world Yachts (see the link for more info on this race) Clipper Round the World .

Museum turned out to be really good, and showed amoung other things the local wrecks and about the mining in the area. I was supprised to learn how much mining went on in this area, for things such as gold, lead, iron, etc.

On the way out of town finally got to see the famous Leaning Tree (Josie's main reason for visiting the town!)

Arrived at Cervanties fairly late, and met by the smell of what we thought was sewer, but later worked out it was the sea grass that had washed up on the beach.

Found here the tides for 70cm between high and low tide. A fair change from the tides at Derby which were more like 8 metres!

Nice people at the park allowed us to leave the van onsite for an extra couple of hours while we checked out the national park (dirt road).

Drove into the park and up to see Natures Window, and Z Bend. Very great views, and colours. Swiming looked good at the bottom of the Gorge but seemed the walk would take about 1 hour each way so not going there today.

Back to town and hook up the van. Josie had to do another teleconference for work, so she sat in one of the car parks for a while, while we purchased lunch etc.

Then head down the coast stopping at Red Bluff, and natural bridges, on the way to Geraldton.

Another Dolphin encounter this morning and Emily got chosen to feed the dolphin today. Then pack up and drive through to Shell beach, a beach made entirely of shells. Past the bug electric fence that keeps out the feral animals from the national park and than back to the main road.

Quick stop into Kalbarri National Park to see Hawks Head and Ross Graham Look out. Very Scenic, but too many flies! Both these were 300m walks and there was parking for the car and Van.

Tomorrow the plan is to see the more interesting Gorges without the van (as they are on an unsealed road).

Up to see the dophins being fed and this time Harry got to feed a dolphin. Again very lucky as there would have been a couple of hundred people at the first feed. We stayed for all three and then we decided to extend our stay till the next day.

Jumped on the boat tour at 10:30. First out to see the dolphins, but they did not come. Bummer I thought, waste of money. Anyway we headed to the pearl Farm. Good explaination by the man doing the talk. As he talked though I realised he was the owner and founder of the current company. You could see he really enjoyed explaining what they had been doing trying to get the pearling working properly for the last 30 years. To seed these pearls they need to take a bit of the filter muscle that is coloured near the edge of the pearl and put this in with the pearl, then hopefully the get a black pearl. Sometimes they get all sorts of colours and even had a yellow/ gold one!

Back on the boat and we sailed in circles for ½ and hour with my thoughts of waste of money being confirmed. Then it changed for good, we saw Dugongs (5 or 6) swimming on the top of the water and diving down, dolphins (and another baby) 2 or 3 different groups, and a couple of turtles, not bad for an hours spotting. On the way back the kids got to ride behind the boat in the driftnet, which they all told me they loved but the looks on some of the faces may tell otherwise!

In the afternoon we went and hired a 4 seat paddle boat, that was an experience when Charlotte and Harry were steering. Another great beach day.

In the evening as it was Halloween, the kids dressed up and when trick or treating around the park. Got a good stash!

In the morning went down to see the Dolphins getting fed. Currently there is a new pup so you were not allowed in the water as this may confuse the new baby who is only 2 days old. Charlotte got picked to feed one of the dolphins, very lucky. There were 3 feedings (or interactions as they call them), about 15 minutes apart, first at 7:45 so they were all done by 9am.

Back in the car and off to Francois Peron National Park. This was once a working sheep station, but is now a national park. They had an interesting information centre at the old homestead, which showed how they shore the sheep, using displays in the old shearing shed. Also showed where they lived etc. Gee though the flies were appalling here, would drive you crazy, and I would hate to think what it was like when the shearing was going on, disgusting I would think! They also had a hot spar there as the water comes from the bores at 37 degrees. We all thought that would be great but it was just too hot on a 35 degree day!

Decided we would tackle the short 4wd track to the bottom of the lagoon. Best facilities here with tire inflation and deflation stations, free air to inflate the tyres after returning from driving on the sand. For those who don’t know when driving on sand you need to deflate your tyres to around 20 PSI (normally more like 40 PSI for roads). If you drive on the tyres when this low on tarseal you can really damage the tyres and wheels so it is always a real drag having to drive slowly or get the air compressor out so nice not to have to do this (apart from the flies!).

Good drive on fairly good roads (only a couple of soft spots ). At once corner we had an idiot going the otherway too fast who lost control and slipped sideways past us. Missed us by a foot or 2 which was a bit close for comfort!

Lovely views and brilliant lagoon we got to see.

Back to town (Denham) and some lunch. Then on to the viewing points south of town. One was on a bluff and you could see the tiger sharks trolling the area looking for fish (and small children ) to eat.

Visited Hamelin Pool where the stromatolites  are. Stromatolites are living fossils. They are made of layers of bateria and take millions of years to form. They think they are the oldest life form on earth and they generated the oxygen that was required for more complex life to evolve (ie you and me!). do have to say though they were not that exciting to look at and did not move very fast.

Drove the last bit to Monkey Mia and found out as we arrive that the dolphins had done their thing for today, so need to check again tomorrow. Luckily Josie had thought to book earlier in the week as we got the last site.

Down the beach for a swim ... think I could get used to this, then up to the pool and bar for a drink ! Went to book on a tour for Sunday (tomorrow) on one of the boats spotting wildlife but they were not going to the Black Pearl farm so we have postpone this till Monday.