Bit of a drive down south, heading towards Monkey Mia. First major town was Canarvon, provider of a large proportion of the states fruit and vege. We got there and all was closed... then we realised that this was a public holiday in WA due to COGM in Perth. We did manage to find a seafood shop open so J was able to purchase some prawns and crabs for dinner – yummy. Canarvon is also famous for having one of the large radio telephone dishes – of course this was closed for repairs! So, on we went, Canarvon was not for us this visit!

Drove further south to Hamlin Pool Station. We were a bit nearvous about another station stay after our last experience but this place was fantastic. All new looking, clean and tidy, and a great BBQ! Cooked up some snags for the kids while the adults feasted on seafood!

Another teleconference started the day for Josie while the rest of us had a slow start. We did a glass bottom boat and snorkel tour at 10 am, which Emily was engrossed in for the first hour as she watched the corals under the boat. Charlotte, Harry and me all went snorkelling (to cold for Josie). Water was clearer out here and I think there were more fish than up north but the coral was just as good or even better up north for free! Still well worth the effort and the kids love watching me swim under the glass bottom boat.

Once back on land we went for a walk to skeleton bay, named as it is where the sharks come to breed. Hmm as I write this we were swimming very close to this area, wonder if that was such a good idea? Any way did not see any sharks so all must be OK.

Drive to Coral Bay at the bottom of Nigaloo reef. Interesting place as there was nothing here apart from the resort, and two holiday / caravan parks. To support this there was power, water (of sorts), supermarket, bakeries, day spas, hardware store, etc

Water of sorts as the water you use for showering, etc is bore water that is too salty to drink. Drinking water is available in small amounts from a tank. Lucky for us the van holds a fair bit of water.

First thing to do was rush down to the water to see the snapper being fed, boy did I want to get a line and catch some! Big fish swimming between you legs and amoung all the people, very cool. Then back for a swim and home made fish and chips for dinner!

Hard choice today so back we went to Turquoise bay for some more snorkelling. Back in the afternoon for a spot of fishing ... aye this is the life!

Back to the visitor centre to check out the boat cruise and the best place to take the kids. Boat cruise only going once a day now so we decided to give this a miss.

Drove down to Turquoise Bay where we got to snorkel on Ningaloo reef. The reef was only 10 or so metres from the beach so real easy for the kids to access. Harry and Charlotte loved it, Emily thought OK for 10 minutes and then just wanted to play in the sand! Harry and I even saw a turtle in the water while we were snorkelling.

After some lunch we move around the point to do some drift over the reef. There was a local current that carried you over the reef quite quickly and that certainly saved some effort. Charlotte and I did 4 sessions of this, harry gave up after two as getting too cold!

Saw fantastic coral, fish etc. Got to chase some of the fish through school etc as well. All good fun!

Drive to check out some of the other beaches and then back to near the van site. We drove up the top of the cape where there was an old wreck (not much left now though).

Dive up to Exmouth and find we had to take our own water to the national park and our caravan park. Good town though as they supplied water at the information centre so we able to fill the van up with drinking water. Did a bit of a shop for some food and then headed up to the lighthouse Caravan park, at the top (as Telstra phone service was available here for J's work).

Had a quick drive down into the national park and checked out the information centre and Lakeside beach

Also went turtle spotting on the beach and saw about 20 on one of the beaches. very cool to see them. Apparently the females are resting on the beach after mating, obviously the boys don't need a rest!

Drove up to the light house above the caravan park and watched the sun set, lovely.

 Another driving day as there really is not much out here. You can certainly see why this area is so sparcely populated, as the land is pretty bare and there really is not much. The main thing missing here is the reliance on water or reliable water source, we have been using water we brought with us from the coast since we left Port Headland.

First we come to Paraburdoo (another mining town, which looked lot like Tom Price) but this was managed by the Ashburton Council (and there is also an Ashburton River). For those who don’t know I grew up in Ashburton, NZ so funny to see the same name here. Also strange as there is a council but no town!

Now rest of day was drive until we reached Girialia Station. Here we decided we would camp for the night. Very basic but we were able to light a fire and have a damper (which I burnt so obviously been too long since we cooked one!).

Another Day another national park, seriously a great national park. We first went to the visitors centre and then down to the Fortescue Falls for a quick look. On to Fern pool for a swim. This kids were not so keen here as it was all over ones head, but a lovely pool that Josie and I swam out and across to the other side.  Only one other person here when we visited.

As we left a tour group of 20 turned up, sometimes you get lucky with timing!

On the way back also had a swim a Forescue falls. It was here a couple of weeks ago a young boy about Harry’s age slipped and fell, his father tried to reach him and will killed, closing the park. When walking on some of the tracks easy to see how this could happen...

Back up the top, bike of a hike, but if Emily can make it one should not complain too much and then a quick look at circular pool and some lunch.

Back via the visitor centre, for some lollies for the kids for completing the kids questions and then on to Knox Gorge Lookout, Kalamai George, Weano George. All very quick looks a viewing points for most or small walks, as very hot and pleanty of flies.

Grand finale for the day was the view from Oxer and Junction Pools Look out, just magnificent!

After a day of rough road driving it was back to Tom Price for some R&R.

Big drive day again as we thought we would stop on the north side of Karijini National Park at the roadhouse but again we were fighting for the signal for the phones as Josie had yet another teleconference on in the morning! No signal meant a further 200 km to Tom Price, which I think in Retrospect was probably a good thing!

Also today was a milestone Day with us being on our trip for 100 days today and also travelling over the 20,000 km mark since we left home. Of course this meant time for a cake, whipped up in the Caravan kitchen of course (actually from Woolworths but who wants to ruin a good story!).

Met the same people (John) here who we had seen at Tunnel Creek and Katherine, spooky ...

Decided to stay in Port headland for 2 nights mainly for Phone access. Spent today looking around town and the ships loading in the port. There also is here an old town, and a new town (South Headland), and a industrial part of the town called Wedgefield.

Really though, the town only is really here for the mining industry, as confirmed when I was asked what do tourist to here by one of the locals! Anyway we’d certainly seen enough in a day. They did have very large trains carrying the Iron ore from the mines to the port.