Thierings on Tour

Follow along our journey as our family of 5 from Sydney travel around Australia for 30 weeks.

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    • Day 125 – Ningaloo Bound

      Luckily the rain has stopped by the morning and the day was starting to be quite warm while we packed up.

      In the morning, we met an absolutely fascinating lady named Brooke McIntosh, who is currently running around Australia to raise awareness and money for mental health charity Blue Tree Project. Brooke’s story was so incredibly inspiring and touching, it made me feel so many emotions. She has been on the road since March 2025 and by the time she reaches Perth in 2 weeks she would have ran 14,000kms. Absolutely phenomenal!

      We got packed up and hit the road towards the coast and the famous Ningaloo Reef. The weather was super windy and at one stage we had nothing but grey sky and even some droplets of rain, but then it cleared up. Chris checked a few things while we stopped and all car related stuff seemed fine, which makes for a nice change! The kids stretched their legs and then it was onto the last leg of corrugated 4WD track of Ningaloo Rd.

      Our first stint of 10 days along the Ningaloo was at South Lefroy. It’s meant to be one of the top spots and booking sites are hard to get anywhere here. Most people wake up at midnight 180 days in advance to book them, which is extreme and not something I was prepared to do. Instead, for the last month I have been participating in the new Olympic sport of checking cancellations on the Parks website, which consists of logging into the website and manually checking every single site of every single camp spot along each beach area. It’s not fun and sucks your soul, but it’s paid off, because we’ve got some cracking sites as cancellations.

      When we finally saw glimpses of water on the horizon, it felt like dreams were coming true!

      We got to South Lefroy without getting bogged – yay! Tyre pressure down all the way and it was a gorgeous site, with our own beach access and gorgeous views. Wow, a real pinch me moment!

      Getting the van set up and level wasn’t actually as hard as we had expected, which was a nice surprise. Then the girls wanted to get into their swimmers and jump into the water straight away.

      Jazzy tried her hand at snorkeling in the shallows and Scarly was just happy to launch herself in the water. Happy days! It was rather fresh, but that didn’t stop the kids much…

      The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing, playing in the sand, hanging out on the beach and even cooking with a view seemed like a treat! Our first sunset was a little hidden by the low clouds over the horizon, but it was magical nonetheless.

      Kms travelled – 249

    • Day 124 – Leaving Karratha

      Today was a good day with all the car troubles finally behind us and hopefully a fix that will last a bit longer than 200kms at a time… thank you to Rich and everyone who has gone above and beyond to help get us back on the road quickly and safely. Most of all, it was great to see our mechanic stress-free again, although I’ll say the caution will be there for a while still.

      We did a quick top up shop and filled up on water before leaving town., since soon we will be starting our 10 days off-grid. We definitely didn’t get to explore enough around Karratha, but there’s always next time and you can’t see it all, especially without a car! The kids were thrilled to get Maccas before we finally left town.

      Today was a relatively short drive to Nanutarra Rodhouse as we decided we would rather have one last night of power & water. It was a Grey Nomad convention and I don’t think we saw any other kids.

      We did some sketching with Izzy, practicing our pencil portraits. Scarly got impatient with being a model and instead joined the others while they practiced cartwheels and froggy stands.

      Nanutarra also had some interesting signs about distances to other places and it really made us think just how far from home we really are. According to Google, the furthest point from home will be at SteepPoint (the Western most point of Australia), which isn’t too far away now, to be honest.

      The weather was turning and shortly after we had dinner it started drizzling, so it was an early night for all after a pretty uneventful day.

      Kms travelled – 268

    • Day 123 – Jazzy is 6!

      Today was a happy day, our beautiful Jazzy is 6!

      The day started with family cuddles in bed followed by a birthday treasure hunt around camp. It’s a tradition Jazzy started in Sydney and she didn’t want to miss out on the road. Our gorgeous girl had lots of birthday wishes, calls and kind words directed her way which made us all so grateful to feel so much love even when we are far from friends & family.

      We headed out for a milkshake only to find that the place I had earmarked for the occasion had closed a week ago… 🫣oh dear, but Crave Cave in Karratha came recommended by some local tradies and saved the day with delicious authentic milkshakes! The kind owner even let Izzy keep a book from the stash of books he had at the cafe, which made our bookworm very happy.

      Next birthday adventure was a trip to the beach. We checked out Hearson Cove, but it was very low tide so we didn’t stay too long and instead headed further north. There were a lot of jelly fish in the water so we just enjoyed lunch at the beach before heading back into town.

      It’s incredible how much mining activity there is around Karratha, it seems the whole town was purpose built to support the mining activities in the area. The girls were very impressed by the huge trains carrying iron ore out to port. 

      The next part of Jazzy’s birthday celebrations included a trip to the pool and splash park. It was so much warmer than the caravan park pool, even I enjoyed staying in the water! The girls were there for hours splashing, playing and having the best time. Scarly befriended a little Spanish girl and her mum and I were laughing at how they were chit chatting for ages about who knows what, sharing with joy that they had made a new friend each. After Scarly told me that they talked about pasta and camping 😂 so cute!

      Back at camp we got ready for Jazzy’s fancy birthday dinner and she got to wear her new sparkly dress (which everyone needs for caravan life!). She looked beautiful and we were all happy to celebrate our gorgeous girl with a delicious meal. There was yummy food and sparklers at the restaurant.

      Just because you can never have enough sparklers, we had some more back at camp and then the big girls got to stay up and watch Aladdin. A successful day celebrating our big girl!

      Kms travelled – 82

    • Days 121 & 122 – Slow Karratha days 

      There’s not too much positive to say about these days, so I’m going to lump them together for the first time this trip/blog.
      The initial car fix didn’t work, so it was back to the drawing board and more phone calls to find a solution. The Lovells rep had a helpful idea of taking out the spacers from under the coils, so all our hope was on this as a solution… this car has become one of the biggest money pits with about $8K spent on it already this trip between services and all these repairs and spare parts.

      It meant that Chris was out organising car stuff and the girls were going rather stir crazy at camp. 
      Work has been super busy, so trying to juggle meetings, emails and the kids has been a bit of a challenge. The playground and pool were our saviour, we painted nails and tried to make it work.

      I won’t lie, between dysfunctional parental communication, the car stress, work, homework and tantrums and life on the road is suddenly a big mess (for the moment at least). Here’s hoping there are good times ahead again… Especially since the next few weeks are meant to be Ningaloo Reef and I really don’t want to miss that!

      However putting it in perspective, we are one of the lucky families. A family next to us appeared to be without a car for a while, waiting for parts for 3 weeks in Karratha. We saw them head off, but then heard later that someone saw their car on fire a mere few hours later. A day later there was a post on a caravan page with the photo of the car – how devastating for them 😭I can’t even imagine…

      So I guess sitting idle in Karratha trying to find a solution for our car troubles is a small price to pay as long as we get back on the road safely.

      Kms travelled – minimal around town 

    • Day 120 – Dampier

      This morning was a flurry of car organising activities for Chris, talking to the Sydney company who did the GVM upgrade, the Lovells head office who sent the coils, the mechanic in Broome who installed them and all the mechanics organised through Rich in Karratha. By midday we had a plan, so fingers crossed it was going to fix our ongoing issues and bandaid fixes… 

      Meanwhile the girls and I were back at camp getting some work and homework done with a few playground breaks to make it more fun.

      Chris was back just before lunch, so we decided to have a little break and head out to Dampier to check out the beach and sights there. 
      We had a lovely lunch and then the girls got to play at an awesome playground with a gorgeous view. It was a very peaceful place for adults and fun for the kids. 

      On our way back we stopped at the Red Dog statue and admired the small salt flats along the side of the road. The girls thought it was very cool to have so much salt that looked like a lake.

      The days are hot in Karratha and even at 5pm it’s still close to 30C in winter, so I would hate to think how hot it gets in summer… 
      Lucky for us the pool provided some much needed relief from the heat.

      Kms travelled – 36

    • Day 119 – A day of going nowhere

      We were back on the road and heading towards Karratha and Onslow. I was so sad that we wouldn’t be going to Karijini on this trip as it was in my top 5 on our last trip around Australia. But getting around safely is more of a priority and hopefully we will have another opportunity to explore it, the same as Gibb River Road. 

      Chris was incredibly stressed with the car constantly feeling hot even with the newly installed driveshaft, it seems that the angle of the coils that got installed in Broome was causing new issues and despair was setting in. We were sitting at 80kms/h and stopping every 50kms for Chris to get the blower out to cool the CV boot. He was seriously worried that it would overheat and explode otherwise…

      The road was pretty and we decided to go to Karratha. Chris got in touch with a friend of a friend, who had contacts and Rich was absolutely incredible in coordinating mechanics to help us out the following day. There was some hope, but at the moment we were still not sure what our fate was, what work we would need done (hopefully not a suspension rebuild) and how long we would be in Karratha. To say it was a stressful time is an understatement! 

      Kms travelled – 232

    • Day 118 – Port Headland

      The wind was absolutely howling last night and this morning and it kept me awake for hours, as it felt like the van would tip in the wind, but of course it didn’t. However it did mean that when we woke up we were on a speedy pack up schedule just to escape the wind and the flying sand/dust that came with it. They don’t call WA Windy Always for nothing… The sunrise was beautiful though.

      We headed south towards Karijini, but at the first stop Chris jumped under the car to check its status and the bag had half unravelled, the boot was boiling hot and Chris made the call to turn around and head to Port Headland instead to get the car fixed yet again. Another feeling of disappointment, and as if the roadhouse heard us it had motivational quotes up on the wall for us.

      We were lucky that a mechanic was open all day Saturday and could fit us in to change the drive shaft we now have as a spare always in the car. 

      It meant we had some time to kill, Kmart is a great time waster for these things… after we were sick of waiting around we grabbed a taxi back and headed to the pool. It was pretty cold, but refreshing.

      Other than that, there really wasn’t much excitement for the day. You’ve got to take the good days with the bad, I guess.

      Kms travelled – 157

    • Day 117 – Cape Keraudren

      It was time to leave our beloved Broome, even though it feels like there is still so much to see around the area… we shall definitely be back!

      We had a number of errands to run before hitting the West Coast and didn’t actually get out of town until much later than planned. The road down the coast looked like it was leading nowhere, but we were excited to get as far south as we could before heading to Karijini National Park tomorrrow.

      We settled on Cape Keraudren as our stop for the night, but stopped to get fuel at Sandfire, where Chris made the unbelievable discovery that CV boot number 5 had busted and there was grease everywhere… honestly it’s hard to put into words the feeling of deflation that you feel and the helplessness 😭😩😥

      Chris went into action mode and was under the car wrapping up the boot to stop any more grease from leaking out and fixing whatever he could. Our friends from Broome pulled up and Shane was straight under there with Chris, helping him. It’s so heartwarming to have the travel community that are always there to support each other, it was so appreciated!!

      While we waited for the bush mechanics, we explored the area around the roadhouse a little. There were hundreds of road signs, caps and other quirky things hanging off the walls and ceiling. It helped to kill some time, that’s for sure.

      When we finally got to Cape Keraudren it was getting close to sunset and a great one at that! Chris tried to make the most of last light to change the shaft (as we now always drive around with a spare). Everything took a lot longer and the boot or bolt was on so tight that he couldn’t in fact get it off to change it, again another gentleman stepped in to help, but they couldn’t get it off, so Chris had to rewrap it and think of another plan tomorrow…

      It was an incredible view over the water and the moon was so bright. I know it wasn’t quite the right lunar phase for staircase to the moon, but it as pretty spectacular! The staircase to the moon phenomenon occurs when the full moon reflects on the mud flats at extremely low tides, something Chris and I saw last time on our travels, but the timing was off on this trip. However, this was up there and I was very grateful we got to enjoy it.

      Let’s hope tomorrow brings solutions to our car woes!

      Kms travelled – 472

    • Day 116 – Coconut Well

      There were a number of errands to run this morning, including picking up the many parcels that will go towards Jazzy’s birthday treasure hunt, organising Father’s Day presents, the never ending washing, food shopping to stock up for the next stint away and finally a cheeky pedicure for me. My goodness, the poor lady dealing with my feet after all this time away must have been horrified!

      We overheard a conversation about Coconut Wells at reception and how you can float down a calm yet gorgeous inlet during the high tide, which today conveniently fell around my lunch break. So off we went to check it out and it didn’t disappoint 😊

      As we arrived, there was a huge bird there, I’m thinking it was a type of brolga?! I’ve never seen such a tall bird in the wild before.

      We walked up along the edge of the inlet to make our way to where it meets the ocean and the view was spectacular! The white beach against the turquoise waters was so pretty and because the water was fairly shallow it also felt pretty warm. It would have been perfect to have big floating rings, but just pool noodles worked fine too. We actually forgot ours in our rush to get out of the caravan park, but our friends were generous enough to share theirs with Jazzy & Izzy.

      You could easily do the float over and over again, if you have the time (and can be bothered walking in the soft sand to get back up to the top of the inlet), but everyone was hungry. 

      As everyone dried off we enjoyed some chicken wraps and headed back to camp. The girls did a bit more homework and I got through my work and meetings in the meantime. As always, there was also time for the pool before dinner!

      We thought it would be nice to enjoy dinner with a view for our last night in town, so we headed to the highly recommended sunset bar. It was a nice spot (minus the current road construction out the front) and we enjoyed some drinks and yummy food.

      Kms travelled – 62

    • Day 115 – Back in Broome

      Today was a planned chore day and Chris was off early to drop the car at the mechanic to hopefully fix our ongoing CV boot issues that have been plaguing us since early July. 

      Meanwhile the girls and I got through a bit of work and homework with a splash of playground and pool sprinkled in during break time. I think sometimes the girls forget just how special it is to be able to go to the pool during the middle of the day instead of spending all day in the classroom, but of course they would say it is better if they didn’t have to do any work at all…

      We were back at Cable Beach Caravan Park and enjoying the warmth, proximity to everything and catching up with a family from Victoria that have been travelling roughly the same path as us for the last week or so. It’s so good for the girls to have people they get on well with. 

      The car was back by early afternoon, however from the outset it didn’t look right – the coils that have been installed made the car way higher at the front and just didn’t look right. It made Chris super nervous, which in turn caused both of us a lot of stress waiting for the next issue 🫣😩 anyway, I guess we have to stay positive that this is the end of the troubles…

      We wnjoyed some pizzas at the local brewery, the Spinifex hotel, which has all the best features – a playground for the kids, good beer for the adults and yummy food for everyone. A big perk was having the camels walk past on their way home and the kids being allowed to feed them a carrot each! They were too fast for good photos though, ha.

      The girls persuaded Julia and I to take them out to the outdoor movies, where we watched Freakier Friday. I was trying hard to remember if I had seen the original movie, but it was a good giggle and a novelty for the girls to be at an open air cinema. The only thing I wasn’t prepared for was the airport nearby and the planes and helicopters landing during the movie. Eventually I got used to the fact that it wasn’t part of the movie!

      Kms travelled – 11

    • Day 114 – Horizontal Falls

      Today was the day and we got off with no troubles, which was a huge relief as we had no wiggle room in our schedule… 

      We got a bus to the Lombadina airport and patiently waited for our seaplane to return. Jazzy couldn’t wait to get on and her patience paid off when she was asked to be Jack’s co-pilot! What a special treat.

      It was cool flying over the water and seeing all the amazing islands and untouched nature spots as we flew over the Buccaneer Archipelago. There were a couple of clouds about and it got a bit bumpy and windy as we approached the pontoon, but our pilot and co-pilot got us there safely! 

      We went out for a cruise around the area, including cyclone bay, which is a protected bay from any weather events that can occur out on the water. The water was a brilliant turquoise colour with the iconic Kimberley rock formations around it.

      Back on the pontoon, there were morning tea snacks ready for us, so we enjoyed these first before jumping in the water to meet the local sharks. As they are almost blind, they rely on their other senses a lot and the team use banging on the pontoon as a cue that there is a bit of food to feed them. It’s a minimal amount to ensure that they don’t become reliant on the fish as their main food source, but it was cool to see them up close and yet again, Jazzy got a special job – feeding the sharks by throwing the chunks of fish in the water. She had to do it in a short, sharp motion to ensure that it would make a big splash and cause ripples to alert the sharks of the incoming food. We were able to jump on the other side of the cage to get up close to them – pretty special stuff.

      Then it was round one of going through Horizontal Falls and we certainly had a good day for it with a 9m tidal change. As the speedboat approached the falls, you really feel like you are about to go through rapids and the noise, power and whitewash is unbelievable. Jazzy was a bit confused at first as to why the falls were like this, but once we chatted about the concept of what horizontal means she loved the thrill and was glad to experience it another 5 times as we went back and forth through the falls. 

      Only the wide gap is passable and we learnt from a local Aboriginal owner about the sacred meaning of the falls as represented by the rainbow serpent Woongudd that is in fact the rushing tide. 

      The waterways between the narrow and wide gap were also churning as the pressure of the water pushed through one gap and into the other. The team explained that as the tide changes, there is 30 seconds of stillness before it goes into the other direction and the gaps adjust the opposite way, first pushing huge amounts through one gap and then as the water levels even out through the other. It is such a fascinating natural phenomenon and I’m so happy we got to tick this off our bucket list! 

      Impressive doesn’t seem adequate to describe the falls, but I guess it’s the closest fitting word…

      Back on land everyone came back excited and enjoyed a delicious barramundi lunch. We were then extremely lucky to go on another boat ride through the falls. Even thought the tide was still going in the same direction, it had changed significantly in the hour or so that we had been on the pontoon. The first time round the wide gap was gushing water and the narrow gap, whilst not a trickle, was much calmer. This time it was the opposite and the wide gap was much calmer while the narrow gap was working hard to get all the water out… 

      The skills of Tommy the skipper are to be commended as he hovered the boat just at the entrance of the wide gap and the water churned all around us. 

      Sadly the amazing day had to come to an end, but Jazzy and I both said that we would love to come back one day with everyone and stay the night on the pontoon. What a special place!

      We flew back the scenic way, doing several figure 8 loops around the falls, before seeing the many beaches, islands and natural wonders of the McLarty Ranges and Buccaneer Archipelago on our way back. This time round Jazzy and I got to enjoy the back seat with a comfy big couch and windows for days. I think Jazzy was truly exhausted by this point from all the excitement and adventures of today. What a special day for both of us!

      Our amazing family crew were waiting for us at the airport as we made the 3 hour drive back to Broome.

      Kms travelled – 217

    • Day 113 – Ardyaloon

      The day started with extreme disappointment when we woke up to a text to say our Horizontal Falls tour was delayed due to grounded aircraft in Broome. By the time we had walked over to reception to find out the latest we received another text message to say it was cancelled. I won’t lie, I was DEVASTATED 😭

      However I jumped into action mode and within 15 minutes we were rebooked onto a tour the following day, the Broome and Cygnet Bay caravan bookings were updated and most importantly the car mechanic was rebooked for a day later – so lucky they had availability to shuffle it around… phew.

      With my out of office rescheduled there was work and homework on the agenda and we powered through quite a few things before a dip in the pool.

      In the afternoon, we were lucky to head out to Ardyaloon (One Arm Point), a closed Aboriginal community that allows day visitors to their incredible part of the world. We attended the hatchery tour, where we learnt about many species of the local marine life. 

      In particular the hatchery protects and nurtures the trochus shell, which has been in decline due to commercial fishing. Here they protect and nurture them before releasing them back out in the wild.

      We also met Myrtle the turtle, a very curious green sea turtle who loved coming close to the surface to get a better peak at all us humans. 
      There were many other shells, clams, fish and a little shark. It was really fascinating and a great lesson in marine biology for us all.

      From there, we headed to check out the boat ramp where lemon sharks are known to hang around waiting for fishermen to share their catch. As soon as we got there, they were hanging around, circling and the girls even threw them some squid that was floating around in the shallows.

      Then we explored Jologo Beach, the most pristine crystal clear turquoise waters and white sands. Chris and I jumped in for a dip and enjoyed a celebratory anniversary ginger beer with a view. What a special place to enjoy a special day!

      Kms travelled – 28

    • Day 112 – Cygnet Bay

      Waking up in paradise is something I could definitely get used to… the ocean sounds, the beautiful sunrises and the incredible scenery! You can see why people stay here a while and come back over and over again…

      The little girls had a wonderful time searching for sea sponges, shells, hermit crabs and rolling in the sand for some whilst I admired this amazing part of the world.

      Next we were off to Cygnet Bay, as Jazzy and I had the Horizontal Falls tour booked the following morning. Cygnet Bay is a working Pearl farm, so we were looking forward to learning more about it.

      But first things first – the pool! The kids have definitely been judging the trip by the quantity and quality of pools… this one was rather pretty and freezing cold as well, but perfectly acceptable in the heat.

      Then it was back to the classroom for the pearl farm tour and we learnt about the 60 years of history associated with Cygnet Bay. It’s incredible how the industry has shifted from pearls being reserved for the elite and the pearl shell being used for buttons for everyday folk, to the introduction of plastic that completely replaced any need for pearl buttons.

      That’s where Mikimoto’s technique of pearl cultivation became groundbreaking, which essentially means that pearl shells would be impregnated and the pearl would grow around the foreign object and then extracted once a fully grown pearl was ready. Most of the time the inserted object would be a Mississippi freshwater pearl. It was really interesting to learn about it and then even more special to see it in action! 
      The farm has a resident Aboriginal artist Bruce Wiggan, who paints stories on some of the shells too, he was actually proudly walking around the farm and telling everyone it was his birthday, you could see he was a character!

      They say that only about 50% of the shells they open actually have a pearl in them and that climate change and the rise in seawater temperature is making this industry even more brutal from a commercial perspective. However we were lucky not only to have a pearl in the shell but that our lucky, curious learner Jazzy got to extract it from the shell! Almost nothing goes to waste – the shells are sold, the meat is used in the restaurant and the pearls get made into jewellery evidently.

      Then it was off to learn about the grading of pearls – from size to lustre to shape and others. Our extracted one came in as a B1, with a value of $322. Sadly, Jazzy didn’t get to keep it just for her efforts…

      We heard that the biggest pearl ever harvested came from Cygnet Bay and is worth a whopping $1.5M!

      After the tour we got ready for a nice dinner, only remembering at the restaurant that it was our 13th  wedding anniversary the day after. So we decided to make it a special one with steaks for the girls and a seafood platter for Chris and I. The chefs were happy to hear that the girls wanted their steaks cooked rare to blue, ha ha. It was a lovely evening and the colouring kept everyone entertained.

      Kms travelled – 100

    • Day 111 – Trevor’s Tagalong Tour

      We had a very early start to join an Aboriginal cultural tour with Trevor this morning out of Djarindjin, which meant driving about 1h20 to get there. It was a much easier drive without the van on the back and we were excited to go and explore new parts of the Dampier Peninsula.

      Trevor is a local whose father has grown up on Bardi land, whereas his mother is closer to Cygnet Bay. He explained that connection to land tends to carry through the father’s line. Trevor had his grandson Levi with him, which is a nice way to pass on traditional ways of life. 

      Our first stop was a nature stop learning about different types of plants in the area and their uses. Such as the boomerang tree and the Kakadu plum, which makes both great eating and can also be turned into a Betadine like liquid by scraping and boiling the inner bark.

      Then it was time to try our hand at throwing boomerangs. Trevor has won a few local competitions and gave us three different types of boomerangs to try. The timber ones were much heavier and travelled through the air more easily. Everyone had a go and I think we even improved somewhat in the short lesson time we had…

      Shortly after we were back in the car and on our way to the mudflats. We waded through mud and shallow water in hunt on mud crabs. Trevor had a spear with him ready to go, but our big group and the many noisy kids were a bit of a deterrent at first. However we managed to get two crabs in total, ready to cook up on some coals later on.

      We were lucky enough to stop at two magnificent swim spots and the turquoise water against the white sand did not disappoint! The water was also beautifully warm, probably at least 26C, so we all enjoyed a splash.

      At the first spot a boat pulled up and the fishermen showed off their haul of massive tuna. This inspired Chris to throw the rod in at the second spot too, but alas he had no luck. Trevor also didn’t have any luck with the handling this time, but he did mention that fishing with handlines in that area is a lot more moon and tide dependent.

      Trevor also shared a bit more about his childhood and the history of the area with us. Some of it did cover the darker aspects of history, including the cruel behaviour by first settlers and the history of the Stolen Generation of the area. Let’s just hope that history doesn’t repeat itself.

      On a lighter note we got to see some incredible shells, which Trevor shared were used for digging and carrying water in more traditional times. The nature around the area is so untouched and we w were truly lucky to be allowed on traditional lands for the day.

      The last stop was our cookup of mudcrab, straight on the coals and absolutely delicious. Even the girls enjoyed it! Trevor and Levi also dug up some bush carrots for us. I loved how he peeled it by rubbing the outer skin on the bark of a stick and then cut it up. Interestingly, it actually tasted more like coconut!

      It was a big day of adventure and everyone was pretty tired by the end of it. We headed back and enjoyed a firm favourite of tacos back at camp. The other souvenir from today was some very dirty feet, just to give an insight to caravan life 😂

      Kms travelled – 195

    • Day 110 – Pender Bay

      What an absolutely magical place to wake up in! Jazzy was up just before sunrise, so my little explorer and I headed down to the beach for a little adventure and to see the beautiful sunrise from down by the water. It was stunning!

      We walked along the beach, Jazzy found shells and coral and just as the sun started peering out from over the horizon we saw a dolphin splashing right near the shore. Then shortly after in the distance, pretty much on the horizon line there was a whale or two breaching. Wow! A great start to the morning. 

      Unfortunately the tour we had booked with a local Aboroginal guide got cancelled as Brian Lee had injured himself. However this did mean that we just had a day or relaxing and exploring locally and no one was complaining about that…

      We saw more whales on the horizon and a few more dolphins closer to shore also. It was a perfect spot to relax and get some vitamin D.

      The beach had a lot of red/orange coloured jelly fish, which we had never seen before. I was trying to work out if that is their natural colour or if somehow they had been coloured from the red dirt in the area.

      We set up on the beach and had a few swims, lots of digging, went on the hunt for heart rock and just generally relaxed. It’s hard to do anything other than enjoy nature here…

      It was only appropriate to have a cheeky Friday afternoon beverage and cheese platter before we headed back up onto the cliffs to our campsite for the night. 

      We enjoyed more stargazing and ocean sounds… luckily I already went to bed when Chris saw a python slithering towards the van. He did say though that the python was more scared of him than he was and quickly slithered away, but I’m still happy I wasn’t there for that encounter!

      Kms travelled – 0