11 June 2005 Coral Beach!
Well, here we are in paradise at last. the horrible weather has been left far behind. The afternoon was spent snorkelling in the lovely warm shallows of the inner reef.
We left Kalbarri in the rain and travelled all the way to Denham, near Monkey Mia, our longest day yet with 403 kms all up. The weather was rough all the way with storms all over the place, we just missed one entering Denham. The night brought more winds and rain, helped the bloke next door take down his annex after his chairs and tables blew away, the twins described this in great detail at midnight from their perch high above the cab!
The next day was an early start to drive the 25kms to Monkey Mia. We were very doubtful about this having heard lots of stories about the experience. We were latish getting onto the beach and there were people from one end to the other listening to the disembodied voice of the ranger standing somewhere in the water beyond the crowd. I had planned ahead and made sure the twins looked neat. I ushered them into a small gap in the crowd down one end. They were reticent to go there to begin with but eventually peered around the crowd. The ranger who was previously way down the other end made her way up our end and began the feeding. She chose a person from the crowd to hold the bucket out further from the crowd. As there were few children their she chose Janaya! Then she asked Janaya to choose someone to feed the first fish. Guess who?!! Brittany! So they had a lovely, and rare, experience. I am not sure it affected them as much as their proud parents as they both complained about the cold!!! Oh well, their is no pleasing some people!
We hit the road then and the day fined up markedly. On the way out from Denham we stopped, firstly, at Shell Beach, a fantastic place as the 'sand' is just billions of little white shells, like noodles. Then on to hamelin pool and the stromatolites (sp?) and the old telegraph station, very nice. Janaya lost her thong in the ocean due to the wind, a mirror of Brittany's loss of a thong in Victoria last trip!! Some tears!
Made it to Carnarvon in the dark after driving through some low flooding on the main highway.
Yesterday we had a very nice warm sunny day in Carnarvon, not a memorable town really but we needed a day to rest after almost 800 kms in 2 days.
Today we went to the markets in Carn, quite interesting with cheap produce, lots of fruit and veges grown around here, then made our way here to Coral Bay, in glorious weather. So we may have to endure it for awhile!! We have booked a glass-bottomed boat trip for tomorrow then who knows!?! Still have 23 days left to get to Darwin, so time for a few stops, esp Broome we hope.
We watched My Fair Lady last night on our DVD, the twins were engrossed throughout, and we were impressed after not having seen it for many years. It reminded me of the performance of it held at Delegate in the late '60s, my Mum, Fay, was in it I recall. It is a funny combination to be up here and watching such shows, but it is all fun.
Kids are doing homework occasionally but the experiences such as the video about the stromatolites are invaluable.
Well, best leave off for now as Kelsie is pestering me to get back for our dinner!
Lib is well and enjoyed using her snorkelling gear today, she gets a lot of mobility in the water and can swim better than me! (not hard according to my daughter sitting next to me!)
Hi to all, talk again soon.
Warwick.

7 June 2005 Kalbarri
Hi all, back on board after the problems of the computer at Geraldton. It was not good!
We are in windy Kalbarri right now and the weather does not look like clearing for a few days. The fortunes of travellers! It is interesting being in the middle of almost gail-force winds and rain. You don't sleep well but it is nice listening to it all. The van was buffeted a few times but nothing to worry us. The little camper vans next to us may have had a different night!
The sun is out right now and it is quite pleasant. The shops are open today, Tues, after the long weekend over here.
Geraldton had a lot to see but we just don't have time to do it comprehensively...will have to wait for the next trip!! We did get to the museum and what an enjoyable experience we had! They have the advantage of the Batavia wreck site being just off the coast. They have a video presentation plus a very good display of bits from the wreck. When combined with all the other things they have you get an enjoyable few hours experience. Especially when it is raining heavily outside!
Made our way to Kalbarri late in the day. The weather we saw on the way was amazing. I was using what I thought was a good map and then found that it did not show the newly tarred coastal scenic route to Kalbarri from Northampton. A bit disappointed about that, we are even thinking about going back that way.
Just back to Fremantle for a moment, it also has a lot to see. The gaol tour was very good. There is even more to see there than we had time for, eg the tunnel tour and the escape tour. It is very big and in fine condition.
The second day in Freo we hit the markets which were closed the day before. They are not really markets except for the fruit and veg, the small stores are mostly selling commercial products at pretty much the same prices as the big stores but the people and activity was interesting.
We left the markets and headed to Kings Park overlooking Perth and got the only bit of sunshine for most of the day so the pictures should look okay. Speaking of photos, we have 3 digital cameras on the go. I download the pix at night onto the laptop then, after a few days, burn them onto a DVD. I have almost filled the first DVD with about 3 1/2 gigabytes of material. I am going to burn another copy tonight and then post the DVD back to myself to ensure that we don't lose the photos. This method has meant that we can use the cameras at their top settings, 4, 5 and 8 megapixels, and take as many shots as we want. It costs no more for taking extra pictures and we can check them out as we take them. At night we can sit and have a slide show, with music, and laugh at all our shots...it is amazing!
After Kings Park I set the GPS to drive me to the Warwick Grove shopping centre in Warwick, a northern suburb of Perth. It took me straight there. I did not tell the family what I was doing so when we drove in they saw the name Warwick up in lights and laughed! Inside the place was just a Warwick paradise with every sign shouting at me! I was in the market for a new watch for my birthday so I felt it very appropriate to buy it there, and I found the one I wanted with a discount as well!
Best get off now, and will update soon. Hi to all and take care.
Regards, Warwick and co.
PS I think the wind is dropping off a bit!!

5 June 2005 Geraldton
Hi all, just a very quick message to let you know the latest.
We made Denison from Perth after 400kms in the day. Tired us out but worth it to get along the way in the one day. The previous day was my birthday in Fremantle and then in the suburb of Warwick!! I thought this fitting!
Must go as this is a lousy machine!
Regards Warwick. All well here.