Broom, broom to Broome

Having been to Broome on two separate occassions we knew we were going to enjoy ourselves. Tim unfortunately had to leave us to go back to Alice Springs for three weeks but Broome certainly looked after us well. Cable Beach is still as beautiful as ever and there were many free events to enjoy including The Festival of the Pearl and a performance by the Bangarra Dance Theatre.
We were very lucky to catch up with the McAvoy's from home, which was fantastic, and we also met lots of travellers, with lots of kids around to play with. We made some new friends (a special hello to my fellow blogger Felix and Milo, Poppy, Natalie and Doug, Jack and Tegan) and had lots of adventures that included dinosaurs, camels (thanks mum xo) and crocs!

80 Mile Beach

Another beautiful piece of Western Australian coastline! There were lots of shells and Lola spent hours walking the sand with her head down. 

Port Hedland

I dont know what we really expected in Port Hedland, but what an interesting town. The port is one of the busiest ports in the world and is surrounded by trucks, diggers, cranes, trains, bulldozers, salt pools and huge salt piles... its hard not to bring out the eight year old boy in anyone! The beach was beautiful (clothing optional) and we caught up with the family we met in Coral Bay and spent a fantastic afternoon and evening with them (thanks again guys). The morning we were leaving Tim spotted a wedge tail eagle fly over with a snake in its talons, we then watched as a crow swooped at it and it dropped the western brown snake not far from us. The snake didn't survive unfortunately, but it was pretty amazing to watch.

Karajini National Park

What a beautiful place! The gorges were incredible and the swimming holes just so inviting! We did lots of great walks with many swims in between.

Dampier

The kids were adamant that we had to visit Dampier because that's where 'Red Dog' is from, so we headed to Dampier to look at the statue of the Pilbara wanderer. We then travelled down the Rio Tinto Rail Access Road to make our way to Karajini National Park. The road was a short cut and it was great to see some of the huge iron ore trains, but it was pretty rough. Rex renamed the road Rio Tinto Rail Access Corrugated Crap Road.

Exmouth

We finally dragged ourselves off the beach at Ningaloo Station and headed to Exmouth for some much needed supplies. Once the shopping was done we spent our days on more gorgeous beaches and some pretty amazing snorkelling in Cape Range National Park. After being very nervous about sharks before Coral Bay, Lola is now an old hand at swimming with reef sharks and barely flinched when we ran into two big ones at Turquoise Bay.

Ningaloo Station

After Coral Bay we spent seven glorious days in paradise. Ningaloo Station is 40kms north of Coral Bay, the road in was dry, dusty and corrugated but well worth it! We camped right on the beach and were surrounded by aqua blue, crystal clear water and white sand. Whales breached just past the reef and dolphins swam along the sandbar daily, one afternoon we watched a baby dolphin practice somersaults in front of our camp. We explored an old whaling station after tackling the sand dunes and getting water from the wells. We met some lovely people while we were there and were a bit sad to have to move on.

Coral Bay

Tim and I went to Coral Bay on our honeymoon and were really looking forward to spending five days in paradise... we weren't disappointed. The weather was warm, the water was crystal clear and the snorkelling was fantastic! We did a snorkelling trip on the reef which was a lot of fun. We were very lucky to see some reef sharks, huge green turtles, lots of beautiful fish and coral and even an octopus. Lola made some friends while we were there and hopefully we will catch up with them in Port Hedland.

Stromatolites

We stopped and looked at the stromatolites on our way out of Shark Bay and the kids were so pumped to see one of the first living organisms that appeared on the planet. I think they were a little disappointed that they didn't do that much. Our next stop was a beautiful beach camp a bit further north called Gladstone. We had a pretty amazing start and end to the day, the morning was so earily still with an almost undistinguishable horizon and another gorgeous West Australian sunset.