Ningaloo Reef

We escaped the ravages of the city (Perth's beautiful but it is a city) and headed north again. Lucy wanted to visit Turquoise Bay so her wish was our command. The Ningaloo Reef is a fringing coral reef on the west coast of Australia. It basically means that you can walk off the beach & snorkel - unlike the Great Barrier Reef where you have to get a boat trip for 2 hours before you even reach the reef!
One of the closest towns to the reef is Exmouth. Exmouth is very small and I had booked us into the Best Western which is about 6km north of the town. Well the Best Western is housed in what used to be the Female Naval Officers Quarters so you can guess what it is like - barracks yes! To be fair Best Western have tried to build a resort in the middle of a naval base. There is a pool, palm trees, hot tub, outdoor barbecue area, clean comfortable rooms and fantastic staff. Still I think Gary was ready to divorce me when he saw what I had booked. The charms of the place were not immediately obvious.
Gary & I headed into town to buy provisions. The town has a couple of restaurants but we decided that life would be easier if we cooked for ourselves. As we walked to the supermarket we noticed some unusual pedestrians - emus!!! They're everwhere, just wandering around, minding their own business.
On the first night we did eat out (crocodile spring rolls - yummy) and on our way back to the hotel discovered that there were kangaroos outside the hotel. Every evening the hotel is surrounded by kangaroos of varying sizes munching on the freshly watered grass. We also have cockatoos flying around. So now the hotel has redeemed itself.
Ningaloo Reef is in Cape Range National Park. We've been heading down to Turquoise Bay most days to watch the coral. Lucy had some issues with her mask initially but we've now borrowed masks from the hotel & her mask doesn't leak. Her problem now is that she's worried about what might be swimming on the coral so would only swim over the sandy parts!! On our last snorkelling day Annabelle managed top persuade Lucy to swim around the coral but she still refused to swim over it!
The other gem about the Ningaloo Reef at this time of year is that turtles come onto the beach to nest. Our first day out we went to the main nesting beach to look at the Turtle Exhibition. We wandered onto the beach to find a turtle nesting. Usually they only nest at night so this was a real treat. On our first snorkelling day we saw a turtle swimming off Turquoise Bay. The next time we went to the Turquoise Bay we counted 9 turtle nests. This week has been a real treat in terms of seeing wildlife.
Ningaloo Reef was a quiet peaceful week relaxing by the pool or on the beach. There didn't seem to be much evidence of Christmas hype around the place.
Our flight out was delayed as the airport was awaiting the arrival of a helicopter which had been out rescuing people from the cyclone further north. Although the cyclone has visited places we have, our paths have never crossed - phew!! Anyway we eventually got the plane back to not so warm Perth.

Missing you all

Will be home in a couple of weeks

Geraldine xxxx

Perth the first time round

On the Tuesday 8th December we finally arrived in Perth, not much to do at 10:30 so we went to bed. We stayed in the Seashells Apartments at Scarborough.
Scarborough is one of the beach suburbs of Perth. It was really windy but had beautiful sunsets. We met up with Steve, Mary and their children George, Bethan and Robbie. Steve & I worked together many years ago in Liverpool. They have a lovely house with a pool & we had a great evening with them. It was good to catch up.
We knew nothing about Perth so caught a city tour bus to get our bearings. Perth isn't very big. It sits on the Swan River & is quite pretty. When we go back to Perth we'll be staying on the edge of Kings Park & have already decided what we're going to visit.
On Friday we caught a ferry over to Rottnest Island. The island is 11km long and no private cars are allowed on the island. The best description is that it's a little bit like Centerparks. We hired bikes and spent the day cycling around the island swimming and snorkelling off small beaches. It was lovely. Rottnest Island is famous for its quokkas. Quokkas are marsupials & look a bit like a mini kangaroo. They are really cute & quite friendly. As they are wild you're not allowed to feed them or interact with them. Bit tricky when this cute creature comes up to you. Unfortunately I trod on a tail - oops. The quokka didn't seem to bothered!
After a final relaxing day in Scarborough we caught the plane to Exmouth.
xxxxxxxxxGeraldinexxxxxxxxx

Broome

Broome is paradise on earth. We stayed at a resort called 'Sea Shells' in a lovely apartment. The resort was quiet as it's the rainy season in Broome. Apparently, this means that every so often a few drops of warm rain fall.We didn't really see any rain at all. The temperature was about 35 degrees and quite humid.
We just took it easy for the first day in Broome - after all the running around in Darwin we all needed a bit of a rest.
The next day we headed off to Willie Creek's Pearl Farm where we learnt all about pearl farming. They also showed us how to chose a pearl & then look after it once you get it home. The pearl oysters take quite a lot of looking after. There are jobs for backpackers cleaning the shells which pay $1000 per week - hard work but lucrative. We met a couple at the pearl farm called Adam & Becki (more of them later).
One of the most impressive sights in Broome is Cable Beach - white sand going down to turquoise sea with a blue sky. At sunset you can ride camels along the beach. Adam & Becki were involved with one of the camel ride companies. Annabelle & Lucy rode one camel while Gary & I had a camel each. You climb onto the camel while they're sitting on the ground. They then stand up bum end first - tricky hanging on!! We then walked along the beach for quite a long way. The biggest concern was that a croc had been spotted on the beach the previous day (not sure what would have happened if the camels came face to face with a croc). As we got towards the end of the ride Gary's camel decided to take a nip out of my back.
Broome is just gorgeous and very relaxing. Definitely somewhere to put on your list of places to visit.
We left Broome to fly to Perth. Broome Airport is a series of wooden benches under large fans......



Top photo - Geraldine on Cable Beach
Bottom photo - Camel riding on Cable Beach - girls are on 5th camel from front, Geraldine on 6th Gary on 7th

Darwin

We arrived in Darwin to be welcomed by a thunderstorm - fairly familiar theme. Luckily this was the only rain that we saw for the 3 days in Darwin.

Our first full day in Darwin was spent on an open topped double decker bus very like the one I used to go to school on (obviously not open topped - bit cold for Mow Cop). We saw the sights of Darwin including the gaol, the Museum (cyclone Tracy and Sweetheart the croc) and all the other highlights. Darwin's a fairly small place but has the most expensive real estate in Australia outside Sydney!!

On our second day we went to the Kakadu World Heritage Site. Kakadu is 220km outside Darwin. We did get to see some fantastic scenery and Aboriginal rock art. We also cruised on the Yellow Billabong where we saw crocodiles. Although the boat was flat bottomed and never going to capsize Lucy was terrified (given recent events) of the boat capsizing leaving the Massons as croc food. We also saw kingfishers, sea eagles and jabirus (Australian storks).

On our third day we headed for the Litchfield National Park. This time we went on a croc jumping cruise. They bait the crocs & get them to jump for the food. We were asked to keep the children in the middle of the boat as well as our hands & heads within the confines of the boat. After the croc cruise we headed into the park where we went swimming in crystal clear rock pools at Wangi Falls & Florence Falls. In the photo you can see Gary, Annabelle & Lucy swimming in the pool at Wangi Falls. The swimmimng was blissful and refreshing.

We left Darwin having had a hectic but interesting few days. Onward & upward to Broome....

The Ghan

We had a fantastic time on the Ghan - the train which took us from Adelaide to Darwin.
The crew were brilliant & a lot of fun. They welcomed us onto the train and then showed us to our cabins. Susan was looking after our carriage for the trip (she came from Solihull originally). The cabins had a sofa & were en suite. Susan turned the sofa into bunk beds when we went for dinner.
The food on the train was fantastic. The best bit was that Annabelle loved virtually all the meals that were presented. They had some excellent wines too.
We got on the train 11am Sunday & arrived in Darwin 5pm Tuesday.
On Monday we stopped Alice Springs where we could choose to do a variety of things. Gary & the girls decided that they wanted to go on a helicopter flight - so off we went. It was great fun seeing Alice Springs from the air.
On Tuesday morning we stopped in Katharine. This time we decided to go canoing down the river. The first trauma was when Lucy discovered that there were crocs in the river. They're only freshies (freshwater crocs) so they are quite small & tend to hide away from humans. After a lot of coaxing we got her into a canoe with Gary. Annabelle & I climbed into the other canoe.
We were sent upstream, the ranger said the going would be easy as they hadn't had too much rain. Off we paddled.....
The first little mishap happened when Annabelle passed her hat & sunnies to Gary (not sure why). Both fell in the river. The hat was rescued but the sunnies sank without a trace - one unhappy Annabelle!
A bit more coaxing and we managed to get paddling again. We eventually reached a point where the current was quite strong so decided to turn back and float downstream. Suddenly Annabelle became hysterical - she'd just noticed that there were spiders in the canoe (think they might have been there all along). Gary brought his canoe alongside to try & help sort out the spiders. Annabelle meanwhile was dancing about in the front of the canoe - I thought we were done for. Something then landed on my hat & crawled onto my sunglasses - I pulled it off my face & threw it into the river. It was a spider the size of your hand!!! At that point I decided that it might be a good idea to come out from under the trees. We started to paddle downstream. Gary & Lucy were far ahead. We suddenly realised that they had capsized and paddled like fury to catch their canoe. We then realised that Lucy was clinging to a branch to stop herself from being washed downstream so we turned our canoe round to rescue Lucy. Gary lifted her into our canoe (I thought we were going to capsize too) and we took her back to the jetty where she went to get the ranger to help us. Annie & I then set off to collect the canoe, hat and barrel that were all floating downstream (we're still trying to work out how many points each item is worth). Another English girl on the trip took her canoe back upstream & helped Gary retrieve the paddles. At the end we were all very wet but agreed that the canoing was more fun than the helicopter ride.
Anyway we got back on the train for the last hop to Darwin where it was raining!!!
Take care & see you soon

Love Geraldine xx