Hi all,

I want to start this entry by saying hi to Chipottle Mars. It seems she (I hope I got that right being a lady - if not correct me - please) is a wealth of information and when she left me a comment she also gave me a few tidbits of great information which I wanted to share. One I knew about (but was too slack to go out to the car to get the pamphlet to find out the details) and the other I had no clue about. The first is the pink lake I mentioned in my previous entry. The pink lake near Port Gregory it seems is caused by a high concentration of a chemical called beta- caratone released by a special algae and brine shrimp. This one I had read about in a brochure (hence slack) the other was news. The weird scarab beetle like creature we photographed is called a Chiton. It's a type of mollusc. I love learning about new things and I was glad for the information. Thanks for the heads up :)

As you all know by now I have been battling a dodgy internet connection - but not now - here in Kalbarri it seems great! Anyway, I lost so much information late last night that I couldn't be bothered typing it again so hence this new entry. I am now going to first type on notepad (thanks again to Chipotle for the idea... see a wealth of information... lol...don't know why I didn't think of it myself) and then transfer it straight to my blog. Taaa daa, no more lost work.

Okay, so where were we?

Yesterday, we left Horrock. It's a tiny town but quaint. Lovely beaches and nice people. Then came the decision where to go next on our travels north. I really, really wanted to see Kalbarri, as it's on the way and somewhere that I had earmarked as a 'must do.' It's been forever since I had been here and apart from being a gorgeous part of the state, I wanted to see how much it had changed. It has, but not too much thankfully. It's more updated and modern and yet still holds the feel of a seaside town with great shops and boutiques and a few supermarkets etc. Long story short, we tried to book into the Murchison Caravan park here in Kalbarri (I'm sure it was trying to get through to the office when there was no telephone signal on the trip up that made us miss out on the last spot lol) but that was a no-go, it was fully booked out. Then we remembered a friend told us about the Wagoe Caravan and Camping spot. It's about 20 minutes south of Kalbarri and this sounded ideal. Our friend said it was a great place. 

Okay, so to be honest, at first glance I wasn't impressed (but I wasn't the only one just in case you were starting to think I was a total princess.) It was virtually treeless with these small caravan plots crammed next to each other and the loos and showers? You don't want to know. What was worse was there were loads of bees that suddenly decided to converge on our car window screen totally freaking those of us out who don't like bees. I will say it... I HATE BEES... Jake hates bees, though he has a logical reason for it. He's allergic - severely. My poor long suffering husband made us a deal. Stay here the night as we had already paid and tomorrow we would book somewhere in Kalbarri and stay in town. Deal. We hurriedly unpacked the van, dragging out the table and chairs and whatever was needed for the overnight then zipped off into Kalbarri. We ended up having one of the nicest days ever. 

We went to Blue Rock and Red Bluff and visited a few other places which the kids loved - actually we all did. They discovered the crazy crabs that I posted in the pics yesterday and a host of other strange weird and wonderful sea creatures. We did a heap of rock climbing and exploring and we all got back to the camp happy and relaxed. By the time we got back to Wagoe which was late afternoon, the flies had virtually disappeared (did I mention when we booked in to Wagoe it's beef country with paddocks of green and lots of cows. Where there's cows, there's poo, where there's poo there's TONS of flies. And it was hot without a whiff of fresh air... you get the idea.) It was really late afternoon and there were other people booked in which made it a little nicer. Actually, the whole experience was a lot nicer as a whole. Chris paid 10 dollars to get a key (refundable) to get through a gated section of private property to go down to the beach. Then he, Mason and Riley set off to the beach where they let out the tyres and went 4wdriving. They did some rock climbing and then made a discovery.  Fresh oysters on the rocks. What amazed me was our 12 year old tried some raw and even liked it. But like my father says, don't get them hooked on the expensive stuff lol. Crayfish, crabs and oysters are much too good for the little ones .. I'm sure he was joking? He never had any worries with me anyway, I'm allergic to seafood. It's great he had a new experience. Mason is our clown and often has us in fits of laughter as we travel in the car from one destination to another. As usual he was graphic in his description how he felt he got a dodgy oyster, one that seemed to be all oyster poo and slime and well, you really don't want to imagine the rest but probably can.

The park area cooled down to a magic level by the night. The kids played with the three work dogs there and gathered wood for a campfire which they arced up when nightfall came. They then cooked hard boiled eggs in the billy, made spaghetti and cooked up a slap-dash meal which was one of the nicest we have had. We sat around the fire after and just chilled (warmed lol). We were in bed by ten and that was that.

Today we are parked at the Anchorage Caravan Park here in Kalbarri. One thing I've noticed is how we are getting a good system going with the unpacking and packing of the van. It took us a while to figure out what to bring out, what to leave, what to put where yet slowly but surely we are getting the hang of this caper. Everyone seems to have picked jobs for themselves and we are efficient in the way we can be unpacked and sitting down with a coffee in just a half hour. That's the full set up. Awning up, chairs and table out, boat motor outside and locked up etc, and I potter about inside pulling all the bits and pieces out we need to get to for the next few days. The TV is still a problem though. We purchased a special 'caravan' TV which means it was more expensive (isn't everything involving travel lol) but is able to be sat outside due to a special silicon coating making it supposedly impervious to the outside air. We just need to figure just what to do with the TV inside. It moves from one spot to another usually ending up on our bed so it doesn't take up room where we usually perch it on the closed gas burners top. Not that its big in particular but it's just in the way. I had an idea of getting some sort of mechanism going to attach it to the roof whereby it can lay flat against the roof when not in use but can be swung down to watch whenever we might need it. Chris is pondering on that one -  he likes the idea but he's not sure if it will work. Plus he needs to get to a store big enough to sell the kind of metal arms we need for the job and well, that's not happening here in these small towns. So the TV comes to rest on my bed and I'm constantly worried someone will sit on it lol. Most likely me.

I guess that's it for now. We have the next two days here in Kalbarri, where we leave Monday morning. I just spoke to Chris - who had wandered up from the beach leaving the boys with the boat while he picked them all up jumpers from the van - it seems its a bit cool out on the water - and he thinks we should head for Sharks Bay next. Bring it on!

Chow for now
Carolyn x

I just had to include another shot of the pink lake as I wanted to post it yesterday but didn't. It's so breathtakingly weird. You don't expect to see pink water.

The view of the Murchison River from our caravan spot at the Anchorage - ahhh, it's a tough life.

This is a shot across the sea from Blue Rocks. A gorgeous bay area.

My husband in summer mode - look, his hair is short!

Port Gregory jetty view. A tiny, tiny blip on the map but charming.