Journey to Jurien

Our time in Kalbarri is up and we must move on, Coral Bay now seems so far away and Perth so close. The kids are now realising that it will not be long till we see some very special friends that we have not seen for ages. So, as hard as it is to farewell new friends, we can now count the sleeps till Perth. But first things first, Jurien Bay is our next stop. We have had many people tell us how wonderful Jurien Bay is so we are looking forward to getting there and seeing for ourselves.

These are some of the friendly locals who treat the Kalbarri caravan park as their feeding ground. This is taken from our caravan. 

Kids passing the time while we finish the packing. We have to add that the kids have become an integral part of our unpacking of the van, however, we have discovered that on packing up days, we move that little bit faster when they are busy somewhere not near the van!!

Last views of the Murchison River as we leave Kalbarri. It must be said that even though we had exited the caravan park before 10, we did not actually leave Kalbarri till 12.30. A quick stop off at the surf shop for some new thongs for Boaz resulted in a yummy lunch and some shopping at a very groovy cafe/gallery next door.

E.C.S

This is the Hutt Lagoon, otherwise known as the Pink Lake. As you approach the area, we started to notice the low clouds had a pink tinge to them. It is hard to make out in the picture, but the water is actually pink as a result of large amounts of beta carotene naturally occurring in the water. One of those moments that look better in real life.

The thought to turn left is extremely tempting.

E.C.S

Look how close we are to Perth. It is starting to sink in how far we have come. We have now travelled almost 20,000m klms.

We have opted to not stay in Geraldton, this time, but we do take the scenic drive to check out what we are missing. Geraldton has a population of around 33,000 and is the largest centre north of Perth. It is the major port and administrative centre for the region. Geraldton began as a convict outpost in the 1850's and most of the early buildings were constructed by these convicts. Geraldton is a busy town and we are most interested to know that it is the main centre for rock lobster fishing. Mmmmmm.

To many this is just a regular vision, to us these are the first traffic lights we have seen since Darwin, and the most traffic since leaving Melbourne!!!!!!

The round anthills of the north have been replaced now by the round haybales of the south.

The turnoff for Jurien Bay along the newly finished Indian Ocean Drive.

Passing through Leeman and Greenhead, Jurien Bay is just down the road!!!! We plan to stay a few days and this will be our last stop before Perth. There is only one caravan park in town so we hope that we might bump into some fellow travellers we have previously met. Always a chance when you are all heading in the same direction!!