The Turquoise Coast, WA

After leaving Perth our next main attraction is ‘The Pinnacles’, so we head there after our quick overnight stop at Moore River and are stunned by this area. Not too far inland from the beach are these amazing rock formations, they are made from Limestone and are everywhere. You do need a WA Parks Pass to get in but lucky us the Chapmans put our rego down as a second vehicle for free, so in we go with no dramas. We unhook the caravan so we are free to drive through and around the area, it truly looks like a desert or like we are on another planet.

The neighbouring town is called Cervantes, so we check this out quickly but preferred our more recent stunning locations, so on we go exploring and head to the next town Jurien Bay. What a stunning coastal town this is, they have really done the area up with great facilities, walking tracks, playground and a cool jetty. If you were keen on paying to stay in a caravan park this would be a great spot but that’s not us so we head north a little further and find a free camp along the beach between Sandy Cape and Green Head.

Getting in to this camp however was not the best time we have had, quite windy and narrow, taking us at least an hour to hustle our way in, but we make it and find a secluded spot to ourselves with our own little beach. Time to crack out a fire and watch the sunset, we are having some great sunsets over this side of Australia so look forward to them every night.

The next day we head off for a good explore, run into an archaeologist that shows us around some old structures from the World War 2 RAAF base. We climb into an old concrete tank and learn where their base kitchen, mess hall etc were located, with old slabs still visible; it was a great little lesson into this history. We drive further over dunes and on to the beach to then find more old structures, these ones are also made of concrete and look like little igloo houses, meant to be used for generators and their radars.

Content with our days exploration we head back to camp, the sun is beaming and I am right into my tan straight away! A great peaceful camp, we enjoy another fire and awesome sunset, the only downfall being the amount of bee’s that hang around (being native bees they do not bite so we think of them as flys).

Camp Location:  Jurien Bay Marine Park

Cost = FREE

Travelled From: Moore River bridge rest stop

Distance Travelled:  153 kilometres

Geraldton is not too far north, we have to do a few things in town, but before we get there we find a free camp along the beach, get chatting to some fellow campers and they tell us there are crayfish everywhere just right out from the beach. We decide to now stay the night to go for a snorkel the next morning and try our luck catching one. We enjoy the afternoon on the beach, relaxing, taking in the sun, listening to music and loving life.

Morning comes and Zac has had a quick google of the best way to catch crays, and finds a snare is the way to go. Thinking on his feet, he decides to make one, basically a pull system noose with thick fishing line on the end of our crabbing rake. Perfect, time to head off, with a few location tips from the fellow campers we head out not too far and find the drop off area with the seaweed and rocks. The crays are hiding under the rocks, but you have to dive down about 3 metres, try and hold yourself down while you either try and grab one by its body or test out the snare. All of this while holding your breathe and not scaring away the crays was a lot harder than we first thought. Wow, what a workout, we consistently dove down, held our breathe as long as we could, struggled swimming with the snare so ditch it and tried to just grab them, but every time you inch a little closer they crawl back in their hole. We gave it a red hot go but after an hour decide that today is not our day.

Camp Location:  Seven mile beach stop

Cost = FREE

Travelled From: Jurien Bay Marine Park

Distance Travelled: 127 kilometres

We then head into Geraldton, quite a large town and time to run some errands. First stop we need another rim for our car, as our old one was well worn from our last minor disaster. Then into bcf, zacs family are kindly keeping their BCF voucher codes (from cartons of great northern) for us to claim so we have 7 $10 vouchers to claim, and we did well with refillng our gas and buying a billy for the fire, gas canisters for our troopy cooker, bait, hooks, 2 drinkbottles and another shower (as our last one broke). A couple of things from bunnings and supercheap and we are set again for the road ahead. This does however take up the whole day so lucky us there is a free rv stop right in town at the local boat ramp. The noisiest sleep we have had yet, I thankfully use my trusty earplugs, but zac persists without and regrets it the next morning.

Camp Location:  Geralton RV Stop

Cost = FREE

Travelled From: Seven mile beach stop

Distance Travelled:  57 kilometres

Leaving Geraldton I notice on google maps that there is another pink lake on our way to our next stop, we have now been to 2 or 3 other pink lakes, and none of them being pink, so I have my fingers and toes crossed for this one. We arrive and don’t see too much, a lot has dried up, but we keep driving a little further has realise as we look back, you can see the pink a lot better. The angle you look at it has a big difference, we find the lookout area where heaps of people have walked down to the lake for photos and wala, it is pink! Some areas hot pink, the shallow areas a baby pink. I am excited to finally see and get photos with a pink lake, very cool!

A quick look on google maps to remember our next stop and I see I have starred a place called Pot Alley, not knowing or remembering what this was, it is on the way to the next town of Kalbarri anyway, so an easy detour leads us to another amazing coastal view. No need to explain how amazing this view was!

We drive into the town Kalbarri and have straight away see how stunning the town is, vast clear blue waters, really enticing you to stay longer. We head down to the beach, lap up the sun, have a siesta then move on to a free camp along the highway.

Nerren nerren rest area is a great, large free camp with toilets and fire pits, the perfect stop before reaching the long drive into Shark Bay. We make use of the fire pit and enjoy a peaceful nights sleep.

Camp Location:  Nerren Nerren rest area

Cost = FREE

Travelled From: Geralton RV Stop

Distance Travelled:  206 kilometres

Our next stop we have been waiting for is Shark Bay, a stunning coastal area with great history, wildlife and beaches. Look out for our next blog about this and its surrounding areas.

 

Holly xx