South-West Corner

Margaret River

Dunnsborough - Simmo's Ice Creamery

Just for the kids of course! But again, the grounds were just immaculate and the whole place was made for families. Wildflower walks, mini golf, huge playgrounds.

Cowaramup Brewery

Anthony enjoyed trying a range of the Cowaramup beers, while the rest of us enjoyed our cups of tea, and the boys enjoyed the jumping castle and playground. Beautiful grounds.

Something for the Kids ... Ye Old Lolly Shoppe, Margaret Rvr

Bush Shack Brewery

Again, Anthony tried out a paddle full of different beers - chilli, chocolate, Dan's dark beer, strawberry-blonde and lemon twisted.Again, the rest of us enjoyed our cups of tea while Nat and Noah enjoyed the playground. This time, Ant couldn't finish them all. It was 11am!!!

Oh, when will it be time for Wine Tasting at a winery Anthony?

Again, something for the boys - Cowaramup Candy Cow!

Busselton

An enjoyable long walk out along the Busselton Jetty, all 1841 metres of it!

Dad also took us out crabbing off it. Nat & Noah enjoyed checking the pots every 5 minutes, always with at least 1 crab in it, if not more!

Bunbury Adventures

Bunbury with Ron & Shirley Behan

After meeting up with Grandma & Grandad Behan in Perth, we moved on to Bunbury together.

We enjoyed a walk in one of Bunbury's parks all together.

Followed by visiting the Bunbury lighthouse & one of its beaches for morning tea.

Noah's Bunbury Adventure

After 5 days of Noah either vommitting or complaining of tummy pains or temperatures, we finally took Noah up to the Bunbury hospital to see if it was more than a virus. The Visitor Centre had told us that unless you were a local, you wouldn't be able to get in to a Medical Centre to see a doctor, and even if you were a local, there was a 7 week waiting period.

We entered Bunbury Hospital, A&E Tuesday night around 8pm, and finally got to see a doctor around midnight. He was pretty quick to conclude on the appendix and sent him to Kids ward to wait for tomorrow's emergency list. We got settled into Kids ward around 4am.

Thankfully, the Captain Starlight came around during the day to distract the kids. Noah was sick & sore at this stage and just waiting for them to fit him onto the emergency list.

Finally they operated around 7pm Wednesday evening. Thankfully, for Noah, Ant went into theatre with him until he fell asleep. Unfortunately, this left Lis alone, and I completely lost it once they took Noah away, until Ant came back out, only about half an hour, but the loneliest, longest, saddest, most desperate half hour of my life. (Just ask Cathy and Shirley- who I phoned for prayer).

Thankfully, the Lord watched over our precious little one. Thanks to all our family & friends who we know also lifted Noah up in prayer.

It turned out that Noah's appendix was black, and had become gangreenous & had begun to rupture & an abscyss was growing on it, and burst as soon as the doctors touched it. The Doctor has since informed us, that if we had left it any longer, he most likely would have needed a small bowel reconstruction.

Thankfully, big brother, Nat, has been very supportive and encouraging and loving.

Thankfully, God sent Mum & Dad Behan over to Perth when He did. They were an amazing support for us, looking after Nat at the drop of a hat, while Ant & Lis waited at the hospital, they fed Ant & Nat, and they loved & supported us through the whole experience, putting their short Western Australia holiday on hold for us. We have an amazing family.

Thank-you again & again to all our dear friends and family who were praying for us. It was a very stressful, emotional, tiring time for us, and all your text messages, phonecalls and prayers meant a lot to us, and bridged the giant physical gap from Eastern Aust to West Aust.

We love you all and miss you all heaps. God Bless.

Kalbarri NP to The Pinnacles

Kalbarri National Park

We can't believe the stark change in scenery. Suddenly there's lush, green fields and some of those fields are so completely filled with the wildflowers - it's just beautiful.

We enjoyed the short walks through the National Park, just staying ahead of the rain.

Again, Nat was happy to find another lizard in the wild. I told Nat to stop poking his tongue at the lizard and teasing it!

We passed these amazingly powerful wind turbines just outside of Geraldton - apparently known for its strong winds. But again, beautiful against the backdrop of Yellow wildflower fields.

We camped at a free stop called Ellendale Pools, not far from the wind turbines. It was just lovely & totally amidst Australian Native plants, and even had a flushing toilet & playground!

The Pinnacles Desert

Ant & I enjoyed a nice hot cuppa surrounded by the peculiar, but awesome Pinnacles.

Meanwhile, the boys played skirmish around the strategically & conveniently placed pinnacles.
Ant even let the kids each have a turn at driving with him around the 4km Pinnacles drive. Nat & Ant placed a burger & fries order at one of the drive-thru pinnacles, just jokingly of course, but having been away from take-away for a while, Noah's tastebuds chucked a tantrum when he found out there wasn't any food.

Monkey Mia, Shark Bay

Monkey Mia, Shark Bay

We didn't get to feed the dolphins, but we got up very close & personal to dolphins. Particularly, this mother dolphin, Nicki, with her 10 day old calf. He wouldn't sit still, just kept jumping around, squigling, zooming faster, then slower. We found out that baby dolphins can't stay still or else they can't surface for air for the first few months.

Once the dolphins headed out to ocean for the day, we hired a quad-paddle bike for half an hour (that was long enough) & had an ocean picnic.

Nat & Noah didn't have a lot of patience for the dolphins, so they enjoyed getting up close & annoying the very tame pelicans.

We also enjoyed just walking out on the lovely old jetty. In the afternoon, the dolphins swam past us again out here.
We called into the lovely Shell Beach.

It made Nat's day - actually, it made Nat's whole trip, when he caught this skink crossing the road. It was his one goal for this trip - to catch a lizard in the while, just like he'd seen Steve Irwin do.

Noah's Birthday at 14 Mile Beach

14 Mile Beach, just South of Coral Bay

How's this for camping right on the beach?!!! Yes, that is the satellite set up for Foxtel.

Poppy, and many others, kept their boats just pulled up from the ocean on the sand, ready to jump into any time.

Pop took us out to the reef, out just a couple of hundred metres, for more spectacular coral & ocean life.
Mind you, the kids were happier with Poppy letting them jump from the front of the boat into the clear shallow waters.

We celebrated Noah's 6th birthday here. Gran made an ocean cake with a cut-out of Noah in his wetsuit & snorkel. We had a great time & played games also.

That afternoon, we went out snorkelling again, but "there was too many sea urchants" for the boys.

And at night, we went crab hunting along the beach with torches. There was heaps! Jeeby!

This was another wonderful place we didn't want to leave.

Ningaloo Reef

Osprey Bay, Ningaloo Reef Marine Park

We have been fortunate enough to camp right on the beach front, enjoying the clear blue ocean, up close & personal.

The reef was right at our doorstep. Beautiful corals & colourful fish. Very cold water, thus the wet suits.

Nat tried his hand at fishing, and caught this dart. At the time, we didn't know what it was, so we kissed it & released it.

Noah enjoyed feeding this roo, with a joey in her pouch, each afternoon.
There was heaps of turtles in the ocean. We were even fortunate to swim with a couple. We were swimming along with it, about half a metre above it. It didn't seem to mind either, until Nat reached out to touch it & the turtle shot off, with no chance of us keeping up with it.
This turtle was on a different beach. They were coming in close to shore to mate & lay eggs - very early this year. We could see at least 50 out in the water. (No swimming here!)
We ended each day down on the beach, either fishing or walking or swimming or enjoying a relaxing drink with the sunset.

This was probably our favourite spot of the trip so far. We stayed here 10 days.

Osprey Bay

Beautiful Broome

Anthony words, "I'll trade you 1000 Gorges for this beach!"
Yes, Ant is loving Broome & being near the Coast again.
We drove the cars down onto the Beach (past the Nudist Beach), and enjoyed dinner a swim & the sunset. Not bad!

The sunsets here are amazing... The sun actually sets into the ocean on this side of Australia!

Anthony's New Found Paradise - Broome

At Last... Beautiful Broome

Camel Ride along Cable Beach, Broome at Sunset.

Windjana Gorge & Tunnel Creek

We faced the grave & infamous Gibb River Road again... and this time conquered it!

Windjana Gorge

In the midst of the barren, dried, flat land, this oasis appears.
There were sooooo many freshwater crocs, all along the bank.

We couldn't get over how quiet they were.

We walked along the sandy river bed, just a few metres from all these crocs - out sunbaking. There were just so many!

Nat wanted to catch a baby one to take home for a pet.

They were so relaxed - just floating out under the sun.

Compared to the saltwater crocs, they were so much smaller & less troublesome looking.
Another gorge, and yet a totally different experience again.

Then, onto the "rough road" of Gibb River Road, another 40 km to ...

Tunnel Creek

We had been warned as to the water temperature, as to wearing shoes that could get wet, and as to taking a torch. Man, did we need to!

Ant helped each of us through the initial part, where the water came just over his knees (waist-height on Noah).

Even compared to the Croc-infested Windjana Gorge, Nat & Noah said that this was the best part of the day, here at Tunnel Creek.

The creek has carved a tunnel right through the mountain. Here, a cave-in has allowed light through to the tunnel about half way along.

The ceiling was low down in some places and yet, very high in other areas. On the return route, we noticed a small freshwater croc in the water. That is, in the water that we had walked through the first time.

Another wonderful day.