Blowholes proved to be a small, and not very enticing, camping area
named after the “blowholes” at the nearby cliffs. These were impressive with plumes of sea water erupting 20 metres or so into the air along with an accompanying roar. Despite my encouragement Sandra refused to get any nearer than a few feet from these to provide an even more spectacular photo for the blog. Not fancying the Blowholes campsite we travelled up the coast for a few miles and stayed at Quobba Station which provided pretty good camping and excellent hot showers – much needed!The following day we travelled down the coast whale-spotting. Large numbers of humpback whales were heading south and could easily be seen from the cliff tops – an initial spout of water was followed by their massive bodies surging out of the sea before diving down again to re-emerge several hundred yards further south.
Stopping briefly to buy some food at a pleasant small town called Carnarvon our next port of call was to be the Peron
Peninsular – a World Heritage Site and absolutely nothing to do with Evita – it, and the Francois Peron National Park, were named after a French naturalist who had worked in the area. We camped at Nanga Bay on a site set back from a beautiful beach. Sandra had yet another bout of ecstasy when, first thing in the morning, she went down to the deserted beach by herself to find a dead calm blue sea, clear blue skies, white sand plus dolphins playing by the shore. I missed this as I was washing the dishes from the night before – and it was her turn!Johann and Ian, who had gone their own way after Ningaloo, rejoined us at Nanga and, before leaving, we all went down to the beach for a swim. Arriving after the others, I spotted them anxiously staring at something about 30 metres off shore, Johann, who had binoculars, asserted with some authority that it was a sea snake as she could clearly see scales and coloured banding along its body. With sea snakes being one of the most deadly sea creatures, swimming seemed particularly unattractive at that precise moment. However, cometh the hour cometh the man, I went to investigate. As I neared the creature I suddenly felt a slimy coil wrap around my leg and, with a scream, I disappeared under the water –much to the consternation of the onlookers – only to emerge with what I had suspected all along, a length of rope anchored to the seabed used for mooring boats!!
One of the main purposes of our trip to Australia was for Sandra to see the wild flowers in Western Australia which, we had been led to believe, carpeted the ground from horizon to horizon with swathes of colour. So far she had been a little disappointed, particularly in the Pilbara which has a wildflower reputation. However we were now coming into real wildflower country as we headed for Kalbarri to visit Kalbarri National Park and the Kalbarri Wildflower Centre.
Kalbarri is a pleasant seaside town very much geared
towards tourism and sits at the mouth of the Murchison River on a small bay protected from the open sea by a rocky bar upon which the waves pound constantly. Our campsite had perfect river views, however this perfection was somewhat dampened when the heavens opened up and hit us with our latest downpour. We couldn’t be bothered cooking that night and decided to go out for a meal to Finlays – a restaurant “with a reputation” – a reputation which, according to one of Johann’s sources, included serving excellent fish presented on pieces of toilet paper – the mind boggled!Finlays proved to be even more eccentric than expected – the first problem was finding it! We wandered the darkened backstreets of Kalbarri – and it’s not a big place - with a map lit by the screen of a mobile phone until we eventually stumbled upon one of the most unconventional restaurants I have ever been experienced. A large yard, furnished with an amazing array of mainly, but not exclusively, fishing related junk, surrounded on three sides by corrugated iron sheds,
the largest of these housed an open plan kitchen enabling customers to watch, and sometimes participate, in their meal being cooked. The cooking was done by Gary, for whom the word eccentric does no justice, and whose most potent weapon was his microphone. Ostensibly used to announce, “Come in Number 43 your meal is ready” he also made the following announcement “This is a product re-call. Would Number 95 (we were Number 99) please return their food to the kitchen. I repeat, this is a product re-call”When Number 99 was called Johann, feeling a bit short-changed, requested that Gary give her an
extra one or two mussels. Totally unphased, Gary proceeded to fill a whole plate with a few dozen extra mussels. I didn’t even complain and he gave me, not an extra piece of fish, but an extra plateful of fish – three pieces – along with rice and chips. Consequently Johann had to do a “doggy-bagging” - threatening Stretch with re-heated fish for breakfast.The gents toilet in Finlays is furnished like a nautical radio shack with radios of various vintages lining the wall, whilst the ladies had an old Space Invaders machine and a nude female figure. And Johann’s source was wrong – the fish wasn’t served on toilet paper but rolls of it were provided in the restaurant instead of napkins. If you are ever in Kalbarri make a point of going to Finlays.
We then split up again from Stretch and Johann who stayed on at Kalbarri. We had planned to visit the National Park but the rain had closed the roads so, after a trip to the Wildflower Centre, Sandra and I set off for Geraldton, yet another seaside town, but once again we never arrived. On the way we suddenly noticed the sea had turned pink! – this was worth investigating. We had arrived at Port Gregory – famous for its pink lagoon, a naturally occurring phenomenon caused by beta carotene. Funnily enough the pink lagoon reminded me of the millions of flamingos we had see on lakes in East Africa – and it turns out that it is beta carotene that causes that as well.
Feeling a bit “beached out”, we headed inland, camped the night in splendid isolation at the Tenindewa Pioneer Well then spent most of the next day in a small nearby town called Mullewa where Sandra did the “Wildflower Walk” and I accompanied her on the “Bushland Walk”. Not much else seems to happen in Mullewa so we gave the “Railway Heritage Walk” a go but decided to call in a day before doing the “Town Heritage Walk” – they are big on Wildflowers and Heritage Walks in this part of the world!
On then to the Coalseam Conservation Park near
Wongoondy for Sandra to do yet more flower spotting, then to Mingenew to look for a campsite. As we were looking we received a text from Johann saying they were at Dongara on the coast. A quick look at the map showed this was only 50k away so here we are back at the seaside for a couple of nights. Perth will be our next stop before flying back to Sydney for a couple of weeks for the birth of a grand-daughter. 
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