Although I had been to Australia a couple of times before, this was my first time at the west coast. I met my friend Anita - who wanted to join me on this part of my trip - in Perth and from there we hit the road in our campervan.
G’day! The original idea was to travel through the area south of Perth, where (amongst other sights) a lot of wineries are located. But by the time we arrived in Perth a storm was forecasted for that region so we decided to head up north - in hindsight the best decision we could have made!
Wooramel
In a big push we drove 8 hours straight to get to our first stop at the Wooramel Station Riverside Retreat.
Wooramel was recommended to us for two things: the Wednesday night camp oven dinner (which we unfortunately missed due to our late arrival on that evening) and the naturally heated Artesians bore baths. These are fed from water that surfaces under its own pressure from a depth of 240m and has a temperature of about 33 degrees - absolutely heavenly to sit in and relax the morning after a long, tiring drive!
Wooramel also gave us a bit of a taste of the vastness of this country and what the outback is like with its gravel, dusty roads, red earth and miles and miles of „nothing“...
Monkey Mia
After a slower start to our day we headed out on a relatively short drive (by Australian standards) of just under three hours to get to our second stop, the RAC Monkey Mia Dolphin Resort.
Along the way we came across an interesting oversize transport and also stopped at Nanga to enjoy the beautiful scenery.
Monkey Mia is situated right at the beach within the Shark Bay World Heritage Area and is also home to one of Australia‘s best known dolphin encounters as well as to quite a few pelicans.
The campsite had a lovely seaside bar where we had one or more pre-dinner rose wines and watched the sunset.
The dolphin encounter takes place every morning at 7:30 am at the beach. However, the dolphins were a bit camera shy, but trust me - they were there!
Kalbarri
We had planned quite a long drive on day three of our road trip to get to the town of Kalbarri.
I really liked being on the road in this part of Australia, your view is unobstructed, the sky had the most magnificent blue and it was just a joy for me to watch the scenery go past my window... We had decided at the start of our trip that we would take daily turns in driving so that each of us would always get a day’s rest, which worked out really good for us.
We arrived in Kalbarri in the early afternoon and decided to stay at the Kalbarri Anchorage Caravan Park where we got a front row site with a great view of the Murchison river and a lovely sunset...
In the local pub where we had dinner we learned quite a bit about Australien football (similar to rugby but a sport in its own right, played on an almost round field...) and had a pretty good night out...
Next morning we went to see the daily feeding of the local pelicans. This is organised by a small group of pensioners who are taking turns in feeding the pelicans and who also give a short educational talk about the birds. I think it’s great voluntary work and entirely funded by donations raised from visitors.
Lancelin
The journey to Lancelin would take us all day as we had planned three stops along the way. But with quite a bit of coffee fuel Anita got us there safely - no worries!
Our first stop took us to the Hutt Lagoon Pink Lake at Yallabatharra. I had never heard of - never mind seen - anything like this before! The Pink Lake has an extreme salinity (bit like the Dead Sea) and its pink hue is due to the presence of a carotenoid producing algae called Dunaliella salina. This algae is used as a food-colouring agent and source of Vitamin A in cosmetics and supplements (BASF has a base at the lake).
The view was really stunning and a bit otherworldly, the ground consisted of a thick, hard layer of salt.
I could have stayed there for hours just looking at the bright pink lake and the almost royal blue sky!
Next up on our way was a pretty little seaside town called Geraldton, with a picturesque lighthouse and long, white sandy beaches (the water was freezing though!). We stopped here for our lunch break and to take a stroll along those fabulous beaches.
Our final stop on the way to Lancelin was at The Pinnacles, an area within Nambung National Park just south of the city of Cervantes.
The Pinnacles are limestone formations in a yellow sand desert like setting. There are actually thousands of pillars in that area, some as tall as 3.5 meters, however, how they were formed is still subject to debate and up to this day remains one of nature’s secrets.
In the evening we finally arrived at Lancelin Holiday Park, our campsite for the night.
Lancelin is well known in Australia for its white sand dunes which are inland and are up to 40 meters high! Aussies go there for sandboarding, 4 WD or quad biking. It seemed like such a random whim of nature that you would find those dunes right in the middle of an otherwise green countryside!
Rottnest Island
After our morning fun in the sand dunes we also stopped at Yanchep National Park to do the Koala Boardwalk and to take a quick break in the adjacent park before we headed to Fremantle to catch the ferry to get to Rottnest Island.
Rottnest Island is a very popular weekend getaway during the summer months for people living in the greater Perth area. The ferry ride takes only about 30 minutes. The island is a car free zone and is mainly known for two things: its stunningly beautiful landscape and (much more importantly) it is home to the super cute quokkas! Quokkas are a miniature type kangaroo and always look like as if they are wearing a little smile. They are quite trusting and therefore taking a quokka selfie is THE thing to do on the island.
We did not need to wait long for our first quokka encounter - whilst walking from our hotel to a beachfront bar we met this little fellow:
Anita was just about able to keep my quokka selfie frenzy at bay for that evening, so instead of posing with my new furry friend we had drinks with a fantastic view and later on dinner as well at the Hotel Rottnest.
For the next day we had rented bicycles to explore the island before taking the ferry back to Fremantle. Our cycling tour took about two hours - just enough time to appreciate how beautiful this island really is...
After our cycling trip it was definitely time for some quokka action, there was no stopping me anymore! So here we go, prepare yourself for some serious quokka cuteness:
Busselton / Margaret River
Once we arrived back on the mainland (Fremantle) we made our way to the Big4 Beachlands Holiday Park in Busselton - our home for the next two nights, where we were greeted with a pretty spectacular sunset.
The area around Margaret River is famous for its wines so next day we embarked on an all day wine tasting with Margies Big Day Out Tours.
The tour would take us to four different wineries, a local brewery for lunch, a chocolate factory and finally to a distillery. We had our first wines at 11:15am...
Lunch at the Bootleg Brewery
...and at last Giniversity!
I’m telling you - that was a hard day’s work!
Apart from being surrounded by wineries Busselton is also home to a beautiful jetty, which we checked off of our sightseeing list next morning.
And then it was time to head back to Perth to drop off our campervan, our home for 8 days and 2,500km packed with new memories.
Perth
As much as we enjoyed our time with the campervan, we were quite grateful for having a proper bed again and the Hyatt Regency Perth definitely did not let us down.
The close proximity to both the CBD and the Swan River parklands (good job for placing us there Anita!) enabled us to explore the city on foot.
We had a ladies lunch at the excellent Nobu at the Crown Perth, that is renown for its contemporary fusion style Japanese kitchen.
A few impressions walking through the city...
Didn’t mind climbing three floors on those stairs @ The Aviary!
And finally, goodbye drinks with a great view of Quay Elizabeth @ The Reveleys.
What an exciting trip this has been - thanks Anita for your company, you rule girl!
Bye bye Downunder - I’m pretty sure I’ll be back at some point - no worries!
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