Geraldton to Pinjarra

We left Kalbarri and drove to Geraldton via Northhampton where we stopped for a pub lunch. We said goodbye to Jill, Kumar and the kids as they were going to stay at Coronation Beach which was just north of Geraldton. We checked into the caravan park and the kids had a swim and jumped on the jumping pillow. We got them Hungry Jack's for dinner and made it home before the rain started. Next morning we packed up and went to the foreshore. It has an excellent playground and water park so the kids were very happy there for a couple of hours. We then checked out the WA Museum which was excellent. It had a great play area for little kids and three really good exhibitions including the HMAS Sydney and a shipwreck section. Michael really enjoyed reading about the Batavia and the kids spent heaps of time filling out a quiz. The museum had an excellent gift shop so I was able to start on the Christmas shopping. You can tell we are heading to more touristy areas as it has been a long time since we have seen a good gift shop attached to an attraction.

From Geraldton we drove to Jurien Bay where we were very pleased to bump into some friends from Broome/Coral Bay. Jurien Bay is a lovely little seaside resort with a great foreshore playground and a jetty and pontoon. The first day we spent there the kids played on the jumping pillow but ended up down at the beach pretty quickly as it was very hot. They really loved jumping off the jetty. Tried fishing the second night but we were interrupted by an enormous thunderstorm. It rained most of the night which is very unusual for us. It is the most rain we have had since we left.

From Jurien Bay we drove towards Perth. For some reason it really feels like we are on the way home now even though we still have 2 months left. We stopped at the Pinnacles and did the drive around in the rain. They were much more interesting than I expected. I didn't realize there were so many rocks.






As we left the heavy rain started to fall and it pretty quickly turned into thunderstorms again. It didn't stop the whole day. Unfortunately it was the day we were driving through Perth so it was very nerve wracking. It is so long since we have been into a big city, probably since we left Melbourne as Darwin isn't that big. As we spotted tall buildings through the rain the kids all yelled out "Wow". We have turned into country folk!

We made it through Perth after being stuck in a traffic jam and found Tania and Brian's place. We met them in Alice Springs a very long time ago and took them up on their offer to park our van in one of their paddocks for a couple of nights. They live just near a town called Pinjarra which is about halfway between Perth and Bunbury. They live on a cattle farm. As we drove up we were greeted by 2 beautiful labradors, one black and one golden called Becky and Balto. Within minutes Charlie had spotted motorbikes, a quad bike, a tractor and a truck so he was very excited. Tania and Brian have 4 kids and the boys were very pleased to catch up with Scott and Kate again and we got to meet Gabby and Andrew who didn't come to Alice. The boys were out on the quad bike very quickly!




We drove into Mandurah which is a beach town nearby and had lunch on the first day. The kids were not pleased as they were enjoying playing with all of Scott's Lego and toy cars. We didn't stay in town long as the rain started again. Once we were back on the farm the boys went horse riding. Charlie has been asking to ride a horse since we left so he was very excited.









After the horse, Tom had a ride on May the cow!



This is Jack with Becky on the back.




The next day Jack went to school with Scott. He goes to St Josephs in Pinjarra and Jack really enjoyed being away from all of us for a day! He did so well that Scott's teacher asked us to enroll him in her grade next year.

Unfortunately the next day it was time to head to Busselton. We really enjoyed staying on the farm and were thoroughly spoilt by Tania including sending us off with an egg and bacon quiche and a huge chocolate cake. Tania is the proud owner of a Thermomix and did her utmost to impress Michael with it so he would consider getting me one for Christmas. Hopefully there is one wrapped up for me under the tree in Perth! We hope one day Tania and Brian and some or all of the kids will come and see us in Melbourne so we can repay some of their hospitality. There is also talk of doing the full Gibb together one day which would be fantastic. We really had a great time and will miss them.