Sunday 12 June 2011

On the road again Cervantes to Exmouth

Cervantes

We arrived at Cervantes (or stinkville as Mike liked to call it), a small fishing town and set up for the night. Our main purpose was to see the pinnacles that everyone had said was amazing, so we jumped in the car when it was close to dusk to see these amazing rocks, we were told they were up to 5 meters tall, well Mike isn’t too sure who was measuring these rocks as we didn’t really see any that tall, they were still pretty  and although our kids seem a little ‘looked out’ Mike and I enjoyed the views. It wasn’t great weather and during the night it teamed down. Again Mike and I are wondering when the nice weather is going to kick in……during the night we had the dreaded call that all campers don’t want to hear, from Oscar…..”I’m going to be sick” and so it started, the pooing and spewing commenced, my poor boy was so sick and had to keep walking to the toilet blocks all night in the rain, (and so did his mother) this was the start of a very long few days for little Oscar who took about four days for the little bug to leave his system. The next day we had to keep going as we had pre booked at the next town, so poor Oscar had to drive all the way to Geraldton in not so nice a condition.

Geraldton (or shitsville as Mike named it)
Not only did Oscar continue to live up to Geraldton’s new name, it was also cold and raining there as well, so one of us continually had to stay at the camper with osc (or at the hospital) whilst the other tried to amuse the girls in the wet weather, needless to say Mike and I both got cabin fever very quickly…..nothing like bad weather, sick kids and tired parents to make for an interesting few days! As soon as Oscar felt a little better we hightailed it out of Shitsville and headed for Kalbarri.


Kalbarri was BEAUTIFUL, again the weather was not as kind as it could have been and Mike and I spent quite a lot of time getting wet trying to take in the beauty of the national parks, the kids enjoyed sitting in the car watching dvd’s whilst we climbed to the nearest look outs, our adventurous scarlie was always up to checking out the views, (I think she just liked getting wet in the rain!!!!) Whilst at  Kalbarri we were lucky enough to be there for the Kalbarri canoeing and cray festival!!! Wow what a great time we watson’s had!! In the drizzling rain we watched  as others canoed, we searched high and low for the crays with no success (I think that was how they got people there by the lure of the cray!!!!) and the kids played on the three carnival rides and attractions! The kids were happy to win a soft toy  from the clown,s that promptly started to fall  apart the next day. However against all odds Kalbarri will be remembered not only for it’s magical national parks but for my first attempt at beating my fear of the roller coaster!!!! And what a ride it was, Scarli and I were definitely enjoying the ‘fast paced’ ride as it went up and down and around and around……look out Gold Coast theme parks here I come (NOT)

Denham
Our next stop was Monkey Mia, we stayed in Denham which is about 30 minutes from Monkey Mia, our caravan park was lovely with great views out to sea, the weather finally started to heat up and we enjoyed going for some great beach walks, we also enjoyed sitting at the pub watching the footy and having a few drinks. The next day we ventured to monkey mia nice and early in the morning to better our chances of seeing the dolphins, it was amazing, the dolphins were beautiful and swam right up to you, oscar was very lucky to be selected to feed one a fish and he thought that was awesome (they actually pointed at me so oscar should think himself lucky that I let him go in my place) we had a great time at monkey mia, enjoying the glorious weather, we then hired a 4 person paddle boat and attempted to enjoy some family fun. Against Mike and my advice, Oscar chose the paddle boat (we were gunning for the motorized glass bottom boat you could hire) and so the family fun began! Firstly Lola took an aversion to wearing the life jacket and spent the entire time squirming and trying to get out of it! Then my poor baby  just screamed and yelled to get off the paddle boat and into the ocean, she was so funny to watch as she changed from unhappy that she had to wear the life jacket, to unhappy that she couldn’t get in the water!!!! Her expressions were priceless and even though she doesn’t say too much with words, she can certainly get her point across!
So we paddled around for a little while, trying to hold our baby in the boat, then Oscar got a little cocky and started to dip his feet into the water, Mike couldn’t help himself and had to push him into the ocean. The look on oscar’s face was so funny that I nearly peed my pants with laughter! OMG I laughed and then I couldn’t stop laughing at Mike who was laughing so hard that he got the shoulder shakes, tears streaming out his eyes and the silent laugh all happening. Oscar was devastated and quickly hoisted himself back into the paddle boat, only to have Mike push him in again!!! Oscar then cracked the shits and swam back into shore, The guy who we hired the boat from didn’t know whether to be worried oscar wouldn’t make it back into shore, or to laugh at how funny we must have looked at there, one baby desperately trying to jump in, one 7yo cracking the shits, 2 parents killing themselves with laughter and the ever adventurous Scarli, loving every minute of it!

That night I was thinking about the guy that we hired the boat from, what a life he must have sitting on the beach all day tinkering in his little boat shack, hiring out canoes, and paddle boats to tourist, listening to so many different stories as people come by. Certainly sounds like a pretty good life to me. He was so totally chilled and relaxed, looked like he didn’t have a care in the world, he dropped down onto the beach and played with Lola, chatted about his own kids and you could tell he was a very happy soul!

What we have loved about the last stretch of the trip:
The hitchhiker who hitched all the way from Geralton to Monkey Mia, with his guitar on his back, we would often pass him sitting on the highway strumming his guitar and smiling as you drove by. Mike loved responding to his outstretched thumbs up with his own 'thumbs up' as he drove by, and then cracking himself up with the same joke about hitchhikers must get sick of people giving them the thumbs up back!!!

Mike has loved the quaint little places we stay at, much more than the bigger towns. His favourite thing however is his new beer fridge, he is so happy to not be walking down to the reception at every caravan park in an attempt to get a bag of ice for less than 6 dollars. (his beer fridge is just saving us money he tells me, it’s nearly already payed for itself!!!!) And it came in very handy when the dunderhead forgot to switch the other fridge over when we stopped and all the meat we had stocked up on thawed out!!

I have loved finally getting some warmer weather, relaxing at night outside listening to other people’s conversations around us, star gazing and watching the world go by  (oh and that Oscar has finally stopped shitting!!!!)

Scarlett’s response to what she has loved is as always ‘the playgrounds’, and having some new friends to play with,
Lola has loved the beach and pool and Oscar has loved the fact that he has stopped pooing and can eat what everyone else is eating!!!!!


Next stop was Canarvon, this was a quick pit stop to pick up some supplies before heading off to Coral bay.

CORAL BAY Wednesday 8th June
Ok so now I am in heaven, the weather is beautiful, no one is sick, the bay is just stunning, a perfect spot to swim and snorkel! We are staying at the Bay View caravan park, which is great, the kids are making new friends again and enjoying some new faces to play with, Oscar is a little unhappy I have put a ban on all electronic toys for the next few days, but is finding many other things to do to keep himself amused. Scarlett is excited that there is another new playground to discover and Lola is just happy being outside.

The first day we arrived we all wandered across the road to the beach and had a great afternoon in the water which is so warm and inviting, I have been very brave and swam in the bay where many fish just swim past you as you play in the water, it is definitely helping with my aversion to swimming with the thought that a fish may get up you know where!!!!! Again Mike and I are making friends with many grey nomads (or slowmads as Mike now calls them) we are getting heaps of advice from them as to where to go and what to do as we venture further north.  The kids loved swimming in the ocean, Lola loves to pick up the sand and just dump it on her head, she also loves to shove her sandy hands straight into her mouth!!!

On the Thursday, Mike went quad biking along the sand dunes which he said was awesome fun, whilst he was gone I took the kids to  the pool at the caravan park, which was so warm, they all loved it! By the end of the day our kids are so tired they are nearly pleading to go to bed, you can tell when Lola is tired as she walks up to her end of the camper, climbs up on to the chair, then onto the bed, then into her cot and waits for you to zip her up! It is too cute!  

The next day I took Oscar out on a coral viewing boat, we saw some amazing coral, fish, octopus, and the highlight was the turtle. It was so amazing, the fish just seemed to follow the boat and it felt like they were just staring at you, not the other way round. In coral bay the reef is literally only metres from the beach (there is only 2 in the world like it) so you really don’t have to go far to see some amazing underwater views.

Coral Bay was just amazing, it is such a small coastal town with only 169 permanent residents, and although the caravan parks were full, the beaches were not crowded at all and it  did not feel touristy, (except for the prices, a block of chocolate at the small supermarket was 7.50!!!) Coral Bay is definitely on my list of come back agains!!!!

As we don’t seem to be getting very far on our travels, we decided to head up to exmouth on the chance of seeing some whale sharks (the largest fish in the ocean), we weren’t lucky enough to see one, but did manage to see some Manta Rays which were beautiful. The beaches in the National Park in Exmouth were again amazing, so we spent the day at a very windy turquoise bay, again we walked only a few metres into the water and were surrounded by some amazing fish We also managed a small walk with the kids through the gorge but as we always do forgot to take the camera with us, so couldn’t take some pictures of the amazing views and scenery!

As we keep forgetting to take photos, and in keeping with the latest craze of tv shows to do a musical episode, Mike and I have decided that instead of having the run of the mill ‘slide night’ when we get back, we are going to perform

“THE WANDERING WATSON’S, THE MUSICAL (seeing Australia one playground at a time!) "

With me as lead vocals it is sure to be a hit. I think I may even get Scarlett following in my footsteps, all day she says to one of us “Listen to this song, I just made it up, right out of my brain” or “my tummy is telling me that this is a better song!!!” (her tummy also tells her when it’s time to eat icecream, mandarins, lunch etc, it is very funny)

Scarlett is really enjoying all the one on one attention she is receiving, (and even when the focus isn’t on her she still thinks it is!!!) she is forever making up stories in the car about anything, she will hear mike and I mention something and off she goes ….’listen to this story Mum, it’s about ‘ROADKILL’ it is hilarious!!!

So I must sign off now, (I have to get the lyrics to the opening number of our show down before I forget them) tomorrow we are off to Karattha on our way to Broome. xoxo



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