Week 27- Sunday 18th - Tuesday 27th September

Note: This is very important. Make sure you read the note below.

Note: This is extremely important...make sure you read the next note.

Note: Make sure you read to the bottom as there is a story you do not want to miss. You have to read to the bottom…otherwise you will be bitterly disappointed when someone else tells you what is there!

80 Mile Beach, WA

Star Rating:★★★★☆

★=Full Star ☆=Half a Star

There was no way Mum and Dad could convince me to walk from one end of the beach to the other, it would take forever! At Eighty Mile Beach we didn't do too much as swimming was not advised because there were so many people fishing that sharks were getting attracted and coming close to the shore. The thing we did for most of the time we stayed there was look for shells, we found lots of beautiful ones. On the first night there we went around and sold shell necklaces with Willow (more about that below) and on the second night we watched the sunset. It was beautiful, as was all our time at 80 Mile Beach.

We met a girl named Willow and she made and sold shell necklaces. She gave Jackson and I one each after we went around the caravan park with her one night and helped her sell them!

We collected lots of shells.

Kialrah Pool, WA

Star Rating:★★★★

★=Full Star ☆=Half a Star

We stopped at Kialrah Pool for one night on the way to Karratha and it was beautiful, there were some super cute ducklings and some fun rope swings. 

The views from our camp.👇

Karratha, WA

Star Rating:★★★★

★=Full Star ☆=Half a Star

Whilst at Karratha we went to a beach covered completely in shells. We also watched the movie Red Dog and went and saw the statue of Red Dog, and we went shopping to stock up on stuff for when we go out to Ningaloo. Those were the main things we did, but we also swam in the artic pool in the caravan park and did some other things. We could have definitely stayed longer as there is lots to see and do in the but we will probably come back next year.

We went to Hearson's Cove and the whole beach was covered in shells, we found lots of beautiful shells.

We watched Red Dog (it is about a dog from the Karratha/Dampier area and it was filmed here). It was a great movie and it is on Netflix (you should watch it!).

The next day we went to see the statue of Red Dog at Dampier

There were free binoculars up on a lookout and you could position them to look out on the huge salt piles. 

The massive salt piles from Dampier Salt Works (made from sea water that is left to evaporate). They look small in the distance but the are humongous!

What the salt is used for.

There was an awesome playground on the Dampier foreshore, there were some places that were super hard to get up! 

Exmouth, WA

Star Rating:★★★★☆

★=Full Star ☆=Half a Star

At Exmouth we:

• Watched the Grand Final.
• Swam in the huge pool at the caravan park.
• Saw some turtle tracks going up into the dunes and then coming back down the dunes again, the turtle had obviously layed some eggs up in the dunes.
• Went to a long jetty and saw Jack Hewat and his family, we didn't even know there were going to be there! LOL!
• Visited Charles Knife Canyon and it was magnificent, it literally blew us away (or maybe that was the gale force winds)!
• Got sandy whilst exploring some beautiful beaches.
• Strained our eyes to spot various humpback whales, we saw many of them breach!
• Nearly got frozen whilst watching movies on the outdoor projector (they were on most nights because it was school holidays).
• Marvelled at the sunset when we watched it up at the lighthouse.

And that is the end of what we did at Exmouth.

I found two big shells at Town Beach in Exmouth, they were lovely but I had to put the back (as I have so many already). 

The amazing turtle tracks!👆

When we went to the lighthouse on the first full day.

There were over 600 species of wild flowers at Charles Knife Canyon we saw about five different ones, still a lot to go!

Charles Knife Canyon!👆

The sunset up at the lighthouse.👇

And now for what you have been waiting for..........

The scary story of the frightening dust pit (where we camped for the night on our way from Karratha to Exmouth)

When we had finish our dinner at the "dust pit" we all sat down, watched the stars and tried to spot approaching cars and trucks (you could see their headlights even when they were really far away). Mum got us out an ice-cream each, but they were not fully frozen so when we opened them the sticks came out, so she had to get a headtorch so we could see what we were doing, lucky she did as we would need it in due course............I had just stepped up near an old fire place when I felt something moving underneath my foot and I heard a hissing sound, so obviously I stepped back. I hurried behind Mum's chair but all of a sudden Mum made a noise and kicked her foot up in the air! I stepped back even further, and it was a good thing I did, as a big (about 1.5 meters long) snake slithered quickly over where I had just been standing! Forgetting everything I had ever learnt about snakes I jumped, ran out of the way and kneeled on top of my chair with my legs up. I didn't even put my legs down for another ten minutes, even when Dad was watching the snake about a hundred meters away from us! In the morning we searched on the internet and found out that it was a venomous Western brown snake!

THE END OF THE SCARY STORY OF THE FRIGHTENING DUST PIT!!!!!

Western Brown snake fact file:

Note: I did not know any of this until I looked it up on Google.

Scientific name: It is super hard to pronounce but the scientific name for them is Pseudonaja aspidorhyncha, mengdeni, nuchalis, (how did someone come up with such a horrid name!)

Alternative names: They are otherwise known as a Gwardar or a Collared Brown Snake.

Habitat: They can be found in lots of habitats including grasslands, shrublands, savannah woodlands and dry forests.

Diet: Western Brown Snakes are not picky eaters as they pretty much eat anything. Their prey includes lizards (geckos, skinks and even goannas), other snakes, birds (they usually get them when they are small), and small mammals like mice (ugh) and rats (double ugh).

Danger to humans: The snake’s fangs are super short (only 2-3 mm), but the venom is very poisonous. A bite from them is life-threatening and medical attention should be found very quickly otherwise you might DIE (I am glad I didn't know all this when it was coming for me, as we were at least 3 hours from the nearest town).

A Western Brown snake (photo sourced from Google)!

We found some of the snakes tracks in the morning!

The sunset at our little free camp was beautiful!

From our camp we had a beautiful view of a flat topped mountain!

 

Week 26- Sunday 11th- Sunday 18th September

Mimbi Caves, WA

Star Rating:★★★★☆

★=Full Star ☆=Half a Star

Mimbi Caves - The land of smoking ceremonies, swimming under rocks, amazing rock formations, delicious damper and baby bats. At Mimbi Caves (Mimbi actually means cave in the Indigenous owners traditional language, so the name is pretty much Cave Caves!) we had a terrific time on the Mimbi Caves tour. Our group consisted of ten people, including us and our guide Harrison. The tour started at a carpark just outside the caves and when we had walked into the shade of the rocks Harrison lit a fire, put some wet gum leaves on top and we all walked around it once, that summed up the smoking ceremony. Afterwards, as we walked through the spectacular rocks Harrison explained about lots of plants that all had their own different qualities; there were some that were bush medicine, some were bush food, there was one that's leaves were like mini helicopters...there was even a species of of tree the Indigenous people use as a calendar! 

When we got to one of the entrances of the caves we donned some helmets and torches and headed on in....  In the first set of caves we crossed a little stream and on the way over (Warning- if you love cane toads then you should not read the following) we saw a cane toad that scrambled under a rock ledge in the water trying to get away from us (I didn't realise we were that scary) and it drowned itself, then we saw its lifeless body floating spreadeagled in the water!! In those caves we also saw some rock art, some bats and a dead snake that was in one of the small passageways! In the second set of caves the things we saw were even better, there was amazing fossils, incredible stalagmites and stalactites and best of all, BABY bats!

When we had finished wandering the caves we went and sat around a small fire and had tea and fresh damper! It was yum. When we had finished with the food Dad, Jackson, Mum and I left the group and went into the caves, got into the water and swam out in to a little tree lined pool, it was so cool, and actually a bit scary, to be swimming under the rocks inside the cave (Harrison had told us that he'd seen a  humungous python shoot down from a rock and eat a large kangaroo whilst the roo was drinking from the waterhole so I kept looking everywhere while we were swimming in case one was coming for ME!). When we had dried ourselves by the fire the tour ended and we all went back to the cars and left, us four went back to our caravan and got changed into bathers. When we were ready we went to Galeru Gorge (a secret gorge) and had a swim. After our swim we found a dead croc (freshwater) and Jackson and I got the croc's jaw and lots of it's teeth! After that we packed up the van and left on our way towards Broome.

When we stopped for lunch on a river on the drive to Mimbi Caves Jackson and I found a tree that was super fun to climb! 

To enter the caves we had to go through a smoking ceremony. Harrison lit a fire and put wet green gum leaves on top so it made a lot of smoke, we had to walk around the fire once so we each got a bit of smoke on us!

The rocks at and around Mimbi Caves were awesome, some of them looked like Christmas trees!

We had to put helmets on to go into the caves!

There was some amazing rock art in the caves that Harrison explained to us.

The rocks were jam-packed full of fossils!

Some samples of fossils found at Mimbi caves.👆

Before the tours had started in the area some geologists were found camping in the caves by Harrison's uncle and were chased off, but they left a surprise....there was a game of chess carved out of rock found in a shady spot under some trees!

At Mimbi Caves we got to have a refreshing swim under the rocks!

We went for a swim at a hidden gorge and there was something surprising there...a dead freshwater croc! Jackson and I got its jaw bones and some of its teeth! 

We went and explored some of the rocks that were just opposite our camp, they were beautiful!👇

The beautiful sunset at the Mimbi Caves campground.

Broome, WA 

Star Rating:★★★★

★=Full Star ☆=Half a Star

These are all the things we did at Broome:

• We spent a heap of time at the caravan park's massive pool, there was even a cave that you could swim into from the deep end (although it wasn't as amazing as our cave swim at Mimbi Caves)!
• We went down and watched the sunset on Cable Beach both of the nights we were at Broome.
• We relaxed at camp.     

But by far the most exiting thing thing we did was that we swam in the sea!!!!!!!!!! We haven't swam in the sea since Magnetic Island because there have been saltwater crocodiles. It was so satisfying to jump the waves and even though my eyes hurt heaps from the salt water it was super fun!

We saw some dinosaur footprints in Broome. The one above is one of the ones rarely seen, as you can only see these ones at super low tide, and even when it is super low tide they are usually covered by sand.

The magnificent sunset at Broome👇

I found a cake urchin at Broome, it looks awesome!

Barn Hill, WA

Star Rating:★★★★☆

★=Full Star ☆=Half a Star

When we got to Barn Hill the first thing we saw was a lot of red dirt which is what we have been seeing for the last couple of months, but every thing we saw after that was like something we had never seen before! We saw magical sunsets contrasting between the bright red cliffs and the lapping waves below them, we saw a dolphin fin poking out of the water and we also saw the most whiting we had ever seen.....

Dad and Jackson caught 28 of them! I also made a friend there, her name was Mackenzie and she made earrings. I bought a pair and they are beautiful! On one of the evenings we were there Jackson, Mackenzie and I walked up to the awesome playground (it was made out of bits and pieces found on the beach) near the office and it was super fun. On the full days we were there we did a session at the beach in the morning and a session in the afternoon. I think we could have stayed at Barn Hill longer as it was so beautiful!

Jackson found a low rock ledge and it was super shady underneath it, so I set my towel up there.

Jackson buried me in the sand but I buried him even more.....I put my towel on his head and when I finished covering him in sand you couldn't even see were he was!

We had heaps of fun collecting shells in the morning, we found lots of beautiful shells!

Because I collected so many shells I had to put some back, these are the ones I put back.

The sunsets at Barn Hill.👇