Diving with Whale Sharks

• This is a fishing trip with a difference. Instead of hooking fish on the line of a fishing rod or scooping fish in a net we are swimming with them. We are travelling the North Coast of Western Australia.

Whale Sharks are massive, majestic giants of the ocean and it’s something to see them in their own habitat for our own eyes. No zoo or aqua park but in their wild natural form, so we headed over to Exmouth, Western Australia, May 2018. We decided to do a road trip once we flew into Perth WA. I picked up our pre arranged hire car and headed to the Ibis hotel near the airport where I’d bunker down for the night before my road trip to Exmouth began.

The hype about the Royal Wedding of Megan and Harry was in full swing in the media. As I showered and wound down from arriving in Perth after finishing work and heading straight to the airport for a 4 hour flight from Melbourne, I listened to the gossip on the tv in the background.

My room was small but clean and perfect for what I needed. As a female travelling solo at this stage I felt safe despite being a little put off by the walls being so thin, that I could literally hear the person next doors deep slumber breaths, walls so thin, not snoring but heavy breathing.

After my nights sleep, this was the day! The day our road trip began. I was full of excitement.

I was to meet with a friend at City Beach Hamptons restaurant for breakfast. I arrived at City Beach and felt the warmth of familiarity. I had been here many times before on family fun holidays. The large expanse of white sand, the small stone jetty built for an era gone by lifesaver lookout tower. The newly imposing building now a beautiful eatery with glass windows overlooking the water. After a couple of hours enjoying the food and good conversation with someone I had newly befriended in a lifestyle program we are both a part of, and soaking up the wonderful ambiance I hopped back in my car and prepared for my 4 hour drive.

I plugged in my phone to the USB port, set my Spotify on my aptly named ‘chill music’ playlist, tapped on shuffle, google mapped destination Port Denison and wound down my electric windows in my Volkswagen Tiguan, (wishing it was a Volkswagen Combi where I could tap into my ultra hippie ego), took the hand brake off with a press of a finger in my modern car, placed my foot on the accelerator and off I went. It wasn’t long before I found myself on the open Indian Ocean Drive.

I was loving it. Window down, fresh air, music playing loud, sunshine and open space. As I drove along I saw glimpses of the ocean and little hills with the whitest sand that initially I thought was salt. I had never seen sand that pure and white. All my senses absorbed the music I enjoy, and felt for a minute like I was in a scene of Thelma and Louise. A sense of freedom from the city life and its walls.

At one point I stopped to take a photo of the ocean in the distance and got a sudden real urge to go to the toilet. So I found an opening behind the waist height bushes and did the outback squat. I can’t remember the last time I did that, but hey, that’s all part of the experience of an Australian outback road trip. It even put a slight smile on my face that I was game and cheeky enough to do it and hoping I wasn’t carrying a tick as an extra passenger for my moment with nature!

I arrived at Port Denison about 4:30pm where I was greeted with a happy hug from Ted. We stayed the night with his parents and the next morning stopped for a coffee on the Dongra foreshore briefly before heading to Geraldton where we picked up his sister Jezz.

We headed to the Geraldton dive shop to purchase ourselves diving goggles and fins or as some of us grew up calling flippers!

Day 2 destination, Canarvon W.A

We left Geraldton, soon after stopping at the farming town of North Hampton. This towns set in a time warp of Australian outback heritage architecture. We had an iconic chicken parma and Ted got a haircut at a least non cutting edge hair salon. But with a basic hairstyle like Teds there’s the comfort of not much could go wrong.

Carnarvon was a 5 hour drive from Geraldton but with stops along the way 7 hours. The internet faded in and out. Our playlist played and at times we had internet we listened to podcasts. Jezz relaxed in the backseat and read her book.

The road was long, straight, well made and bitumen all the way until we turned off onto a dirt road which was the short cut into Canarvon. We entered the dirt road with trepidation putting our faith in google maps. It lead us to our Best Western Hospitality Inn 3 star motel. It was dark and in a smaller country town it was almost past tea time at 7:30pm. We checked in and headed straight downtown.

The pub had a sign out the front, saying ‘skimpy barmaids, Tuesday to Sunday ‘. Ok where else will we go! There was the chicken shop, and fish and chips . Jezz said she felt like Chinese so we googled Chinese restaurants Canarvon. The first one we discovered had closed down and the second on was called ‘A touch of Thai’. Ok where is Hubble St where we can see if this Thai restaurant is open. As it turned out, Hubble St was located in a residential area like your local milk bar. We turned into Hubble St joking that someone was cooking it at their house and down the street we saw lights indicative of a shop of some sort. As we pulled up it looked like a fish and chip shop with a couple photos of Thai dishes displayed on an a framed board often seen in front of milk bars.

Hmmm, but we were lacking choice of eateries so thought, let just go in and order fish and chips. Jezz is a coeliac so there’s the added difficulty of getting gluten free food so she doesn’t end up in the local base hospital the next day! As we went in Jezz said l wonder if it’s owned by Asians perhaps they will do Thai dishes ok.

We walked in and was greeted by a solid, 6 foot Caucasian man who was part owner in a 2 person business . The other being his Thai wife of many years. He was so accommodating, especially to Jezz’s dietary needs. His Thai wife cooked us an amazingly tasty meal. We made sure we took the doggy bag as the food was plentiful, and so so good and saved the leftovers for the next days lunch!

Day 3 Destination Exmouth W.A

After our continental breakfast at our Carnarvon accommodation we went for a walk. Ted loves railways and he found an old tram track which we later found out was part of the 3 mile heritage track

That day we had a 4 hour drive ahead of us up the highway, where we stopped at a town called Minilya.

Below is an example of dry rivers up in the north of W.A.

Exmouth was still 224kms away. As we drove up higher along the coast of Australia we found ourselves off the grid. This felt great but also isolating. We rely so heavily on connection with the rest of the world, country, state and people especially the ones we hold dear. Being off the grid gives a sense of freedom away from everyone and all those big brother corporations that monitor our every move via our GPS. But knowing we cannot connect up through the cyber space world, or phone connectivity confronts us with the real distance between us and our loved ones and that no one knows exactly where you are should you need them or Visa Vera. But That’s the Australian outback.

Road travel is fabulous. You see and learn a tremendous amount about a place. The land was red, with a very fine dust, good soil for harvesting, fertile but struck by drought. It’s relatively flat and very beautiful in its own way, even the termite mounds and the wild goats.

Late afternoon we arrived at the Mantarays Ningaloo Beach Resort. It’s definitely a lovely place to stay. We weren’t disappointed in our accommodation. It was a self contained 2 bedroom apartment with ocean views.

We were fascinated by a lizard who had caught its prey, a baby rabbit. After a lovely dinner we cooked in our unit, and a spa we prepared our gear we needed for the next day. Our diving masks and go pro were top of the list. Alarms set for 6am. Tomorrow will be a massive day in more ways than one . I cannot wait!

Day four – The Dive!

6am!

The alarm had woken me. A bus came and collected us from our accommodation at 7:10am. Game on! Today’s the day we jump into the vast ocean near the Ningaloo Reef and swim with the Whale Sharks. Whale Sharks live for approximately 100 years. Devastatingly they are on the Red List of endangered species. Countries like China hunt and kill them for their fins to use in shark soup. It would be a great loss to this universe if humans hunt them to extinction. They are thought to grow to 14 metres, however the largest known has been 12 metres. Exmouth WA attract juvenile male whale sharks. These can range from 6-10 metres long. All whale sharks have individual markings. Non are the same. Their backs have the thickest skin of any fish and have an intricate spotted pattern. They can sense what is on top of them & if threatened can dive deeply and rapidly. Typically they swim close to the surface so scuba diving equipment is not necessary. Mask and snorkel will suffice.

The company supply you with mask, snorkel and fins. They also provide morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea, filtered water and cordial. Food cannot be bought on the boat of the company we travelled with. They supplied ginger jubes for sea sickness prevention which I ate and can tell you they are horrible. They do not supply you with Travel Calm medication, nor do they supply towels.

It can be quite cool on the boat especially when you are wet from hopping in and out of the water. Each person is provided a tub to store their belongings to prevent them from getting wet which was great!

Ted and I had our own diving mask and snorkel and although we also had fins, we chose to leaves ours home and use theirs.

The staff were professional and very friendly. They assist you with your mask and supply anti fog spray for your mask. They tell you about the day, what to expect, safety and swimming with the whale shark what to and not to do.

1. Stay 3 metres away from the sides of the shark

2. Stay 4 metres away from the rear and fin of the shark.

3. Do not get in its feeding zone.

4. Do not swim under it because if it dives they drop straight down and you do t want to be under it at that time.

5. If it swims towards you move out of its way.

6. Don’t swim over it or in front of it but behind it if you want to get to the other side. If it feels threatened it will sink itself way down into the depths of the ocean which we didn’t want because we wouldn’t be able to see it.

7. Do not touch it.

8. Only 10 people at a time can swim near the whale shark so we were divided into 2 groups. And we can only spend a maximum of 1 hour swimming with the whale shark.

9. When you see the Whale shark swim with it. Don’t just hang back and look because it will disappear and you will see nothing.

We got our masks, snorkels, fins organised and our stinger suits. These are suits to help prevent jellyfish stings.

Firstly you to have a snorkel session on the Ningaloo Reef. This is to test your gear and for the crew to assess your swimming strength.

It was about 26-28 degrees but out on the boat with the sea breeze it felt cooler. It wasn’t hot enough for me to normally go for a swim but this is an opportunity that wasn’t coming around again any time soon so it was toughen up princess time. We were told to sit on the back of the boat ready to go and when we hear ‘go go go’ it’s time to jump in by taking a big step out whilst holding onto your mask. At this moment there’s lots of adrenaline, anxiety, excited and a bit of trepidation.

The water on the Reef was cool. The red Jelly fish, beautiful

It was good doing this to become familiar with the drill of jumping off the back of the boat, snorkeling and getting back on the boat.

When getting back on the boat you had to hold the middle pole of the ladder and remove your fins, pass them up to a crew member waiting, then climb the ladder back onto the boat. If you were next in line you were required to stay far enough back holding onto the rope attached to a floater to allow the person in front adequate room to get back on the boat. It was a well run, safe operation by a crew you had confidence in. Once back on the boat you are wet and it’s freezing. Some people hadn’t brought a towel and this wasn’t pleasant for them. I strongly advise taking your own towel!

The next stop would be deeper and over the other side of the Reef, in the Indian Ocean, but surprisingly the water was much warmer and felt like hopping into warm bath water. We would be rotated in 2 groups. We were group one. So we’d go first then after sometime be instructed to make our way back to the boat where we would climb back on, wait our turn and then all systems go go go and back in. There were 3 rounds of swimming with the whale shark

A helicopter crew above would find the Whale Shark and signal to the boat crew. Once in the water the crew member who was with your group would signal to you which way to swim. So you put your head under the water and swam. All of a sudden the whale Shark is before you. It was amazing .

The Whale Sharks mouth is so wide and opens as it sucks in huge amounts of water and plankton. The fish get drawn into the mouth of the whale shark and pushed out by the whale shark. It’s humongous mouth gathers the plankton and it is then passed into a much smaller oesophagus. Seeing the fish swim in the mouth of the whale Shark was a magnificent sight. As well as the fish who swim by gathering all that the whale shark doesn’t.

The whale shark truly is a majestic creature of the sea. They are beautiful.

For an extra $40AU you can purchase a VIP package and have one of the crew take your photo with the whale shark along with another 100 photos in your package. This can be purchased prior or on the boat at the time. I recommend if you ever do the dive to pay the $40AU. It’s worth it. The photographer does this everyday and has good quality cameras and computer programs to maximise your photos. I had a go pro attached to my mask but there’s the risk the images may not be what you hoped for which happened to us. I was very happy we had Pre purchased the VIP package. Those people are given a bright yellow wrist band so the crew photographer know who you are.

When first getting in, there’s a frenzy with the other swimmers. No one knows what they are doing. Although they go through it with you what to do, once under the water you completely lose your sense of location and awareness of others. I got kicked in the face by others fin more than once. I swam over, under, in between other swimmers. It was crazy, but exhilarating. You just had to grab their finns sometimes to prevent getting kicked in the head! It’s every man for themselves trying to spot and then swim with the Whale Shark.

Being one of the stronger swimmers I was fortunate enough to get really good views and swim and keep up with the whale shark. That was so exciting swimming and seeing, being there in the moment with one of nature’s massive creatures. At some points a little concerned it would suck me into its big mouth when it would turn and swim towards me.

After we dived for the hour it was time for lunch. Salads, fresh chicken and cold meats were served. After lunch there was a final reef snorkel opportunity. Having gone snorkeling of Coral Bay I would say Coral Bay was the better of the reef areas for snorkeling

After the reef snorkel afternoon tea was served. Champagne, fruit and chocolate Tim Tams.

The day is about a 10 hour day.

On the bus trip home I was exhausted and fell asleep. We came home and spent the evening relaxing watching the Royal Wedding of The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Megan and Harry. What a day. Certainly a day to remember.

Day 5 . A drive to one of Australia ‘s most western points

Exmouth has a population of 2000 and in the whale shark season up to 6,000. We did our whale shark dive with the Ningaloo Whale Shark Swim company. There’s about 10 companies competing. Our company takes out 20 people a day at about $400AU a person.

There’s not much to do in Exmouth but swim with whales and fish. I’m told the fishing is one of the most popular in Australia. The township is tiny but has a pub called the Froth Brewery. It’s a quirky pub where the locals had gathered for a feed, beer and to watch West Coast Eagles v Richmond Australian Football League.

This place had one of the best prawn linguine I’ve ever had. Exmouth is known for its prawn 🍤 fishing. Michael Kailis was the founder of this industry in Exmouth. It now employs 200 on the live prawn factory. I had prawns for lunch and garlic prawns for tea! Superb👌🏼..

We headed out to the Vlamingh Head lighthouse district and went the Surfers Beach which must be second to Steep Point as the most western point of Australia.

This was great. The we turned down a long straight road that literally runs out at the coastal point, a beach called Surfers Beach.

We had the pleasure of seeing a wild Emu in its natural habitat, the lighthouse and the thirteen tall towers. There’s an interesting military history background to Exmouth.

Day 6. Coral bay

We left Exmouth and head to Coral bay. Well if I thought Exmouth was a small remote town I was mistaken. Coral Bay has one road and is pretty much a giant caravan park across from the beach. One major difference is the internet is full service and speed in Coral Bay! We are stayed at the Ningaloo Reef Resort. The accommodation is a 3 star basic 2 room apartment. The door in opens into the main bedroom. You walk through that into a bigger room with bunks, kitchen and sitting area, however the view across the road to the bay is a million dollar view. Western Australia has the most colourful sunsets. Bright oranges and yellow the colour spectrum of pinks and mauve and purple.

After settling into our accommodation we went for a snorkel on the coral reef across from our accommodation. The snapper swimming around my legs standing in the shallows were full size, about 50cm at a guess. The water was cold though but I braved it.

We ate our dinner at the Resort eatery, which was very ordinary. There’s not much here at Coral Bay bar the snorkeling, fishing and more whale Shark swims. Tomorrow we have signed up to swim with the Manta Rays.

Day 7: swimming with a Manta Ray and snorkeling on the Ningaloo Reef Coral Bay.

We arrived at meeting place for the Ningaloo Reef Dive at 8:10am, a short walk from our accommodation. We were given what equipment was required if you didn’t have your own and we were very happy to be given wetsuits. That water was cold yesterday and that was the one thing I wasn’t looking forward to.

We got on the bus and taken to the jetty where the boat awaited us

We were told about the plan for the day which consisted of 2 snorkeling sessions and a swim with a Manta Ray. Manta Rays can grow to a wing span of 4 metres and we were lucky enough to see on this size.

Prior to the Manta Ray swim we snorkeled. I slid into the water and felt that initial sensation of cold water seep into the space between my skin and the wetsuit but was very happy for its protection against the chilly ocean water.

Once in the water I became immersed in my own silent world. Me, the fish, and my rhythmic breath sounds in the snorkel. At the mercy of the elements, one with nature. But when I’d take my head out of the water I was reminded I was in a vast ocean and just how far with fins and my own desire I could swim fascinated with what was below me. At one moment I looked up and couldn’t see anyone, just 2 boats floating in the distance some space apart and unsure which boat I belonged to. It can be quite scary how easy it is to separate from the other divers. Fear made me insure I was always aware of what’s around me . I would regularly check for others in the water and how far they were from me and where my boat was.

Under the water was as if I was in an amazing tropical fish tank

On our boat there were discovery (learners) scuba divers and snorkelers

Morning tea consisted of tea, coffee and crackers. That hot cup of tea went down like music to my soul. When getting out of the water it’s cold and a hot drink is the bees knees. Lunch was salad and cold meats and afternoon tea was once again tea and coffee and Arnotts assorted biscuits. The teddy bear, scotch finger biscuits and Marie biscuits reminded me of my childhood. I was so hungry I ate about 6 biscuits and enjoyed a couple dipped into my cup of tea. I hadn’t dipped a Marie biscuit into a cuppa for what felt like a zillion years. The comforts of home and good times all rolled into one. I was a happy girl

Being on the boat, sunshine, and good company with an amazing experience filled me with joy. It was definitely worth the $150AU to go out on a boat for a day than to just snorkel in the bay on the coral across from our accommodation and the $50AU for the companies photographers 100 plus photos placed on a USB and given to us for memory sake.

Day 8. Heading to Monkey Mia from Coral Bay 541 km, 6 hrs drive.

Ted and I also say the road trip between places is just as much a part of a holiday as being at the destination. Stopping at the roadhouses along the way and seeing their individuality and quirkiness, and just enjoying each other’s company in the car, being together and sharing the experience. We point things we see out to each other and have a bit of a laugh along the way.

We passed back through Canarvon where we stopped for lunch at the One Mile Railway Cafe which is part of the 3 mile railway track we had walked on during our earlier visit to Canarvon. We had a Canarvon grown banana split as Canarvon is fruit-growing land.

The Gascoyne River runs through Canarvon and it’s presently dry. I’m told that when the tropical rain up north in Broome comes, the water can run down this river bed filling it to 6 metres in about 20 minutes and a site for spectators to see.

Fairwell was said to Canarvon and we continued on our way.

We sopped at Minilya roadhouse and I bought a souvenir Whale shark oven mitt

Another roadhouse below that we stopped at for a hot chocolate and toilet stop

Dusk came and this can be a dangerous time on outback Australian roads. You need to lookout for wildlife on the road. We nearly hit a kangaroo. It jumped out on the road and driving at 100 km an hour if not spotted early enough can cause damage to your car if not a serious accident. This one wasn’t so lucky

Finally we reached the turn off to Shark Bay. Getting closer to Monkey Mia eventually we see

26 km to Monkey Mia. It’s late and we’ve had no tea, but the three of us are in good spirits. Cold hard bitch by Jet plays from our playlist. We’ve listened to music from Beethoven to Pavarotti to John Denver to Ed Sheehan to Jet. A diverse group of musicians mixed in amongst over 600 songs. Western Australian outback roads are straight and flat and long! They cover 100’s of km.

We made it to Monkey Mia about 8.30pm. We had pre booked accommodation at the RAC Resort. On arrival it was pitch black, we hesitantly enter a driveway that had construction fencing and crates and various other building materials. Is this it we are saying to each other. As we proceeded we find ourselves in the thick of a new development under construction. A guy in a trade van pulls up next to us and winds his window down and we reciprocate. ‘Are you lost?’ he says. Ted replies we are looking for the Resort and reception. The trade person replies, the reception will be closed now but they may have left the key for you. He proceeds to try to explain where to go but decides it will be easier for us to follow him in the car which we do. Had the guy not done this I doubt we would have found the reception or even realised it was a reception. Jezz jumped out and grabbed one of 3 envelopes stuck to the window of a shack, with our booking name on it. We open the envelope and try to workout which way to go from an out of scale Resort map you are often given with a black texta mark directing us where our cabin is. As we do this another car pulls up and we wind down our window. He is as confused as us saying, ‘I’m looking for the RAC Resort’ and that he’d had car trouble and had been trying to ring them all day but no answer or return call. We said this is the reception and drove on. We ended up lost amongst all the construction. Still no clue where we should be going. The lighting and signage basically non-existent. At a point of complete frustration, we find our way back to ground zero, the reception. We get out of the car now deciding to walk around this vast miss match of construction to find our place, cabin number 2. We notice there’s one envelope left still stuck to the reception window with the name ‘Malone’ hand written on it, so the other guy must have found his envelope. We set off on foot to now find ourselves roaming around the staff quarters and hoping this wasn’t the accommodation standard of the resort.

A women of Asian decent comes out and we ask her where the guest accommodation is. She calls out another Asian women both with poorer English skills . They try to direct us in the general direction so off we go. Still baffled and in the dark with no guest accommodation in sight we bump into another women of Asian decent who was walking her dog and was also staff. She happily took us to our accomodation saying her dog Jackson will enjoy the extra walk. Finally we find guest cabin number 2 about 40 minutes of wandering around in virtual darkness with our phone torch for light.

Ted has lost it by now, annoyed and saying he is putting in a complaint tomorrow. It was poorly signed, poorly lit and ridiculous that this was our welcome to the RAC Resort. I like the cabin, it’s on the beach . Despite our welcome feeling very unwelcome the resorts interior design company has done a good job. The fittings are modern and soft furnishings a soft modern colour palette of white, greys, light blue and neutrals. Ted and Jezz aren’t impressed and wouldn’t recommend anyone to stay here. They feel it’s put together cheaply. Personally I think once the redevelopment is done it would be a nice beach holiday spot. Monkey Mia is basically just this resort. There is no shops here.

We cook a late BBQ tea, have showers and settle in for the night. Tomorrow is an early start. We need to be at the dolphin feeding point on the beach at 7:45am.

We saw the dolphin feeding this morning and we were all a little underwhelmed. We fully understand that touching and swimming with dolphins 🐬 isn’t best for their welfare however Mary who conducted the session was quite condescending and to be honest I found the whole thing a bit boring. There were 3 dolphins who come in to be fed 2 fish each. It’s a viewing session only for 30 mins. There were a lot of people there to see it and we felt like we were on a primary school excursion. A 2 out of 10 in my opinion.

Feeding time for the dolphins. 3 dolphins came in and 2 fish each and 30 minutes of Mary’s condescending talk. 👎🏼

The rest of the day we went for a drive to Denham and Shark Bay. Wild life is often seen crossing the road. We stopped a couple of times for Kangaroos and Emus.

We stopped to have a look Eagle 🦅 Bluff. No eagles to be seen but a great view. Shark Bay was a bit of a non event for me. Not much of a vibe happening there and not a lot to see. I did enjoy garlic Shark Bay prawns for lunch at the Waterfront Hotel and Ted saw an Emu eating out of flower-pot in the main street.

Next stop was Shell beach. The sea water at sharp beach has higher salinity which would aid floatation if you were to swim there. There was a storm on its way so we headed back to our cabin to baton down the hatches for the night.

So far we’ve been to Surfers Beach, Coral Bay, Pebble Beach, Shark Bay and Shell beach.

There are 90 km winds and rain now. We have camel rides booked for tomorrow before we leave Monkey Mia. We will see how the weather is. It’s not looking to good.

The storm cam through, blowing outdoor furniture of our cabin’s verandah and water seeping in our ceiling through the light fittings. We survived the night to wake up to a kangaroo outside our front door in the bushes looking right at me as I looked at him with amazement and delight. What a way to end our northern outback West Australian holiday, as today we head back to Geraldton.

As we were packing up we noticed some dolphins in the water outside our cabin so we grabbed our cameras and hightailed to see them.

The Pelicans were also putting on a show for us.

We had big smiles on our faces and on returning to our cabin we laughed about how our cabin looked like something in a crime scene where they say, ‘they had left in a hurry’. My breakfast half made left on the bench, our belongings everywhere that we were packing up, my flip flops spawn over the verandah were they landed as I kicked them off as I rushed out the door and the cabin door wide open.

The phone rang and it was the camel handler cancelling our camel ride. After the storm the camels were wet and he felt it was going to rain again. I was disappointed but we had so far had a great morning we packed the car and one last stop, the Ocean Park Aquarium at Shark Bay. For th $25AU entry fee it was well worth it. Shani a marine biologist gave a very informative tour.

This is a rock fish. The pain from its venom will kill you not the venom. However if you put your foot in warm water at about 45 degrees Celsius it will disable the proteins in the venom that give the pain and you will survive. #fun fact: venom enters the blood stream and won’t kill you but poison enters your lymphatic system and will kill you.

The shark was impressive as well. would really recommend visiting this open air aquarium and if possible, and have Shani do your tour if she’s working.

We’d left the 26th parallel

A stop off at the Hamelin Stromatolites . I wasn’t that interested to go to see them but one of the good aspects of travelling with others is seeing things you wouldn’t normally choose to see. Unfortunately high tide was in so we couldn’t see them to their full glory however the landscape and pier was pretty special

We stopped off at another quirky cafe called The Postmasters Tea Rooms at Hamelin Station Stay, an old postal station.

It was then in the car for just over a 3 hour drive to Geraldton.

We arrived in Geraldton and stayed the night at Jezz’s place and headed back to Perth and stayed a couple nights at Crown Towers Before heading to Perth airport and catching a flight back to Melbourne. Below is the view we had a breakfast.

Love Lucy x