Link to the previous page westcoast-e 
Now we’re sitting in a large open space by the track, after yesterday’s calm, the car was really shaken again tonight and we were rocked to sleep.
Northampton 07.December ’18
Here you are thrown back on yourself, not – stand up, look in the mirror, oh dear, smear on it and you can suffer again; here – smear on it doesn’t work, it melts, so it’s best not to look in the mirror at all. Now the mirrors only function as room enlargers.
We have just landed in Monkey Bay. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find out why the area is called that here, because there are no monkeys in the whole of Aussi, and monks are called monks and not all of them will have been up to mischief here. I hope so. Although, it was bad enough.
On the way here we had to push 2 Emu families with 4 and 5 children off the road. Let’s see what else is in store for us.
The caravan park is relatively new and is designed with everything like an offshoot of „Sheraton“ hotels, as far as restaurants and so on are concerned.
We stay here for 3 days because of the dolphins that come by every morning.
Originally, the dolphins were fed by scientists in order to build up trust and thus better observe the animals‘ behaviour. This has now apparently „degenerated“ into a tourist attraction, so that the real background of the action is no longer recognisable and the fun is probably on the part of the dolphins. -G.
Unfortunately, the sharks are already on their way to Antarctica.
The hot temperatures are tempered by the cold wind and at night we had to bring our warm, cosy pyjamas again. However, we are now so used to the hot temperatures that we put on a jumper even at 27°.
We then spent another 4 days on a beautiful campsite in Denham, which was built in the shape of a snail around a hill, we had our own pitch with direct access to the sea.
On the journey back to the motorway, we could now see the arrival of spring, which was delayed by the late and little rain. We drove through a landscape where the bushes slowly grew into trees, the nature became more varied, it no longer consisted only of various green splashes of colour, but began to vary in height, shape and foliage. The earth beside the highway was no longer red but now had a golden-brown colour, which harmonised wonderfully with the canopy of some trees on which the late sun cast golden reflections.
This is NOT a sugar icing
Past a „little lagoon“, whose water is fed from the sea by a small river at high tide. -G.
We also visited Shell Beach, which consists of small shells that are all the same and form a layer up to 10 metres deep.
These compressed shells were even used as building material, as here in a house – now a restaurant – in Denham. Their use has since been banned. It certainly always made a noise in the house – as is usual with shells when you hold them to your ear….. -G.
Before that at Eagle Bluff (it took a while, but now we know that bluff = steep coast).
It is always amazing how much effort is put into giving people access to natural vistas, as is the case here. All without charging fees, which are only levied in national parks. -G.
And then there’s this: emus bathing in the sea!
As we took our time to do all this, it was already too late to drive on and we had to go to the only RV park in the neighbourhood. The most expensive and worst in a long time. On top of that, everything worth seeing that the park had the key to was closed.
The next morning, when I bought eggs from the chickens running around and found words of appreciation for them, the owner became more open-minded and had the old telegraph building unlocked for us. And that was very interesting, it also served as a museum for all the capsized ships with all the information collected over the years, including Batavia and Bounty. Once again, we spent much more time there than we originally thought, but were so impressed by the incredible wealth of the museum that we were happy to pay the price for the pitch afterwards. My conviction that there is a reason for everything has been proven once again, only sometimes you forget that, but it is confirmed again and again. For example, if you get lost: don’t swear but look for what you should be shown, a particularly beautiful landscape, a beautiful sunset, a special restaurant…..
Then to the stromatolites, I couldn’t really imagine anything before and still have difficulties explaining it, because I also find it so incredible. In layman’s terms – microorganisms that have survived here for trillions of years under special conditions and grow 0.5 mm per year. They grow in sunlight and die at night. This is how this 0.5 mm layer forms over the course of the year. -G). Something like that. They were first discovered by scientists in the 70s.
Then we set off for Kalbarri. We passed a very nicely situated car park, but it was too early for us, so we drove on to the next one, which required some thought, but we decided to stay and not drive back and spend the night here. And as is the case, when one person is standing there, others are quick to say „well, if he’s standing there…….
The next morning, we are usually the last to set off, we have time, and if a ranger comes, he doesn’t know whether we have just arrived. The evening before, Gerhard spotted a sign that he wanted to inspect, but I stopped him, saying that if it says no overnight stay, I can no longer be carefree. The next morning I was curious: Please put all rubbish in the bin…..