Perth to Jurien Bay

05 Mar (Day 39): This morning we checked out of the hotel and finished the organised travel agent tour. Adrian picked us up from the hotel at around 10:30 with his Defender packed for the trip. We piled our luggage in on top and set off north towards Jurien Bay, where we were to spend the night on the way to Kalbarri.

We stopped for lunch at the very popular Lobster Shack in Cervantes. Apparently this used to be a place to get really good lobster rolls. Now it is a huge and really well organised casual restaurant that serves many types of seafood meals and with an excellent bar. The best Iced Latte of the trip for me, delicious. So much has changed since covid and there are numerous restaurants that now do the queue and order and then you get given a buzzer that goes off when your food is ready to be collected from the servery for you to eat wherever you are sitting. This restaurant had perfected this technique and was quickly churning out a huge number of meals and drinks without having many staff around at all. One taking the orders for food, another for the drinks and a couple clearing the tables. There must have been an army in the kitchens but you couldn't see those, just another one on the servery where you picked up the food when it was ready. Enterprising!

After leaving Cervantes we continued north, past great white sand dunes which we came back to on the return journey, and stopped at the Pinnacles Desert. Oh my goodness, you've never seen anything like it unless you have actually been there! Great pinnacles of sandstone, which there are several theories as to how they were formed, spreading for miles and miles. We could actually drive through the desert on a specified track of sand and to see the extent of these fabulous wonders was incredible. The photos don't do it justice, you have to go and see these if you are in the area. 

Just along the road we stopped to marvel at the stromatolites of Lake Thetis, these living rock-like structures built by micro-organisms that resemble the earliest forms of life on Earth. The discovery of modern examples helped scientists to understand the significance of micro-organisms in the environment and unravel the long history of life on Earth. Today, living examples of these once completely dominant organisms are restricted to only a few places and this is one of them.

We reached Jurien Bay and checked into a very basic motel, but that had everything we needed for the night. Being on the west coast of Australia affords wonderful views of beautiful sunsets so we walked down to the nearby beach to see the sunset this evening. We have been so lucky with the weather whilst in Australia, we've only had rain on a couple of days so far and the sunset this evening was grand! We found an Asian restaurant nearby and had a great meal there.

More photos of Sunday 05 March

06 Mar (Day 40): The next morning we were up really early as we needed to be at Jurien Bay Harbour before 07:00 to go on a boat trip to swim with sealions. I don't know why but I was really nervous about this trip. I have never snorkelled before, I can swim but am not a strong swimmer and we were out in the sea with quite a heavy swell (although lovely and warm), I worried about all manner of things but I knew that Adrian was really excited to share this with us so I once again pushed myself out of my comfort zone and once again, found that by doing so I had one of the most splendid experiences ever. The three of us set off with 9 other tourists on a really fast boat with two young female staff who were experts in what they were doing. We were all loaned wetsuits and flippers to wear as, I later learned, there were a few jellyfish around a day or two earlier. Those of us who didn't have snorkels were loaned one and those who wanted to borrow a Go-Pro underwater camera could also do so for free. 

We raced out to Essex Rocks Nature Reserve, out to sea and southwest of Jurien Bay Harbour, where the sealions hang out. There is a reef around the rocks and we were instructed not to go into the area of the reef or nearer to the rocks as this was the sealions domain. The sealions would come to us as they are used to visitors arriving twice a day and come to be nosey. On this particular day we had a fantastic experience as the males hang out on a different island and the females were here with their youngsters. The pups were very playful and were splashing around on the water and interacting with each other below the water. Ray had stayed on the boat and took the photos and videos from there whilst Adrian had an underwater camera and took the photos and videos in and under the water. Me? I just had a fantastic time taking it all in. I wasn't brilliant with the snorkel but it wouldn't scare me to do this again. We were in the water for around an hour with the sealions playing around us for the whole time, they were so near to us at times and Adrian got some great photos. Back onto the boat and whilst we changed out of the wetsuits the crew brewed up coffee and offered tim-tams (chocolate penguin biscuits - well I think so) and then we raced back to harbour. Absolutely fantastic experience!

We dashed back to the Jurien Bay Motel, had a quick shower and checked out of our rooms there by 10:00 as required. We then drove around the corner to a lovely little café for breakfast and I have to say the breakfasts on offer in Australia far outdo the regular bacon and egg offerings in the UK. Great weather again and we then proceeded further north and made our way towards Kalbarri. 

More photos of Monday 06 March VIDEOS - Rays large files from above water VIDEOS - Adrians large files from below water