Month: November 2025

Kalbarri, Monkey Mia, Geraldton and a lot of flies

~ Cat ~ 3 Comments

My second side trip from Perth, and this time I headed north. This was a 4 day / 3 night trip with Autopia Tours (found through tourradar), and there were 10 of us in total on this trip, including 1 other Brit over here for the Ashes!

A slightly later start (8.15am pickup) compared to the Margaret River trip, I was the last pickup and then we headed north out of Perth. We stopped at Jurian Bay for an early lunch and a very windy (I was soon to learn that wind is very normal in these parts) walk along the front.

Then we carried on to the highlight of the first day, a visit to Hutt Lagoon which is naturally pink because of algae in the water. I’ve not altered the photo, it really is that colour!! It takes your breath away the first time you see it.

I have a vague recollection of perhaps seeing another pink lake in my previous Aussie travels, somewhere in the outback in South Australia. However I can find no photographic evidence of this, and if it is when I was thinking, I was incredibly hungover that day so could well have been seeing things. If anyone else from that G Adventures trip in January 2016 is reading this, did we see a pink lake? After the William Creek stop? Or have I made it up?!

Hutt Lagoon aka Pink Lake

We then continued to our overnight stop in Kalbarri. As it was a Saturday night, we struggled to find anywhere with space to accommodate us for food so after a drink in the local tavern ($15 / £7.50 for a pint of cider!!) we ended up with takeaway pizza.

We started the next day with a visit to nearby Kalbarri National Park, to see Nature’s Window and the Kalbarri Skywalk views. Both of these overlook the Murchison River Gorge and have some amazing views. Unfortunately they also have a lot of flies so we were all very glad to have bought fly nets in the morning!! The flies will be a recurring theme…

Nature’s Window
Views from the Kalbarri Skywalk viewing platform

The landscape here reminded me a little bit of Zion in the southwest USA. Perhaps not the scale, but certainly the colours.

We continued to head north and had a lunch stop at the Billabong Roadhouse where it was a cool 38C. With the wind, it felt like standing in front of a hairdryer!! And yet more flies…

After lunch we continued north and arrived at Shell Beach. The shells all come from cockles which live in the waters and, as with every other beach I’ve seen in WA, the water is an incredible shade of blue

Shell Beach. On the right, you can see the tiny cockle shells

We then continued towards our overnight destination of Monkey Mia (pronounced my-a) with a stop at Eagle Bluff for another opportunity to be blown away. I had no idea that it would be so windy here, though I suppose the wind has the whole of the Indian Ocean to build up a head of steam, and it certainly does.

Eagle Bluff
Hotel room view at Monkey Mia

The main draw at Monkey Mia is the wildlife, and each morning from around 7.45am, the dolphins that live in these waters come into the bay to see all the tourists (I think that’s the right way round…!). Until very recently I’ve never really been an animal person, but there’s something about seeing them in the wild that really changed my mind. We also saw turtles swimming in the bay too

Dolphins at Monkey Mia

Some of the group went on a boat cruise in the morning but I opted to stay on dry land and had a relaxed morning in some shade which was welcome after several days on the go (this trip started the day after my Margaret River trip ended). We set off back south after lunch and this was essentially an exercise in getting to Geraldton, some 4 and a half hours away, before sunset. We had another pit stop at a roadhouse where the flies were perhaps the worst they’d been. Just absolutely everywhere. The only positive thing I can say is at least they don’t bite!

Monday evening in Geraldton isn’t the most lively place in the world. We ate at The Murchison Tavern and were pretty much the only punters in there.

On our final day we started with a visit to the HMAS Sydney II memorial in Geraldton which remembers the 645 men who lost their lives when the HMAS Sydney II was sunk in 1941, which was the greatest single tragedy in the Australian navy. Actually the anniversary of the sinking was the day after our visit. Not something I was previously aware of but I found the memorial very moving.

We then continued to head south back towards Perth. Our next stop was at the 3 Bays Walk at Green Bay, for some more ridiculously beautiful WA beaches. Fly net still a necessity though.

Beautiful beaches at 3 Bays Walk, Green Bay

Our lunch stop was at the Lobster Shack in Cervantes where we had some Australian Rock Lobster for lunch, absolutely delicious

Our final stop on this trip was at The Pinnacles in Nambung National Park. Possibly one of the weirdest landscapes I’ve ever seen. With yet more flies and a few hailstones for good measure

The Pinnacles

We then headed back to Perth and arrived around 6pm. This tour was a really good way to see this region. I think it would be pretty difficult to do independently as a solo traveller without my own car. We covered some pretty large distances – around 500km drives on some days – and there isn’t a whole heap of public transport in these parts. I would definitely recommend this trip, and route, to anyone coming to Western Australia!

Margaret River

~ Cat ~ Leave a comment

I’ve mostly come to Perth for the cricket. However, having never been to Western Australia before, I was keen to explore the surroundings which is why I arrived a couple of weeks before the first test starts.

My first side trip was down to Margaret River. Several people had suggested it was worth going to so off I went. I’d booked a 3 day / 2 night trip with McLeod Tours which started with a bright and early 6.50am pickup at a location 15 minutes walk from the hostel I was staying in.

After we’d picked up the other 15 women on this trip, we headed south out of Perth towards Mandurah for a brekkie and coffee (green tea) stop.

After refuelling both ourselves and the van, we continued south towards Busselton for lunch and a post lunch walk along the longest timber-piled jetty in the southern hemisphere (the equivalent in the north is Southend pier).

Busselton jetty sticks out 1.8km into the ocean and we just about had enough time to walk out and back, though there is a train which runs along the jetty too if you don’t fancy the walk

You can just about see the jetty curving to the right, and the building in the middle of the photo is at the end of the jetty
Signpost at the end of the jetty – quite a long way from anywhere

In the afternoon we stopped at a bean-to-bar chocolatier (where they create the chocolate from the cocoa beans) for some chocolate tasting, before heading to our hotel for the next 2 nights on the coast in Prevelly, a few kilometres outside of Margaret River.

The beach at Prevelly

The next day we headed further south. Firstly to Mammoth Cave, one of several cave complexes in the region, and a very accessible one at that. The stalactites were so delicate and there were hundreds if not thousands of them

We headed further south to Cape Leeuwin, which is the south-westerly most point of Australia, and where the Indian Ocean meets the Southern Ocean. I climbed the 176 steps up the lighthouse for this great view

Indian ocean on the left. Southern ocean on the right

After lunch in Augusta, we headed for our first wine tasting at Red Gate winery. A very comprehensive tasting, I reckon at least a dozen wines from the list below, and unusually for me, my favourites at this stop were a Chardonnay and a Cabernet Sauvignon.

After this, we had time for a wander around the town of Margaret River before heading back to the hotel.

On the final day, we started with a coffee tasting. Now, coffee definitely isn’t my drink of choice but I gave them all a go and concluded that the iced coffee which was flavoured with caramel was the most drinkable. I shan’t be converting to coffee any time soon!!

We then visited 2 more wineries and had wine tastings at both, along with some lovely cheese at the second one

At Edwards Winery

After another lovely lunch it was time to head back to Perth and we arrived back in the early evening. All in all, we covered a lot in 3 days but it felt a very well-paced trip with almost everything included (just evening meals weren’t but I’d often filled up at breakfast and lunch so only needed something light for dinner). To the various people who suggested I should go to Margaret River – thank you – and to anyone who comes to WA, you should definitely go!!

Perth Part 1

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A long old flight from Manchester via Qatar. I found myself in a middle seat in the near 11 hour leg from Doha to Perth, and I am already contemplating paying to select my seat on my return home in April…

I arrived in Perth at around 7pm on a Sunday evening full of good intentions to use public transport to get me to my accommodation in the centre of Perth. However, Sunday evening public transport was not fully operating, and, as I was absolutely knackered, I opted for an Uber. 25 minutes later I was checking in to my hostel in Perth’s Northbridge area. (The train runs from the airport to the city centre in 20 mins or so, but was not doing so on this particular Sunday evening)

At this point I hadn’t slept in over 24 hours and so I pretty much crashed out as soon as I got to my bed

As I was staying in a hostel (https://www.spinnershostel.com.au) I headed out the next morning to the local IGA supermarket to get some provisions. Then after brekkie I decided to try and get my bearings by wandering around Perth CBD, firstly to Elizabeth Quay, and then through the malls in search of lunch.

Elizabeth Quay
Cute building in the malls

After lunch I headed towards the museum Boola Bardip to learn about Western Australia. To my surprise, they had a special exhibition about the Terracotta Warriers on display. This, unbelievably, is not the first time I’ve accidentally seen the Terracotta Warriers. In my ‘New York to Chicago’ post, I wrote about seeing them unexpectedly when in Chicago almost 10 years ago. They were just as incredible this time round. And I also learned a bit about WA in the rest of the museum from the indigenous populations to the early European settlers. It’s certainly very interesting to read the histories of these populations…

The Terracotta Warriers at the WA Museum Boola Bardip

After a lot of walking it was time to head back to base for dinner and sleep as I try (and so far fail) to sort out my jet lag.

My plans for the next day involved taking the train out to Fremantle and Cottesloe. A leisurely morning following by an approximately 30 minute train ride ($10.40/£5.20 for a day ticket) from Perth CBD out to Fremantle, and despite the 30c+ heat I found some AC in the Maritime Museum. A well timed visit on the 2nd Tuesday of the month meant that entrance was via donation instead of the usual fee. A nice way to spend an hour in a cooler environment. Afterwards I walked through Fremantle town, I loved the relaxed vibe here, and the more colonial-style buildings. Perhaps it would have been better to visit on a weekend to coincide with the Fremantle Markets, but I can’t have everything. But look at the blue sky…

In and around Fremantle

I then took the train back a few stops to Cottesloe, another relaxed beach-side suburb of Perth with a beautiful beach which was surprisingly busy at 3.30 on a random Tuesday afternoon. A sign of the lifestyle here. After a wander and a gelato, I headed back into Perth and readied myself for a very early start the next day for a trip south to Margaret River

Cottesloe beach

I am in and around Perth until the 26th so there will be a part 2 at some point…

Time for a new adventure

~ Cat ~ 2 Comments

Hello….is anyone still there….it’s time for me to fire this blog back up as I live out my midlife crisis by spending the next year travelling.

The broad itinerary is split into 4 chunks.

First up, 5 and and half months in Australia, South East Asia and Japan. Then, after a month’s R&R at home, 2 months through Southern and Eastern Africa. Another brief visit home followed by a few weeks in Canada, and then the final pitstop home before a month or so in Central Asia.

As I did in my last extended period of travel, which is somehow 10 years ago, I’m hoping to use this blog as a diary, as a way of letting family and friends know what I’m up to, hopefully some hints and tips along the way, as well as creating something for me to look back on in the future.

So, come with me on the first leg, to Western Australia…