With travel restrictions lifted in most places and four vaccinations each – where are we going in 2023?
Current booked trips are:
– Hamelin Beach and Pemberton in January with family
– a surprise WA destination for Bs 40th birthday in early April. We can’t travel internationally around his birthday due to school holidays and my SILs wedding so he’s agreed to a drivable week long adventure
– Phuket in April/May!!! I am so keen for this
Where else? Maybe Vegas. I could visit Vegas. Oooooh or Europe. Or even Bali since I have jetstar vouchers. Hmmm.
This morning we enjoyed a lovely sleep in and some baby goat watching from the warmth of the cottage. The miniature horses were also chilling out the front of the cottage so I made sure they got some love!
It was a bit of a gray and drizzly morning so while we waited for the rain to clear up we headed to Duckett Mill Winery and cheese factory. We had a delicious tasting board with wine/cheese pairings as well as one of their famous toasties for an early lunch.
After lunch we headed to the Denmark Animal Farm to pat and feed some very cute baby animals. It was very muddy (yay rain) but still pretty cool to get to interact with all the animals.
After the animal farm we took advantage of a slight break in the weather and explored Elephant Rocks and Green Pool beaches. There is some amazing rock formations down this end of WA.
We then headed back towards Denmark with a stop at Bartholomew’s Meadery (yummm honey and mead) and some beer paddles at Boston Brewing. Phew! Now back to our farm cottage for some relaxation, treats and goat pats. Home tomorrow
Today we checked out of our accomodation in Albany to head to a farm stay in Elleker (halfway between Albany and Denmark). On the way we stopped at the Whaling Station for a walk around and history tour. Definitely worth a visit! We arrived right on 9am when they opened which was a good call as by the time we left at 11am the car park was completely full.
After the whaling station we drove out to the Treetop Walk in Denmark. It’s about an hour drive from Albany but it was absolutely amazing! When it’s busy there are some wait times but the 600m long walk up 40m through the tress was accessible, easy and really pretty. I don’t like heights but felt okay the whole time as it feels secure and has a good height on the enclosed railings. We also walked through the ancient tree walk which had some red eucalypts that were over 600 years old.
From here, we drove to our farm stay and checked in. It is a gorgeous little cottage on a working farm with a bath overlooking the paddocks. They also have baby goats!!! Dinner was homemade scones and a cheese platter from the farm owner as well as some bubbly.
Today we started off with the free breakfast at our bnb – the name of this accomodation is Beach House by the Bayside. The brekkie was delicious! They even made me a small one as I wasn’t too hungry. We then set off to play tourist for the day – and take lots of photos.
We started at the mounted memorial at the top of Mt Clarence.
From there, we drove back down to the National Anzac Centre. We visited the newer part (which is paid entry) and also did the free one hour tour up the hill to the gunner mounts.
The views were spectacular there and it was such a lovely morning (glorious sunshine) you could see way out into the bay. After our visit here, we drove about 15 mins out of Albany centre to Monty’s Leap Winery. We did a wine tasting and enjoyed their vineyard platter for lunch. They are quite an expensive option for a meal but the food was really good – they were also totally booked out even for a Friday lunch so worth planning ahead. We also bought some wine mmmm wine.
After lunch we visited a bunch of the natural tourist sites including the gap, the natural bridge, misery beach and the blowholes. The blowholes weren’t blowing sadly so we will have to come back again to that one on another visit.
Tonight, we booked dinner at the top rated restaurant in Albany – it’s called Majuba Bistro. The food was amazing. So good in fact we missed a mains photo. Delicious local wines accompanied delicious food. Definitely book ahead for this one as they were booked out all weekend by the time we arrived on Thursday night.
After dinner, we had a nightcap at Liberte Bar (best walk in sign ever) and then were in bed by 8pm. We booked a ride home with Albany Taxi Cabs and even though it was a busy night they were on time for our booking and the service was fantastic.
Tomorrow, we change accomodation and are off to a farm stay (WITH BABY MINIATURE GOATS) halfway to Denmark.
We drove from Perth to Albany today with a few stops along the 4.5hr drive at Riverside Roadhouse (mmm pies) and Kojonup. The drive was a fairly quiet one despite the unexpected public holiday for the Queen.
Our first two nights here we are staying at Beach House by the Bayside in Middleton Beach. It’s a lovely little bnb with a 2 min walk to the beach, 5 min drive from the main restaurant strip and a spa bath in the room.
Tonight we opted to walk down the beach (which took about 30mins) to have dinner at “WAs best fish and chips” Hooked on Middleton Beach Fish and Chips. The walk was just lovely along the dog beach. Plus….dogs!
Our walk brought us down to Rats Bar which has some…interesting….google reviews. We thought the service was good and they had all local wines which was lovely. It was quiet while we were there but had definitely picked up when we walked back past at 6pm.
The fish and chips for dinner was delicious! You definitely need to book as they were almost fully booked from 6pm and the only reason we got in was because we were quite early. They also use home made tartare sauce which was nice and thick. Yum.
Now I’m off to drink champagne out of a water glass while I sit in the spa.
We left Monkey Mia around 9am and headed for the Ocean Park Aquarium in Denham. I had booked the visit here on the theory we would get into the shark tour with a booking but they don’t actually allocate booking times so lesson learned…no point booking ahead for this place. Instead we arrived at 8:30am and had a great breakfast before their first tour at 9:20am. The breakfast views were next level.
The aquarium tour was amazing! Probably one of the best aquariums we have been to and I saw a tiger shark for the first time ever! His name was Boof. Best shark name.
We then drove the 4.5hrs to Geraldton with a short roadhouse stop at Billabong Roadhouse again. Our accomodation in Geraldton was at the Ocean Centre Hotel as I picked something easy, quiet and with an attached restaurant. We arrived in Geraldton around 3pm to an easy check in at a lovely ocean front room.
The attached restaurant was actually shut due to easter so I booked dinner at Skeeta’s which was a 5 min walk from the hotel and had amazing tapas and cocktails with a view of the marina at sunset. They were busy though so you definitely need to book.
We had breakfast at Dome on the beach and then left Geraldton around 9am for the 4.5hr trip to Perth on the inland road. Apparently the coastal road is nicer but for us inland was a slightly shorter trip – about 25 mins saved. We stopped at Badgingarra as the halfway point to stretch our legs (great pies, gross toilets) before being reunited with the fur babies!
We started the day very early! Lots of people had said feeding the dolphins at Monkey Mia is super crowded and adults rarely get picked (especially in school holidays) so it would suck. Instead, we were advised to head to the jetty well before the first 7:45am feeding time and enjoy the dolphins swimming in peace. Then when everyone crowds in for the feeding….go to breakfast! This turned out to be excellent advice as due to covid they actually aren’t allowing guests to feed them, which they didn’t mention at all until just before feed time.
After our dolphin visit we went to brekkie at the local boughshed restaurant and then prepared for our marine reserve catamaran cruise on “Aristocat 2”. This is the only your vessel around here that is legally allowed to enter the conservation zone twice a day. After researching online, it was highly recommended that the morning tour be taken over the afternoon one as you are more likely to see wildlife – although as with all animal cruises they can’t guarantee anything. I was pretty disappointed with this experience to be honest. They obviously can’t control the wildlife but watching the skipper talk to customers for most of the time and not look for any wildlife to point out to us was….disheartening. Letting people ride in the boom net was also a 45 min waste of time that could have been better spent hanging out with some animals! In the end we saw 4 dolphins and 2 dugongs. Photos are terrible.
Dugong mum and calf
After returning, we did some napping/souvenir shopping/people watching/dolphin spotting before having dinner at the Boughshed. i had to book ahead for dinner as they fill up pretty quickly apparently.
Tomorrow: 4.5hrs to Geraldton for a one night stop then another 4hrs home!
We left Kalbarri with the intention of stopping at Hamelin Pool to walk the boardwalk. Unfortunately this has still not been repaired since the cyclone smashed it apart in 2021 and without the access to the walkway you can’t see much of anything – instead we stopped at Billabong Roadhouse for a delicious toastie and leg stretching.
Then we travelled through to Shell Beach. There is only one other beach in the world made up of billions of tiny shells instead of sand! The shells all come from one specific animal and the beach is close to 100km long. That’s a lot of Dead tiny animals.
From Shell Beach we drove another 20 mins into Denham (to stop at the IGA for supplies) before continuing on to the Monkey Mia RAC resort. We had booked an ocean view cabin when the option came up to stay here. We can see the beach and ocean from our balcony so could watch dolphins frolic on the shore and emus roam around.
I had booked a scenic flight (flight option 2) with shark bay aviation, paying the extra for a private flight. It did not occur to me that this meant we would be in a tiny 4 seater plane!! Eeek. The views were amazing though.
We made it back to Monkey Mia with about 5 mins before sunset and then enjoyed a gorgeous hour long sky changing colour while drinking moet on the balcony. We also watched a pod of 4 dolphins swim back and forth in front of our room!
The drive from Cervantes to Kalbarri is just over 4hrs with no stops. I planned for us to stop at the Pink Lake in Gregory (Google pink lake lookout) which is about 40mins before you arrive in Kalbarri. We got lucky it was sunny (unlike yesterday) so the pink was quite noticeable, apparently on overcast days it can be a little disappointing.
Our accomodation in Kalabarri is an adults only air bnb opposite Blue Holes beach and it is veeeery nice….even comes with a plunge pool on the outside deck! A cold plunge pool I didn’t even want to put my feet in haha.
We checked in to the air bnb at 3pm and then wandered over to check out the well known Blue Holes beach which is apparently great for snorkelling. It was a bit too rough for us to get in the water.
Dinner was booked at the Kalbarri Edge Restaurant which was a 20 min walk from the air bnb along the Melaleuca Walking Trail. The walk along the Murchison River mouth was lovely.
The restaurant food was good but the service was absolutely terrible. We tried to be understanding they were short staffed but once they seated a walk in group of 10 in reception – when they were already full and struggling – my sympathy waned. I do recommend the chicken supreme and the churros though.
Day 2 in Kalbarri started with a visit to the Kalbarri Bakery. We then drove out to the Kalbarri sky walk and natures window – about 40 mins inland. I’m reasonably unfit, managing spinal pain (and scared of heights) but was able to manage both of these walks! I couldn’t do the Z bend one which is a lot steeper and 2.4kms return.
No filter! The colours were insane
At 4pm we walked down to the local boat ramp (15 min walk from our accomodation) where our river cruise up the Murchison River was scheduled to depart from. We went with Kalbarri Wilderness Cruises and were able to bring along some cheese and crackers to nibble on and buy some drinks on the boat. Worth noting the cheese and crackers were a challenge due to no table so definitely pre-cut and store for the trip! We saw a white bellied sea eagle though which was very interesting.
After the cruise we managed to sneak into a fully booked Finlay’s (recommend you book if wanting to eat here!) for delicious fish and chips and fish tacos.
Tomorrow: off to Monkey Mia! With a stop at Shell Beach along the way 🙂
Cervantes is about a 2.5hr drive north of Perth along the Indian Ocean Highway. It’s quite an easy drive although a very twisty road with lots of black spots so patience is key.
Approx 17kms before you hit Cervantes is the turn off for Nambung National Park and the Pinnacles Tourist Drive! It costs $15 for a day pass into the park, viewing all the limestone pillars is worth it though. Amazing.
Nambung National Park – The PinnaclesNambung National Park – The PinnaclesNambung National Park – The PinnaclesNambung National Park – The Pinnacles
We then kept driving another 10 mins and arrived in Cervantes. We are staying at an air bnb for two nights here which is next to the RAC holiday park so has all the walkable conveniences (beach, park, lobster shack, food) with less of the screaming children. This is opposite our accomodation and less than a 60 second walk away.
Cervantes Beach
Day 2 started with birthday presents for B!!! Yay!! We started the day early and walked across the road to Seashells Cafe to grab a breakfast bacon roll. The weather was shocking (grey, raining, cold) so we drove to Lobster Shack where our sea lion tour was scheduled to depart at 9am. It was cold and pouring rain but we arrived for our early check in anyway figuring if it was cancelled we would just go back to bed.
We still ended up going and getting in the water! It was a bit chilly but we swam with big papa, mum sea lions and babies! B even duck dived with them and played chasey in the sea weed. Very cool to interact that closely with wild animals. I have minimal photos as I only took my phone and it rained most of the time.
The boat stops just off the sea lion colonies home and the seals are encouraged to come and play….no food bribes though as they are protected
For lunch we had the seafood basked at Seashells Cafe and it was….average. I’ve had better, but the convenience of it being across the road was pretty good. B then had a birthday nap while I watched the sky be all moody and grey for the afternoon. Around 4:30pm we drove 4 mins to Lake Thetis. We did the full 1.5km walk loop but there is also a 300m paved boardwalk section for accessibility.
Last nights dinner was at the country club (local bar and lawn bowls club) which was quite tasty and about a 7 min walking distance from our air bnb. Tonight we were going to try out the Bar + Bistro but it’s closed. Then we thought we would try the motel restaurant which serves pizza….but also closed. So, back to the country club it is!
Mel's Travel Blog 