Posts Tagged With: coral coast

Day 5: Kalbarri to Monkey Mia, WA

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!

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Day 1 +2: Perth to Cervantes + Nambung National Park, WA

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 Pinnacles
Nambung National Park – The Pinnacles
Nambung National Park – The Pinnacles
Nambung 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!

Tomorrow: off to Kalbarri for 2 nights!

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Next holiday booked for Bs birthday!

I’ve been on a waiting list for Monkey Mia for aaaaages because we can only travel in school holidays and the RAC park books out literally a year or more ahead. I know we could stay somewhere else but if we are only going for a few days I want to be at the location where all the tourist stuff actually happens. I got notified two days ago they had a 2 night vacancy over Easter 2022 due to a cancellation. BAM! DONE!

We are going to do a week long visit over Bs birthday and plan to go perth – Cervantes – Kalbarri – monkey Mia – back down via Geraldton (TBC). I’ve already booked a nature catamaran cruise and a special surprise for Bs not-quite-40th birthday.

Dolphins!!!

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