HI FROM SPENCER

Hi Spencer here, it was my birthday a couple of weeks ago, I forgot to blog it! We were so busy that I forgot, when I woke up everyone was still asleep. We went out for breaky at Carnarvon and had a video day. I turned 9 and had a great day.

We are in Fremantle at the moment, it's a good city I would like to live here, but still keep trucking. It's so cold over here, but I'm sure it's cold back home as well.We went and saw Toy Story the other day it was 3D . It was a really cool movie.

I'm liking the trip, I like that we get to meet new people in each place, we've met some good friends along the way.

I love travelling but find it hard to meet friends and then have to move on. In Kalbarri I liked playing AFL with all the boys and we were showing off to the girls.

I got a new game yesterday called Transformers, I really liked it. I'm reading some really cool books, I finished a book today called Kakadu Calling, it's about aboriginal stories and learning from their experiences.
I'm loving all the great books and have read heaps of books on the trip. I've been writing lots of stories and it's the most I've ever written. Mum thinks it's really cool!

My favourite thing is snorkelling in Turquoise Bay it was amazing.

My Tips for the trip is  make sure you have your game charged up and when you go riding on your bike to come back every 5 mins so Mum and Dad don't worry.Don't go wandering around the caravan park.
Miss you all, see ya. Spence

WINTER FINALLY

Hello from the teeth chattering Wood family! I really need to get my act together it has been too long.

So we head south down this amazing, rugged, untouched western coastline. From the yummy Carnarvon produce to the crazy tow surfing at Kalbarri to the Pinnacles and to my  home away from home Fremantle. Now I'm not going to bore all of you with blow by blow description of the trip this week. Let's just say we are having the time of our lives, loving every minute of this adventure. It's not only about the places and ticking things off on the map. For us it is alot about the people we have met, the friendships we have formed and hoping to maintain. But I have to say there is something about the WA people, they have been so warm and friendly. Everyone is so happy here and so accommodating towards the kids.

So we stocked up at Carnarvon on loads of fresh fruit and veg and met some locals at the markets. Love the chocolate coated fruit! Now I love the markets mixing with the locals and really getting a feel for a town. Michael is at the other spectrum, I think he would rather pull his toenails out but he did like these ones! We did a few day trips from Carnarvon, the weather wasn't great they got their worst windy weather in 20 years. So for Spencer's birthday we  went to the local video store and had a lazy day. Stocked up on the old classics for the kids and they actually loved them.Storm Boy was a fav.

We stumbled across an amazing place called Gladstone. At $10 a night right on the coastline.

We did Shark Bay area from here, we missed the dolphin feeding at Monkey Mia unfortunately,  but we did see Denham and pretty places along the way. Shell Beach is a white haven of shells, they say the shells actually go 5mt under the surface. Eagle Bluff was really windy and you can see an array of sharks out here, not that we saw any that day.We  hit the point where we were a bit over the driving. And let me tell you, you do get sick of sitting in the car for days on end . We've started to do schoolwork in the car which seems to be working well.

There are some pretty amazing free campsites along this stretch and the next place we stopped was Kalbarri. A great little surfing town, amazing rugged coastline, and we did actually see some daring tow surfing in 10ft surf. The national park had been closed from the rain so we had a day doing the loop around Red Bluff, hope the pictures do it justice. The kids loved this place still being school holidays there was plenty of kid action.All the boys were playing AFL, poor Spence didn't have a clue what they were playing but had fun. Phoebe was queen of the playground and Scarlett developed turrets syndrome. Yes I think she has been around me too much.We got to see the pelican feeding . Now this was pretty funny there were about 50 people all waiting at 8.30 in the morning freezing our butts off waiting for "the amazing" pelican feeding!!!!Well only 1 pelican turned up!!! But the story behind the local tradition is cute a local fisherman started about 30yrs ago feeding the local pelicans and when he died they continued on the tradition . Every day volunteers come here and talk about the history.

We found a little beach town which I have to mention, Horrocks, what a cute little place. Little cottages a line the beach and a lovely place to have a cuppa.

This is the area of the Pink Lake, and yes it is pink due to a special algae in the water, it just glistens.We thought we would have a stopover in Geraldton, but once we got there it wasn't much chop so quickly kept moving  and had some freebies. All along this coast they have the most beautiful sweet fish and picked up some local snapper and lobster at Julien Bay, which was amazing. We have been running the high stakes of best fish and chips and I think Exmouth is still in the lead.  At times I think we are going to turn into fish and chips.

The Pinnacles is an interesting place, we've all seen the pictures and I thought it was going to be quite small but the amazing limestone structures are quite big and the area is quite vast. They don't know how they were formed but approximate they are about 500 000 yrs old. AMAZING!You can actually drive through this area but I think it is much better to walk through. Getting a feel for this bizarre desert terrain should be felt up close and a must to see.

Now I could devote a whole blog to Perth, Freemantle and Cottesloe. Ok I thought here we go, just another major city, boring. Traffic jams, expensive living, rude city folk. I couldn't have been further from the truth. And yes we have read alot of blogs about this area and they were pretty negative. I am here to say it is the most amazing, easy to get around place. Filled with character and charm. We based ourselves in Fremantle, what a vibrant place. Why couldn't you be closer to home, you have the beach and the cool shops, fantastic cafes and gorgeous people all at your doorstep.

We had a great lunch at a place called Monk and the kids just drew for 2 hours while we had a couple of wines and had a really normal time, which we have craved for. Yes the kids were fantastic they have really grown up, have become so confident. Fremantle has 1 major street with everything happening and many an hour was spent here shopping, eating, going to the markets seeing movies and having a great time. Really do not want to leave. The houses here are full of charm and the people here are very trendy and very friendly.

Perth itself feels a little like Brissy but scratch the surface and it is so pretty and green and a really pleasant place to be. We went and saw Mama Mia which was lots of fun and the botanical gardens overlooking the city are spectacular.Cottesloe Beach is an amazing place to just have a coffee and watch the world go by. If only I could afford a place here. Michael and I drove round for hours just having a look at the most interesting, charming architecture. Would love to live here, it's right on the beach and has incredible views out to the ocean and Rottnest Is.

We have had a few problems with condensation in the van, so as soon as we hit Freo we invested in a small heater which seems to have fixed the problem of droplets on our bed. But I don't know how we are going to go with free camps and not being on power. Michael was also very proud of himself and saved ourselves $300 replacing the bearings and stabilisers on the van himself. I don't feel so bad about my shopping addiction!  The countryside has dramatically changed from half way down the coast, with lots of green rolling hills, sheep, heaps of cattle and horses. Which they actually eat over here, yes horse meat! It is incredibly cold at the moment and have had to succumb to wearing ugg boots. I hear you all saying oohh! But they are the warmest things things and have had to buy some warmer clothes for everyone. Hitting 2 here at night and going to get cooler heading down south.

No Tam's Tips this week but thought I'd leave you with this funny sign we saw at Horricks.

So I will leave you until next time, where we will be heading to Margaret River, wine country, can't wait to go!!

CAPE LEVEQUE,EIGHTY MILE BEACH, EXMOUTH!!!

Hi from WA! No we are not at Leanora Detention Centre, or kept driving into the Indian Ocean! It has been awhile so grab a glass of wine and strap in for another long one. We left you at beautiful Broome and the last 3 weeks we have been hitting it hard, snorkelling with the fish at Ningaloo, rubbing shoulders with Paul Kelly and mixing it with the oldies at Eighty Mile Beach.

So I might just back track a bit first, after Broome we decided to head an hour south to a place called Barn Hill a working cattle station that is right on the coastline. A little freaky as I only heard about this place by random from a sranger at a cafe in Brissy.  Barn Hill has about 8000 cattle and it is grazed purely for the export market, but also has very basic camp facilities right on the edge of the western coastline. At $20 a night with water supplied and the most amazing rugged coastline we have seen yet it is worth a stop. The red sandstone cliffs hit the deep blue sky with the turquoise coloured water, it is a pretty spectacular scene. It's like stepping into a tourism ad for Australia. The stars at night are like diamonds here and decided to stay 4 nights. Michael liked the loos with a view, no roof at the amenities so you could star gaze while your saving the planet on the loo. We decided to leave our van here for a couple of days and head north to camp at Cape Leveque since Broome was booked out. Most of this road is red corrigated dirt or sand so we were advised to leave the van and just tent it.

So heading north and the school holidays around the corner we couldn't actually get into Cape Leveque and booked a place called Middle Lagoon about 40 min away. All this area is completely run by aboriginal communities and it is a bit of a drive in between  each community. 3 hours of bumpy road and lots of airborne moments,  free entertainment for the kids  giggling away, we finally arrived . Middle Lagoon is run by Peter and his wife and his grandkids were playing with the kids in minutes.

Aboriginal kids are so funny, they are so free and the fastest tree climbers I've ever seen. This area is just beautiful and walked down the hill to an oasis of blue water so calm and peaceful. The next day headed to a little place called whale song cafe. Now Michael and I had not had a real coffee in weeks so it was like a beacon calling to us. It's remote up here there is nothing but red dirt roads, and came to a house that they had turned into a cafe. It overlooks the ocean and the reason for its name is this is where the whales come to mate every year, can you believe it, what a place to live. They had 3 kids so our kids were off in an instant, these kids get picked up by a bus every morning to travel an hour to school, gee we have it easy! Just as we were heading out Paul Kelly walks in, wow, I had been teaching the kids about the aboriginal land fight and had been reading "From little things big things grow". So for us to be meeting the man that wrote the song, sang the song and worked on the book it was a real surreal moment. So I grabbed the kids and we met him what a nice guy very softly spoken and incredibly charismatic. Took me days to get over that!!!!

Had a drive up to Cape Leveque and One Arm Point, so when you arrive at these places you have to pay an entrance fee but it is so worth it, it is so untouched and so beautiful. There is a hatchery up there and got to see all the great things that they are doing to preserve the turtles and fish. They grow tronchis shells here and export a huge amount to Italy to make pearl buttons. Now I'm not much of a camper so as much as this was a pretty part of the world I wanted to get back to comforts of the van so after a couple of nights we headed back.

On the way back we visited Bealge Bay where there is an incredible church made of shells, the photos don't do it justice. The aboriginals were held captive from german missionarys and this was what they did while held here.  It is also the church featured in Bran Nue Day the movie.

So after a very long tedious day back to Barn Hill to pick up the van we headed south to Eighty Mile Beach.
Love,love,love this place. After so much driving we had really had enough so stopping off here for 5 days was exactly what we needed. This beach is 220km of uninterrupted beach, shells you have never seen before, as big as your hand. There are millions of shells here and everyone here collects them and makes them into mobiles so we had a bit of a go as well. The oldies put us to shame. All the oldies get up every morning and go fishing and catch king salmon, we didn't have any luck but the couple across the way gave us some for our last night and it was beautiful. The nicest people, every year the same people come here for 3-4 months to get out of the cold, and put on a concert. We were lucky enough to get invited and had a great night singing all the old songs. Eighty Mile Beach had a cyclone hit here at xmas time so all the grass and alot of the trees were destroyed, but they have worked like trojans to get the park back into order. Some of the regulars even bought along some grass to plant and watered it every day. It restored our faith in the grey nomads! This was the place that we found out 2 days later we had a new prime minister, felt completely out of touch!!!What Happened!!!

The weather here has been sunny and warm, but as we head south it is getting chilly. I think we must be the only crazy people heading south. Travelling through Port Headland and Karratha were just for supplies, heavy mining areas famous for it's salt and natural gas and iron.

We were excited about getting to Exmouth the window to whale sharks and Ningaloo Reef. We haven't met too many people our age that are taking the plunge and going around Australia, but met some wonderful people from Newcastle.We miss you Julia and Paul, will miss the card games and the laughs.
We stayed at Yardie Creek, which was central to most things, but I have to say if it wasn't for our friends we would have not stayed, the facilities were shocking. The toilets over flowed, the showers were so tiny you had to change in front of everyone. No power or water and $35 a night shoved down the back. We had car trouble on our last day and lets just say they were not very helpful. Exmouth itself is quite small but still cute. Went into the markets with Julia and not much to see!

AHHH Turquoise Bay!!! You can actually walk off the beach and snorkell and see the amazing reef fish, we even got to see and touch a turtle. The water is so clear and the reef is very different to the Barrier Reef, for one you don't have to spend 2 hours in a boat,  the coral itself is alot more muted in colour but is in really pristine condition. I think what we saw here was much better than Coral Bay.

Unfortunately we couldn't get in there but Coral Bay was still fantastic. My favourite place, we all feel so lucky to be able to see such amazing things and the adventure is still as exciting as the first few months. I desperately wanted to swim with the whale sharks but at $400 and had to wait 4 days just thought we would move on. That can be the next trip!!!

We debated whether to go to Karigini National Park and our gorgeous friends Julia and Paul were heading up there, it would have been nice but felt like we were back tracking a bit so kept going onto Carnarvon. There is not much here but still a cute little fishing town known for its amazing produce so a good place to stock up.

Also took a shot of the satellite dish which took place to help put the men in the moon, not in use anymore but huge when up close. You have to make a trip to Morells- chocolate coated fruit, yummy. The mango chocolate coated ice-block was my fav!!

We are still having the best time of our lives. The school holidays are posing a bit of a problem everything is booked out but you just cope, free camp sites here and there. The kids are still loving the travelling and not really phased by the long days on the road, have to say the school work gets a bit tedious, but they are keeping up to date which is the main thing. It will be interesting going into the colder weather now, how we all cope being in the van a bit more.

There hasn't been any real dramas apart from Michael running into a timber divider and having a flat battery at Yardie Creek, I'm sure that place is cursed!!! So we will catch you up next time from the beautiful west coast.

TAM'S TIPS

Look I don't have any tips this month, just to enjoy the most out of life!!
The most amazing people are just round the corner and its so lovely to meet wonderful people along way away from home.
Good to just stop every now and then take it all in and be happy!!!!

TAM'S ON THE ROAD PLAYLIST (Thanks to the Shafers)

Xavier Rudd - Koonyum Sun
Bill's Music - Bill Granger TV Show Compilation

By the way, if you were wondering if we have gone feral, here are the pictures to prove it.  Love the red dirt!