Excited to be on the road again heading north! But first, we drove through the Swan Valley, heading north-east to the town of New Norcia - 'Australia's only Monastic Town' established in 1847 by the founder, Rosendo Salvado and the Benedictine Monks. We did our own 'walking tour' of the town which was really interesting and bought some bakery hot cross buns (bit disappointing though :(. We also saw an unusual road sign depicting the picture of a turtle to avoid crossing the road!

We then headed towards the coast through lovely countryside of olive orchards to the seaside town of Lancelin, situated between the sand dunes and the sea! We had hoped to find a camping spot nearby, however, WA is very strict in its camping rules so we continued on to view the Pinnacles before sunset. What an amazing sight of limestone rocks jutting out of the desert floor looking like ancient tombstones - particularly stunning in the backdrop of the fading light of day. We weren't able to drive through this amazing landscape with the van in tow, but could walk through and enjoy God's creation firsthand! We ended up staying the night on the coast in a caravan park at Cervantes - one of the lobster enclaves!!

The coastal towns of Jurien Bay, Green Head, Port Denison and Dongara along the Indian Ocean Drive are just so picturesque and quaint. We even spotted a shark swimming underneath the jetty at Jurien Bay - time for a swim, anyone? We had some great days camping in a few different sites along the coast with lovely, clear waters and white sandy beaches (although the wind did blow up a few times). Alf tried his hand at a bit of snorkelling to find a fish or lobster among the rocks, but no luck. Further north, at Coronation Beach, we also tried a bit of fishing too - thank goodness we haven't had to rely on this for our food!

At Cliff Head we were treated with an amazing storm coming in from the sea - thank goodness it was more visual than impacting. The WA coast from Perth has a reef that seems to follow the coastline north which is why they have such a prolific sea life of lobsters and other seafood. This time of year is also usually windy and therefore a lot of windsurfers, kite surfers and wind farms. They say that the wind settles down after April!

We are now heading back south to the city of Geraldton to house-sit over Easter and avoid the camping crowds!