Wednesday 26th September 2018 - We have now left the nice little town of Denham. We had thought that when we saw the beauty and wonders of Ningaloo that we had found that 'Special' place. How wrong can one be? The Francois Peron National Park & Monkey Mia for scenery and its turquoise waters was certainly a rival for it.

We're only going to travel about a 100kms today as we will be staying at Hamalin Pool tonight. It's probably the right thing to do as it's still very windy with another weather warning in place and we're driving into a strong headwind that's like taking one step forward and two back!

On the way we stopped at Shell Beach and we were greeted by 60kms of stunning white beach that consisted of small cockle shells. The sight was dazzling as the sun reflected of the abundance of tiny shells. It really was an amazing sight.

Due to the salinity of the seawater the shells have compacted to a great depth and formed a limestone known as Coquina. Before Shark Bay was declared a Heritage site the coquina was mined and used to construct a number of buildings in the area. Mining was done at night because the sun reflecting of the shells during the day made it difficult to work.

We're now at our final destination for the day Hamelin Pool the home of the world's oldest and largest examples of living fossils called Stromatolites. The reason for their survival is that the seawater is very salty; there is a sand bar across the bay and due to rapid evaporation of the shallow water within the lagoon they can grow successfully and undisturbed by other sea animals.

Note: There are only four places in the world where stromatolites grow - Australia, Brazil, Mexico and the Bahamas.

We walked long the boardwalk that took us over the top of these impressive fossils finding it hard to believe that we evolved from these living fossils; Stromatolites.

We took a drive around Hamelin Station before returning to camp.

Thursday 27th September 2018 - Hamelin Pool is not only known for the stromatolites but because it is also a heritage site. So before we left we took a wander around. It is the site of an old Telegraph station that was built in 1884 and was part of the line between Perth & Roeburne that ceased to operate in the 1950's.

Was a landing point for cargo vessels bringing in supplies and the original marker that guided in the ships still stands today. The coquina mine lies just behind the town where bricks are cut out of the deep layer of cockles shells. The mining of bricks is now only for the purpose of restoring those historic building in need of renovation.

Finally we set of for Kalbarri and encountered another very strong head wind. The scenery has changed, we are now seeing a lot of wildflowers scattered amongst the plains and the soil has changed too. The landscape became very colourful and interesting as we approached Kalbarri and the best was yet to come.

As we pulled into Kalbarri we were greeted with a wonderful sight; pale blue water of the Murchison River running towards a reef with huge waves breaking over and deep blue water of the ocean behind, all surrounded by white sand dunes and colourful sandstone rock. It is a location with two very different landscapes. On one side of town is has inland river gorges and on the other towering cliffs plummeting into the deep blue ocean.

We had a brief stop in town before moving off to Wageo, a lovely beachside working farm where we will be staying for a couple of days on a remote hillside overlooking fields of wheat & grazing cattle, white sand dunes speckled with plants and the ocean with massive waves crashing over a deep reef.

The only downside to this beautiful place was the volume flies and the constant wind.

Friday 28th September 2018 - We've experienced another windy night and this morning it's still blowing plus as soon as you step outside you're swamped with flies.

Today we drove down the coastal cliffs of layered sandstone that plunged to the ocean. We walked along the cliff top that gave stunning views of the rock formations, a vast array of wildflowers that hedged the pathway to the pounding waves below.

The sight of the rugged reddish sandstone with the white of the breaking waves to the deep blue water was spectacular. However, trying to enjoy these wonderful scenes in 37 degree heat being pestered by hundreds of flies on a windy day wasn't much fun. The flies and wind are the worst we have experienced on our entire trip.

We then headed into Kalbarri to take in the view over the bay before heading back to camp. On the way we stopped at Blue Holes for lunch and a swim in the clear shallow pools scattered amongst a lagoon with a reef of oyster stacks.

Finally we arrived back at Wageo and went for a drive along the beach of this working farm. Wow! The drive along the sandy track was pretty with colourful wildflowers growing amongst the sandy dunes. Then it gets better! the track widens and opens out onto a jaw dropping view of stark white sand leading down to a huge deep reef with the biggest waves performing magnificent displays as they crashed onto the beach.

We spent a few hours driving along the beach stopping at different places to watch the waves. Oh! There are no flies on the beach, Yey!

To finish off a day that turned out to be a good one, we returned to our hillside campsite to watch the sunset over this picturesque view.

Saturday 29th September 2018 - We didn't do much today. We left the lovely Wageo campsite and moved down the coast to stay near the Murchison River. Once we had set up camp, we walked to the local pub to watch the AFL Grand Final between West Coast Eagles Vs Collingwood. What an atmosphere with everyone watching the game especially with the Eagles being WA's home team winning the match. Everyone was going crazy…

We went out for an Indian tonight, our first since leaving Melbourne. On return a thunderstorm broke with lightening that lit up the sky that was to be the start of a very rainy night.

Sunday 30th September 2018 - We had an enforced lazy morning this morning as it was hard to motivate ourselves to go out as it was windy, pouring with rain and chilly. Our first wet day since we were in the Barossa.

Not wanting to spend the whole day in the caravan we took advantage of a break in the weather and drove out to the Muchison River Gorge where we walked to Natures Window; a natural hole within the layered sandstone rock where you can see the river on one side and the range on the other.

We then walked along the edge of the rocks to another spot that overlooked the river as it wound its way along the gorge. The colours and rock formations were amazing.

After this we drove around to a different part of the range to a place called Z-Bend where we stood at the lookout to take in the picturesque view of the gorge as it dropped down to the river. As we walked back along the trail we decided that we would then tackle the Z-Bend River Trail that turned into another hike over loose rocks with steep descents including four vertical ladders. Just when we thought that we had done with hiking around Gorges we hike this one.

It eventually led us to the base of the gorge where we were met by the clear water of the river as it flowed between the beautifully coloured earthy Tumblagooda sandstone. Then as always when you walk down, to get back you need to walk up. So we scrambled over large boulders and climbed ladders to get back out of the gorge and walk back to the car park.

After the magnificent gorges that we had already hiked too, we didn't know what to expect with this one; thinking that we were all gorged out we found that we were pleasantly surprised by the beauty and stunning views of this one. This was a location not to have missed, well we'll let you decide after you've seen some of the photos.

We then drove back to camp along a bitumen road that wove between the ochre coloured soil that fed a display of different plants and wildflowers. What a pretty scene to drive through.

Monday 1st to Wednesday 3rd October 2018 - We're on the road again, having left the lovely Kalbarri and making our way to Geraldton where will be catching a cruise to the Houtman Abrolhos Islands; a chain of 122 islands and coral reefs in the Indian Ocean.

Monday - we stopped at Pink Lake Hutt Lagoon that was given its name by an explorer called George Grey in 1839. It is a salt lake with a pink hue created by a carotenoid producing algae that is a source of B-carotene, Vitamin A and a food colouring agent, it also contains the world's largest microalgae production plant that supplies brine shrimp.

We continued on and arrived at Horrocks, a small coastal town named after a convict who was transported to WA in 1851 for forging, where we will spend a few days to prepare for our next adventure to the Houtman Abrolhos Islands.

A word from Nuts: I haven't appeared in the photo's on this part of the trip because I feared that I might get blown way and lost, so for safety I asked if I could stay at home. PS. I also couldn't cope with the flies.