Kalbarri is a beauty spot perched above the mouth of the mighty Murchison River. It's compact and pretty with a generous swathe of grassy foreshore that runs the length of the Main Street. The houses are old clapboard in the main and surrounded by verdant, subtropical gardens. Here and there, holiday units have been developed but they manage not to impinge too much on the character of the town. Clean, white sandy beaches rim the river and there are a couple of...

Today could have been a disaster. We had planned to book the caravan into Minket Mia resort for one night so that we could take full advantage of the sociability of the visiting dolphins without being subjected to the tourist circus that is the official feeding event. However, we awoke to squalling rain showers and on arriving at the resort, found that it was booked out. Ned was devastated because he had been looking forwards to using the park facilities, mainl...

Tom was due to go back to work in Tom Price on the 4th August beginning a period of "swings" that would see us living apart for two weeks at a time. The boys voted to stay in a Park in Carnarvon for that time and so it was back to mainstream reality for us. We had been warned that Carnarvon was a "hole"and we had certainly experienced a few things during our weekly grocery trips into town that did little to endear us to the place, not being able get a shower an...

Spending a month in Red Bluff was like spending a month in the 1950's, except with better swimwear. There was no internet, phone reception or FM radio and the only method of communication was via the post box. There was a Telstra phone box, but it only took phone cards which were not sold at the Bluff and were also wierdly unobtainable in town, so really it might as well not have existed. Carnarvon could be the only place in Australia where phone cards sell ou...

From the door of our caravan, I can see the ocean breathing. Its blue chest rises and falls to wash on to the rock shelf below us. It is loud, the waves sound like the rush of wind gathered by a road train as it roars past you standing, insignificant and tiny, on the side of the road. The feel of their power is the same. Each breath fades quickly, only to be replaced by another thunderous explosion as the swell delivers its energy bomb to the land. The shore...