One of my favorite holiday destinations is Australia. As I told you before, our first visit to Australia was in 2001, from Sydney to Cairns, by train. We went to Sydney, the Blue Mountains, Katoomba, Airlie Beach, Byron Bay, Cairns, Port Douglas, Cape Tribulation, Coff’s Harbour, and Brisbane. And we loved it!
After our trip in 2001 we would never have guessed that we would go back to Australia again and again, because it is a long flight, and we thought we had seen a lot. But we did it, twice! And now we did it again😉.
As always we started in Perth with our friends Pam and Ron. And this time we wanted to go a little bit up north, and I mean really a little bit😉. We started in Perth, and went up to Denham, visiting Kalbarri and Geraldton along the way, on a seven day road trip.
Our first stop was Kalbarri, to visit the Kalbarri National park. Our first night in town was already very special with this beautiful sky and sunset! And I only had my iPhone with me, but the picture turned out really good.
We really liked the Kalbarri national park, with all the colorful rocks and the river that runs through it, and the Kalbarri window! You had to stand in line to make this picture, but I just wanted to have this picture, like everybody else😄.
The coastline of Western Australia is so very beautiful! So many great views and beautiful beaches and cliffs, we loved it.
And don’t forget the wildflowers if you are happy enough to be in Australia at the right time. And we were this time. I never made so many pictures of flowers! Flowers I have never seen in my life, in all kinds of colors and shapes. The green one is called the kangaroo paw😄!
Another highlight of the holiday was the scenic flight above the Kalbarri national park and the Abrolhos islands. It lasted 1 hour and 45 min, but went by so quickly. Made some great pictures, including one from the Pink lake. I even saw a whale jumping out of the water, but did not get the chance to take a picture, it was gone in seconds!
Next stop was Denham, for a trip to Francois Peron National Park. We booked a 4wd trip with a ranger, so Pam and Ron could enjoy the ride too. And this was also an amazing trip. So many great things to see Down Under! Again beautiful white sandy beaches, red sandy cliffs, red sandy dunes and blue waters!
Not in the pictures, is the snake, which passed just 1,5 meter behind us! The ranger told us that we had to Google the Australian brown snake, back at the hotel. He had never seen one so close by. After reading about this snake on Google, we were glad it passed by so quickly, it was a very poisonous snake😝!
We also spotted some wildlife: seals, stingrays and a lot of cormorants (at first we thought they were penguins 😂). I was glad I could find one seal on this rock, so I made a picture. When I looked on my iPad to check my pictures, I saw there were a lot more seals on that rock, and on my picture😂. Hope you can spot them too!
From the balcony of our B&B we spotted kangaroos, drinking water from a bucket, specially put there for them, because it hadn’t rained in more than 6 months. And an emoe was just walking down the street, and came to drink some water too! We have only ducks and dogs walking our streets at home😉.
On our way to Geraldton we made a short stop at Monkey Mia. Here they feed wild dolphins every morning. They live in the sea, but a few come close to shore every day to grab some fish. I was so happy they picked me to feed one of them!
We also saw a lot of birds we don’t have in Europe, like the kookaburra, just posing for the camera, on the other side of the street!
We always go to Fremantle to stay for at least a week after a roadtrip, and before flying home and saying goodbye to our friends. From Freo, as they call it, you can take several boat trips, We decided to make a whale watch tour again, because last time we went on this trip, it was the end of the migration season. And we didn’t see many whales. Now we were a month early and we were very lucky to see quite a few whales this time. And as you can see most of the time too late to make a good picture!
One of our favorite trips we like to do in Western Australia is visiting Rottnest Island. Because on Rottnest Island they have quokka’s. And we really love quokkas😍!!!
They only live on this island, nowhere else in the world. And they are so cute!!! Have to practice though to learn how to make a selfie with a quokka. So next time I have a better selfie!
And Rottnest Island also has a lot of great beaches. There are enough visitors on the island, but there are still a lot of empty beaches to find on the island.
And we met a nosy skink. This skink scared Rene a bit. Rene only saw something brown moving in the corner of his eye, while eating a cheese-stick on the beach, and he had still the image of the snake in his head! But the skink just wanted to have some breadcrumbs for lunch😉,
I hear you thinking, not much foodie pictures this holiday. You are right, I didn’t take many foodie pictures. I did some cooking, but nothing special.
Only one night I cooked a special meal. This was a “thank you very much dinner” for our friends and their daughter Amber. They do all the driving during our road trip and they always take good care of us when we are in Australia.
This time we had a house with a decent kitchen, and I was able to cook them a dinner I would cook for friends at home. Already sending a shopping list weeks before heading to Australia, to make sure they had what I wanted, like rose harissa, pomegranate molasses and sumac. Because there is a lot food I am not aloud to bring with me to Australia. We all enjoyed it very much, me with the cooking, and they with eating the food😋!
Another great and amazing holiday in Australia, with lots of highlights. And thanks again Pam and Ron for all the driving and taking care of us!
This won’t be our last trip to Australia. I am sure of it!
rinaschoof 