A taste of reality, complete with our own bathroom!

After the disastrous time I had last year whilst Daniel worked at a shutdown in Karratha (and stayed at camp), we decided to all stay together in Karratha where the kids and I could enjoy all the family friendly facilities the town has to offer. We also decided on an ensuite site and wow what a luxury it is having your own bathroom. I am certainly not missing traipsing back and forth to the toilet or showering whilst others are going to the toilet! So nice to have some privacy and be able to leave our toiletries in the shower. It's the small things that can make all the difference.

Anyway we decided to get Emilia into kinder whilst we were here as she has completely missed out. As it turned out she is actually compulsory school age in WA and they school closest to the caravan park (which happens to be the newest and best school in Karratha) had a space in a preprimary class. She awoke at 5.30am on her first day, full of excitement and anxious to get into her uniform and get to school. She has fitted in well and after a few days of angst (after the initial excitement she realised how long she would be away from me for and decided she was missing me too much) she now enjoys school a lot, has made lots of friends (we had her school friends birthday party on Sunday) and relishes in telling me all the things she has done each day. We do homework each night and she is very pleased (as are we) with the development in her reading and writing after only a few weeks. I am finding it very weird being the parent instead of the teacher  though and it has taken all my self control not to try to take over in the classroom in the morning!

Anyway with Emilia at school Jackson wanted to go too! Instead we have found a great 3 year old kinder next to Emilia's school and he also goes several times a week to the 'kinder' (crèche) at the gym. He loves it and actually hides when I come to pick him up as he doesn't want to go. He wore a stripy t-shirt on his first day and decided this was his uniform and would not wear anything else. I now have a few stripy t-shirts that we rotate so he can wear his 'oooniform' every time he goes to kinder. It is very cute to see how excited they are and also makes me realise they will enjoy a bit of 'normal' life when we return to Vic.

I have joined the gym and am loving the Pilates and yoga classes, especially knowing Jackson is happy with the lovely staff in the crèche. Jackson and I also go the library several times a week and enjoy rhyme and story time (and the air conditioning).

Daniel is working extremely hard and his feet are struggling to get used to wearing work boots for 14+ hours a day in 35deg heat after a year in thongs. He has to soak them in Epsom salts each night before bed as he can hardly walk by the time he gets home. He is certainly earning his money on this job but hopefully it will make it easier for us when we get home as we still want to buy in Mansfield. 

It is another experience to add to the list and as a friend said the other day Emilia will certainly have a story to tell next year when she starts school properly in Vic about the time she went to school in Karratha, where the aircon blasts all day, where classrooms have fridges to store the kids lunches and where the uniform is only shorts and a t-shirt (no jumpers needed or available)!

We should be here for around another 2 weeks before touring the centre of Australia then heading back to Vic (although we are a bit apprehensive about coming home and ending our trip we are also excited to see everyone, especially Rascal).

Here are some pics of our big school and kinder kids.

Our big school girl.

Ready for Kinder (this is the stripy tshirt he decided was his uniform)

Mother's Day (and Daniel's first day of work). Daniel took the kids shopping the day before to make sure it was special for me.

Mother's Day smiles

I'm so proud of my big sister!!

His first day at 3 year old kinder (wearing another stripy t-shirt)

At Lucy's birthday party (first party of another child they have been to in 18 months - party bags were a huge novelty).

Bring on the cake!!!

Batman enjoyed being included in the party as well.

Blown from Ningaloo Reef to the red, dusty Pilbara.

Literally blown away by the 40+km southerly winds belting the coastline. The wind began a day after we'd left Ningaloo Station, it continued for several nights in Coral Bay and kept going whilst we were at Cape Range NP. It finally gave up the morning we had finally given up and decided to move on!

We had booked for 6 nights at the lovely Cape Range National Park where we'd had such a wonderful time last year, snorkelling several times a day. However, this time it was not to be. In our 3 nights there we still managed a snorkel at Osprey, Turquoise Bay and Lakeside and, although the conditions were less than ideal, we did enjoy ourselves. Daniel came out from his snorkel at Turquoise Bay very excited as he had seen a huge potato cod, the first time he'd seen one even though he has snorkelled so many times on this trip. He was then even more surprised to see another huge one at Lakeside! Two in a day was pretty impressive. I resigned to the fact that I wouldn't see it as they hide under rocks and I don't like snorkelling down under rocks. As luck would have it, as I attempted a snorkel at Lakeside, whilst the wind increased and the usually calm, clear after was churning up whitecaps, I saw the potato cod out of it usual rock hideout. I am sure it thought no-one would be silly enough to snorkel in the washing machine the ocean had now been reduced to, and felt safe coming out. I think I got just as much a shock as it did, but WOW the sheer girth of the fish was very impressive. 

Emilia did a snorkel at both Coral Bay and Turquoise Bay but Jackson decided he had seen all the fish he needed to on his snorkels at Ningaloo Station and he didn't want to snorkel anymore. He just wanted to fish so we spent a lovely evening at the Coral Bay boat ramp fishing and watching the sun set. We only caught a few little fish and a stingray that the kids had fun reeling in before Daniel released them. At lot of our time at Coral Bay was spent in the swimming pool, jumping pillow and playground as the kids hadn't had a pool for about a month and wanted to make the most of it.

So after 3 night at Coral Bay and 3 nights at Cape Range we were sick of the wind and we did not want to spend the last week before Daniel started work confined to the caravan whiling the time away until the wind subsided. 

A haircut for Daddy at Coral Bay.

It was a family affair as I had a go after Emilia too!

An afternoon nap with his daughter - she even let him borrow her teddy.

The jumping pillow at Coral Bay was a hit, particularly when it was inflating.

We had missed Millstream Chichester National Park both times we passed it last year so decided it was our next destination. After a gorgeous remote free stop in the red Pilbara dirt (which the kids covered themselves in) we arrived at Millstream homestead on an extremely hot Monday morning. Thankfully one of the highlights of Millstream NP is Deep Reach Pool, an large expanse of water from an underground aquifer which is around 2000km squared in size. It is actually the water supply for Karratha and surrounding regions (so we encouraged the kids not to wee in it as we'd be drinking it in a few days!) We spent the afternoon enjoying the fresh water, such a welcome change after so long the coast. We also enjoyed exploring the old homestead and meeting the resident kangaroos. The next day was just as hot and humid as well so, after an early morning cliff top walk and an exploration of the wetlands (complete with clear, flowing streams and lagoons brimming with lily pads, not what you would expect to find in the hot dusty Pilbara) we headed back to Deep Reach Pool. This time we came prepared with the kayak, noodle and blow up thong so we spent several hours floating around keeping cool, it was lovely. That night we had dinner on the clifftop watching the sunset. Unfortunately the beauty of the sunset was overshadowed by the swarms of mozzies that attacked us just as we were packing up to leave. It was amazing how many bites we got in such a short time.

On our way out the next day we enjoyed the cool water of Python Pool, a deep pool at the base of a cliff. We had really enjoyed our unplanned stay at Millstream Chichester but it was time to head to Karratha for a bit of normality (and to prepare us for life OFF the road in a few months time when we return home).

The beauty of the red dirt contrasted with the grasses (they made great hiding places but were very prickly).

Don't think that t-shirt will ever be the same!

Neither will our feet!!!

Collecting firewood.

Our lovely overnight stop just out of Pannawonica.

Gotta love a bush shower when no-one else is around.

Prince Jackson the Bush Warrior (these were pretend spears and if we got to close he threatened to kill us - am hoping this type of play is typical for a boy!)

The spear has now turned into a gun and he is trying to shoot me......Hmmmm, not sure where he is getting the inspiration for his imaginative games???

And my lovely boy is back.

Getting ready for a swim at Deep Reach Pool.

The cliff top walk looking over Deep Reach Pool.

Why did you do my hair like a girl Mum?

On our way to watch the sunset from the cliff top - the colours were already starting.

Nice spot for a meal (until the mozzies started that is).

Our lovely sunset dinner spot.

The wetlands near Millstream Homestead.

The old homestead at Millstream NP.

The ants were prolific - this is one of their many straight tracks all over the roads and paths.

Dirty- minded Daniel thought the rock in the distance looked like a nipple so he had to pretend to squeeze it (too hazy in the photo to tell properly though).

Python Pool.

Testing the water at Python Pool (it was great).

Bobbing along under the cliffs.

One on the massive iron ore trains we drove next to on our way to Karratha - they are soooo long.

They just kept going and going.