After making firm friends in Oakabella with ‘Little Aussie Adventurers’ and ‘We’re On Our Way’ (we all travel with our Insta account names!), we started a travelling road train and the 3 families, 6 adults and 8 children, began to head North. We decided to exit Australia for a bit. “How can you exit Australia when you’re inland in such a large country?” I hear you cry… well, this is an extraordinary story about an ordinary farmer giving the finger to the Australian politicians over wheat quotas. Leonard (later becoming self-appointed Prince Leonard) wrote a letter to succeed from Australia after they reduced the quotas he could sell as he felt it wasn’t fair; as the government did not reply within the designated timeframe, the deal was signed, sealed and delivered – The Principality of Hutt River was formed. Not surprisingly the Government has now closed that legal loophole to prevent others from seceding so easily! Prince Leonard sadly died earlier this year and his son Prince Graeme has now taken over the mantle.

It’s a quirky country, covering some 18500 acres, a size larger than Monaco, although not as many inhabitants! It has its own Government buildings, a church with thrones no less, a museum where there are lots of letters on show from other monarchs, including our own Queenie herself, a national anthem, unique money – although they happily accept Aussie dollars for the camping!, its own post office (after a legal battle) and you can even get your passports stamped! Stumped on why they originally crowned themselves Prince and Princess rather than King and Queen of their own country, Prince Graeme explained that you’re allowed to help a Prince and not be tried for treason. Likewise, you also can’t hinder a Prince from claiming their land, he did note that this has helped with politicians over the years! Imagine back in 1971 pouring over legal docs and the constitution to uncover all these loopholes down the “local” library… no google back then… incredible when you think about it!

We passed through here on our last big trip with mum and dad but there weren’t camping facilities then. Now, we drove down to a great little area where we could all park up close together, have an evening fire to sit around and chat while the kids had a movie showing at the side of ‘Little Aussie Adventurers’ caravan. Bliss for all. The next morning, we went up to pink lake, not particularly pink when you drive beside it but once you get a bird’s eye view, the hue comes into its own. There is a very scientific explanation for the colour which I can’t quite recall now, and it was fun playing with the drone again, it’s certainly a fun toy. We continued to Lucky Bay where we relaxed for the afternoon while the kids filled their buckets with kids play, splashing in the water on boogie boards.

The following day we bid farewell to the others who continued their journey while we decided to stay back for another night at Hutt River so we could explore some more. We ventured into Kalbarri National Park, to visit the Murchison River with its gorges carved through the ancient and spectacular Tumblagooda sandstone. The sides of the gorges create breath-taking views with brownish, purple and white bands of rock chiselled into the landscape. There are a series of lookouts, each clinging to the edge of the cliff whilst providing the most amazing views of the river gorges and beauty spots. Natures Window is probably the most iconic one which pulls the crowds, an easy walk (oops did I say waaalk!?!?) until a rock scramble at the end to get to the wind-eroded rock formation with an opening that frames a view of the river. As with normal Towns timing, we were getting late in the day so didn’t have time to do the Z-bend walk which we knew a few other families on the travelling circuit had enjoyed – much to the relief of…. Miss Towns today!! After having a tete-e-tetes with Master Towns in the car on the way into the national park about completing his school work, he’d got all his rage out of his system and had been a delight the rest of the day. When presented with the idea of a walk, well, he jumped to it with the enthusiasm as if I’d given him $20 and told him to go and spend it in a sweet shop! If it’s not one, it’s the other…

It was time to continue north and we had a few hours in the car to kill, perfect for a bit of school work! At the Overland Roadhouse on the way to our next destination, we stopped for a coffee and stretch and continued with some maths in the café when a lady struck up a conversation. Everyone, and I mean everyone we’ve met on the road so far have all said how great an experience the trip will be for the kids and how much they’ll learn as we travel around. I presumed this chat would go along the same lines. Quick to ask questions about what we were up to, the normal; are you travelling around? where are you from? how long for? are you home-schooling the children? The lady then started asking more targeted questions about their age and surmising what year they would be in at school. She was very quick to then announce she was a teacher and that she didn’t believe kids should be home-schooled, especially by parents who weren’t teachers and particularly horrified that Lexi should have been sitting her year 3 NAPLAN tests this year and we weren’t going to make her. I could feel a slow burn in the pit of my stomach as this stranger seemed to be on the attack. People are entitled to their opinion, she was a teacher after all so presumably well equipped to understand what goes in to teaching these darlings of ours, yet I didn’t think it was appropriate to criticise us the way she did, badgering for a fight. Still, I have obviously blossomed from my undisciplined youth, who would have been up for a fracas (my parents would have been so proud!); I calmly replied that I was happy with our decision, as was the Principal of the school who gave us an exemption.

We finally made it to Hamelin Pool caravan park as a break point to the anticipated adventures awaiting us in Shark Bay. We were met by a friendly (if not familiar looking) face who showed us where to set up camp. As we started chatting, we soon realised we’d previously met in Geraldton by the road side as we were having lunch one day. It really is quite a small travelling community and as we re-introduced ourselves and talked about our stay in Oakabella, Nino asked if we’d met his good friends Cyndal and Brenton who they’d travelled with for nearly 2 months across the bottom of Australia. It so happened that Cyndal and Brenton made up half of “we’re on our way”, the family we’d travelled to Hutt River with!

The following day Reo & Lexi played with Nino and Clair’s kids Gabriella & Lucia which gave us time to plan our next couple of weeks. The flies were nevertheless horrendous and our fashionable accessory ‘the fly net’ was still on-trend but we huddled ourselves away in Minty for relief.

With the DPAW (Dept of Parks & Wildlife) taking over of the management of some camps, pre-booking is now required and Steep Point, the most western point of Australia was one of these. The earliest slot we could grab for more than a day or so was over a week away, so we planned to head up into Francois Peron NP first before venturing up the parallel peninsula. We had also been informed that the Cape Range NP near Exmouth was also filling up and as that would be a subsequent destination we decided we needed to look at this as well. It’s a good job we did too as it was another month before we could book sites! While it’s nice to have an idea of plans in the making, booking sites immediately adds pressure to the travel as it fixes you in and the free spirit evolution of route is quashed. Alas, it appears this is the way many of the camps are going. In the afternoon, Brenton, Cyndal and their boys and Toby, Angalea (Little Aussie Adventurers) and their boys had caught us up again and it was a happy reunion for all, especially the kids! As the sun dipped and the coolness crept over us, a fire was lit and it was a jaffles tea for all.

The main draw for this place is to check out the Stromatolites which we did so the next morning, a short walk from camp. One of only two places in the world where Stromatolites exist, they provide a unique insight into the evolution of the Earth. They are ‘living fossils’ being built by microbes similar to those found in rocks 3,500 million years old. Shaped by tidal movements and surrounded by sand, the microbes produced oxygen for over 2 billions years, which ultimately allowed oxygen breathing life forms to evolve.

It was time to move on again and the kids all played as we packed up and then it was at least another 30 minutes before we’d said all our goodbyes and then rounded the kids up yet again as they’d sneaked off for another play. We left to much fanfare, got 1km down the road, realised Reo had left his school clipboard on the bench, returned to collect and went through the leaving ceremony a second time.

The first stop was Shell Beach, a quirky beach made up of millions of, would you believe it, little shells. A quick play, photo, swallow of a fly and it was time to get back in the car for a short stop in Denham to pick up a few bits and off to the main destination, Francois Peron NP. Our initial camp was to be at Herald’s Bight, a beach towards the top north east of the peninsula. All reports had been this was a cracker of a spot, and boy, it did not disappoint. With it being a 4WD track to get in with corrugations to shake you to the bone and then a beach setting, caravans were precluded (you will recall Minty is an off-road hybrid trailer hence again exempt in our eyes) which limited many of the travelling families on the circuit. Not that we were complaining as we turned up to no-one! Yay, the beach all to ourselves. Heaven. Tinfish did a grand job hauling Minty over the final soft dune to the surprise of many a day tripper that passed by in the following days.

The sea goes out quite a way which leaves a wide sand plain, perfect when looking for cockles. The kids had a ball and we were treated to the best sunset we had seen yet; pinks, blues, oranges and yellows streaked across the sky. Just when we thought the sky had done its thing, a huge white/yellow looking ‘sun’ bounced back up, and this time it was the moon’s turn to shine. The kids were completely confused, and Reo asked if the sun was rising again. The rise over the sea created an amazing reflection and the ripples of the ocean created step-like features up to it. It was remarkable. This was home for the next few days, chilling, Alex and Reo throwing a few lines in, getting school work completed (kids aced it!) and generally having fun. A couple of neighbours turned up, but they were kind enough to drive right past and park a good distance away. I guess we all turn up to these little paradises hoping for solitude.

We went exploring Skip Jack Point at the most northern tip of the park where we saw eagle rays, a shark, turtle and loads of fish swimming and out on the horizon the blows from whales could be glimpsed. Hoping to get a closer look at said whales we ventured further round the point, alas to no avail! We checked out some of the other camps and came across another fabulous beach, turquoise waters, white sands and stark contrast red rocks at the end of the bay. Driving as far as we could, there was another car packing up to leave, excellent, we had the beach to ourselves. Jumping out of the car, we were keen to dive in the water. For some unknown reason we’d not packed the swimmers, but hey, what’s swimmers between family, off we stripped and plunged ourselves in any way! It was a fun afternoon and I got some nice footage of the area from the drone, after I’d had a stern talking to from Miss “drone police” Lexi. Apparently, you’re not allowed to fly drones in the NPs, she’d read it in a flyer somewhere, as well as not having fires. My exchange was that there were no signs up saying “no drones” (as there was with fires) and therefore I didn’t think that rule applied here – and honestly ‘Your  Honour’ I’d not read it anywhere. It was such a nice place, we decided to move camps here. After an early “get up and go” – no joke, it was a 7.30am leave to make use off the morning dew helping compact the sand for a floorless exit of the beach, we returned the following day.

We’re learning that if we tell the kids we’re going on excursion before the actual day of the event, they get way too excited and can’t sleep the night before. This was just the case when we announced that we’d be going to Monkey Mia to see the feeding of the dolphins. Lexi was desperate to go and after hearing many a dim review from the travelling circuit about it being a commercial circus with hundreds of people there, I’d been steering away from the idea. Alex and I had been 12 years ago on our last trip when my parents came to visit us and dad was picked to feed the dolphin. It had made his year and maybe I just didn’t want to take away from that memory.

The night before I kept reminding Lexi that there would be a lot of people there and the chances of her getting picked were extremely low, knowing how disappointed she’d be if she wasn’t. The alarms were set for 5.15am as for some reason, we decided to move camp further north the day before!! It was apparent very quickly that Reo had never been woken by an alarm before, when we heard “turn that noise off!” in a slow, angry voice. As we bumped our way down the red dust road to Monkey Mia, the light blue, yellow, orange and pink hues began to spread across the horizon, the sun was beginning to rise. I suggested to Alex we should get up more for sunrises as this one was so epic, his quick retort was he prefers sunsets!

We were there well in time and had brekkie in the car before heading in for the first feed at 7.45am. It was busy, but not the 100’s that had been communicated through the grapevine, maybe 150 people. As instructed, we all lined up on the waters edge and the guide talked a bit about the dolphins, how they identify them by their dorsal fins and a little bit about the history of the place. As she spoke, the first dolphins came in to the bay. Volunteers came out with the fish and they get to pick who feeds the dolphins. They wanted to see big smiles from the crowd, the bigger the smile, the more likely you were to get picked. By this time, Lexi was starting to process as with all new situations and was wanting to know exactly what needed to be done. Smiles were hard to come by. I don’t think Reo was that smiley either – he’s certainly not a morning person – but you can guess who got picked can’t you….

My heart sank for Lexi, Reo had been very nonchalant about coming or the feeding and here he was being given a fish for an up close and personal experience with a dolphin. There are 3 feedings in a morning, so it wasn’t long before we were called back to the water for another display, by this time the crowd had halved. Now Lexi had seen what was involved, she was keen to get picked and wore the biggest smile as the volunteers looked at their audience. I had strategically placed us at the other end of the beach as there was a different volunteer and told her to take her jumper off so she looked a little different and it worked. She was ecstatic! I think we were incredibly lucky that they both got picked. We returned for the 3^rd feed, by now the crowd had dwindled to about 35 and the baby dolphins had become a lot more playful jumping out of the water as if they were playing tag. It was all over by 9.30am! The kids played in the pool for a while at the resort and we looked around the information display before heading back to camp. It was a good reminder not to take the grapevine gossip as gospel and I’m so glad that Alex persuaded me to go.

On the way back to camp we stopped off at the homestead and the hot springs – yeah! There is a tub in the station back yard fed by a hot artesian bore, where visitors are welcome to rest their weary muscles. This was a first for the kids and again they were a little unsure what it was all about. Easing ourselves into 40+ water is a very interesting experience, the complete reverse to a cold dip, you really need to ease yourself in a bit, out and back down a bit more whilst everything is tingling as it gets poached. Once in it was great and the kids were delighted with the new experience, in fact you might say Lexi took to it like a duck to water, lounging back on the edge in a very relaxed pose in ecstasy.

The next couple of days we relaxed around camp, getting some schooling done, fishing and enjoying the scenery. Our penultimate night we had a surprise visit by our favourite travelling families ‘Little Aussie Adventurers’ and ‘We’re On Our Way’ who’d come up from Denham for the day and popped in to camp for a sunset fish on the beach and cooked up a snag dinner so we could catch up. It was a fun evening.

The following morning we were ready early, we’d planned to get up ‘n out as we knew we had to get a few hard miles under our belts today. We were ready…… Tinfish wasn’t Again, she didn’t start! It was beginning to get incredibly frustrating that we had this issue on a brand-new car. Alex was pulling his hair our – well, that what is left! We popped back into Denham for a few bits (can’t pass the bakery without a sausage roll!) and bumped into Brenton (We’re On Our Way) and Toby (Little Aussie Adventurers) who were stocking up on that well needed fishing gear. A quick call to the rest of the tribe who came down from their caravan park for a quick play with the kids before a final, final, final, ‘au revoir’.

We weren’t sure what to expect on the road to Steep Point; it was corrugated, undulating with a couple of big sand dunes, but surprisingly undemanding. A bigger surprise was seeing a guy on his push bike. We stopped for a quick chat to find out that Brando was cycling from the most western point to the most eastern point of Australia, right through the red centre! Words fail me. His is blogging and it’s worth giving him a shout out at www.wildboyadventures.com as this young comrade has an incredible strength in him – I’m 100% certain that my experience of the road in/out of Steep Point is polar opposites to his, given he’d taken 6 days to get to this point whereas our Google Maps had an eta of about 90mins!

When we got to the ranger’s station, it so happened to be the same dude from Yorkshire who we met and had a cuppa with 12 years ago! He’d been the ranger at this remote post for 23 years, incredible. The camp we’d bagged was right on the beach front, littered with star fish which captivated the kids. We were on the more sheltered side of the peninsula and the sea was so calm. Perfect for fishing right!?! Well, that’s what Alex and Reo decided. Rods in was possibly the first on the ‘to do’ list and then we began to unpack camp. I was having a hard time getting the roof up on Minty and asked Alex for help as it felt it was catching. Both of us pushing up was doing nothing and we soon realised that the gas struts that assist the lift and actually hold up the roof had failed on the way in – bugger. So much for a trailer that goes everywhere the car does! Reo was now unable to sleep in his bed, no bother to him as he was thrilled he’d be in mummy and daddy’s bed. We were a little less thrilled. We were up here for 4 nights so we had to make do. It’s surprising how quickly you can get out of a routine when something goes amiss. Not being able to put up the lid, stuff got dumped in the easy places as it was a challenge to put in the right place and Minty was a tip within the day. Enough to drive me crazy!

Schooling had suddenly become a lot harder. We were slow to start in the mornings, although we managed a couple of sunrises, the tranquillity of the sea lured my fishermen and before we knew it, the mornings had gone. We’ve discovered if we don’t keep the routine of schooling first before anything else, we quickly become unravelled and the kids find it much, much, harder to settle into their work. It was a stark difference to how they approached it on the last peninsula, still I’m not really sure what the difference was. It was a battle, but the surroundings made up for it and once the hard stuff was over, it was back to swimming and snorkelling in the crystal clear waters and enjoying the sunsets with cheese and bickies on the beach! One night was particularly spectacular with the pinks luminous, metamorphosing the sky to look like it was on fire.

Being a bucket list item for the trip, we of course did venture out to the official “Most Western Point Of Australia” to ensure we got ‘the shot’. The first time we’d gone later in the day and the sun was in the wrong place for piccies, so we ventured back the following morning for another look. The fishermen took their gear with the hope of a prize catch as 12 years ago the guys we’d met were pulling in callosal Spanish Mackerel by the minute. I still remember looking over the cliff tops wondering how they pulled it all up and being amazed by the sharks circling below. Now my fishermen were buoyed up with enthusiasm, however all they caught was a tiny rainbow runner and that was foul hooked in the side! Nevertheless, first prize in The Towns’ competition with the only entrants being The Towns’ went to……yup, you guessed it – The Towns’!! While the fishing might have been on the slower side, the time passed quickly as 4 huge manta rays gracefully glided up and down the coast beneath, so all in all no complaints.

Before we knew it, our allotted time was up in the camp and it was time to move on again. Food, water and fuel needed to be re-stocked so off to Carnarvon it was.