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Published: April 8th 2018
Boarding a plane at midnight for only a five hour flight is never a good idea. The kids got literally only 3-4 hours of sleep for the night. Anyone who's ever hung out with a severely sleep-deprived preschooler will know that it can only end in tears and tantrums!
Luckily for us, the kids were great on our flight from Kuala Lumpur to Perth, both falling asleep before the plane even left the runway and sleeping right through a toddler that was screaming himself hoarse for most of the flight. I felt so bad for the frazzled parents as we'd been there just a year ago with Jake, and it's no fun!
Once arriving at Perth airport, we got our passport stamped by the most cheerful immigration official to date, collected our bags, and then went to pick up the rental car. In the meantime, Kyla and Jake had spotted a drinking fountain and approached it curiously. After spending most of the last 18 months in countries where you can't drink the water, they were a little suspicious!
We got our car, and set off to our home for two nights -
our friends' house. It was a couple that Scott and I had met traveling years before and had kept in touch with on Facebook. We had our first babies just two months apart, and our second ones just a day apart! We bonded during our sleepless newborn days, and it was so fun to finally be meeting up again. I was a little anxious about staying in somebody's house with Jake after no sleep (a.k.a devil child!) but Kathleen and her husband Scott (we really do have lots of similarities!) were very understanding and accommodating. We arrived at their house at about 8am and let ourselves in after locating the hidden key. Straight away I knew the kids were going to love it. We checked out our rooms. They'd given up their bedroom for us, and the kids were located right across in the office. Kathleen had set up mattresses on the floor for them with pink sheets for Kyla and blue sheets for Jake. They also had cute little towels; a purple butterfly one for Kyla and a blue one with a car for Jake - perfection! The best part, however, was the complete black-out blinds to stop the
morning sun from waking the kids up, and the night light to scare away the monsters. It really is nice to be staying with people with kids! Oh, and they even left a homemade welcome card from their eldest daughter for us!
As soon as we walked into the living room, the kids spotted the playroom with toys all carefully laid out for them and made a beeline. Oh the joys of being in a proper house with actual toys, books, and everything!
Not long after, Scott (Kathleen's Scott, not mine!) came home with their eldest daughter, Lexi. She was home sick from school so he was taking the morning off work. When she saw Kyla and Jake, she forgot she was sick and they all started playing and hit it off.
After eating breakfast and drinking several coffees throughout the morning to stay awake, we decided to venture out to get some groceries. I was in a bit of culture shock, being in a big supermarket with things to buy other than the usual Asian minimart fare of drinks, crackers, cookies and pot noodles!
By the time
we got back, Kathleen was home with their youngest daughter, Jade. All four kids played together and had a blast. After dinner, Jake entered the twilight zone and became really difficult. It was time for bed! Jake fell asleep while we were all getting ready in our room, so I just carried him into his bed and he was out cold for the night. Kyla, on the other hand, claimed she wasn't tired and got all worked up about it, eventually falling asleep on our bed. We then transferred her to her own bed. It reminded me of when they were babies!
The next morning we slept in until about 8:15am and woke up feeling much better. We spent the day at the Caversham Wildlife Park to ensure a check mark against all of the famous Australian animals. Upon entering we made a beeline for the kangaroo enclosure. It was quite a big area with various types of kangaroos, some with joeys in their pouches, roaming freely. As it was close to midday, most were lounging under the shade of the trees, but this made it easier to photograph them! The kids were a bit nervous around
them, but enjoyed seeing them hopping around.
Next we did the rounds to all of the various sections, including a farm show where we got to see a sheep being sheared. Kyla was a bit traumatized by it at first as she thought it was being tortured, until I told her it was just getting a hair cut!
The last stop was the koalas. After all my time in Australia in the past, I'm pretty sure I've never actually seen a koala! It was pretty touristy, with everyone standing in line, waiting their turn to get their photo taken with a staged koala, but I was happy to finally get that iconic photo! Unfortunately it was just Scott and I as the kids were getting too tired and restless by this time and they were quite wary of the koala's sharp claws I think!
After a quick detour to see the Tasmanian devil it was time to start heading home. Once back, the kids played with Lexi and Jade while we nipped out for pizza and beer. After the kids were in bed I was able to spend a bit of
adult time with Kathleen and Scott.
The next morning we set off driving up the coast. It was going to take two days to make it to our final destination, Monkey Mia. It was a long drive with not a lot to see along the way, but that's why most tourists don't make it very far north, helping to preserve the natural beauty.
ROAD TRIP DAY 1
As we left Perth we went through a wine region with lots of rolling hills and fields of horses and sheep. Scott and I both thought it felt a lot like Northern California.
We were very lucky with where we broke up the journey to Geraldton. Eneabba was just a name on the map, but it turned out to be a pleasant stop consisting of a gas station, a bar, and a playground (which I'm pretty sure is the only playground between Perth and Geraldton!) After about twenty minutes, the kids were getting too hot to play so we ate a very expensive ice cream and soon set off driving again.
We finally rolled into Geraldton at 4:30pm
and checked into our pre-booked motel. Geraldton was a nice little town and, most importantly, it had a kids' playground. We let the kids run off some of their energy before heading to a supermarket to stock up. Monkey Mia has only one hotel, one restaurant, and one snack bar. We'd looked up the menus online beforehand and they were crazy expensive so we are mostly going to be self catering. We tried to buy 10 days worth of basic food items because even the camp grocery store in Monkey Mia is rediculously expensive because it's so remote.
We then went back to our hotel and had microwaved soup, bread and strawberries for dinner.
ROAD TRIP DAY 2
The next morning we had to pack everything into our tiny car. We started with the luggage and then carefully placed each food item in like a jigsaw puzzle. I was pleasantly surprised to find that we actually had some floor space for our feet!
It was another long day of driving. Once again, there were very few stops along the way. In five hours of driving we only really
made two quick stops. The first was at the Hamelin Pools to see the stromatolites, ancient coral-like formations. As soon as we got out of the car we were bombarded with flies, trying to swarm our mouth and nose. The kids were not impressed and continuously batted them away. We managed a quick walk on the boardwalk before rushing back to the car. We then spent the next five minutes de-flying the car as we drove along. Life in the Australian bush!
The next stop was Shell Beach, which was nothing special, so we carried on to the town of Denham for a promised ice-cream break. We also found an amazing shipwreck playground complete with real life parrots in the trees! We spent quite a long time here before heading off on the final 26km to Monkey Mia. By the time we'd checked in and organized the room (it was tiny and we had a LOT of groceries!) it was going dark. We just had time to make mac 'n' cheese and carrots for dinner in the shared kitchen before heading off to bed, dreams of dolphins in our head...
**** Lots more photos
if you scroll right down! ****
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Kathleen Mellings
non-member comment
Couldn't have said it better myself
I'm amazed at all the details that you remember Sharon! You tell your experiences so wonderfully. I'm glad you're having such a great time here. Your blog is really inspirational and you and your kids (and maybe generations to come) will enjoy reading this! Keep at it, you are very gifted with words!