western australia: karijini national park, circular pool

Circular Pool was the third walk we did with the six children. They grabbed their walking sticks and rock hopped like the confident rock climbers they are! We did have a tough time reigning some of them in though!

The walk takes you down the side of the gorge in to the valley between Fern Pool, Fortescue Falls and Circular Gorge.  Unlike the other walks most of the walk is along huge flat rock shelves. I can imagine the waters flooding over the edges and down in to the gorge during the wet season. It must be unbelievable!

The Pilbara had some rain a fortnight ago and their was still plenty of water about.

Circular Pool is surrounded by high cliffs and was a cold treat after a warm walk. The kids weren't in the water long but they explored the surrounding rock environment.

Photos courtesy of Vivid Imaging. 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Vivid-Imaging/151857428215142

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western australia : kalbarri, natures window

It's hard to get the balance right when you're on the road with the three kids. We need to factor in the needs of everyone and sleep for the baby is generally a priority. Baby A does so well transitioning from his car seat and the pram but on days when we don't have to go anywhere I like for him to have his sleeps in the caravan. What this means, too, is that B gets a good solid morning of schoolwork completed.

On one such morning (while A slept and B did schoolwork) I took P to the camp kitchen at Murchison House Station and we made fresh rice paper rolls with carrot, cucumber, lettuce, mint, spring onions and a soya chilli dressing. 

This meant that we couldn't leave until lunch time for the the second walk we wanted to do near Kalbarrii - Natures Window. We ate our rice paper rolls under a shelter in the car park with an incredible view across the gorge and along with the gazillions of flies. They were dive bombing the dressing and it was so bad that even Baby A didn't bother pulling his fly net off because he was happier with it on!

Natures Window is a very short but picturesque walk but it was so hot on the day we did it. 

And when we arrived a Malaysian couple, who live in Perth, were having their pre-wedding shots. They looked amazing. The juxtaposition of the glamorous wedding shots against the back drop of the dusty and somewhat isolated outback with the swarms of flies wasn't lost on us. 

western australia : z bend lookout, kalbarri

The oranges and pinks combined with the soft greens of this country gets us. And the clear skies and the warmth. We love it. 

You could base yourselves at Kalbarri for a week exploring the surrounding gorges and beaches. There's so much to see but you must be prepared for the flies. Swarms of them. Herds of them. This was the view from the Z Bend Lookout. We would have walked down with the kids for a swim but it was late in the afternoon and the walk up would have been impossible. 

We have the rule in our family that you can play with sticks as long as it's responsibly and away from others. B took us both on in a show-down.

The backpack weighed a few extra kilos. 

tasmania: cradle mountain summit

He was up at 0530 so he could get to the summit and back down again before lunch. 

It was J's third visit to Cradle Mountain and of the previous two he hadn't made it to the summit. I remember the second time J was there because I was too. It was an icy Tassie day and the freezing rain made it bitterly cold. We walked to The Hut but decided it wouldn't be much use trying to get further on. The visibility was bad and the path slippery so we turned back. 

This time everything was in J's favour. We'd had some clear blue skies and there was every chance he'd make it. Apparently it's not too difficult but for the final ascent which requires the walker to clamber over huge boulders. 

Unfortunately mother nature wasn't on J's side as the clouds only parted for a few seconds of the thirty minutes he was at the summit. 

The following day was the clearest we've seen input trip so far. Oh well - he'll just need to come back!