Jurien Bay Weekend

This weekend we headed north to Jurien Bay, about 3 1/2 hours north of Perth.  This was our first time camping in Australia.  We arrived at around 9 pm and headed to our camp site which was a little sketchy so we made our way to a nice one on the water and Sean did his magic and got us a site at a camp ground that was full!!! We had some technical difficulties putting up the tent- no tent pegs- but Sean MacGyver did his thing and rigged the tent so we could sleep. It was a cloudy weekend but still warm.  We really liked the water front and the old wooden jetty.




A family picture - Jurien Jetty



The new Jurien Jetty



The old Jetty

Kade spent a lot of time jumping off
this Jetty

fun at the beach



At the camp site there was this huge bouncing bubble



bouncy Kade



We visited the Sandy Capes Recreational Centre.  This is a huge area full of sand dunes and we did a little sand boarding and sliding.  The Kids and car were filled with sands after this event.

endless sand

Matthew on his way down

Kade boarding on the sand

I convinced the family to get up early, 6 am, to go the Pinnacles Desert. I was told that the lighting was best at dawn or dusk and there might be kangaroos.  This place was really cool, a very different landscape than what we have seen so far. No kangaroos but we did see an Emu. The Pinnacles Desert is in the Nambung National Park and covers over 17,000 hectares.  These limestone pillars were formed 25,000 to 30,000 years ago after the Indian Ocean winds eroded the surrounding sand, leaving the limestone pillars exposed. 

A view of the pillars in Pinnacles Desert 

More limestone pillars

The sand is mustard yellow - it really is amazing landscape

The Emu we stocked

So we learned our lesson on Sunday about making sure we always have fuel.  We went to the Pinnacles in the morning with a 1/4 tank of gas with the goal of getting gas after our tour in a small town just down the highway.  Well we got there and they had no power so the pumps were not working so we headed back to Jurien Bay except they had run out of fuel.  That is right no fuel in the town until Monday afternoon. So the nice gentlemen on the lot beside our campsite gave us 5 litres of gas to get to an out of town gas station.  We ended up heading north about 25 kilometres since the power was still not on in the other town.  We lucked out and got gas but was told that they would probably run out in less than an hour!!  We were almost stranded!! I WILL always get gas when the indicator hits the half full mark!!!!!

We then headed south and explored the coast on our way home.

This is a massive sand dune - a mobile dune
these sand dunes have no vegetation and are moving in a
northerly direction due to the South-West on-shore breezes.
It moves about 12 metres a year.

Another beautiful beach

and another beach