We are not on holidays

Cate, Zoe and Seamus travelled for 4 years around Australia. Zoe was 2 years old when we started.
Below is a summary of our adventures in Western Australia.

We left Canberra in Feb 2007 in a Landrover and have been wandering ever since (stopped in Sept 2010 to live in Portland Roads for 4 years). We headed for Western Australia. The trip across the Nullarbor, Head of the Bite and Esperence was way too quick. We were running behind schedule (as usual), we had hoped to take a couple of weeks to drive across but packing up the house took longer than expected, and we were due in Mandurah for our first Housesitting assignment.

Adventures in Western Australia

• Housesit with 1 aloof old cat called Smokey, in Mandurah famous for their Blue Manna Crabs, then off to
• Help Exchange to restore a Heritage-listed building a block back from the beaches of Rockingham; we visited Penguin Island where they have an indoor penguin pool display area where penguins come out and show off their swimming and fishing skills, great for the kids.
  Our Canberra family caught up with us for
• Snorkelling and a trip on a glass-bottomed boat on the Ningaloo Reef at Coral Bay,
  The Ningaloo Reef is absolutely gorgeous, with an amazing array of creatures just a couple of metres from the shore, it is the easiest snorkelling experience for the total beginner. You can just float slowly over the reef, serenely taking in the view of coral of all shapes and sizes and multitudes of colourful fish.
• Cheap camping at Quobba Station
• Free/Cheap Camping ($6.50) at South Lefroy Bay, Ningaloo Station (rescued our tent from the sea) and
• Free/Cheap Overnight Camping Lucky Bay,
• an Overflow caravan park at Exmouth visitor centre headed back south, it was school holidays and everything that we knew about was packed, checked out an ad for
• work for rent at a Backpackers at Carnarvon; but decided to
• rent a cheap flat for 3 months, rescued and fostered an Australian Terrier we named Scruffy through SAFE who found a home for him in Perth, and flew back east for Christmas, and back to
• House/petsit in the Perth Hills with Molly and her 4 Maltese/Shitzu pups and a cat, a gorgeous garden, a pool and a cubby, then
• bought an OKA, 4X4 tour bus, visited Kalgoorlie to take the seats out and get it up to scratch before heading south to escape the heat;
• Farmsit/Caretake at Narrogin for a month – 450 sheep, 11 cattle, 3 alpacas and a Kelpie called Sally. Over 38 degrees day after day, one night was 30 overnight. We hit the hottest time of year, which is when they get a quiet time to take a break. Beautiful stone cottage, normally a B&B
• went to WWOOF, but the timing didn’t work so we ended up at a
• cheap camp CALM on the Caves Road near Margaret River. Bought a serious solar panel. Back to
• housesitting in Geraldton, – 1 dog, German Shepherd Akita cross (walks in the neighbouring bush) a galah, finches, parrots.
• advertised on the local supermarket notice board to housesit. Ended up with a cockatiel, more birds and an old lap cat Bella, and a pool then armed with local knowledge we headed off to the reef again, with a
• cheap camp spot all to ourselves at Tamala Station, Shark Bay, fishing, and crystal clear water
• Caravan park at Denham, visited the Dolphins at Monkey Mia,
• Wwoofing and work at Gnaraloo Station (Ningaloo Reef), with
• whales wandering by, and turtles, they have just joined the Turtle Conservation Program
• Carnarvon again, catch up with friends, involved in wildlife rescue, stayed at the Caravan Park
• Caravan Park at Tom Price, looking for casual work
• Occasionally we cross paths with some friends who are also travelling long term, it is great to compare notes on places we have been and want to go.
• then – the gorgeous gorges of Karijini National Park
  Our tents and vehicle have become bigger and so have our aerials!
  I said we are not on holidays! We are not retired, not grey nomads, (well not very grey), we are freelance graphic designer and web designer with a daughter who will be 4 in December.
  We get to a new spot and the first thing we do is set up our laptops and mobile modems so that we can keep in contact. We have clients in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Canberra, Gold Coast, Brisbane!