Around Oz with the Munchkins: Pointy pinnacles, gorgeous gorges, green tabasco and a very gappy mouth!

Like any family travelling with young children around Australia, we are slaves to Alison Lester's book, 'Are we there yet?'. Therefore Sash was beside himself with excitement at the prospect of visiting the Pinnacles - giant limestone fingers sticking up from the dunes - about 2 hours from Perth. He wasn't disappointed - they were pretty spectacular. However we were all feeling a bit exhausted after our Perth and Rotto whirlwinds, and we were feeling the heat because we were seeing the sun for the first time in a while, so we dragged our feet a bit around the pinnacles walk. And with his usual panache Sash decided he urgently needed to do a poo in the middle of the walk. We thought that pooing behind a pinnacle would be somewhat disrespectful so we were forced to rush through the rest of the walk, just pausing to take the mandatory pic of our faces peeking out from behind a pinnacle. After a toilet stop, we checked out the museum. One day we want to return to the pinnacles when it is raining - the photos in the museum look incredible.

Next we headed to a lovely spot called Sandy Cape, just out of a town called Jurien Bay. We were happy to be back at the beach and in our trusty old trailer. The spoils of Perth had been lovely but we were certainly ready to get back to the simplicity of our life on the road. We were also thrilled to discover our friends, Hannah and Michael, set up under a shady tree near the beach. We quickly set up and joined them for a fish and to watch a spectacular sunset over the beach. Our days at Sandy Cape were spent catching up on Zara's neglected schoolwork, walking in the dunes, fishing and playing at the beach. We drove into Jurien Bay a couple of times to avoid the rain - escaping to a little beachside cafe and playing on the playground in the drizzle. A highlight of this time was a walk that took us along a dried up river then through a cave which tunnels right under the rock. Pretty cool (and dark!).

Next we sped through Geralton without stopping - only looking out the window at the trees which grow sideways due to the wind. We arrived at Kalbarri, keen to get our first glimpse of red gorges in the national park. Sadly there is nowhere to camp actually in the national park, so we booked into a caravan park in the town for 5 nights. The caravan was called Tudor Holiday Park, and yes indeed it had a tudor theme including mock tudor cabins and ye olde signposts, but the highlight for us was a crocheted tudor-style sign in the kitchen demanding that we all respect others and keep things clean! Patronising demands cannot be softened by stitches! But otherwise it was a pretty comfy place and the kids were thrilled by the sight of yet another jumping pillow. They were also pretty pleased to spend hours playing with our neighbours lovely dog. The weather was pretty dreary - wind and rain. What is it with WA - I mean we know it's winter and all, but come on let's have some sunshine...

Nevertheless, we checked out the magnificant coast and rode our bikes along the coastal bike track. We tried to see the pelicans being fed at 8am but they didn't appear - supposedly they are off doing more fun stuff at the nearby islands (breeding season...). We drove into the national park a couple of times and were totally blown away by the beauty of the gorges. We did a walk around The Loop, looking through Natures Window (see pics). Next day, Sash and Kate drove out to the national park again and checked out some more gorgeous gorges while Bill and Zara sped around Kalbarri on their bikes. We had a fantastic meal at a little restaurant called 'the restaurant upstairs' - a classy and interesting place which seemed a bit out of place amongst the chicken shops and bad coffee of the town. We ordered oysters which were brought out with green tabasco. As mad tabasco-on-everything folk we were thrilled beyond compare at the discovery of Jalapeno Tabasco! We've since managed to buy our own and our obsessive love for it has become a family joke...

Zara's front teeth, which had been hanging precariously by threads for sometime now, finally started dropping out. This was a relief for the whole family as she had taken to freaking us out by bending them in all sorts of unnatural directions. Zara was thrilled with her new gappy look and of course by two visits from the tooth fairy in quick succession!

Kalbarri was beautiful but the wind and drizzle was annoying, so we decided to leave a day or so early and head north to warmer climes.