Slow travel story

The travel meme and a tweet yesterday reminded me of a great holiday we took in September 2003. We spent four weeks on my brother-in-law’s yacht traveling down the coast of Western Australia. Ms now 18 was in year 7 and Mr now 15 in year 4. Their teachers’ had no trouble letting them off school for the time as it was a great education.

We flew to Dampier had a look around the iron ore port facilities,  met the yacht then sailed to the Monte Bello Islands. I was more than a bit worried about the kids spending too much time on that bit of  land but we got stuck in the atoll for a few days as the wind turned.

The next leg took us past Barrow Island and North West Cape to Coral Bay. The map I have drawn isn’t accurate. I remember being closer into the coast off North West Cape and managed this picture.

This segment was the highlight. Have I mentioned that I love whales? This was spring and the height of the whale migration down the coast. It was whale soup. We had several scary moments with whales leaping right in front of the boat and coming right alongside. We saw so many we even got blase. “Meh- it’s just another whale.”

We called into Coral Bay, then Carnarvon, and finally left the yacht at Monkey Mia traveling back to Perth by Bus. The whole trip took 4 weeks and we could have traveled the distance much faster by car, bus or plane.

But if we had we wouldn’t have seen the whales.

(And it’s been a few years since I have seen one. I think I have withdrawal. Note to self: plan whale watching trip this spring. )

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