Kuala Lumpur, Perth - Geraldton

We are having a great time in Australia and enjoy our road trip along the west coast a lot. We left Perth 5 days ago and the past days we spend at nice camp sites close to the most beautiful and deserted beaches you can imagine. Yesterday we arrived in Geraldton, a town 420 km north of Perth. But let us start this blog with Kuala Lumpur, where we ended our previous blog. :-)

The last two days in Kuala Lumpur were very nice and relaxing. Because we had been to the city already, we took the time to go to the gym and enjoyed the infinity pool at the rooftop of our Airbnb. 

Working out at the gym

My personal trainer was quite tough on me... ;-)

We also made a nice walk in the city and discovered some new parts that we did not visit when we just arrived at KL a month ago. We also visited the KL City Gallery which contained a huge scale model of the city and an animated video explains the (rather crazy, 600m skyscrapers) future plans for KL.

Little India

On our way to Merdeka Square

Masjid Jamek (mosque) at the confluence of the Klang and Gombak Rivers

National Textiles Museum

Most photographed item of KL ;-)

Visiting the KL City Gallery

The City Gallery has a giant scale model of the city

Sultan Abdul Samad Building

Ready for our departure!

Our flight from KL to Perth was the 28th of November at 00.05. The plane was not fully booked, so we had three seats for the two of us, which was very comfortable. :-) We both slept like roses and 5 hours later we arrived at Perth International Airport.

Good morning Perth!

The first day in Perth we walked around in the city. The weather was very nice, not as humid as in Malaysia and temperatures around 25-30 degrees (instead of 35 with high humidity). The climate felt very 'fresh' for us. :-)

District Court of Western Australia

Clock tower

Main square of Perth

Nice pop-up festival

Skyline of Perth

Drinking a beer at Barrack Square

Nice sunset from Supreme Court Gardens

Although we did not expect it at all, it was quite a culture shock to be back in the “West”. After one month in Asia, we really had to get used to the modern city of Perth. Although it is – of course – very similar to the Netherlands, it felt quite strange to be back in this Western life again, with a shopping street full of people with shopping bags, people walking around in their underwear (just joking) and it's incredibly expensive compared to Malaysia. However, after one day we didn't know any better and we just loved it. That's how these things go. We had three days in Perth and the second day we rented a bike for the full day. We cycled from the city center of Perth to Kings Park and all the way to Cottesloe Beach. It was a nice bike ride (although there was a lot of wind!) and we enjoyed the nice weather.

Skyline of Perth from Kings Park

The Indian Ocean! 

Cottesloe Beach

Cottesloe Beach

Cottesloe Beach

Cottesloe Beach

Our first fish & Chips!

After enjoying the sun and reading a book at Cottesloe Beach for a couple of hours, we cycled to Fremantle, located at the mouth of the Swan River. It's a nice town with many heritage buildings and known because of its prison. We walked around in the city, enjoyed a good cup of coffee and then headed back to Perth to make sure we arrived in the city before it was dark.

Fremantle Markets

Church in Fremantle

Heritage building

Fremantle Prison

Sunset at the Swan River

The last day in Perth I worked a couple of hours and Erik went to the gym. In the afternoon we walked around the city of Perth and went out for dinner. We stayed these three days in a lovely Airbnb apartment that we shared with the host Kati. She was super nice and the view from her place was amazing!

View from our Airbnb (daytime)

View from our Airbnb (night time) - including X-mass tree!

Tuesday the 1st of December we picked up our camper van. We were very excited and after our breakfast we took an uber taxi to Wicked Travel, where our brand new van was waiting for us! We couldn't wait for this new adventure to start. After having done all the paperwork, we were ready to go! After a short stop at the supermarket and at Ikea, we headed north and had lunch in Yanchep. Our first stop for the night was at Ledge Point, where we enjoyed the sunset and played pool in the night with two Ozzies.

Pitt-stop at Ikea :-)

Lunch at Yanchep - love is in the air ;-)

We both love to drive (on the wrong side of the road)! 

First night in the camper van! 

Our first camp site!

The next day we drove to Nilgen Nature Reserve, where we enjoyed the nice view from the lookout and we made a small walk as well.  

Nilgen Nature Reserve

The Reserve is right next to the ocean

We follow the Indian Ocean Drive!

Real Australian road signs

Caution wildlife in this area 

Afterwards, we drove to Nambung National Park, better known as the Pinnacles Desert. Our expectations were not so high, since we expected a very touristic place with many people, but in the end we were positively surprised and we really liked it! We spend a couple of hours in this National Park. We first did the desert walk and afterwards we drove with our camper van through the Park.

Desert view walk

There were only a handful of tourists

Some pinnacles are really big!

Erik is driving through the Pinnacles Desert

We're having fun!

Nice road :-)

After our adventure in the Pinnacles Desert, we drove up to Jurien Bay Marine Park. Our (rather basic, but so cool) camp site was located just next to an amazingly beautiful beach with white sand and crystal clear blue water. We stayed here for two nights and really had the best time ever. One morning, when we just woke up and were preparing breakfast, our Ozzie neighbor called us, because there were two dolphins 'fishing' in the bay! We walked up the beach with the coffee in our hand that we just made and we watched the dolphins. They came only a couple of meters from the beach, which was truly amazing! The rest of the day we enjoyed reading a book, walked to some lookout points in the area, and just relaxed. It was a very basic camp site, no running water, no showers, a simple toilet, but it was absolutely great!

Jurien Bay Marine Park

Beautiful sunset (with a gin-tonic in my hand) ;-)

Enjoying the sunset

Amazing beach 

Me I love crystal clear water

How we spend most of the day at Jurien Bay... ;-) 

Sanddunes

The camp site (kitchen view) ;) 

Preparing our dinner

Table for two at the beach :-)

Dolphins early morning

The next day we drove to Port Denison. We made a quick stop at Grigson's lookout after which we made ourselves a coffee (and a cracker with Nutella, of course!) in Green Head and we had lunch in Leeman.

Grigson's lookout

Green Head

We arrived early afternoon at our camp site in Port Denison. In the afternoon we made a nice walk to the town of Dongara and back. Afterwards, we made ourselves a barbecue and had a couple of beers with another Dutch couple that stayed at the same camp site.

Walk from Port Denison to Dongara

Watching pelicans and other birds

Almost half way our hike

Barbecue!

Enjoying our food after a nice walk

The next day we drove further up north. We made a quick pit-stop at a lookout close to our camp site and continued to drive to Geraldton. We take the time and drive about 100-200 km a day, and when we have to stop at a gas station for fuel, there is a big chance that we end up buying ice cream!

Lookout at Port Denison

Port Denison

Surprise!

Hmmm, nice ice cream!

The past days in Geraldton were very nice. The weather is perfect, about 23 degrees during the day and 15 degrees in the night. The more north we will drive, the warmer it will get, so we enjoy these temperatures now. We spend two days at the beach and we also visited the impressive HMAS Sydney II memorial. It remembers the sailors who lost their lives during World War II on HMAS Sydney.

HMAS Sydney II memorial

HMAS Sydney II memorial 

HMAS Sydney II memorial

Sunset at Geraldton (sunset beach) :) 

Preparing our food on the barbecue (again!) ;-)

Lamb and veggies this time

Reading a book at the beach

Kitchen with a view ;-)

That was it for now! :-) Tomorrow we will leave Geraldton and we will drive further up north. Our plan is to drive up to Broome and then via the outback back to the southern coast of Australia (to Albany and Margaret River) and then back to Perth. We have seven more weeks to go (we have to return our camper van the 30th of January) and really look forward to all the nice places we'll visit.

We will keep you updated!

Warm regards,

Erik & Annemarie