SNOW in the Pilbara: Exmouth (day one)

A couple of weeks ago we woke up on a Saturday morning and couldn't decide what to do as a family that day. We have been to most of the tourist areas around Karratha and it was too windy to take out the boat. Then at 8am Clinton said, "why don't we drive to Exmouth?" We had talked about going to Exmouth on one of Clinton's RDO weekends but every weekend seemed packed with things on. I laughed at Clinton and said, "it's a bit late now...I would have packed everything last night and would have left much earlier." We called a hotel in Exmouth to see if there was any chance they had a spare room for two nights (it's peak season in Exmouth and Coral Bay with people in Perth driving up to escape from their winter) we had already looked online and could only find a room for one night not two. The hotel receptionist said we were in luck and there was a two bedroom apartment available for two consecutive nights. So we booked them!

After booking, we ran around the house like crazy people packing bags, getting kids dressed and loading up the car. We managed to leave by 9am! It takes about 5-6 hours to drive to Exmouth and halfway there I started wondering if this was such a good idea! The kids were really good though and I like going on long drives with time to listen to music and chat to Clinton. Alissa started getting unsettled with about an hour to go (thank goodness for the DVD player in our car). We arrived just after 2pm...I think Clinton was driving fairly fast...and first went into town to get some lunch and some supplies. When we arrived at our apartment we were so excited!! We were suddenly on holidays and our accommodation was lovely!

The first thing we did was have a swim in the pool...but it was freezing in the water! We must have acclimatised to Karratha weather because we get cold pretty easily these days.

Alissa wasn't bothered by the cold though, she's such a water baby. She loved splashing around in the children's paddling pool.

I've lived in Karratha for nearly a year and a half and still no tan...I look even paler next to Lissy.

Ready...Set...Jump!

Pretty sunset from our balcony

After our swim Clinton got a phone call from work. There were problems at the gas plant and Clinton was now all the way in Exmouth. Luckily he had brought his work computer and got to working straight away. He was calling lots of engineers to help with getting the problems sorted out. While we got ready for dinner Clinton was still on the phone and working on his computer. At dinner he had to answer several phone calls too. It was a bit stressful for him being so far away but by the next morning the issues were all solved, thank goodness! Here is Sienna and Harry ready for dinner.

Us at dinner...bad lighting for a photo though

Alissa had woken up that morning with a particularly snotty nose and wasn't very happy at dinner. Clinton took her back to our room early while the rest of us had dessert. She wasn't happy to be sleeping in a port-a-cot in a strange place and cried herself to sleep. She then woke up several times in the night and wouldn't fall back to sleep unless we sat next to her cot. We didn't get much sleep!