First camping weekend in WA

CAMPING! 

Ahhhh! FINALLY. Last weekend we went on our first camping trip since our arrival in WA. 

Only a bit more than an hour's drive north of here there's a little sign by the side of the highway to Kalbarri just before a National Park pointing to a dirt road that says "Wagoe Chalets" beside a bit of odd scupture with a quad bike and a reindeer.  Did a bit of Googling and discovered it's a little spot used mostly by fisherman on holidays from Perth. 

http://www.wagoe.com.au/

This is so different than what we're used to seeing around NSW. If you haven't been on the West coast of Australia before, you might want to know that the Kalbarri NP is one of the most spectacular parts of the Western Australia. 

On the way, you pass the beautiful Hutt Lagoon "Pink Lake"
  (sorry, but we didn't actually take this picture, but found it on someone else's blog! (jagjourney)

 Kalbarri NP - Z-Bend lookout

In particular, we love the Murchison River gorges that is located in the NP. These gorges have been developed over millions years to its current dramatic look - colorful landscape that is formed from layers of sandstone cliffs. A good thing is that you can walk around and get down to one of the Murchinson River bank. However, you need to leave very early in the morning as it might not be a good idea to stay in the gorge in the middle of the day as you can  suffer from heat stroke any other times .. as it happened to me previously. Further, you might encounter any number of unwelcome inhabitants crossing your path...

Murchison River gorge

As this was our first camping trip, we decided to take it easy, and spend all weekend chilling out. Believe it or not, Rob didn't even take his kiting/surfing gear! But, he did have two fishing rods with him .. and he caught a fish. 

We stayed in the Wagoe Chalets (we'd call them shacks) and camping area. This place is located on the top of the hill and it's quite exposed to the wind .. which were privileged to experience on Saturday night. Luckily, the owned had erected a number of windbreaks to set up tents behind to keep your tent from getting blown off the hill. YES, it's really windy in WA most of the time in summer!

 Chalet or shack ...?

 Wheat field ready for harvesting

One of 200 bird species 

On Sunday morning, we drove down to Wagoe beach.Even more beautiful than any other beach I've seen so far in Australia. It actually felt like we were in a paradise! White sand, turquoise water, empty beaches! Like Hyams beach near Jervis Bay but many times larger! WOW. As per the size - think of the Stockton beach (near Port Stephens, NSW)  and multiply that space (40km) by two!

Rob fishing from Red Bluff - Kalbarri

 At Wagoe Beach. This is an 11kg Mulloway with two
fisherman from Perth who came up for the weekend

"Chalets"

Quad bikes

Lucky Bay, about a 15km drive down the beach from the Chalets

Lucky me relaxing at Lucky Bay

Our trusty Prado. Goes anywhere and takes us to lots of magical places!

On the way back, we drove via the Chapman Valley region that offers much more scenic landscape than if we're driving via NW Coastal Highway. This area has a few olive farms,  a winery, the Lavender Valley farm, and covered in wildflowers. 

View from the Lavender Valley farm

All in all, GREAT weekend. Still much to be explored in the region so many more trips will be required. And all so close to home! 

Summer is here!

For the past few weeks, every week we keep thinking "Summer is here!" Then it gets cold and rains again! Well, this time maybe it's finally arrived!

We're SO looking forward to camping, fishing and kiting opportunities.

Since I came back from Sydney (early September), we've had a really busy time. Rob has been tirelessly looking for work, exploding flies with his new toy, gardening, and some making some very successful fishing expeditions (down at the end of our street). You wouldn't believe what we have now in our backyard - Tons of cherry tomatoes, white potatoes, three colour carrots, corn, beetroot, delicious rocket, coriander, garlic chives to name a few. Last week, we had so many cheery tomatoes that we decide to make tomato chutney, and it's super-yummy so, if you come you might get to try it. Looking at our garden now, we need to make another chutney. Any great tips would be appreciated.

Cherry tomatoes, white potatoes and beetroot

Rob loves Gero, and in particularly, he love fishing from our front yard. He's caught jewfish, tailor and mulloway - we don't need to go to a fish market anymore and pay ridiculous prices for fish.

Two mulloway

 Fishing could be a great fun for a photographer as well 

 Our new friend Toby

And this is me - a dedicated support crew 

Lucky for Rob that he can organise his busy schedule according to the wind conditions as now is the time to fly his new kite .. well, it was until last weekend. Now, we're heading to the really windy season and he needs a 7m kite ideally (Chris Plaat, are you reading this?) as his big one (9m) is hard to control in the local wind conditions. If you know about any 2nd hand kite (7m max) let Rob know. Sorry guys, no pics from me as I'd probably get blown away with my camera  in these windy conditions ... not even talking about the sand getting into my camera body - not a desirable thing.

I'm good and keeping busy (as usual) teaching now five Pilates classes every week and have two more coming up in next month or so. One of these classes is Pilates for kids - I can't wait to get stuck into that one as I can imagine it'll be a challenging exercise and also very rewarding if it goes well. Bring it on!

Last week, I submitted a business proposal (re marketing consultancy) and if it goes ahead I'll have a very "full on" year ahead. However, I still feel very privileged to have some spare time over last four months or so that allowed me to do some further thinking about my future career/things I want to do. As a result, I sent live my 2nd website www.flashmarketing.net. Feel free to share it with your friends or people/businesses that could benefit form this kind of service.  (Happy to work on Sydney/other accounts remotely too!) Thanks.

Over the weekend, we've finished setting up my photography studio where I can now take portraits, family photos or product based photography. What have I learned so far: there are a few advantages to studio flash light - modelling lamp, consistency, power and control. The more I'm learning about photography, the more I'm discovering how much there is to learn. One thing I know for sure is that it's an exciting journey that is full of discovery.

So far, I've had no chance to practice as I was nominated to be a model, however, I'm looking forward to taking some portraits soon. Anybody interested to be my model? Feel free to put up your hand - it won't cost you anything other than your time (one to two hours).

Kat

Overall, we're having a good time and I feel it's been also very productive two months since Rob's departure from CGG.  What next? We'll let you know in our next blog ....

Mingenew and wildflowers

Last weekend, we hit the road again and drove around 150km southeast to the small town of Mingenew for the largest Agricultural Expo in the Mid West region.

Rob was exploring possible new job opportunities with exhibitors including local farmers. So, we met some interesting people from Irwin Valley Milling that are involved in lupins production (low GI, high in protein and gluten free grain), Perth based farmers producing carob beans that are quite often substituted for chocolate. We also met some business people that are introducing GPS based farm mapping software that enables farmers to do very efficient automated planting, fertilising and harvesting these days with self-guided tractors and things - my granddad would probably love this high tech stuff for "efficient" farming.

Here's one of the "non-GPS" tractors from a few years ago on display...

Gotta love those wooden wheel spokes! Beautiful works of art!

On the way back to Geraldton, we decided to stop in the Depot Hill Reserve located northwest of Mingenew and finally saw what everybody has been raving about - wildflowers of many varieties set among the vast landscape. I've no clue what we saw and was told that two of my pics included South African weeds - interesting and a bit unusual to see such variety of colours wild in nature.

This week, Rob is fully engaged with job hunting and hopefully, he'll find more suitable job/project that would enable him to apply himself. I'm getting busy with my Pilates teaching, marketing and also seeking new business opportunities within the social media arena.

In the meantime, we'd love to hear from you if you're considering to make a trip to the Wild West in the near future. Don't forget, we're now moving into the "windy" season and there is plenty to do if you don't like to be out when it's blowing.

Seven months in Gero!

It's hard to believe but we've been living in Geraldton already seven months.

Since Rob's departure from his last job, he has had finally a chance to catch up on his lost sleep over last six months or so, and also do more enjoyable things such as fishing, chilling out, a bit of surfing, and getting back to his backyard - now also growing potatoes, more corn, etc. 

 Happy Rob

THREE fish

I'm now teaching three Pilates per week, and getting more and more people interested in my group and also private classes so, my marketing efforts are finally working. A few weeks ago, I started doing Iyengar Yoga that puts emphasis on details, precision and alignment in every posture and must admit that this practice nicely compliments my Pilates teaching. 

Happy Kat

Last week, I've been also working on one of the upcoming event "Dare to Dream 2050 - Future of the Mid West". Attached for you is our logo that we created for the event. More information re this project will come later on. 

Next week, I'm off to Sydney for a Pilates Conference 2013 and also to renew my passport - yep, it needs to be done in a person these days including pick up--in SYDNEY. Something to keep in mind for all of you who are still holding your European passport. On the other hand, I'm really looking forward to seeing some of you while I'm in the Big Smoke again. 

 Geraldton Port during the sunset

Stormy clouds in Drummonds

Life goes on...

Well, since our last blog, things have changed--in particular for Rob as his contract was terminated under interesting circumstances. What happened? I could give you the details and was asked to suggest a phone call instead if you'd like to hear more. The good news is that Rob is free to use his entrepreneur's spirit and seek new opportunities that would enable him to apply himself.

Last week, Rob turned 29 - (again) and we had our first house party at our place in Drummonds. We had around 20 guests in our house and at least half of those people were Rob's colleague who came in to say to Rob how much they miss him and his positive attitude that has now completely vanished from the office.

Happy Rob

Rob and amazing clouds

Me's been busy with blogging, updating website, building newsletter, marketing and also running my Pilates business.  Have to say that it's not easy for one person to do it all.... it's damn hard work. And the most important thing is that I'm doing it for myself and can do it the way that suits to me and not to somebody else. Saying this reminded me a famous quote "It takes half your life before you discover life is a do-it-yourself project." - Napoleon Hill. Therefore, I must be half way through my life. 

The weekend before last, I was fortunate enough to be asked to teach Pilates at a women's retreat in Horrocks (60km North). Luckily, I ended up teaching around 15+ ladies as some decided to watch only. Rob came with me on this trip and met our new friend Bruce who took him around Chapman Valley.

 Canola field, Chapman Valley WA

Sunset at Horrocks

So, life goes on and as my granddad use to say "Life isn't a feather and it's worthwhile to give it a full shot." 

Brrrrrrrrrr!

Brrrrrr. Last couple of weeks were, well -- cold!  Colder than we expected in fact. Early morning temperatures dropped down to 4 degrees C. BUT, at least it was nice during the day and it  went up to 20+ degrees C which was really pleasant.

Not much has changed in Rob's work life other than he's been spending more time in the office than he's home - poor thing. I wish, this situation would change as we're soon moving into "windy" season, and you know what that means.

I've been working mainly on growing my Pilates business and doing a bit of events photography. As a result, I'm now teaching three classes per week. I'm also considering to take on Aqua Pilates in local Aquarena from mid September.

A week ago, I went to the Camel Man Fashion Extravaganza - a fundraising event to support suicide prevention. Camel Man is an Australian brand that prides themselves about making high quality products that incorporate aboriginal designs.  I was privileged to be the photographer for the night --I really enjoyed it and here are a few photos.

Another opportunity came up straight after the Fashion Extravaganza, and it was too good to be missed. Geraldton was hosting one of five Chevron City to Surf series and I was asked to shoot this event. First of all, it was a bit unusual compared to back in Sydney, I used to participate in this event as a runner so being the photographer was new role for me.

"City to Surf in Geraldton is a bit different -- well, if it was really "City to Surf" the whole event would only last about 15 seconds, because the "city" is right on the beach here! So, everyone runs away from the City then up the beach and back to the city again! Much better view than in Sydney! AND now Heartbreak Hill, just flat running!

Overall, it was another well organised event with some entertainment, and I had a great time - meeting new people and taking pics.

More English folks in our lives

Doesn't matter where we go, English folks seem to be going there as well. Not quite certain why this is .. maybe the English people just enjoy the sun more than the rain and cold. 

Early in April, we met our new English friends, Rachael and Garry. They are living in our neighbourhood (30 metres down the road). Garry is a train driver who's working long hours driving trains to/from mines at Kararra and Rachael is enjoying her free time until September. Then, she will need to go to work -- like anybody else. Rachael is a great asset to our family and also my current businesses adventures. She's been doing my Pilates classes, and also a bit of modelling for my portfolio (see some pics attached). 

 Rachael posing in porch setting

Rachel's profile at sunrise

Garry and Rachael have two additional members of their family - boxers Tilly and Uki (will show you some pics next time). 

Not much has changed in our lives since June. Rob is literally working 24/7, and it doesn't look like it'll change anytime soon. I'll leave it to him to say more about his current status. However, the Rob's backyard is making progress every single day. 

Since July, I've been teaching three Pilates classes per week, doing some marketing for my own business, and also thinking about what else I can do to get back my financial freedom. 

Last week, I started a Street Photography course that I hope will give me more insight into the art of seeing. My course notes are talking about Henri Cartier-Bresson who's considered to be the Master of Street photography. Make sure you watch his video The Decisive Moment which makes it clear that good photography is not about what camera you own and it's more about understanding light and the ability to see and feel the right moment to press the shutter.

 Let's see who's going to get there first ..?

Down under

'Photography is an immediate reaction, drawing is a meditation.'- Henri Cartier-Bresson