Welcome to week three of the Australasian adventure. We arrived in Perth late on Friday 15th.
After a noisy night in Northbridge, Perth, we do a lovely early morning run to see the city. Perth is beautiful, very clean, gorgeous weather and no humidity. We board the train to Fremantle (Freo to the locals) and meet Angus’ uni pal for breakfast at the John Street Cafe, cottesloe. She also gives us a guided driving tour of the posh beach suburbs which give amazing views back to perth. Once in Freo we hit the beach before stumbling on a lovely brewery on the waterfront. Dinner is with Gem’s uni pal and aussie girlfriend at the lovely mussel bar. Life is all good.
A treat on Sunday as we get the ferry to Rottnest Island, the playground for Perth’s rich and famous. It really is gorgeous. We hire bikes and cycle around to find deserted white sandy beaches. Only problem is the flies which we are told will get worse further up the coast. Back in Freo and we have a home cooked dinner before an early night – tomorrow we start our journey up the coast.
After the issues with our previous tour company going into liquidation, we are now with Red Earth Safari’s and Terry picks us up. We join 9 others, 1 Aus, 1 HK, 1 Spanish, 1 German, the rest English!! First stop is yanchep national park for a tour of the crystal caves and koala sanctuary. Lunch is at Moore rive and we share it with millions of flies. The beach there is very special though. We reach our evening destination of Cervantes and check into a lovely hostel. Then its off to see the pinnacles for an amazing sunset, the only way to see them.
7.30am start on Tuesday as we continue north, stopping to feed some kangaroo’s and hold snakes. They are not as scary as you think. Lunch is chip butties in the shade as it is really hot, then we go abroad to Hutt River Provence to meet Prince Leonard and princess Shirley. An amazing story of a genius who beat the AUS system to avoid taxes and created his own country within Australia. Passports stamped we drive up to Kalbarri for our next overnight stop, stopping at a cliff lookout to watch whales breaching . Its also Terry’s birthday so we have cake and candles with our meat feast.
Wednesday morning we go into Kalbarri national park where Angus abseils into the gorge. Gemma walks down and there is time for a swim in the “fresh” water. Its incredibly dry everywhere, apparently its been a really dry winter and there is a 7 year drought. We keep moving up the coast to Shark Bay world heritage area where we see the oldest living creatures on earth – the stromatolites – just some rocks really but apparently they are living. Denham is our overnight stop where we have a beer in the most westerly hotel in AUS.
Thursday morning we rush over to Monkey Mia, aptly named for its famous dolphins that come in for a feed every day like clockwork. And as we watch from the beach, sure enough at 8am they all swim in. Gem gets picked to feed Surprise the dolphin. Driving out of the shark bay peninsular we stop at a lookout to see sharks in the water and shell beach (name says it all). A long drive then to our next overnight stop, the luxury of the outback Caralya sheep station. It is literally a few tin sheds. We pull the beds outside and sleep under the starts (although cloudy). After being initially very hesitant about it all, it is a great experience of how simple life can be.
ON Friday we arrive early in coral bay and do a glass bottom boat and snorkle tour on the Ningaloo reef which is really cool. Then its finally time for some beach relaxation on the stunning white beach. Back here in 2 days – can’t wait. Final stop is Exmouth, an old strategic naval town where we have a champagne dinner to celebrate the week.
A free day in Exmouth, although we join the bus which takes us on a free tour of the area. We stop for more snorkling at Turquiose Bay (because of the colour of the water). We see turtles and reef sharks swimming with us. ON returning to the hostel, it is 39.6 degrees, so we jump in the pool as its too hot to do anything.
Sunday we get dropped back in Coral bay, and after a week on a bus, we spend most of the day on the beach and snorkling. We are staying in a lovely hostel which is very modern and has table tennis – gem beats me.
Monday is a treat of a day for Angus, off on a day of diving and swimming with Manta rays. We snorkel with 3-4 Manta Rays which must be about 3-4 meters across their wings. Then do 2 dives on the Ningaloo reef which beats the great barrier just due to the accessibility of it (100m off the shore) and visibility. Am thinking now perhaps padi is a good idea, although not sure how much use it would get in the UK. Gem has a very relaxing day walking and on the beach. We have some more table tennis in the hostel bar before boarding the 18 hour bus to Broome!!! What fun.
So Broome, Darwin, then Vietnam....can’t wait, although now half way through the trip.
