The road trip back to Perth was taken pretty slowly, primarily to allow us to experience many of the amazing national parks and small coastal towns on the way, but also due to the roads...
The roads were pretty monotonous - hour after hour of single lane dusty roads - with a few bushes breaking up the endless red sand from place to place... and absolutely no other break in scenery than the occasional petrol station (one every 150km or so!!) Apart from my Ipod (and of course the learn spanish set!!), the only thing that made the drive more exciting was the occasional wildlife you'd see... often squished across the road, but occasionally still alive!!! Emus, kangaroos, weird ant-eater type looking creatures, and of course goats... Now, how a goat can survive in such bone-dry conditions is beyond me, and it may be a consequence of living with the kind of water shortages only designed for camels, that results in each and every goat you see grazing by the side of the road - making a beeline for the wheels of the car as you approach!!! Australia may be known for the poisonous spiders and snakes which live there - but I swear, it's also home to the most suicidal goats in the world aswell!!!
Our first stop on the route back was Coral Bay for some snorkelling... the coral starts about 20m off the beach and we were obviously all feeling much more confident that we weren't going to end up as shark's dinner by this point!!! For this reason its probably a good thing that we hit Coral Bay before Shark Bay!!! Shark Bay is primarily known for Monkey Mia, where for the last 40+ years, a family of dolphins come right into the shore to be fed each morning. The dolphins were pretty cool - two of them had little calves with them - very cute!!! Now, bearing in mind that i'm blonde... the name Shark Bay didn't strike any fear - I just thought it was a cool name!!! My second warning sign was when one of the baby dolphins had huge fresh wounds across it's back, where a shark had attacked it a few days earlier... However it wasn't until that afternoon, when we took a racing catamaran out for a sail in the bay, and the skipper mentioned that there were 400 tagged tiger sharks (and i'm positive they're the ones with big teeth and not smiling!!!) in the bay alone!!! AHHHHH!!! That was DEFINITELY the end of my swimming for the day!!!
Our next stop was Kalbarri National Park - as we approached it was obvious we were getting further south by the presence of water in river beds, and vegetation that was beginning to look more alive!!! Kalbarri was an area of deep gorges and rivers - it looked amazing and the only thing that wasn't enjoyable about it was the presence of large spiders and fear of snakes lurking in each crevice of the rock face!!! (Andrea and Gareth have perpetuated my fear of all things 8 legged by telling me about spiders that hide under toilet seats - this has resulted in mental turmoil every time I go to the toilet... should I check for a hairy creature under the seat or remain oblivious?!? I think that for someone who is terrified of an average house spider in the UK... I probably picked the wrong trip!!!)
Our last stop on the route back to Perth was the Pinnacles Desert - hundreds of limestone pillars towering over a sandy desert... definitely quite bizarre to look at!!! Then it was back on the road for the final leg of our journey!!!
Emma arrives in Perth tonight from New Zealand, which should be great, and this afternoon i'm heading into Fremantle... I think the only way to really get a feel for a place is to explore a local bar or two (heehee!!!) before heading back to my sister's place to chill in the pool!!!
It's meant to be 38 degrees on Xmas day - so i'm not sure how long we'll be able to tollerate the beach!!! (But apparently it's REALLY cold in the UK - so I guess I shouldn't complain too much!!! Heehee!!!) Anyway... Merry Christmas... have a good one and i'm sure i'll update you on our exploits in Perth over the holiday period!!!
