Pinnacles, Kalbarri and Monkey Mia

We drove up the Great Northern Highway through Bullsbrook then continued up the Brand Highway. We stopped off at the Pinnacles in Nambung National Park after a couple of hours driving, we saw a couple of wild Emu's on the way,and they were pretty amazing. It was so hot though so after driving round them we had a wander
around for about 10 minutes then had to get back into the car. The pinnacles seem to go on forever!! We also saw wild kangeroos chilling in the shade at the side of the road.
We drove on a little further and stopped for lunch at Hangover Bay which was just stunning, with beautiful white sands again and lovely warm water. We also went to
the toilet here....now I only mention this because they were drop toilets!! Mum and I went, one of the toilets had a load of caterpillers and the other had a snake - ohhh!! Mum choose the caterpiller loo but was so scared that something would come up the toilet and bite her bum, it was the quickest pee ever!! Ha ha.....at least she used it!
We drove on and had quite a way of just not much around, lovely. We drove through Dungara and then onto Geraldton where we decided to stay for the night, we just got a motel room. Geraldton isn't the prettiest of places but I think thats partly due to the fact that they seem to be trying to improve it. We didn't do much here except a quick walk, dinner then a bit of TV before bed.

We got off and headed off after breakfast in the morning and drove to Kalbarri National Park, only a couple of hours away. We arrived there around 11am and checked out the visitor centre first to see if there was an afternoon tour we could do as we couldn't get to all the gorges due to unsealed roads and our hire car. Unfortunately there were none for the afternoon so we decided to check out what we could which included the coastal areas and also a couple of gorges inland. Before we set off we had a little wander then thought we'd see if we could check into our room already, we could. So after unpacking, having rolls for lunch and a little relax we headed out.

We drove down to the cliffs and started at Eagle Gorge where we had a short stroll but again it was way too hot to be out in the sun for too long so we walked out a bit and then back to the cliffs, it was still quite nice. The cliffs were pretty stunning all along the coast. We went to the Natural Bridge, Island Rock and Shellhouse Grandstand which were all great. Its so beautiful on the West coast. So after wandering round them we drove to the Pot Alley coastal area and walked down through a little canyon type area to a small beach there, I got a little wet.
Mum and I walked along a big flat rock to see more of the coast and Dad went wandering up some other rocks and had lots of fun watching some crabs he found.
The last cliff area we stopped at was Red Bluff which was also cool. By the end though we had no water left, not even the yucky warm stuff so on our way back we stopped at the shop and along with food got some ice creams and drinks - yummy!!!
Well Mum and I didn't waste anytime changing when we got back and off we went for a swim in the ocean but it was so bloody shallow that we couldn't swim so we didn't last too long and ended up in the pool!!
We went out for a really nice meal and chilled.

The next morning we checked out at 8.30 and headed out of Kalbarri. We stopped at Hawks Head and Ross Graham lookouts on the way. We walked down to the River at the Ross Graham lookout so off we went, the river was really dry though and didn't flow all the way across which was a little sad. We saw some wild goats on the otherside on some rocks. Mum and I saw a little lizard when we got back to the top as well which was good. There was a wedgetail eagle circling high above us so it was nice to see one so free.The River was really beautiful as well with the jagged rock edges rising high above.
So we continued up the coast to Shark Bay and Mum's birthday pressie of going to Monkey Mia to see the wild dolphins. We only had one stop for some fuel and we arrived around 1.30. We grabbed some lunch while we waited to check into our Park Cabin. We had a little walk on another beautiful beach!! Had a quick look round the shop and headed back to grab the key.
It was a very hot day so when we first walked into our cabin we weren't majorly impressed what with bunkbeds, feeling like an oven and a weird orange bathroom that stuck out the side but after we had gone out and left it with some aircon on it was much better. Plus it was more about the place than where we stayed.
So Mum and I went for a swim in the sea, a little snorkel, and Dad joined us later!!! Yipeee.... Mum saw a little ray while snorkelling. So after our little swim and play in the sea we went off to book a wildlife cruise for the next day and had a couple of drinks.
Dad and I then went on a little battery powered glass bottom boat that we hired. It was rather hard to move around but we saw quite alot of the little rays and little fish - not too much though as there was alot of sea grass not far off shore. We were out for about an hour so that was cool.
Meanwhile, while we were in the boat, my Mum had been following some wild emus around taking photos. We all met on the beach and headed back to our cabin as it was about 7pm.
Mum washed a few things in the sink and as she was hanging them out Dad saw her bolt past the window at the back of the cabin and then we saw them.....the Emus had returned for revenge. They were outside the door so I opened it to see if I could see mum but I couldn't, the Emu's just looked at me and then headed round the front of the cabin in Mum's direction....! I asked these two girls camping where she was and they pointed round the back laughing!! Mum appeared at the back window again so we told her to comeback round because they had gone!! Funny...ha ha.
We bbq'd some steak and carrots for dinner which was pretty good. Had some wine, relaxed and then sleep - ready for the dolphins.
I woke up around 7 and got up, which woke everyone else up as well!!
We had breakfast and then walked down to the beach and waited for the dolphins. The dolphins come in daily for small feeds, less than 1/4 of their daily allowence if they attend all 3 feeds, (3 times a day) between 8am and 1pm. There were quite a few people there as well.

The dolphins appeared just after 8 and after a 30 minute talk from the CALM volunteers they started to feed them. It was amazing, these wild dolphins are so gentle and come so close, very trusting, and there were so many calves as well - cute. People were choosen at random out of the crowd to help with th feeding. We didn't get the chance to this time. Once the feed is over the dolphins swim out again to deeper water and then return later. Once they had all gone Mum and I went into the sea and Dad popped back to the cabin for a bit.
Mum and I were wandering back when we noticed a small crowd at the dolphin interacton area then we saw the dolphins, they were back already, so we went straight back to them and listened to the end of the talk. I was hoping that Dad would get back with my camera in time before they left and thankfully he did. I had
just got my camera sorted when they asked Mum if she wanted to feed Nicky the dolphin so luckily I was able to get a photo. Mum was so excited and kept telling us that she had fed Nicky exactly as she had been told to. I don't think she could've had a better pressie!
They are just all so stunningly beautiful and I feel priviledged to have been there.
We all went and sat on the beach then to wait for the final feedof the day and the dolphins didn't disappoint, they came back really quickly. Mum and I went down for even more photos, its very addictive!!
One of the babies, a couple of months old, was really funny this time randomly jumping out of the sea with little coordination!! No photos of that I'm afraid, thats a strickly memory moment!
After the dolphins had been fed again we rejoined Dad and started to watch the Pelicans who, because it was so hot, were catching the sprinkler water to drink - quite entertaining.
A few dolphins popped in again but wouldn't get fed since the 3 feeds had happened. This dick went into the sea and bent right down so he got told off and told to get out!!
We went back to the cabin to chill out a little and then at 12.30 we headed to the jetty to join our cruise. We jumped on the boat and sat down. The boat left the bay.
Once we were out far enough we started to spot Dugongs, it started slow with the odd one or two but once we'd been going a while it was like Dugong city and they were everywhere!! It was pretty impressive and because it was so calm we could hear the water break and them breath. It was pretty hot on the boat 39 in the shade and 46 in the sun. We were told that the beach was up in the 50's due to no wind!
We were out for a couple of hours and on the way back we saw a turtle and I think I saw a sea snake but it was fast. There were more turtles around the jetty. It was good.
We went for some dinner in the restaurant then after a quick relax in the cabin we went for a walk at 6. We saw lots of animal tracks - Emus, kangeroos, lizards and not sure what else. We walked round the the bush and then ended up back on the beach
so as the sun was setting we walked back round along the beach which was beautiful.
I was knackered when we got back so after a chat, look at photos and read it was time for bed. What a great day though!!! A highlight.
We had another early morning and after packing our stuff Muma nd I went down to the dolphins. They were already there so we heard the end of the talk again and watched the feed. The water wasn't as clear today but it was still good. Just as we were leaving more dolphins came in so they started the second feed on the day, we decided we should go as Dad had a long drive ahead! Awesome though.
We all got into the car, checked out and then we were off saying goodbye to Shark Bay, Monkey Mia and the wonderful dolphins.
We stopped at Shell Beach on the way out for a look which was cool. Its just covered in little white shells - great!!
We were on the road again!!
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Perth, and Rottnest, with Mum and Dad!!!

I had a pretty uneventful week in Perth with Anne, we moved hostels and checked out Fremantle as well as doing a few bits.
So on the Friday, 9th, Mum and Dad arrived I checked into the accommodation - motel room, and had a shower before jumping onto the airport shuttle. It was a funny journay to the airport as the driver seemed to be a little lost but we got there around 5pm ad after checking the boards I noticed that I had about an hour before their plane was due. So I got myself a hot chocolate and waited, praying it wouldn't be late.
They appeared out of the arrivals at just gone 6.30 which wasn't too bad and after saying our hellos Dad went to sort out our hire car. He told Mum and I to take the bags to bay 29 so we did, thinking there had been a mistake with the car but apparently not. We had a nice little 4WD looking thing - cute. We all jumped in and drove back to the centre of Perth and unpacked into the motel. After Mum and Dad had washed etc we went for a stroll along the river to the harbour and found a chinese restaurant where we had a really nice meal. We had a quick drink in a bar before heading back for some sleep.....
The next day after breakfast we headed to Kings Park in a roundabout sort of way, under a bridge, round a pond and up a load of steps.
We wandered round the beautiful park, looking at the aboriginal centre, enjoying the views and up through a bit of a tree top walk. After our lunch in the park we walked more and then got an ice cream, yummy!! We eventually, after a bit of a bush type area, came to a road and so walked along a few and then found a shopping complex so had a quick look around - Mum bought something!! We walked back to the city and had a drink. We walked on bck to the harbour and had another drink in The Lucky Shag, Barmy Army HQ!! We headed to an Irish bar next to have a drink before going back to the motel to shower ready for dinner. We went back to The Lucky Shag for dinner which was great. I had Chilli Mussels - bit spicy but great!!

We wandered up to Northbridge for another drink before getting off to bed again.
We headed up The Swam Bell Tower this morning, checked out the view and watched the ringers practice ringing the Bells for a little bit. We picked the car up and drove to find a supermarket on the way to Hilarys, where the house was, but it would seem in WA that any shop except IGA is shut on a sunday..... We found a bakery and fruit/veg shop so we got some bits for lunch and headed to a beach near the house to eat before we could get into it. The beach was beautiful, stunning, and Mum and I had a quick paddle before we decided it was close enough to 2 to get into the house.
We drove to the house via Hilarys Boat Harbour, found the key and after finally discovering which door the key actually unlocked we were in. The house was pretty cool, lots of space and a pool to play in - so you guessed right we were in trying it out. It was beautiful.

We later went to the harbour for dinner and a wander before popping to the bottle shop and then back home where we relaxed with some beers.
Today we decided to head to Caversham(sp?) Wildlife Park, let Mum and Dad see they were really in Oz and do something touristy!! That was pretty cool, they saw their Koalas, kangeroos (Mum and I fed them), wombats etc. It was actually a really nice park and was fun. We had lunch before leaving the park.

We popped to the supermarket where we got some bits including Kangeroo steak, oh after stroking and giving them food earlier!!
We got home and jumped back into the pool, lovely!! Relaxed!!
We had a BBQ dinner, so Dad could try it out, and we had our Kangeroo - it was good. Chatted outside then chilled inside...
Tuesday was a bit of a relaxing day. I got my camera replaced - it was playing up. We stopped at Scarborough Beach, really nice. Went home and back into the pool, it was so great to have as was always there to cool us down!!

The next day we had decided was our beach day so after breakfast we walked down to the beach and relaxed. Mum and I swam a couple of times and it was really nice, beautiful white sand and blue/green water - amazing!!
We had our lunch on the green overlooking the beach before walking back home and cooling off in the pool again. By this time, I forgot to mention, we had bought a large inflatable whale called 'Fishy' and a large inflatable ball called 'Tomee' (there was already a ring called 'Ringo' at the house) so we could often be found playing with these in the pool!! We booked our ferry etc to Rottnest for tomorrow before going to pick Anne up from the city and heading to the Burswood outdoor cinema.
We watched Tenacious D: Pick Of Destiny - very funny. We also had some pizzas at the cinema which was great.
Dropped Anne off again on the way home before watching 24.... Ohhhhh
We were up early to get down to Hilarys Boat Harbour and catch the Rottnest Ferry. We picked up our bikes, and Mums snorkel, and boarded the 8am ferry. The ferry took about 45minutes and was a bit splashy!! We arrived on Rottnest and decided to cycle towards Parker Point, we saw Quokkas on the way. Quokkas are kind of Rottnests thing, when the explorers found Rottnest they thought that Quokkas were Rats so called it Ratsnest. They aren't really found anywhere else.

It was quite a hilly place, although small, so a little tiring to cycle. We locked our bikes at Parker Point and while Dad relaxed in the shade Mum and I snorkelled which was cool, although a little difficult to get to. It was fun though. Mum lost Dads hat.....silly!!
We went back and met Dad and then cycled on to Little Salmon Bay, it was all so beautiful and amazing, Mum and I snorkelled again. They had underwater plaques to swim round but Mum got scared of being too far out so she held back and I swam round the 10 plaques which was cool. It was quite hard to swim back though as the current was pretty strong - I managed though!! We got back onto the beach with Dad and chilled out before changing, being attacked by a March Fly - I think.

We continued to cycle round, the mainly sand island, and saw more quokkas (one wanted to eat me - ok it was tiny but still scary!!) along with a few salt lakes. We got round to Geordie Bay and then onto Thomson Bay, where we'd started. We relaxed with some lunch and a wander before getting all our gear ready and boarding the 4.30 ferry back to the mainland. We had a drink at the harbour before walking home. We

were all knackered when we got home that we just laid on the sofas and watched TV. We made a quick dinner later before a bit more chilling and bed zzzzzzzz
We played in the pool again, watched TV/DVD. In the afternoon we headed to Fremantle and had a quick look around the market there, popped onto the internet before grabbing some dinner. We wandered to Fremantle Jail back through the markets and waited to start our 8pm torchlight tour. At 8 the bell was rung for our tour so we all went into the original jail reception area, got given our torches. John, our guide, explained the procedure of new inmates entering the prison strip search in front of everyone etc!! We headed through to the courtyard where the wall is painted white upto about 8ft so that any prisoners would be easily noticed. We were told about a supposed haunted gun tower where 3 seperate guards had seem a figure sitting there - 2 of them had fired their guns...at nothing.
Fremantle Prison is apparently the 5th most haunted building in Australia, luckily I didn't notice anything!! We walked through division 1, which housed young boys then later peodophiles(sp?) and rapists who had to be kept seperate for their protection. We talked about the number of suicides and about the most common way of doing it, jumping off the landings which is why they put in a suicide net. As we were leaving there was a scream and a dummy was thrown down, oh spooky!!!
We walked through the kitchen next where we were told about one inmate murdering another, apparently a guy was transferred here and an inmate reconised him as raping his son and asked the guards to remove him otherwise he would kill him. You can guess they didn't since he took a knife and sliced him open!! Nice...
We wandered through the yards and stopped in the yard that was the most dangerous, mixture of people that'd committed serious and other crimes. The guard stood in a cage watching them and would never get involved in trouble unless life threatning and he had the back up.
We had a look through a load of cells, showing the changes that happened over the years from the 1850-1886 convict time to the Australia Criminal time. There were also a few painted cells with art. We also walked through an, apparently, haunted cell which had its own yard - would've been used for ex police or judges etc who would've been in danger from the criminals.
The convicts actually built the jail themselves, they stayed in the Esplanade hotel building and walked up to the site everyday, from the limestone hill its built on.
We checked out the punishment area where they used the cat of 9 tails, the maximum punishment of these was 100 lashes. If the inmate was declared too ill/hurt to receive all the punishment they would go to the hospital and recover before being bought back and given the remainder of their punishment. Afterwards they would have salt rubbed into the wound.
We wandered through the solitary confinement area where they had a guy dressed as an inmate being all crazy - funny stuff!! They have the death cell in there where those on death row spent their last 2 hours before being hung. We then headed to the hanging room, a new rope was used for each hanging as respect and the guy who did the hangings would have to come to the jail 2 weeks before to measure and weight the inmate to work out how long the rope had to be.
We also went to look at Moondyne (sp?) Joe's cell which had all wood panels nailed to the inside wall so that he couldn't escape, he did escape because he had to be taken out of it as it was too small and making him ill, I think?? They had someone dressed as him as well, acted crazy.....
We had a quick look in the church where one commandment has been changed from Thou Shalt not Kill to thou Shalt not Do Murder because obviously they killed people for punishment.
That was the end of the tour, very good and a little scary.

We spent much of Saturday relaxing. Went to the shops where I got a few xmas pressies....yay. We bought a few other bits and got our food for BBQ. In the evening we walked down to the green in front of the beach and had a BBQ there which was great, had a few drinks and relaxed - excellent. Watched the sunset and ate our kangeroo - yummy!!
We watched The Departed when we got home and chilled.
The next morning we were up earlyish and once we'd packed and had breakfast we left the house :-( We headed out of Perth.
Next installment soon!!
Bye Mum and Dad - Miss You...
Dawn
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Take Care of Our World

A small section of writing that I liked and I wanted to share with everyone, I hope you guys like it as well:

Look around you. The land is alive with the spirit of our Earth Mother. Listen to her.....Feel her.....

We humans are born of the land. The Earth Mother reminds us that if we do not care for the land and all living things then this land cannot protect us.

Take time to let the spirit of this land be a part of you.

So take care of the world because otherwise it won't be here much longer!!

Bush is best.....

Dawnie

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We Miss You Kylie!!! You Rock!

Just thought I'd do a tiny post to say that we miss Kylie!!! She was a great bird who made the trip so much more fun, laid back and gave us so much info!!! Never to be forgotten!
Here are a few phrases for her..........Did I just Score.......HA HA.........You said Root.....hehehe.......Where do all the flies go??................Do Wat.................When do u poo.........Dude..................geezer..................and many more I am sure!!
Hope to see you again in Perth
Dawnie
xxx

Nullarbor Travelling

Well where do I begin.....at the beginning I guess!! ha ha!!!


I began my tour on Wednesday 21st February with a nice early pick up! I met Matt Man, American, as we were both waiting to be collected at 6.45am. Kylie, our super duper tour guide, got there and we chucked our stuff on the trailer before making ourself comfortable on the bus. Fred, Surge and Jeanette (sp??), all French, were already on the bus. We then had a couple more pick ups, first Alison, Canadian, and then Anne, Dutch.

We headed out of Adelaide, yay, checking out a Salt Lake on the way. We drove through the small township of Snowtown which apparently had the largest Mass Murder where 12 gay men were killed, after being abused, then cut up and put into barrels of acid - nice stuff eh!


We had a quick wee wee stop at Fort Germein which boasts the longest pier in South Australia so we were checking out pretty famous places here. We walked part of the way along the pier taking photos.

We stopped in the Flinders Ranges at Mt Remarkable for some food. We had a walk just before where we saw a couple of kangeroos. We got back ready to stuff ourselves silly!! A couple of rather rude Emus were hanging around hoping we were gonna be stupid enough to feed them - not us!! HA! We also encountered a Goanna as we left which bolted up a tree - funny little guy!


We went through Port Augusta and had a little tour at Iron Knob. Iron Knob was built because of the Iron there and from thousands of people only 150 live there now, its around 100 years old. They were at one stage mining alot of iron from here. It was quite interesting with Phil, swallowed a fly, who kept calling Kylie Jo even though he has never met Jo.......spooky!!
We drove on to Wundinna for our camp, we set our tents up - me with the ants!!, and had a great feed before getting some sleep.

Up nice and early again the next day, 6am, and after breakfast we drove to Baird Bay where we were gonna get a chance to swim with Sea Lions and Dolphins. We were there slightly early so waited on the boat for Trish, Alan and Cal. We were not allowed to were sunscreen so we didn't transfer it into their homes.....


We set off and checked out the sea lions first but the tide was still too low there so we went to see if the dolphins were about and after jumping in the rather chilly sea it turned out they didn't want to play. We headed back to the sea lions and were able to get in. After we'd jumped into the flat bottomed tinny we got to the reef where they were and jumped in. These little guys are fun and playful. I took photos but have yet to get them developed so to come!! They were swimming around us, playing, jumping and one decided to have a sniff of my foot which kinda tickled - he was lucky not to get a kick!!! It was fun and we stayed swimming with them for about 45 minutes!!

Once we'd got back onto the bigger boat we headed back to the dolphins. We jumped in and there were about 3/4 dolphins but they didn't want to play either, although one did swim right under me which was cool. We headed back to shore then as it was obvious they weren't in the mood!!


It was fantastic though, really fun and amazing!!


We had a bbq lunch just up the road then off we went to check out Murphy's Haystack, at this stage I will tell you all that Alison is a Geologist so she was in heaven for most of this trip!!!, and these are basically rocks although technically they are discribed as inselbergs - a hill that looks like a rocky island rising sharply from the sea! They were rather nice. Matt, Anne and I saw a Blue Tongue Lizard there which was good.


Our final stop for the day was at Venus Bay where we did a walk around the cliffs. It was really good, there are tree fossils (?), I'm not sure of the proper terms etc but you'll get the idea, that are on the edge of the cliff from when Australia was attached to the antarctica and this area was all forest - amazing! Just incredible.....


After our beautiful walk we drove on to Coodlie Park where we would have beds not our tents....although I am quite attached to my tent now!!


Sandie made us dinner and Grampa took us out on a spotlight tour to look for wombats, unfortunately according to Grampas first review they were all in the pub - he then said he thought it was too hot for them so we didn't see any. We did, however, have a kangeroo and her joey just sit in front of the truck occationally looking at us which was quite cool.


We headed off to Scales Bay in the morning for a surf lesson, I opted out of this one since I had already done it and wanted to take photos. So we watched the few who went for it and they all did pretty well, all standing up quite quickly - well done!!


We had a stop then at Streaky Bay where we had to do a bus swap and we checked out a small museum for the largest shark caught on a hand line, although the guy was disqualified, and apparently he used a live sea lion as bait - sick!! We then grabbed lunch, a very windy lunch.

We drove quite a bit more then stopped for food and booze and to have a look at Ceduna Aboriginal Arts Culture Centre and something I learnt from Kylie was that if you put your ear to a digereedoo you can hear how good it is - very clever and it works too!!

We then passed through Penong - the town of 100 windmills??


We got to our next camp at Fowlers Bay and it had started to rain. A few of us thought we'd still see if sand boarding would work or not.....well to all those wondering it doesn't work on wet sand or the dry sand under the wet sand but at least we tried!!


The next day, after an interesting wake up call from Kylie, we stopped to look at the Dingo Fence which is the longest Man Made structure at 5614km, longer than the great Wall of China!! Quite impressive. A few of us sat under the cattle grid to listen as something drove over, shame we didn't get a road train.



We stopped at a road house where one of the road train drivers told me about a japanese guy who would keep cycling in the dark on the nullarbor, even though he was told not to, and he was pulled in by a road train and killed about 3 months ago!! Pretty scary!


We then got to the Famous Sign, I hadn't heard of it, and it is quite cool!! The Camal, Wombat and Kangeroo Sign so we all got excited and took lots of photos.......

We also reached the Eastern End of the Treeless Plain and there is a sign for that as well.



We checked out the Bunda Cliffs which were very cool and impressive. We also saw some Sea Lions down by the sea on the rocks - good stuff!! It was beautiful. We grabbed lunch here, trying to finish all our fruit and veg before entering WA as otherwise we'd have to throw it away!! very strick....


We crossed the border, taking photos of random signage etc on the way and made it, we put out clocks back 45 minutes!

We had a quick stop in Eucla where we looked in the museum, bought a drink and played in the play park - it was fun.

We then drove to Old Eucla which is a bit lower and nearer the sea. It was buried under sand dunes and the old telegraph station was lost for about 80 year. The vegetation grew on the sand dunes so they couldn't move, then the rabbits came and ate it all and so eventually the sand could move and revealed the old telegraph station again, pretty cool. We also checked out the beach, saw emu, snake, rabbit and kangeroo tracks. It was great except for the March Flies - I hate em!!! We also saw the beach there which was beautiful and had an old jetty, half fallen down.

We then drove alittle bit more with the Hampton Tablelands to our right, through Mundrabilla and then we bush camped at Madura. Bush camping is pretty cool and was def one of my fav spots, you feel so remote and there are no facilities except for Bob the shovel if you need a poo and Kylie did a wonderful demonstration on how you would use him - fascinating I thought. I was rather pissed off that I didn't have the need as I would have liked to test it...... We used our bush camp stove on the camp fire to make dampa(sp??) - good stuff!

After we had done the usual in the morning ie packed everything up, had breakfast we headed out back on the road again. We stopped at an upended car which looked rather cool.

We saw alot of Wedgetail Eagles on this day, one family of Mum, Dad and Kid! We checked out a smallish cave before heading off to Cocklebiddy Cave, which is where they used to take people swimming on this tour but is now unsafe. We walked down to the entance which is pretty big and had a look around - looked creepy.

Driving back out on the dirt road we did a bit of aisle surfing in the bus..... Fred won although I think there was a little cheating going on - no I'm not a bad loser!!! Ha

We past the 90 Mile Straight Sign for the longest straight road in Australia, I think you could easily fall asleep!!! We then stopped to look at Caiguna Blowhole which, depending on the air presure, either sucks or blow air. We stopped at a roadhouse where the American Skylab fell to the ground a few years back. We than had a toilet stop a bit later where there were beautiful paintings on the outside walls.

We had a great sunset just before we drove through Norseman, gold town, and then on through Esperance. We arrived at Lucky Bay, Cape Le Grand around 8ish - this was the longest driving day and would give us an extra day in Lucky Bay. After a late dinner it was time to sleep!!!

I got up pretty early and had a walk along the beach during sunrise which was really nice. I saw a few kangeroos down there. Had a nice paddle.

Around 10ish we went to Esperance and after a costal drive checking out the beautiful beaches we were let loose for an hour and a half....... We had lunch in a burger place, a proper one, and I had a massive burger with everything on it, egg, bacon, pineapple, salad - I don't remember but it was good. Popped on the net and then to the bottle shop. Anne had gone to the trophy shop, as she had already booked Perth accommodation, and picked up something for Kylie. We were picked up, jumped out to buy a frisbee and taken back to Lucky Bay. Jo had arrived with her group, 2 passengers.

We got back and chilled for a bit before attempting to play frisbee but it was too windy so we decided on beach cricket which was ok but still a little windy, fun though!!

We all walked up Frenchmans Peak with Kylie which was a good walk and fantastic views from the top. I really enjoyed it and when we returned a few hours later Jo had made dinner - great!!!

We played some stupid flexibilty game where you have to pick up a small cardboard box with your mouth without bending your legs, so obviously you end up ina splits like position - Ouch!! It hurt and I didn't win, I am bitter!!!

Another early morning for me......my bodyclock evolved. I chilled out until 9 am when Matt Man, Alison, Fred, Surge, Jeanette and I did a 3 hour hike from Cape Le Grand Beach to Hellfire Bay, through the mountainous area. It was quite a tough walk but good, fantastic views and the finish was just beautiful. Finishing up on Hellfire Bay and walking along the beach paddling, heaven. I had a quick swim at Lucky Bay when we got back before stuffing my face with more food....

In the afternoon we went to Thistle Bay where we walked along the beach to have a look at a few whale bones, a jaw bone - massive, bit smelly!! There had been a bush fire around thistle bay so there were just burnt remains of trees, a little sad but a fact of life.

We wandered back to the bus and when we got back to Lucky Bay Anne and I went for a snorkel. It wasn't great snorkelling but it was funny, saw a few fish and lots of seagrass. I then had a shower, wow my first in 4 days........

After some dinner Alison, Anne and I walked to Matthew Flinders Monument in the dark, we saw a little froggy and a crab which was good. Had an early night!! 9.15pm!!

So this morning was a sad one as we left Lucky Bay at 7, well 7.20!! Late again..... We had a couple of stops for food, alcohol and we also stopped to check out some camels. Anne and I had fun doing the voices of the camels while the others fed them grass.

We drove through the Fitzgerald National Park which is a Biosphere reserve - I thought that was kinda cool. Alot of the towns we were passing finished with 'up' and Matt Man questioned Kylie as to why, Kylie told us that up in aboriginal means place of so like a town coule mean place of the big tree.

We stopped for some lunch before heading to the Stirling Ranges. We were going to do a walk up Bluff Knol (sp?) but because we were running late and also because we had spotted smoke pretty close from what looked like a bush fire, we could smell the smoke, we decided it was safest not to. Instead we just dumped the trailer and drove up to take some photos, the top of Bluff Knol was under cloud and was kinda chilly just where we were so I think it would've been really cold up there.

We drove on to the Porongurup National Park which, just over a week ago, had had a bush fire go through it and wipe a load of it out. Alot of people were lucky not to lose their homes and luckily noone was killed. We stopped to take photos of the burnt out woodland - was quite sad to see its so bare.

We pitched our tents in a caravan park for our last night. We decided to present Kylie with her award tonight so we all wrote our little notes and put them in the trophy. Anne and I spent time making a crown and sash for her to wear. It was quite funny giving it to her but I think she was really pleased with it and she deserved it.

Fred and I then got a cake each for our birthdays, his was a few days before the tour started and I had just being going on about mine!!! It was a really nice last night. To finish it off Anne, Alison and I were ready from some trashy novels - v amusing!!

Then to bed and what was to be a very windy night. I had a broken pole in my tent and so at 4.30am my tent kinda fell in on itself so I decided to just get up!! Not the best night sleep.

We headed off after breakfast at around 7 and drove to Denmark!! We stopped there where I got some fruit, a hot chocolate and a chocolate bar - yummy!! Denmark apparently has an average of 700mm of rain fall each year and so to prove this it was pissing it down!!

We continued on our journey and arrived at the Valley of the Giants at 10ish. We did the tree top walk which was amazing and beautiful. It was a bouncy iron walkway through the massive forest, our highest point was 40 m and we were still looking up at the trees. I loved it. We then went on to do the Ancient Empire Walk with some trees being over 400 years old - about twice as old as white Australia. They had Red, Yellow and Rates Tingle trees there and also the Red Flowering Gum. Some of the trees were huge and had hollowed out trunks at ground level - awesome!!

We stopped at the Diamond Tree where we were going to have lunch. First though we could climb up to the fire watch tower at the top of one of the trees, there were no ropes for support but I felt pretty safe. It was cool and what a view, 75m up!! Anne and I walked up together and saw a nice big huntsman spider on the way up - a little freaky but not dangerous! Kylie had already had to kill one we saw in the toilet as it had lost half its legs and could barely move - poor little thing.

We had our lunch, joined by a load of the wonderful march flies - die flies die!!

We got back on the road and were now on the home straight to Perth....was a little sad. After a stop at a gas station for a drink and wee wee stop we headed for Perth. We blasted the music, opened the windows and danced in the aisles on entering the city!! Shock return......

Kylie dropped us all off at our hostels, got to mine at 8.30pm. Anne, Matt Man, Fred, Alison and I met for some dinner in the evening before going to bed at 11ish!!

I had such a fun trip and alot of the fun was had sitting up the front chatting to Kylie and Anne - really had a laugh!! Def recommended to anyone. Will be waiting to hear that Kylie has become a Ranger in a National Park and will have to check it out!! Miss you guys.......

Love
Dawnie
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