The End

Well that's it. We've come to the end of our big adventure.

So long and thanks for all the fish !

Perth to Albany to Perth

This is our new van. We got rid of the other one because there's no need for 4WD on the rest of our trip south of Perth. It's much smaller inside than the old one, which isn't great seeing as another camper has come along for the ride. Grant joined us in Perth a few days ago so things have been cosy since he turned up. Fortunately the van does have a "badgers den" for him to sleep in. It's a bit worrying him being up there at night and although it hasn't happened yet, something in the back of my mind tells me he could come crashing down on top of us at any moment.

This part of Western Australia looks completely different to the barren red earth of further north. There are fields, beautiful coastline and lush forests. Near Albany there's an area called The Valley of the Giants, where there are massive eucalyptus trees which grow up to 500 feet. They've built a walkway up into the canopy which sways slightly in the wind!

It's becoming winter now, and although the days are still beautiful and warm, the nights are getting cold - so we are finally making good use of our thick down sleeping bags.

We stopped off at Margaret River, which is the big wine producing region of Western Australia, for a bit of tasting. There are hundreds of vineyards to choose from, but there is also one brewery which has pretty good beer, although still too chilled for Grant's liking.

This is a place called Frenchman's Bay, where while Grant was swimming a fisherman was scrambling to get a bigger rod from his car to catch "the big shark" he said he'd just seen glide past. What little tan Grant had when he arrived in Australia vanished from his face when I told him why the fisherman was launching a whole head of tuna into the ocean from rocks not twenty feet away. Despite hanging around for a while we never saw the shark in question, so we never found out whether or not it was a "man-eater." Or indeed whether there really was a shark in the first place. There's always the possibility the fisherman was just seeing things after having had one too many. But I'm not one to ruin a good story.... Grant swam with Jaws.

Down to Perth - 5th - 10th June

The Pinnacle Desert is a stretch of land just in from the coast where there are thousands of these strange rock formations. Supposedly they look they're best at sunrise..... a bit too early for us!


The coast north of Perth seems to be an endless line of beautiful white sandy beaches and surf breaks. On one of these beaches Nik proposed and I said yes. I think we can do a bit better than just saying "one of these beaches." In fact this is a picture of the beach where it all happened. At the point where the land sticks out into the sea. We were sat there watching the sun go down. And the first think Caity said was, "are you joking!", not "yes."




PERTH

We finally arrived in Perth after travelling 6800Km in 32 days. We stayed with my cousin Nicolas and his wife Treacy and their son James. We only got engaged the day before we arrived and we were trying to keep it to ourselves for a while yet - at least another twenty four hours - just to get used to the idea. However we've not been at Nicolas and Treacy's house half an hour before she asks us, "are you engaged yet?" Knowing how bad the Bevan's are a lying that was that. Our secret was out.

Shark Bay 1st - 4th June

This is yet another World Heritage Area, our 3rd in Oz and we visited 5 in NZ. One of the reasons why is the presence of stromatolites, which look like rocks in the water, but are in fact clumps of bacteria which produce oxygen and are descendants of organisims from 1800 million years ago.

Apparently we've all got to thank stromatolites for life on earth. The information placard next to them says so. If there weren't for all the good work stomatolites did millions of years ago then nothing on earth would have evolved. So they're very important but also very boring. They don't do much. I suspect even Attenborough would have a job making a watchable sequence out of these.

There's also a great beach made up of millions of tiny cockle shells. But the major tourist attraction in the area is the resort of Monkey Mia, where dolphins swim to the shore every day to be fed by the rangers and tourists. I was one of the lucky chosen ones to give this female dolphin a fish.

Swimming with Whale Sharks

Even though everyone has got face masks on ... you can tell how nervous we all look. There were eight whale sharks in the water according to the pilot flying a small plane overhead. We only swam / saw two of them. They were both about 6metres long which is enough fish for anyone. You're meant to swim alongside them - that's what they say in the briefing. But when you get into the water you've got no idea which way the thing is heading. Straight for Caity was the answer on our first snorkel. She was right in it's way. It just sort of appeared out of the blue. One second it wasn't there - the next second it was right alongside us. Or in Caity's case right in front of her ! That was the first time she saw it. I'm not sure whether it saw her because it just kept cruising along the surface - straight at her - mouth open, feeding on plankton. AAAAAAHHHHHHHH PANIC !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is me giving the thumbs up!!!!

Broome - West Coast 21st - 30th May

The Gibb River Road

This is one of THE 4WD roads in Australia. It's nearly 700km of dirt track, creek crossing and is impassiable during the Wet. In the end we decided to do a small loop of it - only about 300km! The 1st stop was Tunnel Creek where the river has been seeping through the rocks for thousands of years and it is now an underground river that you can walk through to the other side. It's pitch black - you have to take a torch - and you have to wade through the water not knowing what is lurking in there! There were bats flying around and we saw an eel. Supposedly fresh water crocs are sometimes spotted.......... thankfully not by us.


We stayed over night at Croc Central Windjana Gorge. There were loads of fresh water crocs lying around on the river banks. Fresh water crocodiles aren't proper crocodiles. Well they are crocodiles but not ones you should worry about. They're a bit "wussy" really because they won't come and eat you. I know they look really far away - but those things that look like twigs floating in the water where I'm pointing are in fact crocs. (I know I look like a cross between Steve Irwin, Ray Mears and Tom Kite)




Last stop on the road was Bell Gorge "one of the prettiest spots in the Kimberely" according to our guide book.... and it was right. At the bottom of the beautiful waterfall there's a pool that you can swim in.

Caution is needed when using any one of the public toilets in the National Parks. There are all sorts of nasty surprises lurking inside ... and not just the ones you might expect to find floating underneath the lid. Banging loudly on the door is one strategy to scare off the critters that like to call the cubicle their home before going in. However you soon learn all that merely does is chase them away into their hiding places only for them to re-emerge minutes later when you are at your most vulnerable. Seeing a frog suddenly appear between your legs while you are sat on the loo can give you quite a shock. That did happen. The next day there was another frog. This time hiding in the loo roll holder. He fell out when I started tugging at the paper. I know frogs aren't dangerous but shit they can really give you a nasty surprise. It wouldn't be so bad if they were U.K sized frogs but they're not. These ones are as big as your fist. The other strategy of course is not to bang on the door at all ... so when you go in you can see what you're dealing with. (Big spiders, big moths, big mosquitos, big crickets, big praying mantice, big smells). But the problem with that stategy is once you know what's in there and their proximity to the loo you realise you can't face it + so you go check out the next cubicle ... (if there is one) .. which is just as bad. The third strategy is to try and hang on till you get to the next road house / petrol station. But then most of the time they're a four hour drive away. Take your pick.

Broome

We decided we needed a rest! So we stayed in Broome for a few days. The town's best known place is Cable Beach where you can watch the sun set into the Indian Ocean from a camel train or from your own 4WD vehicle which you've parked on the beach!



Karijini National Park

We thought that once you've seen a few gorges you've seen them all. But the gorges in this park are something different. They are narrow - in some places less than a doorway - and often filled with rushing cold water that you have to wade through. The Hancock Gorge was more like an adventure assault course crossed with the Richmond Water Flumes. Great fun and truly amazing experience.

The Northern Territory

Darwin to Broome - 10th - 24th May

After a 10 hr bus journey and then a 3 hr flight we arrived in Darwin in the Northern Terrority (it's only a couple of inches on the map!). We picked up our home for the next 34 days - a Toyoto truck with a caravan stuck on the back. It looks kind of strange, but the important thing it is a 4 wheel drive.

Our first stop is Kakadu National Park. We go to the visitors center to find out where we can go. It turns out that we can't really go anywhere off the main road. Nearly all the interesting 4WD roads are still closed within the park. There are only 2 seasons up here, the Wet and the Dry. During the Wet it rains for months and large parts of the area get flooded. In the Dry every day has a perfect blue sky and the temperature drops to a more bearable 30. We arrived at the beginning of the Dry, so there's still a lot of water around, and luckily we missed the recent cyclone which hit the area.

Our 4 WD may look like a bit of a plodder but it does have some grunt under the bonnet. And we've needed it ... we had to drive through a bog to get to a campsite in Gregory National Park. One car had already been abandoned by the track, presumably after a failed attempt to get across. It's bloody nerve racking going through because if you get stuck you've got no idea when the next person will be along to give you a tow. The ruts in the mud were about a foot deep and as you go through the truck pitches so far forward you think you're going to nose dive into the dirt. But after a couple of timid/failed attempts we managed to get across with a bit of brute force and gas ... and boy does this thing drink gas. 70 litres of diesel fill up the tank .. that's get you 500km on a good road.

You know you're not in St Albans when you see signs like this all over the place... This one is by the side of a bush walk which the tourist information centre recommends you do ! There's an identical sign in a couple of the campsites we've stayed in. (Thankfully we're not sleeping in the tent any more). When they say there are crocs in the area they mean it too... and they're much closer than you think. At least they were at the Yellow River. The site we stayed at backed onto the water and not five minutes into a boat trip up stream we saw our first croc. The first of many. You can see why they like living here though.

We decided to "nip down" to the Bungle Bungles before going across to Broome. It's about 300km with 50km of 4WDing. It takes us 6 hrs to get there. Thankfully our body clocks have adjusted so we wake up at dawn (around 5.30am) and we're in bed soon after dark (around 7pm!!). This place is really strange. Strippey, massive beehive domes everywhere. You have to walk to see the best places, but in the heat even a short walk takes hours. The most beautiful place was Mini Palms Canyon. The colours are amazing and it's hard to believe anything survives out here.

The temperature out here during the day means even going for a short walk is a major undertaking. I say a short walk, in fact all the marked walking tracks out here are short. 3 km max. But then that's just about as much as anyone can manage. The heat and the sun (We've not seen a single cloud in days) make you feel exhausted after 500 metres. The going is slow and you guzzle masses of water which you have to carry around. We've gone walk-about a couple of times and we've both ended up stumbling the last 200 metres back to the truck. But it's worth putting in the effort. The views, plants, rocks, insects etc are incredible. I've got nothing to compare it too. Our camera is having problems digesting it too. The lense can't handle scenery on such a grand scale. Apart from the exhaustion there's one other major side effect of going walk-about. It's a syndrome called "acute hypersensitivity to rustling noises round your ankles." The world's most dangerous snakes and spiders live out here and there's plenty of long grass for them to hide in. Fortunately rustling noises so far have all turned out to be false alarms - mainly due to us stepping on dead palm leaves - of which there are many. Because it plays on your nerves quite a bit Caity and I take it in turns to lead the way down particularly narrow stretches of path.

The Whitsundays 28th - 7th May

This boat was our home for the week as the four of us sailed round the Whitsunday Islands. There are 74 of them in total, many surrounded by white sandy beaches and coral reefs. Obviously what with Chris' sailing credentials it made sense for him to be captain. I liked to think of myself as "First Officer" (vice captain) with special repsonsiblity for navigation and the anchor. Caity and Jean were "competent crew" although by the last 2 days we (the captain and I ) saw fit to assign them to navigational duties under close supervision. Caity was also the ships doctor and was press ganged into being our VHF communincations officer. From the ships log you will see only once were we within inches of running aground.

Life on board "Y-Knot" was slow and relaxed. The only decisions to be made each day were - 1) where has the best snorkelling 2) where are we going to anchor for the night 3) which one of the gourmet meals are we goint to take out the freezer for dinner?

My role as Communications Officer was vital to maintain the pretence that we knew what we were doing to the boat hire company. Twice a day they would radio us with the weather and then talk to each boat in turn to go through their plans for the day. Being at the end of the alphabet (Y-Knot) meant we got to listen in on everyone else. Over the week we made certain observations about the other boats in the area. "Morning Mist" never answered the radio. "Sun Quest" had a very depressed sounding man who always seemed to be at Happy Bay. Our favourite boat names were "Champagne on Ice" and "Rum and Coke".

We did some great sailing when the wind came up (and the rain came down!). Our maximum speed was 8.7 knots, but Dad did keep on insisting we could go faster!

AUSTRALIA - Sydney

Sydney 22 - 27th April

Meet the parents. Look who's come to visit. For the next two weeks Chris and Jean are officially on tour and it just so happens to coincide with Caity's 30th birthday. This is them on Bondi. Bevans on Bondi.

Mum and Dad arrived a few hours before us and had already checked into the hotel by the time we arrived. It was strange knocking on the door and seeing them after so long and so far away from home. The hotel is in an area called Kings Cross, which the guidebook says is the red light district. You only have to walk a short distance to see all the shady goings on, but there are also lots of trendy cafes and bars in the streets nearby.

We might as well have had the Union Jack tattooed on our foreheads - because we went out of our way to do all the tourist bits. The highlight of which was going to the opera house - not just outside - but inside too for a concert. Despite looking like something from outer space on the outside - there's lots of concrete inside and it all looks a bit 1970's... which is around the time when it was built so I guess that's what you'd expect. There was also a trip to an art gallery - full of modern stuff which we all thought was rubbish. At one point Chris and Jean started laughing - which because there was so little stuff inside to muffle the sound - you could practically hear throughout the whole building.

Of course the main event was my birthday!!! I was kept firmly in the dark about what we were going to do. The day started with breakfast in our usual cafe, but today there was presents, champagne and beautiful flowers. Nik had also arranged for me to have my hair cut. We then headed off to the aquarium, which had floating tanks in the harbour with seals and sharks swimming around in (in different ones so the seals didn't get eaten). For lunch we jumped in a taxi to Bondi Beach to have a surprise picnic. Because it was so windy we ended up sitting in what looked like a bus shelter. We also had to hide the bottle of wine in a brown paper bag, because of the alcohol ban on the beach. And finally we had a fabulous dinner at a very cool restaurant on a quay with the Sydney skyline in the background. Supposedly Russel Crowe has a penthouse apartment there. Nik arranged for the transport to get us there.

Here's a photo of Caity with Dr J. "Dubya" for those people back home who're missing him. He managed to wangle us an invite to this cool house party overlooking Bondi Beach. There was a bouncer on the door checking names off a list, a cocktail bar, smoke machine, glitter ball + everything. It was all very Miami Vice except without the Tubbs and Crockett .. although come to think about it there was one person who looked a bit like Don Johnson.