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.