Australia

Nic on her birthday!

Yippee! After arriving to a mysteriously thick misted Katoomba yesterday it was great to wake up to a clear sky. After enjoying a slice of birthday cake and a quick coffee we began exploring the Blue Mountains. We visited the Three Sisters, Echo Point, Katoomba Falls and various other view points before heading down the Giant Stairway (Nic's legs were like jelly at the end!!) and along the Federal Pass through gorgeous rainforest before reaching the bottom of 'Scenic World'. Here we wandered slowly along a boardwalk (wooden platform, built off the ground so you can get a closer look at your surroundings), before deciding to take the cable car back up to the top of the valley. the cable car trip just didn't last long enough and the views were gobsmacking.

After our little expedition in the rainforest we got all glammed up and headed into town to begin celebrating Nic's bday. We went for a few drinks (Nic had a flourescent blue cocktail!) and had a fantastic meal before rolling back to the campsite, full and content.

The Indian Pacific

Nic was very excited about this trip - who knows why?! This train journey would take us 3 1/2 days taking us from Perth to Sydney in our Day/Sleeper seats (reclining seat to me and you, not that comfy after the first day...).

We boarded the train on Sunday and began making our way out of Perth's valleys onto the Nullarbor Plain - this is a deep, vibrant red desert that never ends - it's just massive! We were told not to use the showers in the day as the cold water would be much hotter than the hot-water tap, temperatures outside of the train could get as high as 60C!!!!!!

We spent the next day and a half crossing the desert, highlights were few and far between - the vastness of it all, the fact that there are animals that can survive in these conditions. The best highlight of the day was being told we were about to travel on the world's longest piece of straight track (we knew that would excite you all at home!)

Our next major stop would be at Adelaide - though that's to be visited later, we also stopped at Broken Hill where it was still incredibly hot! On the final day of travel we awoke to a drastic change of scenery. Gone was the desert and here was farmland, trees! Grass! And evn hills! We were heading into the Blue Mountains range and it looked magnificent!

So, there we were sitting in our shorts and t-shirts that we'd left Perth in whilst we watched the thick mist rise up through the trees! Bugger! We pulled into Sydney and jumped on the train to Katoomba where we'd be staying. It was a tad chillier than the deserts we'd gotten used to! This was coat weather and we were dressed for the beach!

We took this train journey so we could appreciate and see more of Australia then zipping across it at 30,000ft in a plane! It just blew us away!

It took us 2 days and A LOT of driving to get from Exmouth to Perth. We stopped off at Geraldon where we stopped the night - not a great place, bit rough! The days were long and the bus we were on was so hot but nowhere near as hot as it was outside - 37C in the shade!!!!!!!!!

When we finally did arrive in Perth we headed straight out to Fremantle where we would stay for the next few days until our big train trip! We used the next few days to catch up and relax after so much travelling, popping into Little Creatures for a quick pale ale and lazing around enjoying the sun!

The only down side was the fact that Nic's sleeping mat kept deflating in the night - booo! So, on the day before our train trip we headed back into Perth and got a new one. We also stayed at a very weird hostel for our last night in Western Australia. What we thought would be a laid back hostel turned out to be quite regimented!!! One example; air con on at 7pm off by midnight!! We were sweating our bits off by the morning!

Still, onward we go.......to our big trip across Australia......

After packing up the tent and saying farewell to gorgeous Coral Bay we headed up to Exmouth with our second driver; Jane. On the way up the coast we passed loads of termite nests - they're as tall as Nic! We drove a little way past Exmouth to a place called Torquoise Bay - woah! Stunning!

We got our snorkelling gear ready and had to walk up the beach before heading into the water purely because there was a rip which would carry us back down the beach - lazy snorkelling, no swimming required, just look and float down the beach!!!!!

There were plenty of fish and we saw some coral we'd not seen before. We also spotted a brown ray, it was teeny tiny compared to the Manta rays but still really beautiful as it glided through the water and tried to bury itself in the sand.

After the beach we headed back to Exmouth and set up camp where we had a bbq! Not forgetting to mention a couple of Emus finding our tent very interesting, Nic decided to 'whooosh' them on but infact made them come closer. Thier eyes were saying "you're to big to eat but maybe the girl behind you could be done!!" Evil birds / animals / beasts!

The sun setting over the Indian Ocean at Coral Bay

Beach we came across whilst quad biking

Nic on her quad bike

Nic a few minutes later....

Nic after too much sun!

We arrived in Coral bay with just enough time to pitch our tent grab some food and head down to the beach to watch the sunset over the Indain Ocean! We woke up the following morning full of excitement - we had organised a boat trip with a couple of Germans who were on the bus with us, to head out to the coral and also so that we could swim with Manta Rays! The Coral here is so accessible, only 50m of the beach or a 20 minute boat ride for the deeper stuff! We jumped on board headed to the bow of the boat and jetted off around the bay, with wind and spray gently lashing our sun drenched bodies! (Chhhheeessy!) was awesome! We had a plane in the sky helping us spot the big big fish before we jumped in and to make sure is wasnt a bad ass shark waiting for its breakfast. We were given the all clear and jumped in to be greated by a fish as wide a bus and about 9ft long! We a little scared to start with as it had a massive mouth - would've gobbled nic up in a heartbeat if it fancied something a little meatier then planktun!! They don't half swim quick, so after swimming hard for half an hour we all jumped on bored before heading over to the coral. We dropped anchor and spent about an hour searching amongst the underwater overhanging rocks / caves and crevases! We saw Nemos cousin, thousands of fish and realy bizzarre coral formations! Today was such a experience, absolutley knackered us out and will never forget it!!!

The next morning we woke up full of adrenalin as it was quad biking time!! We packed our snorkelling gear and turned up to a own private guide as no-one alse had booked a bike!! Before long we were speeding down the the beach at 40mph and through sand tracks kicking the back of the bike out as we went round corners! We stopped of twice to snorkel at places closed to the general public due to the fact it was turtle breeding time!! They were both a little scarey, one was like being in a big fish bowl with the edges being rocks! Fish were being trapped in the area when the tide is high so when David jumped in it freeked him out not enough space for a human being as well! Waves were just about coming over the edge again and visbalilty was becoming intermitent - the guide later said it has been know sharks get trapped in their sometimes but we hope he was jokeing mmmm...!!!

On our way back we we think Nic was getting a little over confident with the bike and decided to test its off road capabilities by driving into a bush - the guide wasn't happy! We both had to lift the bike out and carry on a little more conservativley after that!!

After the quad biking adventure we heading down to the beach again for more snorkelling. Once again we saw millions of fish. David spotted a turtle - it looked half asleep as it swam around! We then found another turtle which was happily munching away on the coral - they're just so beautiful!

A great day ended by wine, pizza and watching the sunset again!