Australia

The dolphins David got to feed and Nic didn't!!

Our tent had survived night! She's a good girl. Another early start this morning as the others on the bus wanted to get to the dolphins early - we arrived just before the masses descended on the beach! Nic had a good spot and was ankle deep right at the front, whilst David hung around on the beach chilling out!! After half an hour the cold water was getting to Nic and we decided to let the masses get on with there thing and get some breakfast. After a couple of hours relaxing we headed back to the bus and waited for the others to join, this is where the fun began! David took a casual stroll down to the beach following several people with buckets of fish, there were maybe a dozen people on the waters edge where the dolphins were getting ready for their second feed of the day! David was picked from the much smaller crowd then before to hand feed a wild dolphin!! Cracking - you should have seen the look on Nics face!!!

After David smiling his face of for ages we made our way to a privately owned 'ocean park' which had recently captured some tiger sharks (massive!!!) and a variety of other wierd and wonderful fish all found off the coastline of Ningaloo reef! Hopefully non that we will encounter whilst snorkelling around!! We then headed up to Coral Bay past the tropic of Capricorn where we will be finally jumping off for a few days!

The Stromatalites

Peering down the gorge

David showing off!!

We left Kalbarri early today and made our way straight to the gorges. It was incredibly hot, even though it was early morning but it was so beautiful! We did a bit of a walk, took in our surroundings and came across several golden orb spider webs (these webs are incredibly strong and have a golden tint to them).

Our next stop was a visit to see the Stromatalites. This was one of the best things of the day!!! The Stromatalites look like rocks and are the first living things to expel oxygen on earth, creating an environment which enabled evolution to kick in and eventually make a home for us humans. They used to be all over the globe but now only exist in one other place from the West Coast; the Bahamas!

We had one more stop before reaching Denham and that was Shell Beach. Which was......a beach made of tiny white shells instead of sand! It was so bright because of the sun reflecting of the shells - you'd get a tan in minutes! Soon we were in Denham where we'd be spending the night and what a night it was!!!

We pitched the tent and went for a bite to eat (after David had pounded the pegs in with a rock, the ground was so hard!)It was soooo windy when we returned and we spent a sleepless night laying in our tent wondering if it was going to stay put. In the morning we discovered that two people from our group had ended up sleeping in the laudry block after their tent had blown away!!!!

The Pinnacles

So, after much deliberating about whether to head north or south we decided to get some serious beach and snorkelling action in by heading up the coast. We each bought decent snorkelling kits, more sunscreen and with our recently purchased tent we joined up with this hop on - hop off bus. The first driver was called Pete and was an absolute joker - extreme sports kind of guy in his hey day, but with a beer belly now (too many Creature Comfort ales me thinks!) Our first stop was the Pinnacles, made famous by Billy Connelly I think, something about running through them naked (the thought had crossed David's mind however didn't want to get burnt in all the important places!) Bit of an eerie place really, golden sand with thousands of rocks shooting up - apparently they are getting taller, the sand around them is being blown away. We carried up the coast to Kalbarri where we would be staying in our tent for the fist night after more fresh fish! We even managed not to pay for our site as we left at 6am the following morning!

David enjoying the beach

Rottnest Island

Quokka!!

As a day trip we decided to take the 30 minute train journey away from Perth to Fremantle. We love this place - basically because of the micro brewery we found called Little Creatures! The best pale ale we've tasted (better then Old Speckled Hen!). After a few hours sampling the fine ale we ate a huge fish platter, together with a few more dinks! We spent the rest of the day walking around the markets and actually buying some clothes this time...we were a little too anxious in heading back to the city as it would be our first night in a dorm room! As it turned out this wasn't that bad - Nic didn't get as good night sleep as David did but we think it really will depend on who we are sharing the room and more importantly the bunk with!

Another trip we took was to Rottnest Island. We decided to get the boat from Perth all the way to the Island which took over two hours. The main sea fearing journey was the second stretch from Freo where our sea legs were put to the test. We arrived on the island greeted by what we can only describe as a post war butlins style resort... I don't think the speakers were working anymore for the 6am wake up call though! We quickly hired a tandem which actually had gears and tread on the wheels this time! (not that it mattered of course - we're now experts after China!) and headed around the coast away from all the people! We came across a place called Salmon Bay - which we almost had to ourselves. Out came the brand new snorkelling gear and we spent an hour or so swimming around with all the fishies!! We then took advantage of the bikes and cycled around the rest of the island to eventually stumble across some Quokkas - weird little creatures! The return journey home on the boat was even worse then getting there - waves splashing over the edge, spray covering the windows, we almost thought the boat would capsize at one point...!!

Nic in King's Park

We arrived on Monday to a bit of a drizzly Perth, still warm but not much sun. However, over the past couple of days we've had brilliant blues skies and temperatures up to 30C!!! It's just great! We've mooched around Perth for a bit and also visited Cottlesloe Beach where Nic got battered around in the waves! The waves were massive and David loved it, swimming/jumping through them - he's now talking of getting a body board and it's only been two days on the beach!

We took a leisurely stroll through town (window shopping along the way of course!) up to the edge of King's park which overlooked the city. We did a little tree top walk and took in all the flora and fauna along the way before heading into the bush - its a massive park! We felt quite isolated until we heard the freeway humming away in the distance and then remembered we were still in the capital city of Western Australia!

So far we're loving it here, we've decided to explore Western Australia a little more than orginally planned, though we're not sure whether we'll head north or south yet....

And don't worry, we're slip slap slopping!