It was our last full day of the trip and it was scorching hot. We found a place off the road to set up the table to have lunch, but shade was scarce and I was in even more need of my refreshing midday coldie than usual. This was a bad habit that I had acquired on the trip - one can of beer with my lunch - and the only other person who occasionally joined me was Dee, the Cork woman - fair play to her! I can't recall much of what we did that day, maybe we went down into some gorges to look for freshies in the hot afternoon? In any case, by early evening we were literally driving through the golden, knee high spinafex on a dirt track bordering the Gregory national ... read more

Back on the bitumen again ... We arrived in Kununarra in the East Kimberley and headed straight to the nearest Woolies to restock on supplies. Well Joel insisted on doing this alone actually, while the rest of us headed to the pub -honest! Kununarra's main industry is fruit and vegetable cultivation made possible by abundant water supply provided by the Ord river dam. More recently sugarcane has made an impact and there was even talks of using it to produce a local biofuel - gudonya, as the natives say. Because of time constraints for the day Joel had arranged a surprise for us and we tucked into 8 large pizzas at Valentinos much to everyones delight - especially Agnes. Then we left Kununarra in the darkness to set up camp at a nearby gravelpit, which in ... read more

Another long stretch to Port Hedland and we definitely had the feeling that we had already experienced the best the west coast had to offer. We weren't even near the coast anymore, in any case as we trundled along the Great Northern Highway saluting the infrequent vehicles that we met. This was the Pilbara - a whole vast, barren and unpopulated land rich in mineral wealth, but precious little else. It was easy to see why a charge of manslaughter could be levelled at anyone who passed a fellow traveller in distress. Without shade and water it wouldn't take long to perish in this environment. Even though the temperature was not particularly high outside (maybe 30c max) the sun had a searing effect even through the windscreen of the van. I had to hold the steering ... read more

It was a long, long journey from Kalbarri to Monkey Mia (pronounced my-ah), but we put the foot down and rattled out the 500+ km without stopping very long anywhere. By the time we reached Denham, however, we deserved a break and we used the free hotplates along the boardwalk, to cook ourselves up some delicious toasted sandwiches. Since the peninsula of Shark Bay is a world heritage listed site, we had to ask at the county offices for permission to camp at the remote Eagle Bluff, 20 kilometres before Denham. This we planned for the following night, on our way out. Meanwhile, it was on to the famous Monkey Mia resort with it's friendly and hungry dolphins. Being the school holidays, we had booked ahead and just as well as the place was packed with ... read more

Campervan company - Trailmasters - was located shortly before 10 a.m., after another hearty breakfast at the Emperor's Crown. A few formalities, like leaving a $5000 bond, were quickly gotten over with and I chugged out in the Mercedes diesel, pop-top camper on a beautiful, sunny winter's day in Perth to collect my other half and head north for more sunshine and cheaper beer - it's astounding the pre-conceptions you have before each experience in life. If you could just do it all again .... Well, the first thing that I wouldn't have repeated was to stop in a shopping centre just north of Perth and fill the van's teeny fridge full of food. Our first big grocery bill was nearly 300 bucks - ridiculous! - except for the 80 bucks worth of booze which was ... read more