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Well, following a brief argument with the campsite office over our account, and having accepted the fact that it was indeed Monday & not Sunday as we had hotly contsted, we finally left Exmouth a day later than originally planned, heading just a short distance down the coast to Coral Bay. This was our first stop on the actual West coast & daft as it may sound, high up on my wish list of 'things to do this holiday' was to see the sun set over the sea; boy did we see some sunsets!! Not much seems to happen in Coral Bay (having exhausted the diving / snorkelling / whale shark spotting possibilities in Exmouth) so we only stayed the one night. Point to note if ever returning to CB - don't try making a cup of coffee with the water from the standpipes - it's from an Artesian bore & tastes foul - use the tap marked 'drinking water' for a much nicer cuppa.
Another brief hop down the coast bought us to Denham - the most westerley town in mainland Oz. This little town was hosting a fishing competition & was rammed full of old blokes with
Beach Study
i.e. Matt getting arty tinnies tied to the roof of their 4WD (no not cans of beer, but little metal fishing boats), a caravan & a wife in tow. They all seemed to get up at 5am, have a discussion about the day ahead at about 1000 decibels across the campsite & then set the engine running on their monster trucks for a good 15 mins before finally disappearing for the day. The little women left behind then start up their own conversation about 1/2 hour later, also at maxi volume, leaving us exhausted little campers wanting to commit mass murder. The star attraction of Denham is its proximity to Monkey Mia, a nature reserve famed for its tame dolphins who, we are informed, come in to the shore to be fed any time upto 1pm - we arrived just after 10 to see the departing tail fins of a mother & calf & to find out that they had already been fed the maximum 3 times that day so would be unlikely to return until about 7.30 the following morning. We didn't bother going back as they charge you $6 each to go into the place & there's not much else there except
Beach Study
i.e. Deb getting bouncey the ubiquitous flies which were getting more & more annoying by the second. We did manage to get a good look at the Milky Way from Denham though - light pollution is non-existent - & lying on your back in sand dunes gazing up at the stars was quite a cool way to pass some time.
On the way back from Denham to the West Coast Highway we felt obliged to have a peek at a couple of the other so called highlights of the area, as described by the guidebook. Firstly was Shell Beach, so named as it is made up entirely of shells - these Aussies can be quite creative when they put their minds to it! Whilst very pretty, it was actually just another beach & we'd already seen some stunners. Next on the tourist trail is Hamelin Pool which contains the oldest living organisms on the planet - stromatolites (or strombolis as they are affectionately referred to by us) - these being quite young specimens at only 3,000 years old, though the species is thought to date back over 3 billion years - just looked like a bunch of rocks to us & by this
Shells
As in the Beach point the flies were driving us nuts again so we legged it back to the car for the next leg of the trip south.
Our next destination, Kalbarri, is a delightful little fishing town at the mouth of the Murchison River & from here we took Mark & Rebecca's advice & booked ourselves on to Davo's Gorge Tour. Following the obligatory stops at the lookout points we then headed off-road down possibly the bumpiest track I've ever been on - all our joints got crushed & re-arranged & any loose teeth would've fallen out (thankfully none did). A short trek in about 38 degrees bought us to our destination, the river in the middle of the gorges, and our next form of transport - canoes. Due to a severe lack of rain (i.e. none in the last 6 years) there was only about 2.5 Km that we could use rather than the 6 or 7 Km previously available - I think I'm actually fairly glad about this as we were quite knackered enough after 2 hours of paddling - th water was bloody freezing, but provided a welcome relief from not only the heat, but also the damn flies
Strombolis
As in the old rock thingies which seem to be haunting us! Matt did come up with a novel way to amuse himself - killing flies & feeding them to the fish - boys!! Having exhausted ourselves sufficiently during the day, we decided to eat out that night - never heard of Dhufish, but it's really tasty if you get the opportunity to try some - I think I may be starting to convert Matt into a fish tolerator (if not fish lover) - I'll keep working on him. A couple more stunning sunsets, each with the now de rigeur bottle of wine, and we're running out of space on the camera.
Our final stop before heading back through Perth was Cervantes - very dodgy town where the local sport seems to be getting drunk & then driving around hassling tourists. This was the only time we've felt uncomfortable so far & it was most unpleasant - we didn't stay here long surprisingly enough. We decided to brave another wildlife spotting tour & booked to go snorkelling with Sea Lions - much more successful that the Whale Shark thing & had the added bonus of a trio of dolphins swimming alongside for a while. By
kalbarri Sunset
The first of many... the time the Sea Lions decided they wanted to play I'd frozen myself blue, but Matty managed to stay warm enough for a nice long play. Besides Sea Lion sanctuaries, the only thing Cervantes is famous for is its proximity to The Pinnacles - a most bizarre desert type feature covered in limestone pillars. We seem to have gone from driving on Mars to driving on the moon. Having been advised that sun rise or sun set were the best times to see this, we opted for sun set (no real surprise there), though managed to pick the cloudiest day thus far to go - hey ho, still managed to get some good pics. No trip to the Pinnacles could be complete without a stop at Hangover Bay for a quick photo opportunity (well, may a quick glass (plastic mug) of wine too).
Heading still further south to Margaret River, with a brief stop on the way - will update more once we've had a chance to sample some of the local delights; wine, cheese & chocolate - heaven?
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Lil' Sis
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Know your family!!
Not sure 'Sister Anthea' works at all.......might want to look at the family tree again. Could have sworn Anthea was the one what gave to you - muppet!!! Too much of the ol' aussie juice eh. xx