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What better day than April Fool's to turn our routine on its head and head North instead of South? Every year we usually take a trip to Margaret River or Dunsborough, but for our 5th year anniversary, Danilo planned a trip in the opposite direction.

The idea is that we'll stay in resorts on our way up, and then camp our way home.
(Though part of me wonders if we should have camped our way up and then recovered by staying in swish resorts with showers and the like...)

Day 1

Leg 1: Perth - Kalbarri

(aka Perth - Crap we didn't buy a paddle we have to stop in Geraldton and by the way did you bring the accommodation info? - Kalbarri)

The lead-up to leaving involved running around in the days before, picking up camping gear, sports equipment and food, waiting for the final days of work to ebb on by and watching the clock inch closer to 'holiday'. We packed the ute and finally jumped into bed at 11pm, knowing we'd have to be up at 4am to set off. Now, i'm never at my best in the mornings, but at 4am you can bet it's not a pretty sight. Hair (and brain) dishevelled, looking for things that are right in front of me. You get the idea. We woke to the sounds of dual alarms blaring, and I was (understandably) more reluctant to get up than usual. Danilo had to poke and prod (and nag and cajole) but I finally got up and set about doing last minute things. Part of our final preparations included brewing three thermos' full of hot sweet coffee to keep us going.

We set off just before 5am, and it was so cold we had to rug up in hoodies and we even packed a couple of beanies. April before sun-up is not my favourite time at all. It seemed a bit surreal at first, my mind saying 'hey...this is new, why am I on the freeway at this hour?' and we were surprisingly chatty considering how early it was. Slowly but surely we realised our holiday had begun, and I pulled out the camera to try and get some pre sun-up pics and landmarks. After twisting around to take yet another sunrise picture while contorted between the two front seats, leaning back to peer outside the rear driver-side window...I decided enough was enough and settled down for the rest of the drive. Though we'd been warned to beware of livestock we only saw cows in the distance and not a roo in sight - no complaints here. I'd rather not see them at all than see them bumping off the roo bars. The drive was somewhat uneventful, and we set the GPS to take us to Geraldton. Despite having a man holding a paddle on the box, our new waveski didn't come equipped with one. We had to include a trip to BCF on our agenda. So, Bad Thing #1 - (on our way) Up (to Kalbarri where you'll find the) Murchison River, Without a Paddle. We would arrive in Geraldton just before 10am, provided there were no more stops. Our only stop so far had been to pick up beakfast and have a loo break in Badgingarra (say it three times fast: Badgingarra Badgingarra Badgingarra...i love outback place names...Coolamaloo, Dandaragan, Joondalup :P).

The next 'speedbump' occurred between Badgingarra and Geraldton. Due to a previous incident (not our doing!), the front wheelguard of the ute had a broken clip and was a little bit loose. Halfway between our previous and future stops it decided it yearned for freedom and flew off into the wilderness. It was never seen again. Not by us at any rate. We made a couple of passes but to no avail. Thankfully it's only an aesthetic addition and doesn't have any kind of functional use. Bad Thing #2 - Wheel Guard Serves No 'Wheel' Purpose.

We stopped at BCF, got our paddle and were on our way to make another fuel stop. As we drove through town I started to think about accommodation and realised I didn't know where we'd be staying the night. I hadn't even known which town we would be stopping in first until we'd been on the road for an hour or so. One simple question was to be the source of much frustration and wasted time. Bad thing #3 - You have the accommodation information, right baby? Unfortunately, no, he didn't. He knew exactly where it was though, next to the computer, on the desk, in our bedroom, at the house. Great. I called friends who lived nearby - working. My mum - at a meeting, and then got in contact with Danilo's sister Lisa who got us the number for the travel agency. Midway through explaining our problem to to them, the phone lines cut out, which meant we were stuck in Geraldton until we knew where we'd be staying in Kalbarri. Luckily, Lisa was kind enough to go to the travel agency, get the information we needed, and ask them to fax/email the details to us. This meant we had to line up at the post office to get the number and later to check if anything had come in. With no way to call the travel agency we had no choice but to wait..and wait....and wait. We found an internet cafe - nothing. Checked the post poffice - nothing. Finally we just got the name of the first place we were staying and drove to Kalbarri hoping for the best. Possibly the most painful part of the 2-hour process followed by the 2-hour drive, was getting to the Edge resort (beautiful by the way) and not being asked for any form of proof that we were who we said we were or that we'd booked accommodation there.

Arriving in Kalbarri two hours later than planned, we settled into our room and had a nap before going to see some sights. We only managed to get a few pictures of the coast before sundown but finally, we'd arrived at our first stop! We read up about a few other places to see, and you'll read about them in the next installment. Enjoy the pics!

Wildlife sightings so far:
3 Foxes (roadkill)
2 Rabbits (roadkill)
Not a cow or roo in sight.....yet...

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