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Published: January 26th 2005
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Bussleton Jetty
You can hear the cries, "Haylp, haylp" How can I describe Perth? Like a laid back Adelaide is my best attempt. It's a nice place to spend a few days so we wandered round the town and went to visit Fremantle for a wander, great fish and chips and an interesting visit to the old prison.
There's sooo much to see in WA that we hired a car and headed south from Perth to Bunbury to visit the Dolphin Discovery Centre. We did discover a lot about dolphins but unfortunately we didn't see any. We continued on to Busselton to see the longest pier in the southern hemisphere. The following day we visited a couple of the local caves - firstly Ngilgi Cave with the full fibre optic lighting treatment, guides and information boards, followed by Giants Cave where we were given a hard hat and a torch and were told to be careful. Both had some fantastic formations.
We decided to cool off for a while so the following day went scuba diving on the wreck of the HMAS Swan off the coast near Dunsborough. It was great to go diving again and the ship was teeming with wildlife.
From 25m under the sea
Diamond Tree
52m to the top, and yes I'm sure it's perfectly safe to 52m above the ground, we headed for the tall trees of WA climbing the Diamond fire lookout tree on steel pegs hammered into the trunk. A slightly more sedate look at the top of the canopy was achieved in the Valley of the Giants, a tree top boardwalk 40m above the forest floor.
To round off our whistlestop tour of South West WA we visited Wave Rock, a rock shaped exactly like a wave about 350km from anywhere! On the drive back to Perth we visited the historic town of York where Ness felt right at home. Back in Perth we caught up with Karen, another old friend and Rich (hubby) and Gus (baby) who were kind enough to put us up.
We spent the following day at Rottnest Island, a sand island off the coast near Perth where we hire bikes to get to all the beaches for some great snorkelling and trying not to melt in the heat.
Time to head north with the first stop at the Aquarium of Western Australia to bone-up on our knowledge of the local aquatic life. We then headed for the Pinnacles Desert where hundreds of stone pillars
Wave Rock
When you see a wave in Australia, that's your cue to go surfing up to 5m tall are standing in the desert. It is much more impressive than it sounds, very cool. The following day, a brief stop in Geraldton to look at the Cathedral (decorated inside with orange and blue stripes!) we lunched overlooking one of the picturesque gorges in the Kalbarri National Park. Heading on up the road we stopped again to see the stromatolites in the Hamelin Pool, the oldest lifeform on the planet (they've been around for the last 2 billion years).
In Monkey Mia the following morning we went paddling with the local dolphins who were swimming right at our feet as they waited for their morning feed. We took a sailing trip round the bay to see the local wildlife that included dugongs, eagle rays, turtles, sea snakes and a leopard shark.
Following another long drive up to Coral Bay, we spent the following day relaxing on the beach and snorkelling on the Ningaloo Reef, about 50m offshore, with fantastic coral formations and loads of tropical fish. In the evening we took a quad bike tour across the sand dunes to watch the sunset. The turtles, 'roos and snakes we saw were an added bonus.
Snorkelling with a manta ray was next on our itinerary. We took a boat from Coral Bay to the outer reef which found (with the help of a spotter plane) a huge manta ray about 4m across which didn't seem to mind our company as we swam along with it. The shoal of reef sharks and the leopard shark hanging round didn't seem to mind us either. The rest of the day was spent turtle spotting and snorkelling over the reef before it was time for us to head for Exmouth for a couple of days of diving on the reef.
The diving on the Ningaloo Reef was fantastic. We spent a day at the Muiron Islands and another day at some closer dive spots and had an unbelievable time. The highlight was one dive where we were swimming with octopus, turtles, wobbegong and reef sharks, lionfish, a big eagle ray and even Nemo in his anenome!
All too soon it was time to head back to Perth for the Australia Day fireworks and to get ready for our next stop, Singapore. Mind you, after driving about 5000km in 2 weeks, I won't miss the car!
Monkey Mia
The locals come to say hello That is all for now (I think you've got quite enough to be getting on with)! I'll try and add a bit more sooner next time.
Try not to work too hard!
Cheers
Viv and Ness
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anonymous
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Wow! wot a trip
REally enjoying the travel blog as I read of hot weather and sun as we sit enduring flurries of snow and bitter cold. YOu really are having an energetic time out there . The photos are fantastic. Happy holidays (and Happy New Year for 2005!) - Aunty Mel