West Coast

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Ok, so I know it's taken me FOREVER to write this blog, sorry! So I'm back in Sydney now and back working at the company I worked for before - will probably stay for about a month then head to Queensland.
So I'm guessing you all want to know about my camper trip on the West coast, well where to start..... 
I headed over to Perth and met up with Sarah. We were staying with some of her family friends in Waterman's bay. I got my own room and everything, it was pure luxury. We stayed here for a week before starting our camper trip. Western Australia is known as WA which is also nicknamed Waiting Awhile!!! It's very apt. The pace of life on the west coast is so more laid back- people over here are most definately horizontal! We spent a lot of time driving to different beaches and watching the sun set into the sea. The sunsets over here are amazing, just look at some of pics. Went into Perth city for a day, and had a nose around. Also went to Fremantle which is really nice - very European. We also did a day trip over to Rotnest Island. Roto is and island of the coast which has about 50+ beaches and no cars, you have to rent bikes and cycle around. We around a good bit of the island on our bikes and did some snorkling at a few beaches.
Friday 25th March - the day we picked up our camper!!!!
We got our camper from Wicked Campers. Wicked Campers are just our basic camper but the outside are painted in a graffiti style with sayings etc. We didn't know what camper we would get and we were pleasently surprised. Our camper was called Horton and was brightly coloured. A little boy up in Darwin actually painted the camper - so cute! The camper had a little sink, esky, and gasbottle in the back and lots of storage cupboard which we slept on top of with mattresses. It was surprisingly comfortable. Horton also had a CD player so we bought lots of cheesy CDs, good thing to as there isn't many radio stations further north you go. So the plan was to head as far north as possible, trying to get to Exmouth. We did t make it this far, basically petrol was so expensive, so we decided to just head to Shark Bay then head back down to Perth in the second week and then head into Margaret River for the Pro Surf Comp. We did get to see a lot in our two weeks with Horton.  
We started off our camper trip by heading up to Cervantes to see the Pinnacles Desert. It's a desert of rock formations. We also got a taste of things to come regarding the flies!! there are millions on the West Coast, and they love nothing more than crawling all over your face even after you've hit them away - THEY ARE DUMB!!! We tried to drive Horton down the dirt track, but he wouldn't make it so had to just take a quick look at some of the Pinnacles then start driving back up north. We took the Indian Ocean Drive along the coast towards Geraldton, stopping off at Port Denison for lunch. Had our first of many meals in a car park :-) Horton came with a table and chairs, had many a meal sitting along side Horton like the hillbillies we are! Geraldton was really nice, and we stayed in a really lovely caravan park that came with a pool and jump pillow (which is exactly as it sounds). We stayed in caravan parks every night, much safer that way, and they all had nice facilities like a camp kitchen. After Geraldton, we headed up to Kalbarri National Park along the North West Coastal highway. We stopped off at the Pink Lake, which is pink due to algae. The National Park was amazing, the coastal cliffs were spectacular. We even managed to drive Horton down the dirt track for 22km to see the river gorges. It was a very bumpy ride, but good old horton made it! YAY! the flies in Kalbarri NP were the worst. We had to make fly nets out of nets to keep them off our faces. Once out of the NP, we headed to Shark Bay and Monkey Mia. We decided this would be as far as we would go and then head back down south to Margaret River. The drive to Shark Bay was surreal - nothing for miles and miles. We came across a few roadhouses on the way, and used them as rest stops. One tip for a road trip in WA is always use a toilet when you come across one as you never know where another one will be! Shark Bay is a World Heritage Area. The scenery is amazing. We went a cruise in Monkey Mia and saw wild dolphins and sea snakes. The dolphins were being really playful and swimming along with the boat. We even went on a sunset cruise. Every morning on the beach in Monkey Mia, wild dolphins come up the shore to be fed. Tourist are allowed to stand in the water and watch the dolphins swim up and down. They are literally only 2 feet away from you. Only a few people get picked to feed the dolphins, unfortunately I wasn't one. on our last night in Shark Bay we were able to free camp. This was an amazing experience. We basically pulled up along the sea, cooked dinner out the back of Horton and then sat and watched the sunset and the stars come out. BLISS! and it didn't cost us a penny.
We took a few days to get back to Peth, had a two night stop over in Geraldton. Drove all the way down the Indian Ocean Drive back to Perth, went through the Wanugarren NP which was beautiful. Once back in Perth, we then headed down south towards Margaret River. The drive down was so much different, there were actual cars on the roads!!! We stopped at a few places on the way like Bussleton and Yallingup. Yallingup was really pretty. It consisted of a beach and really really posh houses. The waves here were surreal, nice little taster of things to come in the Surf Comp. When we arrived in Margaret River, the biggest change was the weather. It was cold. We had gone from 30+ degrees up north to 20 degrees and rain down south. Good job i bought my rain mac. The Pro Surf Comp was really fun. The waves were HUGE!!! and the surfers were amazing. We saw Kelly Slater who is the #1 surfer in the world. He walked right by us. We also watched Kelly Slater get knocked out the comp by a 20 year old Kiwi :-)
We had to give Horton back on Saturday 9th April - a sad day. I loved Horton to bits and our 2 week trip on the West Coast was amazing. Definately lived the backpacker dream of seeing the coast in a camper. Most definately a highlight of my time in Oz so far. Can't wait to see some more of the country.
Well, i'm back in Sydney now working, so won't be upto much, so untill my next segment of travels........

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