In Broome.

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Ok, so lots has happened - I'm really having the time of my life.

uh, where did I leave off. Fabian picked us up, and we drove off. We've been living extremely cheaply, camping for free by pulling off the road and pitching tents or by leaving campsites before park rangers come around. Its been pretty fun.

We went to Coral bay, which is famous for it's incredible coral formations (duh). This is one of those things that words can't explain, if you've never seen coral. It's like, these giant underwater flowers of exotic colours, sometimes several meters high, and absolutley teeming with exotic marine life. I spent hours in coral bay just exploring. Sometimes you'd find a clearing where hundreds and hundreds of fish would be swimming in circles, some of them tiny, electric blue, some of them two or three feet long and purple. You can go ahead and swim with them and they're not bothered, as they don't recognize you as a predator. You can come within centimeters of them before they swim off.

In Coral bay, we wanted to avoid the overpriced Caravan park, so we drove off to this nature conservation zone, where we were totally secluded, and spent the night drinking wine and singing songs on the beach

We then spent a couple days camping in Exmouth on the National Cape Range, which was supposed to be some of the best camping in WA. I have to say, I wasn't super impressed, I mean, it was nice, but our conservation area was far better.

We then continued up to Karijini national park, where I had... probably the most fun I've had since I got here. We met these other backpackers - 3 Germans (Diana, Anne and Michael) and one Swiss (Claudio). We all set off the next morning for Karijini's main attraction - it's enormous gorges. These beasts were about 100 meters deep or more in places, and were sometimes difficult to navigate. Along the bottom of the Gorge ran a steady stream of pure rainwater, which sometimes went over waterfalls and into large beautiful pools.

After we'd climbed about 20 minutes, we came to a beautiful pool, where we jumped into the water and ate lunch. It was a beautiful spot. This is where the caution signs began. Unless you had the proper certificate, safety equipment, instructor and had informed local authorities of your intentions to climb further, you were not to go - it is too dangerous a climb. When I saw this I was prepared to turn back, but Claudio, the swiss, thought we should continue. A few of us guys agreed, and we set off. The first bend was so scary, I wasn't sure if I should keep going. You had to go around a corner, so you couldn't see your footrests, but instead had to feel them out. A fall here probably would have meant death. Luckily, Claudio is a regular mountain goat, and was able to navigate these bends and then show us the best way to go about it. The payoff was incredible - we were able to see sections of the Gorge that most people never do, and frankly, they were much more beautiful. Thirty foot waterfalls, excellent water holes... mm. We spent the next day climbing as well, although it was much more tame.

So from there we took off to eighty-mile beach, which basically delivers what it promises - it's a beach that goes on as far as they eye can see (and further). Not surprisingly, this beach was quite secluded. We met the new backpackers for a big steak dinner, and spent the night on the beach drinking cold beer (first cold thing I'd eaten since I left Perth) and singing songs. I stayed most of the night to see the sunrise, and it was gorgeous. I did pass out for about thirty minutes at one point, and I dreamed someone was running their fingers along my face, gently at first, and then harder and harder until it hurt quite a lot. I woke up and found an enormous crab pinching at my forehead.

The next day we drove into Broome which is where I am writing from now. Broome is legendary for it's beaches, has one of the worlds top rated beaches. I liked it a lot, but I've found other beaches I actually like more in WA.

We arrived at the time of the full moon, which is a big event here. They have what's called the staircase to the moon, where the light of the moon apparantly shines it's light all the way along the shore right to where you stand. We've been unlucky with clouds, but we have one more try tonight, so maybe we'll be lucky. And yes, I've been spending every night up late drinking and singing on the beach. Last night we went to a kareoke bar and let 'er rip, that was good fun. Befriended an aboriginal woman who told me some pretty crazy stories.

Uh, what else. I'm thinking about doing some skydiving here, as there is a company that seems to be able to do it pretty affordably. Uh. I've been looking to find work on a boat for about ten days, doing pearl cleaning, but it looks as though that might not work out, in which case I'll continue along to Darwin, and then along to the east coast and down.

yes. BYE!

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