Back to Perth, briefly leaving Australia on the way

---

I think for this entry I will merge two days together. These two days were basically just the return journey- having leisurely wound our way up from Perth to Exmouth over five days and taking in the sights along the way, we now had two days to cover the same distance.

The first day was almost exclusively spent in the bus, just with fuel/ toilet/ food breaks. By the end we had passed from the 'bush' landscape which had been so prevalent over the past few days into an area of arable farmland. In fact we actually spent the night at Northbrook Farmstay near a small town called Northampton. This was a picturesque area in a rural, farmy sort of way, and was the site of the (by now somewhat diminished, since we lost almost half our number after Monkey Mia and someone else stayed behind at Coral Bay as we passed back through it earlier that day) groups final night together.

On the morning of the final day we went to a whole different country! Yep, for about an hour we left Australia entirely to visit the Hutt River Province, founded in 1970 when a farmer seceded from Australia. I even have the stamp in my passport. We took a quick look around guided by HRH Prince Leonard himself who delivered his spiel at a machine-gun pace. It was a very quirky section of my trip, and I popped into the pyramid for a bit of spiritual healing (it energises you, you see) in the hope of shaking off the cold. Sadly, no luck there. Perhaps I just didn't believe it enough.

A second stop on the final leg of the journey was a lunch break at Greenough Wildlife Park. This got me my best look at various Aussie wildlife so far, albeit behind a fence or cage. We got to feed various animals, including the mass of kangaroos (but not the crocodile or the dingos). I also got to hear my first actual proper talking parrot!

So that was that. We arrived back in Perth around 5pm and people went their various ways. I took off almost immediately to Fremantle where I already had accommodation booked in the Norfolk Hotel, picked because a) Lonely Planet recommended it, b) Norfolk! Like where I grew up!

---

Photos

Sunset
...down on the farm

Hutt River Province
Sitting on the throne!

The Pyramid
...with it's 'healing' powers

Kangaroo feeding time
Awww!