G'day from W.A!

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G'day Folks!

We are now in Western Australia. We arrived in Perth at the beginning of December. We spent a few days staying in Perth and seeing the city (mainly its bars and pubs!) and the surrounding beaches. We spent a day on Rottnest Island which is a short ferry ride from Freemantle, where we hired bikes and explored the beautiful island. The island was quite hilly so we found the bike ride a bit of a struggle at times but were rewarded with the most beautiful, deserted beaches and clearest waters we have seen so far in our travels.

After a few days in Perth we picked up our campervan and headed up the great northern highway to Exmouth. The journey took us 3 days, making us realise exactly how immense this country is! On the drive up to Exmouth the scenery was typical Australian outback with miles of nothing but bush as far as the eye could see and no other cars in sight for miles. Unfortunately the only things to look at out of the windows was the roadkill (mostly kangaroos) caused by the trucks that drive at night. The drive itself was an experience.

We got to Exmouth and explored the Cape National Park and the Ningaloo Reef Marine Park. Again, the beaches here were amazing but very windy and we were lucky enough to see some live kangaroos whilst driving through the roads within the national park although they were always too quick to catch a photo. After a couple of Days in Exmouth we headed back south stopping off on our way down at various other national parks and beaches for snorkelling and site seeing, including a place called Monkey Mia which is famous for its wild dolphins that come to the beach every morning to be fed. Hayley was lucky enough to get picked out from the crowd to feed one of the dolphins (after waiting until the third feeding of the morning, wearing her brightest dress and staring hopefully at the rangers!). We also visited a stunning gorge and many lovely beaches and also the Pinnacles desert.

After about 9 days we had headed back past Perth and down to the south west corner of the country. The landscape and the weather here was completely different to the northern areas, with huge forrests of tall trees and vineyards everywhere you looked, it was hard to believe you were still in the same country. We visited the Valley of the Giants, a forest famous for its huge trees, and walked around the treetop walk which is a walkway suspended in the trees measuring as high as 40m at its highest and also visited a beautiful cave. We even camped deep in the forrest by a waterfall in one of the national park areas.

The West Coast overall has been a great experience and travelling in the campervan has been a great way to see and experience this vast country and the camping experience has also been brilliant fun. Altogether we have travelled more than the length of England and Scotland put together and thats only half of the West Coast! Next we are heading back to Perth for one more night and then across to Sydney to spend Christmas and New Year with James' family which we are so looking forward to.

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Photos

Pubbing it in Perth
The night Hayley had to be carried home after too much goon!

Im a Celebrity......
Up in the trees at the Valley of the Giants Treetop Walk

Firestarter
James was proud of his little campfire