And that was Western Australia!

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We are back in Perth as the Australian leg of this trip is practically over. We have returned our hire car after putting 4231km on the clock. Thankfully Thrifty were happy with it. It is always a relief to get the hire car back in one piece!

Today we drove here from Margaret River. We stopped at Bunbury en route to visit the dolphin discovery centre. There are a lot of dolphins in this area and they often come quite close to the shore around here. You can wade out into the sea to get a better look. Unfortunately for us there was not a dolphin to be seen! They had been really close to the beach three times that morning and had left about 10 minutes before we arrived. Obviously it is all a matter of luck and unfortunately luck was not on our side in this instance.

Our next stop was at Lake Clifton which as well as being a pretty lake is also one of the few places in the world you can see Thrombolites. Thrombolites are made by algae that cause the calcium carbonate in the water to precipitate. This results in a rock like structure. As you can imagine this takes a while and they only grow by 1mm a year. Although they don't look that exciting they are the earliest recorded life form and were around 350 to 650 million years ago! They existed before there was any oxygen on earth and it is believed that thrombolites were responsible for oxygen production which allowed life on earth to develop. I know I am a science geek but you have to admit that is pretty cool.


We have to get at freakishly early tomorrow so we can commence what is bound to be a very long and boring day of flights and sitting around in airports. I think tonight will be spent trying to ram everything back into our bags. Having a car means that we now have all our stuff in about 10 bags. I will have to cram my coat in somewhere. I have not worn it once yet and I am beginning to wonder why I bought it with me.

Until Hong Kong....

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Photos

Lake Clifton
Those rocks in the foreground are 'living rocks' called Thrombolites