Blogs from Western Australia, Australia, Oceania - page 637

105 hours till departure Well, I'm here at work running through my mind all the things I need to have sorted before we fly out. Stevo flies in on Saturday night (been in NZ snowboarding for the past 2 weeks), and then we leave on Monday night/Tuesday morning 1am 16th of August. So here's a rough idea of our itinerary: *Stop over in Singapore *Land in London at Heathrow on the 16th about 3pm *Fly to Spain on the 29th of August *Spend roughly a week in Spain *Travel by train through Southern France - Arrive in Italy *Spend roughly a week in Italy *Train to Switzerland, spend a few days there *Then to Austria for a couple of days *Then to Germany for roughly a week *Train to France, spending a couple of days there ... read more

Caught up on a lot of sleep and then blew the budget on an amazing fishing trip as I've ALWAYS wanted to go big game fishing - well, it wasn't quite that exciting, especially as i managed to catch diddly squat!! But we did see a huge manta ray that came right up to the boat and absolutely stacks of whales, including 2 that were sleeping side by side, and another one that was really curious and circled the boat for ages, diving underneath us (slightly worrying) and coming up really close. We were so lucky and the guys on the boat taking us out who are there every day said they'd never seen anything like it. I kept losing my bait, so I don't think my fishing skills would keep me alive if i was ... read more

Last day of the Kimberley tour...! After breakfast we walked down Windjana Gorge which was right next to where we camped last night. The gorge is in a huge ridge of rock that rises out of the desert and actually used to be a West Coast Great Barrier Reef about 375-350 million years ago. It's a really stunning spot as the gorge walls rise up 90m, and the Lennard River runs through it - which is the best spot in the Kimberley for seeing freshwater crocodiles. We took loads of photos near the crocs, hoping to god that they didn't move. After lunch we were driving along when the truck suddenly screeched to a halt and Finn yelled SNAKE!!!!!!! So we all crowded over to the windows and started snapping away! The first snake that I'd ... read more

Went on a walk first thing from camp to the other side of Barnett Gorge where we'd been swimming yesterday. It was pretty much rock-climbing at one point, it was so steep. Also saw a rock wallaby! Had another long swim which was lovely. I got some of that plant that has saparin in it and decided to use it wash my hair to everyone's amusement, but it actually worked fine and no allergic reactions or green hair! Just call me Bush Lizard! Then we walked to Galvans Gorge, a longish walk over a rocky creek bed, to another swimming hole where there was a waterfall and rope swing over the pool. Only 3 of us girls did the rope swing, it was hilarious as you had to balance on this branch first and try to ... read more

The distances between places in Western Australia are unbelievable, you can drive for about 8 hours and only see two petrol stations, an emu or two and 333 thousand dead and rotting Kangaroo Carcasses (lovely!). Thus, we have had to stop in a couple of places with no real tourist attractions but just for a nights sleep before the next mammoth journey into the dessert. Most of these places have been all right, and we really quite liked Port Hedland, however Dongara was another story. We had to stop in Dongara on our way to Lancelin and booked in to the YHA there. We arrived late afternoon and were greeted by the friendly owner who told us that we were staying in a 'really nice room' so we were pretty chuffed. It turns out that we ... read more