We left Denham in the by-now familiar Western Australia weather of sun, blue sky and strong winds. We planned on a fairly short day's drive, just taking in a few sights of the Shark Bay national park along the way. First up was Eagle Bluff, not far to the south. This was a vantage point high above the sea from where you were meant to be able to see sharks, rays and turtles in the water below. Unfortunately the tide was out a fair way which meant we glimpsed none...

Richard says I am like a shark: they have to keep moving to breathe and I have to find new challenges or I feel I am not learning anything in life. Francois Peron National Park in the Shark Bay area provided me with my next test because vehicle access was only along deep sandy tracks. The main places we wanted to visit were Big Lagoon, Cape Peron and Skipjack Point. Although I do most of the four-wheel driving Richard has an important position as my co-driver...

The next destination on our slow crawl down the west coast was the oddly-named Monkey Mia. This is a resort which has absolutely nothing to do with monkeys, but is famous for the dolphins which come to the beach every day to be hand-fed with fish by the tourists. Katy had never been particularly close to a dolphin before and it's been many years since I saw one close up, so we thought it would be a fun thing to do. We made sure we arrived early because the reso...

After roughing it in the Cape Range national park we spent a few days in the relative luxury of nearby Exmouth. We chose the Big 4 campsite mainly because it had an excellent kitchen - excellent by Australian standards, that is, though only a little above average compared to those in New Zealand. We didn't do much in Exmouth, to be honest, apart from chores such as cleaning, washing and cooking. Our use of the kitchen was limited, however, by the price of fresh...

After my encounter with reef sharks and rays in Coral Bay, and standing in the sea with Snapper swimming around my feet, I was confident that I was on the way to cracking my phobia of fish. I therefore bought myself a snorkel mask and flippers in Exmouth and looked forward to spending several days snorkelling on Ningaloo Reef in the Cape Range National Park. We got a list of all the Department of Conservation campsites in the park and had strict instructions fr...