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Hello,
Well we finally got our van on the road!
The rules aren't really the same over here as they are at home. Because we got it with Victoria plates on it we had to put WA plates on it (even though we will be selling it in Victoria) which ment it had to have tests and certificates, which cost money! Anyway it is sorted.
Cowtown (the name of the boys band) had a few gigs on the weekend so we decided to become roadies for the weekend and watch them. They were supporting a band called The Herd who are from Sydney and are quite big over here apparently. They are ozzy hip hop, we dont really get anything like it at home but they are really good and they have got a really big following.
We went to Bunbury, Dunsborough and Perth. Cowtown have got a really big following and a few wierd fans who follow them around wherever they are playing! They had been in the recording studio for 10 days before the gigs, so by the time they had finished their voices were fading fast.
We started our road trip on Mon 11th. We made it to a place called Geraldton on the first night which was 500km drive. As soon as you get outside of Perth you don't see anything, no trees, no people, no cars, no nothing. Just long stretches of road with lots of dead Kangeroos on the side. We haven't seen a living Kangeroo yet!! Seen a few Emus and a cow in the middle of the road that refused to move until we went right up to it and honked the horn in its face - that made it move!!!
On our way to Geraldton we stoped off at he Pinnicals Desert which was impressive. We went straight from Geraldton to Monkey Mia. That was about 450km. Monkey Mia is just a caravan park by the beach, but the main attraction there is that the dolphins come right up to the shore about 3 -4 times a day. No one knows why they do but they have done it for years, it was really nice to see. Got some good photos.
Monkey Mia to Coral Bay was our next stretch about 560km. It really takes it our of you driving in this heat. You feel like your being cooked in you car. Coral bay again is only a tiny place, it does have a hotel and a few supermarkets though. It is on the famous Nigaloo Reef which is ment to be brilliant for diving and snorkling. We couldnt afford the diving course just yet so we booked a quad bike/snorkle tour. Liam really didn't want to go snorkling but when he got in there he really enjoyed it. We saw loads of fish and coral and they said we might even see a turtle but they were shy that day. We took the quad bikes over the sand dunes and along deserted beaches it was a really good day.
After Coral bay we went to exmouth which is only 180km away so it was a short days drive. We didn't enjoy it as much as Coral Bay. Exmouth is set inland a bit because of the Cyclones they have up here it's safer than being on the coast.
We left Exmouth the next day and we wanted to make it up to Port Headland but we only made it to Karratha because we broke down. b*****!!!! We called out the RAC as we were in the middle of nowhere in the midday sun. The RAC man told us to wait for our engine to cool down fill the radiator back up with water and make our way to Karratha which was about 20km back the way we had come. So we managed to find a caravan park and we waited for him. He turned up at 6.30pm drunk and stoned!!! That filled me with confidence. He told us we needed a new radiator and it would cost $1000. As it was sunday we couldn't do anything until the morning. In Karratha they don't have enough mechanics to go around so there is a 2 week waiting list to get in anywhere. Luckily we managed to get in on Wednesday we don't know how we were just lucky.
While we waited around for 3 days we met a mechanic from England, was really nice and took the engine apart and found out what was wrong so the garage couldn't rip us off. It wasn't the radiator at all we needed a new water pump. It cost us $400 in the end and now we are back on the road. The RAC will be getting a complaint off us when we get back to Perth.
We stayed one night on 80 mile beach caravan park and then moved on up to Broome. Broome is a lovely town, it's not as big as I though it would be but it's got lots of charm to it. It's really bloody warm up here, our van is like an oven at 7.30am. You cant go in the sea here because of the Stingers (Jellyfish). We walked along cable beach this morning and you can see them bobing in the water everywhere. We are staying here for a few nights then we will make our way back down to Margaret River on Monday.
We are off to do a Camel treck now. Will put some photos on soon. xxx
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