It was nice to get a rare early night as it was an early start heading off to our first stop of the day - Monkey Mia. Monkey Mia from a nature point of view, was the highlight of the Easyrider experience so far. A dolphin resort just outside of Denham, where the dolphins were fed daily by volunteers working at the resort and we were able to view this from just yards away as the dolphins came up to the shores. Unfortunately it was quite difficualt to get good photos, but the experience was brilliant - it was a wonderful sight. Although claimed to be wild dolphins, it is difficult to see this being entirely the case if they are being fed every day, but they still live in the ocean and not in captivity. All in all it was one of the highlights of the trip so far.

The third leg of the Easyrider trip was definitely a bit of a nature day and after our Monkey Mia experience we stopped off at Ocean park, where for a fee of 10 dollars we were given a guided tour around this Oceanarium where many species of fish, sharks, and water based mammals were kept in tanks and pools. The german guy who worked there was very knowledgable and the highlight was definitely seeing the sharks being fed in the large pool. Other highlights were seeing the stonefish, a fish that commoflages itself in the water and stays in one position for days until it pounces on another unsuspecting fish, and also seeing turtles and seasnakes.

In the afternoon we stopped off at Shell Beach on our way towards Coral Bay. Shell beach does exactly what it says on the tin. It is a beach full of shells located in Shark bay. This beautiful snow-white beach is made up of millions of tiny shells up to 10 metres deep and stretching for over 120kms. After taking away some samples of the shells we moved on to Carnavon to stop off for a supermarket stop on our way to Coral bay. Coral bay, we were told, was very small and everything was very expensive so it was best to stock up on food and alcohol in Carnavon.

I was told before I left Perth not to bother staying in Carnavon as it was 'a bit of a hole'. I don't think that is far off the mark as we entered into Carnavon I saw a sign for Crimestoppers, something you just don't see much up the West Coast and the general feel for the place was not good. Many backpackers apparently stop here for work. I was glad I didn't need to.

A few hours later we arrived into Coral Bay. "Aaah, Beautiful Coral Bay" it stated on the Easyrider leaflet we were given. And they were not wrong. Situated at the southern tip of the Ningaloo Marine Park Coral bay is like paradise. A small town with just one street, one bar and a cluster of restaurants. the beach is just a couple of minutes from the hostel and the place is relatively untouched compared to some places. Kilometres of empty sandy beach, ideal for sunbakers, for relaxing, snorkelling, boat trips and watching the sunset with a few beers. No amount of superlatives, for me, would do Coral bay justice. It was a wonderfully quiet place as well, at least it was until our Easyrider bus rocked up into the bay!

The first night we had a BBQ arranged for us in the hostel - the Ningaloo Backpackers. The hostel was possibly the best hostel I had stayed in so far. It had a great idea of getting backpackers to clean for 2 hours a day and in exchange get their accomodation for free. This meant that the place was very clean, and in addition had a very good atmosphere with a bar, pool tables, table tennis, foxtel and a pool. It was so good that even the locals preferred to go to the hostel bar than the pub. On the first night I ended up catching up with the girls from Kalbarri, who had spent the last few days in Coral bay and were catching the bus I had just arrived on, in the morning up to Exmouth. The evening ended with a few drinks just outside the bakery, once the hostel had closed - the place to go in Coral Bay after 12 O'Clock!