Hi everyone,

From Darwin we took a flight to Broome on the west coast in the smallest plane only held 30 people, did get fed though loads on the flight. Not really much to Broome small town but cable beach was one of the nicest beaches we have ever been too, really white sand and crystal clear water it was beautiful.

From Broome we started our road trip down to Perth in yet another campervan, this time rented and his name was Howard. Our first day we just drove and drove through nothing, it all looked the same for miles around. Anytime you would see a car everyone waves to eachother, it was the highlight of our day. Our destination Port Hedland wasnt the best proper industrial mining town but we spent 2 days there just relaxing by the pool.

From there the trip really got started when we headed inland to the Karijini NP. Getting there was a bit treacherous as the roads arent all tarmac so it was 26 km on rough gravel track (which we arent actually allowed to take the van through but oh well), it was worth it. The NP is a series of big gorges that you can walk and swim through. It was fab spent 2 days walking through water, narrow gaps in the gorge and swimming in the rock holes. The scenery was amazing.

It was another big driving day to reach Exmouth our next destination left at 7 and didnt get there until 4 and shock the views were pretty much the same all the way so when we arrived near Exmouth and could see the sea we got very excited. Only spent one night in Exmouth to shower and stock up in supplies as we were heading to the Cape Range NP to basically just snorkel over the Ningaloo Reef for 3 days. It was unbelievable, the best place was called Turquoise Bay where you only had to walk 10 m out into the sea and it was like an aquarium beneath you. We saw so many mutli coloured, large, small,strange shaped fish, and even stingrays and reef sharks (which luckily are harmless), the turtles were avoiding us however.

Very sad to leave Cape Range but we were heading to an equally beautiful place, Coral Bay. It was only a very smal place with a few caravan parks fronting a lush beach. We decided to do a snorkelling boat tour as the reef isnt quite as close to the shore, it was fab finally saw the elusive turtles plus yet even more fish, but the best bit was when they took us snorkelling over a shark cleaning station were all the reef sharks head to have their teeth cleaned by other small fish, it was amazing there was at least 6 reef sharks no more than 2m below us. They are harmless but when our guide said dont be scared if they come up towards you with their mouths open we dont think we would have taken any chances.

We said goodbye to Coral Bay and the Ningaloo reef to go to Monkey Mia. This is were wild dolphins come right into shore nearly everyday for feeding to supplement their diet. We arrived really early in the morning and it was worth getting up for as literally within 10 mins there was a dolphin right in front of us, she was virtually on the sand she was so close. After a talk with the park rangers 4 more turned up and 2 babies, it was amazing. Lou was even more excited when she was picked to feed one of the dolphins, dream come true.

With all the excitment over by 8.30am we drove on down the coast and parked up at a 24 hour resting place on the side of the road with all the grey nomads (older aussies). Very friendly people ended up sitting around a campfire with a couple who actually hail from England but havent been back in over 25 years!!!

The next morning we moved on to Kalbarri, a small coastal town, it was very pretty spent the day relax on the beach to save our energies for the days excitment tomorrow. We were going sandboarding!!!! It was such a laugh but also very tiring as once you go down, you also have to climb back up the dune again. Started on the smaller slopes to practice, Matt being the only man it was only right he should test it out first. All good. Learnt 3 techniques for going down the slopes, face down, sitting up and backwards. From there it was time to head for more challenging slopes, felt like it was virtually 90 degrees but obviously wasnt, you went really fast. As we were just so good got to practise standing up on a really gradual slope, this was were we spent more time on our asses, very hard. After a refreshing swim we tackled the thunderdome before we headed back on some very tired legs.

Now on our final stretch down into Perth passing through some fantastic coastal features and even more amazing for us a town with traffic lights and everything. Last stop was the Pinnacles which are just random pieces of stone sticking out of the sand, strange!! And then we were in Perth, really sad to have to drop back Howard, had a brill time travelling down the west coast.

Next instalment Perth

Take care

Tatey and Lou xxx