Just a quick drive up north...

... is not what we have booked! Its crazy how remote everything is - seriously, you are driving for 12 hours with only a roadsign and a small roadhouse in between - and that is just one days travel and you havent really moved up the map!

Its taken us a week to get to Exmouth, which is about half way between Perth and Broome. First day was a trip to the Pinnacle Desert and a whole lot of driving. Day 2 was Kilbarrie to Denham, where we visited the Kilbarrie National Park and did a spot of rock climbing down seriously steep Z gorges with spider webs everywhere. On a separate point - I'm starting to get used to toilets with spiders in their webs hanging in the corner of the cubicle!!




Day 3 took us to Monkey Mia, where you get to see real dolphins right at the waterfront. Was so cool - they are so cute! Jumped off the bus that night at Coral Bay - so we had 3 nights there...


What can I say about Coral Bay! The population is 120 people and the showers/kitchens are salt water - which provided us with amusement when making tea and forgetting to use the fresh water tap! Coral Bay has been the highlight so far - have been trying all sorts of new things like quad-biking through the sand dunes at sun-set and driving along the beach at 70kmph - sweet! Tried some wutao dancing on the beach, saw a shark nursery area, went for a midnight swim in the ocean - did not want to leave!


However time to move on, and next stop was Exmouth. Firstly we visited Turquoise Bay, where we went snorkelling and I managed to con a free beer from the tour guide as I spotted the first turtle of the day! Also, big mention to James who showed me a shark and Colin for some stingray action! Coral and fish were beautiful too - was so amazing seeing all the animals. Decided I'm going to learn to scuba dive on this trip. Had a few drinks and enjoyed the Telstra phonebox challenge - think we fitted about 10 people in at the same time! The ratio of phone boxes to people in Coral Bay is about 1 phonebox per 6 people! Very bizzare!




Next day involved learning to drive scooters round Exmouth! Julie had a bit of a rocky start by driving over a bar in the petrol garage which kept us all amused! Did a bit more snorkelling and had a walk through Mangrove Bay - water up to your thighs where we could spot stingrays, crabs, small sharks and turtles in their natural environment. Bit of a dodgy moment as I had the petrol can on my bike, and didn't realise that one of the girls behind me had run out of petrol - was so busy racing Julie to get to the lighthouse. This meant Timbo the tour guide had a few extra k's to do!! Whoops!

Tomorrow we head up north and inland, so no more beaches for a few days. Will be good to be able to put sun screen on without rubbing sand all over yourself!!! Trip has been so good so far - lovin every minute!!!