It's been such an amazing month full of incredible sights and experiences as well as a LOT of driving. It'd be impossible to write down everything I've seen and done so I'll keep it kinda short and sweet. A few of the highlights......The Howard-Bush van - We rented a van from a company called Wicked who are cheap but also graffiti all their vans. One side had a picture of Bush, the other John Howard (bet most of you don't know who he is!!) and they all have a message on the back - we got of fairly lightly. It said "the world is being run by guys that have been wankers since they were 12" it meant we got a lot of comments!! We managed to find one more travel companion, a Dutch guy called Joe.
Litchfield and Katherine - 2 national parks fairly near Darwin - more amazing waterfalls, swimming holes (where Jen made the mistake of wearing goggles "to see the pretty fish", instead she saw a freshwater croc!) and gorges (or Georges according to Joe!) We canoed down 2 of the gorges at Katherine and when we got fed up all you had to do was jump in for a swim. The campsite at Katherine was full of wallabies who were incredibly tame and also extremely cheeky, we lost a whole bag of rice to one!
Karijina National Park - Had one of the most amazing views I have ever seen, over several gorges. You could also venture down into several of them and get through them by a mixture of swimming and scrambling over rocks, tons of fun!
Meeting a prince - or to be more precise HRH Prince Leonard of Hutt River Province. To cut a long story short this mad crazy farmer found a loophole in Aussie law where he could separate from Oz to become his own province. It has its own postal service, army, flag, national anthem and even immigration (I've got the stamps in my passport to prove it!!) He even declared war on Oz! He also has a thing for crystals, pyramids and quantum physics!
Becoming a real aussie sheila - I received an email when I was in Nannup (very close to Albany) from Aussie Pete who I knew from Dohaarrrrrrrrrr. He said he was back in Oz and if I was ever near Albany to stay for a few days with him and his parents, it's a mad crazy world!! So we did and had a fantastic 3 days 4 wheel driving to deserted beaches, learning to cast a rod, caught my first fish and filleted it, learned to shoot, went cockling, tried to catch a squid and ended up with a tentacle, had yummy BBQ, shot a lemon bazooka, learnt how to skin a kangaroo, saw half a cow delivered in a wheel barrow... the list goes on!! Off course all accompanied by a lot of Tooheys!!
Ningaloo Reef - I reckon this place is miles better than the Great Barrier Reef and completely deserted. You can snorkel straight of the beach and see turtles, stingray, big fish, small fish, colourful fish, scary fish and lots of coral!!
Monkey Mia - friendly dolphins that come in for a few fish and a gape at the tourists a couple of times a day. We also went on a sailing trip and saw my first hammerhead shark (it's called shark bay for a reason!), loads of dugongs, dolphins and turtles.
Freemantle - our first traffic lights in 3 weeks aarrggghhhhhh!!! This must have been what shocked our van into breaking down. Thankfully it waited to do this when we were in a city and not in the middle of nowhere. I immediately knew it must be the brushes on the alternator and we needed to secure them back into place until we could replace it. Once I did this with my handy car repairer kit that I carry with me at all times we were on our way, hmmmmmmmmmm.... nothing at all to do with the friendly RAC man and his big yellow van. We swapped it with another van the next day. A bigger, better van with posh chairs, a TV and even a steering wheel cover oooohhhhhhhhh.
Freemantle is gorgeous and has lovely bars (that don't shut at 10pm) and less odd people per square metre than elsewhere in Western Oz. It has nice buildings and stuff too.
Joe decided to leave us here and get a job in Perth - I reckon he did well putting up with us as long as he did!!
Margaret River - yummy wine tasting, chocolate and cheese and more yummy wine. The area round here is pretty nice and fairly posh with a lot of old people (you'd love it Mum and Dad!!)
Getting our van stuck - ooopppsssssss, we got it kinda wedged in sand between 2 trees while looking for canoes. Luckily we only had to walk 4 miles to find some council workers who were painting sign posts white (no idea why!!) He first tried digging us out then gave up and towed us with his van. We ended up very hot and very very dusty but at least we got our van back.
Driving driving and more driving - it's quite a long way from Darwin to Perth, we covered about 9000km in the end when we include south of Perth as well. One game to keep us amused was spotting the pretty impressive roadkill! Massive roadtrains thundered by and there were times we only saw 2 cars a day.
Valley of the Giants - near Walpole in South Western Oz. Massive trees that have a 40m tree top walk around them. Up to 600 years old, bags of character. Jen managed to climb a 60m tree near here with no safety ropes maaadddd!
Now we’re in Perth staying with my Mum’s cousin. We’re being very well looked after and David even has his own observatory on the outskirts of Perth where we spent an evening looking at Nebulas, the moon and the international space station. The only other thing left to do is the famous ‘Sunday sesh’ on well… Sunday!!
I’m in Perth until Dec 5th when I fly to Sydney and spend a week with Bec’s (a lovely aussie girrrl I know from Dohaaarrrrr) parents 2 hours north. Then it’s back to Doharrrr for 2 weeks for Christmas. After that I fly back to Sydney for New Years and then probably back to Perth where I’ve applied for teaching jobs to get enough money for the NZ trip, probably around Easter time. My wee brother, Gordon may even join me! Got all that..!??!!!
Oh and I've finally got around to putting my piccies online, only the west coast ones mind. If you haven't received the email with the address on let me know..... xxxxx
West coast shananigans remains copyright of the author SJaaay, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.
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We've had a superb first week travelling, we've been staying with Mum's cousin in Perth and they've been fantastic taking us here there and everywhere. Gordon got to pat his first kangaroo and cuddle koalas - exciting stuff!!
xxxx