Our General Daytime Viewing
After a brief trip down South we embarked on a much larger road trip going North to Exmouth and the Ningaloo Marine Park. This would be a much sterner test of endurance for both Rella and I and of course, the mighty Mazda Bongo. The round trip is about 3000 kms, or a bit like driving from Bristol to Croatia.
"Home"
We'd be again sleeping in the Bongo, but this time, after the trip down south we made sure that we had an inflatable mattress. We now had all the gear, and no idea!
Couldn't resist visiting this Twin Town
We planned our route and stop overs at various tourist spots along the west coast, and at our first stop, Dongara, we made our first changes. Dongara is a sleepy town, with not a lot to do, but made an ideal first stop about 350 kms from Perth.
Dongara
Our next stop was Kalbarri. This was a really good tourist spot, good surf, gorgeous gorges, and great grub (Half a lobster, massive prawns and a fillet steak - surf and turf for 15 quid). We stayed here a couple of nights whilst I digested the meal, plus there was a game in the pub on Thursdays where we could win $5,700, we didn't.
The Salt Lakes at Port Gregory
Gorgeous Gorges of Kalbarri
From Kalbarri we took a monster drive of 800 kms to Exmouth. It seemed like there were more Emus than people. From here we had a couple of dives on the Ningaloo Reef Marine Park, no real big stuff despite our dive master scrunching a plastic bottle under water to attract the local grey nurse sharks!!! I did make friends with a massive potato cod who took a shining to me whilst I was giving the dive master one of my weights. I think he fancied me, or maybe just a bit peckish.
Exmouth turned out to be the start of a wildlife adventure that Bill Odie would have been proud of, as the next day we went snorkelling on the reef at a place called turquoise bay. It has a strong current that takes you along the beach so you don't need to kick or swim, just float. Here we did see a big reef shark, but Rella swam the other way - wimp! In the evening we took an eco tour to see the nesting turtles on the beach. Within a group of ten we headed for the beach on our hands and knees, in the pitch black ready to spot turtles (bearing in mind our tiger trip in India we didn't have much hope) within seconds we had already seen two turtles emerging from the water, within an hour we were in a crowded heap one on top of the other (no better way to mingle with the rest of your tour group!) watching a mega green turtle lay over 100 eggs. WOW!
Next stop was on our journey South and Coral Bay. Here there were schools of sharks, young reef sharks about 1.5m long, and loads of rays, so I went swimming with them!!
The Sharks!
Monkey Mia was next - a world famous resort where wild dolphins come in every day to play and get a fish or two from the tourists. Only two showed up in the morning, but it was a Mum and her 2 day old calf with wrinkly skin and having to breath through its mouth not blow hole! There was also a logger head turtle who played by the jetty. But that wasn't all, oh no. On the second day we went on a cruise on the fastest ocean cruiser in the world (or it was before Monkey Mia got it and loaded it with a bog and a fridge). It's a 45ft catermaran and it shifts. But even that wasn't all, oh no. We were on the boat in search of Dugongs, of which we saw many, and a couple of deadly sea snakes for good measure. That evening I tried to catch a shovel nosed shark, which apparrently are beeuuttiful eating, with my hands. fear not they're armless!!
The Dugong
Final port of call was Jurien Bay, and the pinnacles. These are pointy rocks in the sand, nuff said.
As it was our last night before heading back to civilisation, we got pissed in the only pub in the bay and met Cookie, Dave and Chris. Cookie looked like a monster, and ironically lived in a cave (well when he'd had an arguement with his wife). Dave, Cookie's mate, looked even more like a monster - you thought my beard was bad, oh boy. Then there was Chris, mate of Cookie and Dave, he appeared quite normal, apart from his smell. In Aus they have this natural poison that kills ferel beasts but not native animals as they have built up a tolerance over hundreds of years. Well Chris' aftershave certainly put off this couple of ferel tourists!
Meet Broc, our sober driver for the day
Luke detecting the toasted biscuit mid palate and floral undertones (who makes this stuff up?!)
Our day ended in the way one might expect...drunker, poorer and carrying many more bottles than should be allowed at the start of the New Year. I am not sure that I could tell you whether or not a wine had a 'blanced tannin structure with a slightly dusty, spicy and toffee finish', in fact I'm not even sure that I could tell you what a tannin is. Still, I know a little more than I did before and the wine was fantastic!
4:30...the drinking begins
Ed finds another use for the 'goon' bag - the full middle of a box of wine
Mark embarks on another slab of Australia's finest
Ed creates bubbles before pass out
Rella decides that a 5am "to see the Australian New Year in" is a good idea - can you see anyone else in there???
6am - Another good decision, Rose for breakfast...oh dear!
As you can see from the few photos that I remembered to take, we had a great time seeing the New Year in before you reached midnight. Here's hoping that you had a good one too!
On a more serious note, we both wish you great happiness for 2007 - follow Mark's lead, make your resolution; "to have more fun than last year".
Take care of yourselves xxxx
