Road Trip up the West Coast Of Australia!

After Perth we decided to brave the outback and go on a bit of a road trip....well a 3 week road trip actually covering 4000km.
So we picked up our Wicked Camper Van in Perth, which was spray-painted with Iron Man and we headed off. Didn't go far that night just north of Perth, camper up for the night at the beach. The next morning it was my turn to drive and bloody typical he wouldn't start, had to call road side assistance and basically we had to take him back to Perth to get a new van - great start not such an 'Iron Van'!!!
Luckily we weren't far from Perth so we drove back and picked up our new working van with Captain Caveman on it, and we were off again.
Basically we had 3 weeks to drive up the West Coast our final destination being Broome.
The Aussie roads are long, flat and very boring! You don't pass another car in hours so when you do the horns are tooting and your waving your arms about cause its the most life you have seen in ages, well apart from dodging the odd Kangaroo!!
We stopped off at numerous gorgeous beaches up the coast just parking up in the car park and camping over night (dont worry we made sure there were showers though!). Our van turned into quite a cosy wee bed at night although the further north we got it wasn't so cost more unbearably hot!!!!

One of our first actually tourist spots was the Pinnacles which are bits of lime stone in a desert which just appear from no-where, very strange!

Our drive to Kalbarri was interesting. Huge winds brought all the red dust up from the ground and it looked like you were driving into another world it was all very weird. Kalbrri was great fun even if we saw most of it in the wind and rain. There was a Cyclone further north which was bringing this bad weather and the road was closed so we had to stay in Kalbarri a little longer than planned. Lovely coastal line and national park, which I am sure looks even better on a nice day, but hey! This where we gave in to camping for free and cold showers and went to a caravan park where we met loads of other Wicked van and general campers!

Our next stop was Monkey Mia in Shark bay where we got up & close to the Dolphins in their Natural habitat. The people who fed the dolphins picked folk out of the crowd to come and feed the dolphins, we were there twice, twice and I didn't get picked :(!!! Very un-impressed!! Some of the most beautiful sunsets in Shark Bay.

We then headed north to Coral bay, which a great wee place. We only stayed there one night and what a rain storm we had it rained and rained!!!

Then it was onwards again to Exmouth. We decided to head into the national park there our first night and go snorkelling in Oysters Stacks and Turquoise Bay which was great fun. Joe saw a blow fish and loads of sting-rays! That was the only night we didn't manage to have a shower not bad in 3 weeks of camping!!! We saw loads of crabs that night watched them for ages running about sideways! Again another most amazing sunset there.

We then headed to a place called Karatha which had the most civilisation we had seen since we left Perth, although bit of a pants place. Very much the working industry place where they have loads of mines. The next night we went to Point Sansom just a wee bit north and it was a lovely wee place, great pub!

We were almost at Broome our last stop was 80 mile beach which was amazing, but unfortunately you couldn't swim in it :(! There were millions of shells on it and it looked like it went on for ever. That night in the dark we went down to the beach to see if we could see and Turtles as they are laying there eggs at the moment, but no luck we just saw loads more crabs scooting about.

Finally the next day we were in Broome woo hoo. Still had a couple of nights left in Captain Caveman. We ate very well on our trip pasta obviously quite a few nights but we ventured out some nights and had steak and snags on the barbie. There are loads of free BBQ's everywhere in Oz, especially beside the beach.

In Broome we went to the oldest open-air cinema and sat in deck chairs under the stars watching a film - bit a crap one mind you, it was Joe's choice! We learnt all about the pearling industry which was quite interesting, nearly treated myself to some pearls, but managed to control myself and say no!

Then the day arrived to hand back Captain Caveman which was a sad event, but man were we looking forward to some air con. We were driving and sleeping in up to 38 degree heat with no air con - never again. I shed a wee tear, well in my thoughts anyway, he was a great van which looked after us well. We both had a roadkill each as well Joe a lizard and me a stupid bird!

So we stayed in Cable beach in Broome for a couple of nights in luxury air con ahhhhhh! Went on a camel sunset ride along cable beach our last night which was great fun, gorgeous sunset, although slightly numb ass after sitting on a camel for an hour.

So that was a quick guide through our west coast road trip, had such a laugh doing it and what an experience. Loved it.

We then went onto the Northern Territory and headed to Darwin on a 27 hours bus journey. It went a lot quicker than we thought it would. Darwin is great still very hot, but not as hot and humid as Broome. Just chilled out here for a couple of days checking the sights out.

Tomorrow we start the next leg of our Oz trip and fly to Cairns to begin the East Coast tour which will take slightly longer.

So until somewhere on the east coast ....................

Miss you all hope your all well xxxxx

Perth Western Australia!

Ok so it has been a while sorry!
Not sure where to begin..........so finished our tour of South East Asia and headed Down Under. Perth was our first stop where we joined in with the locals and celebrated Australia day on the 26th January. We brought our beer, Aussie towel to sit on, Aussie stubby holders, made our Vegemite sandwiches and headed down to the river bank for hours of drinking playing games and fireworks. The fireworks were amazing, the best I have ever seen ever!!!! We had such a good day.
Perth is a lovely city, bloody hot. We didn't do very much the first time there because we were waiting for the girls (Kathryn & Lisa) to arrive to do everything with them.
We visited Fremantle (Freo) which is a great wee place by the sea with a big harbour. Great cafes there and a great wee market as well.
We then headed south to Margaret River where it was much cooler at night. Stayed in town for a few nights cycled miles, ended up that I couldn't sit down for a day or 2 afterwards. I superbly wiped off my bike, have the lovely scares to prove it! I was ok, gave Joe a bigger fright! We then moved to stay beside the beach and took part in our first Aussie surf lesson - laugh I nearly died, I actually did nearly die. The current was so strong it took me all my effort to get back out into the ocean with my board to catch another wave let alone actually surf. Managed to stand a couple of times though woo hoo. Joe took to it quite well as well. We are planning on doing lots more surfing when we get to the east coast. It was good fun though, a major work out.
We then came back to Perth and met up with Kathryn & Lisa (my bestest buddies from back home for those of you who don't know them). It was so good to see them and we in Perth Australia with them.
We had a great week full of fun & games. We went back to Fro with them this time enjoyed world class fish'n'chips by the harbour. Then went on this speed boat ride which had us completely soaked (Joe chickened out and didn't come). Doing spins and jumps and then breaking really hard so the water just comes over the top of you, great fun!!!
Then we had a full day of rain, full hard-core rain, it pissed it down all day. The locals were very glad of it though and it only lasted one day.
We then celebrated Kathryn's birthday in typical Aussie style got some drink made a picnic and headed to Cottesloe beach to spend the day. Sunbathing, swimming, drinking, birthday picnic with birthday cake, it was good fun. That night we went out for dinner with Kathryn's cousin and his girlfriend and then went to a club called The Deen and experienced a 'Yager-bomb' for the first time!!!!! Enough said!
Kathryn's cousin took us to a wildlife park they day after where we got to pet Kangaroos and I got to hold a big fat Wombat, it was so obese!!! It was so cool though. We got to stoke Koalas as well, I am definitely coming back as one of them they sleep 20 hours a day brilliant!!!! That night we had a tipical Aussie BBQ watching the sunset. Joe loves the BBQ's he is always in charge of them and is pretty damn good at them.
We headed back to Cottesloe on Sunday for the Sunday session at Cottesloe Hotel, basically a big outdoor and indoor bar with loads of drinking and chatting, good fun was had.
The next day we set out on our road trip with Kathryn the driver. The stupid sat-nav was rubbish and sent us in the wrong direction so we missed our ferry to Rottnest Island. So instead we went south to Rockingham where we had lunch swam, shopped and just relaxed. We then continued to Mandurah where we got a self-contained bungalow for the night - it was so cute like a wee family on their holidays. Lisa cooked us an amazing stir-fry for dinner, we had the beers and we played cards most of the night. Next day we made the ferry to Rottnest Island, where we hired bikes and cycled our way around part of the Island in the blistering heat! We stopped off at a bay called Little Salmon Bay. Joe and I were just having a wee hug in the sea and when we came out this Rottnest brochure working asked to take our pics as they were putting together a new brochure. It was so funny having to pose and looking into Joe's eyes for a camera, we felt such idiots, the girls thought it was very funny!!!!! She said she would e-mail us the photos but not seen them yet! Ah the things you do when your travelling!
That night we had our last evening with the girls dinner and a few drinks then we said our goodbyes sniff sniff.....but it's all good get to see them again in a few weeks in Cairns.

So our next adventure was collecting our Wicked Camper van and to travel for three weeks up the west coast of oz.........but that is a whole other story which I will tell you very very soon I promise!

Hope your all well, miss you all xxxxxxx