Friday 5th June - Sunday 7th June

Got to Monkey Mia after 12 hours on bus. Its just a resort right on the beach front, beautiful weather and away from everything, bliss. Monkey Mia is famous for the dolphins. Since the 1960's 3 generations of dolphins come in each morning to be fed 3 times between 8am and 12pm, and they pick people out of the crowd to feed them. I was walking along the beach and one of them just came up and started to swim around everyone interacting, they get so close and are really playful. There are also loads of emus just casually sauntering around the resort. There are turtles swimming around really close too, they will poke their little heads out to take some air, then go under for a swim again, so cute. Went on a boat crusie to see Duogongs, but didn't see any as its getting out of season and their really shy, but saw some HUGE green turtles and dolphins. Managed to get a HUGE wooden splinter stuck in my heel and couldn't get it out, so went to the office where 2 women, one of them an ex-paramedic tried to get it out, but failed. She said "Woah, thats a ripper!" when trying to pull it out, and after about 20 minutes she said I could either go to hospital in Perth (10 hours away) and get it cut out, or wait to see if it came to the surface after a few days. Well, I could not weight bare on my foot so was walking around like a constipated penguin, and I could not sleep due to the throbbing stabbing agony of it. It was torture. Next morning got up to watch the early dolphin feed, and its only the females that get fed. The calves need to learn to hunt for themselves and if the males get fed they turn aggressive towards the females (surprise surprise- food aggression in males, shock horror!). There were about 8 of them around, including the young calves playing, and they get to about 2 foot away from you, and they roll over and eye you up to check you out, and chatter away, So adorable. Afterwards I went on a camel ride along the beach, and the guy doing it was called Henk, and my camel was Digger. Henk taught me all about camels and I learnt so much, they are beautiful and gentle creatures, and when I fed them carrot they took it out of my hand so gently. Henk is passionate about animal welfare so we had a very indepth conversation about it. Afterwards I mentioned my splinter, so he told me to sit down, took one look at it, then reached in his pocket and pulled out and flicked open a knife. I turned away at this point feeling slightly faint, but he cut and dug away at the hard skin on my heel. I was wincing and making a few squealing sounds, but he got the b***** out. It was so big, I can't believe I managed to get something that size stuck in there. I was so grateful I was gushing like an awestruck schoolgirl and gave him a huge hug in thanks. Man I was so grateful it was unreal, then he cupped my heel in his hand for about 10 minutes to let the heat ease the pain, and it certainly worked. I can walk again - its a miracle! Went on the sunset evening cruise after which I got free with booking the other one. One thing I learnt about Bottlenose dolphins is they are actually one of the most aggressive species of dolphins, and groups of 2 or 3 males will 'kidnap' a female, keep her captive for up to a month, not letting her out of their sight so no other male can mate with her, and they will even kill her calve to make her more 'receptive'. Come on now guys, aggressive, intimidating and bullying behaviour is really not the way to go now. Just get over yourselves and learn to take NO for an answer. Honest to god! Anyway, once the females are let go, they go off and mate with multiple partners. Nevermind lads - paybacks a b**** eh? Ha ha ha, serves them right, freedom of choice is where its at. Bullys do not prosper!

Monday 8th June - now in Kalbarri, after a 4.30am pick up on the bus. Im actually going to quite miss these Greyhound bus journeys. The average is 10-12 hours, but it doesn't bother me as I like to get in my own little bubble world, sit back and chill, look out the window and have my own thoughts whilst watching the scenery. Sometimes when I get to my destination I wish I could stay on the bus longer and think and relax. Ive also become a pro at catching snippets of sleep on them, as train and bus journeys are so hypnotic, that before you know it your chins hitting the floor through sleep. Okay. so theres the stiff joints when you wake up, and I tend to wake myself up by my jaw on the floor, I don't catch flies when I sleep - I catch jumbo jets! So I look around to see if anyone noticed - which of course they did, so I swivel in my seat to face the window and pull my hair over my face to hide it and hope it won't happen again - which of course it will. When I got to the hostel I met a Canadian girl in my room called Christa who wanted to do the canoeing trip in Kalbarri National Park with me. I warned her I'm crap, she said she's good so would do most of the work. Sweeeet. Now my paddling/rowing skills are as good as my driving the dodgems. (My mum will tell you at how the age of 11 years on holiday in Great Yarmouth, I was on the dodgems with my little cousin Carla. Everyone else goes speeding off around the track, but my car just goes round, and round and round in circles on the spot. Mum is in hysterics on the sidelines, and apparantly Im sat with a deadpan straight face, trying to work out why the hell I'm not moving like everyone else??? It must be broken!!). Enough said. So, off we go the next day to the National Park, and down to some beautiful gorges to canoe. I've only been kayacking before, so I sat in the front and did the paddling, and Christa sat in the back and steered (just as well given my steering history), and she does it loads back in Canada. The views were stunning, and it was so tranquil listening to the calm waters and the birds singing. We canoed 6km, and my god my arms, back and shoulders were screaming at me 'I'M ON FIRE!!!!", after using muscles I didn't know even existed. Afterwards we went for a hike clambering up loads of rocks to the Z Bend, a lookout in the Murchison river, then up to Natures Window. The landscape is spectacular out here, proper Crocodile Dundee stuff. In Western Australia most of the people I've met are Australians on holiday from the East coast, whereas on the east coast their mostly pissed up Irish and Germans. Its also getting so cold now, lovely in the day but freezing at night as its winter. Its like being back home. I need to stock up on winter clothes as I have none.