It's no wonder they kind of think of themselves as a separate country; It is so big that although I am a 'fair' way down I am only equivalent to Rockhampton in Qld on the map, there is mining all over the place which must be bringing in bucket-loads of money (duly reflected in the price of accommodation) and man is it gorgeous over here. Red dirt (yes I know it gets in everywhere but it is such a beautiful colour) and the bluest seas you could hope for with amazing sea-life that half the time we are seeing just from the shore.

So let's go back to the last entry (so long ago) and bring this journal up-to-date.

We left Broome on May 15th, late in the day after catching up with all the rigmarole of normal living, and made it to a little place called Port Smith for the night. Now it is 23km down a dirt road and there really is nothing there except for the caravan park but who cares. It is just a couple of couple of kms from the most exceptional lagoon with the highest tides and as luck would have it we made it down there next morning as the tide was going out. This meant that when we arrived there was quite a walk from the carpark but who cares when you have nowhere else to be that day and you can see the water shimmering the other side of the mangroves (and you've been assured that they never get crocs here). What is the first thing we see? A turtle swimming along in the channel between one sandbar and the other - follow it along for about 10 minutes until Jude finally splashes in the water to get closer to it and it swims away. There are actually 2 turtles here and they return during our time here. We also see a lot of fish (par for the course around here with such clear water) and then, after we have amused ourselves walking through the ever-appearing channels to more and more sandbars as the sea recedes, enough orange and purple crabs to change the colour of the beach. Wicked. And they all run off as you approach so it is like a mini wave of crabs. Back to the van for a late lunch and then the decision to stay another night so we can just kick back around the park for the afternoon.

Next day it was a long drive to 80-mile beach - actually they are all long drives around these parts so just presume that word is included when I talk about travelling from one place to the next! - which is another 10km of the main highway on a dirt road and once again is just a caravan park and nothing else. However the beach is 80-miles long (or so they say, I didn't measure it) and it is chock-a-block full of shells. Every step you take, everywhere you look. Big tides (happens a lot up this way) and lots of men with very large rods beach-fishing in the hope of pulling in a big fish (or shark!) We were lucky enough to be offered a drive along the beach with Merve on his quad and we managed to not only get covered in sea-spray and sand but also to pick up some just amazing shells along the way which I have carefully wrapped in plastic bags and then the whole in a towel and given up some of my oh-so-precious storage space with my fingers crossed that they will survive the next ???? how many months til I can put them somewhere more permanent (Yes, Tracy, one of them has your name on it)

From 80-mile beach we drove through Pardoo Roadhouse that took the brunt of that cyclone back in February, then onto Port Hedland where a brief look around was really enough, a quick shop to re-stock and then on to a free camp about 100km down the track. Always a lot of people at free camps at this time of the year and with powered sites costing upwards of $38 per night around here it is not surprising that so many people take advantage of these roadside camps when they are between towns.

Have I mentioned sunsets yet in this entry? I think not….well I am of course on the West Coast, which means that they are nearly always over the sea, but even over the red landscape they can be beautiful and let me tell you I have seen some humdingers. There is something so special about seeing the sun setting over the sea. I don't care that I never went to Cable Beach at sunset while in Broome cos I have no doubt I have many to rival it as you will see in the accompanying photos.

Roebourne is a little town about 40km north-east of Karratha and we stopped to look through the little old gaol there that now houses the visitor centre before swooping into Karratha for a quick look around and a rushed trip out to Dampier to make sure we wanted to come back later as we were on our way to meet a friend another 100km south. Karratha I could probably give a miss but Dampier is much prettier and has a little caravan park opposite the beach that we intend on staying at in another week or so.

Well onto Fortescue Roadhouse where we caught up with Mick who we had first met in Broome and who had kindly taken us about a couple of times and who had now overtaken us even tho' we had left Broome first. A nice night chatting over a drink and listening to the band playing at the Fortescue Tavern attached to the roadhouse and no doubt in place to support the workers that lived in the 64 dongas (4 rooms each) that were laid out in rows of 8x8 behind the caravan park. No problems about noise tho' as the band stopped at 9pm because all the workers had to be up at 6am for work!

Next day we drove on to the little town of Onslow which has a great museum and a lovely boardwalk through the sand hills but as it is an 80km drive off the highway I can't really think of why you would go there more than once unless you loved fishing.

This country that we were driving through was real red, sandy desert country and visually stunning as long as you didn't mind the long, flat, dry areas in between. It is also where we encountered our first flocks of budgerigars which are all a brilliant green colour (with maybe a dash of yellow) and are just asking to become roadkill cos rather than one bird flying in front of you the whole darn lot suddenly swoop down and cause sudden braking (on my part, I am not sure the road trains are as sympathetic). Still, Simone P, they are just brilliant to watch, you better make your way out this way sometime!

The next day was Mick's birthday and we ended up spending it together exploring Onslow and then free camping with a bottle of wine and a chocolate biscuit with a sparkler in place of a cake.

Exmouth was next on the list and after a bit of time in the visitor centre and catching up with Mick again it was decided to head for Yardie Homestead Caravan Park which is actually about 30km out of town but very close to the beaches along which Ningaloo Marine Park runs. Our first day there Jude and I headed to Cape Range National Park for a look around and ended up spending hours on one little beach which we had almost to ourselves and saw sharks, fish and ray swimming along in the channel along the beach. It was truly awesome and as Jude is too little to snorkel yet it was really great that he got to see these creatures so close. In fact at one point a blue-spotted lagoon ray (brilliant orange with blue spots all over its back) followed us along the shoreline, less than a metre away, for a good 5 minutes, just as interested in us as we were in it and simply gorgeous but of course I didn't have my camera with me!

That sold me and even tho the only way to get a spot at one of the many camping sites in the National Park was to lob up at the entry of a morning and hope that someone was leaving I just knew that Jude and I had to spend some time there. That meant up and at 'em and in the queue (we were 7th) by 7.30am but we did get in and spent the next 4 nights camped there (again with Mick). Awesome spot and every afternoon they had happy hour at some perfectly placed tables to watch the sunset and most arvos a pod of dolphins would choose this time to swim by too. From our campsite I could sit in my chair and watch the sea and while it was chilly in the water it was warm enough out that after a swim you would soon warm up - and be covered in salt that we had no shower to wash off us. No let me re-phrase that, we do have one of those solar showers but we have no tent to put it in and we did not have enough water on board to spare for a full shower. Never mind, sometime in your life you have to deal with pommie showers and then a trip down the road to a cold outdoor shower at one of the beaches outside the national park when it just gets too much!

It really is a beautiful place and the waters are filled with fish and coral - as beautiful as the brochures say it is. Think of the most beautiful beach you have ever been to and then just make the weather perfect as well!

Monday was my birthday and also the day we left Cape Range and finally got in range at the lighthouse for me to receive all my birthday messages. Thank you to all who sent good wishes and also to those who sent me lovely Mother's Day greetings as well.

Into Exmouth to fill up with water and fuel and food and then down to Coral Bay which was made possible to stay at because Ali found out where I was going and rang ahead to book and pay for a night's accommodation and then also rang the local café and put money on a table for me and Jude to enjoy a meal out! Mick joined us and we had a lovely dinner followed by a walk down the beach where I saw fish jumping out of the water in the moonlight (even tho Mick and Jude scoffed at first until they saw them too!) How blessed am I.

The next day we spent down the beach and I saw more rays tho these were sandy coloured and much harder to see in the water except for their very long black tails that made me keep noticing them! I don't know what they were but am guessing they weren't too dangerous as there were heaps of people swimming and jumping around in the naturally shallow water of the bay. Later in the day we followed the coast south and bumped into Mick and some other people we had met at the National Park who had just been snorkelling and Mick lent me his snorkel and looked after Jude while I went in and I haven't been snorkelling for years and years but MAN it is awesome!!! This was just walking off the beach till you were about waist deep and then floating along the top and seeing hundreds of parrot fish feeding on the coral and clam shells and lots of other fish and of course I saw another ray even tho' I asked the others before I went in and they had seen none (5 rays I saw that day!) Wow! It is a very expensive place to stay I think at $42 a night but it is worth it if you get to snorkel and thanks to Mick I could do that so THANK YOU MICK.

The following day we & Mick finally changed directions with Mick heading south and Jude and I heading North again for 2 very good reasons; 1. I want to visit Karijini National Park, which is West and North and 2. The weather was just getting TOO cold for us!! With nothing planned til the wildflower season which is a good 2 months away (or was then) there was no way we were going to head further south just to hang around in the cold waiting so Northwards it was.

Our first stop was Bullara Station, which was half way between Exmouth and Coral Bay and is a 500 000acre property that runs 1500 cattle (plus offspring) and about 5000 sheep. Doesn't sound like much for half a million acres but then this is Australia and the country is very dry - in fact they even have their own red sand hills you can walk to (and we did) which probably gives you a good idea of what the land is like. Still we loved it there and stayed 3 nights and the owners have 3 girls the youngest of whom is Mimi who is 3 and she and Jude got on like a house on fire and he spent a portion of each day playing up at the house so it was really like a holiday for me! He also got a ride on the motorbike and a ride on the little pony Pepper - what a lucky boy he is.

We left Bullara and hit Fortescue Roadhouse again for a cheap night's accom and a free load of washing before coming in to land here, Point Samson, where we have been for a week tomorrow and plan on staying at least another week as altho' the accom is still expensive we are right on the beach and so our entertainment is taken care of and apart from church and shopping we really don't need to start the car at all.

Since arriving here we have seen kites (birds that is), sea eagles, crabs, jellyfish, a pair of zebra finches building a nest in the tree behind our van and best of all - octopus.

Yes the beach out the front is reef and rocks when the tide is out and each time we have seen the octopus in their holes with just their eyes sticking out (they soon disappear when they see you) but twice we have come across a rock pool with the octopus out of their hole and cruising along the ground with their tentacles out and exploring and, what Jude loves the most, squirting water at us when we get too close and to distract us as they make a run for their hole - AWESOMELY AWESOME!!!

Jude has made friends with a couple of kids who come and visit their grandparents (who are staying in the park) nearly every day so his life is complete.

I know this has been a huge entry and I will still have missed out on so much but with lack of coverage or lack of power (or even lack of motivation sometimes) a month has just about got away with nothing done. As always I intend to do better next time.

I have had some problems uploading photos of the 'staircase to the moon' from Broome so hope no more issues as I try and bring the photos up to date but that will probably be tomorrow now as I think it is late enough.

Ciao bellas!

PS I love getting comments from you all on my entries and photos but as I have a few name double ups can you please put a second initial so I know who is writing. Ta!