Year 2010 Summary Part Three - Perth to Broome to Darwin

This brings us to the last part of the epic road trip. We left Perth on 30th March and headed up the West Coast to Broome, where Lena and I left Lou and Harry behind, but I'll get to that bit. More highlights first:

·Lancelin which stank of sea weed and had sand dunes which we couldn't get to.

·Getting to the Pinnacles at Cervantes in time for sunset and watching the moon come up at the same time that the sun went down.

·Revisiting the Pinnacles the next day, taking ninja self timer photos and spotting some emus wandering around.

·Leaning trees near Greenough and Geraldton with its HMAS Sydney II Memorial.

·Point Moore lighthouse, for obvious reasons!

·Camping at Oakabella rest area where we met Ollie, Milo, Sonja and Sara (the two white vans) and the two Dutch girls, Fleur and Nadine, who were travelling with 3 Spanish guys who didn't (or refused to) speak very good English.

·Driving through Northampton, WA, which is not very exciting and much smaller than the English one.

·Seeing a Pink Lake which was actually pink because of some kind of algae in it.

·Meeting HRH Prince Leonard and getting our passports signed at the Principality of Hutt River.

·Seeing the coastal cliffs of Kalbarri (and bumping into the two white vans everywhere we went).

·Hawk's Head Gorge lookout (surrounded by goats) and going down to the river which didn't have a lot of water in it.

·Learning all about Stumpy the Stromatolite's family at Hamelin pool and visiting Shell Beach, which is actually made of shells, not sand.

·Hardly spotting any wildlife in the sea at Eagle Bluff lookout, except maybe a ray.

·Camping in a lay by and being harassed by three scorpions while playing cards after dinner.

·Doing two boat trips in one day at Monkey Mia - spotting dolphins, a sea snake and a turtle, and watching the sunset.

·Being at Monkey Mia on Easter Weekend, so not getting much of a look at the famous dolphins because there were so many families there, and being more amused by the pelicans.

·Having a 'swim' in the shallower than we thought Little Lagoon, before heading off to Carnarvon - a ghost town on Easter Sunday.

·Having a lot of trouble putting up tents on the way up to Coral Bay because it was so windy by the coast.

·Snorkelling and sunbathing in Coral Bay for half a day, then heading to Exmouth where we were in the same campsite as the two white vans, and right next to Fleur and Nadine.

·Exploring Cape Range National Park (near Exmouth) - walked into Yardie Creek Gorge and snorkelled at Oyster Stacks (loads of coral and fish) and Turquoise Bay.

·Ningaloo Reef dreaming snorkelling trip out to Muiron Islands with Lena, where I saw a turtle and a leopard shark swam underneath me!

·The North Coast of WA - Dampier with its lookout over the harbour and confusing Red Dog statue, Point Sampson, the historic town of Cossack.

·Being scared when hearing footsteps at night when camping in a rest area. It turned out to be a herd of cows wandering around nearby.

·Driving back inland to Karijini National Park, finding that poor Harry couldn't cope with the shocking gravel roads and later having a dingo wandering around our campsite.

·Climbing up the 1235m high Mount Bruce with the two vans crew.

·Swimming (and showering!) at Pretty Pool , just past Port Hedland,

·Not swimming or sunbathing at 80 mile beach because of an incoming downpour, causing us to drive straight on to Broome.

·Watching sunsets over Cable Beach from Gantheaume Point.

·Riding camels at sunset on Cable Beach.

And then we left Lou behind in Broome with Harry, to wait for her boyfriend to come meet her. Lena and I got ourselves a relocation car to drive to Broome in, and took Lyanne (another Canadian) with us. We didn't stop much on the way as we only had 3 days to get to Darwin, but we did have time to drive through most of the main 'towns'. We stopped at the prison Boab tree near Derby, had a walk around Geike Gorge and saw the China Wall. When we got to Halls Creek, Lena and I did a scenic flight over the Bungle Bungles at sunset. It was an awesome view to see the beehive domes from the top, and in the setting sun they looked really orange. It was also a beautiful sunset to fly towards on the way back. We then stopped in Wyndham where we saw a Big Croc and walked down to the Grotto, a little swimming hole. From there it was straight through to the NT and on to Darwin, and back to Melaleuca…