Back at the airport yet again I caught my 9:50pm flight to Perth.. Everything went well as my last 3 days in Melbourne had caught upto me so I slept the entire way there! Upon landing in Perth it was 11:55pm local time.. But my body was still on Melbourne time so it felt like 2am.. And even with my little nap I was still very tired and couldn't wait to get to my hostel... I was suppose to meet up with Esther on February 6th when she arrived back in Perth from travelling the West Coast.. Unfortunately with my flight coming in so late and her staying in Fremantle (which is on the outskirts of Perth to the South) I had decided I would just catch the shuttle bus into the city centre.. Take the first hostel I called and figure things out in the morning.. After waiting 45 minutes for our bags to come through I head out of the airport to find the shuttle bus.. Which I really didn't think would be that hard as it's a small airport and it's the middle of the night... boy was I wrong.. I couldn't find that bus anywhere! Nor could I find someone that knew where abouts it was! haha So finally after lugging my backpacker all over the airport grounds (I was too cheap to get a trolley) I stood in line with the rest of the people from my flight and waited for my taxi... as I waited for my turn I called around to a few hostels.. and I found one that would cost me $20 to get to by taxi.. I figured for one night that's great! So I put my name on the bed and caught my taxi into Perth city Centre... Getting there cost me $25 as my cabby felt the need to slow down at every green light. Just in case there was a chance it was turning yellow! haha But finally I was there, grabbed my bag and headed inside.. Once inside I realized I had picked the party place! There were people running around everywhere! very drunk people running around the pool, and jumping in to see which drunk had the biggest splash haha At the reception I give the guy my name and he seems to be staring at the computer screen for a very long time.. Again I say my name and he just smiles and continues looking... finally he looks upto me and says "I'm sorry... I seem to have made a mistake" !?! By this time it's now 130am (feeling like 330am) and all I want is my key! The guy starts explaining that he had the screens open incorrectly and that he was looking at Thursday night's bookings not Wednesday... and that Thursday had lots of openings but unfortunately Wednesday was completely booked out!!! As you could imaging I was a little upset, also to the fact that some French guy saw my Canadian flag and was trying to speak French to me cuz apparently everyone in Canada should know both languages!! hhahaha Finally after much discussion the guy was on the phone calling around to the local hostels... and he found me one! Yeah! He said he'd call me a cab and that it could take up to 30 minutes to get here or else I could walk the 3 blocks to my new hostel.. Having already spent all my cash to get to this hostel in the first place.. I decide to hike it... Turns out walking in flip-flops in the middle of the night, uphill with a backpack on isn't much fun.. After walking almost 7 blocks I finally get to my new hostel.. I walk up to find the door locked.. But luckily this has happened before and I know that they have a doorbell for late night bookings.. Well this idea of a doorbell is all good if someone is in the reception and if not (as in my case) you're pretty much stranded! So I decide to bang on the door hoping someone will hear me and take pity... that didn't work... so I plop myself onto the step now realizing its 2am (feels like4am) and im stranded outside in a new city with no where to go! Haha So I called my first hostel again and asked the guy to ring the second hostel again to let them know I'm standing outside.. Figuring this was a great plan! Well time passes and still no one has let me in!! Finally a little Chinese couple comes along.. They do not speak any English at all!! But after much coaxing they have decided to let me inside!! Yeah!!!!! I figured if nothing else id at least be able to crash on the chairs and have somewhat of a nap before heading onto meet up with Esther... Finally getting my room I headed upstairs and went to bed... as I only had 4 hrs before I had to checkout again to go see Esther! In hindsight I really shouldn't have paid full price for my bed as I didn't get there until 3am! lol but oh well I got to have a good powernap... and once I got my new room key I find out that I'm in a guys room apparently when the guy from the first hostel called the second hostel he was informed that there was only one bed left in a guys room.. but under the circumstances they would make it a mixed room hahah so really me and 3 guys ahha but oh well wasn't too bad as they other 3 worked construction and when I finally got to bed they were getting up to go to work! hahaThe next morning I got up had some free breaky and took the most amazing shower in 5 months!! It was one of those huge shower heads that feels like your standing under a waterfall!!! Amazing!!! hahh and I made a mental note if I needed to stay in Perth again.. This would be the place.. Just for the showers hahahaI repacked my bags and headed down to check out when I realized it was pouring out! so being lazy I asked the receptionist to call me a cab so that I wouldn't get soaked... well about 30 minutes passed and still no cabbie so I decided he wasn't coming and that I had to suck it up and walk to the train.. By the time I got there I was completely soaked!!! My freshly washed hair was all spaghetti like again.. my freshly washed clothes were now dripping wet... but oh well I had time to sit in all this wet stuff for about 30-40 minutes as that's how long it took me to get to Fremantle where I was meeting up with Esther... once there I checked into my new hostel found some new clothes then sat and caught up on everything with Esther as we both had plenty of stories to swap! The next few days with Esther were amazing! We had so much fun walking around Freo being lazy and drinking... the first night we decided to go out in Freo we decided to start drinking at the hostel with the rest of the backpackers then we went onto a pub.. There was good music and cheap beer so it was a great night! But unfortunately everything closes early in Freo... most pubs close at midnight or 1am and the clubs are too expensive to get into.. So once we were kicked outta the pub we went with the rest of the people from our hostel to the beach ... a few of the guys that were staying at the hostel went and collected some pallets and made a huge bonfire and out came the goon! A few hours later as everyone was starting to petter off, a security officer came over and started reaming one of the guys out.. Apparently this wasn't the first time he was caught burning these palletts and this security officer wasn't impressed and he told us he was going to call the police.. Well with those words, we all packed up and went back to the hostel! The next few days were about the same; just hanging out on the beach or shopping in Perth and drinking at night time. And by the weekend Kat had arrived in Fremantle!! So the three of us girls decided to take a wine tour! None of us really had any idea about this wine tour except that there would be wine to consume and cheese to eat! haha it turned out to be a great day and we had so much fun!As much as I enjoyed meeting up with Esther and very sad to see her go.. I was kinda happy cuz then I could catch up on some sleep and save some money! haha After Esther left I started looking into possibly getting a job or else finding people to travel the West coast with... by the end of the week I decided I didn't want to work and still had enuf money to travel for a few more weeks.. Turned out Kat had 3 weeks left before she had to catch her flight back to Sydney to fly home to Germany. So we were looking for others to travel with us.. We put up fliers at all the hostels in Freo as well as the travel agencies.. After a few days and still no calls we decided to stop wasting time sitting in Freo and we rented a station wagon and left Perth on February 16th!!! We were suppose to pick up our station wagon at 9am Saturday... We didn't get there till 930 as we had alot of luggage to carry with us... what we once thought would be an easy task of just signing a few papers and getting the keys.. turned out to be waiting around for a few hours… When they finally brought the car out and we started to do the walk around.. we found out that the hatch doors handle wasn't working! Haha so we either had to wait to see if they could find another vehicle for us or else wait and get the handle replaced… we figured it would be quicker for the handle haha While we were signing papers we found out that the guy that had booked our car in the first place messed up and gave us a quote that didn't include the extra fee of driving into the Exmouth Region… Apparently to do it costs $400 more!! But fortunately with us having to wait so long the guy took pity and said oh well the company messed up and handed us the keys! lolWe were so excited to finally get the car and were on the road in no time! However the signs were confusing so we spent an extra 30 minutes trying to find our way off of the road going South! Lol But finally we started heading North towards Exmouth for our 2 week adventure!Day 1: Perth to CervantesOur first stop was at the Yanchep National Park. Here we got to see some Koalas being harassed by the Chinese visitors. They were whistles and yelling at the koalas to get their attention so the visitors could take pictures hahah poor koalas, but nothing seems to really bother a koala bear.. they are pretty good at ignoring people.We got to our first campsite and started unpacking the car and organizing life. I took out the table and chairs and started setting up our little kitchen area while Kat was on tent duty… well a few minutes later Kat asks me to come over as she cant find something… the tent! Haha we opened the tent bag to find the poles and the shell to the tent!! Hahaha After we finished laughing we decided we would have to sleep in the car until we were able to get a hold of the dealership and possibly get a new tent.. thank goodness we rented a stationwagon! As we just fit side-by-side with the back sit down hahaha and it really wasn't too bad!Day 2: Cervantes to Coronation BeachThe next day were headed into the Visitors station to get info on the area and to hopefully book a few tours to do.. the one thing we wanted to doin the Kalbarri National Park was go sand boarding!! However we were never told it was such a popular thing and requires booking weeks in advance!! So sadly we got our maps to check our a bunch of cliffs and rock formations, which turned out to be absolutely beautiful! We went on a bunch of smaller walking trails that lead the waters edge with great views over the ocean.. we also goto check out Natures window.. a rock formation that, well, looks like a window frame in the middle of nowhere… when you look through it, its overlooking a gorge! It was incredible! And the sand was soooo red!! Before we left Perth we had bought a book titles "free camping in Western Australia". Well as it turns out the campsites weren't free and most of them had a sign posted in them stating all overnight campers will be fined $250!! So we started to find the campsites with minimal fees.. some had the gold coin donation boxes so it would only cost us $2 a night! Our book told us about this one site that was on the edge of the ocean, very cheap and supposedly well kept.. it was called Coronation Beach… We drive out there to find out theres no running water! Or camp kitchen! And the beach wasn't inviting at all! So basically we had to pay $6 each to use the outhouse! lol Day 3: Coronation Beach to OverlanderThe next morning we headed onto the Pinnacles!!! Which were soo incredible and looked like we were in a Star Wars movie!! Lol If you check out my pictures, the Pinnacles are the random rock formations sticking out of the ground everywhere! Kat and I had fun running around the pinnacles deciding what each of them looked like! HahaLeaving the Pinnacles we go to see our first Kangaroo on the West Coast!! After we slowly crept up to it in the car we realized he was badly hurt… felt bad for stalking him and taking pictures! But eventually the ranger would being coming along to help him out.The west coast towns are so spread out that we spent many hours just driving and driving and seeing hardly anything! But this State is known at the "State of Contrast" and it is very true! While we were driving along we'd be in a forest then all a sudden it would just change and being a scenery of rolling hills and bluffs of trees.. Then a little bit later it would be desert looking and be covered in red sands! It was very neat to see it change so drastically between towns.We were trying to make it to Monkey Mia by this night, however we underestimated just how far it was so we ended up pulling over at the next Roadhouse. It was going to cost $40 to camp here! Which is insane considering there was nothing there to do or see; just a spot to park your car. So we decided we could make it to the next Roadhouse just before dark and have plenty of time to make supper before it got dark. Once we got there we found out it was no better then the first one but at least we were closer to the sights we wanted to see in the morning. We paid for our campsite and went to set up for the night. But as we go to park the car we start to smell something very gross.. like rotten eggs! And once we open the doors its even worse!!! We both felt immediately sick!! Haha so we moved a few spots up hoping that the wind would help out the smell… and it didn't! the whole place reeked of rotten eggs no matter where you parked!! We grabbed our bags and headed to the showers hoping the smell would pass! The showers turned out to be in an Atco trailer! And both the toilets and the shower were just in the open inside the trailer so Kat and I locked ourselves in there. A few times people banged on the door as it was the only washroom but we figured we were two young girls staying at a truck stop, so door-locking was a necessity. Day 4: Overlander to DenhamWe woke up early the next morning just to get away from the egg smell… we couldn't even have breakfast there because of the smell!!!So we decided to head onto our next sight seeing stop of the Stromatolites! Which was incredible!!?? I couldn't believe just how many of them there was!! They were simply everywhere! And they had built a board walk so we could just walk out into the middle of them. From there we headed onto Shell Beach.. Which obviously was a beach of Shells! MILLIONS of them! It was so beautiful, but not nearly as nice as a regular sandy beach… sitting on Shells really sint comfy and taking your shoes off and walking just doesn't have the same effect hahaLater that day we made it to Denham, found the tourist booth and got some information about the area. The lady at the visitor centre then told us about the storm that was hitting Monkey Mia already! (which was just north of us) This meant going there would be a complete waste of time… so we decided we would just wait and hang out around Denham for the day and see how the weather was going to change. This is when we were told that it was likely to get worse before it got better! Because we were on the tail end of a Cyclone!!We were also advised to find a campsite soon and set up as the rain would be in Denham by tonight and that we should be prepared for it. So far we had only experienced the crazy winds this Cyclone brought… we really weren't looking forward to being in a cyclone! So off we went to find a campsite and ended up picking one that had a swimming pool! So for the rest of the day we stayed pool side and caught up on some reading and napping. Later that night we met some other backpackers, Colby and Shaun, that were also waiting out the cyclone. And get this! They are from Canada!! Irma to be exact (for those that don't know where that is.. its about an1hr from where I grew up!) So we had plenty of people in common!! Day 5: DenhamAnd the Rain has arrived!!!! And it brought even more Wind with it!! Today we really couldn't do too much with the crappy weather. So we hung out around the campsite.. Sat in the car and played card games, read books, listened to music, played more card games and took lots of naps! Haha Eventually we left the car and went to the camp kitchen to find the guys.. where we continued to play card games but this time with goon! Haha After hours of chatting and drinking Colby decided he wanted to go swimming.. he went to check the pool and came back to say that it was sooooo warm! So we all figured it was a great idea to take our goon and go swimming in the rain! We soon found out that it was really only the top foot of water that was warm.. the rest of the pool was sooooooo cold!!! Once our goon was done and we were finished with shivering we decided heading back for really warm showers was a much better idea! HahaDay 6: Denham (still!)We woke up to more rain! It hadn't stopped all night and it was getting so humid in the car but we weren't able to open the windows or door.. but Kat came up with the idea of hanging her towel in the door so it would catch most of the rain and we'd be able to breathe again!! Haha Fortunately by the afternoon the cyclone had gone farther North and we were able to get out of the car! Took us forever to sort through everything as we didn't have time for organization when we were putting stuff into the car in the rain… after sorting everything out we decided to take a drive out to Little Lagoon. Once there I started walking, while Kat took a seat… this time apart was necessary as we had just survived living in the back of a station wagon together for the last 3 days straight! And we didn't kill each other!! Hahaha after a few hours of walking around the lagoon we were able to take a breath and start planning the remained of our trip. As we had lost a few days waiting out the cyclone in Denham we had to drop a few things on our list. Which was alright as everything is so far apart in WA that we would have spent more time and energy driving somewhere, then actually being there to enjoy it. So we decided we'd go to Monkey Mia in the morning and spend 2 full days there. Oh and our last night in Denham was free! I guess with all the people coming and going in the campsite we got overlooked and didn't pay.. Another reason we wanted to leave in the early morning haha The guys had left in the late afternoon to start heading farther north to Exmouth and we were hoping to meet up with them again soemwhere..Day 7: Denham to Monkey MiaWe got to the Monkey Mia resort early enough that we didn't have to pay the entry fee! Getting up early was really starting to pay off!! Haha Once we got there we headed to the main docking area to check out the pelicans and the dolphins! Which was sooo neat! They just came right upto the beach so you could stand up on the dock and see them playing!Once we were done with dolphin watching we went to book a few tours! We were sooo excited as we had had a few days to browse through the pamphlets and had decided on the best tours! It all involved camels, dolphins, manta rays, dugongs, turtles and much more! We soon found out that because the cyclone had blown through here just a few days before that everything was cancelled!!!!But then we did find a sailing tour for later that evening and the next morning! Also for buying those tours we could add on a astronomical tour for $5! So we went and settled into our campsite then took a walking trail where we got attacked by a huge red bug!! We were hiding int his bird watching box and this bug had found us! And just kept coming into the box and bomb firing on us!!! And because we were so freaked out avbout the bug we couldn't stay quiet which scared the birds away! Hahah so much for being in the sneaky bird watching box!For the remained of the day we sat on the beach and drank iced coffee! Since the cyclone left it had been sooo incredibly hot there! We spent a lot of time just sitting in the water trying to cool down. Later that afternoon we went to catch our sail boat but it didn't turn up! We then found out that there was some sort of current in the water caused by the cyclone that made it very dangerous to go out that night so they had to cancel it.. a little sad but we figured there was still the astronomy tour.. but then we were informed the astronomy girl called in sick.. so we decided we would just have supper go to the bar for some drinks and pray that the sailing tour for the morning would still be on. We met some more people at the bar.. we chatted with a group of guys.. 2 of them were Germans and the other was English… Kat had a bit of a crush for the one German guy and was totally trying to flirt but everything was going wrong for her that night.. she kept fumbling over her English words and ended up spilling my beer everywhere!!! Hahaha eventually we excused ourselves and took our beers for a walk.. We found the jetty and decided to have our own astronomy tour! So we laid on the jetty and chatted for a few hours.. well actually I chatted, I think Kat might have fallen asleep!! HeheDay 8: Monkey Mia to CarnarvonThe sailing tour didn't get cancelled!! It was so incredible! We went out on this big fancy sailing boat that had a net in the middle of it! So you could lie on it and be just above the water!! It was sooo neat!! We also got to see some Dolphins and dugongs! We even got to see a dugong with its calf!!! After the sailing we spent the day on the beach being lazy, eating ice cream.. Eventually after a lot of sun we had to go find some shade! we found a tree! And the grass there was incredibly soft and squishy!! So we couldn't help but lay down and get comfy! Haha then the guys from the previous night found us and joined us for a nap! Haha there the 4 of us were in the shade taking probably the best nap ever!! And we didn't even know their names!!!! Hahaha I was eventually awaken by a dog that was trying to hug me!! Lol he came up next to me and just laid his head on my chest hahah it was sooo cute! Strange… but cute!! HahahIt was getting to expensive to stay at Monkey Mia as everything was overpriced seeing as it was a small resort away from everything so we decided that we had done everything we wanted to here and left that afternoon for Coral Bay! But… we misread the map and got to Carnarvon after dark so we decided to spend the night there then head on in the morning. Day 9: Carnarvon to Coral Bay