On the 20th April David and I began a 21 day trip to Darwin with Western Exposure. The first leg of the journey was Perth to Broome and lasted 10 days. We had a really enjoyable trip because of the content and company but it was unfortunately tainted by the guide, a complete numpty, who shied away from any form of group communication and appeared to know nothing about where he was. The one good thing is that as our guide got progressively worse the group became more united in their annoyance with him - anyway winge over - so where did we go!!

The one thing to point out is that Western Australia is made up of vast open spaces and you can drive for hours and hours without seeing another car or change of scenery - this means that when you do see something you get strangely excited by it and the whole bus erupts.

Here are some of the highlights of the trip:-

Day 1 - sand boarding at some local dunes near Horrocks. I have to say no-one really went flying down the dunes but I had a couple of go's sitting down which was fun then D and I attempted a tandem run but we got stuck 1/2 way down - not so much fun especially when your pants are full of sand!

Day 2 - We visited Kalbarri National Park which has the bumpiest blooming dirt tracks (not good for the back!) I've been on. Whilst there we were given the opportunity to do some abseiling in Marchison Gorge so feeling adventurous we both decided to give it a go. I always wanted to go abseiling when I was younger so on the premis that I want try as many things as possible at least once in my life I decided to go for it. I was extremely nervous on the first jump but the second was much better and I even did some leaps and pushes off the rock with my feet - woo hoo!!

In the evening we stayed in a lodge in Denholm and were lucky enough to get the chance to hold a baby kangaroo. It had been found in the pouch of its Mum who had been killed in a road accident so was now being hand reared by the owners of the hostel.

Day 3: Johnno, our driver, was in the doghouse this morning. He'd told everyone to be at breakfast at 6.30am for a 7am start but when the time came he was nowhere to be seen. At 6.50am someone went and woke him up by which time we'd all breakfasted, packed away the stuff, loaded it onto the bus and were sitting waiting. We had to leave early so we could catch the mornng Dolphin feed at Monkey Mia a controlled feeding programme for wild dolphins. They do come quite close so you get a good view - but the guide was freaking me out by constantly reminding us that dolphins have sharp teeth and can bite - and I always thought dolphins were so nice!

Day 4 - The highlight of day 4 was hanging out at Coral Bay - a pretty bay with beautiful crystal clear water which is good for it's snorkelling.

Day 5 - We went snorkelling at Turqouise Bay near Exmouth. David and Evelyn went out for a snorkel first and then came back saying they had seen turtles so I thought I'd better give it a go. The current was very strong which made me feel quite uncomfortable but fortunately the trip paid off and I saw a turtle.

Another highlight of today was the discovery of a snake in the female showers. Angie a Dutch girl was in the shower when she noticed a small green snake . At first she was just going to use a stick to remove it as it looked like a harmless grass snake - but this is Oz! So in the end she decided to seek advice - good job as it turned out to be a poisonous one.

Day 7 - Today the goup was split on a boy/girl basis - the boys went on an extreme gorge sport day whilst us girls and our token male, a loud Italian called Guiseppe, went on our own adrenalin pumping day in the gorges - the main difference was ours was for free! David will have to tell you all about his day but ours involved swimming down narrow gorge channels, wading through water and climbing up, over and along rocks - all in all we had a great day and with amazing scenery to boot. My shredded toes and grazed knees weren't so impressive though!

Day 9 - Tonight was our first night sleeping under the stars in swags at Pardoo Cattle Station. We built a fire and all got quite excited by the whole thing and the night sky was absolutely amazing - so clear and bright!

Day 10 - We set off on our final day's driving with Johnno to Broome stopping at 80 mile beach on the way. The beach as its name suggests is 80 miles of beautiful beach but as is common in these areas you cannot swim there because of the jellyfish and sharks - what a waste!!!

Just to show you how stupid our guide was when we arrived in Broome he suprised us with some special food - 3 small packets of chips, 3 boxes of chicken drumsticks, some coleslaw and mashed potato for 25 people. As I was near the end of the queue I had a spoonful of coleslaw and mashed potato for lunch. Goodbye Johnno!!!