Sunday 16 November. We left behind the underwater wonderland of Ningaloo Reef and headed the short journey south to a small place called Blowholes. This was marked on our map by someone as a place to see but we have no idea who recommended it. We turned of the main highway and travelled 50km down a small road until we reached a dirt road and the sea. There was a lot of jagged rocks and waves were crashing against them. We took a wander and came across a shelf of rock that when the sea hit it there were several whooshes then water would spray out of holes on the shelf high into the air. We spent a long time trying to capture this on camera but the shots don't do the Blowholes justice. You just can't capture the shear size of the vertical jets of water. When it was nearing sunset we drove along the dirt road and found an area where a couple of campers were. We camped amongst hundreds of run down shacks that I presume were fishing retreats. Many had collapsed and none seemed to be inhabited, it was a bit like sleeping in a ghost town. Very peaceful. The next morning we watched the waves and Blowholes again then carried on our journey south through Carnavon. We drove for most of the day until we reached Shark Bay National Park. This is a World Heritage site. Shark Bay is home to Monkey Mia world famous for its dolphins that come right up to the beach to be fed. We camped in a spot called Whalebone Bay which was down a dirt track that led to a beach. We were the only ones there. A whole beach with a fantastic sunset dropping into the sea to ourselves. Bliss. We drove to the most westerly town on mainland Australia, Denham. We have now reached the furthest points North, East, South and West on mainland Australia. After Denham and visiting the tourist information we realised we needed to apply for a free camping permit in order to stay at Whalebone Bay. We done this by phone then made our way to Little Lagoon. A huge bright blue saltwater inlet that was perfectly round. We were the only ones there so we swam then stripped off to tan our white bits that were now not so white. We were both led on our fronts absorbed in books when a four wheel drive with a family in drove passed on the beach. We looked into the windows very embarrassed at the smiling faces of the whole family. We spent the night at Whalebone again but this time we had a caravan accompanying us. The caravans out here are a bit more plush than the ones back home. Most are the size of coaches and have hydraulic rooms that pop out the sides. We see Winnebago's the size of trains that tow 4x4s. We saw one that was huge, bigger than a double decker with a huge sky dish on the roof towing a massive speed boat with two motorbikes in the boat then behind the boat they towed a Landrover. Home comforts. It does make us laugh when we pull up in a campsite which we only do rarely and we get our stove out to make a cup of tea and you see these monsters with the owners turning their sky dish trying to get a signal in the middle of the desert. We drove back down the dirt track in the morning much to the protest of Sheila who knocked and clunked. We reached Monkey Mia early to see the first dolphin feed of the day. There were quite a few people there to watch. The dolphins were coming amazingly close almost beaching themselves. Volunteers came down with buckets and selected people from the crowd to feed the dolphins a fish. As soon as the fish were gone the dolphins soon lost interest and disappeared. There are three feeds a day between 8am and midday and the dolphins decide when that will be. Most of the crowds dispersed and only half an hour later the dolphins returned again. For this feed there were far less people and Vicki was selected to feed a dolphin a fish. Once we had a million photos of dolphins we left Monkey Mia and headed for another attraction of Shark Bay, Shell Beach. This is a huge beach with clear shallow waters. The entire beach is made up from tiny cockle shells billions and billions of them. We had a dip then headed for the Stromotolites. This is an area that houses the oldest living organism on earth. The Stromotolites are a sort of Algae that hardens and forms as rock, very strange looking. We left Shark bay and headed for our next destination The Pinnacle Desert. It took us two days to reach the Desert just north of Perth. We slept in a lay-by just outside Geraldton then visited this town in the morning. It is famous for fishing so after visiting a strange church that had masses of colour inside, an art gallery and the only candy strip lighthouse in Oz we went to the fish market. I ate six oysters and Vicki had some salmon. We also got some free ice so we bought beers to drink while we watched the sun setting in the Pinnacle Desert. On route to the Pinnacles Sheila had a birthday, she turned 400,000 kilometres old. We sang happy birthday as we drove along. Soon after that I was flagged down by a policeman. I thought it would be another breathalyser test as we had had many on our journey. He informed me that I was travelling at 55kmh in a 40kmh zone. I received a $150 fine to be paid in twenty-eight days. The policeman also informed me that if I failed to pay the fine I would be banned from driving in Western Australia. Upon thinking about the prospects of driving in this state again I opted to not pay and as you read this a Daniel Meadows is probably being filed for a total driving ban due to unpaid speeding fines. We arrived at the Pinnacles and drove through them on a sand road marked with rocks on the edges. The Pinnacles are stacks of limestone or sandstone I can't remember, that were formed from ancient shells then weathered down to form strange pillars protruding from the sand some over five metres high. We found a good spot to view the sunset and sat back cracked open a couple of stubbies and waited. We could see the sea from our vantage point so saw the sun till its last splashes of light before it turned the sky fluorescent pink. Once it was dark we drove the remainder of the circuit then found a lay-by on the side of the highway to Perth to sleep in. All along the main highway there are signs that say 'POLICE TARGETING SEATBELTS', 'POLICE TARGETING SPEEDING', 'POLICE TARGETING DRINK DRIVING'. We passed several that claimed 'POLICE TARGETING FATIGUE'. The others are quite easy to prove with breathalysers and cameras, but how do you prove fatigue? The police will pull you over, tap on your window. You wind it down and the police officer will ask 'are you tired?, when did you last take a break?' you reply 'an hour ago officer and I feel wide awake'. 'Ok' says the police officer 'I'm just going to test you' then he and his partner start singing you a lullaby and stroke your hair. A few days previous our laptop broke. We had had several months of a dodgy connection in the power lead. It would beep saying the battery was dead so you wiggle the socket then it stops. On one such a wiggling the pin inside the laptops power socket snapped off and fell inside. As our battery was next to useless anyway we were suddenly lap topless. As we arrived in Perth are first stop was a computer shop to get the simple (so we thought) problem fixed. Nobody would attempt the repair saying it was too risky. We went from shop to shop but to no avail. We had succumbed to the fact we would have to wait until we got home to edit the remaining videos and to sort the photos. This blog would have to be written with the dreaded pen and paper then copied in an internet café. We stayed In Perth for a couple of days. We rode around on the CATs. (Central Area Transit) which are free buses that run around the city. We took in the sights from the comfort of the air conditioned bus then braved the heat and walked around the CBD. One day we drove down to Freamantel a few kilometres west of Perth and walked around the huge markets. We ate far too much food as is the market place norm. In Perth we slept in residential areas just outside the city centre We visited Kings Park that gives a good view of the city then went to an outside photographic expedition called The Earth From Above by Yann Arthus-Bertrand. There were 120 huge photos printed on boards of Ariel shots from around the world. Some truly amazing images you should check them out….www.earthfromabove.com.au. We had been discussing the possibility of returning home when our visas expired in February as we were starting to clock up debt. We originally planned to travel New Zealand for four months and South East Asia for two. If we continued with this original plan we would have to work for at least three months in NZ only leaving us a month on each island then a month in Asia. We didn't want to rush and regret. Plus we were feeling home sick and missing everyone. On that impulse we booked and paid for our tickets home on the 10 Feb. we will definitely visit NZ and Asia but we want to come back with enough money so we don't have to work and we can experience more. We left Perth and drove through heavy rain to Margaret River. We camped in a campsite as we were in need of a shower. We planned to explore this area as there are several walks through woods but the rain was relentless so we carried on our route. We had now reached the south coast of Western Australia. It was the first time we had seen rain in what seemed like months and months. The landscape had changed dramatically from above Perth where there was lots of red dirt and desert with dead trees now we were in lush forests with grass on the side of the road that was green not a bleached gold. There were green fields with sheep in them, we both felt homesick. We visited Cape Leeuwin lighthouse the most south-westerly point of Australia where the Indian and Southern oceans meet. We then drove to the Valley of the Giants. This is an aerial walkway through the canopy of the humongous red tingle trees. These trees are fascinating. Most are hollow and survive only by a thin outside layer of bark and have gaping caves higher than houses in them. We slept in a lay-by with cows moaning incredibly loudly all night I think the whole herd must have been having a mass birth. The next day we got the laptop fixed. Halleluiah! We drove through a town called Albany and after trying a couple of computer shops a young Indian guy said he would fix it if we paid cash. He stayed on after work with us waiting eagerly in the car park playing yahtzee in the van. It took him three hours and now we have a wire coming out of the socket and a new socket taped to the lid. He explained that most people wouldn't attempt it because you need to solder onto the mother board risking killing the computer. We were so excited it felt like we had had a lost leg sewn back on. We eagerly spent hours over the next few days catching up on video, photos and blog. We slept that night in a lay-by and were accompanied by the deafening call of hundreds of frogs. The following day was taken up solely by video editing. We completed one video the Exmouth to Ningaloo one and after about six hours of chopping, title adding and music it was complete. It was one of the best videos yet. We had great footage of a huge Goanna, some of Sheila whizzing on a red sand road beautiful beaches and the music fit just right. We moved the finished file accidentally then killed it, it went to the recycle bin then was automatically emptied because the file was too big. All that work gone. On a plus we did still have a backed up copy of the underwater footage that took up nearly half of the video but the on land stuff was history. We made a slide show with some photos and added the underwater film in the middle. Not quite the masterpiece it was but better than a kick in the teeth. We arrived in the town of Esperance as it was marked on our map as a must see. We went to The Pink Lake which was white with salt then took a spin round The Great Ocean Drive. Now you've all heard of the Great Ocean Road well this is Western Australia's version. It is a thirty or so kilometre circuit on cliff tops that takes in some beautiful beaches. The waters are neon blue and the sands are white and squeaky. It was probably one of the most beautiful pieces of road we have ever driven on. Long sweeping corners and smooth pebble like cliffs. We enjoyed every bend as our next stop was Norseman and the start of the Nullarbor. 1600kilometers of nearly dead straight road, a fair few corner less days lay ahead of us. We drove the short distance north, filled up on fuel, joined the Nullarbor and camped in a lay-by. Driving all day for days on end now lay ahead of us coupled with the longest straight section of road in Australia.