Leaving Shoalwater we headed back into Perth to check into a hotel for our last night in Australia before flying back to the UK. We both decided a hotel was the way forward as after the luxurious Shoalwater house sit we couldn't face checking into another dirty hostel! On our last day in Perth we made a trip to Kings park to look at the botanical gardens before having a spot of lunch and heading to the Airport. Australia has been amazing, however due to how expensive it is here we have decided to explore the Gold coast and New Zealand another time. Now we both feel that it's time to go back to reality, save up some more pennies and continue our traveling adventures within future holidays instead! Our eagerly missed family, clothes, jewellery and bacon sandwiches await us! Also living out of a rucksack for the last ten months has definitely taken it's toll! Bye bye rucksacks, you will not be missed!

Now to Summarise:

Top 5 experiences of Australia:
1) Margaret River: A brilliant way to spend the day and trying all the different wines and food with the added bonus of not having to worry about driving added to the fun!
2) Caversham wildlife park: You can't be in Australia without getting up close to the local wildlife and Caversham wildlife park was the most ideal way to do this. Koalas, Kangeroos and Wombats were our favourite and they are all as cute and as furry in real life as they look on the TV! Excellent Animal encounters and won't be forgotten in a hurry.
3) Shoalwater: Everything about Shoalwater was lovely, the house sit, the area, the town and the marine park make this an ideal place to live. If we was to move to WA this is one of the areas we would consider.
4) Busselton Jetty: The jetty being so long in length made it an ideal place to fish. Pulling in the Red Gurnard and all the little Whitings and Herrings brought a great day out and made it an extremely successful day of fishing.
5) Gingin: Our first experience of Western Australia and even though it was so remote and quiet, it was also extremely special. Beautiful countryside with fields that extended as far as the eye could see, and full to the brim of wildflowers... It was very pretty! It was also the only place we saw wild Kangaroos and seeing them at Dawn with the beautiful sunrises in the background was unforgettable. Another great memory was being able to cradle a baby Joey. Plus not forgetting our first Australian job of working on the organic veggie farm!

Some facts about our trip:
1) Just under 11 weeks in total in Australia.
2) 9 towns/cities in total. (50 in total including South America and SE Asia.
3) Due to finding work in Australia we didn't touch our bank account and instead added abit too it!

Places to stay best:
1) House sit in Shoalwater. We struck gold with this one!

Places to stay Worst:
1) Planet Inn backpackers. Dirty smelly dorms with lots of stinky and untidy backpackers.

Favourite Towns:
Fremantle: A great harbour town with lots of charm.

Best food (No particular order as all was yummy)
1) Venison from Margaret River.
2) Prawns both from the chip shops and from the cafes. Big fat prawns which tackled my withdrawal symptoms from eating so many of them in Asia beautifully.
3) Organic Veggies. You really can taste the difference and working on the farm meant we got them for free! Snowpeas, pumpkins, lettuce and celery all very tasty and excellent quality.
4) Dips and Relishes from Margaret river. All very tasty and washed down nicely with the free wine. Our favourites were spicy Indian tomato relish, olive pestos and the local Dukkah seasonings.
5) Chocolates and fudge both in Margaret river and Fremantle. Whenever you walk into a chocolate shop there are generally free samples. Always useful when on a budget as it means you don't need to buy any! Also the coffee/chocco shop in Fremantle did the best chocolate mocha coffees ever!

Top tips for touring:
1) Avoid the hostels wherever possible. Camping is much more fun and has better facilities.
2) Watch out for the Magpies... they hurt!! If you do get attacked make sure you look different if walking past the crime scene again as they do recognise you!
3) Buy a car- Joey was a bargain and we made $250 dollars upon selling him! Amazing little car which got us from Gingin to Margaret river and also acted as a tent in the bad weather!
4) When in the worst September storms of 17years, don't drive and sleep down a country lane lined by trees. We was lucky one didn't fall on us in the middle of the night.
5) Watch out for Kangaroos whilst driving. They do jump out from nowhere!

Best sights:
1) Kangeroos at Dawn or Dusk within Gingin.
2) Crystal clear waters and beaches of Shoalwater with the added bonus of Penguins, Dolphins and Sealions.
3) Rows of vines in Margeret river, amazing and they seem to go on and on and on! Also they are always near a lake and on a sunny day it all reflects beautifully making a very pretty picture.

All in all another country explored and an amazing end to our adventure.

Now to surprise our families with our return!

The End... Hayls and Jonathan x