Hi Everyone! Its taken a while but we have finally got round to writting up a postcard of the past 2 weeks! We have been pretty busy touring the west coast of Aus. Its pretty remote up north and so finding a decent internet connection was not that easy (which is why this has taken so long to write) plus we have been pretty busy! Just over two weeks ago we picked up our camper van from Perth. Guess what? Its a Mercedes Benz Sprinter! My favorite modern van! I was very pleased about this, plus our van is about twice as big as any other backpackers camper van so everyone we meet is really jelous of it! Its great! We were not actually supposed to get that model camper van but it got upgraded which was a bit of a result... its even got its own bog + shower... amazing! Anyway - we drove up the west coast checking out the national parks + stuff. First stop was the pinicals - strange bits of rock sticking up in ther desert. This was pretty nice + an easy 1st days driving from Perth. Next up we went to Monkey Mia/Denham. This is where you get to go in the water with wild dolphins. They basically come to the beach for feeding. It was nice to get a close up look of them - they are pretty cool. We also went on a catamaran around shark bay. That was actually our best thing in Shark Bay. We saw lots of dolphins, dugons (which are like manatee) and a big eagle ray - very cool! Plus we went boom netting in between the two hulls of the boat - super good fun! Unfortunatly we didnt spot the Tiger Sharks which are seen in Shark Bay.... Hopefully we will see some on the east coast! Next up we went to Cape Range National park, just north of Exmouth. It was super hot up there but amazingly cool. We were camping in the National Park itself for a few days - its very remote... at night the stars look amazing! Plus this is right onthe edge of Ningaloo reef and it is possible to swim out to it from the beach. There is amazing snorkaling to be done here which is what we spent a few days doing. Saw loads of nice coral, some colourful big fish, rays, turtles, sharks and the bays all look so amazing - turquoise seas and nice white sands. Brilliant! After this we headed south again stopping of at Coral Bay and Kalbarri. At Coral bay we went to a lagoon just off the beach where sharks lay their eggs. There were literally 100+ reef sharks about 1 - 1.5 metres big swimming all around us! It was totally amazing! We got some underwater pics - hopefully they will come out! There were also baby rays there too... super exciting! In Kalbarri we checked out the national park here (gourges along a river and rugged coast line) which was also nice fun. We hired a small motor boat and took it up the river too which was fun. Heading further south (a 10 hour drive from Kalbarri!) We got to Margret River. Its a cool town famous for surfing and wine. We went on a tour of the winneries which was really fun and we met up with another British couple (Nick and Helen) who we hung out with for a couple of days drinking! We went to a regae festivial with them also which was cool. It was held in a local microbrewery... I have now decided I would liek to open my own one when I get back home! We also went for several extreamly nice meals in Margs which were excellent - its a very nice place to spend a few days! Next stop were the Great Southern forests. These are huge (40metres +) trees (Karri, Tingle etc) which are very impressive to see. We also went on the tree top walk - a 40metre high walk inthe forest canopy. It really makes you appreciate how high the trees are looking down from the top! Next stop for us is Cape Le Grand national park for more beaches + scenary then we head back to Perth from where we will fly to Alice Springs! We hope you are all having a good start to the new year. Thats all for now. Cheers! Dean and Helen :-D