Hello from Coral Bay. Just waiting for my boat trip to start and Chris is off on a quad bike so I found this cafe to hide from the possible 48 top temperature today. And the flies are back...

Perth was good except for some nasty person actually going into our well labelled and tied up food bag, ripping it open and stealing Chris's unopened fresh OJ. It's been amazing how some people can do things like that or just leave their dishes around the hostel. Luckily it's a minority. Grrr.

We took a ferry to Freemantle to catch the markets on the first day and sussed out the place as we are there for a few days on return. We have planned what we want to do. In the afternoon we went to Cottosloe beach to chill and then wnt back to do some well needed washing of clothes. We found a great Chinese in Northbridge and had a great deal with chinese soups and tea included. Yummy!

The next day (Saturday), chris had his hair cut and we did a bit of shopping before getting the train to Midland to meet with Charlotte, old scholl friend. She and her little boy, Kelly, took us to a Weir and their loacl lake, then back to her house where her husband had started a great Oz BBQ. There house was lovely and their garden amazing! It was the life up in those hills! We were joined by another old school friend, Natascha, and her husband and son for the BBQ, so it was quite surreal to see them both again after 10 years+ and reminisce. We stayed at Charlottes and they drove us to the station the next morning where we did a quick turnaround at the hostel before heading out to Scarborough beach to later meer Mum and Dads old friends Ian and Diana. They drove us around the area and back to their house in Hillarys before a drink in the angling club and back to the station. Another great area to live! Thanks to them also for a lovely afternoon.

The following day brought the start of our last tour - Perth to Exmouth to see the West coast. It is VAST. The scale of the 'nothingness' is awesome. We are a European bunch bar one (and the driver of course) and I am enjoying the Bonjour and Guten Morgan etc every morning. The tour guide Mark is nice but dim and the accommodation is very disappointing in comparison to the previous tours but all is good. I'm about to go on an eco-tour of the turtle breeding ground and the reef so I must go and get ready for that, so I hope to write more in Exmouth over the next few days. We are checking that all is well with our return on the next tour as a lot seems disorganised at the moment so we want to make sure we're getting back!

xxx