OK, so, continuing on with my tale of my trip north...

After the manta ray stuff we all headed off for Exmouth for the to end day 4. Day 5 saw us heading out to Turquoise Bay to snorkel about on the Ningaloo Reef a bit more. Once again the beach and the water was beautiful. It was also great snorkelling, though a bit shallow in places! Half the time I was floating along trying to breath in to stop myself being impaled on the coral!

Day 6 was an early start off to Karijini National Park. Just aswell we started early as it was a long long drive. Oh, and the wheel fell off the trailer. And the bus overheated so we couldn't have thew air-con on. And then we got lost on the way to the campsite. But apart from that it was a smooth journey! That night we got to sleep out under the stars in swags (canvas bed rolls). I was pretty terrified of being attacked by snakes in the night, but it was actually fantastic, and one of the best nights sleep I'd had!

So up again early on day 7 (does seem to be a theme in these trips!) to head off to see some gorges. All I can say is look at the photos and you'll see why Karijini is so fantastic. It was definitely the one of the highlights of the trip for me. One of the first gorges we were in involved clambering through a passage called the spider walk which is definitley easier to do if you have longer limbs. I got a bit stuck when I reached a point where my arms wouldn't stretch the width of the gap! At the end was Kermits Pool where you could swim. We spent the whole day clambering through different gorges and swimming in the pools, which was good because some of us were taking part in the 'no showers whilst in Karijini challenge' so all the swimminh helped keep the smell at bay. But it didn't help my clothes (same clothes for the whole 3 days of course!) which all turned a permanent red from the dust. Day 8 was another day of gorges. We went to the extremely beautiful Fern Pool, whihc is a scared place to the aborigines, Fortesque falls, and Circular pool.

So on day 9 the group split in half, with 5 of us heading back to Perth, and the rest continuing onto Broome. The next 2 days were basically 2 long days of driving. In between we spent the night at the 'haunted sheep station' with big spider population, ugh! We also had a quick stop in New Norcia where there is still a running benedictine monastery which has some pretty buildings to have a look at.

A few days after getting back from the tour I got myself a job pruning vines on a farm in Moora, which is a couple of hours north of Perth. I would never say that pruning vines for 10 hours a day is thrilling work but it was all a good experience. The farm had no mobile reception and no easily accessible internet, and when I first arrived there was no one else there apart from the farmer and his wife, so I was a bit lonely to start with. I slept in what's called a donga (a room in a porta cabin basically) so I had to trek back to the main house every time I needed the bathroom, and for cooking there was just a tiny caravan. After about 5 days 2 more backpackers arrived and life improved, mainly as one was a trained chef! And now I had someone to talk to in the evenings instead of the resident spider in my bedroom who's named Archie. I was on the farm for 2 weeks, which I think was enough time! There's only so long I can start work at 6:30 a.m. 7 days a week without getting miserable!

I was glad to get back to Perth and general civilisation after those 2 weeks. I fille din my time before heading down south on another tour with seeing a few of Perth's sites I 'd missed the first time around. First off was the Perth Mint where we got to see a gold bar being poured. They also had quite a big display of gold bars from all over the world decorated with the most amazing patterns. The I took a little ferry trip across the Swan River to get a different view of Perth's skyline. My plans for the following few days were to lie on the beach but the weather conspired against me and it began raining fairly constantly until I left on my southern tour last Monday.

I just returned from my southern tour today, but you'll have to hear about that as I'm far too tired to type it all out now!