A new day and a new country yes that's right...it was my first time leaving Australia in months. Basically long story short, some guy called Lenard decided to find a plot of land and declare it a principality so he didn't have to pay taxes. He is now Prince Lenard and him and his wife princess Shirley live in The Principality of Hutt River.  He's a bit of a genius if you ask me!

On our arrival and our departure we had our passports checked and stamped, more stamps to add to my collection. Yay! There were no security checks though, he should probably think about starting them, making it an official arrival to a new country. Haha.  It didn't take us long to walk 'round the place, it's pretty small but it has it's own church and post office, it even has it's own currency! Crazy huh?

Prince Lenard was a funny old man from what I could understand of him, he walked us around showing us all his gifts from Princes and other important people from all over the world, there were a lot...but most of the time I couldn't understand a word he was saying when he was talking to us. He spoke so fast and mumbled quite a lot.  I just smiled and nodded most of the time, I didn't want to offend him now did I? He is a prince after all. Before leaving we all left a little note in his welcome book...i wrote a little one in welsh, Janis's in German and of course a few English notes from the Pomms.

The time had then come to make our way back into Australia. As much fun as the Principality was, there wasn't much more to see there, but mainly there were bloody flies everywhere and they were doing my head in so we continued on our drive, the next destination being Kalbarri national park.

It wasn't supposed to be a long drive away but Joe and Curly got a bit confused about what direction we needed to be going. Iphone saved the day though with mr compass! We arrived in no time knowing what direction we needed to go.

The sun was shining so we took a walk down to the river. It would have been a lovely walk if there were no flies. But they were everywhere...and I mean everywhere! Curly had a growth of them on her leg and gathering around Eugene. It was gross!

Liam and Janis went in the river for a swim which the rest of us were debating doing until they got in and we saw their faces. They couldn't even pretend it wasn't cold, their faces said it all...way too cold! The rest of us decided against getting in.

We stopped at a gorge and then headed to a lookout point to see an amazing view just as the sun was setting. It was Gorgeous! Then it was getting dark so we headed for a campsite...thank god the flies had gone to bed that's all I can say!

It was an early night for us as we had a long drive ahead the following morning to Denham, the town just before Monkey Mia. It was mine and Maverick's shift again...not that a navigator was needed for this journey it was just Miles and miles of outback on a straight road. We passed kangaroos jumping through the bushes, a few unlucky, dead ones here and there as well, but that's about it really. It wasn't an exciting drive to be honest.

When we got to Denham we just parked up and went straight to the beach. It was late afternoon though and the sun had started to set, but we still got in the sea to play some frisby. It was freezing in there...instead of the body getting used to the the temperature we just got numb... completely numb. We didn't last long so hopped back in the camper and drove just on the outskirts of Denham to a view point to try and park up for the night. We did pass a sign which said no camping but it was dark and we chose to ignore it.  We thought we'd got away with it until a few hours
later when a park ranger came to
move us along. We'd had food but we'd just started playing ring
of fire with some goon. Not the best time for a ranger to catch us.  Luckily we hadn't really started drinking properly so I drove to shark bay camp site and thank god the reception was closed so we drove right on in, found a free parking space and parked up for the night...then got our goon on. Oh yes!

As the night went on Janis got very drunk...I'm not surprised mind we were picking on him during the drinking games oh and he was box head during ring of fire. Everyone tries avoiding box head...it's not a good thing to be. He became so drunk he was fascinated with this dog that was outside...he got pretty up close ad personal with it I'm not going to lie haha.  At one point he'd come back in with slobber all over his face...so funny. The night just died down after 2 boxes of goon were demolished. Everyone pretty much crashed out.

I woke up at 7.30 and just drove us out of the site...sneakily so we didn't have to pay!  Free night on a campsite! Result! We are just rebels aren't we? I just went back down to the seafront of Denham and parked up by the beach and had a read while everyone else slept for the rest of the morning.

When everyone else rose from the dead we took  a short drive to Monkey Mia to see the dolphins. Yay! The sun was shining so we parked up in our camping spot for the next 2 nights and went to the beach. It was like a holiday resort...I actually felt like I was on vacation. It had a pool, a bar on the beach, tennis courts(not that we were going to play any tennis) and an al-a-cart restaurant again not something we would be using but it was there if we wanted it. We sat on the beach most of the day, soaking up the sunshine, it was awesome to be back in bikinis again! The sea was still pretty cold though but we had to get in as there were dolphins swimming right on the shore. It was awesome.

As the sun went down me and Curly both decided to treat ourselves to some pub food well I did,I went for the burger and chips,  Curly had a pizza.  While we were sat outside waiting for our food we ended up having the perfect date...haha. The sun was setting, dolphins started jumping in the distance and the next thing we know 3 guys walk on to the beach with guitars singing. It was the perfect cliche date...one that is only made for the movies.  All it needed was a plane to fly over writing the words will u marry me! With some fireworks...nobody could possibly say no to a proposal with that scenery. I waited for the proposal from Curly...but it never came! Haha.

7.20am wake up call to go and see the dolphins for their first feed of the day. It was awesome, there were about 6 of them, adults and baby ones. Swimming along the shore passing our feet so close and so friendly. The baby ones were jumping and playing around while the mothers swam along passed our feet. It was pretty incredible. The chance came for us to feed the dolphins but they were only going to pick 3 volunteers per dolphin. Before the woman had even finished her sentence 'who wants to volunteer?' curlys hand was right up and she got chosen haha...Joe was pretty jealous, but we had no chance in getting picked to be honest...we were stood right next to 3 kids with a soccer mom behind them shoving them forward to volunteer! She was bloody annoying!  

After a good hour with the dolphins we went back for some brekkie before hitting the beach once again. We were making the most of it as we had a long day of driving ahead.  

The sun was beaming, we had a few more interactions with some more dolphins as well, which was awesome and just chilled out! On the odd occasion I'd go back to the camper to watch some game of thrones. I've gotten pretty into it now...as much as I hate to admit it, Curly and Joe,  but it's pretty good.

The day passed pretty quickly and before we knew it, it was tea time. Curly made the pasta and sauce and we all sat down for a civilised meal. Haha.  A bit later, me and Justine got pretty into playing card games. Firstly Janis taught us a Russian game which took me a while to click with, I won't lie. I like games like snap, easy to play and fun! But I did eventually understand his game.  The night slowly progressed into a night of hysterics. I think everyone got prety sick of me and Justine in the end because both  games we played were fast paced and loud! It got completely out of hand haha. I taught her crazy snap which she beat me once at but that was beginners luck as she couldn't beat me again. But she taught me a game of spit...and it's hilarious. She won a couple of times as I was getting into it, and it took a while for me to actually grasp the speed of the game but  I eventually got good and the game went on for an age...we still don't know who won. We had to declare it a draw or it was never going to end. Plus we were really loud when everyone was trying to sleep. Oops!

My shift had come around again and it was time for me to begin the long drive to Coral Bay. From what we've seen of the highway from Perth to Monkey Mia we knew it wasn't going to be an interesting drive. All there is to see is...well NOTHING! It's just completely baron land! Well actually there was a lot of road kill to see on this journey...my eyes are scarred from the amount of dead kangaroos we've passed. We should have taken one to cook on the BBQ...it would have saved us money on meat. Plus kangaroo is gooood, a bit chewy but very yummy.

Now, the only thing between Monkey Mia and Coral Bay is a little town called Carnarfon. It is literally in the middle of nowhere and it's tiny! We had to stop there to stock up on food, well, and for a little break of course. Well, when we did it seriously felt like we'd stepped back in time...what a weird town.

As soon as we arrived we pulled into the supermarket area. Playing on am old speakerphone outside was the song 'something tells me I'm into something good.' it was like a 1960's radio sound.  As i walked in I passed an abo picking cigarette butts out of the top of a bin, to smoke I'm guessing. The place was weird. It had the instant feel of those places that once you arrive you never leave! It was creepy! Everyone there was extremely grumpy, which I can kinda understand as there is absolutely nothing to do there. Although we did eventually come across an extremely happy aboriginal man but Justine's explanation for any abo that's happy is 'they've been drinking petrol'. Apparently that's why they are crazy! Haha.

After we'd stocked up on food we stopped at the visitors centre to see if there was actually anything of interest to see while we were there.The woman gave Justine a map and circled two things...one being a visit to a plantation ground...interesting! I could see us spending the day there. The second thing was to take a train ride to somewhere...great bit of information that,  isn't it? Neither sounded great if in honest!

Although the place didn't have much, it did have an airport which meant the people of Carnarfon could get away if they wanted to. To be honest i'm not sure why they're  not getting out of there now! If they had no airport it would take them hours to get to the next town over...seriously not lying about them being in the middle of nowhere.

As there was nothing to do at all we decided to continue our journey.  As we were driving out we passed rows of palm trees which had names engraved on plates underneath. Now I'm pretty sure that these are memorial trees for people who have tried to escape and failed. The tree is then planted on the spot they made it to before dying. I'm sure the theory of whoever goes there, NEVER leaves is true. Haha. Well we almost believed it when we thought we'd left and continued down the highway we came to a sign which said 'Carnarfon left!' there was either two turnings or we were going in circles having no choice but to go back... haha. Luckily it had two turnings...not sure why though...one was enough, and on the sign it should say 'welcome to Carnarfon...Do not Enter!'. I feel that people should be warned before entering.

On the drive forward we crossed a bridge which was supposed to have a river flowing underneath, but the river had gone! It was just dirt yet Australia feel the need to have signs saying 'flooding area, beware!'  I don't think there's going to be a flood anytime soon, do you? Without a river there will be no way of it overflowing to cause a flood.

Another hour or so passed and we found a rest area where many other campers were parked...so we thought...PERFECT! We parked up, cooked some dinner and then the boys got a fire on the go. It was a proper little camping night. Curly felt she had to toast something on it and as we didn't have any marshmallows she cooked a piece of bread.  Haha. Then out she went again to heat some hot chocolate and that's where everyone is now. Outside sipping on their hot drinks. I'm now snuggled up in bed ready to sleep and it's only 9pm. I'm so hardcore lately haha.

So that's part 2 of the road trip for you. A week gone another 3 weeks to go. I hope I'm not boring you yet...there's more to come.

To be continued...

Love y'all.
J.L xxx