Day 43:

Hey everyone - so as you all know we are now in Western Australia!

We were very productive with our time in Perth and have managed to sort out a bank account with the Commonwealth bank and we have a phone number for Oz which most of you should have received a text about - so if you haven't got it then just send us an email!

So today we just had a walk around Perth and tried to get stuff sorted. We ended up booking our Wicked Campervan 'Ultra Dracula' (see the pics it has dracula all over it) We have this van until June 25th so we can travel up and down the west coast. We have to pick it up tomorrow - so we headed back to the hostel and met some new people in our Dorm who were really cool so we wnt out for a few beers in the evening with them.

It's really strange as everyone in our Hostel has come to Perth to work - as there are alot more jobs out here then on the east coast (wish we knew this before we booked our flights) This means that hardly anyone has done any travelling up the west coast and they have all just been living here for a few months trying to save money.

Day 44:

Today we had to check out - so after dumping our bags in the hostel we headed back into town to sort out a few more details with the bank before heading to a cheap shop to buy some supplies for the campervan.

We picked up our campervan - which is so cool - can't believe we will be living in this little thing for a month (scary). Everyone had been telling us to go and see Maragaret River so we decided we would head down south before we sarted our adventure up north to Exmouth to see the whale sharks.

First stop in the van was Freemantle (just south of Perth) we went to Woolworths and stocked up on food and water. The supermarkets are so expensive over here. The cheapest can of beans that we could find was 45p (what a rip off). There supermarkets definitely aren't like Asda or Lidl back home. The only thing that seems quite reasonable is Meat - which we are very happy about.

After this we stopped off just before Madurrah - to have some dinner! A sausage sandwhich was what we managed to russle up at the side of the road in a petrol station - classy huh!lol The sausages were amazing though!

We then drove through Banbury and decided to stop for the evening in Busselton. In Busselton we decided to just park up on the side of a quiet road and sleep for the night. At 6am we were woken up by a massive storm - there was crazy lightning and the thunder was so loud. We watched it for about an hour before going back to sleep. When we started driving in the morning we turned on the radio and found out that a tornado had hit Busselton. How funny is that - our first night in the campervan and we were hit by a tornado - love it! Only a small one obviously but it's still quite funny.

Day 45:

We decided to explore Busselton so we headed for their Beach it had a 2mile long Jetty - we were going to walk down but it was blowing a gale and freezing and we couldn't be bothered to pay $10 to walk down it and get even more cold and wet!

Busselton was a really nice town it een had an open aire cinema - like a drive thru. This was shut though as the weather was so bad. We were quite gutted as this would have been a very cool thing to do!

After we had exhausted things to do in Busselton we headed down to Margaret River. On the way down we saw our first kangaroo but it was dead on the side of the road (not nice). When we got to Maragaret River we found a really nice campsite and parked up there. We spent most of the day doing laundry as all of our clothes still stank from when they got soaked in Tioman Island so we literally had to wash everything we owned.

In the afternoon we took a stroll down to Maragaret River and then looked around the town - which was small but very nice. We went to the fudge shop and tried loads of different flavoured fudge. We tried to book on to do a wine tour but because it was bank holiday weekend they were all booked up for a couple of days - so we might go back down and do it after we have gone up north.

Day 46:

We set off early today and headed back up to Perth. This was quite a long drive as we stopped off at loads of beached on the way. The first one was Preston beach where we stopped and ate some lunch. The waves were massive so we took a walk along the beach and watched the sea. Still bloody cold though - so no chance of getting in there.

Next stop was the beaches on the coast of Perth so we went to Brighton, City and Scarborough beach. We then tried heading up to Quinns rocks but the road was close so we headed back down towards Scarborough and stayed the night in a car park on Sorento beach.

Day 47:

Today we ot woken up ridiculously early by all of the surfers parking up to have a surf on Sorento beach.

We got straight on the highway and headed to Yanchep (North of Perth) we stopped here to see the national park. We got there really early so we parked up and made some breakfast which we ate by the lake - which was beautiful it was calledloch Mcness (how funny). We had a walk around the park and saw loads of kangaroos and koalas. They were awesome - i never knew they were so big.

After this we headed for Cervantes. It is a tiny town on the coast and it is like stepping back into the 70's - it is crazy. It has a poulation of 750 people there is a general store which looks like everything is months out of date, one liquor store a post office and a apertol station and that is it. We spent ages trying to find an ATM as we had no cash on us but there were all out of order. We managed to scramble enough change together o buy us some burgers for tea and the admission fee to get in to see the Pinnacles.

The Pinnacles were crazy it is just a massive desert filled with limestone rocks and pillars. It's crazy - just looks like what you expect Mars to look like. So strange = it goes on for miles and miles you have to check out the pictures. You just can not imagine how far they go on for.

After this we headed to Thirsty Point and had a stroll along the beach there - we were getting hungry and after not finding a BBQ (which they usually have on most beaches and you can use for free) we decided to head off in search of one.

So next stop was Jurien Bay - we found a BBQ and an ATM (eventually) so we brought some cheap peppered steak and cooked this up along with our bugers for tea. Was spot on. The locals looked a bit wary about who we were though but just waved occassionaly.

We finally drove to Port Denison where we found a caravan park and decided to crash for the night as we were very tired. 2 National Parks and several beaches is not bad for one day.

Seems crazy aswell that neither of us have worked for over 6 weeks. The longest either of us have not worked since we were about 16/17. Mental!!!

That brings us to today - where we are in Geraldton staying with my cousin Nick and Helen. It is nice to be in a big town where they have proper shops and cheaper fuel. Also really nice to see Nick as it has been about 6 years. Nick and Helen are going to put us up for a couple of nights (which is super nice of them) so we can have showers for the next 2 days and a chance to charge up the phone and update the blog and pics.

Cheers Nick and Helen - you are legends.

So hope this has been a thrilling installment - next stop is Kalbarri and then Mokey Mia to feed the dolphins and then Shark Bay to snorkel with the reef sharks. That should be a good one.

Sorry as well if we are not very good at replying to texts of calls - it's because we are with Vodafone and they don't have much coverage on the west coast of Australia should be fine when we get to the east though.

Hope everyone is doing ok - let us know what life back home is like.

Lots of Love

Carly and Matt x x x