G'day!! Long time no blog, eh? I've been enjoying my trip up the West Coast!! We finally made it safely to Broome yesterday, so I thought I wud update you all on wots been happening!!

Day 1 Perth - Horrocks

Today was the start of the trip, and I met my family for the next 10 days! We had a couple from Melbourne, Rick and Mai, Anna from Austria, Cornel from Swizerland, Avril and Aoife from Ireland, Dani, Nic, Hayley, Denise, Ruth, Cathryn, Peter from England, and Jenny and Leslie from Canada! And Jim our tour guide! So a good mixed crowd! We headed for the Pinnacles again, and no Dad I still didn't run through them naked! We stopped at Hangover Bay for lunch and I ended up bumping into a family from the Shankhill!! Wot a small world! After a lot of driving we hit Greenough Wildlife Park, where I fed kangaroos and held snakes! I had one around my neck and Jim's hat on with another on that at one stage! I'm getting brave! But they were only baby carpet pythons! We finally reached Horrocks where we watched the sun set then off for an early nite!

Day 2 Horrocks - Monkey Mia

Our first port of call was Hutt River Province, a tiny principality in the middle of nowhere. Prince Leonard declared war on Australia and through that he now has his own country, which has its own passport and currency! So we needed visa's for visiting, so I got my passport stamped! It was a funny little place to be honest! After that, Jim stopped on the road and picked up a blue tongued skink, which I held! Then it was off to Kalbarri NP which was absolutely beautiful! We saw Nature's window, pretty much a hole in the rock with an amazing view! Then off to the Z bend gorge, so named for its shape! Beautiful! But there were so many flies just landing on your face near your eyes mouth and nose! Ick! After hours and hours of driving, and another skink, we reached Shell Beach, so named coz there's no sand, only shells! It was very pretty!We finally reached Monkey Mia after dark, let the fun begin 2moro!!

Day 3 Monkey Mia - Coral Bay

How exciting!! We headed down to the beach and waited for the dolphins to come in. And that they did!! They came right up into the shallow waters and I got plenty of pics which was good! We spent ages there and a few of us went swimming, while me and Catheryn were in the water dolphins just swam rite by us, about 10-15ft away! I was amazed, so I've swam with dolphins!! After Monkey Mia we hit Eagle Bluff from which we could see tiger sharks and eagle rays gliding through the water! As we were on a cliff and we cud see them clearly they must've been big!! We then reached Hamelin Pool and saw 1000 yr old stomatolites, which are clumps of oxygen producing bacteria. It was pretty cool to see, only here and one other place in the world have live marine stromatolites! On the way to our next stop Jim stopped again and brought on board a thorny devil! It was so cute lol. We finally reached Coral Bay, a bug infested hostel, but clean!

Day 4 Coral Bay - Exmouth

A 5 min drive took us down to the coast where I booked on to the Manta Ray Eco tour! Dani, Cornel, Jenny, Anna, Ruth, Avril, and Lesley all did the tour too. We got kitted out in our masks and flippers then hopped aboard. Our first stop was the Maze, where we got out and snorkelled, my snorkel had a crack in it and I ended up swallowing loadsa salt water! I was very ill, but I did see lots of fish and a cool blue starfish! Back on the boat and I was sick as a dog! We finally reached the manta ray site and after getting a new snorkel I jumped in. And there it was! It was amazing just swimming along behind the ray, it was huge and so magestic! We got back on the boat (sick again) and got to the cleaning depot, where we snorkelled with reef sharks! It was amazing, they swim towards the surface with their mouths open so that the small fish get in and clean their teeth, but its like they're coming straight for you!! After that we hit Exmouth, a short drive away, and I realised I got really badly burnt! I was in agony, but since I was being sick the entire time on the boat I'm not surprised!

Day 5 Exmouth

Yeah a complete bust of a day, I was in too much pain to do anything so I stayed in the hostel and caught up on my diary! Hayley brought me in breakfast before they all left which was really nice of her! The group went off for walks and snorkelling and wen they came back most of them came in to check on my which I thought was lovely!

Day 6 Exmouth - Karijini NP

I sat in the front of the bus with Denise and Jim today as the air-con worked better there! I still looked like a clothed beetroot! Denise had here tunes pumping so it was a really good day, considering we just sat on the bus, 700km to cover! The last 150km was on unsealed roads so it was very bumpy! It was hilarious coz Jim was talking into the mike and we went over a particularly big bump, he near swalloed the mic! We were in stitches, and Denise almost wet herself, I guess you had to be there! We stopped at Kings Lake for lunch which was beautiful before moving on to Tom Price, a mining town. We stopped off at a memorial site which was just big piles of stones with peoples names on them. It was very poignent in a way! We finally reached Karijini and saw our accommodation... tents... and swags! 9 of us squashed into the tent, so it was very hot! And the place was full of bugs, including big huntsmen... fun times!!

Days 7 & 8 Karijini NP

We went to Oxter Gorge lookout and saw Junction Pool, it was very pretty! Then on to Handrail Gorge. This was fun, you had to climb down and around the place and I managed to get stuck so Jim came back for me and told me just to get in the water and swim across! So he carried my backpack across while I swam! He then helped me along the whole way to Handrail Pool. It was unbelievably slippy and Poor Nic fell several times! I was quite scared, and couldnt make it down to the pool coz you had to do a mini abseil! Jim was fantastic tho and really helped me out! After lunch we went to Hamersly Gorge, which was beautiful, again slippy and Nic Catheryn and Jenny all fell in! There was also a natural spa which was beautiful, I didn't take my camera up tho so no pics! The next day we went to Fern Pool, an absolute paradise! It was beautiful and the water was so refreshing! Then back to Fortesque Falls which was just as nice, and lovely cool water! After lunch we went to Circular Pool, by this stage I was wrecked after not sleeping and all the climbing and swimming! So I stayed up with Denise and Aoife while the others went down!

Day 9 Karijini - 80 Mile Beach

After hours of driving we finally reached civilisation again after being in the outback for 3 days!! No bugs! And shops!! I bought myself a cd! Lol. We left South Hedland and made our way to Port Hedland for lunch, a mining town again, big on iron ore and salt. We finally reached 80 Mile Beach which was so pretty! It's a turtle rookery so we waited till after dark then went looking for turtles! Unfortunately the tide was too far out and we didn't see any but we had some fun as Nic kept freaking out with all the crabs about, they wud just run into the path of my torch and she wud scream! So funny!! We got back to camp and slept in our swags under the stars! I saw the Milky Way and shooting stars!! It was beautiful!

Day 10 80 Mile Beach - Broome

A 300km stint brought us into Broome! Finally!! I think we were all ready to get into proper beds! We stopped at Gantheaume Point, where an Irishman by the name of Patrick Sullivan evaded murder charges in Ireland and set up a nice wealthy business for himself!! Nic Dani Hayley Catheryn and Me all booked into the same hostel and we all headed out for dinner! It was beautiful and I was drinking frozen blue Daquaris! Yummy! Lol.

So thats it! I've made a lot of new friends, and I miss Jim a lot, he was a fantastic tourguide and I would definitely recommend Western Xposure!! I'll update again soon

Love and miss you all xxxx