Here I am, sitting on my hostelbed, in Perth! Strange feeling... The last time I was in this city, is about 17 months ago. But I know almost every place to find or to drive to here. Anyways, I didn't go straight from Broome to Perth, but it took some weeks. And again, a completely different trip compaired to my previous locations.

So okay, I was in Broome for a couple of days. It's an avarage sized town (compaired to a regular town in Australia), but there were quite some things to do. Swimming in Cable beach and Town beach, some cliff spots, relaxing, internet etc. The girls (Laura and Isabelle, my travelpartners) also went on a boat trip tour to do whale watching. It was too expensive to me, so I went shopping instead. While I was shopping, I saw a real big smoke cloud in the bush. Ofcourse I got curious, so I went for a drive to over there. It was next to the road to Cape Leveque, a national park far north from Broome. Just when I got there, I saw so many flames... One big bushfire. Just when I was about to make some pictures, the police asked me to leave, because of the wind, there was another fire coming up to my direction in a few minutes. Well ok... I went back to Broome. Eventhough I'm telling you this, there were so many bushfires during my trip, since Alice Springs. Bushfires are quite normal here in Australia. It'll be on the news only when it's really big or when people have to evacuate probably.

Broome is a special location when it's full moon. In the bay next to Broome, you can see the 'rings' from the sea. When the moon is up, you see this special yellow/white stripes in the sea. Hence the name 'Staircase to the Moon'. Also, there was this full moon party at the beach where we went to. Great music, so MANY people, and I gotta say, so many DRUNK people... But I've amused myself with many strangers.

The next morning we left Broome again. We were driving on the way to Port Hedland, with only one big beach in between (the 80-Mile beach). We decided to check it out. Nice beach, very white sand, lots of shells, nice swim! And there it began... We met a couple of guys from South Africa there, who invited us to come along for a BBQ, together with their families. We couldn't really say no, so we joined them. I was so surprised about how open and friendly they were, it was a lovely BBQ for sure! After a few conversations about their background, it was hard to realize that they actually ran away from South Africa because of the crimes and experience in it over there. Because they were on a 'holiday-weekend' at the 80 Mile beach, they asked us to come back the next day for some beach activities. In fact, they wanted us to stay on their camping. But the truth is, we just don't want to pay for a camping (and really don't want someone else to pay for us) if we can camp somewhere close for free, in the bush. But we came back the next morning, and we explained to their parents about the way we camp during our trip, that they really don't need to worry about us. Alright ;)

Anyway, we really had a nice day with them. Together with Armand, Francois, Mark, Nico and Gerhard we were playing some bal games, quadbike crossing over the beach and fishing. Even I went fishing, I think for the first time in my life. There were a lot of people fishing at the beach actually. When one guy caught a fish, I ran straight to him... He caught a shark! OMG! One day ago we were just swimming there! Ok that aside... I was fishing, hoping to catch a shark as well. Well, almost, I caught a big dangerous stinger :) (see photos). But it made me feel like I should really check what's inside the water before just jumping in...

Later in the late afternoon everyone was about to go back to Port Hedland, the town where they live, and also the town which was on our way to Perth. There was only one problem, it was almost sunset. Normally I never drive in the dark, because there's always wildlife on the highway during the night. But this time I made an exception, because they were with 4 cars, all 4WD cars with a rail in front of their car. We were driving all together in a line, we got basically escorted to Port Hedland, and we were able to communicate with each other by my walkie-talkies. Nice to have them. After a couple of hours we got into Port Hedland. Francois' mother offered us to sleep in their house, because she really didn't want us to go camp outside town. That was very generous of them, I took the couch ;)

The next day Armand and Francois showed us some places in Port Hedland. It's basically a small town (population of 12.000) with a big port, around the coast, but not any other town around in a range of 200km. It was almost the end of the day already, we decided to do one BBQ again before we leave the town. A BBQ at Armand's house, in his garden, with a bar and pool. Well, thanks to the vodka and whiskey we didn't eat everthing, but we had a lot of fun, especially in the water :). We were staying at Armands house this night. In the next morning, no hangover, but no feeling like doing something either... None of us actually. We all chilled out another day...

The day after, we (the 3 of us) bought some gifts for Francois, Armand and his parents. It wasn't easy just to say goodbye, to new friends that you might not see again for a long time... Because they're really good people and I don't find such people a lot, anywhere. Then it was really time to go further on the trip, on the way to Karajini National Park. We drove just a few hours, and it was already time to camp next to the highway.

So, we got in Karajini National Park the next morning. After having a chat at the information centre, we found out that a lot of roads are 4WD only. There were about 4 nice spots to see, 3 of 'm are only accessable by 4WD. I even tried to drive on one, but the road was really too rough. So we decided to see the only accessable spot. We've been all day at that spot... A lot of walking and and a lot of swimming (that was necessary to cool off)! At the end of the day we left the National Park, so we didn't have to pay for a camping spot. We camped just outside the national park, next to the highway. There was just one unhygienic problem, there was garbage everywhere at the parkingplace... That ment one thing: there were dingo's around. A dingo is like a dog, but not a nice dog, and it can steal your food if you leave it unattended. Luckly nothing got stolen during the night.

The next day was a long drive back to the coast, to Exmouth. It was quite a boring day, 650km driving, but every day something happens... This time we were driving through a sandstorm for half an hour. We had a few moments, that we couldn't see anything further than 100meters. But.. we made it to Exmouth. Because it's very touristic area, we camped on a paid camping site, next to Cape Range National Park, where we went to the next day. It's a national park with a few gorges and a lot of beach/snorkelingspots. But this day it happened... I had for the first time since Port Augusta (the day I left Adelaide) rain! Luckly, it was just a little bit, after half an hour the sun came up and the weather got better. I took my snorkelinggear and I took a swim in one of the area's. There was a lot of beautiful corals and beautiful colorfull fish, just close to the beach! At the end of the day, I booked a snorkelingtour together with Isabelle. We only had to get to Coral Bay (about 150km) for it, because we were expected for the tour early in the morning. It was almost sunset, so we had to drive quickly, to avoid driving in the dark... But we made it. Also in this area it wasn't easy to find a free campspot. And since Isabelle and I had to be at the dive/snorkelshop early in the morning, we took a spot at the camping just across the street.

So, the next morning at 8:30am we (Isabelle and I) were ready. First fitting wetsuit and swim fins, small drive to the jetty, got on the boat, and off we were. It was an exciting morning, in the first half an hour we saw some dolphins swimming with us. After 45 minutes sailing, the boat stopped and we took a look in the Ningaloo Reef, with snorkelinggear on us. Amazing! So many beautiful, tropical, colorfull, small and big fish between all the colorful coral. I also saw a few turtles, just underneath me. After an hour we sailed further, to swim above a manta, a big ray fish, and after a small break, we took a swim between the coral again. In the afternoon we got back in the small town, to do some pictures exchange with one of the guides, and we drove further south. After an hour we took a break and camped next to a roadhouse.

In the next morning I got in a chat with a retired Dutch couple (who were camping just next to us), also travelling around in Australia, but they were going north. They showed us some nice -not-really-known- spots to see on the way south. There were some blowholes closeby on the way. I've seen many "blowholes" in Australia, especially around the Great Ocean Road, but this spot was absolutely great! Every wave pushes so much water in this hole, it pushes the water about 20-60 meters in the air. Absolutely nice to see that! After taking many pictures, we drove further to Carnarvon. After 5 days I finally had reception again, so we took our time to do some mail/phone/facebook stuff. When that all was done, we drove off to Monkey Mia, Shark Bay. It just got dark when we got in the National Park, we found an 'outback-spot' a little bit from the road to camp, with the hope that no Ranger would find us.

And alright, nothing happened! We left early (6:45am in the morning), so we would be in time to see the dolphin feeding in Monkey Mia, about an hour drive. We got there in time, but a lot of people were... Together with about 150 other people, we were watching a few dolphins getting fed by the volunteers. There were only 3 dolphins and too many people, so we waited for the next feeding time. About 1,5 hour later the 2nd feeding time started. This time a lot more dolphins and less people. It's so awesome to see those dolphins so close to you, and seeing a few others playing together in the background. I think I made about 100 pictures just in 15 minutes... After the feeding time, we left Monkey Mia, and looked around other spots in Shark Bay. Look-out to watch sharks, shell beach (a beach full with shells only, no sand!) and stromatolites. At the end we drove off the park, on the way to Kalbarri NP. Also this time we didn't reach the park before sunset, so we camped next to the highway again.

I noticed during this night that it's getting colder by the day... The more south we go, the colder it gets. But also, during our drive, the souther we go, the more green we see next to the road. Just before we got in Kalbarri, lots of green landscapes. In Kalbarri we took a few stops in the park and next to the ocean. It started to feel like the most national parks in Australia are basically the same kind of rocks. It's absolutely nice to see, but it's getting boring... At the end of the day we drove further to Geraldton, a small town with about 500km to go to Perth. We camped somewhere on a parkinglot next to a lake, where we were pretty sure we wouldn't be disturbed during the night ;)

The next morning, the girls really wanted a shower so bad... So, we tried to sneak in a Caravan Park, just for a shower. The first caravan park failed, they saw us too quickly. The second one looked so expensive, we didn't even want to try. The last one worked... Well, for the girls it worked. I got caught and had to pay 5 dollars for the shower... Okay whatever, at least I took my time for that 5 dollar shower! Our next stop was in Jurien Bay. I checked for a place to go skydiving when we were in Broome, and Jurien Bay was the only location I could find to do skydiving. Laura also wanted to go skydiving, so we booked together for the next day. There was basically nothing else to do in that small town, so we drove off to spend the rest of the day at the Pinnacles. This is an amazing yellow-desert with many limestones formations. We were even able to drive through the park, with a result of many pictures again. After the Pinnacles we drove back to Jurien Bay and found a place to camp... On a hill, next to the watertower. This was really the windfullest night I had since the Great Ocean Road.

I slept so bad that night. After camping for so long time, the air matress started leaking a couple of weeks before, and this night it was the worst. I woke up with a lot of pain in my schoulders, there were holes in my tent (thx wind!) and it was the day to go skydiving... Urgh! The morning we spend some time around the beach and shopping, at 1:00pm it was time for our skydive! ... Well not yet, a small delay because there were too many clouds in the air. Alright no worries... But we got so bored in there, in Jurien Bay was really NOTHING to do! But we were allowed to use wifi and electricity at the Skydive-house. At the end, we had to wait about 3,5 hours before we finally went in the air. We were dropped at the airport by bus, got in the small airplane, and flew up to 10.000 feet (about 4km). And then, the 4 of us (Laura and I, on a tandem with 2 guides) jumped out the plane. OMG! That was unbelievable, fast, mindblowing! Beautiful view over the coast! After 35 seconds freefall, the parashute went open and we were going down slowly... After about 3-4 minutes, we landed on the beach. That was absolutely great! The guide made pictures for me (I paid for that), but because we had to wait for so long, they made a video for me as well. Someday when I have better internet, I'll upload it to my blog ;)

Okay, 6pm just passed and almost complete sunset, I wanted a normal bed (read: hostelbed) so badly now, so we drove straight at one to Perth. Around 9pm we got in Perth, looking for a hostel/place to spend the night. That didn't go well... After making about 20 phonecalls to hostels, there was not one hostel that had room for us. I tried the only option that I came up with. I drove to Epsom Avenue, to the house where I was staying with Bart and Koendert last year, during my holiday in Perth. I really hoped that there were still backpackers living there, but no... Frontdoor and backdoor closed, no lights inside, no cars around... It was already so late and we were so tired, we had no energy to go to a camping, so we slept in the car in the street... I expected my comeback in Perth a lot different, but s*** happens!

The next morning we went to the city to look for a hostel. The girls were basically on the end-stop for the trip and wanted to stay in the city, I wanted to stay on a place where I was able to park. So we split up, the girls to a hostel in the city, I went to a hostel next to Cottesloe Beach. After cleaning the car I went to my bed for a long and nice sleep...

Now I'm already for a week in Perth. I really like the city, in combination with all the beaches and parks around here. I've already been to Yanchup National Park (where I found many koala's and kangaroo's really close), Serpetine National Park (nature and waterfalls), Rottnest Island (bikeriding, also for the first time in half a year), Fremantle and the Dutch shop (for some typical Dutch food). YES! I bought frikandellen and I ate them in the evening! Also Francois (from Port Hedland) came to Perth for a day before he flew to Bali, so we catched up with him.

But during this week, the weather isn't so great as I expected. It's around 15-20 degrees, but very windy and it rains a lot here. My next trip is driving back to Melbourne... I'm leaving soon, but not sure when exactly and with which new travelpartners... But I'll see!