Amazing to drive for two days and see nothing - when I say nothing, I mean NOTHING. We left Tom Price and drove 80 km to Parrabadoo. Another mining town - smaller than Tom Price. It has an interesting sculpture as you drive into it. This was a venture which the town people were invited to contribute. It's called Resilience. Made to represent the mining trucks, the minerals extracted and the values of the town. Now drive another 210 km seeing about three cars, little roadkill and nothing else to our free camp for the night. Again, the colours are amazing - the red earth, green tuft grasses and the occasional cow (usually right on the side of the road) and it is beautiful but oh so remote. The next day it was another 180 km before we saw anything. That something was the coastal town of Onslow. This town is known for its salt mining. As you drive into the town, there are salt pans on both sides of the road. The salt content of the water is very high and as the areas are very shallow, and the air temperatures high, there is a high evaporation. Just one night here to see blue water again, rather than just red dirt.

The next day was just over 300 km to a station stay at Bullara. These people are quite smart. They supplement their farming income with some grey nomads putting roots down for a night or two. Put in a donkey shower (wood fire heated), a couple of toilets and bingo - it's a tourist attraction. It is a great place to stay though. You are welcome to watch the team feed the cattle and I'm sure you could get closer to the beasts than we chose to.

So close to Ningaloo Reef now, we could almost smell it. Nah, it was the cows we could still smell. Only about 90 km to Exmouth now. This was surprising. I was expecting a larger town - just about 5km out of town are emus running down the road. The water here is just stunning. So clear. Our favourite beach was Bundegi. We had a lovely swim there and saw a turtle swim by. This is on the north side of the peninsular. A night in town enabled us to watch the NRL finals at the local pub (Rabbitohs v Roosters). The next day we did a glass bottom boat and snorkelling tour. Great day - even bought the shirt! We then head to Cape Range National Park on the other side of the peninsular for three nights at Mesa Campground and then one at Kurrajong Campground. It's excellent National Park camping and I guess Mesa was our favourite. Great swimming. No fish but we did see dolphins and turtles. The water is just so clear. The best snorkelling we found was at Oyster Stacks. Sooooo many fish. Just amazing. We did snorkel at Torquoise Bay - another popular spot but the water wasn't as clear there.

Next head south to Coral Bay. We have been hearing lots of lovely things about Coral Bay. It certainly was high on our list of "must visit". Unfortunately, school holidays did ruin it for us. It was packed! The beach and water was beautiful and so close to the reef! You wouldn't have been able to drop a hanky on the beach without hitting someone so we headed out of there, south to Warroora Station. Now, we had high hopes here - another station turning their hand at tourism. No toilets here so you had to be fully self contained. About 10km of dirt road in, which Suncatcher handled beautifully, and gorgeous turquoise water. However, and it's a HUGE however, the wind BLEW ! We had to shut the van up except for a teeny tiny slit in the bottom of the window and went for a walk along the beach. When we got back, our bed was absolutely covered in red grit - sand/dirt combo. Argh. It was the closest I've felt to just coming home. Nearly broke my spirit. We did book two nights there but jumped ship after only one. The winds are horrific on the WA coast. We had heard this but now can vouch for it ourselves. In fact, we ha e a new, and hardier awning on order in Perth. We don't believe the winds are going to be any better on the Great Australian Bight. We have cruised this section before with Ruth and Bones and lived that nightmare.

About 200km south of Windy Warroora is Carnarvon. A nice little town but not too much going on. We did go to the local pub to watch the AFL grand final. We were hoping for a Collingwood win but the local Perth team Eagles won which meant we could leave there in one piece. We blew the dust off our push bikes and took them for a spin.

330 km approximately further down the coast was Shark Bay. We stayed at Denham which is about 25km before Monkey Mia. Again, emus and kangaroos on the road between these towns and nothing else. So when I say 250 km or 300 km to the next town, that's exactly what it is - nothing and I mean nothing, in between. It's $9 pp concession to enter a Monkey Mia - a bit of a rip off really as we were only there for a quick look. Dolphin feeding is in the morning - apparently stacks of people line up and a small few are chosen to feed the dolphins. I think it's a bit of a tourist rort but it seems to work for them. Again, school holidays have worked against us and accommodation is hard to find.

Back to Denham for overnight in a tiny little spot in the caravan park. It was the NRL grand finals so we again went to the pub to watch the Roosters slay the Storms. On our way out of the Shark Bay Area the next day, we stopped at Shell beach. What an amazing place. Due to the high salinity of the water (almost double) and the way the water flows, there is a very high number of small shells on the beach. They say about 9 metres deep in some places. Again, water is crystal clear.

327 km of NOTHING is Kalbarri. Now this place is great. Right on the coast - again clear turquoise water - but also with a National Park. The wildflowers were quite spectacular and we stopped many times for photo opportunities. The main attractions were "Nature's Window" - a hole in a rock formation looking down on the Murchison River. Photographer's paradise. We did the walk at Z Bend down to the river. It was only about 2.6 km return but 1km was straight down which meant 1 km was straight up. The walk was lovely but THE FLIES! OMG! Nightmare. I had a fly net which saved me. The only other time I've seen so many flies was at The Flinders Ranges.

Things start to change after Kalbarri. There are some lovely coastal cliff lookouts south of the town then the land seems to open up to farming. This is the grain belt of WA. Just before the land opens up is Port Gregory which has The Pink Lake. Yes - it's pink! Amazing. Apparently it's due to the presence of a bacteria which gets trapped in the salt - a source of Beta-Carotene. It's at its best mid morning on bright sunny days - tick for us. 100 km on is Geraldton. They have spent a lot of money doing up the foreshore which is really lovely. They also have a car park free to RVs for overnight only. We visited the memorial to HMAS Sydney II which was destroyed in WWII by a German boat posing as an Indonesian Merchant Ship. 645 men perished on the Sydney. We checked the wall of honour - there was a BOWDEN (second class) and a DALTON (Commander). Says it all really.

Two nights at Cervantes before arriving into the big smoke of Perth. Caravan Park here was again busy due to school holidays. Little darlings are back to school next week (phew).