Our first night at Hamelin Station provided us with a quiet night of sleep, although we were kept company by the bleating of sheep early in the morning. The sheep did have some competition with a couple of hundred Galahs and numerous other birds, so at least we were up early. There are worse ways to wake up than to the calls of native birds. After doing the mundane domestic chore of laundry we took a drive out to Hamelin Pool to see the Stromatalites. Stromatalites are one of the earliest forms of life still in existence. They apparently appeared on earth about 3.5 billion years ago. The examples we saw at Hamelin Pool are supposed to be around 5,000 years old. Stromatalites are actually a very simple form of bacteria that grow in a colony, and very slowly this colony forms a cauliflower-type rock formation that we see today. See, we learnt something! The next day we did a day trip into the Shark Bay area and visited Monkey Mia to see the dolphins. The first stop was at Eagle Bluff. We had read about this place, and also seen it in documentaries on T.V., and it is supposed to be one of the best places to see ocean life such as Dugongs, Dolphins, Turtles and Sharks. The bluff is basically a ridge that drops over a sheer cliff into crystal clear water. There is a boardwalk that runs right on the edge of the cliff and you can see down to the water about a hundred meters below. It is a nice walk, we had blue skies and sunshine, but the wind was quite strong (again!) and also quite cold. We looked and looked but didn't see a thing in the water. We were later told that, unfortunately for us, the water temperature in these parts is "unusually cold" (yeah, we found that out at Ningaloo!) and as a result, the animals are probably on the outer reefs where the water is warmer. So, we saw a few seabirds and some ocean… no Dugongs or sharks. Oh well, another time perhaps. Back into the car and on to Monkey Mia, we arrived five minutes before the dolphin feeding and the dolphins were just arriving as we got to the beach, perfect timing!

The dolphin feeding was a bit different to what we expected. From the photos and brochures you see, you expect that everyone visiting Monkey Mia stands in knee deep water and feeds the dolphins a fish. In reality, once the dolphins arrive the rangers make sure everyone leaves the water. They stand in the water and randomly pick a couple of people from the crowd to feed a fish to the dolphin. The entire feeding session takes no longer than 15 minutes. You get to have a good look at the dolphins, and we managed to get a good viewing spot on a small jetty, looking back at the beach. The best thing about this spot was that during the feeding two of the baby dolphins were playing on the surface of the water not far from the jetty, so we spent more time watching them than the feeding on the beach. Once the dolphins had headed back out to sea again we went for a wander around the Monkey Mia resort. There's not a lot to see, they have a nice restaurant overlooking the water, a swimming pool and a couple of bars, but that's about it. As it was getting close to lunchtime, and as the restaurant wasn't open for another half an hour or more, we drove back to Denham for lunch. Denham is surprisingly a very nice little town. It has a well kept main street that runs right alongside the water. Palm trees line the road with small picnic shelters dotted along the foreshore. Driving into town we had a familiar feeling and we both agreed it looked similar to Lakes Entrance, only smaller. We treated ourselves to buying lunch from the bakery and had the most delicious cream and chocolate éclair thing for a dessert, sitting in the shade overlooking the ocean. Very nice. Once we forced our fat arses back into the car, we drove back to Hamelin, stopping in at various beaches along the way. Little Lagoon is a small tidal lake on the edge of the coast, apparently a nursery for whiting and other fish. Shell Beach is a fantastic beach that, as you probably guessed, is completely covered in shells. What makes it unique is that every shell on the beach is almost identical. They are all from a particular species of bi-valve mollusc (as in an oyster) that lives in the salty waters of the shallow lagoons off the beach. The shells continually wash up and the beach is five meters deep with the things! To top it off, the water is spotlessly clear and calm. We sat on the beach and soaked up the sun for a while, enjoying the fact that there was no wind, which was a welcome relief. A couple of short stops in at another beach or two and then we were back at Hamelin for the night. The next day we completed a very casual pack up and rolled out of Hamelin Station at 10:30am, which didn't matter so much, as we only had a couple of hundred k's to travel before stopping at a campsite just north of the Kalbari turnoff. Then it rained… but it was the first real rain we had received since being in Cairns, so we couldn't complain. What we could complain about though is the amount of water leaking into our camper trailer's tent. Seriously! This thing leaks like flywire windows in a submarine! The canvas is fine, but we can not stop the water pouring in through the stitching, no matter what we try. All part of the fun of camping!

We drove into Kalbari National Park the next morning, left our camper at the ranger station after being told they are not allowed to be towed into the park, and drove the 25 kilometres to Natures Window. This is a natural rock formation that has been carved out of sandstone by the wind and rain. The walk into Natures Window has some stunning scenery as well. We were lucky to have sunshine when we visited, the cloud breaking up as we entered the park. After here we had a look at Z-bend, which is a section of the river that follows a very sharp bend in the river that is caused by a very straight fault line in the rocks. The most interesting thing at this spot was the fossilized footprints of pre-historic scorpions that are found in some of the rocks. These creatures were some of the first life forms to leave the water and begin to inhabit the land. It is amazing to think that we were standing in a place that was once a muddy riverbank, and a large scorpion-like creature had walked past this same spot so many millions of years ago. We returned to the ranger's station, hooked on the camper and drove into the town of Kalbarri. Again, we were surprised to find it was a nice, seaside town with a good feel to it. It is situated where the Murcheson River meets the ocean and is very similar to many of the towns on the NSW coast. A bit further along the coast we searched for a free camp that actually didn't exist (the Camps 6 book is not as comprehensive as some people say it is…) and eventually found a great little spot just out of Geraldton, amongst the green farmland. We had more rain here, showers that came and went but created some fantastic rainbows, and rain overnight. We stayed for three nights, did some shopping in Geraldton (it's just another town), bought some warm clothes in preparation for the southern areas of Australia, and continued mopping up water from inside the tent. Bloody thing!

It was time to move on again, so after a relatively dry pack up we headed south toward Perth. We drove through Geraldton again and realised that we had only seen a small part of it when we went shopping, the place is huge. We stopped for lunch in Jurien Bay and then visited The Pinnacles a bit further down the coast. The Pinnacles are a series of limestone pillars that have been exposed by the sand and other rocks eroding from around them over time. They actually look like termite mounds, and we have seen thousands of them on our travels across the top end. We went for a walk to the "viewing area", as, once again, we were not allowed to drive the 4 km loop track with our camper. It was only a 400 metre walk to see the pinnacles, and you don't see anything different by driving all the way around, just more pillars. It was worth the visit, but if we were not in the area, I don't think I would go out of my way to come and see them. We were back in the car and on the road again within an hour. Another overnight camp at a roadside stop found us only 70 km from Perth. As we were only staying one night, we didn't set up our awning. Kathy timed the cooking of dinner to perfection, as she was just dishing it up when it bucketed rain. It was only a shower and the sun soon reappeared. As we were washing up, the trees around us were filling up with some very vocal and very noisy White Tailed Black Cockatoos. There would have been over a hundred of them in the trees around us, it was quite a sight. Just as they were settling down it seemed they were chased away by something and they all took off in a screeching hurry, and then it was quiet. As soon as they were gone, a couple of Kookaburras started cackling and laughing in the trees that the Black Cockies were perched in. It seemed as though the Kookaburras like the peace and quiet, and had chased the Cockatoos away. We were lucky enough not to receive any more rain overnight and so we packed up an almost dry tent and headed south again. The drive into Perth was as boring as a four lane highway through a city is anywhere else in Australia, and we glanced at the highrise buildings and all things city-like as we passed through, our sights set on the south west corner of Australia. We took a detour along a "forest drive" between Bunbury and Busselton for a change of scenery and found ourselves driving along a beautiful winding road through some huge trees that were growing right up to the edge of the road. The road brought us back onto the main highway not far from Busselton and it is here where we currently reside. We plan on staying here for a couple of days and doing a day trip down along the coast to Augusta and back through Margaret River. We have been looking forward to seeing this area and hope the weather will be kind to us. As I write this, the wind has picked up to a dull roar and the weather bureau is predicting some heavy showers with squally storms for the next few days... but they have been known to be wrong before....

Stay tuned for the next update!!