Hi guys! So I made it out of Dusborough in 1 piece! Didn't think I would after all that hard work! We hired a camper van and decided to do a road trip up the west coast. Although picking the camper up was an utter nightmare (long story) we have seen some AMAZING places!

�Our first stop was Geraldton, not much there but by the time we got on the road we only got 4 hours driving in before we had to set up camp. We were all tired after a night on the train station floor (another long story) so we found a YHA and parked outside asking if we could pay to use their facilities ($2 bargain).

�The next day we set off bright and early to get some quality driving time in, we� drove through Port Gregory which has lots of salt flats where the lake has dried up, next we stopped at Kalbarri not much to see but had some nice lunch and spotted a seahorse sanctuary which was awesome! Every time I see these fragile, mystical little creatures they never cease to amaze my they truely are my favourite animal of all. It was getting late but we decided to head on and try to get to a little place called Hamlin Pool, by the time we got to the overlander it was well dark (no street lights out here!) but there was no way I was kippin at the road side with snakes and wierdo's in the bush! So I drove 40kmph down the little gravel track to Hamlin Pool.

�This place was great, loads of history and a natural wonder. There was an old telegraph station, little museum, a walk through a shell quarry brought you to a huge mass of stramatolites (oldest living single cell organism in the world) there was also a shop and cafe,�kitchen, toilets and�showers, yep this place was just set in a tiny caravan park!

�A bit more sightseeing today on our way up to Monkey Mia. We stopped at 'Shell Beach' which is made entirely of white cockle shells up to 12m deep in some places! Then we stopped at Eagle Bluff which is a board walk in a cliff face looking down on a pristine reef. We were quite high up but managed to see turtles, rays and sharks! Then it was on to Denham the last stop before Monkey Mia. Just a sleepy little town to have lunch before going to Ocean-world, which rescues sharks and sea life and returns them to the wild once they are better, wicked place! We saw tiger, reef, nurse and lemon sharks, sea snakes, stone fish, lion fish, eels, rays, turtles and the wierdest acting snapper you can imagine! Anyway enough fish for 1 day off to Monkey Mia.

 We arrived at Monkey Mia around 5pm and decided to have a walk on the beach and check out where we would see the dolphins in the morning. Afterwards we ate dinner and headed for the on-site bar, was kool cheap beer and a local guy playing guitar and knocking tunes out, off to bed anyway cause up at 6am to see the first dolphins.

 The dolphins arrived about 8.30am so we had only stood in the water for about an hour and you weren't bothered 'cause there was aguy talking to you and telling you what to do, etc. When people started getting picked I just thought don't even think about it 'cause it's not gonna happen! However James got picked but nominated me, fair play mate! (I bought him a pizza as a thankyou) After we ate brekkie we went back to see the next group of dolphins then went to see the huge resident pelicans who hang around on the beach back to see another group of dolphins in to see a 'bilby' and a 'walleby' after the fourth or fith time of seeing them we decided to leave Monkey Mia and head on.

 We got to Carnarvon about 4pm and after finding somewhere to park for the night as the locals were un-helpful and the hostels un-friendly we decided on a little seafood restaurant which was highly recommended and I highly recommend it to if you're ever in that neck of the woods. It was called 'Harbourside restaurant & Cafe' at the fishing boat harbour. It was awesome I ordered garlic prawns with rice and asked if they could give me scallops too I was more than happy to pay extra but they charged me the same $17 for a huge dish of seafood for 7 quid!!!! I woke early the next morning so after going to the loo I just drove until everyone woke up and wanted brekkie, which was on the side of the road surrounded by bush!

We got to Coral Bay just after lunch and paid $35 for a powered site virtually on the beach! It was the front row, only a little tiny road in between, the view was gorgeous. We hooked up and filled up with water as we were running very low and decided to check the beach out. On the way we got roped into a quad trip on the night but we were more than happy to oblige after seeing the photos. The beach was perfect, white sand blue sky, green clear water. We spent a few hours there and headed back for our trip. Which was wicked, we got a quad and drove it fast as over the sand to a secret place called the aquarium to snorkel. it was like a massive swimming pool on the beach but cut off from the ocean by a wall that the tide could just get over at high tide filling it with loads of different sea-life leaving them stuck there for you to view until the tide came back in again. After that we drove back to Coral Bay, but not after driving up dunes about 100ft and flying back down the other side! The next day we all got up early and excited for the whale shark swim.

 When we first got on a boat I noticed a really big fish hanging around under the boat, I was informed it was the resident groper (2 metres) I immedietly s*** myself thinking this guy is big enough do I really wanna get in the water with something that could be 18 metres long! However today was fantastic we stopped for a snorkel at amazing little reef, I seen a shark and I s*** it, I started screaming and flapping about, but was told it was ok 'cause was only a 2 metre reef shark god help me with the whale shark! Once we were all back on the boat the pilot radioed to say he'd spotted a whale shark so we were off! This was it we were really gonna see one. We had planned to do it on the thursday until James got us to delay it as he was joining us then we realised we wouldn't make it to Coral Bay for the friday so we changed it again for the saturday, we were told they didn't see anything on thurs and fri was rained off 'cause of a big storm and here we were heading towards one. Once we located it we jumped in and just waited for it to swim past, it was huge (5 metres) then we all swam frantically to keep up with it, no joy it was gone! so we got back on the boat while the other group got a chance, in total we got in 4 times to see it, one of the times I couldnt see anything 'cause of all the bubbles in front of me off peolpes flippers and when the water cleared, s***! it was swimming right for me! We were told we were lucky as it was a baby (a 5 metre baby!) so more inquisitive, if we had gotten an adult we would of only got to see it once and it would of just dived down out of the way. So great day had by all we were very lucky, but I would highly recommend this to anyone. Back at the resort we got showered and changed and went for pizza (the one I was treating James to remember) It was delish but then we were on the road once more driving in the dark took us about 2 hours more than we wanted to but we didn't want to pay another night camp fees and we wanted some ground covered so we stopped at a service station in Manilya. In the morning we ate bacon sarnies and cups of tea, mmmm and it was off to Geraldton (again) we stayed overnight (again) and drove to 'The Pinnicles' which is lots of tall boulders standing upright in the desert?!?! It was really strange to see and sort of eerie at dusk which is what time we were there. We continued to Perth as we had to take James to the airport early, drop the van off and it was Hasta la vista Perth 'cause jumped on a train out of there the same day! Bye bye W.A. we'll miss ya!