From Perth you can either travel north up the coast towards Exmouth or south towards the Margaret river and Esperence. I decided to go north as I was keen to go snorkelling on the Ningaloo reef, supposedly better than the Great Barrier reef on the east coast of Australia.

So I booked myself on a small group trip to head up the coast. It was a fairly packed itinerary to cover nearly 2500km in 7 days, but lots to stop and do along the way...We had a great group, 21 people - British, Irish, Australian, Swiss, Canadian, German...and spending many a happy hour on a bus we all got to know each other pretty well...

After a very early start (and experiencing my first drops of Australian rain - yes it does rain in Perth, the rumours aren't true!) first stop on day 1 was Nambung National Park and the Pinnacles rocks. These are natural formations in sand dunes that were discovered some many years ago as the dunes undergo dramatic movement with the winds. We saw a wild emu just wandering through the rocks and had fun trying to decide what some of the rocks looked like - a church, an eagle, all suggestions welcome! Our lunch stop was Jurien Bay, a beautiful sandy cove with the bluest water, a great backdrop to munch on your sandwich. After lunch we passed an area famous for it's leaning trees, and this isn't the leaning tower of Pisa kind of leaning, check out the photos and you'll see what I mean. It has something to do with the minerals or salt or something that blows off the ocean and causes the trees to deform! Final stop of day 1 before we reached our accommodation in Kalbarri was the pink lakes - the water really is bright pink and looks very bizarre, makes for a great photo though.

Day 2 brought an early morning trip to the Kalbarri cliffs where we saw a couple of euros hopping across the arid plains (kind of a cross between a kangaroo and a wallaby). We then went to Kalbarri national park for a short walk to Natures Window. It's a naturally formed rock that forms a perfect window shape through which to view the gorge below. The park itself is very dry and the landscape is orange in colour, reminded me a bit of the Grand Canyon (and for Siobhan's benefit I did not fall up this one!). We also went to the Z-bend and took a fairly steep walk down into the gorge for a swim. In such heat the swim was definitely welcome, although the climb back up to the top afterwards was slightly more challenging in wet shoes! I think this was one of the hottest days so far though. We passed a petrol station and the thermometer read 38 degrees, and that was in the shade so it must have been at least 42 degrees plus in the sun!

The wind certainly became a feature of this trip as the further north we travelled the more it seemed to blow. We stopped at Eagle Bluff, a scenic lookout point and nearly got blown off our feet. Getting your camera out for a picture was a risky venture it was that strong. But the strangest thing was the wind was so hot, so you didn't even get to cool down! The wind does create some great natural phenomenon though. We saw a few whirly whirlies, which are like mini tornados whipping across the open plains. They don't really appear to do much damage, probably becuase there's not really much they can damage. Western Australia is pretty much how I imagine the outback will be, miles and miles of nothingness, just long straight roads through the dust...

We stayed overnight at Monkey Mia, famous for the wild dolphins which come to the shore every morning to be fed. When we got up early the next morning to go and see them I was ready for the tourist trap, hundreds of people all wildly reaching out trying to grab a dolphin and throw then a fish...but I couldn't have been more wrong. I saw my first dolphin while I was standing having my breakfast just looking out over the ocean; a few of them just swam past right in front of me. As we got down to the shoreline a few people had already gathered, clearly having spotted the same dolphins as me. There were rangers there too, walking along the shoreline to make sure no-one got too close. The whole experience is very well controlled. The dolphins come in every day but the amount of fish they are given is restricted to 2kg so they do not become reliant on it and they still need to use their natural hunting skills to fulfill their daily food intake. And the rangers actually only feed the females as the male dolphins have been known to become agressive and the youngsters need to learn how to fend for themselves so they can survive in the wild. We were lucky enough to see a pod of 10 dolphins swim around for about an hour and also saw some sting rays jumping around further out to sea; I didn't realise they could jump out of the water like that.

Did a short catamaran tour afterwards to see if we could spot any more wildlife out in the ocean. We saw some more dolphins but unfortunately that was all, no turtles or dugongs (bit like manatees) or anything. Then it was back on the bus for a drive to Shell beach. As the name suggests it's made up entirely of shells, so you get pretty sore feet if you walk on it too far. Some of the group braved it out into the sea which goes out for about 1km at no more than ankle height. It's a strange sight, but not as strange as the stromolites at Hamlin Pool which was the next stop. These are living organisms but just look like big dark stumps of rock in the sea, but are actually alive and still breeding.

Spent the night at Coral Bay which is at the very tip of Ningaloo reef. The next day we hired some snorkel gear and headed out into the water. The reef is so close to land that you can just swim out from the beach, although the currents are pretty strong so you definitely need flippers and strong legs! Saw lots of different shaped coral and quite a few sholes of large fish, slightly scary if you've strayed off on your own...but overall I wasn't too impressed with the reef. Was hoping for slightly more in the way of wildlife the next day, as I was expecting to see maybe a few reef sharks or sea turtles or even rays close up.

Our second base for snorkelling was Turquoise Bay. We stayed in Exmouth overnight so there wasn't too far to travel in the morning. Our campsite had a few interesting guests too, they were of the two legged variety, but were more feathery than you might expect to find. Exmouth seems to have rather a lot of emus just wandering around aimlessly...down the road, outside your caravan etc. In fact I think you're probably more likely to see an emu than another car on the main street!

That night we braved the local pub, originally named 'The Pub' for a few beers and I managed to befriend an old man who was intent on showing me to dance 'basketball' style. It basically involves getting very drunk then jumping around like a lunatic tapping your hand on top of an imaginary basketball - very entertaining for those watching but maybe a little painful when you wake up with the banging head in the morning...if anyone's interested in a repeat performance I might just be tempted after a few beers, then a few more and possibly a few more, although then again...

Before we reached Turqouise Bay for more snorkelling the next day we stopped off at Flaming Point which has a great 360 degree view of the coastal tip where Exmouth sits. We also went to Yardie Creek in search of rock wallabies (small wallabies that live on the rock cliffs). No such luck on this trip but on the way back to the bus a euro jumped out in front of me and bounced off to the safety of some more shade somewhere across in the widerness. Finally we arrived at Turquoise Bay and I did see a lot more fish this time and some really bright colourful coral, but still no exciting widlife. I think maybe I was lucky when I snorkelled out on the Great Barrier reef before because I saw so much, but I wouldn't say that Ningaloo reef was any better, other than there are just a lot less people here, because the west coast is so much quieter.

After the excitement of basketball dancing the night before we opted for a more civilised mini golf on our last night in Exmouth. Well ok maybe it didn't remain civilised after the competitiveness crept in, but I managed to do ok, despite some deliberate attempts at distraction near the end!

Day 6 was a pretty long travel day as we covered a lot of kilometres to get back down south towards Perth. We stayed overnight at a farmstay, not much in the way of animal activity other than a couple of alpacas, but more an agricultural farm. The local wildlife was actually served up for dinner as we had kangaroo stew, no doubt caught earlier that day - tasted absolutely delicious though. And I honed my gambling skills as I learnt how to play poker, although not sure how well I was doing with cards in one hand and a glass of red wine in the other?! Ended the night watching for shooting stars as it was a beautifully starry night and being in the middle of nowhere there was little in the way of artificial light to obscure the night sky. But even huddled under a sleeping bag we eventually had to admit defeat and head back inside for the sanctuary and warmth of our beds.

Last day and on the way back to Perth we stopped off just outside Geraldton to do some sandboarding. This is seriously so much fun, it's kind of like snow boarding but on huge sand dunes. Coming down is amazing (once you work out how to sit on the board properly) but climbing back up the dunes is an absolute killer - there's no chair lift here. I reckon in about an hour I managed about four runs down...

We also visited a small wildlife park where you can feed the animals. As usual I headed straight for the kangaroos and they pretty much took all of my attention. I even got a to hold a baby one that was just a couple of months old...wasn't so keen on the snake handling though, kept a serious distance from those once they were out of the box!

And then after all that activity the trip was over and it was back to Perth for some sleep, oh yeah and some serious dieting...did I mention we happened to have two chefs on the trip so every mealtime was a gourmet feast. I have never eaten so much food in one week..!