I awoke very early in the morning due to the seagulls making so much noise and some car doors slamming from people who were coming to jog around the beach at 5.30am...what is wrong with these people? Don't they know what a lie in is? Clawing my way out if the back of the car to discover I have a cold and a sore throat I was greeted by something else which made my morning an even slower start. I opened the boot of the car to discover absolutely everything covered in red dust! It seems the seals on the boot don't keep dust out and all the boxes had a layer about half a cm thick on top! Thank god I put everything in plastic tubs and none of it had gotten inside! Anyway...after one slow clean up I was on route to Penguin Island.

I made some comment to the guy in the newsagent about how cold it was and he looked at me funny. I then had to explain that I had just come from 40 degree heat in Kalgoorlie and it was only 26 in Rockingham at the moment! I arrived very early at the ferry terminal, so early it wasn't even open for another hour. I had thought about walking across the sand bank to the island but there's supposed to be at least a 4m swell this afternoon so the lifeguards are on duty stopping people from going across. Decided to take the boat over instead. Arrived not long after 9 and went walking round the island. Should have been called bird island really since there were so many seagulls and pelicans on the island. Apparently it's moulting season for the penguins so if you see any of them on the island it's because they are island bound for about two weeks. I thought how nice...go to an island and run the risk of seeing none!

I went off for a walk since Penguin feeding time was over an hour away and stepped on the beach only to be greeted by the most angry seagull in the world. It just stood there screeching at me and then kept flying towards my head, any minute now I thought it was going to come down and try for my eyes or something. I simply told it to do one and said it wasn't intimidating like the ones back home. The ones back home are about small dog size, this was nothing in comparison! A while later I spotted some Penguins under some rocks, cute, chubby little things!

Penguin feeding time came round at the Discovery centre and I went in to see the show. Aww so cute! Tiny little penguins and they are fully grown at a whopping 40 - 55cm tall. After I had taken some pictures and seen the penguin show I thought I had better haul it and get on the road to Cervantes. I'd already booked into a hostel so thought I had least better show up!

The road to Cervantes was interesting, only because of the cockamamie signposting when you get to the Perth area. Several times I thought I had missed my turn off because of random signposts. Hmmm...this seems to be becoming a theme here... The landscape does change quite dramatically through the journey. I would recommend doing the Indian Ocean drive instead of taking route 1 as you see a lot more. The suburban areas of outer Perth turned into miles of golden fields and long outstretched roads, till I came to a point where I could see the ocean on the left hand side at about Lancelin.

Then to my surprise, out of nowhere came a massive section of desert with huge sweeping sand dunes just randomly out of the bushes. We were approaching desert country for sure now. It took a little longer to reach Cervantes than I thought it would (I guess I have no concept for travelling distances) but at least my music didn't bore me to death. Arriving in Cervantes, it really isn't a big place at all. The backpacker lodge though is really nice, although the owners are a little strange. I introduced myself and he said ah yes I recognise those dulcet tones...I thought you cheeky fu...but I just said I was tired and had very little sleep over the last couple days and left it at that. The lady looked at me strangely when I asked where the nearest Coles was...she said about 200km away...ah. The only 'convenience store' was not too convenient since the shelves were practically empty as if the town was planning for a zombie apocalypse or something. Horror movie script just waiting to happen in this town I am telling you!

After settling in I thought I would rest up for a couple days and take it easy seeing the Pinnacles at Nambung national park before heading up to Kalbarri. Someone told me about sand boarding, quad biking and sky diving there! Whoop whoop about time for some adrenaline activities!!

The picture is me on Penguin Island which is just off the coast of Rockingham but the map listing comes up as Perth!