Thursday 14th August - Exmouth

Exmouth Car Kilometres: 170,755

Distance Travelled: 422km

Total Distance Travelled: 2504km

We pack up quickly, although we struggle a bit in the wind that's started to pick up, and set off - passing hundreds of red and brown, shoulder high termite nests on the way.We arrive at a huge campsite in Exmouth where we have plenty of room to spread out, and set up camp.

We drive to the peninsular, and after viewing the remains of a shipwreck just off the beach (not hugely impressive from land, but apparently a great habitat for baby sharks), we drive on up to the Vlamingh Head Lighthouse for a sunset view.We eat a picnic of crisps and dip on a cosy rock, and while we are busy spotting whales and dolphins splashing about in the distance, we bump into Vicki and Janet - the girls from Kalbarri, Monkey Mia and Coral Bay - again.Since it seems like fate that we're meant to get to know each other, we arrange to meet for a drink at their resort bar tomorrow evening.

We spend most of Friday morning and early afternoon being very excited, as we've booked an afternoon whale watching tour.Aside from a quick 18 holes of mini golf at the course across the road, we don't do a lot, conserving our energy in anticipation of lots of pointing and taking photos later on.However, it's not to be... after waiting for our pick up for 45 minutes, and being unable to get through to either the tour operator or the Tourist Information Centre who booked it for us, we give up and walk over to the Information Centre to find out what's going on.

We find out that the tour was cancelled at 10am that morning due to the high winds, and that they hadn't been able to call us as we were at a campsite where they couldn't leave a message... hmm... this didn't seem to be a problem the day before when we were paying our money, as they assured us they would contact us at the site (500 metres down the road), if there was any problem.Whilst the situation was understandable, unfortunately this information was delivered in a pretty rude and unapologetic manner, winding us both up - probably more because we were so looking forward to it.It's our first real experience of bad tourist customer service since Thailand, and we feel that there are so many tourists coming here with so much money to see the wildlife and beaches that they can pretty much get away with being as rude as they want, and there will always be money coming in.

However, the day is saved by two things - firstly, we return to our campsite and are assured by the lovely girls on the desk at the dive tour office that their sunset whale watching cruise on Sunday will definitely be going ahead - it starts a bit later in the day which gives any wind time to drop.The second, and most random event of the day unfolds as we meet up with Janet and Vicki at their resort bar that evening...

... we get a couple of rounds of drinks in, and catch up on stories of our travels so far.The girls mention that they have bumped into a couple of retirees from the local Lions Club, who are on the eve of a 9 day fundraising bash around the state; they are a group of about 60 people who raise a phenomenal amount of money for disadvantaged children whilst getting drunk in every town and driving strangely attired classic cars around for hundreds of kilometres, wearing daft costumes.The two blokes they've met, Roger and Shad, turn up at 9ish and escort the four of us to a 'party'... the girls are clearly the intended invitees, but we are pleased to tag along as chaperones, happy in the knowledge that a drop of free booze will be on offer.

We scuttle into the local hall, a little bit intimidated that pretty much everyone stares at us as we take our seats at a table - it's a bit 'are you local?' - we haven't got the obligatory hat, badge or shirt that everyone (and I mean everyone) else in the room is wearing.Roger and Shad tell us that they'll probably get fined at the next committee meeting for bringing four Pommies in, but that it's all part of the fun.The evening is winding up anyway, and we stop noticing the stares once we've got a couple of bottles of wine down us... unusually, having our faces striped with green face paint by an obliging passing helicopter pilot actually helps us to blend in.

After escorting the girls, Roger, Shad and Jim back to the girls' resort bar - where Dave cosies up with some free whisky courtesy of Malcolm the bar man of curiously-shaped head -we amble over to the boys' "Car Bar"; a makeshift bar that consists of tens of bottles of booze stuffed in the boot of their 'Fonzmobile'.I'm afraid that I can't identify the make of the lovely classic car, since Dave, resident classic car identifier, was a little bit worse for wear.

At the point where I was trying to jemmy open the accidentally closed boot with a screwdriver (egged on by Jim), and Dave was having to rescue Vicki from randy Roger at a frequency of about once every 5 minutes, we decided that it was time to leave.We stagger back to the tent, and are interested to find ourselves the proud owners of 3 new caps, a fancy whisky tumbler, a tent full of grass and a couple of king-sized headaches when we wake up the next morning.

Although we both have hefty hangovers (Dave moreso, thanks to the whisky!), we had agreed to see the boys off the next morning.I drag Dave out of the tent and bundle him into the car, sunglasses firmly on, and we drive up to the local sports oval - where we find the 60-odd cars, grown men dressed as teletubbies and flintstones characters, and an also hungover Janet and Vicki.We wave Shad, Jim and Roger off - they are all gingerly sipping mineral water and have managed to enlist a less-hungover team member to do the driving - and head straight back to bed to recover.

After spending the rest of Saturday in recovery mode, we wake up on Sunday excited about Whale Watching Tour Mk.2.Happily, the tour goes ahead without a hitch - even the slightly rough waters don't take the shine off the trip, since we've pretty much earned our sealegs on all of those boats and catamarans to Kho Phan Ngan and back.The whales are amazing: huge, majestic, very odd looking - our photos aren't too good since we were mostly occupied with holding onto the boat, but we see a calf jumping fully out of the water (breach), several whales on their own flapping flippers and tails, and a group of four that swim within a few metres of the boat.We snack on prawns, cheese, olives and dips, and enjoy the sunset on the way back in - definitely worth the wait, and the team on the boat were fantastically friendly and informative.

After meeting up with the girls again for a goodbye dinner (at Grace's Tavern - delicious pizza), we are entertained on our way out by some lads trying to teach a dog to skateboard... they don't get very far, but it's entertaining to watch... before heading back to camp to prepare for our last day here tomorrow.

The plan for Monday is to visit the national park and its beaches.We set off the 91kms to Yardie Creek - practically a hop and a skip by Australian standards - and enjoy a cheap council-run cruise up and down the creek.We spot black-footed rock wallabies with the help of our guide's eagle eyes, as well as several different types of birds guarding nests in the myriad of red-rock nooks and crannies.

After the cruise we drive back towards town and stop at Turquoise Bay - the dealer who sold us the car was raving about it, and we can see why.It's yet another perfect white sandy beach, with bright turquoise, azure blue and crisp green shades of sea against the clear sky.The special thing about this bay is that you can walk about 400 metres up the beach, stick a snorkel on and paddle out into the warm clear water about 40 metres, and then just lie face-down as the current pulls you along over the coral bombies and zillions of fish, rays, sea cucumbers, turtles and reef sharks.The trick is to hop out just before the sandbar, and then to paddle back and do it again... and again.

Now, Dave and I have never snorkelled before this trip - probably a combination of not getting round to it (Dave), and being a bit scared (me).Dave had a go at Coral Bay, absolutely loved it, and is keen for me to try it, but we've only got one snorkel set and I don't fancy doing it on my own... cue Vicky and Janet, who have decided to stay another day - they offer to lend me a snorkel set and reef shoes, and we're off.After about ten minutes of completely failing to grasp the concept of not breathing out of my nose, we're away.Once I stop grabbing Dave's arm in excitement every ten seconds, we both relax and enjoy the amazing view - it's so much more immediate than seeing it out of the bottom of the glass bottomed boat - and are floating up and walking back around for over two hours until the sun starts to drop.I'm converted.It's amazing.I don't know why we didn't do it sooner, and ring home that evening to compare our experiences with my Dad's in the Red Sea.

We spot even more nature than we'd bargained for today on our way back to the tent, as its sunset during our drive - a time when you are generally advised to stay off the roads, or take it very slowly.We soon find out why... dozens of roos bounce across the road in front of the car, as well as an emu and a couple of echidnas (although they don't bounce).Happily our roo bars remain unused and we make it back without squashing anything... ready for getting back on the road to Port Headland tomorrow.