Hello to you all,

Well the last time we updated you all we were still in Perth on Sunday 13th September, so along time ago!! I believe we also left you in suspense on what it was we actually did on Sunday 13th. Well the answer to that is, we did a bit of pre-tour shopping in Perth city, had a coffee whilst people watching over Perth and its street entertainers and then we caught the free Cat bus to Kings Park. Once at Kings Park we climbed the 239 steps from the street to the actual park itself. We were very amazed and inspired (but not enough to do it ourselves) by all the locals using the steps as an exercise regime. Some people were running up and down, up and down over 5 times, I suppose it’s cheaper than the gym!!!

Whilst at Kings Park we walked around the various gardens, looked at the war memorial and were very impressed with the view over Perth. It was fairly amazing. It was a very pretty place and the weather held out. Which in Perth for us was amazing!! It would have been a great place for a picnic, which some people were actually doing!! The weather may have been a bit better but I wouldn’t say it was that good!! Perth was great and on a sunny day it looked lovely!!

So now the tour, it was BRILLIANT!!!!! We have had an amazing time and the 3 weeks have gone very quickly!! There’s too much to write about and as you have the itinery were just going to give you a quick overview. Hope you don’t mind!!

So we left a very cold Perth at about 6:30am on Monday 14th September and we arrived in a very hot Darwin on Sunday 4th October. We travelled the whole length of Western Australia and ended in the Northern Territory. The tour was split into 2 parts with different people joining us on different sections. In between Perth and Broome we were 21 people plus 1 guide and the in between Broome and Darwin we were 15 people plus 2 guides (1 was a trainee). On both tours we had lots of different nationalities although English and Irish were a big feature, lots of different ages (youngest was 18, oldest about 55) and lots of different abilities. Some of the same people were on both sections so it wasn’t just us doing the 21 day trip which meant we could all stick together if needed!! Thankfully we didn’t, the second group were lovely although we all decided that our second group was not as good as our first. But on the upside the second group didn’t have a strange one which our first group did, every tour has one!!

Anyway enough on the dynamics, there were a lot of great and good parts but the highlights were:

Karijini National Park- This place may have made our clothes, shoes and body’s red (great fake tan) but wow, the gorges were amazing!! They involved a lot of walking and climbing but the views along with the swimming holes were well worth it!! Even the one where we had to walk backwards down a small waterfall and then do a mini absail free aided down the next section. This section was especially challenging going up hill and I did take a fall which scared me to death!! Thank god for our quick footed guide. Karijini definitely beats the Kimberly’s (the next national park). The Kimberly’s was good and the various hot springs we swam in were fantastic but for some reason Karijini comes out ahead for us both.

The couple of extra optional activities we did were pretty cool. These were absailing in the Z bend gorge on day 2 and then quad biking with snorkeling at Coral bay. We got to see a turtle at this snorkeling point and he stayed around long enough for us to follow him for a bit-awesome!! We weren’t driving the quad bikes but the Irish lads off our tour were and we were passengers, but it was still pretty good. Granny these 2 things were our birthday presents from you!!! We also did some amazing snorkeling at Turquoise Bay near Exmouth, we saw sharks!!

The Dolphins and Pelicans at Monkey Mia-brilliant. They are all wild but still quite tame. There is a bit of a history to the feeding but it’s now regulated to stop the dolphins becoming too dependant on the fish feeding. The dolphins are such lovely graceful animals and the pelicans were a little funny but cool to look at!!

Well I’m sorry but I have to go, so much more to tell you so hold on in there (I know the excitement must be getting to you all) and we will return to continue the update as soon as the outback allows us!! But check out the other entry from Darwin itself.
S and C xx