"The Ignorant Travellers" or "The Stories of the Unleashed Dog and the Pretty Stick"

Our van finally got fixed and four days later than planned we were glad to leave Exmouth - we had really seen it all. The drive +600km drive inland was a lot more interesting than expected - we thoroughly enjoyed it. The Karijini National Park was extremely pretty (we had three extremely active - compared to our usual activity level - hiking/biking days) but the roads were just BRUTAL. In total over 80kms on completely corrugated red dirt/dust roads - poor Max, I wouldn't be surprised if we lost the odd screw/part on the way.

Now let's get started with the promised stories: we sit in our van enjoying our coffee and breakfast when Jason notices an unleashed dog roaming our campsite… turned out that it was NOT a what they call here a "feral dog" but a Dingo!! Out came the animal identification book and sure enough - the dingo got a mark. Pretty "dog", bushy tail with a nice brown fur. Now we can't stop saying "maibee the dingooo aite your babee". On our afternoon walk along the top of the gorge I notice a "really pretty stick" right in front of me on the path - freeze "oh sh… - Jason DON'T move". My mind is racing trying to remember all I had heard and read about snake encounters and I was pretty sure part of it was "do not move under no circumstances". While I can feel my heart pounding in my stomach I also hear Jason fidgeting with the camera pouch trying to get a good shot of the snake… as he later explains, "to make sure we could identify it in case it bit you". The snake (a non-venomous 1.5m long black headed python as we've confirmed since…) lifted its head, considered us not worthy a bite and went off across the path into the bushes. You may not be surprised to hear that we've been paying a lot more attention to "sticks" since then.

We've since left wildlife abounding Karijini NP and are heading north towards Broom. We had rain last night for the first time in two months and decided to make today an internet/shopping/errands day. Eighty Mile Beach is our next stop - hopefully good weather again and some more swimming and "sunbaking".

Bummer - I will have to upload the photo album at our next stop - offexploring is currently servicing the photo feature.