End of the road ...

Tuesday 23rd September - well here we are in Perth, and the campervan has been returned with a final value of 3,772km on the clock. By sticking to 100kph (thanks to cruise control) we managed to average 11.4 l/100km (24.8 mpg) which is pretty good for something that big. Fuel costs varied from $1.55 per litre in Perth to $1.92 in Broome, and our total fuel spend was $740.41, about £444, less than I expected. It was a great pleasure to arrive to Linda and Ross's lovely welcome at their sumptuous pad up on the Darling Range yesterday, knowing that we wouldn't have to construct our bed, or share the shower with various grey nomads with sandy feet.

The last afternoon at Monkey Mia was spent pursuing wildlife over the seagrass beds on Shotover. We saw dugongs, green sea turtles, a sea snake, and a sea horse the crew had found at the jetty - the skipper's first in nearly 20 years. The next day we picked up our new spare tyre and set off south to Kalbarri along the Shark Bay World Heritage Drive. With no spare tyre anxiety we made time to stop at some of the sights. Shell Beach is made up entirely of small cockle shells, metres deep in places, the only thing that can live in the hyper-saline waters. High evaporation, low fresh water input and seagrass banks limiting tidal movement mean that the bay has over twice as much salt as normal seawater. Over time the lower layers get compressed and chemically eroded sufficiently for a soft limestone to be created which can be cut with a saw and used as a building material. A few kms further on we went to Hamelin Pool to see the stromatolites - again something that can only survive in a hypersaline environment. They are built up of layer after layer of microbial mats - layers of bacteria which are the most basic of living organisms - the first life on earth billions of years ago which through photosynthesis created the oxygen essential to all other life.

We realised that we were moving into different country when we saw our first proper fields planted with crops - huge fields, but not bush on all sides any more. That evening we arrived in Kalbarri at the mouth of the Murchison River after passing along roads lined with shrubs in flower. It is a pretty little place with an interesting river frontage and a national park to explore, but we were only able to stay one night (and the wifi didn't reach as far as our pitch). The following day we set off early into a really strong wind which blew all the cobwebs away on the couple of clifftop lookouts we visited - no chance of picking up whales when the sea was covered with white horses. As we carried on we had another first - real Australian rain! It came and went at first but then settled in properly as we rejoined the North West Coastal Highway - spray from a road train is quite an experience, but it helps wash the dust off the van. Unfortunately it kept on going as we arrived at the camp site, specially selected because of their daily late afternoon guided wildflower walk, but it was weather dependent. It kept on raining all afternoon so we stayed in the van, switched the air-con to heating mode, watched a DVD, then cooked up a meal using up most of our remaining food.

The following morning it was drying up a bit so after watching kangaroos hop past the van we were able to follow the wildflower walk trail on our own. There were lots of things in flower, which we didn't know the names of, and all the plants were holding on to the rain drops, so our trouser legs soon became saturated, but it was all very pretty - apart from the flies which began to appear as the sun got out. Then it was time to set off on the final leg, but diverting onto the Indian Ocean Drive, which promised to be more scenic than Highway 1. So it proved, with great scenery, views of the ocean and pretty small seaside towns like Cervantes where we had lunch with the very last of our food. As we got closer to Perth things gradually got busier until we were in normal urban stop-start traffic, which was a challenge with a big heavy thing with a long stopping distance. We managed to find our way, without incident and without too much argument, onto the Great Eastern Highway and climb the very steep scarp of the Darling Range - downhill heavy traffic restricted to 40 kph and "Emergency Truck Arrester 2 km Ahead" signs - and then through the wooded back roads to the welcome sight of Linda and Ross.

Today we returned the van and had a look round Perth, particularly Kings Park which is on the only hill in the city giving spectacular views over the river and the city. It is also home to a fabulous botanical garden which gave Louise the chance to put a name to some of the things we had been seeing and hope to see more of later on.

Dolphin giving me the eye:

Dugongs are not as easy to photograph:

Green sea turtle:

Shell Beach, entirely made up of cockle shells. The fence in the distance is one end of the 3km electrified fence erected to keep feral animals out of the Francois Peron National Park - foxes (introduced to give hunts something to chase) and feral domestic cats have been responsible for driving a large proportion of Australia's small mammals close to extinction:

Stromatolites at Hamelin Pool. Each of these "rocks" is a collection of microbial mats built up over hundreds of years:

Perhaps the mens' group could consider a change of name?

Windswept kangaroo on Red Bluff near Kalbarri:

Outside Linda and Ross's getting ready to take the van back:

From King's Park looking over the old Swan Brewery towards central Perth:

Dolphin experiences

Friday 19th September - my birthday! Everyone else is off doing something so hopefully the campsite wifi will be up to the task of uploading some photos. We're hanging around before our sea creature watching trip on the Shotover sailing catamaran.

Had some more dolphin experiences today, and I was selected to feed one, on my birthday! It is very quick - you say hello to the dolphin, hold a fish by its tail, lower it into the water and a fraction of a second later 104 conical teeth have grabbed it and swallowed it. No touching is allowed, apparently we can pass diseases, and they can become aggressive. In previous years they attempted to bite someone nearly every day. We were also rewarded with one dolphin doing a series of jumps just a few metres offshore, unfortunately my camera was switched off at the time.

Here's some recent pics:

What to watch out for in Exmouth:

Coral Bay:

Heading south:

I know my place in Carnarvon:

Pelicans hang around hoping to grab some fish:

The smile is fixed, it remains even if they are biting you, but the look in the eye is very intelligent. Their eyes work independently, and are as good in or out of the water. They sleep 8 hours a day but take it in short naps because they have to make a conscious decision to take each breath, so they shut down only half their brain and keep one eye open.

An emu on a tent raid:

Giving me a dirty look after I shooed it away - this is Dad, Mum doesn't look after the young:

Shotover, we'll be aboard in a couple of hours:

Was looking good for the union, but I've just seen the Dundee result, so 49.1% Yes 50.9% No at the moment - who can tell whether we will return to the same country we left?

Sub-tropical

Thursday 18th September - We've made it out of the tropics, not without drama. We left Exmouth on Tuesday, had a look at Coral Bay, very nice, very small, pretty crowded, and spent the night in Carnarvon - which had decent wifi, hence lots of pictures in the last post. We had a quick look around Carnarvon in the morning, which was a first for us - clouds in the sky sufficient to obscure the sun, though it soon burnt off. Then we set off for Monkey Mia to spend some time with dolphins.

All went well as we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn but further south in the middle of the outback (OK, within mobile phone range of a roadhouse) we had a tyre burst at 100kph. Fortunately it was a rear one so I was able to stop without much drama. However, changing a tyre on the edge of National Highway 1 with road trains whooshing past was a challenge. It is possible to concentrate on what you have to do even though all the local flies are crawling over your sweating face, but it isn't nice. I managed to change the shredded tyre and we made it to the campsite with no more incident, except a few emus in the road.

Today we made the acquaintance of Footy in Denham the nearby small town. He took the wheel and tyre off us and started searching for a replacement. Eventually he was able to locate one in Perth, and it is now on its way up here, hopefully to arrive tomorrow morning. However, Footy says that is in the hands of "those drug-riddled truckies", so lets hope our one is on uppers not downers.

But before that we went down to the dolphin interaction experience. Louise says there is something a bit unsettling when a wild dolphin looks you directly in the eye while you are standing in the water a couple of feet away. I had gallantly held back to let her into the front rank along with the German youths and elderly Japanese ladies. It's my turn tomorrow morning. We had another wildlife experience on returning from sorting out the tyre, when I had to shoo away an emu which was raiding next-door's tent for some bananas.

I've just tried to upload some more pictures, but it appears that we are back to ice age internet which is struggling to save even this small amount of text ... so watch this space.

Gorge-ous Pictures

Tuesday 16th September - At last it appears we have a functioning internet connection - so here come a plethora of pictures:

A Boab tree at the Kununurra campsite, allegedly over 1000 years old:

The Ord River dam has a clay core, flexible enough to cope with earth movements:

Such a small dam to hold back enough water to flood Wales to a depth sufficient to be slightly inconvenient:

The Ord River tamed, all the water at this point has gone through the hydro-electric scheme which provides the power for the town:

The power source for the 700HP air conditioning Dan? said was provided through the front of the boat:

A freshie:

A pelican:

Travelling at up to 70kph:

Sunset over the lake at Kununurra, flying foxes due soon:

Echidna Chasm in Purnululu National Park:

Camp fire at sunset, singing not encouraged:

The lights attracted some large insects, including this praying mantis:

Jason spent 5 minutes collecting some cane toads, for euthanasia by freezer:

Cathedral Gorge, for scale purposes the small white dot is Nick:

I'm Mandy, fly me - she may have heard that before:

 The view down from my seat:

... and out the other side - white knuckles provided by Louise:

The views were pretty spectacular:

I

It was a very small helicopter - note lack of doors (it's not me in the front, I took the picture):

Scaling Emma Gorge, the route included a lot of clambering over rocks even bigger than the ones in front of Louise:

A view inside the bus, Sonya and Joachim in the (best) seats they occupied for the whole trip:

Nick found the bus a bit noisy, fortunately there was a Cyberman supply shop in Kununurra:

Pausing having forded Pentecost River, named after a Mr Pentecost:

How to cross Pentecost River if it's not your own suspension:

Collecting firewood:

The result:

Nick and Paul discussing the relative merits of South Australia and Queensland, Kathy not impressed by Nick's argument:

There were some beautiful pools in the gorges - heat about 35 degrees, so not cool:

Inspecting some indigineous art, Nick manoeuvering for a good shot:

The snake I noticed about a metre from Nick's head - a brown tree snake, only mildly venomous:

A water monitor about a metre long:

There were some beautiful water lilies:

Another monitor, a bit larger than the previous one:

The pool at the top of Manning Falls that Louise and I swam in:

Fossil in Winjana Gorge:

A freshie says hello, and keeps his brain cool:

Louise says "hi" to one of his mates:

An olive python about 2.5m long, body about 100mm thick:

Entering Tunnel Creek:

The Boab tree near Derby (pronounced Duhrbee) which was used as a prison by "blackbirders" - you could get over a dozen people inside if you don't care that they all have to stand up all night. Blackbirders kidnapped indigenous people and carried them off to their pearling schooners. When they were at sea they were given the option of diving for pearl shell or being thrown overboard. Women and girls were preferred because they could stay underwater for longer:

It's not easy to take a picture of Staircase to the Moon - we bought a postcard the next day:

Louise enjoying sampling five different beers produced by Matsos Brewery in Broome. You get them free if you have lunch and present a $10 all day bus ticket, otherwise they cost $12.50 - bargain! Also the lunch was very good, reasonably priced, and we made full use of the bus tickets. She actually liked the ginger beer, and thought the mango beer was ok. Note for connoisseurs (Nigel) - the one on the left was a wheat beer which hadn't finished clearing but tasted fine, and they had a very nice dark lager:

Yes we went to Cable Beach. No camels were present, but we did see some walking past the caravan park. Note the Stinger warning, only mild, and the sea temperature 33 degrees:

A cooperative lizard in Karijini National Park:

One of his mates. They think that as they are the same colour as their surroundings, and they stay still, they'll be OK. Probably works with kites, but not with Brits with Canons:

Circular Pool at Dales Gorge, looking down:

Probably a unique picture of Fortescue Falls at the other end, no one is swimming in it:

Clambering down, grade 4:

Walking along the bottom:

From Circular Pool, looking up before we climbed back up:

Mount Nameless near Tom Price, the highest peak in WA. If they'd asked the aborigines they would have told them what the name was:

It's not easy to take pictures through a glass bottomed boat - you get a DVD of the guide's own pictures taken underwater as part of the deal:

The view from the lookout where we saw our first whales, a bit to the left: