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:
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