Had an awesome trip up the West Coast, weather was great, seen loads of wildlife, run over some wildlife, and the campervan survived the whole trip with no major dramas.  Had to do a lot of driving and probably could have done with a week or two longer but we managed to fit in all the best bits.

I'll give a breakdown of the trip with pictures:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 1 - Perth to Geraldton - we planned to pick up the campervan from the city and set off early afternoon, but by the time we got up and got all our supplies together it was about 3pm.  We drove 3 hours north and stopped at The Pinnacles, I have been there before but it was nice to see the sunset there and take a few pictures.  It was then about a 2 and a half hour drive to Geraldton, there isn't much in Geraldton, it's just a small town, we only planned to stop there in order to find somewhere to camp for the night.  Due to not getting there until about 8:30pm this was actually quite hard, all the camp sites were closed.  We thought about just finding a quiet spot at the side of the road and crashing there, but luckily stumbled upon a site at Coronation beach - you just fill out a form and placed your money in an envelop then stick it in the honesty box.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 2 - Kalbarri National Park - day 2 started with a short 2 hour drive to Kalbarri National Park.  We checked into a camp site there then headed out into the park.  Originally we planned to do one of the walks in the park, however the final 14 km of the road was unpaved - this meant I had to drive at a snails pace, even then it felt like the camper was going to be shook apart.  The 14km took an hour so by the time we got to the car park it was too late to start hiking so we took some pictures of the gorge and 'nature's window'.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 3 - Kalbarri to Monkey Mia - the drive from Kalbarri to Monkey Mia was about 6 hours, it gave us the first insight into just how remote Australia can be.  There was miles and miles of straight road with nothing as far as you can see.  The things you have to watch out for being cows randomly walking around and massive lorries on the road, they are called 'road trains' and have up to 4 carriages attached to them.  We had a few stops along the way to Monkey Mia, a few at service stations for petrol etc. these being know as 'roadhouses', they are essentially a petrol station that does hot food and some form of accommodation.  Other stops were at the Hamelin Pool stromatolites, which are coral type things which have apparently been around for millions of years and helped produce the atmosphere we know today.  Also stopping at shell beach, which as the name suggests is a beach full of shells.

There is only one camp site at Monkey Mia, but luckily it is a very good site.  It costs $36 per night but for an extra $4 you get a free dinner!  No super noodles for us for two days, we were treated to fish and chips.  We had an early night as we wanted to be up for the morning dolphin feed!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 4 - Monkey Mia - this was a great action packed day, we got up at about 7:45 and made our way down to the beach where the site staff do the dolphin feed.  They are quite strict with the feeds as back in the day people could just buy a bucket of fish and feed the dolphins themselves, this had the effect of making the dolphins stop looking for food themselves and therefore stop teaching the calf's how to catch fish.  Now they just do 3 feeds a day.  Everyone has to stand on the shore and the staff pick a couple of people to feed them a fish.

After that we went for a bit of a walk round a track then went kayaking.  After which we sat on the beach and got an awesome view of the sun setting and had some fish and chips.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 5 - Monkey Mia to Coral Bay - Not much to report for day 5, we had a lazy morning, getting up quite late.  Then had an 8 HOUR drive up north to Coral Bay.  By the time we got to Coral Bay it was dark so there wasn't much to do, we just had SPAM and spaghetti on toast then hit the hay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 6 - Coral Bay to Exmouth - we got up on day 6 and headed straight to Exmouth.  This being the last place we visited.  Exmouth itself is just a small town, it is on a peninsula on the northern-west point of Australia and is gateway to the Ningaloo Reef.  I had heard great things about the reef so we decided to spend a couple of days here.  The drive was 3 hours and we made it to Exmouth late afternoon.  We went into the town and I bought myself a snorkel, we then found a nice camp site which was right by a lighthouse, cost about $30 each per night.  It was getting dark by the time we got to the beach so decided to get an early night and have a full day of activities the next day.

I had been warned before the trip about kangaroos being around during dawn and dusk.  Until day 6 we hadn't seen any, but on the drive back to the site there were LOADS of them.  They are stupid animals and think nothing of jumping straight in front of the car.  I was going about 60 kmph and had done a good job of avoiding them, but alas towards the end of the drive I hit skippy.... luckily it was a small one and went straight under the wheels causing no damage to the car.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 7 - Exmouth/Turquoise Bay - Exmouth and the area didn't disappoint, it was brilliant, I wish I could have stayed for a few more days.  We started by driving into the national park and doing the Mandu Mandu Gorge walk - it was about 3km and we smashed it completing it in an hour.  Next we went down to Turquoise Bay which was stunning, most beautiful beach and water I have ever seen, Ningaloo Reef is about 50 metres from the shore and it forms a barrier making a smooth lagoon between it and the shore.  It was here that we went snorkelling, the coral was rocky coral like that at Rottnest island, there were loads of pretty fish and I even saw a stonefish - the most venomous fish in the world.  Unfortunately I didn't get to see any turtles which are said to frequently visit.  The only problem I had was the temperature of the sea, due to the time of year the water was freezing, I could only manage to stay in for about 40 minutes before hypothermia started to kick  in.

After snorkelling we went up to the lighthouse and watched the sunset, again another beautiful sunset.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 8 and 9 - the drive back to Perth - Days 8 and 9 were the drive from Exmouth back to Perth, the mammoth drive I should say.  We drove 10 hours straight on day 8 then the final 5 hours on day 9.  We stopped overnight at Coronation Beach again on day 8.  Only point of interest during the drive was getting pulled over by the police on day 9 for a  random licence and breathalyser test - the policeman being from Coventry!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That was the trip. Wish it could have been longer and we have got post-travelling blues now.  I'm going to stick around in Perth for a little while I think, do some more of my coursework.  Then head to Darwin soon.