After we left the NW of WA, we did the long journey back down to Perth in our 'Wicked' campervan. At Coral Bay, we snorkeled with green turtles! We were really fortunate as we were going to pay for a tour to try and find them, but we saw them when they were just swimming along below us. Dave spotted them both times!
On my birthday we went to Caversham Wildlife Park and spent the day in the company of some lovely fury friends. We fed some kangaroo's, which was quality, stroked some koala's and saw some crazy tasmanian devils running all over the place, amongst many over things. We also saw the Perth skyline at night, which was lovely.
After a month in WA, we flew to Uluru to do a 3 day tour. On the night that we arrived at our hostel we did the Sounds of Silence evening, which was so amazing; one of our best bits so far. We had sparkling wine whilst watching the sunset at Uluru and the Olgas, a fabulous meal, as much drink as we wanted and a star talk. We saw Venus, Saturn and Jupiter and some shooting stars. We were really lucky to have a sound table (there were 8 of us). We all got on really well and had a really good laugh all night.
Our 3 day tour was really good. There were 21 people on the tour as well as 10 million flies and everyone got on really well. We made especially good friends with a Dutch couple, Jos and Sonja (see the photo with the Elvis van). We did The Valley of the Winds walk at The Olgas, sunrise and sunset at Uluru as well as the base walk, and hiked round the rim at Kings Canyon. On our last night we all went out for a meal and some drinks. We had half a day in Alice Springs the next day and we bought a didgeridoo! It sounds quality! We also went to a Joey rescue centre and cuddled baby kangaroo's in pillow cases for 20 mins. There are lots of Joey (baby kangaroo) centre's in Oz. When the mum's are hit by cars on the road, often the Joey survives in the poutch. The volunteers go up and down the roads checking to see if they can find any Joey's, take them to the rescue centre, look after them for a few months (but they don't hand feed them to make it as natural as possible), and then release them in to the wild when the Joey's can easily bounce around and look after themselves. We were told to hold them for at least 10 minutes and the Joey's like it as it is supposedly a similar feeling to being in the mother's poutch. It was so amazing, and if we didn't have a plane to catch, I would have stayed there all day!
We flew to Adelaide on the same flight as our Dutch friends. We had a couple of days doing the city sights and Adelaide Hills, which were very picturesque. We hired a 'Wicked' campervan again and got an 'Elvis' one. It was quite grotty but nice to have some wheels again. We drove down to Cape Jervis and then did a day trip to Kangaroo Island, which was such good fun and we had a really good guide.
When we got to Kingston (2 hours west of Mt Gambier and the SA / Vic border), our van broke down...it was cooked. Elvis is officially dead! To cut a long story short, 'Wicked' were useless and gave us no help and simply left us where we broke down. Luckily the pick up guy was nice and gave us a lift to the bus station and we went to Mt Gambier late that night. We are still in dispute with 'Wicked' about our refund...nightmare. That night, we spent the night in Jail...a hostel that was used as a jail until 1995 and has been converted to sleep backpackers. Well, it has not really been converted as such. We slept in a cell and the beds were rock hard, but it was all good fun.
We then had to hire a car the next day, and had to stay in hostels for the next few nights. We had a good car and it was nice to feel safe on the road and travel in a bit more style. We did Mt Gambier and the amazing blue lake, and all the stops along The Great Ocean Road until we reached Melbourne. We loved every one of the sights along the way. Near The 12 Apostles we did a 16 minute helicopter ride over the Great Ocean Road. We were the only 2 people in it, along with the pilot of course, and it was so good! We got some brilliant photo's and video footage and it was such a brilliant experience.
So far we have been really fortunate with the weather.....it has been a lot hotter than we were expecting in Adelaide and along the Great Ocean Road. I think we might get a bit of a shock when we get to Tasmania!
We arrived in Melbourne on Tuesday evening, and our friend Lee from uni has very kindly offered to put us up. We fly to Tasmania on Thursday for 12 days, and then return to Melbourne.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Western Australia
Greetings! Hope you are all well. We are currently in Exmouth (the NW of WA) and it is chucking it down with rain! It only rains 3 days a year here on average, so we have done well.
We are loving it out here, but we are both quite surprised at how tired we are. We started off in Perth and spent a week doing the city and local beaches. We really enjoyed Perth - it's really clean and pretty but we were surpirsed at how much beer and chocolate costs! As it was the Easter period when we arrived, a lot of the hostels were fully booked, and we were lucky to get one in the city centre. We also stayed in 2 really nice hostels right by the beach. We then hired a 'Wicked' Campervan, which we have been in for almost 2 weeks. It drives well and is lots of fun. The back of the van converts into a double bed and we also have a sink, cool box (eski!), gas stove and cooking equipment. Dave does most of the driving (and cooking! I am actually not that great a camper yet).
First we headed south to do the Southern Curl, a 1,500 Km road trip from Perth to Albany return. Unlike in England it gets colder the further South you travel; so lets put that into context, it goes from 30 degrees to about 24. Highlights were: amazing beaches and bays, cliff top views, giant trees and widlife. Dave's become very good at dodging kangaroos at night time in the van! The big ones look fairly intimadating when they stand in the middle of the road on their hind legs with their fists up in the dark (Donnie Darko). We also climbed the Gloucester Tree (61m); Dave climbed it twice, first to test the safety of the rungs for me!
After five days we headed up North (30 degrees plus) from Perth to Exmouth another 3,500 Km return. We did the Pinnacles Desert (strange rocks in the middle of the desert); saw some huge gorges, National Parks, Monkey Mia, Coral Bay and Exmouth (Ningaloo Reef). We loved Monkey Mia - we saw ten dolphins, literally a metre away from us; we were ankle-deep in the water with them. We also saw green turtles and dugongs (manatees with a fin tale) on a boat cruise on a catamaran. On Saturday, Dave's birthday, we are going on a snorkel cruise to see whale and reef sharks; we really hope the whale sharks appear, should be a highlight of the entire trip. On Tuesday we return our van to Perth and on Wednesday we fly to Ulura (Ayres Rock) for 4 days.
Our next update will be from Victoria in a few weeks.
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