West Coast

Sorry I haven't written for ages, I've been in jail. Yep, it's the truth, i was in for about a month. I got into a bar fight with a women that was way out of line and... ok ok I'm just joking. Where was I? Ok, Broome was beautiful and hot, did I mention on the way to Broome we saw about fifty brush fires? So after Broome I was driving to Dampier, about an eight hour drive, and right as we're getting into town, I hit a kangaroo- I was so startled and quite sad! Poor fella. It came out of nowhere. So we stayed in Dampier for the night, then moved on the next day to Exmouth, seven hour drive. We went to the beach for the first time since Noosa Heads! That was refreshing. I can't believe how salty the water is here. The next day we went snorkeling all day at Cape Range National Park. Saw two reef sharks! Got pretty sun burnt on my back! Then we drove to Coral Bay and played in the ocean while the sun set. Wow. The sun sets on the west coast are amazing.



So we where told we could extend our van hire if we call a week ahead of the return date, so we where planning to do that, but when we called they said there was nothing they could do and we have to return it at the original date. Shit. We are in Exmouth and we need to drive all the way back to Melbourne in a little over a week. We then booked it to Monkey Mia, which originally we where going to spend several days at, but only spent a night. Monkey Mia is famous for its dolphin feedings. Wild dolphins come to the shore to get feed every morning. It was a really nice resort. The staff invited us to a bomb fire on the beach. I learned how to circular breath for didgeridoo playing, but I wasn't aloud to actually play it because in the Aboriginal culture women aren't supposed to play-lame. They put nets out and caught fish, and threw them right on the fire- the freshest fish I've ever eaten! I nursed a baby shark back to life with a marine biologist. And the dolphins came around to say hello- it was awesome night. The next morning, after three hours of sleep, we went and watched the dolphin feeding. I got stung by a jelly fish! Oooouch! Then we drove a cracked out drive to Perth, where we got a campsite and crashed. The next day we roamed around for just a bit, but had to get moving. I have to come back to Western Australia, it is so beautiful, and has so much to offer, I'm really pretty pissed that I couldn't enjoy it all. But that gives me an excuse to come back.



So we just skimmed through wine country, stopped at a place called Capel Vale Winery, really cute place, and did a bit of tasting and purchasing. Then we began our insane trek to Melbourne. MELBOURNE OR BUST!! We drove from before dawn to way after dusk for days. Stopped at some huge sand dunes, and stopped to peak over at the Great Australian Bight, but that was pretty much it of our pleasure stops. I ran over a kangaroos tail! It was in the middle of the road and would not move, and I was not about to swerve. This couple days of driving is a blur, very little sleep, and endless driving. I drove the longest straightest road in all of Australia. We made it to our friend Katie's house in Melbourne at midnight the day before the van was due. And slept in a real bed! We got the van cleaned up the next day and returned it to the depot on time!