Perth at last

It's been so long since I updated this. We headed to Cape Range national park just outside to Exmouth. In these national parks it's a constant battle to keep food fresh or not gone off. The procedure is generally meat for the first day followed by the remaining days of pasta and veg. I'm definitely not vegetarian material. Lots of snorkelling was done here and it was pretty amnazing. Oyster Stacks and Turquoise Bay were the highlights. Oyster Stacks has to be done at high tide and the coral is amazing. Turquoise Bay is cool as the current brings you right along the coast but then you swim like a hoor as you get towards the end of the headland as the current would drag you out to sea or Tiger shark territory. Got to meet a nice couple from Newcastle, New South Wales here. Mandu Mandu gorge is well worth a look here as well although we didn't appreciate it after being in Karijini. The Kangaroos here were very tame and would come right up to you. They definitely get my vote as the stupidest creatures in the animal kingdom. They make rabbits look intelligent. Wildlife item of interest is that a Kangaroo can cryogenically freeze their eggs if for example there is a drought and the kangaroo doesn't think it will be able to carry it's young to birth or to miscarry.

After here we headed down for Coral Bay. Nice spot but very small. After Cape Range the snorkelling didn't compare either. It was the Easter school holidays and the place was thronged with kids. Not much nightlife here although that could be a theme of the whole West Coast bar Perth. We also went on a Whale Shark trip while we were here although I couldn't recommend it. It cost $450 and we only saw the sharks for less than a minute. It could have been the fault of the weather the day we were there. The currents dragged you towards the sharks and they got scared and swam off. Saw a sea turtle which was good though. I think it was 3 days we were here and by the end of it we were delighted to be leaving. I will add as the time goes on this entry I will steadily be getting more pissed off as myself and Caroline were starting to get travel weary. You start to not appreciate what you're seeing. ANOTHER GORGE!!!

We followed this trip by heading for Carnarvon. Easily the worst town in WA. A pier is the towns main selling point called the one mile jetty. Got a picture of a stork here though. Of more interest is the satellite dish here from the film "The Dish". This dish was used to communicate with the Apollo missions when NASA lost contact when the spacecraft was in the Southern hemisphere. Oddly the town doesn't sell this fact at all. I thought there might be some facts on this but nada. We went on a tour of a banana plantation outside the town here as well. We also met some Dubs here as well who we were to meet in the next place as well. Not bad to meet a couple of drinking buddies.

The next day we headed for Denham. This place had a lovely little town. We visited one of 2 pubs in the town with our drinking buddies that night to acquire the hangover from hell. We hadn't much time to worry about headaches the next morning as we headed for Monkey Mia to see dolphins. This was well worth seeing. I also discovered my underwater camera doesn't work underwater or at all anymore here. Will have to invest in a new one here in Perth.

Kalbarri was our next stop. The national park wasn't great but I think this might be because we were getting spoiled at this stage. The Pelican feeding was good the following morning although I thought they looked more like storks. We headed for the Hutt River Principality the following morning although I must say that the gorges along the coast heading away from Kalbarri were amazing. The Hutt River Principality is it's own country. I think it was the 60s that it broke away due to harsh agricultural quotas. Prince Leonard is a very interesting character.

We arrived in Geraldton that night which was the day before ANZAC day. The marine museaum here was very interesting. We headed to the cinema that night which was followed by a couple of pints with a rock group. Stayed for the ANZAC celebrations the following day. The whole town seemed to be out. Obviously I sat for God Save the Queen. She's not my Queen.

Headed towards the Pinnacles then outside Cervantes. This was very cool looking. We headed on for Perth then which was a bit hairy avoiding the road trains at night. Arrived in Northbridge for ANZAC night and made the Shed in northbridge for a couple of pints. The place was rocking. Was a fantastic night. Other than that in Perth we haven't done much bar bum around with a small bit of job hunting thrown in. Being put forward for a job in Ericssons after all my efforts to get away from them. Also saw Fremantle. The Dockers won yesterday who I think will be my adopted AFL team although I think they're 4th from bottom. The Eagles are a shower of druggies and hooligans so I won't support them which I'm sure will amuse the Eircom League followers. Will look to sell the van now that we're in Perth. Hope all is well Slan. I'm sure you all love me and miss me as one fairly oiled Blacktrench based person said to me after the Punchestown races.

Photos from Singapore, Darwin, Broome

Singapore, Darwin, Broome

Broome, Karijini

Broome was a grand spot but fairly small. It wore a small bit thin on us by the end of our stay here. We also moved backpackers for the second day as the place in town we were staying was a bit of a kip. It was called Broomes last resort and it lived up to its name. We had a fairly quiet first night with a couple of drinks in the Roey Bay hotel followed by a wild night in the Irish bar in the town but the wild bouncer didn't allow thongs which are flip flops on this side of the world. The next day we moved onto the cable beach backpackers near to you guessed it the beach. It's so named as this beach connected the cable to Asia that carried the telephone calls to Europe. The beach here is fantastic but the waether was unbelievably hot so we only lasted about 2 hours on the beach. That night we headed for the open air cinema to see Hot Fuzz. The airport is very close to here and just before the film starts a plane flies overhead maybe 10 metres overhead. Everyone is jumping off their seats The following night we headed for the waterfront to see Staircase to the moon. When it happens right it looks like there are steps to the moon. It was overcast that night so we had to make do with just the concert. There was a bit of a do in the Oasis at the back of the Roey bay hotel. OK we'll call it what it is - a piss up. They close on Good Friday over here as well so the locals were getting tanked up. It took half an hour to get served. We headed back for the stairway to the moon the following night and it was a clear night. It looked class. The photos don't even do it justice. We headed back for the open air cinema that night as there was nothing else open.

The following morning we got our camper van - a 1983 Toyota Tarago and then we were free on the open road. We were very happy to be leaving Broome. Nice spot but were starting to get bored with it. Our first stop was Cape Keraudren reserve alovely spot by the beach although a hell of a drive. We passed through Port Hedland on our way to Karijini the following day. An old mining town with not alot to it but we saw the longest train in the world. It must have been over a hundred carriages long. Only 3 hundred more kilometres to Karijini now. We booked into the campsite just outside Karijini but as I was to find out over the next two days the flies would turn a saint to Heroine addiction. The scenery here was beautiful. The gorges were spectacular. Weano gorge was amazing.

We arrived yesterday in Exmouth. I think we have about 1300 km on the clock but the driving should decrease from here. The main attraction here is the coral reef which I have yet to see so speaking of which must run and see it. We'll head towards Coral Bay after this. Between the 2 of these places we'll spend about 10 days as we're wrecked after all the travelling. So surfs up. Slan.

Arse-licking in the northern territories

I was mistaken about Darwin being a fairly lively spot. Correction it’s very lively on quiz night. It wasn’t a bad spot but a bit small.

The following day we booked ourselves on Kakadu National Park and they had a special on that also included Litchfield with this starting first. Litchfield was lovely with plenty of swimming in rock pools and the waterfalls were also fantastic here. We couldn’t swim underneath some of the waterfalls as these waters were infested with saltwater crocodiles. The salties are more vicious than the freshwater as they’re very territorial. A lot of the lower lying waters get infested with freshies when the water level is so high during the wet season. Also on this trip we or I mean I licked the back end of the green backed ant and you get the taste of lime off it. Sorry for the tabloidy type title. The group we did this with was sound but I have to say that as they all have my blog address. Jake/Jade let me know if you got caught in that tsunami warning? We all got free dinner in the Victoria hotel if you could call the scrap we got dinner but filled part of a hole. Sadly that night ESPN pulled the highlights of the Ireland game.

Well we were off to Kakadu the following day for a 3 day tour. Kakadu is about 3 hours outside Darwin. The first part of it was broken up with a trip to the beach to be shown different bits of aboriginal culture. This included playing a Didgeridoo which I struggled badly with, firing bamboo arrows which I was a natural at, sort of and making aboriginal jewellery which I abandoned to arrow throwing as soon as an opportunity presented itself. It was very good. Bt the way the didgeridoo is made by wood eating termites eating out the middle of a piece of wood. After this it was on to a crocodile tour which was brilliant. It involves meat being dangled above the crocodiles head and it jumping out of the water. I wonder are they being overfed here as one crocodile was very slow to react to free food. I suppose there’s a danger they could become too tame although I wouldn’t fancy swimming with them. After this we went onto Kakadu passing by the bull that was used in the Crocodile Dundee film. It was almost the end of the day when we finally got to our cabins so there just time for a swim before sunset. Days 2 and 3 involved walking mixed with regular swims. It wasn’t too tough going. Some of the views were fantastic. I’ll add photos when I get a chance.

We had one day left in Darwin when we came back. Caroline hit the shops and I headed on a cycle to a World War II museum out in East point about 13 km from the city centre. Hadn’t much time in the museum by the time I got there but the cycle was all along the coast which was lovely. Had a hell of a cycle back in as I only had 45 minutes to drop the bike back. Just watched a film in the hostel that night.

We flew this morning to Broome and we got some great views of the Kimberley mountain range. Haven’t seen too much of the town yet but it looks nice but it’s fairly small.

Looks like it’ll be a bus down the rest of the coast as I can’t get a provisional licence here. Hope everyones well.