On tour

My little and often plan is going well hey??! Or not! Sorry...again!

So, our 10 day adventure began with a very early start, but it wasn't long before our group of 23 started bonding and we ended up having an amazing time - with us forming a bit of a gang of 5. I'll give a brief description of what we got up to each day - missing out the hours of driving inbetween! For the best idea though, look at my photos!! Everything was with us on the tour bus - including food. We had sanswiches everyday (!) and all mucked in to help cooking every night.

Day 1
We left Perth and headed North to the Pinnacles Desert - these crazy rock formations (loads of pillars) which we got to wander around for a bit before continuing north to some huge sand dunes for sand boarding (basically sitting on a board like a skateboard without wheels and flying down the sand dune.) I totally thought I was going to bail, but didnt - and LOVED it!! After a swim in the gorgeous sea, we hit the road again to Kalbarri for our first night - watching an amazng sunset wen we arrived.

Day 2
After an horribly early rise (4.45!) we drove to Murchison Gorge in Kalbarri National Park where we saw Natures Window (an natural rock archway), and walked Z-Bend Gorge with the first of many crazy climbs down into the heart of the gorge. We then drove to Shell Beach which was incredible. Had a swim then drove to our next night stop at Denham.

Day 3
Today we went to Monkey Mia - a famous spot where wild dolphins come into the bay and swim metres from everyone who's lining up on the shore while the people that work there tell you all about them. They then select a few people from the crowd to come and feed them - and i got picked - WOHOO!!!! It was the most incredible thing ever. After i fed my dolphin (called Surprise), it rubbed the whole length of its body against my legs like a cat! I thin the photos of that moment show my excitement enough!

After another drive, we stopped to see the stromatolites at Hamelin Pool - the oldest living thing on earth (weird rock looking things!), then drove to Coral Bay.

Day 4
We had today to ourselves to explore Coral Bay and the surrounding Ningaloo Reef. It was incredible - a few of us decided to pay to go on a big snorkelling trip which included swimming with Manta Rays. Having only snorkelled once before in Rotnest Island, this was amazing!!! They sent a spotter plane up to tell our boat where to go for the manta-rays...and as it turned out also to keep us away from the Tiger shark that was near-by - whch swam passed the boat and attacked a turtle about 3 minutes after we got out of the water!!
Late afternoon we drove to Exmouth.

Day 5
We went for a wander around a national park where we saw lots of kangeroos then we went to Turquoise Bay which was the most beautiful beach so far for more swimming, snorkelling and generally chilling out! It was stunning! On the way back we stopped for a quick look at random Lighthouse then headedback to our hostel late afternoon.

Day 6
We left to head inland today towards Karijini National Park (about 6 hours drive), where we'd spend the next three nights sleeping outside - hopefully avoiding the 3 most deadly snakes that lived there! Once we'd arrived we went on our first big gorge walk. All our gorge walks consisted of some pretty hairy climbs/decents at some points but ended in amazing swims in gorge pools.

Day 7 & 8
Lots more amazing gorge walks, swims, climbs and camping! Day 8 was our last proper day - so it was sad saying goodbye to everyone - the others carried on to Broome, while we had a wonderful 2 days of solid driving to get back to perth!

Day 9 & 10
One last early morning short walk and swim then we basically sat in a coach for 2 days, stopping to sleep in a cattle ranch on the way (where we had a deadly redback spider behind the door!)

Not got enought time now to put my photos up but will try to do it asap!!!!!