On the road

I am already 5 days on the road, and the first available wifi :) Quite nice to be cut of the world for a bit, but today I miss my friends and family.....

We started with a lot of driving.... we already did a few thousend kilometres of endless roads.... a very very good way to relax. I often sit in the seat next to the driver and let my thoughts pass to relax....

The first day we drove to the pinniclec, who where formed many many years ago from lime stone around branches of trees. That gives weird shaped stones all over the national parc. Even more important, it was the first nice sun we had since I arrived in Australia :)

From there onwards there was a long drive to Geraldton that was only interrupeted by some sand boarding :) There is silican sand everywhere here, super soft and small sandgrains...they put it in little bags along stuff you buy as it will absorb water, but it has the nasty habbit of getting stuck everywhere else, as it is soooo tiny....like in the lens of my camera, that has some problems now....But the feeling between your toes was great, and the sand boarding even better :) On snowboard like sledges going fast from sand dunes :) We were not allowed to stand as too many people broke their legs on past tours, which is quite annoying in the middle of noweher according to our guide :) 

We arrived quite late, and I think because of our early start, everybody went to bed at 2100.....

The following day we had breakfast between 4.00-5.00 ahhhhh!!! We had a couple of hours to drive to Karilon national parc. Here we did some good hiking in the gorge....not very long, but great scenery and big rocks. Half way there was some real abseiling to do, something I had not done for many many years, but still quite enjoyed. The guide was quite good at asking some very anoying questions during the scary bit of going over the edge to keep your mind of being scared :) The walk ended at a beautiful lake. Although the sun was out, it was definately too cold to swim yet although they were trying hard to convince us for a quick dip..... but nobody was brave enough.....

From there on we drove to shell beach, an enourmous beach entirely made out of shells. The water is most of the day detatched from the sea. During the sunny part of the day, the water evaporates which makes this water 10 times more salty as the normal sea. And these little shells are the only creatures that enjoy that, so they have no enemies. they die nevertheless quite quickly, thus forming the endless beach of shells. 

We ended the day in Shark bay, for again an early night...

The following day started a little later, we drove of at 6.30 to go to Monkey Mia for some dolphin watching. The people there are overly proud that they have a natural side where dolphins come every day, and they take quite good care in not disturbing their natural habbits. Which is a pitty, as I quite like some tricks ;) We were only allowed to feed 2 of the dolphins 5 fish, the rest they need to catch themselves, not to disturb their natural habbits..... It was just such a weird not natural thing to stand there with 120 people watching something so natural.....

NExt stop was the favourite of our tourguide: the stromatolites! Some bround and black coloured stones in the sea..... he stayed for a nap ;) I actually found them quite interesting, as they are the microbiome of the sea: billions of bacteria holding small particals together thus creating a stone like material...

Fortunately on our way to Coral bay we found his favourite animal (he has even tattood it on his back :) The Thorny devil

This creature has not many enemies, but likes crossing roads quite a lot, not being particulary fast..... they like the sunny feeling of it.....how stupid.....

That night we stopped at Coral Bay, from where we did a great snorckling tour the following day. It started off a bit cold, but the corals were amazing! Many coloured fish, an eagle ray, a sea cow, many baby sharks, some turtles, we sat it all.... some swam along, some tried to get away as soon as we swam too close.... we were supposed to swim with Manta Rays as well, who are getting about 4 meters in width....but we were one of the 5 tours each year that didn't see them.... Nevertheless, the swimming with all these other animals was already a real treat!

That day we only drove a few hours to Exmouth, where I am at the moment. 

We have quite a relaxing day, as tomorrow we will go to Karanjini, one of the most beautiful national parcs of Australia ;) Looking frowards to that! We will sleep a few days under the stars so I imagine not to be in contact with the world for a bit..... see you in Broome :)