The end

So there you have it. After 11,000 kms and 85 nights on the road its time to wind it up. Apparently there’s a real world out there.

Thanks to jess, scosha, grace and zon for being the most amazing road trip comrades imaginable. FACT. You are the most amazing family on the planet.



For me, I’ve got some driving to do….oh and some surfing down south…did I mention that?

Until next time.

ahall

Monkey Mia

A night stopover over in Shark bay and the next morning we plated up some breakfast to a gang of spoilt dolphins.

Coral Bay

A couple of hours south of Exmouth and hello Coral Bay. A compact little place that is so underdeveloped that all 200 full time tourism industry residents live in caravans without wheels.



Coral Bay is one of the few places in which the coral is literally a couple of metres from the sand.

So Jesse chartered a 50 foot catamaran and took us for a spin to the outer reef.



From there we snorkled with turtles, a shark and countless other fish.

This net thing brought a mixture of wow this is great / get me off here!



The pub on the point was worked over on 2 nights followed by a short stroll back to the van. Arhhhhhhhhhhhhh. After 3 days here our pulse was vaguely present. A fitting end before we gunned it to Perth.

Exmouth

So we punched out at the coast at Exmouth after a couple of big driving days, the top end of the beautiful Ningaloo reef. But more importantly, the location of the worlds greatest snot block. We tried to eat one a day but we failed on day 2.



We quickly made it down to the beach and were stunned once again by the beautiful setting. The crystal clear water was just amazing and swimming in it is something you can’t miss out on. We got our snorkels out and went straight into the water.



The beautiful coral and stunning fish were one of the most amazing thing I’d seen on this holiday.



There where so many different shapes and sizes of coral and lots of
Beautiful coloured fish. Mum, Sophie and I were even lucky enough to see a huge turtle. He was hard to spot because he was so well camouflaged. As we floated on top of the water we were trying to fight the current so we headed back to shore to tell dad and Jess. As soon as we told them they were out to find it but didn’t have much luck.



We stayed in our caravan at a homestead right in front of the reef. We worked on our project book (we called this Nadia time) because she made us these amazing scrap books to record our travel experiences.



The next day dad went surfing and was hit on the head by a turtle in the shore break when he duck dived under a wave.

By Grace and Sophie



One night we went to a massive sand dune and watched the sun go down.



We then played star wars because it looked just like the planet ‘Tattoo Inn’ in Return of the Jedi. I was pretending to hold a light saber like Luke Skywalker. It was really fun.

By Jesse

Pilbara and Karijini

We left the coast in our dust and ventured into the most isolated and rugged land of our trip. The Pilbara.



The Pilbara doesn’t need an epic movie like Priscilla or Nicole and Hughs effort to be noticed.



In fact, the Rose Porteous and Gina Rinehart arm wrestle over Langs fine iron ore assets, also seems out of place. It’s far too down to earth for all this carry on. It’s a dramatic, tassle free, no fuss, blokey, petrol stationless (at times), land mass that is the perfect location for a King Gee ad. It’s the location of some of the biggest iron ore super pits the world over.

The jewel of the Pilbara would have to be Karijini National Park.



Jammed with gorges and water features, this park is as snappy as its name.



We spent a night at Dales Campground and guess who was camping next to us – no other than Dan Tyrell and fam – a former St Kevins student with whom I spent 7 years of my school life. How about that – out the middle of a very impressive no-where.

Anyway the next day we had a shower at the fern pool.



We also walked across the top of Dales Gorge and checked out Fortescue falls.



Then we snaked our way back to the coast in pursuit of Ningaloo reef.