Broome to Perth (and back again?)

Tinks is snug in her secure car park and we have fallen on our feet with a 4* apartment (between 5 of us it's the same price as a hostel). Good job as it's crappy weather - the clouds are black and it's too cold to camp. Oh yes, we've made it to Perth. We kind of hurtled down the west coast due to time constraints (team Ernie all had various flights to catch). Worth it to get to share it all as part of the gang, but still a shame really as the west coast really hit our spots. So much so that Pete is trying everything to persuade me to head back up north to Broome on Monday (the weather is like UK autumn here right now, but in Broome it's always above 30 degrees. Bloody should be seeing as it is 2242km north of here!) Watch this space as to whether my arm is twisted and whether Tinks doesn't go on strike at the thought of it...
So, our trip... I last wrote from Broome - a lovely town. Full of sunshine, blue seas, nice food. A really relaxed lovely place. Pete and the boys had a Big Mac Off (who could eat the most) which ended up putting one confirmed Big-macophile off the Golden Arches for ever! Pete was joint winner. Cable Beach was lovely (the top 3 photos on this blog are Cable Beach).
From Broome we headed to the paradise that is Cape Range National Park - home to the amazing Ningaloo Reef. This reef is not as big as the Great Barrier Reef, but in my opinion it is better - it is practically deserted, the coral and fish are amazing and (the clincher for those of us who suffer from sea-sickness) you can walk off the beach and swim to the coral reef. We camped next to the beach (along with the resident kangaroos and emus) and spent our days snorkelling. I saw turtles (so peaceful), rays (yup, sting rays, didn't realise they were that deadly or wouldn't have kept trying to catch a look at the huge one hiding under the coral), lion fish (mad, crazy things) and sharks! Oh yes indeedy. Reef sharks (aparently they're more scared of us than we are of them). All in peace.. no over-enthusiastic tour guides, no time constraints. It was fantastic. I've never seen sea that colour. Or so many fish. From the national park we stuck with Ningaloo and headed for a small town called Coral Bay. Here we went on a boat to see manta rays - the one we saw was 4.5m across! Even the murky water didn't detract from its huge majesty. We also swam in an area of coral called the Maze which was amazing (sorry, but it was). We could have stayed there all day (if it wasn't for the captain calling us back to the boat - boo!). Coral Bay was weird as in the water on tap was not only unfit for drinking, but came out of the tap salty and too hot to put your hand in. Crazy!
We left Coral Bay in search of more sea life. After a really peaceful free camp right by the ocean, we headed up to Monkey Mia - a research station visited thrice daily by friendly dolphins. You stand in the water just off the beach and they swim up to you! It is breathtaking. They have a good look at you too. Rich and Jon were lucky enough to swim with them (Pete was ill in the van and when I got in they'd legged it). On the way back from Monkey Mia we saw some stromatolites. Heard of them? Me neither - they're bits of rock that were responsible for upping the oxygen levels in the atmosphere so that we could survive. I was too tired to be impressed, to be honest!
After visting the Pinnacles (strange, spiky sandstone structures as far as the eye can see) at sunset, our last free camp as a road trip saw us playing drinking games in Ernie, which was fitting. Next morning we hot-footed it to Perth, with some sandboarding on giant dunes on the way.We stayed a couple of nights in a van park in Perth until I sniffed us out a 4* bargain in town - so we're all in an apartment together now. Louise left us last weekend, Rich&Rach head to NZ this Saturday coming, Jon is staying in Perth to get a job and we, well, that is still to be decided (:O) Tinks now has an internal light that works when we're free camping - an excitement you can only understand if you've owned a van - so we will be free camping, no doubt, just for that novelty. But we will miss Team Ernie, whatever we do (we may see Ern on the way back up with his new family).
Perth itself is quite nice really, if a little lacking in touristy things to do. We went to see and Aussie Rules Football game on Saturday, which was pretty cool and yesterday I went on an ace horse ride which has left me a little stiff, to say the least, but mostly I have been watching Dr Phil and enjoying having an oven (I never get to use an oven when in hostels or in the van). So Perth has been a little bit of luxury really before we head out on the road again. Where to, we don't know... watch this space.

Congratulations to.... my sister Jane for passing her degree and becoming a qualified, employed occupational therapist; Fi for her marriage to the lovely Steve; Caroline for her marriage to Mr Tim. Well done ladies, sorry I couldn't be there with you to share in the celebrations. Big hugs from me. XXX