SB Part 3

I know its ridiculous to have this many posts for a 10 day trip. Sorry! I'll try to keep this one short.

After leaving Exmouth we drove to Monkey Mia and stopped to see the stromatalites along the way. The first thing you saw was the shell quarry. There was no timber for settlers to build with so they quarried the shells, which had somehow dissolved together with rain water and some glue-like substance from the shells and the whole thing hardened. You can tell I'm no science major.

Stromatalites (I don't really understand this part either) are super super old and super important in the history of evolution because they made oxygen. So without them we wouldn't be here! Most places in the world they don't exist anymore, but the bay they are dead in here had really high saline concentration so animals didn't destroy them.

Reached Monkey Mia which was basically just a resort, which we didn't know. Posted up at the bar to listen to some hippie old guy play his guitar. He sang Cat Stevens which made me and Anna endlessly happy, then the old folks started grooving and their dancing was highly entertaining.

The next morning we woke up to watch the dolphin feeding. They have a program that is actually pretty legit - there are only 5 females they feed, only feed them a snack so they have to hunt in deeper waters and feed their calves, and no one is allowed to touch them. There was a tun of people there, but it was cool to see them up close. One of the male calves had been attacked by a shark a couple days before and had a gnarly flesh wound.

The others went for a little camel ride along the beach, but I wasn't really digging the idea of that. While I was sitting waiting for them, who should come along but my good friend Tarryn! She had sailed up to Monkey Mia on the Leeuwin, a tall ship that harbors in Freo. What a happy occurrence!

That night we ate tacos on the beach and watched the sunset.

Then it was a day of solid driving. We basically drove until the sun was about to set and stopped at a little place on the coast called Leeman. It was possibly my favorite place we had been the whole time. There were sand dunes and SO MUCH seaweed and flat planes of rock that had been worn away by the sea in the most beautiful way and in places the sea had carved out crazy overhangs in the rock. It was a real beach, windy, a bit chilly and a beautiful sunset, plus avocado and hummus sandwich for dinner. Heaven!

Then it was time for the Royal Wedding!!!! We watched it in the little kitchen area. If you look at the picture and see the tiny square of light in the middle - that was the TV. It was perfect! There were a bunch of families cooking their catch of the day (the coast is for fishing), all the mums were gossiping about the hats and the queen needing a nap etc., the dads all wanted to chat with us, and the kids were running around being crazy. It was really great and I though the perfect setting for such a fancy event. We drank tea and tim tam slams (if you don't know what this is, please refer to my earlier post on Aussie slang) then headed to bed. Me and Amanda slept in the van and it was surprisingly comfortable in the back with everything folded down, but it was freezing!

The next morning we packed up and drove the last little bit back to Perth. It was such a beautiful drive. We passed the Pinnacles but it was closed, the coastline and ocean were amazing, we drove through grass tree forests and a huge burn area. There were also limestone dunes which just appeared out of the vegetation so majestically and all snow white!

We arrived back in Perth safe and sound despite some trepidations prior to leaving. We were so very lucky to have gotten back without any casualties, accidents, or breakdowns. Overall it was a great soul-rejuvenating success!

I thought I would leave you with a couple of the many many pictures taken from the front seat of the van. We thought every hill we went over had just the coolest most breathtaking view and snapped a billion pics with Robin's camera that lived in the front. In review, they weren't quite as cool, but you do get to see the different kinds of vegetation and roads we saw. After all, that is what we looked at most of the time!

(Tay - I thought of you when we saw this crazy man running out by Coral Bay where there was absolutely nothing around for miles and miles. It was also here that we drove completely straight for 54km.)

You know you're back in the south west when the trees are taller than you are, and there isn't red dirt everywhere.