WA (Part 1)...

After Perth, we decided to see as much of Western Australia as possible (allowing for money and time contraints!) within a couple of weeks. Given the size of the place, this is a bit of a mission to say the least.

First stop after Perth was Bunbury. Bunbury is a lovely little port town, the highlight being the bottlenose dolphins that regularly cruise about in the harbour. On our second day there, we had a trip down to the beach, and within 5 minutes of being there we had already seen half a dozen dolphins! At the Dolphin Centre, we waded out into the sea for a bit of a closeup:
















Pretty cool eh? This photo is a bit of a cheat as it's only a picture of a photo we bought there, but we did see quite a few dolphins, including these pair, a big male and a mother and brand-new calf that had only been spotted for the first time that day!

We set off later that day for the surfing and wine-growing mecca that is Margaret River, nearly as far down in the south-west corner of Oz as you can go. The hostel there was top quality, with mud walled rooms, a 'peace garden', and a friendly owner called Jules who even came to pick us up from the bus stop. Me and Clare hired a couple of bikes the next day and headed down to the coast, 10km away, to check out the beaches:































After a brief return to Perth to pick up a hire car, we headed north, following the coast as we went. First stop was Yanchep National Park, with it's very-gaelic-sounding-but-very-aussie-looking Loch McNess:
















After this we headed to Lancelin (or should that be very rainy and windy Lancelin), home to one of the finest windsurfing spots in the world, and many surly european windsurfers to go with it. Can't say that it's a particularly friendly place to be honest. Out the back of Lancelin is basically desert, with massive sandunes that provide a playground for sandboarders and 4x4's alike. Here's me on top of one of the great beasts:
















After Lancelin, we headed up the coast to Cervantes, home of Pinnacles Desert National Park. This is basically a desert full of limestone pinnacles, but looks a lot better than it sounds. Eerily beautiful was Clare's (very fitting) description:
















After a night in a lovely local hostel, and meeting Jo, a British nurse travelling Oz who Clare spent a very enjoyable night 'talking shop' with, we headed out to Dongara, another nice little town by the sea. The hostel we stayed at there was legendary. Our 'room' was an entire converted 1906 luxury rail carriage, complete with about 4 bedrooms, bathroom, a cute little kitchen and a wicked porch to sit out on in the evening and watch the world go by. Marty, your place is amazing mate. Check out the pics:































More to come from WA soon!

-Si