Just got back from up the west coast of Oz with Aussie Outback Safaris...from Perth to Monkey Mia via the Pinnacles, Kalbarri ,Greenough and the Billabong Roadhouse!
The first day was the Pinnacles - amazingly strange desert landscape where large needles of rock stick out from the ground. Some looking distinctly phallic!
Next up was Suicide dune (after 4 attempts and flatter tyres we made it up driving over the otherside in the 4x4 was terrifying) We stopped for a bit of sandboarding (great going down, hell coming back up) - where the dunes were so steep it would have been foolish having never snowboarded to attempt to stand up so it was on my arse on the board I went down.
Next up was Kalbarri a wonderful seaside town and home to the Kalbarri national park, with attractions such as Natures window and some Extreme abseilling. My first one was a genteel lazy backwards abseil down the z bend gorge. Next up though I abseiled down the cliff - forward - yes just like the SAS - running down the rock with a look of sheer terror...and halted in midair like something out of mission impossible (alhough screaming at the top of your lungs like a girl is something Tom Cruise would never be caught doing!)
The gorges are stunning though and natures window a fantastic look out spot and a great place to climb around...
We finally got up to Shark Bay - a world heritage area - and have seen some of the loveliest scenery since we've been in oz... We waded with dolphins at Monkey Mia(at arms length as they eye you up and chirp and squeak like flipper). We saw our first on arrival at sunset. A beatiful evening followed where I slept on the beach in my swag!
The next day we saw the dolphins up close being fed, they are wild dolphins and only get 20% of their food from the rangers. Truly amazing sight!
We then went out on a katamaran and caught a fleeting glimpse of a dundenong at Monkey Mia- a sea cow more closely related to a hippo than the whale it looks like (mind you blink and you miss them coming up for air once every 10 minutes for about 1 second!) On the way back in we went boom netting aka half drowning in a net in the back of a boat as the capitain pulls some speeds in the catamaran attempting to either sink you or tear your arms from their sockets as you cling on for dear life.
I think more impressive was wading with sharks a few miles down the road...reef sharks, black tipped, tiger sharks all live in the area. Sounds like a really stupid thing to do (and is when your tour guide cuts his foot on a rock) but its outstanding seeing these guys litterally feet away....and they are supremely fast when they realise your not food, thankfully! We got one a little confused and he swam between the group (under a meter away from me!).We also stopped at Ocean Park a great place to stop to see the turtles and Sharks being fed by some guys with a real passion for what they are doing
And most importantly, although least impressive, we saw one (out of two) of the only living formations in stromatolites in the world - one of the most important single cell organisms in the history of life on earth; without them working for millions of years putting oxygen in our athmosphere we wouldnt be here at all. Not much to look at as they look like blobby black mushroom shaped rocks but amazing to think what they represent; and to see them bubble air up through the water!
That night we went 'roo spotlighting (driving round a cattle station in a 4x4 with a big spotlight finding 'roos) at Eurardy Station. I also made my first ever damper on the fire!!! Great with toasted marshmellows.
The next day on our return journey back to Perth we fed kangaroos, emus, horses, camels, donkeys and pigs at Greenough nature park.
A great place run without funding by people that really care for the animals they have with a passion. He also has a snake breeding program and both had a 3 meter python wrapped round our neck!
Last up was some wine tating in the Swan Valley (actually our 3rd trip there that week as we'd been twice before with Simon and Loz) and got a delicious bottle of white port. Fantastic stuff would do it again; and could live in monkey mia for at least 6 months its beautiful.
