Monday 28th April - Sunday 4th May WA - Perth

Monday 28th April
We got an early start and headed to Monkey Mia where the dolphins come into shore and are handfed by the public. They start the feeding at 8.00 and finish at 13.00 but they can feed them at any time during that time so you have to get down early to ensure you see it. We got down there just in time and saw the dolphins come right up to people in the water. It was a really overcast day so there weren’t that many people there which made it all the more upsetting when I wasn’t chosen to feed the dolphin. Mean cow who was deciding who could feed them; I felt like having a strop but then remembered how old I actually am so decided against it! Probably a good thing, James would probably have disowned me! After watching the feeding we grabbed a hot drink to warm ourselves up and set off to find our boat for a tour we had booked the day before. It was a Catamaran called the Aristocrat 2; there weren’t many people on the tour which was quite nice really as it felt like we had the boat to ourselves. They have something called “Boom Netting” which is basically a net strung between the two part of the back of the boat. A Canadian lady said she was going to do and so as to not let the Brits down James and I decided we would have a go too. It was very cold but really good fun, I would do it again in a heartbeat although hopefully it would be on a warmer day next time! As we headed towards the Pearl Farm a shoal of dolphins followed us all the way, jumping in the wake created by the boat, we even saw a sea turtle. He poked his head out of the sea to see what was going on and then disappeared just as quickly. When we arrived at the Pearl Farm we were told how pearls are actually made and it has nothing to do with sand!! Crazy I know! It’s a very complicated process one which I’m sure you’re not that interested in so I won’t tell you, needles to say it takes ages to grow one. Obviously it would be a crime if I had left the pearl farm without any pearls so I brought some pearl earrings at probably half the price they would have been if I had brought them in the shop. Well that’s my story and I’m sticking to it! At the pearl farm there was a pink dolphin swimming right next to the jetty, it very tame and a few people got in to swim with it. I thought about it but when I heard the guy saying that they can get quite violent and bite people I decided I would leave it, it is a wild animal after all. I also thought if that was out then there might be other animals lurking out there! In the afternoon the heaven’s opened and it chucked it down – we were not happy!! We got absolutely drenched! It’s not supposed to rain when I’m not the UK!! That evening we were really up against it and had the tiniest bit of battery left on the Ipod but luckily we managed to watch the final episode of 24 and were gutted we didn’t have any more of them. It’s so addictive!


Tuesday 29th April
We were up early again and got on the road to Geralton, luckily Geralton is a lot bigger than Coral Bay and Shark Bay and I got an Ipod charger, yey!!! We had our evening’s entertainment! Oh and incase I forget we saw road, road, a bit more road the odd road train and some bushes!!

Wednesday 30th April
Got on the road in good time and headed down south again towards our final destination – Rockingham. Stopped off at my Uncle Terry and Auntie Lydia’s for dinner (my Mum’s brother) which was lovely to have a home cooked meal and also to watch some telly – genius!! My cousin Julia and her three kids were also there, the last time I saw Julia I was 11 and in England, I’m sure I haven’t changed!! Was lovely to see the kids as I had seen pictures but not actually met them. We got on the road late that evening and headed down to Rockingham, we got a little bit lost, due mostly to the fact that I couldn’t really see the map in the dark!!

Thursday 1st May
We started the marathon clean of the van inside and out, luckily it was a nice day and the sun was shining so cleaning the outside wasn’t too much of a chore, although I must say they have some big old bugs over here and once they are squished and baked in the sun they sure are difficult to get off! Squashed fly anyone?? They would probably eat that in Thailand!! We went down to the beach to grab some lunch before driving the van back to June, luckily we said we were in a hurry and we managed to get away after about 15minutes – must be a record or something! We then got a bus and the train to Perth and stayed in a nice hotel. Was so nice to have some space and a lush shower which we could actually move about in and James could actually stand up straight in! We had a very expensive meal out, at Nandos, brilliant! Chicken and chips – you can’t go wrong!

Friday 2nd May
Took James to the airport, had a bit of a nightmare as we thought he flew from the International terminal but it was actually domestic!! So we rushed over to make sure he could check in, would have been a shame if he had missed the flight! It wasn’t sabotage, honest!! Was really sad to say goodbye, we had an amazing 6 weeks together but I still had some travelling to get out of my system and so we had to say goodbye.

My cousin Julia kindly picked me up from the airport and dropped me at my Auntie and Uncles where I was going to stay for the next few weeks. They were currently away caravanning and so I had the place to myself. Was so lovely to have my own washing machine and a dryer to get things clean and dry, I could watch TV to my hearts content and laze about all day – brilliant! I even had access to the internet so I could finally upload the 500+ photos I had taken over the last few weeks. The best thing of all though was having a fully stocked fridge, freezer and larder; I could eat as much as I wanted. Don’t you just love family!

Saturday 3rd May
Did loads of washing, uploaded photos and watched about 3 DVD’s!

Sunday 4th May
Had a nice lie in and did much of the same as Saturday, my Auntie and Uncle came home just after lunch so we caught up on their trip and had some lunch. Later afternoon we went to a place called Hilary’s Harbour which is a lovely Harbour!! (Almost as nice as my friend Hilary but not quite – miss ya Hil’s!!) They had two amazing ice cream places with loads of different flavours – I stupidly wondered out loud why they didn’t have this type of place in the UK and my Uncle made some very witty response about the weather. God I am so blond sometimes! That evening I helped cook the BBQ – Aussie style (that’s actually no different to UK style apart from the fact that you’re not either freezing your arse off or standing in the pouring rain!!)