Wednesday 24th January 07

We’re  still working our way up the coast.  Each day we try to make good progress but only manage a couple of hours driving because they’re are so many nice places to stop off.  We’ve had the camper-van for 6 days now but looking at the map, we’ve hardly scratched the surface of the west coast.  Unfortunately we are not going to be able to get to Broome as planned.  We’ve been advised by a number of people that it is still the wet season up there and the rain comes down so heavy that the roads are not passable for weeks.  It’s also uncomfortably humid.  Our new destination is Exmouth and then we’ll turn the van round and travel either back down the coast or inland and will get a chance to stop off in the places we didn’t see on the way up.  Fortunately the camper-van company are quite flexible so we can keep the van a bit longer if we want a bit of extra time. 

We’ve been staying in a lovely sleepy town called Kalbarri which reminds us of a town called Olu Deniz in Turkey.   Lee and I entered the town at the top of the hill and we’re just bowled over.  We stopped right there on a little viewing point and took some pictures.  We found a campsite easily and got the best pitch going.  Our little van has an ocean front view right next to the bbq.  Funnily enough a couple we’ve seen twice on our travels, turned up with their van a bit later and parked it on the pitch right next to ours. About five o’clock the local pink and grey cockatoos come flying in by the dozens and sit right on the grass next to us. 

This is the link to Kalbarri’s website = http://www.kalbarriwa.info/ 

This morning we got up very early and went on an canoeing trip up the river.  I personally didn’t find it easy and I reckon my arms and shoulders will ache tomorrow.  We’re moving on again tomorrow to a new destination.  Most evenings we get out the map and the brochures we’ve collected, and pin point where we want to go and places we want to stop off at on the way there.  We’ve got into a nice little routine!  We always stop for our morning cup of tea and then stop again for some lunch.  We’ll get the fold out chairs out the back and pop the roof of the camper and always manage to do this at the best possible spot.  The West Coast is blessed with about 8 hours of sunshine every day.  Lee and I will make the effort each evening to take a walk and watch the sunset, often with beer in hand! These sights and sunsets are something we’ll never get bored of.

Lee still hasn’t had the opportunity to do his dune surfing yet but we hope to have a go on the way back down the coast. 

We’ve been really excited to read everyone’s comments.  It’s so nice to know that you’re following our journey.  Many thanks for all your well wishes.

Have a look at our new pictures!  More coming soon, sorry for the delay but we’ve been having problems with our camera and been experiencing slow p.c’s/Internet connections.

Lots of love Liz and Lee