Installment 7 Perth - Exmouth

Just an aside before I continue diarising.
There are about 4 prominent camper van makes, with the most flamboyant being the Wicked camper vans. Each one has a distinct theme. Currently from where I am sat I can see a rolling stones one, a Michael Jackson one, and a Hurtz (Play on hertz) They are painted in a street art way with lyrics or sayings adorning the sides.
For about 4 days from Perth upwards we seemed to bump into the Queen one. This had resulted in unprecedented airplay of Queen on the I-Pod and various queen songs being stuck in our heads. We haven’t introduced ourselves to the crew of said van yet – 2 English girls, and I’m terrified of offending them as I stroll around whistling “Fat bottomed girls”

To Monkey Mia…
Each day specific dolphins are fed 3 times a measured amount of fish. Girl dolphins, as boys are a bit rough, and limited fish so that they still have to hunt for the majority of their food. Anyway about ten of these creatures wander into shore, in about a foot of water and members of the audience are picked out and get to feed a fish to these creatures.
Man, I wanted to be picked badly. In my head I wanted to put my arm around it and get towed out to see, but under the circumstances feeding will do just fine.
I obediently followed all the criteria, regretted desperately not being cute and about 10 years old. I believe this was Sarah’s tactic when her and Bruce were there and she got picked. Almost the last fish in the bucket and I was selected. I must have looked like someone straining for attention in class, but without my hand in the air.
Anyway I gave her the fish, the video camera failed, but who cares, I fed a dolphin.














We drove up to the end of the cape of the Francois Peron national park. The sand was very deep and it was the first time we’d really had to sand drive in earnest, and it was a whole lot of fun.















Once again we had our own private beach, and I had my first crack at fishing. Due to the fish being incredibly intelligent and agile in these parts I was out witted. Though everyone I have told that I didn’t catch anything from that spot is incredulous. I suspect I need to do something slightly differently.















We walked up to the point first thing in the morning and had it to ourselves. We could see dolphins and spotted a Dugong in the water.














We called on an historic farm, and came away singing bohemian rhapsody.
Shelly beach and the stromotalites were knocked over, its time to get to the Ningaloo…















We are now 3 months into our holiday and have approximately 3 months left.
There is just that much to do, and we don’t have time anymore. Its time to get ruthless and this was the first time we’d been in weather that we could sit by the beach, a component normally considered essential whilst on holiday in Australia.

So we motored up to Exmouth with the intention of getting there early the following morning, this would give us time to sort out Siobhan’s PADI course, swimming with the Whale sharks, and most importantly finding a television that got SBS and would be open at 3 am for the England Vs Trinidad game.

PADI and whale sharks were easy, football however…
All of the rooms with a TV and SBS were gone. The pubs shut at 1am, and we were told that SBS needed a special arial.
In a panic we booked into the campsite and tried to find someone, anyone, who knew where it was being shown.
The evening drew on, and I was starting to get nervous and in a panic we tried our TV, and it turns out our aerial is the right aerial. Whilst fiddling around with it in the kitchen we got speaking with a Brazilian named Roberto, and he had hired a full size coloured TV with good reception, game on.
I ended up watching the match with a Swedish guy taunting me about what it was like being unable to score against TandT, so it was a bit of a relief when we scored. However it did give me license to stay up and taunt him and another couple of Swedes about not scoring as their game with Paraguay stretched on.
The next morning Siobhan somehow coaxed me out of bed and we went snorkelling down at Turquoise bay. It was probably best that I was still a bit drunk when she spotted a shark and encouraged me to jump in the water and swim after it.
Ended up seeing a number of sharks amongst a wealth of other things.
Next up, whale shark watching.
Picked up at 7.30 am and bussed down to a jetty on the edge of the park. The group consisted of:
Jacques Cousteau and his daughter, both who for some reason needed a knife on their legs before they would get in the water, a couple of families, 4 young Europeans and a Japanese mother daughter combo, which seemed a little ironic as Japan has just managed to persuade the world that whale hunting should be started again.
The daughter blew up a rubber ring for her mother before they got in the tender, and then they went snorkelling both also wore life jackets.
The sea outside of the reef was exceptionally rough and a few people started to turn green. We spotted 2 whale sharks that immediately dived before finally finding one that we could get in with.
About 8 of us stood on the back of the boat with a guide, the idea being we would jump in and the guide would locate the fish and stick her arm in the air, and signal its location.
We jumped in and spread out, then the guide signalled over we swam.
Good lord, this is one big fish, this one was around 8 Metres long. In a high adrenaline swim we powered after it, and I was desperately trying to take photos at the same time. We were all in a line, about 3 metres away from the leviathan. Suddenly it decided to turn and was heading towards us. In mass panic all I remember is flippers, bubbles and limbs, I looked down and all I could see was whale shark as it went under us.
From here on, my heart was beating incredibly fast every time I got in the water.
The Japenese pair having been hooked from the water were busy puking in the corner.
We then swam with another one that was about the same size, and this time I was told to go to the other side. I wasn’t sure how far, and so I was by myself looking underwater when this enormous mouth came out of the gloom towards me. I scrambled further over and let it swim past.
Next up was a baby one about 2 metres long, and we were in the water for about 20 minutes with this one. By now only about 6 of us were getting in the water as sea sickness was taking over. The last one was the absolute monster, around 10 metres.
Because he was about 3 metres deep we swam almost directly above him as he gently descended to the bottom about 12 metres below. He was however going at quite a pace and I was swimming almost flat out before giving up.
The buffet lunch was absolutely magnificent and by now most had recovered in the more serene waters in the reef, and everyone was getting along famously.