The cold was hardly bearable. We went from the tropics of Indonesia straight into the unforgiving Perth winter. We were forced to make our way through the harsh and barren landscapes of the southwestern part of Western Australia, with the quick dropping as low as 22 degrees during daytime. At some times it made it up to 28, allowing our bodies to defreeze a bit and function normally.

So we made it to Australia, Perth as mentioned, and went straight away into to little-Ireland, a.k.a. the Northbridge area of the city, where we hoped to find a place to lay our heads. Since we arrived 7 a.m. in the morning with most receptions closed, we had already walked quite a bit before passing several places that all turned out to be fully booked. Those kind of circumstances lead to hasty decisions, so we signed in at the first place that had a bed available. Dresscode in this hostel was jumpsuit and shirt of your favorite whatever-sport team. There were more restricting rules on the wall then paint and when we were sitting down in the lobby downstairs and the police arrived to look for some people who beat up somebody that morning we decided to spend the rest of the day looking for a different establishment.
We found a very nice one where we would reside for the next two and a half weeks.

The main attraction of Perth is still the Faber-Hay family and since they one had gone +1 six weeks before our arrival it was a great moment to meet up with our dear friends Jasper and Jen. First contact was made with the Don which resulted in a decent friday afternoon session, just like in the good old days in Nijmegen. A couple of days later is was time for a full reunion and an introduction to the newest member of the family, their beautiful baby girl Keira.

Apart from those meetings we had a general idea of looking for some work in Perth to enhance our travel budget for Australia, but after trying for a week or so we changed our focus from finding a job to finding a car, not feeling like hanging around in Perth too long just looking for work. With enough cars on offer we soon bought an old van that seemed in reasonable shape. Things get very uninteresting now, but since it had Tasmanian plates and we had to register it in WA it had to be examined, so after 2,5 days of going through that bureaucracy (the car luckely only had some very minor things that had to be repaired) we were ready to get the show on the road.

We did have a great time in Perth in those 2,5 weeks. There were many lovely people staying at the hostel to hang out with. With some of them we made a little trip to the pinnacles, a weird gathering of stones in a desert landscape, and we visited beautiful sand dunes. Flo and I visited lovely Fremantle, strolled through the botanical garden and Jasper took us around town which included showing Flo her first kangaroos.

We left our hotel room to start camping life, getting on the road up north. First night sleeping next to the road we were welcomed with thunderstorms, a good introduction.

Slowely we made our way up to the first big attraction, the Kalbarri national park. On the way we stopped in Leeman, nice little coastal town, Geraldton, the biggest town in west - W.A, and at a pink lake, but it was mostly just nice to be on the road, driving through vast desert landscapes, dining under the stars around a campfire and waking up to beautiful sunrises.

Kalbarri national park had some beautiful gorges, but it would take a 50 kilometer return trip on an unsealed road to get there. We thought we would manage, but with our car shaking like we were driving in Fred Flintstone's car, we were praying to the aboriginal Gods (and cursing ourselves) the whole way, hoping that this little trip wouldn't mean the premature end of our car. We survived the way into the park and were rewarded with some very nice views. Unfortunately it did mean for me a reunion and for Flo an introduction to my and everyone who as ever visited Australia's outback's nemesis, the bush fly. Working in groups, constantly trying to get into ears, mouth, nose and eyes, these little helpers of satan are very well capable of ruining an otherwise amazing trek. War was declared, but being outnumbered we soon retreated to the car, already looking forward to the shaky way back. Our four wheeler did make it unharmed back to the sealed road, proving its reliability. Mixing staying next to the road and sleeping in caravan parks, visiting little towns and making kilometers during the day, we made our way up to the next supposed highlight, monkey mia, part of the shark bay area, a world heritage site.

Wild dolphins are offered food there every morning so we stayed overnight to hope to witness that the next morning. After spending an evening talking to a very drunk old South - African who loved to take pictures of roadkill, we woke up to find it raining for the 43th time in the last three years. Combine that with a strong wind and we were standing there waiting in the cold and rain for dolphins that apparently had taken a day off. Slight disappointment, although the Emu's that come out of the wild to look for easier food on the inhabited regions this time of year, kept us entertained for a bit as a concellation.

Next up was coral bay, a popular beach town where we stayed for a night or two before heading out to Karijini national park, which turned out to be the highlight of the Australian chapter of our journey so far.The trip there was already promising, with landscapes getting more interesting by the meter. On the first day in the park we made a brilliant walk through a gorge with stunning natural pools on both ends. A elderly couple (travelling pensioners make up for about 80% of the people you meet when you are doing the camping trail on the west coast) had offered us to take us to other gorges that were only reachable over dirt roades, since our experiences of combining our car with that type of road weren't to positive. So they very kindly drove us and themselves around for half a day, waiting for us when we ventured further then they could. On one of the treks that made for a somewhat tricky, but therefore even more amazing walk (climb) that once more ended at a beautiful natural pool. This time we took a little dip, although the temperture of the water made it a very short one (I'm talking about the duration of the swim here).

Very happy with our trip there we left Karijini through the termite tower filled lands on to Broome. This popular getaway town sports a pretty nice beach, but as every town in Australia so far we felt a big lack of atmosphere, something we somehow had hoped to find in that particular place (15 years ago bands would play there on the beach with fireshows, BBQs and campfires, and you could camp right on the beach. None of that is left). We did set our minds to finding work again, but since Broome in the end is not a bad place to hang around if you are working there is a lot of competition and relatively low pays, so we went 250 k's further up north to Derby, where apparently no one wants to work and pay is good. So, there we are now, finding the place boring like many others, but not too bad to be and Flo nailed a job already, so it's going to be town life for the coming months.

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