What does'nt kill you makes you stronger!!

Friday 4th March

Once again I have been a little remiss in updating this thing but this time I have a genuine and valid excuse.

A little known fact about Australia (at least to Pauline and I) is that the entire North West of the country effectively closes up shop for the winter wet season.

So other than provide detailed and vivid descriptions of the various roadkill that we encountered I didn't have a whole lot to update anyone on.

Whilst we were in Broome we decided to check out the Crocodile park that was just out of town, it was pretty pricey at $90 and only open for an hour and a half a day but we had been told it was worth checking out.

We pulled up to the car park a few minutes before it opened and were the only ones there, we figured it may be closed but were quickly ushered inside and allowed to roam around on our own for a few moment.

Then the local guide came out and we literally had a one on one tour of the facility which included allowing us to feed the saltwater crocodiles and getting far closer to the animals than we could have imagined.

They had some incredible animals there including a 20ft croc called Chomper who was quite possibly the scariest thing I have ever seen.

We managed to narrowly avoid being eaten by crocs or blown away by cyclone Carlos and quickly headed further south to avoid the newly developing cyclone before it had a chance to reach us.

The north west coastal region is made up of several fairly large mining towns where people are earning an absolute fortune and as a result the price to stay there is astronomical.

We met a guy in the visitors centre of Port Hedland who had paid $380 for one nights accommodation at the local holiday inn a place that made our camper van look ritzy.

Apparently there were no tourists in town at all, which wasn't a surprise as the only tour being offered was a tour of the local mineshaft so we quickly moved on and decided to drive an extra 500kms on to the next town.

Well at least that was the intent, however on the mind numbingly boring drive down we saw a little sign advertising the "80 mile beach caravan park" and thought we would take a looksy.

The place was incredible, we were literally the only people there other than the owners, a park ranger and a couple who had liked it so much they stayed there for 12 months.

The beach itself was staggering to witness, it felt as though you had been washed ashore on a gigantic island without another sole in sight for as far as the eye could see in any direction.

The beach was a combers delight with giant shells all over the place and various bones and other things, we even stumbled across some gigantic whale bones that had been washed ashore due to the strong cyclone winds, but were told that we would be fined $10000 if we moved them.

On the way back to our camper we were told that the ranger had just found a snake and would bring it down to have a hold if we wanted to.

The rangers car pulled up and out got Crocodile Dundee reincarnate, or at least a full size doppelganger replete with giant Aussie hat, shades and a stubby beer cooler.

When he told us that his name was Mick it only confirmed the fact that Paul Hogan was alive and hiding in this campervan park.

He quickly pulled out the wild snake that he had found earlier and draped it around Tyler's shoulder, then he pointed out that although it wasn't poisonous it would probably bite as they had a habit to panic.

Tyler seemed completely oblivious to this though and took it for a walk about, I am sure that he was contemplating keeping it but Paulines stern looks from afar soon got through to him and he handed it back.

Mick Dundee then told us he found one of the deadly king brown snakes the day before just behind the site but he apologised that he had released it already, I am sure otherwise he would have allowed us to get a group photo of us hugging it.

The park was so nice that we extended our stay a few days and literally did absolutely nothing at all.

From there we headed on down to the Ningaloo reef, firstly to Exmouth where we spent the night in the national park next to the beach.

The scenery was breathtaking and would have been a great place to stay if it wasn't for the lack of wind, massive storm and scorpion that sat underneath our door watching our every move.

We literally had about an hours sleep and drove on wearily through to Coral Bay, a place that we fell in love with not only because of its natural beauty but also because there were loads of other travellers there to chat with.

We were initially going to spend a day there but extended it to four and were still very sad to be leaving, we met some fantastic people and had a great time snorkeling and walking along the coastline.

Yesterday evening we went for a walk and waded through the water in a small bay that was about knee
deep, no sooner had we stepped ashore than we turned around and there were 3 sharks circling the area that we had just left.

It was definitely a change of underwear moment but once we had recovered our senses we quickly ran around the edge trying to get a better view of them, the bay was literally teeming with marine life.

Next time however, it may be worth us looking around before entering as there was a giant "Shark Nursery - Do not enter water" sign that we hadn't seen.

After a few sad goodbyes we headed south again in an attempt to reach Monkey Mia by the end of the day.

There is a largish town called Carnarvon about half way down but we had been told by at least 10 people that it is incredibly boring and that we should just carry straight on through and not give it a second glance.

So its a little annoying to be sitting in Carnarvon Coral Caravan Park writing this, especially after having spent the majority of the day at the hospital with Pauline, especially after having stacked the camper van into a pothole at 100kph and turning it temporarily into a flying space shuttle.

The entire contents of the campervan were literally floating around in front of our eyes as we majestically flew through the air screaming our heads off.

NASA should probably investigate Toyota Hiace campervans as a low cost alternative to all of that expensive training equipment they waste their money on.

Fortunately after some injections Pauline is fine but she literally couldn't move for the first half of the day, temporarily allowing her to experience what its like to be a man with a hangover.

Amazingly the van, which I had put down as a total write off, is in fact fine and apart from what the mechanics termed as a "bent arm", which cant be too bad as my arm bends and it hasn't done me any harm, we are good to go.

Pauline may even get a copy of her x-rays as a souvenir so it hasn't been a complete waste of time, the only challenge will be trying to find something interesting to do here for the next few days!