Just arrived in Cairns after a whole day in different planes, making my way through the country from Perth!! Gonna head to China tomorrow !!!!

Well, I made it to Perth !! The bus was gargling, stuttering and coughing during the last hours, pretending to break down, but our bus driver wouldn't have that, he managed to get it back on the road after killing the engine several times and stopping along the road , while I could have sworn that Prince Leonard was sitting a few rows behind me...but let's start at the beginning...back up in Darwin. After stopping in Katherine ( where I did a boat tour and a walk through the Nitmiluk Gorge NP and had a waterhole underneath a waterfall all for my own to swim in it ) , I made my way through the Kimberley region - on the Greyhound again - you know that you're in the middle of nowhere when the cemetery is listed under "attractions"...lot's of aboriginal people lingering around the several roadhouses, as they usually contain a bottle shop...one of the Aboriginies tried to sell a painting in front of the Timber Creek gas station, his bloodshot eyes telling you everything you need to know, the police showed up twice within the 30 mins we've stopped there. I stopped in Kununarra in the Kimberley's, I couldn't go to the Bungles Bungles because of the wet season, but there's a NP right behind the town which gives you an idea what the Bungles Bungles look like (althrough on another scale) . I went on to Broome, hiked around to see Cable Beach and Gantheaume Point (red rocks in front of the turquoise of the ocean and the dark blue of a clouded sky). The next stop was Karratha...what to do in Karratha ?????? Not just my thought, I wasn't surprised to see the same people I've been arriving with the day before on the busstop in the evening, waiting to catch the Greyhound to head further south, this time he was 3 hours late......we made it to Exmouth in the morning, with the sun rising out of the ocean on our right......I had a marvelous time over there, I met some nice people, one of them even had a car, which made it easy to get around. We got some snorkeling equipment and went to the beaches of the Cape Range NP, snorkeled around the corals, swam with some reefsharks and other creatures and had yummy dinner back at the backpackers/camping park in the evenings. Went on to Coral Bay to have 2 more lazy days on the beach, watching stingrays and colourful fish. Rent a kajak and managed to tip over after the first few stokes, guess I will never manage to stay in a kajak for a whole trip, it surely was very entertaining to watch me climb back in. I went on to Monkey Mia to see the "wild' wild wild" dolphins, showing up exactly at feeding time every day, what a coincidence.... but I finally managed to see a turtle over there, appearing next to the jetty in the evenings, gasping for air, taking in some deep breaths before diving down again. I left Monkey Mia in the early morning, our busdriver was still rambling on over that 5.2- Richter scale earthquake at midnight ( even if I would have been awake and feeling anything, I would probably just have blamed the hostel bed ). The next stop on my trip was Kalbarri, I rented a car over there with 3 other girls and we drove to the Hutt River Province, leaving Australia for an hour to have a look at this independent sovereign state, and Prince Leonard stamped our passports and showed us around his principality. Pretty funny story and clever old guy- he doesn't have to pay any tax...you should google that if you have time. Back in Australia, we drove through the Kalbarri NP, along the coastline, towards the beautyful cliffs and creeks carved out by the Murichson River. I went on to Cervantes to see the sun go down behind the Pinnacles Desert, and finally made it to Perth the next day.

I'm still alive and in Coral Bay right now. The update will have to wait till I'm in Perth, as the Internet is really expensive over here and I'm too lazy anyway.