Hello!

This was an awesome trip! I met Filip (swedish), Angela (english) and Lise (french) in Adelaide. We had the same target, Perth and started travelling on 9th of Feb although we did not really know each other. It was a Saturday and everybody was hang-over. The others had a goon night (very chaep wine) and were therefor in a worse condition than I was. So I started driving. It was exciting for me, cause I have not been driving for two month and never in a big city in Oz. It worked out ok and when the others fell asleep I knew my driving was alright. (Of course I managed to get lost...although I was on the right Highway and had just to go straight I went right=) We ended up on the beach=) )Our first stop was close to Mt. Wudinna. We had an awesome sunset and an awful night. Lise and I slept in my (Cam's) tent, again without matress and it was freezing. Filip slept in his hammock and Ange in the car.

We kept driving on the Eyre Highway. We crossed Penong and turned left in a dirtroad heading to Point Sinclair and Cactus beach. Filip and Ange had their boards on the roof and wanted to go for a surf. There are only two beaches in the world where waves come in from two directions. One is in Hawaii and the other one is Cactus beach. It was a really nice place and the stars at night were just stunning.

In Penong was the last shop for 1000 km. We stopped at the Nullarbor Motel and had these huge burgers for dinner. The origin of nullarbor is Latin and means "no trees". The next night was the most uncomfortable... It was in the "Great Australian Bight Marine National Park"on a truck rest area. We tried to put up our tent but it was quite difficult on massive rock. We ended up sleeping in the car...with four persons!!!  Anyway, we could not even go on the toilet cause there was none. And I had to climb down some cliffs cause there were no trees or big bushes either. It is just a vast, treeless, flat, limestone plain covering 270 000 square kilometres.

But the cliffs were really nice. Imagine, you drove through nothing for hours and hours. I did not expect anything and then there were these amazing cliffs and a sunset in the ocean (which we missed of course, cause we were busy with the tent =) ).

We started driving really early the next day. It was the 12th when we crossed the border to WA (Western Australia). You are not allowed to bring any fruits, nuts, honey etc across. About 200 deseases could not make their way through the Nullarbor Plain into WA and they try to keep it like that (see...huge distances can be advantageous=) ). Oh...I forgot to mention thet we nearly almost broke down before...We had all the time troubles with the starter but usually it worked after the car cooled down for twenty minutes. 4 truck driver helped us and we knocked on the starter with a piece of steel and it worked! After that we did not dare to stop the car on the way but only on road houses and fuel stops. We named the car Jenny and started playing "Jenny don't be hasty...you can be my baby" always after we had problems. We drove about 1000km and arrived in Esperance at 9pm. We spent the night in "The Guest House", a really strange place with many rules (main rule: be quiet!!!). I met a couple from Melbourne and of course they knew Cam and even Potboy!!! =) We checked out the next morning and spent the day in town. Filip and I pretended to do researches on Fur seals and Sea Lions to use the internet in the Library =)

Our next stop was "Lucky Bay" 50 km east of Esperance in the "Cape le Grand national Park". I think that is one of the most beautiful places in Oz!!! We went there although everybody told us the camp ground was full. After discussing half an hour what to do (whether to risk a 500 dollar fine and camp wild or drive somewhere else or ask the rangers if there were really full) the rangers walked along. We asked them and yes...they had spare campsites!! We had our first swim after putting up the tent and hammock. The water was turquoise, the sand white and kangaroos stole our food =) Just one week before they caught a Tiger shark in that bay (I was glad I did not know before I swam).

We got up at 5.30 am the next day and climbed the Frenchman Peak. I had some problems cause it was quite steep and thongs were not really ideal =) In the end I did it (it took us 10 min up instead of 1 hour) and we arrived just in time to watch an amazing sunset!  Then we went to the "Thistle Cove" another nice beach. But we did not swim there cause there is a strong current and rips. "Hellfire Bay" was ok for swimming and nice as well. I went fishing with Filip that night but we did not catch one single fish. I think that is not really my sport. We killed a big crab to have a bait but  nothing happened. We did not even saw one shark!!! I was really disappointed =)

We had again troubles with Jenny on the way to Albany (15th of Feb, 440km). "She" was constantly slowing down and shaking. It was an odd feeling to be overtaken by massive trucks (road trains). We made it to Raventhorpe and the mechanics there told us the car was perfectly alright... they guessed it was just dirt in the fuel. Finally we got to Albany (sometimes we slowed down to 40 km/h) and camped in the "Torn Dirrup National Park". We went to a nice little market (very expensive) in Albany the next morning and headed to the "Valley of the Giants" afterwards. We did the tree top walk (the highest platform was 40 m above the ground). The "Tingle Trees" grow up to 60m and measure around the trunk up to 16m. Tingle is an aboriginal word for red. They got that name because of their red timber. We slept again on a camp ground in an National Park close to the Fernhook falls...unfortunately there was no water in the falls (although it was raining)

The Gloucester Tree in the Gloucester National Park is only 3kms from the Post Office in Pemberton.   The Gloucester Tree was chosen for a fire lookout in 1947, one of a network of lookout in 1947, one of a network of lookouts built in the karri forest between 1937 and 1952. Today, visitors can climb 60m to see one of  the most spectacular views of the Karri forest.

Ok, actually the top platform is 61 m above the ground. Everything looks tiny and I think it was the most dangerous thing I ever did.

We went to Margaret River and checked in at a caravan park. We rented a cabin and spent 3 days there. I had my first go on a surf board in Gracetown. Filip decided to stay there and Lise and I took the bus to Perth.

Sorry, cannot write anymore, I will give you the details another time.

Take care (as I do =) ) and enjoy life, cheers Carla