Monday

The day started out early on Monday at 7:30 where we got picked up by Darren and the Red Earth Safari bus.  In the morning we drove down the famous Western Australia Coastal Beaches on what is called the Sunset Tourist Drive.  

We stopped at at Yanchep National Park where we went down in a cave for a guided tour that lasted about an hour.  From there we went to the Greenough Wildlife and Bird Park to see koalas and kangaroo’s.  I got to hold a baby kangaroo!  About an hour late we had lunch, sandwiches and drove about 2 more hours to Cervantes where we stayed overnight in a backpackers.  We got to Cervantes about 3:30 and the beach was only about a 5 minute walk away.  We came back around 5:00 and headed off to the Nambung National Park to see the world famous Pinnacles at Sunset.  The Pinnacles were formed when the area became flooded and water mixed with minerals to form these unique shapes.  After that we headed back to the backpackers where we had a lasagna and salad dinner.  Early to bed.

Tuesday

The next day breakfast was at 6:30 and we back on the road by 7:00 AM.  We passed some unique horizontal trees before arriving at the Hutt River Province, a small breakaway country and the second largest on this continent.  

There we met Prince Leonard and Princess Shirley and hear about their passion for their own country.  In 1970 they found a loophole in the Australian constitution and now are their own country and don’t have to pay any tax.  We traveled a few more hours having lunch along the way.  We stopped at Kalbarri National Park where we saw the coastal gorges and saw a whale.  We stayed in the town of Kalbarri, in a backpackers and had a delicious aussie bbq.

Wednesday

This morning after an early breakfast where we travelled deep into Kalbarri National Park.  Here we travelled deep into the Z Bend gorge.  The path into the gorge was very hot and in the summer temperatures can get as high as 122 in the gorge.  Today it wasn’t too hot as we climbed down into the gorge.  The water flowing in the gorge was very warm and some people went swimming.  We drove for a few hours to the World Heritage Area of Shark Bay.  We stopped at a beach that is made up entirely of shells and took a swim in the water, which was quite warm.  We stayed at the Nanga Bay Resort tonight, where we had another good dinner.

Location: Western Australia