Yes I’m back to work (
well from tomorrow anyway).
A high level dot-point summary of what I’ve been doing for the past 9 months is below.
In summary –
• Toured the SW of WA doing the
valley of the giants tree top walk, walked trails at the Perongurups, and visited the national Anzac centre in
Albany (which is a museum honouring the Anzacs from WWI);
• Drove north to Jurien and paddled our kayaks to a sealiion colony on a small island not far from shore (such cute and curious creatures sealions are);
• Boarded the Killer Whale expedition off
Bremer Bay (rough, wild, full day in the great southern ocean with guests and researchers – saw pilot whales, masses of sea birds, seals and yes killer whales);
• Visited family in Townsville with a side trip to Magnetic Island (more than half of Magnetic Island is national parks, so it has rugged natural beauty and a haven for wildlife such as koalas);
• Swam with 3 whale sharks on the
Ningaloo Reef from
Exmouth on our 4 month / 10,000km road trip. Major stops included –
Ningaloo station,
Exmouth,
Broome,
Gibb River Road,
Mitchell Plateau,
El Questro station,
Kununurra and
Lake Argyle;
• Walked and swam in many gorges and waterfalls and looked at aboriginal art and dinosaur footprints in remote locations (e.g. Karajini NP,
Mitchell Falls,
El Questro station,
Quondong);
• Caught a helicopter to the top of
Mitchell Falls (and could hear the roar of the falls
well before we could see them from the air);
• Flew in a light plane over the Horizontal Falls, King Sound, Buccanneer Archipelago and landed at
Cape Leveque for lunch and a swim (absolutely stunning scenery from the air);
• Watched the sun set over the ocean or over the range from many
camp locations, watched the flames of the
camp fire making sure not to burn dinner;
• Watched humpback whales as they migrated north of
Broome and now as they are heading south past
Dunsborough (and saw whales blow, pop up from the ocean, do a full breech, tail and peck slap etc);
• Caught up with friends along the way, met many people from very different walks of life, and had a beer or wine around the
camp at happy hour swapping stories;
• Spent a little time at
home (but not much), mainly unpacking and washing from one trip and packing for the next trip and researching where to go and what to do, and
• Went to Bali for a few weeks to wash off the red dust from
camp life (and have a holiday from our holiday).
I am sure that are many things I have missed out, but above is a snapshot.
If you missed any of the
blogs I sent from the road or want to see any pictures,
check out my ‘Top End 2016’ photo album on facebook or my
blogs on the ExporOz website.