Planet Ruby Starrs

6633 kilometres... 4121.5 miles... Its been a fabulous trip... amazing places, dark skies, fabulous wildlife, some catching up with old friends, new friends made...lots of stories to tell and memories to mull over. I won't miss the constant refrain 'theres another sand dune in the van' as Dr Fred once again sweeps the floor of the van...  Or the sand in the bed ... but its all worth it for the sunshine - long white beaches - dark red earth - and pure blues skies...  I have loved the different colours and and landscapes we have encountered.. as always our trip takes in a lot of rock but this has been incredibly varied and on a completely different scale to what we see in the UK. The echidnas continued to be elusive but we had some wonderful moments observing the local native wildlife... only picture I got of echidna ... stuffed in visitors centre! Its been uplifting to have the stunning light and warmth from day one.. even when we stepped ...

Yesterday we stayed at Jurien Bay campsite again... the rules were different but I won't bore you with the detail...  It was our last day with the castlemaine kid, so we thought we had better make the most of it. Leaving the trundle at the camp site and using the cruise mobile we headed off to the Mount Lesueur National park for a walk. The weather was perfect.. equating to a lovely summers day back in the UK... prepping us for next week- and it was a pleasant walk up the mesa known as Mount Lesueur.  Halfway up we disturbed a wallaby who was probably having a nap and he popped his head up for a good look at us interlopers.. he is in this picture bt even I can't find him... The climb to the flat plateau wasn't a difficult walk, sandy clear paths and once through the dense, quite - if you are me- high shrubs, the view from the lookout on the top was superb - A vast undulating area of bush leading into some wheat fields right across to the sea. ...

As I type this we have only 3 nights left in the van and in fact will be back home this time next week.. the last 9 weeks now feel like they have flown by.  We are driving back down to Perth - after staying in 2 fly infested rest rest areas.. (there really isn't much choice betwen Exmouth and Kalbarri) we are back camping at Lake Indoon.. the weather has changed and this morning , while it was a glorious start to the day - sunny, bright, calm there was a definIte autumn chill to the air.  The lake was flat, placid - unlike last time we were here when although it was warmer ot was windy.  The boys went to explore the Stockyard Gully Caves - it seemed they had a very enjoyable time and there were some really impressive bees nests.. and I enjoyed some 'me' time... quiet sketching and reading and enjoying the tranquil setting. We will make the most of these last few days but a always at this point of the trip - whether its 2 weeks or two mo...

Before I write this I just want to credit Andy with most of the pictures... the good ones are his the snaps are mine.. Next I wrote a whole dissertation about our time in Exmouth and the phone deleted it so this is the short version with photos... Exmouth.. official population just under 3000 had approx 20,000 visitors and did them selves proud. At first we were led to believe a lot of the national parks were shut... or very restricted access - saftey and wildlife issues and we were disappointed. We had had to book camping for a week... we expected to explore parks and coast and it looked like we might be confined to the town.. but it turned out all ok in the end there was restricted access but we managed to get most places we wanted to...  We set up camp, having met the Castlemaine duo... and went to explore... sussing out the best option for the eclipse view - we soon had plans A to H.. The boys went climbing and wanderung in the canyons and gorges spottin...

Exmouth at last....After a lot of planning and exploring we finally settled on where we would watch the eclipse from... and it turned out to be a winner!  We got up even before the crack of sparrows loaded everything we thought we might need into the cruise mobile and headed around the very tip of the peninsula to Yardie Creek. This was right in the centre of totality giving us the full 62 secs this amazing phenomena was going to last.  There was alot of traffic heading the same way and we were concerned because the park officials were restricting access to all the parks to crowd manage and protect wildlife... hence the early start... It paid off by the time we got to the park we were waved through and when we got to Yardie Creek it was already pretty busy.  Its a big area so plenty of room for all takers and most people were heading either for the shaded picnic area or walking up the gorge but we headed for the dunes.  Its really useful havin...

Its a long and tedious drive from Kalbarri to Shark Bay... and we didnt see any sharks!!!  We drove up the highway on endless straight roads... each crest with possibilities of a change of scenary but never actually producing it... low bush and massive termite mounds as far as the eye could see.... and that was a long way across the totally flat landscape... for a short time it got almost exciting as very clear and quite big ridges appeared... some form of ancient geological formation that ran kind of parallel with the road- but they did last long and it was back to a hypnotic monotemos trundle along.   I will say at this point the van we hired is basic.. budget and a bit of a workhorse... it deliveres exactly what we need (except for the microwave... we have never used it) buts slow and noisy and the air con could be better...  But..so far we have got where we needed to be... and once in the World Heritage site of Shark Bay we pull up to hav...

Well Kalbarri delivered on every count...it was a great time with old and new friends And thanks to Mr October we ate the most amazing cray fish.. as a spread, pickled, and BBQ'd...  But first we were made very welcome by Mrs October (by default) and it was lovely to finally meet up with our friends from Castlemaine. There are a lot of rocks at Kalbarri... we went for a wander on the cliff side by mushroom rock and round the bay - the rock here is a beautiful deep red colour and just gleams in the sun.   There were a few daring exploits involving a sticky out bit of rock that was lots safer than it looked.. and this picture doesnt really do it justice to how high it was or how gloriously blue the sea and sky were.  and then some climbing on the (recently named) wedding rock - a large piece of granite that had fallen off shortly after our friends had been married under it!!! Fred played at being crushed by the rock... its strange h...