More whales, more wine...

It has been a wonderful few busy days.

Western Australia is so remote, so wild, so wonderful... There are virtually unexplored areas, long straight roads through desert-like scrubland, huge cattle ranches and rocky hills, hillbilly towns centred around a single bar and shop...

Our last few days in Exmouth were great fun. The whale sharking was postponed twice due to bad weather - but we saw a terrific sunrise during one early morning wake-up, and we managed to fill in the greyer days regardless.

We visited beaches around the area and watched sunset from a lighthouse, bought snorkels and saw a family of emus rummaging near some bins, saw a dugong (a sort of cross between a dolphin, seal and elephant!) at Lakeside beach and did a fantastic drift snorkel at Turqoise Bay. The latter involved floating along with the strong current looking at the corals, huge parrotfish, bannerfish, Moorish idols, butterfly fish etc.

I lost Dan and Jenny at one point and then spotted... a shark! Not a huge one but big enough when you're on your own. The current is very strong so you have to jump out before the sand bar - or risk being whisked out to sea.

Dan went on a fishing trip and caught us some tuna, snapper and we had a big fish barbecue when he returned. And then there was a bit of a panic when Caroline realised on Monday evening that her flight was on Tuesday and not Wednesday.

So a panic ensued to get her money back from the whale shark trip while we blew up balloons, bought cake and a present, party poppers and prepared some food. Not the easiest task when we'd been drinking sangria all afternoon to ward off the boredom of a rainy day.

We all popped on party hats and had a good giggle in the camp kitchen of the caravan park before heading out to The Pub - one of two pubs in town (the other is called The Tavern - original).

Here we met some locals on a night out. The oldest guy in the pub - in very short shorts - bought us a bottle of champagne to celebrate and then took Dan off "yo make a man of him" at the bar. He promptly asked Dan which of us he could have... Oh dear.

He'd asked us if we were on a Hen party to which we laughed and shrieked "God can you imagine!". There was a hen party behind us. Right next to her husband-to-be's stag do...

After a comedy end to the night (Stag to me: 'are you coming back to mine for a party'? 'No.' 'Fuck off then'), we fell into our tents for a sleep.

The next morning we waved goodbye to Caroline and crossed our fingers that we would get to go snorkelling with Whale Sharks today. Luckily the day was warm and sunny so we piled onto the minibus with the Village Dive crew and headed out to the beach.

Not much is known about whale sharks except that they can dive to more than 1,000 metres, and can grow as large as 18m. Ningaloo is one of the only places in the world they regularly visit. They have been around for around 250 million years and can live to 100 years or more.

The largest ever caught was a pregnant female at 18m long and she had 350 babies at different stages of growth inside her.

The trip was amazing. It started with a quick snorkel in the inner reef before heading through a break in the huge waves crashing from the outer to the inner reef - all of us hanging on for dear life as the little boat was rocked around by the mighty power of the swell.

We'd been warned we may not get a call from the spotter plane for hours but within minutes of finishing the snorkel we had the call. So a race between all the tour operators ensued. Luckily, we had one of the two fastest boats and got to the spot third.

Snorkellers jump in in groups on 10 and spend a few minutes with the shark before stopping and the second group go in and then the next dive boat get a turn etc.

It was very chaotic. I was the last off the boat and had to swim swim swim for my life to catch up - forgetting I had arms and just powering away with my feet. I kept popping my head up to see the spotters arm infront of us and the powered forward with all my strength. I was so concentrated on swimming the tough, long route that I missed it. Doh!

But our luck was in. Even though it was the end of the season for spotting these beasts, five were spotted because it was the first warm and sunny day in a while so the cold-blooded fish were rising to just below the surface to warm themselves. Any false move from us could see it diving back into the depth of the reef in seconds. When they want to, these beasts move fast.

Our time swimming with the sharks was extended each time - keeping a firm 3m from it and 4m from its powerful tail. It was all a bit frantic - people fins coming down on heads, salt water pouring down the snorkels, and actually finding it.

The largest we saw was 5m and the smallest - an inquisitive baby - 3m. That time I dashed off after the spotter first and banged into her when she stopped and started swimming in the other direction. So I followed. "It's behind you guys!" she yelled at us. I popped my head up. "It's behind you!" I turned around. "Put your head in the water!" Oh that's where it is! Coming straight for me....

In between our frantic swimming sessions (to keep up with the buggers), we saw humpbacks and a manta. And then suddenly it was time to go for a late lunch of huge prawns and salads and so on. A great day.

Fired me up totally for diving again and poked back my idea to do my divemasters course in Thailand and work there for a season...

Our next adventure was a loooong drive to Karinjini National Park. I drove for about five hours from Exmouth towards Tom Price, watching in amazement at the changing landscape - thick green bushland, flat plains with humps of deep red hills rising suddenly from the dry grass, huge boulders making mountains, brown dirt, red dirt, yellow dirt, long straight roads...

Dan then took over and we arrived in Tom Price just after nightfall. This is the Pilbara region where there are huge mines extracting iron ore from the world's oldest concentration of rocks.

It was freezing at night and we virtually caught our deaths overnight in the tents. But the next day was hot as we set off for the national park. We attempted to drive the unsealed road to Oxes Lookout - a meeting of four gorges - but we got a puncture and decided it was wise to head back to tarmac.

So we went to Dales Gorge which was stunning. We walked down to Circular Pool where Dan had a freezing swim and we ate our lunch and then walked along the floor of the gorge. Except that we crossed the river in the wrong place and found ourselves negotiating what must be an animal track, with thin ledges to edge across and stones to cling to... we had to turn back...

But we made it to the pretty Fortescue Falls and nearby stunning Fern Pool before heading back up the gorge, seeing a wild dingo and heading to a roadhouse.

Here we thought it wise to spend the night as cattle stand in the middle of the road to Port Headland at night, worrying even the road train drivers. But we made new friends - a group of drillers who had a huge camp fire and invited us to share beers and chat while learning the didge and looking at the southern skies at night - virtually unpolluted by light. Stunning.

Then it was another looong drive to Broome via Port Headland. But here we are in Broome and it's hot and sunny...