In keeping with the one month delay on my blog posts, I can now write about my road trip up the WA coast - fortunately such a pe
riod affords me an excuse for literary embellishments.Jen, Jess, Hannah and I had a few weeks to drive from Perth to Broome and back, trying to catch all the points of interest and dodge the kangaroos and cows 
along the way. We were to take two cars half the way and travel the rest in one, so room was critical (particularly after Hannah's 8 layers of sleeping gear and Jess' circus marquee were fitted in) - I managed to persuade the girls that it was worth sharing our head space with fishing rods 
for the trip as they would pay for the trouble with all the free meals which I would catch.
Skipping a lot of the mid south we headed to Kalbarri and then on to Monkey Mia to feed the dolphins (as Jen & I had done with our family ~ 20 years ago) ... It was beautiful but bordered on kitsh in contrast to the
rugged simplicity of our next stop - Red Bluff. The facilities and coastline at Red Bluff were perfectly primal compared to Monkey Mia, and consequently we extended our stay - much time was spent reading, sunbaking, rock hopping and watching consistently perfect waves ... I decided then and there that if I was to spend much more time in this state I'd have to learn to surf. It would 
have been paradise if the fish were biting - unfortunately they weren't so we headed inland to Karijini. On the way to Karijini we stopped to restock in Canarvon, where, much to Jen's surprise our car security remained uncompromised by the locals, and included a quick unplanned sleepover at the Tom Price primary school (unfortunately we hadn't factored in an early morning working bee as 
a wakeup call).
Karijini is a perfect piece of Australiana - deep vertical gorges juxtaposed with the horizontal landscape and layers of red rock through which they gouge, emphasised by the deep reds, muted greens and bright blues from which the landscape is composed. It is the kind of place that frustrates me in my inability to capture it in photos or
expression, resulting in the prior awkward description or giving up and reducing it to: a ridiculously beautiful and affecting place. The best option is to just explore and enjoy - which we did for a few days before heading to Broome.
along the way. We were to take two cars half the way and travel the rest in one, so room was critical (particularly after Hannah's 8 layers of sleeping gear and Jess' circus marquee were fitted in) - I managed to persuade the girls that it was worth sharing our head space with fishing rods 
for the trip as they would pay for the trouble with all the free meals which I would catch.Skipping a lot of the mid south we headed to Kalbarri and then on to Monkey Mia to feed the dolphins (as Jen & I had done with our family ~ 20 years ago) ... It was beautiful but bordered on kitsh in contrast to the
rugged simplicity of our next stop - Red Bluff. The facilities and coastline at Red Bluff were perfectly primal compared to Monkey Mia, and consequently we extended our stay - much time was spent reading, sunbaking, rock hopping and watching consistently perfect waves ... I decided then and there that if I was to spend much more time in this state I'd have to learn to surf. It would 
have been paradise if the fish were biting - unfortunately they weren't so we headed inland to Karijini. On the way to Karijini we stopped to restock in Canarvon, where, much to Jen's surprise our car security remained uncompromised by the locals, and included a quick unplanned sleepover at the Tom Price primary school (unfortunately we hadn't factored in an early morning working bee as 
a wakeup call).Karijini is a perfect piece of Australiana - deep vertical gorges juxtaposed with the horizontal landscape and layers of red rock through which they gouge, emphasised by the deep reds, muted greens and bright blues from which the landscape is composed. It is the kind of place that frustrates me in my inability to capture it in photos or
expression, resulting in the prior awkward description or giving up and reducing it to: a ridiculously beautiful and affecting place. The best option is to just explore and enjoy - which we did for a few days before heading to Broome.
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