Change of plans

After leaving Karijini National Park, the next destination was Esperance in the far south of Western Australia, from where we wanted to make our way up the coast to Perth. We wanted to cover the whopping 1,700km / approx. 20 hours of driving in two days. The first stop of the journey was in Meekatharra, where we arrived at a roadhouse after dark. This is noteworthy because driving in twilight (and then darkness) is exhausting and dangerous, as this is when all the animals, especially kangaroos and emus, become active and do not consider roads/cars as obstacles. Focused on not hitting a kangaroo or emu, only a (not too small) bird ended up sacrificing its life on our windshield. Goodness gracious.. it made a loud bang, we can tell you.. Shocking! But the windshield stayed intact, the bird did not. Well, it is what it is.

We arrived at this particular roadhouse quite tired and worn out.. a genuine trucker's meeting place, where Rainer seemed to feel right at home amidst numerous trucks and road trains (which, by the way, are up to 55m long trucks). 🙈🙃

The next morning, we continued towards Esperance in the early hours of the morning.. well, at least initially.. until we realized that the road we were supposed to follow for 270km was a gravel road, with only rare 5-6km stretches of paved road. 270km at an average speed of 30 km/h was too long for us, so after a heated argument, we turned around and made a change of plans.. we drove to Bunbury (south of Perth), from where we now head towards Esperance along the coast. It was there that we learned that on the very same day, a white shark was spotted right off the coast of Esperance.. fortunately, it was only a 4.5m juvenile. (Thanks again, Olli! :)

We were rewarded in Busselton with the famous Busselton Jetty, a beautiful beach, and a giant ice cream for the long journey. We enjoyed stunning beaches in Dunsborough (Eagle Bay and Bunker Bay) and have now arrived in Yallingup, near Margaret River, where we have already completed our first surfing lesson. It went quite well so far, but it is extremely exhausting and demanding.. tomorrow, we have a second lesson. Flo's plan to become a surf pro here, to receive sponsorship contracts from Hurley, Nixon, Billabong & Co., and to live a life on the most beautiful beaches with the gnarliest waves is (at least for now) still a bit uncertain. 😛

We liked this campground in Yallingup so much that we extended our stay for another night every day and ended up staying for a total of three nights before heading to the Valley of the Giants tomorrow.

P.S.: Unfortunately, we have to disappoint someone in Germany at this point.. Flo's youngest nephew Niklas told us enthusiastically on the phone that he saw on Galileo that if you drive really, really fast in Australia, you go back in time to the era of the dinosaurs and can see them. Flo wanted to dampen the euphoria a bit by pointing out that Rainer might not be able to achieve this speed, but all he said was, "Flo, at least you can give it a try! ..and if it works, you can take a photo and send it to us."

Sorry, Niklas.. we don't have a photo for you today! 😉