The North West

We had a long drive up from Albany and drove all the way up through Perth and up to Geraldton. We stopped along the way just to sleep (in the car!). Had a quick look round Geraldton, wasn't really up to much. Weather was starting to get really hot and humid. Next stop was the Hutt River Province Principality, which Tanya had told us about. It's a country in it's own right within Australia. This chap, Prince Leonard Casley was fed up with the governments stance on wheat quotas or something like that in the 70's and found some legal loophole through which he created his own country. He is a bona fide prince and his wife is a princess. The principality is bigger than Monaco and they have their own currency, postal system, army, Passport and various other things, and they don't pay tax. We rolled up there and were greeted by Prince Leonard and he showed us around and told us his story. And I have to say what an amazing man! Not only has he created his own country (a major achievement in itself) but he's an incredibly intelligent bloke. He left school at 14 and trained as an accountant (although he's essentially a farmer) He's done work for NASA (and put them right on some things by all accounts), written papers for the Vatican, has honorary doctorates from numerous universities around the world in physics, maths and other scientific stuff and he's got a recognition of achievement and services rendered which is 3rd only to the Queen and an american president (didn't say which!) He's travelled the world and met (and impressed) many important people. He's still working on stuff now, even though he's 82. Wow, what a guy, we were totally blown away by him. Check out his website at http://www.hutt-river-province.com/ Anyway, we chatted to the Prince for a while and then continued on our journey to the Peron Peninsula.

We arrived in Denham and decided to have ourselves a cabin for a couple of days as it was really cheap! We booked 2 nights in the area which was very beautiful and there was plenty to see there. However, we ended up having to stay an extra night as Cyclone Emma was at Exmouth (our next destination) and was causing numerous floods on the road. We didn't want to head out and then find the roads closed, nor did we want to be battered about by a cyclone! Cyclones are common this time of year here so I guess it won't be the only one we encounter! So, while on the peninsula we got up close to some dolphins at Monkey Mia, where the reserve there feed them in the morning, so that was nice. We also went to an ocean park that was home to various local wildlife, sharks, stonefish, sea snakes, a type of cod, loggerhead turtles. That was all very interesting. We explored the area and looked at the best bits but tried not to be outside for too long, 1) because it was very hot and 2) there were so many fooking flies it was unreal. The minute you go outside there are about 100 on you. You kind of have to just put up with it and you can to a point when they land on your back or arms, but when they're on your face it's horrid, and they seem to make a beeline for your face, I couldn't bear it! Was so glad we had a cabin as our tent would have been full of flies!

Anyhow, once we knew that the cyclone was heading inland (we were driving along the coast) we left that area heading for Exmouth and the Ningaloo Reef.