We have been all over the place in WA (Western Australia) in the last 3-4 days. Attempting to explain everything that has happened in the short amount of time we have at this internet cafe would do the trip little justice.

I’ll start off by saying this - we are traveling WA in a Yaris with Cara, Mike, and Selah. For those of you who don’t know Mike, he is about my size, Cara is about the same size as Claire and Selah is about 6′4″. A Yaris can be described as a big egg or marshmallow with wheels. The point being, whenever we get out of the Yaris (which Selah has been calling the Yarvis for whatever reason) we look like clowns coming out of a clown car, it’s pretty amazing looking I’m sure.

We started by travelling up to Coral Bay where we spent 1 evening and a full day. We took a snorkelling tour which was fantastic. We saw manta rays the size of the Yaris, and swam with a family of 4 or 5 of them (I don’t actually know if they were a family, or just friends hanging out). The boat then took us out further to see some sea turtles, bobbing their heads out of the water from time to time (the water was crystal clear). Then it was time to swim with the reef sharks. These sharks ranged from 4-7 feet long but there were heaps of them all over the ocean floor, it was quite exhilarating.

The drive to Coral Bay from Perth was about the distance of driving from San Francisco to Seattle. In the last four days we’ve spent more time in the car than out of it, but since we’re in good company and considering how much of Western Australia we’ve seen, it’s been worth it!

Margaret River is 2-3 hours south of Perth, this is where we are now, and we did that drive over two days. We were crammed, it was about 100 F outside, lots of outback and a whole lot of Yaris. We’ve had some sugar highs, and we’ve had our sugar lows but most importantly we have had many adventures! Running out of gas, being pulled over by the police.

(Side story, in Perth we took a taxi to watch the Red Bull Air Race. There was a lot of traffic on the way there, and when we got off the highway, someone from a car behind us came up to inform our driver that there was smoke coming from the trunk. Yup, our taxi caught on fire! Fortunately it was nothing big, but we opted to walk the rest of the way. In the mile or so that we walked, a small group of people stopped to ask us if we could help them lift the front of a car to clear a path for another car. The Air Race was pretty cool - but all the trick planes that were flying around afterwards were also really fun to watch.)

I could go on for a while, but I’ll try to show it in videos or clips to come. We just need to find a place to settle and spend time online, but for now we will finish the next few days in wine country - camping, hopefully swimming, and having more adventures. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone back home, can’t wait to hear from all of you.

Keep checking the blog, we’ll have a ton of stuff to put up in a week or so!

Love to all,

Claire & Whit