Saturday 10^th March, 2012

After a night with little sleep, it was loud and could, we went northwards. First we drove a bit back as I had seen a road sign pointing to stromatoliths (living rocks). A sand road leads to Lake Theatis and the stromatoliths and we raised a lot of dust. A short path and boardwalk lead to the stomatoliths. We saw those rocks formed by micro organisms partially in the water and partially on the land. When we arrived a cormorant flew away. We hoped he would return as he would be nice on a photo. How should it be, after a while the bird came back. Our trip led with short photo stops to Jurie Bay. Here we granted our feet a cool bath in the sea. At time there is often a warm wind which makes the temperature more bearable, but we do not feel then how strong the sun is burning. On the way I stopped shortly to take pictures of trees which were partially burned from the last bush fire. When leaving the car I hit a wall of heat. We decided to drive to Geraldton As it was already late afternoon. At the tourist information we realized that the roof of the car was not completely closed. A closer look revealed that a clamp was missing. With the help of a ladder we saw that the moveable strut was bent and thus the roof could not anymore be closed completely. Many bird voices accompanied us on this carpark. In the trees we saw many white parrots. After we went directly to the camping to stay there overnight. The owner gave us the hint to immediately call Apollo and to explain the problem. Sandra called as her English is better. They explained us that it is too late to send someone to have a look. The office would contact us tomorrow. With a fine dinner and Australian wine we finished this evening.

Saturday 3^rd March, 2012

In the morning we went to the Shoalwater Bay. Here we boarded the boat and the safari started. Only about 5 minutes out in the sea we already saw a few dolphins. The next hour we followed and watched them. For me it is the first time I saw dolphins swimming in the sea, but not for Konrad. As I had taken my pills against motion sickness I could stand in the front of the boat and take pictures. Konrad could not believe it as he remembered of the opposite in Island were the pills had not helped and I had been very sick. Our ride was not yet over. The boat went to Bird Island were there are cormorants and pelicans nesting. Then we met again a dolphin which was playing with a ray. Next was Seal Island with its seal colony. As it was very warm, they liked more to sunbath than to move around. We often saw flying pelicans. At the end of the tour we left the boat at Penguin Island. Here every hour a ferry goes back to the mainland. First we enjoyed our pick-nick as there is no shop here. We also observed a few of the local lizards. One just walked over the pick-nick area. Then we went onto the two kilometre long path around the island. First we saw a decayed tractor stand in the middle of the nature. Passing nesting pelicans we went to the beach. We enjoyed the refreshing bath and the waves and then we let us dry by the sun. Back at the start we went to see the feeding of the penguins. A few of them live in the visitor centre. They are not able anymore to live in the wild. Four times a day they get fresh fish. After the feeding we went back to the mainland and from there back to the motel next to the airport. As there was still some time left we went to the centre of Perth and walked a bit in the Kings Park. We heard some parrots in the trees and saw them flying away. The evening we closed with a dinner with sight to the city.