Friday 28th May - Awoke early again mainly due to Derek being cold in the sleeping bag (which he's now changed for a new one by agreeing with the rentral company). Went to say goodbye to Derek and Sue next door and ended up talking for an hour instead. Our morning drive encountered more barren red clay soil with thousands of termite mounds. In addition we came accross lush green bush and yellow grassland. Filled up the petrol tank at lunchtime - expensive stuff round here at 55p a litre! As we ate lunch we were continually pestered by bloody bush flies - these guys seemed programmed to detect all facets of your face - it's winter now and they're even worse in summer! The afternoon was another long drive accross the mountains of Pilbarra. Derek was pleased to finally see a kangaroo bouncing accross the road in front of us (Sue saw one a couple of evenings ago but we didn't stop and he missed it) - unfortunately it kept on bouncing right out of view before we could get a photo! We also saw 4 HUGE winged-tailed eagles circling around a dead carcass just off the road and a couple of emus who legged it into the bush as soon as we stopped. We read that 'waving clothing around and being silent will draw these inquisitve birds closer' - maybe it's time for Derek to wash his t-shirt! Stopped up for the night in the middle of nowhere only to find there was 6 or 7 other people with the same idea. So far our favourite place names are Lake Disappointment and Useless Loop

Saturday 29th May - After a discussion last night we agreed that we should return our flight and campervan schedule to Darwin rather than Broome (we'd made alternate plans last Monday after thinking we might be taking on too much driving) . Luckily after a couple of phone calls it was all sorted out and we've exteneded our rental time on the campervan by a week to give us some extra leeway. Arrived in Tom Price at 11am which was lucky as everything shuts at about noon round here. For some unknown reason both myself became extremely irritable this afternoon with those bloody bush flies seeming to be the main cause! The fact it was too windy and that we really struggled to open a 12 litre drum of drinking water for about 30 minutes also contributed to the moood. We calmed ourselves by taking a quick hike halfway up Mount Nameless - made it back, just before darkness fell, in time for a delicious tea of chili con carne.

Sunday 30th May - Woke up this morning to a kangaroo eating grass outside the van. Today we took a tour of Karijini National Park ($110 each). We got picked up from the camp site at about 8 o'clock. Karijini is the 2nd largest National Park in WA. From 'Oxers Lookout' you can see where 4 huge gorges meet . Each gorge has deep red stone with pools and waterfalls. Sheer rock faces can drop sharply and the gorges shelter some great swimming spots (unfortuately for us it was a bit too much on the cold side - nomrally it's 28C - today it was about 15C!). We took the trip on a bus but the road is only suitable for 4 wheel drives. The journey to the first gorge especially reminded us of the roads in Cambodia! Had a lunch of salad, bread, cake and juice and those bloody bush flies didn't make our eating experience any easier! Met Cale and Kelly from Hastings in Sussex on the bus - Kelly is a long suffering Spurs fans like Derek. On the way home our driver/guide 'Bushy' seemed to temporarily fall asleep at the wheel (we initially thought he was avoiding a 'roo!) but we reckon that's cos he was at the wedding of the regular guide for the tour last night! When we got back from the trip there were 2 more kangaroos waiting for us and they weren't even shy about a photo opportunity for us - they were too hungry it seemed! Had a drink or two in the evening with Serena from Bradford and Marty from New Zealand . Just before we retired 'Skippy' was back again - this time with a rabbit friend who insisted running around him in circles all the time - you had to be there - trust us! Our shoes have now turned a light colour of red with all of the dirt/dust from the outback and Karijini park - seems like they'll never be that black colour they once were when we bought them!

Monday 31st May - Every day is one of disassembling and reassambling our bed and eating area and it's funny how quickly you become used to it. After leaving the camp site we promptly took the wrong turn which took us 48K out of our way. So back to Tom Price and a journey this morning only enhanced by sighting a dingo and a cuddly toy falling off the back of a lorry that was half-blocking the road. 2 more hours of driving this 'avo brought us to South Headland shopping centre where we finally bought a sleeping bag for Derek not to be freezing any more at night! Finally resolved our refund issue with Qantas who thankfully gave us the wrong information otherwise we would have been out of pocket by 240 pounds! A quick drive up to Port Headland to take some photos of the salt and iron mines and huge trains before driving outside the town, parking on the side of the road and taking some more photos of another beautiful WA sunset. Chicken fajitas for dinner (mmm...) and card games sent us to bed.