It was a crisp, cold morning in south Western Australia, mist was floating above the river and kangaroos were in the dew covered fields as the sun began lighting up the horizon. Our first stop today was Hamilton Bay which is said to be a great place to see huge stingrays that swim right along the shoreline. Sadly it didn’t look quite how we expected and the pristine white sand was covered in thick seaweed and the turquoise water was murky and brown. We had no chance of seeing the stingrays but hey, that’s nature. We did find out some information about them though; this beach is home to black, smooth and eagle rays who forage the sea floor for buried molluscs and crustaceans by sending electrical currents produced by their preys muscles and nerves. The prey is then sucked into the mouth, crushed by grinding plates and swallowed while unwanted shell fragments are expelled through their gills, and this feeding method is known as hydraulic mining. Apparently the largest smooth ray recorded was 4.3m by 2.1m, basically as big as our rental car!!

Our next stop was the popular rock pools known as Injidup Natural spa but just before we got there I spotted dolphins riding the waves. We pulled over and watched as about a dozen swam through the waves and then leaped out the water. It was amazing! We decided to drive back a bit and follow their direction. They calmed down a bit and mostly swam along but it was cool seeing them swimming past a couple of surfers.

We then continued down to the natural spa which consisted of a crystal clear pool and some beautiful orange rocks and boulders. Waves crashed right over the rocks here and created a beautiful frothy waterfall that spilt into the pool. There were some rather slippery rocks under the water so we opted to skip a swim here and head to another rock pool around the headland.

This rock pool had a much better entry and some sandy patches to step on. The water was heavenly, it was crystal clear and surprisingly warm so we enjoyed a nice long swim. It was such a perfect little pool but as we were leaving quite a few people turned up so we timed our visit very well.

We continued our drive up the coast, stopping at various beaches along the way. Bunker Bay was our favourite beach with clean sand and no seaweed in sight. We even saw a stingray swimming past us here. It had been a few days without a shower so we took advantage of the cold beach showers and sunshine but as soon as we packed up a moody storm had brewed. The blue skies were swapped with black clouds so the beaches didn’t look as impressive. We ended the day camping with a sea view and watching a beautiful sunset – I always find the best sunsets happen when there’s storms around or quick changing weather.

We woke to more pink skies which was a lovely treat for our final full day on this roadtrip. Today we’re making the big drive back towards Perth, stopping at a few sights along the way. We did a stroll along the Busselton Jetty which stretches a whopping 1.8km. The seaweed seemed to be affecting this area too so the beaches and water were a bit of a brown mess but we enjoyed a little walk before driving to the next sight which was the Thrombolites at Lake Clifton. While they look like round rocks they are actually ancient forms of microbial communities that photosynthesis. They obtain calcium carbonate from the water to form these structures that are about 2000 years old. I found them really fascinating, lots of bizarre round ‘rocks’ in the shallow water.

A 2km walk through the forest led us to Jyttes Hytte, a huge wooden giant made from recycled materials. A Danish artist has made a few of them around Mandurah and other places in the world too and we found it quite impressive so we decided to drive to another one. Each ‘giant’ is different and this one was on a little promenade overlooking the sea with a big horn under his arm. Apparently we just missed a couple dolphins swimming by so it’s kind of cute that that giant was looking out to sea like he was watching them. While we didn’t spot the dolphins ourselves there were dozens of pelicans basking in the sun along the canals where the multi-million dollar houses were.

Then we made the drive to a campsite just south of Perth and the only one in our budget. The drive from Margaret river to Perth was very different to the rest of the roadtrip, it all felt very developed with more traffic and not wild at all. The campsite was basically just in a guys garden but he had a large plot with bush land so that’s where we stayed for our final night. We got chatting to a German couple who were trying to sell their 4×4 car and only have 4 days until they fly out the country. I love owning our own vehicle and having so much freedom but the stress of buying and selling are intense! For us though it’s time to have the stress of returning a rental car and hoping we don’t get charged any fees.

We decided to go to a nearby park to clean the car with some bottles of water and a sponge and then we paid for a vacuum machine at a gas station. Our final job was getting rid of our camping gear, our tent needed returning to the shop as it ripped on night one and thus had no resale value as it was faulty. The rest of the camping gear we planned to take to the charity shop but while we were cleaning the car we approached a few people and asked if they needed anything for free. One lady was happy to take everything and said she works next to a homeless charity so would drop it all off there for us which was so sweet!

The rental car was basically brand new when we got the keys with just 700km on the clock. We returned it with 3800km and not a single scratch, phew!! But we were still paranoid that they’d find something and blame us for it. Now it’s time to swap camping life for a house while we spend two weeks volunteering as a couple of goat-sitters.