Having escaped the sand dunes we found an empty beach on which to picnic. That evening we pulled into a town with a lighthouse that we couldn't resist having a bit of fun with. The next day we went internationally to the Hutt River Province, a sovereign nation within Australia. The Hutt River Province is a big farm property that is owned by Prince Leonard who is a recognized Prince who seceded from Australia in 1970. At the rabbit-proof fence (vermin fence for you Australians) we got attacked by flies, but we managed to escape having only had a little bit of extra protein in our diet.
Next it was on to meet the wild dolphins of Monkey Mia. Notice the teeth on the one that is being hand fed. There were also some hanger-oners in the form of pelicans that really enjoyed the sprinklers. On the way to the main road we found a tourist sign for a hot tub which led us to a decommissioned sheep station that now acts as a museum. On our way we saw a bit of American influence in the form of a giant radio dish that NASA used to communicate with the Gemini and Apollo space missions. Keeping with the space theme we later found what looked like meteors from a distance but actually turned out to be rather big termite mounds. There were hundreds if not thousands of them along the side of the road.
Reaching Exmouth we finally went in for a swim and found some friendly fish. Oh yeah, and the biggest one of them all, the Whale Shark. These magnificent creatures were amazing to swim with and very calm. It was a really great experience which was further enhanced (some would say) by seeing a Tiger Shark and a Black Tip Reef Shark swimming just below us. It was also great to see a pod of a thousand Spinner Dolphins which twirl when they jump out of the water.
We also saw some interesting citizens walking through the streets of Exmouth before we headed out of town. More to come about the next part of our trip soon.
