Red Dirt and Spinifex

Hi All,
Well it has been a while, I was surprised to realise over a month! So sorry to those of you waiting withd bated breath for the next edition!
I am currently driving in the North West, the Pilbara to be exact. I have been revisiting old hauntsKath my travelling companion from Busselton , flew up to crarvon and we have been on a journey to our old towns we lived in in the seventies. First offf I drove to Shark Bay a beautiful spot actually in the Gascoyne, I had friends who go there for up to three months in the winter, to escape Donnybrooks cold weather. so I joined them for five weeks. Upon arrival it blew a gale and poured with rain! I am going , what the heck? it is suoposed to be good weather up here and I was still in the track suit! Luckily we got over that little hickup, but we had  we had six inches of rain over two days. Anyway a big surprise, after organising Kath to join me in Carnarvon, she and a "friend" drove up to Shark Bay for a week . It was lovely to see her and because they were in a caravan, it meant we had wheeels to do a bit of sightseeing, especially as distances ar so big up there.The Bay is incredibly blue, the waters are so clear, we went over to Monkey Mia , where you can feed the wild dolphins, but we just lunched there. Shell Beach was another horgeous spot, where the beach is made of millions of tiny shells washed there over millions of years and in places is manymetres deep. but so white! against the incredible turquoise of the water, I could rhapsodise for hours!
I had a really good time relaxing there, and on my second last day I took a catamaran trip out on the bay to see the dolphins, turtles and also to a local pearling setup. just gorgeous. I restrained myself from buying any more pearls, but it was hard! We also did a couple of trips to the oceanpark shark aquarium, they do a mean lunch! and it is beside the water and the views are prettty special.
So off I went to Caranvon, checked in to a park and Kath arrived by plane about an hour after. I was waiting for mail, (still am), unbelievably australia post has managed to separate 3items my sister posted to me, on the same day, and I have only received one. Lickily it was the most vital, as it was my prescription. So we stayed another couple of days waiting , but no sign of any more mail, so we left for points further north. It is a bit of a squeeze with the extra person, but we have managed. the table reduces down and the two couches cushions become the mattress, and Kath is spread across the width of the van! Not necessarily a pretty sight but fairly comfortable. We leave it up and that means we eat outside regardless of the weather conditions! So we headed north and stayed the nit at Minilya roadhouse, beside the river, and drove into Exmouth next morning, I was remembering the road in and my days when I lived in Exmouth in the seventies, and used to kow the road like the back of my hand! It was so green. they have had plenty of rain up here! We drove around the town looking at my old houses, and marvelling at the changes, you could be in the city, the houses look so suburban now, not like the old norwesters we were used to! So we stayed  three nights there and then drove out via Burkett road, which is bitumen, in  y day it was a goat track past a couple of stations whose people we used to know. Now it is a wonrful road cutting off a lot of miles if you are heading north.  Once again I was amazed at how green everything is. lots of water lying around on the ground so they obviously had huge amounts of rain as it hasn't rained for at least a couple of weeks .