Road Trip!!

On Tuesday, Nic rented a car and we started our road trip up the coast. On day one we drove up to Kalbarri and stayed the night there and on the second day we drove straight to Monkey Mia where we stayed a few nights. We were both very nervous about making the trip first because we obviously don't know the area (luckily Nic hired a navigation system that definitely came in handy). Second, they drive on the left side of the road, on the right side of the car here in Australia. Neither one of us had ever driven a car other than in the U.S. I have to say though, Nic did a great job! He had read up on driving in Australia and was ready for everything such as kangaroos crossing and roundabouts (which are everywhere). Considering what could have happened, once Nic learned to take the gear out of drive 3 (which I guess uses up more gas than in drive), we had a very smooth trip.

Nic on the "other" side

The view from the passenger seat in Australia.
Nic with his hands on 10 and 2
Me scared for my life (; 
295 km down, 532 to go

Ok, let me tell you about road trains... Whoever allowed road trains to be legal on the roads was insane! If you think you don't like semi's back at home then you would hate road trains like Nic and I. The are just like semi-trucks except 3-4 flats long and much taller than a semi. The road train drivers have no courtesy for the other drivers on the road and the only way to get around them is to pass them on the opposite side of the road (the highway was 1 lane the entire way to Monkey Mia). Passing a road train in Australia is very scary.. Nic and I were not fans. I hope my pictures show you how big a road train actually is. 
This is one road train and only the 2nd of the 3 or 4 flats. 


This is especially why Nic and I despise road trains so much. On the second day to Monkey Mia, a road train was driving on the opposite side of the road and picked up a rock in the road and flung it on our windshield. Of course, it created a huge crack that eventually split the windshield. There went Nic's $300 deposit on the car. 

Nic wearing my sunglasses 

Ok, the 2 fuzzy things in this pic are actually wild kangaroos we saw on the way to Kalbarri. These were actually first alive kangaroos we saw on our road trip. You would not believe the road kill on the roads. You can't drive 1 km without seeing something dead. We saw dead kangaroos, bunny's, goats, and other dead things we couldn't identify. We actually did almost hit a kangaroo on our way to Kalbarri. Nic claims to have seen it the entire time but I have a hard time believing him. The kangaroo jumped out onto the side of the road next to our car and if it would have hopped  any closer he would have been road kill. Luckily the baby hopped back into the outback and was safe.. I screamed though.. I couldn't help it. If we would have killed a kangaroo I don't know if I could have lived with myself (: 

These were the Stromatolites that Nic said we had to see. At this point we were very close to Monkey Mia and it was only 1 km off the road, so we decided to stop. Supposedly stromatolites are "live" fossils that encode biological activity spanning thousands of years... I guess they were pretty cool.. but honestly they looked liked dirty rocks.. I would say it was worth the stop but we didn't spend very much time looking at them.