Passing through Port Hedland and avoiding the ten thousand road-trains I
enjoyed the amazing hospitality of the Karratha Bikers and their incredible
clubhouse. I was not impressed with Coral Bay but told later that I should
have stopped at Ningaloo Reef instead. I loved Shark Bay with a passion
and ended up staying longer than intended at Monkey Mia. This was once
the scene of a mad free-for-all dolphin feeding frenzy by the tourists until
the Wildlife Rangers stepped in pointed out that, by over-feeding, they
were killing the very animals they were coming to see. It is now a
controlled environment of minimal feeding but still with an intimate
dolphin encounter experience. Midweek, it was deserted and tranquil and
perhaps my last c hance for peace before my return to the big smoke.
I detoured to visit royalty at the Hutt River Province and learned all about
Prince Leonard’s history and the technicalities of seceding from Australia.
He was a farmer who had been treated unfairly by the Wheat Board leaving
him with no other option than to separate from Australia and set up his
own principality – complete with passport stamp, Hutt River currency,