When you get up at 04:00 in the morning you do wonder about your own sanity. But “A good start is half the job”, it’s said.

So we got up in the middle of the night to get an early start on our trip up north. We have approximately 10 hours of driving ahead of us before we reach Monkey Mia resort.
We tried to be silent around the house so Mike and Damien could get their much needed beauty sleep. It should not be on us if they woke up, but we do not presently know if it was a success. Jack, the dog of the house, started barking as we left. Not a good sign toward success.
We were in the car 04:30 and set out north. You would think we should be alone in the streets at this hour, but there were a few other late nighters or early birds out there. We kept to the speed limits inside of town before we put the pedal to the metal on the big empty roads.
At 6:30 the sun came up and we parked alongside the road and watched the sunrise. The feeling of the sun’s first ray’s, the feeling of warmth on your face and the beauty of the sky is absolutely invigorating. Seeing the darkness replaced by light and feeling the start of yet another day is something everyone should do every now and then. We had been on the road for 2 hours and had only 8 more to go.

Driving has earlier been described as “not falling asleep” when we went south. It’s even more boring roads north. There are hundreds of km’s with straight roads. It is a little up and down, but usually you can see almost till the curving of the earth. At least it feels like it. It helps with the speed, though. It is 110 limits out of populated areas, and that is 99,999% of the road. When you’re alone it’s easy to go up a bit more to take in some time toward the destination.
We kept driving, fueled the car and had lunch at Geraldton, shopped for making our own breakfast and lunch and got back on the road. We fueled one more place on the way up: Billabong Roadhouse. We just had to stop and take a picture or two.

When you do drive like this it is important to watch the fuel meter and know how far it is to the next station. We were never in any danger of running out of fuel, but I carefully considered how and when to fuel. Some places out here is void of mobile coverage, and you have no idea when the next car will come along.

A last we came to the point where our road went out towards Monkey Mia and broke of from the highway. The GPS said 3 hours left, but must have been based on old dirt roads. We made the last stretch in 1.5 hours and arrived at the resort. It was good to pack out of the car, strap on the snorkeling gear and head down on the beach. It’s shallow water for a while, then it drops down. Katja, being no diver, is trying to get the hang of snorkeling. A bit of splutter and coughing, but an iron will and good spirit makes up for any faults.

After the snorkeling we sat on the beach and had a great entertainment. A man came and rinsed out his fish on a nearby table. This attracted not only the Seagulls but also a lot of Pelicans. The dance act these birds put on was just hilarious. They changed parts for being the aggressive one and ran around chasing each other. When the fisherman threw them a head, tail or intestines they all got into a feeding frenzy. A viewing that couldn’t be better if we’d paid for it.

The resort at Monkey Mia is the only place to stay. They offer all kinds of accommodations from camping, through dorms, apartments to beach cabins. They offer two different dining experiences: bar or restaurant. We did the bar the first night there and enjoyed an good burger and a few cold beers. We turned in early for the Dolphin feeding start at 7:30. Guess who’s gonna be there in the first row?