Day 23 - Jurien Bay to Perth

Swimming with sea lions, a weird spiky desert amongst scrub forest and finally reaching Perth.

Quick Stats

• 3 hours on bike
• 240 km
• 8970 km total

Late start again to the morning, I've booked a boat trip out to the nearby islands for to go swimming with sea lions at 10 am.

There's some chill in the air this morning, but its blue skies and a warm sun. The wind seems to have even given up. So I head out for a walk and to get some coffee... from the local computer repair shop.

He runs both, I think the cafe does better business.

Jurien Bay is a pretty relaxed coastal town, there's a Saturday market on the foreshore with about three stalls. I opt instead to sit by the water finishing my coffee.

Quick pack up and I'm down the jetty and getting suited up.

​I wasn't entirely convinced the wetsuit was needed in Exmouth, but the water here is a brisk 17°C, so I'll take it. From there we absolutely hoof it to nearby Sandland Island.

Before we can even anchor, the sea lions are leaving the beach and swimming over to say hello.

We're told they're very curious creatures, but also that no touching and no hands out as they've got a hell of a bite.

In the water we go, we've got an hour of swimming. Within seconds two sea lions are swimming above and around me. They dart in amongst us, chasing anything that looks tasty, trying to spook things from the seagrass.

The bigger ones are quite intimidating when they swim right at you.

I spend the next hour swimming with them and exploring the fish on the nearby reef.

Back on the boat, the briefing about the sea lions starts. The Australian sea lion is native from the coral coast here around to Kangaroo Island in South Australia.

They are endangered, with under 5000 left. Thanks to the Norweigians inventing a machine in the 17th century that converted these adorable guys into oil (among other hunting and bycatch reasons) they were nearly extinct. Seventeen month pregnancies and only single litters mean that while they are recovering, its happening slowly. The shallow bays along here apparently provide vital breeding grounds.

They then start explaining how dangerous these guys are. Two kids got mauled last year and a woman was left with four hundred stitches and two missing fingers. They say all attacks occur when certain considerations aren't taken, and none have happened on a tour.

It seems swimming with sea lions was only recently legalised this year, following the success of the whale sharks in Exmouth. Guess time will tell, but I had a blast.

Back on land, a warm shower awaits and then I head off to Cervantes for lunch.

Remember thuse stromatalites from the other day? They're here in Lake Thetis, so I finally get to see them up close. Weird living dung shaped masses.

Then it's onto the Pinacles in Nambung National Park. The entire region has continued to be densely packed shrubland like Lesueur NP yesterday, but weirdly in the middle of this is a big desert full of strange limestone towers.

​The photos don't do it justice, it is quite surreal. This, like Lesueur is a drive through national park. So I ride the loop to checkout the fields and fields of pinacles.

They don't know how these things formed, they've got some theories in the visitor centre, but nothing concrete. A few of them get to a good four metres high.

Exiting the park, I continue following the Indian Ocean Drive to its conclusion. At this point I'm on the outskirts of Perth and the scenery has changed rapidly to actual forest with actual trees. Its been a while.

Before too long I'm turning onto a multilane freeway. Been a while there too. Bit further along, I'm stuck weaving through forty minutes of traffic as there's been an accident. Feels like I'm back in Brisbane.

I've got three nights in the city here to relax a bit and get the bike serviced. It's done a hair over ten thousand k's since the last service and its getting a bit rough around the edges. I'm not sure the clutch is going to make the trip, I'll see what the mechanic thinks.