Not a great start to my road odyssey as I got lost walking to the car hire place and when I did get there it was deserted. By the time I got a car I felt I needed a holiday. Took ages to get out of the Perth area and then it was a long haul up to Geraldton where I stayed the night. The driving in Australia is pretty boring - hours can pass with no change in the scenery - but there was some variation in the colours of the bugs squashed on the windscreen. The car got dirty in quick order.

In Geraldton I saw a Roman Catholic cathedral designed by Monsignor Hawes who came from Britain. The interior has a candy stripe colour scheme (I was told in lieu of marble.) The building had a sense of holiness for me.

I was accommodated at the Greengables Lodge which had an imposing palm lined approach and a young puppy which tried out its teeth on my trousers. The hosts were friendly and treat guests as almost part of the family - you can eat supper with them. There was a strong teddy bear theme in the decor.

The next day I drove up to Denham at Shark Bay going via Kalbarri. Saw the Hutt Lagoon close to Gregory which is a coastal brine lake with a striking pink colour. The lake is home to the alga Dunaliella salina which is abundant because it is favoured by the high salinity and low nutrient levels. It has a pink (beta-carotene) pigment.

Impressive coastline going up to Kalbarri where I had potato wedges to keep me going and also found Internet access to keep in touch with people back home.

Drove through the Kalbarri National Park but it wasn’t the carpet of wildflowers I had been envisaging. Seems like I was too late for that. If one did venture out into the scrubland bushes then one found that what seemed uniform was a mob of different plant species. There were tiny flowers of many hues and forms to enchant the eye.