Epic Round The World Trip Adventures! Stunning Photos & Articles - A fascinating gap year travel journal covering every stop of their journey.

Mandurah - West Australia
Gap Year Travel Journal

Text By Jo and Pix By Mike

(13th - 15th February) Mandurah
About an hour's drive south from Fremantle is the town of Mandurah which has so much inland water - easily 2.5 times as much as the Swan River in Perth or Poole harbour in the UK - in the form of inland waterways, huge lake type area and canals. The canals are where all the multi-million dollar houses are, all with moorings. We drove around them and then did a boat trip to see them from the water too and they are awesome! As you will see from one of the photos above Jo even got to drive the boat although fellow passengers were complaining of sea-sickness as her wake was zigzag shaped - it was so difficult ot keep a straight line! This boat trip took us up the Murray River for lunch at a Scottish themed restuarant (how bizarre!), food was a bit disappointing though. On the way back into the city we were visited by a pod of dophins and got lovely clear views of them as they swam by the boat. That night we drove down to part of the Peel Inlet to have a romantic sunset picnic by the water and saw a most incredible sight - hundreds and hundreds of migrating black swans. Jet black with bright red beaks and then pelicans sat in the middle of them. The hooting sounds from the swans were surreal in that number and we stopped the van here to have our dinner one evening and to watch the sun set. Our campsite in Mandurah was really pretty - lots of shady trees and grass but the main highlight were the bunnies hopping around everywhere. Apparently someone let two loose and they have been breeding like rabbits every since! The photo of Jo laughing her head off was taken at Lake Clifton which is in Yalgorup National Park just south of Mandurah where we saw thrombolites - similar to the stromatolites at Shark Bay and Cervantes but with a more cellular structure rather than a linear structure. They were impressive here though simply due to the extent of them all the way down the eastern side of the lake.

Highlights of our gap year travel adventure:

Stop 1 - Capetown---> The City | Simonstown Penguins | Table Mountain Cable Car | The Waterfront Seals | Windsurf Action.
Stop 2 - West Australia---> Perth City | Perth Zoo | Cohunu Animal Park | Rottnest Island | Rockingham Penguins | Yanchep Park Koalas | Cervantes Pinnacles | Geraldton Windsurfing | Kalbarri Gorge | The Pink Lake | Coronation Beach Windsurfing | Gero Road to Cervantes | Carnarvon Jetty & Quobba Snorkel | Denham Lagoon | Monkey Mia Dolphins | Coral Bay Termite Hills | Coral Bay Quad Biking The Dunes | Exmouth Kangaroos | Mandurah Canals | Margaret River | Margaret River Wine Tour | Margs Windsurfing | Bunbury Windsurf | Bussleton Pier | Towns near Bussleton | Augusta Nature | Pemberton Camping | Pemberton Tall Trees | Cape D'Entrecasteaux | Walpole Tall Trees.
Stop 3 - East Australia---> Cairns Sky Rail Cable Car Over The Rainforest | Mossman Gorge | Cape Tribulation Rainforest | Port Douglas | Daintree Crocodiles | Captain Cook Highway | Beaches Near Cairns | Atherton Tablelands Fig Trees | Bowen Beaches | Airlie Beach | Whitsunday Islands Boat Tour | Great Barrier Reef Snorkel | Whitsunday Snorkelling | Town of 1770 History | Fraser Island Beach Driving | Tin Can Bay Dolphins | Noosa River | Australia Zoo Wombats | Sunshine Coast | Nanango Bush | Gold Coast Beaches | Byron Bay Beaches | Woolgoolga Beaches | Coffs Harbour | Port Macquarie Cafes | Forster Pelicans | Great Lakes | Nelson Bay Dolphins | Sydney By Day | Sydney By Night | Sydney's Manly Beach.
Stop 4 - New Zealand---> Auckland Revolving Restaurant | Rotorua Volcanic National Park | Lake Taupo & Waitomo Glow Worms.
Stop 5 - French Polynesia---> Tahiti Island Waterfalls | Moorea Island Water Bungalows | Moorea Shark Feeding | Bora Bora Island Buggying.
Stop 6 - Hawaii, Maui---> Maui Snorkel Videos | Maui Snorkel Photography | Maui Windsurfing | Maui East Coast Hana Highway | Maui North Beaches 1 | Maui North Beaches 2 | Maui West Coast Surfing | Maui South West Lava Fields | Haleakala Volcano.
Stop 7 - Hawaii, Oahu---> Kailua Beaches | Round Oahu Island Drive | Honolulu Pearl Harbour | Oahu Snorkel Videos.
Stop 8 - West USA---> Los Angeles City Tour | Venice Beach | Long Beach | Queen Mary Tour | San Onofre Surfing | Route 66 Drive | Las Vegas Casinos | Grand Canyon.
Stop 9 - East USA---> Miami Beach Art Deco.
Stop 10 - UK, HOME---> Back To Heathrow, Bringing To A Close Our Amazing Round The World Trip.