Just arrived in Kilbarri, a seaside ressort some 600 kilometers north of Perth. On the way we passed another country and hit a huuuuge kangaroo. But relax - nothing happened and we and the car are alright. The kangaroo, too, btw.

The kangaroo - or "roo" as they are called here - really did come out of nowhere. I always found it hard to believe that an animal that's larger then two meters could come out of nowhere but they do - one second the road was empty and there nothing but empty bushland on both sides of the road and the next second this huge animla is righgt in front of our car. Fortunately the roo was quite busy jumping to the other side of the road so that we only hit it's massive tail. The impact as still quite hard and very audible and we probably broke the roos tail, but it managed to hop away and we managed to break and take a few deep breaths before heading on. If we had hit this roo dead-center the car would be nothing but scrap-metal now. And it wasn't even dawn yet, which when the kangarros are supposedly coming out. An early riser I suppose.

Live and the car

The car is fine, btw: She drives without problems most of the time, just stuttering two or three times per day. So - no worries there for the moment. And since I have Sarah and Esther to share the driving with, it's much more relaxing to get around the country. The three of us are a pretty good combination I think. We are getting along quite well so far and even have similar tastes of music (though I don't think I want to listen to any more Justin Timberlake - grrrr).

More native animals and (briefly) leaving Australia

Last night we stayed in Geralton, a small seaside town with a very nice YHA Backpackers (18 AUD). We didn't really see anything of Gerlaton except for the supermarket, but it seemed to be alright. And since the hostel had free pool and was directly on the beach we didn't feel the need to go anywhere else. We had originally intended to go all the way to Money Mia today, but then got sidetracked. I had read about a micro-nation just north of Geralton and so we decided to visit "Hutt River Province".

The inhabitans of this 75 km large micro-nation decided to secede from Australia in 1971 because of some argument about taxes and agricultural quotas. Today there are 20 people living there. They live of sheep farming and tourism, don't pay taxes to the Australian government and are in turn also not entitled to any benefits from the Australian government. We spoke with His Royal Highness Prince Leonard, the 78 years old sovereign of Hutt River Province who is quite a fascinating character. I mean, he takes his status as a quasi-country quite serious. In fact he told us that his country has been recognized by a large number of other countries and he has the documents to prove it. It's also quite clear that he invests quite a lot of money in having all the props of a sovereign nation. Among other things, he has one of those blue light lamps that are used at customs to verify whether a passport is real. And he dutifully checked all our passports before stamping them - yes, I do have an entry and an exit stamp of Hutt River Province in my passport now! The same goes for the money and the stamps. The money is printed on the same paper, or rather plastic, the Australian money is printed on and comes with a watermark and everything. The same goes for the stamps which he has done in Singapore and the passports are pretty real, too. They too come with all the security-features of a real passport, show up as "real" under the blue light thingy and he said that he hasn't used another passport then his own one ever since he became a sovereign. He also told us that he is stricly speaking required to report to the police every time he leaves his state an drives to the next town, but the police there told him a few yeasr ago to stop that nonsense. All in all he says he's having very good relations with the Australian Government now, after the first few years had apparently been a bit difficult. The funny thing is that he really is soverign for all practical purposes. I even saw the court documents that confirm that he is exempt from all taxes duties, though I did not really understand by which loophole he managed to create his own state. The funniest thing in those documents was imho that they suggested to require him to apply for visa if he wanted to leave his statelet. They didn't in the end, but it just shows that he is being taken quite seriously.

On the way back from Hutt River Province I saw my second typically Australian species - an Echidna. They look like huge hedgehogs with snouts. I'll upload pictures of it and HRH Prince Leonard as soon as I get to a cheap internet-place again. Unfortuantey it's quite expensive again, now that we've leaft Perth.

On the web:

Hutt River Province Principality