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First, I visited the southern forests region: Pemberton, Walpole and Manjimup. The Eucalyptus and Karri forests are amazing-- tons of old growth, huge trees and beautiful open forests. They are unfortunately suffering through their own environmental conflicts as the old growth dwindles.
This photo is from the Tree Top Walk in Walpole

Cape Leeuwin, where the Indian and Southern Ocean meet

at the cape

with two fun Swiss women I met

I then headed through Perth for a concert (Buena Vista Social Club) and drove all the way up to Coral Bay (a brutally long drive) to go diving.
Coral Bay was a shallow but clear coral reef. One of the dives was a manta ray trip. They sight the rays from helicopter and call down to the boat. Then we prowl over to where they are and hop in. A normal manta is about 12-15' in diameter.

Then on north to Exmouth for more diving.

Exmouth also happens to be the major communications post for the US Navy to transmit and receive signal from submarines in the Indian Ocean. So you can imagine the size of these towers. The towers are the tallest objects in the Southern Hemisphere, the largest 1273' tall. And they rise out of a completely flat plain.

How was the diving? Not bad, visibility wasn't great but lots to see. I wasn't there at the right time for the whale shark diving, bummer! But it was still outstanding.

Then back south to Shark Bay and Monkey Mia to visit the famous dolphin pod that comes in...