A Nice Nice Outing

This weekend I went to the Pinnacles with Anna, Rebecca and Amanda's friends who are visiting from the States. The Pinnacles are north of Perth on the same road we drove back from Spring Break on, we just didn't have time to stop and visit. Nobody really knows how the Pinnacles are formed. Mystery! They are periodically covered and revealed by the shifting dunes. Check them out...super cool!

On the way back we stopped at Yanchep National Park and took a tour of Crystal Cave. That was also super cool. It was really shallow so there were all these tree roots creeping down to get to the ground water. The ground water level is getting lower and lower though, so they had to pump water in to protect this little critter that lives in the cave. Its some sort of bug I don't remember that is endangered.

There were also kangaroos and koalas roaming freely. Such strange creatures Australia.

So for those of you who don't know, I'll be home in a little under two weeks. Can't wait to get a little Northwest lovin and lots of family time!

SB Part 3

I know its ridiculous to have this many posts for a 10 day trip. Sorry! I'll try to keep this one short.

After leaving Exmouth we drove to Monkey Mia and stopped to see the stromatalites along the way. The first thing you saw was the shell quarry. There was no timber for settlers to build with so they quarried the shells, which had somehow dissolved together with rain water and some glue-like substance from the shells and the whole thing hardened. You can tell I'm no science major.

Stromatalites (I don't really understand this part either) are super super old and super important in the history of evolution because they made oxygen. So without them we wouldn't be here! Most places in the world they don't exist anymore, but the bay they are dead in here had really high saline concentration so animals didn't destroy them.

Reached Monkey Mia which was basically just a resort, which we didn't know. Posted up at the bar to listen to some hippie old guy play his guitar. He sang Cat Stevens which made me and Anna endlessly happy, then the old folks started grooving and their dancing was highly entertaining.

The next morning we woke up to watch the dolphin feeding. They have a program that is actually pretty legit - there are only 5 females they feed, only feed them a snack so they have to hunt in deeper waters and feed their calves, and no one is allowed to touch them. There was a tun of people there, but it was cool to see them up close. One of the male calves had been attacked by a shark a couple days before and had a gnarly flesh wound.

The others went for a little camel ride along the beach, but I wasn't really digging the idea of that. While I was sitting waiting for them, who should come along but my good friend Tarryn! She had sailed up to Monkey Mia on the Leeuwin, a tall ship that harbors in Freo. What a happy occurrence!

That night we ate tacos on the beach and watched the sunset.

Then it was a day of solid driving. We basically drove until the sun was about to set and stopped at a little place on the coast called Leeman. It was possibly my favorite place we had been the whole time. There were sand dunes and SO MUCH seaweed and flat planes of rock that had been worn away by the sea in the most beautiful way and in places the sea had carved out crazy overhangs in the rock. It was a real beach, windy, a bit chilly and a beautiful sunset, plus avocado and hummus sandwich for dinner. Heaven!

Then it was time for the Royal Wedding!!!! We watched it in the little kitchen area. If you look at the picture and see the tiny square of light in the middle - that was the TV. It was perfect! There were a bunch of families cooking their catch of the day (the coast is for fishing), all the mums were gossiping about the hats and the queen needing a nap etc., the dads all wanted to chat with us, and the kids were running around being crazy. It was really great and I though the perfect setting for such a fancy event. We drank tea and tim tam slams (if you don't know what this is, please refer to my earlier post on Aussie slang) then headed to bed. Me and Amanda slept in the van and it was surprisingly comfortable in the back with everything folded down, but it was freezing!

The next morning we packed up and drove the last little bit back to Perth. It was such a beautiful drive. We passed the Pinnacles but it was closed, the coastline and ocean were amazing, we drove through grass tree forests and a huge burn area. There were also limestone dunes which just appeared out of the vegetation so majestically and all snow white!

We arrived back in Perth safe and sound despite some trepidations prior to leaving. We were so very lucky to have gotten back without any casualties, accidents, or breakdowns. Overall it was a great soul-rejuvenating success!

I thought I would leave you with a couple of the many many pictures taken from the front seat of the van. We thought every hill we went over had just the coolest most breathtaking view and snapped a billion pics with Robin's camera that lived in the front. In review, they weren't quite as cool, but you do get to see the different kinds of vegetation and roads we saw. After all, that is what we looked at most of the time!

(Tay - I thought of you when we saw this crazy man running out by Coral Bay where there was absolutely nothing around for miles and miles. It was also here that we drove completely straight for 54km.)

You know you're back in the south west when the trees are taller than you are, and there isn't red dirt everywhere.

SB Part 2

So...the last post ended in the Coral Bay. In the morning when we woke up there were the HUGEST dragonflies flying all around. There were millions of them and it was absolutely beautiful, but unfortunately we only ended up killing them as we drove...

Also, there were termite mounds everywhere, dotted randomly through these grassy plains. There was something eerie about their presence and randomness, like we were in an alien landscape. They were these irregularly shaped mounds, all with the same pointed cone at the top, and the same deep rust red of the earth. No one got a decent picture of them sadly.

In Coral Bay we snorkeled as I wrote about in an earlier post and that was super cool. Plus kayaking felt really good after so much sitting and driving. Since I was in a kayak with our guide Jerry, I couldn't slack off, so I good a nice little work out and naturally we beat the others back to shore. After that it was time to head north once more and we drove the last couple hours up to Exmouth. We had borrowed tents from my friend Cath's cousin, and we knew one of them was huge so we had only been using the little one with three of us in there and two in the van. That night we decided to set up the giant tent. Turned out it had three rooms and was a twelve person tent. Such luxury!

Dinner cooked by Anna...cooking on the floor is the best kind of cooking!

The next day was ANZAC day which is basically veterans day in Australia, so the other girls got up for the dawn service. There was no way I was getting up for that even though we had been getting up early with the light, just not that early.

Then we adventured off to the beach! Exmouth is on the eastern side of the peninsula. Because it is a reserve, there is only road road that crosses it, meaning that to get to the snorkeling beaches on the western side you have to drive all around the tip of the peninsula. So that we did and arrived at Turquoise Bay! Imagine that stereotypical white sand beach and warm blue blue water...that was Turquoise Bay. Plus there were way less people there, which had a certain appeal.

We swam and played in the shallows and did handstands in the water and basked in the sun and snorkeled. The snorkeling was amazing - you just swam offshore and flippered about surrounded by all these amazing fish. There were parrot fish (and that's where I stop knowing the names of them), yellow ones, tiny bright blue ones, these really huge dark ones, silver ones with spots down the side, stripy ones, fish that looked like Gill from Finding Nemo, soft coral, hard coral. We just swam around like mermaids taking it all in. I know that I've made more than one Finding Nemo reference, but that's really what it felt like, and just to add to that...we were in a jelly forest! There were heaps of jellies floating on the current and you wouldn't see them until they were right in front of you so I spend the whole time half freaking out. Robin was the only casualty though and got a sting on her shoulder. It turned a bit red and stingy but wasn't too bad. Then me and AmandaPanda enjoyed a little beach yoga (we're not experts).

Then it was time to drive back before sunset when the roos come out to play. Dinner was once again delicious, and cooked on the floor in the light of a flashlight, with awkward wet bathing suit patches.

I will now digress to discuss food. I LOVED cooking and eating on our trip. It felt to good to be cooking for ourselves and the food was delicious even though it was so simple. Camping food is the best food. Plus it kicked St Cat's butt. Food up north was super expensive, just like gas, because its so isolated and everything has to get trucked in. A can of baked beans was like $3. Crazy. With four girls from America in the van, we consumed an inordinate amount of peanut butter. Amanda was part of that and she is a PB fiend. The only peanut butter here though is made by Kraft (ugh) and full of salt and sugar (double ugh). Oh well. Food was definitely one of the best parts of the road trip.

After dinner the others went to watch a movie that was being screened in the caravan park while me and Anna stayed behind to enjoy a bottle of wine, a couple vodkas, and revel in the glory of a summer night with endless stars.

The next morning was overcast although still really warm, so we spend the morning at City Beach. I don't really know why its called that because there is definitely no city in Exmouth. It is the only beach really on the eastern side of the peninsula and the currents must deposit all the shells and coral on that side. We wandered along picking up so many shells and bits of coral, collecting them in our shirts because we didn't have pockets. We were the only people there, apart from an old couple fishing. Me and Anna chatted with them and they gave us some sick shells. A couple which were HUGE. Bigger than your hand, like the size of your foot! The shells were amazing though - spirals, spiky, bright green...Mum would have been in heaven.

Then we went to one of the surfing beaches for a big and saw a massive sting ray in the shallows. We wandered along with it for a bit before it swam off. Turquoise Bay was calling us though so we headed back for a quick swim. Then we began the journey south, drove for a few hours until it got dark then posted up on the side of the highway in a picnic area where you can camp for free. It rained all night and I woke up with a cold. The rain turned that red red earth into red red clay that collected in a solid layer on the bottoms of your shoes and got on everything. We ate breakfast in the rain and I LOVED IT!

As we had been driving, we kept seeing signs with flood warnings and totally blew them off thinking they were ridiculous. But after a solid night of rain, there were suddenly lakes and rivers where there hadn't been any before. Taylor - this is what it was like when I called on your birthday!

I will leave the journey here for now (there isn't that much left I promise), and take this opportunity to digress once more on the subject of wildlife. Most of the wildlife we saw came in the form of road kill. There were so many roos by the sides of the road, but we had this handy sticker telling us what to do!

Once when I was driving I saw something in the road waaay up ahead, slowed down and stopped a few feet away from this fellow.

We also encountered sheep, cattle, emus, and 2 giant eagles that decided to stick around long enough to give us Planet Earth type views as they flew off.

Things to look forward to in the next post: Monkey Mia, dolphins, and the royal wedding!

Spring Break 2011 Wicked Camper in Oz Style: Part 1

Australian's call their mid-semester break "study break" and they mean that literally - you're supposed to study. So I disregarded the name and intention, and still called it Spring Break even though its supposed to be fall (still feels like summer). The plan: rent a wicked camper van and drive from Perth to Exmouth with Anna, Amanda, Jens and Robin. Below is a map. You can see how big Australia really is...the little red line was our route. Our trip was about 3000 km but probably more.

The first trial was getting the van. Australia is covered in "Wicked Campers". They all have different designs spray painted on the sides and sayings on the back. The spray painting on ours was not entirely desirable, but I won't get into it. We just hoped that Australian's were used to offensive wicked campers and would take it all with a pinch of salt. I was also the only one who could drive the van initially, because the two other drivers Anna and Amanda didn't have a whole lot of experience driving stick. So...the first time I drove in Australia on the other side of the road was in this old van that didn't seem like it should work from the rental place across the city back to college. Probs the most stressful and terrifying thing I've ever done.

So we headed out early Friday morning, struggled a little negotiating getting out of Perth, turned around a lot of times, then we were on the road headed in the general direction of Kalbarri. Side note for a second, it cost $75 to fill the tank! Stab me in the heart right now. Anyway...it was a super hot day and our first time getting to know our trusty steed, so I was terrified of the engine overheating the entire time because of this sticker:

I think I also knew the most about cars, which is also terrifying, considering that means I've checked oil before.

It was a long day of driving for me (almost 8 hours if I remember correctly) and it was stressful feeling responsible for all those little bodies in the van, but honestly I was so happy. I love being on the road, only stopping when necessary, watching the vegetation change around you, connecting with the land in a different way. We arrived at our destination - Riverside Sanctuary - and it was perfect. It was a converted sheep station (they claimed to be a working station but I don't believe it for a second, but they did have emu and ostrich) with shearers shed, camping area, and kitchen area. First order of business: swim in the river as the sun set. It was heaven after a long drive.

Check out the mud!

Then set up tents, rustle up some grub in the shearing shed, play banana grams, drink Ribena (haven't had that since England!), and study the next days route on the map.

The next morning we woke up super early because I had some teaching to do! Me, Anna and Amanda headed out onto a delightful red dirt road and I taught them both how to drive manual in about 20 minutes. Fastest learners ever! Really - they were amazing. Then we drove like crazies (not - we were so freaking responsible about driving and never drove at night because roos are a SERIOUS problem) up to Coral Bay.

Coral Bay was really little and crowded, so we perused a little then headed out and found another sheep station to stay at for the night. This one was legit though, and it was in the middle of nowhere paradise. Seriously - those people have got it figured out. We drove up and they were having a party in the yard for all the kiddos and the neighbor's escaped ancient pony had joined them. They had all these sheep, an orphaned joey and a gaggle of small children to hang out with. Then it was a similar routine - tents, food, sunset and stargazing, sleep.

I would like to take a moment to comment on how utterly amazing the stars were. The only constellations I recognize are Orion's Belt and the Southern Cross. The rest of the sky is unfamiliar to me. But the milky way - breathtaking and unbelievable. There is not a whole lot of light pollution in the Northeast of Australia. Its pretty remote.

Well I have papers to write, so that is the end of part 1. I know...I only got 2 days in and they've only been driving, and I am way too long-winded. Sorry! But you have Exmouth and Monkey Mia still to look forward, but honestly it was mostly a whole lot of this:

and this:

and this:
and of course this (that's Anna):

and I loved it!