...continued
So, yeah, even though my passport was in Fiji, I was in Australia. Oh well. My plan was to get the last resort that I stayed at there to mail it to my friend Bendegúz who lives in Sydney. Bendegúz is the same guy that I met in Cairns back in June and I played Axis and Allies and saw some theatre with in Sydney back in August. Assuming that they would mail the passport soon, it would have more than one month to get to Sydney before I took off for New Zealand. My plan is to usually hope for things to just work out. *crossing fingers* It’s a good strategy... it’s gotten me this far, after all, hasn’t it?
So, after waiting around in the airport in Brisbane for a while, I took a flight on Virgin Blue to Perth. Being a five and a half hour flight, it’s probably the single longest possible domestic flight in Australia. Brisbane is almost as east as you can get in Australia and Perth is almost as west as you can get. I landed in Perth just after midnight, got a bus into the city, checked into my hostel (the Emperor’s Crown), and passed out in a top bunk in a four bed dorm room.
December 3, 2008
I was up early, though not because people in my room were noisy (that doesn’t really happen super often, probably usually because I often opt for smaller dorms). It was probably jet lag or nervousness from the whole passport fiasco yesterday. Anyways, today was sort of an errands, laundry, catch up, and sightseeing day for the city of Perth. I had destroyed my cheap flip flops from Fiji and picked up another pair on sale for AU$8 (CA$6.50). I had some good coffee (a long black, please!). I bought a new t-shirt at the Salvation Army (or “Salvo’s” as the Aussies call it).
The most important thing I did today, though, was decide on how to spend my two weeks in the state of Western Australia (or just “WA” as most Aussies call it). I wanted to go south from Perth to sea the coastline, Margaret River, national parks with huge trees and rooftop forest walks, and possibly do some scuba diving (maybe get my certification!). I also wanted to go north from Perth to see the Outback one more time. After some indecisive humming and hawwing I finally made the impulsive decision to book myself onto a ten day overland trip from Perth to Broome on a Western Xposure tour bus, over 3000 km north from Perth. The tour was not inexpensive, at AU$1395 (CA$1150), but it sounded realllly good. The timing was good, too, since it would consume most of my two weeks in WA, and give me exactly enough time to get fly back to Perth to catch my flight back to the east coast. Perfect!
Most of the people in the hostel seemed to be long termers -- backpackers who came to Perth to work for a handful of weeks or months and were basically living in the hostel. There were a few other kinds of people, too. One of the people in my room was Simon, from Napier, New Zealand. He was working in the food services of a mine somewhere in the wilderness of WA and was visiting Perth for his week off. This scenario is actually a common one in Perth. There are MANY mines in WA and Perth is the place people go to unwind on their time off. Also in my room was Jonathan, a Swiss law student who was studying in Sydney. He was going on the same tour as me. We were leaving in two days.
So anyways, I look like this and so does Perth:
December 3, 2008
Perth is the capital of WA and the most isolated capital city in the world, being over 3000 km from its nearest neighbour, Adelaide (capital of the state of South Australia). It’s a financial centre, but more laid back than your busy busy centres in the eastern part of Australia. Sightseeing wise, I had walked around the city centre yesterday. Today I was heading to its famous suburb, Fremantle (or “Freo” as the Aussies call it). Fremantle is the main port for WA and is actually a slightly older city than Perth itself. It’s a very scenic place, and contains the brewery for one of my favourite Aussie beers, Little Creatures. I walked around a bit with Jonathan, did some sightseeing, took some pictures, and met Simon for some fantastic gourmet pizza and microbrew beers at the Little Creatures brewpub.
One fun thing that I got to do in Fremantle happened while we were walking around the old Round House building beside the port. There was a cannon and time ball set up there. In the past, the cannon would fire and the time ball would drop at exactly 1 PM so that the local people in town and the ships in port could set their clocks accurately. This tradition is still continued, even though it’s original purpose is no longer required. Anyways, the volunteers who fired the gun chose me to be the one who fired it that day. They set up the cannon and gave me a remote with a big red button to press. FUN!
One thing that was very exciting about Perth and Fremantle was that they were decorated for CHRISTMAS! Christmas trees, wreaths, and tinsel stars were in abundance in both places. Christmas is super fanstastic and I was going to experience it Aussie style!
Another great thing about Fremantle was the Indian Ocean. I had sort of swam in the edges of the Indian Ocean while I was in Thailand. But that was really the Andaman Sea, not the proper ocean. Here in Fremantle, I could look over over an ocean where there were NO obstacles until the southwest coast of Africa, almost 8000 km away!
That night at the hostel, I took at look at the book exchange shelf. I encountered a disturbing sight. I SWEAR TO GOD that a book I left on the book exchange shelf at The Beachouse in Fiji was here in Perth! The book was “The Day After Tomorrow” (no relation to the movie of the same name). I had carried it around since a Danish couple gave it to me in Samoa, but I wasn’t really that interested in reading it. I unloaded it in Fiji not three days before, and now it was here in Perth. It looked the same... same ratty pages, same faded cover. I discussed this disturbing phenomenon with two of the people who were sitting in the hostel kitchen near the book shelf. They didn’t seem to believe my story... tsk. By coincidence, one of the people was Luca -- an Italian guy who would be on the same tour to Broome.
December 4, 2008
Up at 6 AM in order to get picked up at 7 AM in front of my hostel on my tour. I was excited. There were about fifteen passengers on the bus. Our guide was Tamantha (though everyone called her “Tammy”). Our bus’ name was “Turbo Charlie”. As always, I was the only person on the bus from North America. Most of the people were European (as always). There were also two people from Hong Kong, but they didn’t associate with the other people that much. Otherwise, we were a great and social group. I had so much fun...
So we had something like 700 km to drive today. So, mostly, we sat around on the bus, but there were some interesting stops on the way. The first big stop today was at The Pinnacles, a natural rock formation in some bushland with bright yellow sand. It was pretty cool. There were hundreds and hundreds of eroded limestone pillars scattered around. Tammy pointed out some kangaroo and emu tracks.
On the way out of The Pinnacles, we were driving along when Tammy suddenly pulled over and said “Get out of the bus! Get out of the bus!”. She leaped out and began running towards something back on the side of the road. We had NO IDEA what was going on, but poured out of the bus and started going back towards her. Was there a car accident? Was someone hurt at the side of the road?
She reached something we couldn’t see and called back “Get the first aid kit from the bus!” Our confusion was mounting. What the flip was going on?
When I reached Tammy, it was clear what was going on. She had seen a shingleback lizard (about two feet long) on the side of the road. It was infested with ticks and Tammy needed the tweezers to pull them out. Wow... this was a lot of drama over a lizard, but it was still pretty cool. Tammy had really good eyes to be able to see that little thing beside the road as we were hurtling up it at 100 km/h. She really loved animals (reptiles especially), and really wanted to help the poor guy!
The next stop was the big sand dunes at Geraldton where we got to partake in some sandboarding. Get a skateboard with no wheels, spread wax on the bottom with a candle, have a seat, and slide down a big hill. Fun! I wasn’t very good at it... I kept wiping out...
The farther north we got from Perth, the drier the landscape got. The trees got smaller, and the earth got redder. There was still farmland, but it was getting more scraggly the farther we got from Perth. There were wheat fields here, but the wheat was so short compared to the tall flowing wheat fields in Canada. Tammy told us that the farmers here only expected to have one good harvest of wheat every four years, but that was still enough to live on given the current cost of wheat. Wow... life was tough here. And this was just the beginning.
We spent the night in a little beachouse in the tiny town of Horrock’s Bay. We stopped along the way to pick up beers. I got a whole box (30 beers) of Emu Bitter brew... a cheap Western Australia brew. I hoped that the box would last me most of the way to Broome. Heh heh... given how much the people on my tour were drinking at Horrock’s Bay that night, there was little chance of that!
December 5, 2008
Had to get up VERY EARLY today... like 5 AM I think? I’ve recently discussed how early morning wake ups are very hard on me. Something usually goes awry. This time I lost my 4 GB 2nd generation iPod Nano. Ooops. I was building a playlist of music to put onto it last night, but I guess I had not managed to repack it today. Well, crap.
Anyways, it’s just an iPod. Life goes on. And NORTH!
The first big stop today was the fantastic Murchison Gorge in Kalbarri National Park. This would be the first of many gorges I’d see in my trip up north.
I got to try abseiling down a 23 meter rock wall here. Abseiling (also called “rappelling”) is descending down rock walls using ropes. You get to jump off the walls a long and swing and bounce around. I was nervous at first, but it was really fun after all. The hardest part was the very beginning, when I had to edge over the top backwards and just trust the rope to keep me from plummeting to my death as I crept over the edge.
I’m pretty sure I’ll give abseiling another go when I get to New Zealand!
Driving north from Murchison Gorge, we got to see a thorny devil lizard (another emergency stop!). This one was pregnant and apparently you could feel its eggs in your belly.
The second emergency stop this day was different from the others. As we pulled to the side of the road, Tammy shouted, “STAY IN THE BUS! STAY IN THE BUS!” I looked out the window and saw a huge brown snake slide across the road, under the bus, and into the bushes. It was a King Brown snake (also called a Mulga snake), one of the most venomous snakes in the world. The last time I had seen one of these guys was in the Australia Zoo back in February.
The next actual scheduled stop was Shell Beach along Shark Bay. The unique saline conditions in Shark Bay produce an environment where cockle shells grow in abundance. When the little shellfish die, their shells accumulate on the land and produce a HUGE beach with NO SAND... only shells, each pure white and less than one centimeter big. We swam a bit, but the tide was low and the wind was pretty crazy strong so we kept it pretty short.
The wind! The wind on the west coast was strong and persistent. Perth is one of the windiest cities in the world and wind farms are plentiful. For us, it meant that the hot days weren’t so hot, but the warm nights could be kinda chilly... especially when on the beach!
We spent the night at the YHA in Denham, the westernmost city in Australia. There was more drinking, of course. We also had lots of waterfights. Kerstin, one of the German girls on the bus, had a watergun and was relentless with it. She even used it on the bus! But it was okay. The weather was warm (especially after going on treks in the scorching hot gorges) and the gun was a good relief.
December 6, 2008
Up at 6 AM and onto the bus. It was a short drive to Monkey Mia, a cute little resort town on Shark Bay where wild dolphins came every day at 7:30 AM to be fed by hand by people. We got to line up along the beach, standing ankle deep in water, as wild dolphins swam up towards us and played around before getting fed. Only a few people get selected to actually feed the dolphins, and I was one of the lucky people! I thank my awesome Mos Burger t-shirt from Hong Kong, thank you!
After Monkey Mia, we started to drive away from Shark Bay. Along the way, we stopped at a bluff by the shore where we could look down and actually see reef sharks swimming in the shallows.
At the very south end of Shark Bay, we stopped at Hamelin Pool where stromatolites live near the shore line. Stromatolites are one of the first forms of life on Earth: bacteria-like life that lives in the water. They create oxygen and excrete layers of sediment which build up into rock formations. They don’t look like much, but they’re responsible for producing much of the free oxygen in our atmosphere. If it wasn’t for the stromatolites, we wouldn’t be here today.
More driving. More driving...
The next stop was at the Tropic of Capricorn, the line of latitude at 23°26′ south of the equator. The last time I had crossed this line on land was on the road towards Alice Springs back in July.
There were actually two tour buses from Western Xposure traveling up from Perth at the time same. My bus was going all the way to Perth, but the other one was only going as far as Exmouth. We managed to get to the tropic a few minutes ahead of the other bus. As we were getting ready to get on our way, the other bus started pulling in. Tammy said, “Quick everyone! One thing we do in Australia is moon people! Quick! Moon the other bus!” Good times. For revenge, the other bus gave us a vicious soaking with water guns when we got to our to our backpackers in Coral Bay.
Our resting place that night was, indeed, at a backpackers in Coral Bay, near the south end of the fantastic Ningaloo Reef. Coral Bay was a tiny town... seeming to exist only to support tourism on the reef.
There was much drinking, that night, of course. The entertainment that evening was a game of giant Jenga... our bus versus the other bus. They beat us two-to-one after Edouard (or “Frenchy” as we called him) made the big tower collapse. Even though Edouard sucked at Jenga, he was still a really cool guy. He sat beside me on the bus and we talked alot. Man, that guy could drink wine!
December 7, 2008
We had to wake up somewhat early today, too (around 7 AM, I think), but it wasn’t to go for another long drive. Today I was going on an extra special snorkeling trip to the Ningaloo Reef. This reef extends for several hundred kilometers along the western coast of Australia. Unlike the Great Barrier Reef (which is technically classified as a “barrier reef”), which is separated from the coastline by a huge barrier of water that takes one or two hours to cross on boat, the Ningaloo Reef is a “fringing reef” that lies very close to the shoreline. You could put on a snorkel, mask, fins, step into the water from the beach, swim for five minutes, and be surrounded by a wealth of corals, fish, and other aquatic life.
My snorkeling trip today consisted of a boat ride to three sites on the reef. The first one was just a shallow area to swim between corals. As always, there was an enormous amount of fish. Some people were able to see turtles and reef sharks hiding beneath the rocks, but I didn’t spot anything like that.
The second and third snorkeling excursions were the real special ones. The boat departed the first reef area and sped out into the lagoon in search of manta rays. Along the way we saw a huge tiger shark swimming around in the water. Unlike the harmless reef sharks, the tiger shark was a monster that was dangerous to humans, so we didn’t go into the water there!
Aided by spotter planes and other boats, we eventually tracked down one of the graceful and huge manta rays. They’re not really related to other rays, but are closer to sharks. Unlike rays and (some) sharks, though, manta rays are completely harmless. They lack the stinger that rays have and they don’t have teeth. Instead, they have huge mouths that could swallow human whole! They don’t feed on people, though, since they only eat tiny organisms en masse.
The manta ray that we encountered was probably about three or four meters wide, from wing-tip to wing-tip, and swimming probably about three meters below us. It was swimming in huge barrel rolls, with its gaping mouth wide open in an attempt to feed. There must have been a LOT of food for it there since it kept feeding for a long time. The water was a little cloudy, too (which was the food, I think).
I had a disposable underwater camera and tried to take some pictures. I haven’t developed them yet. Hopefully they turn out!
On the way to the third snorkeling site, we saw lots of sea turtles swimming in the water. The third dive site was just corals and lots of fish again. On the way back, I was very VERY cold since it was windy and I was wet from coming out of the water. I tried to lie in the sun at the top of the boat to get warm. Who though my teeth would be chattering from the cold when I was in the tropics?
In the afternoon, the bus packed up and left for Exmouth, where we would spend the next two nights at a camp ground in town (though we still got to sleep in dorms). For dinner, we picked up pizza and we went to the lighthouse for sunset. There were lots of shenanigans here.
Here’s a picture of me at the lighthouse after having a bit too much sun, wind, and wine:
Oh, I guess the lighthouse and sunset are kind of pretty, too, eh?
--
Rob Szumlakowski
Maroochydore, AU
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