Easy Riding

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Hi Everyone! It's officially to hot to be outside and I am seeking refuge in an internet cafe. I'm in Exmouth which if you haven't heard of it before, I don't blame you. It's tiny and in the middle of nowhere, but beautiful. But how about I tell you how I got here first.

So I spent about a week in Perth which honestly was a perfect amount of time. I did two amazing dives off Rottnest island which were great. The water is temperate (so wetsuits were essential!) but a tropical current comes down the coast which makes for interesting coral and some good sea life as well. King's park was a great way to spend the day and I did a walking tour with a naturalist who pointed out all the amazing flora that exists in WA. I love all the eucalyptus trees and if you take their leaves and rub them in your hands it's just like inhaling a big tub of vics vapo rub. Hmmm. I've eaten enough fish and chips to last me a life time but there is nothing better than watching the sun set over the Indian ocean with some very greasy but tasty fish and chips.

I decided to do the hop-on hop-off bus that is known as Easyrider. I thought about buying a car but I am the farthest thing from being mechanically inclined and the amount of distance that it takes to get to point A to point B here is very intimidating and if something goes wrong on these roads, it's quite life threatening.

My first stop was in a small town called Lancelin about 2 hours north of Perth. It has some of the most amazing wind and kite surfing in the world and I spent most of my time watching them perform the most amazing tricks out in the shallow bays. I would have liked to take a lesson but it's still a fairly new sport here and there was no place to rent equipment. But I was more than happy to chill on the very windswept beach and chat with the proffessionals. I only spent 2 days here but I found it very relaxing after being in big cities for the last month.

After Lancelin I thought I would check out the fishing town of Gerladton. Not much to do in this sleepy port but they have an amazing museum about WA and shipwrecks of the coast so I spent most of my time there. I'm obsessed with the Batavia shipwreck. The Dutch East India Company used to use the strong winds that blow up the coast to get to Indonesia where they did most of their trading (spices and such). But the reef is deadly and many ships got caught. In 1629 the Batavia sunk off the Albrolos island about 60km off the coast of Geraldton. It's intersting because there was a mutiny and all these people were murdered. The captain was sent to the mainland to try and find water and help so he knew nothing of the bad deeds going on. Some of the men escaped to another island and were plotting to take over the guys that had committed the mutiny but then the captain came back. Luckily the men who had escaped reached the captain first and told him of the mutiny. They ended up executing those involved and they stranded two of the men on the mainland. It is thought that these two men who were stranded were some of the first Europeans to live in Australia. In fact, some of the Aboriginals that reside in WA have blond hair and they think that it can be traced back to these two dutchmen who obviously integrated with the aboriginal society. How interesting!!! I love shipwreck stories.

But moving on. I stayed in Kalbarri one night and the next day made my way to Denham. Along the way we stopped at the Kalbarri National Park where there is miles and miles of spinafex, banksia's, wild floweres and gum trees. Truly amazing. I've never really spent much time in a desert before so all this was new to me.

Denham was fantastic. I went on an amazing safari tour with this local guy who was raised in Denham (which is rare as this town has about 1000 people living there, mostly fishermen). We drove into the Francois Peron National Park. The coastline here is beautiful. Red sand cliffs, white sand beaches and torquoise water. From a lookout point, we saw reef sharks, sting rays, duogongs, and all sorts of sealife in the clear and shallow water down below. That night we hung out in a natural hot springs in the middle of the outback under an imense amount of stars.

From Denham we made a quick stop at Monkey Mia, which is a resort just down the road from the town of Denham. THey feed the local Dolphin's here. It's a bit tacky but amazing to see the Dolphin's so close. The volunteers stand in the shallow water with a bucket of fish and the onlookers stand at the edge of the water. They pick people to walk out into the shallows and feed the dolphin's the fish in the bucket. I got picked! So I got to feed the dolphin. Horray!

From there the bus went to coral bay which I was planning on spending around 3 days there. But when I woke up in the morning, my tonsils were the size of apples and I was sick as a dog. Coral bay doesn't have a doctor so I had to quickly hop on the bus and make my way to Exmouth, a much lager town. Went and saw the doc and sure enough...tonsilitis. Spend the next 3 days bed ridden and feeling sorry for myself but have managed to get better and am now seeing the sights. Not much to do here but snorkel and dive. I rented a car with some friends yesterday and we hit some cool snorkelling sites. Then we hung around and watched the turtles migrate on to the beach at night ot lay there eggs. Today, I'm going diving at a place called the Navy Pier which is suppose to be one of the top 10 dive sites in the world.

So that's it for now. I'm leaving Exmouth tomorrow and making the LONG drive back to Perth. After that, i'm heading to Margaret River to hopefully work at a winery and save some money over the xmas holidays.

Bye for now..

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