West Coast continued...

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Hey hey,

arrived in Perth just yesterday and have a few stories to tell & pictures to upload.
I fell in love with the West Coast and a special place called Monkey Mia where I ended up staying for a few weeks instead of a few days as I had originally planned.
Apart from simply hanging out and enjoying live & sun & everything I did a special trip to Cape Peron for a day, went on an interesting Aboriginal tour & worked on a Pearl Farm for a day.

Shark Bay (where Monkey Mia is) is one of the worlds best maintained natural habitats and there is a huge number of dolphins, sharks & dugongs, turtles & rays. Beautiful!

Aboriginal Tour: I went on a 2 hr- tour with a guy called "Capes" who's been doing tours at Monkey for a few years. He is from the area and calls himself a salt water person. The tour started at night and led us to a beautiful bond fire beneath the stars where our guide told us the story of his people. The tour finished off with some beautiful didgeridoo play & if anyone is interested in learning a little about Aboriginal culture and is looking for a short & cheap tour Capes' is the one to book!

On the third day I volunteered on a Pearl Farm. Very interesting experience: we went to the farm on a boat and first thing went to get the shells from the ocean. We then had to cut up the strings and re-attach the shells onto different strings so they would have enough room to develop. Every two years or so the shell is opened up, the pearl is taken out, and a new artificial pearl is placed into the shell that will be made into an even bigger pearl during a two-year period. The whole process is fascinating and working there was very interesting and definitely an unusual work-experience for me. Plus, I caught my first fish ever (a cod) - very proud moment! However, it was 39 cm long and therefore 2 cm too small to be eaten so I threw it back in..

Another great experience was driving up to Cape Peron. We had met a local the night before who invited us to go fishing & hiking with him at Cape Peron! It was absolutely beautiful & I saw my first big shark and a sting ray while snorkeling - not much to say about it; just look at the pictures!

All in all Monkey's just a beautiful place where I have met some very nice people & enjoyed hanging out on the beaches doing pretty much nothing.
A very lovely last two weeks in Australia before heading off to Brisbane and back to Europe!

I hope people have enjoyed the blog & have maybe found some special places in Australia where they might want to go next.
Until my next big journey (hopefully NZ),

Cheers,
L.

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Photos

Dolphins
The dolphins at Monkey Mia - they come right up to the beach all the time & even swim with you if you're lucky!

Cape Peron
In our 4WD up to Cape Peron.