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April 28th 2008

Published: April 28th 2008

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ChildofArtemis09

The bus

Western Exposure Bus

April 21-27 = Exmouth Trip!!!
Day 1
The bus was late; I could’ve slept in another half an hour, and taken my time to get downtown, and the bus would’ve only just arrived. We were packed in like sardines: 21 passengers (including Suzy, Jen, Melissa, Shauna, and myself) and the bus driver. All but one of the 5 guys was in a couple, and that guy was in his mid-forties and had a speech impediment. So much for Jen and Suzy’s plan to pick up guys on the trip. On the road out of Perth to the Pinnacles I saw a flock of red-tailed black cockatoos. The Pinnacles were somewhat… disappointing. I was expecting something bigger. However, it was interesting listening to how they formed, and looking at the shapes they made (including many phallic symbols, much to the delight of the male members of my tour group). Later that afternoon we went sandboarding. I sandboarded twice, and I would’ve gone more times except climbing up a really big hill of sand is quite tiring. Sitting down, it was relatively easy (although more than a few people wiped out even then) and fun. The main problem was finding a way to

Me in the Pinnacles

stop before you ran into bushes. By this time I was really hungry- we didn’t eat lunch until almost 3pm at a picnic area near the ocean somewhere. We had cold sandwiches every day for lunch. Exciting. We made a pit stop on the way to Kalbarri for some groceries/snacks and to buy drinks. Technically it’s illegal to drink on the buses, but if the bus driver turns a blind eye… Dinner at the Kalbarri hostel (spaghetti, or as the Aussies call it “spag bol” which is short for spaghetti bolognese) was late, simple, and pretty darn good. Some of those girls can really cook.
Day 2
All our days started really early, so I got into the habit of going to bed early (aka right after dinner). Even though our driver said to be ready early, we left late anyhow. I guess big groups tend to do that. We left Kalbarri to visit the Z-bend Gorge and Nature’s Window. The climb down the gorge was, let’s just say, challenging. I don’t think mom would’ve been able to have done it. Anyway, once down there we just hung out and dipped our feet in the Murchison River. Oh, and swatted

Very common Pinnacle shape

::cough, cough:: What do you think it looks like?

at the bazillion flies. I had no idea outback Australia would be so fly-ish. I didn’t notice many mosquitoes, but the flies nearly drove me crazy everyday. Some people went abseiling (repelling down a cliff) but I abstained, mostly because I had no real desire to scare myself, and the terrified looks of the people as they leaned over the cliffs backwards didn’t look like my kind of fun. Anyhow, Nature’s Window was cloudy. I dutifully took lots of pictures anyhow. We also found a little gecko, and I took pictures of him, too. I also saw a wedge-tailed eagle (the first of many sighted on the trip) and crested pigeons. We had drinks and watched the sunset at Shell Beach. It has so many shells because the water there is cut off from the ocean almost which makes it abnormally salty and can’t support fish, so the mollusks can live and die in peace, and there is very little tide, and thus the shells pile up. The hostel in Denham was very cool- it had baby kangaroos and some birds living there, as well as a pool and billiards, and a TV in every block. The only problem was

Dolphin shape

I think this one looks like two dolphins.

that there was only one shower per block, so there was a long line. I fought some Asian girls for my turn at the shower before dinner (chicken stir-fry) and unfortunately missed out on getting to hold the baby kangaroos. But at least I was clean.
Day 3
We drove across the Peron Peninsula to Monkey Mia in the morning. (Did I mention I’m getting tired of cold breakfast everyday? When I get home I want hot breakfast- as in eggs, bacon, grits, pancakes, etc.- for at least a week straight.) The dolphins get fed at around 8am. I wasn’t in the prime spot for pictures or for getting picked to feed a dolphin, but persistent elbowing and whining at the dolphin lady ended in triumph. Unfortunately, when I handed my camera to Suzy to get a picture of me feeding the 31-yr old female Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin nicknamed Puck, I had the lens cap on. And because most young folk are unused to taking off lens caps of cameras, she was baffled as to why the picture wouldn’t take. But I only found this out after I had fed the dolphin and returned to the crowd. Ah, well. I

Sandboarding

Most of us needed a little push to get going.

have a mental picture. After that I opted to take a little bush walk with this Aboriginal, to learn about living off the land and Aboriginal culture. Did you know there are hundreds of Aborigine countries inside Australia (I imagine them to be more like counties) and they each have their own culture, traditions, stories, and dialect? And there is a system worked out based on skin type (although I gather it doesn’t actually have to do with how dark you are) which dictates who you are allowed to marry to prevent inbreeding. I think the Aboriginal language is really cool to listen to, but almost as soon as Capes (our Aboriginal guide) would say a word, I’d forget it. Anyway, during the walk I tried some bush foods including wild mushroom, mistletoe berries, a type of currant, and bush bananas. Coastal myrtle is used as medicine, for everything from insect repellant to a healing tea or paste. I also heard a chiming wedgebill, which really sounds like bell chimes and makes a call like “Did-you-get-drunk?”, and saw the tracks of an echidna. Apparently echidnas are not as rare as I thought, but they are super elusive, so much so

Sandboarding 2

This is the second run, and I tried out my steering capabilities. They were virtually non-existent, but by shifting weight you did get some effect.

that most (white) Australians have only seen a couple in their lifetime. The Aborigine Capes says “pork tastes like them.” I think the Aboriginal name for Shark Bay is gudarda goodu, which means “two waters.” Anyhow, then we drove to see the stromatolites of Shark Bay. That was where I got the name “science geek” because I got so excited to see 3.5 billion year-old mats of cyanobacteria. Ah, well, I can’t help being who I am. Passing through Carnavon we arrived at Coral Bay that night and had hamburgers. Water scarcity that far north meant our washing and such was done in salt water. Note: Anzac biscuits are good. They are made of rolled oats, sugar, butter, honey, and coconut.
Day 4
Suzy, Melissa, Shauna and I opted to go on the Manta Ray tour in Coral Bay, which is one of the towns next to the Ningaloo Reef. Brydie, our bus driver/tour guide, came with us. It was a nice day out on the boat, and if it was a little grey at times, at least that prevented me from getting seriously sunburned. Water quality was fairly good considering we were between coral spawns. I kept imagining how

Me in the Z-Bend Gorge

I was swimming with millions of little coral sperms… We went to a cleaning station where reef sharks normally hang out for our first snorkel. We only saw one black-tipped reef shark, and that one was pretty far down, but that was ok. While I was getting a milo (a drink here like a hot chocolate) and eating some mid-morning tea cakes, I apparently missed seeing a tiger shark from the top viewing area. But I did see the dugong. We only found one manta ray to swim with, and he wasn’t so big, but it was still quite cool. It’s amazing how fast those guys swim by only gently flapping their winglike fins- I was out of breath chasing him! But he did something unusual and swam belly up for while, right underneath me, and that was totally awesome. Then we had a good lunch of hearty sandwiches, pasta salad, big cold prawns and watermelon. We saw another manta ray in the distance, and an eagle ray. We also saw some dolphins and another dugong. Then we went by a turtle reserve, and it was so frustrating, because every time one popped their head up, I couldn’t take the

The Z-Bend Gorge

picture fast enough and they’d pop back down again. Our final snorkel was out on the reef at a place called Snapper Hole. One of the snapper actually bit my underwater camera- they weren’t shy! By the end, I was quite tired. I’d say the day was completely worth the money in my opinion. We left Coral Bay and traveled up to Exmouth. There were termite mounds jutting out of the ground everywhere, and it reminded me of the giant ones in Africa. Then we arrived in Exmouth. Steaks for dinner, and an early sleep. Also, I realized I had left a shirt and pj bottoms back in Coral Bay!
Day 5
We tried to get up early for the Anzac Day dawn service, but since we didn’t know exactly where it was or when it started, we ended up getting there right at the end. Jen was fascinated by the fact that the American flag was being flown next to the Australian and New Zealand flags. Since Exmouth used to have a US naval communications station, I wasn’t that surprised. Anyhow, although missing the service was disappointing since I have to write a paper about it, the rest of

Another shot in the Z-Bend Gorge

I have a bunch of pics of me sitting on this rock.

the day was pretty awesome. We drove to an education center and watched a video about whale sharks (which strategically left you feeling like spending $350 to swim with one) and then went to Turquoise Bay. We had rented snorkel equipment the night before, and we went on a group snorkel, again on the Ningaloo Reef. I was surprised at the strength of the currents on the reef, but I stuck it out and it was worth it. We saw almost half a dozen green sea turtles. I personally swam/chased them for a half hour, sometimes getting within an arms length of them. We also saw several reef sharks, including white-tipped reef sharks which are rarer than the black-tipped ones. Off on my own I saw loads of fish and corals, and a stingray which had iridescent blue circles all over it. Then I laid out on the tiny beach and read, which was heaven (except for the occasional bouts of flies). However, by lunchtime I knew we were all getting burned, despite our use of sunscreen. After lunch it was quite hot, and we went for a second snorkel but I came back in early because I was tired

Z-Bend Gorge Lookout

Suzy and I got attacked by flies, but we prevailed long enough to take a few pictures before running for our lives.

and my right foot was cramping in my flipper. I saw clownfish, which many people didn’t see, and also some large silver fish spawned right in front of me, which was pretty cool to see. I missed seeing a leopard shark, but I was dry when we got back on the bus. We went to the little lighthouse on a hill to see the sunset, but it was cloudy, so we just took group pictures and drank. By the time we got back for dinner (fish and chips) we were all really tired. Almost everyone was burned. Oh, and there were emus at the caravan park/ hostel where we were staying.
Day 6
Brydie had called about my forgotten stuff in Coral Bay, so we left a little early from Exmouth and drove to Coral Bay for a pancake breakfast so I could pick up my stuff and another girl could be dropped off the bus. We had to switch buses with another group because they were going on to Darwin and their bus was having problems. I christened our new bus Bertha. Then we drove. I saw up front on the way back and DJ’d. I was tired of

Nature's Window

A big hole in the rock. Cool.

hearing music I didn’t know being played too loud. Besides the heat emanating constantly from Bertha’s engine (she was an old gal with a temperament, and didn’t like to start sometimes) the views were nice, and I saw wedge-tailed eagles, feral sheep, and emus. There were a surprising lack of kangaroos on this trip, but this is because a few weeks ago it had rained the most rain in 3 years in that area, and so there wasn’t a lack of water to drive kangaroos to the ditches lining the roads like normal. I should mention that at times it didn’t even seem like the Outback because there was grass covering the ground and the plants looked green and healthy, all because of the recent rainfall. We stopped in Carnavon this time to grab frozen bananas or in my case homemade mango ice cream at a fruit plantation. That evening (fairly early compared to the other nights) we got to the Northbrook farmstay. For dinner we had a kangaroo stew which was pretty darn good. The guy who owns the place (and shrewdly turned to opening a farmstay when he realized his farm was too small to compete in the

Nature's Window view

The view from the hole.

market) apparently shoots them on his own property regularly to feed to guests, and he told me all about how to keep them tender, and how they can taste different depending on the foraging habits of the species and the time of year, etc. I stayed up fairly late talking to people since we didn’t have to get up until 7:45am (quite late compared to the other days). There was a gecko in the bathroom that I caught. The stars were amazing- I saw the Milky Way and the Southern Cross and probably several other constellations that I wouldn’t see at home if I had even known what I was looking for.
Day 7
Another day in the front playing DJ. My favorite part of that day was Disney hour :-). We stopped at the Hutt River Principality, which is basically this smart guy’s farm who outsmarted the Australian government and now doesn’t have to pay income taxes on his farm, and gets tourists’ money besides. Prince Leonard was an eccentric old man with a glass eye semi-obsessed with his little sovereignty who used to be a physicist. Which pretty much explains his eccentricities. After lunch (which included chips aka

Hiding in an Overhang

Cute pic, if I do say so myself.

fries; apparently there is such a thing as a chip sandwich, which is bread sometimes buttered with chips and lots of tomato sauce- sounds like a carb heart-attack to me) we went to Greenough Wildlife Park. We got to feed kangaroos, emus, goats, deer, a giant pig, camel, donkey, horse, and miniature pony. There were also birds of various kinds, a few lizards and a crocodile. I saw those huge pointy beaks from the emus and decided to throw my food into their enclosure rather than let them take off my fingers. Then we got to hold snakes. I was chosen as a helper. The snake guy tried to scare me at first with the snakes (various pythons), but then realized I wasn’t falling for it. I’ve never really understood why people have such an irrational fear of snakes anyway. So he put all 5 snakes around my neck, in my hair, over my eyes, etc., and dubbed me “Medusa.” It was pretty cool.
And there ends the excitement of the trip- we just drove and drove and finally we were back in Perth. Suzy, Jen and I ate kebabs (which are not meat on a stick, but more like