Australia - West Coast - Perth to Monkey Mia at night

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THE WEST COAST

I have got really really behind with this, so sorry. You can blame the availability of the internet in Western Australia for that. I know you look forward to it Dad. And I know you love it almost as much as Eastenders Pete. So I'm trying to catch up ASAP!!!

Tuesday 25 May - Perth to Kalbarri
The trains didn't wake me up today, so had a lie in until 6.15am (!!!). I was getting picked up at 7 and it was nice listening to the domestic going on in the hostel whilst I was getting ready (!!!). I was a bit worried I'd missed the tour as Jenny, the guide, didn't come to get me until 20 past 7 but as she did come to get me at 20 past 7 I obviously hadn‘t missed it. Jenny is Welsh and it was nice to hear her accent. On the bus we also had John who is English from London, Vanessa who is French, Leroy who is German, Lauren who is Canadian, Andrea who is Irish, Charlotte who is French, Kersten who is German and Lya who is American (we picked her up a bit later though). Phew! My new family for the next couple of weeks. We headed north out of Perth and it wasn't long until we were in the middle of nowhere. There wasn’t much to look at. The most exciting thing I saw was a wind farm, which was very exciting for me as I have a thing about them, as Andy Coles will know (I bet you‘re missing me on the drive into work Andy!). We stopped off at the Pinnacles which are quite interesting; there are loads of them, they are finger like stone structures sticking out of the rocks (the Aboriginal story says they are the fingertips of the men who were lost in the desert after being warned not to go there). There isn't a definitive geological explanation for them. In the area there is evidence of Dutch exploration in the early 1600s. It was cool to walk through them although as Lauren said it was a bit like being led out somewhere for something suspicious. We were warned to stay together as it's easy to get lost (someone was lost for 3 hours once) and we were concerned at one point when Leroy disappeared. After that we went on for lunch; nice wraps for me and then to Geraldton which seemed a nice little place. I am glad we picked her up as she is so lovely and we‘ve had a great time. From then on it went a bit quiet, not surprising when we found that 90% of the population of Western Australia lives south of Geraldton. It was a long drive to Kalbarri, the only thing we saw was the biggest salt lake in Australia, which was nice, pinky. Jenny told us about Hutt River Province which is near to Kalbarri, another country inside Australia. This came about when a local farmer was not happy with some rules the Western Australian government were imposing on him so decided to investigate, found a loophole, and found that if he made the land a separate country they could not impose the law. As a result he doesn't have to pay tax but as he wasn't in it for the money he makes sure that he pays what he would have had to pay in tax to the local community. He is called Prince Leonard and his wife Princess Shirley. If you visit they will give you a Visa and stamp your passport. We arrived into our hostel (Kalbarri Backpackers in Kalbarri, right by the sea) at about 6.30 and went out for Fish and Chips at Finleys. We thought Jenny was taking us into the middle of nowhere but we eventually came across it (a relief as it was so cold out) and had the best fish and chips. It was in a lovely setting, a bit like an Australian version of eating out in Greece or Spain. We had a couple of beers and were in bed at 10; I slept well apart from the coughing waking me up which was stressful as didn't want to wake any of the others up, apparently I didn't.

Wednesday 26 May - Kalbarri
We were up at 7 to go canoeing down the Murchison River! We had a 30 minute drive to the start point which was VERY bumpy. We were two to a canoe and Andrea suggested she go with me as we were both complete novices and we could look rubbish together (think she regretted that idea though, as the morning went on). We had to wade through mud to get into the canoe which wasn't so bad, just had to expect my poor heels to get bad again, which they did. We got going, with Andrea in the back and me in the front, very slowly though. We didn't make much progress and had a few hairy moments when we thought we would go over. Our paddles kept clashing and we didn't have much of a rhythm going, it was very funny though! And painful, my arms and shoulders were aching like crazy after 5 minutes. We were last and got in for breakfast a bit later than the others...the breakfast was amazing, a full cooked breakfast on the side of the river. We filled ourselves up, needed our strength! We got back on the river and unfortunately got worse, I was in the back this time and have concluded I'm not so great at steering a canoe. We spent 15 minutes doing donuts in the middle of the river, with Colin (our guide) trying to shout help from the river bank. I have no idea what we were doing wrong, must have been me as when we eventually got back to the side and had a wobbly couple of minutes swapping over and Andrea got in the back we were much better! It was so funny, Andrea said she hasn't laughed so much in ages. My favourite Andrea quote: "I don' know what else you're doing Rachel, but you're certainly making me laugh!". We were still giggling about it late into the afternoon! And weeks later. I think we were catching up with the others but when I said this to Andrea she said "Catching up?!!! I can't even see them Rachel!" We then had another break and on the 3rd and final stretch we were actually much better. We started off at the back, overtook 1 canoe and I said "I'm going to remember these couple of seconds we're not at the back Andrea" and then kept going strong, overtaking another 2 canoes and eventually coming in 3rd. We were so proud!!! We were soaking wet and muddy so went back to the hostel for a shower and tea and Tim-Tams (first time of having that in Australia). Then chilled out as there wasn't much to do as it was raining and very cold. It was a nice afternoon as we were not in a rush to do anything; we had to pack and get sorted and chill. I had really achy forearms from canoeing so a good job we were not doing much. We then went to the pub in Kalbarri to watch The State of Origin (a series of Rugby League games between Queensland and New South Wales, where the players go back and play for the state they originated from) which was a big night for the locals, even though we were in Western Australia. I even found it exciting and I'm not from Australia or even a huge Rugby League fan. I was supporting Queensland (Ants might not have let me stay with him again if I hadn't been!) and they won, which apparently is quite predictable as they always do. It was a really nice atmosphere, I got chatting to a Scots guy who'd fought in the Falklands; that was a bit sad really as he was a bit drunk and you could see he was still really affected by it. Although it was a nice evening I was in a lot of pain with my arms and it got so bad I had to go home. It was a really weird pain, not muscle pain, like my bones were aching. So I took some Ibroprofen and went to bed. But I was woken up at 12.30 in so much pain, it was almost unbearable and actually made me cry. I didn't really know what to do, didn't want to wake the others up, so rang an expert on aches and pains who sorted me out - thank you Drew 😊 - so I could calm down and get back to sleep, after taking some Codeine which eased the pain quite quickly.

Thursday 27 May - Kalbarri to Denham
I woke up without any pain at all, was so random. It seemed like I missed a good night, as certain people didn't get home until 7am...! It was rainy and windy, wonderful! But it did make the waves look awesome, especially where the River Murchison meets the sea. We drove into the Kalbarri National Park, very bumpy, there were lots of thuds and bangs but Jenny seemed to know what she was doing (second favourite quote from Andrea "it's a good job I'm wearing a sports bra") and visited The Loop (bends in the river) and Nature's Window (a rock formation that's a bit like a window) which was cool. The scenery was awesome; layered red rock, deep gorges, a sandy river bed and it was so peaceful and wild. The only sound was the wind in the trees which sounded like the sea. We had plenty of opportunities for daredevil photos on the edge of the cliffs but I was not up for that, especially as you could see where bits of the cliff have fallen away. John didn't like it either, he had (I actually made him, only joking) to take one photo of me flat against the wall behind him to stop him feeling shaky! The bus journey back out was also very bumpy, with not much to look at except the remnants of a bush fire, guess it was a controlled one though as it stopped right at the road. We then drove out of Kalbarri towards Shark Bay, which was a long long drive so I read, slept and planned. Again.
Our first stop in Shark Bay was the Stromatolites which were formed 3 1/2 billion years ago (they are pretty much the oldest thing on Earth, the first living organism to colonise Earth). I'm a bit confused about them but from what I understand they are single cell organisms (Cynobacteria), that form colonies, trapping sediments in the water to form limestone rock structures. Over 2 billion years they formed extensive reefs and dominated life on Earth, releasing Oxygen into the environment which eventually allowed plants and animals to evolve. To look at they are not that much, I'm not really sure what I was looking at most of the time, some are dead and some were damaged by the first settlors who drove their horse and carts over them (you can see the tracks in them) but when you think about what they've done for us (without them we wouldn't be here) they are pretty cool and as there are only 3 places in the world in which you can see them, I'm pleased to have seem them. After that we moved on, crossing over a fence, which actually BARKED at us, as in barked like a dog. In Shark Bay they're running something called 'Project Eden' which is designed to protect the area……..
(it's a World Heritage Site - to be this it needs one of the following 4 things, in simple terms:
1-be part of Evolutionary History
2-have threatened or endangered species
3-have natural rare beauty
4-there be an ongoing interaction between man and animal.
Shark Bay ticks all 4 boxes)
………from feral animals (like cats and dogs and foxes). They built the fence, cleared out all the feral animals and are now re-introducing the native animals. The fence combined with the barking apparently keeps the feral animals out..! We stopped off at Shell Beach which was really pretty, the beach is covered in tiny shells, layered up to 10m deep in places. It'd be lovely to have chilled out there if it wasn't so windy. The toilets were interesting, the worst smelling bush toilets I have even been in (nearly chucked as soon as I walked in) and they provide a brush and water which you're supposed to use on the basin before (not sure why) and after you've used it; that confused us all. We drove into Denham at about 6 (after stopping to take a picture of the beware of the Bilby sign, not even sure what a Bilby is). Denham is the most Westerly pub in Australia and there is not a lot there, luckily a bit of a chemist as I had to get something for my cough as it was getting ridiculous. The hostel was nice, we had a 2 bedroom apartment with kitchen and living room for all of us, only problem was there was 1 bathroom which caused problems, especially as the toilet was in the same room as the shower. We showered and changed and went to the Shark Bay Hotel for dinner (the most Westerly pub in Australia). It was a cheap nice meal but the atmosphere in the pub was terrible (highlight was finding a Scot on the bar who'd heard of Runrig) so we went back to our apartment, watched Sea Patrol then BENIDORM (so exciting to get a Madge fix!) and then went to bed. I had another bad night though, had a nightmare about something bad happening to my Mum so woke up crying and had to get up at 1am to call her. That was nice though, having a catch up as they are on holiday in Guernsey so I'm very jealous (pretty cool too as Maff rang Dad at the same time so we had a bit of a four way conversation).

Friday 28 May - Denham
We got picked up at 9am (was a challenge to get us all out on time, with there being only 1 bathroom) and went for a trip to Ocean Park with Will, one of their guides. That was really interesting, it's a sea wildlife conservation and rehabilitation centre. We saw so many things; Blowfish, Loggerhead Turtles, Lion fish, Toad fish, Lemon Sharks, Sandbar Sharks, Nervous Whaler Sharks, Barramundi and then BIG sharks! They had a Tiger Shark swimming around in a huge pool. We learnt a bit about sharks there.....Great Whites are apparently most dangerous as they are quick and clever and like a challenge when it comes to their dinner, Bull Sharks and next most dangerous and then Tiger Sharks, but as they're lazy they're not so much of a threat, even though there are more people killed by Tiger Sharks than any other shark (I guess all this stuff depends on who you are talking to, I get a bit confused, just know I don‘t want to come across any of them whilst in the water). We watched Shark feeding (which was a lot more tolerable than Lion feeding in New Zealand!) which was cool, saw a feeding frenzy but stupidly deleted the video. After Ocean Park we went further into the Francois Peron National Park (it was 4 wheel drive, so had to let the tyres down, apparently I did mine just right) where we spent the day off-road-ing and visiting nice little bays like the Gregories, Cape Peron and Skipjack Point. At Cape Peron we saw a lot Shags, some Stingrays and Ghost Crabs. At Skipjack Point we saw DOLPHINS (again, about the 5th time in a week) and then a DUGONG which was pretty cool (a sea cow, like a Manatee) and really exciting as they are more rare. On the way back to Denham we stopped at the Peron Homestead for a natural springs hot tub, I didn't get in, didn't look enough room and it was a bit too hot. Once back in Denham Andrea, John, Kersten and I went for a wander to the cafe then sat on the grass by the sea chatting, that was lovely. We then had a very chilled out time getting ready to go out and cooking (I had lovely Macaroni Cheese, quite impressed with the packet stuff) and then went out to the Heritage Pub. It started off quite quiet but them Oh What A Night! I'm really not sure Denham knew what had hit it. We were dancing all over the place when nobody else was, it was brilliant. Then as we were leaving Jenny got a call from a guy at Monkey Mia inviting us to a Full Moon Party so Andrea, Lya, Lauren, Jenny and I jumped in some cars (perhaps not the best advised thing I've done so far on my trip, but Jenny knew them all) and made the 30 minute drive to Monkey Mia, was quite impressed with Wayne our driver, was very safe. It was so awesome once we got there, it wasn't a big party at all, just the guys working at Monkey Mia and those that had come over to Denham but it was an amazing night. We walked out onto the jetty and saw the dolphins (in case you didn't know, Monkey Mia is famous for it's dolphins, we were due there the next day to go to Dolphin feeding) swimming around. They were beautiful, it was so calm and quiet and you could see the glint of their eyes and white of their bellies in the moonlight. It was breathtaking, they came in so close so we could see them so clearly, hard to get a good photo though, especially without flash. Lauren and I went for a paddle (the water was so warm) and one dolphin swam right next to us, almost brushing our legs, was too stunned to get a photo. It was magical. We then left the Dolphins to it and partied; I saw 2 shooting stays whilst I was dancing. The locals were fun and interesting; one told me he farmed Quokkas (the rat/wallaby type animal I‘d seen on Rottnest Island). I thought this was a bit suspicious (reminded me of Stevie Holders "I care for sick dolphins line") so when I pulled him up on it he said he sometimes uses "I wrangle sharks" (like that'd be less suspicious?!!). We left at 3.30am and had a lovely drive back with the sea lagoons shining in the moonlight listening to Guns n Roses and Metallica (think they all thought I was a bit crazy singing away and dancing to that) and got in at 4am. We had to be up at 6!

Next up: Monkey Mia in the daytime to Coral Bay.

Lots of love Xx

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