Advertisement
Published: October 24th 2006
Edit Blog Post
After my trip to Kakadu, I spent a few days chilling out (and clawing at my numerous insect bites!) in Darwin (tours can be soooooo exhausting!!), going out drinking/partying and looking for a lift to Broome. Another girl from my tour, Lauren, had the same idea so we went in search together. Lauren met some guys - Oz, Norm (2 israelis) and Manuel (a Spaniard), in her hostel who were heading that way and had space in their car so we arranged to meet them for a drink (to suss them out!) and decided they seemed like laid back, fun loving guys so agreed to go with them and started planning our road trip 😊
We took 4 days to drive across and covered nearly 2,000km. It was quite a tight squish fitting all of our stuff, the camping equipment and ourselves into a 5 door station wagon!!! Half way through day 2 Lauren decided that she wanted to visit the Bungle Bungles (and was not coping well in the cramped car) so decided to jump out when we got to Kununarra, and then there were 4. But we all had a wicked time and the boys looked after me
The end of the road trip :(
We finally made it to Broome after 4 days on the road. well.
Stayed in Broome for a few days but wasn't really liking it; stayed in a disgusting hostel ( If you're ever heading there don't stay at 'Broome's Last Resort' - I'd say it was called that for a v.good reason!!) and just didn't get good vibes from the place (was actually quite disappointed because thought i would really like it from what other people had said). Went for a sunset camel ride down cable beach though which was good fun.
Then hopped on an 'Easyrider' bus and headed down the West Coast towards Perth. Easyrider is a cross between a bus service and a tour because it takes you to all the places of interest but allows you to get off the bus where you want and stay for as long as you want before picking you up to continue your journey.
I first jumped off at Pardoo Cattle Station and spent a few days there. Was cleaning rooms etc in exchange for accom&food. The owners, Deb and Harry, were top people and i had a lot of fun there. Most days consisted of me cleaning cabins for a few hours in the morning and then
either going out in the 4wd with Harry in the afternoon, having a swim in the pool or relaxing with a book before chatting with Deb and Harry over few beers in the evening.Harry took me fishing on my last day and i managed to catch a 7kg, 93cm Whiskery Salmon which we ate for dinner and i had for 3 subsequent dinners - yummy 😊
Our driver between Pardoo and Exmouth, Wes, was great as was the group of people who were on the bus i hopped back on to. We all had a lot of laughs along the way. Wes had designed a game for the bus , Wheel of Misfortune, which involved us writing our names on the front left tyre and numbers 1 to 10 on the right one. When the bus stopped, whoevers name was closest to the ground had to do a dare which corresponded to the number clostest to the ground on the other side; these ranged from eating a tsp of vegemite or being Wes' slave to running around the outside of the bus in your undies or flashing a truckie!!Was great fun until I had to sing to everyone on
the bus (SOBER and into the microphone)- Madonna's 'Like A Prayer' has never sounded so good!
After leaving Pardoo we headed for Karijini NP where we spent 4 hours exploring, admiring the impressive rock formations, hiking and swimming in secluded pools and waterfalls - the water was pretty cold but v.refreshing and so crystal clear. That night we stayed in tents on a permanent campsite near the NP and headed to bed early as we were setting off at 5am the following morning!
My next place to jump off was Exmouth where I was going to do some more Scuba diving on the Ningaloo Reef. Two others on the bus, Justin and Thelki, were also jumping off and for the next 4 days we all had a ball. The day after we arrived we went on a Scooter Safari - basically we spent the day riding around the Cape Range NP on scooters taking in the amazing views and being told lots of intersting info by our guide, with breaks at some of the beaches to go snorkelling (the fringing reef is just off the beaches so you can literally wade out to it) and picnic meal stops
Scooter Safari
Well, I may not have looked v.cool but I had a fab time :) before ending the day watching the sunset up at the lighthouse with fish and chips 😊 Was a bit apprehensive as we set off cos i'd never been on a scooter but took to it like a duck to water and after half an hour there was no stopping me- was just a shame that the scooters would only do 70km/hr!!
The following day Thelki and I went out for a half day of diving at the Ningaloo Reef which was awesome - we saw reef sharks, huge stingrays, sea turtles, sea snakes and lots of brightly coloured fish. Was good to be diving again and by the end of the second day was feeling really relaxed and comfortable with it all (well as comfortable as you can be in a tight neoprene suit with googles over you face, a reg in your mouth,huge plastic fins on your feet, wearing an inflatable waistcoat and massive tank of air on your back!!!)
On our final day in Exmouth, we decided to hire 2 scooters between the 3 of us and ride out to Cape Range NP again to explore more beaches and do more snorkelling. So armed with our snorkel gear
and our cool bag full of goodies for lunch, we excitedly zoomed off for a day of fun. We went to South Mandu (a must if you ever come to Exmouth), Turquoise bay and Lakeside to check out the marine life. South Mandu had the most amazing array of colourful coral as well as sharks and fish. Whilst in the water at Turquoise Bay I came across a Green Sea Turtle and was lucky enough to glide along beside him for 5-10 minutes 😊
Our next stop was a tiny place called Coral Bay which only has 140 residents and takes 5 mins to walk from one end of the town to the other. I bet you're wondering why we stayed there, well because it is extremely beautiful, the beach is lovely and the snorkelling is fab! By this stage we'd picked up another traveller, Jo, and the terrific trio were the fab four.
Jo and I went out on a glass bottom boat trip where I got to do plenty of snorkelling and Jo observed the fish through the glass and was chief towel holder(she has a phobia of swimming with fish).
The four of us also spent
Me, Justin and Thelki
Looking rather wind swept and sand blasted after a day of scooter riding, snorkelling and running about on beaches. a bit of time just relaxing and sun baking (that's what the aussies call it) on the beach or next to the pool.
In the afternoon, Justin, Thelki and I went for a walk along the beach to the Reef SHark nursery where all the mummy sharks leave their babies to grow up in relative safety. We weren't really expecting to see much but as we got there we could see lots of dark shadows in the water; there were about 100 reef sharks in the shallows swimming about, playing and chasing each other!!
To be continued....
Advertisement
Tot: 0.12s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 7; qc: 53; dbt: 0.0887s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Wardrobe Sitter.
non-member comment
Sunshine,sea,scuba & I have damp Hemel.
Excellent. I'm swept away by all your adventures and tales! I can not get my head around the fact you've been away 6 months and Shanna's coming to visit you! How utterly amazing is that!!!! All this lazing about- you are not going to know what has hit you when you have to get a 'proper regular job' (though to be fair- I dont know what that is either). Savour every moment! Good luck with the job in Sydney. I'm hooked to your journal - Let us know what happens next? Look after yourself.S.xxx