Save a horse, ride a Cowboy

We set off for Manning gorge this very cold morning but it was far too cold to swim across to the other side to begin the hike so we piled 6 of us into the very small boat and used the rope to pull ourselves to the other side – I’ll admit it definitely didn’t feel like the safest journey I’ve ever been on but we did make it across safely!
It was about an hour and a half hike up to the gorge itself but we were rewarded with beautiful views and beautifully cool water to refresh ourselves with. Christina and I found a perfect spot where we were able to sun bathe but keep our feet dipped in to keep us cool. We chatted for so long about what we both wanted to do with our lives over the next couple of years that we didn’t even realise most of the group had already started heading back and we were almost left behind!

Luckily the long hike had managed to tire me out enough to nap on the ridiculously uncomfortable bus! Boy the things we would do to get Storm’s luxury bus back!! It was a long drive to El Questro Cattle Station but luckily we had a few majestic lookout point along the way! 

    
   
We are camping at El Questro for the next two nights, luckily with it being two nights it means we get the luxury of pitching up a tent to keep us warm! Ariane gave out the instructions (I think it’s already clear that camping isn’t my forte) and our tent was up in no time!! I definitely chose the right roomie there!

Once camp was set up we headed over to the luxury shower huts where we were spoilt with our own individual bathrooms! Unfortunately it had to be too good to be true in some sense and although we did have hot water for once it wasn’t very consistent!

Ariane and I headed over to check out the music at the local bar and grab a quick drink before dinner. We were tempted in my the smell of fish and chips though so treated ourselves to a pre-dinner bar snack whilst listening to the locals attempt to sing some songs – “save a horse, ride a cowboy” was my particular favourite!!  

 
 

Gorges Galore!

I was feeling rather grumpy this morning after a sleepless night from being too cold overnight in our swags yet too hot during the day but the power of music improved my mood as per usual. It’s amazing the power of a good song!
We drove past a few fantastic lookouts along the way out to Bell Gorge. 

   
I loved sitting and relaxing in the cool shade whilst I watched and laughed at everyone else struggling to get in and out of the swimming hole. That was definitely entertainment for the afternoon!

After lunch we made a quick stop at Galvans gorge – the apparent 9 minute walk (which was more like 20 minutes… Paddy’s timing can never be trusted!). A few went swimming in what looked like nothing more than a pond, it didn’t really take my fancy! Although I did manage to lose my sunglasses and with the water being so dark and murky it looks as if they’re gone forever!

Tonight we’re camping at Manning Gorge – fingers crossed it will be a bit warmer!! Then a 3 hour morning hike to see the Manning gorge tomorrow.

Winnie the Pooh trees

Today is the first day on the second part of our tour as we bid farewell to Broome and begin our journey up to Darwin. I managed to wake up and be ready an hour earlier than everyone else due to thinking next doors alarm was our alarm. Clearly my brain doesn’t work too well in the morning!! I definitely will not miss the open dorm room styles of Broome!
It never fails to amaze me what a huge country this is and yet I have a friend joining our trip completely by chance!! As the bus came to pick us up Emma, from my previous outback (Alice springs to Darwin) trip, was sat at the very front waiting to say hello! Such a small world at the same time as being so huge!

First up we headed to the Boab tree prison. The Boab tree is hollow inside and this particular tree has cracked open leaving a rather large door style entrance. It reminded me a little more of Winnie the Pooh however it is said that back in the day it was used as a prison to hold indigenous slaves who had been captured for their strength and diving ability to be utilised for the pearling industry. It is unknown how much the tree was used to contain them or if they were just shackled together but either way it is another sad story to see. I will never be able to understand how one race/country or even person thinks they have the right to treat another person as if they own them. We watched Django unchained on one of the previous journeys and it got me thinking the same at the time! The human race really does disappoint me sometimes, I know we’ve come a long way from those days but we still have a very long way to go for equality! 

After a thoughtful morning we headed over to Windjana Gorge to see over 60 freshwater crocodiles. Luckily these aren’t the deadly ones so we could stand and watch them (still from a distance) at ease! It always fascinates me to learn that the temperature surrounding an egg determines whether it will be a male or female born. Crocodiles aim for 6 females to ever make and they will choose their nests accordingly. Unfortunately the survival rate in the wild is crazy low – something around 1/2%!! 

We took some time to have a look at the rock formations here before heading back on the road after lunch.

 After lunch we headed over to Tunnel Creek for a walk through the pitch black tunnel with our aboriginal guide. He told us some of the stories of his ancestors and how the tunnel was created in their opinion by a large Python (well that was what I understood) – although I don’t think the geologists in our group agreed!

Tonight is our first swag night on the trip and already I’m missing the luxuries of the previous ‘glamping’ nights!

Hump day of the trip!

Sunday evening we got into Broome and headed out for a farewell dinner at the local brewery as part of our group ended their journey here. The whole Perth to Darwin tour is split at Broome with 9 of us continuing but 6 members are unfortunately going their separate ways. 
We stuck around at the bar for a while for a few drinks and a few farewells and then headed off for a beautiful nights sleep with no alarm set!! Unfortunately as we’d all got used to waking up so early I don’t think anyone managed to stay asleep past 8am but at least it gave me a few hours in the morning to catch on some emails and work before heading out to explore the centre.

Broome doesn’t have all that much to offer so today we had a pretty relaxed day, spending a couple hours in a laneway cafe and then headed off for a (very thorough) full body massage and a very rushed pedicure!  

  We stopped off at a truck version of take away wood fired pizza – it was amazing!! It was literally just a truck with three wood fire ovens on it and he made up huge pizzas for you with so much meat. I was in absolute heaven!!! 

 On our final day in Broome we decided to cool down with a day at cable beach – it’s a beautiful beach with beautiful clear skies and clear seas today, we were very lucky!! But unfortunately the afternoon went by far too quickly!  

    
 For sunset we enjoyed a camel ride along the beach and boy was that an adventure!! Our group of 4 girls were first on the camels out of a whole group of about 20 people and just after the 4 of us got on some dogs started chasing a wallaby through the bushes which majorly spooked the camels who all immediately rose and starting jumping around. Hayley was terrified we were going to die – I was just worried what we were meant to do with about 12 camels if they all rode off into the distance with us still on top!! 

    
 Luckily the workers managed to calm the camels and we set off on our walk – although the fun didn’t stop there! Not long after a silly child with extremely bad parents kicked a ball into the camels which again spooked them. And just when we thought things couldn’t get any worse we came across a deaf dog (you couldn’t make this stuff up!) who insisted on chasing the camels and I kid you not one of the camels jumped so high it looked like it could fly!! Thankfully it wasn’t our camel though! We managed to eventually make it back to the finishing point with everyone in one piece – although the workers definitely looked like they’d developed a few new grey hairs! 

    
 We headed straight over to the oldest outdoor cinema in Australia for a yummy treat of Magic Mike 2 (for the second time – you can never have enough naked men! Haha!). Unfortunately the midges came out in full force and feasted on Sydney and I all evening – the things a girl will do for Channing Tatum!  

 Back to the hostel for a final catch up on work before we leave civilisation behind again for another 9 days!

The easy life

Australia is the 6th biggest country in the world and if WA were a separate country, it would be the 10th biggest and yet for some reason it still surprises me every day that we spend so much time stuck in the bus. I always knew it was going to be an extremely long journey but I still don’t think I fully realised just how long it would be!
We finally arrived at Paradoo Cattle Station with a little bit of sun left to appreciate the property. Paradoo is just over a million hectares in total (and it’s the smallest cattle station in the area) though so we couldn’t fully appreciated all of it!

After the most luxurious warm shower (anything could have been luxurious though after three days of cold showers) we settled in for an Aussie BBQ dinner just as Santa Clause arrived! Some Australians celebrate Christmas in July as it marks their winter – even if it is still 25-30 degrees in their winter! 

We then moved over to sit by the fire and some of the stations campsite locals came over to join us after their traditional Christmas dinner. We got chatting to a few of the couples, almost all of who are retired and spending the Australian winter months away from the south coast. One couple we spoke to were from outside of Perth and another from Victoria and they would spend 6-8 months of the year on cattle station enjoying the proper Australian heat!! 

What a lifestyle! I asked what they can even do with themselves here for 6-8 months (I was struggling to fill one evening with activities) and they just gave the best response I think I could ever, ever imagine!!!! Firstly he laughed and told me he doesn’t ever get bored here and so I asked what he was doing tomorrow, he told me he was having a day off. Then from across the fire his friend shouted – “how can you say you’re having a day off tomorrow, you’ve not even done anything today?!” And he looked at me with the cheesiest of grins and said as innocently as a child – “because I didn’t finish doing nothing today”.

I sat there for a while and thought about my never ending to do list for the next academic year (baring in mind it hasn’t even started yet!!) and wondered if my life could ever look like that. Could I ever master the art of simply doing nothing. It reminded me of the beginning of the second semester here in Australia when I had returned from travelling and organised myself after the summer but university hadn’t really picked up yet (to its whopping 12 hours a week anyway) and I hadn’t started working again and I felt myself starting to question why I was here. I don’t think it was that I didn’t want to be here I think it was more that I wanted to continue travelling and having adventures everyday but it was then that I realised I would probably never let myself have an easy life. Not that I won’t ever have an easy day – don’t get me wrong I love a sloth day as much as the rest but I only love it when it is a sloth day, not a sloth week! 

The way I am programmed is both a blessing and a curse I think. I don’t think I’m able to have an easy life – but I also don’t think I want one.

I’m not sure what happened with the group whilst I was deep in thought but by the time I had refocused we were joined by the rest of the elderly locals and they were starting to tell jokes – half of them I could hear and the other half I couldn’t understand but in between that there were a few golden gems! 

Sunday brought with it another driving day as we made the final leg of the journey up to Broome. Before lunch we stopped off at 80 mile beach – which isn’t actually 80 miles it’s about a third of that distance, the reason it’s called 80 mile beach though is because in the older days they measured distances with how long it took in a horse and cart to get somewhere. However they didn’t account for the fact you can move approximately 3 times slower on sand! 

    
 When we stopped for lunch we happened to get talking to a woman who was 87 and cycling(!!) from Darwin to Perth(!!) for the 4th time(!!!!!!!). I’m 22 and I couldn’t even make it the whole way around Rottnest!! She was an inspiration to the whole group to never give up and never do (or don’t do) what you’re supposed to do. She told us how she probably wasn’t supposed to be cycling these distances but she didn’t care. She wanted to do it so she did! 

We stopped off at a few Roadhouses along the way and I came across one just outside of Broome with the coolest of Aussie roadsigns! Unfortunately the Melbourne plate wasn’t for sale  

   
We’ve finally made it to Broome thankfully with enough time for a shower before our Farrell dinner this evening! 

Koala days and morning hikes

Yesterday was our koala day on tour, with 750km to travel in one single day from Exmouth to Karijini all we could do was sit back and sleep on the bus. Obviously no complaints from me! After working 70+ hour weeks all semester and having so much society work to finalise before starting the trip a day of sleeping sounds like heaven! 
We got into Karijini just in time for sunset over our campsite and settled in for an early nights sleep (around 9pm!) as we had a 4am wake up call to hike up Mount Bruce to catch the sunrise!

The early morning typically had to come in the middle of the best sleep so far of course! But it was a great hike to the top with fantastic views!! It was a good achievement for me too – knowing all my previous gym efforts haven’t worn off yet.  

   
I thought hiking up to the top would be the hard part but in fact the walk down was much harder! Very steep rocks to ‘scramble’ down and this time the only place to look is down the cliff!! Luckily we all managed okay, it wasn’t until we were back on relatively flat land again that I managed to fall over, graze my hand and damage my other arm! But that’s not really surprising knowing me!

After lunch we headed into Dale Gorge, a 3km hike there and back – wasn’t easy with the thighs already burning!! I led the way for some of the part back however after almost leading the group through several pools and a very tight squeeze through one rock Sarah took over – she definitely did a much better job than myself! When we got to the end there was a huuuge climb through many many stairs to the top and I really wouldn’t be surprised if I wake up with buns of steel like JLo!!

We’re heading back to the camp now for dinner and an attempt at a later night although with the whole bus is asleep around me already I’m not so sure that will happen!

Biggest fish in the ocean

Last nights stars were phenomenal! Ariane and I stuck our heads out of the tents for an hour or so before we headed to sleep because they really were amazing! Once you leave the hustle bustle of any town/city behind Australia delights you with this view of all views! If only you could capture it on an average camera! 
Today was the day of the whale sharks! The long awaited whale sharks!! I remember my travel agent first mentioning this over a year ago when I began to book my trips and I felt nervous at the thought of swimming with a whale shark, to be honest at that stage I don’t think I even really knew what a whale shark was! Then about a month ago my friend Diane also got to swim with them and her excitement rubbed off on me. Today was my turn and despite a hell of a day – the whale sharks did not disappoint!

The reason why I say it was a hell of a day is because it seemed that everything that could go wrong did go wrong! To begin with we found out yesterday that the trip might not even go ahead due to the weather however we were told it was going to ahead and the company Kings would pick us up at 8 from our campsite at Yardie Creek. An hour later and they still hadn’t arrived – our tour guide phoned to find out they were running late but it turns out they had actually canceled the trip (but not even told us) and then put it back on again at the last minute. Not a great start to the day.

We got on board and headed out in search of the whale shark with no luck for a good couple of hours. The waters were extremely choppy and everyone started to feel very sick – myself included…again! After a couple hours we headed over to a snorkel site to get everyone off the boat and in the water momentarily in an attempt to stop the sea sickness however I must say I was extremely disappointed with the site as there was almost nothing to even see!! 

Luckily the call then came through that the whale shark had been spotted and we were heading over to find it. People began to feel sicker and sicker again as we waited for the whale shark to come up from yet another dive down. I’m told these creatures can dive down to almost 1km so we had not choice but to wait and see if it decided to return to the surface. We were in luck for a number of minutes and it was our turn to dive in. Kings rushed everyone in the water as quick as possible before the whale shark dived down again however it felt more as if it was of a money grabbing scheme (you pay $100 extra if you get to snorkel with the whale shark) as opposed to them trying to get you to have a great experience. I’d say we were in the water for less than 5 minutes until we were pulled out and another company got the chance to make some more money.

That being said the experience itself was amazing to say the least. The whale sharks aren’t actually a whale but they are the largest fish in the ocean and they are beyond astonishing! So calm and majestic as they swim around the ocean like the own the place. The whale shark we got to swim with was tagged for research and I believe they said it was a female.  

   
The experience itself was phenomenal! We were unlucky with the weather and at this time of year there are less whale sharks around however I would not recommend Kings to anyone. Ever. The staff were friendly enough but it seemed more of an act if I’m honest, just a way to get more money out of you. 

They were also extremely sneaky with their photography from the day. They say if you purchase a set of photos from the day they will personalise it to include photos of you and only you – I think this is obviously to stop you from purchasing one as a group and all paying a fraction of the price each. Again another money making scheme on their behalf. Ariane and I did a deal with the photographer for both of our photographs however when we actually received the usb later there wasn’t even a single photo from our group swimming with the whale shark!!! Instead there were lots of other pictures of everyone else from the day! Obviously not personalised!!

So yes all I can say from this day is 100% swim with the whale sharks if you get a chance – but 100% don’t go with Kings!!

Tonight we are back for another night camping at Yardie Creek, just outside of Exmouth before heading off to Karijini National Park tomorrow morning!

Swimming in the big blue

Having a girls only room most definitely paid off last night as we didn’t have to put up with any of the boys snoring! 
Today we headed out to the Ningaloo Reef, a place I have wanted to go to for over a year now!! Despite the dodgy winds which lead to dodgy tummies it did not disappoint! 

First swim of the day was with the majestic manta rays, this is the second time I’ve swam with them but I don’t think you could ever get bored of these creatures!! They float along as if they have no care in the world moving with such ease and agility.  

    
 Unfortunately it was a pretty cold and windy day so I did spend quite some time feeling sorry for myself over the edge of the boat! Thankfully it had worn off by the time of the next snorkel and I was ready to go searching for some turtles! And I was in luck!! We found a very chilled out little fella who was happy for us to follow him around for some time and watch him attempt to get himself some snacks – even managed to get a few great videos and photos! 

 Although he is looking slightly angry here!
  
 As the day went on I got colder and colder, once you get to the shivering stage (and you’re wet) it is very hard to come back from that but the group were lovely looking after me and Sydney leant me her beautifully warm rain coat which helped a lot!

One final snorkel over the shark cleaning bay – yes this is apparently a real thing and not just from the cartoon movies! – although we only managed to spot a couple reefies. 

All in all it was a fantastic day put on by Coral Bay Eco Tours and I would definitely venture out with them again! Just hopefully the weather would be better next time!

Back to Coral Bay for the most beautiful hot shower and back on the bus for the venture down to Exmouth for our first go at two nights camping!

Dolphins and stromatolites

First up this morning we headed out to Eagles Bluff lookout point to see if we could spot any wildlife – Storm claims he could see a shark circling around the reef below however I don’t think anyone in the group really believed him!

I’ve been excited all year to finally make it over to Monkey Mia to check out the Dolphins and I was pleasantly surprised to find that they are working very hard to improve the visiting Dolphins quality of life. They strictly only feed a family of 4 female Dolphins (although how they tell them apart I do not know!) – of these 4 females one was still a baby following mum around in the ocean. Females are chosen because they are often less aggressive than the males. It was brilliant to see and Christina was lucky enough to get picked to feed one of them. They also ensure that the Dolphins are only fed several times a day so that they still need to do some hunting of their own to stay full. This ensures they do not become fully reliant on humans for food. 

After Monkey Mia we headed out to see the mystical stromatolites – something which storm mentioned several times but refused to actually tell us about until we got there. Once we finally heard the whole story I was very impressed. 

The peninsula in Shark Bay is cut off by several sand banks which stop the water flow in and out of the bay, with such high temperatures in this area evaporation occurs 10 times faster than rain so water becomes extremely salty which creates the perfect conditions for stromatolites… Great – still don’t know what they are yet though! 

In the end we resorted to good old Wikipedia to inform us that stromatolites are layered bio-chemical structures formed in shallow water by the trapping, binding and cementation of sedimentary grains of microorganisms, especially cyanobacteria. Stromatolites provide ancient records of life on Earth by fossil remains which might date from more than 3.5 billion years ago. 

It was really impressive to hear from a geologist on our tour how much impact studying these stromatolites can have for science.

We stayed at Coral Bay for the evening and were treated to a BBQ by the hostel however it came with a drink offer and a real bad attitude. The lady behind the bar wouldn’t even know a set of decent manors if it slapped her across the face! Storm got the team together for a couple games of Jenga but after I lost twice continuously I figured it was probably time for me to get to bed! I’ve got a hot date with Ningaloo reef tomorrow!

Everyday should be an adventure

This morning we set off for some abseiling down a 25m gorge, thankfully I’m still feeling pretty fearless after my 134m bungy jump so I wasn’t feeling the nerves today!
We met up with Col who would be our instructor and guide us through the abseiling twice. The boys went first, despite a few nerves from them! Col would ask any old questions to try and get your mind off the height but it always seemed to end up back on cricket – which none of us seemed to know anything about! Col’s method didn’t really work on Aditier who would just stop what he was doing to return the conversation instead of walking and talking! 

By the time it got to my turn I had just about finished tucking my cardigan into the harness which somehow then got nicknamed the grandma cardigan! Once I’d successfully taught Col how to say Megan and not Magen like every other Australian it was my turn to back off the cliff edge and begin my descent down, there was a little ledge to walk off and then you can start to jump/bounce off the cliff a little faster for a little more fun! I was asked if it was the first time I had a pole between my legs as apparently I was a natural – I think in those situations it’s just best to say ‘no comment!’ Haha! 

Christina was at the bottom of the abseil as our safety point which definitely worried me slightly as she is probably less than 5ft and most definitely the smallest person on the trip, I’m not sure she’d be able to stop my fall but luckily that wasn’t needed and she did a fantastic job at undressing all the girls from their harnesses! Which of course was her favourite part haha 

   
Col continued to struggle with names and changed Ariane to Oreo which has already stuck as the best nickname so far!

After abseiling we headed down to a beautiful stream to dip our toes – much too cold for anything else! However somehow Ron managed to jump straight on in!  

Next up we drove over to a lookout over the Z-bend in Murchison gorge. We learnt how gorges are created from water moving the rocks and canyons are more from the rock moving (without the help of water). After Murchison Gorge we headed over to Natures Window for a few pictures once we’d made it to the end of the walk. We managed to get almost the whole group together for a photo but unfortunately the lady who took the photo managed to black out half the group! 

    
 For sunset today we got to spend some time relaxing and capturing photos on shell beach. Then headed over to Denham for the night – only to get in the showers in the tour guides room (ours had a 10 people queue) and the power to go! Wow that was a panic!!