Beginning of the end

I genuinely cannot believe how fast 21 days can fly by!! It feels like a lifetime ago we were starting our west coast journey and already it’s coming to an end. I’ve had such a fantastic time and met so many more amazing people – definitely not ready for it to end!!
Today we headed for Edith Falls, a beautiful waterfall which I am luckily enough to be visiting for the second time. From memory the hike was a lot harder back in December with the added humidity! Today seemed more of a casual climb, although that did make it even harder to brave the cold water pool!! 

    
 After a relaxing morning at the waterfalls we were back on the road again to finish off our 7210km journey! 4210km from Perth to Broome and a further 3000km up to Darwin! Wow! This brings my time in Australia to a full circle in just over 13 months! 

As amazing as this west coast journey has been it is very nice to be back in civilisation! As we pulled into Darwin centre we all wowed at the number of people and buildings around us and we tried to remember how to function as normal human beings! 

We headed out the the sunset night markets down on Mindil Beach for a few treats! I had the most amazing jacket potato with garlic butter, bolognese and sour cream – such a treat after not being able to chose your own food for 21 days!! The night markets here were similar to that of Melbourne’s summer night markets but with slightly less variety on food (mostly Asian cuisine) – that being said they are definitely a must see if you’re in Darwin on a Thursday or Sunday night!! There’s such a feel good atmosphere down there with everyone enjoying themselves. 

    

 

The last Aussie BBQ

Guess what we did yesterday – go on, guess…… Yep you probably got it right…. More driving! Today the journey was Bungle Bungles to Lake Argyle and boy did it start out a bumpy one again. Getting in and out of the Bungle Bungle range has got to be one of the worst roads I’ve ever been on!! There was no sleeping through that journey, in fact I was lucky to just not bang my head every two seconds. After about two hours on these rough roads we finally made it out of the Bungle Bungles alive!!

We stopped off at Kunanara for lunch and a chance to catch up on some emails with signal back. I’ve come to quite enjoy not having signal although it’s not so enjoyable once you get it back with millions of emails and messages to catch up on!

We got to the campsite with just enough time to set up before dark again but the midges were out in full force tonight!! Ariane and I went to check out the bar again and just as we arrived the singer started to play my song – brown eyed girl! Timing or what!! We headed back for a speciality pizza dinner although it wasn’t the easiest to cook! Especially with a tour guide who didn’t really have a clue what was going on and definitely didn’t care! 

The next morning we headed out for a boat cruise on Lake Argyle – it was a fairly basic cruise and we didn’t get to see anything spectacular but it was interesting to learn about the largest man made lake in the whole of Australia. The dam was built in the 1970s to block up the River Ord using only local rock – no metal or steel in sight! To get the rock they set off the largest non-nuclear explosion in the southern hemisphere within these mountains causing enough rocks to fall off and build the dam.  

   Though hydro power, many of the local towns are able to reduce their diesel consumption – I’m always surprising impressed with how many Australian towns are using recycled energy to reduce carbon emissions!

The water stored in lake Argyle is also used as a local reservoir of water storage for growing crops.  

   As you can see there are many different uses for lake argyle – beyond the tourist attraction, however I’m sure many people come to see the huge population (over 25,000) of fresh water crocodiles which also live here.

Later on in the day we crossed the WA / NT border and got to pose for a few photos with the sign! I was also quite impressed that without even having signal my phone new to change the time! – technology eh! 

 Tonight we stayed just outside of Katherine in a campsite made for the tour company. We had little huts named after (mostly European) cities and Ariane and I stayed in Athens for our last night together as roomies!

Tonight also marked my last Aussie BBQ before I have to leave Australia in the next couple days. We celebrated the end of our trip with a fantastic feast and Ariane even made Elephant Apples for desert!! Apparently a key skill for any Swiss teacher!

 It has been an amazing 21 days up the west coast of Australia and an even more amazing year – I don’t think I’ll ever be ready to say goodbye!

The children who run free

I can’t believe 16 days of this trip have flown by already! I’m excited to head over to Asia and relax a little on some beaches but it also means I’m getting closer and closer to the end of my year of travels and adventures. I don’t think I’ll ever be ready to head back to reality but I suppose the sooner I head back the sooner I can graduate…..and hopefully head out on another trip!
We spent the morning in Zebedee Hot Springs on the El Questro Station Resort (I do think resort is an odd choice of word to use though!). It was the first time I’ve actually got in the pools here as everywhere else has been far too cold for my liking! I’m definitely going to struggle when I get back to Manchester weather! Unfortunately we didn’t get to spend that long here but the time was mostly spent laughing at Lydia again!

Next up was another gorge – shocker! This time El Questro Gorge which was less rock climbing but more rock scrambling… Not the more enjoyable thing to do in a pair of converse and I’ve managed to twist my foot somehow so the walk back was even less enjoyable! Fingers crossed it heals more before the next walk! 

Hayley and I sat and relaxed for an hour or so at the pool as we were people watching a variety of families who seemed to let their children run wild around the rocks with no concern for their safety! 

    
 We were able to have a nice and relaxing afternoon at camp – great time to have a nice long shower and get started on the slow roast lamb dinner we cooked up. It tasted delicious! Although the meat was a little chewy it was just nice not to have some kind of meal with a weird Asian sauce to it. I’m very much looking forward to being able to choose my own food again soon!!

As we were sat around the campfire one of the girls jokingly asked our English doctor what he would suggest for my foot and surprise surprise all he could suggest was paracetamol and ibuprofen (which is all he’s suggested to anyone all trip!)…. I don’t know why I always seem to have such useless experiences with English doctors – Australian doctors seemed to be far more useful! 

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! 

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!