WA Camping Trip Broome to Perth!

10pm, Thursday July 21st. Finally said my goodbyes in Broome, and after a day on the road with Sasha our tour guide and just five other people, we've started the journey down to Perth. It feels a bit strange being away from Broome, but I am very excited about the next leg of my trip. Tonight, we're staying on Pardoo Station - a 500,000 acre chunk of land with about 8000 head of cattle roaming about. It's got a really nice vibe to the place - it is inspiring me to return to a cattle station down the road and see what I can get up to for work. The group seems really nice - I am thrilled that there is just six of us! The tour bus holds 20, so I've got a couple rows to myself which is just total luxury. Tomorrow will be a bit of a low key day - we'll be heading into Karijini National Park for 3 nights of camping around in gorges etc. I am really excited to see Karijini - everyone says how amazing it is! After Karijini we'll be heading towards Coral Bay and Exmouth where I'll go swimming with the whale sharks!! Finally, after all these years I'll be fulfilling my dream of swimming with these gentle giants. In Coral Bay I'm also going to do a day long boat ride/snorkeling tour to see and swim with some giant mantra rays, and if i'm lucky we'll see some more whales, dolphins, sharks, dugongs etc. There is so much to do in the next nine days, wowie! I'll be arriving in Perth late afternoon Saturday the 30th so I'll have five nights to explore. I'll do three nights in Perth City and two in Fremantle I think. All hostels are booked there, along with my initial accomodation in Cairns when I arrive on the fifth. I'm looking forward to seeing Cairns again but this time in the dry season.

My last few days in Broome were really special. I managed to get in a camel ride on the beach (Mum, look out for some mail from me!), spend some quality time with those most important to me there, andddd get rid of some clothing! I was dreading getting reorganized because I was feeling so disorganized, but I made it through. I think a couple more things will have to go but this will have to be fine for now. Yesterday, for my last day in Broome, Margy and I hung out all day. We had a bottle of wine (or three), dyed her hair, watched the movie Australia, went to Lustre one last time for a middy of beer, then met Melissa for dinner at Noodlefish at 6pm. It was an amazing meal, followed up by Greg Quicke's Astro Tour! It was 2hrs long and full of so much interesting information I need to do it again. I certainly didn't retain all the info, but had some great laughs being silly with Margy. After the astro tour Marg and I got dropped at Diver's by Melis for some last drinks and goodbyes. I am hopeful that I will rendezvous with people that I've met in Broome accross Australia as we continue along the transient path Broome has connected us on.

830am, Thursday July 28th. Driving in the bus on our way to Shark Bay and Canarvon where there are the best chocolate bananas in WA apparently. We've just passed the Tropic of Capricorn, so now we're officially out of the tropics. Brrrr. Saturday night we'll be in Perth so we've got just a few days left of the camping tour. I can hardly believe it's almost over! These past few days since my last blog entry have been prettttty amazing. We spent two full days and three nights in Karijini which was just awesome. Karijini is a national park in the Pilbara region of WA. It didn't get too chilly at night till the last night, but since our group is so small we each had two swags for warmth and comfort AND two sleeping bags! Life is good in the outback! Our time in Karijini was filled with walking through gorges - and swimming in them! There are many gorges to walk through there, but we trekked through four of them in the two days. It is really breathtaking to descend to the bottom of a gorge, surrounded by the immense red rock and green/blue water running through it. Sometimes it was a bit dodgy, but we all made it without injury. I did a lot of swimming - yes, the water was cold, but there was no way I could say no to an opportunity to swim in a gorge!!!!!!!!!!! Pretty freakin' spectacular. I hope the pictures I've posted give you an idea of the magnificence that is Karijini.
After Karijini was a long drive of 700kms to Exmouth. We'd had some bus troubles along the way but thankfully our guide Sasha has some mechanical knowledge and managed to get us to Exmouth in one piece. To keep Sasha alert and keep the rest of us entertained on the long drives (there are 4300kms to cover between Broome and Perth) we've been playing some trivia games which is pretty fun. However, I think it's best when I'm hosting on the mic because my mind doesn't compute how many oranges Tom has if Jerry has three less than Jessica who has half the oranges and half the apples. You get where I'm going with that. I've made a good friend on the bus, Yvonne from Ireland. She is really funny and we get along well. Hopefully we'll meet up again in Cairns. There are three people from Switzerland who are sweet, and in Exmouth we were joined by three more people - two germans and an american now a resident of Perth. Finally, there is Pete. Pete is a self proclaimed typical aussie bloke - my nickname for him is T-FAB, typical fukin aussie bloke. Hmm how do I exlain T-FAB... He is 50yrs old from Tasmania. His breakfast includes three cups of coffee and about twenty cigarettes, and he puts in his 2cents about everything all the time. He is constantly talking about something or other (usually about himself), all of which is quite boring. However, he does have a good heart so you can't be too harsh, although he does get on everyone's nerves. These character traits are not "typical aussie" but he does love his country! I do too but, so we at least have that in common. (using the word "but" in place of "though" is some typical aussie slang!) I digress... We arrived in Exmouth, had a couple Coopers Pale Ales, ate dinner and got ready for the next day of SWIMMING WITH A WHALE SHARK!! I was the only one in the group to do this so I was up bright and early for the 7:15am pickup by Ningaloo Reef Dreaming. There were 13 of us on the boat plus the crew. Turns out the girl running the show is from Kelowna and we have some mutual friends! Small world. They briefed us on whale sharks, what not to do etc, and how we were to enter the water once one was spotted. We had a preliminary snorkel, then crossed the surf. The surf is a little ways back from shore because of the Ningaloo Reef - it's only a couple feet deep in places amongst all the coral. It is an awesome sight to see waves crashing for miles in a line. We are in the midst of the whale migration, mating and calving time for humpback whales so as an added bonus we saw lots of humpbacks - it was pretty spectacular. I also witnessed some humpbacks jumping way out of the water and splashing down, over and over and over again. WOW. These massive creatures with all that power to propel themselves out of the water. I like to think that they were doing it because they were happy the sunshine was finally out, but they could have also been showing off for potential female suiters. While we were watching all the humpback whales, there was a spotter plane up in the air looking for a whale shark. This is really the only way to find them; since they're so big, they look like tadpoles in the water. The spotter then gives the skipper the coordinates and off we go! Whale sharks eat plankton, are technically sharks, can get up to 18m in length, and are still quite a mystery to biologists. We don't know where the breed, spawn, or why they always choose to migrate along the western coast of Australia between April and July. Off the coast of Taiwan they caught a pregnant female and when they cut her open they discovered over 300 babies in different stages of development. The sharks are born alive inside the mother then she gives birth to a live shark. They are on their own from the second they enter the water. We finally came upon a whale shark, so it was time to follow previously discussed procedure of getting all lined up to slip into the water, fins and snorkel on. We follow to where the spotter is and just keep our eyes peeled for the approaching whale shark. I was usually the first one in the water since we got several dips in and out over about an hour, and I felt no fear. The whale shark cruises maybe 1m below the surface, so you just snorkel on the surface 3-4m away and take in it's immense glory. The one we encountered was a 6m male moving really slowly so it was easy to keep up! Throughout the whole day I was relishing the moments - swimming with a whale shark has been a dream of mine for years, ever since I saw and heard about Gordon's experience with them. Now I've finally done it and I can be happy with the fact that my dreams are coming true... through dogged determination, persistance, faith, hope, and confidence of course! After another snorkel later in the day, we headed back into town and left for Coral Bay. The bus was all fixed by now so Sasha was much less stressed. The hostel we stayed at in Coral Bay was pretty cool with a bar, pool and play area. We had one full day in Coral Bay, which for me and four others in the group was spent on an Eco Tour - highlights of this being swimming with a manta ray and sharks!! I LOVE MANTA RAYS. They are so beautiful and majestic. I felt more of a connection with the manta ray than the whale shark I think, but the whale shark is still totally awesome! The day started with a snorkel where we swam around a part of the Ningaloo Reef. I was practicing my duck dives and scoping out all the colourful fishies and coral. Next was heading to where the resident manta rays hang out. It's one of the few places in the world where they live year round. We're not sure why - probably just because Coral Bay and the Ningaloo Reef are pretty aweosme spots. The spotter plane spotted a manta ray, and after a bit of fiddling about with the boat to get the right positioning, our spotter jumped in the water and the first group followed. We were in a bay so the depth was 5m give or take and clear waters. I was in group B so once it was our turn I was first in the water looking out for the manta ray!! Manta Rays are typically 1.5-3m wide, and completely harmless - gentle giants. However, the girl we found was about 1m wide and just gorgeous. So graceful. These rays barrel roll sometimes when feeding; she was doing a lot of that. Somersaults in the water with the Rameria (fish that stick to the bottom of sharks, whales, rays - anything large enough to protect them) coming along for the ride. They have big eyes and excellent vision. This manta ray wasn't skiddish, she just cruised around near the seabed barrel rolling most of the time. I got permission to do some free diving to get closer to her; I tried to dance through the water with her but could only hope to be half as graceful as her. We had lunch and entered the water again for our last swim of the day. This time we were at Asho's Gap to try and spy on some reef sharks there for a cleaning. There are certain cleaning stations around the ocean where big fish go to get cleaned by the little fish - the little fish go in the mouths and gills and eat all the bad bacteria. We saw several reef sharks there cruising about waiting for a nice little fishy to come along to give it a good cleaning! There is so much food in the area for them, humans are definately not on the top of the list for shark food, especially reefies who are more scared of us than we are of them. The sharks we saw ranged in size from >1m to about 2.5m. They all looked fat and well fed! Once we got back to the shop I happened upon a jewelry shop........ I found a new bathing suit that actually fits over my butt (the brand Seafolly is actually made for humans and not teenagers) and some other jewelry to continue building my Australian Jewelry Collection. I am looking forward to Perth - it'll be cold but I've only got 5 days there so hopefully it's not raining!

A little tidbit about the area and road we're currently driving along:

You hear about dreamtime stories when you hear about the Aboriginal people's culture and history. Dreamtime is when the earth was being formed millions of years ago. We are now driving on the Warlu Way. In the beginning they believed the earth was flat and made of clay. The Warlu was a giant serpent. He traveled along the Warlu Way where his slithering created all the land formations in this area - the rivers, the hamersley ranges, and everything else.

7:30am, Saturday July 30th. Last day of camping tour - we'll be in Perth around dinner time tonight. Me and the Italian/Swiss guy Francesco I met on the camping tour will be staying in the "CBD" (downtown Perth) for the first few nights. Of my five nights in Perth, three of which will be at the downtown YHA (hostel chain) then I'll be taking the train to Fremantle which boasts the biggest port on the west coast of Australia. It is known for it's semi ritzy neighborhood filled with cafes, a wide range of cuisine, the odd micro brewery, the gateway to Rottnest Island, and weekend markets. Once in Cairns I'll be looking for some regional work and perhaps some more hospitality work depending on the type regional work I find.

10pm, Saturday July 30th. Sitting in hostel now preparing pictures and blog for upload. I write all of these entries in Word while on the road then upload once I have internet again. This hostel is really nice! It's quite hotel-esqe actually with proper hotel keys and just 3 beds in my all girls room. The kitchen is HUGE with four cooking stations and 8 sinks and lots of fridges, very clean, and there's an elevator, gym, pool, bar/restaurant, bbq area, and more! I really love it and will be sad to leave this taj mahal of hostels! It's a little more money a night but worth it! I went out for some Japanese dinner and a walk around the town, but feeling quite tired after a day of not doing much. Funny that I feel most tired after doing nothing at all! Had a fun quiz today on the bus - all questions related to Australia and our trip so now I know quite a bit more than I did prior! For example, the animals of the Australian code of arms on their passport is an Emu and a Kangaroo because neither animal can move backwards, so therefore they are a proper representative of Australia always moving forward.

Here's the link to my facebook photo album of all the best pictures from the trip: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150269670719757.350094.511839756&l=f9e2ecec03&type=1