This is impressive, it’s been less than a week since my last update but so much has happened it seems best to fill you all in now while I still remember it! We left Jed and Deb’s house (very sadly) last week and started on our four day bus tour up the coast to Monkey Mia. We were travelling with a company called Western Xposure which specialise in budget tours where you get to see a lot in a short space of time. We were doing 2 days heading up the coast to Monkey Mia and then two days back down to Perth again.
We had to get up in time to be picked up outside our hostel where a shuttle bus took us to the bus station to meet our bus. It was only a 24 seater bus with a trailer containing all of our food and all of our bags. We jumped on and pretty quickly fell asleep as we started making our way up the coast. The first day we drove for 650km taking just over 6 hours. But we stoppped on the way to see the pinnacles – a natural phenomenon which Alan couldn’t resist straddling! There are conflicting ideas of what caused them to be there but it’s certainly a sight to see, the photos don’t really do it justice. The aboriginal dreaming says that they are warriors who have been turned to stone by the serpent who rules the world. Either way they are pretty spooky in a way and you could really see how they could be seen as people. Apparently there are records from the 17th century of sailors going past them and assuming it was an old ancient city.
Western Australia
After the pinnacles our next stop was at sand dunes for some sand boarding. Those pictures were on Alan’s camera and we haven’t managed to upload them yet. The premise is that you have to hike up a sand dune (no easy feat) and then sit on a snowboard type board, which has been waxed, and slide down the very steep hill to the bottom. Pretty simple! Alan went first which inspired the rest of the group to believe it could be done without dying and soon there were people sliding down Dunes all over the shop. It’s very fun, but all the sand flying into every imaginable crevice gets a bit annoying after a while. Unfortunately we didn’t manage to leave without injury as one of the dutch girls landed with an almightly bumpand we think bruised her coccyx. Not the most comfortable injury to be nursing while sitting on a bus for four days. Alan and a guy named Nick decided that Sandboarding wasn’t enough of an adrenaline rush so they ran up to the highest Dune and then jumped their way down it – much like we did when we’re in the snow. Except a whole bunch warmer. The pictures will show this part better than my description does.
So we had to get back on the bus very sweaty and covered in sand and then sit still for an hour and a hald until we go the the lodge for the night in a place called Kalbarri. We stayed at the Rock Lobster Lodge and it took approximately 2 and a half minutes for one of the people on the bus to get us locked out of our room by leaving the key in. The lady at reception said they didn’t have a spare so we briefly contemplated climbing through the window before she magically appeared with a spare key… Except none of them worked and we were back to the climbing through the window plan.
Cooking stir fry
Dinner was stir fry that night and Alan did a fabulous job of cooking all of the vegetables despite his lack of familiarity with them. We even had a mouse join us for the cooking, which Alan promptly named Colin – he seems to name everything that! But luckily the mouse survived, even after climbing behind the BBQ. There was a food shortage the first night because the company had forgotten to pack the noodles we were supposed to be having so a last minute packet of rice was purchased. Except because some people took huge portions there was not enough for everyone and consequently we had a few grumpy backpackers. But they all got over it as soon as the beer came out. Unfortunately, because we’d all been up at 6 and had to be up at 6 the next morning there wasn’t a lot of enthusiasm for a late night. But some of us walked down to the river to look at the stars. Alan and I were able to point out a whole bunch of things after our lessons at the star-gazing tour in New Zealand. None of the people with us has ever seen the southern cross before and most of them have been living in Aus for months!
Anyway, our next early morning took us on up the coast towards Monkey Mia. On the way we visited the Z bend Gorge where it regularly gets up to 50 degrees in the heat of the day and people have died down there. That’s the reason for our early morning start. Luckily none of us had big heat problems but I did get all the way down the to lookout to find I’d left my camera in the bus. What a ninny. I refused to miss this photo opportunity so I ran back up the 600m to the bus and back down to the lookout point. I was beyond hot when I got back. Stupid camera.
Anyway, the sight was beautiful and going down into the gorge was really peaceful.
Z bend
Our next stop was nature’s window which is pretty much just a cool rock formation in an incredibly scenic area. Still very cool though. Apart from literally because it was getting towards 40 degrees at this point. Some much needed lunch was appreciated and then we hopped back into the air conditioning on the bus.
We made the rest of the trip up to Monkey Mia and arrived there by late afternoon. Monkey Mia has become famous because it’s the only place known of in the world where dolphins voluntarily come up to shore to interact with the humans there. Back in the 70′s you could just buy a bucket of fish and wade in to play with them. But the dolphins were becoming too dependent on the people and forgetting to teach their young how to fish, and so the baby dolphins were dying. So these days their a lot stricter about the contact you can have with the dolphins.
Anyway, we arrived and sorted out our rooms. There was some minor drama with some a couple of the girls who refused to share a room with a couple. Not easy to organise with 8 bed dorms and 5 couples on the tour. They started making up stories about having no night wear so they obviously couldn’t share with any men… Annoying people.
Meanwhile, the rest of us got on with preparing some dinner and drinking some drinks. A strongbow goes down really well after a day in 40degree heat. It was getting dark by this point and our tour guide suggested we head down to the water to see the glowy bacteria that react when the water is splashed. But beware of the crabs he said. We headed out thinking it couldn’t be that bad until we stepped onto the same and saw a crab maybe 5inches across the shell. Alan and I ran back to get our head torches (yet another example of their usefulness 
) and came back to the beach providing light for the girls to scream at the crabs by. It didn’t help that they like to bury themselves in the sand so it’s far too easy to step on one. We made it, complete with allof our toes, to the waters edge and oohed and aaahhheed at the sparkly glowy bacteria in the water. We kept hoping a dolphin might come to see us, which has been known to happen at night, but unfortuntaley they didn’t. We headed to bed so we could get up ridiculously early to go and see the dolphins.
Dolhins at Monkey Mia
Alan and I were the first on the beach in the morning and we got to watch the sunrise while scouring the horizon for dorsal fins. About twenty to seven I spotted the first one swimming around by a boat and another six quickly followed it into shore. By this point some of the other people from the group had arrived and we waded in to see the dolphins. They were swimming within centimetres of us, and it was so very cool to know that they were there voluntarily. Unfortunately, the beach quickly filled up with more people but the 9 dolphins that showed up that morning were swimming around clearly entertained by all of the people they’d come to see. It’s impossible to tell who the situation is more entertaining for, them or us. Hopefully the photos show some of how magical it was to see these beautiful animals up close, because I don’t really know how to describe it.
When the dolphins had had enough and headed back out to see we all climbed on board a catamaran for a wildlife tour. We had a very successful trip managing to see more dolphins, sea turtles, a sea snake, a gare fish (jumps across the surface of the water in a hysterical manner) and the beautiful Dugongs. Unfortunately, all too soon it was time to head back to land and jump back on the bus (after the world’s fastest shower).
Our first stop outside of Monkey Mia was shell beach which is an enitre beach made from the shell of a small cockle. Unfortunately because of all the tourists the shells are mostly crushed and look a lot like sand…
After this we visited the Stromatalites. These are considered to be the oldest living species on earth. The look a lot like ordinary rocks, but 3.5 billion years ago they raised the oxygen level by about 19% to a level which meant other life could start to exist on earth. We pretty much owe them for our entire existance.
Salt Flats
Our accommdation for the last night was at a sheep station where we ate in the old shearing shed and spent the night in the shearer’s quarters. As soon as we arrived we got to feed the animals they keep on the farm. First were the tame kangaroos which have been brought up by hand after being rescued from their mother’s pouch after she was hit by a car on the road. They were very very cute. But next was the emu, which was quite terrifying to feed because of it’s sharp beak and the amazing speed it jabbed at your hand trying to grab as much food as possibly. The Ostrich was much more gentle in it’s approach (and so got a lot more food from me). Alan made friends with the farm dog – Jock, who for the rest of the time we were there would only do what Alan said. It had a strange habit of pestering you to play fetch with it, but always returning the stick to the same point under a tree. He then refused to bring it to you, while indignantly demanding you came and got it from him.
They made us a lovley shepherd’s pie (mine was veggie) and Alan was brave enough to try the kangaroo version (tastes just like beef apparently, although that could have been the abundance of pepper). The farm had been suffering from days without any power so they were using the generator to run everything. The generator ran the pumps for the showers, the toilets and all of the electricity for lights, sockets etc. Which was fine except fot the fact that the generator was switched off at 11:30. By the time we went to bed the temperature in our room may have fallen to about 30degrees, but we had absolutely no fan and the air outside was completely still. Certainly one of the hottest nights i’ve ever experienced. Some people even slept outside, but after the 3 inch wide spider i’d found earlier in the evening I wasn’t too thrilled with the idea.
Feeding on the farm
We were woken by the generator was switched on (loudly) at 6:30 and so we were up in the race for a working shower and toilet! We had a beautiful outback morning as we watched the sun rise over the farm, ate what was left of the breakfast food and jumped back on the bus for our last leg home.
Our main stop of the morning was at a place called the Hutt River Province. It is actually it’s own country within Australia and is reigned by H.R.H Prince Leonard. He was an Aus citizen that back in the 70′s disputed the government’s rule that they could put a limit on the amount of grain he could sell from his farm. To cut a long story short he studied the constitution in such detail and found loopholes allowing him to be able to set up his own country and not have to follow the government’s rules. It also means that they are exempt from any Australian laws and they do not have to pay tax. They even have their own army, navy and air force posted around the world. They also have their own money, stamps and visas which we got stamped in our passports. They have their own church as well as government offices all within their farmland. Prince Leonard and Princess Shirley were very interesting people to speak to and the whole feat was pretty inspirational! Unfortunately, the government closed up the loopholes pretty quickly to stop anyone else following suit. So that explains the picture of the old guy alan is shaking hands with…
We stopped halfway at Greenough Wildlife to feed some more animals. The camel was my favourite as he was so gently taking the food off your hand with his bristley lips! Then we were shown a couple of the snakes (the safe ones) which Alan adored. Apparently he wants pet snakes now. And that was it, after a quick lunch (we had fish and chips, we’d both had too much of bus food) and sped down towards Perth taking about 4 more hours in the bus.
Our bus group
It was very sad to have to say goodbye to all the people on the bus, but that’s just how these things go. We both thought the tour was amazing fun and would definitely go touring with the same company again.
We’ve got a couple of days in Perth now and then we’re off to Bali!
Hope you’re all well,
Much Love
Sarah (and Alan)
xxx
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