It's been 4 great weeks since we left the smog for perth, and so far it was a very good decision to travel the west coast rather than the east (again). perth was a lovely city, very much quieter than the other australian cities. we spent some time in kings park which has great views over the city and also took a ferry over the river to south perth, visited the bell tower (biggest musical instrument in the world...!) and took a train to cottesloe beach which like most australian beaches, was full of surfers. we spent a few days in fremantle (south of perth) which i will remember had a cappucino strip, good fish and chips and someone playing the bagpipes.
since we quite liked perth, we decided we wanted to stay there a little longer. after hearing good things about Wwoofing (Willing Workers On Organic Farms) we thought we would give that a go. basically a lot of people with farms around the whole of oz invite members to go and live with them and provide food and accomodation in exchange for work. we got lucky too; a horse farm with a very nice house in the swan valley (the wine region). it had everything from a swimming pool to a giant movie screen! the family were very nice and they had 12 very posh horses that had at least 2 rugs on at a time so stop them getting dirty! did loads of different jobs including mowing (a sit on one!!), chopping trees, helping with the horses and i can also say that i have experience laying a water filtration system.oh yes. we got quite a bit of time off to cycle around the national park closeby and explore some wineries with jade, the crazy taiwanese girl who was also staying there!
after 2 weeks around that region, we got the Easyrider bus all the way to broome. the good thing about this bus was that you could hop on/off where you wanted and the driver was also a tour guide, way better than the greyhound! on the way up we first saw the Pinnacles desert and spent the night in Kalbari. the next day we hiked around the Kalbari National Park gorges and saw Natures Window, the Z-bend etc. further up the coast i saw stromatolites!! if there are any zoologists reading i hope you remember them because it took me a while. formed from cyanobacteria aye! for anyone that doesnt know, they are one of the first forms on earth (or something!) on the second night we stayed in Denham which is one of the small towns in the shark bay region. it is made of one street with 2 pubs and thats about it. next day, it was time to hit Monkey Mia-one of the best things i've done yet! after a very fortunate cancellation, i was able to volunteer for 1 week with the nature reserve!it looks after the 3 familes of wild dolphins who have been coming up to the beach there daily for years and get fed a very small amount of fish (only 5 older females get it to reduce aggression etc in the males and to encourage the younger ones to learn foraging first), enabling the public to see them. i got to help with the 3 feeds a day, prepare the fish for feeding, collect lots of data and occupy the huge pelicans while the dolphin feeds were goin on!that also became one of colins jobs to... it was great getting to work so closely with wild dolphins and i learnt a lot-especially with the research seminars that went on everynight,it was like being back at uni! i also got 2 free cruises since i was volunteering, one of which took us to an area with loads of dugongs (look like manatees) and a couple of loggerhead and green sea turtles coming up for air!
from monkiey mia, we hopped back on the bus (reluctantly!) en route to coral bay. we stopped at a funny run down aquaium called ocean park on the way, right in the middle of nowhere but it was good to see the actual fish without all the fancy stuff you get at other aquariums. we stayed in a tent at coral bay for a few nights thanks to a very generous couple at monkey mia who donated it to us! did some snorkelling at the ningaloo reef while we were there which was lovely. hopped back on the bus again to exmouth which is one of the main towns on the west coast but still very small and not that close to the beach. ourtour took us snorkelling at turquoise bay and despite it being very windy and the water quite murky we came across a sea turtle nibbling on the coral! we camped there for a few nights so had the time for a whale watching tour and saw lots of humpback whales who are at the gulf at the moment raising their calfs. something we have both always wanted to do so it seems we came at the right time!
the last stretch of our journey was with a very mad guide, which worked out well for the things we were doing. a lot of driving was involved to take us to Karijini National Park which must be one of the nicest places in australia. we spent the night in an eco retreat with quite fancy tents, like in chobe national park but no electricity. the next day we did a lot of hiking around the park to the fortesque falls and circular pool. it was very hot so its lucky we stopped a lot for a swim in the waterfalls. did i mention our bus had no air con by the way? nightmare! anyway that night we drove to pardoo cattle station for the night. a real country place in the middle of nowhere again! it was very quiet but our group ended up partying most of the night. then from there we FINALLY made it to broome! we have only been here since friday but am already a little bored...cable beach is nice but it reminds me of st andrews as you have to walk for miles to get to the sea! its also a lot busier than what we are used to now.
the plan from here is to tour to darwin through the Kimberly and stop there for a while to top up the pennies. on that note, i need to stop writing to save my internet time!
later!
I'm not jealous at all!! xxxx