Hello Hello!

WA Rocks! All I can say is that I am having the time of my life! 

Since leaving Perth, I have been on adventure after adventure. I travelled up the west coast on the Easyrider Bus; this is no ordinary bus. The bright yellow bus is a jump on- jump off bus that allows you to stay wherever you like on route for as long as you like. The bus driver has a wealth of knowledge, taking you beautiful locations along the way; and if you are lucky, a few secret spots that aren’t on the programmed itinerary. I opted for the “Broometime Tour”; a 7 day bus ride that runs from Perth to Broome. I also opted to stay a little longer at Lancelin and Coral Bay…. but read on as all will be revealed.  

First Stop: Lancelin

Only an hour and a half out of Perth, this tiny town boasts some of the best windsurfing conditions in the world. It must have been my lucky week as I was blessed with 2 glorious days of ripper winds, blue skies and sunshine. I downsized my board (a step-up from the tanker I was sporting at home); reduced to one rear fin; but kept to a dinky sail as it was just so damn windy. I sailed like a trooper, and was rewarded with the company of a dolphin as I blasted along. Pretty special hey?! 

Just to add to a great time in Lancelin, was spot-on accommodation. The owners have learned a great deal from the Kiwis – bright spacious rooms, a big and clean kitchen with all the utensils you could imagine (including a pizza oven and coffee maker you put on the oven as not to burn the coffee); and the best bit, home-made carrot and ginger muffins! Oh, and they had a pool big enough to do laps – perfect. 

As along my entire journey, I met some lovely people and thoroughly enjoyed windsurfing with Tebo (French) and David (?), and making origami cranes with Haroumi (my Japanese room mate). I was also lucky to also meet Yama (a retired goal keeper for the Turkish Football team, boy did he have a wild life!). 

Second Stop: Journey to Kalbarri

My first true journey since leaving Perth, I hoped back onto the Easyrider and following introductions, I met Wez our driver; the lovely Laura, Petra and Jean and a few others. The drive from Lancelin to Kalbarri was long, but surprisingly quick.

Wez is an avid fan of Australia, its scenery and wildlife and filled our minds with some fantastic information. He first took us to the Pinnacles in the Numbung National Park, which was a vast field of limestone rocks, all of different shapes and sizes. Quite stunning. Then, a visit to an “of the itinerary” animal sanctuary, which has to be one of the highlights of my trip. Here I fed rescued Kangaroos and held a python snake (I did not have the nerve for the papa to be put around my neck, crazy when considering I have been into a cage with a cheetah).  

In case you were wondering, Kangaroos do box! If they are threatened they will jab their front paws ferociously, just like, well, a boxer. A common time for this to happen is when they are hit by a car (they are a bit stupid – a bit like bunny rabbits); the driver or passenger will then go to see if the roo has passed away (it is common curtesy to finish a roo off if it looses it’s tail, or is unlikely to survive), and if the roo is aroused back to land of the living, will jab away. 

We arrived in Kalbarri after passing through the towns of Dongara and Geraldton. For $10, I dined on grilled King Fish, rice and salad at a fantastic Australian Restaurant. We ate al fresco style, under the stars and fairy lights with knifes and forks served in loo roll, and yep, the loo roll served as napkins, and BYO booze – crackin’.  

Third Stop: Journey to Denham

By 8.00am, I was trekking in the outback (the Kalbarri National Park to be precise) and oh my, was it starting to get hot already! Damn flies were a pest and persisted as the day went on. However, this did not take away from the stunning scenery – beautiful gorges of bright red rock, lined with bright green trees, through which flowed clear fresh water. We visited Natures Window, The Loop and Z-Bend gorges, taken giant strides over the huge boulders and steep rock faces. It was great fun.  

We drove for a large part of the day and arrived at the Shark Bay World Heritage Region. All I can saw is WOW, WOW, WOW! More beautiful scenery, turquoise seas, amazing birds and flowers… the list goes on. Wez took us to Eagle Bluff, a peninsula from which you could see the shark infested waters of Shark Bay. Seagrass lines the seabed here, which is really quite shallow, but that did not stop me from seeing a Nervous Shark from the viewing platform. The wind was pretty strong, so we headed to the Hamelin Pool Stromatolites. Rather exciting for a geologist as these are evidence of the first bacterial growth on the earth, otherwise know as Cyanobacteria.  

We arrived at the hostel, and sadly missed the opportunity to swim in the local hot springs. I did however bump into Natalie; a girl I met in Perth (small world hey), and it was great to catch up with her!  

Fourth Stop: Journey to Coral Bay

As with all Easyrider tours, today was no normal day. We head to Monkey Mia to see the “magical dolphins’…Back in 1984 or so, a local lady resident took it upon herself to feed the local dolphins. Today, the dolphins arrive every morning for their feed. People are picked at random to feed the dolphins one piece of fish. According to the workers of Monkey Mia, the dolphins are not fed their full quota of fish and therefore still need to head into the wild to fill their bellies. I’m not sure I’m convinced with the whole idea, but it was pretty great to see dolphins at such close distance, and when sitting on the jetty, you could see them playing in the water. 

Wez surprised us with another “of the itinerary” visit to Ocean Park. The park is run by a family of marine biologists, who constructed the park just off the oceans edge. We saw stone fish, baby turtles, sea snakes, parrot fish, snapper, nervous sharks and lemon sharks. I was most surprised to find out that fish and sharks have been placed in the same pool as the turtles, and it was the turtles who got mean with the fish and the sharks. Sea snakes are something like 200 times as poisonous as land snakes, but you can in fact scuba dive with them – weird stuff. 

For lunch, we stopped at Shell Beach. Shell Beach is literally a beach of shells, bright white cockles in this case. Again, it was very hot.  

By early evening, we arrived at the Ningaloo Club backpackers. I immediately got a good feeling from Coral Bay and new that I would be happy spending 6 days here. Read my next journal for tales from Heaven. 

Lots of Love, Em x