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Now I know it has been a while and I have skipped out Thailand Islands and the East Coast of OZ, but I will come back to them, promise! So instead here is what I've been up to for the past 2 weeks... happy reading!
Day 58 - Friday 21 September
Flew into Broome from Sydney (via Perth). Arrived around 8pm (WA time - two hours different from Sydney). Flight was ok, flew with Virgin Blue and sat with a lad from Newcastle, really nice guy, Cath and I spent most of the flight chatting to him! Oh and the cute air steward too! Broome airport was tiny, almost as small as Koh Samaui, two buildings one for departures and one arrivals. Jumped in a cab to our hostel.... which was basically a grotty long termer hostel (lots of travellers - mainly builders staying there long term whilst working), but we had a twin room between us and it was clean at least. Popped into town to see what was around then came back to hostel, aptly named 'The Last Resort' for a drink at their bar. Meet a couple of guys, an Aussie, a South African / Aussie (couldn't make his mind up which) and an Irish guy. They all worked in Port Headland (about 6 hours drive south of Broome) and had come up for the weekend.
Day 59 - Saturday 22 September
Forgot to eat dinner last night so was awoken by hunger pains at about 9am, so jumped in the shower (still after 2 months of travelling I have to have a shower nearly every morning!), put our bikinis on and ventured into town. The hostel provided free breakfast but as that consisted of a cup of tea/coffee and some stale cereal we knew we'd end up in a cafe very soon! Went to book our Easyrider tour down south but the lady in the office looked so harrased we said we'd come back on Monday when she wasn't in the office on her own. Then suprise suprise went next door to 'Blooms' for a second breakfast... poached eggs, mushrooms and grilled tomatoes on toast! Mmmm!
Wasn't long before we found the Oktoberfest!!! Matso's Brewery! Stayed there for a good 4 hours (ate once again - Mushrooms (four different types) on damper (Aussie sour bread!) with Vegetable crisps)! Left there, checked internet and then went to get changed before walking into town to the outdoor cinema.
The SunCity cinema was amazing! We sat outside, under the stars, on deck-chairs, eating hot buttered popcorn watching the Bourne Ultimatium. About 20 minutes from the end a Virgin Blue jet flew straight over the top of us, only about 30m off the ground! Everyone in the cinema burst into laughter!
Tim was also in the cinema too (the Aussie we'd met the night before), the other two had gone out on the drink. The three of us went over to Roebuck Bar to watch the England vs Samao game. Tim disappered and came back with Ali (SA) and Irish. After they chucked everyone out of Roebuck we had to go next door to Oasis to watch the second half... what an awesome game!!! After winning we of course spent the rest of the night celebrating - a large part of which involved tequila! Linda - We also did a bit of skank spotting too! After Oasis we went on to Bugalow, which is apparantly the 'posh' nightclub in town (which basically means you can't wear rubber thongs/flip-flops), but it was pretty tame so called it a night around about 3am. Well we would have if it wasn't for Irish not being able to stand up or walk back!
Day 60 - Sunday 23 September
Needless to say, we didn't get up till 2pm today... not even sure what time we got back, but I do know that we had an awesome night, which is the main thing! Went into town for brunch (a 3pm brunch lol) at Shady Lane Cafe - does what it says on the tin! Walked through Chinatown (which is one tiny little street - Broome only has the population of 14,000 - but it's really spread out and half of them are aboriginals). Jumped on a bus to go to Cable Beach, which is one of the most famous beaches on West Coast and definately one of the most beautiful. It was really quite down there and we just sat and chilled out and watched the sunset. The holiday makers were all at the other end of the beach riding a camel at sunset on Camel beach - awww!
Went back into town to 'Blooms' for a bottle of wine and snacks, wrote our journals and caught up on the latest trashy magazines before we went to the indoor cinema to see Hairspray. What a fab film, laughed out loud the whole way through!
Day 61 - Monday 24 September
Plan for today was pretty simple - laundry, book easyrider tour for tomorrow, internet then beach! Got to the beach about half 3 by the time we'd sorted our lives out! Sat on the cliff overlooking the beach and had late lunch whilst fighting off the damn seaguls! The beach was a little quieter than the day before. Cathy went in swimming but it was pretty cold in there so I stayed on the warm sand, sunbathing and listening to my ipod. Watched the sunset again - not as pretty as yesterdays, then went to the restaurant at the top of the beach. Had cocktails then dinner, although mine took so long (after sending out the wrong order) that we got our cocktails free - cheap night all round! Got back into town and stopped off at the bottle shop to get a couple of bottles of wine for the next couple of days (staying in middle of nowhere with no shops).
Day 62 - Tuesday 25 September
Meet the easyrider crew this morning, everyone is really nice. The driver was on his first trip, Angelo. Paul from North London, Dan from Sheffield, Ilka from Germany, Silvia from Switzerland and Wakao from Japan. I became dj pretty early on, based on only two of us having an ipod and only me volenteering to create a playlist - pleased me, it meant I got to listen to my music! Stopped to get supplies (food) at Coles then set off down south. Went to 80 mile beach - I though Cable beach was big and impressive, nothing compared to this, the tide went out at least 1km! There were crocodiles there (didn't see any thank god) and loads of beautiful shells, mud crabs and cute little hermit crabs. Stayed the night at Pardoo Cattle Station (about 400m from Broome). Great place! They had just finished musta session so were pretty quiet. Angelo cooked us an awesome BBQ, Cath and I went for a swim in their pool then we all sat round the campfire, toasting marshmallows and drinking wine/beer.
Day 63 - Wednesday 26 September
Had to leave early (bit of a theme with easyrider), but Angelo wasn't ready so we chilled out a bit then left. Caught up time on the road, got to Port Headland to stock up on supplies. Saw my first wild Kangaroo on the way in too! We made it to Karajini National Park early so went for a trek through Dales gorge. Took about 2 hours then we stopped at the Fren Pool to have a swim, it was at the top of Forescue Falls which meant the water was crystal clear and there was a small waterfall running into it, which when you sat underneath it gave a great back massage. Met up with another easyrider bus at Okers lookout, which was at the top of another one of the gorges in the NP, pretty amazing view and a shear drop too! The sun was setting as we left the lookout and made our way to the campsite for the night. We got there before the other bus so stole all the the best linen and tents... hee hee! Angelo cooked a BBQ again for us... was great! Sat up till late chatting with Scottie (the driver of other bus) and Sarah (one of the passengers from Scottie's bus) and teh guys off my bus. The stars were amazing there, no light pollution what so ever!
Day 64 - Thursday 27 September
Oh my god it was cold when we woke up! Sun starting coming through the tent about 6am but didn't seem to warm it up at all so we got up and packed up the bus. Angelo made brekkie too today, bread with a whole torn out of the middle and an egg cracked into it... very good! Scottie made sure his bus was the first to leave so that we got stuck with the cleaning.... typical! But we left not long after and as we drove out he was coming back, forgotten his ipod!!! Ha ha Karma! Had to cover a lot of km today so we only stopped briefly in the morning at Paraburdoo, enough time to pee, pop to supermarket and have a cup of tea - made by Paul (makes very good tea). Also stopped at the 'Jolly Green Giant' minning truck on way out of town, basically a massive minning truck from 80s, the wheel was about 8ft high! Had to stop at a level crossing too, to let a train pass, it was almost 2km long, took about 15 minutes to pass! Passed a road train too, now that was big, would not want to come across one of those bad boys at night!
Had a short stop at the termite nests/hills - here's an interesting fact. If you hid a dead body in the termite hill (cut off the top, its hollow inside) the termites would, whithin 48 hours, have recovered it. Nice, thanks for those words of wisdom Angelo!
Arrived in Exmouth, dropped our stuff off at our hostel, which was actually a caravan park, and had a quick shower before jumping back on the bus to go up the lighthouse to watch the sunset... only problem was though that Angelo was late leaving so we actually got to the top about 5 minutes after the sun had set! 4 of the people from Angelo's training trip where up there to, so we stayed there for a bit and chatted to them, must have been up there close on an hour. On the way back I played some pretty cool tracks - Madonna - Into the Groove & Like a Virgin. I've had the time of my life etc. Everyone sang along, even Wakao who can't speak much English! We did however on the way back see teh moon rise, was a fire red and actually really beautiful - much better than a sunset! Went to dinner at Graces Tavern over the road, had pizza, a few beers and Cathy did a quiz for us all. Dan and I came joint 1st (won a whole $3 each! Went to Potshots after that, Angelo was hammered by the time we'd got there... but it was going to be our last night with him as we were jumping off at Exmouth.
Day 65 - Friday 28 September
First lie-in for a few days so made the most of it! Ilka & Dan left with Angelo about 7.30am (meant to leave at 7am but Angelo was late and hungover I suspect). When we finally did get up we didn't want to over exert ourselves so we chilled out some more, had something to eat then wandered into town to book our dive trip, hire a car for Sat and go to supermarket. It was my turn to cook tonight so we had carbonara, which was really nice actually. Cathy, Paul and I went on to Potshots for a few drinks, but it turned into a few more then a few more and before we knew it we had Cathy dancing to Lil Kim! Was really nice to have a good dance, haven't had chance since Koh Panagn really! The walk back to hostel took quite some time, Cathy doing cartwheels in the middle of road, me taking photos of road signs and Paul singing!
Day 66 - Saturday 29 September
After 4 hours sleep I had to get up, had to go and collect the car from Allen's car hire up the road at 8:30am then go get snorkelling gear from Tom (ex easyrider diver) and collect Silvia before 9am! Needless to say we didn't pick Silvia up to a lot later... set off to the beaches. Drove straight down to Sandy Bay, went for a swim then had lunch before going to Oyster Stacks and Turquiose Bay. We went snorkelling at Turquiose, which was so good! Saw some really beautiful and big fish! Wakao had never been snorkling before so I took her out to the reef, her face was a picture! Paul even saw a green turtle on the outer edge of the reef! The sea was pretty cold though (19 degrees) so you couldn't stay in it longer than an hour really. So lazed on the beach inbetween!
I spent the whole day trying to convince Cathy to do the Navy Pier dive with me which was on Monday... David, the dude in the dive shop had shown me his photos from a few days before, photos of 4m long grey nurse sharks, wobbeygong sharks, giant cod, shools of barricuda.
Went to Lakeside last, butit was low tide so we couldn't snorkel. So we went for a swim instead, and went rockpooling! Left there are dusk, which meant that there were loads of Kangaroos about! They were everywhere, just chilling out in the shade, sometimes i the middle of the road! Saw an eagle too, had a fish in it's claws fresh from a catch!
I went back to the dive shop to book Cathy and I onto the Navy Pier on Monday. One of the 10 best dives sites in the world!!! Such a bargin at $120!
Wakao cooked dinner for us tonight, rice, with sauce of potatoes, green beans, mince and tomatoes. Silvia joined us and bought melon for dessert!
Went to bed early - had to be on top form for diving tomorrow!
Day 67 - Sunday 30 September
Up and ready to go at 8am. Ben and Lara (two that we met up at lighthouse) were on the dive too, and Wakao and Paul were coming to do a fun dive. The bus turned up adn said that conditions weren't great so they would come back at 9am. 9am came and the conditions weren't much better so they came back at 10am! This time we got on and went down to the boat. Only took us 30 minutes to get out to the Murion Islands, but that was because they have the fastest dive boat in Exmouth!
Went to two dive sites, both absolutely beautiful, but very different. The first site was all about the amazing diverse fish whereas the second site had amazing coral bombing to explore. Saw a couple of white tip reef sharks, again... and some rare fish that I haven't seen before. So glad I learnt to dive in Thailand, it's such another world underwater! Had lunch on teh boat in Turtle Bay, saw Giant Sea Turtles mating (put me off my lunch a little), but was cool. Headed back to Bundegi beach, past Navy Pier - it looks massive and pretty high off water! There was a girl on our boat that have already dived the Pier and she said it was amazing! Can;t wait!!!!
Got back and chilled out for a couple of hours, bottle of wine and some crisps.... then went to dinner (all of us) to a fish & chip place in town. Was BYO so stopped off at bottle shop on way. Chatted to Ben and Lara most of the night. Wakao fell asleep at the table, the fun dive really tired her out, bless her.
Day 68 - Monday 1 October
Nay Pier dive day!!!!
Got picked up at 8:15am, only 2 other girls on the bus. Went to the dive classroom for a breifing on the entry, exit, dangers, sharks etc. That took nearly and hour, plus we had to fill in paperwork because of the risks and that we were diving on Navy property! After that had to sort out our gear and then get out to the dive site. When we got there visability didn't look to great but after 15 minutes we were ready to go in. Vis was about 5m so we really had to be aware of everything around us, including the grey nurse sharks!!! Was the most amazing dive, saw so many fish and sharks, all in 1 hour!!! One of the best experiences of my life!
Once we had cleaned up all our gear and filled in our log books I went with one of the girls to burn all our photos onto CD. Crystal took some amazing shots! Had lunch and chilled out by pool all afternoon before having a quick nap then packing. Had dinner and stayed up chatting to Cathy, Lara and Paul most of the night! Leave tomorrow.
So that's half way through my trip down south to Perth and it's taken me 2 hours to write... I'm off to have a cuppa then I'll come back and fill you in on teh rest of the trip! Love to all! Xx
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