The people I've got to know throughout the tour have been from all over the world (except for Canada, for some reason), but an incredible 80 to 90 percent of them are from Europe. I think Europe has a far more travel/exploration oriented culture than we have, possibly because they get to experience the wonders of 2 or 3 very different cultures with a single 3 hour drive. It's a shame that there's nothing remotely like that in North America (except for maybe Dundas/Spadina area in Toronto, where the vast majority of people you meet are foreign born). I have just recently acquired a profound respect and interest for different cultures, and doing this trip has been my addictive fix for this latest fascination. Meeting more people from around the world is one of the biggest things I'm looking forward to during my future travels. The first night we stopped in a town called Kalbarri which had a very nice hostel (complete with pool!) and a fantastic pub/restaurant just down the road. I'll just briefly mention the excellent fish I had for dinner which is called either Jewfish or Dhufish. What made this interesting was that I saw one of these same somewhat uncommon fish in Perth. I was doing a night dive in the Swan River catching prawns at the time. Jewfish are fairly large (about 1.5 metres long) and it totally freaked me out when I saw it because it was the largest living thing I'd seen underwater to date. I had no idea it was there right next to me until I pointed my light on it and it immediately took off. None of the people I dive with jokingly believe it was a Jewfish though because the meat is incredibly tasty. They figured that it would have been caught a long time ago, being so highly prised. When I noticed it on the menu I just had to order a plate to see for myself how good it was, and I was rewarded highly for my choice with certainly the best tasting fish I've ever had. If you ever have an opportunity to try it (in a restaurant that will do a good job preparing it) then don't pass it up. It might be hard to find anyone in Canada that would sell it though. The Z Bend Gorge was really quite beautiful though with some very interestingly eroded rock (massive sweeping gouges through sedimentary rock, exposing all the layers and tones). One of my all-time favourite pastimes is to go hiking, and this was my first opportunity to do a bit of hiking in Australia (Much more hiking will come soon when I get to Tasmania which I've heard is the totally the hiking capital of Oz. I can't wait!) On the way down to the river we stopped so I could try my hand at Absailing, which is the same thing as rappelling in North America. I've always wanted to try it and it was an absolute rush to do it. Backing over the top of a cliff edge holding onto a rope is damn scary, even with all the safety harness and everything in place. Included in the $20 price was two runs at it, and the 2nd time I went down forwards. My god! Total adrenaline! We had lunch by the river at the bottom of the gorge and went for a quick refreshing swim to cool off (the temp. was about 38 degrees Celsius that day). Once everyone was well rested we made our way back up to the bus to head out to our next destination.... The Shark Bay World Heritage Area! This is a massive nature preservation area which is well protected for several reasons. One of them is because of a life form called Stromatolites. These are some the most absolutely ancient forms of life on earth, some of which were alive over 3 BILLION years ago! They were essentially single-celled organisms that pulled minerals out of their surroundings and gradually built up rock-like formations in the ocean. There were several different forms of stromatolites in one area, and they exist today because the area was naturally sheltered and almost no other life has grown in the exact area since then. Simply looking at the stromatolites would be incredibly boring if you didn't know what they were (because they just look like simple rock formations), but once I found out what they really are, I was absolutely fascinated. A short drive away from the stromatolites was a beach called Shell Beach, and as you may have guessed, there were a great number of shells here. So many, in fact, that they created a several kilometre long beach that was several hundred metres wide made of nothing but shells piled several metres deep. Walking barefoot on these shells was incredibly painful and has made me determined to toughen my feet. Few people outside of cities in Western Australia wear shoes. Some people wear sandals or thongs (flip-flops), but many people walk everywhere barefoot. I've come to realise that it's very useful to have tough feet because putting on and taking off footwear 400 times a day is a total pain in the ass. (We were in and out of the ocean several times each day.) I can easily compare the benefit of having tough feet around here to the benefit of having a decent tan. The sun here is very intense and to stay shielded from it in every way every day is not feasible and would completely ruin the vacation. A tan gives your body a natural degree of sun protection which will dramatically reduce your likelihood of getting a sunburn. After Shell Beach we headed to our 2nd night's accommodation in the small town of Denham which also had a very nice hostel with separate kitchens, complete bathrooms, and a large living room in every unit. After visiting the dolphins we headed on our way up to Coral Bay which I had read has some of the most spectacular snorkelling on the west coast. On the way we stopped next to this shallow, landlocked lake (no river exiting from it) and Jon, our driver, taught us all how to play Beach Cricket. As I mentioned previously, I'm now addicted. Being part of the British commonwealth and not having another country like the U.S. next to you, Cricket is the undisputed sport of summer here. Australia competes in several 5 day test series with other countries in the area. I'd seen highlights on the news many times, but I had no idea how the game was played so it never made any sense to me. Something would happen in these news highlights that didn't look important and the crowd would all jump up and start screaming, and all I would think was, "What the hell just happened?" Few Australians know how baseball is played either. Actually playing a few games of Cricket has solved that mystery for me. I was told that Baseball actually evolved out of Cricket, and I love playing both. We got to Coral Bay in the early afternoon and checked into the hostel, which seemed rather expensive for the shabby accommodation and facilities. There was no competition in town so I guess they could charge whatever they felt like. The area Coral Bay is situated in is very barren and dry, and all fresh water for the town is trucked in or something. Water for other things like sprinklers, showers, and toilets comes from a very deep well and the water that comes out is quite hot, filled with minerals, and totally inappropriate to drink. After checking in we immediately went snorkelling. Snorkelling here was very good, with tons of beautiful fish and a wide variety of colourful corals. In fact, it rivalled a lot of the scuba diving I've done so far around the Perth area. The water here was very salty which made snorkeling for long periods of time very easy because of the added buoyancy. Being beaten and tired from waking up early every morning along with everything we'd done to date and finishing a brutally expensive (but quite tasty) dinner still wasn't enough to stop us from pausing before bed to play a game of Night Beach Cricket, which was just silly. A glow-in-the-dark ball would certainly have helped, but it was tons of fun anyways. Once we'd ditched all our stuff at the hostel we headed out to a beach called Turquoise Bay. We were the only ones there that afternoon and had the entire kilometre or so long beach to ourselves. Snorkelling here was also very good, and I saw my first shark here! It was a Reef Shark that had it's home in the area, and it was asleep under a large chunk of coral. We could only see the tail sticking out from underneath, but it was still cool. Later on in a slightly different area we saw another Reef Shark that was swimming with some fish. Note: Reef Sharks are totally not dangerous and have very soft teeth. They never attack humans and wouldn't make a very successful attack if they tried. In addition to the 2 sharks, we also saw tons of colourful fish and coral, and a couple of large sea turtles. Turtles exist so naturally underwater and move with grace -- completely different from their on-land movement. That evening we had a huge Aussie style barbecue with about a kilo of meat per person and a massive salad. It was great fun, but I wouldn't want to eat that way too often. Most divers come to Exmouth to swim with whale sharks when they visit the area around March, but it obviously wasn't the season for that. Still, there was plenty of fantastic diving anyway. The first 2 dives I did here were out at a pair of small islands off shore called the Murion Islands. I was told in Perth that divers in Perth dream of diving in Exmouth, and I wasn't disappointed. There were more fish here than I'd seen on all previous dives combined. The water was nice and warm (almost 30 degrees celcius/86 degrees Fahrenheit) and the visibility was quite decent (15-20m). One really cool thing we saw was an enormous (approx. 3 metre) moray eel swimming around in a cavern. This is very rare because these eels generally hide inside tunnels within the porous rock. The 3rd dive I did blew the previous two out of the water though. Exmouth started it's life as a small U.S. military base with the purpose of distributing ultra-low frequency communications via an array of 13 antenna towers, each of which is taller than the Eiffel Tower. There was also a pier built for docking and refuelling submarines and battleships, etc. This pier is where we did a shore dive. The pier dive has been called the best pier dive on earth, and it's not difficult to see why people would think that. The bottom composition in the area is primarily sand so the only place in the area where plants can get a grip on something and grow is on this pier. Another reason for life liking the area is that warm sea water heated by a nearby power generation plant is pumped back into the ocean off the side of the pier. Enormous schools of fish hang out in this area, which is also popular among sharks. I saw a greater variety of a greater number of fish on this dive than any other dive I've done. It was hands down my most enjoyable dive to date. In addition to the sharks and masses of fish, we also saw an octopus, a crayfish (which is like a lobster but without the big claws), a few rays, some massive potato cod, and lots more. Absolutely fantastic. If anyone reading this is thinking of diving in Exmouth, DO NOT MISS this dive. It's so totally worth the $60. Those first 3 dives were done through the Village Dive Shop which was part of the hostel we were staying at. I bought a package of 5 dives with them, and the last two dives were supposed to be out near the lighthouse at the northern tip of the cape on the Ningaloo Reef. Unfortunately all three boats at the disposal of the dive shop were broken for one reason or another so I had to get my money back for the last 2 dives. the funny thing was that they didn't want to admit their boats were broken to everyone so they were just telling people that they were all full. I came to Exmouth to dive and I didn't want to miss those last 2 dives so Myself and the other 2 people I was going diving with contacted another dive shop in town called WAGS Diving (Tel: 08-9949-2661, http://www.nwc.net.au/members/wags). Paul Waghorn (the owner) and the divemaster (whose name I unfortunately can't remember) made the day a really great experience. We zipped out to the reef on Paul's large zodiac inflatable (which had a 115hp motor on the back) and got there in no time at all travelling at 33 knots. Pretty damn fast compared to the more than 2 hours we spent travelling at 8 knots on the fishing boat Village Dive chartered to bring us out to the Murion Islands. These last 2 dives near the lighthouse were lots of fun. One of the first things I saw on the 2nd dive was what I thought was a huge 3-metre long shark. It turned out to be a shovel-head ray, which has a tail that looks exactly like a shark's, but it's body is wider and flatter, and the gills are on the bottom like a ray instead of being on either side like a shark. It kind of freaked me out at the time even though it was just sleeping on the bottom, and I blew through about 50 bar of air in 5 minutes. We also saw a beautiful blue-spotted fantail ray, huge schools of yellow striped perch, and a sea snake. Sea snakes are incredibly wierd. They look exactly like a snake with a brown snake's head and white or ivory snake's body, but the end of their tail is sort of like a flipper. The body tapers down like a cone towards the end, but fins on the top and bottom extend out slightly for the last 30 cm of it's body. They totally look engineered, like someone said, "I wonder what would happen if we grafted fins onto the end of a snake...". I learned that they are incredibly deadly and poisionous (one of the most poisinous on Earth -- they need to be able to kill the fish they bite with their poisin before thy have a chance to swim very far away), but they are very friendly to divers and totally docile. It's posible to play with them underwater like one would play with a puppy dog. They can hold their breath for about an hour. Because I chewed through so much air at the beginning of the 2nd dive I had to surface earlier than normal. Once I had my scuba unit off, Paul let me use his DPV (Diver Propulsion Vehicle) for a while. I'd never used one before, but believe me, they're just as much fun as they look! Deep breath, hold, then shoot down underwater really fast, zip around in circles for a bit, and then skyrocket to the surface like a dolphin. It was so much fun! He has 3 of them and rents them out for $30 each, and the batteries last for about 40 minutes of continuous use. What a blast that would be! Other days in Exmouth consisted of relaxaton techniques (hanging out in the shade by the pool all afternoon reading a book, and going for a quick dip whenever the heat became too much), a bit of mountain biking and some more snorkeling. One day a group of four of us decided to rent a car and go watch turtles lay eggs on the beach. Martina (a fellow diver from Germany I met on the bus on the way up) and a really great couple from Switzerland (Well, Jorg is from Switzerland but his wife Talia is originally from Slovenia) were totally fascinated by the process. These enormous turtles (with shells over a metre long) haul their way up to the beach after sunset around this time of the year and dig a huge hole in the sand, then dig a smaller, deeper, pear-shaped hole inside that. If the conditions are just right (not to dry, not too damp, right temperature, stars in the right alignemnt, inflation and interest rates not too high) then they lay up to 100 ping pong ball sized eggs in the hole, then cover it up and make their way back to the ocean. It's okay for humans with flashlights to observe the whole process once the turtles get started because they go into a total trance for the ordeal and normally ignore you. We saw at least 4 different turtles laying eggs shortly after nightfall, and incredibly enough, we even saw a freshly hatched baby turtle (from a different nest) making it's way to the ocean. It must have been drawn to our flashlights or something, so we guided it down to the water. We all thought it was simply amazing to see both the beginning of the birth process and the end result at the same time. Another evening I ate a gourmet dinner outside while watching the stunning Western Australia sunset with my new friends and then watching stars with an incredible lack of light pollution. I really, really love this place!
T H E T O U R
T H E P E O P L E
For the trip in both directions (on the way up north and back down south) there were some really great people on the bus. Conversation was generally rampant with a total lack of anything else to do for those 4 hour stretches in the bus every day. When things occasionally got boring our excellent driver (Jon) kept us entertained with silly travelling games and even an afternoon of gambling (maximum $1 for each type of game we played, but still tons of fun). After learning and becoming addicted to Beach Cricket we tried Bus Cricket which wasn't quite so successful.
D A Y 1
T H U R S D A Y J A N . 1 3 , 2 0 0 0
So what did we see? Tons! The first "tourist" stop on the first day was at the Nambung national park, where some interesting rock formations called the Pinnacles have formed over time. the Pinnacles are fairly large chunks of rock (varying in size up to about 3 metres tall) that jut straight up out of the sand throughout a large area. They were formed when water from rainfall ages ago percolated down through the sand and leeched out cemet-like chemicals which caused the sand to harden into something like sandstone, but without the massive pressure normally needed. When trees grew in the area quite some time ago, their roots tunnelled deep down to reach water far beneath the surface. The trees root systems broke up the rock as they tunnelled down, but small areas where no trees grew stayed intact. After a while all the trees in the area died off and erosion began blowing the sand away, exposing the still hard areas between trees. It was interesting to see them, and they provided a very eerie landscape.
D A Y 2
F R I D A Y J A N . 1 4 , 2 0 0 0
This day was one of my favourites. Today we went to Kalbari National Park and went hiking through an absolutely majestic canyon carved out by a river whose name escapes me now.
D A Y 3
S A T U R D A Y J A N . 1 5 , 2 0 0 0
Day 3 started off with everyone heading to another small down very near Denham called Monkey Mia. The attraction here was that a number of dolphins enter a swimming area early every morning and check out the humans swimming there. After a while a park ranger comes by and allows people to feed the dolphins some fish (Note: dolphin feeding in other areas is illegal, and the feeding done here is carefully controlled. The dolphins aren't given much of their daily food requirement from the feedings. It's like getting a free breakfast.) It was quite incredible to see these beautiful creatures so close, but the experience paled in comparison to something else I experienced in Exmouth. More on that later...
D A Y 4
S U N D A Y J A N . 1 6 , 2 0 0 0
We couldn't leave Coral Bay in the morning without going snorkelling one more time before heading to our final destination of Exmouth. The hostel we stayed at here was called Exmouth Cape Tourist Village and Pete's Backpackers. It seemed really nice at first: air conditioned units with kitchens but no bathrooms, a really nice pool, free mountain bikes (or bush bikes in Australia) for anyone to use, etc. I later found some of the staff to be horribly rude with a total lack of customer service which soured the whole experience. The power went out at about 10:00 one evening and wasn't turned back on until about 8:00 the next morning. I asked for a refund or discount for the night we had no power (and therefore no air conditioning, lighting, or most importantly refrigeration) and I was flat out refused. The guy at the counter said that the power outage was neither their fault nor their responsibility, and if I wanted a refund I should talk to the power company. ??? What an idiot. There were at least 3 other places to stay in town and if I ever spend any more time in Exmouth I will definitely look for some place nicer.
D A Y S 5 T O 1 2
J A N . 1 7 T O 2 4 T H , 2 0 0 0
My week in Exmouth was certainly the most fun I've had in Australia so far. I went on 5 separate dives, did a bunch more snorkelling, met some really great people, and had a fantastic time overall.
D A Y S 1 3 A N D 1 4
J A N . 2 5 T H A N D 2 6 T H , 2 0 0 0
My amazing week in Exmouth had to come to a close eventually. I hauled my ass out of bed at 6:00 a.m. to get ready for the bus back to Perth that left at 7. The drive back was totally relaxed, and we only stopped in a town called Dongara (which also has a nice hostel) for the night, and that's it! My plan from here is to do the south-western area of W.A. and then make my way over to Tassie (Tasmania) as soon as possible to go hiking through the mountainous wilderness there.