Adventures in Chelsea's world: Monkey Mia Tour-Feb 2010

Monkey Mia Tour! So this was supposed to go from Perth up north to Monkey Mia where you can "swim w/ the dolphins!" (but really only a couple ppl are chosen to stand waist deep in the ocean while a dolphin swims up to get food and comes to you). BUT the whole trip, the temp was 110 degrees, so there were a ton of bush fires the whole weekend, one of which went over the ONLY road that goes north. WOW, yes it is that underdeveloped and isolated here. So we had a slight change of plans.

Day 1. Well the first day started out bright and early in Perth meeting the bus and the strangers all riding on it w/ me for the next 4 days. There were a few Germans/Swiss-Germans, Asians, a couple from Columbia, our driver was Aussie, and me! :)We drove for a couple hrs, then stopped at Nambung Nat'l Park to see the Pinnacles. B/c it was 43 out, we didn't stay long! Just enough to get pics and get outta there! W/ all the hype, I expected a bit more, but the formations were still pretty neat. The flys and sweltering sun was pretty annoying though.

After that we were supposed to go sand-boarding, but it was too hot, we would have burned ourselves! So instead we went to a small beach and had lunch there. Then it was a long bus drive to Kalbarri to where we were staying fo rthe night in a hostel. We were ahead of schedule getting there, and it was almost sunset so we stopped at some red rock cliffs against the pretty blue ocean. It was beautiful and so much fun to climb on the rocks! (every trip anytime we climbed on rocks I always thought of my brothers and how much fun we would all have climbing all over them!). There was a lot of mist so we couldn't see the full sunset but it was still amazing. Then we got to the hostel and I had my first stay in one! Just reminded me a bit of girls camp actually! It was called the Pelican. We had a nice pasta dinner and settled in for the night.

Day 2. We had an early start b/c we had a couple hikes then a long drive up north to Monkey Mia where we were staying that night. We got started in Kalbarri Nat'l Park to Munchinson Gorge. We had a fun hike down into the Z bend gorge. It was nice to finally hike again, except for the flies! They were terrible, no matter how much repellant you put on, and it didn't help that we were all sweating buckets in the 110 degree weather! After the tourist picture taking time we headed back up and went to the view point, then a short walk back to the car and drove 7km to view Nature's Window. By that time it was getting to be high nooon and some decided to forgo the 20 min walk to see the amazing view that was formed naturally, to create a perfect archway window through which you could see the X bend gorge. After more pics, we melted back to the bus for our lunch stop and to begin our 3-4 hr drive north first to Shark Bay and Shell Beach, then Monkey Mia for the night. After lunch we began our trek north, and after about 1 hr we got to the hwy to go north and could see lots of black smoke in the distance to the right and helicopters trying to put out the first of what would be many to come brush fires. Barely down the road, a cop came flying down a side road and pulled us over. The fire was spreading and it was now over the freeway we needed to be on. Unlucky for us, it was the ONLY fwy North, and was now closed till atleast 9am the next day. We just missed our passage to the north by about 1 hr. There was no way we were getting up north that day, so back to Kalbarri we went, hoping to wait it out and start again early the next morning. So we joined up w/ another tour that was trying to head north as well, and tried to find a beach to swim at for the arvo (afternoon), but all the waves were too big. The winds had picked up and some dark clouds were rolling in. So we went to the river/mini lake that was crated by a reef and a jetty of land. About 4-5 of us laid out and swam a bit, and 1 girl-Gabi, and I swam across it to a bit past the middle point, then turned around to come back, and we started seeing storm clouds rolling in! Thunder, lightening and rain then came! We didn't want to get caught in the ocean in the middle of the storm, so we high tailed it back! Then we just laid out and dried off, saw the rain coming so we packed up and walked back to the hostel just as the rain began. we got settled back into our rooms and sat down to start dinner, when the power went out! What a day! W/in 30 min it came back on though, so we were able to eat and get to bed for yet another early start, hoping to reach the hwy right when it was reopened.

Day 3. @7am the road was still closed and wasn't even getting evaluated till 9am, we had over an hr till we reached it, so we decided to try our luck. We finally got there and the fire had already started back up and was over the freeway yet again! So it was a no-go to Monkey Mia and "swim" w/ the dolphins for us! We then headed to spend the day in Geraldton, where we finally got to go sand-boarding! It was 11am and burning my feet! But it was a fun ride down! The view was candy for the eyes, with the orange sand, bright blue sky and deep blue ocean, but I wasn't gonna risk taking my camera up a huge hill of sand lol. Yet the sad part was in the middle of the dunes was what looked like a dumping grounds for rusted sheet metal, glass and misc trash. We had to stop ourselves while flying down the hill so we wouldn't run into the shards of rusty glass glittering in the burning sand. I had my hands up though and enjoyed the whole ride down and even got some air at the end! It was a quick run back to the bus w/ everyone tired of their feet getting burned! We went to the shore and our driver stared lunch so we could take a dip in the ocean, cool off and get the sand out from everywhere! It was so refreshing! Too bad the sand was caked on and you had to scrape it w/ your nails to get it off! We were also surprised by the amount of aboriginals in Geraldton! You hardly see them, but it looked like that was the whole crowd there. The old men hollaring and the little kids playing and begging made for an interesting experience. We all sat down to lunch and had yummy burgers. Right about the time we were finishing up these 2 old aboriginal men came up and tried to sell us these old $5 coins. No one was buying. Then one started talking to some girls, and everyone was uncomfortable. They ended up leaving, and soon thereafter we packed up to leave. Then one came back asking for our leftover food. We were just gonna throw it out so we gave it to them. Then still trying to kill time we went to the local museum there. Most of it had ship wreck stuff that I wasn't all that interested in. There was an area that had a photo gallery though with local photographers photos they took and the stories behind it. Some were really beautiful and I took a couple pictures of them (prob not allowed!), then 4 of us st off in search of an open cafe. Yet on a Sunday everything is closed. Luckily we found one though! It was over priced, but we got drinks anyways bc we desperately needed a cold drink to cool us off. We then met up w/ the bus and drove back north a little was towards Northampton, then went west to the coast to a small town called Horracks. We stayed at a great bed in breakfast run by a cheeky older couple! They were so fun and made the experience so great! The man said that there was a party going on in town tonight, so to just put our things down, go to the beach for a swim and hangout, then when we the sun is setting to just walk up the steps from the beach to this little outdoor eating area. There was a Footy club party going on! They had a live band and everything! Our BNB hosts had made us 3 kinds of stews for dinner, which were AMAZING. We got some rice, then there was chicken stew, beef stew, and kangaroo stew!!!!! I hadn't intentionally planned on eating kangaroo, but since it was there already prepared I HAD to try it! OMG it was delicious! Was like really tender beef. I loved it. Go ahead, be mad at me for eating the cute kangaroo, but I'm not sorry! :) While we were eating, this small, tan, wrinkled old woman (prob like 75) came up and started to arm wrestle w/ some of the guys in our group! She was so feisty! I beat her of course...haha, and she didn't like it, but was a good sport! After dinner and with the booze flowing everyone started getting up and dancing! And of course the older woman was in the middle of the floor dancing w/ all the guys! She was hilarious. After a few hrs and the crowd died down, most had headed back to the hostel, but me? Oh I decided to go for a midnight swim in the ocean! It was perfect conditions there b/c there was a reef way offshore that stopped any waves from coming in, and there was a floating dock to hang out on. So about 10 of us went out there, and after about 25 min decided to hit the hay. Earlier about 8 of us had set out matildas (sleeping cot) on the deck so we could wake up and watch the sunrise! Later that night when we got there it dawned on us(not really) that the sun was on the other side! bahahaha we had a great laugh at our mistake, and still had a great time sleeping outdoors. Overall it was a perfect ending to what started out a not so great day.

Day4. Today was the final day, and we went started out at the Hutt River Province. Now I had never heard of this place before, and I've found out even a lot of Aussies don't know that w/in Australia there is another country! Back in the late 60's, the gov was screwing some farmers over their land, and one of them was a lawyer and wasn't going to take it lying down. So he declared war on Australia! According to the law back then, if the forces didn't show up to his land on the said day, then he could secede from Australia, and that he did! It is now an independent sovereign state and is about 18,500 acres of land! We got to meet Prince Leonard and hear his amazing story. He was such a funny guy, and is about 80 so he is pretty old! But there are alot of buildings there... a church-where I got to sit in an official royalty chair, a post office-where he has his own stamps, currency, a display of currency from all over the world, as well as rocks and minerals and his different currency. I was even able to get my first ever stamp in my passport there!(My visa for AU is online... :( As we were leaving, we heard that there were more bush fires that have started up, closing the hwy to go south back to Perth, ahh! Luckily there is a hwy that goes east for a bit then south, so we were about to head that way, when we heard there were more starting out in the east. Man I chose the wrong weekend to go! We made one last quick stop at Greenough Wildlife park, then needless to say we hightailed it back and was able to get back to Perth roughly on-time.

Well the trip didn't go as planned, but it ended up being great anyways! Enjoy all the pictures below!

Peek-A-Boo!

More amazing scenery as we arrive in Kalbarri.

First wild Kangaroo! He was resting in the shade

Cool lizard we saw on the way down into Z Bend Gorge

Steep and narrow hike down to the bottom of the gorge.

@ the bottom of the Z bend

View from the top

Resting in the shade, trying to escape from the relentless sun!

Nature's Window

Looking through the window to the Z bend gorge

Me, Fiona, Ramon and Livia

This is the dirt road in Australia, so much prettier than the colors back home! It was pretty views on the long drive, but always the same....

The bushfire that was over the freeway preventing us from going up to Monkey Mia.

The tour crew

Yet another gorgeous ocean view in Kalbarri.

Sand dunes! :)

It was 110 degrees out (43 celcius) and the sand was BURNING our feet! Ouch. I would have liked to have gone down more, but it wasn't worth it....atleast I got to do it once!