Break...Week One

The Bus/van

The Pinnacles

SOme of the girls at Ocean park

Me and Jenn...and our Margaritas

Sandboarding

The adventure began on last Saturday morning at 8:00 am, which was our scheduled departure time. We met our tour guide/driver ( Nathan) and we got to see the lovely blue bus that were traveling in. Our group consisted of 15 students, which was much smaller than we expected, but it turned out to be really fun with a small group because we got to know everyone really well. Our first stop was at the bizarre Pinnacles. We then had lunch, which involved making our own sandwiches and washing our dishes. . . which I wasn’t exactly expecting. After driving another few hours, we somehow managed to get two flat tires, which held us up for about two hours. The adventure was only beginning. After what seemed like ages, we got back on the road and ended up staying a Farm Stay accommodation rather than the beach house we were originally planning to stay. We were served dinner, which included a choice of kangaroo stew or old fashioned farm style tucker. I stayed in a room with 5 others because each room had 3 bunk beds. When we woke up the next morning we actually were able to see horses, lambs, and llamas…it was much more obvious that we were on a farm in the middle of nowhere.

Sunday, we had breakfast at 7am (breakfast every morning was cereal and toast) we headed off to Kalabarri National park where Nathan led us on a hour long hike. It was really beautiful, especially the areas overlooking the ocean. We also stopped at Shell beach, which is a beach made entirely of sea shells. Then, we were off to Monkey Mia Backpackers Resort. Monkey Mia is known for its world famous dolphins. Once we arrived we went down to the beach and saw the sunset and the dolphins. We enjoyed steak and hot dogs on the barbeque for dinner…I think this was the only night that Nathan did all the cooking by himself. After dinner we went star gazing on the beach.

Monday, we woke up early so we could be there for the feeding of the dolphins. We really got to see the dolphins up close! Some people in our group were randomly picked to feed the dolphins. By 10 am we were off again to Ocean Park to see tiger sharks. Again, we got to see tiger sharks up really close as well as a number of other interesting fish and sea creatures. Then we headed off to Warrorra Station where we spent the night. This accommodation was much more rustic than the previous two places we stayed. There were 2 people per room and we didn’t even have sheets on our bed. Plus, when we went in the kitchen to start cooking pasta for dinner, we encounter a number of spiders and even a few cockroaches. Surprisingly, the pasta was delicious and I ate every bit of mine. That night we also celebrated Lottie’s 18th birthday. We also enjoyed “Australian” style smores by a campfire.


The next morning breakfast was at 6:30. I got up for breakfast only to find that under my right eye was really swollen and I had no idea why. I figured the swelling would go down after an hour or so, but it didn’t. I ended up buying some allergy medicine later that day, and even that didn’t work very well. So, basically I had a swollen eye for a day and a half. Anyway, that day we only rode in the bus for an hour total (which was wonderful because the past three days had involved anywhere from 6 to 9 hours of riding on the bus). We arrived in Coral Bay around 9am and we had the whole day free. Most of us decided to enjoy the day on the beach. Jenn and I rented snorkel gear and we went out and snorkeled for a couple of hours. It was really cool because we saw so many colorful fish, stingrays, and even an octopus! That night we had stirfry for dinner, and then we went to the local bar as a group. Jenn and I each got a Margarita. That night we went to bed before 10 o’clock even though it felt so much later!

Wednesday, we had to leave coral bay and head to Exmouth (our final destination) at 5:45 am. My friend Matt and a few other were going scuba diving and they had to arrive at a certain time so we all had to get up early. It was only an hour and half drive to Exmouth, and again we had the rest of the day free. I ended up going to the beach and the pool. A few of us even went to the sand dunes later to try out sand boarding (I had never heard of it before, but basically it is like snowboarding on sand). We had chilli for dinner, and again we went out to the local bar to hang out. We ended up playing quite a few games of pool.

Thursday was the day we were all dreading because we had no fun stops other than fuel stops and bathroom breaks between exmouth and Northampton. So, we drove for about 9 hours and only stopped twice. We arrived at the same Farm stay we were at the first night. We actually arrived before dinner so we got to go for a dip in the pool, and we also played quite a bit of table tennis. Instead of Kangaroo stew for dinner we had a beef stew. We all enjoyed our last night hanging out together. We even got a present for Nathan.

Friday, we departed at 7 am, and we had about 6 hours of driving before arriving back in Perth. For some reason those six hours seemed the longest. Along the way we stopped at a gas station for lunch (which, of course was sandwiches). We got home around 2 pm, and ever since I have been busy getting ready for my next trip, which is to Albany. Jenn and I leave tomorrow morning bright and early! Tonight we celebrated Komal’s birthday because her birthday is in a few days and we won’t be around. We made a pasta dinner and cake for her tonight, and then watched the Lion King. Such a good night.