Friday, December 29, 2006

Aussie Babe

Another adorable pic of Miss Emily

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

West Coast Journey

So after 23 days on the road, we finally made it to Perth in one piece. Or rather, more surprisingly, the car made it in one piece. In Darwin we briefly met Daniel and Jenny a young German couple who purchased an 84' Ford Falcon Station wagon in an appalling shade of lime green and were looking for travel companions. So Carla and myself along with Mathew (not his real name!?) from Korea, crammed ourselves into the car and headed down the coast.

The trip all in all was great, although for the first week, before arriving in Broome, it was brutally hot. We obviously had no air con in the Green Monster and sticking your head out the window for a breeze was like putting your face under the blow dryer. I was literally drinking 4.5 to 6 Liters of water a day and never have to pee...now that is sweating. yuck! But upon Broome we enjoyed the cool ocean breeze and humid days. The beach in Broome is gorgeous, even though we still couldn't indulge in a swim because of the box jelly fish, which are by the way deadly. Although we did still see a couple brave swimmers, I wasn't up for the risk.

So in three weeks I managed to pet a baby kangaroo, see many roos (dead and alive) by the side of the road, see crocodiles up close (scary), swim with a few different species of sea turtles, and snorkel alongside rays. We had to hide our shoes at night from the Dingos, and a pack of Emu's ate my lunch one afternoon. We got as close as one can get to a Dugong in the wild. A mama and baby may I add, while on a boat in Monkey Mia, and I got to feed a hungry wild dolphin his lunch of local fish. Here parrots and cockatoos roam like pigeons, Pelicans the size of Carla sit down beside you on the beach and the fish are a foot long in knee deep water. I love it!

We climbed thru an amazing set of gorges in Karanjini National Park, which at times required some Spidey-like moves, or swimming thru cold clean fresh streams and waterfalls. It was great!! We visited Stromatolites, which are 35 Billion year old living organisms, which look like rocks, which are responsible for moving oxygen from the sea water into the air making us able to live on earth...that's pretty cool. We saw giant turtle nests, as they come up on to the beach after 5o years of life to lay their eggs. And I mean huge nests! We visited the mysterious Pinacles in the desert and dinosaur footprints on the coast. We met about every German in Aus along the way as well, and there are heaps...and of course a couple Canadians.

The car broke down like clockwork every sunday, which meant waiting till monday to get the thing fixed. But the junker got us here and in one piece. And of course a holiday wouldn't be the same without a trip to the hospital with Carla. She had boiling water spilled on her leg, ouch! But don't worry she walked away after two weeks of healing unscathed. Although had to miss out on some swimming in the middle. We only got stopped by the police three times, and once was for "illegally showering", don't worry mom, the cops laughed at that one too.

We saw a giant: prawn, crocodile, banana, and rock lobster. We saw a couple amazing lightning storms from a distance, but rarely got rain. Although we did get wind. We had a couple nights where putting up the tent was not so easy when it was blowing away, and did you know that tent pegs don't work so great in sand? It always is a treat waking up to nylon pressed to your face and the sun in your eyes as the tent has caved in around you in the night.

It was great and even though we are gearing up today to start work again and an apartment and settle in Perth for a while, we've already lined up our own car for our next adventure heading East. There's so much more to see...or conquer as we like to call it.

Merry Christmas to All!!!!!

xxRobin