What has Andy gone and done now…?

Ok, so it’s been a while since my last ‘proper’ post, but there is one thing I have grown to know in the past 5 days…Western Australia is pretty remote!!  It’s pretty darn hard to find a decent internet connection anywhere, and if you find one that allows you to connect your camera to upload photos you’ve scored big time!  I have now arrived with the lovely Rory and Sarah in Melbourne however so finally have a bit of a chance to get some blogging done – hoorah I hear you say…

So, I left Perth on Tues morning with a group of people on an Easyrider backpackers bus heading up the west coast.  Different people have got on and off, but essentially I spent the first half of my west coast trip with a core group of 6 people – A guy from California called Sam, three cool German girls called Sabhia, Elisa and Caroline (Cordula – you’ll be mightily impressed with my German when I get back – I’d say I’m pretty much fluent already…) and a Dutch girl called Iris.

Right…a whistlestop tour of the first 7 days on the west coast – lots of pictures and minimal talking hopefully…the first stop on Tuesday was at Pinnacles Desert which has interesting rock formations…and lots of flies…

 

Pinnacles Desert just north of Perth

 

The journey on the Easyrider bus is actually nearly as much fun as the destinations…good craic had by all usually…velcro darts was always a winner…well that is ‘I’ was always the winner..!! ;o)

 

Velcro darts on the Easyrider bus

 

Take a note of the ’scoreboard’ written on the window…

 

We stayed in Kalbarri on Tuesday night and headed out early the next day to some amazing big gorges where I did a bit of abseiling, got scared by the size of the spiders…pretty cool surroundings and a lot of walking in 30 plus degrees – always good to get back into the air-conditioned bus!!  Overnight stop this night was in Denham (reached after changing the trailer tyre as a result of an impressive blowout!) where I got hussled off the pool table in the local bar by a Dutch Aboriginal called ‘Dutchy’…maybe he wasn’t actually called Dutchy and that’s just what we called him…either way he was good…

 

 

Some nice scenery

 

SAS training

 

It actually was the size of my palm…and I’m only 2 feet away from it…scary bikkies

 

‘Natures Window’ – a ‘natural window’ as it were with some nice views…

 

Changing the trailer tyre after the blowout – we didn’t use a jack – the boys just lifted it, grrr…

 

Thursday morning we left Denham and headed to Monkey Mia where they have dolphins that come right into the beach and can be fed (under supervision) by Joe Bloggs if he fancies it…I found the whole experience a bit weird and unnatural, but hey what would I know…after the dolphins we went out dugong  spotting on a big catamaran which was immense!  It had a big hammock out the back that you could sit in as the boat was going and it was sort of like a big natural jacuzzi…until it sped up and then it was more like a washing machine – cracker fun!  We saw loads of dugongs too which was also cool.

 

Sam feeding the dolphins at Monkey Mia

 

Sam and Leith (a trainee Easyrider guide, and a legend!) on the boat

 

Sam, Leith and I on the hammock out back…casual pace…

 

 

Warp speed..!!!

 

Crossing over the Tropic of Capricorn we stayed overnight in Coral Bay, and in fact I jumped off the bus at this stage for four days to chill out for a bit…Pete – Coral Bay….IMMENSE..!?…sun, sea, sand and…..the Ningaloo Reef..!!…basically four days spent chilling with the guys, snorkelling, diving and lying on the beach…absolutely awesome…the diving was spectacular.  I spent one day as mentioned in my previous blog snorkelling with manta rays which was just unbelievable – the photos don’t fully do it justice, but the fact that I took them whilst swimming in the water with them makes it better than any postcard!!  Then after the manta rays there was two dives…an 8ft grey nurse shark and a 7ft grey reef shark for starters..!!..and no cage mother – they only put me into that at night-time to keep me off the streets…

 

Sam happy after seeing two mantra rays at the same time…

 

One of said manta rays…

 

Another manta ray

 

Another nice photo of a manta ray…did I mention they were AWESOME!?

 

Some nice coral and fish (it’s hard to do it justice really!?)

 

A happy diver!

 

Basically Coral Bay was fantastic and four days were spent doing fun stuff with really cool people…I’ll be meeting the girls again in Sydney for New Years and I’m meeting Sam in Melbourne (where I am at the minute).

 

Beach at Coral Bay

 

Sam and the girls…quality times…

 

So that’s half of the west coast in a few words and photos.  The second half will follow shortly – new people met, new friends made, even more better places visited…for now I must go as I’ve hired a car and am getting up at 5.30am to drive the great ocean road between Melbourne and Adelaide.  I’m then hopefully going to head to Adelaide to meet a girl I was good friends with over the past few days…so more to follow…

 

The sun sets on my last night in Coral Bay…

 

Even though there is still another half of the west coast to come – here is a wee sneak preview of my current situation – I am typing this whilst playing wii sports in Rory and Sarah’s…they have a lemon tree in their front garden…

 

Outside Rory and Sarah’s house…