"Spring" Break

I have returned from my fall (spring to me) break adventure! I traveled up the coast of Western Australia with four other people; Amanda, Annie, Robin and Jens. There was a lot of time on the road (approx. 3,000km). We left last Friday out of Perth and headed for Kalbarri. This trip made me realize how large Australia is. Here is a map of our route along the coast:
We drove most of the first day and stayed at Riverside Sanctuary that night. It was a "station stay," and used to be a sheep shearing station. I only saw one sheep there so I think they bring it out for demonstrations a few times a year. They also had some emus and an ostrich. We ate dinner in the barn where there was a kitchen and water.

We swam in this river after driving. It was so refreshing.

Here is the group:Me, Jens, Annie, Amanda, and Robin

Day two was also another driving day up to Coral Bay. We tried to find a place to stay in town but everything was busy because it was Easter/ANZAC weekend. We ended up driving 70km north for another station stay at Bullara Station. It was similar to the first but appeared to be an actual working farm. They had a baby kangaroo and sheep. I met a group of children who had named each of the sheep names like Chocolate, Coconut, and Spot. We stayed made dinner in an outdoor cooking shelter and I took a shower with a bunch of giant grasshoppers in an outdoor shower.

The roo had been rescued because its mother had died.

The next day we drove back to Coral Bay to hang out on the small beach before our snorking/kayak adventure we had booked the day before. It was really crowded there.
The snorking tour was fun. I got to see bunch of fish and hard corals. We had to kayak out to the reef and then jump in the water with flippers/snorkels on. I have a huge bruise on my leg from getting back in the boat.

That afternoon we continued on to Exmouth where we stayed at a caravan park. It was also really busy with families. We set up our giant tent and ate lentil-tomato-cheese quesadillas for dinner.


I woke up very early the next morning to attend an ANZAC dawn service. ANZAC day commemorates all veterans and people in service from Australia and New Zealand. It originally started as a rememberance day for soldiers who fought in WWI in Gallipolli, Turkey. There were a lot of references to the "Digger" (men in the trenches) spirit during the speeches.

Later that day we drove around the point to the Cape Range National Park and stopped along the way at several beaches including the visitors centre and a turtle hatching center. We ended up at Turquoise Bay where we went snorking. There were many hard corals and fish to look at and there were jellyfish in the water. I got stung on my knee slightly, but I survived. We also went to another beach that had unique shells and corals washed up on the sand.

This is one of the hard corals. I love the pattern!

The following day we hung out at the beach again and then started the drive back to the Coral Bay area. We drove until almost dusk, when the animals start crossing the road and driving becomes dangerous. We decided to stop at a campsite off the side of the road (for free!). There was no running water and the bathroom was really creepy. It rained almost all night and the tent was muddy and soaked the next morning. I still had fun though. Here we are eating oatmeal:
After the soggy night we headed south for Monkey Mia. It continued to rain until 10am and there were large puddles of water across the road. Before going all the way to Monkey Mia we stopped at the Stromatolites. These are formations or mats or cyanobacteria that trap sediments and form structures. Today, they are found in highly saline environments where they are mostly undisturbed by grazing animals. They were responsible for adding oxygen to the atmosphere about 3.5 billion years ago. Without them, we would not have oxygen and would probably not be here. For more information see: Hamelin Pool Marine Nature Reserve.

We continued the trek up to Monkey Mia where we stayed at the Dolphin Resort campground. We set up our 12-person tent and went swimming in the water where I sighted a stingray. That night we went to the "Monkey Bar" and listened to a musician play his guitar and sing Cat Stevens, the Beatles, and John Denver among many other great songs. I enjoyed watching the "older" crowd get into the music.

Here we are eating tacos on the beach.

The next morning we went to a dolphin feeding. The resort only feeds the dolphins a few fish each in the morning. It was exciting because they came almost to where we were standing in the water and they would look at us by tilting their heads in the water. I learned that older dolphins get spots on their bellies kind of like humans getting wrinkles when they get older. There was also a male dolphin who had been attacked by a shark and had a huge chunk of flesh hanging off his back.

All of the dolphins are identifiable by their dorsal fins.

After watching a short film in oceans, narrated by David Attenborough, I went for a 10 min camel ride along the beach. The owner of the camels, Hank, was obsessed with his animals and they were the only thing he would talk about. His camels seemed very happy as evidenced by the picture below:

Camellia and I

The next day we traveled from Monkey Mia to Leeman along the scenic Indian Ocean Drive. We made it to a caravan park and had dinner along an interesting beach. It was full of seaweed and the water was a brown color. There was hardly any sand the the surface was limestone with round pools carved out by wave action. That night we watched the royal wedding on the television in the cooking shelter with some Australian families. We drank tea and ate Tim Tams, an Australian chocolate cookie. Annie and I tried a "Tim Tam slam" with tea. You bite the ends off the cookie and use it like a straw to suck up the drink before it disintegrates into a chocolaty mess.

That night was the first time I felt cold all week. I think it was because we were further south than before. The next morning was also cold, but we left early to get back to Perth. We made it back safely with a few detours in the city.
Now I am back at uni, but I will be leaving for Melbourne next week for another adventure!