The next morning it was back to the local tourism trail, although this time we had Zale as our personal escort. She decided that a day trip was in order to the world famous wine region known as the Margaret River wine region. It is located about three hours south of Perth, and is home to a plethora of wineries and other attractions. Our first stop of the day was at the Busselton Jetty, which is apparently the longest jetty (boat dock) in the southern hemisphere. I don’t think I could see the end of it from the shore. Unfortunately it was closed for construction, so after a quick stop it was back in the car. Our next stop was to one of the caves in the area. There are a handful of these gigantic walkthrough caves in the area that have now become major tourist sites. We decided to visit Mammoth Cave, which had a self-guided tour. I have never really experienced anything like that, and must say it was quite a unique experience. That natural construction and evolution of the caves is quite fascinating to say the least. We followed the caves up with a drive down to Hammelin Bay which is famous for its huge manta and sting rays which come right into shore. Unfortunately, the water was really choppy so we had to “settle” for some terrific camera shots and be on our way. We had much more important business to attend to anyways, as next on the agenda was the all-important winery visits. Zale had agreed to be the DD, which left Leeanna and I free to sample some of the regions finest wines. Our first stop was at one of the big wineries, Saracen Estates, where we settled in for a quick lunch at their brewery before purchasing some wine. When it was all said and done, we visited five wineries and a chocolate factory (had to satisfy Leeanna’s cravings!) and came home with a fairly solid bounty of wine. It’s pretty safe to assume that I drank a fair amount of wine that night before tucking myself in for a good night’s rest.
Leeanna finally got her wish on Sunday morning, as there was a “Twilight” marathon on the television. Sorry, actually it was her other wish come true, dolphins in the backyard. That morning for the first time since we had arrived there was a pod of dolphins swimming around the canals behind the house. We watched them playing in the water for probably a good hour before they decided to saunter off. After our little dolphin experience, Zale took us over to check out the condo building that Trevor is managing the construction of. We were given the grand tour of the building and got to see what 3.5 million dollars can buy you these days (apparently not too much). If you weren’t so wealthy, you could always buy the condos on the first floor, which started from a cool million dollars even. On that note, our hosts had arranged for some of their friends to take us all out sailing on their 40-foot yacht that afternoon. They really didn’t have to twist our arms too hard to make us come along. The boat was beautiful and featured a whole live aboard area down below, complete with a kitchen, living room, and two bedrooms. We saw a few more dolphins on our sail, and not so wisely Leeanna and I were even allowed to take the steering wheel for a short time. I inherently was more interested in the food w¬e were being provided with, so don’t go counting me in for a career change just yet. After our lovely evening sail, we hit up “New Asian Delights” for some tasty Chinese food before retreating back to the house (and my really comfortable bed) for my final sleep there.
Monday it was time for me to say my final farewell to Zale and company, as I was flying about 1200 kilometres north to the town of Exmouth, which is famous for giving people the opportunity to snorkel with whale sharks in the wild. I did get one more final appearance from the dolphins that morning in the backyard which was a fitting send off. Zale and Leeanna drove me to the airport and for the first time since we had been in Australia, Leeanna and I went our separate ways for a few days. She had no desire to do the whole whale shark excursion, so she decided to stay in the luxury of Zale’s apartment for an extra three nights. Secretly, I think Leeanna wanted to be rid of me for awhile, but I may never fully know the truth! After flying into Exmouth (population 3,000), our shuttle bus from the airport was promptly greeted by sheep all over the road. I had officially arrived in rural Australia! That afternoon I didn’t really do too much, as I just checked into my 7-person dorm (Potshot Hotel [3.5]) and aside from some grocery shopping I just lazed about and enjoyed the first tropical weather I had seen in a couple of months. I spent the evening hanging out some Spanish guy named Javier (as if!), who was some kind of champion swimmer in Spain or something to that effect. Somewhere in the broken English, I discovered that he had competed at the European and World Championships and that he was also doing the whale shark excursion the following morning. I tucked into bed fairly early that evening, as I was giddy with anticipation for the whale shark dive the next day. Sadly, my bed was uber-uncomfortable and I resigned myself to the fact that I was not going to be getting much in the way of sleep for the next couple of nights.
The next morning I was up at the crack of dawn, as it was time to get down to business with the whale sharks. For those not in the know, whale sharks are the largest fish in the ocean, and can grow to over 30 metres or something silly like that. Most of them are in the three to six metre range though, but still quite sizeable nonetheless. Despite their huge size, they are very laid back, and only feed on microscopic plankton. This in turn makes it quite safe to snorkel alongside the gentle giants, who act as if you are not even there. Now that we have some background, let’s get back to the story. The tour company I was doing the excursion with picked me up at my hotel, and along with about 12 other people we were taken out to our boat for the day. After getting fitted out with wet suits and snorkels and given all the safety briefings, we did a nice early morning dive in one of the many coral reefs in the area. There were tons of fish that looked like they had just jumped off the pages of National Geographic and we also managed to find a sting ray. Around ten in the morning, the spotter plane took to the sky and began to look for any whale sharks in the area. This turned out to be quite difficult that day as there was tons of cloud cover which made it hard to see into the water from up above. In the mean time, we did manage to find some humpback whales and dolphins in the area that we promptly all ooohed and ahhhed at from the safety of our boat. Finally after a couple of hours a whale shark was found, which meant full speed ahead. We got all of our gear on and ready to go before being summoned into the water by our tour leaders. Hands down, there are few things as exhilarating as dropping into the middle of the ocean with just a pair of fins, a snorkel mask, and a giant whale shark. The first swim lasted for a few minutes, before the shark took off and jetted down to the deeper confines below. Over the next few hours, we managed to get in three more dives with the 4-5 metre whale shark, although by the end I was starting to feel quite fatigued (see: Brent is getting fat and out of shape). Sadly, the one child on our boat got stung by two jellyfish at the same time and it kind of spooked me as we had not been warned about the jellies. Sure enough after this little incident I did manage to see a few jellies in the water, which were waaaaaaay more frightening than the big fish we were staring at. That afternoon, our boat also happened to stumble across a giant sea snake that according to our guides is more venomous than any land-based snake. Not surprisingly, they did not let us dive with it! The rest of the day went off without a hitch (so long as you don’t count my seasickness into the equation) and was definitely one of my more memorable experiences so far in Australia. I spent the evening winding down in the television room at the hostel, listening to tales from some Australian fisherman and a crazy 50-year old lady who had just had a bad breakup and was now riding her bike around Australia. Each to their own. Each to their own.
Wednesday morning I ran into Javier, the Spaniard, and we decided to rent a car and drive out to Cape Range National Park. Cape Range happens to be home to the largest fringing coral reef in the world, although it is not nearly as popular as the Great Barrier Reef on the other side of the country. We also managed to round up Fred the Swedish dude and some French chick to come along for the excursion that not only provided us with extra company but also helped in offsetting the costs of the day out. On the drive out, I managed to spot my first emu (think giant ostrich) in addition to seeing tons of these giant termite mounds, some of which appeared to be taller than me. The four of us spent the day visiting a couple of different beaches and basically just snorkelled and laid in sun. Freddy boy managed to see a couple of reef sharks and some turtles, although naturally I never saw anything beyond fish and salt water that kept finding its way into my goggles. Javier and I also managed to find a fairly sizeable snake that was nestled in the rocks and we felt it necessary to poke with a snorkel fin to see if it was still alive. It was, and damn did it move fast! As we were driving the 65 kilometres back into town that afternoon, I got my first real taste of kangaroos and wallabies en masse. I reckon I probably saw over 150 of the little bastards who just seemed to be lining the side of the road in a great big procession. Shockingly, we made it back to Exmouth in one piece and the car was no worse for the wear. That night, I just sat around the hostel waiting for the Greyhound bus (no choice, as there were no flights for five days) that would be taking me on a 19-hour journey north to the tropical resort town of Broome. I walked to the bus station with some Japanese girl from my hostel and tried to engage her in conversation for what felt like the longest, most awkward hour of my life. Finally around 10:30pm we boarded the bus and were happily on our way to Broome, where I would be meeting back up with Miss Leeanna.
The 19-hour bus ride from Exmouth to Broome was pretty uneventful. Luckily, the bus was only about half full so I was able to get a pair of seats for myself. This is especially advantageous for my sleeping patterns, which basically consists of flopping around and jerking my neck in strange motions. Throughout the night, I am pretty sure the bus driver hit at least five kangaroos or similar sized animals, as I kept hearing loud thumps under the bus. I also glanced out the window a few times to see kangaroos madly dashing in front of the bus. The bus was also brought to a standstill once as a herd of cattle decided to lazily stroll into the path of the bus. Makes me hungry for a good ole fashioned angus beef steak. After rolling into Broome around 5:30pm I made my way over to our hostel which was located a bit outside of the city in the Cable Beach area. Leeanna joined me shortly thereafter and alas our reunion was complete! What a touching tale, I know. Since it was pitch black out by the time we got our shit together, we just chilled around the hostel, then went for a stroll to the beach and to a local bar.
Last night was Leeanna’s first time having to sleep to in a hostel room with other people, as we had to book a four-person room due to lack of availability of rooms right now. It turned out there was only one other person in the room with us, so we figured it wouldn’t be too bad. Little did we know that our roommate was a fat middle-aged tradesman who snored like a warthog, yelled and screamed in his sleep, and set his alarm clock for 4:30am so that he could “see his mate off”. Needless to say I’m writing this on under two hours sleep and Leeanna did not sleep all night. Put a bullet in my head please.
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