In case I forget later....HAPPY CANADA DAY!!!!! There will be no fireworks and no Canadian Beer and no Molson Canadian commercials but I am still celebrating....with a 5.0% alcohol genuine apple cider. Not quite the same but it will have to do.
Today I started out on my 10 day trek up the West Coast of Australia to Broome. Of course WA is the last section of the country I have left to see before I leave. I think I have done pretty well. I’ve managed to see a lot more of Australia than a lot of Australians.
Anyway, my day started pretty early with a 0700 pickup from my hotel. I will be traveling on a 21 passenger bus with 20 others (totally full tour) with a company called Western Xposure. They looked pretty good online and the tour seems to cover everything I want. All meals and accommodation are included so in the end it will cost me a lot less than trying it on my own. The West Coast isn’t visited as much as the East coast so there are not as many options.
I met the guide (Candice) and the rest of the passengers and we started on our way. It is too bad that the rain is continuing today but I have all the faith in the world that it will clear up….at some point. We drove for about 2 hours and then made a stop in a little place called Laucelin. Mainly we stopped here for the bathroom and coffee (for some people) and then it was back on the road again.
Western Australia rainbow number two. Hopefully it will be the last because that means it isn't raining.
Our first real stop was at The Pinnacles. Essentially it is desert but home to some very interesting rock structures. As with many things, there are a few thoughts as to why and how they formed but the area was mostly likely originally underwater. It’s thought that seaweed became fossilised and then the strong winds eroded the area with rough sand. Or at least that is the story we got. If you check out Wikipedia (a great source of information) there are a few other theories as well. However it got here, they are very interesting and very neat.
A look at the pinnacles. Lots of different shapes and sizes.
Part of Nambung National Park, I'm one of about 250,000 visitors who check the Pinnacles every year.
After some more driving we stopped at Jurien Bay for lunch. This is where we discovered that the bus has been separated into 4 groups (by Candice) and those groups would be assigned meals or dishes every day. Kind of feels like primary school but I think it makes it a lot easier to get things done. Plus that means the same people aren’t always doing the work (in theory anyways). I’m on team Emu and I was on lunch duty today. Sandwiches and wraps. I have a feeling I’ll be eating a lot of these over the next 10 days.
Jurien Bay. A quiet little place but apparently just the right distance from Perth because lots of people were stopping here for lunch. Today we got a little bit of a glimpse at how quick our lunch stops are going to be most days.......and how much food 21 (22 if you count Candice) can eat.
Eventually we got everyone back in the bus (I feel like that will be an ongoing struggle over the next 10 days) and headed off to our next stop.....sort of. Our plan was to stop and do some sand boarding, but on the way out to the sand dunes, it started raining......again.......and not just a little bit. If you've ever been sand boarding you will know that it doesn't work very well if the sand is wet. In fact it doesn't work at all, so we had to go with Plan B.
Instead we headed to the Greenough Bird and Wildlife Park. Like the others I’ve been to you can hand feed lots of animals. Unlike the others however, they are totally privately funded. This means no government grants so they depend on the kindness of guests to help keep the park going and animals fed.
Look at this face. How could you not want to feed him?
They have all kinds of cute little guys like kangaroos and ducks and little deer and even a couple emus. Basically we could hand feed everything........as long as it didn’t eat meat. The animals, well they are very use to being fed and seem to very much look forward to the tourists…..so much in fact that they were often found to be climbing over the fence. So cute. So fun.
If he could have just hopped over the fence and sat on my lap he would have. Doesn't like it if you stop feeding him long enough to scratch his head but he humoured me a few times.
Fence in the way? No worries......just feed me right through it.
Emus......not the friendliest of birds but as long as I kept my hand nice and still.....he didn't bite me.
Even the goats got in on the action. I think this is when I ran out of food.
Eventually we had to leave the cute little animals behind. Wasn't very far down the road when we ran into this:
One of the "Leaning Trees" of Greenough. It is a River Gum and the characteristic lean is caused by constant strong southerly winds that kill the growth on the windward side. This is a process known as flagging. They are really neat to see.
We then made our way to our accommodation for the night. This was in a little ocean side town called Horrocks. Not really sure what it looks like as we arrived in the dark but I’m sure it had a great view. Can't tell you much about the town except that it was named after a convict (Joseph Lucas Horrocks) who was transported to WA for forgery in 1852. If this backpackers is any indication, the accommodation should be pretty good (you never actually know what you might get). There was hot water in the showers and everything.
Day one complete. Day Two will arrive a little too early.
Julie
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