Easter in Exmouth

Wow, it's been way too long since my last post and I apologize for that! This post is about our easter holiday at the Ningaloo Reef.

We got Good Friday and Easter Monday off so the six of us decided to get out and see a little more of Australia. Since myself, dan, and shannon have no class on thursdays, we decided to set out a day early to get our bearings set and explore on our own. We had to get up at i think 5am to catch the first train to the city. from there we wandered the streets of Perth as the sun rose looking for our bus stop. from there we had a 40 minute bus ride out to the airport. after getting up at 5 or 5:30am, we finally arrived at the airport around 8 for our 9:45 flight... quite a trek in and of itself. instead of the usual little bridge from the terminal to the cockpit of the plane we had to walk out onto the tarmac and climb up into our plane, which made me feel a bit like a celebrity. also, our plane had propellers on it, which was different. it was a short 3 hour flight on which we received a lunch of a sausage roll and the most delicious milk chocolate bar ever, a cadbury bar. i also decided that from then on out i will accept tea when it's offered inflight hey, when in australia... we touched down in a really isolated airport (if you could call it that.. more of just an airstrip) in Learmonth. one landing strip, one room airport. baking hot, middle of nowhere right smack dab in the outback. we thought, whaaat did we get ourselves into? these fears were not assuaged after a 30 minuted bus ride through the bush to the town of Exmouth revealed a town of no more than a few hundred, a real desert town. our spirits were bouyed somewhat by our hostel. Exmouth Cape Holiday Park was a multi functionable place, it had villas, cabins, room for trailers and campers as well as our hostels, which were brand new and had air conditioning (a must as it was over 100 degrees). we went for a dip in their tiny, albeit really nice pool to cool off before setting off into "town". oh i almost forgot, on my way to the bathroom before i got into the pool i spotted my first emu strutting around the buildings. a 5 or 6 foot tall bird, it is the largest in the world after the ostrich. it was really cool to see, i ran back to get the others and it stalked right past us no more than 4 feet away. i christened her Edith the Emu and throughout our time in Exmouth we came to find they were all over the town, walking around with no one paying any more attention to them than we would squirrels.

we then bought groceries, hit up the visitor center, and then rented our car for a really cheap price from a really dodgy (nice aussie word there) company. it was funny that Exmouth had about 7 car rental depots, more than gas stations, restaurants, and grocery stores combined. the rest of the day we planned out our next few days and went to the beach, where the water was really warm, the warmest i've ever felt, probably around 70 degrees. it was like a hot tub. that night we grilled hamburgers at the outdoor community kitchen, and with a seasoning that shannon bought combined with our long day, they were the most delicious ever.

the next day we got up around early and did some touristy things before the others arrived, such as driving up to see the wreck of a cattle ship from 1906 that is still visible offshore, going to the turtle center (where we found out you can only see turtles come up to the beach at night.. bummer), drove up this big cliff to see the lighthouse on the very tip of the cape, which had incredible views, then went to another beach which had the clearest water i had ever seen. then we came back and waited for bridget, elyse, and kate to arrive. not too much else happened that day, we drove over to the other side of the cape and scouted out our snorkeling spots for saturday. i must mention that driving on the left side of the road was frightening at first but we got used to it. the funniest thing that happened was when i went to put on my turn signal for the first time i switched on the wipers, as the signal bar is on the right side (closest to the door just like in the states, basically their cars are linear symmetrical to US cars). due to the vast distances in australia, we drove over 600km just going from exmouth to the reef and back everyday.

got up early saturday to get our REAL vacation started: snorkeling! the Ningaloo Reef National Marine Park is considered the second best reef in australia after the great barrier, and better in the respect that you can swim right out from shore to see it rather than having to take a boat out like in the GBR. we rented our gear (only $10 a day) and hit the tides. there were three spots along the coast that we went to and the first one was the best in my opinion. we were swimming out for awhile and didnt see anything, got kind of confused. i ended up ahead of everyone and saw two big fish swimming around in a depression in the sandy floor. i dove down to get a closer look when i realized that the depression in the sand was a massive sandy-colored stingray. this puppy was around 5 feet in diameter so needless to say i went back to the surface as fast as possible... i didnt want any steve irwin-type shennanigans happening to me (side note: most australians view the crocodile hunter somewhat derisively for being so stereotypical.. no one ever says "crikey"). once at a safe distance, the ray was a magnificent sight as it swam away. eventually we found the reef and it was amazing. big colorful fish, schools of tiny fluorescent ones, all different types and shades of coral: green, purple, red, blue. just incredible. within the first hour i had seen that big ray, little ones, a sea turtle, and even a 4 foot shark which glided right underneath me. this was what we did all day saturday and sunday, get up eat a light breakfast, pack lunch for later, jump in the car and drive around the cape to the reef, snorkeling all day. what a life. also saturday we saw our first kangaroos, there were about 20 of them (a group of roos is called a mob) chillin the shade by a small lake by the beach. so cool, especially when they took off running, or jumping rather.

thursday night and to a lesser extent the other nights as well there were huge lightning storms (heat lightning?) off in the distance inside of banks of massive clouds, so most nights we would sit outside, have a few drinks, and watch the show.

other interesting things:
>i think it was sunday night we decided to drive up the range that divides the cape (which made us drive up and around to get to the reef rather than straight across every day) to a lookout to see the sunset. i was "lucky" enough to get to drive... picture this: you are in a toyota corolla with 6 people crammed into it, driving up a mountain on a seemingly one way dirt road (when in fact it was two ways), several hundred foot drop offs on either side with just a tiny metal rope lowly strung across the sides. it was extremely stressful and the lookout kinda sucked but coming back down as the sunset turned into twilight was worth it. one of those deals where it was scary at the time, but funny to think about now.
>in the grocery store i wanted to buy a gatoraide. there was a high school aged employee standing behind the register texting on his phone. after waiting awhile i asked "uhh can i buy this?", seemingly noticing me for the first time he said he would go get someone. great, thanks for your help. a woman came over to ring me up and exasperated with the younger guy, looks at me, rolls her eyes, and said "those damn kids". haha i thought to myself, geez do i really look that old??
>sunday morning we ventured over to the little catholic church for mass before going out to snorkel. it was a very interesting mass. a tiny tiny little church, the priest was straight out of poland with a very thick accent. apparently they come up from the bigger town of carnarvon several hours away for mass on sundays. most of the church goers seemed to be tourists, not too many catholics in exmouth. not surprising as there wasn't too many of anyone in exmouth!

we left early monday morning to head back. it was weird realizing that i was thinking of freo as home, it really hit me then i was a far way from my real home but for the time being fremantle was what i was familiar with, what i knew.

there is probably a lot i am forgetting about that trip, as it was two weeks ago but we are leaving for our midsemester break field trip in 40 minutes so that will have to do.
real quick, not much happened happened since then, just the usual classes, reading, and going out. the coolest thing was going to my first real footy game. i had gone to a preseason one earlier but this was the real deal. my Aussie friend Sara took me and we met up with her friend and that girl's boyfriend. the friend's parents were members of the club (read: season ticket holders), which meant all four of us got in for free! it was the Fremantle Dockers' home opener and they played the Hawthorne Hawks, who had just annihilated Melbourne 120something-40something in their last game. surprisingly, the Dockers kept it close and even pulled within a point in the 3rd quarter before eventually losing by 18 or so. it was really exciting and it was great that i could follow it and knew the rules from the practices for our study abroad team.

ok time to pack for Broome! next post will be about our time in the Aboriginal community.
cheers