Under the Sea

The trip north wasn't all sand and dirt. Or at least dry sand and dirt. We detoured off the coastal highway and connected the dots between Western Australia's northern beaches.

Shark Bay

Shark Bay is a World Heritage Site satisfying all four criteria: Natural beauty, biological diversity, earth history, evolutionary processes.

There's no doubt the area is beautiful. Especially when you arrive at Shell Beach at sunset. Australians are really good at naming things. My favorite road name of all time, "Useless Loop Road" was out near Shark Bay as well. 

Shark Bay is one of the few places you can see the world's oldest living thing, stromatolites. These are cyanobacteria that were the first living things on earth, and created the oxygen needed to sustain life. Sure, they just look like rocks, but we owe those rocks a lot.

The extremely salty waters of Shark Bay create a unique ecosystem (hello stromatolites), which happens to have a lot of sharks (don't worry mom, we didn't see any mean ones). However, there is also a family of dolphins at Monkey Mia that have become a tourist attraction. While you can no longer swim with them and there are strict regulations on feeding them (as there should be), it's still pretty neat to see them come in each morning.

Coral Bay

Coral Bay also has yet another remarkably lovely beach, where low tide met the sunrise to create the backdrop for a tranquil morning jog. But we weren't there for the beach. We were there to snorkel.

We took a high speed boat just off the coast to the Ningaloo Reef. It's about 260 kilometers long, making it Australia's largest reef. I've heard some say it's better than the Great Barrier Reef, for it's preserved, untouched status (Perth is isolated enough, and it's still over 1000 kilometers form Perth), but I've also heard the Great Barrier is still better. Maybe some day I'll be able to settle the argument for myself. All I know is that the turtles, reef sharks, coral fish, rays, and rainbow wrasse were spectacular. Though my favorites were probably the octopus I saw crawling along the bottom and a humongous blue starfish.

I stole these pictures too :)

Exmouth

Exmouth is on a pennisula that was a communication station in World War II (and was attacked). On the north eastern side is the "town", while the entire western coast is a national park. Exmouth is known for whale sharks, but unfortunately (for some, as you may know I'm not the biggest animal person) the whale shark tours had been booked for months. So instead, we had to spend the whole day in Turquoise Bay, where you can swim right out to the Ningaloo Reef and be back with the sharks, coral, and Nemos. What a bummer.

We had two nights in Exmouth, and Damo, our very romantic tour guide took us all up to the lighthouse for a surprise sunset champagne toast.

Eighty Mile Beach

The miles to Broome were getting fewer and fewer, we made a stop at Eighty Mile Beach to look at some shells and see the expanse of white sand for the four wheel drives and fishermen. Now here's a question. Everyone here mocks me when I refer to distances in miles as opposed to metric kilometers. But I say, how come it's not named 128.7 Kilometer Beach?

Broome

We finally made it to Broome, where it was no longer the cool autumn of Perth but the humid tropics of northern Australia. Broome is known as a tourist destination, but it wasn't what I had expected. There was a tiny town where you could buy world famous Broome (and not from Broome) pearls, and then 6k away was the world famous camel rides on Cable Beach.

Cable Beach

The mangroves of Broome where the crocodiles live.

I couldn't leave Broome without paying a visit to Matso's Brewery, home of WA's famous ginger, mango, and chili beers. The ginger beer was very gingery, the lychee beer was just a little sweet, the chili beer was HOT, and the mango cider was cool and refreshing. Sipping beer at 10 am by the beach is acceptable when you're on vacation, right?

I was only in Broome for 24 hours before I had to head to the airport. But the airport was an experience in itself. It's in the middle of town, and a 5 minute walk from our hostel. I have never been able to walk to an airport, let alone in only 5 minutes. As I saw families saying goodbye to their college students headed back after Easter break, I realized you didn't need a boarding pass to get through "Security", remembering that no one had checked mine.

As it seems to be everywhere in WA, everything is a little smaller, a little quainter, a little clearer, and a little more beautiful. And even with just a short stop in Broome, I was still able to leave my tracks into the sunset over Cable Beach.

Western Australia's Sand Box

Though most of our drive was up the western coastline with many stops along sandy beaches, we did head "inland". And even in the Australian sunburned bush, away from the ocean, we found plenty of sand.

The first stop on the tour was in Lancelin. A little coastline town, but we weren't there for the ocean. Our first day of driving saw many mobile sand dunes along the wind blown  highway, even though the ocean was nowhere in sight. And in Lanceline, there's an oasis of white sand when people go four wheel driving and sandboarding. It's snowboarding for the freezing temperature challenged. Our boards were just ones you sit on, but we waxed up our boards and scooted down, ending up with sand filled pockets and sand filled everything.

Next stop was the pinnacles. Scientists still don't agree on the origin of these strangely shaped rock formations. Some say they are calcified tree roots from ancient forests, they were cracks caused by vegetation that were filled with quartz, or the aboriginal story that they are the fingers of little girls who wandered into this forbidden area and were lost.

Damo and his sophisticated writing tool he used to draw the story of the creation of the Pinnacles in the sand.

Kalbarri National Park was also one of our inland adventures. We drove in on the dirt road, revealing a blanket of fog beneath the Easter sunrise.

Kalbarri National Park features the Murtchison River gorge. The Murtchison River is the longest river in WA, and the red sandstone makes this one of the hottest places in WA. As we headed north, the sand kept getting redder and redder, from the white sand of lancelin, to the yellow-orange of the pinnacles and the iron red of the pilbarra.

The contrast of the red rock and white gum.

Nature's Window

We spent Easter morning hiking and fueled by hot cross buns. Hot cross buns are an Easter thing, and I learned everything I know about them from Kyla, who makes an annual hot cross bun pilgrimage across Perth.

 

Turns out that Kalbarri was only a teaser for the gorges yet to come...

In a Sunburned Country

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror
The wide brown land for me! 

This poem by Dorothea Mackellar is the opening to Bill Bryson's book about his travels through Australia (the poetic introduction is strangely taken out of the Aussie edition, Down Under). As I looked out across the infinite landscape as we headed north towards Broome, I couldn't help but think how accurately it captures the Australian countryside.

This is the introduction to my 10 day adventure to Broome...

The Pinnacles

 

 Lancelin Sand Dunes

The Pilbarra

Karijini

As the bookends to each sunburned day, the sun rose and set over Western Australia's remarkable silhouette

 

Sorry these are a bit blurry, but we were on the bus. But it was the most fantastical sunset I've seen. Maybe ever.

#ThereforPav

I arrived in Australia just in time for the AFL (that's Australian Rules Football for those that don't remember) Grand Final. If you'll also, remember, the Fremantle Dockers were in the Grand Final for the first time. They ended up choking and losing pretty badly. The Dockers are one of two Perth teams, with the West Coast Eagles being the other. My first introduction to AFL was through an Eagles fan, but I have run into several Docker fan friends since who have tried to convert me. My most recent 30 minute persuasion attempt resulted in, "You don't pick the team, the team picks you." Until I'm "picked", I will do my best to stay neutral.

One thing I find interesting about the rivalry, is they both have the same home stadium. When they play each other in the Derby twice a year, one time it's a home game for the Eagles (so those members get to go) and the next time it's for the Dockers. The Dockers won the first Derby a few weeks ago (sorry Kyla!) on the Eagles "home field".

If you look close enough, one side is the Eagles and the other is the Dockers.

I got to go to my first footy game this weekend and we were clearly there for one team. 

Purple, purple everywhere, as far as the eye can see.

And on this particular game, we were there for one man in particular, "Pav".

 Who's Pav?

The Dockers' captain and favorite player, Matthew Pavlich. "Pav" played in his 300th game this weekend (and scored his 600th goal). In AFL terms, that's a BIG deal.

That's him, #29. He has HUGE (and very nice) legs.

Aside from the Pav phenomena, that game was awesome. Instead of the national anthem, they opened with an Aboriginal Welcome to Country, complete with didgeridoo.

AFL is a great sport. The players are fit, strong and skilled. And it's full of excitement once you figure out the rules. Plus, this was a big game for the Dockers against the Geelong cats, and they won!

And best of all, there are no cheerleaders or fancy half time shows. During half time, the little OZKickers get to come out on the field and play their own match. Nowhere but in Australia.