This is going to be a reaaally long blog, I kept a fairly updated journal during my trip throughout Western Australia and I'm going to try to get it all in this blog, along with heaps of pictures. I took 458 pictures and somehow have to narrow that down to the best ones. Anyway, here's what happened:

March 21, 2008 (8:06 pm)

Today, about 12 hours ago, we left from Carpark 6. Every few hours on the crowded bus we'd stop and switch around. The bus got really hot and uncomfortable but I managed to sleep and read some. We stopped for the night at a sheep shearing station (we're sleeping in the shed!). Playing cards, letting bugs fall down on us, eating melted chocolate. The stars are beautiful - moon is extremely bright as well. Now Michael wants to write something...

*Here in my journal Michael wrote a page in Danish... which I later forced him to translate to English on the next page - it's nothing too exciting so I won't put it in but if I get a lot of requests for it I may add it later*

Saturday March 22, 2008 (5 pm)

On the road ALL day - even right now. Saw some emu's on the road, very cool. Managed to get a fly net at one of the shops = FANTASTIC. Now I have to attack Michael with this pen. Oh and it was raining earlier/overcast now - looked like a flood.

Sunday March 23, 2008

I'm writing this a day late so the details might be foggy. After a night of camping we headed back to the bus for the 4 hour ride to Karijini. Got here, set up the tents, then went on a drive/hike down to Circular Pool - a gorgeous natural pool in a gorge. We got back, rested, worried about rain (which never came), ate chili for dinner (yum!) and talked and stared at the stars. Heard dingoes howling in the middle of the night - was beautiful.

Monday March 24, 2008 (6 pm)

Today was an amazing day. We drove to see Joffre Falls - which zigzag down the gorge. Then we hiked in a water-gorge called Spider's Walk in Weano Gorge. We saw a gigantic water python at head level within touching distance. It was about 6 feet long. Kristin with her waterproof camera got some pictures of it. We also saw a huge spider swimming on the water - size of my hand and tarantula-like! After that we went to the Karijini Visitor's Centre - I got a pin, postcard, t-shirt, and a Fanta! Haven't had anything cold in ages. Afterwards we headed back to camp for a quick lunch (tuna sandwich for me!). Then we got ready and hiked from camp to Fortescue Falls, down in a gorge again. Gorgeous falls into a slimy algae pool - still swam and it felt great. Kristin and I made a new enemy. Some German chick named $@&$#@ (name hidden just in case!) who hates America(ns?) and absolutely fawns over Michael! Hope she stays away from now on... Time to eat! (Kristin added - "What a B**** she is!"). Oh yea, we named my large black flashlight "Gigantor" and Michael won't leave it alone. Michael adds, "Gigantor, that truly is an inside joke." (Sybylla I think you'd like my new friends here).

Tuesday March 25, 2008

Nine hours on a bus today. A long 9 hours driving to Warroora station near Coral Bay. Once we got there it started pouring rain -> we all got soaked but I less so (yay umbrella! thanks daddy!). We (Kristin, Michael, I, and the Germans from our bus - the good bus) slept in a cottage down the road. Real beds! Kristin and I shared a double and Michael had a single. Also got a salt-water shower. Met up wth the other Murdoch group going Coast -> Inland. Their bus broke down in the rain and they had to push it through the mud for 3 hours. Had burgers for dinner. Germans were up late, so Michael kept poking me/annoying me while Kristin slept through it all.

Wednesday March 26, 2008

Today we had to wake up extra early (5:30am) in order to get ready to leave for Coral Bay at 6:30 am. (As a side note, we only ever got to sleep in one day and that was until 7:30 am - the itinerary lied). We packed up sandwiches and headed out. It took about an hour and fifteen minutes to get there on a dirt road for most of it. For the first time we saw wild kangaroos leaping through the bush - was very cool. We also drove right along the rocky coast for part of the way. Once we got there, Kristin Michael and I went on a 2 - hour glass bottom boat and snorkel tour at 9am. It was so great. I used my own snorkel, we saw tons of amazing coral. Ningaloo Reef has mostly brown and green "hard" coral but there were some blue and white ones as well as colorful fish. The first snorkel spot was called "Snapper Hole" and was fairly deep. The snappers were all huge (length of forearm-whole arm) and they would just swim around us. It was a bit freaky at first but really it just tickled a bit when they swam past. I used 15 pictures in my underwater camera (12 left for Monkey Mia). The second snorkel spot was a lot shallower, could dive down closer to the reef. I used (Kristin asked me to read her poems here so I have no idea where this sentence was going). Oh! I used Michael and his height to gauge how deep the coral was before I dived. I hope some of the pretty fish pictures turn out. After the tour we ate some lunch adn got ice cream from the cafe nearby. We headed down to the beach and just played around in the shallow (3-4 ft deep) water until around 2pm. We then went and checked email etc on the net at the cafe. We headed back to the beach where Michael and I were reading/sleeping in the sand and Kristin played in the water more. At 5:30 pm we got on the bus back to the station/cottage. Saw more 'roos, one was stopped in the road staring at us until Warren (our bus driver, the other was named Al) honked at it. Got back and showered, Michael went off to help with dinner and Kristin took a nap. I wandered around and saw some sheep and two horses. The horses weren't fenced in so I pet one for awhile, then went to help Michael cook noodles for spaghetti. Nearly everyone else had purchased alcohol in Coral Bay so m ost people were drunk. Our trip ate and fell asleep fairly quickly, after Michael killed the GIGANTIC spider in our room - think hand sized tarantula with longer legs. Nasty.

Thursday March 27, 2008 (1:15 pm)

Got up this morning around 6am - we were all too lazy to pack last night. Left the station at 7am and drove to Carnarvon. Got there at 10:40 am and got to go to an ATM and like a grocery store/shopping centre. We met at a park near a river for lunch at noon then back on the road/bus at 1pm. They built the satellite for the first moon trip here in 1966, and now it's mostly a banana town. They had a public toilet with automated doors, toilet paper, everything - almost too high tech. Now I just wrote in here from Tuesday to today, bus is bumpy.

Thursday continued...

Got our tents set up at Hamelin Pool. Walked over to the bay to see the stromatalites. The entire beach was made of shells. While Kristin played soccer, Michael and I saw a shell block quarry and were attacked by swarms of flies. Lamb curry for dinner.

Friday March 28, 2008

Got up at 5am this morning to rain, wetness, etc. Headed over to Monkey Mia around 6am. Saw some dolphins, Michael got to feed one. Was raining and windy all day. We mostly just hung out indoors until we left Monkey Mia at 1pm (the catamaran? ride where we get to see dugongs, turtles, sharks etc was cancelled due to weather). We then went to an aquarium type place. Our tour guide used to work on the boat that Steve Irwin died on and had to sign a nondisclosure form about it. Morbid. Anyway, we saw tons of colorful fish, stingrays, baby loggerhead turtles, and sharks. Was pretty neat - glad the guides thought up something else for us to do while there. Next stop was Eagle Bluff lookout. Apparently you can usually see sharks in the bay there but it was too cloudy today. We made another stop at Shell Beach but since it was just like the one back at Hamelin Pool I stayed on the bus. Got back to our miserably wet campsite and found that my side of the tent was a puddle of water. A lot of people had a similar problem. Michael and I and most of the group slept in the food/kitchen shed. Everything/body was damp. I can't wait to be properly dry again.

Saturday March 29, 2008 (8:30 am)

We all woke up late this morning except for Kristin. Apparently one of the poles in the tent snapped and it collapsed on her around 4 am. She's soaked and understandably cranky for it. Now we're all damp, and it's still raining but we're on the bus hopefully headed somewhere warm and dry! (Another fun side note, there was a leak in the roof of my bus that happened to be right over my seat... was not a dry ride at all).

Saturday continued (10:15 pm)

Most of the day in a bus, stopped at Hawk's Head in Kalbarri National Park - all the other sites were inaccessible due to the stupid rain. Finally got to Northbrook Farmstay, nice little rooms with 6 real beds in each. Us 3 plus 3 American girls. Had snaggers (sausages), chops, and mashed potatoes for dinner - finally getting dried out. Earlier around 1:30 pm we stopped in the town of Kalbarri and us 3 skipped the routine mystery meat sandwich lunch for some fish and chips at a cafe. Also watched the ocean waves and played on a swingset. Currently the room is quiet, Kristin is reading and I'm semi-pissed at Michael for a dumb comment. I know I'm overreacting but it's been a long trip and I'm cranky.

Sunday March 30, 2008

Woke up, packed, and were all on the bus on the road at (what we thought) was 7:20am. Then Warren informs us that its finally the end of Daylight Savings here in WA so it was really only 6:20 am. Drove for awhile until around noon when we got to Gingin - a little town about an hour north of Perth. Ate our final mystery meat sandwich lunch at a wonderful park there. First thing I noticed was the lack of flies as we got off the bus... it was amazing. Finally pulled back into Carpark 6 around 2:30 pm. Michael and I at some point lost our "dirt shirts" (white t-shirts we had tie dyed in the red earth of the outback - they looked like s*** anyway but I was upset when I found out they were lost). Once we got back I uploaded my 458 pictures to my computer, unpacked my bag into my dirty laundry bag, laid some stuff out to dry, and took a shower. Around 4:30 pm Michael, Kristin and I headed over to Freo. We went to a cinema and saw Vantage Point - was kind of strange, short, but fairly action-packed and suspenseful which was fun. Afterwards we went and got pizza, then headed back to the Student Village. Now I'm updating my blog (no kidding right). Since I'm pretty much done typing, I guess it's time for me to figure out which pictures to put in here... there's going to be a lot of them! And I still need to get my underwater ones developed but I'm not sure when that will happen. I'll try to just pick out the best ones. Yay I can sleep in tomorrow!