So first week on the WA road trip has been interesting. Staying at a reformed backpackers in karratha was one of the most challenging hostel experiences on the working holiday so far. Let me set the scene.. Six weeks before the team turned up the hostel had been neglected and abused by a group of backpackers, who would pay for a room then have double the amount of people stay. This turned the new manager bitter and as such made her change the concept of the backpackers to a working man/ladies hostel. Before we turned up, not many people would be around past 9pm and things were pretty quiet however when a team of people finish working at 8pm and want to eat and unwind this would cause ripples in the puddle of mud which was the park view lodge. At first it was alright untill later in the week when her regulars would complain, so the rules started to change, she would take the darts away and forbid drinking past 10pm. Rules were broken.. At some point we started to notice the condescending signs and passive aggressive wording which was entertaining at most, however when she put up a sign saying to the dickhead who wrote the door code on the wall.. we found her actions a little petty for a person trying to build a professional business. There were a few interesting people staying at the hostel, first to mention is Kurt, suffers from schizophrenia but has managed to control it though the use of Tai Chi, so on a daily basis Kurt would do his moves, manipulating energy, confusing any observer in his path, apparently he'd been kicked out of various meditation and martial art courses due to his incredible powers.
So with the shocking bathroom facility's, beds which resembles something I would have slept in when I was 10 fully included with springs which penetrated the rib cage and with an ex mental patient directing guests and energy to the reception.. it was obviously our fault that a few people would turn up and leave almost straight away.. Overall the team didn't preform as well as expected and by the time we had finished our week in Karratha we all felt worn out and ready for a well earned beer on the beach, after half an hour watching the tide go out leon decided to get up and grab another beer, but not before approaching the team manager for a quick chat about mud crabs, whilst instigating a conversation he slipped and nudged the boss of a rock consisting of porous rock mixed with age old mussel shells, where in slow motion he fell back an brutally cut his toe whilst gashing his hand, as he rose from the ground, blood spilled from his toe onto the rocks to form a bright red pool of anger and resentment which lasted briefly, followed by a burst of aggression as the can of beer was launched into the rocks. As he walked off to quell his emotion, I watched whilst my heart sank feeling regret for the accident, it was clear a trip to the emergency room was coming, and was only right to take a ride considering I instigated the matter. An hour and a halve later we were back on the beach chilling meters away from the spot where I could have caused a sudden end to the trip, sipping beer and talking about mud crabs.. What an end to a brutal week.
But there were some positives to be added to the stay in Karratha, Leon met an awesome Swedish girl, who accompanied him to the russian circus where we saw some of the craziest gymnastic performances out there, aerial acrobatics, miniature ponys, knife throwing and somehow they managed to fit 5 motorbikes in a metal sphere and ride at speeds of up to 40mph!
Other than being introduced to one of the strangest horror flicks to ever creep out the 70s (sinfull dwarf), we also got accustomed to hitch hiking up an down karratha's main highway a pastime of his newly found friend.. Time to say goodbye to Karratha and on to camping in port hedland where hopefully are luck will change, something tells me after this week we are in for a treat.