Kalbarri to Denham - and the oldest living organisms in the world...(hint: stromatolites)

The next day we got up at 6am (6 AM!!!!) for an early drive into Kalbarri National Park where we hiked to Z-bend gorge.



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It would all be so much more enjoyable if it weren't for the FECKING FLIES. Excuse my language, but they're EVERYWHERE. Just to illustrate, we took a picture of Russel's back - only 5 minutes after getting off the bus, when the majority of the flies in the vicinity hadn't yet realised there was fresh meat to be landed on. I spent most of my morning trying to climb down a ravine, half-blinded by flies, while waving my hands in front of my face in the traditional Aussie salute (fly swat). I don't mind them being around, I just don't want them ALL on me ALL the time. Especially if they try to climb up my nose, into my ear, or go for a ride up and down on my eyelashes. Ick. *breathe*


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So, getting back to the more amazing news...Yes, I climbed down into the gorge AND back up. (The guide refused to carry me) I did actually stop at a point just 5 minutes before the end because the rocks were covered in sand and my predecessors had precariously slithered over them to reach the second ladder and the one in front of me nearly didn't make the ladder. I figures, old and feeble as I am, that this was a risk best left to the young 'uns and I took up a "monitoring" position on the largest boulder from where I could oversee the action. Hey, at least I did it - 3 people had gone to the lookout and promptly returned to the bus! (and they were all younger and fitter than me, so there). I elected to sit on the mahoosive rock and just take action-shots with the guide. Luckily for me, the people who did go all the way told me it wasn't worth it! result!



Next stop was Nature's window in the Loop Gorge - another 30 minute stroll/hike to a rock formation that provides a view that's like... wait for it... looking through a window! Actually, it was pretty cewl. Since I wanted pictures without tourists in them, I took off at a trot and left the rest behind me. The wondrous results are showcased below! Maybe a miscalculation though, since I then had to wait for everyone to catch up before I could get a shot with me actually IN the photo. :)

This was followed by another 6 hours of quality bus time en-route to the next stop, the Stromatolites. Just an observation: It's amazing how much one can look forward to the promise of a visit to a roadhouse in the middle of nowhere if it means getting off the bus for just 20 minutes! Anyway, Stromatolites. Apparently the oldest living organism int he world, only occur in this one spot, are like little towers of live rock that grow in the sea, not much more is known about them because they haven't bothered to research them since they first found them early 1960's. That's the edited (SUCCINCT) version of the story. Fascinating, I know. But it let us get out of the bus to stretch our legs, so as far as I was concerned the Stromatolites were REALLY interesting!

The final stop for the day before we reached Denham and our hostel (avec kitchenette and swimmingpool, 20 metres walk from the beach, but I digress...) was at Ocean Park. Its a local aquarium of sorts showcasing local ocean-wildlife. Stone fish, spiked fish, green fish, yellow fish, watersnakes, stingrays, other rays, small sharks, big sharks, flat sharks, round sharks (hey, I'm only a human-on-holiday and can't possibly remember all the weird and exotic names... which is one thing I'd come to regret later in Coral Bay..., but I digress). The turtle we saw was definitely a natural poser...

A great day was had by all, finished with a feeding of the sharks while we stood on the bridge above the tank... Of course, Ed, the 33 year old blond owner might also have been part of the reason why we all (females mainly) enjoyed the outing so much. But I would never admit to something quite so superficial, now would I ? ;-)

To Kalbarri and Beyond!

We travelled from Perth up the west coast to Kalbarri - a mere 8 hour busride away! The bus is tiny, and we only had 12 people on it from Perth, plus our guide: Graeme. Very knowledgeable, a little on the mature side, and prone to listing as many facts as possible over the in-bus soundsystem... Ifelt like I was back on a school excursion for a moment! We stopped at the Pinnacles desert along the way - an odd bit of sand flat with a gazillion pointy rock formations sticking out of the ground. Some as tall as 4 metres...Yes, thanks to Graeme and the informational leaflet I actually read, I know how they were formed. No, I'm not telling! :P

On the way, I had a deja vu when we passed the following sign.. A freaky reminder of days gone by! Apologies for the low standard of photographic composition - I was frantiucally digging throiugh my bag (incidentally, why do I carry so much...stuff?) and just managed to get my camera pointing in the general direction of the sigbn as we were zooming past!

Final destination for the night was Kalbarri, which is on the edge of the Kalbarri National Park. A tiny town with very little to do other than hike, work, and eat fish! The less said about the hostel the better -- think matresses which are stragely reminiscent of kindergarten gym mats... plastic cover covered in a sheet makes for a slippery slumber! I'm assuming they may also have made acquaintance with travellers of Pinkelboy's ilk? Ick...

Scientology tried to assimilate me!

Another first in the life of Marisa! Can you tell how boring Perth really is...

I had a truly frustrating day trying to deal with HSBC today. The Fraud Prevention Department - or as I like to call it: The Incompetency Propagation Department - were supposed to have sent me a replacement card and have now lost it, no one knows where it is. This WAS the highlight of my day until...

Walking back from dinner, a kindly gentleman asked us if we would participate in a questionnaire. Being in Perth, it was the most exciting thing likely to happen this evening so we acquiesced!

I saw the logo on his jacket and thought I'd have a little fun, so I said I was worried about my health, looking for happiness, and wanted a purpose in life! Lo-and-behold, we were asked to step inside to do a free stress test. Since Kelly was already happily skipping inside I followed to protect and create havoc!

(Un)fortunately, having taken advanced statistical analysis at uni and created questionnaires myself based on specific dimensions - with questions repeated over and over in slightly different wording to test the same dimension - I saw right through the 200 question multiple choice test. It was interminably long and I kept asking the Watcher "this is a repeat of an earlier question". The result is shown on the left!

I faked the "stress test" which just seemed to respond to pressure of my hands on the tuby things I was holding and then had an "interview" with the head honcho to discuss my failures in relating to others around me! I kindly declined the opportunity to buy the L. Ron Hubbard book stating "I don't like to take advice" and also had to sadly refuse the 6 month free membership since I "don't do clubs".

Hey - it was a good fun 30 minutes watching someone trying to figure me out and attempt to find any weak spots... besides, beats doing laundry at the hostel any day. :) I think the Big Boss gave up out of sheer frustration with my facetious attitude. I don't blame him... I'd be getting tired too if I were him!

Marisa 1 vs Scientology 0.

Road Trip!!!! Part 6: Kalgoorlie (Superpit) - Perth

So...this morning we got up, had a leisurely breakfast, drove to Subway to pick up lunch for the 8 hour drive ahead, took one last look at Kalgoorlie and then headed for the highway to Perth...

Conveniently forgetting to visit Kalgoorlie's main attraction, it's Raison D'Etre, the largest mining pit in the world, the pit of all pits, the ACTUAL POINT OF INCLUDING KALGOORLIE AND THE 16 HOUR DETOUR IN OUR ITINERARY IN THE FIRST PLACE - the Superpit. Despite my single-minded obession over the last 9 days accompanied with frequent (ladylike) grunts of "Superpit, Yeah!" (with a Texan accent, while wearing my cowboy hat), I nearly missed it! Nice one. Classic in fact. :)

It wasn't until I was just swerving onto the highway that we realised - and I instantly completed a completely illegal u-turn maneuver (squealing tires and all) to aim us back in the opposite direction, the Superpit Look-out. Hey, once you've been in trouble with the law... it's easy to become a repeat offender!

OK, so the average person would be wondering why a pit would be on my list of things to do - but anyone that knows me, knows this is just my cup of tea! Besides, it's another first!!!

The Superpit is much like the Grand Canyon, minus the river, green stuff, and natural beauty :) Also, there are digger shovels and tires to climb on! Yeah! The trucks in the picture are actually over 10 metres high! Each of the trucks carries about 50 tonnes of rock at a time... They look like ants - and this image only shows one third of the overall pit, nor does it depict the true depth of The Pit as it goes down a further 50 metres.

The thing I am standing in on the right is a shovel and actually goes on the front of the microsopic digger in the picture (loading the trucks). And no, I did not mean to coordinate my outfit... wholly coincidental. There were 2 truck tires lying on their sides and I had the brilliant idea of climbing on one. I was totally shown up by a bunch of kids ranging in age from about 7 to 12 who leapt onto the other one in no time flat. Of course, they didn't think once about injuries, dirt, photographic angles etc... oh to be a kid again! I made it in the end, feeling very proud of myself!

Following the eventful morning, we said a sad goodbye to the Superpit and hit the Highway once more (at a sedate 120kmh), heading for Perth. Since all the tours we'd looked at stopped in the "historic township of York with its quaint hotel and beautifully restored pubs and shops", we decided to make this an afternoon stop. Kelly, as the navigator and Chief of Mapreading was in charge of determining the route. When we saw the sign for "York", we thought nothing of leaving the highway to follow what surely must be the most direct route... and yes, it was the most direct route - clear accross dirt tracks and country roads, past farms where farmers were burning off the fields, and with zero signage along the way... when got to a t-junction:


Marisa: I feel like we should be going left, what does the map say?
Kelly: This road if not on the map.
Marisa: What, not at all?
Kelly: Well, there's a really faint line here (pointing to Avis map), but that doesn't have any t-junctions...
Marisa: Shit, no one even knows where we are...
Kelly: Well, we could always go ask at a farm or something, although, did you see Wolf Creek?


At which point I voted to go left (lucky guess) and Kelly told me in detail about the movie where 3 backpackers are abducted in the outback by a farmer and 2 end up carved into handy freezer-size chunks.


York was so interesting we didn't even get out of the car and just drove straight through - ending back up on the highway we'd been following from Kalgoorlie until we followed the signs to York. But hey, it COULD have been awesome... you never know! And being lost in the middle of nowhere, about 200km from Perth was definitely interesting...

Road Trip!!!! Part 5: Esperance - Kalgoorlie (ANOTHER FIRST!!!)

I just realised I have to add 3 more to my list of 101 things accomplished from my time in New Zealand... unfortunately, getting a speeding ticket in the middle of nowhere in Western Australia is not on the list. For all of those who knew what was coming given my normal driving style, read it and chuckle!

Yep - I was chased down by Australia's equivalent of the country sheriff! Luckily I did spot him (was telling Kelly: there's something funny about that car coming towards us up ahead... does he have lights on the top... BRAKE!) and he didn't catch me doing the 160km/h I was doing, but "only" caught me at 135km/h... the limit is (unfortunately for me) 110km/h.

The thing is, the roads are completely straight with hardly anything on them... and you can see traffic etc from MILES away. Some journeys have taken us up to 8 hours driving in one day and it gets really tedious if you have to recycle the same CD's over and over and over again without a change in scenery. If its good enough for Germany, why are the other countries so narrow-minded?
Here's my rationale:
Speeding makes it a shorter journey => less chance to fall asleep => less chance of an accident => safer for everyone really... I didn't try explaining that to the nice police officer though :)

Oh well, AUD$250 down the drain... its one very expensive souvenir, but its definitely going in the scrapbook!

When we finally got to Kalgoorlie (about 2 hours later than intended...because I kept to the speedlimit and we wasted 25 minutes being reprimanded by the officer) we went to visit the Mining Hall of Fame. Kalgoorlie is in the middle of the Golfields gold belt, and is home to the SUPERPIT! The biggest open face mine in the world! Yeah!

We went on an underground tour through the first mine to have been created in the area. It was a bit claustrophobic, especially when they turn off the lights and show you just HOW dark it really is and how LITTLE light the first miners had with just the one candle... Respect. The mine we saw was only on level 1 = 120 feet below the surface, which took us about 2 minutes to descend to in a minute shaft-elevator that could only hold 5 people. However, this particular mine had 5 levels going to nearly 1500 feet below the surface. I was quite fine with just the one, thanks very much!

Seeing the old machinery (pick axe and hammer/chisel combo) and the new machinery (money-maker drill and explosives) I'm not sure that mining today is any more fun than it was 100 years ago... but apparently it pays really well... especially if you're adept at swallowing what you find!

We stayed at the GoldRush Backpackers for the night, two of only a handful of females, where apparently 80% of the people are actually permanent residents - all young miners and engineers who have come to work in one of the many many many mines in the aread... spot the odd pair of shoes in the hallway! Very nice guys on the whole, on of which we dubbed "The Superpit Man"- aka Andy from the north of the UK who was an engineer working in the superpit to find new gold veins to be exploited.

(Un)fortunately no more gory or embarrassing stories to add since we avoided the bars (featuring scantily clad "ladies" wearing little more than pasties and hotpants... or so we were told). Instead, we hunkered down in the hostel and watched "What Women Want" with a bunch of miners. :)

Road Trip!!! Part 4: Hyden - Esperance, Esperance, Esperance...*sighhh*

The next day we woke up relatively late post TV and snack-binge in our honest-to-goodness-own-motel-room-with-ensuite-shower-and-mini-soaps... realising at 09:40 am that check-out time was a staggering 10am! Hostels, ok. HOTELS (or even their more basic cousins, motels) should have check-out time of noon so you can luxuriate in the cleanliness of the bathroom and absence of ladder leading to the bed! No such luck, so we threw our stuff in the car and got back on the road pronto.

The trip was long and boring - but the destination is definitely worth it. Esperance is a tiny town with spectacular beaches and is home to the Pink Lake. Unfortunately, a recent storm had washed out some of the pink and it just looked grey... but surely postcards NEVER lie??? :P As we arrived we drove around the main sights close to the town, including Observatory Point on the left (I'd driven 6 hours, give me a break about the pose, ok?)

The first night we went out to experience the local nightlife - there are 2 pubs, one of which the locals won't even recommend... so of course we had a look at that first and then quickly scampered off to the other pub in the town's only true hotel The Pier. Luckily this was one of the nights when Karaoke was NOT on (as we discovered to our dismay over the next few nights...), but instead a live duo on guitar, Dave & Scotty. The music and view were awesome! A great time was had by all until my Freak Magnet kicked in again and all the local drunks (5 teeth or less) seemed to hit the level of alcohol consumption required to start reciting lame pick-up lines. Trusty Betsy the 4x4 served as our cool (with central locking) and fast Getaway vehicle...

We actually ended up staying longer than planned, Esperance has that effect on people it seems. Here'swhy: The town is surrounded by many small, idyllic beaches such as Moonlight Bay shown below. Even on a slightly cloudy day I could hear "chariots of fire" theme music going in my head as I tried to gracefully traverse the packed sand at a run (and I DON'T run...) for the photo op. I'm either on take-off or landing in the middle of a jump in the center picture in case youre wondering about the weird floating feet!

About 60kms further along the coast is the entrance to Cape Le Grand National Park. The capitals are necessary - it deserves some flashing lights and a golden shimmer too though. I've been lucky enough to have visited some amazing places in the world (Angra - Brazil, Aruba, Nelson- New Zealand, The Whitsundays- Australia) and I was impressed. The sand is so fine it squeaks under your feet, the water so clear you can see tiny diaphanous fish swimming around your feet, the distances so great that its best to go out with a full tank rather than have to miss out on some of the amazing scenery because you're worried you'll get stuck there (yep, we had half a tank only when we left...stupid).

And last but not least... another embarrassing moment in the life of...

Meet Paul, fellow guest at the hostel and in possession of a laptop with iTunes. After approximately 36 hours in the car, we'd grown sick of the 4 CD's we'd bought in Perth. Paul was a Godsend... and I persuaded him to burn some CD's for us from his music library... unfortunately this also meant temporary-sofa-imprisonment... which Kelly helfpfully tried to "capture the moment". Thanks Paul - we owe you our sanity (and my speeding ticket later on!!!!) The music incited me to speed... clearly. :P

Road Trip!!! Part 3: Albany - Hyden (Wave Rock)

Today we continued on our journey into the middle of nowhere, because Kelly is adamant about seeing "Wave Rock". A giant rock in the middle of nowhere in WA, shaped like a wave. There's nothing in the vicinity, just a couple of caravan parks, and a tiny town with a population of about 100. the road is straight, the scenery is unendingly vast (burnt)bushland, and the sun is shining - obviously, because we're in the car all day!


This is when we start to wonder if you can get a tan THROUGH the windshield - Kelly is testing this theory by draping her legs over the dashboard...



We stopped at the ManyPeaks store - in the town of ManyPeaks... despite the minor spelling aberration, I felt as though this was meant to be!

All jokes aside, the wave rock was impressive - I pretended to surf it until I started precariously sliding down the rock face. That's me sitting on it at the right wearing my trusty cowboy hat! We continued on to a tiny town called Hyden because neither of us wanted to drive in pitch black on the country roads. It had one motel, and we had the last room. The only restaurant had a dubious "cook your own BBQ" thing going, so we opted for buy snacks at the one-and-only-supermarket-and-watch-Australian-Big-Brother-on-TV-all-evening instead. Its amazing how addicted you can get to trashy TV having not missed it at all for the last 3 months... :)

Road Trip!!! Part 2: Margaret River - Albany

Today we left Margaret River to head towards the south coast of Western Austrlia and the little town of Albany. They're incredibly touchy in Albany about the pronunciation of the name - its not All-bany, but AAAAAAAAAAAHHLbany. Just in case anyone should ever venture close...

The main stop today was in the Kauri forests near the towns of Walpole and Denmark (no up!). The trees are up to 60 metres tall and have very few thick branches - which are all concetrated at the very top. It's truly impressive going from a dusty road to a meandering lane through the forest. They've built an elevated tree-top walk through some of the trees at a park called "Valley of the Giants". There is no way I could capture the enormous height on my camera, it was awesome (especially since the walkway bounced if you jumped on it a bit... which I did... obviously).

We drove on towards Aaaaaaahlbany and found the hostel with just a few wrong turns (not too bad considering we don't have maps, and only have the Avis mini map of main highways to guide us in our pursuit... then again, that's part of the ADVENTURE : Lost, in the Outback - the Marisa Way.)

The hostel is... interesting. Some of the finer points include murals of mermaids/mermen smoking weed, a completely confusing layout with 5 different sets of stairs through winding corridors leading up to our room (this is where I curse my bag with wheels and wished I had a backpack), and a female bathroom with a door that won't lock / only shower curtains covering the showers / a nice large window with diaphanous curtains overlooking the communcal garden-patio-BBQ area. Nice... so I guess part of the evening's entertainment is watching us shower. Though they did miss the red light, which would have just made it all feel a little more authentic...

Which brings me to our room, number 12. Nice and spacious, on the garden-side of the building, odd murals but nothing too worrying... until you notice the smell. Let's just say I had visions of PinkelBoy. Unfortunately, it was the last and ONLY room to be had in Albany, at any hostel or budget motel, so we had to make do. I'm hanging on for the resort in Bali!

Having installed the luggage, we ventured to the supermarket, at the same time that a firetruck pulled up to get snacks. When one of them said to me "hang on, I know you from somewhere" I thought: "here we go...blah blah blah, creep". But no, turns out he did know me from Manjimup where we had stopped for a restroom break. He'd been trying to get into the men's bathroom when I was trying to get my bag out of the car and thus unintentionally blocked the way with the car's door. We exchanged 6 words - (me) "Sorry" and (him) "That's ok, take your time". But it apparently left a lasting impression on one of us. We made a "date" to go see Darren at the fire station the next night so Kelly could get a picture of her in a firetruck (one of her dares from friends back home) and I could presumably spend quality time making unfcomfortable small-talk while she did that.

Luckily the next day was a Sunday (everything is closed, even the McDonald's) and it rained for most of the day, so we weren't distracted by the whole relax-on-a-beach-and-get-a-tan thing. The fire station date was even an exciting prospect! We went to see the main attractions in the area - the Gap (a gap inbetween 2 rocky cliffs where the sea pounds onto the land), the King Wave (a rocky cliff where the sea pounds onto the land making rather large waves), the Natural Bridge (a rock formation which has been carved out by the sea to form...a natural bridge). Exciting stuff, especially when you're wearing glittery blue ballet slipper shoes, its raining and windy, and there's little "dangerous!" signs all over the walkway!

We finished the evening off with yet another movie - it was so good that I don't remember what it was - before heading for the evening shift at the fire station. Darren was unbelievably helpful and let us borrow their maps for WA to plot the rest of the route. He also gave us lots of helpful hints for overtaking roadtrains, avoiding Kangaroo roadkill, while making repeated references to the fact that he owns several businesses besides being a fireman, has family in Holland, and is single... we left before he could tell me how much he identifies with ferns... :)