Day 3- Monkey Mia

The next morning we were all excited to set out for Monkey Mia bright and early to see the dolphins come in. They are the major tourist attraction- at 7:45 every morning several female dolphins swim in to be fed a few fish for a snack. We saw a 34-year-old female named Puck who has been coming her whole life, and brought her 1-year-old calf with her. Another 35-year-old female and Puck’s 12-year-old daughter each came with their calves as well. The tourists stand on the edge of the water, and nobody touches the dolphins. Nobody is allowed to swim in that section of the beach either, so that the dolphins can have their own special area. The speakers give them a few fish each day, nowhere near enough for sustenance so they are not dependent on it- they only feed five females who have made it a tradition to start their day by coming into Monkey Mia. It was really cool to see them that close! It was hard to get a good picture of them in the water, until they began looking at us.

The Monkey Mia Resort.

Afterwards, we went out on a catamaran called the “Aristocat 2” for about an hour and a half. There were cool nets to sit in on the front of the ship, and in the back there was this awesome net you could ride in for a while. It was really exciting trying to hold on and being pummelled by the water...and the ocean was really warm! For the rest of the time we cruised around trying to find dugongs (sea cows, like a manatee), and before we got into shore we spotted 2!

Sitting in one of the front nets.

Being dragged in the back net! I'm the closest one to the camera.

The rest of the day was spent driving around to a few different spots. We stopped at the Eagle Bluff cliffs overlooking a small bird conservation island, and we stopped at an old abandoned sheep station.

The Eagle Bluffs cliff area.

A sheep dip- used to get rid of parasites on the sheep, the ranchers would make the sheep swim across and dip them before they could climb out. Sheep have to roam huge areas to sustain themselves here, so along the way we would often see groups of sheep in the middle of nowhere that looked like they were wild.

A female orb weaver that we saw in the sheep shed. Their webs are so strong you can stretch them a few feet and they snap back. I will never complain about spiders in MA again! :)

Another random stop along the way- I think it was a marsh.

We also stopped at Shell Beach, one of only 2 beaches in the world made entirely of shells. The salinity of the water is really high so the ocean was crystal clear, and the water was shallow and still. We were the only ones on this incredible, huge beach. It was really nice.

Then we left and I was on dinner duty for that night. Once the setup was complete we walked over to the beach to see the stromatalites. The flies were pretty bad when it was light out so we started out wearing the super attractive fly nets. Stromatalites are some of the oldest known living organisms on Earth, reaching 3.5 billion years old. The ones in Shark Bay are about 2,000 to 3,000 years old but are pretty much the same as their ancestors. Stromatalites provided much of the Earth’s oxygen- they were cool to see, even though they were just rock. It was a really pretty beach and dock.

Shantee, Emily, and I with the latest Northwest fashion.

The dock leading out to the stromatalites.

They had these super corny cartoon informational signs showcasing "Stumpy the Stromatalite"- this one was definitely the best.

Me with the really exciting stromatalites! Ha.

Some living stromatalites.

The Northwest Trip- Days 1 and 2

I’ve been putting off writing these blog posts for a while because it seems pretty daunting writing this whole 10-day trip down, but here I go. I’m going to try to break this up into multiple posts because there’s so much to write about!

Anyway, last week I got back from an awesome 10-day excursion in the outback of WA. When I mentioned in previous blog posts how isolated Perth is, it hadn’t quite hit me just how much. We drove about 4,000 km total, or 2,500 miles the whole trip up to Coral Bay and back, and barely saw a soul except for some roadhouses and random towns we stopped in along the way. It really was just endless expanses of wilderness. That being said, I was definitely thrown headfirst into a new experience. We slept in tents every night, were inundated with swarms (literally, SWARMS of thousands) of flies and crickets, and every other insect imaginable in the outback. It was great to be unplugged the whole trip…definitely the longest I’ve gone without the Internet. We spent a LOT of time on the bus each day travelling from place to place, especially on Day 1 and Day 2.

Day 1

On Friday, March 18^th we left Murdoch and drove through Perth, going from city to deserted outback in a surprisingly short time. The scenery was incredible the whole trip. The first few days we took a scenic drive along the west coast. On day one, we made our way up through the town of Geraldton to our Northbrooke farm stay. We didn’t see anything too exciting because we were focused on making our way up north, but we did stop for lunch at a small park next to a gorgeous beach. How a beach this pretty could be so empty I have no idea, but that thought was repeated the whole trip.

We also saw a beautiful war memorial for the HMAS Sydney II ship that was sunk off the coast, overlooking a tiny coastal town. The Northbrooke farm stay was a really nice campsite, with a big mowed lawn for us to pitch our tents.

The beautiful war memorial, made out of silver gulls- when it was dedicated a huge flock of rare silver gulls flew over the ceremony.

Day 2

On the second day, we began another long day’s journey up to the Hamelin Pool campsite inside Shark Bay, which is a World Heritage Site in the Gascoyne region. It is 800 km north of Perth. The entire area’s population is less than 1,000 people, occupying less than 1% of the land. No wonder WA’s sometimes referred to as “the last frontier.”

I sat up front with the tour guide Ray, who was an awesome older guy from Belfast, Ireland, who's been in WA for 30 years and loves nature. He swerved out of the way of this Blue Tongued Shingleback Skink and pulled over so we could see it. The skink kept sticking its tongue out to scare us off, and did it to the bus too when we first pulled over! Brave little guy.

I took a lot of shots of the road. Here's just one of many:

Along the way we stopped at Nature’s Bridge off of Kalbarri National Park.

Nature's Bridge.

We also spent some time exploring Murchison River in Kalbarri National Park. Aside from the beautiful scenery, we also saw a wild goat and kangaroo hopping in the valley below.

We finally made it up to Hamelin Pool, where we stayed for 2 nights. The first night we got there I was not excited at all about the campsite- the small grassy area was a bit overgrown and it was getting dark when we got there, so it was quite a surprise to step on the grass and find a jumping mass of grasshoppers. I’ve literally never seen so many in my life…you would step down and about 20 would jump. It was like all of us were setting up our tents on a popcorn hotplate. They would just constantly jump and crash into you, and if you know how I am about bugs you can probably imagine me flailing and hopping around while trying to set up the tent with my friend Emily Tucker. To make matters worse, all of a sudden my friend Cori screamed and limped out of the campsite…bit by a spider. Nevertheless we threw shoes and socks on, set up our tent, and threw everything inside as fast as possible! After that it wasn't so bad and we all just hung out until we crashed for the night.

Northwest Trip Preview

I haven't updated in a while because most of my assignments are due this week. We have a study break next week, so all of the teachers assign things beforehand to get that out of the way, which is both good and bad. But the exciting thing is that I'm heading out on the 10 day Northwest trip this Friday! There are almost 50 study abroad students on this trip, and we'll be heading out at 8am. We'll drive up the west coast to Coral Bay in the north, making stops along the way, then drive back inland. Once I'm back I'll be completely bombarding you with hundreds of pictures and a bunch of posts. Here's a map of the over 2,000 km trip (both ways):

One Month?!

The last time I posted was about going to an outdoor cinema showing in King's Park. We went to go see the movie Somewhere, which was actually laughably terrible. We all pretty much were waiting for the plot or moral of the story to appear right up until the credits rolled...but other than that it was a fun night! It was on the complete opposite side of King's Park that we hadn't seen before, and the whole setting was cool. On the way there we got to take some night shots of Perth and watch the sunset in a small cafe; there were also a lot of prom pictures going on too. We also saw a lot of parrots flying around- all different kinds and colors. There are a lot of them on campus too- definitely strange to have cockatoos and parrots as common birds!

Rainbow Lorikeets in King's Park

On Sunday the student village sponsored a trip to Woodman’s Point. We all loaded into a bus at 2:30, cranked the music, and set off for a fun afternoon at the beach. One thing I love about all of the beaches here are how they always go hand in hand with parks. So far every beach I’ve been to has had a really nice park right behind it, with people picnicking and resting in the shade, and a playground or a café. It’s really nice, especially when you want to lay out without being covered in sand. Which usually happens, because Perth is incredibly windy every afternoon…which means sand is inevitable stuck in your ears and hair. But hey, I guess its great for the windsurfers and kite surfers. You always see heaps of them in the afternoon. Kite surfing is a very expensive sport, but maybe I’ll try windsurfing while I’m here.

Picture off the dock of Woodman's Point.

So anyway, we had a picnic and went to the beach, where there was a huge dock. The water was really clear and apparently a good fishing spot, as a lot of people were set up with poles along the dock. It seemed like a much more local place. The beach wasn’t that full and most of the people were fishing off the dock. We saw a huge Australian Pelican there…it seemed like it was half the size of me! I don’t know how it could get off the ground. Really enjoyed this beach and hopefully I’ll be back!

The Thursday before that I went to this place called Mojo’s where there was awesome live music. Definitely a different crowd, all ages mixed. A lot of dreadlocked, hippy people there- it was awesome. We saw the Rosie Burgess Trio, and afterwards I bought their CD and am now a big fan. We also saw this popular Aboriginal band called Oka- the best part was the electric didgeridoo! So cool sounding. Here’s a youtube clip, and I'll try to put up my own clips later:

On Monday after my Nature-Based Tourism lecture, our class had a field trip to Penguin Island, which is just off the coast of Rockingham. It was absolutely gorgeous there- I took WAY too many pictures! Penguin Island is just one of many small islands in the Shoalwater Atoll, and the only one that people are allowed to step foot on. It’s a conservation park within a marine park. There are several nesting bird species there, and colonies all over the other islands, including Little Penguins and seals. The Little Penguins have a colony of about 2,000, the biggest one in WA. Unfortunately you can’t see the wild ones because they only come on land after sunset unless they’re breeding or molting, so they have a few rehabilitated penguins that can’t be released in the “Penguin Experience Center” to educate visitors. We walked around the island, saw the penguins, and took a boat tour around some small neighboring islands. The views were gorgeous and the water was so clear- there were a lot of outdoor sports going on in the surrounding water. Before the semester ends I hope to go back and do a kayak tour there.

My favorite picture from Penguin Island.

Just one of many windsurfers.

Kitesurfer getting some air!

I can't believe I've been here for one month already! It feels like I've been here forever and yet not at all, at the same time. I almost forgot to mention: I got a job at a cafe on campus as a barista/server. I've only been to work once, but I'll be working about 10 hours this week.

Oh, and here's a picture of my room if anyone's interested in seeing it...it looks more spartan than it actually feels. :)

Aussie Slang:

Shrapnel = loose change

Tomato Sauce = ketchup

Sultanas = raisins

Till = cash register

Quick Update

Right now its about 37 degrees C (100F) again- so hot! The metric system thing is really getting me- I'm still having trouble trying to convert from celsius and kilometers, and even inches to centimeters. I didn't really notice how hot it was today until I came back to my room, I was at the pool since about 12 because I don't have any classes Friday. The sun is so strong that you can barely lay out without frying...it's a hard life here, I know.

Yesterday I had a "trial" at the kebab place in the school food court for an hour- they do that a lot here, at least with food service jobs. Hopefully it works out, it would be great because its right on campus and closed on nights and weekends.

Last night there was a beach themed party in the Tavern on campus- it was a lot of fun. It's so cool how they can have a place like that right next to the quad-they have happy hour every day Mon-Fri and a lot of people go there to chill where there are pool tables and foosball tables, and outdoor seating. It's really nice.

I'm just hanging out in my room for a bit then a few of us are going to head out to Kings Park for this outdoor cinema thing they have- I forget what the movie is. I'll update more after this weekend.

Some facts about Perth and WA

Western Australia...

is larger than all of Western Europe

is about 1/3 of the whole of Australia

is 4x bigger than Texas

has over 70 National Parks and 2 World Heritage sites

experiences dry and wet seasons up north

Perth...

is the world's most isolated and sunniest capital city

has a population of about 1.8 million

has an average winter temp of about 60-65F and average summer temp of 86F

There are only 2 million people in the huge state of WA- and 90% of them live in and around Perth. To give you an idea of how empty that is: Texas has a population of about 25 million- on land 1/4 the size of WA.

WACA Warriors + Freo

On Wednesday a few of us went to the WACA stadium to see our first cricket game. Of course, the day turned out to be about 37°C…or a bit over 100° F. Luckily the buses and the train to get there were all air-conditioned! When we finally got to the stadium it was pretty empty so we could sit anywhere. The game was too confusing and to really hold our attention- the Retravision Warriors wore the yellow uniforms, but the crowd seemed to cheer for both teams- that’s how confusing the rules were!

Warriors up at bat.

The scoreboard looked pretty cool but we had no idea how to interpret it. Despite all the confusion it was fun just hanging out, meeting new people and chatting during the game. Later that night we decided to check out the Newport club in Freo for a bit for student night- we didn’t stay for too long but it was really fun and crowded.

The confusing scoreboard- each player appears to have a score and their names

would occasionally light up.

WACA Stadium

Thursday was my second class: Country, Nature, and Identity: Indigenous Sustainability. It was really interesting and the professor was awesome! Looking forward to the semester. It was a small class so there’ll be a lot of discussion and it was nice to be mixed with Aussies. A bunch of my friends from the U.S. are in it with me, so that’ll be fun. There’s such a large international population here that I don’t think you could find a class without a few people studying abroad or from a different country. I decided to switch into the Nature-Based Tourism class on Monday, freeing up my Fridays. There are two field trips during the semester to Penguin Island and Yanchep National Park- very excited for that.

Probably my favorite part of being here so far is going into Fremantle- it’s just a bus ride away and there are tons of fun things to do. There are a lot of different restaurants and bars, shops, a park, a beach, and an amazing marketplace. On weekend nights it’s crowded with people and there are live bands playing in some restaurants, and the overall vibe of area is just amazing. The marketplace is open every Friday to Sunday with a ton of vendors inside this huge building. They have everything imaginable, like clothes, jewelry, didgeridoos and paintings. There’s a section for produce and food, which was fresh and cheap on Sunday so I’ll definitely be back there a lot! Over the weekend there are also a lot of street performers and musicians livening up Freo. They shorten every word in Australia- for example, Fremantle is Freo, Rottnest Island is Rotto, the Salvation Army is Salvo’s (even on the sign), etc. One act we saw last week was the “badpiper”- a guy in a leather-studded kilt playing Queen’s “We will rock you.” There was also a sword-swallowing pirate, and there are always a few didgeridoo players around.

Some stalls in Fremantle Market

Fremantle Harbor