The Wheels on the Bus

I’m sure many of you are unaware that I just returned from a 7 day trip up the west coast of Australia. We traveled some 3000km all tolled but made it to Exmouth where some of the best snorkelling and scuba diving in the world can be found.


Day 1

Up at the crack of dawn I had to be downtown for 7:00am. I arrived in good time and milled around with the other bleary-eyed back packers. The bus rolled around 7:00. We quickly stuffed our bags in the trailer and we were off. Though technically the first day wasn’t the longest drive it sure felt like it. The bus was eerily quite, probably because everyone was still half asleep and nobody knew each other. In fact the only thing that broke the silence was the odd informative comment from the driver.


There were a couple notable stopes on the first day including the famous Pinnacles desert, a swim in Hang Over Bay and some Sand boarding. The accomidation the first night was hands down the worst. We stayed in a less than comfortable Hostel in the middle of nowhere (Northhampton).

Day 2

The second day was much more enjoyable. There was less driving and more enjoyable stops. The majority of the morning was spent hiking through Murchison Gorge at Kalbarri National park. We also stoped at Shark Bay and Shell beach. The big downer on the day was that the girl from Michigan had discovered that we weary backpackers on the bus were a captive audience. Here annoying Michigan accent easily carried to all corners of the minibus. She recounted tales of Spanish exams gone a rye and delighted us with her boyfriend issues, fleshing out her oral narration with the ever beautiful “like” and “whatever”.

All was good when we arrived at our destination, Monkey Mia. We got there an hour before sun set, just enough time to catch a quick swim with some sea turtles and laze on the beach with a beer watching the sun fall to sleep.

Day 3

Started off with a light breakfast for us travelers followed by a breakfast for the dolphins. We all stood knee deep at the shore while the curious dolphins swam around us waiting to be fed by the local conservationists. Then we took a quick sail on a catamaran seeing some marine life swimming along as well as getting wet ourselves, getting pulled along in a net at the back of the boat.

The rest of the day was more or less spent driving to our evening’s destination, Coral Bay. We did however almost hit a kangaroo.


Day 4

I got my first taste of snorkelling on Day 4. First in the shallower sections of the famous Ningaloo reef where I swallowed quite a bit of saltwater (give me a break it was my first time not to mention the snorkel was pretty bad). Then we went further out to sea on a glass bottom boat. We got to drop off the sides like in the movies, it was quite exciting.

Then the afternoon was spent, you guessed it, driving. We had finally reached our ultimate destination, Exmouth! The evening of Day 4 was when everyone was finally comfortable with each other and we had a few (too many) drinks. The night ended with a bunch of us in a pool in our underwear. Good old Goon.

Day 5

Exmouth was certainly worth the drive. We went to Turquoise Bay, the best spot on Nigaloo beach and it was virtually empty. Let me tell you there is nothing like a good long snorkel to fight off the previous day’s hangover. There was lots of amazing stuff to see including the more exciting soft coral, sea turtles and even sharks. That’s right sharks, and not your 12 inch nurse sharks we are talking 5 foot killers of the deep. I have quite a good shark story that you’ll have to remind me to tell when I’m back.

Day 6 -7

Day 6 and 7 were spent more or less driving back to Perth. Although it was fairly enjoyable because everyone knew each other and we were able to chat away the long hours on the bus.

Wild Wild West Australia

My many apologies for neglecting my blog. I’m learning that it takes a fair bit of discipline to stick to these things. Well with that out of the way on with the main event.

Last weekend I went to Kalgoorlie. A very unique “city” of 30,000 located 700km directly inland from Perth. The city sprung up during the gold rush and doesn’t even have it’s own fresh water supply. All it’s water is pumped along a massive pipeline from Perth.

Phil (Lewis not Eely) and I took the Prospector train to the Kalgoorlie. It’s quite a nice train, it’s interior much like the business class section of a Boeing 747. The train is full of interesting Bogans (Australian Hicks) who look like they just finished wrangle snakes and wrestling Crocs in the Outback. The view from the train was quite Australian. Once you get over the Darling Range and past the wheat fields your start to get a taste of the famous Australian Outback. I caught a glimpse of some wild Emus and Kangaroos.

Our first day in Kal we got a personal tour of the Super Pit. The chief production engineer took us in his L.V. , light vehicle (keeping in mind a light vehicle to the mining industry is a Toyota Land Cruiser decked packed to the gills with every off road feature every conceived) down the winding ramp. We got up close to some large Hydraulic shovels and dealt with some CAT 797 traffic (797 are the biggest haul truck, rated at 360 tons of capacity).

Sunday we went to Kanowna Bell underground operation. Our tour guide was an extremely nice French Canadian girl of 24, who was production engineer at the mine. We got a really great tour of the entire operation getting very close to a lot of the different equipment at the mine. We got a lift back to the city by a Russian geotech who had the stereo typical “don’t fuck with me” heir about him that one would expect from a burly Russian. I also saw a road mangled roo, it was quite the site.

Saturday night in Kal was a completely interesting site. Kalgoorlie is essential in the middle of nowhere and is filled with grizzled miners who have to much money and too little class. The main street consist of greasy spoons, saloons and brothels. Yes that’s right brothels have not been formally legalized just allowed to operate in plain view right down town. If you’ve never seen a brothel, from the road it essentially looks like a very cheap motel. The small, identical, purpose built rooms lining the street side reminiscent of cattle pens. Don’t worry Phil and I obviously didn’t go into the brothels. But we did hit every worth while watering hole on the main street. The all female bartending staff at the bars paraded around in their bras and underware. At one fine establishment, a waitress came around with a jug collecting money. I innocently inquired for what noble cause was she collecting. With a straight and ernast face she kindly explained they were raising money to take their tops off (remember you don’t tip for drinks in Australia). I could help but laugh and I think I hurt the poor girls feeling. I later looked up from my drink to realize that indeed they had reach their financial goals and were proudly strutting around topless. The rest of night was filled with large mining men yelling at each other and the quite sad Kalgoorlie “talent” butchering great songs at Karaoke.

And that in essence was my trip to Kal. It is starting to cool down here the high for most days is a dismal 28 degrees. I hope all is going well in the T-dot, K-town and all the other terribly cold places you are all located in. Catch y’all back here real soon.

- Emerson