Anyway here goes my attempt to try and describe this awesome trip!
Day1 (April 3rd) : Dongara, Geraldton, Northbrook Farmstay
We had to be up and ready to go by 6:45am and then soon after that we boarded the buses
This is what the inside of one of the buses looked like :)
Photo credit: Malcolm Farrell Mitchell
We made a couple of stops along the way including a beach in Dongara and a war memorial in Geraldton
This is the HMAS II Sydney Memorial in Geraldton (Photo cred: Jenny Oetzell)
Then me made our way to our first campsite: Northbrook Farmstay
Frank at Northbrook Farm stay (sorry this is the only photo I ended up taking of Frank... Oh well!)
We got up at 6am (Like we would eventually do everyday!) and packed up our tents and were on the road by 7! We did a fair amount of driving again but again stopped at some nice places along the way!
This is the view from the other bus
Photo cred: Jenny Oetzell (She's a photo journalism major. So her pictures are pretty and numerous :) )
The flys also become quite annoying so we all bought fly nets and sported them for most of the rest of the trip!
Kalbarri (I think?) A beautiful lookout we went to
Then we had a small hike down a gorge (There's that beauty of a fly net :) )
We then traveled some more and had a very fly filled lunch and eventually made our way to Nanga Bay!
Day 3 (April 5th): Moneky Mia, Aristocat 2 Sailing Boat Trip, Shark Bay, Denham, Eagle Bluff, Shell Beach
This was a very different way to spend easter for me but we did some amazing things. We started the morning off with getting to see some wild dolphins be fed which was pretty cool! Then we had some brekkie and made our way to the Aristocat 2 boat for a really nice boat ride! We went to a pearl farm and got to see a presentation on how they make the pearls and it was a really nice and fun boat ride seeing some wild life as well :)
Us on the boat :)
Photo cred: Kerstin Yanku
After the boat ride we got some lunch and then drove around for the afternoon seeing many other great sites before returning to Nanga bay for a second night!
Picture from shell beach. Someone had enough time on their hands to spell it out :) it wasn't us though!
We left Nanga bay to make our way up to Coral Bay! There wasn't too much excitement but we stopped at some towns and things. When we got to coral bay we got to sign up for the trips we picked and then spent the night at the beach which was literally a 2 minute walk from our campsite :) It was amazing
Day 5 (April 7th): Coral Bay, Ningaloo Reef
THIS WAS SUCH AN AMAZING DAY!!! Alright a little back story about me if you don't know me that well. I don't swim much. I can't tread water and therefore I don't go in water I can't stand in. It terrifies me. But I signed up for this 3 hour turtle tour on a glass bottom boat. This included 2 snorkel stops. From what I have said I obviously hadn't snorkeled before. I thought I could do it with just a noodle to keep me from drowning but I freaked out a little bit so the awesome tour guide John offered to tow me around on the lifeguard thing (I know it sounds lame but I really needed it) So even though I cheated a little bit I STILL WENT SNORKELING AND IT WAS SO COOL! I got to see the amazing coral and the amazing fish and we even got to see a reef shark! I really can't explain it but it was one of the coolest things ever and I had so much fun! We also went to the turtle sanctuary and got to see all of these turtles. It was truly a great experience! After our tour was over we went back and then I relaxed by the beach for the rest of the day. It was a good day
Just a small slice of what I saw on the snorkel trip!
Photo cred: Alida Lehman
Day 6 (April 8th): Hamersley Range, Tom Price, Karijini National Park
We had to leave Coral bay (sad :( ) But we made our way to Karijini National park! We raced the sun to make it and set up our tents in time to go down into one of the gorges for a quick swim but we made it and it was just a taste of what we would see the next day! We went into Fortescue falls.
After the sun was down but the moon hadn't risen yet we turned off the light and looked up at the sky and oh my goodness it was beautiful!
Isn't that amazing?!
Photo cred: Jenny Oetzell
Day 7 (April 9th): Karijini National Park, Weano Gorge, Hancock Gorge, Handrail Pool, Joffre Falls
This was also a really fantastic day!! I don't exercise much but I am proud to say that I did some class 5 hiking! :) We spent the day doing some different hikes to different parts of the park! Our tour guide Craig ( why havn't I mentioned our tour guides yet? Craig and Al were absolutely phenomenal! ) took us to a lot of different places and even some we technically weren't supposed to go... :p It was so great! We got to go to some beautiful gorges and see some beautiful sites :)
Just some pictures from Karijini :)
Photo cred: Jenny Oetzell again :)
Day 8: (April 10th) Fern Pool, Newman, Kumarina,
After a quick morning hike down to fern pool we left Karijini to head back down to perth. We stopped and found some aboriginal art along the way and then made our way to a truck stop in Kumarina for the night. We had some much needed showers (There were none at Karijini) and only had a few little critters accompanying us (frogs and grasshoppers to be exact).
Just some of the aboriginal art we saw
Photo cred: Jenny Oetzell
Day 9: (April 11th) Meekatharra, Cue, Wogarno Sheep Station
We left Kumarina and did a whole lot of driving. We did stop at the Tropic of Capricorn and had a water fight so that was fun :)
Photo cred: Jenny Oetzell
We also stayed in a sheep shearing shed. So theres that.
On the last day we just drove back to Murdoch. It was such an amazing trip and it was so sad that it was over but we all needed to come back and shower properly and sleep in a bed. The end :)
Us after a great 10 days :)
Photo cred: Jenny Oetzell
Since the trip I spent a week procrastinating on an assignment and then this week I am catching up on other things. Nothing too special but this weekend is fun filled so stay tuned!
