Perth to Exmouth Trip - Day 1-2 Perth to Kalbarri

The flight from Sydney to Perth was nice.  Quantas served us a nice dinner (unexpected and definitively a plus over any US airline).  When we arrived, I collected my baggage and went to find the city bus.  I had called the hostel and asked about how to get there and I had the bus number. The problem that I did not anticipate is that the bus stops running at 6:30pm on Sunday (would have been nice if they had told me that).  I opted for a shuttle called City Link from the airport instead of a taxi.  The one way ticket was $15 and round trip was $25.  I had to wait for about 10 minutes for a couple more flights to arrive but I was in no hurry.  The driver was very nice and dropped me at the front door of the backpackers.

Perth City YHA was an industrial looking building.  I walked in and the receptionist was behind a barred desk.  I thought that maybe I was in the wrong place when 2 guys  stumbled and I mean STUMBLED in.  I let them go first.  The receptionist said that they needed to leave because they were not guests and were not welcome since they had been kicked out earlier.  GREAT!  She ended up going back and getting a manger.  I looked around and wondered where I could stay instead of here.  Oh well…it was only one night. 

I went up to my room and the lights were off and 2 people were sleeping.  I dropped my bags and went to the common room to go and organize so I would not disturb the gals in the room.  The drunk guy who had just been kicked out came up and tried to start a conversation.

TIME FOR BED!!

I found out that you needed your key to get into the bathroom….strange.  After brushing my teeth, I got into bed.  Ahhh…sleep. Until a loud SKREECH and whine jolted me up.  It sounded like the train was RIGHT outside my window.  This continued until after 3am…I swear the room rattled.  Ugh!  I was glad that I only booked for 1 night.  I was NOT going to return to the YHA in Perth when I returned...what a miserable night.

My 6:30am wake up call was not required.  One of the gals in the room had set a 6am alarm.  Then the snooze rang at 6:10.  By the third bell at 6:15, I got up to get ready.  Turns out they had just come down from Exmouth on a tour.  They had tried to see whale sharks but had not seen any on the trip.  They had been offered either a voucher to go again or $150 of their money back.  I was really glad that I had planned an extra time in Exmouth as a "back-up" day.

Day 1 was pretty…well…slow.  I was picked up at 7 by a guy who was older than me with long hair and the hat of many colors.  I was the first person in the van.  We picked up other people all over the city and drove north to a state park.  The park has a population of koala (btw…koala are not native to Western Australia) that they have in a breeding program with other parks across Australia.  We saw a very active koala who was hungry and itchy all at once...and what a ham!  I swear he posed for pictures.
We walked over to a “lake” that had no water due to a drought around Perth this year.  We saw some wild kangaroo (one even had a joey who peaked out of her pouch a couple times) and some Banksia trees (also called candelabra trees because of the  big yellow flowers that look like burning candles). It was pretty much wasting time until our cave tour.  Unfortunately there was lots of time to waste.
The Crystal Caves were interesting…large natural caves with formations from water.  The tour guide was super excited about the cave.  She was a great tour guide but was more exited than anyone else in the room.

For lunch, we found a picnic table in the park. We then drove up to the place were were staying that night to check in.  It was the last house on a street that lead down to a beach in Cervantes.  The hostel was very clean and comfortable.  After dumping our bags we had free time for about 90 min before we had to leave to the Pinnacles National Park.  I walked down to the beach.  It was beautiful.  What a great location for a hostel.  I walked up and down the beach with my feet in the Indian Ocean.  It is funny how a brain works…water is water but it felt so different to have my feet in a different ocean.

We loaded into the van again and drove to the Pinnacles.  Geologists say that it was an old rainforest that was submerged years and years ago.  The land was pushed up and weathering has exposed the formations.  The formations are the relief of the trees, land compressed by the tree roots.  The formations are amazing!
There is a path that is 4 or so kilometers long, winding through the national park.  There were thousands!  One of the things I liked about the Red Earth Safari itinerary was visiting the Pinnacles at sunset.  The best time to visit.  It was great to see the long shadows form as the sun dipped down to the horizon.  Then everything took on a glow as the sun slipped below the horizon.  The horizon became the focus as we were treated to a beautiful display of color.  A beautiful yellow sky turned to orange and then into a pink/purple glow.  We stayed until the sun set.   Dinner was ready when we returned...lasagna, salad and garlic bread...yum.

Day 2 - The morning started with breakfast at 6:30am.  I slept surprisingly well considering there were 7 of us in the room.  Good signs for the rest of the trip.  :)
We drove up to Greenough Wildlife & Bird Park.  This place was fantastic!  They have Australian wildlife including kangaroo and dingos as well as sheep and goats and lots of birds.  They rescue injured wildlife, rehabilitate, and release into the wild (if possible).  They do such good work.

Everyone was given a bag of food with their entry fee and you can wonder around and feed the animals.  The kangaroos were somewhat insistent on being fed and would grab your hand.  I made sure to keep the bag out of their reach so as to not reward them for their behavior.  There were other animals around to feed including birds and farm animals like sheep/goats. I even braved feeding an emu.  They are big, mean looking birds.
They offer an opportunity to "cuddle" animals including snakes, dingos, joeys for a small fee.  All of the money goes to help the rehabilitation.  It was too cold to bring out the snakes.  A couple of the girls went in with the dingos.  I decided to hold a joey.  His mom was hit by a car and he was rescued from her pouch.  The make "pouches" and keep them on a heat pad.  It was amazing.  I was able to hold his paws and feel the muscular tail and see the three nails on his foot. He was so little.  It was incredible and I can not imagine ever being able to hold a joey like that again.

We drove past the leaning trees.  The leaning trees are fully formed trees that grow horizontal to the ground because of the wind off the Indian Ocean.  I remember a whole grove from my trip 10 years ago.  Today much of the land is grazing land and so there are significantly fewer trees but there are multiple trees in the area growing with a 90 degree bend.
Lunch was again beach side.  It was my first chance to call home and it was fun to call KS while my feet were in the Indian Ocean.

After lunch we headed out of the country.  The Hutt River Province seceded from Australia in 1970. The "Prince" of the region found a loophole in the constitution where the English only claimed a certain area around Perth.  He was tired of the taxes on his sheep and was smart enough to find the loophole.  He declared his land independent and Australia could not object.  The loophole was patched and the 'Prince' no longer has to pay any taxes on revenue from his land.  Unfortunately, the Prince Leonard was out and we were not able to meet him.  He has had fun with it by creating his own passport, currency, stamps, etc.  Many countries recognize the Hutt River Province as a separate country.

Kalbarri is the WA's answer to Victoria's Great Ocean Road.  We walked along the cliffs to several of the overlooks.  It is beautiful and did remind me of the Great Ocean Road.  Shapes carved out with their own texture.  Bridges formed by the water by carving out a hole a pass through and pillars separated from the mainland...the cliffs are weathered away in layers leaving a beautiful, rugged coastline.  In the distance we were able to see the spouts of water that was the blow from migrating humpback whales.

That night we had time to play on the beach that was across the street from our backpackers hostel...and watch the sunset over the water.  I had a good time sitting and watching another beautiful day slip away.  The afterglow colors were beautiful.  Australian sunsets involve the entire sky.  I love it here.

We had an Aussie cookout for dinner with sausage and chicken on the grill.  Dinner also included an appetizer of kangaroo meat...enough for everyone to taste.  I thought it was pretty high class of the tour to do this.  It was good, sweet...and a bit chewy.  Apparently, it is really important not to overcook because it can get really tough.  We made jokes about holding a rescued joey earlier that day and hoping that we were not eating his relative.
A great day!
Looking forward to Day 3.