More tales from the outback.

Day three: Monkey Mia.  It's a little seaside town, mostly a tourist destination, and the place where we would get to see dolphins up close and personal.  So we awoke, as usual, to Terry hollering "TIME TO GET UP" (it sounds annoying, but actually it was endearing, I love that man) and sure enough, on the road by seven.  Monkey Mia is mostly a place to relax on the beach, but it was kind of cold for that...we did a lot of dolphin watching (they feed them right along the shore so if you go at the right time you can see a ton of them in really shallow water; nobody is allowed to touch them because their skin is really really sensitive to oils, but definitely the closest I've ever been to a dolphin.  Also, they pee every ten minutes), some pelican-harassing, and then had a fierce and fun game of beach volleyball.  That was really the highlight of the day.  On the way back to camp that night we stopped at a few different look-out points to hunt for sharks and sea turtles - no luck, but we may or may not have seen a whale.  WHOA.

During our third night we had another bonfire (after getting charged at by a kangaroo - not really - and watching another gorgeous sunset - really), and this time we were joined by Shane, the man who owns the land that our tents were staked on.  He's a middle-of-nowhere Outbacker - which means he's got a long beard and not all his teeth and tons of stories, many of them having to do with snakes and near-death experiences.  First he told us about the brown snake he got bitten by.  He reached his hand into something and the snake latched on; his first instinct was to break its neck.  Then he walked calmly into the store at his campground and asked someone to drive him to the nearest hospital (which is at least an hour away), because he only had about an hour and a half to live.  When he got to the hospital, there were no doctors there who were actually licensed to administer the antidote, so it took a little while for him to get the injection, but he survived.  He went home, put the snake in a bottle, drove straight to the bar, and put the bottled snake on the bar next to him for the night.  The other story he had was about the water python living in his shed - supposedly it's about 14 feet long, he found it awhile back and decided it couldn't live in his shed any longer, so he managed to get it out and put it in his truck, so he could drive it to the dam up the road.  Only problem: he didn't put it in the back of his truck, he put it on the passenger seat.  So by the time he got to the dam, the snake was wound around both him and the seat, and there was no way he was getting out.  So he took a cigarette lighter to it, (there may be some embellishment in this story, but it's a good one nonetheless) got it off of him, and threw it in the dam.  A few days later it was back in the shed.  He got a French guy to help him (Frenchie had to hold the snake in the truck, so this time he was the one who got squeezed), threw the snake back into the dam, and drove home, only to find it already in the shed when he got back.  So now the python lives in the shed, unbothered.  Obviously we wanted to see this python, so Shane took us out to the shed (first he showed us the museum on site, which used to be a telegraph station, one of the first in WA, and is also home to the only living stromatolites in captivity IN THE WORLD.  And it's a little shack in a no-name town, not commercialized at all - you gotta love Australia), and we couldn't actually find the snake, but we did find some of its skin.

Day four was driving driving driving until we got to Warroora, where we'd stay before our big exciting day at Coral Bay.  Day four was also "bus break-down day," so we spent a good amount of time at an automotive repair shop.  Not the most exciting day in the world, but with drivers like Terry and Fi it's never boring.  Let me tell you about Fi: I want to be her.  Or at least be related to her.  She loves Australia.  She's loud, she wears hiking boots probably every day, she's got crazy curly blonde hair and she knows so much about the towns and sights to see in WA, and she's got a great, infectious laugh.  She's one of those people you never forget, no matter how short a time you've spent with her.  Having her as our driver definitely enhanced the experience - she played the music on our bus really loudly (we usually passed around iPods, but she also got us into Matt Gresham, an Australian singer - we actually saw him in concert just last night, what a blast), made sure we were up to speed on our "random facts about Australia" know-how, and just kept us generally entertained the whole time.  She and Terry had walkie-talkies to talk to each other on the road, and we could often hear those hilarious conversations, even from the back of the bus.

The broken-down bus slowed us down a bit, but this actually provided for some really wonderful moments later on in the trip.  The bus was never totally fixed, so once in awhile it wouldn't start.  Enter the bus-pushing, ala Little Miss Sunshine.  Ten or twelve of us would line up behind the bus and start pushing it while Terry tried to get it started - gives you a nice sense of accomplishment to start the day off.

Spent the night in a warm room with Lauren - resort-like accommodations compared to our dilapidated tent.  Had another kangaroo experience in the early morning - had to pee, opened the door, kangaroo standing right outside.  Nice.  We caught the sunrise one morning here - I can see why a lot of Australians are early-risers.  It's addicting, seeing literal start of the day.

Day five: CORAL BAY.  One of my favorite days.  It was really windy, so there wasn't actually much we could do at Coral Bay (we couldn't go kayaking, boo), but what we did totally made up for it.  We took a glass-bottomed boat ride over Ningaloo Reef, which is a smaller, but much better preserved reef than the Great Barrier; on the way out we saw a ton of coral, lots of brightly colored fish, a sting ray, and a sea turtle through the glass.  We also spotted a ton of turtles (the area is a sanctuary for them) on top of the water, as well as dolphins, rays, maybe a whale?  THEN WE WENT SNORKELING!  I may need to move to Florida or the Caribbean, because snorkeling rocks.  Tons of neon fish (no Nemos, but a few Doris), lots and lots of really intricate coral...it's a science geek's dream.  Just before I got back onto the boat our boat-drivers decided to feed the fish right off the edge, and literally hundreds of these huge fish called Spangled Emperors swam right up to it, surrounding Lauren and I - a really strange feeling, but a pretty cool one, to be covered in fish.  We didn't do much after that - Keith and I went to an outdoor cafe and spent a few hours amusing ourselves trying to catch lizards and making up games using salt and pepper shakers and coins.  Terry and Fi brought everyone to happy hour at the bar - lots of fun (I was the only one who got carded - apparently I don't even look 18), Fi let everyone out of the bus on the ride home for a pee-break in the outback, good times.

So ends the second installment...I'm off to climb some rocks.  Indoors.  With harnesses on.  No worries (:

Until next time - miss you guys!