The beginning of the greatest adventure of my life! NW Part 1

So here is the much anticipated blog about my ten day break going on the Northwest trip...this is installment one so I don't overwhelm you too much all at once. Regardless, it is going to be a novel...so I will try my best to make it as short as possible:)

Day one we are up and ready to leave at 7:45am. There are 33 students sleepy-eyed and weighed down with packs, pillows, and snacks. The buses are running late per usual and no one really knows what to expect for the next ten days. We are introduced to our tour guides, Terry and Fi (fiona). Then a man in a stuffy business suit from Murdoch tells us the rules and all the things that can kill us in the outback and sends us on our way. We jump on a bus and we are on our way! And our way consists of kilometers of driving! This is all we do the first day besides making pit stops for bathroom breaks, snacks, and stretches. Our bus was driven by Fi and had nineteen people on it. We wasted away the hours doozing, reading, talking, and singing.

Now I am gonna stop this play-by-play to tell you about Fi. She is the coolest woman I have ever met. She is 32, beautiful, independent, hiking boot and jeans clad, smart, hilarious, and she has a laugh that makes everyone else laugh whether they knew what was funny or not. Terry our other tour guide I want to be my surrogate uncle. He is a sweet man, who is so intelligent about the world around us, he cooks amazingly, he always has the answers, and is always looking out for everyone!

Back to the play-by-play :) We stopped for lunch at a cute seaside stop in Geraldton with a little playground and sweet beach. We stopped for the first night at a sheep farm in Lynton. It has many, many acres of land and tractors and old buildings. It also has an extremely large hill that rises up behind the buildings. This is what we climbed up our first night, it was quite a little climb especially with the wind trying to blow us off the face of the earth! The view from on top was breath taking you could see the ocean in the distant and all the farm houses and land that went on for miles and then there was the lone road that led into the property. Our sleeping quarters for the night=the old sheep barn. We made dinner and played card games and then everyone laid mats onto the floor, got out their sleeping bags and it was one big slumber party!! The only trouble, was the obstacle course to get through when you had to pee in the middle of the night and since the bathrooms were so far away the side of the barn had to do, but it was the perfect viewing of the entire night sky!

Day two: Up at 6, leave by seven (Terry's motto) and back on the bus! We made a few stops on our way to Kalbarri National Park. On our way we saw our first of many Kangaroos in the wild, as well as Emus and wild sheep and goats. The park was incredible! We had our first little hike that overlooked the huge Murchison river that flows in and around the area! There were some incredible views across to the other side of the gorge and the rock formations are amazing. After lunch we headed to Monkey Mia and Shark Bay. We stayed in a campground at Hamelin Pool where the stromatolites are located!! For those of you who aren't familiar with what these are, they are bacteria that live on special rock forms and need water to live, they are some of the oldest living things on the planet and they helped create life as we know it because they produced the oxygen that plants, animals, and humans needed to evolve and survive!!! ..That said they aren't the most interesting things to look out, unless you appreciate them for what they are! There is a beautiful boardwalk that you go out on to look at them and a nice beach and the ocean in front of them! The campground we stayed at was owned by the funniest hick man I have ever seen complete with a long scraggly beard, plaid shirt, big boots, few teeth, and a great Australian accent. He told us stories about how he had been bitten by a snake a month before and had only an hour to live and they took him to the hospital but couldn't find anyone who knew how to give him the right injection. They finally got it into him and he lived to tell the tale: when the snake bit him his reaction had been to immediately break the snakes neck and when he got back from the hospital he stuck the snake in a jar and brought it to the pub with him that night! ...only in Australia :) We had the best bon fire and all tried to stay warm (the nights were chilly till we got up north).

Day 3: We went to Shark bay today where there is a gorgeous beach, boats, and most importantly..DOLPHINS (indo-pacific bottle-nose)!! Yes, the dolphins swim right up to the beach, feet away from us standing in the water. They swim around and now all the people who work there. There are very particular dolphins that they feed three times a morning, that their families have been coming for years. They do live and survive in the wild because how much, what, and when they are fed is precisely controlled. They are beautiful and gentle, it was so neat! We got to see six dolphins ( one was pregnant)! Then we played the most entertaining game of beach volleyball with too many people and soo many laughs! Then we drove to a lookout of Shark Bay and saw the world's largest population of sea grass! The most gorgeous view of endless ocean, a big island, and the most beautiful color of water! Then we visited shell beach ..and yes it is just how it sounds..a beach made up entirely of little pure white shells!! The tide was low and we got to walk out and make mounds of shells to stand on so it looked like we were Jesus walking on water! I of course searched for shells, they were all so beautiful..but not the most comfortable beach to walk on without shoes on :) We spent the night in Hamelin Pool again and had another wonderful bonfire. We also saw a Kangaroo extremely up close that was just chilling out when all of a sudden he jumped towards us, we all screamed like silly Americans, but he was just looking for more food:)

Day 4: A day of driving to get to Coral Bay. We stayed a little ways out of Coral Bay at a gigantic farm. Beds and rooms here!!! Yes! I had a room with Kelsey! There were horses just roaming and feeding inches from our building and then because we had made such good time we got to see the most amazing beach I have EVER been to!!! The family that owns the farm also happens to own 50 km of private beach off of the Ningaloo reef. I know..its no big deal..... This beach was perfect...pure white sand, the Indian Ocean, warm ocean water, waves, and an untouched beach with the most beautiful shells left behind. I spent the evening swimming in the waves and enjoying my happy place! I found some gigantic shells, a sea urchin shell (that I later sat on and broke..so sad), a gorgeous orange and pink crab shell, a starfish, and many other amazing shells! Most people know how much a love collecting shells..so it was my own little paradise! This was easily one of the most breathtaking places I have ever seen! The night consisted of bonfires, yummy dinner, a salt water shower, and a bed..though not the most comfortable bed I have ever slept in..but I wasn't complaining after a lot of ground to sleep on!

Day 5: Up before dawn in time to see the most gorgeous sunrise and off for a day at Coral Bay, home of the "not as renowned but better conserved and untouched" Ningaloo Reef! Today was unforgettable we started the day by going on a glass bottom boat! Everyone sat around on the boat and looked down through the glass to see the most amazing reef life. There are over 200 different kinds of coral and millions of sea species! We saw numerous different kinds of fish in all sizes, shapes, and colors, as well as star fish, huge clams, sea cucumbers, and huge sea turtles!!! Then we got to go snorkaling off the boat!!!!!!!!! I have never been snorkeling in open ocean before and it was an out-of-body experience! I felt so calm and at one with the water. I followed a huge rainbow fish for a while and trailed schools of gorgeous fish...only taking a huge gulp of sea water into my snorkel a few times because it was so windy :) At the end of our snorkel Kelsey and I were some of the last people in the water (the rest couldn't handle the cold) and they began to throw fish food from the back of the boat. This meant that I was completely surrounded by my own kind! It was mostly a school of "Spangled Emperors", big silver fish that are atleast two feet long, try having those all over your body, it was so cool and when I looked down into the water there was more fish around then I have ever seen of all different colors and sizes! Wow! After this the day was spent at the beach soaking in some warmth and sun (but amazingly no sunburns the whole trip due to MASS amounts of sunscreen!)! It was great! Then we attended happy hour at the pub right off of the beach from 5:30-6:30 pm. Our group went through 21 pitchers and it made for a fantastic ride home that was full of music, horrible singing, and a pee stop that meant twenty people piled out of the bus to the side of the road and peed in the bush in one large group! Now that is some group bonding!

I am going to leave you with that lovely picture for now!!! I am tired of typing and if you have even made it down here I'm sure you need a break from reading this! So here is installment one of two! There is so much more fun to come...now you can begin to see why this was such amazing trip that I could never begin to explain all of !!!!! Miss you all so much! All the pictures are up on picassa (this is just a speckle of the good pictures) and fb..the link to them is on the right of the screen! <3 xoxoxo