One year

on saturday, september 29th, john and i celebrated our first anniversary as a married couple. the celebration was low key, as per usual, and involved a bottle of champagne that one of john's clients gave us, and a night out in fremantle. our gift to each other is a ticket to see "varekai" by cirque du soleil (the friday matinee, cause it's cheaper for decent seats).

on another note: elliot and amy, from pei, are moving to australia on tuesday of this week. they'll be with us for 6 months, so i'm sure i'll have many more stories to blog about!

that's it for now
xo

Pics from Shark and Coral Bays

a few photos from our holiday!


port denison- on our 1st day of driving up the coast. we stopped here to have lunch

yes. it says "useless loop". if we'd had more time, we would've driven it just because.

dolphins at monkey mia

monkey mia- i like this one because the water and the sky blend seamlessly into one another. (ignore the boats)

i like the contrast of the red dune and the white sand. we did a small hike up this dune. it was really hot!

monkey mia- i like that john looks like a dream or something

sunset in front of our hostel in denham

shell beach

the shells on shell beach

stromatolites!

different stromatolites!

blue fish on our kayak tour to the outer reef at coral bay

giant clam. love the blue inside it's mouth

brain coral and bright blue starfish

swimming turtle!

reef sharks. you can't see the fins, but trust me, they're sharks

view of point maude 9coral bay) from the top of a small sand dune that we climbed

contrast in scenery- the sand goes on for what looks like kilometers. red, white. feels very arid when you're standing on it

me, on the dune, overlooking the ningaloo reef

Coral Bay

part 2 of our holiday.

coral bay is a rather unexciting little beach village. it consists of a resort (i use the term loosely) where we stayed (8 room hotel, stand alone lodges, caravan park and camp ground for tents), a small "shopping centre" (tours, dive shop, grocery place, cafe), a gas station, another "hotel" and another "shopping arcade" (food store, cafe, surf shop, tour operators). that is it. you can walk the road from tip to tip in about 5 minutes if you're doing a lazy saunter (ry, it would take you 30s!). each "hotel" has a small restaurant which will gouge you if you buy food there, and one of the hotels has a small bottle shop (liquor store) which will do the same.

there is however, something kind of nice about going away, and sincerely being away from it all. coral bay is approximately 13 hours north of perth (with no stops). it is completely isolated. the next "major" place is exmouth, which is another 1.5 hour drive north and is at the othe tip of the reef. we didn't get up there...had enough driving for a one week vacation already.

coral bay is on the southern point of the ningaloo reef. ningaloo reef has recently been declared a world heritage area because it is host to thousands of species of fish, turtles, sharks, rays, whales and other such marine life. it is significantly smaller then the great barrier reef, but we are told that it is no less spectacular. it is also significantly less touristy. the reef is considered to be the largest most accessible reef around. by most accessible it means that you don't need a boat to enjoy it. you can grab your snorkel gear and walk down to the water and get right in. i think that the reef starts about 50m off the shore.

the downside of being a completely isolated location is that things cost a lot. like the tours that they run. some spectacular sounding tours to see/swim with the whale sharks, snorkel with the rays and turtles, go up the coast a bit more, etc. being the fiscally sound people that we are, we opted to rent out own snorkel gear on the first day for the bargain price of 5$ for 4 hours. the water was cold enough that you didn't stay in for more then 1 hour at a time before you got the chills, so a 4hr rental worked.

on the first day, we rented snorkel gear and walked off the beach to the reef. it was getting windy by the time we headed out (we were on vacation after all. no need to get up at the crack of dawn) so the water was a bit murkier then expected. but we still managed to see some beautifully coloured fish. we snorkelled for 1 hour or so, then headed back the beach to warm up and eat some lunch. then we hit up the reef one more time before the gear was due. a nice first day in the sun.

the next day we decided on a guided kayak tour to the outer reef. the tour ran about 2.5 hours or so and was much more reasonably priced. and well, we like to be active. we hoped onto our plastic, two-man kayak and paddled out to the mooring where we tied up the kayaks. we had wetsuits for this tour, thank goodness, as we were in the water for over 1.5 hours straight. i was still freezing in my wetsuit... the guide took us through some pretty amazing sections of the reef. we managed to see 5-6 turtles, some rays, reef sharks (and i didn't even panic...much) and loads of wonderful fish. i even attempted to dive down a bit to see the turtles close up. but i'm not the strongest diver with a snorkel in my mouth, so the pic didn't work :(

the next day we did a bit of a walk down the beach to an area where reef sharks like to hang out. the walk down there was a little challenging at times and i kept getting frustrated that we had walked so far and i couldn't see fins yet. but not to worry! just as we were thinking of turning around, we saw them. dozens of them. baby reef sharks, yes, but sharks nonetheless. we stood ankled deep in the water and there were sharks about 2 meters from us. dozens of them. 2 meters from us. john ventured a bit deeper then i did, but not much more then 1/2 the height of his shins. the thing that scared me the most, aside the dozens of sharks, is the fact that even though they were no deeper then 1m in the water, you couldn't see their fins! i have always assumed (hoped?) that if a shark came into shallow water, fins were par for the course. but no. so mental note to me: sharks can get a lot closer to you then i thought.

we spent the rest of our time doing nothing. really. we found a good spot on the beach where we were blocked from the wind, laid the towels down and relaxed. did a lot of reading, a lot of sunning (with a hat and sunblock, of course) and overall, a lot of lazing. much needed. much enjoyed. usually by 4pm we were knackered, so we'd head home, clean up and sit on the patio for the rest of the night with our books, or a drink or both. thankfully we had a kitchenette in our room, so we were able to make our own dinners and snacks. couldn't as for a better set up, really.

sunday morning we took off from the resort at 5:50am so as not to get home too late. we weren't 100% sure of the time to travel because we'd done it in chunks last time. the first few hours of driving were a bit sketchy because the kangaroos, random sheep, goats and cows like to play on the highway at dawn. handy travel tip in australia #3: kangaroos don't get scared off the road if you honk. instead, they turn right at you and jump in front of you car. (eileen, i thought you'd appreciate that we tried honking though). a farmer later told us that the 'roos get scared ONTO the highway instead of off. stupid marsupials.

we managed to avoid hitting about 5 kangaroos, schools of sheep, goats and cows and after we hit carnarvon again, it was smooth sailing. long, empty roads all the way home. we made good time, even though we took a bit of a detour when we neared perth and drove in along the coast instead of inland. we were wiped when we got in, and both had to get back to real life early the next morning but it was worth it. overall, a wonderful trip. i'd recommend coral bay and ningaloo reef to anyone looking to relax and enjoy the sun.

xo

Shark Bay

on september 2nd, john and i packed up the civic and headed up the coast for our first holiday in australia. destination: coral bay. first stop: shark bay. we stopped because we couldn't get accomodation in coral bay for the entire week. and we'd read good things about shark bay, so we thought why not. this blog is the 1st part of the trip. i'll post another about coral bay later. and i'll do a few pics on each one, but then i'll just do one post of all pics with little explanations :)

the drive to shark bay was long, and proved to be rather unexciting. australian roads leave much to the imagination and often don't really make sense. take for instance to go north from perth, you have to drive east first, then catch a north bound highway. the freeway from the city leads to nowhere (as we discovered) and you have to detour east for a bit. anyhow, we got on the proper road and drove until we reached port denison, where we stopped to have lunch. a cute little town by the sea. as it was sunday and nothing would be open anyhow, and we really just wanted to get on with the driving, we didn't stay long.

we drove through geraldton, the "big" city oustide of perth (pop. 19 000) kept on until we reached the turnoff for "Shark Bay World Heritage Area". ooooh. we were very excited. by this point we'd already been in the car about 9-10 hours and figured we were probably getting close to our destination. handy travel tip in australia #1: never trust a map or guide book with distances and times. and always check more then one source. turns out, the village we'd be staying in was about 200km from the turnoff. urgh. but we plowed through, not wanting to get stuck on the road at dusk given that animals here like to hop around the roads at that time of day. we arrived at our hostel in one piece, made dinner, played some pool and headed to bed. had to get up decently early to get to Monkey Mia and see the dolphins!

leaving the hostel at around 9am, we thought we'd given ourselves plenty of time to see the dolphins, as the books generally said they have up to 3 feedings a day with them, between 7:45am and 1pm. 9 seemed find. we arrived there and set up camp on the beach. it was nothing spectacular, but it was a beach, it was hot out and we were relaxing. i kept wondering when this horde of dolphins would turn up. yeah, well, apparently that day they did all 3 feeding before 9:30am! what a rip off! 4 dolphins did come close to shore. but all you can do is stand and look at them. can't get close, can't touch, etc. thankfully, we've seen enough dolphins in our day that we weren't too upset. an exciting aside: i got nipped by an angry little crab whom i must have stepped on whilst cooling myself off in the ocean. and, before we packed it in for the day, we did a small "hike" up a dune. that evening we enjoyed a drink whilst watching a beautiful sunset but got to bed relatively early as we were hitting the road again and didn't want to put it off for too long.

next morning we left denham (little village) and drove on to our next destination: coral bay. on our way there, we stopped at shell beach. this beach is made up entirely of shells. billions upon billions of little white shells. when it rains, something chemical happens and the shells kind of cement together over time. back in the day, they used to cut bricks out of it. many of the old buildings in the shark bay heritage area are made of shell bricks. kind of neat, really.

next stop: Stromatolites! as you all know, john and i are nerdy. we accept that. so this was a rather exciting stop on our trip. just before leaving shark bay, we stopped at hedlands pond to see the stromatolites. for those of you not in the know, stromatolites are living rocks. they are the basis of all life on earth, the first things to ever produce oxygen, etc. without stromatolites, life as we know it would not exist. and lucky for australians (and nerdy tourists) hedlands pond is one of the only (if not the only) place on earth where they can still be found, thanks in part to it's extremely saline waters and pristine conditions. so, we thought this one needed a stop!

it's pretty unexciting set up. a caravan park, a general store and an old telegraph station you can pay to get into. we just followed the little path down to the beach. there is a small boardwalk that you are asked to use so as not to disrupt the stromatolites. a little "guide" stromatolite on placards explains things as you walk around. a large variety exist. it really was quite interesting. we slowly made our way back to the car and drove off.

after leaving shark bay, we continued along the great northern highway to carnarvon. handy ravel tip in australia #2: don't be fooled by the word "great highway". i think aussies use "great" to it to trick you into thinking it's going to be a good road or something. but no. think northern ontario roads, throughout the entire state. good times.

carnarvon is a small town, pop. 6000. interesting fact though, it produces 70% of all WA's produce! we stopped into a local grower's shop and picked up some fresh stuff to eat in coral bay. and had the most delicious home made mango ice pop dipped in chocolat. mmmm. we continued along to coral bay that day, making very few stops, save the "pull-over-to-pee" and the "pull-over-to-grab-a-snack" breaks. again, we wanted to get off the roads early so as not to run into any kangaroos. and given the quantity of dead 'roos by the side of the road, it seems like a common thing to do. another interesting tidbit: nothing (and i mean NOTHING) smells quite as rotten as a decomposing 'roo in the roasting australian sun. it is rank! you could smell it for a few minutes in your car. disturbing, really.

just as we we're getting into coral bay, we did see a few wild emus crossing the highway. i'm very much intrigued by emu's, so i was quite excited. we pulled into coral bay in time to drop our stuff off, talk a short walk along the beach, have a drink on our patio and watch the sunset.

next up: coral bay.
xo