Day 181 (Sunday 13th) - Esperance
This morning we were given the option of going to see sunrise somewhere lovely (I forget where), which none of us chose to do, probably to Rick's relief. We were allowed a lie-in today, as we didn't have to leave until 0730. We headed straight to Frenchman's Peak, a rock formation that allegedly looks like a Beret (none of us could see it though), for a climb to the top. This was pretty hard in our tired and marginally hungover states, but was entirely worth it for the views. You can see for miles in all directions, as this area of SW Australia is pretty flat, with the exception of the occasional granite monolith left over from when Australia and Antarctica were joined. After plenty of dicking about with photos at the top, we headed to Hellfire Bay, supposedly one of the nicest beaches in Australia. I feel it is worthy of this title - the sand was bizarre, the colour and consistency of sugar, and it squeaked loudly as you walked over it. Apparently the sand here is pure quartz crystal, and it's stunningly pristine. The water is incredibly clear as well, the only downside is that this being the Southern Ocean, it's a little chilly. We swam about, made a sandsofa and buried Jess, and generally cavorted until Rick called us over for a BBQ. Even here they have the free electric/gas BBQs I have seen all around Australia. Such a genius idea, and one that wouldn't work at home - I don't think a free BBQ in a park would survive for long, especially not as you have to clean it yourself. Walter and I went and ate on the rocks with Jess and Emma and had a good talk about life in Austria, before trying out my theory that one of the plates would work fine as a Frisbee. It did, sort of, although due to its sharp edges and lack of give, catching it proved rather painful after a short while.
We continued on to two more amazing beaches, although only for a quick photo stop as we had been messing around for too long at Hellfire Bay, then we went to Observation Beach for swimming & sunset. We buried ourselves up to the knees in the sand and did what I can only describe as "the Matrix knee thing" (see the photos), and then attempted some bodysurfing. Only Sam got the hang of it, and his beaming face was all that could be seen rapidly approaching amid huge amounts of white water, apart from the flailing limbs of the rest of us. Sunset was pretty much perfect, on a perfect sunny beach with a load of good mates. Back at the hostel we had an incredibly large and delicious dinner of chicken teriyaki stir-fry, cooked on the BBQ by myself and the Korean, Thai and Japanese girls, all of whom had their own tips on how to make it perfect, which it was. Everyone was pretty knackered after all the swimming and last night's shenanigans, so in the end it was only H, Sam, myself and Jeroen sitting up and chatting about national service over a few beers. Apparently H was an ordnance disposal expert in the Norwegian army, and told us various stories of stolen explosives and misappropriated supplies, as well as probably breaching quite a few Norwegian Intelligence laws, whereas Sam was a truck driver in the Swiss army, and regaled us with tales of trucks full of grenades crashing in small towns, minor embezzlement and huge bunkers inside hollowed-out mountains, all over Switzerland. Apparently the same is true in Norway, there are enormous shelters capable of holding the entire population if needs be, hidden all over the country.
Day 182 (Monday 14th) - Esperance-Perth
Today promised to be the longest day of driving yet. We were up at 5ish to leave at 6, and Rick had run out of petty cash so I had to pay the A$250 I owed for changing trips to him in cash at a servo. We drove for 4 hours to Wave Rock (I managed to swap seats with Emma, so I was no longer in the backbreakingly upright chair). Wave rock was cool, it's a 15m high curved rock, which is apparently the same size as the biggest wave ridden last year in Western Australia, which is pretty incredible. We ran up it for a bit, struck our best surf poses and then were off on the 5 1/2 hour drive back to Perth. Most of this was taken up with Emma, Rick and I (and anyone else who would listen) discussing such high-brow topics as "If you had to shag an animal, which one would it be?" and "at what point would you rather shag a guy than a girl, i.e girl with no arms or guy?" etc. Classy. On this leg we also learnt that Megumi is a trained Masseuse, so she was swiftly brought up to the front of the bus to provide shoulder massages for all the clamouring guys. Rick was the only one who deserved one, and also the only one not to receive one. We spent a large amount of the trip ensuring that as many of us as possible could come for one last night out, at The Deen on Aberdeen Street, where I spent last Monday night. Rick said he couldn't make it, and for good reason, so we made tentative plans for a BBQ in King's Park at 4 on Tuesday as well.
I met H at The Deen at around half 8, and after a short while everyone else turned up - I was surprised that so many did, we had everyone on the trip apart from Walter (who lives way out of town) and the French guys. Much drinking and dancing occurred, although at one point I suddenly had a massive wave of general downness wash over me, so strongly that I had to mumble some excuses and go and stand outside on my own for a bit until I felt better - probably just lack of sleep, beer on an emptyish stomach and everything getting on top of me for a few moments. It soon passed though, and I went back to the dancefloor and ended up somehow dancing with Megami, the prettiest of the Japanese girls, who entirely lost her quiet exterior. I enjoyed dancing with her so much that I became angry when a mate of Jeroen's came up and butted in, which surprised me somewhat. Jess was dancing as only the Peruvian-Swedish can (make of that what you will), and Emma was getting drunk as only Sheffield women can. She came up to me and said "tell me if I'm wrong, but do you fancy the arse off of Jessica?" which flustered me a bit, as I was not entirely confident that I didn't, but then she went off and snogged a guy from Derbyshire, which made me doubt her powers of judgement and insight, so I relaxed again. Despite all of us being knackered after the past few days we managed to stay until 2, when we all went our separate ways and drunkenly promised to meet up again tomorrow for the BBQ.
Day 183 (Tuesday 15th) - Glumness, Coincidence, BBQ & Goodbye WA
Eugh, one of the downsides of travelling, as well as one of the upsides, is the transient nature of it all - I am sitting here with butterflies in my stomach at the idea that I will probably never see Jessica, Emma, Walter, Sam, Jerome, Megami and H again after this afternoon - if any of them turn up and we can get something organised. I don't know how people can handle doing tour after tour, this one 5-dayer is breaking my heart, and making me feel terribly odd.
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Soon after I wrote that, who should I get a call from but Jeroen, telling me to meet him at the Woolworths in the city at 4, to buy BBQ supplies. I told H and Sam, who promised to tell anyone else they could. Shortly after this, Walter and Emma happened to wander into my hostel, looking for a bed for the night - fortuitously, as I had neither of their numbers. They are going to buy a car together and drive at least to Darwin, if not all the way round to Melbourne, an incredible trip of at least 12000 km. I am very jealous indeed. We all headed into the city and eventually found our meeting point, and before too long Sam, Jeroen, H, Mickael & Nicolas all turned up, so we grabbed an insane amount of meat and some beers and got the bus to King's Park. We had yet to hear anything from Rick, and none of us had his number, so we assumed that he wasn't going to make it. It transpired that none of us knew where there were BBQs in King's Park, but this being Australia we found one not more than 200 metres from the bus stop. Once we started cooking Jessica suddenly appeared out of nowhere - it was 5 pm by now and she had been looking for us for a little while. A few moments later, Rick & his girlfriend Louise turned up as well, admonishing Walter for having a crap phone! This was a pretty good turnout, 10 out of the potential 14 we could have expected. We had an awesome meal and chat, I was really surprised & pleased that Rick came, we obviously made a good impression on him. There were Kookaburras about, eating out of Jeroen's hand, we missed sunset because we were chatting, but it didn't matter. When we started to get mobbed by mozzies we moved down to the lookout point, where we were joined by Megumi and Myo as well! Sukiko and Rita were working and so couldn't make it, which seems like a reasonable excuse. Having gazed out over the city for a while, we wandered back into town and said our gradual goodbyes as we reached everyone's hostels/bus stops. By the end it was just me and Emma, standing outside our Hostel waiting for my bus to the airport. A fond farewell was said, and I left with a sense of regret, although within a few days everyone else would have gone their separate ways, so staying longer would not really have achieved anything.
The journey to the airport was ridiculous, Darren the driver was only on his second shift, and as such had no idea where he was going - all the passengers chipped in with directions at least once, as we went round and round central Perth. Check-in completed, I sat and read, struggling to remain conscious - when I got on the plane I was asleep before takeoff, and was only alerted to the fact that we were moving by the fact that the guy next to me was reclining and had his tray table down.
Day 184 (Wednesday 16th) - Arrival in Sydney
I was served an incongruous chicken curry at about 3 am, and arrived into Sydney at about half 6. I rushed to the Cityrail and arrived at North Sydney station about 5 minutes before Emily did, on her way to Uni. Sam let me into their (rather lovely) apartment, then left for work, instructing me to make myself at home. I promptly fell asleep on a beanbag until about 1 pm, since when I have been putting up photos and writing this. Tomorrow Em only has lectures 3-7 (she is at Uni & work from 9am - 10pm today, mental!), so we can spend the day together. Also, I have a ticket for DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist at Luna Park next weekend, as does Rob - should be awesome. Sydney's 10 degrees colder and all the girls are wearing way more than out west - I may have made an error...
Also, I would like to note that today I have been away for longer than my last trip (183 days), but it doesn't feel like anywhere near as long, it feels as if I have only just started...
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