got crabs?

The crab races were a ton of fun.
The deal is, you buy raffle tickets before each race, 3 for $5. If your ticket gets drawn, you get to go up and pick a crab. Eight crabs per race. If your crab wins, you win a percentage of the pot, and second place gets a smaller amount. The first race, I had no crabs. The second race, I had a crab. I cheered on that little bugger with all my heart, but he couldn't pull it off. I suspect some of the other crabs were using steroids. In the third race, I totally fluked out, and had 2 crabs in the race, a quarter of all the crabs in the race. Still, the crabs I had chosen let me down. It was all in good fun though. Fred won the second race and took home $80.

I tried numerous times to upload a video of the races, but it doesn't seem to be working.

It's way too hot here. It's a terrible thing to say, but I can't function when the sun is out. If your able to sleep past 8:30am, your very lucky. Lots of lounging in the shade.

Yesterday, Stef sold our van. But it's a good thing. We are ready to go our separate ways. Fabian found a ride to Darwin leaving tomorrow, Stef is going to hitchhike, Romain has a trial shift at a restaurant today, and me, well, I think I'll hang out until after the weekend, then try to find a ride.


"hey crabman!" "hey earl."

getting warmer.

Day 5 cont'd.

We met a group of 3 French guys in the parking lot at Woolworths, and invited them to come camping with us on the way to Coral Bay. We drove to a place we had heard about near the 'blowholes'. It was a great spot, right on the ocean. The French guys had an acoustic guitar and a full size keyboard as well, so we had a big jam session at night. It was pretty gnarly.
Day 6.

In the morning, we drove to see the blowholes, they were definitely pretty cool. The water gets pushed under the rocks and forced through holes that come though the ground, which in turn, shoots the water into the air.We drove to Coral Bay afterward, but when we arrived it was dark, so we just snuck into a campsite and went to sleep.

Day 7.

We hung out at Coral Bay all day. After snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef while I was in Cairns, Coral Bay didn't even phase me. It looked dead, and no where near as many fish and colours.

In the afternoon, we drove to Exmouth, and snuck into yet another campsite.

Day 8.

We spent the day at Turquoise Bay, in the Ningaloo National Park. The water was so beautiful. It was so clear. The coral here was much better than in Coral Bay. More fish and colours. When darkness came, we drove just outside the park and camped in a parking lot right near the beach.

Day 9.

In the morning we checked out the view from the lighthouse. We could see whales out in the water off the coast. Afterward, we went to the Mundu Mundu Gorge. We hiked around the trail, and saw some pretty nice scenery. We headed back to Turquoise Bay to cool off in the water. That night we spent at a truck stop just outside of Exmouth.

Day 10.

We drove all day to the Kirijini National Park. Camped in a no camping zone for free, keeping our clear record of not paying for accommodation.

Day 11.

We checked out some gorges, and then went to the Fern Pool. It was like something out of a movie. In the middle of the forest, a fresh water pool, with waterfalls spilling warm water into it. Absolutely beautiful. After lunch, I finished the book I was reading. "The Dirt" by Motley Crue. We attempted to drive to see some more gorges, but then we ran into our first episode of car trouble. Flat tire. All was well though, we changed it and decided to go back and not risk another flat until we had a new spare. We spent the night at the same spot we had the previous night.

Day 12.

After seeing enough gorges the previous few days, I decided to kick it in the van and begin my next book. "Into the Wild". If you still haven't seen the movie yet, I urge you to rent it. After a long period of time, and fuzzy eyes, I finished the whole book in one day. What an accomplishment. At about 5:30pm, we began our trek to Broome. As darkness arrived, we drove into a rest stop, which had a very nice campsite. We joined a fire with some senior aussie couples, and just hung out.

Day 13.

We were on the road at 6:30am, in hopes of making it to Broome so we could hit the town on a Saturday night. 12 hours later we pulled in. During the drive, I read 'The Alchemist'. That's 2 full books in 2 days. What a loser. We found a nice campsite and like always, snuck in. Our neighbours name was Fred. He's 62 years young. He was up on a solo fishing trip. We invited him out with us, and he kept up with us every step of the way.Day 14.

I woke up hungover, in a very hot tent. Tonight we are going with Fred to watch the 'Crab Races'. Yes, people will be betting on racing crabs.if you think you're cooler than me, you're wrong.

mumma mia

Day 4 cont'd.

We didn't make it all the way to Monkey Mia, but we did well. We spent the night behind the overlander truck stop, in a empty lot we heard about from someone at a previous stop. That morning when we went to the truck stop we discovered something in the washroom. A shower. We all had our first shower of the trip. Very nice.Our first stop of the day was to go see the Stromatolites. They were the first living organisms on earth, it was pretty interesting. But I don't want to bore you.

The next stop was shell beach. The whole beach, which was huge, was made of small shells rather than sand. Probably how it received it's name. We hung out in the sun there and ate some lunch.

The next stop on the trek was at the Francois Peron National Park. We had heard that they had some sort of hot tub there... Well, there was a hot tub, not really what I expected. I wanted to see something more along the lines of hot springs or something. It was just a regular hot tub, a bit bigger than most. I decided that before I got in, I would go for a run. I ran hard, and did some pushups and situps on the way. Afterwards, I soaked in the tub, and get this, had my SECOND shower of the day.

Once we dried off we toured around the park. It used to be an old sheep shearing farm. They still had all the buildings, machines, and other devices around. We took some cool pictures around it as the sun set, then made dinner.When we finished dinner it was pitch black. We decided we would find a place to sleep closer to Monkey Mia. After a few failed attempts, we found a place on a dirt road that turned off from the highway. It was pretty frightening. No one wanted to sleep in the tent, but me and Romain lost, and had to suck it up.

Day 5.
We got up at 6:30am, and headed to Monkey Mia as quick as possible. We got there before the gate opened, so we avoided yet another fee. It was absolutely amazing. The dolphins were so close to the beach I could have jumped on them if I wanted to. There were about a dozen or so. They hung out for about 30min before they were fed, and once fed, like a teenager at the dinner table, they took off back into the ocean.

Once we left Monkey Mia, we took a pit stop at Eagle Bluffs. A view of the ocean from above. In the summer you can see the sharks, rays, and turtles, but we're in the wrong season.From there, drove to Carnarvon, where we are now. We went to Woolworths to get more food. I just consumed the ultimate backpacker meal. I bought some clearance packaged chicken for $1.99, and 2 clearance yogurts at 0.80 a piece. So for lunch I had chicken and yogurt.

Our next stop is Coral Bay, but we won't be reaching there until tomorrow.shear this.

Day 3 - 1:30pm.

Day 1.

We got off to a bit of a slow start.

We met at the train station at 2:30pm. I met my fellow travellers, Romain from France, Fabian from Belgium, and Stef from Germany. We got on the train and headed for South Perth where the van was. To make a long story short, there was a lot of walking involved, and we all had very heavy packs. We almost lost Fabian. When I saw the van, I started laughing. It's 27 years old, and pink.

When we were ready to go, we took off heading North, and stopped outside Perth to stock up on a few days worth of food and supplies. Afterwards, we just tried to get as far as we could before it was to dark to drive. Nightfall came pretty quickly, and since we barely got any driving done, we only made it to Walyunga National Park.

We were looking for a place to sleep, but the park was closed. The only thing around was a few farms. Well, why don't we just ask them if we can stay in their yard? That's what we did. We slept in the front yard of a cattle farm. There's room for 2 in the van, and 2 in the tent. Since it's Stef's van, she already claims one of the spots. Me and the other 2 played odds and evens to get the other spot. Romain won. The tent was less than 6' at the longest point which made sleeping difficult, and since it's winter, it was also freezing.

Day 2.

In the morning we went for a run, packed up, and continued along the way.

Next stop : Pinnacles.

It was amazing. It was something off of National Geographic. A desert, filled with vertical lime stones sticking out of the sand. We drove around the 4km route which goes through the middle, and took lots of pictures. We got back in the van, and decided we would stay in Jurien Bay. We drove awhile longer, and got there just before it was pitch black. We asked at a gas station where we could find free camping and were directed just outside of Jurien Bay, but they weren't sure if we could get in. We drove down this dark dirt road for about 30min before we saw lights coming from a camped trailer. We drove in and discovered that it was a campsite that charged for nights. We drove in anyway and set up. No one came for money. On this night, I was lucky. I won the spot in the van.

Day 3.

This morning we packed up our stuff once more and hit the road again. We just arrived in Geraldton to stock up on food, and take a little break. Once we are ready to go, we are going to get to close as Monkey Mia as possible before dark.

i'd like to see tiger avoid that one.

today is the day

Last night I hugged a lot of people.

It was a lot like when I left Port Moody. Perth is home.

Today a new adventure begins, and I'm ready for it.

I have to say goodbye to some amazing people.

On Friday, Brendan otherwise known as "Ralphsie" took me up to King's Park. We took some photos of the view and walked around. The important part of this story is not King's Park though, it's Brendan. Trying to describe him to someone that hasn't met him won't really cut it. He is one of the nicest guys I've ever met. He's 34, from New Zealand, and has been staying at the Barracks almost as long as me. I can't really think of the right words to describe him so I'll leave it at that.

Last night, we had a bit of a gift exchange. Brendan and Nic chipped in and got me one of the best presents of all time. A picture of Brendan himself, framed and all. I took it out with me last night. Then it was my turn to do the giving. Nic has been eyeing my Molson Canadian shirt for quite some time now, so I figured it had to be done. Just a warning, if your not a fan of curse words, this may not be the video for you.

After the Barracks bar shut at 10pm, we all rolled down to the Shed. I got to say goodbye to everyone again. It was pretty sweet because I saw lots of people who I wanted to say bye to aswell. The Shed regulars, Wednesday night folk, and others I've met around the city.

Thankfully, Nic's at work right now, so when I leave, we won't have to do that awkward emotional goodbye.

yeesh.

counting down

Without a job, Perth is pretty boring.

So boring that I was forced into an 8 night binge drinking streak which I finally put to an end on Monday. I went out for drinks last night(Tuesday), as sort of a casual "Going Away Party", but I managed to take it easy and spent little money. Tonight will be the big one with all my Wednesday Night Party Friends.

Since I'm leaving Monday, I started tieing up loose ends early so I'm not too busy at the end. Yesterday, I started a filling another box of stuff to send home, and getting rid of all the junk in my locker that I won't be needing anymore. Today, I'm burning my pictures to cd's so I will have tons of space on my memory cards to take pictures. After this, I'll be heading to the store to buy some supplies I will need for the trip. Bug spray, body wash, Q-tips, and sunscreen. I haven't needed sunscreen in months, but pretty soon I'll be back in the heat, and I'm looking forward to it.

Stef found a French guy that is travelling with an acoustic bass guitar to join us on the road trip. He came by my hostel with her on Sunday to watch me play. He seems like a pretty cool guy, and I'm sure we will have some good jams along the way.

Drew Dow is taking Saturday night off work so we can have one more night out. The forecast is calling for a bloodbath. From what our plans look like at the moment (which always seem to change), we won't be seeing each other again until December, when we reconvene in Sydney.one more time.