Perth
Trip Start
Feb 25, 2005
1
10
Trip End
Ongoing
Perth, Australia
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
As soon as I got my bag back we decided to take a tour to the South West of the region and went to lots of wineries and an ice cream factory. It was absolutely freezing though and we had left all our jumpers at the hostel in Perth as we didn't want to carry our big backpacks.
Lynn left for Adelaide so I spent a few days in Perth but, the weather was cold and rainy so I decided to head up to Broome. I booked a tour with the Easy Rider bus or Sleazy Rider as it is commonly referred to. The tour took 7 days and we stopped at the Pinnacles in Namburg National Park, saw the Stramatolites which are some kind of algae and dolphins at Monkey Mia. We had a good night out in Exmouth and all went to a nightclub called Bimbos. As we left at 2am we all decided that Jen should go and wake up our trainee tour guide. Our other tour guide thought it was a great idea and let her into their room. Unfortunately he had fallen asleep on the bed with no clothes on so she came running out screaming! In the mean time me and Faye, stole 2 of their tour guide t-shirt, with Easy Rider Crew on the back, and decided to wear them on the bus the next morning. All the new people on the bus thought we were tour guides, especially when I sat in the drivers seat.
We went to Karijini National Park and went for a hike in Dales Gorge. There were lots of water holes to go swimming in. The first one was really cold water so only Dirk, this German guy went in. As we decided to leave and carry on the walk we realised he wasn't with us. We all waited and he came round the corner wearing just his speedos, hiking boots and rucksack on his back! He did the rest of the hike wearing his speedos which was not good as we had to climb up rocks. I took a picture because it was so funny.
We finally arrived in Broome after 7 days, so I started job hunting with Faye from the tour. We landed jobs at the Roebuck Hotel or Roey as it's know by the locals. They have 3 bars there, one is more of a night club, one is like a pub bar and the other is a sports bar where all the drunk locals drink. They don't seems to mind that there are cockroaches running round the floor or that it smells of sick in there. We lasted 2 weeks and then decided we hated it! It was really long hours from 7pm - 3am most nights. All the locals were hard to understand, as for some reason most of them have at least half of their front teeth missing. They also get really drunk and end up fighting. I had my last shift on Saturday. To make the night go faster me and Lauren decided we should get drunk behind the bar - a sackable offence but, I was leaving anyway. We started with vodka thinking they wouldn't smell it but ended up making tequila sunrises. No one even noticed and the night went so much quicker.
We then lined up jobs on a pearling boat as it was really good money and you get to spend 10 days at sea. We had no idea what the job was but you had to wear wellies and take old clothes. Unfortunately they have put the job back 2 weeks and as we don't want to hang around Broome any longer we are planning to move onto Darwin and look for jobs there.
Since we are leaving Broome soon we decided to do all the touristy things and took a camel ride along Cable Beach. Me and Faye were told to wait by the front camel, as they loaded the train of camels from back to front and all stand up in turn. As they got to us the guy said you have to be quick because once all the other camels are standing up your camel will want to go and if you fall off he will sit on you and squash you! So Faye got on, then I got one leg in the stirrup, when the camel started standing up and lurching all over the place. I was hanging on to the saddle, but as they were trying to stop the camel I was being thrown around. I lost my footing in the stirrup so ended up hanging onto the saddle Indiana Jones style. Lots of random people on the beach started taking my photo while I was trying not to fall off. In the end I decided to jump off as far away from the camel as I could so I wouldnt get squashed or kicked as they can apparently kick out sideways too! As I jumped off the woman leading the train said what did you get off for!? Anyway I managed to get back on but now have huge bruises on my leg. The couple on the camel behind said they were very impressed that I managed to stay on.
So that's about all I have been up to. We are leaving Broome on saturday hopefully and should get to Darwin in 4 days.
Let me know any news from home.
Claire
