A Hectic Time
Trip Start
Jun 09, 2003
1
146
169
Trip End
Jun 02, 2007
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Kalbarri, Australia
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
I had to work at New Year which was good and bad. Good 'cos I wasn't spending money and making a fool of myself, but bad 'cos everyone on the other side of the bar seemed to be having a ball. That said we had a pretty good time behind the bar!
The population of Kalbarri went from the usual 2000 to around 8000 for New Year, the bar had a late licence until 2am so you can imagine how busy we were, we didn't stop at all, all night. After we finally got everyone out of the pub we had a few drinks and then I headed out to Pot Alley to watch the sun rise on 2006. A couple of days later a few of us went for dinner at Findlay's, a fantastic outdoor restaurant. Back to the pub and I got up to dance on the bar! Well they were playing YMCA and I've always wanted to dance on a bar!!
My last week in Kalbarri was fairly packed with activities. Some of the yardies from the pub took 6 of us barmaids cray fishing. After getting up at 5am, we had to cross over the Murchison river on a makeshift boat, carrying us and 4 quad bikes. Once over the river we drove the quad bikes up the beach stopping every now and again to check the cray pots. It was beautiful with the sun just rising up over the sand dunes behind us, the surf crashing up on the beach and birds flying alongside us. I had a go at surf fishing but didn't manage to catch anything. Also went for a snorkel in the ocean, cold but refreshing. After racing up the beach for a few kilometres we headed back into town and enjoyed fresh cooked crayfish for lunch. On Thursday afternoon, Sylvie, Jan and I went horse riding. My horse, Jessie was very slow and always at the back. We had to cross over the river on horse back and ended up completely soaked. Jan really enjoyed herself but Sylvie and I decided we weren't really big horsey fans! (Ailsa, if you're reading this and looking for a change of career, the guy who owns the ranch is thinking of leaving and is looking for someone to take over running the place, complete with 46 horses and guest accommodation!!). Feeling rather sore after horse riding it was straight back to the pub where we all jumped straight in the swimming pool with all our clothes on, we were so hot. A quick shower and it was straight back to work, pouring beers for all the folk we'd been trekking with.
I finished up working in the bar on Sunday afternoon. Sunday night a few of us went round to Dino's house and sat in his shed, playing pool and chatting. Dino cooked us an amazing meal of Emperor Wings. Most of the time fish wings are thrown away but apparently they are the best part of the fish. I couldn't agree more and we were all in agreement that it was quite possibly the best fish we'd ever had! Yum!
On Monday Sylvie and I went quad biking again with Colin and Dino from the pub, along with Colin's wife, daughter and friend. We rode 45km out to Lucky Bay over dirt tracks. I rode with Dino in his lada which was quite an experience, he just drove straight through the bush, not minding any bushes or trees in our way. We also narrowly missed dozens of kangaroos that bounced right across the track in front of us. Lucky Bay was beautiful, accessible only by 4-wheel drive. Sylvie and I had fun riding the quad bikes around, before Sylvie jumped in the lada and I got on the back of a bike. We stopped along the beach where Rachel, Christie and I had fun avoiding the huge waves crashing up onto the beach.
Monday night we had a few drinks in the pub and said farewell to all our friends. It was quite sad to say farewell but I'm ready to move on again.
I'm now back in Perth with Sylvie, Toni and my mum. We're spending a few days here before heading south for a few days.
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