Life in the time of 'rona

Everything about this is wild, huh? I still have a room to rent, but my 1.5 jobs are both gone; all pubs/restaurants/cafes were required to close as of noon today (or swap to delivery/take out only) so Potshot is gone and EDC (the diving/sharking outfit) is losing bookings daily and, realistically, they're expecting forced closures soon, too. So I'm back to being unemployed. This is less troubling to me than it might be, but it feels like half the town (and world, for that matter) is in the same boat. What I'm dithering about now is where to ride out this storm.

It honestly didn't even occur to me til yesterday that it might make sense to go somewhere else. Home is out of the question - I'm not gonna travel around the world, picking up bugs/viruses/distress the whole way just to deposit them on my parents' doorstep where I would STILL be unemployed - but it wasn't til I was talking with Anj that I considered Perth isn't. He "I told you so"d me for leaving Perth in the first place, but then considered my circumstances out loud with me, too. After we got off the phone I talked with M&D and generally caught up but my head was still here in Exmouth.

Then I left my bedroom and found out about all the pubs closing, about the states here in Australia that are closing their borders to all but essential travel, about the possibility that all domestic travel will be locked down with road closures, about the reality that there are only two ventilators in the local hospital, and began to consider whether being in a tiny, remote town is preferable to being in a well-provisioned (ostensibly, anyway) city during a global pandemic. What's a girl to do? Go snorkeling. Duh.

Tash, Ben, Carly (my new housemate who moved in on Wednesday, is completely lovely, and is also already considering turning right around and leaving), and I went to Turquoise Bay down in the Cape Range National Park on the other side of the peninsula from here. It was so beautiful - beautiful reef right off the beach and clear, cool water - and was a real balm in our distress and uncertainty. It helped that none of us was in cell range, so we couldn't find out what the hell was happening anyway - and it seems like the whole situation changes hourly. We packed lunch and beer and stuck around til 5:30 or so, gabbing about our lives, about our travels, and about what the hell we're all gonna do. Carly and I hung out at our house and another girl from EDC, Corinne, came over to join the discussions. We left things last night feeling rather like getting out of Exmouth is a good plan... but also, who knows?

For all that the global scene right now is hectic and ever-changing as governments and institutions cobble together plans to help minimize harm and try to keep people safe, I feel less distress than I did in the first days of being up here. But I also don't have any clue what my best move is here. Stay put in the remote desert outpost of great beauty and watery natural wonders OR return to the city that's become a home and is better provisioned with people, food, petrol, and medical supplies to support a population in the midst of widespread illness. Neither feels like the right or wrong answer at this exact moment, though both options have been pulling in a tug of war in my brain all day. I hoped writing some of this down would help clarify but not sure that's worked. Thank goodness for technology that has allowed me to have these conversations with friends back home, giving me the chance to sort through my thought process. One theme from Australia that continues to repeat itself is my feeling of gratitude that the world has so many beautiful people in it who allow me to call them friends. The family doesn't get much choice, but I'd pick them, too.

Y'all, the world is a wild and wooly place and I'm so grateful for faith that leaves me feeling confident that all will work out as it should. Until I sort out my next move, I'm gonna eat some tortilla chips, finish reading a library book that's due back on Thursday, and sit here in the air conditioning feeling glad that I don't have boob sweat going on. Every day is a good day to be alive. Stay safe and healthy, peeps xx

Finding Footing

Y'all, I'm in a much better head space than last blog post. I have 1.5 jobs, I found a room to rent, I'm meeting people and making friends, and I feel like I'm settling down emotionally from the roller coaster of leaving Perth/Perth Scuba. Thank goodness.

So I had my interview last Friday at the Potshot Hotel to work in their bar and was psyched to get a job offer on the spot! Tai, my new manager, knows Wes from when he lived in Exmouth before moving down south and starting at Perth Scuba, and Wes, bless him, put in a good word for me. I owe him a carton of beer for sure. My first day will be tomorrow (Wednesday), and I'm rostered on to work 4 days this coming week! Hallelujah!

Saturday I went out with Exmouth Dive Center on a trial run day AKA the first of my in-person live action interviews. They told me I'd probably need to do 3 or 4 of those days before they would know how they wanted to roster me, so I was mentally ready for that. It was so amazing to get to dive up here. The corals were gorgeous, the boat crew was super welcoming and helpful (which they could easily not have been since there were FIVE of us who were training), and I got to spend a day out on the water with beautiful conditions. The boat crew complained that the viz wasn't great, but honestly, they're spoiled. Just like the Perth scuba divers who complain that the shore diving there isn't amazing. Spoiled, spoiled, spoiled. They don't know what Atlantic Coast diving is like!

After work, the lead dive instructor for the day mentioned he was going to the pub so, duh, me too. Over beers, I learned that he was Best Man in Wes' wedding, so we had fun swapping Wes stories and texting him photos of us having fun without him. All in all, stellar day.

I was so pumped to be asked back the next day to go out on one of the whaleshark boats with a different crew. The company is big enough that they run both kids of trips - scuba diving and whalesharking - and the set ups for the day are really quite different from a staff perspective. Another girl who trialed on Saturday, Tash, was also invited to go out, so we very quietly celebrated being chosen for a second day's work. It was both of our first times in the water with whalesharks and it. was. amazing. These GIANT gorgeous creatures just hanging out in the water eating plankton and chilling while we swam around them. They're a little skittish, I'm learning, so the operators have really strict rules about how to behave in the water. Not just no touching them, but staying 3 meters away at all times, not freediving around them, not splashing excessively - all for fear that we'll make them nervous and cause them to take a deep dive where we can't see them at all. No one likes the asshole who scares away the whaleshark before everyone gets a chance to see them, so I get the impression that's a big part of the job - keeping people from doing those things.

Anyway, Sunday was magic. Imagine my thrill, then, when I got a voicemail inviting me to go out again on Monday! Y'all, I was hyped up. I had popped an ad on a Buy/Sell page for Exmouth locals saying that I needed a room to rent and a dude replied within just a few hours inviting me to check out his place. He and his partner rent to backpackers every year, and he still had one room left. I scooted over to check it out, the guy seemed like not a serial killer, so he told me he'd let me know. I think that was code for "lemme make sure my wife doesn't think YOU are a serial killer before we offer it to you". Good news: they accepted me! So not only was I going whalesharking again, I also had a place to live that wasn't the local backpackers' hostel. So obviously Tash and I went to the local brewery to celebrate (she was going the next day too!), and I got to meet her partner, Ben. He's working doing water adventurey stuff up here - kayaking trips and the like - and possibly also bar tending. Fun people, man.

Monday was incredible, too. Whaleshark success, moved into my new room, finally felt a little settled. It was so good, y'all. I passed out at like 8:45 (again), and I'm pretty sure Glenn, the guy who owns the house, thinks I'm a weirdo for going to bed so early. But whatever, I am a weirdo.

Today, St. Paddy's Day, is a relax day. Talked with Mom and Dad this morning, went out shopping for shorts (I need a pair of black shorts for the bar work and was quasi-successful. I got some navy blue shorts that look black in the right light. So I'm going with it.), remembered to bring my takeaway cup to get a chai latte at a local cafe (which was GOLD. SO good), stopped into a surf shop to buy a bathing suit with long sleeves so that I don't get skin cancer from spending time on the water (I've been SPF 55+ every day with a hat and I'm still browning up a little quickly for my liking. So trying to slow that roll). And now back in the new house for lunch and life updates to my loyal blog crew!

Thanks to all of you who reached out with kind words after my last emo post! And sorry for making you worry. I'm holding up well :)

The coronavirus has finally taken hold of public consciousness in Perth and apparently it's been a ghost town. Here, the cruise ships that were expected to land this week aren't allowed to let passengers off board, so local businesses are hurting. We'll see what happens in the coming weeks, but remote tourist towns without tourists probably don't hang in there so well. Sending love and healthy wishes to all my peeps! xx

Musings & Feelings

I’m interrupting the tale of the Southwestern Adventure with Wiebke to do some processing of thoughts/feelings. If that sounds boring, this isn’t gonna be the blog post for you! Hold steady; the second part of that story will continue soon.

When I started working at Perth Scuba in November, my boss, Dom, pitched a plan to me. Work for PS for 6 months, get my instructor’s license, migrate north to Exmouth to work for the high season (based around whale shark migration timing), complete my 3 months of “regional work” required to renew my visa for a second year in Exmouth, and then return to Perth next summer to work for their sister company, Blue Destiny. There have been some hiccups, but I’ve been basing a lot of my long-range mental plans around that framework. Which brings us to two weeks ago. On the Southwestern Adventure, Wiebke and I did a lot of soul searching out loud together. Her hunt for farm work (her visa is slightly different than mine and she HAS to do farm work… my visa also allows me to do hospitality/tourism work to qualify for a second year) really got me thinking about prioritizing getting my regional work done so that I don’t have the same scramble she was doing. When we got back to Perth from the trip, I had decided I wanted to head up north.

There were a few reasons for that, but the most important one was that high season in Exmouth begins in April. Which means that businesses are hiring in Feb/March to fill positions for the upcoming season. If I waited much longer, I’d miss the boat on seasonal work. So when I got back to Perth, I told Dom about my plan and he wasn’t thrilled. You see, his plan called for me to stick around for another two months – to use up the full 6 month allowance my visa allows me to work for a given employer. Also, several other employees were already in the process of making plans to move up to Exmouth, so the ranks were getting thinner… I’d be much more likely to get steady hours in the last two months because there just aren’t that many folks filling shifts. Dom’s a persuasive fellow (and my friend), so I told him I’d stick around for an extra week and leave on Monday, March 9^th rather than March 2^nd. Bless him, he scheduled me for 5 shifts over the week so I could make some $$ before the move. Also possibly to prevent me having time to pack, but why quibble?

I worked my buns off last week, got the chance to say goodbye to lots of my customer pals in the shop, spent lots of time with friends doing the exact kinds of nothingness that make for comfortable, wonderful friendships, and generally avoided thinking about departure. My last day in the shop was really tough. I realized that news of my departure never quite made it to the GM of the shop (because I am an idiot and didn’t tell him myself) and jammed in a quick phone chat with him trying to talk me out of leaving. Dom and I were in the shop together Sunday and he spent the whole shift teasing me and trying to talk me into staying. A bunch of us went out for drinks after work as a farewell to Matt (one of my coworkers who’s also relocating up here) and me and I got really mopey and distant. With departure impending, I wasn’t feeling at all ready to go.

Simon, Braedon, Helaina, me and Dom on my last day! Definitely almost cried when this was happening.

I took more solace than I should have from the fact that I needed to chase down some car info before I could leave town (short version: the dealership that sold me the car in December didn’t actually have possession of the title to sell it to me, which I only discovered when I tried to update the registration. And then they proceeded to give me the run around for two weeks). I used that task + pre-departure errand running to delay by a day but over the course of all that running around (needed to buy dry goods, a vessel for storing emergency water for the drive up God forbid I should break down and get stuck in the desert for any length of time, had dinner plans with Nat and Mick, etc.) I realized that I was ready. Or ready enough. I was gonna just do it. So I did.

Left Tuesday at noon (because obviously packing didn’t get finished Monday because, hello, I’m Kate Moran) and made it to Geraldton before deciding I needed to stop for the night. Slept in my car (thanks, Grant, for my self-inflating travel mattress! It works like a charm!) at a homestead campground for, like, $10. 

Next day I touristed around Shark Bay (an emu ran across the road in front of me as I pulled off the main highway into the area, and then saw two baby sharks within 15 minutes of wandering out into the water – so cool!) and got most of the way to Carnarvon before stopping at a particularly nice rest stop to camp out with all my fellow cheapskates (honeymooners and backpackers) in their camper vans. 

First wild emu sighting!

Since Tessie and I are traveling together I figured we should take selfies together, too. She got me down to the beach with panache. 

Shark Bay

Second wild bush chook sighting! (bush chook = rural area chicken = emu)

Bricks are all made of seashells that naturally compressed at a local beach made entirely of shells!

Closeup

The aforementioned Shell Beach

Tessie

Then Thursday I was up to catch part of the sunrise and get rolling before the flies started doing their thing in earnest. 

Sunrise at the cheapskate campground

Made it north!

Ant hill? Termite mound? Unsure, but they were EVERYWHERE on the road into Exmouth.

Seriously, it looked like the poop emoji was just scattered across the landscape.

I poked my head into Coral Bay for a snorkel (reef structure just 50m off the beach!) and then had to get on to Exmouth for an interview at 2:30pm. The shop I interviewed with seems pretty cool, I have to say, and having a connection here through Wes (he and Nikki lived up here for years, so his name has opened doors for me, bless him) definitely helped. Wes also put me in touch with a manager at a local bar, so I popped in there for a cold one and a chat, so again, his named opened up a door and I’ve got that interview in a few hours. If either of these work out, I’m gonna owe Wes a carton of beer. After doing my networking for the day and booking a bed at the local hostel, I sniffed out the two micro-breweries in town (surprised?) and chatted with folks at both.

I’m not good at change. I crave stability. But I also left all the stability of home to move across the world and try new things. Got myself settled in Perth and now I’ve upended that, too. Now I’ve moved to a new town with no job, no housing, and 2,500 residents. Yesterday was really hard. I texted a couple of friends to tell them I’m worried I’ve made a mistake, but I am also trying to remind myself that patience is a virtue that I’m never gonna get a hold of if I don’t practice it. Bless them, they all encouraged me to suck it up, buttercup, and reminded me it will get better (except Wiebke, who volunteered to come and rescue me because she is a gem). Making connections with people yesterday, however tenuous, made today feel a little more secure. Chatting with people at the bars was fun and felt normal. Asking how to apply for work felt less natural but was made easier by the laid back attitudes of people here. They were gracious, though several mentioned that they’re fielding lots and lots of emails asking about jobs. I spent this morning wandering along a beach that turtles nest on, beating away the flies and hoping that I can learn to get used to them. I’m trying to remember who I am: an upbeat, happy person with resiliency and curiosity and drive. I’m trying to forget that I didn’t sleep so hot (the dorm room at this hostel was super clean, didn’t smell, had really nice girls in my room, but it was still a dorm room), so I’m a little tired and cranky, that I’m nervous so I’m probably acting weird, that I can’t believe I left a stable job with an amazing community of people down in Perth (I’m starting to sound like a broken record). But it’s hard.

These two little nudges were looking for food handouts

Tried centering myself at the beach. Jury's out whether it worked, as this emo post aptly demonstrates. 

Since I started writing this post, I got a call from the dive shop inviting me out for basically a test day tomorrow. I’ll go on the boat, get a feel for how they do things, and start getting to know the staff. It’s the real interview, I’m sure, to make sure I’m not a psychopathic serial killer. I convinced them at Perth Scuba, so I’ll just do it again here. What I need now is a hot cup of tea (and probably a nap, but that’s a little trickier, not having housing), an attitude adjustment, and to talk a guy into hiring me at his bar despite having zero experience working in food service (unless the hot dog booth at the St. Denis Fun Fair circa 2002 counts). Wish me luck!

Southwestern Roadtrip Round 2

Y'all, one trip down south with Wiebke just wasn't enough, so last weekend we did another one. (Can I just reiterate, so that there's zero confusion, that I am SO HAPPY/LUCKY/GRATEFUL/PUMPED that I have made two lady friends here like Wiebke and Nat. The happiest/luckiest/gratefulest/pumpedest!)

After Road Trip One, Wiebke and I were pretty on the same page about travel style. But this one it felt like we spent the whole trip high fiving each other to celebrate one of us saying the exact thing that was in the other's brain. ie: "girl, screw coffee - let's just stay at the beach all morning" ie: "yo, man; screw the beach - I need some caffeine" ie: "caves are cool and all, but I'd rather pet sting rays at the beach". etc. Synchronous traveling for the win!

So anyway, we rolled out of town on Thursday morning with a plan to take in some more southwest coast and also to look for farm work for Wiebke so she can extend her visa for a second year. For all sorts of reasons that ended up being a cluster, but it didn't stop us from doing all sorts of cool shit (*stuff, sorry Mom!). One of Wiebke's friends from a crappy backpacker job she had doing door-to-door sales needed a ride down south, so we collected Leah from Fremantle Thursday morning before heading out of town. She's a sweet girl here on the same visa as us, but girlfriend is doing it at 18. So brave! We agreed that neither of us had our acts together enough circa 2008 to be able to move across the world and just do this visa thing. So anyway, Leah came along for the ride and we spent Thursday scooting around Margaret River connecting with various vineyard staffing companies in hopes of finding the girls some work. Not a whole lotta luck, but we wrapped things up in time for happy hour, enjoyed our babe of a waiter at dinner (Boris the Argentinean surfer bro), and took in some open mic music at the local tavern. All in a day's work.

Margaret River street art

I've been eating all the figs off the tree at home (and feeling slightly guilty about it) and this William Carlos Williams poem pops into my head whenever I eat them. And then it was written on a chalkboard outside of a book shop in Margaret River! Sometimes I think the universe is actually speaking directly to me. 

Next morning, Wiebke and I carried on and Leah stayed behind to keep looking for work. We meandered down the coast to Augusta on the southern tip of the peninsula that Margaret River is on and scoped out the Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse, walked along some stretches of the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen, and promised each other that if she works out this second year visa, we're going to walk the Cape to Cape track so we can take in ALL of the coastal beauty.

Art at Surfer's Beach near MR. Not gonna lie, I thought this was an actual person with INCREDIBLE posture for a solid 10 minutes while I was sitting at a nearby tide pool contemplating the crabs. 

Augusta beaches

Near the Cape to Cape track, but not actually part of it. 

Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse

Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse

Beach at the start of the Cape to Cape. Unreal beauty. 

After Augusta, we popped back north a teensy bit to check out Hamelin Bay. We figured we'd continue east, and the highway in that direction begins just outside Hamelin Bay so it made sense. Obviously we ended up going back and spending the night in Augusta instead, because why would we do things the simple way? But I digress.

Hamelin Bay is a nature reserve and beach where various species of rays nest and happily live without fear of fishing. We passed Jewel Cave on the way (one of those moments where our brains were in sync - caves are cool, stingrays are cooler), but found the beach with no problems. So I had seen photos of people just chilling with their footsies in the shallows with sting rays and eagle rays and obviously wanted to scope out whether that was a real thing. Y'all, it is SO REAL!

NB: I realize that these photos don't look like rays, they look like black blobs in the water. But some of these little critters had bigger wingspans than me, easily, and just cruised along trying to figure out if we were humans who wanted to feed them.

Lesson: rays are cool, and given the chance to pet them in some beautiful shallow waters along the beach, do it. But don't swim over them like Steve Irwin did and get killed in a freak accident.

We spent the night in Augusta and watched the sunset from, and did an early swim in, Flinders Bay. Y'all, what a gorgeous spot. I felt like I was inside my guilty pleasure movie (Adore, with Robin Wright and Naomi Watts; don't judge) because there was a cool swimming platform to bask upon.

Picnic dinner at Flinders Bay

There were lots of cute retirees who do the early morning bay swim who all wanted to chat with Wiebke and me about our travels, and to help connect us with farmers for her farm work, and who reminded us several times not to tell too many people about how gorgeous Augusta is because it will soon be overrun. I mean, they're not wrong.

We did a quick nip into the Ragged Robin cafe for tea/coffee and then began migrating eastward to Pemberton. Let me tell you, Pemberton is not cute when compared to Augusta or Margaret River or pretty much any of the coastal towns we visited. It's an old mill town, so there's these beautiful wooden clapboard homes everywhere, and the rain line cuts right through the middle of things, but it was seriously like being in a zombie movie. On a Saturday afternoon I expected people to be wandering around, but we only saw folks in the town bakery (where we tried award winning vegan pies) and in the tourist center. I did not want Wiebke to find farm work there, but we looked anyway. Fortunately (in my mind), we were unsuccessful. But successful in finding pies!

The strawberry flan was bomb

I'm out of steam so we're gonna make this a two-parter. Part one: complete!