Sharking in Exy

Aussies love to abbreviate words. Any words, but especially places. Fremantle is Freo, Brisbane is Brizzy, Tasmania is Tassie, Exmouth is Exy. The list goes on. I have fully settled into daily life here, which is a little crazy. I arrived on the 23rd of June, it's the morning of July 24th here (still 23rd at home!) and I feel at least a little more sure of what I'm doing these days. When I got to town, my friend Corinne and I were looking for an apartment together. That officially fell through and since town is basically booked out for the next few months with Western Australians who are happy to spend their days in 80 degree heat up here instead of the 40s down in Perth, it's not looking like we'll find something else anytime soon. Since I have several co-workers who are still living in campgrounds or sleeping on couches, I'm reaaaaally glad to be living with Sandra and David.

Dave's dad, Rob, came home from work a bit early one day last week when I was making dinner so I fed him. We had a lovely chat about my eating habits (mostly vegetarian but definitely still eat meat when it's served to me) and I've since come home to hot dinner, courtesy of Rob and his mad skills, two nights this week. He made lasagna one night and made two pans of it so that mine could be meat-free. Seriously, what a sweetheart. All three of my housemates are wonderful humans and really good housemates, so I'm very glad to be here. Only more glad when I think of the campgrounds I could be living at instead!

I'm still bar tending 6 days a week, and I've settled into a routine of working on the whaleshark boats on Sundays. I go sharking in the morning, scramble around to get that job finished and be at the Potshot in usually less than 20 minutes in time for my dinner-to-close shift. It makes for a very long day, but having a short gap between the two jobs actually makes it easier, I think, because my body just remains in go-go-go mode instead of having a chance to rest and actually FEEL tired. It means that church hasn't happened in a long time (there's one mass per weekend here because there's only one priest in the whole region of several hundred square miles and it rotates between Sat night and Sun morning), but I figure spending the morning in God's creation will tide me over until that's an option on the table again. I had Thursday off from Potshot because of a training I had to do for the dive shop, so I also went out yesterday! Such a gorgeous day. Swam with two different sharks, watched humpback whales playing (including a mama teaching her calf how to breach - jump out of the water and splash - for a good 15 minutes. Incredible!), didn't get sunburnt. Good good day.

One of the perks of my dive shop is that they send along a professional photographer on every trip so that people can pay attention to swimming with the sharks instead of trying to figure out how to take underwater photos with them and missing moments. We include the photos in the cost of the day, and I snagged some photos that my co-worker friend Sara Barbieri took. Which is super convenient because my photos wouldn't hold a candle to these. So these are the critters I'm getting paid to take people swimming with!!!

Whale shark

Most of the sharks we swim with are juveniles... this one was only about 5 meters long

Each shark has unique spot patterns that researchers use to track their movements - there's still SO much we don't know about them

My first day swimming with manta rays and I got to swim with TWO!

See the sea turtle swimming just above the manta??!

It's magical up here, y'all.

Today is Friday so it'll be a long one. I've got a lunch/dinner split shift at Potshot, and Friday nights are always hectic. Same for tomorrow. And then Sunday, back out on the water with these beauties!!!

Free Wifi

I wasn't sure how to get started this morning but knew I had to: I talked to Mom Mom last week while she was staying at my parents' house for a few days and she encouraged me to blog again... so I knew I needed to blog again. I'm still at Sandra and David's house, my co-workers, but they don't have wifi! They just have big data plans on their cell phones and use that connection to power their various internet wanderings. I, too, have a large data plan (data is SO MUCH CHEAPER in Australia than in the US), but I'm also cheap and would prefer to use free data over not free data. So I find myself sitting back at the Ningaloo Visitor's Center, tapping away this post.

It's another beautiful day in paradise (but actually - 75 degrees, not a cloud in sight, cool breeze) and my bike ride to the Visitor's Center with a mug of tea in hand went surprisingly well. It's only been a bit over a week of using my bike every day to get around town, but my single-hand riding skills are definitely not apparent yet. I spilled tea the whole way here. But I made it! And MOST of the tea is still inside its vessel! So I'm chalking it up as a win.

Things in town are getting busy, so work is getting busy. I'm on duty at the Potshot for 6 days, 5 of which are split shifts - so I work both lunch and dinner shift with a 2-3 hour break in between, depending on how busy things are. I got a text from the Dive shop earlier in the week wanting to know if I can go out on the whaleshark boat EVERY DAY next week, so sounds like they're busying up, too. I told that boss that I'm happy to help out when the bar work schedule allows for it, so as of now I'm scheduled to have off from both jobs tomorrow (July 4th) and then work both jobs on Sunday. I did that last Sunday and it went shockingly well. Start at the dive shop is 6:45am, I finished up around 3:40pm, raced home on my bike (no tea in hand that day) for a shower and a change of clothes, and was at the bar for a 4pm start. It was hectic, and a long day - I stayed at the bar til close that night - but pretty amazing to spend the day helping people to swim with the largest fish in the sea and then head straight into work flirting with old men at the bar. Ideal.

I think I mentioned that Sandra and David have dogs, but I'm not sure I mentioned what snuggly little cuddle bugs they are or showed you photos:

Mako

Tia

Maddy

All of my clothes are slowly getting dog hair infested because all three love to climb up in your lap at the end of the day. Especially because the evenings get a bit chilly (desert climate even though we're smack up next to the sea), it's so nice to have a little space heater half flopped on your lap while you're reading a book. So I'm happily taking the dog hair in exchange for warm snuggles. On my days off (or mornings off when I'm not on split shifts) I've taken up residence in a hammock on the porch at the house. David mentioned the other day that it's creepy to suddenly discover that I'm in the hammock, and have been in the hammock, as he's going about his day around the house, but he hasn't noticed because I haven't moved in several hours and only my feet, sticking out the end, are visible. Hiding in plain sight. There's a cute little pigeon that visits the bird feeder in the yard who walks across the roof before landing to make sure the dogs aren't nearby. So he flops on the porch roof (corrugated iron) and struts himself over to the edge (making quite a clamor) and then pokes his head down to see who's nearby. The hammock is right under his landing spot, so it's lots of fun cooing at him when he pops his little face out.

I'm hungry and have to get to work in an hour so I'll leave you with some photos I took at the Pool Bar last night during my dinner shift: