Nature in Exy

The Cape Range National Park is part land and part sea; the range itself can't really be called mountains but it's definitely hills, and the Ningaloo Reef just off the coast is part of the park as well. The land itself was under water when local Aboriginal tribes first settled in the area; they have an oral tradition that goes back to when the whole peninsula was still seabed. When the sea receded, it left all kinds of caves and gorges in the limestone that make for great exploring. One of the oldest pieces of jewelry ever discovered, a shell necklace dated to about 32,000 years ago, was found in caves near the Mandu Mandu gorge inside the national park. I've been wanting to hike the gorge ("bush walk" it, in local parlance) for ages but didn't want to do it solo. As unfamiliar as I am with the local terrain, I wanted to be sure I had company in case of emergency. Fortunately for me, my friend Kayla has been wanting to hike it, too! So, when we discovered that we had the same day off  couple of weeks back, we made plans to get up early and do it. 

Mandu Mandu Gorge

The views of the Indian Ocean from the gorge were beautiful, the hike was just long enough to be fun without being too much, and we spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out at a beach nearby called Sandy Bay. It was basically the most magnificent beach you can imagine - white sand, turquoise water, hardly any people - and we just kept marveling that we live here. Sorry not sorry if you're tired of reading sentences like that on this blog :)

Sandy Bay, Cape Range National Park

Davo and Sandra recently bought a new boat - longer, wider, more powerful engine - and they've been taking it out on the water every chance they get. I had the same day off as David last week so we went out on the water for another attempt at fishing. 

Best life

Davo

I caught a fish, y'all!!!!! Pure accident, actually. The hook didn't even go in the poor fish's mouth; I hooked it on the belly as I was reeling in my line. And it was tiny. But I still caught my first fish since I was about 8 years old!

Days here at a blur of heat & sunscreen, reading in the hammock during the day & going to work at night, hanging out with friends & spending time alone. So many days I wish my Perth people were up here, too. But the people in this town are so beautiful. My co-workers love to go out for breakfast together, or to head to the beach when the days are nice. Work is full of banter and hugs and laughter. In a lot of ways I miss life in Perth, but in plenty more I'm grateful for this new experience of small town living. Here you build relationships by being present: getting tea at one of the cafes in the morning, stopping into the grocery store for just an item or two, reading a book in the park in town. I'm lucky that my housemates are lovely people, so home-time means being social, too, but this town makes a strong case for getting out and about to connect. I really like that. 

Puppy at the beach

Dirty Thirty

What an amazing birthday weekend I had, y'all!!!! 

August 28

Nat and Mick arrived Friday afternoon the 28th around 3:30, hung out at my house for a couple of hours and then went off to check into their accommodation. Wiebke and Weronika arrived 30 minutes later and got settled into my house. David and Sandra were super chill about them staying with us and lent me a deluxe air mattress that basically took up all the floor space in my room when inflated. I made dinner so that we wouldn't have to do anything at all if they didn't want to, which proved to be a good idea - Nat & Mick came back to eat and hang for a few hours but they were gone to bed by 9 or so and the girls had much the same idea in mind. Since I've been working nights, I was definitely not ready for bed when they all were, so when David came home and said he was going to the pub, I went, too! I now understand how much fun Fridays at the Pub are on the other side of the bar!!

August 29

Saturday morning arrived, bright and windy, so my first thought was to call and confirm that my last-dive-of-my-20s trip to the Navy Pier was a go. The woman I spoke to had a falsely cheerful voice and said she'd see me soon - it was a go! I scooped Nat and we started the long process of getting our gear loaded on their bus, receiving briefings on the regulations for the dive (the pier is on an active military base so there were so many additional rules and regulations that we had to follow for security purposes), chatting with our friend Matt (who I worked with at Perth Scuba, migrated up here to Exmouth with around the same time in March, and who now works for the dive outfit that runs the Navy Pier dive site) and then driving up to the site. We get there and, lo and behold, that wind was whipping. The whole Gulf was filled with whitecaps and the surge against the pier's uprights was intense. Visibility on the site was 0. The dive was canned. 

Windy days in Exmouth eliminate a lot of activities as options, but it definitely doesn't eliminate heading to the brewery. So we made lemonade from the lemons! Scooped up Mick, Wiebke and Weronika, texted Matt's girlfriend, Kayla, so she could join in, and headed to Froth for lunch.

Mick, Nat, Matt, me, Kayla, Weronika, & Wiebke @ Froth Brewing

Cold beers + burgers with amazing company - what more can a girl ask for?! We hung out for a while, but another Exmouth activity that isn't wind dependent is watching the sunset from the Lighthouse. As a half-decent hostess, I recommended it and the Ws immediately bit. Matt & Kayla bailed (they live here, after all) and Mick and Nat opted for a rest back in their room instead. So we three roommates headed up and snagged a great spot on the hill. 

We met Mick and Nat at Whalebone Brewing (why not visit both of town's breweries in the same day? We were on vacation, baby!) for a quick pizza dinner and some live music before heading home to an early bedtime. The girls fell asleep quickly, but my brain wouldn't turn off. I headed out to hang with Sandra and David, only to find out that one of the dogs was feeling really ill. I stayed up with them watching over Mako for a few hours when Sandra suddenly realized it was after midnight. She gave me my first birthday hug and I snuck my way back to bed.

August 30

I woke up to discover that my sneaky former housemates took advantage of my absence the night before and decorated my bedroom with dinosaur-themed birthday balloons! The weather Sunday was perfect for being on the water, so Nat went out for an early morning on the boat with my whaleshark company - but she swam with humpback whales! We three eased into the day with puppy cuddles and tea before heading out for an early lunch at the Bundegi Beach Shack. 

Dinosaur birthday socks from the Ws!

Puppy snuggles

Me & the princess - she's gonna murder me for this caption

Fresh Exmouth prawns (goodness, I'm even starting to talk like the Aussies - SHRIMP!) for lunch were amaaaaazinnnnggggggg, but watching Princess Weronika daintily eat hers was even better. Girl may have fancy fingernails, but man can she rip the head off a boiled shrimp. 

We walked down to the water after lunch to dip our toes in the Exmouth Gulf and then headed back to town for my POOL PARTY!

Let me just say, there are real perks to having your birthday party at the pool bar where you work. For starters, no one fusses at you about your music selections, the service for fresh drinks is fast, and all your friends who can't come because they're working can participate anyway!

Sophie joined in when her shift ended

Wiebke, Weronika, Gabby & Corinne in the back, Me and Sophie in the front... Gabby and Corinne are co-workers at my whalesharking job!

Dancing Queen

Stu, one of my old man crew from the front bar, made a special appearance

We spent the whole afternoon hanging out by the pool, swimming and dancing and having a grand time, and then my pool bar right hand woman Jessika (AKA Puppy) arrived with a homemade birthday cake for me! Puppy is the one I work with most often in the pool bar. She's taking a gap year after finishing high school so that she can spend time with her family here in Exmouth - the local high school is tiny, so lots of kids end up doing a year or two of boarding school at the end so that they can take courses that just can't be offered here with the small number of teachers. She was away for the last year, so now she's just working to save money before heading down to Fremantle (my old stomping grounds!) to start her nursing program. Anyway, she baked me this gorgeous chocolate cake with strawberries, coconut, pistachio and almonds as garnish and it was so, so lovely. 

Ross, Me, & the Beautiful Cake

Ross laughing because I hadn't yet realized...

...that the only candle they could find at the Pub was a trick candle that re-lights itself after you blow it out. 

Nat & Puppy

The leftovers were my breakfast the next two days

Wiebke cuddles

Nat and Mick probably saved my life when they arrived (post-humpback outing) and realized that I had forgotten to eat dinner in all the excitement. They went on a mission to get some fries from the local fish and chips shop. So I rang in 30 with some hot, delicious fries, decadent chocolate cake, and so much laughter.

Back: Ross & Stu
Middle: Wiebke, me, Weronika, Nat & Mick
Next: Corinne & Puppy
Front: Bernie

After the pub closed, we went back to Ross' to continue the party by the fire pit in his back yard. Thank goodness there's no photographic evidence. All told, it was one hell of a Golden Birthday.

August 31

Wiebke is vegetarian and I'd been talking up a cafe in town that only serves vegetarian and vegan food, so we started our morning off at a shockingly reasonable hour (considering the late night prior) with breakfast there. Then it was off to the Cape Range National Park to snorkel in Turquoise Bay!

Cruisy morning at the beach

An obvious visual explanation of where Turquoise Bay gets its name

Neither Weronika nor Wiebke had ever tried snorkeling and we had big plans to fix that. Wiebke took to it right away, but Weronika isn't as comfortable in the water and bailed pretty fast. We only brought two sets of snorkeling gear, so I took Wiebke out and we found this little guy!

Wiebke's first snorkel!

When I ran up to the beach to grab my camera, I knew Weronika wanted to see the turtle, too, so I shouldn't have been surprised when we got back to the beach to find that Ross had her back in the water and was very patiently teaching her how to snorkel. Both girls crushed it on their first day :)

Geared up and ready to go!

Nat and Mick opted to stay at the bay a bit longer when we left to go back to town - we had made plans to go out on a charter boat for a sunset whale watching trip and didn't want to be late!

Suffice to say, it was a stunning evening to be on the water. The fact that the whales cooperated with us was just the icing on the cake! 

We got home and hung out on the porch for a few hours, enjoying our last night with the W's. We had such an amazing weekend and we were all sad to see it end. When we were all in bed, saying our good nights, Wiebke suggested the girls stay for one more day.... so they did! 

September 1

When we woke up, the wind was whipping - no go for the beach. No one likes to get sand blasted. Instead, the W's, Nat and I went to breakfast at the Bundegi Beach Shack and tried our best to keep the spinach with our eggs from blowing away before it made it to our mouths! We met with partial success, but mostly just enjoyed having breakfast in the sunshine, looking out over the water. After breakfast we video called Mom to say hello and then made our way back into town to poke around at the shops for a while. Wiebke loved the pink, long-sleeved rashie I lent her to wear while we were snorkeling (sun safety!), so we found her one; Weronika got an adorable sun hat; Nat looked for gifts for her Mother in Law; I just reveled in spending time with these girls who made such a long journey to spend time with me. While we were out and about I got a desperate text from one of my managers, asking whether I could come into work for a few hours. I knew she wouldn't ask if it wasn't dire, so I went to work for three hours while the girls and Mick grabbed some dinner. 

Everyone was headed home early the next morning, so we called it an early night. Even with the very average weather (when Aussies say something is "average" they really mean it's pretty bad), even with the scuba trip getting cancelled and the beach not being a great option, even with only a few days together, it was an amazing, amazing, amazing weekend. 10/10 would turn 30 again!