In-Season

Well, folks, the tourist season has definitely arrived in Exmouth. Town has been chockers (I love this Aussie-ism... short for chock-a-block... pronounced "choccas") for the last month and I've been busy, busy, busy! My roster is pretty consistent these days, and I'm officially training as a Duty Manager at the Pub. That means I've been working longer days but only 5 per week (unlike before, when I might end up working 6 days of shorter shifts or lots of split shifts - lunch shift, two hour break, dinner shift to close). I'm mostly getting Sunday/Monday as my days off, so it's been great being available to work on the boats as they need. Since Memorial Day Weekend (last weekend in May, for my Aussie readers), I've worked nearly every week on the boats. One week I worked on both of my days off and was knackered but it was so worth it! Swimming with whalesharks doesn't get old, y'all. 

Two weeks ago I didn't get rostered to work on the boats on my days off from the Pub and wasn't sure how I was going to use my time. But then Stewie told me about The Pilbara Men's Darts Association annual tournament happening! This was Exmouth's year to host, and the Trussy needed extra bar staff to cover shifts at the bar from 8am to close (sometimes as late as midnight) every day. So on my days off from tending bar at the Pub, I tended bar at the Trussy :)

The tournament ran from Monday to Friday with a casual darts day on Sunday before start. I worked Sunday and Monday from noon to close and then on Thursday I covered the bar in the morning before heading in to work at the Pub. Several evenings the competitors ended up coming along to the Pub for drinks/dinner after finishing darts for the day, so I ended up serving them drinks at both bars. When I worked an opening shift at the Pub on Wednesday and then had the evening off, I went down and watched the comp as a spectator, and Friday afternoon a bunch of my co-workers went down with me to watch more of the comp before heading to work in the afternoon. All this to say, I got to know a bunch of the competitors pretty well. At the end of the week, the Port Hedland team told me they had a surprise for me: they gave me my own team jersey! I'm under strict instructions to wear it and visit them ASAP. I wish I'd gotten a photo with them, but Ashley, Kendall, and Henry were particularly welcoming, and Molly, Henry's partner, was instrumental in the jersey mission. How fortunate am I, that these wonderful people keep popping into my life?!

Simmo, one of the PH players from the A division team

My jersey!

The temps have been remarkably chilly here for the last month, at least by Exy standards. Overnight lows have been in the single digits Celsius (mid to high 40s F) some nights, and even daytime temps haven't always gotten to more than 19 or 20C (not even 70F). COLD for here. So working out on the boat on a windy day has meant the water temps of 24 or 25C (mid 70s F) are a lot warmer than the air temps. It also has meant that having a wet head of hair keeps you colder, and when your harshly bleached hair is constantly going in and out of a beanie, it starts to fall out. All of which is to say: I am no longer a blonde.

Before

During

After

I had been talking for weeks about just buzzing my hair, so when Gaia and I were running errands one day and stopped at a friends' house where a set of hair clippers just happened to be plugged in and ready to go it felt like a dare from the universe. "So, Kate, did you ACTUALLY want to shave your head?" Time to put my money where my mouth was and just do it.

I don't think my days as a blonde are really over, though we'll see what happens. I think if I go for it again, I'll pay for a visit to the hair salon rather than risk more cooked hair. I was just so tired of having dry, brittle hair, so now I'm back to the good healthy stuff, even if it is a bit short! It's been funny seeing folks' reactions. Lots of people don't recognize me as a brunette (as Mitch put it: it's not the length that threw him off, it was the color change) - I'd been blonde for 6 months! So the last week has been really fun, riding around town incognito. Number one most heard comment? "You have a nicely shaped head!" Who knew?

Cheers to Gaia, an amazing flatmate who encourages all my best ideas!

On Monday night, I finally got to do a night dive on the Navy Pier! Gaia and I went, along with two of our co-workers from the Pub, Bruno and Dani, and had the best time. I had to get a new diving mask a few weeks back because the one I've had since I was 16 and learning to scuba dive fell off the marlin board when I was working on the shark boat. It was sad to lose a sentimental mask, but mostly it was a headache to find a new one that didn't leak when I smile under water! Since I use my mask on the Ningaloo Reef, that means I'm basically always smiling. Not helpful. So, after a mission around town, Gaia and I found one that fit, but new masks frequently have fogging issues. You have to treat them by scrubbing off a film the manufacturers spray on there to keep the tempered glass scratch-free while shipping. I must not have gotten all the film off because my mask was fogging like craaaazzyyyyyy during the dive. Extra un-helpful when you're diving at night in the pitch black. Extra, extra unhelpful when you're diving with a 2.2m (7ft+), 400kg (880lb) fish aptly named the Big Friendly Grouper. 

He's lived here for decades and back in the day the dive operators would feed him, so he's VERY friendly to divers under the Pier. In my other 4 dives on the Pier, I didn't ever see him. I saw other large groupers, but not the BFG. But let me tell you, he's extra friendly during night dives. He uses the flashlights from divers to hunt, so he hangs out around the divers a LOT. Gaia and I were late returning from the dive because he herded us away from the Pier into shallower water where he could hunt more easily using our torch lights and we were having so much fun watching him that we lost track of time. I get paid to swim with the largest fish in the sea, whalesharks, but this fish was something else. He has no respect for personal space and just swims right up to you, nudging and bumping you and looking for chin scratches. Like a horse thinking he's a lap dog. 

This is my friend Wes, my old co-worker at Perth Scuba, with the BFG years ago when he worked as a dive guide on the Navy Pier

His eyeballs are nearly the size of my fist, so when he's 6 inches from your face and your mask is a little foggy, it's a bit disconcerting. I'm so keen to get out for another dive with him, but I'll be doing some more mask defogging first!

My planned road trip through the Kimberley in August is taking shape quite nicely. Jess, Gaia, Andrew, and Mia are all coming along, so we're gonna have three cars for the journey. Mia and Andrew are planning to continue east - back home to Sydney - after we drive the Gibb River Road, so they'll go in their car, but Jess and I always wanted to have two cars along in case of something going awry on our travels. Because the road is unsealed, you go into it with lots of water, jerry cans of extra fuel, and plan to be self-sufficient. So we've mapped out a month-long trip that takes us east to Broome, then Derby where the GRR starts, along the Gibb to Kunnunara, down to the Bungle Bungles in Purnululu National Park, and wraps up at Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater, the 2nd largest meteorite impact crater in the world and setting of an iconic Aussie horror film about a serial killer going after backpackers (Mia, bless her, is committed to watching this movie while we're there). From Wolfe Creek, Mia and Andrew will continue east and Jess, Gaia and I will make a bee-line back to Exmouth! 

The Kimberley region is what my dear readers will imagine when they think of the Australian Outback. It's deep river gorges, crocodiles, red rocks and wide open spaces. I am SO excited to go and explore it for a few weeks, and so pumped to get to do it with some of the great friends I've made up here in Exmouth. We had a little planning meeting last Sunday to figure out where we'll stop and camp along the way, so it's feeling really real now. All that's left to do is hope that the latest Covid outbreaks in Oz don't derail us! Planned departure is for July 27th, so we've got some time yet. Fingers crossed!!!

Was about to post when one of the neighbors dropped by for a visit... what a place, huh?

Sailboat Misadventures & Camping Adventures

About three weeks ago a sailing race from Perth up to Exmouth was held for the first time in 30 years. It happened once and then never took off because organizers thought it was more fun to host as an international race up past Exmouth and into Bali. So a one-off that might never have repeated if not for Covid. Because Aussies still can't leave the country without governmental approval due to Covid border regulations, they needed a new end spot for the race and Exmouth was the logical choice. So away they went, lots of fancy racing yachts (and a bunch of pleasure cruising yachts), and ended up in Exmouth about a week later (I think the fastest boat was here in 4 days). Besides the boats themselves, each had a whole coterie of support crew that came up to town to celebrate the race's success, spend some time in the sunny weather, and, for some, to swap over crews for the return trip to Perth. Many of the crew members have other jobs they had to get back to, so they handed over the reins.

One of the week's concluding events was a "come meet the yachts" day at the Marina in town. It was a really family-friendly, county fair kind of event. Food trucks, face painting, live music, local artists selling wares, and the excited crews, all ready to show off their boats. Jess, Gaia, Corinne and I went down to check things out and had such a blast! A lot of the yachties had been hanging out for hours showing little kids and families their boats, so they were extra chatty when a group of cute ladies came up, especially since we're not exactly shy. On one boat, the crew wanted us to better understand how limited their movements can be when they're hooked into their life vests and have to keep hooked to the boat at all times (because if you fall overboard at night, you've got major problems), so they strapped us into the contraptions!

Wearing our life jackets

Me, Jess, Corinne and Gaia

It was so interesting to learn about the different kinds of boats and set ups. Learning that the serious racing boat crew members only get maybe 2-3 hours of sleep per night convinced me that sailing is not EVER going to be my sport, but chatting with the Rally Class "racers" - the ones in pleasure cruise yachts who get to use motors when the wind dies down - made me think perhaps that's more my style. Sunset BBQs while cruising up the coast vs sleeping in a sweaty, smelly, windowless "bunk" which is more of a V-shaped wedge so you don't fall out in rough seas. Yeah, tough choice. 

The last boat we were checking out was one of the really fancy, fast racing boats. It has a long nose, called the bow sprit, that one of the crew members has to climb out on to change the sails, no matter the weather. So, since we were parked in a marina berth and it was a still, calm day, I thought I'd just stroll out on it. Since it's a racing yacht, it doesn't have any rails (drag), but my balance is decent so I made my way to the end without issues. Crew guy mentions that my balance is pretty decent which inspires my amazing, beautiful, asshole friend Jess to start jumping up and down to make the boat lurch. So anyway, that's the story of how this happened:

"are you sure you don't want help!?"

"please just take my expensive sunnies off my face"

It was a hot day in the sun so it felt nice and cool in the water

On the way down my legs got tangled up in the ropes, so the poor boat crew/owners were having kittens 'til they heard me laughing upside down. Fortunately Corinne was a little slow with her camera work and didn't capture that part, just the bits after I'd disentangled myself a little. But it has meant that I've had some epic bruises for the last two weeks. That afternoon at work at the pub some of my regulars mentioned that they'd witnessed the whole fiasco and had taken some photos of their own. It's certainly given me plenty of fodder for conversation at work, explaining what my bruises are from and getting teased constantly about how I'm no good around boats!

Two days later

One week later

The racing yacht bonanza was on a Saturday but I had Sunday Monday off and wanted to use the time well. I usually over-book myself when I have days off. I tell all my friends that I'm free and then spend as much time flitting about as I possibly can in hopes of getting to spend time with all of them and soak up fun free time. Also the weather here is so perfectly autumnal: warm, breezy days and crisp, cool nights. Conveniently, that's also ideal camping weather! Anyway, two weeks ago I did a sensible thing and told my friends that I was going camping on my days off and suggested they could join me! 

I'd been wanting to check out Winderabandi Point on the west side but knew it was a little bit of a mission to get there. It's 16km or so south of where the paved road ends in the National Park, so you take dirt tracks for that last stretch. Sunday morning I was slow from being sore (falling off a boat is surprisingly hard on this 30 year old body) and from being Kate, so I did grocery shopping, hung out with my friend Chiara (one of my usual camping buddies), and didn't get on the road til 4pm. It took about 2 hours to get down to Winderabandi, so I was in the weird position of having to find my campsite in twilight. I made it just before dark fell completely but my headlamp allowed me to get my swag all set up without issues. 

That little red splotch is the light from my car fridge reflecting on my tailgate, and that's the Milky Way as seen from my site

The track through the campground is all sand, so I was just happy to get to my site and settled without getting bogged on the way in! It turned out that none of my friends had the same days off as me, so the two nights turned into an amazing little quiet retreat in nature. The campsites are all located at the edge of the dunes on the beach, so I got to fall asleep looking at the stars through the fly net in my swag, listening to the waves lapping on the shore. It was magic.

Left side of campsite

Right side of campsite

I spent my one full day reading books, napping, and swimming in the Indian Ocean. We were in the midst of an invasion of Red Bell Jellyfish but when I woke up in the morning my beach was pretty clear of the critters. By noon that was not the case. By 5pm, the whole beach was covered. 

Noon-ish

5-ish

My insanely talented co-worker Sara Barbieri took this gorgeous shot of the Red Bells looking far more cinematic than when they're dead, washed up on shore

As I wandered along the beach a bit before sunset, I had chats with other folks staying at the campground. Lots were planning to dip out early because the Red Bell stings are pretty annoying - think a horse fly bite in terms of ouch. Since I was only there a couple of days I didn't mind so much. I was just happy to be sitting on a beach, reading a book, soaking up the peace and quiet. 

See the Southern Cross??

After two nights out I had to head back to civilization (and toilets... did I tell you I had to bring a camping toilet?!), but it was all so wonderful. This past week I was able to get out for a quick one-night camping trip with Corinne and Chiara during the night of the lunar eclipse. The clouds rolled in just in time to obscure most of the eclipse, but it was fun to hang out with friends (who stayed for the eclipse and then boogied because it was "too cold for camping") and meet new people who wanted to see the same thing. 

Corinne watches the sun rise

It's been lots of chaos at the pub the last few weeks. We've lost a bunch of long-term staff who've moved on to new roles. Some have stayed at the Potshot but aren't in the bar now, others have left and gone to New Zealand now that we have a travel bubble with them, others have just moved to different jobs here in town. That's meant a LOT of new hires to train, and so many of them are total loves. Some of the earliest hires of the season, ones who started in March and April, are now considered senior staff. It's hectic but really fun to be busy. 

Staff drinks: Nicole, Mia, me, and Gaia

Paul and Andrew

With all the movement at the pub, they're really trying hard to keep me here. We've been having chats about whether I would be willing to stay on in town and at the pub for a longer-term commitment, so the July road trip is currently a question mark. Some portion of it will happen, but it might not be the epic trip to Tassie that I'd envisioned and might be more of a month-long adventure along the Gibb River Road and then back to Exmouth. We'll see, but for now I just continue to be grateful that the universe has put me in this beautiful place surrounded by beautiful people. It makes it a little easier, this Memorial Day Weekend, to miss out on the annual family softball game with the Albemarle Softball Society. But only a little bit easier. 

Tomorrow I'm rostered to work on the whale shark boat! It's the first time since January that I've made the roster (SO MANY STAFF), so I'm totally hyped up about it. Even though the weather is maybe going to be crappy, Corinne and I are working together and it's going to be an amazing day! So now it's time to hit the hay and get another good night's sleep... 12 hours of sleep last night plus a chill day today - surely I can manage a 6am wake up call?!

Autumn in Oz

Y'all, can I just begin where I ended the last post and say that working at the Trussy on ANZAC Day was a BLAST. It was 8 hours of controlled chaos, the other bar tenders who signed on to help out that day were really fun to work with, and I spent an awful lot of time telling my pub regulars who were there for the day that yes, I'd be back to serve them at the Potshot again - I wasn't changing jobs permanently. Definitely would sign up for that again!

One of Jess' friends fosters joeys (baby kangaroos) whose mothers have been killed - usually when they're struck by cars - and she invited us around to meet some of them!

I made friends with the puppies who live there, too

They spend much of their time living in fleecy pouches that are meant to replicate the ones they'd have grown in on their mamas, and holding the pouches is good for making them feel secure, up against a warm, living body. So we had all kinds of fun snuggling the little critters!

One a day off a couple of weeks back, I went on a little 4WD mission with my friends Corinne, Tash, and Jossy, and one of Jossy's friends, Tommy. We took two of our cars and travelled over the Cape Range (the "mountain" range in the National Park that extends like a spine up along the Exmouth Peninsula) via 4WD tracks. It was SO FUN. There were some really hairy bits, where we had to get up over steep, rocky parts or steep sandy parts, but two cars meant we had fallback options if someone got bogged or into difficulty. Corinne and I were in one car and the other three rode in Jossy's, and it was such a good way to spend the day. So frequently, I soak up the watery wonders that Exmouth has to offer then then I forget about the dry stuff also being beautiful!

From the top of the Range

Overlooking the Indian Ocean on the west side

Corinne

Our intrepid driver

Corinne is one of the giggliest people I know and we spent the entire expedition cracking up laughing at the wonderful-ness of it all. On one particularly snarly bit of track, the sand was so deep on this steep bit of dune we had to get over that we had to give it 4 tries before we got up and over the thing. That meant getting partway up a hill before the tires would get stuck and we'd have to reverse back down, get a "running start" and try again. I'm learning so much about how much tire ("tyre" hah!) pressure you need to get across different terrains and how much of a runway you need to get momentum to get over sketchy patches. It's really, really fun. But anyway, this particular hill was such a mess and Corinne and I just could not stop laughing at the folly of it all. But by that point we'd already made it over the range itself and just needed to get through a series of dunes before we were back to proper road way, so there was nothing for it but to forge on! We laughed and laughed and made it work. When we finally made it to the other side I was literally clapping with glee... what an absolute thrill!

The first video is us backtracking down a rocky path that we THOUGHT was going to lead us up over the range but was actually a dead-end. Patty, for reference, is the name of Corinne's car. The second video is our 3rd attempt at The Hill. You'll notice us slowing down at the end of it because we still didn't have enough momentum to get us up and over the sandy bits. The video perspective doesn't really convey how steep it all was but just take my word for it!

Saw my first scorpion! Didn't love that he was on my kitchen floor but win some, lose some.

I've been on a couple of snorkeling missions with Tash and my other friend Carly, and it's been so lovely. The water temps are unseasonably warm (remnants of the summer) which makes for amazing water time but isn't actually very healthy for the corals. The Dept. of Parks and Wildlife is apparently getting worried we may have coral bleaching pretty soon if the water temps don't drop, but for us it means comfortable snorkeling for ages. It's easy to stay in 80F (30C) water! The other girls get cold after an hour or so, but I stayed out for 2 hours on our last outing and got to see 2 octopus with the extra time!

Tash & Carly

For my friend Chiara's birthday, she wanted to get out for a camping trip on the west side and I was so excited to get out camping for the first time since February. Because the National Park doesn't have cell phone service, I ended up spending most of an afternoon hanging out at the campsite by myself, reading a book in the shade of a tree in a gentle breeze. It was heaven. By the time everyone else rocked up after sunset, I had spent a relaxing afternoon and evening by myself and was recharged and ready for more people time! I dunno how I managed to take no photos (or maybe I just didn't because everyone else arrived after dark!), but it was such a good way to celebrate. Hopefully we'll get back out some more in the coming weeks!

Sunset from Ned's Camp

Moonrise over the dunes at Ned's

Two weekends ago was Sophie's 21st birthday and she had a huge party with family and friends to celebrate. The theme was 2000s fashions and we had so. much. fun. Jess and I at age 30 were the old ones who managed to stay late (I left around 2:30, but the party went on til after sunrise), but man was it fun to celebrate. Even though the legal drinking age here is 18, 21 is still very much a milestone birthday. It's kind of a welcome-to-adulthood age here. Puppy came back to town from Perth (she's going to university down south) and we had so much fun catching up and dancing, and I brushed up on my beer pong skills! Any time I wake up with sore legs from dancing is a night well spent!!!

Me, Puppy, Jess, Mia, and Andrew (Mia and Andrew are some of the new hires at the pub! We love them)

The Cake and Sophie's brother, Ethan. He was part of a group costume with Sophie: the Power Puff Girls. He was the pink Power puff girl, hence the dress.
Pink dress + curly Aussie mullet + that 'stache = Confident dude.

Sophie's Mama

Soph as the blue Power Puff girl, plus some creative glo sticks. Andrew in the foreground.

Jess as a Mighty Duck

Puppy

Puppy again

It's Monday night now, but this past weekend Jess and I did a little roadtrip to Karratha, the nearest city with chain stores! She's been wanting to get out of town for a little trip, and it's looking like we'll skip past Karratha in July when we begin our roadtrip to Tassie, so we decided to drive 6 hours to get avocados (only $2 a pop, versus $5 each here!), KFC, McDonald's, and Kmart. So worth it. 

Dinner at Blanche

Full fat, real chocolate, Chocolate Milk! I drank the whole liter in about 25 minutes. And now have 2 more bottles that I brought back to Exmouth with me!

Happy Hour at the Mermaid Bar in Dampier on Sunday

Red Dog of Dampier

We bought sunnies at the store next to Kmart

We spent way too much money (some of which was justified as prep-for-our-roadtrip-in-July, some of which was not), but man was it ever nice to just get out of town for a little bit and see someplace new. We made friends with some folks at the Mermaid last night and ended up staying out past 3am hanging out and singing and laughing, and the drive back to Exmouth this morning to make it to work on time came awfully early. But when you've got an Egg McMuffin to sustain you, anything is possible! We both came back to work today feeling refreshed from the trip (me especially, because I had enough time to take a nap before going into work!), and I'm so super glad we did it. Not only am I so pumped to have road trip buddies like Jess, but I'm so grateful that we CAN road trip! Life in Australia continues to be wonderful. 

Now before I sign off, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY MAMA! I know a blog post is a poor excuse for a gift, but here we are. Can't wait for the borders to open so we can do our own Aussie road trip. Love and miss you!