Wedgies, Emus, Dolphins and Dugongs

On the Road Again...

Every time we got back in the bus this song got in my head, but that's the only line I know.

We saw a Wedgie!  A Wedge-tail Eagle. The largest bird of prey in Australia.  They have like a 6ft wingspan and can peck you to death very quickly.

More wildlife sightings!  Our first emu (after the excitement of this one, we saw them everywhere, and they were no longer exciting).  Do I look a little nervous?  That's because this is the emu that tried to eat me.  I was waiting for them to take the picture so I could run back on the bus.  

Emu chasing me onto the bus!

On to Monkey Mia  (pronounced My-a not Mia...crazy Aussies).  Where we made dinner:

On Adventure Tours they provide you everything you need, but you are expected to make your meals and clean up afterward too.  Kinda forces us all to hang out, lol.

We were taking an "Americans" picture.  We had a 5 Americans on our trip, which is unheard of in Australia!  We realized after this picture that there are in fact only 4 of us in the picture....Jennifer and Beckie are both from Long Island (they came together), Justin from Indiana (yay Midwest) and of course I'm from the best city in the States :)

So we got Lynn from Miami in and for some reason Macca, who's not American at all.

See, best city in the States!!  Even the Aussie Jack and Coke mixes know it!

First sign that it was going to be a crazy night.  Though if anyone could handle copious amounts of beer, its the Irishman.  

Have you noticed the steel mugs we're drinking out of?  Those were the only cups, so we classed it up by drinkin Goon out of steel mugs :)

This picture just makes me laugh.  Jen is down there just wanting a picture with the guys and they're having some sort of hilarious conversation above her head.

These pictures were all still in the kitchen, we hadn't even made it to the beach yet!  There was a massive photo shoot at the beach involving paddle boats on shore:

I'm pretty sure everyone's camera had at least a dozen shots of us on the paddle boats, lol.  This is also where Justin started getting the nickname Justin Beiber--see his Blue Steel face in the center there.  And every time Justin Beiber was mentioned someone(s) would sing out "Baby baby baby ohhh..."  He wasn't so pleased with it, but it stuck.

Eventually, those of us left, had to move back to the kitchen cuz it was just too cold.  sitting on cold sand on a chilly winter evening is not so pleasant.  I was frozen.  I told Bryan he could have some of my Goon if he kept me warm.  I've never seen an Irishman move so fast!  And he didn't even bother with a cup.

In the morning we had free time to get up and watch the dolphin feeding.

7am, Monkey Mia

On our way to the feeding we saw pelicans.  I had absolutely no idea they were this big.  That girl there was about 12, and they are as big as her!

Dolphins!  The dolphins come to shore everyday to get fed.  They have a whole presentation about how they don't over feed the dolphins so they don't become dependent on the fish from shore.  But for awhile before the people came out with fish we just stood on shore hangin with the dolphins.

This picture care of Hart.  The dolphin looks a little high to me, lol.

Macca doing his job, lol.  The map shows Shark Bay.  Shark Bay is a World Heritage Area.  Meaning its totally protected because it does some cool environmental and ecological things.  Criteria to be Heritage listed is set by the UN Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).  Shark Bay meets 4 of the 10 requirements to be be heritage listed: 

1)Natural Beauty. Duh.

2) Earth's history--the stramatolites shown previously.  

3) Biological diversity--Shark Bay protects a lot of endangered animals not found anywhere else in the world.

4). Ecological processes--the seagrass shown below. 

Sea grass of Shark Bay

The sea grass is not the grass you see coming out of the sand, but the dark patches in the water.  Those are bits of seagrass where dugongs live.  Dugongs are like manatees but with different tails.  Because of the isolation of Shark Bay (see map above) the sea grass grows undisturbed creating an important but rare ecosystem that houses a lot of endangered animals, which also goes with number 3 on the list.  

We present to you....Shark Bay!

Then we must jump off our little stumps.  Don't ever doubt my mad skills...I will kung fo your ass!

Leaving Shark Bay.  Can you find me in this picture?

Back to the shenanigans of the bus.  The Weet-Bix challenge.  Weet-Bix is a horrible disgusting Aussie breakfast.  They are like giant Shredded Wheats without the little sugar coating on top.  Challenge: eat a weet-bix faster than anyone on the bus. 

These didn't win. And neither did I.  It was really difficult.  I think I ate mine in 1 minute and 20 seconds.  The winner was Gigi from Italy with 1 minute and 6 seconds.

The symbolism of Perth

Well I didn't, kinda.  Perth just doesn't have the great stories that the rest of the trip has.  But the photos are great none-the-less.  This is Perth:

Its a cute city.  Probably the cutest little big city I've ever been to. I liked it a lot.

This was on a bench in the park I loved, Kings Park.  You had to walk up a couple hundred steps to get there called Jacob's Ladder.  But once on top of the hill you had great views of the city, lots of families having picnics, personal trainers and their trainees (I would fit in here!) and pretty pretty sites.

This site was more funny than pretty.  Someone actually named the plant 'Long Distance Relationships Don't Work.'  Im imagining some nerdy heart broken horticulturist...

I love these trees!! They're huge.  And I love the terrace work on the hospital behind us.  Its very Australian.  Also makes me think of New Orleans, though I've never been...

I like the new and old combo on this church.  I think they should use it for good symbolism of the tradition and progression.

I really like this picture.  I can't really explain it.  I only took it because the building has a neon yellow stripe, but it's turned into one of my favorite.

The coolest bell tower I've ever seen.

This is the normal shield for Australia (like our bald Eagle with the olive branch).  My friend Danielle informed me that the kangaroo and the emu were chosen to represent Australia not just because they are native to the country and no where else (which was all the explanation I needed) but because neither animal is capable of moving backward.  Not too bad symbolism.

I have absolutely no idea what the lion king and unicorn represent.

I convinced Danielle, who doesn't really drink beer, to grab a happy hour beer with me at the German bar.  I feel love with this place.  The beers were giant, and it just felt like home. I had to text my German friend Mika to tell her that the German bar in Perth made me think of Chicago.  Thats just how we roll in the 6-1-8.

On to Freo, home of AC/DC legend Bon Scott!  It's where he was born, raised and buried.  I have to admit that I didn't know AC/DC was Australian at all.  Oops.

A statue of children emigrating to Perth/Freo.  Freo is a big fishing port.  Lots of sea-based work for young strapping men.  And lots of young strapping men for the young ladies.  

Fishing Boat Harbor--appropriately named.

I went on a submarine tour.  It was actually very cool.  This was the engine.  Well, half of it.  The other half was to the left of the narrow pathway.  Lots.of.horse.power.  

And the most sophisticated piece of equipment on the entire submarine:

The level!

Between Freo and Perth was where I stayed: Cottesloe Beach.  I've mentioned it before, but Cottesloe was beautiful.  I only wish I had gone there in the summer so I could really enjoy the awesome beach.  Heath Ledger's Beach at that!

How awesome are my picture taking skills?!

Penis shaped rocks and Moonscapes

I think this was my favorite part about the West Coast....sunsets.  They were spectacular. everyday.  This one was in Fremantle (Freo) looking over a little jetty.

Kangaroos are everywhere.  Actually, to be more precise, kangaroo carcasses were everywhere.  In some parts of the drive there were animal parts every 5m or so.  Kangaroos are rather dumb, and they like to jump in front of cars. If you drive at twilight or night (which we did) you will inevitably hit a roo.  I was on roo look-out duty in the front seat so we obviously avoided all the roos :)

While sitting in the front seat with Macca the Tour Guide I mentioned that I teach sex ed....jokes ensued.  At some point (in the beginning) the jokes started getting cheesier and cheesier and eventually led to Macca instructing me that if I should see something in the road in an emergency situation I was required to yell out "penis face weasel!"  When we did have some crazy wild cows (strange eh?) try to ambush us, I logically yelled out "COWS!" to which I got scolded for not yelling "PFW."

Oh, the other animals on the sign if you don't know (which you probably don't because they only exist in Australia) are emus--rather big birds that don't fly.  Actually now that I think about it, Big Bird looks a bit like a giant yellow emu.  One almost attacked me. Seriously.  The other small thing, most people don't get to see in the wild.  Our group was special and found one of the side of the road.  Its called an Echidna.

There's already been lots of comments about this photo.  But this is what I'll always remember about the penis-shaped-rocks, I mean Pinnicles.  They are a geological wonder.  I think they may be God pulling a funny.  The area used to be sand dunes which eventually blew away (?? I'm getting this all wrong) and somehow the sand underneath had been compressed to for the Pinnicles.  I believe the sand is still moving away and there's still quite a bit of Pinnicles under the sand.

This is just really a narcissistic photo.  I thought I looked quite skinny and athletic!

Sand boarding.  I was quite scared of this actually.  The sand dune was really really freaking high.  I only went 3 times because I couldn't be bothered to climb up the dune again.  But once you get over the crest of the hill its not as scary and you can lift your arms and fly down the hill.  Just don't lose your balance cuz you will tumble.

This was are first hike, and this was the most treacherous part.  It was nothing like climbing Cradle Mountain in Tasmania.  But hiking through Z Bend Gorge (pronounced Zed Bend Gorge cuz Aussies like to turn single letters into words) led to this awesome fun:

That's my awesome ass you're looking at! Repelling, or abseiling from a 25m (75ft) cliff.  I repelled in the ROTC at ISU, but this was bigger and the rock face is a lot sharper than the 2x4s I repelled off of before. Even with that under my belt this is terrifying every time.  We did it twice and each time going over the edge is terrifying.  There is no other word for it. And I would do it again in a heartbeat!

He didn't let me die, I don't care that he was staring at my ass the whole time, he didn't let me die.

Hilarious-break-dancing-jumping picture. 

Our first group photo :)

Zed Bend Gorge from the top.  So pretty and peaceful (just like me).

Nature's Window

New friends!  Ceola from Ireland, me, Lynn from Miami, and Eva from Holland.

Our first wild Roo siting!  There's 3 there if you can tell :)

Bryan from Ireland.  We became good friends on the second half of the trip.  He has a special morse code/sign language he taught me that goes like this:

Bryan: (poking my arm) beep beep beep beep beep beep.  

Kassi: What the hell?

Bryan: (in thick thick Irish accent) It means 'I've grown accustom to your face'

Kassi: (smacks Bryan's forehead) Ditto.

Also:

Bryan: Hey, [insert curse word]!

Kassi: Don't call me a [insert said curse word]!

Bryan: It's a term of endearment!

Jen from NY, Bryan from Ireland, Caz from England, Ceola from Ireland, Justin from Indiana, and me...just chillin on a cliff face.

Evolution!!  These are Stramatolites.  Not gonna lie, I had to look up why these were so cool.  But it was worth it cuz they ARE cool.  They are the oldest living organisms on the planet, possibly the first organisms.  They grow about .3mm a year and can be up to a meter high!  They are rare now, but exist in Shark Bay because the water is extra salty here and most animals that would destroy them can't tolerate the salty water, but stramatolites love it.  The algae that forms them turn CO2 to oxygen, and when they were first on the planet some 3.5 billion years ago, there was little to no oxygen, so they are credited with producing much of the oxygen we love to breathe!  Like I said: Evolution!

Next stop: Shell Beach.  This is where Macca started taking my camera to take his 'Daily Artsy Shots'  and I where I decided I wanted to be his friend.

Macca liked to tell us what he wasn't going to talk about throughout the trip.  Our favorite: 

Macca: "I have something to tell you about Shell Beach"  

Us: Yes?  

Macca: I'll tell you later. (walks away)

Shell Beach sunset.

Totally awesome jumping picture.

Macca is flying!  And quite flexible...

 How awesome is this group silhouette photo?

As we were leaving Shell Beach, the sky was an awesome purple twilight as we watched the moon rise.  180 degree turn was this:

Sunset/Moon Rise.

Aussie Moonscape