My Life as a John Hughes Movie: 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!