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.