It’s funny, I rung up Dick the other day on some details from one of our nights on the trip. “Do you know we have not had one single, normal day on our trip?” I asked him. We laughed. “But that’s what made it so memorable!” he replied. Ahh..if only we could do it all again.
Our second morning in Kalbarri, Dick woke up with horrible back pain. He could not sit up or move one bit. Without breakfast, we packed up and drove to the nearest chiropractor, hoping this guy had a few minutes for an emergency treatment. Ben and Mark carried him in, it turned out the chiropractor did have time and Dick was helped straight away. A bit later he came out walking by himself looking much better. His back had been cracked and patched up with this special band-aid thing on his back. No movement for Dick today, which meant only one thing…Beach day!!
Red bluff was meant to be a beautiful beach and oh my was it! Again, not a soul in sight, my favourite thing about Australia,- paradise to yourself. The surf was incredible. (By now I’d actually become good at recognising what good surf is and what’s not) While Dick and I spent the afternoon on our backs in the sand, Mark and Ben were out in the waves all day. Every now and then we’d cheer them on from the beach and took some really good photos. On the way back they couldn’t stop talking about the surf, as if they were two little 5 year olds coming back from a party. Later on, Ben confessed that he hadn’t surfed for years. He had surfed since he was a little boy, until a few years ago, he had an accident and had almost drowned. He said he is lucky to be alive and unfortunately that accident had stopped him from getting back on his board. It was only a month ago he had tried it again. This day had been a milestone for him.
Ben surfing
X marks the spot
We had a great spaghetti dinner in the park. Convincing the guys that adding capers and cheese to the kind of bland sauce would really make a change, I think this must have been my best meal so far. That, noodles for lunch or a sick sandwich (Ben’s name for my mashed avocado on bread lunch special) were the only contents on my travel menu. Capers were a well enjoyed luxury.
No one noticed us, or came up to ask us if we had paid, so until that happened we stayed on the same camp-site again. At one point a guy from the van parked up next to us, came over and asked if he could use our power-point to change his phone. “Haha, sure mate, it’s free for us too.” He introduced himself as Jacob, a guy from Denmark, travelling together with his friends Martin and Ingelise (a.k.a. Lisa) up the west coast too. They seemed really cool so we joined them with our goon and our Moby filled Ipod. While we were all busy talking, this huge greenish shooting star shot over the sky. (Cheesy but amazing) It was an awesome sight! Never again have I seen such a big or bright shooting star. It’s hard for me to describe the atmosphere of this day, as I think it was just how we all felt together that made it such a memorable day. That good, that now, 3 years later, we still rave about it.
After a great night meeting new friends, we said our goodbye’s in the morning while we left for Pink lake in Port Gregory. (The pink colour is due to algae) Oh it was pink alright. Bright, raspberry pink. quite a crazy sight, something you’d only see in cartoons. Unfortunately it didn’t taste as good as it looked. Yes, sadly we tried. On our way again, we made stops at most of the cliff views around Kalbarri, which were as amazing as we had heard.
Island rock, Kalbarri
Pink Lake
Dick in Pink
People on the way had told us Monkey Mia was the bees knees. “A small place, but great for spotting dolphins and amazing beaches’. Alright that sounded awesome, let’s go there! 380 km’s later it was starting to get dark and we decided to stop in Denham for a free night. We got up at the crack of dawn to drive on to Monkey Mia, but got a bit delayed after Dick realised after 40 km’s he had left his phone charging at the camp-site in Denham. Shit! We did a u-turn and speeded back. Reception had opened by now but no one asked questions when Dick walked past and finding his phone still in the same spot. Alright,..back on the road again.
Monkey Mia Resort had an entrance fee of $6 a person and I think because of that we expected quite a bit. Sadly is was extremely touristic and seemed more like a zoo. The dolphins were indeed free but because of standard feeding times, it might as well have been a zoo. Within two hours we left again. Carnarvon (what the hell) was our next stop. Haha well pit-stop really. This place seemed so dull we left again immediately after a quick lunch, making it all the way to Coral bay. Now there’s paradise on earth!
Coral bay is the definition of what those postcards look like when somebody goes on a exotic holiday and wants to rub it in that you aren’t there. All of us were just stunned by the amazing little place. Whale-sharks, snorkelling and mantra rays, this was going to be an amazing few days. It was to early to sneak onto a camp-site, so we had a BBQ. Or well,.. there was already a party going on, we sort of just joined in to use the BBQ and enjoy their music, they didn’t seem to mind:) We had a great night hanging out with a two French guys we met they were flat broke and explained how to steal food in exchange for us telling them how to get free accommodation. Backpackers have each others back 
They taught me how to say “Qui va à la chasse perd sa place, qui va à la pêche, la repêche.” It means something like ‘He who leaves his seat, loses it’. Random, I know. The thing is, when you travel, everybody teaches you the most rude or strange words in various languages. I never remember a thing but this, I strangely remember. Oh and some German swear words I won’t repeat here. The six of us headed to our new free accommodation. More exploring tomorrow…
BBQ Coral Bay
