Im sitting in Monkey Mia now, just a few meters from the beach having coffee while waiting to get the bus to the airport. It is really beautiful here, the sun is shining and the water is blue with the sun shimmering on it. Two days ago we got off the ship. Friday was a bit hectic, we got up at 0500, got the crazy kids ready to leave and sent them off to the bus. There was much ‘Woo hoo’-ing as we were getting closer to getting off! Myself and Angela were supposed to be getting off the next day but since our reliefs were already here in Monkey Mia then we ended up leaving that day too. We had to take fuel before I left so the guys came out in the fuel boat. One of them turned out to be this Irish guy from Meath, Joe. He was a nice fella. They were the guys from a Pearl farm here, just close to where we anchor so they took us over to see the place. They grow the oysters and pearls there. That was a cool place to see. So we got back and got ready and with a ridiculous amount of luggage we left the ship to go ashore! Considering I left 5 bags of stuff in Fremantle and Im going back from herewith 2 luggage bags, I don’t know what the hell Im going to do with all my stuff, or how I have accumulated so much! we checked into our room and went to meet the other guys from work that were here already. It was a lovely day, sitting out the front of the restaurant in the sun, catching up on everything. We had dinner with about eight of us and then headed to the pub and celebrated our new found freedom! The champagne had to make an appearance and didn’t really disappear after it came out!
Yesterday morning we had breakfast in the sun and had a nice relaxing morning, joined by Dan for a while when he came off the ship. It was funny, four grown women sharing a room at the backpackers, were like kids when we get together. Myself, Sarah, Angela and Naomi. Sarah and Naomi flew home yesterday morning so me and Ange were going to drive around Shark Bay and go to Denham, the next town but our car fell through so we just hung around here for the day. Were flying home in a couple of hours so Sarah will be there ready with the wine and pate and chesse! Woohoo!
Since I last wrote here, we have just been sailing and the like. One day I had a day off so I went to go sailing on the Shotover, the catamaran here, they take people out on day trips around the bay here. It was a cold day and a bit wet which wasn’t the best weather but it got sunny for a while. Luckily I was prepared with all my clothes though as it ended up getting very cold! I was sitting up the front of the cat,chatting to one of the lads and the waves started breaking up the hull under where I was sitting, then as we went over a few waves I started lifting off the deck and getting sprayed with cold waves at the same time, I was soaked and cold by the end of it but it was so much fun! That morning I had a good luck around Monkey Mia and went for a walk on a train out in the desert. That was cool, its not very far out the back of Monkey Mia, the sand is red dirt which is amazing, I walked through the bush and ended up on a beach around the corner from here. The beach is white sand so its cool to see the contrast.
The sun sets and sun rises here are really beautiful. The colours are spectacular and its crazy the amount of colours and patterns that it goes through between the first light and the sun actually rising. The sun sets are really cool too, the cliffs here stretch for ages and when the sun sets the sky over them goes really deep orange to green to blue and then navy, with the moon up above it in the sky. Another night we saw the moon about 9om and it was in a black sky, glowing bright orange. That was really cool.
Last week there was a small tear in one of our sails, myself and Angela climbed up to sew it. It was cool, the weather was a bit bumpy and we were out on the end of the yard, hanging on, trying to sew this sail. Its cool up there just standing on the foot rope balancing as the ship rolls around, with nothing between you and the sea 15m below.
We were taking the kids ashore one day to this beach which was completely isolated, with nothing around for miles and miles, when these two young guys arrived up in a small RIB with no life-jackets on or anything. They just came over to the side of the ship saying how nice she was and asking a few questions. They then sped off saying they were going for a bit of a fish! We saw them later fishing alright, I just thought it was the strangest thing! No idea where they came from!
To return to the whole idea of the Australians walking around with no shoes on, people here don’t really wear shoes, its fairly cool actually, Ive been walking around with no shoes on for 2 days now. In the city I don’t like the idea as there couple be anything on the floor and its dirty too but here its really clean and theres so much sand around anyway its easier to go barefoot. Its possible that if you lived here and worked here your whole life that you could never have owned a pair of shoes! How funny is that!
Last week we were coming back from being ashore and a pod of dolphins came back with us. It was really cool, we tied up alongside the ship in our dory boat and the dolphins just swam around so close that we could touch them. I never was one to be overly impressed by dolphins and still wasn’t until that night which was fairly cool, and the next week when a pod of about 10 came by the ship when we were sailing and they are actually really cool they way they all move and almost dance around together. They follow each others patterns so theres an almost continuous wave of dolphins swimming along.
In an unrelated event J we caught some big fish last week. One big tuna and a big mackerel. We cooked them both up and they were so nice, it makes the biggest difference to have the fish cooked just after its caught.
Im just back in Fremantle since last night and its lovely to be back, though I do miss Monkey Mia a bit, the lovely warm sun and feeling of freedom, no mobile phone for five weeks, if you need to find someone you just go to where you know theyll be. Sarah has bought a new house so we went up to Gilderton today where Chris has a beach house and collected a washing machine and did a few things. Me, Ange and her brother headed up in the ute, how Australian! Its a big brute of a thing and Im surprised Ange got us back in one piece each! I don’t know what Ill do when I start travelling on my own in a couple of months! I have been living in peoples pockets for the last 5 months, especially the last 5 weeks, now were staying at Chris’s house with Christen, next Me, Sarah and Ange will move into Sarahs house, that will be madness! Then Emma will be here and after that, Mom and Dad, Im so lucky to have all these visitors J
