After Coral Bay, I headed south to the town of Denham and the Shark Bay area of WA. The overnight bus was an hour late arriving in Coral Bay so it was 1.30am by the time we boarded. Definitely ready for sleep and I was lucky enough to have two seats to myself so I pretty much slept through to the morning when we arrived at the Overlander Roadhouse. Our four wheel drive transfer to Shark Bay was waiting so we headed off. Our driver stopped off at Shell Beach for us to have a look around. Shell Beach is literally a beach of shells (about 5 metres deep) and is quite unique. It was then on to Denham and the Bay Lodge Backpackers. A very quiet little town. There are about 2 million people living in WA but 1.5 million of them live in Perth. Outside of Perth, there is very little. Denham looks like a reasonable size town on the map but in actual fact, it is little more than a couple of streets! I'll be honest - there wasn't a whole lot to do there as many of the tours into the national park area weren't available during my stay. So my first day in Denham was spent relaxing and doing practical stuff like laundry, food shopping and internet.
The next day, I took the free shuttle bus to Monkey Mia. MM is famous for the dolphins that come into the beach each day to be fed by the public. I hadn't really intended to come here as I don't really agree with interfering with nature in this way. However, there wasn't anything else to do in Denham and MM at least has a decent beach. It turned out to be a really good day as there was a good walking trail from MM out into the bush and red sand dunes. I am trying to do more walking and exercise now that I'm in Australia as I spent way too much time in Africa sitting on a truck, eating too much and not exercising. It is starting to catch up with me!
After my walk, I took a catamaran cruise and saw dolphins, dugongs and turtles. The dolphins were bow riding on the boat which was great. I must admit that I had not heard of dugongs before coming to Australia. In case you too are wondering what they are, they are basically sea cows and look like fat brown dolphins without the fins. They feed on sea grass and need to air breath so you see them when they come up to the surface of the ocean. The cruise also included a trip to a pearl farm which was really interesting to see how they create and harvest the pearls.
So that was Denham. It was a very relaxing couple of days as the backpackers was quiet. I had a dorm room to myself which was quite a treat. Funnily enough, there were a couple of Irish guys sharing my kitchen and living area and they too had just finished an overland trip through Africa. So we had fun comparing notes on our respective trips and reminiscing about places.
A horribly early start to get the transfer back to the Overlander Roadhouse (4am!). Four wheel drive vehicles don't have bull bars in Australia - they have "roo bars". The number of dead kangaroos on the road is incredible, although we managed not to hit any. Our driver took great pleasure in running over a wild cat though?! It was an interesting journey as the driver insisted on talking continually (I don't want to talk to people between the hours of 4 and 6am) and sharing his views, most of which were racist, sexist or homophobic. Was glad to get out at the end!
From the Overlander Roadhouse, I took the Greyhound bus back to Perth which took most of Sunday. An old friend from London, Kate, had invited me to stay with her (she moved to Australia several years ago and settled in Perth with her husband, Greg). They live in Scarborough just 10 minutes walk from the beach. Kate and Greg made me so welcome and provided a great base from which to explore Perth further. I spent a whole day wandering around the city. I'm not normally a fan of cities but Perth is lovely. A very compact, clean city with great public transport and friendly people.
One of the best things I did whilst staying in Perth was take the ferry to Rottnest Island. Once there, I hired a bike and spent the day cycling around the island. There are no cars on the island and there are over 60 beaches and bays to explore. Once away from the main settlement, it is easy to find beautiful secluded beaches. The island is famed for its quokkas which look a bit like big rats but they are quite cute. There are also a lot of venomous snakes and I did see one on the side of the road as I was zooming by on my bike. I didn't stop for a closer look! Rottnest Island would be a great place to spend a few days relaxing as you could just go to a different virtually deserted beach every day.
Probably the only bad thing about WA is the risk of being eaten by a Great White Shark. Kate and Greg laughed at me when I mentioned this saying that only one person a year gets killed by a Great White. However, I had also heard that Cottesloe Beach in Perth is renowned for Great White attacks. Lo and behold, the very next day a 64 year old man disappeared whilst on his early morning swim. All that was found were his bathing shorts with shark bite marks on. If I went in the ocean there, I would definitely be a little uneasy and staying very close to shore!
Travelling in Australia is very easy after being in Africa. You can drink the water, there are an abundance of public toilets, decent roads, a wide array of food and drink to choose from, etc... That said, I still prefer the simplicity and wilderness of Africa. Australia is a little too similar to England although people seem more relaxed and the weather is notably better so I can see why so many Brits emigrate here.
My two weeks in WA are now over and I arrived in Sydney yesterday evening. I'm staying with Katie and Sean (from my Africa trip) at their fab apartment right in the centre of the city (Kings Cross). Will venture out shortly but right now I am loving just being in an apartment and relaxing whilst Katie and Sean are at work...
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