As this is my fourth trip to Australia and I have never been to the west coast, Steve and I decided Perth would be the best place to start. Our first stop was Margaret River, one of Australia’s renowned wine regions. I am not a wine connoisseur but at a ritzy and beautiful wine estate when one sample described as “dry and fruity with a hint of meadow grass” tasted as I would imagine my backyard lawn I figured wine wouldn’t be a bad business to get into.
In Perth we found a tour that went up to Ningaloo reef and Exmouth, where we hoped to swim with whale sharks, with a few interesting stops along the way. Our first stop was “The Pinnacles” which are natural geographical formations but were initially mistaken for an ancient Aboriginal city due to their odd shapes.
I was disappointed when I heard there are no monkeys in Monkey Mia but the dolphins made up for it. Wild dolphins in Monkey Mia have grown lazy or decided that people are better at catching fish than they are, so every morning dolphins swim up to shore for tourists to feed them. From Monkey Mia we drove to Exmouth.
In Exmouth we were able to fulfill one of my life dreams – swim with whale sharks! Swimming within a few feet of the biggest fish in the ocean was quite a thrill! While the whale sharks we saw were about 23 feet, there have been documented sightings of 60 feet and undocumented sightings of over 70 feet.
On the boat ride back migrating humpback whales decided to give us a show! These massive yet graceful whales swam within 10 yards of our boat and one breached (jumped out of the water) 8 times! Or so I am told as I was inconveniently sleeping for the breaching part… From Exmouth we drove back to Perth to catch a flight to Cairns on the east coast.
In Cairns we were able to spend a day with my friend James. I met James nearly three years ago on my first trip to Australia while working on an old Crocodile farm. James is one of the most brilliant and interesting people in the world (and I think I can safely say that after this year). A day with James is always exciting and interesting with his firsthand accounts of near death experiences in the jungles of Papua New Guinea, ocean exploration expeditions, or enlightening you about the marvels of nature. He is one of those guys that you can mention some topic, even something totally obscure, and he knows enough to write a book on the subject. How he can remember it all I don’t know… He also gave us advice and helped us map a route to Sydney so we could see the highlights of Australia within our limited time. Cannot thank you enough James!
With James’s advice we went to Hartley’s Crocodile Farm to see these reptiles and other animals up close. From Hartley’s we went north to Cape Tribulation. Cape Tribulation, Mount Sorrow, and Shipwreck Bay are not as bleak as Captain Cook (who named them) made them sound. “Cape Trib” is one of the few places in the world where rainforest and reef come within a few meters of each other.
We then drove south to Mission Beach where I lived and worked my way up to Dive Instructor two years ago. I was able to visit a few friends and dive on the Great Barrier Reef. This is Steve demonstrating how to put on a life jacket for a safety demonstration. The guy who you may have mistaken for a movie star standing in the foreground is “Pygmy” otherwise known as Andy who I lived and worked with.
After Mission Beach we quickly drove down the coast to Sydney stopping at Airlie Beach, Noosa Heads, and Port Macquarie, all postcard-worthy examples of Australia’s beautiful beaches and coastline.
We arrived in Sydney just in time to see the main sights and catch our flight to Fiji – our last international stop before returning to the U.S.
- David
