Last week no classes were held on Good Friday or the following Monday so a group of us decided to use the break to do a little exploring. Three of us left early Thursday morning for our 9:30 flight to Learmonth. We landed at the airport, which consisted of a waiting area and a baggage claim room, walked off of our plane and hired a shuttle for the 20 minute drive to Exmouth. The shuttle set out on the only road in sight. Empty outback stretched as far as you could see on either side of the road as we enjoyed the brief time spent in air conditioning in the 100+ degree weather.

Immediately after arriving at our hostel, we took a quick dip in the pool to cool down and were greeted by our neighbors, two giant emus. Seeing the tall awkward birds quickly became a regular experience and we tried to play around with them a bit. Other than their vicious looking beaks and surprising speed they were harmless.

My showdown with Edith the Emu. She was a smaller one, they can get up to 6 feet tall.

There was a ton of other wildlife that we came across throughout the week as well. We saw some prehistoric looking lizards, cockatiels, and unfortunatley plenty of insects. The most exciting encounter of the trip came Friday afternoon when we pulled up to a beach to have a quick afternoon swim. Next to the beach was an outcrop of bright red rock in front of a small lagoon. We stopped to take a few pictures of the very aussie looking landscape and after a few minutes spotted a few kangaroos by the rocks. Underneath the overhang was actually crowded with a mob (the technical name) of kangaroos getting some shade. I ran over and sent them running into the outback. Luckily, Kyle was able to catch a video of it and I will put it up shortly.

Along with the excitement on land we also spent a lot of time exploring the Ningaloo Reef, second in size only to the Great Barrier on the east coast. We rented snorkel gear and spent most of our time checking out the dozens of different types of fish, a few sea turtles, a couple of big rays, and some of the group saw a few sharks as well - I was mad that I missed out on that chance. I did, however, manage to get myself stuck in the middle of a school of big blueish-grey fish. After diving down to check out some coral I looked up at a wall of the one foot long first staring at me. I turned to my left to try to swim away and there were even more to the side of me, same thing to the right. I was a little spooked as I saw along with them for a few seconds. It was strange to seem them moving exactly as one, and I couldn’t help but follow along. They weren’t really reacting, but all doing the samething at once, like they had one mind… fish must be buddhists.

The reef was only about 100 meters off the coast and we could easily swim out to the action, compared to the Great Barrier where you can’t see anything without a boat ride first. The beaches themselves were pretty amazing. Standing of the sand you could look one way and feel like you were in a tropical paradise, turn 180 degrees and you were staring at a barren desert strecthing for miles with nothing to break up the red rocks and parched plants.

Our tropical paradise…..

… and the outback.

With the car we rented (or “hired”) we were able to explore about 75 miles of the coast line in the Northwest part of the country and saw some pretty interesting things. Driving the car itself was an adventure as well. There were a few close calls being on the wrong side of the road, but we managed to make it out alive and with the car in one piece. There is plenty more to report on but it’s getting a bit long so I think I will leave at that enjoy the pictures.