Red Earth Safari to Exmouth

Hey Everyone we finally made it to Exmouth!! It took us 6 days but the journey was amazing!! We took a tour called Red Earth Safaris with 17 other people. We made some great friends, saw some amazing things, and had the best tour guide in Australia!! What more could you ask for?? Here is a rundown of what we did each day:
Day 1 - Monday, April 30.
Our first quick stop was at Yanchep National Park where we saw some Koala's and wild Kangaroo's in the rain. Then it was off to Lancelin for some sandboarding down some huge dunes!! I tried standing and riding it down... not as easy as snowboarding. May - a 75yr old woman on the tour even gave it a go!! The next stop after that was to see the Pinnacles Desert at sunset, where 170487 limestone pillars line the desert. It poured on us again, but after the rain we saw a huge colorful rainbow. Dinner was next at our hostel in Cervantes, Trevor our guide prepared an awesome lasagna and greek salad for us!! Oh man was that good... not as good as moms though. It also happened to be Djoeke's 24th B-day and her parents bought enough wine and cake for everyone!! Most of us stayed up late finishing off the wine and getting to know each other.
Day 2 - Tuesday, May 1.
After breakfast we were on the road again and stopped at a wildlife rescue park. Trevor knew the owner so we got to feed all the animals, including a dozen little orphan Joey's. Then everyone got to hold some snakes!! At one point we had 4 of them on us at one time!! I swear one tried to strangle me!! After that we actually left the country and entered the Hutt River Province, its a long story so just follow the link. It is run by Prince Leonard and Princess Shirley. It started to rain so he took us in and stamped our passports; he even let me sit in his royal throne!! Next stop was Kalbarri National park, we checked out the coastal gorges before settling into our hostel. We had a true blue aussie BBQ with chicken, kangaroo snags, salad, and more drinking with the gang. mmm mmm good.
Day 3 - Wednesday, May 2.
This morning we hiked into Z bend gorge in Kalbarri where we were able to try out abseiling!! Basically its throwing yourself off a cliff while hanging onto a rope. They even let us do it twice each!! The second go I tried doing it forwards, running down the face!! That was a ton of fun and really got our adrenalin going. Did I mention it rained while we were doing this too?? From there some more hiking to "Natures Window". We had a long drive ahead of us today, and finished in Shark Bay at the Nanga Bay Resort. Erynn was one of the assistant Chef's tonight; Trevor was cooking up a super secret pasta dish that very few know the recipe of. The pasta was excellent and topped off with some fresh garlic bread, and washed down with a little cider too. Our rooms had an ocean view of the sunset and moonlight.
Day 4 - Thursday, May 3.
Up at the crack of dawn to drive further north to Monkey Mia to catch the dolphins coming to shore for breakfast. We got there just as the first feeding finished and got to see the dolphins for about 10 seconds. Everyone was pretty disappointed at first, but about 5 mins later they came back for more!! This time there were about 10 of them including a little calf!! We all stood (in the rain of course) in knee deep water as the dolphins swam just a few feet away. After everyone had 500 photo's of the dolphins we headed off to Shell Beach. Guess how it gets its name?? This beach is entirely made up of sea shells!! Its a few kms long and 2 meters deep of shells, no sand at all!! Then it was off to the Stromatolites. These black blobs in the water are actually living bacteria. Apparently they started life on earth 300 million years ago by producing oxygen. Thanks guys! After that we drove to our accommodation for the night. It was a Outback Sheep Station in the middle of nowhere!! Words cannot describe, the pictures help though. The facilities were 'minimal', and not really up to Erynn and the 9 other girls standards. Us guys heard about it all night. As we were collecting firewood for the night (and to heat the showers) all us guys could hear were shreeks, "OH MY GAWD" and giggles. After the initial shock everyone settled down for an awesome outback meal and then we all sat around the fire singing songs, dancing and drinking the night away. We must have been drinking plenty, because everyone decided to pull our beds out and sleep under the stars!! (Hey no rain??)
Day 5 - Friday, May 4.
This morning we woke up soaking wet from the morning dew. I guess thats what happens when you sleep outside. In no time we were on the road again heading to Coral Bay. Today was ours to do as we please, so 8 of us went on a turtle eco tour. We spotted some dolphins and turtles before we were dropped off to our first snorkel site. Here we had a chance to swim with reef sharks at a cleaning station. Erynn and a couple of the others stayed back while the rest of us swam about 150 meters away from the boat and suddenly a few meters below us we could see about 6 reef sharks at the cleaning station... sounds like a good idea huh? The funny thing was that I wasn't even scared at all!?! I figured that I would have been scared swimming with sharks and that far away from the nearest boat... must have been shock, or too much drinking the night before. It was amazing and really got my heart pumping!! After everyone got back from their different tours we departed Coral bay and headed off to Exmouth only a 'short' 2hr drive away. Once we got to Exmouth everyone was given a few hours to clean up and explore before a fancy poolside dinner at our resort. That night we all sat around drinking and laughing the night away.
Day 6 - Saturday, May 5th.
Today Trevor took us on a free tour around the Northwest Cape. We saw a huge radio station with 8 towers that were over 300 meters tall! Then up to a lighthouse where we had an amazing view of the area. Then to Turquoise bay where we had lunch on the beach and spent the afternoon snorkeling. The Ningaloo reef was just a few meters off shore and the snorkeling was great!! We saw 4 sting rays - 3 were hiding in the sand, a huge potato cod, a turtle, and hundreds of colorful reef fish. After this we made our way back to the resort and departed our bus for the last time... so sad. Tonight was mexican food night!! Most people in our group had never had mexican and didnt even know how to make taco's!! Erynn and I had to give some quick lessons. A couple of speeches and toasts were made as everyone reminisced about the last 6 days. We were amazed at how much we had done, and how quickly you can make great friends with 17 people. After dinner we had a few more drinks and then made our way to the Whaleshark Festival. Here we watched a great live act as we danced and drank our last night together with everyone away.

As you can tell we had a great time on the Red Earth Safari tour, and are already missing everyone we met on the tour. Hopefully we will be able to meet up with some of them again as we count down our days in Australia.

Nate & Erynn.