A Lemon Shark Named Linda

Kristy and I are back on the road again! Well, back on the road for a limited amount of time. We are heading to Victoria, but taking the long route via Broome, Darwin, Alice Springs and South Australia. We have given ourselves a couple of months to do this trip and plan to be back in Vic in August. Why are we coming back? Because BABIES are going to be born! We are going to be first time aunties when Kristy’s brother and sister-in-law have their bubba, and my Mel is having another little one- a boy this time! YAY! We love all things cute and cuddly! So, with excitement, and also a little sob and a sigh, we have packed up and sold up. Goodbye fun little Victoria Perth unit. Goodbye Baptistcare. Goodbye Welshpool Border Express. Gooooooooodbyyyyyyyyye.

 First stop when we left was with Jo and Joe in Geraldton (I worked with Jo at Baptistcare). They were such wonderful hosts - how welcome we felt! Jo and Joe shared all their photos of their own WA travels, then they cooked us a massive BBQ, served with homemade chutneys and sauces. We slept in an extremely comfortable bed and they let Roxy (our fur-child) sit on the couch and sleep on the bed with us. Then, they gave us jars of homemade chutneys and jams to take with us! Thank you Jo and Joe. BTW – the chutney is nearly finished and the strawberry jam tastes like heaven in a jar.

 After we left Geraldton, we headed to Shark Bay. There needed to be a number of stops along the way because I continually needed to evacuate my bladder – it appears that I am squatting my way across W.A.! (the rhyming is intentional) We stopped at Billabong for lunch and that’s when Kristy noticed a speck on Roxy, which turned out to be a TICK! That’s when Kristy went a little kerazzy! She grabbed Roxy and started picking off the ticks, often ripping dog hair and dog skin in the process, ignoring the growls and snaps from the fur-child. Kristy did settle a bit when I explained (because I can Google, not because I am a tick expert) that the paralysis tick is not in this area, it’s only the brown dog tick and bush tick. And while they are yuk, they are not life threatening. Anyway, luckily we had purchased a tick collar in Geraldton (thanks to the advice of Jo), and within 10 minutes of that collar being on, the ticks fell off dead. And since Roxy has been wearing the collar, we have not seen any further ticks. Kristy is relieved, and so is Roxy (she gets to keep her fur!).

Our next stop was Shark Bay. The first night we arrived at Denham (the town of Shark Bay), Kristy and I were quite tired after we had set up the pop up caravan. It was the first time we had set up the caravan (we are not setting up a tent this time) and although it has gotten easier, the first time of set-up took longer than we thought. You know, it’s hard deciding where to put the microwave, air conditioner, TV, etc (yes, we are really roughing it). Anyway, as we were crawling into bed, we realise that the bottle of water that had been placed on the mattress had leaked everywhere, including through 2 doona’s, the sheet, the mattress protector and the foam egg shell mattress cover. So all of that had to be ripped off and hung over trees. We put a new sheet on the mattress and covered ourselves with some old blankets (Mel and Logan – remember the blankets we purchased at the Grand Canyon!) We were so exhausted that we did sleep although I woke up at about 3am feeling slightly chilly as Kristy and Roxy had stolen the blankets from me. 

The following day we went into Monkey Mia and as we stood in the water there was (at one stage) 18 dolphins in the water near us! Some dolphins were near enough for us to touch (not allowed to though). There have been wild dolphins coming to Monkey Mia for about 40 years, and one – Nicky – is still coming (apparently she is about 75 years old in human terms). Kristy took numerous photos and video footage of the dolphins – so much so that one of the rangers called us over and asked Kristy to send her some of the pics. I got to feed a wild dolphin! And it was all thanks to Kristy. We were there for the 1st feed, and I didn’t get chosen, and so we stayed for the 2nd feed, and I STILL didn’t get chosen, then Kristy worked her magic and I got chosen for the 3rd feed -which cut it pretty fine to catch the boat to the Pearl Farm, so Kristy asked the boat captain to hold the ship, which they did! (gotta luv WA people!) The Pearl Farm is out in the middle of the Bay, on a pontoon, and although I didn’t buy any pearls, I did get to taste Pearl Meat (which was salty and chewy and delicious). On the way to the Pearl Farm we saw more wild dolphins and a Manta Ray the size of a small car!

 Our little Roxy (7 month old Papillion) seems to be coping okay so far with the travelling. Her hair is getting longer, especially on her rear. For a while now it has looked like she is wearing knickerbockers, however the rear end hair has grown so long that the knickerbockers have become harem pants (should we change her name to Jeannie?)

 While at Shark Bay, we also went to the Ocean Marine Park, and we saw lots of fish, including a number of sharks. The biggest shark in their tank was a lemon shark named Linda! She was a very pretty, although lazy, shark. Just like me! Not really – as if I am lazy!

 Next stop was Coral Bay and OH MY GOD! The beach, Ningaloo Reef, the snorkelling, the brightly coloured fish, the coral, the sand and sun, etc – I am sure you get the picture. This is what we did every day in Coral Bay: Wake up, eat breakfast, walk to beach, snorkel. Come back to van, have lunch, back to beach and snorkel. Come back, eat dinner, shower and I would read Hunger Games and Kristy played Bubble Witch Saga (Facebook game). She loves that game so much that she should change her name to Kristy ‘Bubble Witch’ Baeffel. We loved Coral Bay – one of the best places to relax that I have ever been to. I did sustain a coral cut to the bottom of my foot on the first day I was there, which then followed days of limping and slight sooking, but even that could not dampen my enthusiasm. PS, when the coral cut occurred, a man helped me back to shore, and his advise was to put WD40 on the wound before putting Betadine and bandage it up. WD40!? Am I a squeaky hinge? I thought, “who am I to doubt this wisdom?” so on went the WD40. Don’t know if it made any difference, but how fun to use it on a coral cut!

We are now in Exmouth – first night here. On Sunday we have paid our money to go swimming with the Whale Sharks. I am feeling quite nervous about this, but the tour guide said that they are just like gold fish. Ummm, okay, if gold fish are the size of a HOUSE!

 Oh, funny little Kristy saying – there was a little bit of coke in the bottom of a can, and she said, “I will drink the dreds”. Um, I hope that there are only dregs in there, not any dreds.

 There is a beach here where clothing is optional. Should we go and be nudists for a day? I told Kristy that even Roxy needs to shed her collar. Will let you know how that goes in the next instalment. Not sure how Krsity will cope as she was pretty shocked to see some ladies going topless at Coral Bay.

Fast and furious: Happy Mother’s Day to our mothers. Happy Birthday Sue! Marion – I’m thinking of you and Sam. A cocky pooped on my head today. I didn’t win the 70 million. Vodka and cranberry is the best drink in the world. I like Bubble Witch too (but I don’t like to admit it). I cried reading The Hunger Games. We want to buy things for the babies everywhere we go. Everyone who meets our dog thinks she is part fox. And lastly... will the Melbourne Demons ever win a game???