Three of us headed south last weekend to visit the city of Bunbury. Two of our dorm mates have family there and we spent the days staying with them and meeting people. Quite a trip that involved flying, vomiting, bucking, car washing and samurais.
The drive was about a 2.5 hours journey and we got in about 7:00pm. The first night we stayed at the house where James’ family was at. His parents left us to our own devices that night which meant we got a case of beer and ate pasta. The P&O is dry so being able to have a cold beer with dinner is a rare treat. Saturday was my Omahan friend’s 21st birthday so we stayed up long enough to commemorate the event with a shot of tequila (why tequila? Because we spent a half hour raking through the house for a bottle of booze and that’s all that we found). The night didn’t get too crazy though, we had to be up by 7:30 the next morning to help move and get ready to fly.
You see, James’ family was in the process of moving into a new house and was house sitting for some people that were on holiday for a bit. So on Saturday morn, we got up nice and early to go help load a trailer full of boxes before going on our plane. This is where we found the samurai sword. It belonged to James’ grandfather. We didn’t get any of the story, but had fun brandishing the sharp steel (no one lost appendages, no worries).
The big event of the morning was the flying though. Adam, my African-Australian friend (he’s from the same area as James, but he’s lived in Australia for 14yrs so we don’t count him as African anymore. James has only been here for a year and is still waiting for permanent residence so he counts), is a licensed pilot and planned for us to go up in a four-seater prop plane. Quite a bit different from the commercial jets I usually travel but in a more fun way. We travelled up and down the coast looking for dolphins and after a few sharp turns, Nick started becoming a bit sick. I’ve never seen one of those barf bags used until that flight. And the cabin smelt great afterwards (he had peanut butter for breakfast). The views were quite something. We were able to fly only a few hundred feet above ground and he took us over his house and we all waved to his mother on the ground.
The landing was a bit scary. We landed at an angle with the strip to counteract the winds. Adam all gave us a heads up on this before we headed back, but Nick took his headset off and didn’t hear this. He thought Adam was trying to salvage an inevitable crash…
After the flying we packed up and headed further south to Meelup Beach to hang out for the afternoon. It was a rocky beach where I saw my first chiton in the wild. Super exciting. A chiton is a bit like lichen, it just sits on rocks. But I found them very exciting. We snorkeled and found ourselves amongst a school of salmon. They came around a rock and suddenly there were hundreds of them all swimming next to us. I’ve never really seen a school of fish swim through. It is really something.
On our way back to Bunbury, we stopped to go out on the world’s longest jetty. I forget what town it was in, but there were a bunch of fishermen going out on it and it is where we caught the sunset. The day wasn’t complete until a jump off the rail though which was pretty scary the first time. When you look down, all you see is the eternal blackness that could be three feet (not really, we were quite a ways away from shore) or fifty. After two jumps, I took over camera duty for the others and then we headed back to the sandy shores to get home for dinner. One the way back, we caught a man bringing up an octopus, but he lost it. We did see the tentacles come out – awesome.
Saturday evening was spent out on Adam’s farm where we had dinner and sat around the fire with some chit chat. He lives out on an avocado farm and took us out to find kangaroos. These were real kangas, not the ones that come up to you for food. He had been promising us kangaroos the whole weekend and he finally pulled through that night. When we got back to the house, we had some more guests. Two travelers were mislead by their GPS and ended up stuck on Adam’s property. They were invited for dinner and came over to share some Irish whiskey and stories.
I had a flashback to Camping at Mike and Nancy’s that night as we set up camp in their backyard. But they didn’t move their horses. They’re horses can come right up to the back door. This proved to be a bit dodgy when I was persuaded to get on the back of one after petting it for a while. Adam said it was no problem, the horse would be fine. Alright, I’ll give it a shot. I got on (bareback) and sat stroking her back as she fed on the grass. Next Adam told me to have her walk a bit and helped lead her a little bit. Well, once she turned around to the open field, and once the other horse decided to take off, mine followed suit. I had NOTHING to hold onto! In a split second, I had to decide whether to hang on or jump off. Realizing that I would be off the horse either way, I chose to try to get off on my terms and got the hell off. A very good dismount I must admit - landed on my own two feet but enough excitement for the night.
The night went well save for being woken up early in the morning by a punch to the head from Adam’s younger brother. He got home from the bars and was confused when he saw the tents in his backyard. I suppose punching the sides was the logical next step, but my head was on the other side of one of those knocks.
Sunday was spent getting some final things moved for the Balls and then washing their cars. James’ mom couldn’t justify having three strapping young Americans idle about so we were put to work washing cars. After that, we went to their new house to enjoy some snaggers (sausages) and rice. Then we made sure everything was packed up and headed back north to Freo.
It was quite nice to get away from campus for a weekend. I hope we can head south again at least once more, because there are quite a few cool things to do down there including catwalks through forests. Now I’m back up at campus trying to focus on a paper that’s due next Thursday. My first assignment! And to quail you fears that I’m not working hard enough, it’s a fun 10-pager. But this is about two pages, so if I just ramble on like I do while blogging, I should be fine!
Hope all is well in wherever my readers find themselves. I heard that St. John’s/St. Ben’s had a snow day yesterday I think. Pity. Enjoy the rest of the snow, I’ll put some extra beach time in for you!
Take Care
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