Seeing the real thing

Yes, I know you've been wondering: Where in the world has Sammy been?!? The answer to that my friends is, quite simply, across the span of the great state Western Australia (which is saying something, really -- it's approximately the size of four Texases). This mighty excursion took place over ten days through a trip planned by our study abroad coordinators. No fears here, it was during the semester's first of three 'study breaks,' lovely facets of Australian education during which Australians actually study and everyone else travels.

Here's the opening scene: 7:00 am Friday morning, 36 students gathered to hop on two massive white vans + trailers that will soon become our beloved dayhomes. My absolutely wonderful Gang all eagerly claimed the first bus, quickly dubbed it the PlatyBus (clever, hey?) and met our designated driver/tour guide Libby, a totally rockin` lady who knew her stuff but also was able to chill around like one of us. Within approximately half an hour we were comfortably situated and rocking out to golden oldies and Disney Classics. A Whole New World, in fact, became our wildly enthusiastic daily anthem.

The PlatyBus and the KoalaBus (its only fair to include them, I suppose, even though they admittedly did not majorly contribute to any of the trip's events; they were aptly named because it appeared the only times they woke up were to eat.) led us first up the western coast. As became customary, we stopped for sandwich lunch at a pleasant park in Anytown, WA. We enjoyed beautiful sandy beach shoreline, various lookouts, and whalesightings before our first major stop: Kalbarri National Park. We got to do some leisure hiking on well-kept rocky landscape as well as take endless near-identical pictures in the geological awesomosity 'Nature's Window.' Further north we reached one of WA's highly promoted sites called Monkey Mia. Imagine your standard civilized campsite: trailer lots, grills, simple admin buildings, nearby water.. plus daily dolphin feedings!! By some phenomenon they have become so used to human company that the wild dolphin population scoots on by a few times a day just to see what's up and get a delish fish treat. Way cool!

After this we moved on to Coral Bay, a true highlight of all my experiences here. There are a few reasons for this:
1) Upon our early-evening arrival, my bloated and utterly sedentary stomach compelled me to promptly go for a jog on the dunes that lined the campsite's curving sandy shoreline. It was solitude wonderfully refreshing, and I was moved to tears while watching the pure, shining beauty of the sunset-- just me and the Big Guy Upstairs.
2) That evening a small group of us walked back to the beach around midnight to see what an Australian night sky has to offer. Blankets, spread-eagled bodies and cups of Goon clustered on the beach as we tried to make sense of the vast, solid array of glowing stars and constellations we had never seen before. Big Dipper? Northern Star? Nope. Just the Southern hemisphere's big one, the Southern Cross, and the Milky Way flowing a thick path among countless, countless lit pinpricks. It was breathtaking.
3) The following day was spent at our discretion, which took me and seven others on a day-long boat and snorkel tour. We cruised around renowned natural wonder Ningaloo Reef, stopping twice to explorkel (explore-snorkel, I just made it up hehe) amidst a foreign planet of boulder-sized coral formations, clear turquoise water and fish fish fish of every shape, size, color!! Beyond that, this tour's specialty was an additional snorkel with manta rays -- Ningaloo Reef is one of only five locations in the world where mantas can be found year-round. Do you know what a manta looks like?? Check the picture to the right, but don't be deceieved: THEY ARE HUGE. Humbling, actually, to realize we humans are so frail in comparison.

Coral Bay was the northwestern tip of the iscoseles triangle our route formed. The crossbar was quite short, relatively, a 500 kilometer drive interrupted only by the town of Tom Price, Finally we hit our triangle's northeastern tip - Karijini National Park. Here a whole day was dedicated to hiking, wading, climbing, jumping down numerous well-kept trails that reminded me very much of Sedona, Arizona. At the bottom of sheer, red-rock walls wound patted-down paths and trickling creeks pleasantly garnished on the sides by ferns, white-bark trees, and a wonderful variety of wildflowers. We swam rambunctiously in naturally-formed pools and felt our backs and necks bake pleasantly in the sun.

From Karijini we were headed straight south through 1000+ kilometers ( miles) of the outback -- "the bush," as Aussies know it. A more concise description cannot be found. Five minutes into the drive, you take a look around and feel like you have been plucked out of the sky and dropped into the middle of Kansas. Kansas plus hundreds of thousands more miles of uninterrupted nothingness. Nothingness plus hundreds of thousands of bushes. And in a way shared by no other place, it is beautiful.

Throughout this nothingness our PlatyBus would, once every hour so, suddenly and powerfully erupt alive at the sight of a bouncing kanga, a roadkill kanga, a herd of wallowing camels, a Tropic of Capricorn sign, a jogging emu, or a spiked alienish gecko crossing the road expertly spotted by Libby. Other things that one would never even give a thought to in ordinary reality became, magically, objects of fascination: a 50-foot high bulldozer became our jungle gym; a simple overlook of a town became the perfect photoshoot venue; rocks became the equipment for a newfound favorite game, "Star Wars," in which the objective is to hit one big rock in mid-air with tossed small rocks. Sounds too simple? Go try it-- you'll play for hours. Seriously.

We were nearing the final quarter of our trip and my homework conscience had really begun to weigh on me. Fortunately, with fewer major sightseeing stops on this leg there was more bus time to put towards the unfortunate responsibilities of studenthood. All the while we PlatyBussers learned more and more about each other, through casual conversation and gigantic twenty-finger games of Never Have I Ever. Our last overnight stay was at Meekatharra, population 800. We scattered our tent colony over the barren red dirt of a sheep shearing station, and to our extreme disappointment never once spotted a sheep. Instead, we held a spectacular drag show as the grand finale of our escapade. Four handsome and impressively enthused dudes strutted their stuff as we mere spectators finished off the last of our precious Goon bags. Somehow four- and five-person pods ended up in the two-man tents to enjoy the relieving warmth of cuddle puddles.

All in all, the trip was an experience of a lifetime. It was one of those rare events which has weeks of anticipation built up around it.. and actually exceeded expectations!! Best of all, I was able to take in the broad range of what Australia has to offer, outside of urban Perth and into the incomparable feautures of the outback. It was ten days of adventure and pure elation, seeing the real thing.