More Old Skool News - The Tour Takes Me North

My 4 day tour North of Perth.

Day 1:
After another early rise, and some introductions around the bus we made our way to Nambung National Park and the Pinnacles Desert. I have tried to figure out how these things are formed...something to do with a former ice age, calcium carbonate & limestone, plant roots...et voila! Maybe not? But it was a very cool place to do some meditation & yoga (including on rocks we weren't apparently supposed to climb on, oops!)

Next stop...sand boarding! Wow, I'm about as good at this as I am at snowboarding. The first time I went snowboarding I decided to follow my friends into the board park, and tried to be cool by going off a jump in my wicked orange snow pants...problem - once I got in the air, my skating trained body didn't know how to land, so on the tail-bone it was. This time, on sand, which should be less painful...the wise one waited until I have picked up lots of speed, and was on the hard-packed sand at the bottom of the hill before panicking and doing the good ol' "Jump & roll". This probably would've been a good idea had I been on fire...but just left me with a HUGE blue & purple bruise on my leg!! AND THEN, we had to climb up the bluddy hill - and the sand is very forgiving. Here's us yelling for someone to come and give us a tow up...chair lift?

Our last stop for the evening was Kalbarri, where we spent the night. Our bus driver let us off about 500m from the hostel so that we could take some pictures by the water. Beautiful as you can see...but umm, Anna and I, always click-happy, got left behind by the rest of the beer-happy group, and got lost! And by lost I mean, we walked up and down the same street about 3 times, and 45 minutes later, finally found the one & only hostel!

Some back-blogging: Perth

Oh, to be off of the train and stretching ones legs on a beautiful beach. Despite my exhaustion, and doubts about the weather, Anna (my awesome Russian friend) dragged us off to Cottsloe beach the day we arrived in Perth. After booking a 4 day tour of the west coast that is!

And oh, what a site! The perfect place to have a nap and rejuvinate...and maybe get some skin cancer ;S Cool waters, shining sun, add in a masseuse and I'd have been set.


Don't get too jealous, as soon the wind picked up and as much as we tried to resist the cool weather had us running back to the city.

For dinner - this man served us up $3 t/a vegetarian curry...holla. Also my dinner the next night. A change from canned fish!


Day 2 in Perth had me exploring on my own. And what do I do in every city I visit - hit up the art gallery(s) and museums, because they're usually free. Bingo on the Perth Museum though. Definitely the most impressive so far - aesthetically pleasing exhibits with lots to look at. It also covers a huge range of topics - dinosaurs, Aboriginals, settlement of WA, meteorites & a cool temporary interactive exhibition.

After a quick stop a local bulk food store (where I didn't bust open any bags of baking soda!) I had a mid-afternoon crash at the hostel...only knowing that this was my one day in Perth, dragged me back out of that bed. A steep hike up to Kings Park was rewarded with beautiful views of the city & the botanical gardens. They just have heaps of weird looking plants here!

And that was Perth! A very clean, smaller city, with a gorgeous park on the top of a hill - I saw people doing boot camp and wanted to go join. I need a good kick-in-the-ass workout. Because now I'm about to go and sit on a bus for four days!
x