Adelaide to WA

Sorry folks, just as I was getting caught up I dropped the ball and fell even further behind. In my defence the whole reason I went back to Australia was to catch up with old friends so it’s probably a good thing I was spending time with them and being too cool to update my blog. I will try to do a better job moving forwards but things are probably going to be pretty crazy over the next month so no promises.

It feels like months have past since my last update but in reality it has only been a week or two but it has been pretty action packed! On my first night in Adelaide I had made loose plans to go for dinner with three English guys from my bus tour but I was impatient and starving so I wandered off on my own in search of food and never saw them again. Whoops my bad.

The following day I caught up with my friends Tasha and Preece who I used to work with back in Blackpool. We didn’t get up to a whole lot, we are all on tight budgets and it was a scorcher of a day so we went for a bit of a wander around the city, grabbed some lunch, and hung out at my hostel for a bit. While it wasn’t an overly exciting day it was kind of nice to have a relaxing day after all the hiking and climbing I did the day before and it was awesome to catch up with my former coworkers.

The following day I hopped on a plane to Perth to meet up with Jesse who you may remember from my road trip around Australia and adventures in New Zealand. In my mind this was meant to be the easiest part of this trip but I was wrong. I spent a little over a week with Jesse and his family and the whole thing was a roller-coaster ride.

My flight was delayed and I was so annoyed, I just wanted to get “home” and relax but the universe had other plans. Once I finally arrived at the airport and gave Jesse a massive hug we hopped in his truck and started the drive home. The drive to Jesse’s house from the airport should take about 2 hours; maybe 3 if you hit rush-hour traffic, if there happens to be a bush fire like there was on this particular day then that’s a whole other story. The highway was closed due to heavy smoke and we, along with a million other people were forced to follow a detour route. The roads we were redirected to were not built to carry the amount of traffic that the highway normally would and we were stuck in the biggest traffic jam I have ever seen. It took us close to 8 hours to drive less than 200km. I was completely shattered by the time we finally got home and I wasn’t even the one driving, I felt so bad for Jesse.

The following day was Jesse’s birthday but unfortunately for him before we could celebrate we had a million errands to run. We spent a good chunk of the day crossing items off our to-do lists and I felt a bit bad because it didn’t feel like much of a birthday at all but Jesse said he was fine with it. We did manage to celebrate at dinner though. We went out for Italian with a good chunk of Jesse’s family. The food was good and I had a nice catch up with the family members I hadn’t seen yet.

The next day we woke up bright and early to start the drive to Bremer Bay where we would spend the next several days. One of Jesse’s brothers owns a whale watching company and they started doing a new Killer Whale tour this summer in Bremer Bay so we decided to go check it out, along with several other family members. We drove down in a 5-car caravan and we were lucky enough to a have a hyper 5 year old in the backseat to keep things interesting during the 5-hour drive. Shortly before pulling into Bremer Bay we received word that the boat had broken down and our tour was cancelled, pretty gutting news since I had been looking forward to this trip for quite some time.

The day we were supposed to be on the boat was rainy and cold so we were trapped inside. Did I mention that the house we were staying at had no TV and we had a 5 year old and a 7 year old with us? I would have killed for a TV on that particular day! Later in the day we found out the boat would be fixed and we could go out the following day though this meant we would have to extend our stay by a night but we all decided it would be worth it after a very short conversation.

Now if you have read my blog before you probably know that boats are not my friend as I get seasick but I was hoping this time would be different. I took some (expired) Gravol an hour or two before getting on the boat and hoped for the best. Well I guess I didn’t cross my fingers tight enough because about 10 minutes in I started to puke my guts out. I’ve never gotten sick so quickly before. Or so many times for that matter. After about two hours of puking, dry heaving, and crying, we finally arrived at the area where the whales like to hang out. I managed to find the strength to stand up and do some serious whale watching for a solid 2 minutes before curling up in a ball and going to sleep. Luckily I managed to convince someone to take pictures with my camera before I dozed off.

I was so disappointed at the way the day had turned out. I had figured that even if I did get sick I’d be able to push through it to actually watch the whales but I was so drained by that point it wasn’t even an option. And since I fell asleep in the sun I ended up with a face that looked like a tomato. Not my idea of a good time. I’m glad I got to see a killer whale, actually I saw two or three, but it will be a long time before I ever get on a boat again!

The next day we made our way back to Bunbury (after another drama or two) where I had a nice warm shower and a wonderful sleep in a nice comfy bed. It was glorious. I was not a huge fan of Bremer Bay even before getting sick so I was oh so very happy to be home. The quiet was nice too. After living alone for the last 6 months being in a house with 8 other people for 3 nights was pretty full on.

Jesse and I spent the next few days relaxing, catching up with his family, and getting ready for the next stage of my trip. I am so happy to have Jesse and his family in my life and it was wonderful to spend time with them, even with all the ups and downs and I hope to see them all again some day.

I’m currently sitting in a hostel room in Hong Kong but the story of how I got here will be left for another day. For now I need to get to bed so I’m well rested for my trip to Disney Land tomorrow.