Day 7: Swimming with Whalesharks: The BEST Day of our Lives!!

In this entry we will show you how to have the best day of your life!!

Perhaps that statement is a bit dramatic, but this really was the greatest day ever for us: the day we swam with whalesharks. Nothing can prepare you for swimming beside a giant sea creature, and watching it move and breathe right in front of your eyes. As soon as we reached Australia, we’d heard about the opportunity to swim with whalesharks in Exmouth, and when we hit the West Coast in Perth, we’d seen nothing but non-stop ads for different tours. At every hostel, tour agent and everything in between, there were endless videos playing, or pictures on display of people swimming with the world’s biggest fish. Seeing all these pictures and videos makes you think, “Wow, that looks awesome!” but nothing compares to hovering in the vast blue nothingness of the Indian Ocean and seeing a real, massive whaleshark cruise right by you with it’s giant, gaping mouth wide open. All you can think is, “Wholly S#%@ Balls!” 

Pictures and videos can never fully do it justice. It’s almost like a religious experience (as cheesy as that sounds), the moments you spend in the water with them are so pure and full of wonder, you have to remind yourself that these creatures are in fact real. You get lost staring into one of it’s eyes, or admiring it’s beautiful markings, then you snap quickly back into reality and realize that it’s passing you by like a Greyhound Bus, and so you start kicking your fins to keep up, but you never take your eyes off it.

So here’s the set up: There’s 20 people max on a tour, which may sound like a lot, but actually isn’t. You’re split into two groups of 10, and take turns in the water with the whalesharks, so it never feels crowded, plus the break from swimming and keeping up with the whalesharks is very welcomed once it’s time for the other group to have their turn. Our group had the chance to swim with the whalesharks for a total of about an hour, which was heaps of time. After all that swimming and adrenalin coursing through your veins, you feel dead, but in a good-happy-dead sort of way. Everyone is served a lunch of sandwiches, fruit, cookies and other drinks while you pass the time screaming in each others faces about how awesome the experience was.

We went with Ningaloo Reef Dreaming, the premier eco-certified whaleshark tour company in Exmouth. We simply cannot say enough good things about them. If you’re thinking about doing this tour, you HAVE to go with them. The #1 reason why they are the best is because they own and operate their own spotter plane. That means, unlike all the other tour companies in Exmouth, you won’t have to share the whalesharks your plane finds with any other boats. It also tends to mean more time in the water with the star attraction of the Ningaloo reef.

As we mentioned in our previous entry, the week we were in Exmouth we were hit with freak thunderstorms and torrential downpours. Due to the rough weather in the sky, no other spotter planes went out that day. Ningaloo Reef Dreaming was the ONLY company to operate their tour that day. A friend of ours wasn't so lucky. She had booked onto a different tour company, and despite the fact that she had stayed extra time in Exmouth just to experience the tour, the company she went with cancelled their tours day after day. The tour guide for the next leg of our trip, Pete West, had also booked on to do the tour with another company, which cancelled his tour as well. He was crushed and as a result we were not even allowed to say the world “Whaleshark” for the rest of the trip.

The anticipation of swimming with whalesharks is unreal. You’re overloaded with emotions. You feel extreme levels of joy, fear, anxiety and the burning desire to finally get in the water already! As our boat full of men and women, old and young, from grandparents to children braved the choppy waters on a mission to find a whaleshark, a message was relayed down to the captain from the spotter plane above. A whaleshark had been spotted! The boat sped up and the deck hands all screamed out “Whaleshark!!” All at once everyone on board scattered across the boat to our snorkeling gear in a joyful panic. We anxiously slipped on fins and masks, as the deck hands led us to the back of the boat behind our group leaders in two groups of ten. We were all lined up in single-file lines as if we were soldiers awaiting attack on an enemy sub. The boat pulled into postion about 20 metres/60 feet in front of the whaleshark directly in its path. Our group was to go first. Our leader dove off the back of the boat, with all eyes on her as everyone smiled and fiddled with their gear or shuffled their feet in nervous anticipation.

Then, her fist shot out of the water. A signal to us that she had found the whaleshark. We had contact. Without hesitation, the deckhands screamed, “GO, GO, GO!” in a commanding fashion. Within moments we were off the end of the boat, every man, woman and child for themselves, as we raced our way towards the behemoth. As soon as we hit the water our eyes were scanning for the whaleshark, but there was nothing but pure, endless blue. We raised our heads out of the water, looking for the group leader to make sure we were headed in the right direction. Then dunked our heads below, hoping to get that first glimpse.

Then, there it was. A giant, toothless mouth headed right towards us. This was the most exciting, scary and amazing moment of our lives. Whalesharks are completely harmless, feeding primarily on plankton, which is strained through their massive mouths. Still, you can’t help but feel that natural, animalistic fear of something that makes you feel like a peanut floating in the sea.

While it’s completely safe for humans, Ningaloo Reef Dreaming also makes sure that the experience is non-threatening for the whalesharks. You must keep a distance of about 9 feet/ 3 meters at all times. Somehow, Matt managed to get in trouble once again by swimming to close to the whalesharks. Surprising, isn’t it?

Our amazing day continued while heading back to port. We were fortunate enough to see a pod of humpback whales breaching, a sight that will be tattooed in our minds forever. Even one of the deck hands, who gets to see this type of thing everyday exclaimed, “Holy s*#@!” You know it’s good when the people working there are left speechless. As we headed back to land, there was an overwhelming feeling that this was one of the best days of our lives.

Day 6: Navy Pier - Dive from Hell

After our sad goodbyes from the night before, we woke up to another big day. Exmouth holds some of the best scuba spots in the world. Most notable is Navy Pier, which is listed as one of the top 10 dive sites in the world. Navy Pier is a massive concrete and iron pier that shoots into the ocean and rises high above it. Underneath it lives a plethora of aquatic life; everything from sharks to tiny vibrantly colored nudibranch along with giant schools of fish that swarm in the pier’s shadows. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any of these things.

We booked the tour with an amazing dive company, but one thing they couldn’t control was the ocean conditions or the weather. We happened to arrive during one of the worst weeks of the year; it rained all week. This is a place that doesn’t see rain for years. The bad weather was a bit of a shock. We didn’t let the downpour stop us, and our tour headed out as planned around 4pm to catch the best tide conditions of the day. Our tour was plagued with problems before we even hit the water. After our briefing, we pulled away from the dive shop to head to the pier. We were given a paper that had an alphabetical list of everyone on the tour, which we were supposed to legibly sign next to our names. I emphasize LEGIBLY.

The first bump in the road of many problems came when a German father, with his son (the father was in his fifties, the son in his twenties), signed his name in an unreadable chicken scratch. There is extremely tight security at Navy Pier, because it is on a fully-functioning, American-owned and operated Navy base. We all needed to have our passports with us, and to have our signature on the page legible, or else we would be denied access. This meant the man needed to re-sign his name, and therefore we needed to turn around the bus and go back to the dive store for the dive assistants to re-print the page. Another manifest was printed and was given to the group to be signed again.

Ok, Round 2. This should have been easy; we had all done it once.

“Oh, what is that, German father? You wrote your name horribly AGAIN?? Turn the bus around!”

This is exactly what happened.

Round 3. All eyes were on the father as he carefully signed his name nice and neatly. As he passed the list on, we all released a sigh of relief. Then Cassie got the manifest, and went to sign next to her name. As she looked down the list of names she could see that the man had in fact signed his name quite legibly… in the wrong space! He signed next to her name instead. As Cassie explained the problem to the dive assistant, the son translated in German to his father. As the rest of the bus stared at him, all he could do was throw his head back, with both hands gripping his hair, and scream, “Noooooo!” As frustrated as we all were, we couldn’t help but feel bad for the guy, and the bus made one last turn around.

After driving in circles for almost half an hour, we had made it to the Navy base. After a short stop at the security gate, our list of names and signatures was approved and we made our way down to the pier. Upon arrival we were given flashlights. “You probably won’t even have to use these,” the dive assistant explained, “Maybe just a little at the end of your dive. This ended up being the biggest understatement of the year! Those flashlights saved our lives.

The jump into the water is hardcore by itself. It’s a 10 foot jump off a platform on the underbelly of the pier and that’s with all your weighty gear on. Before making the plunge we noticed the water looked very angry. As we stood there, a gust of wind blew the assistant’s clipboard with the manifest, other dive information and the company’s cell phone into the choppy sea.

We should have seen all of this as a sign, but we assured ourselves that just because it’s rough on the water’s surface, won’t mean that conditions will be bad 40 feet below, but we were wrong. It was. It was much worse, in fact. As we floated in the churning waves, below the quickly darkening skies, we gave each other the ok sign to descend. We slowly glided down, using a lengthy rope to guide us to the landing zone at the bottom, and we realized how quickly darkness was enveloping our small group. Instantly everyone had his or her lights on and we were only halfway down.

It was chaos at the bottom. There was a powerful current running its course right through our group, it was pitch black, except for the beams of thrashing flashlights, and as the people on the bottom were trying to get their bearings, other divers were unintentionally descending right on top of them. No one could tell who the group leader was, and panic kicked in. Our breaths were growing quicker as we sucked through our air supply, trying not to give in to a full-blown panic attack. Soon, we had found our guide in the murky water and he was working hard to keep our group together. He got everyone in a tight circle, and once he checked that we were all ok, he signaled to our group to slowly follow him.

A few people in our group decided to take a different route than that of our guide, and those who were following them in line (including us) were unknowingly led astray, and we were right back where we started. Lost and panicking. We decided rather than get ourselves more lost, to sit right where we were, alone in the dark, hoping our guide would come to find us. As we sat in this creepy alien environment, 40 feet below the surface, trying our best to avoid the tangle of sharp, barnacle-encrusted support beams below the pier, all we could think was, “This f-ing sucks!”. It didn’t take long for out guide to come back for us, and realizing that we were in over our heads, he led us carefully through the maze of beams and pipes in the darkness back to the starting point. Our guide once again signed to us, checking that we were ok. I wish there were a sign for “Get me the hell out of here!” Instead, we signed that we had had enough, and wanted to ascend. We slowly floated up back into the light, and lived to swim another day.

It was such a great feeling when we had made it back to dry land. As we undressed from our wetsuits, we soon found that our friend Nate was not so lucky. Somehow he had gotten lost and separated from the rest of the group. Down below, Nate had searched for his lost partner for one minute, then, as is standard when diving in a pair, ascended to the surface, where the two could reunite. By the time Nate surfaced, he had drifted out from below the pier into the open ocean where the waves are bigger, the currents stronger, and groups of Tiger Sharks were known to hunt. Luckily, Nate is an all-American, gold medalist, Olympian swimmer, who is half-man, half-dolphin and managed to swim back to safety quickly. We’ve seen him swim, he really is half-dolphin.

On the ride back all we could do was try to wrap our brains around what we had just experienced. It was all due simply to bad luck. Nature was against us that day, and she always wins. It’s a great dive site and a great dive company, but unfortunately it just didn’t work out. It wasn’t meant to be. That night at the caravan park we saw the guy who wrote his name wrong 3 times, with his son. They invited us over for beers as we recounted the day’s terrifying events and laughed about it saying “Well, at least we’ll have the story to tell.”

Day 5: Exmouth - Snorkeling with Sharks and The Amazing Human Bicycle

Exmouth (pronounced, quite literally, "X-mouth") isn’t much in the way of a town; it’s more like a truck stop. However, it’s the gateway to Ningaloo Reef, one of the best places in the world to see aquatic life of all sizes. It rivals its East Coast counterpart, the Great Barrier Reef. Unlike the GBR, you don’t have to hop on a boat to see the reef, you can simply walk off the beach and find yourself immersed in an awesome coral reef. The most notable sight is Turquoise Bay. It’s about an hour outside the “town” of Exmouth itself, and shouldn’t be missed. This was some of the best snorkeling we’ve ever done. We saw tons of coral, fish both large and small, turtles, sting rays, sea snakes, and most exciting of all… SHARKS!

They were tame reef sharks, that aren’t interested in smelly humans, so it’s somewhat safe to swim with them, and a huge adrenaline rush. We encountered three that day, the biggest one being 2 metres/6 Feet! Matt spotted this one. As he turned around, there it was swimming directly at him like a heat-seeking missile, but turning at the last moment before impact. As Matt’s heart was pounding out of his chest, he decided he should swim after it. As he trailed the shark he remembered, “Oh yeah, these animals could take off a limb if they so choose.” So he eased away and joined the rest of the group of snorkelers.


Our guide, Ben, had quite the job of wrangling 13 snorkelers and let’s just say, some were less than okay swimmers, which is sad because it’s usually the coral reef that pays the price by being kicked and broken by flailing fins. Remember: coral is a living creature and shouldn’t be touched. Even your sunscreen can harm the coral while you’re admiring its beauty.


After the group surfaced, only 4 of us chose to swim the reef again. On our second go, we didn’t find any more sharks, but did see a blue spotted stingray. That was pretty cool. It was a bit more tricky getting back to shore, seeing as the tide was going out, leaving less and less water between us and the razor sharp coral. At some parts, all you could do was hold your breath, think skinny, and glide over. We all made it out unscathed and with all our limbs.

The "Doris" sandwich

After our snorkeling adventures, our sweetheart friend, Doris, decided to share her special, self-created snack. It was a tuna sandwich topped with ketchup, mayo (but we didn’t have mayo, so ceasar dressing was substituted), and finally strawberry jam. What a treat! She created it for when she was in the mood for a “salty-sweet snack”. This all came about as a World Cup bet, and because England lost, our UK friend, Amy, agreed she would eat the Tuna Delight. Matt just ate it anyways, so did a few other girls. It’s quite an interesting taste when that jam hits the tuna. As everyone was politely admiring how it was a “very unique taste”, Jo blurted out, “No!” as we all stared at her with our mouths full, “It tastes like SICK!” She was right. She couldn’t have been more right. It tasted like sick. This may have been one of the grossest things Matt has ever put in his mouth. And that’s saying a lot. He’s eaten cow balls!

Vlamingh Head Lighthouse

Before returning to our hostel, we stopped off at Vlamingh Head Lighthouse to catch the sunset, and of course take a million pictures. Then it was back to our hostel for one of Ben’s awesome dinners. We would like to add that for Matt, eating with a group of girls is awesome. Seeing how Matt is a human garbage disposal, and most girls aren’t, he usually ended up with second and third helpings.

After dinner, a German girl, Monika, showed us a trick she had learned on her travels, The Amazing Human Bicycle! Naturally, the Human Bicycle was recreated within our group. Even “Look into my Face” girl got into the act.



This was also our last night with our group. We decided to hop off our tour and spend a few days seeing what the Ningaloo reef had to offer. But, nothing would prepare us for the giant surprises that awaited us deep in the ocean. Before the night ended, and our group of friends continued up north, Ben was nice enough to share a few bottles of champagne with all of us, to celebrate our last evening as a group.


It was sad saying goodbye to our newly made friends. Especially since we all bonded so closely over the past few nights, mainly over out mutual frustrations with “Look Into My Face” who loved to remind everyone that she’s done it bigger and better than everyone else.

She actually made everyone sit around and watch her bungee jump and skydive videos, where after landing she screamed into the camera, “I did it, MOM!” with the crazy I-just-jumped-out-of-a-plane look in her eyes, “I promised you I wouldn’t, but I did it anyways!” We were waiting for her to follow with, “I hate you and Rodger will never be my real father!” But that last part didn’t happen. Revisiting the memory of these videos provided hours of entertainment with the rest of the group, and we had all bonded quite closely by the end of this leg of our trip. 

But don’t worry, this isn’t the last you’ll hear of “Look into my Face”, she decided to spend a few days more in Exmouth too. Hurray for us!

Day 4: Coral Bay - A hook in the arm is worth two in a fish

Day 4, as advertised in our Western Xposure guide, was our day to explore the wonders of Ningaloo Reef and its fantastic marine life in Coral Bay. We could go snorkeling, cruise the reef on a glass bottom boat, take a quad bike tour or even a flight over the reef. Somehow, Matt only ended up with a fishing hook stuck in his arm. But more on that later.

Amy on a Quad Bike

A few girls opted for the Manta Ray tour where you have the opportunity to Snorkel with giant Manta Rays, which they all raved about and insisted was well worth the $200. We saw some video they took, and watching those huge creatures doing backflips underwater was very impressive. However, this day we decided we wanted to hang on to our cash. We had the chance to swim with Manta Rays at night in Hawaii for FREE by sneaking through a hotel and past their Manta-themed restaurant and jumping into the dark ocean with rays swooping by us. But we digress, back to Coral Bay!

The girls who didn’t choose to swim with rays took the quad bike tour which cost somewhere between $85-$100. And some poor soul had to share a quad bike with “Just Look Into my Face” girl. (If you’re unsure of whom we’re referring to, read our “Day 2 – Kalbarri” Blog)

Matt and his catch

Lucky for us, our tour guide, Ben, was going fishing and invited us to come along which turned out to be a whole day of fun and did we mention FREE! Let us start by saying that neither of us are fishermen, nor fisherpeople, for that matter. Despite this, Matt somehow managed to catch the biggest Spanish Mackerel EVER! Basking in his own glory, Matt cast his very next line, which flung right back around a vengeance and landed the hook digging into his forearm. Barbs and all. Luckily our hero/tour guide Ben was there to cut and pull it back out. Catching a big fish is an awesome feeling, but nothing will humble you faster than hooking yourself in the arm with your own fishing lure. That was the first real fish Matt has ever caught. It was also the only fish any of us caught that day. He swears that bruise on his ego hurt much more than the hook in his forearm.

Upon returning we were given a hero’s welcome for catching the fish. Matt was showered with appreciation. He exclaimed, “Don’t worry ladies”, as he stood atop a picnic table, “I shall provide for the tribe!” Just then a ray of light beamed down upon him from the heavens above. I think he was even holding the Ten Commandments, too. Okay, that’s not completely true, but we did eat the fish for dinner. Everyone really enjoyed it, and we learned that the cheek meat of the fish’s face is really tasty.

Although we did not partake in any of the awesome tours in Coral Bay that offered close encounters with sea giants or the chance to kick up some sand on a quad bike, this became one of our most memorable days of the trip, and it didn’t cost a dime. Just a hole in the arm…

Day 3: Monkey Mia - Have You Hugged a Dolphin Today?

This was day 3 of our trip, and it was a big one for one simple reason: DOLPHINS!!!

Monkey Mia is home to the famous wild Bottlenose Dolphins that swim right up to shore every morning for a free bite to eat. And no, there aren’t any monkeys. There’s legend of a monkey jumping off a sailors boat and making it to shore, and “Mia” is the Indigenous word for “home”. They should really think about changing the name to “Dolphin Mia”, that’s much less misleading. Anyways, back to the dolphins…

Every morning the dolphins show up around 7:00 am for a free meal. As cool as this sight is, it’s obviously not natural to teach these intelligent animals such bad habits. They’ve reformed it over the years, back in the 70’s you could just buy a bucket of fish and go out to the beach, feed the dolphins, and basically give them a big dolphin hug, if you wanted to.

Now it’s well ran, with several employees and a group of volunteers, to make sure no dolphins are hugged. Even though we dream about hugging dolphins, it’s not good for them, and they can catch our diseases. So DON’T HUG DOLPHINS! And while you’re at it, don’t wear sunscreen either; it burns their little dolphin eyes.

These dolphin guards take their jobs very seriously. As Matt found out first hand. He was the first to run down to greet the dolphins, but his dolphin lovefest was cut short by a dolphin guard repeatedly screaming from down the beach “GET AWAY FROM THE DOLPHINS!”. We didn’t realize you couldn’t just wait down at the water’s edge for the dolphins. You have to stay back about a 100 feet away from the water at the dolphin information desk. They do this because the dolphins will think it’s feeding time, but feed time won’t come for another hour, and we don’t want to mislead any dolphins.

Finally, feeding time came, and we rushed down to the beach along with a hundred other tourists to meet our aquatic mammal brethren, or should I say sister-en, because they only feed the females. The dolphins are completely wild, and will swim right up to your knees. It’s really exciting, even if we are teaching bad habits. But the excitement is cut short once again by a dolphin guard who drones on and on about dolphins in an inaudible microphone. All we can think is, “Just feed the freaking dolphins!” and finally they did, but of course, we weren’t picked to feed them.

4 volunteers, with a bucket of fish each, wade out to the dolphins and pick from the eager crowd, a few lucky dolphin lovers get to feed them. It helps if you are really old, really young, or really hot. Cassie should have shown more skin on that frigid morning at 8am. It would have helped our chances. We were really disappointed they didn’t pick us: we were there first, we love dolphins (it’s Matt’s spirit animal, after all), and we even pretended to laugh at all their stupid dolphins jokes.

At the same time the dolphins are being fed, giant pelicans are lurking around for a free meal as well. A volunteer lures the pelicans away with a decoy bucket of fish so they don’t bother the precious dolphins. The pelicans shouldn’t be overlooked. They’re massive, and quite impressive.

Shortly after the feeding, the crowds and dolphins dissipate. But if you hang around, a few dolphins linger by the shore, which is nice because there are about 100 less people to share them with.

We’ve met people who were disappointed by Monkey Mia, but we thought it was pretty cool and one of the most memorable sights on the west coast. Just don’t show up thinking you’re going to have a deep heart-connection with your spirit animal. It’s all business for these dolphins: they show up, they eat, and they leave. There are no tricks or dolphin hugs.

After all the dolphin excitment, we jumped back on the tour bus, or “Landshark” as our group named it (Thank you, Matt…). We drove to Ocean Park, an awesome little open-air aquarium that houses all kinds of fish, sea snakes, sea turtles, one very interesting, color-changing squid (which was Cassie’s favorite), and a whole bunch of sharks. There was also one very big Tiger Shark.

The enormous outdoor shark tank was very cool, and something we had never seen before. It looked like a set from the Kevin Costner blockbuster movie: “Waterworld”. The tank was made of corrugated metal and wood, and there was even an old, rusty windmill in the background, and of course lots of man-eating sharks. A large walkway stretches over the shark tank so you can only view the sharks from above. This makes the presence of the Tiger Shark even more eerie, as only its giant dorsal fin can be seen.

After a tour of the more basic sea creatures, we got to see them feed the sharks, which was AWESOME! They tied a dead fish onto a wooden pole and dipped it into the water until a feeding frenzy ensued.  Deadly animals eating things is always awesome. Another great thing about Ocean Park is that they really seem to care about the animals, instead of a profit. So go here and support the little guys and their ferocious man-eating sharks.

Next stop was the Stromatolites. Basically, these are underwater colonies of microorganisms that live on strange rock formations. They are the oldest living organisms on the planet and are billions of years old. They created Oxygen before it existed naturally in our atmosphere. They aren’t particularly cute, nor do they attack dangling dead fish on a stick, but they are cool, and we wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for them, so they are worth a visit. There’s a triangular-shaped pier that is constructed over them, offering great views of these odd formations.

Of course, it’s hard to follow up dolphins cruising past your legs and a shark feeding frenzy, but you can’t help but tip your hat to something that’s older than air. 


Well done, Stromatolites, well done old friend.

Day 2: Kalbarri National Park “JUST LOOK INTO MY FACE!”

We started our day in Kalbarri National Park at Z-Bend Gorge (pronounced Zed Bend). Early in the day we hiked down its steep slopes into the gorge. It’s advertised as having a refreshing swim at the bottom. If by refreshing, you mean a stagnant pool overflowing with mosquito larvae, then yes, it is refreshing. In the wet season, lots of water flows though the gorge, making for a great swim, but we were not so lucky at this time of year. Still, a great site to see.

Next stop in Kalbarri was The Loop. We actually looked down from a cliff lookout into the loop, which is basically a dried up river bed that forms a loop shape, where we saw a family of grazing kangaroos.

The Smorgasbord

A big sight to see at Kalbarri is Nature’s Window. It’s a unique rock formation that appears to be a rock wall with a large square-shaped hole through the center creating a window and luckily for us, it was formed atop a giant mountain. So there happens to be an awesome view through the “window”. It’s mandatory for every tourist to sit in front of the natural wonder and pose for a picture. Our group of 12 girls and two guys (one of those being our tour guide, Ben) all sat patiently as an elderly man with his wife by his side took pictures of us with 12 different cameras, one for each girl in the group. I don’t know why we chose an old man to operate 12 different digital cameras, as it made it very difficult to watch this guy struggle to use modern technology, more often turning off the cameras rather than taking a picture. By the end, he had realized that there were only two guys out of 14 people. In his excitement, he yells, (in front of his wife) “Only two blokes and all these girls? It’s like a smorgasbord!” There’s nothing women love more than being compared to a buffet line of meats.

Of all the things we did in Kalbarri, abseiling down Z-bend gorge was by far the most awesome. If you’re there, and you happen to see “Abseil Rob” don’t miss the chance to abseil the cliff face. It’s only around $30, and you can do two abseils, so it’s well worth the cash. (Rob also leads half-day tours for $75) It’s not for the faint of heart, you’re very high up and many people struggle to face their fear of heights. Luckily for us we had a fellow American girl who wasn’t afraid to scream at those already terrified. She would look at them straight in the eye and exclaim “JUST LOOK INTO MY FACE!!!” As if this would cure their fear of heights. This obviously made her very popular within our tour group.

As we called it a day in Kalbarri the smorgasbord, and 2 blokes in tow, piled into the bus and headed up the cost towards Monkey Mia. We stopped to watch the sunset at Shell Beach, which as the name would suggest, is a beach made entirely of tiny shells. A great ending to a fun-filled day of excitement. “JUST LOOK INTO MY FACE!!!”

Day 1 of Our Western Xposure Tour: The Mysterious Pinnacles Desert and Sandboarding

We rose early June 9th to meet our Western Xposure bus tour (and guide, the awesome Ben Beverley) in Perth. After quick introductions, we hit the road for Namburg National park where we took a tour of the Pinnacles desert. These limestone pillars formed naturally over time, creating a forrest of eerie rock formations (including several several giant phalluses).

Then... SANDBOARDING BRO!!! Basically, it was sitting on a wooden snowboard and bombing down huge sand dunes. Matt crashed (he probably should have listened to the instructions), and one girl bruised her tailbone(again, listening to Ben could prevented this), but it was well worth it in the end, because it was awesome.

Later that night we stayed in the town of Geraldton.