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 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.

How We Won a $10,000 Trip Across Australia!

Hello! Or G'Day Mate!

We would like to send a HUGE thank you to TNT Down Under Magazine, OZ Experience, and to everyone who watched our video on YouTube! If you haven't seen it quite yet, what are you waiting for?? Check it out at:

OZ Experience TNT Down Under WINNING VIDEO!

And if you're still hungry for more awesome CazzMatt videos check out our incredible YouTube page to see some of the funny videos we made on our travels, like swimming with seals, ZORBing, and feeding birds out of my mouth, which grossed out my mom.

So after watching our winning video you’ll obviously see sex sells and by that I mean a fat guy running around in his underwear.

First things first, let us introduce ourselves. We’re are the dynamic duo Cassie and Matt aka CazzMatt! We both hail from the San Francisco Bay Area, we recently finished University, then took off to farm in Hawaii , from there we joined 2 good friends from the farm and backpacked all over New Zealand, and now we're working and living in fabulous Sydney.

We can't wait to get started on our AWESOME adventure all over Australia!! Basically we get what's called the Fair Dinkum Pass, which allows us to travel all over Australia for up to 6 months.

We'll start by departing from Sydney, which has been our beloved home for the past 6 months, but more importantly we're getting away from our LAME roommates! Shortly after leaving Sydney we'll arrive on the West Coast of Australia in Perth where we embark on a 10-day journey heading North to Broome, all thanks to Western Xposure. Naturally we'll be doing cool stuff all along the way like hiking through national parks, feeding dolphins in Monkey Mia, and swimming with whale sharks. Then we'll make the leap to Darwin where we'll wrestle crocodiles and swim with them in the Cage of Death! How awesome does that sound?! A CAGE OF DEATH! Crocodile Dundee would be so proud.

Then we hop on a flight to Cairns, maybe spend a few weeks there, sail the Whitsundays through the eco certified Explore Whitsundays, snorkel the Great Barrier Reef, and not pull a "Shen Neng" and run a ground on a precious coral reef.

From there our details are a little uncertain. We have the choice to take as long as we want down the East Coast, so we might take our time, maybe work, and then finish traversing down to our beloved Sydney again. We keep heading south to Melbourne, then make the swim to Tasmania, and back up to Adelaide. Lastly, we shoot up the center of OZ, while taking in the sights at Uluru (The giant red rock) and finish back in Darwin, for more CAGE OF DEATH!!

This is going to be the trip of a lifetime and we're looking forward to bringing everyone along for the ride, please make sure to subscribe to our blog and watch our ground breaking videos of our crazy adventures.

Cheers,

CazzMatt

How to Find a Job in Sydney and not have it SUCK!

Now that we had a phone number and address to slap on our resumes, we set out to find work. Job hunting probably sucks even more than apartment hunting. Be ready to hear “No” a lot. While Gumtree is helpful, it’s best to just hit the streets, show up in person, and don’t give up. One roadblock we hit was backpacker discrimination. Many employers assumed all backpackers looking for a job would end up moving on in a couple weeks, and leave them high and dry with the same position to fill yet again. It’s important to set yourself apart from this stereotype by telling potential employers that your plan is to stay in Sydney a long time, duh. Also, chain stores like Cotton On or Gloria Jean’s, are less likely to hire backpackers, so look for privately-owned restaurants or stores. Another great thing with family owned business is they’re more willing to pay “under the table”, which eliminates high tax rates. Matt interviewed at a Cotton On clothing store for a managerial position but after a group-interview was notified that they weren’t interested, which is for the best, because it would suck to work there!! Not that he’s still bitter about it or anything.

Matt found a job at a nightclub in Darling Harbour as a “glassier” or “bus boy”. IT SUCKED! It sucked so hard. Working till 3am, getting home at 4am is not a normal life, unless you’re a vampire. Then it’s very normal. Thank god Cassie found a good waitress job at a respectable restaurant, and they just happened to be looking for another person, so they gave Matt a shot and it all worked out! A common practice for employers is to give potential employees a test run. Which means they call you in and you work for 1 day, sometimes at your own expense (i.e. no pay). As long as you don’t set the place on fire, it’ll work out and they’ll hire you. So that’s what happened, and Cassie and I were fortunate enough to work together at the world-famous, 1^st class, gourmet restaurant: The Hyde Park Barracks Café! Another great part of working at a restaurant is, if your boss is as awesome as ours was at Hyde Park Barracks Café, they’ll feed you after your shift, and our restaurant was a great place to eat.

If you plan to work in the food service industry, like as a waiter, bar tender, etc. You must have a RSA (Responsible Service of Alcohol). It’s a one day class where you sit in a classroom and listen to an old retired bar tender lecture you on all the crazy drinking laws in New South Wales that everyone seems to ignore anyways. It’s more like a punishment, like Traffic School. But it’s easy, and afterwards you can legally work in a food or drink service establishment. We took our RSA in Bondi; it was the cheapest, like $60 or so. Also, to work in Australia you obviously need a Working Holiday Visa and a Tax File Number (TFN). The Visa you can and should apply way before you even get to OZ, but the TFN you can only get when you’re here and have a permanent address.

It’s important to dress the part. The standard uniform for working in most restaurants and bars is a black t-shirt or button up, so if you plan on being a waiter, it’s a wise investment to buy a black shirt. Cheap options are available at K-Mart or Paddy’s Market. If you can, choose the latter of the two. Paddy’s is a cheap, dirty underworld in China Town; it’s awesome! It’s literally underneath a real mall and it’s packed to the rafters with knock-offs, discounted tourist crap, and food that I wouldn’t really trust. Hopefully you’re familiar with the Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes 1993 summer blockbuster, Demolition Man. In the movie there exists a dirty, noisy underworld buried away from the daylight where filthy under-dwellers eat rat burgers. That’s what Paddy’s is like. It’s a must see and there are some great bargains to be had, at Paddy’s that is. Demolition Man is good too.

Working visas differ for different countries. As Americans we can only work at one place for 6 months and 1 year total in Australia. European residents have the option of picking fruit for 3 months to re-new their working visas allowing them to stay much longer. Also, don’t come here and assume a University degree will automatically land you a job. We both have B.A.s from San Francisco State, but we’re waiters, obviously college was a giant waste of time!

So when it’s your turn to start looking for work in a wild hurry in Sydney, remember our tips:

o      Have a personal phone number for prospective employers to reach you at.

o      Grab a black shirt, and wear it when dropping off resumes and at your interview, too.

o      Get your RSA certificate and TFN number early.

o      Don’t rely on only the Internet to get a lead on a job. It can help, but it’s not the end all be all.

It’s best to show up in person, shake hands, and hopefully find a job that doesn’t totally suck.