Lost Key But Found Bush- August 7, 2019
We were supposed to meet at the pier by 6:30 AM for the dolphin feedings. Apparently, the local Monkey Mia secret is once you are in the water the park rangers can’t make you get out. Once that clock strikes 6:45 AM it becomes a no swim zone and they will not let you enter the water. I rolled over, looked at my phone and noticed it was almost 8:00 AM. Over an hour later than we were supposed to meet. I panicked, thinking I had overslept and that no one bothered to wake me. I looked around the room and to my surprise no one else was awake either. PHEW! One by one I see blankets start to rustle and bed heads begin to raise. Knowing we had missed our chance to be in the water for the feeding, we nonchalantly make our way down to the beach where the feedings take place.
The dolphins didn’t seem to be hungry yet though . After an hour of us waiting patiently by the water for a sight of the dolphins they still didn’t come. Did I mention it was freezing outside? We collectively decided we were done waiting for these dolphins that may or may not come and left the beach. Most left to have one more glorious shower, others to pack and some to even go back to sleep. I went on my own to the gift shop to have a wonder. I just love gift shops. All the little knickknacks everywhere. I could spend hours in them just meandering through the aisles. It was weird to me but this gift shop had some jarred and canned food items. I stumbled across some pickles. Not the good American kind but the less sucky Australian kind. A night after drinking and all I want is something salty, and juicy and pickles are my favorite things so this was a great find. Just as I was paying, I heard on the speakers that the dolphins arrived. Since I hadn’t gone very far, I went back to the beach to see what it was all about. If I’m being honest, I wasn’t very impressed. The dolphins pretty much looked the same as when they were swimming which we saw yesterday before getting on the boat. I guess I was expecting some Sea World feeding action because that’s all I’d ever known, but that wasn’t what happened. These dolphins are in their natural habitat and are only fed at the feedings about 10% of their daily food requirements so that they don’t become reliant on the human feeds. The rest of the time they must catch their own food in the ocean.
I got bored of the dolphin feed and started wandering back to the hostel. On my way back, I spotted a nice breakfast spot and decided to stop there. As I was walking in, a bunch of people from the Daisy Bus happened to be walking in as well which was a pleasant surprise. We sat and had a nice buffet breakfast together. It was way overpriced but I think we were all taking full advantage of the “luxury’ hostel living while we could. We knew it wouldn’t be long until we were back in the middle of nowhere bush camping without toilets, showers or nice food.
Our breakfast came to a sudden halt when we received a message from Monica in our WhatsApp group chat, “Cam says bus will be here in 2 minutes and wants everyone to be good to go in about 5 minutes”. Chuckling because we were all still eating and hadn’t packed yet, I knew there was absolutely NO possibility in that happening.
Surprisingly we made decent timing to the bus considering many of us were eating breakfast, fighting hangovers and hadn’t packed only about 20 minutes earlier. Then we hit a roadblock. Cam had lost the key to the trailer. What exactly does that mean? The luggage portion of the trailer that hadn’t been locked the night before could open at any point during our trip, which meant that Cam had to drive slower than usual and be extra careful. This wasn’t ideal especially since it was a day of pretty much straight driving for hours. Other than that, it wasn’t a big deal….until it was.
We stopped for lunch at this cool place on the side of the road. At first it seemed just that, the side of a road. Then you step outside and look over the hill and you see this big open area with names and designs made of rocks from other passersby. I immediately knew I needed to be a part of this attraction! Myself, Dec, Jamie, Emma, Rachel and Liam braved the steep, slippery and rocky descent down to the bottom while everyone else prepared lunch. I was in thongs and a dress and neither were appropriate for the climb down but “slow and steady wins the race” and I eventually made it to the bottom without a scratch on me. One by one we each took turns gathering and placing small boulders and rocks until they formed the letters D-A-I-S-Y. A small way for us to commemorate our trip thus far.
Luckily the climb back up to the bus was much less terrifying than it was going down. What was however unsettling, was getting back to the bus and realizing we couldn’t access most of our food. It was locked in the part of the trailer that was actually locked from last night and we no longer had the key. This wouldn’t be a big deal, but then you think of worst case scenarios: The bus breaks down; There’s no roadhouses for hours and 24 people are stuck without food; There’s no phone service for who knows how long, etc. I know my brain is being a bit dramatic in these thoughts but we are literally in the middle of nowhere and all of my Aussie friends have put the fear of death in me from when I drove the outback last year. I’m brought back to more normal, rational thoughts as some with tiny arms and hands sacrificed their body and slipped it through the tiny crevices of the bins to get out all they could from the food containers. Lunch was a bit of slim pickings since there was so much we couldn’t access but there was enough there so that no one went hungry.
After that little lunch hiccup, we were back on the road on our way to where we would spend the night. Tonight’s sleeping location was the one that many on the trip were dreading, myself included. It was 100 percent bush camping. No toilets. No sinks. No showers. No lights. No nothing.
We arrived just before dark and it was SO windy! Emma was MIA and I was attempting to pitch the tent myself. Every time, I thought I had one side almost down, the wind kept picking up the tent and flying it away from me. In the end I gave up trying to do it myself and just waited for Emma. Even with two of us it was a chore. By the end, our tent ended up about half a block farther from the place we originally anticipated pitching it and I couldn’t have cared less. It was up, and luckily, just before the sun had completely gone in for the night.
It was finally time for a much needed drink as we anxiously awaited for Chef Ben and his sous chefs to make green chili curry. Dinner took what seemed like forever to make and we were all so hungry. My gosh, though, was it worth the wait! It was so delicious and we all agreed we would like Ben to cook for us every night. The remainder of the night was sat around the fire, having drinks and chatting just like every other night so far. Tonight we had the addition of roasting marshmallows. It’s one of my absolute favourite things to do and I was so happy. The thing that made me happiest of all though, when I left the fire and the bus area and headed to my tent. It was like I had entered a magical universe. Stepping away from the brightness of the fire and the lights made the sky completely glisten like I had never seen before. It took my breath away and it was all I could think about as I drifted off to sleep.
Catch me if you can…
Jo Mo