I miss you, I'm coming back home to the west coast

I am currently in Broome, and I have never been so hot in my life. I literally think I am dying. We aren't even allowed in the ocean because its stinger season. Its just like being in Cairns again! But without the glorious lagoon!
So this west coast trip has been fantastic! it started out a bit rough as we had to get up at 5am to get downtown to perth, and there was a mix up and the bus was late so we didnt end up leaving until 930am. Kind of annoying, but all the people on our tour bus were super friendly, and the manager promised to get our tour guide to buy us some booze when we got to our first destination. No worries! we spent the whole day driving to a hostel and then we made delish chicken satay. Woke up bright and early at 430am to get started. Awful! We spent another day mostly driving and got to Denham pretty late. Its the most westerly part of Australia! So now I have been to the most southern, eastern and western part of Oz, as well as the highest point. and apparently the most northern point is in accessible. I've done well! Next morning we got up at 6am (sleep-in, haha) and went to Monkey Mia where we fed dolphins and chilled out on the beach all morning. It was glorious. The dolphins came really close to us when we were swimming, it was quite cool. Then we drove to Coral Bay, which was a really nice town, but so small no one got cell phone reception! The next day we spent snorkelling and chilling on the beach again. I also learned how to sandboard, its not too hard, similar to wakecoarding because you have to lean back, but also like skateboarding because there are no bindings. Anyway, the only bad part is running up the dunes on burning hot sand. And the dune was really steep too! On my 3rd attempt, the guide decided to massively wax my board and I bailed really hard, you have to buckle your knees and make sure not too put your hands out, or you can easily break your wrist. I fell properly and didnt break anything, and Gerbert caught it on video, it looks so funny! I was absolutely covered in sand. we also swam in a shark nursery (where its illegal to swim..oops!) and watched a school of fish get attacked by a shark, really cool to watch! That night we drove to Exmouth and stayed at a lovely caravan park. haha, on the way we played a quiz game and split up the bus into 2 teams and losers had to do dishes and make dinner. Needless to say my team was ahead by about 15 points when the host decided to make the final question worth 10 points AND the winning question. And our team lost. So annoying! But it was a really fun game, and i lost my voice from shouting out "Moo" which was our team's buzzer and the other team's was "baa". Hilarious. Big thanks to Becky for her vast knowledge of Celeb info, which helped me answer heaps of questions!
The next morning we went to a beautiful gorge to take photos and then snorkelled at Turquoise bay. I have never truly enjoyed snorkelling until that day. The reef was literally about 5 steps from the shore. I saw so many fish up close and I finally full-on swam with a shark! I was really scared at first because i had gone off alone to a far part of the reef and I knew the shark wasn't a harmless reef shark because i had seen those before. so when i saw this massive shark I actually squealed underwater, definitely sounded like a tool. The shark stopped swimming and it was a really fat, long shark with a massive dorsal fin. So I just stayed still and then it started to swim away so i followed it for a bit and then thought this could turn out really badly so I swam in the opposite direction. Saw an octopus, angel fish, moray eel, brain coral, lettuce coral, sea cukes, and much, much more! Normally I end up choking on water when it splashes over the snorkel, but the water was so calm I had no dramas! Oh, turns out the shark was a lemon shark and they rarely attack, so it was all good.
that evening we went out to the beach with the rose goon our driver bought for us and played beach volleyball, silly games and the like. I left early because I was tired and luckily one of the boys wanted to leave too so I didnt have to walk home alone. Meg did walk home alone and got lost and hitchhiked with some random people who took her to a party and she didnt get back to the caravan park until 430am! Crazy girl. So Mom, I am not the craziest backpacker, you should be glad I am not hitch-hiking to random parties! haha.
The next day we had a long bus ride to Karijini National Park, population 6, 15000 square kilometers. Huge. we camped out in swags (weird mattress-type contraptions that you slide you sleeping bag into, and do not protect you from bugs or rain). The flies were out of control. They fly directly into your eyes, nose, ears and mouth because the place is so dry they go to moisture. I had bought a fly net at a rest stop earlier and i must say its the best 5$ ive ever spent. Once they are off your face you just feel so calm and they are still swarming you, but you just dont hate your life and can actually have a converstaion. I wish I had gotten a full body one for fraser island. We spent 3 nights in Karijini and visited amazing gorges everyday. They were so beautiful, the oldest visible rocks in the world, apparently. One afternoon we went to a little gorge where you could swim quite far down and our guide left us after a girl fell and dislocated her knee. She was from Paris and spoke decent english but when she was in shock she couldnt speak english anymore, so luckily I could translate for her. So our guide took her back up teh insanely steep rocks we had just climbed down, while the rest of us swam. it started to rain a little bit when we were at the far end of the gorge and we heard someone yelling from the top, we thought it was someone from our group so we headed back to the rock climb to get out. took our sweet time though. Found out after that rain can cause flash floods in gorges, yikes! That morning another of the french girls had ran into a tree and cut her forehead open and it was bleeding wildly. its scary when this type of thing happens because the hospitals are like 3 hrs away and all we have it basic first aid. luckily there were 3 nurses on our trip so both girls are ok now.
The day we left karijini my ipod died, it just won;t turn on. I am so gutted, that ipod has been so key for keeping my sane on our ridiculously long bus trips. So I am really sad. I tried charging it and everything, but it wont turn on. I have been saying for ages that I need a new one, due to the now awkward engraving on it, but I was hoping it would last a bit longer, its only 3 and a bit years old! Stupid Apple and their crap technology that doesn't last....
Anyway, we camped out again at a cattle station the next night and one of the boys in our group professed his love for me. I shot him down nicely and went to sleep under the stars with the girls. It was lovely, but I spotted a scorpion right before I lay down, which really freaked me out. So I didn't sleep very well that night. Next day we drove to Cable Beach. Its gorgeous here in Broome, but just too hot. Our lame tour didnt book us a room with air con (even though I paid 2100$ for it!!), so we upgraded and then realized they only turn it on from 6pm to 6am. But its better than nothing. I took a shower at the hostel but literally couldnt get dry because i was sweating constantly. Filthy. Our group went to the beach for drinks and then out to a little bar. It was nice. I left early because I was so tired and on my walk home I got really lost. That was an adventure, especially because Broome is known for being quite dangerous at night. But I made it home a few hours later, safe and sound!
This afternoon I plan to stay in the pool all day long and drink my orange crush. love it. My life is so tough! Taking the bus back to Perth tomorrow. Its a 3 day drive. We have already driven 4700km in 10 days and now we are driving 3000 km back in 3 days. should be great. especially without an ipod (and no where to buy one here in tiny Broome).
Love!