The West Coast and Moving On

If you aren't familiar with the map of Australia, I'm now in Perth,

the West Coast, it took a 6 hour plane (yup Australia is huge)

from Brisbane but I made it.

I spent my first few nights in Costoloe beach, it's a very

family orientated area and very beautiful. For example, I went for a walk

on a Monday evening around 6:30/7pm to watch the sunset and as I

did it hit me how different the lifestyle is in Australia, there were

families with their babies, children, teenagers on the beach, swimming

and just enjoying the sunset. The beach was full at 7pm on a Monday evening, 

and when you compare that to home, everyone would be inside, most

likely sitting in front of the TV ready to watch tonight's episode of

Eastenders. There is such a big difference in culture and I love it,

I love Perth.

Shortly after I moved to Fremantle, it's just half an hour East (I think,

geography is not my strong point, this is where I need Erin) of Costoloe. 

Here I met Isabella, she's Norwegian and I've spent all my time in Fremantle 

with her, we've been typical tourists really, we went

to Fremantle Prison, shopping, museums, we went on bike rides, 

spent days at the beach, we even spent one evening on a beach around a 

camp fire which was very Australian and lots of fun. 

Fremantle Prison

The guy who lived in this cell in Fremantle Prison was called

Peg Leg Pete, he was in prison for abusing women and children,

he had anger problems and the only way to calm him down was to let him

paint and so his prison cell is full of the most beautiful and detailed paintings.

Fremantle has a lot of stories of the many shipwrecks that 

happened here over the years, when we went to the

Shipwreck museum I learnt so much about the History and this one 

story I read was my favourite..

 *que story time*

The ship 'Stefano' set sail from Austria in 1875, it hit Ningaloo reef

and in the heavy sea the ship was quickly destroyed. The Captain who was

the eldest of 25 drowned alone with most of the crew except 10 survivors.

The survivors reached shore with no food or water, they began to look

for any washed up supplies and soon found some barrels of water,

A few days later a small group of Aborigines from the Payungu Tribe came

to their camp bringing a chart which has been washed down steam from the wreck.

A week later they were suffering very low on supplies and so decided to split

up into two groups, one party found the Aboriginal camp who gave shelter,

food and water to them, the rest of the survivors later met up with the other group

and they decided to continue south into the increasingly inhospitable country. 

In December a huge cyclone hit the coast and due to having

no shelter they felt the full force, only 2 boys survived, 16 and 19 year

old boys who later turned to cannibalism of one of their dead

shipmates as a way to stay alive. They decided to turn back and

look for the Aborigines who had twice helped them before, they started

to head inland and were lucky enough to find them, they stayed with them

for 3 months and were nursed back to health. The Aborigines knew of a ship

that often landed onshore up north and so that's where the Austrians

headed. As soon as the ship landed they picked up the boys and took

them to Fremantle where they stayed for a few months, they later arrived home

and became celebrities. The Aborigines were given blankets and food

as a thank you for their hospitality. 

I LOVE learning about stories and the history of Ausralia and so 

yesterday I went to the Island in which is very famous for all it's shipwrecks.

Rottnest Island, it's just a 20 minutes ferry from Fremantle 

and it had the most beautiful beaches and reefs I've ever seen.

On the Island there is these little animals called, 

Quokka's, so the easiest way to describe a Quokka is

a little kangaroo/guinea pig/squirrel, they are only native

to Rottnest as they died out mainland due to the foxes and snakes.

They're super cute and always look like they're smiling so as soon

as I arrived on the island I met and stroked a few of those.

I also met two girls there, one Aussie and one Scottish, they knew

the island well and so we went on a 25K bike ride around Rottnest

(my bum is still in pain). Coming from the fens I particularly

struggled because I was not used to 

all those steep hills! As Rottnest is known

for all of the shipwrecks that have occurred there

we went snorkelling and saw some of the most beautiful 

fish and reefs! I had the best day and 

now my time in Perth is almost over. I move to Perth CBD in

two days where I will stay for just a day and then I begin my journey

to Thailand.

I'm excited to start my next part of the trip, especially to see 

Erin and Megan, but it'll of course be sad to say goodbye

to Australia, however, there is a saying I learnt from

someone in camp, it's not goodbye, it's just see you soon.

So, see you soon Australia,

Lots of love

Robyn 

xxx

A Belated Blog Post

So good news, I'm still alive, in my last post

when I said I was in a mojo bubble, it definitely got worse and I

got very lazy with keeping people up to date with my life

however, I am back now for a very belated blog post.

So here's a quick catch up from camp life, I used to work in Linen

however the last 3 weeks of camp I was moved to kitchen, being me 

obviously I enjoyed kitchen because it meant I could eat whatever I wanted.

It also meant I had unlimited access to the huge fridge which

was great because I found a huge box of marshmallows

which i'd snack on almost every day. Last month me and some friends

went on a road trip to Dorrigo waterfalls which was so beautiful, we spent

the day swimming in the waterfall, taking a nap in the sun and eating ice cream,

it was actually one of the best days I've had so far. 

Oh, here's some scary news, there was

a huge storm in Fiji a few weeks ago so it 

meant the swirl was HUGE, it brought 12ft waves to 

Arrawarra for the whole weekend,

but because of that everyone was banned from surfing. The rips were so strong

and the waves were ridiculous, it would have been dangerous to let us surf.

 I was out Friday morning surfing,

(so this was when the waves were building up to a huge weekend of surf) and 

during the time I was out there the waves were getting bigger and bigger which

made them harder and harder for me to catch and by the end it was just me

and Alastair out back and we were stuck there so our surf instructor had to 

come save us because the size of the waves were just unreal and so powerful!

The last thing I feel like I should talk about is my singing in camp (mainly if I

was with all the Swedish) I spent so much of my time working and singing,

serving food and singing, walking around camp...and singing, it just became 

part of my every day life and its shame it's not acceptable

any more to walk around and sing at the top of my voice.

My time in camp ended last week I'm currently in Surfers Paradise with 

Rob and Sue (family friends), 

I arrived Thursday last week which was the day I left camp.

Leaving camp was one of the hardest things, it was like

leaving behind a family you know you're never going to see again.

Everyone there becomes very close and I was so comfortable

spending my days surfing and walking around familiar surroundings

with familiar faces everywhere I looked. I miss it now,

I miss the people, I miss my bus (that's where I slept) and I miss

the surf, I took for granted waking up every morning and walking

30 seconds to get to a beach but I'm happy I left on a high.

Leaving a place wanting more is how it should be and now I have 

so much more to look forward to, one part of my trip has ended which

just gives a chance for a new adventure to begin.

I hope when I travel Asia (specifically Bali) i'll be able to rent

boards and surf as much as I like because surfing

has definitely become something i'm so passionate about. I feel like this post

has become about me trying to reassure myself it's ok aha, it probably has,

ever since I left camp I thought about what if I went back? The thing

is, if I returned I wouldn't be going back to a camp

I left because it would be different people and so I need to appreciate

that I was lucky enough to have the best 2 months in a place i've fallen in love with, 

that I met some of the most amazing people and finally that all

good things must come to an end. 

My next step is to fly to Perth for a few weeks and then at the end of March Asia begins.

I'm excited for Asia but i'm more excited to see Erin and Megan, travelling

without your 2 best friends is harder than I thought and although I 

wouldn't change it for the world what I've done so far I still can't wait

to see their beautiful faces again.

That's all I have for now, I'll leave you with some of my favourite photos

with some of my favourite people

from Spot X..

lots of love,

Robyn 

xx