24.10.2004

Am currently sat in a nice air conditioned internet cafe and is heaven - this country is far too chuffing hot!!

Well so let me see, last time i wrote was chilling out in beautiful Coral Bay, that afternoon i went for a walk round the bay and saw LOADS of reef sharks, was brilliant, standing in the sea and there are sharks about a metre in front of you just swimming around minding there own business - very cool. Spent that evening drinking lots of wine and demonstrating the reason why i will never be a professional pool player - also met a lad whose grandparents live in Pewsey - how spooky is that, this world really is far too small at times.

The next morning i think i had been possessed by aliens, either that or had drunk my mind away the night before but for some crazy, unexplainable reason i put on a snorkel and mask and entered the great ocean. Standing in the water one of the girls i was with told me to practice with the snorkel before swimming out to where the fish were (just the thought of it made me start to hyperventilate) so anyway being the brave little soldier i am i stuck my head under and oh my chuffing god, these fish had obviously never watched 'Finding Nemo' so hadn't realised they aren't meant to swim past the yellow markers and the big buggers were right by my feet.

Now i am first to admit that i am quite prone to exaggerate (a fact that some men are grateful of!!!!) but these fish were chuffing big. Even the other girls around me got a shock when they saw them. Now for someone who is scared of fish seeing lots of them right in front of you is not much of an enjoyable experience and i had very successfully managed to perfect the art of screaming through a snorkel within about a second. After lots of deep breaths and tight buttock clenches i managed to put my head in a couple more times before i then legged it back on to the beach promising myself to never do anything so stupid ever again!

Then headed out of Coral Bay towards Exmouth and went to Turquoise Bay which really was paradise, beautiful blue sky, clear water and white sand (am i making you feel sick yet?!) was heaven and spent the majority of the afternoon lying on the beach reading and thinking how brave i was after the mornings activities. Some of the others went snorkeling again but i funnily enough decided against it - been there, done it, bought the t-shirt (which in fact i actually did!) and don't intend to do it again. Sat in the sea and there were loads of the buggers (think it may be a conspiracy) they were all looking at me so decided the beach was much safer.

Spent a few nights in Exmouth, were staying on a caravan/camp site that had lots of wildlife (why oh why did i come to WA for gods sake) open the door in the morning to see an emu on the patio, go to the toilet amongst cockroaches, moths and many many biting little things that decided i tasted nice so kept having a nibble. Getting fed up of screaming spider or snake we decided to name them puppies and kittens so it doesn't sound quite so bad - sayings that are now used quite frequently with everyone - is very amusing to hear a bloke shout 'be careful CJ there is a puppy down there"!!!

Exmouth was nice but not somewhere i would want to stay for a long time, was nice to have a couple of days there though, went on a few bike rides and one morning walked down to the beach at 6 am and watched the boats going out.

After leaving Exmouth we headed to Tom Price and oh my god was it hot - 42 in the middle of the day and i was officially sweating like a pig! Don't understand how people can live in this kind of temperature all the time - is just not nice.

When we stayed in Tom Price we really were in the middle of nowhere, stayed in these little huts and on arrival walked over to the shower block. Just walked in to the shower, took my very sweaty clothes off, turned the taps on and stepped under the water to then be looking at the biggest bloody spider ever right in front of my face. Was really like nothing i have ever seen before in my life - was about the size of Poppy (my cat) i screamed lots of very unlady like words and the other girls all started screaming and trying to kill it but the little (or not as the case was) s*itbag ran on to the ceiling - trying to wash your bits with an enormous bloody spider on the ceiling right above your head is REALLY not an enjoyable experience and one which i never want to repeat again in my life.

Out the shower and off to our room - to find out that there is a snake on the loose near our rooms and that the owner had just caught a poisonous one round the back so had driven off to set it free further away from our beautiful 5 star rooms!!! Right then - sweet dreams for us!!

Up early in the morning (thank god - get me out of this hell hole!) we went to Karijini national Park and went for a 3 hour hike - round the gorges. Was absolutely stunning - but VERY VERY hot! Went to Dales Gorge, Circular Pool and Fortesque Falls - was beautiful.

Then (really, seriously - what has happened to my brain) i somehow got bullied in to getting in to the fresh water pool that when you looked in you could actually see all the fish swimming around in. And to top it off there was a sign to say that there were serpents in there - yes, exactly - why would you get in then?!! But for some bizarre reason i did - and screamed for the whole swim across to the waterfall. Sitting on the rocks under the waterfall with the sun beating down was definitely worth it though (although had nearly not made it as screaming and swimming at the same time apparently don't mix and am surprised i didn't end up swallowing one of the fish the amount i was choking).

The view from the waterfall was breathtaking though, surrounded by beautiful cliffs and Rocks. Was just like that scene in 'Cocktail' only distinctly lacking Tom Cruise!! Was all well and good till i had to swim back and looking off the rock could see all the fish i had to jump in to - joy of joys! Am very brave though and obviously managed it otherwise i would now be living as a cave person!

After leaving Karijini we went to Port Hedland to spend the night. Got in to bed, just drifting off to sleep, when through my blurry vision saw something move out the corner of my eye. Suddenly woke up and looked down to discover lots of bugs crawling around on my sheet - yep you guessed it - bed bugs. Well so much for sleep tight don't let the bed bugs bite - woke up in the morning (although how i actually managed to get to sleep i don't quite know) and had lots of bites all over me - woohoo!! Back on the very hot bus (air conditioning kept breaking down) we began the long drive to Broome, stopping at 80 mile beach for a quick swim and Roadhouses for quick loo breaks (saw some massive geckos, a grass snake - and had a wee to then realise there was a frog living under the seat of the toilet as it's legs moved when you flushed it!) and arrived in Broome on Friday night. Went out on the piss Friday night which was a great laugh and then yesterday spent the day trying not to die in the heat before going out for dinner last night.

And there we go life of Ceej - is all bloody fab, still traveling with a great group of people and are having lots and lots of fun. Planning on going to the cinema tonight, beach and Camel ride at Sunset tomorrow and then heading up north on Tuesday morning. Will be going to Katherine, Kununura and a couple of other places i cant remember before getting to Darwin and meeting Dad and Sal on Friday. The 4 day trip should be very interesting as we will be camping out in the wilderness again, but am starting to convince myself that surely i will get used to them soon - will i?!!! Should be great though as am doing a few boat trips and a helicopter trip over the Bungle Bungles (whenever we are talking about that i always want to ask about Zippy and George!!).

Hope everything is good with all of you, spoke to mum yesterday and she said that is now cold and raining - my heart bleeds!!!!!!!!

Having the best time ever but missing you all, loads and loads of love and big huggles Ceej xxxxxx