Part Two

Ok so, to be completely honest, I forgot that I had to finish the last blog. I hope some faithful followers are actually reading this, because I'm putting a lot of work into it. I might also be in class right now...

In my last post I talked about being in Exmouth/Cape Range National Park which iisssss.....

...right here, where the A bubble is. That's the western coast of Australia! How exciting.

From there, we woke up at the buttcrack of dawn once again, separated from one of our cars so they could stay in Exmouth to scuba dive, and took a 6 and a half hour drive into the Pilbara, specifically to Karijini National Park. This is the part where it gets real good. I had been having some intense wanderlust up until this point and Karijini was my ultimate destination.
Seriously, I couldn't wait. Karijini National Park issss....

....here! A short little hike across the Australian Desert to Tom Price to fill up our gas tanks. Tom Price is nice. It's like an oasis, actually. You're speeding across the desert at 120 kph and all of a sudden you're visually blasted with a sea of green. Our first sight of fresh green grass in daayysss. It's all right that it's virtually isolated by miles of nothingness from the rest of the country, it's got a grocery store, a gas station, a skate park, and hot girls apparently. All you could ever need in a small town.

On to KNP!

In case you didn't know, KNP is famous for their gorges. Some would say it's a gorgeous place to visit. And it is. Ever been to Hamersly Gorge? No? I didn't think so. Sucks to suck. Imagine twelve sweaty hikers climbing down a gorge to find a clear, blue, freshwater pool surrounded by bright red cliffs (full of anticlines and synclines, Sydney Henderson) awaiting you at the bottom. Imagine rope swinging into the water and swimming down the gorge as far as you want to. Imagine swimming the other way, up layers of waterfalls and pools to find one carved out in a cavity of smooth rock with a small, warm waterfall pouring into one end. Ok, imagine it looking like this:

....No big deal.

We spent the rest of the day there, gettin' all wrinkly and stuff.

That night we stayed at an eco retreat, which is a fancy way of saying "regular-campground-with-little-huts-as-an-option-for-people-who-want-to-stay-in-luxury-and-no-garbage-cans-because-it's-not-environmental". It was cool, they had ice cream and beer. Just no places to throw the empty beer cans away. That was the night we were in bed by 7 and after realising it was nowhere near our bedtime, we went to go get snacks.

So, the next morning I took one of the cars by myself to go get a cool picture of the red road and the mountains in the background, because with all the dust created by our three car caravan the day before, there was no possibility of stopping for a picture without getting rear-ended by an unsuspecting Corey's car behind us. Amanda was unhappy. I wanted that dang picture.

GOT IT.

Off to see all the other gorges in the park! I mean, what can I say? Words cannot describe. Plus, I don't really want to make all my readers jealous.

Actually, I'm not too worried about it.

This was Joffre Gorge. We started out staring down into it from the top and then climbed into the basin. Breathtaking.

 This is Circular Pool. So blue. So cold. So refreshing. 

 This is Fortescue Falls. *Sigh*. Swimming under waterfalls.

By about 2 in the afternoon, Australia had kicked the you-know-what out of all the Bennies and Johnnies. I remember being unable to control my involuntary shaking because my body had absolutely nothing more to give.

The good news is....as a car, we were down to about one open-faced peanut butter sandwich, one and three quarters of a cookie, and a handful of mixed nuts per person until we could drive out of the park and get to the nearest roadhouse the next morning. I believe we had supper at 3:30, which seemed like a good idea until 7 pm rolled around and we were all waiting for one another to croak in the hot sun so the rest of us could have a decent, fresh meal.
Just kidding, but no joke.
Water? Wasn't too bad of a situation until crumbles of Molly's dinner ended back up in the community water bottle. If there is ever a really bad time to backwash, that was it.

'Twas a night of relaxation and bonding while we all clung to each other for survival. I awoke that night at 10 pm, either from the rocks, the black hole in my stomach, or the wild animal snoring in the sleeping bag next to me. From the campsite over yonder, past the outhouse and grove of trees, I heard boisterous, loud, American voices. I'm not sure why, but after listening to their conversation, I got a really strong impression that these people were my friends and I had a strong urge to go and talk to them. So I went in search for the source of the voices.
After searching in vain for a flashlight, I stumbled slowly through the trees to their tent, when I realised I didn't really know the best way to introduce myself to a group of people in a tent, in the dark, in the middle of the Australian Outback. Do I knock...? Like...give a bird call, shake the tent? None of those sounded like good ways to make friends so it went more like this:

Me: "Hey"
*continued boisterous conversation*
"HEY"
*more conversation*
"...HEEYY!!"
Tent: "...is that you Cassie?"
"No, uh...I'm...you don't know me"
"Um, hello"
"Yeah I'm just camping here. I uh...I just, yeah hey, just came to say hey"
"Come on in!!"

Five minutes later, I was spooning with 4 strangers from Boston who were studying abroad near Fremantle and who were traveling up north for Easter break. I don't even know what they look like because it was too dark to see anything.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Oh good lord. The next day, we got up at 6 and drove 16 hours home. My car was the best car. We had so many good road trip moments. Deep conversations, dance parties, video logs, road experiences, and good naps. It was lovely.

Our caravan also got pulled over on the way home, but being the wonderful Bennies and Johnnies we were, they gave us a warning and let us go. :)

Thank you God, for not letting anything go terribly wrong.

Australian red dirt. Gets everywhere.

What a fantastic trip :)

I'm so blessed.

Manders