We woke up feeling exhausted, the time difference was a bit of a challenge (we are 3 hours behind Perth), however we got ourselves up and out of bed.
Here are some pics.
Our view from the balcony:
Male all flagged up with political fever. When we arrived last night, our taxi actually ran into a protest. We has to reverse out of the street. We were pretty safe and we got to our hotel soon after.
Some cool street art.
The AMAZING WATER! This is the water in the harbour; you know, where there is usually murky water with junk everywhere and rotting seaweed? Not in the Maldives! It's turquoise blue!
Kev and I had a free arvo and I asked him if he was willing to help me achieve my weird goal to walk or run around a whole island. He didn't hesitate to accept the challenge. We ended up walking for about an hour and 15 minutes to finish a complete loop around the island of Male.
We were super proud of our walk! I was gloating at accomplishing this mission!
The walk allowed us to appreciate things that other tourists wouldn't see, like where the army stay, where the landfill is placed, volleyball courts!, a lap and paddle pool created in the ocean by the locals so that they could swim!
We are now chilling in our room and are going to rest up as tomorrow we take the seaplane to the Maldives Whale Shark Research Program (MWSRP) base and start our volunteer role!
I'll try to blog when we get Internet access, however, I do not know how frequent that will be!
Your post really made me nostalgic! It's true! So much time as passed since we started this blog and you were off on your adventure! You were leaving and I was sad. I felt like you were moving forward and I felt like I was stuck in my job and in life.
I was sent to the airport by my parents. It was sad to say goodbye to them, but for me, if they were not at the airport, it wouldn't be the same. Haha. They've always sent me off!
Our flight on jetstar was far from relaxing. We barely got any sleep and when we arrived in Singapore at 5am, little did we know that we wouldn't be sleeping till 1am the next day!
Because checkin was at 2pm, Kev and I decided to walk around Singapore and find some food. We walked a good 15km and had sore achey feet by 3pm. We then had a quick nap before meeting up with Jnet and Darryn for dinner.
I'm so happy that you get along with your housemate :) I hope to hear more about how you guys get along!
I also really enjoyed hearing about your observations of your new life so far! Amazing that those kids know about K-pop! Who would have thought!? How did they know about it?
How long is your drive from work to school? Must be awesome not having to deal with traffic jams!
We spent a lot of our weekend driving at 110kmph. It's quite a liberating experience. As I looked out the car windows, I noticed that I got this 'expanding' feeling and a sense of freedom when I looked out to see empty space rolling on, and on, and on. It's the same feeling I get when I look out to the ocean on my runs. I love it. It just feels like the whole world is out there waiting to be explored and I feel like anything is possible!
On Saturday, Kev and me together with his Mom, Brother and Sister-in-Law decided to go to Bluff Knoll in the Stirling Ranges. However, from the early hours of the morning, it was grey and dreary with a constant drizzle.
Here are some of the snaps taken throughout the day.
Kangaroo riding an emu up ahead
Wild drive up to Bluff Knoll
A token 'snap' at Bluff Knoll
What we could see at the parking spot at Bluff Knoll
The weather in Mount Barker was completely different to Perth; wet and cool at 15 degrees! So when we arrived at the car park of Bluff Knoll, we quickly realised that it was not the ideal weather conditions to go walking. It reminded me a bit of the time that you and I went up to Mountserrat in Spain. We could see the clouds which were moving so fast through the rocks! However, this time, the clouds had wind and rain with them, and so we had to make the decision to give Bluff Knoll a raincheck for another time.
We then decided to give 'Castle Rock' a try. The weather didn't seem as wild as Bluff Knoll, and we were pleasantly surprised to experience a lovely cool walk up. The cloud and rain cloaked over the tree tops, creating a luminous white diffused light and delicate black silhouettes of branches that stretched higher and higher.
The rain and mist on top of the trees
Walking up
A photo request of Kev's which turned out awesome!
Fiddalee-dee he's touching it.
A natural frame. Loved this!
One of my favorite snaps - this is what we saw for most of the walk.
If you hear a 'cooo-ing' noise in the video, its not a pigeon. It's a Kev-pigeon.
When we reached the top of the climb, near the lookout of Castle Rock, we saw all these awesome rock formations. Obviously, we couldn't help but do some fun poses.
Kev's awesome upper cut
Me doing the 'THIS IS SPARTAAAA!' kick
When we finished posing we reached a sign which told us that we had two different paths to choose from; the Karri Lookout or the Castle Rock Summit.
The Karri Lookout was a easy 50m walk to a bridge which allowed you to look out in one direction.
The Castle Rock Summit however, required a 65m scramble. This included climbing up 2 sets of rocky walls, and then a ladder which takes you up to the sky walk on the summit. At first we thought we would just do the Karri Lookout as it was still pretty windy. However, after seeing the Karri Lookout and feeling slightly deflated (didn't seem much of a challenge), we decided that we would do the 65m scramble to the Castle Rock Summit.
Climbing up to get to the lookout
At the base of the look out
We then had a narrow corridor before climbing up the second wall.
Kev on the ladder.
The ladder was by far one of the scariest parts. The wind howling through the grates and the rain lashing on you while you climb up this wet and slippery ladder which was high above the ground, made me freak a little. But I 'just kept climbing, just kept climbing' (in a Dory-like voice) and started humming a random happy tune to keep me going.
When we got to the top, it was the weirdest sight ever. It was as if we had reached the edge of the world. Where there was nothing else beyond where we stood. Just white emptiness.
Sky walk leading to no where
Our confusion
This was our view looking down from the sky walk.
We weren't disappointed, if anything, it was a slight relief that we couldn't see out and below us as if we could, we would have probably freaked out more when the wind and rain thrashed against us.
On the way down, we took some more fun photos:
It was such a cool, fun and adventurous weekend. Kev and I were happy that we could try out our new 'outdoors wear' such as our trekking boots, Icebreaker thermal wear and for me, my new waterproof jacket and water resistant pants. All items proved well worth the money and are definitely things we will pack in any upcoming holidays... *hint hint*
I've awoken to the sweet voices of kookaburras calling and other birds singing in the light morning showers.
It's completely quiet. I do not hear any hint of the ocean near by which is quite unusual. There's no dog, no cars passing by, no wind; just the birds and quiet.
Kev and I are currently in Mount Barker, just north of Albany. As you can see in the screenshot below where the blue dot is.
Today we will drive to Bluff Knoll to climb it in our new trekking boots and other travel gear. I'll give ya an update when we get there.
In the meantime, I thought I'd give you some pics taken during our drive down yesterday :)
We left Perth CBD and drove past Gosnells.
Then past Kelmscott.
Then continued down Albany Highway.
We made a short pit stop in Williams, which brought back childhood memories of going to and from Narrogin.
...and then we just drove on and on.
The photos are pretty ordinary, but they do truly represent the route we took :)
