Diagnosis Made, Prognosis Favorable

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  Kununurra, Western Australia, Australia
Thursday, May 15, 2008

Man is a goal-seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals. - Aristotle

I can describe Western Australia in one word: Vast. My average bus trip is over eight hours, whereas my average bus trip in NZ was only about three or four hours. I've been working my way up the coast, stopping in places like Cervantes, Geraldton, Denham, Coral Bay, and Broome.

Since my last post, I returned to Perth to meet a veteran Couchsurfer host. We had a pretty good chat about random things, and I was really interested in her work because she was involved with international development efforts in several parts of the globe. The next day I took the bus to Cervantes, which is famous for the Pinnacles Desert in Nambung National Park. Basically, there are stone pillars coming out from the ground which are continuously covered and uncovered by wind-blown sand dunes. I would've enjoyed the park more but after many unsuccessful attempts to find a way there on my own, I caved and paid $45 for a tour. I think my bitterness finally faded the next day after I was long gone. Only then did I realize the natural wonder of it.

I had a pretty bad time in Geraldton, mostly due to the fact that a lot of people there are some combination of shady, crazy, and drunk. I walked around with another traveler I met in Cervantes, and we ended up at a hostel that was occupied mostly by migrant workers and not travelers. I was placed in a twenty-bed dorm room, which is pretty horrible despite the fact that it wasn't very crowded. Unfortunately, the bus service wasn't operating the next day so I had to wait around for two days. I switched hostels for the second night but it still wasn't very good.

Later on, I went to the town of Denham in a region called Shark Bay. Due to the bus schedule, I had to spend four days there, so I made friends with several other travelers and the resident kangaroo. It was orphaned from a young age, so the hostel owners were rehabilitating it until it gets old enough to go out on his own. You can tell he lives there because he greets everyone there very warmly and has no shame when scratching his male parts. The most famous thing that Shark Bay is known for is a beach where wild dolphins visit every day. I stood in knee deep water and the dolphins would pose for pictures and swim within six feet from me sometimes. The next day, I rented a scooter to see some of the other sights in the area, including Shell Beach (which is composed entirely of shells), Eagle Bluff, and points in between. The scooter only had a top speed of about 55km/h and I was on roads with a speed limit of 110km/h. To pass the time while driving, I tried listening to my iPod but it had no battery power, so I ended up belting out Frank Sinatra hits at the top of my lungs. I also realized that being on a scooter gives people a certain impression of you, but I don't quite know how to explain what that impression is. Some people probably think it's nerdy, others probably think it's interesting.

Next, I went to Coral Bay which is famous for the Ningaloo coral reef which is only a few hundred feet from the beach. I rented some snorkel gear and swam out to the reef, first by myself and then after lunch with some girls I met at the hostel. The marine life there is pretty incredible, and I saw some sea plants that I could never have imagined exist.

After a 19 hour bus ride, I ended up in Broome where I met some really good people who have the same travel mindset as me. The town is famous for Cable Beach, considered one of the best beaches in the world. I feel like Aussies say that about a lot of their beaches, and the country has many unique and amazing beaches so I'm not sure if that makes my personal list of best Aussie beaches. Finally, I'm in Kununurra after a 14 hour bus ride resting for the trip to Darwin.

As I look back, I met some good people traveling up the coast and some of them had the same opinion that traveling solo in Aussie isn't very easy. I was happy to hear that because now I know I'm not the only one who thinks that way. More importantly though, through introspection and a few conversations with people, I realized that the major reason I wasn't feeling really great traveling in Aussie was the lack of appropriate goal setting and achievement. For those of you who haven't taken a goal-setting workshop at school or in the workplace (or for those of you who don't have an older sister who took a goal-setting workshop at work and periodically tries to hammer the principles into your brain), goals are supposed to be SMART - specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. Even though this trip is supposed to be a break from the real world, living for a while without goals has had a negative impact on me. In New Zealand, even a simple goal like finishing a challenging hike was enough to keep me motivated and high-spirited. Here in Aussie, however, I haven't had any specific goals to work toward. The good news is that I've identified the major cause, and when I visit the east coast I plan to do a farmstay where I can work for a few hours a day in exchange for board and meals. I guess an honest day's work is good for the soul. Man, I am turning out to be just like my father.