The Day I Hopped the Fence

6/14/16

I woke up early AGAIN. I'm really getting sick of waking up early/not being able to fall asleep/not being able to stay asleep once I finally do fall asleep (lol jokes on me because the reason I'm typing this out right now is because of the reasons just given and it's like 5 months later lol). It's really getting old, especially since these days I don't have very much time to sleep to start with.
Once it was finally time for me to leave (which was still really early), I made my way down to the train station (sorry these area bit out of order, the train station in Perth, Australia).
Thanks to staring at the screenshots of Google Maps for a long while, I didn't get lost this time! It's actually really close by. I love how centralized my hotel is, even if I do believe it's haunted.
At the train station, I noticed everyone had printed their entire confirmation email (like 6 pages) even tho I only printed the first page which was like the ticket part. I started to internally freak out a little bit. Then I saw some people with only one page so I attempted to calm down but then I saw the one pagers' had a barcode on them. Mine didn't. Cue that begging praying that God can't possibly like yet I continue to do it anyways. Grrreat. Then we start boarding and I notice the ticket collector isn't scanning anything. Bless him. He just checks the name off the list.
Was it me or was he American? The more tired I am the harder it is to tell and I don't know if he has an American accent or if I've unintentionally slipped back into the Aussie thing that sometimes came out without my knowledge/consent in middle school (once people started pointing it out, I just called it a redneck/country/Texas/southern English accent lol). Mind you, middle school was way before my first trip to this great country; I guess it was just ingrained in me. Could probably blame the Wiggles or those kid songs I grew up on that I recently found out are actually Aussie songs and no one in America has a clue what I'm talking about or what a kookaburra is. Now that I think about it, the fact it's in a gum tree probably should've tipped me off. Oh well.
So anyways, back to the train. So the guy must've read my mind (they are seriously so good at that here!) because randomly, he comes into the car and is like "New Jersey, USA" and I'm just like yeah, American. Ride on, brotha, ride on (okay that last part I just added while writing in my blog book but I was pretty hype he was from the states because that meant I wasn't going crazi[er]).
I get off at my stop in Byford, and it's literally in the middle of no where. Like where are the taxis? Which way do I go? I've no idea.
I see a sign for a parks and rec building so I start in that direction, but after a while I turn around. I use my roaming data to try to get an Uber, but it isn't loading. I see a church with lots of cars and figure I'll go ask them, but some lady pulls up and asks if I need help. I asked her how to get to the koala park, hoping she'd give me a ride because I know it's only a mile away. Instead, she just tels me to go over the railway tracks and it's 10 minutes walk down the road. I ask her if I can because there's a big barb wire fence surrounding the tracks (and lots of no trespassing sings) and she's like "yeah, people do it all the time" so I'm like "okay thanks" and she leaves.
So I make sure nobody's looking and there's no train coming and I cross the tracks. It's not suicidal if you don't want to die, right? Woo, made it. Now for the fence. I walk along it for a while, yeah it goes all the way around. The gate is probably locked but I'll check it anyways. Yes, it is chained and locked and even I can't squeeze through. Okay, I'll have to climb. To make sure I'm not seen so I don't go to jail or get deported or fined, I got back into the wooded section. Oh great, there's a pole I can use as a step and part of the fence is already bent. I throw my suitcase over and hop onto the pole. I try to bend the fence more so as to put the pokey things down so they won't get me. It works a little, not a lot, but it'll have to do. I slip my head through, no problem. I get one leg mostly through, but from this angle it's impossible to bring in the other. Back under goes my head. I'm very thankful for my big coat, for without it the barbed wire on top of the fence would've destroyed me. So now my first leg is through. The second doesn't fit in the little hole of bent down spikes and has been speared so that my pants are caught. I can't keep going or my favorite jeans will rip. So I kick my shoe off and squeeze my toes around the fencing to stay on while I use my hands to free myself. Finally I unhook my pants from all caught parts and ducking back under, I free myself and jump down onto my suitcase. Thank God the fence wasn't turned on so I didn't get electrocuted.
Woo, I did it. Now that I think about it, crossing railroad tracks and hopping barbed fences was probably lowkey on my bucket list I've never written. I mean it's in like every movie; it's like a right of passage for livin in the middle of nowhere as a teenager. Well I live in the middle of nowhere and I'm kinda a teenager and I finally hopped a fence across the tracks and didn't go to jail. Looking down at myself, I check my body. Besides a little scratch on my hand, I think I got away scratch free. Awesome. Time to go to the koalas.
I'm walking and I'm walking. There's a sign on the road for some bandicott thing. What is that? Idk. Keep walking. Man I wish I brought that water bottle. Oh well. Keep walking. Are we almost there yet? Awe man. Another sign for that b thing; this one with a picture - a rat! AW NO! If I see a rat, I'm gonna scream so loud and jump so high imma land back in America! Ya girl does not do rats. Aw naw man. No way. Walk faster. Oh look, a brown sign. That's probably it. Keep going. You can do this. You did not just climb a barb fence to not get your pic with a koala. Keep walking.
Finally I'm there. Yes. Man this is a long driveway. Omg a wallaby! Two of them! Just chillin. How awesome. I keep walking. Finally I'm at the gate. I open the gate just to be greeted by two alpacas (llamas?). Amazing. I wish I could spend all day or at least a few minutes here but I'm already running way late. In, picture, out. So I don't stay to play with the animals and I go to the entrance to get my koala pic.
The lady takes me into some room to wait for her to bring me a koala. I see all the koalas, sleeping. I wish I was sleeping. I see her go get a eating koala and bring him to me. She makes me wear a vest then hands me eucalyptus and the koala. I don't appreciate wearing the vest because although it protects me from his claws, it totally covers up my shirt and I wore this shirt on purpose because I also wore it the last time I held a koala. It's my koala shirt (even tho it has a zebra on it). Man. Whatever. There's no real photographer/camera so the lady takes pictures for me on my phone. I've upgrade from just holding a koala to feeding a koala in the past 4 years. I take the eucalyptus into the same hand I'm holding Jimbo the koala in so I can take selfies with him. No offense to the lady but the selfies turned out better.
Okay great, I got my picture, now it's time to go. The lady at the desk is calling me a taxi while I try Uber again. Although I'm using the data charges, I have better luck this time and soon an Uber picks me up to rush me to the airport.
I don't like talking to people. That's not an unknown fact. But this guy is talking to me and it's nice. It's friendly talk and nobody's talked to me in so long. Then we get going well and no more talk. Man, my ankle hurts. Maybe the barbed wire did hurt me. Let me check. Nope, it's fine. We keep driving. A while later, my leg starts to hurt. Ah, my ankle was fine, must be mental.
Finally we make it to the airport. I already have my boarding pass on my phone (I knew I'd be late) so I just check my gate and go. There's not a soul in security. Lovely. I go through and the machine goes crazy. I've been selected for the random screening. Great. Why does this always happen to me? And always when I'm not a million hours early. But the lady knows I'm clean so it goes super fast and soon I'm at my gate.
The ATMs downstairs weren't working and I need money for my shuttle to Coral Bay, but thankfully there are two ATMs near my gate. The first one rejects both of my cards. The next finally works. Mmm I smell fried chicken. They feed us on Qantas, but if I see fried chicken, I'm gonna get some. Oh, what's Red Rooster? I check it out. It's like Australian not as good Chickfila! Yes! So I get a crispy chicken. I eat it all before we are called to board the flight.
As I'm eating, my leg continues to hurt. So I give in and check it. It's bleeding. Like kind of a lot. Oh well, nothing I can do about it now. Score 1 for the fence. (Update 5 months later: there are scars on my leg. I'm very proud)



Once they announce boarding, we walk for what seems like forever to get to the plane. It's a 100, so quite small but larger than the one I took to Christchurch. The plane's not very full; I'm glad they didn't cancel it. They feed us meatball paninis, crackers, cheese, and drinks. The flight is less than two hours, domestic. & we get meals. I love Qantas!
I read about different ways to enjoy the Great Barrier Reef in my Qantas magazine in the seatback pocket. At Haggerstone Island, one of the private island way of enjoyments, the article talks about "but the family - which grew with the arrival of son Sam in 1994 and daughter Tasha three years later"! Uh, hi, hello. My name is Tasha and I was born three years after 1994. Man I have to go there and meet my twin one day.
Outside the windows I literally have desert to my right and tropics to my left. It's amazing. So cool. & I'm seeing all of Australia like I wanted to. We land and there's no signs of the tropical waters I saw from the sky but I know I'm going there.

For now, I am in the Great Australian Outback. No doubt. How cool man.
On the forever long drive to Coral Bay, we passed sheep, bush, rock, cows, bush, rock, grass. All seemingly endless. I don't know what the rocks were doing there/how they got there but I swear they're trolls, just like the ones from Frozen. They even looked alive! There were kool tho.
Then we got to Coral Bay. Our river gave us the tour before dropping us off at our accommodations because the whole town is one road, 300 metres long. We're literally a beach on the edge of the desert. How trippy, man.
I'm quite tired and this post seems quite long so I'll just make Coral Bay Day 1 it's own post.

2012 v 2016

Until next time,

xoxo,

Tasha