Pre Historic

While in Broome we took a very long trip up to Geikie Gorge for a boat trip with a lot of history. Carved out by the waters of the Fitzroy River, traveling through feels like taking a trip back through time. Or as one tourist site put it 'show glimpses of life before reptiles or mammals evolved'. 

Pearling Around

By far my most favourite thing that we got up to this holiday was spending an afternoon on an old pearl lugger. It was even more poignant as this is the field that Hipster Dufus's father specializes in, having started off as a marine biologist. He later became a pioneer in his field, even receiving an Order of Australia recently. This vintage beauty was from way before his time of course, although updated to include a mini museum inside showing the history of pearl diving. The boat tour took off in the early afternoon and sailed around until sunset. Nibbles were passed around throughout the tour and there was even the option to jump into the sea for a swim. Just such a wonderful experience.

Boome colors

From beautiful wine country to deep dark magical caves, it was then off to Broome. I am completely obsessed with the natural colours of western Australia. The crisp blue skies, the green foliage and then the rich red dirt. Totally unique, unlike anything I've seen. This beach so typically showed these typical colours that I went snap crazy.

Dragons and darkness

During our road trip we ventured down into the depths of the earth. Literally. Down some 300 or more steps it was all fun and games on the way down. I've never seen caves before so I was mesmerized if not a little scared. We went to Lake Cave, one of many at Margaret River. It was amazing and hearing about the history was so interesting. It was incredible to think that in the 1900's a little girl decided that it was a good idea to travel into dark caves to see what was in there. Her bravery back then worked to my benefit. I also like the idea that no cave is complete without a dragon, which this cave had. See if you can spot it in my pictures. Then we had to climb back up the stairs. That was NOT fun.

Wine Country

Frist stop on our visit to Australia was down south of Perth to Margaret River. As Perth is so small we wanted to see something new and Hipster Dufus wanted to show me where he holidayed when he was a young boy. The only sad thing about it was that this is the second time we've travelled to a wine region where Hipster Dufus can not fully enjoy the benefit of the experience. While I would make the perfect designated driver (I don't drink wine) I don't know how to drive. Nevertheless we survived, picking up a few bottles along the way and bringing them back to New York with us.

Fabulous

Finally I've managed to shake off the jet lag from Australia, catch up on pressing issues and sift through the mountains of photos I took. I really tried to be careful but I did see a lot of new things this time round and loved getting in the practice after a few months of no inspiration. As these were obviously far too many photos for just one post over the next couple of weeks I will be posting digital albums of the various regions of Australia (and Dubai) that we explored. 

But I really wanted to just start with the flight there. For the first time ever I got to experience a business class flight and wow! It's hard to think that people spend this much money on just one trip. But I have to say of all the flights that you want to travel in comfort for, a 26 hour flight to the over side of the planet is probably the one you want to splurge on. And even then the flight was still brutal. It was fun though, from the flat beds to the excess baggage allowance. The super wide TV screens to the 3 course meals served on real china. This apparently is how the other half live.