THE ALLY WAY: 2014

These past few weeks were supposed to have been full of revision for our exams (two down, one to go!) but instead Freya and I have taken the chance to refine our procrastination skills... I've been really unmotivated to revise (probably something to do with the weather getting rather lovely) although the addition of some new felt tip pens really has aided the process - how sad is that.

But as part of my procrastination I decided to go to the Melbourne Cup last Tuesday! The ticket was $60 for general admission which is about £30 so I couldn't really say no could I? In my mind it was going to be a cheap occasion but then I felt the need to buy a new dress and hat... oops. I went shopping to get a headpiece and they are so expensive! They had a table of broken ones which I had a little peak at, found my hat reduced from $190 to $20 because it was missing the hairband so I bought a hairband for $4 (sneaky me!) - bargain.

The Melbourne Cup is a 3200m horse race held at Flemington Race Course. Unfortunately because we were in general admission we couldn't go to the parade ring but we lucked out and ended up sitting right by the finish line and where the horses come off the track!

It was such a fun day, the sun was shining, the bubbly was flowing and everybody was very merry.

The gang

One each to begin!

The guys next to us ended up winning $2000 on a race so were more than happy to keep buying the bubbly which suited us just fine at $38 a bottle...

Unfortunately I didn't win a penny, thank god I only bet $25 because luck was certainly not on my side! Clearly picking a low ranked horse on the off-chance it might win and get me big bucks was not the tactic I should have taken... Better luck next time eh? Chloe managed to win $80 on the Melbourne Cup race, and cried with happiness (might have had something to do with the bubbly..)

Finish line is the white post!

After the races had finished we headed out and had a little boogie before bumping into a couple of people from Exeter - small world! Freya, Soph and Al decided to continue the part-A out in Melbourne and headed out to a bar/club/god knows where, they can't remember either..

The weather is getting really nice now finally, and on Sunday we were invited to Pete and Anne's (family friends' friends) for lunch. They kindly picked us up then we had nibbles (paté and chutney - heaven) roast pork AND roast lamb with roasted vegetables, champers and eaton mess for pudding?! DIVINE. We had such a nice day and had a dip in their pool to cool off after lunch - they were so kind and utterly spoiled us!

Yesterday it was really hot, so we decided to go surfing with Seb and Sam. We left at 8 (unbelievable commitment there) with the boards strapped to the roof, and got to gunnamatta beach in Mornington Peninsula just after 9. Despite having been surfing before, I am still shockingly bad but it was great fun - and completely exhausting - and my arms are aching like mad today from the paddling! The currents were quite strong in the morning but then it all calmed down and the rest of the day was really good. The surfers there were incredible! One day.... (in my dreams).

On Wednesday Jess messaged me saying her plans after her Melbourne visit had fallen through, so I (very easily) convinced her to come on a sponta trip to Bali with me on the 26th November for a couple of weeks! So researching that has given me extra fuel for procrastination and I am so excited!! (and very broke). We get back on the 14th and then Mark arrives on the 15th (eeek!) We are just trying to finalise our adventure - booked the sydney harbour bridge climb for just before new year at 3.55am to see the sunrise - so bloody excited!

Hey pals,
As you probably know, the other week in our spring break, Freya, Jess and I headed out to the vast expanse that is West Australia for a wicked cool road trip. I made a little map so you can follow my stories...

DAY 1 | MELBOURNE TO GREEN HEAD | 27/9

Our flight was at 6.15 in the morning, which required us to be there at least an hour before, and we live about an hour away. However, due to lack of car, we were going to have to get the last bus and train into the city at 11.30pm. Bit of a nightmare. We were just having a little moan about it when one of the guys in our halls piped up and offered us a lift all the way to the airport at 4 in the morning - what a gem! People are so nice here! Despite getting to the airport a mere 15 mins before checkin closed, and nearly pooping my pants with nerves as a result, we merrily hopped aboard the plane and had a good ol' snooze before landing 4 hours later into a beautifully rainy Perth.

Two hours and a cup of tea later, Jessie landed (needless to say there was much rejoicing and hugging) and we bustled into a taxi and headed off to the car hire place, Wicked Campers. If you type in wicked campers into google, nearly everything that comes up is "DO NOT GO WITH WICKED CAMPERS UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES", but considering they were the only company willing to hire to under 21s, it was our only option. Apart from the fact we had to wait an age in the queue to get the keys, it was actually a dream! This was our car, Geraldine the trusty Nissan Micra.

Freya started driving first, and the brakes were so sensitive we were all on the verge of getting whiplash within 2 minutes of leaving the rental place. But after a while she got in the swing of it and we were on our way! First stop was Nambung National Park, a beautiful desert with these amazing rock formations. We got there just before sunset, and it was absolutely stunning.

Had a little run around, saw our first wild kangaroo, jumped off a few rocks, took a few pictures and then we headed off again to Green Head, our first stopover.

We popped the tent up on top of the car and headed to the BBQ to make some burgers - WITH PINEAPPLE - yeah. Pineapple.

Then we ended up chatting to a couple of hilarious guys at the campsite before heading to bed in our cosy but comfy little tent.

DAY 2 | GREEN HEAD TO HAMLIN POOL | 28/9

Bright and early the next day we made some french toast on the BBQ for breakfast, packed up and set off in Geraldine. First stop was Geraldton to grab some food and an aux cable, then we sung our way to Kalbarri national park. We stopped off and decided to have a cider with our ham and crisp sandwiches but hadn't bought a bottle opener so struggled hitting it on rocks and the like until a nice man decided to help us with a screw driver (It was only when we were in Perth finishing off the crate that we realised they were screw tops...).

Then we headed down to the river gorge where we frolicked

Jessie trying to make friends with Freya

Freya trying to hug Jessie

From Kalbarri, we headed to Hamlin Pool, our next stopover. We got there as the sun was setting and it was beautiful, but then we discovered that we couldn't pay for the campsite with card so had to go back on ourselves to get more cash out and ended up driving back in the dark which was terrifying (kangas are very active at night and there are a lot of dead ones on the side of the road...). But we made it and set up and my god were the stars amazing. Genuinely the clearest and most beautiful night sky I have ever seen. After another burger dinner we headed off to sleep.

DAY 3 | HAMLIN POOL TO MONKEY MIA | 29/9

In the morning, our first stop was Shell Beach on the way to monkey mia. It is a beach made entirely of little shells and is bloody beaut!

At it again

Then we carried on to Monkey Mia, in an attempt to be there for the daily dolphin feeding, the main attraction. Unfortunately by the time we got there, all the dolphins had been fed and we were bitterly disappointed so decided to stay the night there and get up super early to see them in the morning. We parked Geraldine and then headed off to the beach with our snorkels. Whilst we were just chilling on the beach after nomming on some chips in the sunshine, I saw a little fin in the distance.

DOLPHINS.

We leapt into the water with our snorkels and swam like maniacs out to see them. There were about 8 of them and we were in touching distance, I could hear their clicking underwater it was absolutely incredible! Then some woman from the beach shouted at us to stop swimming after them as they preferred it when you stayed still... oops. We were so overexcited we didn't get any pictures but it was amazing!

Then we went back to the campsite where we were chased by an emu and had to make our sandwiches on the steps to some apartments for fear of being attacked by it. One person was always on emu watch whilst the others rapidly buttered and filled the sandwiches - a very stressful situation, I'm sure you'd agree. We booked onto a sunset catamaran cruise which was so much fun, it was so pretty and as we were docking up we saw a sea turtle and Freya was so excited that she burst into tears bless her. After that we sat with some bevs (such lads) and ended up talking to some guys from Newcastle. They were really funny but completely took the mick out of us when we went to bed at 9...

DAY 4 | MONKEY MIA TO CORAL BAY | 30/9

We woke up really early to go to the dolphin feeding at half 7, only a handful of people actually got to feed the dolphins (sob) but we were still pretty chuffed at having swam with them the day before. They told us in the feeding talk that it was illegal to approach a dolphin within 30 metres (little bit late for that eh). After that we drove up to coral bay, passing over the tropic of capricorn, parked Geraldine, popped the tent up and went to the beach to see the sunset [pictures to come]

DAY 5 | CORAL BAY | 1/10

We ended up staying in coral bay for two nights so we could properly enjoy the day without driving anywhere. After bumping into our friends from Newcastle at breakfast, we went on a little glass bottom boat coral viewing tour, then went snorkelling in Ningaloo reef for an hour or so. It was really pretty, we saw loads of funky fish but no turtles (Freya was gutted). When we got back, we went to this fish feeding thing they put on for the little kids in the school holidays. You stand in the shallows and they give you fish pellets and these MASSIVE fish come and swim around your legs and eat the pellets. I wasn't having any of it, completely freaked and was squealing and running out the water whilst all the little kids held it together - very embarrassing. Then we swam from the beach to the reef - it is so close! - and had another little snorkel. I had my underwater camera with all the pictures on but haven't got the cable for it at the moment so can't actually get those photos yet... After we walked along the shore to try and see some reef sharks, but we got the timing wrong and missed it, oops.

DAY 6 | CORAL BAY TO KALBARRI | 2/10

Thursday was mostly spent driving from Coral Bay to Kalbarri (it was about 8 hours) but we stopped off on this very little mountain/ fairly large hill for lunch. It was a funny little spot, piles of rocks with random items that had RIP messages and really sweet notes on them looking out over the landscape.

In Kalbarri we stayed in this place called the Big River Ranch, it was really nice and had chickens, turkeys, rabbits, a sheep and a goat, a long with loads of horses. In the camp kitchen there was a TV so we ended up watching the finale of the bachelor australia (Jessie said she hated it but I think she loved it really) and talking to this lovely woman that had been on the road in her camper for 100 days around Australia, she must have been well over 60 and was so cool! Jess had a cup of tea as big as her head.

DAY 7 | KALBARRI TO GREEN HEAD | 3/10

In the morning we went for a dip in the pool, then went on a horse trek down by the river! Jessie was so excited she could hardly sleep! It was really hot but we went into the river (our feet were properly underwater) which was fun, and Jessie went on a canter a couple of times with the guide that looked like Chris Martin.

Finally we set off and drove back down to Green Head (although I was aimlessly following the car infront and went completely the wrong way, minor detour, pretty scenery, overall improved the journey I reckon) where we camped for the final night.

DAY 8 | GREEN HEAD TO PERTH | 4/10

We packed up and shot off back to Perth to be back in time for midday. Having cleaned our beloved Geraldine, we said farewell and were picked up from the rental place by Will (friend from Melbourne) and his friend Israel. They took us on a mini tour and we stopped in King's park which was gorgeous. It was so sunny and so green!

After that we went to the beach, splashed about in the sea, had half a litre of icecream between Frey, Jess and I and learnt how to boot an australian football!

Will's friends were so lovely, they drove us everywhere and we went out for dinner, then a few of their friends came over and we had a pretty crazy pres before heading out to connections in Perth - my first gay bar! It was so much fun!! Will and Alex even let us have their beds for the night because we had been sleeping in a tent for a week, what gentlemen!

DAY 9 | PERTH TO MELBOURNE | 5/10

Everyone woke up feeling pretty ropey so we trundled off into Leederville and had such a delicious breakfast! I had poached eggs and bacon on toasted ciabatta, english breakfast tea and a berry and almond slice (naughty).