Saturday - Sightseeing and Working

It was nice to have a lie-in this morning. It isn't something that I've been able to do for a long while, what with working, and just generally getting up early for no apparent reason. Anyway, today I snoozed until about 9 in the morning when Eddie (wearing Red) banged on my door, and reminded me that we were going sightseeing today. Dutyfully I got ready, and off we went. We collected two nurses who also are staying in the halls of residence -Britt, who is Dutch, and Joanne, who is from the USA.

We went to a place up the road from Geraldton called Kalabari. It is a small holiday beach resort, and is in the middle of a national park. The drive there was about 2 hours.

It isn't a very big place, and after we drove through it once, thinking we were on the outskirts, we turned around, and stopped in the town centre.

We had some fish and chips on the beach (it is a very Australian thing to do, as well as an English pasttime), before paddling in the water, committing genocide to a colony of flys - I can understand why you would want corks dangling from your hat, or even more fetching (we saw an old couple with them) mosquito netting attached to your hat - and then after looking around the place, we started to head back.

Kalabari national park isn't very spectacular from the main road as most of the places to see are down dirt tracks, and on the way home we decided to take the coastal route, and stop at a few coves to have a look around.

We stopped at one place called Red Bluff, which has fantastic layer upon layer of Red Rocks that look like they have sprung right up out the sea. You'll see how big they are, as I have climbed half way up them.

Further down the coast we came to a small village called Port Gregory. It was supposed to have some convict ruins, but all we could see was a unspoiled cove and beach, with some people fishing off the pier/jetty.

Fishing is a pasttime that the Aussie's love. Everyone (men, women, and children) seems to do it or talk about it all the time, and watching these folks, I can understand why. They just chatted a lot, and relaxed with a couple stubbies, not really seriously fishing. It is just another way to get out of having to do anything to stressful.

We did have to hurry back after that, as I needed to work in night. That is what I'm up to now. I'm at the ambulance depot on my own, with a list of phone numbers. If I get a job, I start at the top, and try to call in a volunteer to come and help me. Real pressure to know that I am the only paramedic on duty in an area (counting the highways) that is something like 150 miles south, 300 miles north, and inland for what might be eternity.

Just before coming on duty, I heard about a very bad accident on the highway about 50 km south of here. At 1 in the morning, that would be me in the hotseat. I'm glad I got some relaxing in today!!!