No elephants or rhinos on this Safari
 
It’s just as well the Northwest Safari, especially the two days at Coral Bay, was towards the end of Valentin’s time as our inbound student on Rotary Youth Exchange, because the way he described it, every other “amazing” experience this past 10 months would have been placed a distant second at best.
 
Each year the inbound RYE cohort is offered the opportunity of participating in a 19 day bus tour of the Northwest of WA.  There were 35 students from all over Australia this year, including 24 from WA.  They came from 23 countries.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Among the highlights were ’the amazing flora and fauna in Karijini Gorge” which included kangaroos, emus, dingoes and lizards; interacting with Aboriginal students at a Karijini boarding school; the visual impact of the redness of rocks and the soil of the landsca"millions of flies" who tried their best to get in everyone's ears, eyes, nose and mouth.  
 
 
The group also had a cultural exchange experience with Aboriginal leaders at Monkey Mia, which included trying to learn circular breathing to master playing the didgeridoo, and using the clap sticks making music to enhance dancing.  One of the leaders cooked fish on the fire and also offered all of them a taste of camel stew.  Now that would have been a cultural experience - the flip side of which might be eating horse meat stew in France.  (Warning: on the menu it’s called Chevaline!)
 
The best place by far was Coral Bay, where they spent 2 days. Apart from the fact there were no flies, this also included dolphins escorting their boat, and the opportunity to swim with whale sharks and turtles, but not with the tiger shark that swam under their boat. 
 
Valentin seems confident his parents will make the long journey to Australia next year so he can show them around, and Coral Bay is certain to be on the itinerary.
 
 
 
 
If you missed the presentation, you can here it here: