Easy Ridin'

After a much needed day off in Perth I set out north to explore the western coast of Australia. My eventual goal was Exmouth, a small outback town known for its outstanding scuba diving. The because I did not have my own car, the cheapest, easiaest, and best way to go north was on a backpacker tour bus. After getting several recommendations I signed up with Easy Riders.



I showed up at the Easy Riders shop just after 7:00 in the morning and slowly other people on the tour began to trickle in. Right around 7:30 a small tour bus showed up towing a trailer for all of the bags. This was going to be the transportation for the 1500+ km journey from Perth to Exmouth. Bags were thrown into the trailer, we piled aboard, and off we went. There were a total of 14 passengers on the bus, representing 7 nationalities: German(2), Irish(4), English(4), Swiss(1), Austrian(1), American(1), and Taiwanese(1). The vast majority of the people on the bus were in couples, which was a bit of a bummer, but hey, you get what you get.

The bus driver/tour director was a Perth native named Darren, who had been driving backpacker tour busses in Australia and Europe for years. Darren was a great driver and also a great informant of local history. He knew the names of all of the flora and fauna as well as many aboriginal legends associated with the places that we visited. He also provided details about the region from the time of its discovery up to the ongoing giant mining boom. In addition, and most importantly, he came out drinking with us in the evenings at the local pub. His girlfriend Emma, who was a riot of a good time, and did an outstanding job of keeping Darren awake during the long stretches of nothing was along as the copilot.