Work rocks, play rocks

If there was one place in Australia that I’d always heard about it was Shark Bay. This place is of major geological importance as it houses the only living stromatolites on the planet. These single celled symbiotic algae formations are responsible for the formation of Earth’s atmosphere today and so we have these to thank for all of the life on Earth. Shark Bay is 600km’s north of Perth and there was plenty to see in between the two places. I’d never been camping before so me and an Australian companion, Agent 182, decided to make a trip of it and tick off a couple of things on my list of firsts. 

Agent 182, being the typical I-man-you-woman Aussie guy, told me I needed myself alone and he would organise everything... 

Leaving Perth at 6am we drove for 200km’s before reaching our first stop: The Pinnacles. These are limestone formations standing 30cm’s to 3m’s tall in the middle of a desert landscape. They are a spectacle; odd intrusions poking up like cement gravestones from a lush green field. There are two theories on the formation of The Pinnacles but no one knows for sure and so the odd formations continue to draw in visitors from all over who marvel at their strong presence in an otherwise baron landscape. 

The Pinnacles

Half way between Perth and Shark Bay is Kalbarri; a small town with a National Park boasting and exquisite gorge cut through vibrant sandstone. First we took in the view from the top of the gorge and were silenced by its arrogant beauty. Such a huge ‘crack’ in the Earth created by a trickle of water, so edgy and unpredictable in its shape, colour, texture, yet simply beautiful; the bright red, orange, yellow of the sandstone against the perfectly blue sky that went on forever without a cloud in sight. Next we climbed down the gorge by way of huge natural steps and narrow rock passageways; jumping, hopping and skipping, eager to reach the bottom. The temperature cooled the deeper we went as we were surrounded by a saturated sandstone and it was refreshing compared to the heat at the top. Finally at the bottom we wandered left and climbed and explored the riverbed, examining the shapes carved by thousands of years of flowing water and those marks left by inhabitants of the sand before it was stone. Although vast and unforgiving the gorge was explicitly peaceful with only the noise of the small stream and the odd bird. I don’t know how long we were down there for, just absorbing everything, but no amount of time would ever have been too long. We stayed in Kalbarri for two nights, not in a tent but in an expensive hotel suite complete with spa bath. This was the high before the low, the calm before the storm, the splendor before the slum...

Kalbarri National Park

Another early morning and another long drive along the straightest of roads you’ve ever seen(!) and finally we arrived at Shark Bay, World Heritage Site. It had taken most of the day and it was time to pitch our tent and go to the store for supplies. Despite reassuring me, Agent 182, had indeed forgotten the, some might say (Australians might say), more womanly items including cutlery, crockery and all thing domestic! Thankfully we were staying in a campsite that had a BBQ area and so we rustled up some finger food and drank from plastic cups. Sitting beneath the stars we gazed up at the array in the sky identifying the Southern Cross and Milky Way. With a full belly and feeling excited about the next day’s activities I retired to my tent for a rather shockingly good nights sleep. 

The next day we ventured straight out and headed for Hamlin Pool; home to the stromatolites. Entering a small area of land labelled ‘campsite’, you immediately think you’re in the wrong place. Truth is you are in a once a very important repeater station for telegraphs; established in 1884 it repeated and passed along telegraph messages connecting the growing northwest of WA. Moving shorewards is a small open pit quarry from which ‘bricks’ were carved out of conglomerated shell debris to providing a local building material. Past this you can see the sea and at this point you are eagle-eyed trying to spot the main attraction. A short walk and you are presented with a purpose made boardwalk over first the dead stromatolites and then the living ones. They are not stunning or special looking just simple rock mounds of varying shapes and sizes about half a meter high (just below the surface of the water) and up to one and a half meters in diameter. Although they are far from being the most visually exciting things I have ever seen but the visit was humbling. A reminder that the introduction of something so simple can have such a profound affect on the future and that such small things should never be underestimated or taken for granted; everything has it’s own part to play in this world.  

Stromatolites

After visiting an array of other sites, Eagle Bluff, Little Lagoon, Shell Beach, Monkey Mia and an artesian well in Francois Peron National Park we topped off the day with lunch at the Ocean Park; sipping a beer and eating the freshest seafood looking out onto the sparkling waters of the Indian Ocean. It had been an absolutely amazing trip and I would be sure to visit the area again. 

Perks of the job

My next break at home was a rather short ten days but I was determined to pack stuff in. The main motive was to catch up with Mikey (who I’d met on my first trip to Oz back in August). Mikey had been traveling around Australia but had popped back to Perth for a week or so on his way back to Blighty on 1 July; we were long overdue a drink together! I managed two catch-ups with Mikey which were both lovely and actually managed to fill nearly every other lunch and dinner spot in my diary for the entire ten days. It was great spending time partying with the girls, lazing about with some rig buddies, trying out a few new restaurants and bars, exploring more of my local area, celebrating a friends birthday and having precious Jim time (he’ll tell you that I fell asleep after two glasses of wine and was rubbish company and he might be telling the truth but its time all the same). I even managed to hire a car and NOT get hit by a Roo). I felt like I had made the most of the ten days and was happy to go back to the rig aligned on the same swing as The Cool Kids (three young, prankster-type guys who I hung out with at work). 

Girls night out!

Australia is currently in mid-winter and temperatures vary considerably across the country. Whilst my home town is still reaching highs of 24 degrees Victoria is averaging a mere 10. Along with the colder temperatures comes high seas (reaching 11m at times) and that means no drilling on the rig. We all know time is money and so instead of lounging around on the rig waiting for the weather to settle me and the team were flown off to spend a week in Geelong; working in the port arranging rock samples that had been shipped off the rig. 

Geelong is a port city located 75 km’s south-west of Melbourne. It has a beautiful foreshore, large Westfield and a cute main street which strangely reminded me of an American midwest town with its low buildings and slow pace. We were staying in apartments (I had one to myself and the three guys were sharing) and had an impressive hire car at our disposal. We were set to work in a warehouse alongside Russell and Gary. Russell, mid fifties, is the director of Victorian Shipping Company and Gary, early sixties, is the mechanic/welder/jack-of-all-trades in the yard. With no direct boss on site, working with the most chilled out guys you’ll ever met in your entire life we were in for an easy ride! On day one Russell drove us round to the local indian takeaway for lunch and told us we could come and go in the yard as we pleased and help ourselves to tea, coffee and biscuits. He encouraged us to explore Geelong, even printing us a list of the wineries and advising which towns were good to see.

Working in the Geelong base

The weekend came and we decided to take Russell’s advice and drive along the infamous Great Ocean Road, stopping along the way, with an aim to see the 12 Apostles (a collection of Limestone stacks off the shore of Port Campbell National Park). The drive was splendid; the GOR bends and twists though overgrown lush forrest to rugged coastline providing unprecedented views of the bright blue Southern Ocean merging with the clear skies that on show that day. We made it to the 12 Apostles around dusk and although it was misty the Apostles were striking, bold and appeared almost mystical. For a bunch of Limestone (my least fav rock by the way!) stacks they were pretty special and actually attract two million visitors each year and I was glad to be one of them! 

At the 12 Apostles 

My time in Geelong was enjoyable - I got to bond with the guys from the unit, have them spoil me with traditional Indian food, see a city at the expense of the company and meet two lovely old guys who were full of Aussie hospitality. I went back to the rig with eight days to go feeling like a had explored a fraction more of this country that seems to keep on giving. 

Settling down...

Before anyone is allowed to work offshore they have to undergo specific training including: first aid, CPR, fire fighting, helicopter crash escape and survival techniques. The training takes three days and is a combination of theory and practical and gives you four years working offshore. On completion you receive a certificate (this one I wont loose like my degree!) and a little card with your picture on. A picture that they take of you looking overly worried about the impending tasks and not wearing a scrap of makeup. It’s not a good look.

Overall, the training was really useful, pretty exciting and some parts could come in handy one day although there are some skills that I would never like to put into practise namely escaping from a capsized, sinking helicopter. In this exercise you are wearing: your bathers (thats Aussie for swimwear), overalls, a survival suit (all in one, airtight, skin tight number), booties (swimming shoes), a life jacket, a rebreather (think baby carrier on your front), gloves and a hard hat. What I’m saying is that you’re three sizes bigger and have lost about 80% mobility...and now you have to swim. 

They execute the training step by step to keep panic to a minimum and you have to do each exercise twice; once holding your breath and once using the re-breather. This is NOT an oxygen tank. This does what it says. Just before submersion you take a deep breath in and exhale into a pipe which part-fills your ‘third lung’. You then re-breathe this ‘air’ (depleting oxygen supply) until you reach the surface. It is not a pleasant experience. You can only re-breathe for about thirty seconds before you become dizzy and disorientated. Once submerged and capsized you have to smash out the window, undo your seatbelt and escape.

It was a busy week and as well as training to be Lara Croft we also had to move house. What a drama (that’s an Aussie fav phase!)!! Amazingly, we managed to bag the first property we viewed in Mandurah; a waterfront apartment with a parking space for a boat! It’s an open plan place with balconies front and back. We are five minutes from the beach, which makes me very happy, close the the Arts Centre, which also makes me very happy, and have lots of restaurants close by. Our closest eatery is a champagne and oyster bar which is located about 25 meters away! We have signed a contract for six months so if I were you guys I’d try and get out here coz it really is nice :-)  

Since securing a job and a long term ‘home’ the focus was now on making friends. This can be quite a daunting task as you have to put yourself out there a bit and push your normal social boundries. Having said that I wasn’t doing too bad. I had found a cultural companion for arty outings and a bashment buddy for hitting up the reggae joints what more could a girl ask for?! Oh wait, neither of these people were Aussie so that was the next task: find Australian friends. 

Karaoke, kangaroos and cocktails

So the first trip out to the rig went well; no major dramas and the work was easier than expected. Now I was back on dry land for an uncertain amount of time I had to make the most of it and spend my first Australian pay cheque (obviously this was not going to be a problem).

I hadn’t been shopping in ages and to be fair for once I actually needed stuff rather than just wanted it. Winter was approaching on 1 June and the 40 degree days that greeted me in Oz had dwindled to mid 20’s. Mandurah is a really small town but it does have a shopping mall and so off I went purchasing a jacket, some jumpers and a shawl for the cooling temperatures. 

The one thing the rig lacks is a bar and if you think the UK has a drinking culture you can think again (Mum, I know that sentence is not going to make you happy but that’s real talk!). The Aussies start ridiculously early and drink is companion to every activity; canoeing, boating, cycling, cinema, kids assembly (no joke - a fellow rig pig confessed this to me) and obviously the traditional Aussie Barbi. Any and no occasion warrant a good drink and my to-ing and fro-ing from the rig was no exception. On my return I hit the town with Jimbo and his harem of women, The Pussycats, consisting of me, Lady D, Miss Danger and Scratch and Sniff. After sampling an array of cocktails and various watering holes we landed up with free entry into one of Perth’s clubs. These were the kind of hook-ups I needed to establish in a new city and succeeded in in free entry and queue jump the following week. It was nice to establish a social network and to know which clubs and pubs to go to. 

Jim's Harem

As well as establishing friends and knowing the spots in Perth I also had to explore Mandurah which has a grand total of four pubs (one of which isn’t recommended for women!) and two clubs. I’d already been introduced to a friend of a friend from England (thanks Liz!) and had found out that a rig buddy of mine, Bunney, lives down the road from me with his wife Mel (who, may I add, is a professional chef) so I was starting to form a local crew! Sampling Mandurah’s pubs I found that Murphy’s does brilliant pub grub and hosts karaoke on a Wednesday night. After song number two me and Suz were taking requests and treating the pub stage like we were headlining at Glastonbury; we rocked the place and are full blown locals now with the bar staff knowing how to pour our drinks and security not needing to check our ID’s. 

Mandurah also has a lot of tourist things to do based around the canals. To make use of our water front property we decided to hire and boat and go canoeing so that we could go pass our house! Hiring a boat costs $90 an hour and it was a real treat. We cruised around the canals admiring the villas, mansions and yachts. I thinking boating is something I will be doing a lot of especially when summer comes back around. Canoeing was a little more strenuous but fun none the less. I was soaked by the end and despite sharing a canoe with Suz my arms ached the next day! Like surf clubs there are canoe clubs a plenty and Suz enjoyed it so much she is thinking about joining one. Me, I’ll stick to the motorised forms of transport.  

Canoeing in Mandurah

Rig Living

The lead up to getting on the rig felt like forever; with three delays to departure totalling two weeks emotions where all over the place. I kept feeling really excited to be going to be told that it had been delayed again which deflated me. Finally, the day had arrived, a Sunday, and so I headed to the airport feeling rather blurry from a night out at the casino. Into the departure lounge of Perth’s domestic airport saw yet another delay; the flight was delayed three hours and so I waited once more.

Arriving in Melbourne was weird. I had only stepped out from the airport but I felt like I was in London. The older architecture, the grey skies, cold temperatures...yet I had only heard good things about this place and was determined to spend a little time here on my next couple of rotations. Tonight, however, was simply room service, bath and bed. I had to be awake at 6am to catch the chopper in the morning. It was a shame as the hotel was swanky and it would have been nice to take advantage of the amenities and the fact that all costs were covered by the company.

The helicopter waiting room is a small porter cabin type place with a coffee machine, TV and toilet. Before you embark you and your bag are weighed (your bag has to be less than 10Kg), you undertake an alcohol test and watch a safety video (as if the practise escape routine didn’t prepare you enough for a crash!). You also need to wear survival suits throughout the flight. These are the most strangulating devices! They go on over your clothes and have rubber seals around the wrists and neck (booties sown in like a baby grow). As well as being uncomfortable they are the most unflattering of outfits. However, style can be redeemed when sporting the headset along with aviator glasses. Ding dong!

The helicopter flight took about an hour and the view was clear most of the way. I must confess I had a little doze. On arrival to the rig I was escorted off and reunited with my bag. A short induction and tour was conducted and then I was shown to my work station called a unit. I am currently sharing a cabin with Suzanne (no mixed cabins allowed) which is located outside and so has a panoramic ocean view. It is clean and has all you need: a bed and wardrobe each, a dressing table, TV and an ensuite bathroom which is shared with the room next door (you have to remember to lock and unlock both doors!). The work unit is essentially a metal crate about eight meters long and 3 meters wide. During normal work there will be a maximum of four people in here. Between us we collect rock samples pulled up from the well, build reports of those samples, analyse and account for changes recorded by our sensors (like gas and pressure levels) and ultimately determine hydrocarbon presence (we know it’s there but how much? Is it going to be easy to get out...?). In total there are 100 people on the rig; 97 male and 3 females. There is a nice mixture of people; British, Australian, Indian, Asian and morale is really high. There is a lot of banter and swearing with reminds me of somewhere else I used to work...

The working part of the rig is exactly how you all are imagining it to be. It’s dirty, cluttered and surreptitious in its layout. The living part of the rig is fairly small and boat-like with its steep stairs and cups with plungers on the bottom! However, it is sufficient. There is a small TV room with computers and internet access, phones to make free calls to Australia, a cinema room, a small library, a smoking room, mess hall, coffee shop and gym (which I am yet to visit). The ‘catering’ here so far has been amazing. Yesterday, oysters were on offer for lunch! There is literally food and drink available around the clock as a rig is a 24 hour operation. I am working nights (6am to 6pm) which I opted for as ever since my early working life at Royal Mail I have always been more productive in the evenings.

Before my first shift I was feeling extremely apprehensive. I didn’t even know exactly what my role was; I mean I hadn’t seen a job description! What was I expected to know and do?! This feeling quickly subsided as I spoke to the rest of the team (all of which were highly experienced) who explained the new equipment and software to me, showed me where certain things were and who didn’t laugh at my questions! They were a good bunch and I knew I would get on just fine.    

It’s not what you know it’s who you know

Good news people - I have a job! Both me and Suz have secured roles as Geologists. The job came from an introduction made by an old friend of mine called Jimbo; he’s been living out here for four years now and started on the rigs himself. What a legend he is. I’ll be working on a gas rig off the coast of Melbourne and start in about three weeks time. In between now and then I have to do medicals and survival training which includes being submerged in a helicopter and escaping! Exciting stuff right? The company fly me from Perth to Melbourne where I transfer to the ‘copta’ and go to the rig. I’ll stay on the rig for two weeks then come home and have two weeks off. My role, in layman’s terms, will be to keep a diary of all the rock samples pulled up from the drill hole. This diary will then be sent to someone to interpret and decided where to drill next, ‘left a bit, right a bit, ohhhh gas!’. Just think Liv Tyler in Armageddon, well kinda. 

So change is a foot these next few weeks what with our new jobs and then our current rental is about to expire so it’s time to find somewhere new to live. In our quest to find a new home one thing is clear; we do not want to live in Northbridge anymore. This means that we get to explore areas of Perth night and day and hang out in places, look conspicuous, talk to locals and generally try and get a feel for a place. There are a few places we’ve been already - Freemantle, Mandurah, Cottesloe and Scarborough; all are really nice (all coastal locations). Learning on the job, we have a couple of boxes that need ticking: air conditioning and WiFi are a MUST. Australia is HOT and public internet/dongles are SH!T.

We went to Freemantle the last time we were here. It’s a port and home to Little Creatures Brewery where you can sit and try a variety of wine, beer and cider. Although we liked it there I don’t think its a place we’d call home. It has a day-out feel to it with its market and Irish dancing pub and feels a little touristy. 

Both Cottesloe and Scarborough are beach-front towns. Cottesloe is quiet and expensive - it has a golf course, need I say more? Picturesque none-the-less and great to visit on summer weekends but not a place to set up shop. Scarborough is a bus ride away from the city, takes about 20-30 minutes and a taxi costs $30 - we know this because we missed the last bus home which goes at 7pm on Sundays! It has a huge beach amphitheatre which provides shade and hosts regular beach parties. There is a good selection of restaurants and has a young vibe to it but it just didn’t feel right to be our home.

Mandurah was a place Suz saw and fell in love with on the TV; she had to go. It was the weekend of the Mandurah Crab Fest and so we thought what better a time to get acquainted with the place? The train from Perth takes about 45 minutes to reach Mandurah; a place made up of a spaghetti junction of canals meeting the Indian Ocean. It is absolutely beautiful there. The canals are not your English type, they are sparkling and clear and home to the most stunning boats moored at the back of mini-mansions. The canals are such that you can have a dip in them, so we did, and we were even honored with the company of wild dolphins. We ate crab (obviously its the Crab Fest), strolled up and down the East and West banks and watched the sunset whilst listening to a live band play Bob Marley renditions. Paradise.  So, we have our first viewing tomorrow with a list as long as your arm to see in the coming weeks!  

Departure and arrival

Everyone who knows me knows that I like to party. All I can say is, scrap my birthday I think I may just have to emigrate to a different country every year as I have never celebrated so much than in the lead up to my departure to Oz. Gosh, anyone would think that all my friends were glad to see the back of me!

As the final days in England came to close and I had said all of my ‘goodbyes’ it still didn’t feel like I was actually leaving for a long period. Saying bye to the little ones (Kari, Nari and Marley-Moo) and KoKo was the hardest as they didn’t understand and I knew I’d be missing out on vital things like first steps and words - from the kids that is. My loved ones sent me off in true style though, with an amazing party, excellent food, extensive gifts, copious amounts of rum and positive vibes. If I didn’t already know, I do now - my friends and family are truly amazing.

The journey started on 29 February (leap year day; superstitiously a lucky day to start something new) yet didn’t end until 2 March. Everyone knows the flight to Oz is a LONG one - this trip totaling 26 hours. The first flight wasn’t bad as it was a night flight but the second was a drag. The best part of the journey was the stopover in Hong Kong. That airport has to be one of the best in the world with free WiFi and every single shop you can imagine. I somehow resisted buying anything (I had my eye on a pair of Gucci sunglasses but managed to walk away!) but couldn’t pass up on some authentic Chinese noodles.

On arrival into Perth, at 8am, the temperature was already 25 degrees. Apparently the heatwave was the week before when temperatures soared to over 40 degrees! I’d like to point out that the season is Autumn. A taxi from the airport to the city takes around 30 minutes and costs about $40. Richard, the landlord, met me and Suzanne at what would be our home for the next 8 weeks. He was an older gent with a calm nature - I hope that he remains like this! I’d secretly been feeling really apprehensive about the apartment as Suzanne had trustingly left the house hunt to me and the website where I found the place didn’t have a lot of pictures. It is also really expensive so I was hoping it lived up to the description...

Our apartment is a two bedroom, two bathroom, two balcony(!), converted warehouse in a secure complex in Northbridge. It has some minor faults, like the knobs on the cooker don’t work properly and the outside bulbs have gone but overall it’s great - a perfect retreat after long, job-seeking days. Northbridge is a hub of restaurants, bars and clubs and home to China Town! It is about a 15 minute walk to the CBD and there is a bus from the end of our road that takes us to Scarborough Beach which is about 20 minutes away.

Having stayed in Northbridge previously we are very familiar with the area - we already have a favorite Chinese Restaurant! Traditionally in Perth, Sundays are Dim Sum Sundays and so we embraced local tradition on our first Sunday and plan to continue to embrace this. If I was looking like a boiled dumpling before I can only imagine that before long I will look like a fried one (same shape, only suntanned!).

The first week was a set up week. We trudged through town, back and forth to the bank, the tax office and the Medicare centre to lay down the foundations of our Aussie life. Within a week all these things were done and we’d arranged interviews at three separate recruitment consultants to secure some much needed employment.

Finally, it was Saturday and what better way to conclude our first week of being Aussie’s than with a BBQ and so off we went...