Hi, everyone! How is it halfway through January already? I haven’t done too much this week – it flew by – but the few things I did were a lot of fun: most notably cliff jumping!

Blackwall Reach Cliff Jumping

In my last post, I stopped at Blackwall Reach momentarily and noticed other people cliff jumping into the Swan River. On one of my days off this week, I decided to check it out.

These limestone cliffs reach up to 11 meters (36 feet) above water and are a popular spot for rock climbing and cliff jumping into the Swan River below.

It took me a little while to muster the courage to jump into the water. Upon arrival, there were four kids (maybe 11 or 12 years old) jumping, but I stood and watched for a while, contemplating how high the jump was. I’m not necessarily afraid of heights, but I don’t like “ledges” for some reason. There’s something about looking over the edge that doesn’t sit well with me.

I talked with a woman who was a little closer in age to me and asked her if she had jumped, where she was jumping from, etc. She showed me how to navigate to an area that wasn’t as high of a jump. I asked if she would go first and she did. I wish I could say I jumped in right after her, but my nerves were really getting to me. How could I possibly just JUMP off this cliff? Everything in my body was telling me “you don’t really want to do that.” Haha. And there were a bunch of jellyfish swimming around, at that!

The pre-teens returned after having climbed back up to the spot and were egging me on. They did a countdown. Three! Two! One! The peer pressure pushed me to do it and I’m so glad I did.

For a moment, it was a free fall. A similar thrill to the “drop” of a rollercoaster.

I couldn’t help but scream – it was primal. And so fun!

I plunged into the water, resurfaced, and was alive and well.

I recorded the moment on my GoPro, for your pleasure, viewer!

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Transcript

Me: I’m gonna try this jump… Fuck! Oh, man, I’m freakin’ out!

Kids: Do it! Do it! Jump! Jump! Jump!

Me: Oh, fuck.

Kids: Three! Two! One!

Me: *Jumps* AHH!!!!

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I scrambled back up the rocks to get to the jumping spot again. I ended up chatting with some other teenagers who joined. They asked me where I’m from and were goofing off with one another as they jumped off the cliffs. As someone would jump, they’d scream “shark!” I mentioned in a post previously, but someone had died from a fatal shark attack near Blackwall Reach a few years back.

The cliff jumping experience at Blackwall Reach really solidified something for me… Australians are kind of badass. Fearless, in a way. There are so many things that can potentially kill you here, and yet, they are living their lives. Jumping off cliffs, swimming with sharks in the water, hiking around venomous snakes, and on and on and on. It was funny to me that I was so terrified to jump off these cliffs and yet these 12 year olds had no problem whatsoever.

I ended up jumping off the cliffs a number of times – maybe five or six. Each time it got a little bit easier. At first, I was standing on the ledge, looking below me, trying to muster up the courage to do it.

We also saw some dolphins swimming not too far from the cliffs, which was a treat. AND I saw one of my work boats cruise by!

When I got home, I had so much saltwater up my nose it started to leak out like a faucet when I bent over to take my shoes off hahaha.

It may seem like a simple pleasure, but cliff jumping was honestly one of my favorite things I’ve done since being in Perth.

Night Walk to Heirisson Island

After work one night, Kory suggested we go on a walk. I hadn’t been to Heirisson Island in a while and thought it might be cool to see what the kangaroos were up to at night. Kangaroos are nocturnal after all, and I hadn’t seen them at night yet.

We walked along the trail but for majority of the time, there were no kangaroos to be seen. We saw rats scurrying about, but it wasn’t until we had almost walked the entire trail that we spotted a roo.

It was munching on some plant on the ground.

Kory approached it slowly, and attempted to feed it. He even pet it! The kangaroos at Heirisson Island are so used to people approaching them, petting them, etc. In the wild, kangaroos would dip out immediately if someone tried to approach them in the same way. I’ve mentioned before, but I try to keep my distance with wildlife and observe them from a respectable distance.

Art of the Week

Kory had been mentioning for months that he would like me to draw him a tattoo idea of a heeled boot, so that’s what I did this week – finally! He also loves roses, so I implemented that as well.

I’m not super thrilled with the colors. I was trying to honor the color of the boot (black), but it would have been more fun for me to color in with vibrant colors as I would have if I was drawing it for myself. Kory is only going to use the outline of the drawing, but I wanted to complete it for him anyway.

Reflections

I don’t have too much report at the moment, honestly! It has been a pretty chill week.

One fun thing… I saw my first SWING SET since being in Australia. They don’t really have swings at parks here and I love swings. It was a treat. After walking around Heirisson Island, Kory and I stumbled along the park and we swung for a little while.

I did give my job my notice – February 26th will be my last day working out here. It’s January 15th already, so I only have about a month and a half left. I’ve gotten some really nice responses to me leaving already. Two of the HR peeps have said how I’m definitely going to be missed, how I’m such a great worker, and if I ever want to come back, I’ll be welcome to work here again. It’s nice to be get that kind of feedback!

While I’ll be happy to not be working anymore and will begin the real journey as a “backpacker,” I will certainly miss all the people I’ve met at my job. They have truly been such a wonderful part of living here, as I think I’ve mentioned already.

I don’t have anything concrete planned for the coming days. As usual, it will probably be a hike/snorkel combo at some point. We shall see.

Sending you all my love!