Morning Campers!


Advertisement
Australia's flag
Oceania » Australia » Western Australia » Albany
August 30th 2006
Published: September 8th 2006
Edit Blog Post

Total Distance: 0 miles / 0 kmMouse: 0,0


Planning our route Planning our route Planning our route

... it's a tough life deciding where to go!
G'day!

It's been a couple of weeks since we last blogged and in that time we've travelled so far. We'll try to keep it as short as possible, but there's so much to tell!

We flew into Perth from singapore to be greeted with beautiful but rather chilly spring weather (in comparison to SE Asia). The first thing you notice about Perth is that it's so damn clean! The pavements are devoid of rubbish, the parks are pristine and even the sky scrapers shine differently from other cities. Naturally we did the usual city sights and spent the evenings supping Tooheys New and Victoria Bitter in trendy Northbridge. After a few days we were getting restless and wanted to explore more of Western Australia. We made a "make us or break us" decision and decided the best way to get to see this massive state at our own pace was to hire a camper van!

Ok so, we headed south of Perth brimming with enthusiasm, towards Albany. We planned a week for the whistle stop tour of the SW corner. We stoped of at various towns, caves, more tree top walks in the Valley of the Giants, dolphing spotting, wine tasting in Margaret River and checking out the cuppacino strip and a eery torch light tour of the prison in Fremantle (nicknamed Freo). The journey was supposed to be 450 km but we managed to clock up over 1000km! Reson being that there were so many detours to beatuiful little bays and national parks that we didn't plan on seeing. Needless to say, we have some pretty fantastic pictures!

When we finally got to Albany we set sail for a mornings whale watching. We were lucky enough to see loads of Southern Right Whales, including a mother and calf, at arms reach and some even swam underneath the boat. It was a fantastic experience!

From Albany we headed back to Perth for supplies in preparation for the 4000km trek to Darwin. Our first stop was Geraldton via the Pinnacles Dessert. It was a remarkable place where thousands of limestone pillars stand like sentinels on the dessert floor. In Geraldton we were lucky enough to be offered a bed at a friends (Ben!) familys house for a couple of nights (thanks Eric and Rach!). We were really well looked after and given a 4WD drive tour of
Valley of the Giants tree top walkValley of the Giants tree top walkValley of the Giants tree top walk

... yet another tree top walk!
the dune system, which was loads of fun and treated to a true Aussie barby including a dinner of the local dish, rock lobster (crayfish), washed down with plenty of Coopers ale, introduced to us by our hosts!

We contined further north from Geraldton to the town of Kalbarri to visit the national park. The scenery was fantastic with impressive gorges carved out by the Murchison River. We spend half a day canoeing and bush walking around a privately owned station taking in more gorges, rock formations and the local wildlife. The station itself was 4600sq km, which is a sizeable chunk of the UK. It really puts into perspective how massive this country is.

We headed another 300km north to Hamelin Pool, which contains the worlds best colony of Stramatolites. Stramatolites? We hear you say! Well according to scientists stramatolites (or living rocks) allowed for life on earth as it is today by producing enough oxygen encouraging more life forms to thrive and evolve. When looking at these brown rock like formations it's so hard to believe they are the very foundation of life. Anyway enough of the boring science lesson!

We've now made it to
Tingle tree in Valley of the GiantsTingle tree in Valley of the GiantsTingle tree in Valley of the Giants

now we know why it's called Valley of the Giants. It's enough to make you tingle all over!!
the lovely beach town of Coral Bay - population 120. There's more people than that on our campsite! The town is situated really close to Ningaloo Reef, so we're off to snorkel with the manta rays, turtles and reef sharks tomorrow.

So far we've managed to tot up 3200km on the odometer and Martin's done all the driving. For some reason he won't let me take the helm! I must say though he's done a fab job of dodging the roos, emus and ferel goats!

Anyway folks that's your lot for now. Sorry for the ridiculously long blog!




Additional photos below
Photos: 9, Displayed: 9


Advertisement

Wine blending in Margaret RiverWine blending in Margaret River
Wine blending in Margaret River

Some how we managed to blend 2 reasonably ok wines into something we suspect cats pee tastes like!
4WD'ing in Geradlton4WD'ing in Geradlton
4WD'ing in Geradlton

... scared... never!!!
Kyaking on the MurchisonKyaking on the Murchison
Kyaking on the Murchison

up the creek with a paddle!
Hamelin PoolHamelin Pool
Hamelin Pool

Not much to look at, but life on earth is thanks to these little suckers!


Tot: 0.13s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 8; qc: 58; dbt: 0.1036s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.1mb