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Published: March 19th 2010
Big Truck
On the way out of Karijini, it was behind a fence and had a sign we didn't notice until later... I think it classifies as a "Big" thing..We left Karijini on a real high after two days of experiencing Wonderful Australia. Our battery pack was low, so Grady and I decided that only the kids would have a fan on themselves, to ensure they had a good night’s sleep. We put the legs down at the Chelsea Rest area, just past Paraburdoo. This was a nice rest area with shade and set far from the main road (less noise from trucks). The weather however was hot, with no breeze and no indication of cooling down. We played cards with the kids outside then had no choice but to send them to bed in the heat. I didn’t think I could sleep any worse than I did after Fitzroy Crossing, but this was indeed worse than that. To let as much air in as possible, I left the front door open with a chair in front to stop dingoes from entering the van. At one point I sat outside under the stars just to break the monotony. No words describe how awful it was - the temperature was no lower than 33 all night and coupled with the stuffiness we already felt and having to listen to the kids
Exmouth
View of lighthouse over bay complain (even with the fans on them), our patience was stretched more than ever. Unbeknownst to us, WA was in a heat wave, with Paraburdoo the hottest town in the state. Not the wisest of areas to stop with no power!
We traveled to Exmouth the next day but ran out of water early on and were forced to buy it at $16.50 for 16 litres: more expensive than LPG fuel! Friends we met in Broome had advised us to only go to the Top Tourist Park in Exmouth and we were grateful for the recommendation. The lady in the office was delightful and gave us a discount even though we were only staying a couple of nights - it amounted to $43 a night, which was fantastic. The pool was the best since Cable Beach and unique in that the deep end was 2.5m deep - for snorkel/scuba practice. My only criticism is that there was no soap in the amenities (it sounds petty but we haven’t had any tummy bugs on the road and I’m keen to keep it that way).
Exmouth is a lovely coastal town with a lot of building going on - I have
Exmouth
Sandbags from the war effort.. they are as hard as rock now. been told that Kununurra is the new Broome, but to be honest it seems like Exmouth will be the Next Big Thing. From April to November it is a snorkeler’s dream with 12 metre whale sharks in the area and huge manta rays. Even outside of these times it is great, as we found out at Turquoise Bay and even better at the Oyster Stacks (big stacks of oysters which the big fish feed on). Our only snorkeling has been in south Victoria and at the ponds near Mount Gambier - we wouldn’t dream of entering the water without a thick dive suit, so it was wonderful to snorkel with the kids and not be cold. They thoroughly enjoyed themselves seeing this new world, and even managed to spot a group of clownfish amongst the coral. For Grady and me, the highlight was a huge coral trout just waiting around the oyster stacks. There were countless species of fish and we had a fantastic time.
Exmouth has thirteen radio transmission towers built to provide radio transmission to the Australian and US Navy in the western Pacific Ocean and eastern Indian Ocean. The tallest tower is 387m (1270ft) high and for
Turquoise Bay, Exmouth
Easy to see where the name comes from many years was the tallest man made structure in the Southern Hemisphere. Exmouth was originally built to house the families of Naval Personnel and is one of Australia’s vulnerable points in the event of nuclear war. We went to have a look at the towers before a swim at the nearby beach and were suitably impressed - I can’t imagine what the tower at Dubai looks like…
Exmouth’s 35 degrees was a welcome change from temperatures in the 40’s - we felt so much better and stayed an extra two nights. For the first time, we didn’t bother turning the air conditioner on - it felt great! We made friends with a family on holidays from Kalbarri, who offered us a couple of nights free at their place. We were rapt as money was a real issue and we really appreciated the offer.
From Exmouth we headed south to Coral Bay and most certainly stayed in the wrong caravan park: $60 a night with no pool! It was right opposite the bay itself though, so an easy walk across the road for snorkeling.
It was easy to see why the bay is named after the coral, with more varieties
Oyster Stacks
Cody watching Grady and the kids snorkeling. of coral than you could poke a stick at. I didn’t realize the many different types there were and we truly felt like we were in an underwater garden. On low tide, the water is right at the snorkeling spot and it’s an easy venture out, rather than at Exmouth, where you must drive first. This suits people really well and we could see why the area is so popular. I was glad to see hire of beach wheelchairs also.
We enjoyed the snorkeling immensely but it was a little cooler and although Seth toughed it out, Beau and Chloe were much too acclimatized to the Kimberley weather and it didn’t take them long to start shivering! They swam back to the shallows and followed large schools of snapper, as did we after a time. The visibility was really low, so we stood in knee deep water and watched the snapper come up to our ankles.
Late in the afternoon Grady decided we would all go fishing together. It was shaping up as “one of those days” as we scrambled over rocks to get to the spot amongst the cold wind blowing right at us. Cody cracked it and would
go no further, Chloe dropped her packet of chips down between two rocks, Seth got a snag and broke his rig off and we could barely cast out into the wind whilst balancing. We moved over to what appeared to be a calmer area if only just to lose enough bait to go home. We saw a squid and tried against all odds to catch it, whilst Grady loaded up a ton of bait on a large hook after seeing a shovelnose shark, just in case. We couldn’t believe it when we heard the scream of line feeding off the reel and had a “slow motion” moment as Grades rushed to the rod and felt like he was taking forever to get there. After what seemed like an endless battle, Grady brought the shark in and told me he wasn’t going to be able to get it up onto the rock or the line would cut, so if I wanted it I was going to have to grab it by the tail. Making this statement, he thought that would be the end of it, but he had no idea how hungry I was and how sick of canned food and
Fun in the van
Saturday night fun on the road two minute noodles I was. As he brought it in, I took a lunge and Grady cracked up laughing; he had underestimated his determined wife! A couple more lunges and I had the shark by the tail. Grady called out: “just flick it up onto the rock”, which I would have done had I been able to lift it! I didn’t want to move because I had no idea if it had teeth or not, so Grades had to come down and kill it before I could get up. We had a bit of an Avatar situation: feeling bad for killing the animal but knowing that we needed it in our bellies! The kids were so excited and it was nice for us that their parents were their heroes. It took Grady 2 hours to cut all the shark up and we ended up with enough fillets to feed our family of 6 for 6 meals - not bad! Finally we had something other than two minute noodles: shark on two minute noodles - and didn’t it taste good!
Following Coral Bay we stayed at the Overlander Roadhouse - $22.50 a night, pretty ordinary and disgusting toilets/showers (I have since
Stromatolites
Hamelin Bay Pool, one of three areas in WA with these organisms. discovered they have a reputation). The night was made exciting though when we got talking to a truckie and he offered us a look inside his vehicle: a brand new Linfox roadtrain. The truck still had its new smell and the flashing lights and dials inside were impressive. The kids loved seeing the sleeping quarters complete with satellite TV and DVD behind the drivers seat. This is probably the first and only time we would get to see something like this - a testament to the kindness of strangers on the Outback roads. Turning off to Shark Bay the next morning, I was still thinking about food as we were amazed at the number of feral goats on the side of the road. I had visions of goat curry, roasted goat, goat chops and imagined grabbing one around the neck and taking a bite out of its rump. Iron deficiency anyone?
Shark Bay is a World Heritage area for many reasons, one being due to the presence of Stromatolites: clusters of micro organisms which evolutionists say are the oldest living beings (the ranger at Monkey Mia went so far as to say we should thank them for our life today).
Even though I don’t subscribe to this way of thinking, it was still interesting to see them: unchanged over all these years, a fantastic design that worked well back then and still works the same way today.
Further north we appreciated the beauty of the coast and its various view points, until arrival at Monkey Mia Resort. We opted for a beachfront site, which was the largest site so far on our trip: double the size of our site at Coral Bay. The resort was great, with clean amenities and a terrific camp kitchen. There was a drinking water tap for filling bottles and the water was lovely. The boys also had an early introduction to sex education when they ventured down to the beach to find a young lady who had decided it was “clothing optional” (it isn’t)! Oh dear…
The next morning we head out early for what arguably draws the tourists to the area: dolphin feeding. On three separate occasions every morning, a group of around 17 dolphins come in to be hand fed. There are guidelines now, such as no touching the dolphins and the amount of food is restricted so that they will continue to
Monkey Mia
About 20 paces from our van... hunt in the wild. A real benefit of coming in the off season is that there were not the crowds usually found - in fact the ranger said there were 1/3 of the usual tourists on the beach. All of us (except Cody) were each able to hand feed a dolphin, which was fantastic. On the way back to the van we decided to book in for a catamaran ride of the area (kids were free) at sunset and a wildlife spotting catamaran ride the next morning.
The sunset ride was incredibly relaxing as we lay on the netting and ate snacks while we watched the sun go down. We had nothing to concentrate on other than our kids and so we were granted peace with them, for such a time as this.
The next mornings ride was at 8:30am and I ventured over to reception at 8am when it opened to let them know we had decided to stay another night. Unfortunately someone had already booked the site for 10am (our ride was due to return at 11.30), so I raced back to the van and breathlessly told Grades we had 20 minutes to pack up. The kids were
Monkey Mia
...and this was our view fantastic, helping get organized and throwing things in the van left, right and center (while those returning from the dolphin feed laughed at us - rotten beachfront site!). We couldn’t believe that we were out on time and ready for the cat.
Quite a different ride from the previous night, this ride relies on the tourists to spot animals. I spent most of my time spotting Cody trying to make an exit, so I was not really good at it. The amount of times I thought seaweed was a turtle was embarrassing. We were able to see dolphin, a ray, green turtle and to our delight, a dugong (Shark Bay has the highest population of dugong in the world). Rather than take photos, I enjoyed the experience of seeing such a reclusive animal for myself. It raised its head and we saw the full face before it showed us its body and tail upon descent. What a treat.
Cody started to get ill at this point and vomited a small amount into a bucket and then missed the bucket and sprayed on my t-shirt, thank you very much. At the end of the ride, he was presented with $100 cash
Dolphin Feeding
Seth feeding his dolphin for being the 18th person in 17 years to be physically sick on the catamaran. Happy Days! Cody was content to lend us the money and we enjoyed (inhaled is probably more correct) meat pies, soft drink, coffee, chocolate and a biscuit from the Denham bakery as celebration. We were feeling good! It was just as well we had this high though, as the temperature soared to a baking 47 degrees. No air conditioning in the car was tough, but we stuck to our guns in not using it as we did not want to cook the engine like we had seen in other situations. We stopped at the Overlander Roadhouse to buy raspberry icy poles and were stunned to pay $18 for six icy poles! We were too hot to care and just kept driving and drinking water until the temperature started to dip again around 5pm to the mid 30’s - boy could we tell! It’s moments such as these that truly build character and we were so impressed with our little travelers, who just dealt with it.
The Murchison River rest area was the best since our favorite in South Australia and I would highly recommend a
Monkey Mia
Our van site stop there. There was a beautiful breeze all night and we had no need even to use our 12 volt fans - Chloe and I called it a “kiss from God” after such a warm day.
True to form, the kids were up early trying to catch a fish in the river. This was a bad idea as there was muddy duck poo everywhere and they returned dirty and smelly with no water to wash them in. We arrived in Kalbarri for our free nights’ accommodation with kids who looked like ferals. Our hosts were very gracious and after a short time of catching up, offered the bathroom.
Darren and Jenny (who we had met at Exmouth) were the unofficial tourist bureau of Kalbarri. Every time we chatted, Darren had much to say about the town itself, its beauty and laid back lifestyle. He was not wrong on any account. Kalbarri was a beautiful town and our van parked on their lawn overlooked Red Bluff: a million dollar view.
Kalbarri National Park was due to close the next day for culling of feral goats, so we ventured off for the afternoon to explore and see “Nature’s Window”: a rock formation
which resembles a photo frame of Nature behind it. Kalbarri NP was lovely even though the water had ceased for the summer months and I relished seeing Nature’s Window - something I had looked forward to for quite some time.
Darren and Jenny spoiled us that night with a lamb roast and introduced us to the fun of playing Yatzee - they were great company and we appreciated the time with them and their son. Kalbarri is a place we look forward to returning to; there are so many lookout spots of coastal beauty around the town itself and a revisit to the National Park is a must. On our last night in Kalbarri, Darren took Grady down to Red Bluff for some fishing as the sun went down. Grady was over the moon to catch an 830mm dhufish off the beach (as well as a tailor): Kalbarri had yet again lived up to Darren’s description and we would eat for another 4 nights! Darren and Jenny were so kind to house and feed us; we won’t forget them.
We departed Kalbarri with Cervantes as our next stop, arriving quite late due to strong winds and a tyre blowout
Kalbarri
Nature's window, Kalbarri NP (our brand new spare, too - fortunately we could put the old leaking tyre back on). By this stage we were really trying to gun it to Perth on the cash we had left, so we could only afford a single night and then thoroughly enjoyed a drive through the Pinnacles the next morning. No one really knows the story behind the Pinnacles and how they came to be formed; those in the know think that it is from trees being washed away with trunks left underneath the sand. These trunks have formed into limestone from the water and then when the surrounding sand has blown away, they were revealed as Pinnacles in the desert. To someone who has firm belief in a world wide flood though, this comes as no surprise. It was a shame that time only afforded a drive through the site; I would have loved to do a loop walk through it. As it was though, we thoroughly enjoyed the time we had.
The kids have really missed family on the trip - it’s been the one thing that has been hard. Thus, they were overjoyed to approach Perth, as Grady has an Aunty, Uncle
Kalbarri
View of a gorge in Kalbarri NP and multiple cousins there all with their own families. We arrived in Perth with $10 in our pockets, 1/8 tank of fuel, tired and hungry. Grady’s Aunty (bless her), had sandwiches and lemonade ready for us and they have become surrogate Grandma/Grandpa to the kids whilst we stay with them.
Grady managed to secure two re-stumping jobs back east, so we await his return as we enjoy the company of those around us. I looked up at the sky on our third night in Perth, hardly believing that after 10 years of promising family: “we’re coming over one day”, the “one day” was finally here. It was humbling to recognize the blessing of being able to do something we had hoped for.
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Selma
non-member comment
Great to read some more of your adventures. Great pictures. Love, Selma