Hamlin Pool

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It's the Easter holiday 2009 and again I have a free moment to retrace my steps from almost 2 years ago...

A 4:45am start to the day was needed in order to complete a considerable portion of the 700km journey before the van overheated.

The drive was long, dry and dusty.

In Exmouth we caught-up with ourselves and explored the area around Nigaloo Reef (unfortunately Whale season was out); here I enjoyed a snorkel off the beach, before we drove down to Coral Bay. The west coast of Australia is rugged and very beautiful, beaches are empty for miles upon miles.

Continuing our drive south we ended up at a little place called Hamlin Pool, renowned for it's ancient Stromatolites (the first living things on this planet that appeared 3.5 BILLION years ago; for 2 BILLION years they lived alone, slowly releasing oxygen into the atmosphere until there was enough oxygen for single celled organisms to live and survive. These new single celled organisms eventually ate all the stomatolites and they became extinct... or did they.... In the 1960s a group of scientists stumbled upon these stomatolites at Hamlin Pool; exactly the same living things as 3.5 BILLION years ago, surviving here because of the hyper-saline waters in which not many life forms can survive the salty waters apart from stomatolites.) Totally fascinating. Not only is this a place of unfathomable ecological interest but it also happens to be stunningly picturesque and remote. It was on this very spot that I asked Tiem to marry me.

She said yes.

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Photos

Bush camping at Yule River
Sunrise before our 4:45am start to the day