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Published: November 21st 2006
Being on the same flight as Dave and Liz from Wales, the 3.5 hour flight to
Perth was a breeze and the quantas staff again provided an excellent service on the small inter city flight. Having pre-booked our accommodation we were a little concerned to find the Comfort Hostel was way outside Perth Centre as we waved goodbye to the city bound Dave and Liz. Nevertheless, we decided to stick with the reservation as it was only two nights. Despite its suburbia location we did expect the hostel staff to be full of information about how to get into city centre but to our surprise the only thing interesting to come from the receptionists mouth was an entirely new form of rude.
It being a Public Holiday we had to loiter on the main road until an off duty bus driver kindly offered us a free ride as soon as he'd eaten his burger. Having just got off the phone to Wicked vans to confirm their Perth office was open as we wanted to hire a van, we arrived in Northbridge via a long walk to find it was most definitely closed. Another phone call confirmed that it was a
public holiday... something we already knew. To rub salt into our wounds, the One World hostel Dave and Liz had pre-booked was about 10 metres from Wicked vans. In fact, not a great deal was open apart from a huge thumping outdoor club to which droves of dolled up revellers swarmed towards. With only two jobs to do in booking a van and sorting our Indian Visas we had to give up on both and take a free shuttle bus back to our hostel driven by a bizarre man who clearly loved his long Swayze hairdoo and performed curious hand movements whilst fiddling with the stereo. Oddities aside he was possibly the worst driver in Western Australia but we got the impression he liked it that way.
The next morning after reading that Perth was the sunniest city in the world, we set out in shorts and flip flops to find that by the time we arrived in Northbridge it was tipping it down and a freezing wind had kicked up. Stepping into Wicked we then found out that the minimum hire period was 10 days to get to Exmouth which would mean we'd have to change our flights
Campsite cooking
...mixing up a mean Spag Bo.again having just done so in Melbourne. Moving onto our next task we walked to West Perth (no mean feet in Flip flops and rain) and after much hassle found the Indian Embassy. Once inside, the woman on duty indifferently advised it would take 16 days to process if you’re lucky and if we want it in 10 days we would have to pay double! Now with a bit of a dilemma on our hands, we spent the next hour sheltering from a torrential downpour in a bus stop trying frantically to work out if it was cheaper to pay double, extend our time on the West Coast or even thinking of posting the visa somewhere else. A sodden phone call to the Indian Consulate and an attempted call to some random we'd met from Phuket and we decided we had no option but to pay double. With a great deal of scepticism we reluctantly handed over our passports to the smirking Embassy lady.
Now with blisters on our feet we trudged back to Wicked Vans and booked one of their bargain graffitied wagons for 11 days to begin the next morning and continued across town to Quantas to
Ahhhh!
A thing again move our flights for a charge. After a fairly abysmal two days in Perth we looked forward to leaving the City behind. We couldn't quite place why, but there are times when travelling when you can experience a span of time where everything just seems to go wrong; After a short rest we headed back into Perth in the evening and met with Dave and Liz for a fantastic curry at Maya Masala and said our goodbyes.
Back into Northbridge the next morning we picked up the van which would be our transport for the next 11 days; a bright yellow and pink hippy wagon sprayed by hand with acid faces and no war symbols and on the back, the words Marijuana 100% fat free! Without any choice in the van, we set off to fill up with fuel and water, pick up some food shopping and hit the road north. Stopping off at our hostel to pick up our big packs we drove north on Highway 1 and out into the farming suburbs of Perth. Having only picked up the van at one we didn't get very far at all before sun down so pulled off at
Pelican pose
These birds were as entertaining, if not more, than the dolphins. Gingin where 13km along a side road we found a nice little camping spot right on the river at Gingin brook. Feeling delighted to be out of Perth we sat amongst squawking parrots and under light of citronella candles ate a mean Spaghetti Bolognese.
At sunrise a low mist screened the first rays and left droplets of dew on hundreds of spider’s webs all around us. With a long drive ahead we hurriedly ate a bowl of corn flakes and rejoined the Great Northern highway. Through farmland past windmills and through a huge swarm of bees near Geraldton we veered off on a loop road towards
Kalbarri National Park. Along the rugged cliffs along the shore we stopped at Red Bluff to gaze out over the Indian Ocean and down to huge pounding waves below and passed through the town of Kalbarri with another short break at the mouth of the Murchison river where hermit crabs scuffled amongst the rock pools. Driving on a little further we took a worthwhile 4km detour to visit Hawks Head, a beautiful but baking hot lookout over looking the deep gorge of the Murchison River. As we stood on the top and furiously
batted flies away a loud noise to our left caught our attention and to our amazement a mini tornado of whipped sand veered toward us and right through us! Back in the van and stopping to watch a pair of Kangaroos cooling in the shade, we made a bee line for camp in a huge riverside rest area before sundown, happy to have covered so many kilometres in one day.
The next stretch in the morning under another brilliant blue sky was to veer off the 1 toward the
Shark Bay Heritage Area and some 27 kilometres along the peninsular a visit to
Hamelin Pools, a shallow bay of ultra saline sun baked water. Stepping out into the bright light we strolled past an old telegraph station and through a shell quarry where breeze bloc slabs of tiny compressed sea shells were carved from the ground. The purpose of our visit to the shallow inlet was to see the impossibly rare
Stromatolites, a vast expanse of unassuming cauliflower shaped rocks which although you wouldn't think it to look at them, were instrumental in the creation of a liveable planet. The reason we should all be thankful to these globs
of cyanobacteria is that in a time when the earth was as inhospitable as Mars, they were the first organisms to invent photosynthesis by tapping into an abundance of water locked Hydrogen and release lovable Oxygen as waste. Although at first the Stomatolites Oxygen release did nothing but combine with iron to produce much of today’s iron ore reserves in a period where the earth literally rusted, after two billion years, they had raised oxygen levels in the atmosphere to near modern day levels and created the environment for more complex life to exist. Peering down from the manmade boardwalk it was even possible to see the Stromatolites which until 1961 when they were discovered were known solely by fossil records, giving up tiny bubbles of live giving Oxygen.
Leaving Hamelin pools we continued along a dead straight road chasing horizons toward the town of Denham, Australia’s most westerly. After taking a stroll along the beach picking shells we pulled into a camping park in the hot evening wind where we were allotted a spot literally 1 metre from the beach. Early the next morning we made the short 20km drive to
Monkey Mia, a beautiful beach resort and
home to the Worlds most predictable colony of wild Dolphins. Despite our impressions on arrival at the beach condemning it as a circus of tourists, it was actually a fantastic experience to line up in the shallows as a group of playful dolphins approached. After a local discovered in the 60's that the dolphins came close enough for hand feeding, the area became a beacon for thousands of people keen to interact with them. Nowadays, a restricted feeding takes place 3 times a day by knowledgeable guides to ensure the dolphins remain reliant on their own hunting skills. All of the dolphins are known and named and took it in turns to slowly swim past the line of people. At feeding time Claire was singled out and handed a fresh fish which she hand fed to a young female by the name of Puck. While Claire scampered back and Puck munched on the yellow tailed bream, several of the other dolphins zipped around the water on their backs, a technique known as "smacking" and trapped fish on their bellies before flipping them into their mouths. This particular colony of Indo-Pacific Bottlenose dolphin has since the 1970's been the focus of
Hawks Head viewpoint
...shortly after being whipped by a mini tornado! much scientific research after it was discovered they were smart enough to wedge sea sponges on their rostrums (nose) when foraging in coral to avoid cuts and scratches. It remains today the only example of tool use by a marine mammal.
This incredible experience was made even more unforgettable by the huge brazen Pelicans which skied into land and waddled around the beach parading their huge yellow eyes and enormous billowing beaks. The sound of them cleaning their feathers with their giant jaws was oddly like the sound of a lawn bowls tournament. After the second dolphin feed of the day we secured a spot in the Monkey Mia camping park and headed for the stunning white beach. Despite it being called Shark bay and there being a local history of Tiger Shark spottings we couldn't resist splashing around in the shallows in the hope we would see the approaching shadow. At one point when we were out of the water we did see a Spotted Wobbergong (flat shark) just centimetres from the shore. Retreating from the beach we walked amongst wandering Emus and entered into shop where the friendly old chap told us that the Emus’ have in
the past been so desperate for water that they would suck the washing dry on his line! Heading back to the beach to watch the sun go down over the bay, we turned around and nearly simultaneously witnessed the bright moonrise light up a panorama of high speckled clouds.
Having stayed the night at Monkey Mia we returned again to the beach at 8.30am for the morning dolphin feed but found it to be a very unpleasant and uncomfortable experience owing to the scores of inconsiderate idiots who failed to move back when asked and intimidated the dolphins to the point where they were visibly frightened. Walking away, we waited until the coach loads of people had left before returning for the second feeding where the dolphins literally brushed past our feet. For the rest of the morning we swam further down the bay whilst the dolphins swam around before boarding the
Shotover Nature Cruise, a multiple record holding catamaran. The two tanned and bearded crewmen gave us all polarizing glasses and sailed us out to a bed of floating sea grass, feeding grounds of the Dugong (A rare kind of sea cow). Regardless of our being a little
too far away for a descent photograph it was great to witness these rare and surprisingly sandy coloured animals rise from the sea grass in their natural habitat. A little short on nature save for a few faraway dugongs and a black and yellow banded sea snake, the trip was still relaxing and great fun to lie on the netting in between the hulls and watch the water fly by.
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Faye
non-member comment
What a wicked van! Oh life on the open road. Am very jealous indeed. Missing you lots xxx