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Published: July 12th 2008
15th June 2008 - 11th July 2008
Kununurra - Broome - Exmouth - Cossack - Coral Bay - Monkey Mia - Kalbarri - Northampton - Hutt River - Pinnacles - Fremantle - Perth
Arriving in Western Australia from the Northern Territory you immediately enter the Kimberley area, "a region the size of Poland often romantically described as Australia's last frontier". Not sure about the size but it is about as romantic as Poland! We spent three days travelling through this tedious terrain that is probably best explored by four wheel drive. It's the place to see the famous 'Bungle Bungles Massif' (what is a 'massif'?). This too is only accessible by four wheel drive so we had to settle for the 'mini bungles' at Mirima National Park in
Kununurra. This was a poor substitute but about the most interesting thing we did during our three days in the Kimberley. If it wasn't for Tom's twenty or so CDs that he brought over for us we might well have gone mad as there was no radio reception to help alleviate the boredom. A big thanks to Tom then but just one question, 'why the Puppini Sisters?' If you
haven't heard of them just be thankful. We also got Tom to bring Claire's mobile phone so we could use it in the outback in case of emergency. Great in theory but in the outback there is no mobile reception!
There was a light at the end of the tunnel and in this case it was
Broome. Broome is a tropical coastal town with beautiful beaches, most notably Cable Beach. It was with some relief when we arrived here on 17th June as the last time we were on a beach with weather we had become accustomed to was 13th April on Fraser Island which seems a lifetime ago! We enjoyed three days here at a campsite walking distance from Cable Beach where we relaxed and watched the sunset before leaving to endure more mind numbing driving.
The next two days made the Kimberley region seem mildly interesting. The 600km drive to the next town of Port Hedland, little more than a fuel stop, was one of world class boredom! The scenery was as consistent as it was dull never changing from flat scrubland and despite being a coastal route never once did we see the ocean. The
only thing to distract us was several large termite mounds with hard hats placed on their summit - an extremely welcome and comical break from the monotony.
The following morning we had a pleasant stop at
Cossack which has become an 'historic ghost port' town with restored old buildings from when the early settlers arrived in the 1880s. Then on to the large industrial town of Karratha to fill up with fuel before slipping the Puppini sisters into the CD player again (they grow on you I suppose) and driving another 600km of emphatic dullness!
2,500km since leaving the Northern Territory and with only Broome to enjoy we arrived at
Exmouth at the north west tip of Western Australia where at last there was something to shout about. Exmouth is located near the Cape Range national Park which itself is home to part of the Ningaloo reef. The reef is often accessible right from the beach and has been called 'WAs barrier reef without the barriers'. One such place is Turquoise Bay. We hired some snorkelling equipment including fins for the day and out we waded. The current was really strong so you could simply let yourself drift
over the coral but being careful not getting caught in the rip. We saw lots of different fish of varying size and colour and fortunately no sharks. We took some funny photos of ourselves in full snorkelling gear and left after a full day on the beach. On another day we lazed on deserted 'Mauritius Beach' which was in fact a 'clothing optional beach' (since when has Australia been politically correct?). The beaches are quite a long drive from the town of Exmouth and we fancied a few days off driving so we headed 150km down to
Coral Bay which is one of the easiest places to view the reef. Coral Bay is a tiny resort and our campsite was walking distance from the beach from where we did another days snorkelling. The sandy beach literally drops away after a few metres of ocean and there is the coral to view in all its splendour. We stayed here for five days chilling out mainly on the beach and for the first time since we hired Chubby he didn't move for four consecutive days. We were sad to leave but our flight to New Zealand was now confirmed for 11th July
so time to move on.
A 200km drive south to Canarvon, the nearest town to Coral Bay and the nearest Woolworths Supermarket where we could stock up with our 'Home Brand' favourites including gingernuts and muesli. Woolworths gingernuts are the best and their muesli has been our staple breakfast almost since day one. We stayed the night at a rest area arriving late afternoon and just before sundown while preparing dinner we were savagely attacked by plagues of small biting and bloodsucking midges! We quickly ate our dinner which was a really tasty sweet and sour chicken that we were not able to appreciate and got inside our van. We were joined by a hundred or more of these midges as they lined our ceiling. We sprayed the van with insect killer and stood outside a few seconds. Quickly getting back in we began to clear up the midge
massacre site and started to itch as the bites were bloody irritating and we were paranoid there were more especially in our hair! We were up early in the morning and attempted breakfast but had to give up on that idea as the midges were back with a vengeance. By
the time we arrived at Denham, 130km away, the hoard of hitchhiking midges were nearly all dead. Quite strange, they must have a life span of dawn until dusk! We swept the van, filled up with fuel and were informed at the visitor centre that there is currently an epidemic of them in the area. No Kidding! Anyway, the reason we were here was to go to
Monkey Mia and visit the dolphins (and not the monkeys because there are none!).
Monkey Mia is little more than a caravan resort next to a very nice beach where dolphins daily come to shore in the morning. We didn't see any the first day as we arrived around lunchtime so we just enjoyed the beach and watching four very large pelicans sunbathing and pruning themselves with their extraordinary beaks. Up early the next morning to see the dolphins! By 7.30am we had showered, eaten breakfast and were on the beach waiting for their arrival. We were not disappointed. Several adult dolphins and as many calves strutted up and down the shoreline inches from our paddling feet for around thirty minutes until the adults were fed a few fish each. They quickly
disappeared after feeding but returned a few minutes later and the process was repeated. Occasionally they come back a third time but not today. We didn't mind as we had already watched them for nearly one and a half hours. It was an amazing spectacle!
We left midday and stopped at a couple of places on the way back we had bypassed the day before. This included 'Little Lagoon' and 'Shell Beach', both worthy stops and self explanatory. We also stopped to see the 'Stromatolites'. We should be really thankful to these little 'sediment trapping algae' fellows as it was their ancestors that oxygenated the earth's atmosphere! However, to quote a certain Simon Cowell, they don't quite have the X-Factor we were looking for!
We stopped at a Roadhouse for fuel and were attacked once more by 'The Midges' so we drove further than planned to try and outrun them. We reached our rest stop tentatively stepping outside and all was ok! Lots of mist in the morning and visibility while driving was not good. That was for about 10km when suddenly the mist vanished and it was clear blue skies and sunshine all the way to
Kalbarri.
'Kalbarri, you'll love it' so the slogan says as you enter the town. It was a lovely place and we really did quite like it. We had a stroll along the grassy esplanade and on the beach. It had a very sleepy seaside town feel to it but I think that will change in a few days when the kids break up for school. We left after a couple of hours and drove the scenic coastal route with lots of stops and lookouts on the way. It was a bit like the Great Ocean Road but not quite as dramatic.
We finished the day at a caravan park in a place called
Northampton. Yep, Northampton! It's not quite as big as our home town with just 750 residents but it was quite quaint. We were initially disappointed though as we discovered that the annual 'Airing of the Quilts' ('where lovingly made patchwork quilts are displayed from buildings, shops and roadsides') is not being held until October but after exploring this historical town and photographing everything saying Northampton we were more than satisfied. While at the visitor centre we purchased some postcards of Northampton and told the lady there that
we were going to post them to Northampton, England. "Yeah, a lot of people do that" she dismissively replied. There were even a couple of names before ours in the visitor book from Northampton (England that is - it's getting confusing!) but we didn't recognise them.
Leaving Northampton we clocked up 21,000km and with little more than 500km and five days to go before we return Chubby we got a $240 crack in our windscreen! After some Gordon Ramsay style language from me and a 'crap' from Claire (Claire never swears so must have been angry) we calmed down and consoled ourselves. Worse things happen and it really doesn't matter that we hadn't bought the optional extra windscreen insurance!! The best way to get over this we felt was to leave the country for a while and visit some royalty. The
Hutt River Principality is a tiny community headed by Prince Leonard which ceded from the Australian Commonwealth in 1970. We were greeted by the Prince himself who must be well in his eighties now and were given a comical tour of his small domain. It included a souvenir shop, tearoom, post office and government office! We bought some
local currency and postage stamps and even had our passports stamped too! It was brilliant and lifted our spirits considerably.
Back to Australia. A night in a rest area and in the morning a visit to the
Pinnacles. Thousands of limestone columns of varying shapes, some quite cheeky, protrude from the sand dunes up to 3m in height. We wandered amongst them for about an hour with beanie, jumper and trousers now a necessity again. We stayed at another rest area and had to wear gloves in the morning while eating our Woolworths muesli for breakfast and headed for
Fremantle. Here we wandered around the 'Cappuccino Strip', the heart of Fremantle, where coffee houses and bookshops rule. We stayed just one night at Woodmans Point Campsite in Fremantle as at 7am we were rudely awakened by a man who thought we hadn't paid for our site. He was extremely aggressive and threatened us with security and to 'black list' us from all campsites (somehow!?). When we went to reception to complain he was there and offered a feeble apology as he now realised his error. We left and stayed two more nights at the superior Fremantle Village campsite spending
most of our time watching television (including Pamela Anderson entering the Big Brother House), tidying the van and digging our backpacks out again to squeeze everything back in.
Once at
Perth we checked into the 'Old Swan Barracks Hotel', a really impressive hostel actually and returned Chubby to Travellers Autobarn where we would have shed a tear if we hadn't had to pay for the windscreen to be replaced (we decided to get it done there to avoid any further chips or cracks). Even considering the windscreen expense we have found hiring our campervan good value for money. While it doesn't come close to being as cheap as buying your own vehicle and re-selling it for us it was definitely the best decision. Several people on our journey have told us they would never rent and buying is so much cheaper. We are not stupid and I am an accountant after all so we are well aware of the maths. I finally snapped when a sock sandal wearing German again advised us of the pros of buying and cons of renting (Germans never hire!). Bearing in mind he already knew we were at the end of our journey and
what was done was done he still insisted on telling us where we had gone wrong. I rather pompously told him that money just wasn't an issue for us. That is mostly true, of course money is an issue but our enjoyment and peace of mind was the overriding factor in our decision and not how many pennies we could save. Anyway, Perth seemed a nice relaxed city but we were not in a sight seeing mood. We just used this time to wind down from our Australian adventure and begin preparing for our next one in New Zealand.
As was once a tradition, here are our top five Oz Experiences...
1) Flying over the
Whitsunday Islands in a seaplane landing for a champagne lunch on Whitehaven Beach - it was always going to be difficult to top that!!
2)
Paul's Place, Kangaroo Island. The most fun you can have with wildlife ever and was a close second!!
3)
Australia Zoo, near Brisbane. The second most fun you can have with wildlife ever!!
4)
Melbourne Gaol (being treated like a common criminal and locked up was great as was dressing up like Ned Kelly) and the
Game On Exhibition in Melbourne where you simply played all the great computer and arcade games of the last thirty years.
5)
Sydney Harbour. The bridge and the Opera House are simply awesome.
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Tom
non-member comment
puppini sisters
Well, there's got to be at least one random CD and I'd not heard of them either so thought 'what the hell!'. You do realise that everyone who visits this site will probably have googled them by now, doubling the visitor numbers!!