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Published: September 28th 2013
'Here to the right', says Linda, my wife. Again I switch the wiper on instead of the blinker. As a Dutchman I am not accustomed to drive in a car with the steer at the righthand side.
We are heading to the North. At the left side is the Indian Ocean, at the right the outback with a plethora of flowers. Every now and then we see kangaroos hopping in between the thickets, sometimes an emu, stretching its neck to see what is passing.
We drive a minicamper. It is mini indeed, but everything is there: a fridge, a magnetron, a two pits burner, pans, cutlery, plates, a dining table, and believe it or not a kingsize bed. It gives us a feeling of freedom and adventure.
Last night we made brown beans with speck for dinner. Through the windows we saw some kangaroos hopping in the rain around our car. Usually they flee when you come at a distance of 100 meter. So I did not expect to bump into a kangaroo, when I went to the toilet this morning. It was dark and cold. I had not see him and suddenly he was there at one
meter distance. He was not inclined to move an inch to let me pass. So I circled around him.
Looking for Stromatolites We are coming from Yalgorup National Park, 115 kilometers under Perth. It was our first close encounter with nature in Australia. It felt as if we entered a complete new world. All those new sounds and flavors, the birds we had never seen before like ringneckparrots and gala's, and above all the overwhelming variety of flowers. It is not a culture shock but a nature shock. But however beautiful, we came here in the first place to see the stromatolites or thrombolites as they call them here, because they have a slightly different texture.
Unfortunately the water of lake Clifton at Yalgorup National Park was high, so all thrombolites were under the water. But the water is clear enough to see them simmering under the surface. Just big stones, nothing special. It is the story behind them which makes them so fascinating. While standing at the border of the lake I chew it over. I go 3,5 billions years back in time. The earth is empty: no eucalyptus trees, no kangaroos hiding near the toilets.
Even no fishes in the ocean. Bacteria are the only living organisms and one of them are the cyanobacteria, the bacteria which make the stromatolites. They were so successful that they populated all world. Now they are gone. There are only a few places left in all world where they still live, being some spots at the West coast of Australia and the Bahama's. Further to the North near Cervantes there is another site where we can spot them. Maybe we'll have more luck there.
Placentals and Marsupials Via the Indian Ocean Drive we drive further to the North. Along the shoulders of the road are dead kangaroos, hit by a passing a car. It is a good meal for the ravens, which behave like vultures. At Yanchep, just North of Perth, we have to stop, because we get problems with the car. The day after we visit the Yanchep National Park and continue our journey along the coastline to discover new treasures.
We often heard people saying that nature is not interesting here. Even Darwin was not impressed when he was in Australia in 1836. But that was in January when everything is dry and the
Gastrolobium polystachyum
This peaplant produces the poison fluoroacetate. It kills mammals, but marsupials are adapted to it.plants are not flowering. Still he writes in his diary:
'Un unbeliever in everything beyond his own reason might exclaim "Surely two distinct creators must have been at work"' Nature is so different in Australia that such an idea might easily cross your mind. I become fully aware of this other world, this second creation, when I stand at the entrance of Yanchep Natural Park. A billboard warns to stay out with dogs. In order to protect the local fauna poisonous baits are spread out in the Park which kills placentals but not marsupials. The poison is called fluoroacetate or 1080 and is used to kill feral cats, wild dogs, foxes and rabbits. Kangaroos, koala's, wombats and other marsupials are safe. How is this possible, I wonder. Do they have a different metabolism?
The answer is simple. Several endemic plants, like some peaplants, contain fluoroacetate to prevent grazing. But the local fauna (marsupials) has become adapted to the poison during a longterm process of co-evolution with the plants. It is like Rasputin who took every day some poison, so that he would not get poisoned.
And what about the Aboriginals?, I ask myself. They live here
since 40.000 years and are as well dependent on plants. According to an Australian guide we met, Aboriginals prepare their food in a way that it is not poisonous anymore.
Pinnacles We drive further to the North to Cervantes. We visit Pinnacle Desert in Nambung National Park. It is as if we are walking across a field with menhirs. But these stones are not handmade. How they came into existence is not fully clear. Apparently the roots of plants packed the ground together and made calcrete pedestals of it (like we saw in Whitesands in New Mexico). We still see the petrified roots.
Nearby is Lake Thetis, famous for its stromatolites. We hope we can see them better now, but also here the stromatolites are fully under water. It is said that stromatolites only survived in hypersaline waters. Other organisms like snails and worms cannot survive. As a consequence the stromatolites were not grazed upon. I put my finger in the lake to taste the water. It is very salt indeed, but when we look around we see a lot of snails. Moreover Lake Clifton at Yalgorup National Park was brackish. So something is wrong with this
theory. Maybe later we get the answer when we are in Shark Bay, the mecca of stromatolites. It is a long distance, but we definitely want to see them.
Banksia's Lesueur National Park is a bit further to the North. It is a paradise for botanists. The variety is enormous, thanks to Mount Lesueur. We make a beautiful hike around the mountain. Around every corner new plants appear: Grass Trees, Bottlebrushes, Dryandra's, Eucalypts, Everlastings, Grevillea's, Hakea's, Kangaroo Paws, Melaleuca's, Peaflowers, Triggerplants, Wattles, Smokebushes... We discover also several Orchids like Cowslip orchid and Spider Orchid. The Grass Trees are very impressive with their flowering spikes. The early settlers called them 'Black Boys' as they resemble aboriginal warriors with spears, when seen from a distance. A guide told it is not correct anymore to call them Blackboys, though the Aboriginals continue to name them Blackboys themselves.The area is so special and so vulnerable that we have to brush our shoes before we can enter, specially to prevent introduction of the Protist Phytophtora. Linda is continuously taking pictures. I think she made thousands. Most plants have needle like leaves, obviously a defense against the drought. So the plants look more or
less the same. Unlike the similarity of the leaves the variation in forms and colors of the flowers is breathtaking. We have never seen such a thing before, apart from the Tablemountain in Capetown (South Africa). Most spectacular are the Banksia's with their big cones. They come in all colours.
Further to the North at the 'Western Flora Caravan Park', 23 kilometer North of Enneaba we join a flower excursion. Thirty 70 plussers follow the guide on his walk across the fields, some even with crutches. Everyone likes to be as close to the guide as possible. I guess because no one can hear so well anymore. 'Banksia's need bushfires', tells the guide, 'otherwise they cannot produce seeds.' He points out that due to conservation measures specially against fire, the number of Banksia's is decreasing.
'Western Flora Caravan Park' is a fantastic campsite. In every other campsite you see billboards which tell you what is not allowed. From 'It is not allowed to make noise after 10 pm' up to 'Bombing is not allowed in the swimmingpool'. The more expensive the campsite the less is allowed. Not so in the 'Western Flora Caravan Park', though I must admit
most 70 plussers are not supposed to make noise after 10 pm and bombing in the swimmingpool is definitely not their hobby. In 'Western Flora Caravan Park everything is allowed. There is only one billboard which reads "In case of fire switch the pump on'. And then 'You can find the pump West of the lavatory block'. I still do not know where the pump is, but it is good for the Banksia's.
So everything is fine in West Australia. Apart from the flies of course; they are a disaster. Every other second a fly lands somewhere on me, preferably on my eyes, in my ears or in my nose. I really do not understand these flies. There are so many flowers around and then they wait all day till a placental or in my case a mammal passes. Losers they are. When we hike in the outback hundreds are hitching on our backs. The sand path under our feet is covered with tens of thousands of carnivorous plants. Obviously it does not help.
Australians Further to the North we go via Geraldton to Kabari. The roads are completely empty. Now and then a road train is
passing, an huge truck with three parts. No villages anymore, only a single roadhouse, where you can fill your tank and your stomach. We pitch our car at the Anchorage Caravan Park. By chance we can join an organized barbecue. So we took our Australian Cabernet Merlot with us, we had bought in a drive in bottle shop, and joined the party. Excellent wine by the way.
Australians are so communicative, so direct. Everyone is friendly and begins to talk with us. Every time they find new topics. We love it. Also here the average age is 70 plus, but these people are so full of energy that you cannot imagine to find them in a nursing home playing Bingo and singing nursing home songs under the supervision of an activity companion.
Stomatolites at last The only village we pass while we are driving further to the North is Bilabong. Actually it is nothing more than a roadhouse. At Overlander, another desolate roadhouse, we turn to the left in the direction of the Ocean. Finally we stop at Hamelin at the Hamelin Caravan Park near Shark Bay. It will be our last stop. Our last chance to
Carnivorous plants
The whole road is covered with carnivorous plants. Unfortunately it does not help against the flies. see stromatolites. It is a very isolated spot. The campsite is set up around the buildings of a telegraph office from 1880. Bill Bryson describes it in his book 'Down Under'. In the past people gathered here to transfer their wool to little boats, which sailed down to Perth. At the reception we see old pictures with camels walking through the sea to the boats with the wool cargo in a cart behind them.
The toilet block of the campsite is the most peculiar I have ever seen. It is fully made of shells, a kind of cockels (to be precise
Fragum eragatum, as I found out after some visits). When we walk to the sea we discover where all these shells come from. Between the campsite and the sea is a quarry. Trillions of 6000 years old little shells are cemented together in a hard stone layer.
But we did not come for the cockels. It is only a 100 meters walking to the sea and then we see them, gloriously jutting out of the beach. Big stones, not like the scone like thrombolites we saw under the water in Lake Clifton or lake Thetis, but massive
doughnuts, as big as millstones. Stromatolites! We walk over the jetty into the sea. And then we see what we hoped for. Little bubbles are coming out of the stones. Oxygen! It is this oxygen what makes the stromatolites to one of the major icons of biology. 3,5 billion years there was hardly any oxygen in the atmosphere. That changed with the upcoming of the cyanobacteria (the bacteria which make the stromatolites). With the oxygen they produced all iron in the ocean was oxidized. Afterwards the oxygen in the atmosphere began to rise up to 21 %. Een ozon layer was formed around the atmosphere which prevented the destructing ultra violet light coming in. The earth was prepared for the existence of plants and animals. I chew it over while I am watching the oxygen bubbles. I owe my life to these simple creatures.
We walk back to the campsite. There is a little museum. The owner of the campsite is guiding us around. There are some drawings at the wall, representing the evolution of life on earth. With a fishing rod she points at the different highlights: the Archaeon, when the first life arose, the Cambrian explosion, the
dinosaurs, the mammals... It only takes five minutes. We are more interested in the living stromatolite in the aquarium. The only one in all Australia said Bill Bryson, the only one in all world writes Lonely Planet, the only one in all universe tells the caption under the aquarium. It is not true. Linda Moore of the University of West Australia is doing experiments in aquaria with stromatolites.
It is dark in the museum and it is dark in the aquarium. Strange, because the bacteria need light for their photosynthesis. 'Why there is no light?', I ask. 'We switch the light off, otherwise it will be overgrown by algae', says the owner. Once more I look at the stomatolite. More and more I get the feeling I am watching a dead stone. That it is fake, just like the woman without a head at a fair. But then I realize that the owner is right. Probably it is the cause why the stromatolites disappeared on earth. They were overgrown by algae.
We see some fossilized stromatolites. They come from the Pilbara region far from here in West Australia. Two billion years old says the caption. Next to the
fossils is another stone. We see red layers. It is iron ore. Iron oxidized by the oxygen of the cyanobacteria. Pilbara we read again. It will be our next destination. Next year.
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Femmy
non-member comment
prachtig!
Dank voor jullie verhaal en de prachtige foto's. Ik was benieuwd of jullie het leuk zouden vinden, Australië, maar het viel niet tegen, toch?