Blogs from Western Australia, Australia, Oceania - page 7

DAY 2 COOLGARDIE-BORDER VILLAGEAs this was to be our longest day of driving, 900kms, we set off well before the sun had risen and onto Norseman and the turn off for the Eyre Highway to carry us across the Nullarbor. It was mostly an overcast, drizzly and cold day. This is my 5th time crossing bthe Nullarbor ... Dec '78, Jan '79, Aug '82, Sept '82 and now, June '22. The Nullarbor Plain has the longest, straightest, flattest road in Australia, the 144.6km stretch between Balladonia and Caiguna in WA. The vegetation that covers the Nullarbor is mostly mulga and bluebush. The Royal Flying Doctor Service has emergency landing on many sections of the Eyre Highway. Our camp for the next 2 days will be Border Village, a settlement located in South Australia bordering WA. on ... read more

Wednesday Kunnunara to Bungle Bungles was a short day, only 250kms on seal. We stopped at Warnum Roadhouse for gas as no fuel now until reached Halls Creek & we were going to do 250kms in the park. The correct name for the park is Purnululu but through a "lost in translation" moment became the Bungle Bungles when a white explorer asked an Indigenous guide what the area was called & the guide thought he was asking about the grass in the park which is called Bungle bungle in the local dialect. The Kimberly's which is comprised of a few different ranges, and mainly soft sandstone has spent millions of years being eroded by wind & water & has created an unusual landscape.Huge boulders are scattered across the landscape some large on top of larger & ... read more

Moving on from Denmark towards Albany on the Bibbulmun Track entails getting either around or across Wilson Inlet first. Unlike each of the other inlets encountered along the Southern Ocean coastline, this crossing can be done neither by wading nor by paddling - unless you have your own canoe or kayak. And so it was that I found myself forking out sixty dollars to the manager of the Blue Wren hostel in Denmark, to drive me all the way around the inlet and drop me off at a boat ramp on the northern shore of the Nullaki Peninsula - about six kilometres from Denmark as the crow flies, but a 45-minute drive by more conventional means. Once there, the final 80km of the Bibbulmun Track stretched out in a generally easterly direction towards Albany, running roughly ... read more

After enjoying a day-and-a-half of rest and relaxation at the wildlife utopia of Donnelly River Village, I endeavoured to leave on Monday morning (20th September) only to find myself lingering as I passed mobs of kangaroos lazing about in the sunshine on the front lawns of the local houses; and then when I finally did manage to turn out of the main street I encountered the same male emu I had seen on each of the previous two days, still faithfully shepherding his four youngsters from one grazing spot to the next. It wasn't hard to see the attraction of this remote hideaway in the midst of the karri forest, for both animals and humans alike - even if I couldn't approve of the visiting families feeding the tame wildlife (which consists mostly of kangaroos, wallabies, ... read more

Stretching for 1000km between Kalamunda in the Perth Hills and Albany on the Southern Ocean, the Bibbulmun Track is one of Australia's longest and most loved walking trails. It's not hard to see the appeal. Almost entirely contained within a string of National Parks and other protected conservation areas, it passes through the botanical wonderland of the South-West forests, before paralleling the Southern Ocean for much of the way between Walpole and Albany. At it's northern end the track runs for 210km  (crossing two highways in the process) without encountering a single town. After that, a small town is passed through roughly every 4-8 days, allowing through-hikers to either stock up on whatever food might be available from the local grocery store, or collect food drop boxes that they have sent on ahead in the post ... read more