Up the West Coast in the campervan

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So after Kalgoorlie it was back to Fremantle to organise getting up the west coast. I managed to sort out a lift with an Australian, Michael, who had been staying in Perth but was now making his way back home to Darwin in his campervan. Bumped into the couple of guys from Esperance and a couple of Israeli guys on motorcycles who I met in Albany, while I was in Fremantle

There was to be lots of fishing involved as Michael is a keen angler, I was happy to give it a go. There was a lot of faffing around the first day finally we got off about 5 in the afternoon. A lot of faffing around was to become a theme of the road trip. We stopped at Badgingarra, Greenough, Kalbarri, Overlander Roadhouse, Denham, Monkey Mia, Carnaven, Barradale, Yule River, and Broome over the course of about 3 weeks. Also a theme of the trip was a obsessive compulsion with the towbar. Michael was constantly worried that it was going to fall off and we had a it re-welded three times I think. I felt that I was the guest so I played along, but there was a lot of time wasted and we could have seen more things. ANyway, it was a cheap way for me to get up the coast and we did stop at some nice places.

One of the best places we stopped was Sharks Bay. I really wanted to stop here to see the Stromatolites. These are calcitic mounds made by primitive cyano-bacteria. They are one (if not the) oldest forms of life and were around 3.5 billion years ago. They are uniquely found in the Carribean and Sharks Bay (eith the Sharks Bay one being superior). I had wanted to visit these since hearing about them so much in Year 1 Geology lectures. MIchael was decidedly underwelmed, but I didn't care. Also there were the dolphins ar Monkey Mia, Michael missed these because he was getting his camera; I had ato chuckle at this.

On the way into Broome there was a large BANG from the engine; not good. All appeared well and we continued on. Late in the evening, just outside of Broome, we were starting to go all over the road. The tyre burst but we stayed on the road and came to a controlled halt, much to Michaels credit. We stopped a passing campervan containing an Englishman and two French lads. They sent on and phoned the RAC for us. We waited while getting absolutely eaten alive by mozzies. Eventually we got it sorted and rolled into Broome about midnight, it had been one of those days!

Things didn't improve in Broome. I had a nice time wandering around the town. Michael was not really one for wondering, after walking for 2 minutes he had to stop, in fact he didn't like walking at all. He would pack up the campervan and drive everywhere. It was such an ordeal to pack up the camper but he preferred this over walking. Anyway we tried to leave Broome but the van was using so much water. We had to turn aroud and go back to Broome. It turned out the engine was seriously rooted (as the Australians would say) and required serious work. I had a nice time in Broome and the campsite was good fun. I spent time with Jim, Frederick and Renault (the guys who stopped with us on the way into Broome) and many other nice people. One French guy had to go to court as he had been stopped driving his camper down the wrongside of the road, while drunk. He got off with a 3 month ban.

The work on the engine was going to take a long time in the end so Michael and I decided that the best thing would be for me to go ahead on the Greyhound bus. This suited me as would give me time to visit other places.

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