Advertisement
Published: July 22nd 2008
Edit Blog Post
By the time we reached Jo'burg my nerves were shattered and my patience frayed, 11 hours and the kids never slept a wink. From the moment we were collected and driven back to our awaiting compound I felt as though I was living in a fishbowl and unfortunately I never got to explore Pretoria any further than the local shopping mall. I wanted out and I wanted home so I booked a flight and three days later I was back on home soil. It was great to catch up with friends and family again but my highlight had to be the Banksy exhibition held in a disused Euro tunnel at Waterloo. Forty of the top international stencil artists had come from around the world to transform this forgotten part of the city into a gallery rivaling anything the Tate could offer.
But my wandering ways were far from over and after four weeks in England I was ready to get back on the road again. So back to Perth I flew this time jobless and with the vague notion of traveling up the west coast. Together with two Canadian couchsurfers, Dodes and Dae, I decided to chip in for a van
that would carry us all the way to Darwin and so the search for our chariot began. The first and only van we viewed, a converted Toyota Tarrago born in 1984 and already named Malabago, was the one we decided to save. She was painted a long since discontinued hue of deep metallic gold and was basically a rust bucket that had a serious pull to the left. Two young American guys were due to fly out and in desperate need to sell Malie (as she affectionately became known), the problem was she was an old girl and required full safety checks and new plates in order for us to get her back on the road. A frantic 48 hours followed that involved flying visits to the Vehicle Testing Center, scrapyard, mechanics, auto electrical wizards and back again to the testing center. It was touch and go for a while but finally we emerged victorious and Malie was given a new lease of life. We set about giving her a face lift and as Dodes painted her inside I made a full set of curtains on a borrowed sewing machine and changed my first ever oil filter, a proud moment.
At last we were ready and having picked up another English couchsurfer, Alice, the four of us pulled out of Perth and onto the Great Northern Highway in jubilant spirits. There was one rule in the van to never drive after dusk, this was something that I later had to go back on and unfortunately it began the fantastic unraveling of the Golden Wonder.
Our first stop was the Pinnacles Desert where thousands of limestone pillars jut out of the golden sand and give the feel of being in a Luna landscape. The first night we set up camp in a caravan park a few kilometers down the road in Cervantes, a town of sorts but mainly upheld by passing tourists. The next morning we were up early and drove all day until we found a beautiful spot to camp tucked away from the road and allowing great views as the sun sank behind a giant sand dune so it glowed a delicate pink. Here luck was on our side and a local fisherman gave us a couple of fresh Barrimundy fish that we cooked up for supper, however, a rather unwanted visitor turned up at the dinner table in
the form of a scorpion but luckily Alice, our resident zoologist, took care of it and disposed of him in the bushes a safe distance away.
The next day we made it to Kalbarri where against the advice of the rangers we set up camp in the National Park on a rocky cliff edge under an overhang allowing superb views over the park. I woke the next morning in time to be treated to an amazing sunrise that filled the gorge with first light so that it glowed a deep orange whilst the sky turned a vivid pink. As the heat of the day intensified so did the flies, it really was insane, at any one point you can have up to 30 of the little beggars crawling over you, and I soon began to wander how people could ever possibly get used to having any available orifice used as a free watering hole. Trying to escape the onslaught we packed up and took to the road with great speed trying to drive them back. It was a long straight road that day which took us to our next destination, Eagle Bluff, along the way we noticed the destruction left
by the imposing road trains in the form of dozens of dead kangaroos in varying decaying stages scattered by the side of the road. We free camped that night in a stunning spot next to the ocean and although we were given some respite from the flies unfortunately the mosquitoes came out in force like a pack of tiny vampires. We lit a bonfire in an attempt to smoke them out and relaxed watching the crystal clear night sky as it gave us a tremendous show of shooting stars. The next morning we were on the move again passing the dried landscape of red earth and low lying scrub until we reached Monkey Mia, home of the semi-tame dolphins. Here my childhood dreams were fulfilled as I got to feed one of these incredibly intelligent creatures and my first experience of snorkeling in the somewhat murky waters with a Green Turtle. The next morning we were off again setting up camp this time in Whalebone Bay where we were treated to another stunning sunset. By this point most of us were tiring of covering such vast distances everyday and longed to set up camp for longer than one night. So
we headed to Quobba Bay at the start of the awe inspiring Ningaloo Reef, stopping along the way to admire the Stromatolites, living rocks left over from prehistoric days. It was a long road to Quobba and unfortunately I had to drive after dusk at an incredibly slow speed for fear of kangaroos so we did not reach our destination until the sun had well and truly sank. The mood in the van was not good, the distance and sharing such a confined space was at last taking its toll. Camp was set up in the dark with a tense atmosphere that never really went away. Quobba was a fantastic snorkeling opportunity as only a meter from the beach you could view Moray eels, Giant Clams, colourful coral and shoals of iridescent fish. The luxury of spending the whole day in one spot was short lived and soon we were off again stopping briefly at the Blow holes before pushing on further north. By this time there was an obvious split in the group and everything came to a head in Coral Bay so when myself and Alice were offered work housekeeping at the caravan park we grabbed the opportunity
and said farewell to Malie and the others and swiftly moved into the staff quarters provided.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.101s; Tpl: 0.022s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0703s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb