West is best, or is it?

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We were planning on finding out whether or not the west of Australia was indeed the best (like Canada!) by undertaking a gruelling trip from Darwin to Perth overland, and topping that off with a train ride across the outback back to Sydney. We covered about 7000km by road and then a mere 4,500km by train to finish.

Having landed at Darwin we headed directly down to Kakadu National Park to check out what this world heritage listed area had to offer. We didn’t quite make it all the way on day one and as a result had a delightful stay in the Mary River region; the bird life was simply amazing - flocks of hundreds of little white cockatoos (actually corellas is their correct name), loads of the much larger red-tailed black cockatoos (can you guess what they look like), and a myriad of other colourful little things darting around. It made for a lovely place to camp but one hell of a wake up call at first light - don’t think either of us had ever heard anything quite as loud.

Pushing on into Kakadu proved to be a treat as well. This is one of the very few places in the world that is a world heritage site for both its cultural and natural environment, so we set about exploring both as much as our limited time would allow. There are various Aboriginal rock art sites that are accessible to the public and the ones we visited at Ubirr and Nourlangie were fabulous; the drawings were in many cases very detailed and clear (although this does depend significantly on the ages of them) quite different from most of the vague scribbles that we had seen elsewhere, and of unbelievable age, some dating back about 15,000 years or more. There were various quite amusing ones that did border on pornographic, but I think we both like the ‘lightening man’, some spirit with crazy hair. It was truly remarkable to think that these people had managed to survive out here for so many thousands of years, think it made it seem even more remarkable to us as we were visiting during the build up to the rains and it was really steamy throughout our visit.

On the natural side we did as many short hikes as the time and the toasty weather would allow us, and it gave us a great opportunity to see much of the parks scenic splendour as well as its native wildlife - especially the flies!!! Unfortunately as we were there right at the end of the dry season the waterfalls were very low and in many cases completely dry, nonetheless the valleys and gorges were impressive, particularly being able to clamber up to the top of Gunlom Falls for a dip in the pool at the top watching the sun go down with no one else around.

Perhaps the highlight of the visit was a river cruise down ‘yellow water’ in search of Kakadu’s main icon - the saltwater crocodile, the ‘saltie’. Well these big bad dudes were not in short supply and they must have been every 100m or so down the entire length of the water course, pretty creepy really being so close to such vicious hunters but we were assured that they don’t eat tourists too often! On top of the crocs was also a multitude of birdlife, both little colourful things like the azure kingfisher, to large storks and egrets and thousands upon thousands of migratory magpie geese, who filled the sky morning and evening in arrow formation. Matt has always been a bit of a bird geek but even Lynda started to become interested too watch, such was the spectacle!

Anyway having had our fill of the delights of Kakadu we had a night back in Darwin before heading off on an organised trip through the far north west of Australia, the Kimberley (singular not plural we were told!). An afternoon and evening in Darwin was more than enough for us, it was hot and humid, we were in a scummy hostel, there were lots of scummy people about, and everything shut ridiculously early - what snobs were are! So when we headed out south on the Stuart Highway we were not sad to be leaving.

The tour we were on took 9 days to get through the Kimberley and across to the Indian ocean and Broome. It was a huge amount of driving through real frontier country and you really had the feeling of being slap bang in the middle of nowhere, the huge road trains being the only vehicles that we normally saw on the roads, and they were amazing in themselves. In many ways as the old cliché goes it was more about the journey than the destinations, but there were several highlights along the way.

First up was Pernululu National Park (also known as the Bungle Bungles, hence rather too many rainbow jokes for those of us who grew up in the UK). This was perhaps the most remote place that we visited, not only right in the middle of nowhere but also along an amazingly rough road to get there. As with Kakadu it was protected for both cultural significance as well as its amazing landscape. Most of the cultural stuff was off limits to tourists so we had to be happy with the breathtaking scenery; the area was an area of deep gorges and perhaps more famously the orange and black stripped rocks that are dome-shaped, and look rather like massive beehives. Absolutely stunning, and well up there on the list of the most beautiful places we have seen in Australia, and elsewhere for that matter. In fact it was so good we took a helicopter flight to get a better overview, largely because the place is the size of Belgium apparently (why does all large areas get compared to the size of Belgium? What about Holland or Luxembourg?), and that was fabulous. We particularly liked the fact that the chopper didn’t have any doors, so it was an adrenaline ride too.

The main road through the Kimberley is the Gibb River Road, a gravel road that goes for 650km crossing several huge cattle ranches (no doubt some multiple of the size of Belgium), with a couple of river crossings to negotiate too. As it turned out because everything was so dry it was a relatively comfortable drive down. Much of the scenery was dry scrubland with the odd scrawny lonely cow standing around wondering how the hell they got to live in such an awful place, but then every so often we visited the most beautiful gorges. They were all broadly the same; they were attractive gorges through orange and red rocks, with virtually dry waterfalls (given the time of year), and involved a walk of varying length followed by a delightful cool dip in the billabong by the waterfall. There was loads of birdlife, lizards and occasionally the odd wallaby or kangaroo grazing…it regularly felt like the most Australian of Australian landscapes.

Windjaner gorge towards the end of our journey was also the premier place to spot freshwater crocodiles (or ‘freshies’ as the Australian’s cunningly call them) in Australia, and that didn’t disappoint either. We counted 31 of them in a pool about 100m long, and although these guys are not dangerous to humans there was no way in hell we were skinny dipping in that pool!!!

It had been a fabulous trip through some amazingly rugged countryside, and what made it even better was the fact that the 20 people on our little tour got on really well. Inevitably organising 20 people to do anything gets occasionally a bit frustrating, but overall we had a great time and learned of even more Australian travel destinations we wanted to visit…doh, too late!

The arrival in Broome was great, and finally seeing the Indian Ocean at Cable Beach was a great feeling. What was even better was a 6am dip in the unbelievably warm see with nine of our brave (or foolhardy) trip buddies, it was glorious. Cable beach is definitely up there on the 'best beaches in Australia' list!

We barely had time to take in Broome’s sweeping views (boom boom!!) before heading south to Perth. We only had 6 days to cover the 3000+km so it involved lots of driving; have to say that the driving scenery of this bit is much less interesting than further north, much more flat desert really, especially the Great Sandy Desert just south of Broome. I think we rather took more from the vast scale and desolation than the scenery itself. There were a few key stops, however, to break up the driving which were all lovely.

Kurijini National Park has the most stunning gorges which afforded some nice walking and swimming in more pools, and the Oxley lookout is perhaps the most beautiful single viewpoint we have seen in Aus - stunning point where 5 deep, narrow, red gorges meet. Although we unfortunately did not have time to explore the Ningaloo reef (that will definitely have to be another trip), we had a little snorkel at the sublime Coral Bay…if only we had more time. Then we stopped at other scenic viewpoints at Kalbarri NP, and the Pinnacles (odd limestone formations in a yellow sand desert, bloody hot and absolutely loved by flies). One of the main attractions on the west coast was Monkey Mia, where dolphins come right up to the beach every morning where they are fed by the onlooking masses. Have to say that we don’t really agree with the whole charade, especially as feeding wildlife in the area is strictly prohibited except for the commercial guys doing it in an area you have to pay to get in. Anyway, if you get over the ethical bit, which we did, it is really nice to see them up so close as they are magnificent animals. Best of all Lynda was selected to feed one of them; I think her grin was bigger than the dolphin she fed! We also paid a visit to the stromatalites; this is a very underwhelming location in its own right as it looks like a pile of rocks at low tide (which I suppose it is) however these are the earliest life forms on the planet. They date back some 3.5 billion years and basically their existence enabled life on the planet to evolve by generating oxygen, so in that regard it was a really fascinating and globally important place to visit, the start if creation as it were. Although they do still look like a pile of rocks.

Having done all of these lovely travels down the west coast the thing that we have talked most about since finishing was the fact that the hop on hop off bus ‘tour’ we used to get from Broome to Perth was absolutely atrocious. It therefore needs a bit of a mention here. We had the world’s worst driver/guide on probably Australia’s worst bus, which made for great frustration on the trip but some good anecdotes subsequently. Things didn’t look good from the start when the bus we were to use broke down so we started our day 3 hours late, and then our driver got lost in Broome so couldn’t even get out of town (bear in mind this is an outback town of about 15,000 people with only one road in and our of town) such that we actually directed him out of town having only arrived the previous afternoon on a bus (oh, and that after day 1 a fellow passenger actually asked if Matt was the tour guide!)! It just went from bad to worse as we missed points of interest, our guide swore continuously and continuously demonstrated his deep understanding of the local are (at one ocean cliff viewpoint - “I think this is where a river meets the sea”…such insight we could never have fathomed ourselves). Anyway it ended wonderfully (or should I say woefully) as we managed to get lost arriving in Perth (bearing in mind the driver comes from very near Perth, and its not a big city), lots of childish giggles from the back as we circled the city centre for the second time. Best of all though his parting gift was upon parking at the very end he reversed straight into a parked car! Awesome! Our 3 page complaint letter with 46 points on it will be available for circulation soon. Oh the company was EASYRIDER - tell your friends!!!!

Have to say it was wonderful being in Perth under our own steam again, no waiting for people (other than Lynda of course) and no buses. We loved the charming old port town of Fremantle, and immediately liked Perth as a liveable city, not too much for tourists but just nice - loads of parkland (especially Kings park), restaurants and things. A day trip to Rottnest Island (25 minutes by ferry from Fremantle) was a real highlight. We spent a day cycling round this beautiful little island, had a couple of snorkels (surprisingly good actually; crystal clear waters plenty of fish and even some small sting rays), and saw the local emblem the ‘quokka’. This is a small marsupial, ridiculously cute, and not at all bothered by our presence. We both thoroughly enjoyed our day.

The final leg of this Western Australian adventure was to catch the Indian Pacific train all the way back to Sydney; 67hours, 3 nights and 4,500km. It is one of the great train journeys of the world and it was a wonderful experience; ok it was not the most comfortable 3 days of our lives, and nor was the scenery the most dramatic (the outback can get quite repetitive), but a great feeling to have done it.

The train actually had brief stops in Kalgoolie (a gold mining town in Western Australia - we were there late at night so all we could do was have a few beers in the wild west saloon being served by busty girls in their underwear, “skimpies” as they are known, most entertaining and met some colourful locals), Adelaide, and Broken Hill (another mining town in NSW with plenty of interesting history which we strolled around). Perhaps the most famous and otherworldly (is that a word?) place we went across was the Nullarbor plain; a completely flat plain with no trees (about 4 times the size of Belgium!), and across that was the longest stretch of straight train tracks in the world - 477km straight! Now that was the true outback, and rightly claimed to be the middle of nowhere (its one settlement Cook, was one of the oddest communities you’ll ever have the pleasure of leaving).

So all in all we covered a huge amount of ground and had a memorable time. I think highlights have to be the Bungle Bungles, Gibb River road gorges, wildlife and art at Kakadu, and the train for the mindlessness of it.

A couple of days to draw breath and catching up with friends in Sydney before heading across the international date line to South America.

So was the west the best? It’s very hard to say you’d better get over there and decide for yourself, we’ll certainly be back!

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