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Published: February 2nd 2010
Holiday
and all the important parts , sun, sand and alcoholWell, we have finally arrived for our holiday.... yep we have realised that travelling the world is tough work so when our friends Richard and Di suggested a holiday in Western Australia, bonza idea we thought (to use the colloquialism). We took the quick hop from Adelaide to its neighbour Perth, well when I say quick, the journey takes about the same time as the UK to Eqypt, that gives you some idea of the scale, and to say it wasn’t the most scenic journey ever is being kind.
Richard and Di, our friends who moved out here about 5 years ago, have settled in & become total Aussies, the BBQ is the main cooker, the fridge is permanently stocked with beer and they’ve sworn their undying allegiance to the southern cross (or whatever you do). Their two boys, with curly flowing locks & outdoor hobbies, could be an advert for Billabong. Anyway, Di had kindly planned our holiday for us in the finest detail, all we had to do was turn up, slip on the thongs (you may want to google the phrase if the thought of Chris and a thong has put you off your dinner), hop in
Shell Beach
Miles and miles and miles of them .... the wagon and be driven 1300km north. Yep our little jaunt was the equivalent to driving from Lands End to John O Groats, towing a boat and in 40 plus degree heat - we couldn’t wait!!!
Obviously we couldn’t do this in one haul so we stopped for a night in the City of Geraldton, just about long enough to walk to the local asian restaurant and then for the girls to enjoy a night walking tour. Okay I have to admit the shortcut did get us a bit lost. Back into the wagon and it was off to our first major destination, Monkey Mia, which is situated on the Peron peninsula, about 150k off of the main road north. Di had booked us into two lovely beachfront cabins, complete with BBQ, sun deck and a perfect view of Shark Bay.
To get to it you pass shell beach, and, as the name implies it’s an amazing collection of trillions of tiny shells all from one type of animal. The shell known as the Hamelin Cockle, lives in prolific numbers in the area because of the high salinity of the water & discarded shells have heaped into massive
Where's Rod
Not the brightest bird I've met !!! piles on the beach up to 10M thick. It is a sight to behold, tons of bleached white shells forming a beach over 1Km wide and 10’s of k’s long with crystal clear blue water lapping at the shores. A quick paddle and we were off again.
What I have neglected to mention is that the temperature was varying between 39 and 44 degrees. While stopping to refuel at the Overlander Roadhouse the car temp gauge read 52 (maybe we shouldn’t have left the ladies in the car, with no keys, while Rich and I chatted to the manager - but hey). Monkey Mia is famous for its dolphin interaction, where pods of wild dolphins come into the shore each morning to feed. Up to 13 can visit and they come in every morning, regular as clockwork. We rose at 7 and trotted off down to the shore and patiently waited (along with about 200 others) but for the first time in living memory (yeah right) the Dolphins didn’t appear, obviously their clock hadn’t been wound. Oh well, just shows that these are truly wild creatures and not a theme park show. What to do for the rest of
Swimming with Dolphins
Chris off to see his new pals the day? While sat on the patio, deciding, along walked an Emu, now that’s something you don’t see every day, in fact the last time I saw one it had Rod Hull’s hand somewhere nasty, but there it was wandering around and not a care in the world. Tough decision made we settled on a couple of hours laying on the beach, basking in the sun, swimming in the bay and then Richard decided a boat trip was in order so launched his craft.
We headed off out to explore the marine park and the foresight of taking the boat was truly rewarded. First we headed for the shallows around the headland and first a turtle popped its head up and then shark shaped shadows appeared in the water, fantastic said Chris, grabbing the camera and into the water he hopped and tried to chase the sharks. Yep looking back it sounds dumb, firstly because they are sharks and secondly because he had absolutely no chance of catching them, but he really wanted to swim with sharks and if you think about these things too much you probably won’t do them. There were a lot of Rays around, other
Playmates
Didn't mind the creature that was trying to follow them around .... people will know what type but they have the body of a ray and the tail like a shark and move very, very quickly. The skipper (Richard or maybe it was Diane) decided it was time to move on so we headed into deeper water. A few minutes later steaming along and up popped those elusive dolphins, yep they’d come to play with the boat, riding along on the bow wave and just generally showing off. This time Chris wasn’t going to miss his chance, on went the mask and flippers and into the water he went. This was it, he was swimming with wild dolphins, they weren’t afraid, just curious and playful and it was one of the best experiences of his life, just swimming along watching these fantastic creatures, in their world, sharing it for a few minutes. Too good an experience to resist, Richard hopped in and enjoyed the wonders. Then Lisa and Di decided that they didn’t want to miss out and hopped in to swim. Flippin fabulous. Heading back into shore we spotted “The Boys”. Up until then the dolphins had been the ladies with their babies, but jumping out of the water and generally
Mum and Sproglet
Great to see them in the wild showing off were a bunch of lads (typical). We headed off toward them to see if they wanted to play and sure enough the bow wave provided a few minutes light entertainment for them to race each other before other interests called (it was mating season after all). As if that wasn’t enough, on the way home, along popped a Dugong, called the sea cow. It’s a close relative of the manatee, something we’ve always wanted to see in the wild, and here was one just trolling along, not a care in the world, just munching away in one of the biggest sea grass areas in Australia. Back home and some steaks and a few bottles of Cab Merlot to celebrate whilst sat overlooking the ocean (Aus does have a wine lake that needs emptying you know). Great day.
The following morning we again waited for our new friends by the shore and a mum and baby turned up to the delight of the smaller crowd, but after yesterday’s wonders it all seemed a bit tame. With the wagon packed and boat hitched we headed off for the second part of the trip, a visit to Ningaloo Reef.
Good Friends
also helps to make a great holiday We headed north again, stopping briefly in Carnarvon, a place we were expecting to be a tiny village but turned out to be a very nice large town with some amazing houses on the sea shore - a shining example of the mining boom and the recent success of Western Australia. Stopping to have lunch at 1 mile jetty, one of the group thought that this was supposed to be the longest pier in the world, on arriving the tiny little bridge like structure didn’t even look like the longest pier on that street. Doh.
Arriving in Coral Bay we were given a 2 bedroom suite with all the trimmings, BBQ, decking, great ocean views. Not too shabby, we thought. When we enquired at reception about internet access we were told that it was broken and they were hoping an engineer would call by the end of the month. About 3 weeks away! A stark reminder of how far away from any metropolis we were. On our first evening we took a moonlight stroll down to the beach and just lay down and gazed at the night sky in amazement. We weren’t sure if it’s the lack of light
Atlantis
You can see why the mermaids would love it here pollution but there seemed to be millions more stars visible. Not being an astronomer, Chris was still surprised when he spotted Orion’s belt, a formation visible from home. Turns out it is the same Orion, only upside down, and this led to the first view of Taurus, his birth constellation.
A leisurely breakfast was followed by a long 100ft walk to the beach, where the plans for a couple of hours making the most of the 38 degrees were swiftly interrupted by the first swim and view of the reef. Ningaloo Reef is the world’s largest fringing reef, at 300K long it’s comparable in size and certainly in colour and wildlife to its famous cousin out east, the Great Barrier Reef. The great thing about this reef is no expensive boat trips are needed, you literally leave your room, wade through the shallows, dive in and the wonders of this marine park open up to you. Over 220 species of hard coral have been recorded, some look like huge underwater lilies others miniature marine trees. The coral is the reason that the parks biggest draw, the Whaleshark, come calling. Unfortunately, despite a fair chunk of time spent looking we
Turtle Power
This Ninja didn't mind playing for a while were about a month too early. The wonderful hours spent snorkelling in the coral was rewarded with sighting of rays, an unbelievable array of brightly coloured fish and a great swim with a huge turtle, not the least bit bothered by our presence he allowed us to observe him for a good 10 minutes before deciding enough was enough. Awesome. Richard and Chris decided to try a bit of beach fishing in the afternoon, but as Chris kept falling over, had to wade into chest deep water to cast and only caught a few tiddlers he really didn’t get this fishing lark.
The following day we took the boat out to swim in some of the deeper water and explore further out onto the reef and again a new world opened up. Swimming in the deeper water rewarded us with some beautiful scenes. The coral seemed larger and the fish more bountiful. Di and Lisa then decided to retire to the comfort of the beach (and possibly the shops) while the boys set of for a proper fish. Richard, being the expert, soon realised he had a complete novice on board as Chris set about feeding the fish rather
The Hunter
The one that didn't get away than catching them. When nothing was biting they moved a few times, the fish finding sonar was obviously designed by QQ. After a few hours they ended up back where they started and decided to use the Mk1 eyeball, donned mask and flippers and jumped in. Yep there were loads of huge fish, lined up laughing at them, it became a battle. After another hour or so both boys finally landed a couple of large snappers, that’s dinner sorted then. Suddenly Richard’s line ran away under the boat like a scene from Jaws. OK, out went the heavier lines with bigger bait and suddenly Richard’s line ran out and about 30 or so metres behind the boat a socking great shark erupted from the water with Richard’s hook firmly stuck in his mouth. A monumental battle ensued, and just when it looked as if the humans would win this one, the shark took off into the reef and ping, the line went slack. 1-0 to the home team. The right result. That was enough for the day, they trooped home with their spoils, the men folk had brought home the bacon (or snapper) which were BBQ’d and proved delicious.
Anthill
Boy these termites are clever All too soon the holiday was over, well actually we had 2 days left but the long journey home started today. Luckily, Stieg Larsson’s trilogy provided relief from the miles and miles and miles of red earth and dead kangaroos - we found a whole new meaning to the words “road kill”. We overnighted in Geraldton again and whilst out for a short walk Richard and Chris found a funny little yellow submarine that turned out to be a cray fishing submarine built about 100 years ago. Fishing from a submarine, no wonder those things cost $50 each. The final leg was before us and as we were admiring the totally barren landscape we spied some rather large mounds by the side of the road. We realised they were termite mounds and just had to stop for a photo shoot. They were impressive and we felt that the industrious little devils should be proud of their achievements. Could this be the end of the wonders of the north - not likely there was one more natural wonder in store, the Pinnacles.
Nobody really knows what these things are but there are thousands of limestone pillars scattered in a moon-like
Look Mum no Hands
I'd like to see Billy Connelly do this landscape across a golden desert floor. Various theories from ancient woodlands to UFO’s are discussed but whatever the truth is they are truly magnificent. Billy Connelly fans may have seen him prancing naked between the stones, but not having had a drink yet and seeing as the temperature was bordering on 45, Chris declined Lisa’s suggestion to follow his lead (chicken). All too soon (but most welcome) we arrived back at our home from home in Perth. Phew, we really need a holiday now ;-)
It was a great few days away full of exciting and once in a lifetime moments that will stay with us forever - a big thanks to Richard and Diane for being the best tour guides we could have hoped for.
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Anna
non-member comment
Wow!
Unlike many others, I have never really been tempted to visit Australia/NZ, until now. Your writing is amazing and you have entirely changed my views. Don't get me wrong, I'm not selling up and moving there on the basis that I will be able to swim with dolphins in my lunch breaks! But it is beautifully written and keeping us all updated on your adventures down under..don't stop! xx