Advertisement
Published: August 7th 2007
I’m guess that a lot of you are wondering where the heck I am these days. You might be thinking that I’ve dropped off the face of the earth. Well, not quite but I’ve come close. I’ve been working my way across this great big country and logging a lot of kilometers (or miles for those of you who are not down with the metric system) along the way. The 4000km (about 2500 miles) that I had traveled from Melbourne to Cairns to this point was just a warm up for what lay ahead. I was off to see the biggest landmark in Australia, Uluru (Ayers Rock), the Northern Territory, and then over to Perth on the west coast. But before I headed into all of that I still had some time to relax and enjoy the east coast.
After Brit took off I headed up to Port Douglas just north of Cairns to stay with Ross who is a friend of my oldest brother Sean. Port Douglas is a great little town that has a great local feel to it and some great beaches and I had a great time hanging out with Ross and friends. I spent a little
less than a week up there and had a chance to check out some more of the local area. I headed up to Mossman Gorge on one of these days and enjoyed hiking around the rainforest and swimming holes in the area. I saw the only poisonous snake of Australia I would see here which is fine with me considering the thing was most likely deadly poisonous. I also got a chance to head back out to the Great Barrier Reef with a company called Haba for 3 more dives. The visibility was again not the greatest but I did see some amazing fish including a big hump-headed Maori Wrasse that really enjoyed the attention, some great clown fish, and a big puffer fish. The rest of my time there I enjoyed the beaches and town.
After getting some car things taken care of and enjoying Port Douglas it was time to hit the road and really put some k’s on the car. I left Ross and Port Douglas and started my journey out to Alice Springs in the middle of the continent. This would take me about 2500km (about 1500 miles) and two long days of driving. I first
headed south back down the east coast to Townsville, over towards Mt. Isa., and then out to Alice Springs.
As soon as you turn inland from Townsville the scenery starts changing and you start heading into the outback. This is when the driving would start to get interesting. They tell you not to drive after dark around here because of the animals on the road and in no place is this more true than in the outback. During my time driving across the outback I saw kangaroos, wallabies, dingoes, horses, pigs, dogs, cattle (lots of cattle), goats, and even camels on or right next to the road. Most of the roads were not fenced off and so the biggest worry was cattle and kangaroos and I learned quickly that they are not kidding when they say don’t drive at night because these things come out of nowhere.
The driving was mostly boring and long with lots of nothing to look at. I had two great days driving out to Alice Springs. My first day I stopped just short of Mt. Isa and camped at a little caravan park (that what they call their camp sites here) just after dark. I
had made it about 1200km (~750 miles) and had a 1300km (~800 miles) to go the next day. On my second day I crossed over from Queensland to the Northern Territory where the speed limit is 130 kph which makes the boring drive go by quicker at least. I made it out to the Stuart Highway and headed down towards Alice Springs. I made a stop at the Devil’s Marbles which are these huge granite boulders spread out across the outback. They are an interesting sight and are greatly significant to the Aboriginal people of the area. After getting some great pictures of the area I headed into Alice Springs.
I didn’t spend much time in Alice Springs but I was there long enough to meet two German guys, Max and Henry, who I ended up traveling to Darwin with. But before I could head north I had to head south to see one of the main things I had come to this country to see, Uluru (Ayers Rock) and Kata Tjuta (The Olgas). I headed down south the next morning and ended up stopping along the way to pick up a French guy, Philip, who was hitchhiking out to
Uluru. We stopped to check out Mt. Conner and got our first real taste of the flies of the outback. I would deal with these things until I got into Perth and they are by far the most annoying things I have ever dealt with. They put the sand flies in New Zealand to shame and drive you absolutely mad. So with that in mind we quickly back in the car and headed over to Yulara (Ayers Rock) Resort and set up camp.
Once we had camp all set up we headed into the park and over to Kata Tjuta. They sit about 30km from Uluru and are just as amazing. Though they are a completely different type of rock, conglomerate rock instead of the coarse sandstone that makes up Uluru, they still had that great orange red look to them. The formation is actually a collection of huge rock monoliths the tallest of which is 546m (~1800ft.) which is taller than Uluru. We stopped at a viewing platform on the way and then drove up to the rocks and walked around them. Walking around the rocks you really get an idea of why this area is of great importance
to the local Aboriginal people. We headed out to a viewing area a little way back from the rocks to see them at sunset which was really amazing. The color of the rock went from a dark red color to a bright orange. After the sunset we headed back to camp where we saw several dingoes throughout the night.
The next morning I got up before dawn to make it over to Uluru to join the hundreds of other tourists watch the sun rise on Uluru. It was cold clear morning and as the sun came up on the rock it really made the rock glow bright orange. After taking way too many pictures I headed over to the join an Aboriginal ranger led walk around some of the sites at the base of the rock. The two rangers told us the tjukurpa, or dreaming time story, of the Mala (Rufus-hare wallaby) people and about Uluru and its importance to the local Aboriginal people. The walk was very informative and gives you a good idea of why both Uluru and Kata Tjuta are so important to these people. I opted not to climb the rock as the Aboriginal landowners ask
A whole lot of nothin'
The road out to Alice Springs from the east coastpeople not to because of its sacred nature and instead did the 9km (5.4mile) walk around the base of the rock. There were a couple sites where I was able to see cave art and I really got a sense of how large this rock monolith is.
After my walk I headed over to the cultural center to look around some which was rather interesting and then headed back to Kata Tjuta. I did the Valley of the Winds walk through the different rock monoliths and got some great views of the surrounding outback. On my way back to the campsite I saw a feral camel on the side of the road munching on some bushes. There are so many feral camels in Australia they now round them up and ship them back to Africa where they sell them and I sure wouldn’t want to see one of these things on the highway.
The next day I got up early and drove north a bit up to Kings Canyon National Park. I had a great day for hiking around the park with sunny, blue skies and about 90F. I did the canyon walk which was a great 6km (3.6 mile)
that started with a steep climb from the valley floor to the top of the canyon but then leveled out and circled around the top of the canyon. The area is a unique oasis in the dry outback and therefore contains some amazing species of plants and animals. There are some species of plants that have remained there unchanged since the time of the dinosaurs. There were some great desert flowers all around the canyon and some great rock formations. After hiking around here for the day I headed back to Alice Springs to meet up with Max and Henry and start the drive up north.
The next day I picked up my two new travel mates Max and Henry, who were both from Germany, and we all started our drive up north to Darwin. We made a stop at the Devil’s Marbles but for the most part drove the whole day. We stopped at a very interesting little caravan park that evening in a place called Daly Waters. Although the place seemed to be in the middle of nowhere with not a lot around it was completely packed and the little restaurant and pub was rockin’ with live music
and everybody from the campsite.
We continued up north the next day and got into Darwin after making a quick stop in the small town of Katherine to look at some art. The northern part of the Northern Territory was much hotter and stickier than the middle and I felt like I was back in the South Pacific. We walked around the town some and checked out the sunset on the bay. We stayed in Darwin the next day also looking around some and enjoying a break from driving.
The next day Henry flew off to the east coast leaving Max and myself to head off to the parks around the northern part. We started off in Mary River National Park first. Our firs stop was along the side of the road to check out some of the 10ft+ tall termite mounds that you see everywhere in the Northern Territory. We then made the walk into Bird Billabong and had the place all to ourselves except for the odd kangaroo, the birds, and the 10-20ft saltwater crocs that were surely lurking in the billabong somewhere. We didn’t actually see any of them but I wasn’t about to hop in the
water and go swimming either. From here we headed into Kakadu National Park and headed to a campsite for the night.
We got up early the next morning and headed down to a great little hike where we saw some more kangaroos and several different types of tropical birds. We then headed up to the Ubirr area where some of the best rock paintings of the area can be seen. Here we were able to see different areas of rock art, some dating back 20,000 years. It was quite amazing to see man made art this old. In addition to the amazing rock art we got a great view over the Kakadu flood plain and the many different billabongs of the area. From here we headed down to the park visitor center which had a great video that shows how the changing season drastically change the surrounding area from dry, burnt grasslands to a vast swamp as the rains come in. As we headed out through the park and stopped at the Nourlangie Rock area where we saw more rock art and some more great billabongs. We left the park late in the afternoon and headed over to Litchfield National
Park and set up camp there for the evening.
Litchfield, our third National Park of the area, is know for its great waterfalls so we headed out to see some of them on our third day. We checked out Florence Falls and Tolmer Falls but did not get a chance to see Wangi Falls because it was closed for an Aboriginal funeral being held there. The two waterfalls that we did see were beautiful and the Florence Falls area had a great swimming area. We stopped at a place where there is a field full of magnetic termite mounds which was quite amazing to see. The termites know to build their mounds in a north-south orientation so that the mound can catch all possible heat from the sun to keep the colony warm. Just another example of the many amazing creatures you find here in Australia. We headed back up to Darwin from the park.
The next day we headed back down south to our fourth park of the area, Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge) National Park. We set up camp in the nice camping area they have there and did a little bit of wandering around the first day. We were
joined in our campsite in the afternoon and evening by several kangaroos. The didn’t seem to be too bothered by people and would come quite close to you. I even saw a few sleeping under peoples cars to get out of the mid-day sun. We did some great hikes the second day at the park including a great 12km hike to the second gorge of the 13 gorges that make up the park area. We weren’t able to swim in the water due to the threat of salt-water crocs being in the area but we did see some great birds and a turtle in the water.
It was finally time to leave the central area of the country and head out to the west coast so Max and I got up early the next morning and started the 1500km (900 mile) drive out to Broom in Western Australia. We made it about ¾ the way there the first day and stopped in a little place along the road to camp. We completed the drive the next day and got into Broom around noon. We headed straight for the Cable Beach area and checked into a hostel. In the afternoon we
headed down to the beach and enjoyed a nice relaxing afternoon in the 90F heat and swimming in the 80F turquoise water. We ended up liking the area so much we spent an extra day there just enjoying the beach.
We picked a third passenger, a German girl (the Germans are everywhere I tell ya) named Varinia, while up in Broom and started our trip south down the coast. We drove all of our first day and stopped at a free campsite just off the highway the first night. The next day headed to a small town just off the Ningaloo Reef called Exmouth. The Ningaloo Reef runs over 250 km (150 miles) along the central west coast of Australia and rivals the Great Barrier Reef for diving. One of the main attractions and the reason we had come to Exmouth was the chance to snorkel with the largest fish in the world, Whale Sharks.
We were picked up by our tour group, Ningaloo Blue, the next day and joined up with the 17 other people in our group. We had a quick snorkel in on a rather disappointing area on the reef to start our day and then headed
out beyond the reef and waited for our spotter plane to see a whale shark. It wasn’t long after we got beyond the reef when the plane called us in. We joined 4 other tour groups in an interesting ballet of maneuvering the different boats in front of the whale shark and dropping 10 people at a time to snorkel along side the shark while the group before was picked up by their boat. We had gotten luck and we had found an 8m (25 ft) male shark that had been the area the day before. When came for our turn the group of 10 people that I was in all jumped off the boat and swam towards where the shark was supposed to be. It was a little of freaky experience because your looking out into this deep blue water and then all of a sudden this huge fish comes right by you swimming along the surface. We were able to get just 3m (9ft) away from the shark on both sides and swim along with it for a short time. Once our time was up our group would stop and the next group would pick up. We were
luck enough to get in the water several times with the same shark and had a couple times where he was almost standing still feeding with his huge mouth open filtering out krill from the water while small fish swam in and out of his mouth. It was an experience I will never forget for sure. Our day was topped off when we headed out just off the reef to see a pod of 200-300 false killer whales and bottlenose dolphins swimming together on the surface. The place was just teeming with life that day.
The next day we headed south for some more encounters with marine creatures. We headed south along the coast and made a stop in at Coral Bay to enjoy the beach some and snorkel on the reef. The coral close into shore was beat up and there wasn’t too much to see, but the diving just off shore here is supposed to be as good or better than the Great Barrier Reef. We continued on south and camped at a small campsite on the water where the night sky was just amazing and we saw tons of shooting stars.
We headed into Shark Bay and
Monkey Mia the next day to see the local bottlenose dolphins that come in to the beach every morning and swim very close to shore and can be hand fed. We missed the feedings the first day so we just enjoyed hanging out on the beach and looking around the area. The next morning we got up bright and early and headed out onto the beach to see the dolphins. We were able to get shin deep in the water and watch as 5 female dolphins and one calf swam back and forth past the people lined up on the beach. The rangers kept everybody in line and made sure the dolphins were safe at all times. At around 8am they brought out about 4-5 small fish for each of the 5 adult females and different people from the crowd were able to come up and feed a fish to the dolphins. I was lucky enough to be one of the few which was cool. After the feeding I went out on a 2 hour long sail around Shark Bay on a large catamaran. While out on the bay we saw several turtles, bottlenose dolphins, a small shark, and what
I had really wanted to see, a dugong. The dugongs are rare this time of hear because most of them head north a little to stay in the warmer water but a few stick around and we got to see one feeding on some of the sea grass that grows so abundantly here.
On our way out of shark bay we stopped to see some stromatolites colonies at the Hamelin Pool. Stromatolites are a colony of cemented sediment created by cyanobacteria that are believed to be responsible for the generation of oxygen that eventually lead to the suitable oxygen levels present in the earths atmosphere today and that allowed for the evolution of air breathing animals. These may well be the oldest living beings on earth. You gotta love science. Anyway, we made our way out of the Shark Bay area and down to the town of Kalbarri for the evening.
While in Kalbarri we wanted to do two things, surf and see the Kalbarri National Park. So with this in mind we got up early the next morning and headed down to the local surf break to get our first taste of west coast surf. When we got there
we were greeted with the sight of perfect 14-18 foot surf. It looked great but the only problem was that they beach access out into the water look less than friendly with 6 foot whitewater breaking onto a rock ledge. We decided that we like our bodies unbroken so we opted to watch the local crew who were mostly towing into the waves behind jet skis. We saw several guys get 4-5 second stand up barrels. A few guys were paddling in but not having too much luck with the big fast waves. Towing in was the way to go that day. We enjoyed the show for an hour or so and then headed out to Kalbarri National Park where we saw some great canyons and did a little hiking. That afternoon we headed down to the town of Cervantes.
Our last stop before getting to Perth was Nambung National Park and the Pinnacles desert. We got up before sunrise and headed out to the Pinnacles to try and get some great views as the sun rose. We drove through the Pinnacles area and got a great view of the surrounding area and sea. After our stop there in the
morning we packed things up and headed into our final destination Perth. Max and I dropped Varinia off at the train station and then headed down to the suburb of Cottesloe on the beach. After getting a wetsuit for Max we hit the surf just out in front of our hostel.
Max and I surfed over the next few days at both Scarborough and Trigg beach and checked out Perth. Perth reminds me a lot of San Diego and is a great little city set on a river with great little beach suburbs running down the coast to the small port town of Fremantle. Max took off to head back home to Germany after a couple days but I quickly met up with a guy in my hostel from England, Wes, who also surfed. Wes and I surfed the beaches along Perth for a few days and then joined up with two friends of Max’s that I had met here in Perth, Dorothy and Christina, and we all headed down to Margaret River three hours south of Perth
The four of us spent 5 days down in Margaret River enjoying the beautiful area and checking out the many vineyards that
the area is best know for. Wes and I were a little more interested in the other thing the area is best know for, good surf. We got three great days of surf while we were down there. We got great, clean 5-9 foot surf at a couple of the breaks around the area. I ran into a girl I had met in New Zealand at Ragland while down there and she grabbed a ride back up to Perth with us so we had 3 big surfboard bags, 5 people, and all our stuff in the car on the way back up. It was quite a site to see us going down the highway.
I’ve been back up in Perth now for the last week or so selling my car, getting things ready for south east Asia, and check out Perth some more. I managed to put about 18,000 km (10,800 miles) on my car in the last 3 months, saw every state in Australia and almost drove all the way around the country. Not too bad. I head out on the 11th for Malaysia and the start of the next part of my adventure. Stayed tuned for more adventures
soon.. ave something up for Australia soon.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.052s; Tpl: 0.023s; cc: 9; qc: 19; dbt: 0.0179s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
The M
non-member comment
where did you go?
CERVANTES!!