Coral bay to Darwin

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So here it goes. Annette 20 year old and I specified had took a whale shark tour so I joined her unfortunately we haven't seen one that day. The tour operator can explain it by all kind of reason (wind, swell, moon,,,) but the fact is they decided to go anyway even if this was not the best condition and it was unlikely we see some. Cancelling the tour that days means losing money for him. For Annette it was already her second tried and for me I was schedule the following week ( of course the company was not taking a full boat of 2nd timer (6 only out of 12 on the boat) which would means no revenus that day so they spread them and that where I realized the queus was long which implicitly mean a lot of people didn't see whales shark. On the campground my thought were confirmed the word spread out a lot of people were paying and didn't see the whale shark.

One think i was concerned about; why the client should take all the risk. If we don't see whale shark we should get refund half of the cost. They still have to pay for the plane and the boat. That way there is a incintive for the tour operator to cancel the day if there are small possibilities to see them. Now they have the perfect scam. They never loose money and they surf on a reputation that whales shark are in Coral Bay... So to change their behavior and business practice I share my experience that there are not as often as they would let you thing. Go to Exmouth or/and get firm refund condition if you don't see them. What out for the average shark per day. They might means they saw 7 in one days and they can publish there are in average one shark a day.

I don't know many company that can sell a service, not deliver the service and still make money...only based on a reputation. Another company in Exmount don't give such expectation. They sell a snorkelling tour and if they see whale shark you pay something like 100$ more to swim with them. So the client know they go snorkelling and "if" there are whales shark that day you might have a chance to see them. I feel this is a better honest business practice and it's cheaper not 300 australian dollars.

So that part was very disapointing. Durning that week of waiting we decided to go to Exmout (nothing to do there), sleep in Cape Range national park and snorkel in Nigaloo marine national park. The best place was Turquoise bay with shark, turtles, fish and a lot of coral. One dangerous think there is strong circular current ( comming form the sea then parallele to the beach and out to the open sea where you have no change of comming back. So the snorkel was quite stressfull at the begining. We had a reference point to see how we were drifting and ajusting constantly to stay away from the point of no return which was a point of sand.

After the unsucessfull attempted with the whale shark we headed toward Karajini. I have spent almost a week and a half in Coral bay. I liked the fact that you see the same people again and again so after few encounter you can introduce yourself. I met Hide from Japan that way on the beach flying his kitesurfing wing.

During that part of the leg I forgot to refill petrol at a road house vey bad idea the next town was 250km away and I had only a quarter tank left. Normaly I do 600km until the warning light turn on and I fillup only 50liters so I asked Annette to find out the total tank capacity which was 70 liters. With thoses number my comsumption was less than 10 litters 100km so before running out of petrol I could drive 200Km on the warning light. Since I had one quarter left I was ok to get to Tomeprice or at least close enought to have cellular coverage to call help. Yes on the road there is no cellular coverage so RACV not very usefull that why I was thinking about a UHF radio. We met only 3-4 car during that critical period so don't count on good samaritin. So I slow down to 80km per hours (best fuel consumption) and didn't stop for non critical reason ( in order to save petrol). I was able to reach a small town near Tomeprice and I was happy to fillup the tank with only 64 liters. On that tank of petrol I did more that 800km and I still had some. One good advice if you travel in Australia buy a good,reliable and economic car or van with such autonomy.

On the way to Karajini in Tomeprice we meet our Coral Bay camping neiboor. Their car had broke down in the park and were towed 100km into that town. The TyrePower dealer was charging him 600$ for the water pump, 180 for the freight and 10 hours at 110$/hours to install. What an asshole just to let you know he is also the RACV mecanic that will pick you up if you have problem in that area. I tried to help them moving them around town on the day of the clearance sale since the car was going to be abandonned there ( camping stuff) in front of the tourist information they met a minner that offert to help them. We stay with those miner house in our van on their front ward and for 2-3 days we hang out with them. For them it was different than the routine. We were drinking a bit at night but I cooked some desert for them. It was a good and unexpected encounter. We climbed mount nameless, cook and drink. They remove the water pump in 2 hours, order a new one for 180$ including freight and install it whitin 2 hours.

We spend 3 days in Karajini and I think that place was a test for my car. The unseal part of the park was quite corrogated a lot of people did avoided it. I was happy we did the whole park there was a lot if trees, canyon and natural pool. It was a bit changed of the normal arid, forestlest road we drive throught up until now.

Then we continued toward Broome. We stoped for lunch in Port Headland, 80 miles beach and some good free camping on the way.

Once in Coral bay we stay at the town beach for few days and then moved to cable beach. Unfortunately Broome is overated. We were desapointed of the town. There are blood bar (peoples looking to fight with "drunk" peoples). It's not recommanded for girl to walk at night in the streets. But the city have the best youth hostel in Australia and a old open air cinemas.

In the camping our neiboor was american with a 4x4 so we went to Cap Levesque. Every where it was written 4x4 recommanded so theoricaly I could have done it with my van but the definition of road in Australia is still to be understand. Finnally with our camping neigboor we went. Now I could say it would have be possible with my van. There only 30-40km of unseal road. With a van I couldn't have leave the hard sand track but you don't need a 4x4. It seem Australia try to keep some 4x4 touristic area. The road ( it was not a track by definition on the map) was not worst that a forest road in Canada with soft sand on the edge. We had a great time there...even if we had to watch out for salt water crocodile at this point of the trip.

After Broome we pickup another Canadian guy to do the trip Broome-Darwin. Me and Annette were quite different so not much to share but with the same travel objectifs. We hope this person would make more interaction in the car during the long travel.

After Cape Levesque pseudo 4x4 road I was willing to do the Gibs river road 300km insteat of 600km with the highway. The compromise was to do the last 100km to visit El cuestro private park with hot spring water and cayon. We stopped in many town on the way and there we notice the aboriginal minority in those town. We also stopped in Wyndam and Kununurra on the way.

Around Katherine there was more things to see. We did a national park few kilometer north of the town on the way to Darwin. We also stopped in Leichtfield national park there was a nice natural water pool and a great hike. Then we continue to our final destination Darwin. Annette and Manu were leaving me but I had already new travelmate planned for the leg Darwin-Cairn.

For that part of the leg I alway had a song in the head to from "Les coloc" Julie

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