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Kurt
The van that has cariied us both through WA So I saw out my last month in Perth and my last weeks at the Elephant & Wheelbarrow pub, soon to be travelling far and wide through the state of Western Australia all the way to Broome - some 2200km away.
Myself, along with Alaina had hired a campervan from a company called ‘Wicked Campers’ and on the 10th April we were to leave Perth. We walked to the depot at midday and waited to see what van we would be given. Wicked’s trademark is that all the vans are painted with a funky design, usually of a band, or famous person and are always spotted all over Australia. We signed the paperwork and awaited our van, which was having some brand new tyres fitted as we waited. The van screeched round the corner and it turns out, was to be decorated with the face of Kurt Kobain and the rest of the Nirvana crew. We did the usual thing of checking for dents before driving off and it appeared to have been through a few kangaroos in its time, even the roof was concave, and it was definitely a well-travelled van with nearly 400,000km on the clock! In
Nature Window
Just before the death of my camera a pitch to save a few dollars we opted for the standard, no frills model, which comes without air con, and apparently a CD player that works when and where it wants. Little did we know at this point, but we certainly found out later that we would be travelling a very long way in a very hot country in a music-less, fan-assisted oven on wheels with the fuel economy of Apollo 13!
We stopped off at the supermarket to get our food that we would be eating for the next month, filled up the fuel tank and headed north.
Our first stop was Lancelin, simply to halve the journey for our first major port of call, Geraldton. In Lancelin we had planned to organise the van, have a good feed, and get a good nights sleep so we could start fresh and continue on the next morning, although it wasn’t that simple. The gas stove we were provided with ran out of gas mid cook and it took me 10mins to try and get the fold down table out the back and next thing we knew it was dark and couldn’t see anything. We had a walk
round town, which was about three shops and a pub and retired to the van for the night.
Geraldton, is the next biggest city to Perth in the West and the only largish place along the coast. After checking into a campsite to get our bearings we headed out to explore the city. The next day, we rose early to visit the lighthouse, the HMAS Sydney War Memorial and finally, the St Francis Xavier Cathedral. We left the Cathedral to head back to the van which we had parked just outside the building, to find a group of disgusted looking church goers gathered round the van all shaking their heads. What we hadn’t thought about was the fact that across the boot lid of our van in giant blue letters was the phrase ‘God gave man enough blood to run his penis and his brain…but not both at the same time’. We allowed the crowd to pass, dived in the van and swiftly drove off.
We had decided that as we were paying to rent a van, which brilliantly folded down inside to accommodate a couple of mattresses to sleep on, it was kind of pointless paying on
AJ
Alaina at Kalbarri top of rental costs to sleep in campsites. So wherever we could, we agreed to try and sleep in car parks or other spots alike that would be free of charge. Our first experience of this was to be in Geraldton, where we settled for the evening, on our second night in the city, in a youth Hostel car park.
We left the car park, sneaked back into the campsite we had stayed in our first night and charged a few bits and pieces of electrical stuff, had a shower and off we went. The next destination was to be Kalbarri, home of Kalbarri National Park, but not before a quick detour to Hutt River Province. Hutt River is a sovereign state within Australia, which they proudly boast as the second biggest country in Australia. It is about 75,000 sq km of land, and home of Prince Leonard who I was to meet personally, and his wife Princess Sandra. His land only has a post office/government building, chapel and a souvenir shop, but amazingly has its own currency and stamps. We got a tour of his land from His Royal Highness Prince Leonard, learnt some history about his country
Coral Bay
The not so nice weather and me van-bound and I even got to sit in his throne. Prince Leonard proudly showed us pictures of his representatives (mainly his sons and cousins) at Buckingham Palace stood with the royals. The funniest thing was that in all the photos the reps were wearing vests and cork hats stood next to Royalty in suits! I got my passport stamped and we hit the road - Hutt River Province was definitely well worth a stop.
We arrived in Kalbarri, along a coastal road and saw some truly amazing scenery. We checked into a campsite, as Alaina wasn’t comfortable with the sleeping elsewhere as of yet. We had a walk to the beach, watched the sunset and settled in the campsite for the evening. Unfortunately, Kalbarri was to be the start of a lot of bad luck along the trip.
The next morning we were to head to Kalbarri National Park, which we had heard so much about already in our short time in the van. The park contains a number of beautiful landmarks, but the main attractions are a river bend (the loop) and a rock called Natures Window. The route to both these spots was down a dirt road,
Whale Shark
The 7 metre shark that i swam with 24km long, which took most cars about half hour, Kurt (as the van was later named) was a little less capable, it took us about an hour and a half to get down the road and by the time we had got where we wanted to be I had a lap full of screws, roof lining and insulation.
When I arrived at Natures Window, I asked some fella to take a photo of me and Alaina, he did the deed and passed the camera to his wife, who I can only assume had no fingers as she seemed incapable of holding onto my camera and it plummeted to the ground and smashed to pieces. So it was goodbye to my brand new camera.
The 400km trip the next day to Nanga Bay bought a bit more bad luck to our trip. About an hour before reaching the resort the van started spluttering and cutting out. We made it to a roadhouse and the owner jump started it for us and explained that it was only an hour to Nanga Bay and that we shouldn’t have any trouble making it. So off we went, but 25km short of Nanga
Whale Shark
The biggun again! Kurt decided enough was enough and after a big bang, we decided it was probably best to stop. We got a lift the final 25km and rang Wicked Campers straight away to get the van back on the road. The maintenance man at the resort offered to drive back to the van with us in his truck and tow the van back to Nanga, as it had all our stuff in it and we didn’t want to leave it by the side of the road. We got the van back in one piece and spent the night at Nanga Bay Resort.
The next morning the RAC turned up and we hitched a ride, along with Kurt to the next town along which was Denham. We grabbed our tent and a few bits and pieces from the van and headed to a campsite. We later found out from the mechanic that the alternator had blown, the battery was fried and the carburettor was blocked, and he explained how he would need to order parts from Perth and we would be without the van for about five days. To keep myself occupied in the tiny town of Denham I decided to
The Little One
3 metre Whale Shark - the smallest ever spotted is 2.5 metres. buy a fishing rod and spent the next five days sat on a jetty fishing all day till I could no longer see my rod.
On the fifth day, when we got the van back we packed up the tent and headed northwards again to Monkey Mia Resort. Monkey Mia is famous for its dolphins which swim right into the shore and right round the feet of tourists. We were lucky enough to see five dolphins including a mother and baby. Unfortunately neither of us got to feed one but it was wicked seeing them. We left Monkey Mia later that afternoon after a swim in the crystal clear sea and a bask on the white sands of the beach and headed back down the peninsula to Nanga Bay, where we spent the night.
Whilst in Monkey Mia I had contacted a tour company in Coral Bay in desperate hope that I would be able to go out on a boat and swim with a Whale Shark. I got lucky and manage to find a day where there were two spots available so both Alaina and I could go for a swim. The trip was booked for four
Black Tipped Reef Shark
It was hard to be scared of this little guy once you've been in with one about seven times its size! days time so we decided we best get motoring and head towards Coral Bay so we would have plenty of time to see what was in between.
I turned out that all that was between Monkey Mia and Coral Bay was a town called Carnarvon, an old fishing port, some 300km from Nanga Bay. We arrived on a Saturday afternoon and nothing was open, not a single shop. Only a seedy looking pub with old men in socks to their knees, wearing sandals and stripy t-shirts with their beer guts swinging out the bottom. We had a little drive around and then not wanting to miss an opportunity, I grabbed my rod and drove to the one-mile jetty and went fishing. Not before catching a seagull and having it take about 100m of my line before letting go of my frozen sardine, I had a couple of bites then lost all my tackle on a beam of the jetty and having to walk the mile back to the van as I didn’t have any other tackle as I had left it all behind at the campsite in Nanga Bay!
We left Carnarvon the next morning and went on
Green Sea Turtle
We even bumped into 'Krush' in the big blue...koo-koo-ka-choo a 100km out of the way trip to the Blowholes. It took a while to get there and we even had to have a crack at a dirt road again but it was well worth it. The Blowholes were amazing - The ‘King Waves’, which are renowned for taking, the lives of many a fisherman and the odd tourist - are massive and the power of them is something else! The waves force their way through small holes in the rocks and then with a mighty whooooosh! the water is forced about 50ft into the air.
We arrived at Coral Bay had a quick look around and then walked down to the beach for a snorkel to have a look at the Ningaloo Reef. As it started getting dark we looked for a spot to park the van in the hope of getting a free nights kip. We lasted until 9pm then got spotted by the Ranger and got moved on to a campsite where we had to pay $27!!!! for a un-powered campsite. We had lunch at a hotel and retired to the van for a few beers and a game of cards.
The next morning, and
Fortescue Falls
Where we took a dip for the next two days and nights it lashed down with rain, and the two of us were stuck in the van for the majority of the day, apart from an hour or so when we would get in the sea and go for a snorkel. I managed to read three quarters of my book in this time and played a lot of PSP. It hadn’t rained in Coral Bay for eight months.
On a good note though, the rain seemed to have kept the ranger indoors, so, for the rest of our stay in Coral Bay our accommodation was free, as we hopped between car parks to spend the night.
The next morning was to be the day of my Whale Shark dive, and I was woken up at 6:30am by the hammering of rain on the roof of the van. After breakfast I headed to the tour shop and already knowing what they were going to say, they informed me that the trip had been cancelled due to bad weather, as the pilot wouldn’t be able to spot any sharks from the air, meaning the boat we would be in wouldn’t know where to go. Luckily we
Alaina and I
Karijini National Park were scheduled in for the next day, so we went out for a snorkel, spent the rest of the day in the van and I finished my book.
The next morning, I arose not to rain this time nut the baking sun shining through the windows of the van, it was looking good for the Whale Sharks - and good it was too be.
The boat left the beach at 9:30am and we headed out in search of the biggest fish in the world! We got in our wet suits and snorkels and the boat stopped in the shallows so everyone could have a practice and get familiar with their gear, then we were headed for the deep blue sea. We circled around for two hours with not even a sniff of a Whale Shark and we were just about to jump in for a swim, when word came in from the pilot that one had been spotted.
The boat raced to the shark and we spotted it on the surface about thirty minutes later. We had a final safety briefing - most notable of the briefings was that each swimmer had to try not to panic if the shark got close and don’t kick too much as this makes bubbles, which to a Whale Shark looks like krill, and Whale Sharks like A LOT of Krill - and we lined up along the back of the boat, and on the word from the diver, plunged into the sea. It turned out, that as Alaina and I entered the sea - which was scary enough as you couldn’t even nearly see the bottom, so had no idea what was under there - the Whale Shark came from right underneath us and was heading straight for me. The no bubbles rule went straight out of the window and I kicked like I’ve never kicked before making lots of Krill like bubbles which of course made the Shark turn towards me, I managed to calm myself for a second and got out of the way and then swam alongside the seven metre fish for five minutes before it dived down into the depths.
I dived with the massive Shark once more then it went away for good, not too be seen again. Luckily enough, immediately after the big guy dived, the pilot spotted a smaller whale shark about twenty minutes away from where we had just been swimming. The skipper started up the engines and we raced on to the next spot. The second Whale Shark was considerably smaller at three metres, but the experience of swimming with it no less. The ‘little nipper’ - as it was often called, but still seemed pretty big to me - swam with the boat for a little longer and I managed to get another couple of dives with it.
Following the final dive, we got back into the boat had a rather splendid lunch then stopped off at one more snorkel spot, where we were to see a turtle, reef shark and stingray, then headed back into shore, had a beer and looked at the photos taken by the onboard photographer and then headed back to the van, after an absolutely amazing trip and an even more incredible experience.
The next morning I woke up at 5:30am (I didn’t even know there was a 5:30 in the morning!) so to kill some time, grabbed my trusty fishing rod and headed down the beach for a spot of fishing. About an hour passed without a bite, then I caught a few nippers, then another hour and finally a big bite! Strangely enough, I didn’t have to pull it in at all as whatever it was, was heading straight towards me. I kept reeling in the loose line until a shadow appeared in the water - it was big! It got closer and closer, then I saw a big head, a pointy fin and a big tail, it came in to about 10 metres from me - It was about a five foot black tipped reef shark! I backed out of the water a bit; it took off, along with metre after metre of my line then snapped off. It was a sad moment.
After my excitement, and a telling off from Alaina for staying down on the beach for so long, when we should have been on the road, we set off to Exmouth. I’d heard a lot about Exmouth and its beauty, but I was far from impressed upon first glance. We had a look around the shopping centre and picked up a few essentials, sat on the Town Beach for a couple of hours, took a trip to Vlaming Head Lighthouse, booked into a campsite and went to bed.
The next morning saw us driving 50km from Exmouth to the Cape Range National Park, via a few scenic spots along the way. We paid the $10 entry fee and asked the ranger which campsite she would recommend, preferably close to Turquoise Bay. She booked us into a campsite and off we went. It turned out that the campsite was miles from anywhere, on a gravel road, nowhere near Turquoise Bay. We decided to head straight to Turquoise Bay and have a swim and a snorkel. The water was a bit cloudy for a snorkel but still we enjoyed a swim and there were fish everywhere, swimming around at our feet so all was not lost. Later that evening we snuck into a nice campsite, just round the corner from Turquoise Bay, spent the night feeding a friendly Kangaroo bombay mix, then nodded off.
The next day we hired out a pair of flippers, headed back to the bay and snorkelled the drift loop. The loop is a current created by water creeping out through the reef, which carries you across the beautiful Ningaloo Reef without even having to put any effort in yourself. We both drifted round the loop twice, and on the second time round we spotted a massive stingray, a shark and a beautiful lionfish, along with many other amazing fish. After the loop, we drove all the way through the Cape Range National Park and stopped off at every little bay and scenic spot then left the park and drove back to Exmouth for the night.
Karratha, 600km from Exmouth was the next stop and a lot of driving away - It took us six hours to get there. The drive was pretty much the same as what we had seen the whole way along the west coast in between towns - trees, dirt and dead roos, emus and cows. We had to stop half way along when the van needed more fuel and the roadhouse charged a colossal $1.71 per litre - it cost us $56 for a third of a tank!
Karratha is a mining town, so there isn’t really a lot to see. There was a small shopping centre and that was pretty much it. We didn’t get there till late, so headed for a campsite, but everywhere was full as all the miners reside in them. The last one we tried we had a bit of luck, the host managed too squeeze us in between two caravans where one of the residents didn’t have a car and we spent the night there. We rented a few DVD’s and spent the night watching them on the laptop.
Over the next couple of days we explored the small towns around Karratha. We spent a night in Point Samson in a campsite car park, drove through and had a look around Cossack and also an aboriginal town called Roebourne and then headed a further 220km east to Port Headland - the brown town.
Port Hedland is a shipping port and has a massive docks area and a small town, and as the nickname suggests, it all looks very brown. In need of a bit of fishing I explored Port Hedland for a spot to lay my bait but couldn’t as the tide was so far out. The North-West of Australia is famous for its tides which at one moment can be right up at the roadside and an hour later it’s a kilometre down the beach. We visited a couple of community parks, which we would that night be sleeping in, had a drive around, but couldn’t see much to do so settled for the night after a gourmet beans on toast dinner and went to bed.
We had decided to head to Karijini National Park the next morning, so we woke ourselves up at 6:30am to give us plenty of time to make the 440km pilgrimage to the park. For the first time on the whole trip the scenery along the highway was really worth looking at. The road was surrounded both sides by red mountains, and green meadows which really were an amazing contrast to what I had seen along the way the whole time up the west coast. When we made it we did the normal procedure and headed to the visitor centre to pick up maps then drove off down a dusty road to the ‘Dales Gorges’. At each gorge, you drive to a recreational zone and this is where all the walks into the gorges begin. We first hiked to Fortescue Falls, a beautiful waterfall, with crystal clear water filling a pool at the bottom. Despite the heat of the sun the water was cold enough to make you gasp and force your frank and beans well inside your stomach not to be seen for an hour or two, but was so refreshing. Once my body temperature had returned to normal and I had become a man again, we explored the bottom of the gorge then climbed the sleep slope back up to the recreational area, and drove on to Joffre Falls - another amazing waterfall.
After Joffre Falls, as the darkness was falling we decided to head further down the dirt road to Savannah campsite where we would spend the evening. Savannah was 30km down the road, and as I had driven down all the dirt roads thus far Alaina decided she wanted to have a go. I later found out that women and dirt roads don’t mix. I turns out that she managed to get the van sideways on a dead straight road, nearly forcing the contents of my stomach into my boxers and any money in my wallet into the owner of Wicked Campers pockets. We settled in the campsite for the evening, got destroyed by mozzies and woke up the next morning covered in lumps that weren’t there the day before and scratches all over me.
Weano Gorges was our next destination in the park and also one of the most beautiful landforms I had seen on the trip. The plan was to do a two-hour, skill level two, hike along the top of the gorge and eventually arrive at a lookout at the end of the trail. I noticed some steps down into the gorge and my inquisitive side came into action. I wandered down into the gorge and a lady sat down the bottom explained to me that if I was willing to get wet, I could swim through the gorge and do a bit of climbing and it was breathtaking - SOLD! I headed back to the van; we both got into our swimmers and went back down into the gorge. The first section of the gorge was flooded so I had to get myself into the cold water and temporarily become a female again to get through to the next section. Next was a rocky climb through the gorge, another swim in a rock pool then the best part. The gorge became really narrow and the two of us had to climb through in a star shape and along a stream to get further down into the gorge. Next up was Handrail pool. To get into the pool we had to scale about thirty foot of vertical cliff face, which was pretty scary. There was a rope to help you get down but the rocks were really slippery. We both made it down there but Alaina slipped and hurt her knee and scratched her stomach so we had a dip in the pool for half hour then scaled the rocks, squeezed through the narrow gorge and up the slope to the van and drove a few kilometres down the road to the lookout. When we later consulted our map we discovered he hike that we had just completed was a skill level five, skill level six being the most demading.
After all this excitement it was time to head back to Port Hedland to be able to finish our trip and head to our final destination - Broome.
From Port Hedland, Broome a pearling town is 600km to the east, so six hours of driving and a lot of fuel later we arrived - only just! When we picked up the van the fuel tank was empty, so empty that the engine must have been gasping for a bit of unleaded, so, with my determination to ensure that the rental company get it back in the same condition I tried to gauge the amount of petrol we would need to take us the final 250km to Broome. It turns out that my maths were a bit wrong and 40km out of Broome the petrol light came on - uh oh! We kept on driving and I remembered seeing a road sign previously advertising a roadhouse just outside Broome, so we wound up the windows to decrease wind resistance - making me perspire in a way that would end the drought in Kenya - and crossed our fingers. The van started juddering just as I could see the roadhouse about a kilometre ahead, but we made it and after a quick telling off, filled up the tank with fuel and drove on to Broome.
We arrived in Broome two days before the van was due to be returned to be able to explore the town and also enquire in all the resorts about jobs. Our first stop was Cable Beach - Broome’s main attraction. The lifeguards told us that it was best not to swim in the sea yet as it was the end of jellyfish season and two people had already been rushed to hospital by ambulance that day due to the stingers. We wandered down the beach, helped some German bloke get his rapidly sinking, hired 4x4 out of the sand, and then headed into town. We enquired in a number of places and filled out application forms for jobs then went off in search of a campsite. We settled on a site on town beach, where I could fish and only a twenty-minute walk into town.
Every month, for three days the tide in Broome goes out really far and the moon rises over the tidal flats. This creates an image - as the moon appears over the horizon and reflects off the sand - of a staircase leading up to the moon, and is a big thing on the tourist circuit. It turned out that we had arrived in Broome on the second of the three days, and Town Beach was the best place to watch the event. Unfortunately, it was a bit cloudy so the ‘Staircase to the Moon’ wasn’t quite as clear as the postcards, but the next day we watched again and it really is an amazing and surreal site.
The next day was to be our last with Kurt and the two of us were quite sad once the van was returned as it had been our home for the past month and we had become quite attached, but it was time to move on. We had travelled 4700km throughout Western Australia and minus a bit of bad luck enjoyed every second of it. However, I would like to provide anyone else who would think about doing this trip with a few insights, which I have learned along the way, to make life a little easier for you. First of all, don’t be fooled by the work ablution block, it means toilet. Secondly, seize any roll of two ply toilet paper you can, as I think caretakers at campsites seem to find it amusing, or some sort of sport to put one ply bog roll in a moist toilet/shower block which disintegrates when used for its primary purpose. Which leads to my third point - always carry a block of soap, as this also seems to be part of the cruel game caretakers play on tourists by removing any soap from all toilet blocks, which is definitely needed after your one ply falls to bits. Finally, and most importantly, take an industrial vat of mosquito spray. The whole North-west of Oz seems to be one giant Mosquito, which if like me you appear to have very tasty blood, will haunt you, the whole way along your trip.
After a few days in Broome, a holiday resort called the Mercure got in touch with us, and both myself and Alaina had got a job - and it was only just round the corner from the camp site. We were later to be told that the campsite was booked out and we would have to move on, so we headed the Mangrove Resort - equidistant from where we had just been employed.
The two of us remained in the job at the Mercure, in which we were rotated around the in house Irish bar, restaurant and bottle shop for a month, and enjoyed ourselves as the staff and managers were all so accommodating. Unfortunately the accommodation was a different story. The Mangrove Resort, three weeks into our stay, decided all of a sudden that they no longer wanted to offer backpacker accommodation, so upon the morning of our rent running out told us that we would have to leave. Unhappy that no notice was given to us and already aware of the serious shortage of accommodation anywhere in Broome due to the tourist high season, I asked for an explanation from a manager. Ian Loan was the man to explain what has happened and was the most incompetent s**thead I have come across to date. Among my favourite of his quotes were “I don’t care, where you live isn’t my problem”, “you’re a backpacker, do what backpackers do and move on” and when I asked if hotel guests were treated in the same manner he replied “hotel guests pay a lot more money than you lot so I treat them better”, which definitely wasn’t the case, as after he had stuffed up a hotel guests reservation, and they had complained he said “you can go somewhere else if you don’t like it”. Not wanting to take this abuse from anyone, I have written a letter to the paper, contacted his boss and at the moment am discussing a refund of the rent in which I paid to stay there so fingers crossed. I also found out that Ian has now been removed from the Mangrove resort management, but as Daddy owns the company has been sent to run a different property in Cairns.
Luckily, one of the managers at our job offered us their sofa and another gave up his room in staff quarters so we could see out our last week in Broome before we were to move on to pastures new.
So here I am no sat on the top bunk in a hostel on Mitchell Street, Darwin in the Northern Territory. I arrived here yesterday and plan to stay for a month or two and save a bit more before maybe heading down the east coast.
So that’s what I’ve been doing for the last couple of months and I’m sure I’ve got another exciting month ahead of me in Darwin, which on first impressions looks like a wicked place.
Take care all,
Dunc
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Laurie B
non-member comment
wicked ehh?
Hi dude, nice to hear from you, sounds like you're having a 'whale shark' of a time. mind the pun. How long have you been in oz now seems like a lifetime. good luck in Perth keep well and keep me posted of your travels. Speak to you soon. Hoopsquadod!