Western Australia was great!

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G’day y’all,

Well....our trip in Western Australia finally came to a safe and happy end. Overall we had a good time, I can’t complain....although there were a few annoyances along the way. I mean, you can expect that when you travel with 4 other people you don’t really know, and especially when there is a Frenchman among them. I hate to generalise, but I have to say that many many French people have this arrogance in their blood....some of them have it a very little, others have it a lot!!! BUT, it was great doing this trip with all of them. Alexandre is a good guy, it’s just sometimes his “French arrogance” really comes up and it pisses us off (except his sister of course). He really likes to do things “his” way without even consulting with the rest of the group, and most of the times he thinks that things should happen the way he thinks it should happen. Like one time at the beach, he parked across the line occupying two parking spaces so we can put the table and chairs next to the van to have lunch. When I told him not to park this way he said: “There is enough space for everyone. F**k everybody, I do what I want”. That was THE most arrogant French sentence of the whole trip. Me and Nick used to laugh about it everyday since. One night near Exmouth Alex didn’t arrange a campingsite in the national park on time...he was supposed to do it in the morning but he didn’t because he said “it’s not going to be busy”. I told him to better do it, because there are limited spots inside the park but since he loves to do things his way, I didn’t care about telling him again. In the evening we couldn’t find a spot, they were all occupied and the host told us that we have to leave the park and camp at a caravan park (more expensive than in the park). It’s illegal to park on non-official campingspots and you risk a fine if doing this, which can be reach up to AU$ 700,- I think. Alexandre still thought we could get away with camping at some isolated spot in the national park and we told him clearly that he should do what the host told him to do, and that if he risks it anyway I’m not going to pay even one dollar for the fine. But overall he’s cool, he just needs to grow up a little bit 😉.

Anyway, so we left Darwin on a Saturday. Marion, the sister of Alexandre, arrived from France the night before. She’s a 24 year old, very nice girl I must say, not arrogant at all...she doesn’t have this French thing in her blood, lol. Nick (25 year old, from the United Kingdom) also was in the trip and Cathy (24 years old) from Finland. Alexandre is turnign 23 years in November and he and his sister live on Oleron Island in western France (Ile d’Oleron). At midday they picked me up at Cavenagh Hostel and the van was pretty packed....especially because Alexandre has 5 surf boards in the van. All our bags goes on top of them. We went shopping after that, buying some food for the next 2 to 3 days. Of course we bought a lot of products that we can keep for longer. The van is a Toyota built in 1983, Alexandre bought it a couple of months ago for AU$ 3000,- and already drove it around other parts of Australia. The five of us always put AU$ 50 each in the pot, from which we pay only food and fuel. A lot of it went obviously to fuel, which is not very cheap and it always costed AU$ 80 to fill the tank, with which we could drive between 300 en 400km if I’m not wrong. Alex sleeps next to his sister in the van itself; Nick, Cathy and I sleep in tents outside.
We always have breakfast at the site we camped, for lunch we stop somewhere along the road and dinner again at the campingsite where we stay overnight. Since I’m not a king in cooking, I let them make all the decisions about cooking and what to buy etc. because I eat (almost) everything anyway. I just help a little with the preparation: cutting onions, tomatoes, capsicum etc. or do the dishes afterwards. I wish I was good in cooking so I could cook them some “kuminda krioyo” from Curaçao to let them taste what a good cuisine is (while the Frenchies were saying that they have the best cuisine in the world, pffff...they might have the best wine maybe 😉 ).

Our first stop after Darwin was in Berry Springs, where we had a swim...then we continued to Litchfield National Park where we spent two nights. I’ve been to this national park already earlier this year, same with Nitmuluk National Park near Katherine, where we’ve spent another two nights. But in both parks I’ve seen other parts that I didn’t see before. In Nitmuluk I also met Edoardo, an Italian I’ve met in Darwin. He was working at the kayak rental place. From Katherine we took the Victoria Highway and camped at Keep River National Park, which is a tiny national park just near the border between Northern Territory and Western Australia...nothing particular in the park. The next morning we had to make sure we ate all fruits and vegetables we had left, because there is a strict quarantine when entering Western Australia. At the border everyone has to stop and cars will be checked. So we did, and the next day we crossed the border. We stopped in Kununurra for a while, which is just a town, nothing particular going on there. We bought some food at the supermarket, filled our water bottles and continued on the road. We spent the night a special, 24h rest area. The next day we drove very long again, and reached Broome early evening. Broome is a small city of about 15.000 people and was founded in early 1860's after pearl was discovered in surrounding seas. The famous Paspaley pearls is based in Broome. There are a lot of Asians in the city; Asians started to flock to the city since the pearl industry started! Broome, like Darwin, was also bombed by the Japanese in 1942 during the second world war. There is not much going on in the city, there are just two or three pubs, various hotels and holiday apartments etc. It’s quite touristy. There were quite a lot of backpackers in Broome, also with campervans. We spent a lot of time at Cable Beach, a very long, sandy beach. The beaches in Broome are nice, but I didn’t like them as they are not calm, they had a lot of waves and therefore the water wasn’t clear. It wasn’t like beaches I’m used to in Curaçao. At the main area near the beach there are public toilets, showers etc. which we used regularly. We camped most of the times on the beach, although it wasn’t allowed. In the morning the rangers come and wake everyone up, saying it’s not allowed to camp. But I always manage to wake up early and fold up my tent, before the rangers arrive. When you’re awake they don’t come to you because they assume that you’ve just arrived at the site. One night we went to a beachparty as well, which was under the fool moon. It was free of charge which was ok, but I must say that I’ve been to better parties. We stayed a couple of days in Broome to see the full moon rise, which they call “staircase to the moon”. At the Town Beach, the moon rose around 18:45 and it was low tide, extremely low tide. As the moon rose, it looked as if there were some stairs going up to the moon. I’ve never seen such a thing before....the moon appeared from the horizon, it was big and kind of red / orange. Many people were sitting around the beach, waiting for the moment.
Broome reminded me a lot of Bonaire because it’s quiet, not many people (15.000 like Bonaire!) and little traffic and sometimes you had to drive along empty roads, with a flat, dry landscape to reach your destination....like you find in the central and southern parts of Bonaire.

When we left Broome, it was another day of long drive along the Great Northern Highway. Along the way we stopped and had lunch at the Eighty Mile Beach, where there were too much waves and it was prohibited to swim due to the presence of stingrays and sharks. We found the head of a tiny shark lying on the beach, probably left behind by a fisherman. We arrived in Port Hedland late afternoon, where we only did some shopping and then left the place again. Port Hedland is literally a mining city. As you drive into the city, you’ll notice the saltpiles like they have in Bonaire, and also many other industries, factories, workshops etc. etc. There is also a huge iron ore industry located in Port Hedland, and that’s basically it. The city is not nice at all. As you drive into the city you want to drive out again as soon as possible. After the supermarket we left Port Hedland straight away.

The day after we arrived at Karijini National Park , where we spent three days. This park has several deep gorges (like canyons), where you can hike through and go for a swim near waterfalls etc. Gorges are like canyons and they form due to rocks which were heavily eroded by water during millions of years. It was dry season and the safest time to walk in the national park. In the wet season, wet rocks make it dangerous and also rain and flash floods threaten those who are taking a walk down the gorges. But it was definitely worth it to visit this park, it was absolutely beautiful! Leaving Karijini, we stop in a town called Tom Price to do some errands at the supermarkets and fill up the tank. After we left the park, Alex noticed that the “brakes” light on his dashboard was on. Nick took a look and found out that there was a problem with the back break, on the left wheel. We called for assistance, but it was already too late...we were forced to spend the night in Tom Price. The next day we called again and went to a garage. The brake fluid was leaking a little bit and it needed to be repaired. Because it was on a Saturday, it was impossible to do the repair straight since they need to get the parts to do it. Alex bought some extra brake fluid to take with us. After a bit of a discussion in the group, we decided to leave to Exmouth anyway instead of spending 3 or 4 extra nights in Tom Price. In Exmouth we went to a garage and they said they could have it fixed on Wednesday because they were busy. And I told Alex that this really needs to be fixed here in Exmouth and that we’re not leaving town without fixing it. Nick told him the same and he didn’t like it because he's a bit tight with his money and obviously wouldn't like to spend money on the repair (which of course had to come from his own pocket)....but he had no other choice. The plan was to leave on the Tuesday, but I’d rather spent an extra day here than keep on driving with a back brake that could suddenly stop working.
Exmouth itself is just a tiny town with about 3.000 people, but visited by thousands of tourists every year. There is nothing particular in the town itself, just all services you’d need when you come as a visitor. Exmouth was established in the 1960's to support a US Naval Communication station nearby, later it was also hosting some personnel of the US Air Force. We rented some snorkel equipment for 3 days and went to the Cape Range National Park, which is on the western coast of the peninsula. We made a stop at the Vlaming Head Lighthouse to overlook the area a little bit. This area reminded me a lot of Aruba, around the California Lighthouse at the western part of the island. The lighthouses don’t look similar, but the landscape does look quite similar. The first beach we visited and snorkelled at, was Turquoise Bay....which was absolutely gorgeous....I loved it! There are some other beaches in the area, but Turquoise Bay was the best. The sand is white, water is crystal clear and calm, exactly what I’m used to, the most beautiful beaches I’ve seen in Australia so far. The waves all break far off shore. It was ideal for snorkeling and check out the Ningaloo Reef, which stretches for about 300 km along the coast. While snorkeling I’ve seen some fish sorts I’ve never seen before, and turtles too.
When the they’ve finished with the van repair in Exmouth, we drove to Carnarvon where we did some shopping and we spent the afternoon. The city has around 7.000 people and has a very bad reputation of alcohol-related violence and crime. Not much for a traveller in this town, so we left then to Shark Bay. The whole area is a World Heritage Area. There is just one town called Denham and the popular Dolphin Resort called Monkey Mia. The peninsula has some nice beaches. If you’re lucky you’d see dolphins around Monkey Mia. We did see a couple just off the beach while we were there. Normally they have dolphin feedings in the early morning, but we missed them. In the Shark Bay area we also visited the Shell Beach a.o which is a beach covered with tiny shells. It looks like a normal, white sand beach but it’s all shells. Overall I wasn’t very impressed by the Shark Bay area I must say.
Then we continued south to Kalbarri where me made a short visit at the Kalbarri National Park, which is very small and there wasn’t much to see there. Kalbarri itself is a little town of about 2.000 people and is a popular spot to surf. Alexandre surfed two mornings here. I used the days in Kalbarri to check emails, make reservations on internet etc. and call family.
After Kalbarri we went to the Pinnacles Desert which is about 250 km north of Perth. This is a place where limestone pillars are broken down into sand (by wind erosion a.o). The whole area looks very nice, unique....sometimes it seems like you're on another planet 😉 .

Then finally we arrived in Perth. Perth has about 1,4 million people and is the fourth largest city in Australia (behind Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane). It’s also the capital of Western Australia state. The state is about 1/3 of the whole Australian territory, but has less than 1/10 of the total Australian population: Western Australia has 1,9 million, Australia 20,5 million approximately. Perth was founded in 1829 . The growth of the city was very slow in the beginning, until they brought convicts in from England. Those cheap labourer built most of Perth and the city grew very fast after gold was found in Western Australia around the end of the 20th century. The city is not very big, has a very relaxed and laid back atmosphere which I liked a lot. There is a lot of construction going on everywhere in the city, which is the result of the economic boom occurring in Western Australia. Especially mining is huge in the whole state. It’s growing fast and apparently it’s not difficult to find jobs here. Some cafes stay closed in the morning due to lack of staff. Perth is a very clean and organised city and it’s supposed to be the safest large Australian city. In and around the city center there are some “old”, colonial buildings, mainly built in early 1900’s. The rest is all new and everywhere you see high cranes indicating that there is a lot being built. From the Kings Park you can enjoy a very nice view over the Perth skyline, from where I took my skyline pictures at day and at night. The park is very nice and a relaxed place to hang out. Many people do some jogging in the area, or exercise, picnic, just lay down and read a book etc. Many times there are special events in the park, and in the summer the park can be very busy. It’s spring now and the weather wasn’t very stable. It was constantly cloudy, but sometimes the sun came through for a while, then it disappears again and it rains a little, then it stops again....that’s how the weather was since I came here. In Perth I met with again with Roberto, Silvia, Laura and Matteo (all Italians who I’ve met in Darwin) and I’ve spent some time with them all. It was good to see them all again.
I also spent some time in Fremantle which is a city about 18km southwest of Perth (it’s more like a suburb of Perth actually 😉 ) It was also established in 1829 and just like Perth, convicts built up this town. It has about 28.000 people. It’s a small, quiet and charming town which attracts a lot of visitors. Since Perth is not built at the coast, Fremantle functions basically as a harbour for Perth.

Tomorrow I’m flying with Virgin Blue to Cairns in Queensland where I’ll spend only three days. Perth to Sydney is a 4 hour flight, in Sydney I'll have to wait more than 2 hours and then take a 3 hour flight from Sydney to Cairns...it's going to be a long and tiring day. I'll stay only 2 nights in Cairns and then continue south to the Whitsunday Islands for three days, then Fraser Island for three days, Brisbane for two days, Byron Bay for three days and then my last four days in Sydney, where I'll stay at Daniel's place (who is brother of my Australian friend Tim, from Adelaide). From Sydney I’ll leave Australia to Asia on 21st of October for about 5 weeks.

Take care of yourselves and have a good day,

Elton

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Comments

[Hyro]

?
Where in Asia is next Elton?

[Suyanne]

Hei , hopi leuk
Hei Elton, danki pa komparti bo hazanjanan i biahenan kumi, Mi ta sinta les nan tur bia ku masa atenshon. Hopi leuk di lesa, loke bo ta pasa aden, mira kon bo ta kumpli sonjo ku tur hende tin, di biaha rondo di mundu. Danki na bo historia i pics mas mi ta konose mundu tog, dor di bo wowo i pensamentu. Dal bai, ( korsou no ta pabo, korsou ta laf , esei te berdat. pensabo bon si bo ke bin aki, paso aki bo no por spar, tur kos ta karu, bida ta karu) Si ta ami lo tin ku dunabo un konseho, sigui biaha i gosa mas ku bo por, Korda bai poko poko i kuida bo kurpa, paso mundu a bira malu, dus bo mester bai ku prekoushon. Voor de rest, gosa i keiru, i ora bo ta 250% ku bo ta kla ku keirumentu den e werelddeel azie , antarctica, europa, australie.Bo ta bin ak, prome bo bin traha na hulanda, i spar un bon sen na euro. J aora bo yega lo ta mas fasil pa bo logra bo metanan. Paso unabes bo hink abo kurpa den hypotheek, ta ayoooooooooo biahe. Un konseho chiki, laterszzzzzzzzzz suy

[Willem]

travel
How is it going there in austrailia?

[Dev]

photos
some good photos here.

[Elton]

Thanks for the comment man!