Broome to(o) Perth(fect)!!!

---

No one could escape its disarming powers, looking around I found that I was the only one to still fall prey. But already I knew it was too late. I had already lost....... I was getting sleepy!

Isn't it amazing how the heat of a little sunlight through a window combined with that soft rocking motion of a bus can combine to send even the strongest willed into gentle slumber. And a half hour into part two of my journey south to Perth all twenty of my fellow travellers had gone quiet. I was beginning to fail too!

This was another journey with Western Xposure and once again the distances involved would call for a number of days where we saw little that was not through the window of a bus. One thing that had changed though was our driver for we had left Zoltan behind to retrace his steps back up the Gibb River road towards Darwin. Instead we were joined by the wholly forgettable (I can't remember it........ as I said 'wholly forgettable'), who would be our driver for the journey down to Perth. Where as Zoltan had exuded a love for The Kimberley and Western Australia....our new driver didn't take long to inform us (the engine hadn't even been started on the bus) that he just fell short of completely despising the state and all that lived in it. We were to find out however, as the bus rolled further south, that he did not fall short by much!

The previous few days had been happily spent around Broome simply hanging about with the rest of the crew that I had travelled down The Kimberley with. I had spent an afternoon in a local brewery with Lieven (pronounced Leaving) where we sampled a few beers. I never thought I would say it but I finally found a beer that I could not touch! Note to the head brewer but hot chilli and the makings of a pale ale were never meant to be put together! The night after we arrived a few of us headed into town for a few drinks only to find the entire place resembling a ghost town. The one establishment we did find open was singularly the most terrifying place I have ever been. Ever before we had entered the building we were already looking for ways of escape. The bouncers at the door seemed to be intent on keeping people in rather than keeping any out. But we were there and we were not leaving without having at least a few beers. Once we were inside we congregated at the bar and had a head count to make sure we all made it across the pub floor in one piece. The chosen entertainment for the evening was Karaoke and the locals in the bar (what I would also describe as being lonnnnng... term locals to the area too!) were loving it. I found out that they were all on a drink limit at the bar but that didn't seem to dampen their level of intoxication in the slightest and the microphone was been orally terrorised from any number of different angles. For the sake of our ear drums if nothing else...we had to escape! Drinks purchased and safely in our hands we discussed our strategy and the possibility of relocating to the beer garden. A reconnaissance mission was sent out, returning a few minutes later with the news that they had secured a table in one of the lesser populated corners. And so, unable to escape the premises through the wall of bouncers it was there we stayed for the remainder of our night... well almost anyway! Getting by with a little help from their friend.... (vodka and tonic) Ashley and Marie decided to save the microphone from the pits of Hell and as a grand finale for the evening the entire nightlife of Broome found itself enjoying an altogether more coherent duet making 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' their own!

Out on the road again...having said goodbye to our singing superstars who were not joining us on the rest of the trip (I reckon they got a recording contract out of the Karaoke night) we continued our journey south. Endless stretches of beach cling to the coast of Western Australia and our first stop out of Broome was one of the best. A sight to behold, the azure waters of eighty mile beach were stunning. This was truly a picture postcard setting of blue skies and palm trees. The only thing detracting from the place was of course....that there were any number of creatures waiting in the midst of the azure waters wanting to kill you. Not the information you need to be carrying around in your head when planning a tranquil swim in paradise. When we did venture in however, we were soon forced into retreat by the advance of an army of little jellyfish. While they may not have had to ability to kill any of us they were all-the-same able to cause a lot of pain. After our short lived swim we gathered under the shade of a tree and had some lunch (sandwiches... a food substance we had got used to in The Kimberley and were to come to hate by the time we reached Perth).

That night was spent camping on a sheep station where we went and had a bottle of beer with the owners of the station. Its funny, back in Ireland over the past few years the wealth of a farmer was measured in how much road frontage the farm had. Road frontage meant planning permission, which meant room for building houses which of course in turn meant money!! The station we stayed on had close to 70 miles road frontage! Though in the remoteness of north western Australia that meant little.

Leaving the coastline we headed inland and spent a few days exploring the gorges of Karijini National Park. Not having heard much about the park before I really didn't know what to expect. To say that I was quietly surprised at the place when I finally got there is an understatement. The place turned out to be the hidden gem of my entire trip to Australia. Karijini is an ancient land. It is as old as any place on earth. The iron rich soils here date back millions of years. As you walk through any of its spectacular gorges you find yourself walking back in time. Karijini is by all means a hauntingly beautiful place.

Our time in Karijini flew by. We trekked a number of different gorges, Weano and Hancock being two of them, always finding a suitable location for a break and a swim. Needless to say the acrobats amongst us, most notably Swiss Andy and Leanne from Wales, couldn't resist the slightest opportunity for hurtling themselves off greater and greater heights as the trip went on, culminating in jumping off a 10 plus meter ledge into an unsurveyed hole of water from where they had to swim to a cliff face and somehow get their grip and climb back out of the hole and back to the ledge. And when it was not jumping into water holes, we were climbing waterfalls or manoeuvring along precarious ledges deep into unknown ravines where little light and fewer people seemed to have ventured. The park was an eco-friendly park and so our camping accommodation had only basic facilities. By that I mean dump toilets (a posh hole in the ground) and not much else. No cleaning facilities at all combined with the trekking in the gorges, scrabbling over rocks and boulders and sleeping under the stars at night in nothing more than swags resulted in a layer of orange 'make-up' forming over my entire body. They rich orange layer of soil was so bad that it managed to get onto cloths that I had doubled wrapped in plastic and left... on the bus! It got everywhere! And so it was somewhat inevitable that an 'Oompa Loompa' looking Aidan arrived in Exmouth some three days later.

Life was not being too bad for me at all. After a few days inland exploring outback Australia at its greatest we were now back on the coast and taking a few days out to enjoy the azure waters of the Indian ocean. Exmouth is situated at the northern extent of the Ningaloo reef. Ningaloo is a hard reef so it does not look as pretty as the Great Barrier Reef but what it lacks in colours it makes up with its abundance of sea life. The morning after we arrived we all headed for the beach, donned our snorkels and flippers and went for a swim around the reef. No boats were needed as it is possible to see the reef only a few meters from the beach. And as only I could, I put my foot in the water, tripped as I fell and landed face first into the sea loosing all sense of direction and nearly drowning in water that was no more than knee deep. Having suitably scared myself into retreat Canadian Aaron and Emily took it on themselves to chaperone me out to the reef and keep within meters of either side of me for the entire snorkel. And it was thanks to them that I survived my first ever snorkel and got to see something truly amazing. Within the 40 or so minutes I was out there I managed to see amongst all the normal sea life, turtles, rays and no less than two types of shark (reef and wobbeging). Thanks guys! Actually it turned into a theme for the trip as Emily took it upon herself to give Thomas and myself, neither of whom professed to be very good swimmers, a little refresher course. Our very own Pamela Anderson.... who we quickly christened Pamada [PAMela/CanADA..get it? Get it!!!)!

It was 12 months previous that I had climbed Mount Kinabalu in Borneo. I was just turning 30 then and not knowing anyone else there except Zaid, I ended up celebrating it him in a rather low key fashion. This year however I had just rolled in Coral Bay and all signs were that my 31st was going to be a good one. I had been travelling with many of the guys since Darwin and the remainder since Broome. We had all jelled instantly and in the very short time we knew each other, had formed a great friendship. So it was that a few of us started off the day having a quad biking session through the sand dunes that surrounded the bay. And as all good quad biking sessions should be, we stopped half way through for a snorkel along the reef. Many of those that did not go biking had taken a boat to the outer reef and were swimming with mantra rays for the day. As I was leaving for the biking trip the tour guide took me aside to the offices of a cruise company and informed me that Amber (from Brisbane) had organised a glass-bottom boat tour of the reef for me for the afternoon as a birthday present. All this and breakfast hadn't even settled yet! So with that the morning had passed by amongst the sand dunes and the afternoon had passed in the tranquillity of a cruise boat. Evening approached and after a warm up drink at the hostel it was back down the street again towards the beach, though stopping this time at a lovely little sea food restaurant where the guys had gone all out and decorated a birthday table in my honour where all 22 of us (driver included) sat down together and spent an absolutely great evening sitting and chatting and laughing and joking and enjoying life for what it was....for being great. A Czech couple that were with the group even produced a bottle of moonshine that they had been saving for 'a special occasion'. The night carried on and from the restaurant we headed for the towns sole pub before adjourning to the beach for a final nightcap. Of course being the birthday boy I was pressurised into drinking a number of concoctions throughout the night that proved more lethal than a stick of dynamite because the following morning the world did not seem to be the rose tinted place it had been only 24 hours previously. The bus journey out of Coral Bay was a slow one.....thank God for air conditioning and ice cream is all I have to say!

South of the tropic of Capricorn for the first time since leaving Brisbane, we stopped for the night in Denham on our way to a breakfast rendezvous with some dolphins. Being south of the tropics again after spending so much time in the blistering heat of the north I couldn't help but feel cold as the sea breezes blew in over the town. After a very relaxing night chilling out at the hostel , the following morning we were all humming Abba to ourselves as we arrived at Monkey Mia to experience a group of wild dolphins come to the shore for feeding by the nearby Dolphin Resort. Standing on the beach as the crystal blue waters lapped at our feet a few of the group even got to go out and help the staff feed the dolphins. After feeding the dolphins we went back to a picnic area and fed ourselves a little brunch. From there it was a back track past Denham once again, out past Shark Bay onto Highway One for the penultimate days driving which would take us to Kalbarri National Park and to the final gorge of the trip.

We had already stopped at Hamelin Pool in Shark Bay the previous day where we got to see the very beginnings of human existence. Or should I say more accurately the environment that allowed for the beginnings of human existence. Now this might sound that it should be an amazing experience and that it would deserve a blog all to itself. And perhaps it should. But in reality and in the grander scheme of things... human existence had very boring origins. Without going into too much of a science lesson here..Stromatolites were instrumental in creating an atmosphere that was habitable for humans. Without them it would have been too toxic for humans to survive. Thought to be extent for millennia they were discovered to be surviving alive and well at Hamelin Pool as recently as 1956. And to-date it is still only one of a handful of places on earth that can boast to this. Now exciting as that find may have been, it does not deter from the fact that to the ordinary eyes this find still looks like dirty rocks. I am sorry stromatolites but you do!!

We arrived at Kalbarri gorge after spending another hot day on the bus. It was too late in the afternoon to do a large walk so we had to be content to view the gorge from a vantage point high above the Murchison river as it meandered its way through the red rocked ravine towards the sea nearby.

We were getting close to the end of our trip and had only one night left together as a group.. well as an official group anyway. Cervantes and The Pinnacles was our sole destination for our final day before journeying into Perth. Western Australia had proved itself a land of wondrous places. From the rocky slopes of the King Leopold Ranges deep in the heart of The Kimberley to the azure waters and white sand beaches around the town of Broome. And from the beehive mounds of Purnululu National Park to the deep fissures and hidden water pools of Karijini National Park, every day Western Australia had delighted me with new wonders to behold. And it was with no less wonder that we stood staring at another alien landscape. The Pinnacles is an expanse of desert dotted with strange statue like rocks formations. Yet again it amazed me that they were not widely known to white man until the 1960's. In fact a visitor centre only sprung up there in 2008. We spent an hour or so wandering around the strange structures. Though the wandering was by no means peaceful. There were sand flies everywhere. Hundreds... no thousands of them! I thought I had found a group of people that really liked me only to realise that they wanted a share of the fly net I was carrying with me! At one stage I managed to save 3 people from insanity with the net (because trust me...incessant attack by sand flies can drive a person crazy).

Sand flies aside leaving Cervantes was not a happy affair because we all new that it would be our last time loading ourselves onto the bus together. In a few hours we would reach Perth. After a truly amazing and totally unforgettable few weeks we had finally completed the 7,000km trip down from Darwin (It is only c.4,500km from Darwin to Perth but including the side trips we took it was closer to 7,000km). And for every mile I had a memory, a great memory. I had been blessed with the crew of people that I travelled with. Although we were soon to part company and we would not be seeing each again (at least not so frequently) I still knew that I had made friends, friends that I would have for a very long time to come. I was after having an amazing month, the places I had been, the things I had seen but most especially the people with whom I had shared it with.

We pulled into Perth that night and said our goodbyes to the driver and to a few of the group who had other arrangements made but for the bulk of us we were not finished with each others company just yet. Having been a fan of Pipsqueak cider since my time in Brisbane (thanks Claire) and with the highest recommendation from Brad before I left, I coerced (it was not hard really) a few people into launching an expedition to nearby Freemantle and the home of Little Creatures Brewery. It was a glorious Sunday afternoon as we rolled comfortably into the beer garden seats over looking the harbour waterfront. After making ourselves comfortable we had some lunch and a few ciders together while enjoying the carefree life that seemed to sum up the life of a 'sand groper' (what you call people from Perth). By the time we had finished, day had passed into night and conversation had taken on an altogether more lubricated tone. We made our way back to the city and grabbed some sleep.

The following morning and a slightly smaller group of nine rented two cars and decided to head to Margaret River for some wine tasting. Lorraine (the only other Irish in the group) and I were drivers and along with co-pilots Pamada (aka Emily) and Leanne, Thomas and Dania (the super photographer of the group), Natalie and Katrin (representing Germany) and Swiss Andy we travelled down the coast to meet up with U.K. Laura and Natalie who had travelled down themselves a day earlier. We all booked into a local hostel and to our surprise bumped into 3 more that we had travelled down from Broome with too. And so it turned out that the original group was almost complete again. We spent the rest of the day and the following one exploring the region and the wines it had to offer. We would have even managed to taste more than a handful of wines had I not the unnatural ability of bringing them to wineries that were just about to close or had just closed. Almost everyplace I chose had 'just' closed or stopped serving before we pulled up. So we got to see a lot of wineries but not necessarily got to taste much wine. We did however stumble across a true hidden gem, Cape Lavender Winery. A fantastic boutique winery where the owner had created a unique blend of wines all flavoured with... you guessed it... a hint of Lavender. Red wine and lavender...the place was the definition of relaxing!

But we did not just taste wine or at least go in search of wine on our trip south, we also did some other tourist things. We visited the impressive Margaret River Caves and travelled down to Cape Leeuwin, Australia's most south-westerly mainland point. Named after the first boat to visit the area it is considered the point where the Indian and Southern Oceans meet. (as we were informed via our own personal google for the trip, Wikiman who had proved an invaluable resource for our trip as he answered all our text queries along the road...without even questioning once who was asking them).

Unfortunately we could not stay in Margaret River tasting wines all our life and it was not long before the time had come for us to head back to Perth. The time had arrived to say our goodbyes. Leaving the hostel on my last morning was a somewhat bittersweet affair. My west Australian adventure was at an end. The final farewell to all my new found friends had to be said. It was with mixed emotions that I packed my bags and headed to the train station to begin my journey across the Nullarbor. Making me feel important and in the short time I had known them, very loved the gang even walked me to the station and with a tear in the eye we said our farewells and I turned for the train. This however was not the time to be sad because a new adventure was waiting just around the corner. I was boarding the Indian-Pacific Railway that would bring me across the Nullarbor to Adelaide for the final leg of my Australian adventure. But this was not only going to be the final leg of my Australian adventure, it was, for the moment at least, going to be the final leg of my great world adventure.

For in just a few short weeks I would be back in Ireland.....

---

Photos

Western Australian Skies
...I never saw anything like it before.

Eighty Mile Beach
...look at the colour of that water! (no photoshop used either!!!)

Karijini N.P.
..and yes we swam here

Karijini National Park
...and yes we walked down there

Ningaloo
...one of my snorkling partners

Monkey Mia
Dolphins, Dolphins and more Dolphins

Little Creatures Brewery
Thomas and Dania enjoying a cider. (not sure Thomas could handle his drink!)

Comments

[Jean Anne Gorman]

Wow what a great story
Aidan you write a great story I may be an Aussie but I've never seen the thing that you have seen but maybe I don't have to now your story and photo gave me the trip I hope this isn't the last one love JAG