Although it'd been another long drive, and felt somewhat like a chore, broken up with cold bolognaise alla chilli concarne at the Kennedy Ranges which would have been worth a stopover if we'd been in the right frame of mind, but getting to the west coast had been just too enticing the previous few days.
Crossing the Gascoigne River (thankfully quite low)
Bug Mania
We'd heard mixed reports about Canarvon but we unexpectedly got the opportunity to get to know it quite well. The warrior truck went in for her service the day after we arrived and came out with a broken injector pump. You'll remember that we knew it had a leak back on the Gunbarrel but were assured at the garage that it'd probably be okay up to Broome where we thought we'd put it into a 4x4 specialist for a good check over. Unfortunately in changing the fuel filter during the service and bleeding the engine (or something like that) it put a bit too much strain on the injector pump and it went. All in all it was going to be probably a week delay as the pump had to be sent to Perth and a fair proportion of our contingency fund gone.
Not to let little things distress us too much though or put paid to our plans we rented Troopy (Old School Toyota Landcruiser) for a few days and headed up the coast a little over 100km to an undeveloped rural haven – Red Bluff and the joys of Gnaraloo Bay.
Arty photo of the shore break in action at the Bluffs beach
We received the friendliest of welcomes from the station family, got to cuddle the orphaned joeys they were hand raising and received a lump if tuna steak (because they had too much) that fed us for 3 nights. Our first experience of the Western Austrlian coast lived upto expectations with crystal clear waters & beautiful deserted beaches, Si got to surf with turtles (They were swimming in the same water – not actually surfing – obviously that would have been a bit silly) and I enjoyed gently drifting along the coral reef admiring the huge variety of marine life. Including my first octopus at close quarters – which I moved away from very quickly. Simon helpfully suggested that next time I should put it on my head for a photo opportunity. Yep. You first then Si.
The road into Red Bluff - the point has a well known left hand surf break. However given a local surfer broke his jaw on the reef the day i got there i thought i'd give it a miss
Camped up at the Bluff
So, one way or another we managed to pass five nights camped out by the beach, surfing and swimming by day, eating fresh fish and drinking godawful red wine at $12 for 4 litres while philosophising over the milky way and the universe and life at night ....
Osprey with take away meal
One of the stations little Joey's - far cuter and much less hassle than real children
Unfortunately the dream life by the beach had to end and we headed back to Canarvon exactly a week after first arriving. The following day the heavens opened with a tropical downpouring that in part flooded the campsite and gave us an excuse to sit in the TV room all day watching episodes of 24. We liked Canarvon. It's not the prettiest (but not unattractive), isn't the most happening place (but we don't need that most of the time) and had all we needed for the 3 nights we spent back there before retreiving the truck (fixed) and heading further north up the coast.
Checking out the bountiful surf and preparing for a beating
Fishing (Unsuccessfully)
The "dreads"look after five days with no freshwater supply
A note on Troopy
It was quite a treat to have a brand new troop carrier to drive around in, it went faster when you accelerated, didn't squeak in quite so many places over the corrugations and we had slightly more confidence she wouldn't fall apart. That said we were also worried about every bush and rock scratching or banging her.
Stops 28 and 29 Warrorah Station & Ningaloo Homestead
We had a night at each of Warrorah Station and Ningaloo Homestead on the way north. We loved these settings, either just on the beach or behind the dunes, with sandy tracks linking the various places. Seems that these are the places that the locals come to to get away from some of the more touristy areas up the north west coast. En route we had a lunch time stop at Coral Bay for a quick snorkel but our ultimate destination was the Cape Range National Park and Ningaloo Marine Park. We'd wanted to take the coast raod but on advice from Ningaloo homestead we retreated to the main road. The big rains we'd had (while we were in Canarvon) had washed away a sand bank at Yardie Creek and so the creek crossing had become impassable (at least for anyone without HUGE tyres and less to lose than us). If we couldn't take the advice of locals then whose could we and the advice proved well founded as we later heard during some campsite BBQ chat that a guy that day had bogged his nice new land cruiser in the creek and no doubt given his engine a salt water bath as a consequence.
A Few littel bones we found kicking about
Looks like the locals have a termite problem
Sunrise - Again, unbelievably seeing a suprising amount of these!
Stop 30 Yardie Homestead
We got to Exmouth reasonably early Saturday morning and had a chance to replace the nut that had shaken itself out of the bullbar on one of the less than fun tracks north we took. The weather was really heating up and the tropical heat was leaving us tired and desperate for a dip in the sea! The whole area is renowned for the Ningaloo reef – about 250km of coral reef that is in some places just a few metres off shore and so easy to get out and snorkel around. So the plan for the next couple of days was to snorkel, surf and see the whale sharks and also enjoy a Sunday roast dinner put on by the Yardie Homestead where we decided to set up camp. Brilliant!
We got to Exmouth reasonably early Saturday morning and had a chance to replace the nut that had shaken itself out of the bullbar on one of the less than fun tracks north we took. The weather was really heating up and the tropical heat was leaving us tired and desperate for a dip in the sea! The whole area is renowned for the Ningaloo reef – about 250km of coral reef that is in some places just a few metres off shore and so easy to get out and snorkel around. So the plan for the next couple of days was to snorkel, surf and see the whale sharks and also enjoy a Sunday roast dinner put on by the Yardie Homestead where we decided to set up camp. Brilliant!
The Cape Range National park backing onto the Ningaloo Marine Park
The whale sharks are one of the big draws for the area – between May and July they are predictably there and 7 operators run trips from Exmouth to snorkel with these gentle giants. At up to 12m long there are few other creatures that we would ever get the chance to see in such close quarters (and no other shark I would happily get so close to).
We booked to do the trip with Ningaloo Reef Dreaming – the one operator in town that runs its own spotting plane and is doing a lot of conservation work as well. (The other operators share a plane – which means when they spot a shark, the 6 boats also share the shark). The morning started with a regular scuba dive which reminded us how much we enjoy diving and got Simon practising his nudibranch spotting (small psychedelic coloured sea slugs) – he spotted 3, I still have never spotted one first.
We booked to do the trip with Ningaloo Reef Dreaming – the one operator in town that runs its own spotting plane and is doing a lot of conservation work as well. (The other operators share a plane – which means when they spot a shark, the 6 boats also share the shark). The morning started with a regular scuba dive which reminded us how much we enjoy diving and got Simon practising his nudibranch spotting (small psychedelic coloured sea slugs) – he spotted 3, I still have never spotted one first.
The little fish we all paid so much money to go and see
The day proper got underway as soon as we surfaced from the dive with the guys on the boat shouting for us to come back quickly as we were 'on' a shark!! Action stations and the boat roared off towards the shark's location. Unfortunately it had dived before we got to it but a little while later another shark was spotted and we were lucky enough to stay with this shark for over an hour. It's a bit of a military operation. They split us into 2 groups – 6 in each (with Simon winning scissor, paper, stone for our group to go first) – and each group has a spotter. When we're near the shark (and they swim just a bit under the water so from the boat they are pretty hard to see) the spotter goes in and heads off to where the shark in swimming towards him, when he has the shark he sticks his arm up and swims with it. That's the signal for us to get in. We are all lined up on the rear of the boat – fins on, mask and snorkel and we get an order to go,go go! - navy Seal style. At which point we all jump in and swim madly towards the spotter until suddenly, a little blurred at first but then there's no mistaking it, this giant wide mouth appears and you head off to one side of its body or the other and there's the whale shark. Grey and spotted, powerful and sleek and a truly splendid sight. The first swim was quite brief, maybe a minute and then we stopped and the other group went in, the boat picked us up and brought us back round in front of the shark and then we got another signal to go, go go! We were lucky and in total had nearly an hour swimming with this one shark with the time in the water getting progressively longer as some people didn't want to go back in and it just being one group swimming along. It's tiring though! First the dash from the boat to the shark then swimming alongside and keeping up with her really gave us a workout. Everyone has to maintain a distance of 3 metres and not swim in front of them. She didn't seem to mind us being there and everyone was very respectful, not interfering with her natural journey through the sea, feeding on the plankton and bits floating near the surface.
Charl doing her Urusua Le Guin (think that's spelling) impression
Our roast dinner was exactly what was called for after that trip and the following day Simon got to surf – some nice gentle stuff which he'd needed when we first got to the coast – again with turtles millingsaround and we spent the rest of the day snorkelling a couple of reef sites. The abundance of life was fantastic, the beaches were white and clean and we were glad we'd caught the area before tourist season really hits in later on in May.
Stop 31 Random Rest Area
Next up we were heading back inland a little to the Karijini National Park. Originally we were going to follow the coast but had heard great things about this National Park and we'd had no particular desire to see some of the other northwest coast towns. It was a two day trip though so after 5 hours driving on the first day we pulled into a roadside rest area in Pilbara on the Nanutarra – Paraburoo Road (Cheela Plains). A friendly couple offered us their fire after they'd finished with it and we cooked up steaks and sweet potato before bedding down for our second night's sleep in the truck.
Stop 32 Dales Gorge – Karijini National Park
Not having had the tent up gave us a quick getaway in the morning – the earliest we've had at about quarter to 8! - and we headed towards the town of Tom Price and a 4wd track up Mt Nameless. This provided some good views over the massive iron ore works and kilometre long trains taking the iron ore up to the northern port cities.
The view fomr Mt Nameless - huge trains moving iron ore to the coast
the 4WD track up Mt Nameless - time for a bit of low range action
We quite quickly moved on though to Karijini. A stunning park where the main attractions are gorges that literally fall away in the landscape with waterfalls, pools and some stunning rock colours and shapes. The reds, terracottas and orchres of the rocks against the deep blue sky and lush greens (from the good wet season that had just finished) really sum up this part of Australia. We camped at the National Park site at Dales Gorge and spent the next day and a half walking, hiking, scrambling, climbing, swimming, jumping, splashing, wading and generally having a good time through the gorges. My particular favourite was Circular pool, at the end of a gorge and simply magical. Ferns surrounding it, a wonderful warm shower trickling from the rocks on the far side and deliciously refreshing deep water to swim in. Just what was needed after the heat of the day outside the gorge.
Gorges and Gorge walking are what people come here for
Simon enjoyed the spider walk and proceeded to sing Spider Charlotte, Spider Charlotte – to the tune of Spider Pig as I tried not to fall into the slippery stream below.
The camp was fine despite the howling pack of dingos we were woken up by at night and we were happily free of flies! We wouldn't have though twice about spending a couple more days but given the time we'd lost around Canarvon we felt we had to move on.
The camp was fine despite the howling pack of dingos we were woken up by at night and we were happily free of flies! We wouldn't have though twice about spending a couple more days but given the time we'd lost around Canarvon we felt we had to move on.
Spider Charlotte, Spider Charlotte, does whatever, a spider charlotte does
Above: The emerald pools of the Karijini Park (and Charl doing her Timotei ad audition)
Friendly neighborhood Dingo
Stop 33 & 34 Pardoo Roadhouse and Barn Hill Station
Leaving Karijini our next destination was Broome a good 900 km and probably 2 overnights away. Rather than take the main bitumen road north from Karijini though, we decided to head off piste towards Australia's hottest town – Marble Bar – and some mining tracks north. We were so pleased we did this as the scenary was just incredible. Rugged and winding and peaceful with no other traffic for most of the 400 or so km we did to the Pardoo Roadhouse and back onto the main Northern Highway. Marble Bar itself had a wonderful natural pool with incongruous lawned banks where we sat and had a picnic before kindly feeding our apple cores to a horse. The horse then decided to tfollow us back to the truck and try and eat our rubbish bag. We both love animals but big horses not fenced in kind of scare both of us a bit and we made a quick retreat.
The mandatory abandoned goldmine, proper ozzie outback stuff
Hm.. you can't turn your back for a minute
Lunchtime picnic
Pardoo Roadhouse did what it said on the tin – grass to camp on, fish and chip dinner, swim in the pool and we set off again in the morning heat of the north west (this time along the tarmac) towards Broome.
Apart from the odd road train, Simon commenting that the road looked like it had glitter on and the occasional crackle of ABC local radio on AM it was dull. And reinforced our decision to stay away from the tarmac beforehand. It's hard to comprehend from the UK and even from Sydney – we were on the main highway connecting WA with the Northern Territory and there is no mobile signal (in fact we had had no mobile signal since Canarvon), for 99% of the time no radio to pick up, there is little traffic (maybe 2 or 3 vehicles an hour coming the other way) and there is literally nothing but vast flat plains divided by the long staight tarmac with a hazy mirage on the horizon from the heat. Unfortunately there simply was no choice as to road now and so we were straight lining it with the sun bearing down and no ipod.
Apart from the odd road train, Simon commenting that the road looked like it had glitter on and the occasional crackle of ABC local radio on AM it was dull. And reinforced our decision to stay away from the tarmac beforehand. It's hard to comprehend from the UK and even from Sydney – we were on the main highway connecting WA with the Northern Territory and there is no mobile signal (in fact we had had no mobile signal since Canarvon), for 99% of the time no radio to pick up, there is little traffic (maybe 2 or 3 vehicles an hour coming the other way) and there is literally nothing but vast flat plains divided by the long staight tarmac with a hazy mirage on the horizon from the heat. Unfortunately there simply was no choice as to road now and so we were straight lining it with the sun bearing down and no ipod.
Ipod Interlude
That's right – the ipod decided to start playing up around Exmouth, seemed to fix itself and went weird again on the way to Karijini. We ran the battery down – which had fixed it last time, charged it back up, switched it on – all working perfectly – except that every track, every single itsy, bitsy bit of music had been wiped. And anyone who has had the pleasure of Simon's ipod knows just how much music that is. And the laptop with the back up? In England. Arghhh!!!!!
So, we're attempting, intelligent conversation, have been reading tourist leaflets to the whoever s driving, doing crosswords but whether we manage to complete the trip without the ipod is another matter! Watch this space.
That's right – the ipod decided to start playing up around Exmouth, seemed to fix itself and went weird again on the way to Karijini. We ran the battery down – which had fixed it last time, charged it back up, switched it on – all working perfectly – except that every track, every single itsy, bitsy bit of music had been wiped. And anyone who has had the pleasure of Simon's ipod knows just how much music that is. And the laptop with the back up? In England. Arghhh!!!!!
So, we're attempting, intelligent conversation, have been reading tourist leaflets to the whoever s driving, doing crosswords but whether we manage to complete the trip without the ipod is another matter! Watch this space.
The Marble Bar road
Barn Hill
We'd had a recommendation that there was this campsite by the beach which was populated by grey nomads and other more senior folk looking to get away from things and fish that was well worth the visit. Being just over 100km from Broome it made for the perfect second overnight on our journey and an easy launchpad for the next morning into the biggest town / city we would have been to since Adelaide!
It didn't disappoint. Complete with bowls lawn, open air showers, a panoramic view of the sea and friendly dogs we happily stopped our driving for the day at lunch time and set up camp on the magnificent red rocks overlooking the white sand beach and Indian ocean beyond. After a short siesta we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon on the beach and try our hand at fishing again.
We'd had a recommendation that there was this campsite by the beach which was populated by grey nomads and other more senior folk looking to get away from things and fish that was well worth the visit. Being just over 100km from Broome it made for the perfect second overnight on our journey and an easy launchpad for the next morning into the biggest town / city we would have been to since Adelaide!
It didn't disappoint. Complete with bowls lawn, open air showers, a panoramic view of the sea and friendly dogs we happily stopped our driving for the day at lunch time and set up camp on the magnificent red rocks overlooking the white sand beach and Indian ocean beyond. After a short siesta we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon on the beach and try our hand at fishing again.
At last - a silver Trevally, bout a foot long. Tasted good
I found a dog to play stick with and Simon boldly launched his prawn bait into the sea expecting an hour or so of standing around before we went back and cooked tinned tuna pasta out of our rations box. Within 5 minutes though a startled Si had yelled for me to stop running up and down the beach with 'Rosie' and get a bucket of water for the fish! This hadn't really been in the plan but to cut a not very exciting story short we had a Trevally for dinner and learnt how to quickly end a poor fish's suffering. At least we know better for next time.
As an aside we are getting slightly concerned that we enjoy, indeed prefer, chatting to retired Australians than 'backpackers' and would rather sleep in the middle of nowhere in peace and quiet than in a busy town campsite. What is to become of us!
As an aside we are getting slightly concerned that we enjoy, indeed prefer, chatting to retired Australians than 'backpackers' and would rather sleep in the middle of nowhere in peace and quiet than in a busy town campsite. What is to become of us!
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