Life's a Beach!!!

Sorry about the cliché, but as I sit outside the campervan (who we have named Molly – don’t know why), I look out over white sand and blue-green water. So that’s a pretty accurate summary of the last week and a half! Kind of feel like we’re permanent stars in an advert for retirement planning…

Life's a beach!

A sunset

While at Exmouth, from whence I last posted, we spent a day at Bundegi Beach, where we saw a turtle swimming not three metres from shore, then another at Turquoise Bay, which is everything the name suggests – completely lovely. Thought we’d go to the pub over the road at 9 pm Friday night. As we reached the front door, they were locking up for the night! Hey ho.

Stromatolites - where life began

the view from the camper this morning

Went from Exmouth to Coral Bay, where we stayed for four nights – ‘Pay 3, Stay 4’ – well, you can’t refuse such offers when you’re a pensioner, can you?! Coral Bay is also quite beautiful. You can walk out to Ningaloo Reef from the shore and see amazing coral and lots of pretty fishes. Needless to say I perfected my snorkeling technique there. Saw a few stingrays in the crystal clear shallows too.

On Monday we walked to the north end of the bay which is a nursery for Reef Sharks. Saw abut 30-40 swimming only 4-5 metres from shore – knee deep!

Set off on Wednesday for Carnarvon and stopped at a place called Blowholes, which is where the incoming tide is pushed through the holes in the rock and spouts up 20 metres like geysers. Quite exciting.

At Carnarvon we found and walked on the 1-mile jetty which was built in 1898 and has the modest distinction of being the longest jetty in this part of Western Australia. Hmmm.

From Carnarvon, we went on to Shark Bay. This is where we saw the oldest living organisms on earth. Without them, we wouldn’t exist. 3.5 billion years ago, these single cell organisms started forming microbial mats and 2.5 bn years ago, the Stromatolites began to separate and send oxygen into the earth’s atmosphere, enabling the development of life on earth. Quite humbling really, seeing these lumps of grey ‘rock’ which actually formed the earth’s crust and are directly responsible for our existence.

The Hamelin Pool Caravan Park in Shark Bay is a strange little place with some fascinating history as a telegraph relay station between Carnarvon and Denham (where I’m writing this).

There’s also a shell quarry where blocks of solid shell – tiny fragum cockles – were cut to use as building material. The beach consists entirely of these compacted shells. We are eating at Pearlers restaurant tonight (our weekly treat), which is built entirely from shell blocks!

Life's another beach! Gillie particularly likes this one as it looks like we're in the Sahara or somewhere - in fact it's Shell Beach

There’s also a tiny museum at Hamelin Pool that we paid $2.50 each for the ‘walk through’ and were enlightened by our very own Aussie throwback – Ian – a delightful down-to-earth old cobber with few teeth. I liked him immediately as he called me ‘young fella’! He delighted in telling us it was snake season and to ‘use your eyes – they’re your best friend where snakes are concerned’. Not much help really.

Altogether, Shark Bay was a charming and slightly surreal place to stay, if a bit ramshackle.

On Friday we set off for Denham, where we are staying for two nights before setting off again for Monkey Mia to watch dolphins and dugongs.

Saturday (today) we found a place called Little Lagoon – yet another idyllic spot, only marred by the fact that there were probably Stone Fish in the shallows and it’s shallow for a long way out. Typical Australia – Beauty and the Beast combined.

There are five dominant colours in the Australian landscape: red, for the earth; white for the beaches; blue for the sea and sky (notice any theme here? They’re a patriotic lot these Aussies); black/grey for the bush fire-scarred vegetation and a kind of muted, apologetic green for the shrubs and bushes trying to regenerate after devastation. Fascinating. Next blog probably coming from Perth, where we are staying at Derick’s, the chap who invited us to his home on the basis of a five-minute chat in the pool at Jabiru – remember him?

at the start of 1 Mile Jetty

The Road Goes Ever on and on and on and on...

As it’s been over a week since our last post, it’s worth reiterating that reliable wifi on this trip is like the fabled beasts of myth and legend such as the unicorn or the Gryphon – you hear and read about them, but you never actually see them. Indeed, you could say that about wild wallabies and kangaroos in the bush – you only see them when they’re roadkill…

Since Kununurra, when we last had some sort of access to the outside world, we have travelled nearly 3000 kilometres (more than 1800 miles in the Old World) and I’m writing this in Exmouth – home to the whale shark and staging post for the world-famous Ningaloo Reef Heritage Site.

From Kununurra, we backtracked slightly on a whim (we can do that!) and spent a night at Lake Argyle, a man-made lake the size of 18 Sydney Harbours – with a beautiful infinity pool. We then put in a marathon drive of 720 k to Fitzroy Crossing – the only highlight there being a bacon and cheese pie in one of the most dismal roadhouses we came across!

Fitzroy Crossing had a delightful campsite with wandering wallabies – the first we saw in the ‘wild’ that weren’t dead. From there we hoofed it to our Utopia/Shangri-La/Eden/seaside paradise – in fact everything we wanted and hoped for after 9 days in the outback – Broome. And indeed Broome was lovely. Campsite near the long golden beach, beautiful sunsets and the Staircase to the Moon – a visual phenomenon that only happens three nights a month from May to October, when the moon rises over the very low tide and the impression is of a red staircase from the earth to the moon. I think Led Zeppelin had something to say about that!

There’s something quite relaxing about driving long distances here. You set your speed at about 80 km/h – 50 mph - to save engine wear and fuel costs – after all we aren’t in any great hurry – get comfortable, select a few tunes on the iPod and go. Endless ribbon-flat and pencil-straight roads on the Great Northern Highway, single lane each way. Sometimes the landscape is barren, blackened – flat as far as the eye can see on either side, occasional stands/rows of spindly white trunked (no bark) trees. You can almost smell the desert to our south and east. You can certainly smell any roadkill more than half an hour old and it lingers for about 1km!

If a cow or wallaby wanders too near the road when there’s a Road Train coming…they don’t stop. At first the Road Trains weren’t really a problem – just a slight adjustment in the steering. More recently however, possibly because we are heading more south and there’s a strong cross-wind from the desert, it feels like somebody is picking the camper up and shaking it! Scary.

Another unexpected phenomenon is something called Willy-willys (or something like that – could be willy-nillys or willy wonkas for all I know). They are mini whirlwinds created completely randomly when the earth gets too hot and creates this terrific upsurge tunnel of air. We’ve seen a few that have given us early warnings by sending a corridor of leaves across the road in advance, but some have hit us by surprise and pushed the camper across the lanes – good job there’s not much traffic…They disappear almost as soon as they appear.

The earth is brick-red. You notice it most on the roads that go off either side of the highway, heading for remote stations (ranches?)

The Boab trees are magnificent – some slim and slender, some bulbous and many-limbed. The trunk is literally rock hard and all look dead at the moment. I imagine seeing them flower in autumn(?)/after The Wet is awesome. I love ‘em!

There are the occasional short-lived excitements of hills, sliced at the top like a cake, clearly stratified where the earth has undergone its pre-historic upheavals, then more road, more bush, more flat, more outback – BRILLIANT!

We have established a kind of routine for the moment. Up very (6-6.15) early, then a swim in the pool if it’s open, if not fruit for breakfast, then a swim, then a shower, then hit the road – usually before 8.30. Shopping for lunch & essentials in the nearest commercial area when appropriate. Stop for coffee, leg stretch after a couple of hundred k, then on. Eat lunch on the road – certainly not tempted by roadhouse pies after our experience at Halls Creek – plan to arrive at destination by 3.30-4 pm or a bit later if long distance. Making every effort not to be still on the road at night, so far successfully. Day’s journey anything from 350-700 km – although that was a bit of an aberration.

Small world syndrome – whilst watching a sunset at Broome, we got chatting to one of the lifeguards and it turned out he was a contemporary of Holly and Emily at Shelley High School near Huddersfield!

After leaving Broome somewhat reluctantly, we headed for a campsite at 80-Mile Beach – well you’ve gotta try that haven’t you? Ten kilometers off the main highway along a dirt road to a pretty unimpressive site. Long featureless beach, amazing stars at night, but not much else to commend it. Thought we’d take the advice of the Lonely Planet book for our next stop also – at a ‘pretty village’ called Point Samson. Remote, over-priced and overrated – will treat Lonely Planet with some suspicion from now on…

Arrived at Exmouth, with its promise of Turquoise seas, snorkeling, lovely sea life etc and found…

Actually it’s a lovely site, two bars within walking distance, wild Emus in the campsite. Off to Bundegi beach for snorkeling and swimming tomorrow and then Turquoise Bay for more on Friday before setting off for Coral Bay. Ah me…

I love Boab trees - and they love me!

Postcard from Broome

never-ending red

The Road Goes Ever On

Noel Coward was Spot On!

This is an amazing country and WE ARE HAVING AN AMAZING TIME!!! In the vast wilderness that is Northern Territory, internet access is as rare as hen's teeth – hence the long gap between posts. Not sure when I’ll get to post this, but suspect it will be in Kununurra, Sunday 5/10, just over the WA border. Bingeing on fruit & veg as I write this as we’ve just discovered that you can’t take fresh stuff into WA – inc nuts & seeds – and we only filled the (admittedly v small) fridge in Katherine yesterday!

Since our last post, decided to stay a second night in Jabiru, so that we could see the rock paintings at Ubirr, then on to Cooinda, where we went on the Yellow Water cruise and saw lots of different types of birds, plus some serious crocodiles and a beautiful sunset – see pix. Met Derek and Beth Johnson who invited us to stay with them in their 7-bedroom, 1.5 acre property just outside Perth when we arrive. He made a point of giving us his card, so we guess he means it!

On our way to Cooinda we decided to visit a lookout spot (can’t remember the name – sorry). Only 0.6 km from the car parking area – 1.2 km round trip. But it was 1.30 in the afternoon up a rough trail in 40^o heat, with a breeze that was as hot. Mad Dogs and Englishmen indeed!!!

After Cooinda we drove on to Katherine and stayed at a brilliant campsite, where we nearly got Internet – I say nearly as it took an age to open anything and we had to do housekeeping stuff, so didn’t have time to post a blog as I wanted to eat as well!

Northern Territory landscape around these parts comprises hundreds of kilometres of pale straight road bordered by red dirt, scrubby, white trees with thin green canopies offering no shade, turning black at times as the bush fires attack, seemingly randomly and without warning. But the trees keep on growing, as do the palms and other vegetation in this wilderness. We were vicariously excited for a short while by a small range of small hills – Gregory National Park – which the Territorians in their folly choose to call mountains (as if!). Also some seriously interesting trees – Boabs – up to 1000 years old some of them and enormous girth. They look dead, but come to flower and leaf in the Wet– I think the designer for Game of Thrones had seen a few of these.

This unforgiving, searingly hot landscape is dotted with thousands of little red mounds – from 20 cm to one metre in height, looking like sloppy pillars of maroon ice cream – built by Cathedral Termites. Back in Kakadu these structures reach up to 4 metres and are a yellow ochre colour. Over this side they are darker and smaller…

Katherine to Timber Creek was largely uneventful, except that we stopped at our first Roadhouse for coffee and discovered the perfect place to have yogurt and honey for lunch – see pic! As we drove into the campsite, our milometer (is that right?) clicked over to 000.0 – we had just completed our first 1000 kilometres! Only 11000??? more to go in Oz (educated/wild guess – delete as appropriate).

We celebrated by watching crocs being fed and having an ice cream! Dinner of salad, salad, salad and salad awaits…

After a breakfast of fruit, fruit and fruit, had a long drive (230 km) to cross the border into WA, stopping at a rest spot to devour more salad and fruit. Met a very chatty couple, Sheila (I kid you not) and Theo who were also heading for Perth and guzzling remaining fruit etc. Gave us lots of tips about places on the west coast. (Whisper - smuggled onions, garlic, ginger and a full jar of honey into WA – don’t tell anyone!) Arrived in Kununurra with an extra 1.5 hours to kill!

Got a site overlooking Lake Kununurra and found internet, so we should be posting this on Sunday evening. Problems with wifi, so Monday morning now - just had a swim, shower and healthy breakfast and off to Lake Argyle for the infinity pool - life's tough…

yogurt & honey in 40 C!

watch out Gillie - he's comin' for ya!

Termite fashion

Sunset over Yellow Water (or Sth Alligator River, where there are no alligators…

Molly our trusty camper, with keeper!