Post #11 Christmas in Broome

I have a very rough plan of where I need to be by a certain date in order to make Darwin by 4th Jan to return the camper and it is written in the corner of one of the maps I have. I really enjoy that freedom of setting off in the morning, not knowing exactly where I will be that evening. However with Christmas looming I needed to plan a few days ahead to make sure I had somewhere to stay (with the humidity here it's campsites all the way with their priceless showers!)

Progress was slowed a bit by these little fellas...





I drove into several swarms of them and initially was worried that the windscreen would break with them pinging off. Then I noticed that the engine temp gauge was rising and pulled over to find them clogging up all the intakes. Little ******!


My plan was to make Broome by Christmas Eve which would mean a good distance covered and, hopefully, plenty of time to explore the Kimberley's and Kakadu National Park.

The last entry was written in Karratha and the next day I went on to Port Hedland, both of which are 'boom' towns focussed on mining and gas extraction.



Both towns are like the Wild West with cowboys replaced by miners! They are incredibly busy places with hard-hatted, heavily tanned, employees zipping about in pick ups. Above is a snapshot of BHP's iron ore port site. The infrastructure set up is incredible, over vast areas. Road trains several trucks long and real trains up to 7km long (that's nearly 700 cars long) deliver ore to the port where these little boats ship it out...




By tonnage shipped, Port Hedland is the biggest port in the world (where? I hear you ask)! Amazing to see man's endeavours first hand. Of course each 'town', which in fact are tiny have airports for the fly-in-fly-out contractors and lots of good services. Very interesting.

From there on to Broome was along Highway 1, skirting the Great Sandy Desert (not to be confused with the Little Sandy Desert nearby). Generally, it was hot. Actually, "hot" is an insufficient word... It was roasting! I drove near to Marble Bar which is the hottest town in Australia... It was a mild 59 there, that day. I know because every day I tune in to the Bureau of Meteorology broadcast at noon, on the one MW radio station you can get. In typical, laid back, Australian fashion (bearing in mind this is the equivalent to the shipping forecast) he announced the temperature there and then said, "I bet you could fry an egg on a tin hat there today".

View forward...





View left... (ooh, a cloud. That has broken the monotony of the last 300km)




View right... (more clouds, excellent!)




And so it went on for two days' driving. Aside of 'outback', i did drive through some vast cattle stations with what must have been thousands of cattle on the horizon. I say for two days... I did punctuate the journey with a stay at Eighty Mile Beach (it's amazing that you can turn off this highway and be on the coast within 30km). The place was deserted and was, as you might guess, a beach that is 80 miles long. It was stunning. Great Frigates (?) soared above and there were tracks on the beach made by flat back turtles coming in to lay eggs the night before.

Of course, in this part of the world, you are never short of beautiful sunsets...








I went back out to the shoreline a few hours later. No turtles in sight but I did get an incredible view of the magnificent southern hemisphere stars. They are something else and almost oppressive in their presence. Another magical place. (on the note of stars, there is a very special comet out there at the moment... Comet Lovejoy. It passed within a minute distance of the sun but came out the other side much to the surprise of NASA et al. It is being hailed as a miracle and so I hope to see it in the next couple of nights, if I can get up at 3:30 before dawn! Google it!)

Then on to Broome, where I am now. Those that have been here will know its slightly odd but very appealing "oasis in the desert" feel. Everyone works on 'Broome Time' which seems to equate to manyana...

The humidity here in the wet season is crippling. Utterly so, but it is also a very intriguing place and not a bad place to spend Christmas.

A feel for Broome in road signs...




Not 'catastrophic'... Good! (there are so many bush fires in Oz, it's astounding. Also, there is a blanket harvest ban on Christmas day on the basis that even driving a truck through a paddock can start a fire here and the fire services will all be drunk on their one day off!)




Hmm, not so good! (when fishing, stand well back! How about just going to the fishmonger's and not taking the chance!)




Always a good sign to see!

So. Rambled on enough. Ciao for now...

I'll close with the first-aid points on Cable Beach here... If you get stung by a Box Jelly Fish, you go to these, open them up and find a bottle of vinegar... Handy for your chips too!




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Location:Cable Beach, Broome

Post #10 Dolphins to Hot Dogs

The dolphins at Monkey Mia are famous, having been visiting the shoreline there since the 70's. In brief, one turned up back then, got fed loads by humans, would not leave. Scientists got involved and said 'this won't do' and now they are fed circa 5% of their daily food needs, only when they show up and only up to noon. (ie it's not really worth their while coming in from a food angle). They are wild creatures and no one knows if they will show up on any given day but most days they do. Extraordinary.

They are 3 or so generations on from that original one; they've provided the longest scientific study possible to date and they have integrated the beach into their daily foraging sites. They get between zero and 16 show up and females even bring their new born calf in, without fail, within 48 hours of birth!





She is at my feet in water not much above my ankles and she had her 3 week old calf with her! Great.

After getting there for 6am I fancied a relaxed afternoon so headed to a point I'd had recommended for some fishing... Stupidly got bogged on a soft sand track and so, in the mid thirties, had to do a fair bit of digging! (no Chinese in sight to help...) No fishing in the end...

In my defence I missed this sign...




Not the one about not running over small children but the one hidden in the bush telling you to deflate tyres. In my prosecution... I could see it was sand!

Moved on and had a fantastically relaxed few days at Coral Bay, Ningaloo Reef... Australia's largest fringing reef, easily accessible from the beach for fantastic snorkelling. A bit of fishing too and taking it easy! To get here I'd crossed the Tropic of Capricorn so it's getting hotter... 42 here consistently.




Crazy Ant Hills...





Some stromatolites (very very important in getting us to where we are today!) just for you Matt (these are living and only 5000 years old or so and are not the 3.5 billion year old ones in the Pilbara).





Probably my favourite fuel station so far (at least top three)...





Am now back on the road and heading towards Broome. Suddenly the landscape is very different again...





Then to the outskirts of the Pilbara...





Yesterday I crossed a number of significant bridges and beneath each was nothing but dry, sandy river beds. The rains are coming however but its impossible to think they they will all be running full very shortly or even flooding.

Yesterday the official temperature here was 53.4 although guys at the Nanutarra Roadhouse were claiming 55. Forecast for today, anyhow, is 55. Roadhouses are bizarre and fascinating places... Nanutarra yesterday was like something out of Pulp Fiction with everyone going slightly crazy in the heat. Drivers of the road trains are a hardy and slightly crazy looking bunch!





6am and got to make tracks before it's too hot to move. Spent the night in Karratha, a town built in the 60's by a mining company and lots of mining/energy business going on still.

Yesterday was pretty uncomfortable and even walking around to the fuel filler cap was a chore (on that note there were people arriving there with tanks pretty empty and the pressure build up was so great in the heat that when they opened the cap, fuel shot out for metres!)

Beyond the heat, the humidity is outrageous! Crazy people living here. Still, all good fun!

Off to Broome via Eighty Mile Beach and then into the Kimberley's.

Merry Christmas!


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Location:Karratha, WA

Post #9 North from Perth

So, a couple of statistics to start: Western Australia is bigger than the Congo (where I seem to remember they drink UmBongo...) and 3.5 times the size of Texas. However its population is only around 2.2 million with more than 75% living in Perth. Conclusion... It's bloomin' huge and you don't see many people!

Second night north of Perth I stayed in a lovely small fishing port and spent the evening with a really interesting & charming couple - retired farmers (sheep and grain) from the south (the rains down there at the moment are unseasonal and are playing havoc with harvest. After year's of drought there was a bumper crop lined up this year but the grain is now down graded significantly).

The next day I explored the Kalbarri National Park and coastline which is stunning. I'm limited to how many photos I can post easily on this connection so the easiest way is though the medium of "food"...

Breakfast...






Lunch...





Supper...





Breakfast again...







I also met another farmer who has a significant cattle station 'up north'. I met him because he had a blow-out in front of me on the highway. I pulled over to see if I could help and we chatted for half an hour, whilst he changed the tyre, over cold lemonade from my fridge (he was a tough bloke so that was the only help I could offer!)

The sparsity of population and the lack of easy communication that leads to is sometimes unnerving, coming from UK. On the radio you can only get two MW news channels for example. Today, on the usual Sunday morning "phone in" to Macca, one of the callers declared that he was 30' up a tree to make the call! They had a laugh about how bad phone coverage is, but nothing more than that...

Having to think carefully about water and fuel is also an eye-opening experience. We are used to such things being readily available or being able to "buy" our way out of trouble but such marketisation of commodities doesn't apply here... For hundreds of kilometres they simply don't exist. Needless to say I'm carrying 100l of water and 60l of extra diesel in jerry cans (bought in Perth and partly for back up and partly for hedging against crazy fuel prices up north).

On the point of communication and staying in touch, this is how they do it here (although the girl driving this beauty seems to have overdone the number of CB aerials, most only have one of the long ones)





Now I am on a peninsula called Shark Bay (of course it's several hundred KM's off the highway) and it really is a very special part of the world. It's a World Heritage Sight and, because man's activities are so slight in this part of the world, the offshore world is almost pristine. More about the beauty and the wildlife when I'm back but I will finish on today's 'story'...

I'm spending a few days here as there's so much I want to see and one of those is the north of the peninsula. This can only be accessed by "4WD Only" tracks. Basically, it's quite deep sand. Travelling alone does make you think twice about doing things but I roughly know how to drive a 4WD and how to get it out if stuck, so I made the necessary enquiries... Spoke to a guy in 'town' with a ZZ-Top beard and massive 4WD truck who confirmed the tracks were passable. (if you get stuck then you wait for someone to come by and I have food, water and fuel for about a month!)





These guys were waiting at the start of the track along with a sign that said only 3 things (along with guidance for if you get bogged in the sand):
1. 4WD only beyond this point (AWD is insufficient)
2. High Clearance vehicles only
3. Reduce tyre pressures to 40%

So with tyres deflated, and a little trepidation, I set about the 25km (40 min) drive to the first point. It was great! Like driving through treacle and in places so rutted that I was bouncing around inside so much I thought I was going to bang my head on the roof at 20kph (although there was no way I was letting off the revs for fear of bogging in the sand). [DY- really made me smile as I instantly remembered the Citroen incident!]

Anyway, exciting drive over and lagoon admired (with it all to myself) I set off back along the single lane track to the main junction to head to the next point. Interestingly, I hadn't seen anyone in 2 hours or so.





On the way back I spotted an approaching car and (with a vague level of skill, I must say, in low range) pulled into the deep stuff to let them pass. They did and then within 2 metres got stuck. By the time I'd got out they'd bogged badly by wheel spinning and were basically grounded.

Now, bearing in mind the sign at the entrance to the National Park, they were driving a Toyota AWD, low clearance and hadn't deflated their tyres. Duh!

they were a clueless chinese family of 5, ill-prepared, and I could hardly just drive on. However the 20 something son spoke English so I told him what we needed to do and he orchestrated the rest to start digging. At least I had a shovel! Anyway, long story short. After 45 minutes of trying to get this car out it was impossible, no one else arrived and neither of us had a tow rope. This was also a good reminder of what it's like trying to do physical work in the searing early afternoon sun and heat. I made the son promise to not leave the car, checked they had plenty of water and went for help... About 75 minutes back to 'town'.

A comical conversation then ensued with the very helpful ladies at the petrol station (I say comical because here everyone looks out for each other but ultimately your safety is your one responsibility and these people clearly hadn't taken that responsibility)...
Police? Nah, they won't do anything and besides you won't get anyone today.
Rangers? Nah, won't get them today. "Wait a minute", one said "What about Colin?" He's away said the other. The RAC? ... That's Colin. The AAA. ... That's Colin!
Finally they thought of another guy who sometimes "pulls the idiots out" and I spoke to him on their phone and he agreed he'd "go see them"! (Although he said his proper 4WD was out of action and he only had the wife's Land Cruiser!

The petrol station gave me free cold drinks to 'revive' me, said I'd done everything I could, and that was that. Amazing. I'm sure they've been pulled out by now but if not they've got a night in the car. A very relaxed response all round compared to what we might expect in out sanitised and over-cautious world at home.

Tomorrow, going to meet some dolphins, if they show up!

Sketchy mobile coverage now to Darwin I suspect. Enjoy the holidays!

S


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Location:Shark Bay, WA

Post #8 South from Perth

Going to keep this one short as I'm posting via 3G card... Although weak signal may mean it doesn't work!

I picked up the camper early on Sunday in Perth and have spent the last four days winding down the coast, south, from Perth. I'm currently in Walpole, west of Albany. It's 4:45am and have just heard another amazing dawn chorus!

So, I will keep pics to a minimum on this post (Hoping these upload)
This is home until 2012!





And camp set...




It's great! In fact, it's perfect! All very clever with well thought features. More to follow on it later.

In brief, I've followed the coast down through Rockingham, Mandurah & Bunbury. Then Busselton and onto Margaret River. Nearly all of the big Australian wine names are here, very beautiful countryside and very lush and green... Mind you, it has been raining since Monday!

Then I stayed in a little Surf town of Prevelly which was great. Spent the evening with "dudes" on the beach watching other "dudes" surf waves bigger than I've ever seen. They looked like ants in a washing machine when it went wrong... Incredible.

I camped in the amazing Karri Forest, full of 40m trees (all regrowth I later learnt, no older than 100 years) and then went to Cape Leeuwin, Augusta where the Indian Ocean and the Great Southern Ocean officially meet. It was blowing a gale.




Above, Ralph's Veg's... Not sure who Ralph is but they were great! I also turned down a track seeing a sign for an Avocado Farm as I had no idea what an Avocado tree/bush looked like. I was rewarded with the most amazing avocados from the farm gate at 30p each!

Yesterday, I spent some wonderful time in the 'Valley of the Giants' among 60-80m Karri and Red Tingle trees. A part of the forest down here that extends for hundreds of KM's that was never logged and so is circa 400 years old. Took the 40m high suspended walkway through the canopies... Magical!

This week I've also met a dog called 'Maybe', being walked by a charming octogenarian who was driving her car along side him. And I've also been bitten by a Cormorant... Bit sharp at the time but, in truth, a rather refreshing change from being bitten by a hundred Mosquitos a day!

Ciao


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Location:Knoll Scenic Dr,Walpole,Australia

Post #7 Adelaide & Perth

After a great few days on Kangaroo Island I took the short flight back to Adelaide, a week ago Friday, courtesy of 'Captain Rosie', although everyone was convinced that she was Elle McPherson!

I'd booked a Qantas flight to Perth for the Monday having discounted driving across the Nullarbor (too dull including one stretch of dead-straight road 90 miles long) and the Indian Pacific train which I rather fancied but is hugely expensive unless you are ok with sitting in a seat for 3 days. Adelaide is very pleasant and the Botanical Gardens really are very beautiful and interesting. In fact, I spent a lot of the weekend exploring them.

I'd booked into a rather nice apartment-hotel for that particular weekend, just to help things along, so Sunday night in Adelaide was spent here...





And Monday night in Perth, was spent here...





Always good to get some contrast! In the second place I couldn't get hold of the concierge at all to bring up my luggage...

Arrived in Perth to 34 degrees and the definite feel of a thunder storm on its way. And boy was there a storm that night! in fact, it continued until around 4pm the following afternoon. Buildings in the CBD getting struck by lightning, incredible thunder and lots of rain. The airport was shut for hours with passengers stranded on planes on the Tarmac (too much lightning apparently) so I was lucky to arrive ahead of it. The weather did mean many, many hours spent in the museums and galleries of Perth.





By 6pm, all was good again





For the last few days I've been staying with old friends Martin & Rox (and their 2 beautiful little girls!) They have a very lovely apartment in the very smart and very cool Perth suburb of Subiaco. It's been really fantastic to catch up properly after a few years of intermittent contact and they have been very kind and welcoming.

They even introduced me to my first 'proper' Aussie barbecue at City Beach,
last night! Complete with amazing sunset and surreal light...







Perth, right now, is one incredible city. On the back of the mining and energy boom there is palpable excitement about the place. It has also become the most expensive place in Oz, by a considerable margin! There is a lot of money about, being made by a lot of people... The smart shops, flash cars and trendy bars of Sydney really pale against here. Many of the industries doing well are project led so people are here to make as much as they can, it is impossible to get accommodation for more than a night or two regardless of whether you are paying 30 or 500 dollars a night.

It really is that crazy... But it is also pretty cool! The feel here is a positive and pioneering one. There's little crassness and little Snooty-ness, just people getting on with making the most of it... Ferraris parked next to red-dust covered pick-ups.

The sailing world championships are also going on in Fremantle right now...





"Perth 2011" means lots of cool people around...

From here I leave tomorrow in a four wheel drive camper. The plan is to take a small loop south through Margret River as far as Albany and then drive the west coast up to Darwin. 24 ish days, arriving in Darwin on 4th January. Not the most ideal timing, what with it being the "wet season" up north with crazy temperatures and humidity but this will be the only opportunity to get up there.

I might not get to see everything I'd like to due to the weather (there are already road closures up there due to flooding) but it will certainly be an interesting drive. The Bungle Bungles and Kakadu are the two main areas that may be inaccessible beyond the main tourist roads in/out by the time i get there but we will see...

to that end, I'm not sure when I will get Internet connection again as I plan to "free camp" as much as possible on the way up. I'm sure I will get hooked up to the www from time to time but if it doesn't happen to time well with Christmas and NY then let me say now...

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Back I touch when I can. S


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Location:Metters Ln,Subiaco,Australia

Post #6 Kangaroo Island

Having re-read the last post there are a number of things I forgot about Melbourne... None more worthy of mention than this busker... Now motorcycle gangs over here have a fierce reputation and are largely outlawed. I'm sure this guy isn't a member of one but nevertheless it was rather strange to see a "Hell's Angel" busking, playing the flute!




He was playing... Abba's "Dancing Queen"!

I took the 25 minute flight to Kangaroo Island on a SAAB propeller-job. Seats about 20 but there were just 6 of us, including the air Stewardess. I picked up my rental car (more about that later) and headed off. The island is actually quite large (maybe 200km across) and they have a small network of main, Tarmac roads with the rest being dirt/gravel roads. It was raining the day I arrived and just around the corner from a "roadworks" sign, I met this...






They were laying more gravel as the uphill section became mud When wet and it was wet! I watched a 4 wheel drive Pick Up go past to the right in the photo, slipping and sliding and then spent a couple of minutes contemplating a 125km detour back or attempting to get past. Two things were on my mind, namely 1. I had a bunch of burly road workers watching me and 2. I was driving this...









Yep, a PINK Nissan Micra!

I decided that fortune favours the brave and took a good run up at the muddy ruts. How the car made it to the top I will never know, wheel spinning and sliding around in the mud but it did and I was greeted at the top with cheers and claps from the boys! Hilarious.

Turns out this car has a bit of a celebrity status on the island, being the only pink car (not to mention that 90% of cars are 4 wheel drive). The island has about 4400 people living there, lots involved with farming, and they all without fail wave to each other as they pass on the road. A really nice thing that adds to the great community feel here but it did also heighten my self-awareness in this silly car!


Onto the reasons for coming here... Wildlife and great country. Both were fantastic and I could easily write pages about my few days here but the highlights came from two fantastic walks, a visit with a guide to a seal colony and a day in their largest National Reserve.

Walk one was through bush but along the coast. I saw three schools (?) of dolphins go by, very close to the shore, cruising along and then playing/fighting. Very special to see. Then a short shower came over and whilst sheltering under a tree I was suddenly aware of being watched by the Tammar Wallaby sheltering under the next tree!





The Australian seal and sea lion colonies on the south of the island are some of Oz's biggest and only survived the relentless hunting of the 1800 and 1900's because of a well placed reef just off the coast. Amazing creatures, spending 3 days at sea and then the next 3 lazing on the beach.





The colony has been based there for a very long time and have tolerated these well run, respectful visits by us for the last 25 years.

A day in the Flinders Chase reserve was full of surprises. More seals, koalas, KI Kangaroos, Echidnas and Goannas.

Here are the aptly named "Remarkable Rocks", formed from the weathering of a granite intrusion right on the coast...









And one with the only other guy there, to add some scale...





The day ended with a 4 hour round trek to Snakes Lagoon, on the recommendation of a ranger. It started in thick bushland, then followed a riverbed, finally arriving at the lagoon, or bay. I didn't see another person and had the lagoon to myself. It was stunning...

















A beautiful cove with thunderous barrel waves coming in, totally isolated and very, very special.

On the way back I sat next to the river for a while to try to see an elusive platypus. No luck but after a while this chap turned up to fish...





Kangaroo Island... Sad to be leaving and could spend many more days here.



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Location:Kingscote Aerodrome, KI

Post #5 Melbourne to Adelaide

Three days in Melbourne were great although I think I had my first period of 'travel weariness' so perhaps didn't do the city justice. It was good however to just enjoy being there. Spent a day watching Tasmania V Victoria in the Sheffield Shield at the gigantic MCG. It has a capacity of 100,024 (down from 125,000 when they had bench seats) but the day I was there, the crowd numbered 700! Good to be able to wander around though...




Serious vertigo at the top! Reminded me of the Maracana (?) football stadium P and I went to in Rio.

Then I picked up a rental car to drive the Great Ocean Road. Getting out of Melbourne was... Interesting. They have 'Hook Turns' at some junctions (but not all just to confuse matters). So at some crossroads, if you want to turn right you need to get in the left lane! You need to keep an eye on the traffic lights, an eye on the oncoming traffic and another eye on the traffic coming from behind you who are to you your right but going straight on. All because of the trams but very confusing!

The Great Ocean Road was great (as predicted by many) and it was good to be in a car and able to stop when I wished.




A stop at the 'Granites' on the GOR. I guess a bit off the tourist trail as no one was there.

And the Twelve Apostles (of course!), complete with small bush-fire in the background...




Must say that I found the Twelve Apostles to be a very special place. So much so that, as I was staying near by, I went back again around 7am to see them again in another light. (and with the fire out!)



Had a night's stop in the lovely little Port Campbell, getting lucky and finding a really good hostel. Then I carried on from the GOR, along the coast to the Coorong. This is a very large, and very significant, wetland area with large colonies of waterfowl that make up large %'s of australia's total populations. Again, got lucky with my motel choice (well, the inside was average!) as my room's window was 5' from the water's edge. Spent a day and a half there seeing lots of interesting wildlife but the stars of the show were the Australian Pelicans. There are about 4000 there and I certainly saw a few hundred...



From the Coorong, it was a short 150km, or so, drive to Adelaide. Now it seems that Adelaide gets a fair bit of poor press, describing it as small and boring but I really quite liked the place. It is certainly renowned for its liberalism and tolerance and that is definitely apparent in the feel of the place. Lots of interesting people and a laid back feel. All good.

From here it is was to Kangaroo Island. A fantastic place for the next post...

NB. I think if you click or double click on the photo's you can see them better in the flick'r account. (they were only taken on a 'point and shoot'!)


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Location:Kangaroo Island