The Seriously Massive Road Trip Post

I’m catching up on my updates, so here’s how the trip “Up North” went down. (Or, in fact, up. Or something.)

The motley crew consisted of yours truly, Andrew, and two of Andrew’s old friends from university, one of whom is a doctor, moving up to Darwin to work for a while. He was the one who decided to turn the move into a road trip by buying a four-wheel drive and taking camping gear.

Shark Bay/Hamlin Pool

The first stop on the trip; we made it up here from Perth in one hit on our first day. Shark Bay is the larger area, while Hamlin Pool is where the stromatolites (oldest surviving life form on the planet) are. I admit, if you didn’t know what they were, you’d not be that impressed, but as a biology geek, I get to be excited about what just looks like lumps of rocks underwater. Didn’t see them bubble, though.

Monkey Mia/Steep Point

Monkey Mia is where the dolphins come into shore to say hello to the humans. They do this of their own accord, but when they do come in, they get fed by the public under strict supervision – one fish per visitor, no touching, no sunscreen on your legs when you’re in the water (because it can hurt the dolphins’ eyes)…
We got there just as the second feeding of the day happened, so we duly lined up along the beach. You can’t see that much of the dolphins above water, just their dorsal fins and a bit of their backs moving back and forth through the water. But even so, it was pretty fantastic to see them so close, not even a boat’s hull between you and them. I just stood there staring, slack-jawed and wide-eyed, as the voice from the megaphone explained things in an echo, and kids were called forward from the line of visitors to hesitatingly push a fish at a dolphin, pulling back jerkily as the animal took it from their hands. After about five minutes or so, the fish started running out, until there was only one left in the bucket. Andrew had been standing a little along from the end of line taking photos, and the girl from CALM with the bucket must have appreciated his restraint, as the last person to be called forward to feed a dolphin was ‘the gentleman in the black hat’ – Andrew. He wasn’t bothered about having a go (and presumably was bothered about keeping his camera dry), so let me take his place.
So all together now: I GOT TO FEED A DOLPHIN!!! An actual, real live dolphin! A wild one!!

*takes a few deep, calming breaths*

After this short adventure, we said so long (and thanks for all the fish*), and headed for Steep Point. Steep Point is the westernmost point of mainland Australia, and it’s a slight trek to get there – four wheel drive essential. It’s one very bumpy trip through the dunes to some rocky cliffs full of holes and lots of pointy bits – like a magnified, solid rock sponge. There were some impressive rainclouds coming in from the ocean while we were there, which added some suitable drama to the scene. The way back was just as bumpy, possibly even more so, as we were anxious to get back to the campsite while the light was still good. Driving in the bad light in the Australian outback can be a bit hairy, with kangaroos running ‘away’ from you – across the road, and right into your car. So not wanting to cause the kangaroos (or ourselves) injury, we raced through the dunes instead. Which led to a sick kangaroogrrrl instead – I get carsick easily as it is, and the dunes were a bit much for me. But we made it back before dark, and without further distress for man or beast. Or grrrl.

Exmouth/Cape Range National Park/Ningaloo Reef Marine Park

We spent the last 40km of the drive up to Exmouth staring at the fuel gauge, going “Come on; come on!” – it was showing empty… Made it to a petrol station in time (and realised there were actually still about fifteen litres left in the tank), so all was well. We couldn’t get a camping spot in the national park itself the first night, so we stayed in a campsite just outside the park, then got up at six the next morning, left the tents and went to queue at the ranger station, where there were already a Winnebago and a Ute in the queue ahead of us. The rangers don’t arrive until about eight, when they radio round the campsites to see if there are any spaces left. Since we had a fair wait ahead of us, we made ourselves breakfast, the smell of bacon drawing the people in front of us in the queue out of their sleeping bags to do the same.
Got a spot on a campsite no troubles, so we headed over there to stake our claim (by paying the campsite host), then headed back to the pick up our tents.

Once back at the national park campsite, it was a case of quickly setting up camp, grabbing the snorkels and fins, and heading to Turquoise Bay. I’d never snorkelled before, so this was a bit of an adventure. The sensation of putting your face into the water and being able to see and breathe was unusual, to say the least. It was actually quite frightening, and at first I panicked, which made me hyperventilate, which made me panic even more… But Andrew was there to help me, and I got over the initial panic quite quickly. And after that, it was absolutely brilliant. I found out later, that Ningaloo Reef is supposed to be one of the best places in the world to go diving and snorkelling, and I can see why: the reef’s really close to the shore, so you just wade out and let the current carry you over the coral and through clouds of fish and other marine life. You drift along, hearing your breathing, floating past coral growing up from the white sandy bottom in small clumps and big shelves or boulders, which look like they’re part of a display in an aquarium. Shoals of little fish stay close to ‘bushes’ of coral, retreating into its branches if you dive too close. Parrotfish crunch at the coral and the grinding sounds so close it’s like something’s crunching sand in your ear. And then a turtle appears directly in front of you out of nowhere, gliding gently along, serene in its own world, which isn’t yours. A shoal of large fish faces more or less motionless into the current to save energy. Small electric-blue (or iridescent, or striped, or spotted, or pure black) fish flit about on top of a large coral-covered boulder, and manta rays and sharks shelter under the outcrop of similar shelves.

Thank goodness we brought underwater cameras, and that the photos turned out pretty well, that’s all I can say!

We spent a couple of days in Ningaloo, snorkelling and just doing nothing. Through bad luck, or bad timing, we unfortunately didn’t get to swim with dugongs: apparently, on the morning of our second day there, when we were just having a rest, a herd (?) of them were swimming by the beach we were camped at. A lady staying at our campsite was lucky enough to be snorkelling there, and got to swim with the dugongs... That must have been amazing, but (to my own surprise) I’m not too disappointed at having missed them. I think that’s probably because I really enjoyed just doing nothing that morning, after the fairly manic trip we’d had so far. And even if we had been snorkelling on the right beach that morning, there’s no guarantee we’d have been in exactly the right spot – we could easily have missed them anyway, and then I really would have been gutted...

We didn’t go swimming with whale sharks, either, as there wasn’t really enough time. But it was the last week they were in the area, so the chances of actually seeing one would not have been that great, anyway. And it gives me something to look forward to next time I’m over here.

We did go for a hike in Yardie Creek Gorge, which is gorgeous. Sorry. I keep inadvertently referring to gorges as “gorgeous”, with absolutely no pun intended. But Andrew and I were promised far more spectacular gorges within 48 hours by the boys, who’d been on a similar trip before. And they were right, as the next stop was

Karijini National Park

The park lies inland in the Pilbara region of WA, where the land really starts looking like the outback Australia of postcards – blue skies, red sand, red rocks, and silver and green eucalypts. We’d seen a notice at the Ningaloo visitors’ centre warning us that the Karijini campsites were filling up fast every day, so we were a bit worried about that, especially after our experience in Exmouth – and there at least we had the option of staying at another campsite… But there were plenty of spots when we got there, at about four-thirty in the afternoon.

We only had one full day here, so we concentrated on one gorge, about 15 minutes’ walk from our campsite – Dales Gorge. Or Dale’s Gorge; I still have no idea which is the correct spelling, as I saw both on various notices, postcards, and national park literature. However it’s spelled, it’s awesome: you don’t see it until you’re relatively close, and then suddenly there’s this gap in the land, with sheer red cliffs reaching down to a little river in the middle of stretches of rock pavement and clumps of eucalyptus. We spent the morning wandering along the top of the gorge one way and along the bottom the other, following the river. It widens into biggish pools in a few places; crystal-clear green water, fern-covered cliffs, trees leaning over their own reflections…Wonderful.
After a respectable interlude for lunch and a trip to the visitors’ centre, we headed back to the gorge for a swim in Fern Pool in the afternoon. My initial comment went along the lines of ‘ha. ha. ow. cold.’, but that soon turned into ‘ah…lovely!’ as I abruptly got used to the water temperature. We used up the rest of the film on the underwater cameras here, and got some nice shots from behind the waterfalls, among others.

Broome

Due to the length of the drive between Karijini and Broome, it was another case of pressing on so as to make it there while it was still light. We more or less made it, too; we got stopped by the police, who had set up camp by the roadside to breathalyse everyone, so that extended the process of getting to Broome somewhat. (That and looking for a tourist office in Hedland on the way to find accommodation for the evening, only to be told that the office was – contrary to signposting - in Port Hedland…)

Broome’s pretty nice – lots of palm trees, and (while we were there, at least) balmy weather. We didn’t really do that much; just wandered round looking in the (plentiful) pearl shops (Broome used to be pearling capital of the world), ate out and went to the beach. So I can authoritatively inform you that Blooms is a great place to go for breakfast: they do a fantastic veggie cooked breakfast, so fantastic in fact, that the boys had one the second morning we were there, after seeing me enjoy one the morning before.

And having a shower for the first time in six days was a wonderful, wonderful experience.

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*Apologies for the ‘so long and thanks for all the fish’ line – it had to be done, I’m afraid.