Broome to Kununurra: Down the road, mate.

We arrived in Broome and opted for a caravan site within walking distance of the town and importantly, the brewery. For those not in the know, Broome is home to Matso's Brewery, best known for their flavoured beers including lychee, ginger, chilli and mango. We paid a visit there for dinner too and it was great. We arrived just minutes before the heavens opened and some rather torrential rain both near flooded the streets and emptied the beer garden. Thankfully, we were sat on the covered veranda which was a great vantage point from which to soak up the tropical atmosphere.
We also paid a visit to the night markets with an array of crafts and street food. We sampled a banana spring roll and yes, it was as darn-deep-fried-delicious as it sounds.
The next day, we walked around town to check out the old buildings and see the restored pearling luggers that are on display. Pearls really put Broome on the map, with early divers being of indigenous or Japanese origin. Needless to say, it was a very dangerous occupation. Nowadays, the pearls are farmed and harvested by machines but the results are extremely beautiful.
In the late afternoon, we caught the bus with the friendliest driver around, to visit Cable Beach. Cable Beach is probably one of Australia's best known beaches owing to the spectacular sunsets seen from there. For our visit, beer in hand, we watched the sun oozing into the ocean, burning bright orange all the while, it really was quite amazing. Broome is also known for a phenomena known as stairway to the moon, at certain tides and when the moon is full, the reflection on the mud flats resembles a stairway you could climb to the moon. We decided it would be a great way to follow up the sunset, so we headed there, just on the edge of our caravan park. We drank more beer and waited. And waited. And waited some more before deciding it was too cloudy and we probably wouldn't see it anyway. So much for that!
The following day we departed Broome to begin the long drive to Kununurra, the next big settlement on our trip. It's only down the road, a distance of 1043km so we took about three days to do it. We called in at Fitzroy Crossing information centre and booked ahead for some tours before driving out to Geikie Gorge for a walk and a picnic lunch. The walk ran alongside the limestone cliffs but it was hot and dusty in the gorge so we didn't walk for too long. There is a gazebo which provides welcome shade but also numerous information panels about the park and wildlife. What was most fascinating was seeing the aerial photos from when the river was in flood. Inside the gazebo the flood level was marked on the walls by year. Including a couple of labels that said the level had reached 2 metres above the roof which itself was a good ten metres high! The flooding occurs every wet season with varying degrees of severity. It is just amazing to think how resilient these flood bound communities are, often they are cut off for significant amounts of time. It makes sense suddenly why everyone has massive high clearance 4x4 vehicles. As for me, the wet season is a totally alien concept and I struggle to get my head around it.
We spent the night at the top of Ngumban Cliffs with beautiful views and a spectacular sunset.
The following morning, it was a short drive to the Mimbi caves, where we joined an indigenous led tour. Our guide, Ronnie, walked us through the network of limestone caves, all the while explaining Aboriginal customs and culture and sharing with us Dreamtime stories. We saw some Aboriginal rock art and we also visited a very sacred birthing cave. It was very interesting to hear the dream time stories, and we spent some time with our guide singing songs around the camp fire, drinking billy tea and eating damper (a sort of soda bread thing) drizzled with honey.
We had a long drive still to Kununurra and when we arrived there, it felt like an oasis after the unending hot and dusty roads. Importantly we discovered the Wild Mango Cafe, serving not only proper coffee but incredible gelato as well. Heaven. Kununurra seems like a decent and bustling little community so for us it was the perfect base from which nto explore The Bungle Bungles, more on that next time.

Gladstone to Broome: flooded roads and bemused cows

After visiting Shark Bay and seeing Dolphins, we spent the night at Gladstone campground. A sprawling beachside camp run by the nearby station (massive farm). It was a great spot, even if it was over some very craggy dirt road to get there. The road was only recently dry and our car just about coped with it, but we have decided to limit our dirt road access since. We parked up facing the ocean and Tom marched off along the pier to try his luck at fishing. He did catch a little'un but sadly, no fishy on our dishy that night. It was only $5 each for the night, a bargain for a beautiful, secluded spot.

From Gladstone, we drove to Carnarvon, known for producing a lot of good fruit and veg, but we didn't have much luck finding any. In fact we found it to be a bit of a disappointment so decided to continue on toward Coral Bay as planned.  This plan was scuppered when the road there was flooded. We saw the sign reading 'Traffic Hazard' as we approached and that can mean anything from pot holes, to gravel on the road and also evidently, flooding. We pulled to one side while we contemplated the flow of water across the road and watched as people stopped and then thought 'screw it' before driving/floating through the river. When one car was quite clearly pushed sideways by the torrent, we decided not to risk it - we've had enough car trouble for the time being thank you very much. So we doubled back towards the highway and aimed for Nunatarra, a lonely roadhouse on a long stretch of highway.
It turned into a long day, having woken up at sunrise we realised it would be after sunset by the time we got there, not only that but we were starting to run low on petrol, not great anywhere but especially not great in this part of the world. One of the great features of the car is that it can tell us how many km's we can do before the tank is empty. We realised that we would have enough to get us to the roadhouse for a refill, so we slowed down to ease petrol consumption and arrived with 60km left in the tank, a bit too close for comfort. Speaking of close calls, as we've mentioned before, we try not to drive after sunset because the risk of hitting wildlife is that much greater, and the kind of wildlife we're talking about can do a huge amount of damage. So it was all eyes out front and into the darkness as we drove onwards. We spotted a group of cows in the headlights and they were grazing on both sides of the road. We slowed right down to a near stop to ease past them when at the last second one cow spooked and ran across the road in front of us. Thankfully, we were going so slowly, we were able to stop and the cow made it across to where her friends were. All the while another cow in the group regarded us with utmost nonchalance as if to ask 'what is this shiny red thing and why are those humans looking at us?' A lot of the roads are unfenced and cows are left to wander huge amounts of land for grazing, often with good grass beside the road, compared to the scrub beyond it. Most of the cows we pass don't even look up so I wonder if it's more dangerous to slow down than it is to speed past them. All I know for sure is that you can't predict how the cow might behave.
Once at the roadhouse, we had some celebratory beers and fried food before planning or re-jigging our itinerary. We made a big compromise that is sometimes necessary on a big trip like ours. We decided not to go to Exmouth and the Ningaloo reef as it would take a long time and it's a big double back. We decided instead to head to Karijini National Park, and now we can say that we were very happy about that decision. Karijini is in the heart of the Pilbara, an area in the north of WA that is known for its dramatic landscape (as well as numerous iron ore mines). The drive through the Pilbara was spectacular, undulating hills and craggy rocky outcrops, cliffs and mountains all an iron rich, burnished red colour. We called in at Tom Price (yes, that's the name of a town, named after a mining prospector) to find out about the national park, especially how much of it we could access in our two wheel drive car. While there we also paid a visit to the WA mobile butcher! A massive truck that drives through rural WA every fortnight (around 4000km) providing good value, good quality meat for the area. Needless to say, we bought some steak and sausages for the barbie.
We arrived at the national park in time to camp and, importantly, eat the steak.
The next morning we set off on a hike through the national park where we climbed down a steep path into the gorge before following the bed of the gorge, all the while contemplating how different it would be in the wet season. We headed first to circular pool, a beautiful natural swimming hole at the base of the huge red cliffs. It was a cold swim, but very relaxing and refreshing. We were fortunate enough to have the pool to ourselves for a short while, but it wasn't long before a couple of tour groups came along so we marched off to get some distance. The geology of the area is fascinating, veins of blue asbestos lying in plain view along the footpath as well as ochre deposits and of course plenty of iron ore. After walking through much of Dales Gorge, we came to another swimming pool, Fortescue Falls and as the name suggests, there was a wonderful waterfall cascading into one end of the pool. It is a beautiful place and it's easy to see why it's so sacred to the local Aboriginal people. We had another quick swim before heading up to the car to resume our drive in the direction of Port Headland.
So we drove along the Great Northern Highway, an unforgiving section of road with road trains thundering past us in all directions. Port Headland, while an important shipping point for all that ore, is particularly expensive to stay, we're talking $50 a night, and for that reason we decided to skip it. We did have the pleasure of watching a huge mining train go by, over 2km long. We opted instead to stay a nearby rest area that's free to stop overnight, De Grey River. Cows roamed through to the river to get a drink and it was great listening to them wander through.
Next stop: Broome

The Shipwreck Coast, or how we saw lots of animals

We afforded little time to Geraldton, preferring to make progress on our journey North. In all, we did three things in 'Gero', which after discounting the predictable town-stop activities of 1) lunch and 2) buying more food, really means we did one thing, a visit to another (after Perth, Freo and Albany) branch of the WA Museum. The predictable local-interest main exhibition was engaging and informative, with experience-enhancing props I'd expect only of museums twice the size. My favourite was the fully-restored aeroplane, which flew the first mail service in WA. Its survival and presence was remarkable, as even on the first flight, one of the three planes crashed in the bush with the loss of both pilot and mechanic. The special galleries were very good, with Annie's favourite the coverage of the Zuytdorp and Batavia wrecks on this treachourous coast. 

After a short stretch of the North West Coastal Highway, we turned off to Coronation Beach, with a sheltering reef and quiet campsite. We stayed late the next day whilst I fumbled ineptly on the beach with my new (and first) fishing rod, before hitting the road again for Kalbarri. 

We both like wildlife, as the number of wombat/koala/kangaroo photos on Annie's camera will attest, and thanks for some great zoos and national parks we have seen many many antipodean critters. Missing, however, have been the monotremes, which are either reclusive or had escaped their enclosures. It was then a stroke of luck when Annie cried out on an annoyingly slow 60-zone and we saw an echidna ambling by. Like a big hedgehog, but stretched out, he (she? it?) was quite unconcerned with our understanding that it was only active at dawn and dusk. Actually, I don't think I can support the widely advised dawn/dusk activity pattern for Aussie animals - they do what they want when they want, and road traffic be damned. 

Kalbarri is annoyingly pretty, one of those places that will always look like paradise even when it's raining a storm, or in the driest, ground-baking-est scorcher the Aussie summer can provide. My unwarranted hostility on seeing the splendour of reef breaks next to a tranquil lagoon, and seeing jagged sandstone cliffs looking over soft grassy sandbanks, was only assuaged by my mom not being in Oz yet. She'd want to up sticks and move here immediately, and the travel distance for family get-togethers would be silly. There would be plenty of local animals to stock her dream menagerie, though my fishing efforts need a drastic improvement before they could provide for her aquatic section. I stood by the water right through sunset until the seagulls stole an almost whole pack of bait, but in my defence, no-one else had any fishing luck that night either. 

Our body clocks are slowly resetting to match the sun, so it wasn't much of a struggle to rise and start packing at first light. We drive a few kilometres out of town to the Big River Ranch, where we had booked onto a horse riding tour. Annie was excited to be riding again, describing herself as an intermediate rider, a stark constraint to my trepidation and obvious lack of experience. We were introduced to our horses and told of their natures: Kiwi the laid-back dude for me, and Barney the playful egotist for Annie. The riding was surprisingly easy, nose-to-tail in a line of six with two guides and the horses knew what to expect. Until we went for a run, that is. During the run, for which I held on for dear life, Kiwi cut corners, jumped past Annie in line, led the others on an impromptu path-making session via a dead bush, and got lost, though unlike the rest that wasthe girl in front's fault for pulling her horse up. Phew! I was shattered after all that adventure, and that exhaustion doesn't even factor in my sore lungs from laughing; my horse pooed mid-river and floated towards a horrified Annie! Elated and feeling reckless, we left Kalbarri on the East road, stopping in at the National Park gorges. Why reckless? We'd been to so many other national parks in WA, we decided not to pay the entry fee here. And on that rock and roll note, we drove a 500km round trip diversion to Denham / Shark Bay World Heritage site, just to see some dolphins. 

I've noticed a split in travellers here: those who enjoy the outback and those who think it's 'just the bush' and can't tell mulga from eucalypts. The crux seems to be how much the landscape changes in, say, a three-hour drive. Let me warn you, even David Attenborough would have been pulling his hair out in frustrated boredom, if he'd been with us on that drive to Denham. You may now be wondering if it was at all worth it, and, unfortunately for future travellers, I have to say it was. Let's ignore the overpriced caravan park and the neighbouring camper who mistook our get-lost-it's-tea-time look for an entreating come-talk-at-us, and get right to it. We saw baby emus being inexpertly shepherded across the road by a parent. We were within touching distance of two fully aware wild dolphins, who swam on their sides to get a better look at us while their pups span, jumped and chased back and forth (at Monkey Mia). We saw beaches made entirely of the shells from the tiny bivalves that proliferate in Shark Bay's hypersaline southern reaches, the sea grass meadows from an excellent high clifftop viewpoint (though sadly no dugongs at this time of year), and we even saw evidence that the entire area was tropical and mangrove-covered only 4000 years ago. In short, the monotonous drive to Denham was completely worth it, and we really should have broken up the boredom of the drive in with some of the picturesque rest-stops, instead of saving them all for the way out!

Readers of Bryson may have picked up on an omission in my list if wonders in the Shark Bay area, though I've not been specific with place names and his 'Down Under' did come out in the 90s. After a long bus trip, he dismounts and baffles at the appeal of some slimy rocks, namely stromatolites. Hamelin Pool is a famous site for viewin these ancient microbial colonies, and it's about as interesting as slimy rocks can get to the non-biology-specialist. The slime colonies are protected by boardwalks and boating restrictions, but what the info boards don't tell you is that these particular stromatolites can only have been there for several thousand (not million) years - the sea level changes have completely reshaped this area several times over since then. It's nice they're protected where they are, but they're actually quite common in this bay, to the extent that you can drive your 4x4 over them (to launch a boat) at the campsite we stayed in that night, a lovely station stay called Gladstone. 

Sadly that brought our journey's biology lessons to an end for a while, but don't worry, we've still plenty to recount. Next up: The Pilbara!

Yornaning to Geraldton: Overheating in the rain

Technically, this comes before the previous post but somehow the other one got sent first!!! 

Form Yornaning we continued North and noted the change in the landscape. The lush hills and forrests of The Great Southern region gave way to farm land and huge wheat fields as we headed through the wheat belt of Western Australia. We stopped for lunch in York, a lovely old town and WA's oldest inland settlement. It has a beautiful Town Hall building and many others besides. We took a day trip here from Perth and as it was on our way, we couldn't resist another look as well as another visit to Jules Cafe, a wonderful spot for lunch - how convenient!

We drove on through some lovely countryside and stopped at another winery before heading into Gingin and paying a visit to the Gravity Discovery Centre. It's a fun interactive science centre focussed on gravity and you can do a range of experiments to demonstrate various aspects of gravity, magnetic field and so on. They also have an excellent cosmology gallery all about the evolution of earth and the ascent of man. Unfortunately we arrived within one hour of closing so although we got to see everything, we rather had to skip round which was a shame. By the time we had finished it was 4pm which is when we usually aim for camp and annoyingly, when the rain really started coming down. We pulled into a rest area for the night and hunkered down with wine and books hoping the incessant rain would clear by the morning... 

Luckily for us, the rain stopped and we woke to blue skies and white fluffy clouds albeit with a rather incessant wind. We took a short drive to Guilderton for a caffeine fix before heading north along Indian Ocean Drive. We hadn't gone very far, 30km maybe when the dashboard beeped at me, ENGINE HOT flashing on the display. Shit. There's not really a hard shoulder on this road, a vague patch of gravel to one side at best. When the road straightened out a bit, we found a spot to pull over and Tom took a look under the bonnet. We weren't losing either oil or coolant so it wasn't easy to assess why we had overheated. For the second time on the trip, we called roadside assistance and were towed to the nearest town, Lancelin. Thankfully, it was on our way and only 12km down the road. It would have helped if the roadside team had given the tow truck the correct instructions, but you can't have everything can you? As it happened, we were the only red commodore pulled over that day and the truck soon came to our rescue. The mechanic made a quick assessment as to what caused the issue, given that we had put in a new radiator during our time in Perth. It was the thermostat. Even more luck was on our side that day as they had the part in stock and so we knew we'd be ready to go sooner rather than later. All told we were waiting for about two and a half hours in a charming seaside community on a pretty blustery day. The heavens opened once more, just as we got back to the car.

Owing to the engine trouble, rather than make it to Geraldton as planned, we pulled in for the night at Cervantes. On the way, we called in to visit the remarkable Pinnacles Desert. The pinnacles are pretty amazing limestone formations sticking out of the flat sand around them. They are rather striking, with an other-worldly quality. We saw them as the sun was beginning to set, bathed in orange light. Not too long before the rain caught up with us there as well!!! It follows us around I swear. The discovery centre gave some interesting info on the wildlife at the Pinnacles as well as various theories as to how they were formed, but no one really knows for sure. 

The next day, we woke early to beat the cleaners, that is to say, we had to access the bathroom before they closed it for cleaning. I can't understand why, when check out is 10am, you would close the bathroom between 7:30 and 8:30am? I remain incredulous.

On our way out of Cervantes, we called in at Lake Thetis to see the Stromatolites. Stromatolites are microorganisms found in certain conditions and were instrumental in the development of life on earth. They are believed to be the world's oldest living organisms and the saltiness of the lake meant that they are able to survive with little disturbance. From there it was off to Geraldton, the biggest town for quite some time. 

We've been in Perth a while now

Everything written here for outsiders includes something along the lines of 'Perth is the most isolated capital city in the world', 'WA is beyond huge' or 'About as close to Southeast Asia as Australia's East'. The problem is that these statements are all too pithy, and while yes, it does take a bloody long time to walk/ride/drive/fly to anywhere over East, once you start living here it's just like being in any other neighbourhood. Well, not quite any neighbourhood:

- it's hot- always sunny, with burning sun and effectively no rain since we arrived in early December (proof: Dec, Jan)
- people are generally friendly
- they don't sound that Australian here
- there's actually a decent public transport system!

We'd have a view like this if we stood on the roof... but normally we just walk 250m to the park for it

We're in South Perth, which is just over the estuarial Swan River from the CBD. The black swans on the river (hence its name) and foreshore had their cygnets recently, which with their grey fluff looked just the same as the standard (white) swan cygnets. The dusty moorhens, coots and ducks add to the similarities with home, though the paperbark eucalypts and palms they use for shade are quite distinctly not British. It's a green city away from the river too, though for a city facing collosal environmental challenges around water needs, low rainfall and flood planes / rising sea levels, they do seem to use the sprinklers a lot. Perth appears a microcosm of Australia as a whole, trying to accommodate every citizen's 1/4 acre dream plot scrubland bungalow, while realising that the 90km continuous suburban sprawl along the coast is very expensive, inefficient and not sustainable. It's pity there's so much mining wealth propping up the expansion.


Have you heard of quokkas? The internet would have you believe that they are the happiest animals in the world, but though they seemed interested and not at all shy, I didn't see them smile when we went cycling on Rottnest Island. A trip to Rotto, as the locals know it (and which my spellcheck wants to amend to rotfl - how lols) is a fave for many Perthites, who appreciate the traffic-free cycling and walking, and the pristine beaches - unpopulated once a few kilometres from the accomodation areas. There's a boat trip to get there; we departed from the CBD jetty and got a waterborne city guide in the bargain.

Much earlier in our trip, we watched the AFL Grand Final (Aussie rules football - confusing and played on a cricket oval with four goalposts at each end) in Melbourne. The losing side was the Fremantle Dockers, who along with the West Coast Eagles comprise WA's contribution to the premier league of this unusual antipodean sport. The city of Fremantle is historic, with several original buildings from the first few years of the settlement, but also fun and friendly. Oddly enough, the presence of a university doesn't really help the feel of the city - too many stale office-like buildings that could be flats and shops, but thankfully the market and cafés compensate really well. Freo (most things are abbreviated here) is just a light railway ride from the CBD, and also quite close to the place I've just got a job at, a bit up the coast in Mosman Park.


Finding jobs here is hard, unless:
- you're fully qualified in whatever over-specific niche is required
- you've 3 years experience doing the job for minimum pay
- you're AMAZINGLY OUTGOING and LOVE serving customers in an EXCELLENT happy mood all the time


Somehow, we've both managed it. I'm the bartender and general wait staff for an upmarket Japanese restaurant. I'm not sure how I fangled this job, though admittedly I'm on just over half of nothing per hour and still in a two week trial period. Annie is doing much better, with a job at a local Italian deli called Scutti, decent hours and a commute that doesn't involve a 25 minute drive each way. Needless to say, the eponymous owners haven't yet been apprised of the colloquial English meaning of 'scutty'.

Going back to where this entry started, we're in South Perth. We're staying with Annie's first cousin once removed (Simon), his wife (Nicci) and dog (Mosey) in their lovely old house. We've been made to feel very welcome, indeed part of the family, and have even gone surfing with one of their friends. Their twin sons Ben and Andrew are great, and I'm sure the esteemed Winthrop Professor (Andrew) would (secretly) appreciate a shameless plug here for his book, 'Will Mozart Make My Baby Smart?' (Hint: ... umm, actually I haven't read it yet, oops).

One of the strange things in Perth is that despite its size, everyone seems connected here: Simon and Nicci know random baristas in town, and my colleague also works at Annie's workplace. Strange though, I thought she didn't know this suburb when I said I was living in South Perth - guess she was just taking the piss out of my accent! There's a nice small-town feel in Perth that comes with the urban sprawl and low-ish population density, and the coffee shop culture that Britain has tried to adopt over the last decade or so really doesn't come close to what Perth has. There are some chains, sure, but outside the malls it's mostly little independent places with top-notch modern Italian coffee machines and speciality blends from a variety of regional and local roasteries - favourite so far is Mano A Mano at the Gordon Street Garage in West Perth. Simon and Nicci are regulars at a certain place on Angelo Street near Annie's work, and are on first name terms with not only the serving staff but also several other customers and their dogs. There are free communal BBQ stations in the foreshore park. A local school backing onto Angelo Street also opens the gym and pool when school isn't on. There are lots of things that contribute to the coffee culture, and even if Britain misses the point, it's a pretty good thing to aim for.

Planning is hard work, and remembering to keep well hydrated is key

 We started planning the next big section of our trip yesterday. Roughly, we're just going to follow the coast road, Highway 1, with a few big detours to Darwin, Uluru and Cairns and probably lots of smaller detours like we've written about previously on our coastal journey from Adelaide to Melbourne. All-in, we've probably another 15,000 kms before we get back to Melbourne, and are planning to leave Perth around the end of March, giving us around 6 months - plenty of time! I'm particularly looking forward to driving through the Pilbara (have a look at the photos on this blog!), seeing crocs (from a distance!) in the Top End, visiting the Riversleigh fossils in Queensland (and thus completing the World Heritage listing it shares with the caves in Naracoorte, SA), and especially trying to get to the tropical paradise of the Whitsunday Islands . There's lots more to see and do on the way of course, and Annie is excited about all the Big Things the Queenslanders have made, though less excited when we read about the man-made termite mound in Mataranka, NT.