North West (19459km)

As you go north the distances become longer and longer between each point of interest. It is not uncommon to drive a whole day. Our first stop on the long road to Darwin was a mining town called Tom Price. The town itself is not that interesting unless you are into mining. One of the worlds biggest mines are located here, a Rio Tintio open cut iron ore mine. From shopping at the local supermarket it became clear that mining is what everyone works with.

It was the Karijini national park that we wanted to visit and it is only a hours drive away from Tom Price. So the next morning after camping outside of town we headed towards Karijini. Karijini is one of the more remote national parks and the roads are gravel and in bad condition. It was a shaky drive between the different lookouts. One of the most impressive lookouts was called Oxer lookout. Here four gorges meet and the view is spectacular. Deep down in the gorge the water is slowly running and tall trees are growing, but up where we were standing there was just bushes.

Karijini national park is filled with gorges and they are the main attraction. We drove around to the different ones and took in the breathtaking views. Our last stop was a place called Fortescue Falls. The path took us down into the gorge where the water came down a waterfall. There was a pool at the bottom and we both went swimming. The water was nice and warm and you could swim right up to the falls and sit there. Above the falls the cliffs formed an amphitheatre and here you could sit and dry off in the sun. It was a really nice place.

It took us another whole day of driving to reach the next town, Port Hedland. Port Hedland is also an industrial town. All the iron ore from around Tom Price gets shipped here by train and then loaded into boats. There is also a big salt factory here. I didn't find Port Hedland that interesting either, we spent the day at McDonald's, surfing on their free wifi.

From Port Hedland it took another whole day of driving to reach Broome. We wanted to camp just outside Broome in the Dampier Peninsula, but it had been raining that day and the woods were full of mosquitoes. It sounded like a bee hive inside our car and it was impossible to sleep. We had to pack up and drive into Broome where we camped in the parking lot outside Woolworth (Supermarket). The next day we showered at Cable Beach, Broome's beautiful beach, before heading to Gantheaume Point just outside town. Here it is possible to see dinosaur footprints in the rocks when the tide is extremely low. The picture is from a replica located further up. The landscape here was wild with rocks next to the ocean.

We went back to Cable Beach in the afternoon. We swam in the warm ocean and I played soccer with a group of Danish and Italian backpackers. We then watched the sunset over the beach. Apparently this is a pretty popular thing to do, because close to a hundred people had shown up to see it. That night we tried to wild camp again in a different parking lot, but a person found us and asked us to leave. We moved to another location and this time we were not disturbed until the next morning when the ranger came around and asked everyone to leave. There was not much else to do in Broome, its not a big city and there are not that many attractions, so we headed east towards the WA/NT border.

The first town east after Broome is half a days drive away and called Fitzroy Crossing. Not far from Fitzroy Crossing is the Geikie Gorge national park. This is a beautiful place where the Fitzroy river runs through the gorge. The stone which was once a coral reef many millions of years ago is colored half white and half dark. The lower half is the white part. It looked really nice with the steep stone walls next to the water and the dried river bank. We went for a nice walk up along the river.

Heading east again the next town is called Halls Creek. It had kept on raining and the two main attractions around Halls Creek were closed because of the gravel roads. One was the Purnululu national park (Bungle Bungles) and the other the Wolfe Creek meteorite crater. However the weather ahead looked promising so we decided to wait. That night we camped at a place just outside Halls Creek called Caroline Pool, a natural waterhole. The next morning we checked out the old Halls Creek town site. The only thing that was left was the stone foundations. Halls Creek was the first place were gold was found in Western Australia and was a thriving town during the gold rush days in the late 1800. However when the majority of the gold ran dry, so did the people, and the town moved next to the highway. We also went to a place called China Wall where a sub vertical quartz vein comes up from the ground forming what look's like a wall.

We were quickly becoming bored of Halls Creek and decided to go to the Wolfe Creek crater even if the road was closed. It turned out to be an interesting, mentally exhausting and challenging drive. This gravel road was nothing like the other ones I have driven. It was shaky, rocky, muddy and overall bad quality and at places the road was still almost flooded. The worst part was that it was 130km of this road to the crater. But we got there safely and without getting stuck or damaging the car. The Wolfe Creek meteorite crater is the second largest in the world and is truly breathtaking. Just a short walk up the outer side reveals a large circular hole in the ground now covered with grass and small trees. The crater is over 880 meters wide and when the crater was new some 300.000 years ago the hole was up to 120 meters deep. But wind has filled it with sand and it is now around 20 meters under the surrounding terrain. That night we camped next to the crater before driving the 130km of shitty dirt road back.

We had to skip the Purnululu national park because it was still closed and here there was no possibility to drive on a closed road without getting into trouble. Instead we headed north from Halls Creek towards the border town of Kununurra. In Kununurra we walked in the Celebrity Tree Park and found the tree that Baz Luhrmann, the director of the movie Australia, had planted when filming the movie in the east Kimberley region. The east Kimberley region being the region roughly from Halls Creek to Kununurra. The landscape around us as we drove through the Kimberley was amazing. The hills and mountains look so different from back home and the highway snakes itself around them displaying one great view after another.

The only known deposits of a rare rock called Zebra rock is found in the east Kimberley region. A rock with characteristic stripes of white and brown. We visited a gallery in Kununurra that made all sorts of nice things with the Zebra rock. I took some pictures to try and show what the rock looks like and what they made from it.

The last thing we did in Kununurra and Western Australia for that matter was visiting the Mirima national park. It is  also called Hidden Valley and is located right next to the city. It was a nice place with a short walk up to a great lookout spot of the town and the valley. Kununurra is the end of the north west and the end of this blog post. We are now entering Northern Territory, but I will write about that in my next update.

Coral Coast Photos

Posting from Broome which is the last place I have internet access until we reach Darwin (7-10 days). Anyways, here is the complete photo album from the Coral Coast for those interested.

Coral Coast: 05. May 2010 - 14. May 2010

http://picasaweb.google.com/fatsheep/CoralCoast

Coral Coast Pt. 2 (16610km)

Shark Bay:

North of Kalbarri lies the Shark Bay world heritage area. Around the Peron peninsula is the Shark Bay marine park with tons of different animals and fish. The landscape on land is boring however, just flat plains of small bushes as far as the eye can see. In fact the drive there is ridiculously uninteresting. The first thing we wanted to do was to go to a place called big lagoon, but it was a 4WD track only and it was getting late so we decided not to go. Instead we visited the old Peron Homestead in the Francois Peron National Park. At the homestead they have an outdoor hot tub. The water comes from a bore around 500 meters deep and at a temperature of 40 degrees C.

As I mentioned it was already afternoon when we arrived so we only had time for one more thing before it was getting dark. (It gets dark at 6PM here on the west coast) On the way to the campsite was a place called Eagle Bluff lookout with a great view of the Shark Bay marine park. The campsite was located right next to the water and was great. We had a great view of the sunset while going to bed. The next morning we got up before the sunrise because we wanted to see the dolphin feeding in Monkey Mia. As we were leaving the campsite I took a wrong turn and ended up on a muddy part of the shore. Of course we got stuck and I had to use 4WD to get out. At that moment I was very happy that I bought a 4WD car.

At ten past seven in the morning we were lined up on the beach with the rest of the people that wanted to see the dolphins of Monkey Mia. Every morning since the early 60s they and their earlier generations have come to the beach to get fed and look at the humans, and just like every other day they arrived this morning as well. The dolphins are wild and get fed a third of their daily intake so that they also maintain their normal hunting abilities. The people watching can stand in the water and look at them but are not allowed to touch or pet them. It was still a great thing to see them come all the way into the shallows to get fish, some with their small baby dolphins swimming behind them. I took a lot of photos while I watched them swim around and play.

We also saw a turtle and a baby sting ray or something that looked similar swimming around near shore. On the beach was a couple of big pelicans that also wanted fish. One of the rangers had to feed them away from the shore so they wouldn't steal the dolphins fish. They were really tame and you could get close to them and make photos. Later that day I saw them sleeping on the beach. They looked funny.

From Monkey Mia (which is basically a information hut, a small resort and the beach) I walked a small trail through the dunes. It took me past a old aboriginal cave, a watering hole for birds, some great lookout spots and on the way back along the beach.

In the afternoon I visited the Ocean Park Aquarium while Annina was relaxing at a place called Little Lagoon. The aquarium turned out to be very nice. It was not like a normal aquarium but instead a guided one. The guide took us from tank to tank and explained about the different fish and animals. They also had three bigger pools with fish, the biggest with sharks. Every creature there could be found in the Shark Bay marine park. The most impressive was of course the sharks. The biggest one they had was a tiger shark. The guide dangled a piece of fish from the edge and the sharks tried to get it. One of them, a lemon shark I think, got a good grip of it and the guide lifted it halfway out of the water! They also had sea snakes, turtles and rays. It was informative and a fun place.

I picked up Annina at the Little Lagoon and for fun we drove half way around it on the sand. The lagoon is almost perfectly round. Apparently the water was super shallow all the way across so it was not that easy to swim. We then started our drive back out of the Peron peninsula and Shark Bay. Along the way was shell beach which as the name suggests was covered in shells. More precisely, the whole beach is only shells forming dunes next to the ocean. The thought of a beach made up of only shells is nice, but sand is still more comfortable when it comes to relaxing by the water. A bit further along the road was a place with ancient stromatolites, a kind of living rock that has survived for billions of years. In fact they were one of the first living things on this planet and in Hamelin Pool is one of the only places where they still live today. I have to admit that looking at them was not that interesting.

Carnarvon

We continued north past Shark Bay to a town called Carnarvon. Here we had to get the car checked at a car garage. It was getting much hotter than normal. It turned out we had a leak in our radiator and it was empty. In Carnarvon I also went and looked at a large satellite dish that was located next to the town. It was built in the 60s by NASA and used among other things during the Apollo space missions. Now it is not used anymore. We also restocked our supplies in Carnarvon before heading north.

In the afternoon we went to a nice camp spot by the beach north of Carnarvon. We wanted to go snorkeling but the waves were to big. Even swimming was risky so we had to stay on the beach and tan instead. Just north of the campsite was a couple of blowholes. A place where the rocks go over the ocean and have holes where the waves gets pushed through with a mighty force creating a fountain up to 20 meters high. We stood there for a while watching and took some nice pictures.

Ningaloo:

We kept on driving north until we arrived at a small holiday village called Coral Bay. It's name comes from the Ningaloo reef that runs along the coast from south of Coral Bay in the south to Exmouth in the north. The Ningaloo reef is one of the most accessible reefs in the world for snorkelers, growing as close as 5-10 meters from shore. Coral Bay is located right next to an amazing beach that stretches around a small bay and just off the shore is the reef. There are almost no waves which makes it ideal for beginner snorkelers and families with kids. It is a wonderful place. We spent two days in Coral Bay snorkeling and getting brown on the beach.

Half a days drive north is Exmouth, a small town also next to the Ningaloo reef. We camped that night at a spot called Thomas Carter Lookout. The road there was steep and narrow and a bit creepy to drive in the dark. The next morning when we drove back down we realised how crazy this road really was. There was steep cliffs on both sides off the road hundreds of meters down into the gorge. We got some amazing views and photo opportunities and were happy we went there.

East of Exmouth is the Cape Range National Park and home to some of the best snorkeling beaches in Australia. Possibly the best one is called Turquoise Bay. As the name suggests the water is turquoise and just off the shore is the Ningaloo reef. There is a spot there where you can do something called drift snorkeling. You swim into the water until you reach the reef, then let the current carry you down along the beach while you watch the scenery below. You then get out again and walk back up the beach for another go. The reef at Turquoise Bay is even better than Coral Bay, with more variety of corals and fish. I saw two octopus's and tons of fish in all imaginable colors, some tiny and others huge. It felt like we had found paradise in the middle of nowhere. With Turquoise Bay the coral coast comes to and end and the great north west begins. The road now takes us inland again and so does our next adventure!

Coral Coast Pt. 1 (14756km)

We started our journey north along the Coral Coast (the west coast north of Perth) by visiting a place called the pinnacle desert. The pinnacles are located about a two hour drive north of Perth close to a small coastal town called Cervantes. We arrived in the afternoon, paid our National Park fee and parked the car. We were met with a weird view as soon as we walked over the hill from the car park. Sticking up from the desert were hundreds of small pinnacles made from sandstone. There was a walking trail and a driving trail through the desert. First we did the walking trail and then the driving trail. Half way through the driving trail we stopped and took pictures in the sunset. The pinnacle desert is one of many natural attractions throughout Australia that makes this country so fascinating and mysterious.

We camped that night at a beautiful rest stop about 30 minutes away. It was a crystal clear night with the amazing Australian sky fully visible. It looks so different from the Norwegian sky. There is a belt of stars across the sky and what looks like the Milky Way. Sadly my camera is not good enough to make any photos to show you.

The next day we continued north. Our next stop was a small town called Jurien Bay. Here we spent a few hours on the beach and had lunch before continuing on. We then made a short stop in a village called Green Head. Our brochure mentioned sea lions in the area, but we saw none.

The next big town after Perth is Geraldton which was also our next stop. Just south of the city grow a special kind of eucalyptus which are known to be extremely hardy. The area is known for it's strong wind from the coast which makes the trees grow sideways. They have become known as the Leaning Trees.

Our first car problem occurred just 10 km from Geraldton. Our front right tire punctured. Punctured tires are not a big problem if you have the right equipment to change it, but that was something I had forgotten to check when we bought the car. So we had to go get help. Luckily a very nice couple helped us out and we were on our way again. We got even more lucky the next day. We were able to buy the spare part that was missing for the car jack for only 2 dollars at a car wrecker and a cheap second hand tire from a second hand tire store.

We didn't do much else in Geraldton. Just a shower, shopping for new equipment and looked at the HMAS Sydney 2 memorial. A memorial for the boat HMAS Sydney 2 that sank during WW2 with it's 650 crew onboard. It wasn't until 2008 that they found the wreck off the coast of Western Australia.

We continued north and made a quick stop just south of a town called Port Gregory. There is a big salt lake here with a special color, pink! It's pink hue is created by bacteria (Dunaliella salina), which becomes trapped in the salt granules. Annina wanted to get really close to the water to make pictures but there was mud under the salt layer on the edge of the lake. She stepped right into the mud and got really dirty. I thought it was funny, but she didn't. :p

Kalbarri

That night we camped just outside Kalbarri and the next morning we started our journey through the Kalbarri National Park. The first attraction was two places called Island Rock and Natural Bridge. The names are pretty self explainable. From the top of the cliffs you have a fantastic view of the ocean down below with a hole in the cliff forming a natural bridge and a lone remaining part of the cliff out in the water forming the island rock.

A few minutes north along the road lay Rainbow Valley. It has it's name from the different earthly colors of the rocks and stone layers. We walked a 1.5 km trail through the valley. It took us past cliffs where you could clearly see the different layers of stone from millions of years ago where the different shorelines had once been. At the bottom of the valley was the mushroom rock, a rock resembling a mushroom.

Where the Murchison river flows out into the ocean on the outskirts of Kalbarri National Park lies the small town of Kalbarri. In Kalbarri we rented a two person kayak and explored the river mouth. It was pretty windy and hard to navigate, but still lots of fun. After an hour of kayaking our arms were hurting and our cloths wet. It was nice to do something different than just driving and walking.

We continued on into the middle of the national park where the Murchison river carves deep gorges through the terrain. At one spot it forms a Z shape and you can see the river flowing deep below you from the lookout post. At least what little water that was left in the river. It is fall here and after a dry summer there isn't much water left. A little bit north from the Z bend is the famous natures window. Located on the top of the cliffs is a rock with a hole through the middle. Looking through it you can see the river down in the gorge below. It is an ideal place to make some amazing photos. We went to two other lookouts as well. The last one had easy access to the river below. We wanted to go for a swim in the river, but there was not much water left and the bank was muddy and wasn't looking that nice. It was still nice to walk down in the gorge. As a bonus we saw two kangaroo's jumping around, I think it was a mother with it's baby.

The road out to the gorge is something special. Made from yellow sand it cuts through the landscape. It gives a similar feeling to driving in deep snow. That finishes part one of our Coral Coast adventure. Stay tuned for more!