New adventures and challenges in Western Australia

Monday 29^th September – Tuesday 30^th September

We left Emerald Springs and all our worries behind...

Now we were going south, down to Katherine and then further on into Western Australia - apparently the most magnificent state in this country. 

In Katherine Erik arranged to get our aircondition re-gassed. It has needed to be re-gassed since we bought the car. We haven’t desperately needed it before, but considering the warm temperatures, we couldn’t survive without it now. It was a fantastic feeling to now sit in the car and not being soaked in sweat within 5 minutes. 

In the afternoon we uploaded our blog, by using the wifi in Katherine’s one and only shopping center, we headed south/west. We had about 460km to the WA-NT border, but needed a good night sleep before driving that distance. We drove just 231km this day. 

The next day we calculated on our autogas consumption and figured we would make it to the next autogas pump in Kununurra, if we just started to drive on petrol for the first 70 km. Unfortunately we had calculated a bit wrong… In the afternoon we were running out of gas and the car was too hot to use the petrol. Bummer! 

My little mechanic says that the problem is when it gets too hot in the engine compartment (40 degrees outside temp+midday+hot engine) there’s a component in the petrol injection system that shuts down. That’s the reason why the car won’t run on petrol, but the autogas injection system apparently don’t use the signal from that component, so it works fine all the time, no matter how hot it gets. 

Anyhow, we pulled in to a rest area and tried to cool it down by parking in the shade and opening the hood. We considered staying there for the rest of the day, and drive when the weather would get chilly at night. After an hour or so, Erik tried to start it and it seemed to be working fine, so we took the risk and continued our journey. We drove just about 20km and then it died again, this time in the blazing sun. We cooled it down and drove another 20km. Then it died again. This story repeated itself one more time, after that we used our last autogas, and we finally reached Kununurra (Western Australia, WA) 115km later. 
Just as we thought our problems were over, we discovered that the gas station in Kununurra, had had a leak on their gas tank, so the hose wasn’t in use at the moment, and hadn’t been working the last couple of weeks. They didn’t know when they would get it fixed – things takes time in the isolated world! So there we were... We had about 400km to Halls Creek (the next auto gas station). 
We got a bit concerned on how that journey would turn out, but there was nothing else to do than to try and drive in the night time. Maybe the car would be cold enough to let us do so! 
To our big luck it worked fine for the first 100km, but died just 5km before our planned break at Doon Doon Roadhouse. A friendly local towed us the last 5km. We cooled the car down for a bit and afterwards reached Turkey Creek (93km south) with no further issues. So one thing is sure now – it is the heat that’s the issue. 

We saw countless wildlife on the roads from Turkey Creek and south. It was amazing to experience horses running free on the roads, cows hanging out with kangaroos and countless big (red) kangaroos jumping across the road. We love driving at night time, since it’s the best time to experience wildlife. All locals warn us about night driving, but it’s just a matter of driving carefully enough, so you don’t risk hitting the wildlife. Even with a unhappy car we still managed to drive 706km this day. 

The next morning after a good night sleep we reached Halls Creek and Migaloo - our jeep, got the autogas that he had been thirsty for – the same with our wallet. Ha ha, cause autogas is only around 2/3 of the petrol price. 
It was a bit of a shame that we missed out on Lake Argyle and the Bungle Bungle ranges in Kimberley - both places is supposed to be spectacular, but with the car problem in the back of our minds, we wouldn’t have been able to enjoy them anyway. 
We reached Derby tuesday afternoon and did a station stay 20km out of town, at Birdwood Downs. They offered sunset horseback riding and riding lessons – something that Erik has been dying to try since we left home. All tours were regrettably fully booked – and by the way very costly. So it suited us okay that they couldn’t fit us in. Total km = 685. 

Erik is trying to become friends with kangaroo's..
They were too shy and jumped away straight after this picture was taken.

The Kimberley is full of these beautiful Boab trees.

Wednesday 1^st October – Saturday 4^th October

We arrived in Broome, the western edge of the Kimberley. It had been a short day on the road, only 248km. 

Broome is a magnificent town that exports pearls around the world, produced on sea farms. It’s a good 2000km to the nearest capital and is a true nature wonder. It’s got mangroves, mudflats and crocs on one side, the other side has got turquoise waters and a beautiful long wide beach stretch, called Cable beach. 

We had been told that there was one caravan park in the town that could provide accommodation in trade for a couple of hours work. So we drove around and asked at the different park entries to find the right one. Eventually we found it. 

It’s located close to Cable beach and an unpowered site is usually $35 per night, but for 1 hour and 15 min. leaf raking we could stay there for free. For us it was a great deal. 

It was a beautiful area to stay in, and we relaxed and enjoyed the facilities at the campground. Even in the shade it was ridiculous hot, and due to the almost unbearable hot weather, we finally pulled ourselves together and got our mosquito net sorted out – which meant that we now could open both front windows and the back during the night, without getting eaten alive by mosquitos and other small devils. 

Cable beach was amazing, although we weren’t big fans of all the stingers in the water and on the beach. They are or can be really dangerous. There were a lot of people in the water that didn’t seem to care about them, but I couldn’t drag myself into the mystic water – I just didn’t want to be stung by one. Erik had a quick dip and was lucky to survive! Haha! It isn’t the season for the deadly ones at the moment (the box jelly fish), but anyway! 

We enjoyed a few drinks and the view from the beach bar, and later on we splashed out, and ate unhealthy burgers. 

Friday we drove out to Gantheaume Point - a lookout point with fabulous red sandstone rocks overlooking the turquoise waters of the Indian Ocean. 

In order to reach Karijini National Park on Monday, we had to leave Broome and work our way down there, and hopefully the guys at the park would be able to fit us in, on the canyoning trip, we tried to book. We drove most of saturday and planned to stay at the Eighty Mile beach. A corrugated dirt road led us to the caravan park and it was beautiful out there, but we found the campground to be kind of a rip off. Before we left and hit the road again, we accidentally bumped into the family that towed us, the first time Migaloo was complaining about the heat. It was odd to meet them again about 2000km from the last place we met, and about 4 weeks has gone by since… After all we just got confirmed that Australia isn’t as big as everybody says!! 

Back on the empty road we were surprised by the great wifi connection, so Erik skyped with Ib his friend, for a long time, actually most of the night. We go to bed so early when we sleep in the car, it’s getting dark early, like around 7-8pm, and since we can only hang out either in the car or outside with all the weird bugs, we prefer to go to bed early, and then get up with the sun in the morning. It’s impossible to sleep in anyway. To damn hot and bright! 

We pulled in north of Port Hedland and stayed there during the night. Saturday = 572km.

Ready for a night with air and without mosquitoes in the car.


Working hard......

Cable beach

The stingers on Cable Beach

Playing with my camera

Gantheaume Point...

Eighty Mile Beach...

The beach is that way...

Sunday 5^th October

Most days on the roads we plan to sleep near by a roadhouse or town, where we most likely can get a liter of fresh milk in the morning. We love our cereals in the morning. Out of all our food and beverage it is the only thing we actually aim for as being cold, when we consume it. So we are really not asking for a lot! We got our $2 FRESH COLD milk in Port Hedland. 

The town itself isn’t tempting to explore, I would consider it as a ghost town. The only people living there is miners. So we quickly ventured south and inland towards Karijini National Park. 

We got a message saying that they would fit us in on the adventurous tour, so we were happy and excited. The trip down there was horrible, due to all the road trains going the other direction and hitting our windshield with stones. Very annoying! 

We stopped at Munjini roadhouse, just before the park. We spend some hours there, because Erik really wanted to watch the Formula 1 on their TV. When that was finally over, we had shared a big meal and none of us were hungry for dinner. 

We drove into the national park, paid the entrance fee and slowly worked our way up to the Eco Retreat Resort (the place where the tour started form the next morning). We drove on a very badly corrugated road for about an hour, in the glare of the sun, which almost made us blind. We couldn’t see anything in front of us! It was awful! 

Since we already paid for the entrance fee and the canyoning trip was $255 each, we took the risk and camped for free on one of the parking spots in the park, even though we knew it was illegal. We figured that the chance of getting caught was very small since we haven’t seen a car for over an hour. And who would patrol those bad roads anyway! Km = 477.

Breakfast with cows walking around the rest area

A lot of the grey nomads live in their motorhomes, and they've got everything with them on the roads!
 Impressing, but slow!

Salt mineral mine in Port Hedland

Everything is the same colour in the outback.. The red dust colour!!

Worst gravel road ever.

Monday 6^th October

It was a big day for us. We were excited about the canyoning adventure (called The Red Gorge Adventure). It was time to test if our adrenalin pump still was working, or needed a recharge! Canyoning is a mixed up word for canyon/gorge, abseiling, climbing and rafting! 

The day started early when our guides kitted us out with wetsuits, outdoor shoes, harnesses, helmets and inner tubes. We ventured into the first gorge (Knox Gorge) and dipped our warm bodies in the freezing pool. After a sunny stroll we were off to the restricted area, with the gorge shrinking rapidly to a single body width. We met one of the guides, who had set up a 5m abseil. Awesome. We walked carefully on a rough, steep and slippery surface before we sat down on a natural slide, pushed off and over a 3m drop into an enclosed pool. It was a lot of fun and we would love to do it again, but once over the edge, there’s no way back up. 

We controlled our own abseiling the second time, down to the next pool. It was shady and cold, we escaped by crawling up and in between some rocks and on the other side, we jumped into our tubes and paddled towards a little sunny “island”. Time for lunch. 

Soon we were back on our inner tubes, and we paddled across long and tranquil pools. Our surroundings were absolutely spectacular - the vertical red gorge walls raised 100m above us. It was magnificent. We had a little break before we headed into the Hancock Gorge, the guide sat up a rope leading through the Centre of the Earth (as they call that place), and we climbed up the steep, tight and slippery cascades. We walked though small pools on narrow edges. As we ascended the 9m climb we were all a bit exhausted. A traverse along the cliff with our security ropes clipped into the anchor rope, we slowly left the restricted area and entered Kermits pool, our final swim. 

Soon we were through the final gorge and finished at the car park. It was 4pm, we had been out all day, and it’s been an action-packed and adrenalin-charged adventure. It’s without a doubt the best day we have had in a long time.

Afterwards we socialized with a family we met on the tour – they were great. They were from Perth, a good contact for us to have, since we are heading that way soon. We were actually pretty exhausted from the long day and the drinks we had, but we didn’t want to sleep illegal again or pay the camp fees in the park. 

We drove just outside the park and got our beauty sleep, on a free campground 70 km away. 

 Ready for a adventurous day

Red Gorge Adventure Video

Tuesday 7^th – Wednesday 8^th October

We were meant to do a mine tour, near Tom Price. Would be great to learn about all those mines, we pass all the time, but unfortunately they don’t run the tour for less than 10 people. And since we were the only ones there, there was no way they would do the tour. Instead we started our journey further towards the west coast. 

We reached Exmouth in the afternoon. I skyped and catched up with my friend Musse, meanwhile Erik was busy and searched for information about the national park and the dive sites. Australia’s largest fringing and most accessible reef, Ningaloo Reef is located just north of the town. It’s stretching 300km south. There are a number of snorkel sites only 50m offshore, and it has more than 500 species of fish, which makes it a must-see for snorkelers, divers and nature-lovers. 

Erik planned our stay in this area. We started close to the Cape Range National Park by watching the sunset from Vlamingh Head lighthouse. At the top of the hill we had a brilliant view, all though the sunset wasn’t anything special. We drove into the national park straight after. The wildlife that we experienced on the road was going beyond our wildest imagination. We really didn’t think that the amount of kangaroo’s could be so big in one “little” area. It was crazy and we loved it! 

When we got to our beach campsite we were joined by a kangaroo mom with her little joey (that’s what the babies are called) in her pouch. She stayed around our campsite most of the night, together with a lot of glowing spiders in the low grass. The weather got chilly at night again, and we’re pleased with the colder temperatures – the same is the car – no more “running on petrol” problems. We drove 732km. 

The next morning we snorkeled with colourful fish at popular Turquoise Bay. We drifted with the current along the beach, but had to take care and make sure we got out of the water in time, before the current carried us away. At noon when we got signal on the phone again we booked a dive at Navy Pier. It’s in the top 10 of best shore dives in the world! It sounded very promising to us. 

The dive site was quite small, easy to navigate and apparently we couldn’t get lost. We all got the opportunity to go self-guided. We found it as the perfect opportunity to try it for the first time, together off course! Under the pier we saw an amount of marine life,that we have never seen before, in such a little area. 

There’s a bunch of big groupers that always hang around there. One of them is called George, he’s very friendly and used to divers. It’s the only fish that we were allowed to touch, if we got the change. George likes to be tickled on his chin, and sometimes won’t leave you alone, if you don’t tickle him. It’s the weirdest fish ever, but off course we wanted to meet this guy. Unlike all the stories he wasn’t in the mood for a tickle, even though we tried to tempt him. During the dive Erik was mostly focusing on filming and I was navigating us around the pier. We had an amazing dive and simply loved to be in control of our own dive. 

That afternoon we continued our further travels south and away from the costly national park. 

Km = 138. 

Our house 

Unfortunately a common sight on the roads 

 Emu is an uncommon sight.. But definitely more enjoyable than the road kills.

 Curious kangarooo

Australian Bustard.. A huge bird!!

Navy Pier Diving Video

Thursday 9^th October

We rose early in order not to be caught sleeping illegal on a rest area. We drove to Coral Bay, an absolutely stunning bay, very family minded and very idyllic. We spend half of the day on the crystal clear beach. The most fantastic thing about this place is that there is world class snorkeling just off the beach (Ningaloo Reef) and at the same time white sand and shallow water in the bay. 
It’s a perfect place and we wished that we had the time to stay longer, but the day before we got confirmed that we could work as volunteers with dolphins further south. So in order to reach Monkey Mia (the dolphin place) in time, we had to get back on the roads again the same afternoon. 
We stocked up with food and supplies in Carnarvon and then worked our way down south. Thursday it came to 412km. 
Friday we reached Monkey Mia just in time for our induction. We planned to volunteer for 5 days there. Distance this day = 281km

 Coral Bay