The Top End

We arrived in the Northern Territory in late April, just at the end of the wet season when the roads and 4wd tracks are drive-able, the waterfalls are flowing and it is still very hot. For about 3 weeks we didn’t see temperatures drop below 28 deg, even at night time. For us camping in the car, that meant a ritualistic struggle with ourselves deciding whether to open the doors and let the air in, or close them to keep the mosquitoes out. We usually lost this argument in both ways and ended up sweating all night and waking up covered in bites.

Litchfield National Park is full of gorgeous waterfalls and gorges (as if we hadn’t seen enough of those already!) Some were inaccessible because we arrived so early in the season, they hadn’t had a chance to be sure they were clear of crocs. Some however, were declared croc free and we enjoyed the day lounging by the rock pools.

Up in Darwin I decided to go check out the crocodile park in the middle of the city to see this beast that inhabits all of the good swimming spots. I can’t say that I fully agree with the concept of keeping large predatory animals in small glass boxes, but apparently the ones they keep there are those that try to eat fisherman so it’s better for everyone. The nice thing about seeing salt water crocodiles in this setting is a) they are behind a very thick wall of glass b) you can see their sneaky tricks through the clear water c) you get to watch them attack their lunch!
They even have baby crocs who like to float around by their heads and leap the entire length of their bodies out of the water to catch a meal.

Later we visited the museum, which has a large variety of ‘poisonous things that can kill you’ on display. I inspected the snakes to memorize which are poisonous and which will strangle you to death. As it turns out, they all look the same. I also tried without success to identify the friendly spider, Peter we called him, who tried to share my bed the previous night. He was greyish, a bit fuzzy and no smaller than the size of my hand!
The museum has a display of a preserved box jellyfish, one of the deadliest things in the ocean that like to hang around northern beaches from November to May. We had heard that there were Irukanji in the water at Broome, and not knowing what kind of stingers these were, we decided not to swim. Well, I sure am glad for that decision. They are just as deadly as the box, but only the size of my pinky fingernail, and completely transparent.

After learning about all of the painful ways we could be attacked by living creatures in the Top End, we spent the evening at the Mindle Beach Sunset Markets before planning our route south. It would take us 4 days to drive the 2500kms of nothingness from Darwin to Townsville in Northern Queensland.

Western Australia Road Trip

The Coral Coast
I met up with a car load of backpackers, 2 boys and one girl from Germany, and one girl from Holland. We left Lancelin on April 6th and started with the 4wd track to Wedge Island. We camped that night just before the Pinnacles desert on the beach.
The next morning we saw the Pinnacles (or pineapples as the germans called them) at sunrise. This desert is unique because of the giant limestone rocks and towers that rise from the sandy desert. It was nice, but I had faith that this was just the beginning.

We headed up along the coast straight to Geraldton, a surprisingly big town, considering where we were. Then the next few days were spent exploring Kalbarri national Park and hiking around the gorge. We met up with 2 other 4wds, 2 Aussie surfers driving around the country and one other German named Simon who was travelling alone. We all travelled together for the next week or so.

The next big stop was Shark Bay, a world heritage site and home of Mokey Mia, the famous resort where dolphins come right up to the shore to feed everyday. We spent a whole morning at monkey mia, saw a turltle and some camels, but no dolphins. So we took the 4wd track up to Cape Peron National Park, where we did some snorkelling, caught a fish, and celebrated Felix’s Birthday. Then, we did a gorgeous hike to a lookout, where we saw dugongs, turtles, rays and plenty of fish from far above the surface of the water. Back down on the beach on the walk back, a whole family of dolphins came right up to the shore. And we didn’t have to share the event with a hundred other tourists like those at Monkey Mia.

An important stop on the way back to the main highway for me were the Stromatolites! I had to beg a plead for them to make this slightly nerdy stop for me, but I just had to see the living rocks that created the earth’s current oxygen content of 20 percent! They look like rocks, but what they represent is phenomenal. Before these clusters of cyanobacteria started the earliest forms of photosynthesis, there was no oxygen on our planet. Then, over 2 million years, these happy little rocks changed our world as we know it. There aren’t many living colonies left because the very creatures that evolved thanks to their hard work tend to eat them.

At Carnarvon, Simon and I split ways with the rest of the pack and headed straight for Coral Bay. This was the beginning of 5 days spent lounging on white sandy beaches, snorkelling with colourful fish, turtles and rays, swimming in turquoise blue water and having a marvellous time. The Ningaloo reef stretches for 260 km from South of Coral Bay all the way up the cape to Exmouth. It is the longest fringing reef in the world (close to the shore) so unlike the Great Barrier Reef on the east coast, you don’t need a boat to see the wonders under the sea, you can just glide from the sand to the corals. The area is also home to the majestic whale shark, the largest fish in the ocean. Unfortunately, tours to see them are quite expensive, so we decided to hang out with the smaller fish instead. Up in Exmouth I ran into my good buddy Sarah from Lancelin who was on a family road trip of her own. It was nice to catch up and laugh the night away as we usually do.

Karijini National Park
Simon had only intended to take a ‘short’ trip to see Monkey Mia by himself, but his plans changed a little along the way. Around Exmouth, he decided he should see Karijini National Park before returning back to Perth, so I decided to tag along. Somewhere on the long stretch of road into the Pilbra he decided it would be easier to sell his truck in Sydney where he bought it, and so begins a much bigger trip than originally planned. The two of us make excellent travel mates, we get along well, enjoy our quiet nights of reading and we hike at a comparable pace. Let me tell you, it is infinitely more pleasant to travel with one person you get along with, than 4 that you don’t particularly trust.

We did the drive from Exmouth to Tom Price in one very long day. As we went though, it got much, much hotter. We even had the pleasure of stopping at Australia’s ‘dearest’ (most expensive) roadhouse, where we had a quick lunch in the shade (40 deg). The mining town of Tom Price, the capital of the Pilbra, is actually quite big for a town in the middle of nowhere, and they sure do waste a lot of water keeping their front lawns green. After acquiring a fly net and some food we headed out into the park.
There are about a dozen walks to be done and we did most of them. Some are long walks down into the gorges and rock pools, while others feature a waterfall at the bottom of a staircase. Karijini national park is actually quite big, and do get from gorge to gorge we had to do quite a few kms on dusty red dirt roads.
The colours in the area are sensational, especially after a long day of hiking and swimming. It is a perfect view as you drive back to camp on a red dirt road over yellow and green hills, with white gum trees, blue sky and dark grey mountains framing a purple sunset.

My favourite part of Karijini was the Fern pool at the bottom of Dales gorge. The best part (other than how breathtakingly beautiful it is) is that you can swim and enjoy the waterfall without seeing another tourist for hours. This is why I love WA.

Port Hedland and Broome
As I mentioned before, the Pilbra is an extensive mining area and contains one of the world’s largest reserves of Iron Ore. It is mined and put on enormous trains from Tom Price up to Karratha and Port Headland. From there, it is shipped to the ever expanding markets in Asia. The mining industry in WA is not unlike the oil and gas industry in Alberta. Many of the major businesses in Perth cater to it, just as the Calgary offices run the oil sands. The workers run on a similar schedule; a few weeks on in the rough and extreme climates (+50 deg in Oz, -50 deg in Canada) and live in camps and communities built solely for them.
We knew that the Pilbra is a large place, and we saw the exceptionally long trains and the open mines from the top of Mt Bruce, but the extent of it all became apparent when we arrived in Port Hedland (pop: 15 000).
Nearly every second person in the entire town is wearing a fluorescent green or orange shirt (standard safety wear for workers across Australia), and climbing into or out of a white pick up truck (or ute as they call them down here). But that is just the beginning, as you approach the town, the view of the bay is entirely blocked by towering machinery, conveyor belts high into the sky, factories and salt lakes. The iron ore is partly processed in town and then dumped onto huge cargo ships to be sent overseas along with other minearals from the area (i.e. salt). Port Hedland is the largest exporting port in all of Australia, and we were lucky to have dinner at sunset on the bay while the ships were loaded with cargo and staff ready for an adventure across the high seas.

Broome is another 600 or so km up the North West Highway. We suspected it might be equally as involved in the mining industry given the number of Road Trains we passed and the relative size of it (pop: 14 000 ) But, it is in fact not nearly as industrious. It is largely based on the tourism industry, famous for camel rides along Cable beach at sunset, and the pearling industry. Broome has a long history of pearling, involving Aboriginal workers and Asian pearl experts who dove into the ocean depths off the WA coast in the old fashioned hard suits. We learned all about it since we camped at a free area just near the Willie Creek Pearl Farm.
We arrived after dark, and the first sign we saw warned of an Estuarine Crocodile (a salty, the dangerous kind) living in the area. This is why we are not allowed to camp there for more than 3 nights; the croc will study your habits and then pounce after the 3rd day. We were more than prepared to leave after one night though as we had a snake climb up under our car, the same car that we sleep in. With a bit of friendly advice from a local we learned that they like to hang out in and under cars for the added warmth (hard to believe when we are sweating when standing still). Anyhow, apparently they don’t like vibrations, noise or smoke. So what did we do? Well, we played some hard rock music as loud as we could handle, built a smoky fire right next to the car, emptied everything out and bashed at it with sticks. Oh, while stomping around to make ground vibrations and be sure that no other snakes were going to join the party. Now, take a moment to imagine this scene. It is amusing to think about now, but even with the horrible environment we created, we were still afraid to sleep having not seen him (Sly we called him), slither away.
Anyhow, the story ends with a weary morning free of snake bites, and we toured around the pearl farm and learned that the inner surroundings of an oyster, called Mother of Pearl, is primarily used in buttons, hence the expression; Broome was built on Buttons. I have also acquired many other random facts about oyster farming and pearl collection, go ahead, ask me anything! I can even give you a few snake scaring tips while I’m at it.

The Gibb River Road
Our Gibb river road section of the adventure began in a town called Derby, known for the highest tides in the southern hemisphere, 11 meters, and boab trees. We arrived just in time to catch the sunset on the Jetty (as if we hadn’t caught enough sunsets in Broome). Anyhow, we were just leaving as it was getting dark when one couple enjoying the view said “You’re leaving now? You’ll miss the bats!”. To which we obviously replied “what bats?”. Well, just at that very second thousands and thousands of fruit bats flew over our heads. We couldn’t get much info about them, only that they come from an island ‘over there’ just after dark, fly over our heads on the jetty, and go somewhere inland. Needless to say, it was a spectacular display.

If you watched the movie ‘Australia’ you would know that western Australia is full of Cattle Stations, and that those cattle needed to be ‘driven’ (herded by cowboys) to the port where they could be shipped to Asia and other such places. Cattle Droving began in the 1880’s and continued right through the 1960s when an extensive, 700km dirt road was built between Kununarra at the Northern Territory Border and Derby in WA. This dirt road is still used by cattle trucks and road trains today, even though the Great Northern Highway runs between the two towns as well.

The 700km road is primarily a dirt track, but has some rocky bits, some paved, some sandy and many creek crossings. The road is impassable during the wet season (November to April) but the waterfalls and gorges that line the road are best seen just after the wet (April, May). We began the drive from Derby, headed East, on the 28th of April. In the first day we drove about 275km, through 3 creek crossings and visited one gorge (Windjana) that was full of friendly (freshwater) crocodiles.

By the time we got to the Kimberly, we had seen a lot of gorges. We knew to pack a lunch and carry plenty of water on the way down, so we had a backpack with us. The trail down to manning falls showed a swimming short cut and a longer way around. Naturally, with the stuff we were carrying, we took the long way. On the way back though, we thought we’d check out just how deep and far this swim was. Well, as we had seen before, there were about 10 foam esky (cooler) buckets. We took no notice of them before, but then all of a sudden a light bulb lit up over my head! These ingenious little buckets were to float your stuff across the swim. It was the best end to a hike we’ve had so far!

We were spoiled by great camping all along the Gibb River road. There was shade, nice showers and friendly neighbours everywhere we went. At Ellenbrae station, known for their scones and their hospitality, we met two cyclists camping next to us. They were already lighting a fire for the Donkey (it heats the water for the showers) and they told us about how they cycled here. Naturally, we asked where from. It turns out they have been biking around Australia for 3 years now. Three years! And this lovely couple couldn’t have been younger than 50. They were fascinating people to spend the evening with.

Before crossing the border into the northern Territory, we thought we’d check out the town of Wyndham. As it turns out, it’s pretty run down and there is virtually nothing there. But, it has a rich history with the cattle industry and was home to a huge meat processing plant which shipped cows across to Europe for nearly 60 years. Since the plant was shut down in 1985, the cows now board the boats live before heading to Indonesia and such places. The lady at the museum was very happy to have visitors, I think it had been a while since anyone passed through, let alone anyone asking as many questions as I do.

After a bit of grocery shopping in Kununara, we headed for the border into the Northern Territory. It was sad to say goodbye to such a beautiful place after so many happy months, but there is much to see on the road ahead!