|
I was just impressed we managed to get out of Perth with out any major
hiccups! (we did go the 'scenic' way once).
We were navigating by the Road Atlas of the previous previous owners of Oscar. They had scribbled
in loads of crosses all along the highway and around. We could only guess these were places of interest, that they had stopped
at.
We aimed for the first cross, and discovered Yanchep National Park. A pretty little place with a permanent
Sunday afternoon feel. I saw my first Koalas, albeit in an enclosure, and some bizarre Long Necked Turtles, which, surprise
surprise, had very long necks, as long as their shell - weird!
|
| Grumpy old men in a tree ! |
We also explored the local cave, not as impressive as Ngigli, but still
fun.
We had to leave as we had to get our skates on to make it to our
destination, the 'Pinnacles' for sunset. We were not even close. We were still miles (sorry Kilometers) away when it started
to get dark. We stopped at a petrol station to ask where the nearest accomodation was. The girl told us there wasn't
any nearby, but the farmer down the road didn't mind the occasion tent appearing in his driveway.
We found the spot and set up my brand new-to-me tents (one was mouldy, so we all had to sleep in the
other. Quite big though!)
Norma and I left Karl cooking in the pitch dark while we went back to the petrol station insearch
of wick for my new lamp, unsuccessfully.
We finally ate, in darkness, and went to tent. An interesting first night!
We made it to The 'Pinnacles National Park' the next day. It is a eerie
little place - an array of sandtone stumps and spires looming out of the sandy dunes. We spent a good while there wandering
about, the view and atmosphere changing from each vantage piont. We even returned for sunset - even better, with the
lengthening shadows and golden light!
|
| The Pinnacles |
|
| Its just around the next corner!! |
We realised something about the west coast pretty quickly - nothing is
close to anything else! There was alot of driving ahead of us alot some very empty roads. Not completely empty, every now
and then we would see another backpacker van and wave, and also the Brutes of the Road, the infamous Roadtrains. The
huge (up to four trailer long ) trucks. We saw signs limiting their length though - Max length 53.5 meters!
We had been warned of these and been given a variety of techniques to deal with them including just
pulling off the road and waiting for the dust to settle!
We didn't find them that bad ,except if you were following one, and another passed the other way!
The wind shakes you all over the place and you cant see for red dust for 2 minutes!
|
| Out of the Road, Dopey! |
We really felt like we were about to drive to the middle of nowhere, so
when we reached Geralton, the last reasonably large town, we shopped for our last supplies and loads of food.
It became even more evident when we passed a sign on the road (a surprisingly nice, new two lane job)
saying "Due to Government cut backs, this project had run out of funds. For complaints ring ..blahblah"
We didn't have a clue what this meant, until 50 meters on, over the next verge, the road stopped!
Just cut off, leaving a battered little single lane to take us the rest of the way! Very amusing!!
But we arrived unscathed at our destination, a fantistic old Convent, now
a hostel, with 360 circumnavigating balconies upstairs and down. And we had the place to ourselves!
The next day we arrived in the pleasant little holiday villiage of Kalbarri and enjoyed the holiday
atmosphere, including a BBQ gas bottle catching fire and spurting 3 meter flames out as it rolled through the campsite! Where
are my marshmallows when I need them!
We employed our soon-to-be standard technique of paying for 2 people and smuggling one in (we were
all in one tent after all!) to keep costs down. Cheap, and slightly less stinky than the free stop at the side of the road
(Sammysam/Louice!)
Norma and I went to visit the Kalbarri coastal gorges for sunset. Some supremely dramatic coastline.
I explored amd wandered down to a beautiful secluded beach and watched dolphins out at sea, then we watched the sun deepening
the red of the rock cliffs, splendid.
The next day we visited Kalbarri national Park, and walked 'The Loop'-
a track that follows a huge meander in the Mutchinson River, following the clifftops of the huge gorge on one side, and dropping
down to the waters edge on the other, back to where we started. A great walk, and good to get out and about for a day at last.
We visited the river from a couple of other lookout points, and I had a good explore down one of the
canyons.
We continued north and eventually stopped at a large bay to see something
that sounded ultimately intriguing to me- the bizarrely unexplained Stromatolites. These are the creatures that began life
on the planet, or close relatives. More acturately, they are lumps of secretions left behind Cynobacteria, the first
organisms to expel Oxygen. Millions of years ago these creatures popped into being and spent a few thousand years farting
out enough oxygen for us to breathe - thankyou very much!! All very exciting stuff, but they ain't much to look
at - just some rock like lumps in the sea. And so we departed and went to look at Shell beach, which was just that,
a surprisingly large beach made entirely from tiny shells, a few meters deep, and many meters long! They even mine them for
the calcium.
Then we headed to one of my most eagerly awaited destinations. We arrived in Denham, Shark Bay !!
While I was working for Ragdoll I lived in Denham, Buckinghamshire. Every single day (give or take)
for nearly 4 years I cycled past the sign saying, "Welcome to Denham, twinned with Deham Shark Bay, Australia" It always sounded
so much more exciting, and it is!
We arrived in the very pleasant little fishing village as the sun was going down. I pulled over to
watch the sunset from the jetty, but just before I could turn the engine off - we ran out of petrol!! How lucky was that,
we were 200 meters from the first petrol station we had seen for 200kms!
The fuel gauge is broken in the car, and we've been judging by Kilometers. I now know I can get
395kms on a full tank!!
(Mind you, I can probably go further if I drive more economically, on the way up along the straight
empty road I was seeing how fast Oscar could go - He made it up to 160kph quite comfortably!)
|
| I can't see my home from here!! |
|
| Can we swim to Iver Heath? |
From Denham we ventured to Monkey Mia, home of
the friendly dolphins (no monkeys - booo) , more reliable than Bunbury, but also much more touristy. We arrived just in time
to see some fins swimming away out to see. They return a few times each day, so we waited.
Soon enough a few returned and everyone lined up along the beach to
see the dolphins. How friendly they were I dont really know, they actually come in for a free feed of fish - and who can blame
'em !
But while the adults are made to wait for the free nosh, they swim up and down the line of tourists
in the knee deep water, genuinely having a look at us. Weird to get such a close up look at them. Meanwhile there were a couple
of little 'uns splashing and playing about. One did a spectacular jump right in front of me!
Then a couple of kids are picked from the group and fed to the dolphins... no, feed the dolphins.
Then they swim happily out to sea (the dolphins, not the kids..)
And we returned to Denham, and up to Eagle Bluff, a huge clifftop where
you can look down into the crystal blue water and see Sharks, Dolphins, Whales, Turtles, Dugongs (sea cows) and cool stuff
like that. We didn't see anything.
We secretly camped up there for the night, and then continued north the next day, and arrived in the
Tropics!!
We arrived in the highly recommended Coarl Bay ( but no Aisling, Dan
or Stupor - boooo!) and it was full! It was school holidays and the campsites were full to bursting by the looks of things.
The girl at the info place informed us there was not one bed, bunk, or tent spot available, but one campsite offers overflow
camping at dusk, when it is too late to travel further.
- Side note : Driving at dusk and later is more perilous than it seems here, we always
tried to make it to our destination by sunset. Kangaroos come out as it get cooler and love playing the 'Hide behind the bushes,
and jump out at the Bright Lights Game'
If they succed they can do a substantial amount of damage to your vehicle, unless you are a road train-
they alway win.
Every morning there are new players strewn about the road (sometimes up to a few meters long - lovely.)
Its a good way to see the big eagles though, I nearly had to stop for one Wedge tail Eagle that was reluctant to leave its
'prey' - it was a whopper, about 2 and 1/2 meter wingspan!
We managed to get an overflow spot - turned out to be one of the best spots
in the site.
The next day the unthinkable happened - it started raining! Norma had booked herself on a Manta ray
swim tour, but it got cancelled, and it wasn't too appealing to go to the famous beach.
We got room in the hostel, and spent the day reading and moping about. We drove to Exmouth, for
something to do more than anything.
It was raining here too, everyone delighting in letting us know its their first rain in 18 months
, oh, good.
All we could do was wait, for we had a big mission in Exmouth - to swim with the Whale Sharks!
But in this weather all the tours were cancelled. We were getting very anxious as it was very nearly the end of the season
- when the Whale Sharks swim off to Thailand or somewhere. None were spotted over the next few day - but there were no tours
to spot them either??
We waited and watched the vague weather forecast, then on Friday the weather started to clear, so
we decided to go for it while we could ('make hay...', and all that). There was a tour tomorrow, and if we didn't see a whale
shark, the company offers a repeat trip on the next available tour.
|
| All sorts of weird creatures in the depths |
So, on Saturday Morning, Norma and I employed Operation Whale Shark. We
walked down to the dive shop, and was driven to the beach with our new companions, and boarded our boat.
With much excitement we prepared all our clobber (fins, snorkels etc.) and we all plopped in while
a few of the guys dropped down for a scuba dive. We just snorkelled about. It was quite deep but managed to see a fair bit,
including a white tiped Reef Shark a few meters below! Then we bumped into a Mants Ray! They are curious creatures and we
stayed still, as he glided back and forth, circling us to check us out!
We reboarded the boat, and sped off to our next spot (I was starting to struggle not to feel a bit
green!) but we spotted two Humpback whales. We followed them for a while as they came up for a breath or two.
We continued on our way and discovered some Spinner Dolphins - and boy, those little rascals,
they just love to spin! And they had a great time riding our bow wave too.
We had a fun time eating lunch watching them all jumping and spinning around us. A 7ft sea snake even
made an appearence, I was impressed, but not as much as when I learnt sea snake = certain death!!
|
| Mantastic! |
There was no sign of any whale sharks, but we got a call in from the spotter
plane above (that cruises up and down the coast looking for the sharks) that there were some more Mantas about. We went off
in search and plopped in. We saw a couple of timid ones, then floated about for a
while. We split up into a few groups, and suddenly the group on my left
starting hooting and honking through their snorkels - that means they can see something exciting!
I sped over towards them, and was suddenly face to face with a Manta! It ducked and swam directly
below me, and it was followed by another, and another, and another. There were 8 of them!
They floated from group to group and glided around, surrounding Norma at one point, she said she had
never felt like such a ,well, land bound creature.
Back on board there was whooping and a hollerin all round, then it was
time to head back - a great day. No whale shark, but we get to go out again!! Cool!
The weather had cleared up so the next day we went to explore the areas
primary attraction - The Ningaloo Reef. A huge coral reef than some folk prefer than the Great barrier reef, as it is 20 meters
from the beach, a great barrier, without the barriers, if you will.
We went to Turquoise Bay, a beautiful bay, with soft white sand and the deepest turquoise water -
idylic!
I doned my new snorkelling gear, and waddled into the water, and there it was, stumps and stacks
of Coral teaming with little fishies of all sorts, shapes, and colours (some even reminded me of Noogy!)
Not only was the reef just next to the beach, but here there was a current, so you could just plop
in, float along over the coral, then get out onto the beach and walk back up to the start again - brilliant! We just had to
make sure we got out in time, otherwise you get merrily drifted out through a gap in the reef and out to sea!
|
| Bertle the Turtle |
Norma and I went to book our whale shark repeat trip, and was confronted
with some unexpected news. There wasn't a tour going, because they did not have enough people booked on! And there had been
a whale shark spotted the day before!
We returned the next day, and it was the same - except 3 whale sharks had been spotted!
For all my anxiety that there would be no whale sharks, I could not believe we were lacking humans!!
We spent the our time at Turquoise bay, and a couple other good beaches. I had some great snorkels
seeing allsorts. I had a heartbeat skipping moment seeing a little shark, they have such a distinctively menacing movement.
When I accidentally clipped the coral with my flipper I looked back, only to see I was
merrily kicking an octupus in the head! I backed off pretty sharpish, not knowing how it would react, but slowly came back
to investigate. there were two of them, coiling and slithering from coral to coral, cool!
But the best were the turtles! I met the 'Turtle with a fish on its back' which seemed to delight
a group of kids to hysteria, and managed to gentle sidle up next to it and spent a great few minutes swimming along with it.
Saw a few more and enjoyed swimming with a couple of them.
But there was still no whale shark tour.
By now the whole campsite new of our plight (I had been trying to draft anyone and
everyone to join our tour, but no luck). Everyday, people asked, 'have you seen one yet?' We gloomily said, 'No."
We were running out of time and our only option left was to go on a Manta Ray swim tour, that was
going the next day, instead. So reluctantly we booked on.
We asked if there was a chance of seeing a whale shark on that tour. The girl at the reception said,
'Oh, yeah, probably' - the dive master guy said, 'No way, its a Manta tour.'
We were still hopeful about it, and when the friendly german couple heard that night, they said, 'Oh,
you should speak to that guy. He is the Spotter plane pilot!'
We chatted to him, and he seemed pretty confident that if there was a whale shark out there, they
would probably take us to see it. And he had seen whale sharks everyday this week. He told us to tell our skipper, 'Tony said
you will see one, tell him that!'
I was unsure as to how much weight that would carry, but I was just in awe of his job - Whale Shark
Spotter Plane Pilot!!
So the next day we set to it again. We went down to the dive shop, with
Yumi, a japanese girl from our first tour, and met our four new companions. I spoke to Walter, one of the crew who was
on our first trip too. I pointed out to him that nearly half of the group was really on their whale shark repeat trip
- hint hint. He actually said he would let the skipper know that, cool.
We dropped a few more hints, until Dave, the divemaster made it clear that it was a Manta ray tour
only.
So I settled myself to enjoy it for what it was, and we went out on the boat.
While a couple had a scuba, we had a quick snorkel and saw a few mantas down below, and a huge
old turtle. Then, while cruising alot, we saw a couple of humpbacks breaching, off in the distance, and a few Bottlenose Dolphins
(not as much fun as the Spinners!)
We then got a call in of some more Mantas having been spotted. Action stations as we all scrambled
our clobber on,and got ready.
We pulled up to another boat, with a load of people in the water fapping and splashing about
- no way to behave around Mantas!
Dave was rushing back and forth, and Walter had the biggest grin on.
Eventually Dvae said, 'Guys, you are never going to beleive this, but there aren't any Mantas here
at all - but what those guys are swimming with... is a Whale Shark!'
The other tour boat were letting us squeeze in for a peek as the shark swam past us.
Coool, we all shuffled to the back of the boat, and waited.
Then GO GO GO!! We all plopped in - and there it was, the biggest shark in the world! But dont
worry folks, it is a vegetarian (good job I left my broccoli on the boat).
We flippered along at top speed, struggling to keep up with it as it cruised along. But got a good
look at the Big Spotty Fish.
|
| A big fish |
We got left behind, and the boat picked us up and sped round for another drop off. We all got into
position at the back of the boat again - and Go Go Go, we went went went, and plopped in. The shark was coming from the left,
but I was on the right of the group - all I could see was gangly legs flapping about. So I swam back towards the boat and
round the group - only to be face to face with an enormous fish head. I froze, assuming it would alter course. It didn't.
I heard, 'Get out of the way!' then discovered how impossible it is to swim backwards with flippers
on! I managed to flounder out of the way, as the big fish glided by. I set off in pursuit again, and nearly got to know
its tail a bit too well.
A large fish, not quite as big as I had been led to believe, and unfortunately it was not basking,
but it was still an impressive sight.
We followed it, til we bumped into the next tour group, and reboarded our boat.
|
| The little creature with goggles is me ! |
There was even more whoopin' and a hollerin' back on the boat, Walter and
Dave laughing - those guys!!
Then the skipper came down from the cabin, 'Who was talking to the Pilot last night?'
Norma and I sheepishly admitted.
"He's coming down now, ' he said pointing at the sky. We ran to the back of the boat, to see the plane
swoop down and do a fly-by, complete with wing waggle!!
Back at the campsite, everyone was overjoyed to hear we had finally seen one. It was a great
day, but I was slightly more touched that everyone around us had each done their little bit to make it happen for us!!
Thanks Guys!!
|
