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Report No 9

After our time in Tassie our last chapter of our time in Aussie started. The time seems short to see the missing part of Australia: Western Australia. So we wanted to get to places as quickly as possible. We left Melbourne on the 24th of January in the early afternoon. Towards the evening Natasha took over the steering-wheel and at 23.00h Alex drove on. The luggage and other stuff we arranged so that it is possible to sleep while one person drives. At 03:20h the next day we were only 100 km south of Port Augusta and stopped for the rest of the night on a parking next to the road.

After stocking up in Port Pirie we just drove through Port Augusta and headed west across the Eyre Peninsula. In Streaky Bay we could watch the pelicans waiting for the fishermen to clean their catch. After Ceduna we crossed the Nullarbor (lat. for no trees). Here we saw a herd of wild camels, plenty of kangaroos (on the road because it had just rained) and a dingo. Alex and Luca slept through the longest staight stretch in Australia, 146.6 km!

In Balladonia we drove south through the Cape Arid Nationalpark and on to the Cape Le Grand Nationalpark. There we saw some of the most beautiful beaches we have seen so far - with white sand and deep blue waters. We left Cape Le Grand driving along the white sandy beaches towards Esperance.

In Albany, further west, we spent an afternoon on Middleton Beach. The waves crashed down hard enough to teach Alex some fear and to break the string of our boogie board.

Heading further west we came into the area of the big jarrah, marra and karri forests. We did 2 nice forest drives and visited 2 fire lookout trees (60 m high!), which one could climb up.

From the Gloucester Tree in Pemberton we went straight up to Yallingup, where Natalie, Darren, Kaitlin, Brijette, Paige and Chelsea live. We met them on our way up to Cape York earlier on our trip. They showed us around the beautiful South-Western corner of Australia and let us be part of their family. Since April 2004 we had our first half day without Luca. Alex and Natasha did a cave tour and visited a couple of wineries in the Margaret River region and Luca enjoyed himself with Natalie, Darren and Chelsea. We even got the chance to go "marroning" with them. (We put out nets in their dam to catch sweet water crayfish). We caught some and had them for dinner. It was really yummy! Alex was very happy to get professional help from Darren in "under-bonnet" and "under-car" matters. After Darren even washed our car it was so bright we all needed sunglasses just to look at it :)

After nearly one week we left their great hospitality in which we all felt very comfortable. We headed up north along the coast to Perth. There we got our flight dates changed and organised some permits we will be needing to cross Aboriginal Land later in our trip. What we saw of Perth we liked. Before leaving we had a picnic lunch in Kings Park with a great view of downtown Perth.

Lancelin further north we chose a 70 km 4WD track through sand dunes, military bombing testing areas, ghost villages and beaches. Not seeing a track of another car and just following one of the many roads led us through sand blown, very skew and boggy "roads". We eventually made it to the Pinnacles (limestone formations in the desert). Very impressive.

In Kalbarri we could be part of a pelican feeding event. Luca loved it but dropped the fish a bit too early. In the Kalbarri Nationalpark we went to various nice lookouts. 400 km later we arrived in Monkey Mia, in the Shark Bay World Heritage area. In Monkey Mia rangers have been feeding wild dolphins for 30 years. As it's a tourist attraction there are several clear rules which we could understand, for example no touching. We were lucky and were chosen to feed a dolphin with a slippery, fishy fish. Even though Natasha dropped her fish too soon (must be in the family :) ) it was a great experience. The rest of the day some dolphins were hanging around the beach area. In the afternoon we rented a dinghy (small aluminium boat with 25 hp) and explored the coast on our own. We were amazed to see so many sharks, mantarays and even turtles.

From there we went to the tip of the peninsula into the Francois Peron Nationalpark. We stopped for lunch right on the beach, and while eating we saw about 6 sharks swimming by, not more than 5 m from the shore! The campsite for the evening was once again right on the beach. On our way out of the park we all jumped into the hot tub (natural hot water 35°C) at an old homestead. Not very refreshing in the heat!

With a "shop-stop" in Carnarvon we went on to Coral Bay. Our attempts to go snorkelling in the reef were spoilt by stingers ( small "harmless" jellyfish) so on we went on a 4 WD track along the coast heading for Cape Range Nationalpark. After 60 slow going kms from Coral Bay we weren't impressed to find the road leading to the nationalpark closed due to shooting of feral (not indigenous) goats. we decided to camp and wait 1.5 days for the road to be opened again. What a good decision: we camped right on the beautiful white beach with turquoise water all alone! From the shore we saw many sharks, rays and turtles again. One shark even swam 0.5 m off the calm waterline. Knowing all that swimming was a little adventure. So one person was always on guard with Natashas polorisation sunglasses. As the water was so shallow and clear one could see most of the fish coming. Luca loved the water and didn't mind going under even in the salt water.

Our earlier target, the Cape Range Nationalpark, couldn't keep up with the beach-camping we had just had. But we found a nice and shady spot for lunch where we intended to stay overnight. After a while Natasha noticed this funny insect on her foot. Wiping it off she noticed it had bitten her. The rest of the lunch we had in a little hurry and the creepy crawlies changed our mind about staying overnight. Eventually sitting in the car again and taking off the shoes Natasha discovered her foot soul covered in blood and a squashed insect in the middle of it! Yuk!
After immediately chopping of the foot (only joking :)) washing the foot, we went to the ranger station to find out what it was. He reckoned it was kangaroo ticks. The ticks are found in shady spots where kangaroos like to be. According to the ranger and leaflet the ticks are basically harmless and do not carry dangerous viruses or bacteria. Will keep an eye on the bites. The only really fun part of the Cape Range NP was the snorkelling in Turquoise Bay. Unfortunately we couldn't go out far enough to see the actual Ningaloo Reef, but we still could see some corals and many colourful fish.

For the night we drove on to Exmouth where the temperatures increased drastically. Here without the seabreeze we had up to 40°C and a hot wind blowing (like a hairdryer).

In Karratha further north it got even hotter. Assuming its the last opportunity to pitch our tent we did it - and regretted it badly! We had an automatic floor heating which was on full blast all night. It was really like a sauna and we didn't get much sleep.

Reaching the most northerly point on our trip in WA we headed south again, inland to Millstream Nationalpark. Apart from very nice and different countryside we experienced a little cyclone. Impressive, even though it was only "small".

The end of our 6 months in Australia is coming close. In the beginning of March we will leave Western Australia and head to Melbourne via the Gunbarrel Track, the Great Central Road, Uluru (Ayers Rock) and the down south. All in all 4 000 km. In Melbourne we will do our utmost to sell our car before leaving on 15.3. to Auckland, New Zealand. The 6 weeks in New Zealand will probably be over very quickly, and our long journey back home to Switzerland will start on 26. April 2005. We will be flying via Los Angeles and London to Zürich where we will be landing on 27.4 at 16:30 (BA 716) after a 35 hr trip!

This is probably our second last report, the last one coming from New Zealand in the 2nd half of April.

22nd of February 2005, Newman