Crossing the Nullarbour

From Perth, we took the train to Adelaide, in one of the world's great train journey's across the south of the continent. The main, underlying feature of the trip is endless Nullarbour ("no tree") plain that is to be crossed. It definintely gives you a great feel for the vastness of the continent. The plain is covered in nothing but patches of low, scrubby grass and is dead flat, with virtually no water. One stretch of track is the longest continuous stretch of straight railroad in the world and is accompanied, not too far away, by a corresponding longest stretch of straight highway.

Shipwreck!

The shipwreck in the picture below was a dutch ship that was ship wrecked of the west coast almost 400 years ago! Amazing!. It was carrying a giant stone doorway that they managed to reconstruct (in the background) ... even more amazing!



(Taken in the Shipwreck museum in Freemantle)

The Alchemist

I had a read of "The Alchemist" (by Paola Choelo) recently. Well worth a read - About a guy on a journey - I'll say no more :-)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Alchemist-Paulo-Coelho/dp/0007175256/ref=pd_bbs_13/026-5744435-2518021?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1180767223&sr=8-13

Heading East 30th May 2007

After three weeks from Darwin to Perth it was time to head east. Our first stop is Adelaide. We'll try to get to Melbourne to visit Conor then ... then we'll see how far up the east coast we can get!

Four Wheel Driving in Australia

Before coming to the Kimberley we had stuck rigidly to sealed road, but to see many of the sights in the Kimberly you really need a four wheel drive and get onto some of the unsealed tracks. Now that we had a four wheel drive campervan we could and it was some some! Driving through rivers, steep hills, rocky dry river beds, sand dunes ... great craic ... and that's all before you even get to the place that you wanted to see. The portion of the Gibb River Road we were on was fairly well graded, but the track to El Questro was a little more rough and tumble. It was great practice before heading into the Bungle Bungles - 3 hours to drive 53km to the campsite! Tough driving in every condition the whole way. Great fun but you'd be tired after it. We had to engage L4 (maximum torque) several times.

Perth

Perth, the capital of Western Australia, is a nice, very clean and appanently safe town, but not particularly interesting if you're just passing through. I imagine the whole place would be great to live and work in - lots of shopping, lots of jobs. But apart from that the interesting things about Perth weren't actually in Perth - Rottnest Island and Freemantle.

Rottenest Island

Rottnest Island is a small island off the coast by Perth. The island is almost totally car free so we were able to cycle around all day.





For the first time in my life I used a tandem bike. It was great fun and worked very well. The island is full of tiny bays and beaches and was great to explore. The island is home to a strange looking rat-like animal called a 'Quokka.' I saw a few of them just sitting around eating leaves.

Giving back the camper van

We arrived in Perth after our trip to Freemantle and had to give back our camper van. I felt like we had the thing forever, but at the same time the past month seemed to fly by. Strange. It's gonna be strange to be without transport now for a while.

Freemantle

Exhausted after three weeks of driving the coast to Albany we were faced with a dilemma - On to see the 'super pit' in Kalgoorie-Boulder, or head to the sleepy, happy town of Freemantle, near Perth, for some R&R. Kalgoorie was going to be 1200km round trip and we had two days to do it - "Not gonna happen" - So we headed to Freemantle. A nice little town, with a lot of character. It's older than Perth and one of the oldest settlements in Western Australia, so that meant, for the first time in ages, there were old buildings. This gave the place a sense of age. It has a beach, walking streets, cool markets - the type of place weekending Perthonians (?) go. I was relaxing and a nice end to having the camper van.

The End of the World

We made a quick stop at Australia's most south westerly point. The Indian and Southern oceans meet here and the waves are massive. It had a real penilsula Ireland feel about it and very nice.

The Pinnacles

Before Perth we made a stop at the Pinnacles Desert near Cervantes. This was an errie quiet place with just hundred of tall pinnacles of rock sticking out of the sand. Strange! Didn't keep us very long though!

Valley of the Giants and The Tree Top Walk

Deep in the heart of Tall Timber Country in the southwest is one of the last remaining Tingle forests in the world and grows in only a very narrow range in the south-west of Australia. Again, this is nothing like your typical picture of the country as it is covered with huge, tall Tingle and Jarrah forests that reach heights of over 60 meters. the Gloucester tree was once example. The tree top walk here in the Valley of the Giants is a series of suspended bridges weaving around one of these forests up to a heights of about 40 meters. Its a lot of fun and has some amazing views of the places. It really gives you s better sense of the size of these monster trees.







Since the climate doesn't seem too dissimilar to home I decided to buy some Tingle and Jarrah seeds and do my own gardening experiment when I get back. We also visited a furniture craft store near Pemberton - the wood from the Jarrah tree is a beautiful deep red color and makes great furniture.

The Gloucester Tree

In the national park near Pemberton we went to see the Gloucester tree. This is a huge 61 meter tall Karri tree which is even tall for tall timber country. This tree has been used as a fire lookout tree for years now so you're able to climb it! It was scary stuff. You're climbing a near verticle ladder of steel rods the whole way up. Althoug I have to admit the view at the top is pretty amazing. Great fun - I think I'm gradually conquering my fear of heights ;-)

Ngili Cave

There's lots and lots of caves here in the southwest, but we only picked one to have a look at. No particular reason why we chose Ngili cave. Very nice, but we've lots of the same at home. Still lovely though.

Quote of the week, while we were on tour in Kalbarri:

Tourist: "Is there any crocodiles in here?"
Tour Guide: "No, I wouldn't worry - all the sharks have eaten them."

Margaret River Region

We passed though the Margaret River region on our way through the south west. A really nice place and not you typical picture of Australia at all. It looks more like the west of Ireland than the west of Australia - Green fields, little farms, lots of rain (it's wintertime here now). Not too cold yet though, but a lot colder than up north. It was 35C in Broome and now it's dropped 10C to a chilly 25C here - Brrrrrrr!.

Margaret River produces a lot of wine and we passed lots and lots of rolling vineyards on the hills. Various people we'd met as we worked our way down south had suggested their favorite vineyards so we had a list prepare - So we spent a few days driving around tasting wine and cheese ... A little like that film 'Sideways', ... I have learned many, many new adjetives.

Kalbarri

We liked Kalbarri so much we decided to stay a few days. Lots to do around here and amazing scenery. We took a day trip up to the gorges in the national park, which has some famous sights to see - Natures window and the z-bend. Pretty cool - nice to have a break from the driving!

Finlay's Barbeque

"You have to go to Finlay's Barbeque" we were told by everyone we met coming up the coast. So we did. Eating out hasn't really been an option for us in Australia but we said we'd try it this once since it was supposed to be so special. It was really cool! Everyone sitting outside. Roaring fire. Everyone sitting around the fire talking afterwards. The food was beautiful. I had Barramundi and Nici had the steak. The whole place is set in an old ice works in Kalbarri and it's all run by just two people (even though it's quite big). A great night, and it's BYO.

Hutt River Principality

This was a real oddity on the way down the coast - The Hutt River Principality. Back in the 1960's the owner of the land here was having some pretty tough quotas put on his crop production. In response, the owner, who is a pretty smart individual, managed to root out some really old legal technicalities in the Treason Act allowing him to 'cede' from the commonwealth. The land is now technically a separate country. A few years later, just to cement his claim to soverignty, he sent a telegram to the Australian government declaring war and quickly followed it up saying that military action had ceased. The government, of course, got a great laugh out of this. But a week later he sent them another note informing the government that under law a claim to soverignty, emergining from a state of war undefeated must be recognised as a state. Very clever!



We were able to get our passports stamped, go to his post office, buy stamps, get currency and I even met Prince Leonard himself!!!

Feeding the Pelicans

I'd never seen a pelican before - Wow they're huge birds! In Kalbarri every morning they come ashore to be fed. Interesting.

Shell Beach

This was an unusual stop on our way out of Monkey Mia - Shell Beach. The beach you see in the picture isn't really a beach - more like rock and entirely made from shells. The place had a really quiet errie feel to the place. The water that meets the beach is only about 10cm deep for about a kilometer out, so there's no waves and no life.

Monkey Mia

We weren't sure whether it would be worth stopping at the Monkey Mia Dolphin Reserve or not, but we were definitely glad we did. The dolphins were amazing and they comeso close to you! Great Fun!

Ningaloo Reef

We made a quick stop in Coral Bay to take a look at the Ningaloo Reef - Western Australia's answer to the Great Barrier Reef. Very nice, although I was beginning to with I had done my PADI diving course in Thailand now as to see all the really colourful one we'd have to had dived 25 meters down. Still though I was able to get to some nice shots and video.

Down the Mid-west 11th- May 2007

After Broom we left the Kimberley and headed down through the Mid-west towards Perth. The distances here become huge and we'd easily clock up 1000km in a days driving at times. Stops included Coral Bay, Monkey Mia, Kalbarri, Cervantes, Hutt River Principality. ... Plenty to keep us occupied.

Preying Mantis

I was leaning over a railing when this guy walking by says, "Hey, buddy, watch out for the preying mantis there." Hanging off the railing under my arm was this huge thing ...

Emus

We saw our first wild, fully grown Emu today, although not exactly in the place we wanted to. One ran across the road in front of us while we were driving down the highway. We barely missed him! An impressive animal though - taller than the van!

Lizards

There was a huge lizard strolling through the caravan park in El Questro. Got some good shots ...

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Our Camper Van

The campervan we had to bring us from Darwin to Perth was pretty good (when it wasn't broken down :-) ). You can see it kitted out below - Kitchen, tables, chairs, tent, ... A lot of fun and would love to own one. Although a few people we met on our travels had converted old buses into campervan. I thought this was a great idea and really cheap too!

Road Trains

Finally got a snap of a road train, and this isn't even the biggest you can get. So big that they can take up to quarter of a mile to stop.

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Cable Beach

Cable Beach in Broome. I think it got it's name because the telegraph cable, connecting Australia with the rest of the world, used to surface here.

... nice beach ...

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Wolfe Creek

I still haven't seen the film 'Wolfe Creek' and by the sounds of it I'm probably better of not until I've finished travelling through the Kimberley.

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The Bungle Bungles

The Bungle Bungles in Purnululu national park were definitely one of the highlights of Australia so far. It a mountain range of huge beehive shaped sandstone mountains and the tough 50km dirt track into the park is definitely worth the effort.

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From Australia, Th...

Cathedral Gorge

Walking into the range there's an amazing gorge called cathedral gorge. Just look at the pool at the end.

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Echidna Chasm

Another half hour drive around to the other side of the range is Echidna Chasm. This is really strange - a giant, but really narrow chasm carved into the mountain. It was like something from an Indiana Jones movie.

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From Australia, Th...

From Australia, Th...

El Questro

We visited El Questro, a wilderness park with lots of gorges and walk in The Kimberley, just a little bit down the Gibb River Road. It was really, really nice so we spent two full days here, but if we had had more time we could have spent a week. Have a look at some of the spots below.

Champagne Springs

The 11km round trip hike to Champagne springs was amazing. We left at the crack of dawn so we still managed to see some of the wildlife too. About ten minutes into the walk we came across some kangaroos in the bush. About 10 of them jumped up and started running off into the distance. The springs at the end are a well deserved swim!

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Zebedee Springs

These were a hot springs, permanently at about 32C. I had a bath here for about an hour one morning.


Emma Gorge

An amazing gorge in the middle of the Kimberley.

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From Australia, Th...

Watch out for those Horses!

Yes, the horse is officially the most deadly animal in Australia, killing an average of 21 people a year! ... scary to think that these killing machines are allowed to wander freely in many estates back in Ireland as we speak!

The Gibbs River Road

The Gibb river road is a huge 600-700km road cutting through the Kimberly. We took a short excursion on it to get to El Questro, before back tracking to the highway. Even though it's a couple of hundred Kms shorter than the highway, it's definitely not a short cut to Broome and can get fairly hairy in part as the entire road is unsealed. That said, if we were going to try and visit all the major sights in the Kimberley, driving this road would be a must.

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Lake Argyle

Just outside Kununurra we made a stop at Lake Argyle. This lake was created back in the 1960's by placing a little dam on the river Ord. The backed up water created lake argyle and is now the largest man made lake in the world. It only took one wet season to fill - which might give you some idea of the ridiculous amount of rain which drops here during the wet season.

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From Australia, Th...

Cane Toads

Cane toads aren't native to Australia, but since they were introduced they have totally infested the country. They were even offering a beer for each one caught at one point in the Northern Territory! I'm not sure if this is a picture of one that I got here, but it probably is ...

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Boab Trees

As you enter the Kimberly area you begin to see lot of Boab trees. These are fat stumpy looking trees that almost appear upside down, and totally stand out among the landscape. The Aborigines have a legend that says the Boab was once a very arrogant tree and God turned it upside down to teach it a lesson in humility. Very interestingly, the only other place in the world where this tree grows is in parts of Africa and the tribes there have an identical legend!

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Onto the Kimberly (3rd-23rd May 2007)

After returning for the Red Center we spent one more day in Darwin before heading west. Over the border, into Western Australia, we enter the Kimberley - a huge area about the size of Poland but the population of Clonmel. We spent a week here exploring. We headed to Kununnura, El Questro on the Gibbs River road, off road to the Bungle Bungles and finishing at Broome in the west Kimberly.

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Burning the Bush

When driving around the topend we've notice lots of bush fires. Interestingly these aren't wild fires but set very deliberately. Aboriginies have burnt the bust each year for thousands of years to make the land more passable, make hunting easier, and prevent wild fires at a later stage. The Australians continue this practice now in the top end.

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Uranium Mines

In the northeast of Kakadu is a large uranium mine. It's got some of the largest deposits of uranium in the world. The radiation effects of the uranium in ore form are not so obvious unless several generations of people end up living here. We went to see some rock art at Nourlangie Rock in Kakadu and interestingly some of the paintings showed people with swolen joints - one of the symptoms of the radiation poisioning here!

Elliot

We had to stop in Elliot (another tiny dustbowl town) to camp for the night on the way back. I found the bar there quite funny. If you look at the picture below you'll see lots of sheets of paper pinned to the wall. Each one has the name of a person, how long they are barred for and what they did!

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I also liked the spear he had up on the wall. Check out the eyesight ...

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The Tropic of Capricorn

We had to stop here - The Tropic of Capricorn. Technically we were crossing over here from the desert red center the tropical top end. A little bit of novelty.

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From Australia, Re...

Wildlife

Unlike anywhere else I'd been, the wildlife really rules here in Australia. No humans around to frighten them off. When you're walking around here you really do see Kangaroos and Lizards and Dingoes. When we got out from a swim in Kakadu there was a huge monitor Lizard walking on our stuff! Walking through the Olgas we saw two kangaroos hopping down one of the domes! When we were in Kings Canyon a frightened Kangaroo hopped by right in front of us. We saw why a couple of minutes later when we spotted a Dingo about 20 meters away! This is all very, very cool - I love it so long as I don't come face to face with anything dangerous ;-)

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From Australia, Re...

From Australia, Re...

Devil's Marbles

This was an interesting diversion to pull off the road for - "The Devils Marbles". Huge boulders just lying at the side of the road. A welcome break from flat, endless bush.

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Wycliff Well

One of the oddest stop on the Stuart Highway - "Wycliff Well" This town has the highest number of reported UFO sightings in the country. The roadhouse here has been quick to cash in on this little quirk. Of course the sightings have nothing to do with the fact that the bar here also has the largest selection of beers in the country also.

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From Australia, Re...

Driving in Oz

We clocked up about 4500Km in our 8 day round trip to the Red Center and back. I'll never complain again about a quick trip to Dublin and back again. The distances involved here are phenomenal, although with a 130kmph speed limit (none existed until recently) you can make short work of the kilometers. We only drove during daylight (7:30am - 5:30pm) - Once the sun sets all the kangaroos come out onto the road looking for food.

Huge road trains about four trucks long motor along the highway. You'll spend long portions of your journey driving on the right overtaking theses monsters. They take about half a kilometer to stop sometimes ... hence the amount of road kill on the highways here. There's no point in a road train stopping for a kangaroo on the road, and since they're build like tanks it only feels like a bump. Driving in the morning you'll see lots of freshly dead kangaroos still in rigor mortis (sorry for putting that beautiful image in your head).

When we rented the car for the red center we were restricted to driving on sealed roads only (boo hoo), I'll have to wait a while to see what the 4WD tracks are like ;-).

Nothing ... Not a thing

Probably one of the remote places I've ever been. The Northern Territory has a population of about 200,000 (only 1% of the population of Australia). Half of these people live in Darwin. Another massive chunk is in Alice springs, and the tiny percentage that's left is distributed throughout a state bigger than Gemany and France put together. Driving at times can get lonely where you won't pass a car on the Highway for half an hour or so. If you're going off on any of the 4WD tracks you still have to inform the police because if you break down there, someone else mightn't pass you on the road for another week! When you look at a map of the Territory you could be easily fooled into thinking there's lots of towns on the road. In reality these "Towns" are nothing more than a petrol station and you'll easily drive over 500km at a time before passing through another town. Adding to the lack of population is the sameness of the landscape. For hundreds and hundreds of kilometers along the highway is simply flat, unchanging bush that gradually gets redder and more desertlike as you approach the center. The drive down was a pretty unique experience and we definitely wouldn't have gotten the same feel for the place had we flown to Yulara.

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King's Canyon

This was a real surprise of our Red Center trip. Apart from reading the guide book, I hadn't heard of King's Canyon before coming to Australia. We arrived at the canyon at about 7a.m. and did a walk around the rim of the canyon. There's an amazing landscape here. The canyon itself is spectacular, especially when the sun lights up the wall of the canyon. Also, around the rim are hundreds of weathered sandstone domes, making the place look like some sort of lost city. I think this is one of these "must sees" in the area. Really liked it.

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From Australia, Re...

From Australia, Re...

You can see in some of the photos that we're wearing pants and fleeces - Even though it was sunny, it had gottten quite cold in the desert ... the temperature had gone down to 15c at night and about 21c during the day at one point.

Kata Tuta (The Olgas)

While Uluru won the competition of having the best view from a distance, Kata Tuta (or "The Olgas") was definitely far more interesting to explore up close. We took the "valley of the winds walk". It was great. The Olgas are actually taller and bigger than Ayers rock and are only a short distance away from each other. Well worth the trip. You can just about see both Ayers rock and the Olgas in the picture below.

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From Australia, Re...

Uluru (Ayers Rock)

The centerpiece of the Red Center trip, but different to what I'd expected. Uluru is best seen from a distance and it's where you're most rewarded. We went to the viewing point for sunset. It was a cloudy evening and we though we weren't going to see the full effects but fortunately things cleared at just the right moment. Definitely well worth the wait - it looked spectacular and changed through all sorts of colours as the sun set.

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From Australia, Re...

Alice Springs

The town seemed like an oasis in the middle of the desert when we arrived. Very nice town. We camped here for the night before we toured the relatively nearby sights (Uluru is still 500km away from here) and stocked up on supplies. Almost 20% of the population of the territory lives here and it only has 30,000 people!!!

Larrimah

We were running out of daylight fast so we pulled into the tiny town of Larrimah to pitch our tent for the night. At the bar there the owner was asking where we were from. "Co. Limerick - oh, Paddy's from there" he said. What a coincidence. We got chatting to this guy Paddy later in the evening. He was 62, from Abbeyfeale, and had emigrated to Australia on one of those $10 visas way back in 1968. He had totally lost the accent and he was really interested to hear about home - he'd only been back once in the 40 years. He had spent years moving cattle across from Broome and eventually he stopped in the Larrimah area where he's retired now. ... the Irish turn up in the strangest of places.

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Camping It

Now that we had a car at our disposal we could easily reach all the campsites. Quite a nice way to get around and definitely cheaper - sometimes its free even depending on the site you choose and the few dollars you pay is definitely worth it to get a shower and the use of a kitchen - We finally had our first open air "Barbie"

Alice Blue

We rented a car for the trip down to the Red Center and shared the costs with two other girls we met in the hostel. The girls quickly name the car "Alice Blue". Really comfy, 2.3litre monster of a car (Toyota Camry) - Great for the long journey we had ahead.

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To The Red Center (25th April - 1st May 2007)

After the Kakadu trip our next destination was to the "Red Center", deep in the south of the Northern Territory, to see Uluru (Ayers Rock), Kata Tuta (The Olgas), King's Canyon and whatever else looked interesting along the way. We rented a car for what was going to be a mammoth 4500km trip!

Didgeridoos

We all got to try out some Didgeridoos on our last morning in Kakadu. It was tricky to get the right sound out of it. Harder still was getting the hang of "circular breathing" - breathing out with your mouth and in through your nose at the same time. It allows you to keep making the sound without taking a break. I didn't quite get the hang of it yet, but I had fun trying.

Aboriginal Spears

The campsite we stayed in on our last night was run by an Aboriginal man called Johnny - Although he has now gotten himself the nickname of "Hollywood" because of his recent appearances on Animal Planet. He was quite a character and a great story teller. He spent some time showing us how to throw an aboriginal spear. Slightly different to a normal spear, it has an extra bit at the throwing end similar to a sling - it allows you get more power into it. Here's Nici trying to throw under Johnny's instruction ...

"The Castle"

We did a nice hill climb in Kakadu up a hill they call "The Castle". There's nothing particularly amazing about it, but at the same time I really liked it. Kakadu is full of places like this. I think you could spend years in the park exploring. There was also some rock art on the way up.

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From Australia, To...

Rock Art

The Aborigines have been in Australia for 20,000 years and they've been painting for just as long. We were shown a few rock art sites. The ones at Nourlangie rock were particularly nice. Some were used for decoration, some tell stories, but interestingly they were also used for education. Some of the pictures of the Kangaroos for example so their insides and colour code their muscles to show what the tastiest parts were.

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The Wilderness Adventures Gang

Here's all our group from Kakadu ...

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Sunset in Kakadu

Quite a nice sunset in Kakadu on our second night ...

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Beware of Croc Signs

The beware of crocodile signs are everywhere now in Kakadu. Ever since a German woman was taken by a saltwater crocodile in 2002 the rangers decided to put these signs everywhere regardless of whether it was possible for a croc to come into the pool or not. We simply took the advice of our guide as to whether to swim or not. It felt pretty adventurous swimming in a pool with a "Beware of Crocodiles" sign beside it.

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Katherine Gorge

This was a little bit of a disappointment. Katherine gorge is marked as a "Must See" in Australia, but it didn't seem that way. We got ferried down 2 of the 12 (?) gorges over the course of 2 hours. It was okay. It think if I was back there I'd like to do the 66km gorge walk that takes you through all the gorges along the rim on foot. Still, despite my complaining it did look nice in parts.

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Rock Holes

Every day we'd find a rock hole to go swimming in. Our guide knew all the good, safe rock holes. They're were a really welcome break from the heat here. Most had a waterfall too. There was one where you'd swim over to the waterfall and sit under it - the water was so strong you'd get a lovely massage.

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From Australia, To...

From Australia, To...

Termite Mounds

You'll see termite mounds everywhere here in norther territory. Some grow to be over twice my height. The "Magnetic Mounds" all line up in a north south direction in order to avoid the hottest sun. They're quite a strange sight to see.

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Croc Cruise

One of our first stops on our top end tour was to Adelaide river to see the saltwater crocodiles that they had there. The saltwater crocs are the dangerous ones and there's over 4000 in this river. The guide drove around the river feeding them for us to see. Pretty amazing to see how agressive they get sometimes, and these were only the female crocs. The two male crocs in this stretch of river didn't come out for us, but they're supposed to be way bigger. (One of them is called Hannibal, I found it quite funny). Here's just a few shots of them below ...

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From Australia, To...

From Australia, To...

Top end Touring 21st-24th April 2007

After a few days of settling into Australia we headed off on a tour of Litchfield, Katherine and Kakadu. Plenty of climbing, swimming, crocs, Aboriginal culture, etc. There was a group of 9 plus a tour guide - lots of fun :-)