Kalgoorlie-Boulder

It's funny how things tend to work themselves out. Earlier in our trip we had decided to skip a trip to Kalgoorlie-Boulder due to lack of time. It turned out that on the train to Adelaide we got to stop there for a few hours and get a quick bus tour around there. The star attraction is the "Superpit" - the largest opencut gold mine in the world. The pictures I got were at night, so they didn't come out that well, but even from looking at it, it's difficult to appreciate the size of the thing. The trucks used in the pit are the size of a 4 storey building so looking at it from a distance your entire sense of scale messed up. The pit was 4X1.5ish kms and half a km deep and is set to double in size before 2017 when its life comes to an end. Wow!

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)

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.