Exmouth to Geraldton

As it was such a long distance to Monkey Mia we broke up the journey by making our way 370 km south to Carnarvon (yes, this is spelt correctly as the Ozzies have dropped the e from the Welsh spelling) for the night, deciding to stay in the town rather than use a free stop.  As we travelled south we came to a sign proclaiming that we had just crossed over the Tropic of Capricorn, not wanting to be outdone and because Emma is a Capricorn, she got me to take her picture next to the sign, oh so touristy.

Carnarvon has a long history in Australian terms being one of the first places to be settled in these parts and it played a major role in the export of cattle, only evident now by its now disused railway and the one mile long jetty which was built to herd cattle to waiting ships.  That night whilst we were cooking some dinner we spotted George, who we had met at a campsite way back in Katherine.  When you think of the distances here and all the campsites and places, it was quite some odds that we had bumped into him again.  We should have put some money on the lottery that night.

On leaving Carnarvon we spotted a large satellite dish on the side of what seemed to be only hill in the area.  Disused, but able to drive up to it and curious we took a detour to see if we could get a closer look.  The dish as it turned out had a very famous past not only being involved in the first country to country television broadcast (with Goonhilly in Cornwall) but also was used by N.A.S.A as a tracking station during the Apollo missions to the moon.  Most of the site is closed to the public but they have secured funds to turn it into a museum and visitor centre.  We had a look around at what we could, took yet more pictures and continued our journey.

Monkey Mia was 160 km off the main road, the most westerly point in Australia and is world renowned for its dolphins.  For the past 40 years a group of 15 to 20 dolphins have come to the beach to be fed by the rangers.  And so at 8am every morning a presentation is put on where the dolphins swim into the knee deep water, whilst throngs of people stand in the water with them and watch them, with a lucky few being randomly picked to feed the smiling group a fish (the dolphins not the crowd).  There are three separate feedings that take place anytime between 8am and 12 noon but more often than not they are all within the hour as they are fed when the dolphins are ready not when the crowds are.  There are also only five of the dolphins that are fed, all females and no babies and they are identified by their fins.  We watched the first feeding at 8am from afar on the jetty as there were too many people trying to get up close in the water, so as soon as the dolphins had finished eating and swam away everyone left.  Sensing it wouldn’t be long before the next feeding we decided to wait, which paid off as within 10 minutes the dolphins were back with their mates and loads of babies and most of the crowds had departed.

So this time we got into the water to look at these beautiful creatures.  As they swam up and down the shore, they would cock their heads to the side lifting one eye out of the water so that they can look at you and see what’s going on.  Once the buckets of fish are brought out the nominated dolphins come in and wait patiently to be fed.  The three rangers then went about randomly picking people out of the crowd, having already pre-warned us that anyone who sticks their hand up in a school boy type way (please miss pick me) are automatically not selected.  We both stood looking at the spectacle and taking photos when the ranger closest to me shouts out “Man in the grey hoody” (yes, like the wannabe youff that I am I have taken to wearing hoodys and am hoping to receive my first ASBO imminently) “What me Miss?”  I waded out and was given the fish and then I presented it to my dolphin.  She swam a few cms closer and without grabbing, gently took it from my hand whilst looking at me.  There are amazing creatures with clearly more going on in their heads than can be said for most people who come from Essex.

  Monkey Mia is set up as a resort and not only caters for the campers, but also backpackers and those wanting hotel style accommodation.  On the site shop and restaurant they had a sign saying no rip-off prices.  Ever since we left Darwin the prices of everything have been astronomical.  Now I understand that they have to truck this stuff nearly 4000 km but £5.00 for a tin of corn beef rather than £1.50 is pushing it a bit.  Fuel has also fluctuated greatly in price with the more isolated places charging 50p more per litre than the rest.  Western Australia is not a cheap place at the best of times and this is only made worse with the current exchange rates but as soon as you move away from the larger conurbations the costs go through the roof.

After a couple of days enjoying the beautiful scenery and relaxation the place has to offer, it was time to leave Monkey Mia and head back to the main highway.  Around 15km before reaching it we spotted a brown sign saying “Stromatalites” and as it was only a 5km detour we thought we would give it a go.  Stratomatalites are living rock formations created in special high salt areas which are formed by bacteria.  They believe that not only are they the oldest living organism on the planet but also what kick-started life on the planet as they produce oxygen.  To protect these rock formations they had built a raised walkway over the water with an amusing storyboard telling you all about what you were seeing.  Although to the unknowing eye they did just look like rocks, if you looked closely you could see the oxygen bubbles coming up and it was quite incredible to think that they have been around for millions of years.

Our next stop was Kalbarri National Park and our first encounter with impressive sea cliffs on this coast line.  For nearly 2000 km the coast has been beautiful beaches bordered by low red rock, now for a short distance there were high sandstone cliffs towering over the Indian Ocean and massive breaking waves carving out incredible rock formations and shapes.  WA has nearly 14,000 km of coast much of it inaccessible but all of it unique to both Australia and some of it to the world.  Almost as soon as it had began the cliffs soon gave way to massive sand dunes, most vegetated that penetrated deep inland.

Rather than taking the main highway we took the tourist route that skimmed the coast and as we came out of a another small fishing village we spotted the pink lake!  This lake is trapped behind the sand dunes therefore shielded from the sea and the water is tainted by naturally occurring beta carotene (the chemical that makes carrots orange).  The effect is best observed through sun glasses but still an odd sight to see.

Back onto the main highway we made our way towards Northampton, the scenery suddenly changed again over the crest of a hill from flat scrubland/desert to rolling green countryside, with fields and hedgerows not dissimilar to what you might find in Sussex and the only clue that you are not in Sussex being the sight of the sun and the red soil edges to the roads.

Our stay that night was to be in Geraldton, a large grain port supporting the farms in the area.  With a population of 65,000 we had forgotten what traffic and large numbers of people looked like and we were caught a little off guard when we entered the town.  Being much larger than Darwin and any place we had been so far down the west coast, it gave us a taste of what was to come