Geraldton to Freemantle

Geraldton was another spot where we could do some jobs including publishing some blogs.  Internet access out here is almost none existent or extremely expensive with us having to wait to find cheaper internet cafes in the larger towns.  We also took the opportunity whilst we were here to send some equipment back to the UK that we were either not using anymore or had never used.  My dear travelling companion had vetted everything I had brought with me before we left, however I still managed to get what I believed to be a few essential items through the cordon, with the warning words “I bet we won’t use that”.  Well with 5kg of gear being posted back to the UK she was right and earns her self a nice meal in the restaurant of her choice (on the promise that we never talk of it again).

It may be just in this part of Australia but I keep thinking we have travelled back in time to the 1980’s.  Everything from the car design, the use of CB radio (granted it is essential out here), the meat based food, the clothing style right through to the music on the radio is all about the 80’s.  They also seem to have a far more cultural connection with the USA rather than Europe or with England, which is ironic bearing in mind Australia’s colonial history.  The northern part of WA is a rugged and at times, hostile place and it would take a certain type of person to live and work this part of the world, but it does seem to be stuck in a time that’s passed and reluctant to move forward.  It will certainly be interesting to see how Perth and the places nearby fare.

The Australians attitude to food appears to be more means value.  From supermarkets to restaurants the portion sizes are huge and they seem to be sliding the same way as the Americans in terms of the way they eat.  Fast food is definitely king with chips, pies and fried chicken everywhere.  Meat is very good quality but is sold in very large quantities at rock bottom prices.  Of course they also love their seafood and pretty much will eat anything that comes out of the sea, and a lot of it self caught by the numbers of people we have seen fishing, but this does not seem to be helping with the obesity problem which is evident.  This is surprising because compared with the UK these guys love the outdoors and the associated activities and appear to be out of the house most of the time, so lack of exercise doesn’t seem to be the problem.  

After completing our jobs, we left Geraldton listening to 80’s rock music (heaven) and singing along to songs from Fame (Emma’s idea).  Once again we headed for the coast road and an endless stream of small fishing/seaside resorts which for a Friday seemed strangely deserted with most of the houses looking like they had not been lived in for months.  We guessed that these were mainly holiday homes and being a weekday in winter, these places probably don’t come alive for another few months yet.  On top of the existing empty homes, most of the places also had large new developments of  houses being built, again we guessed as holiday homes for the wealthy residents of Perth.  Whilst passing one of these small seaside resorts, surveying the lay of the land and driving at exactly 100km/hr (our fuel saving speed) a passing car kicked up a rock making a 2 cm chip in the windscreen.  Bugger, the terms of the van rental means ANY damage whether it windscreen or flat tyre or even accident is to be fixed at our cost.  Thankfully, we were only a day away from reaching the suburbs of Perth so at least we will have a fighting chance at getting it fixed at a semi-reasonable cost.

So far on this journey the weather has been fabulous with fairly consistent highs of late twenties or earlier thirties and night time lows in the early twenties.  As we have travelled down, most days there has not been a cloud in the sky, however as predicted by everyone we have met heading north this would be the point it would start getting colder.  The day time temp started to dip although still sunny and as we moved further south each day it would drop further by a few degrees.  This wasn’t so bad in the day, however it was the nights that we started to notice it more.  Due to the clear skies, the night time temp started to plummeting to as low as four degrees one night, which is not fun in a none insulated, none heated van.  The van comes with sleeping bags and by wearing everything we own we can just make it through the night, but boy is it cold.

We eventually got to the end of the coastal road and our final brown sign experience for this stretch of the trip - the Pinnacle Desert.  We have spoken a lot about the guide books we have been using (Lonley Planet Guide) and how in some cases it has over exaggerated the must sees.  Well this time, in our opinion, it had completely understated the visual experience that this natural wonder would serve up and is definitely on our must see list for Australia. 

All the pictures we had seen advertising the Pinnacle Desert showed a empty landscape with a few monolithic stones standing in the sand.  As we pulled into the car park the sight that was presented to us was not a few, but hundreds of small rocks dotted around the scene and this wasn’t even in the park.  We paid our park fees and the ranger gave us a map showing the hiking trails and a 4km off road tour.  With the rangers words ringing in our ears “You should be ok as long as you drive slowly” we didn’t hesitate and went straight for the off road route.  We followed the signs and as the tarmac road petered out we crested a brow of a small hill to be presented with not 10, not even hundreds, but thousands of various sized monolithic stones all standing in a vast desert.  We drove the route taking pictures and generally gawping at the sight that revealed itself.  We made it back to the carpark with no dramas and went straight on the hiking trail to enjoy the place up close and personal and to take far too many pictures as every angle was a photo opportunity.  They are still not sure how these stones were created and they have several theories, but our favourite is that its an old petrified forest as most of the rock lumps do look like tree trunks or have bark looking shapes on the faces of the columns.

  After spending nearly three hours at the Pinnacle Desert, we drove 16km back the way we had come to stay in another small coastal town called Cervantes.  It was a Saturday night so we hoped that with the campsite being in the middle of town and near the beach we might be able to find a pub to sit and while away a few hours.  We parked up and I went for a walk in search of an alcohol establishment.  After walking along the sea front and not finding anything but houses, I turned inland and followed a sign for the town centre.  I shortly arrived at what looked like a typical UK housing estate shopping arcade and just on the side was the local pub.  Clearly only frequented by locals and the sound of breaking glass, our Saturday night was spent in the van dancing along to the sounds of the 80’s on the radio whilst cooking sausages, mash and carrots and consuming a newly opened box of red wine under the gentle glow of torch light (how romantic!)

Next day we drove the remaining 250 km to Perth, and as we entered the city limits the odometer read 6695 km (4185 miles) since we had started in Darwin 27 days ago (yes, we do need our heads testing).  

We made our way a little further south of the city to a very famous town called Fremantle. 

The eagle eyed amongst you may remember that we still have a week to go before we are due to hand the van back and then 4 days in Perth after that, so with time on our hands and not feeling we had got our moneys worth out of the unlimited mileage clause we made plans to spend the last week touring the south of WA.  Due to recommendations from friends (hi Sally & Chris) we were hoping to reach Margaret River (a famous Australian Wine region), Augusta and the most southerly location we would be able to reach in the time, Albany.

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

Karratha to Exmouth

The journey from Perth to Darwin is a popular tourist route this time of year with people who live in the cold, wet south coming to holiday in the hotter and dryer north (both still technically in winter).  The campsites have been heaving with 4x4, caravans and campervans, with mostly retired Australians (The grey nomads) and a few adventurous Europeans, but interestingly no Americans?  The touring crowd are a extremely friendly bunch and whenever we pull in to a camp, someone always says hi and asks how we are going.  So when they then realise we are Pommes, well that’s it for half an hour while they ask all about you, where you are going and often give good advice on paces to see.

I have to say that so far the Australians are some of the friendliest people we have ever met and if asked would do anything for you.  Whether its being served in a shop or walking around the place they will always say hello and have a chat and a joke.  As you drive the roads the touring crowd will wave acknowledging fellow travellers.  The people here are such a change from not only Asia but the UK as well.

Avid readers of our blog will know that I have been looking for new career opportunities and the whole nomadic lifestyle has give us a spark.  Instead of working full time trying to pay a mortgage and council tax, the idea is that we sell up and buy a caravan and tour the UK staying wherever we chose.  To bring in money to feed ourselves and to put fuel in our very large 4x4 we would set up a business tarmacing peoples drives or selling lucky charms.  Not sure its been done before in the UK, but if it works it could catch on!

We left Karratha and headed for Exmouth only 570 km down the coast, but a whopping 370 km detour off the main road and our biggest driving day so far.  Exmouth is a mid sized town that sits on a peninsula with the local area being home to a number of military installations and listening posts and its main draw, the Cape Range National Park and Ningaloo Marine Park.

We pulled into Exmouth late in the day after several fuel stops and headed for the first campsite close to the centre of town.  I jumped out to see if they had a space and to book us in.  The site was large with a lot of very good facilities and with no free camping allowed in the national park it soon became clear that this private site had capitalised on this by hiking up the prices.  During the overly complicated booking in process, the lady serving me asked me what type of vehicle I had.  I responded by saying we were in a small campervan.  “Its not a Wicked Van is it?” she queried.  “No, why?”.  “We don’t let them into the park as we have a lot of families staying here, we don’t want those type of people” she sneered.  Just to explain, the Wicked rental vans are catering for the budget end of the market and are often popular with younger European backpackers who are on very limited budgets, but from what we’ve seen from the Wicked crowd, they are no less respectful of others, but clearly not in this campsites eyes.  Thinking nothing more of it we went to find our spot which turned out to be between a young couple sleeping on the ground in sleeping bags with no tent and with their stuff everywhere (a complete eyesore) and a guy sleeping in his pickup truck with his music playing so loud that myself and Emma could not speak to each other.  This obviously was acceptable to the campsite and I’m sure it is just a coincidence but both parties were Australian!

We quickly decided to go for a walk to check out the facilities and to get away from the music.  Everywhere we looked there seemed to be signs telling you what you could and could not do “Do not shower for longer than 3 minutes”, “Do not make any noise after 22:00”, “Do not have any fun or enjoy our site in anyway”.  I would understand if this was an expensive hotel, but it was a plot of grass with a toilet in the middle.  If there had been a sign above the entrance saying Welcome to Colditz I would not have been surprised.  To top it off they had a complicated security system which we had to pay a $20 deposit for.  The only access to the site was via a key card barrier, ironic when the site was surrounded by a 30cm high rope which could be easily stepped over or cut to drive your van out!

After another hour of the music (the selection wasn’t bad actually, it was just the volume) I had enough and went to complain to the camp commandant.  A few moments later the problem was fixed and the music was turned down for him!  With hindsight, we should have actually cracked open a few tinnies and gone and started a party…..that would have been one up the establishment.  The final indignation was next morning when Colditz closed all the toilets so that they could be cleaned.  It was 9:00am just when people were getting up and ready to leave for bang on 10am (else you wouldn’t get your deposit back!!!).

We always try to visit the local tourist information centres as they are always useful places to gather leaflets and find out what’s going on in the area.  Exmouth’s info centre also had a list of all the local tours in the area and the ability to book them there and then.  Ningaloo Marine Park is famous for its coral reef and its abundant sea life due to its geology.  The continental shelf is only a few hundred meters off the shore which allows a lot of the deep water sea life to come very close to shore.  So wanting to get the most out of this unique environment we booked a full day boat trip to go snorkelling, humpback whale watching and if we were lucky to actually swim with some whale sharks, the largest fish in the oceans.

Our trip was booked for the next day so we spent the rest of the day driving up the Cape Range National Park visiting amazing beaches, creeks, lagoons and mangrove swamps. 

The final stop of the day was to be the most the memorable. We pulled into a carpark around 2 km of the main road which was deserted.  As I manoeuvred the van into a parking bay, there in front of us no more than 5 feet away was a kangaroo. 

We quickly turned off the engine for fear of scaring him off and to hopefully watch him for a while.  He (could have been a she but although we were close, we weren’t that close) obviously knew we were there and he kept looking up to see what was going on, but other than that he was completely not bothered about us being there and just kept eating.  Only when we finally stepped out of the van did he move away to keep a safe distance from us. We went and explored the beach and then as we drove out of the carpark and back to the main road we counted over 25 kangaroos from fully grown adults to babies either in the road or close by.  I had always thought that kangaroos were difficult to see and that we would be very lucky to spot one, but so far on this trip they have been like rabbits and absolutely everywhere with unfortunately lots killed on the roads as well.  Fascinating creatures and very unique.

The next day as planned we were collected from our campsite (not Colditz…we found another one that was much better) and driven to the boat.  The boat carried 14 other paying customers including a single family of 8 and 6 staff to help you with your days adventure.  Realising that the family of 8 was from England we introduced ourselves and soon found out that they were from a small village 10 minutes drive from our place in MK, small world isn’t it!

Our first stop was a good spot to do some snorkelling and see the coral.  Being my first time snorkelling and in such deep water, I was a little apprehensive but everything went without a hitch, although I may not have got a 10 out 10 for style.  The boat we were on was supported by a sea plane flying the edge of the reef to try and find Humpbacks and Whale Sharks and after 30 minutes the plane radioed in that they had spotted some Humpbacks.  The boat raced along the shore to the spot and began tracking them around 50 m away, which was an amazing sight to see these massive creatures swimming along the coast.  In the end we saw around 5 Humpbacks, some very large turtles and some dolphins but no Whale Sharks.  It was right at the end of their season by about a week and none had been seen for a few days.  Needless to say, Miss Coates was very disappointed as she had been going on about swimming with the whale sharks for most of the journey down.  Alas it was not to be, but we still had a fabulous day. 

We left Exmouth to head for another marine based adventure this time at Monkey Mia some 700km down the coast and another 160 km detour of the main highway.

Broome to Karratha

We pulled into Broome around 12:00 and stopped at the tourist information centre for a break and to pick up leaflets on things to see in the area.  Helpfully, outside the centre was a list of the camp sites and their current status…all full except for 2 which were further out of town.  This was disappointing as we were hoping to be able to sample a bit of the nightlife in Broome.  So, without having much choice we took directions and raced to the first camp site, where upon the sign said “Office closed until 3pm”!  This left us a campsite called the Pistol Club which was around 10 km out of town.  The campsite was not a pleasant place and you won’t be surprised to hear that in the day time it also doubled up as a gun club with a very active (as we found out) shooting range.  This was made more unappealing by the fact it was expensive by our standards, but it was either this or a 40 km drive back out of town on the road we had just come in on to free camp.  We picked a spot, marked our territory (with our camp chairs, not by going animal) and went back into town for a look around and to do our jobs.

Broome the biggest place for nearly 1000 km and a beach bums heaven.  Cable beach is the main reason to come here and is one of the best beaches in Australia.  Relatively underdeveloped apart from a few resorts and a few nice restaurants and one very long beach where at certain times of the year you can come and watch the turtles lay their eggs. 

The architecture of the towns in this part of Australia are pretty much the same and Broome isn’t much different.  Most buildings are only one storey (I’m guessing this is to help against them being damaged in typhoon season) and are mainly made of metal giving everything quite a functional rather than stylish look. 

Whilst we were in Broome we were also hoping to catch the natural phenomenon called staircase to the moon, this being an optical illusion only visible at full moon, low tide and only certain times of the year.  This was probably why the camp sites were so full.  We had arrived on the Saturday with the first “showing” due for Monday.  Neither of us fancied waiting two days at a shooting range to see the moon play tricks with our eyes and the book suggested we may be able to catch it in other places down the coast so we decided that we would continue our journey south.

The next day we made our way south and 150 km down the coast to a campsite recommended in the book.  Barnhill was a cattle station around 10 km off the main highway and which had branched out into a caravan park due to its commanding location on the beach.  The main highway was straight and with few turn off’s, however missing the sign was still not difficult to do.  So with the un-written rule in place (don’t be gentle with a rental) we turned off onto our first un-sealed road (editors comment - if anyone from Apollo Campervans is reading this, the characters and events in this blog are purely fictitious and is hereby not admitting any liability whatsoever and in no way invalidates our rental contract with you).  We accelerated to 60km/hr to try and gently glide over the rumble strip affect created by the 4x4’s powering up and down the dirt road creating a corrugated hell hole of a road. 

Not having done this before and worrying about the rather large indemnity bond we had paid, I would slow when the vibration got to the “losing my fillings” point, at which point my side seat driver would scream at the top of her voice like a co-driver in the RAC rally “Faster….more gas!”.  It was fair to say that the vibration did seem slightly less at a faster speed. 

After what seemed like an eternity we finally pulled into the car park and could see the sea and an amazing beach, with both of us deciding at the same time to stay for a few nights rather than just the one we had planned.  As we walked up to book a camp spot, we saw an advert saying that tonight was Sunday Roast night on the bowling green!  We signed up without hesitation - the first Sunday dinner in 4 months.  So at 18:00 everyone made their way to the bowling green with their own cutlery, plates, drinks, table and chairs and they proceeded to serve up a cracking 3 course meal (the main being Roast Beef) to 150 people whilst we sat under the stars and listened to an aboriginal family band singing songs about the past and their people.  Have to say, one of the best Sunday dinners ever.

After 2 days of beach, sun and a much needed rest we left Barnhill the way we came and headed south on Highway 1.  Now an expert in driving on unsealed roads we tried another small (12km) detour to see the world famous 80 mile beach.  I’m not sure why it is called this but it seemed to go on for a very long way (I would hazard a guess at about 80 miles!) and the sight of it made us want to stop do nothing again for a while, but alas the tarmac beckoned. 

The highway trundles for nearly 570 km from Broome to Port Headland and is set back from the coast with only a handful of access points (mainly 4x4 only) taking you there to very isolated and untouched places even by Australian standards.

So, with such massive distances to travel don’t you get bored?  Well, yes you do at times but we have developed all sorts of games to while away the hours.  Our favourites are: who can save the most fuel per qtr of a tank, who can keep it dead on 100km per hr the longest and of course the obvious but never boring, Ipod Shuffle game of guess the song and artist.

The next big town we would pass on our journey was Port Headland and long before we arrived the scenery changed to much more flat desert with low grass and bush.  Along the road you can start to see the signs of the major industry in these parts, mining.  Australia is blessed with massive deposits of coal, gold, uranium and one of their biggest exports, iron ore.  As we drove towards Port Headland you could see in the distance the massive piles of ore ready to be loaded onto ships.  And how do the mines get all their ore to the docks?  By road trains, lots and lots of big heavy road trains making the road on this part of the journey far busier.  After reading the info in the book we decided not to make the 30 km detour actually into the centre of Port Headland, not wanting to share our evening with dock workers and truck drivers (not there is anything wrong with either group) and opted instead to stay 80 km south in a free rest area.

After a good nights rest, we made our way to Karratha and hopefully another chance to see the staircase to the moon.  Karratha is another large town but this time services the large oil and gas fields just off the coast.  We found a McDonalds (because they have free wifi not because of the superlative chocolate milkshakes) and checked our email and posted some blogs and after a re-supply (Emma had drunk the last box of wine and she was in need of some more) we made our way to Hersons Cove which was where we would have a final chance to see the stairway to the moon.

The beach was  a fair way out of town not far from a very large gas processing plant but it was very secluded and hoping we would not get moved on in the middle of the night we decided to camp here as this place had a toilet (pure luxury).

The staircase to the moon was due to be at its height at 20:15 and as the moon slowly rose over the horizon we had had the beach to ourselves, but within minutes of commenting on how lucky we were to be having our own personal viewing, about 20 cars turned up and a coach party joining us for the spectacle.  The illusion only works with a full moon and when the tide has gone out and thus the moons light reflects on the rippled mudflats looking like steps up to the moon.  We had finally got to see it and it did not disappoint.

The sunrise the next morning was equally impressive and due our campsite essential being the beach, we only had to open the curtains in the van to enjoy the display.

So with another 800 km under our belt we made our way to 556 km south to Exmouth.

Australia: Katherine to Broome

The big push to get us to the west coast would mean a distance of about 1600 kms, with very few things or towns to see on the way and fuel opportunities about every 250km.  This journey would take us 4 days with a couple of detours on the way.  It is advised out here that you only drive in the day due to the danger of road trains and the large amount of mammals running about at night.  On one short stretch of road early one morning we counted over 10 dead kangaroos on the side hit by passing vehicles.  When you see the size of some of these Roos it becomes very clear why you would not want to hit one and probably one of the reasons why you see bull horns (which are banned in the UK) on pretty much every vehicle out here.

The roads in this part of Australia are single carriageways even though these are the main highways, however, this is not a problem as the traffic on them is so light.  Much of the landscape is flat with low hills always in the distance and never getting closer meaning that the road is often completely straight and goes as far as the eye can see.  To the side of the road is bush with low level trees and the occasional 4x4 track leading to an outback town or cattle station.  Yet we have both been surprised at how the terrain has changed and been different to look at as we have travelled, although this is difficult to describe in words.

Katherine is big for this area and is on the crossroads for Alice Springs to the south or west for the coast and Perth.  We entered the town early and made a beeline for Katherine Gorge which is a series of 13 gorges and we had a pleasant walk to the top of one of the gorges for beautiful views on the river.  As we were driving out we had our first encounter with a living kangaroo.  It had been spooked by some walkers and was about run in front of the van.  Luckily, the furry mammal realised just in time as did the kangaroo and we both took aversive action.  Close call 1, Road kill 0.

Our visit to Katherine was also a chance to re-stock for the next long stretch.  On parking the van in a shopping centre car park you could see loads of Aboriginal people milling about or sitting around in whatever shade they could find.  This is the first time we had seen a large numbers of them in one place and it struck me how out of place they seemed.  Australia seems to be made up of two separate worlds co-existing in the same space but neither being aware of the other.  It suddenly occurred to me how we have not seen any Aboriginals and Australians interacting with each other, or any Aboriginals taking part in the more western part of their world.  They just seem to be lingering, almost like they are waiting for something or perhaps like they are watching and still trying to work it all out.  It’s a very strange sight compared to the way we are used to seeing multicultural societies interact in the UK.  I would not say it was deliberate segregation but just seems to be the way it is.

Next to the supermarket was a drive through liquor store (a common facility here) and without exaggeration most of the people going through are Aboriginals.  I think that’s why the local government have such a strict attitude to alcohol here.  In most of the parks we have visited so far, its either been illegal to drink alcohol in them or you are unable to buy any once you’re in.  In some Shires they don’t sell cask quantities of wine (wine in a box) and several liquor shops have very restricted buying times.  We have also heard local radio stations running infomercials specifically to warn Aboriginal women about the danger of drinking whilst pregnant.  Clearly, the Grog is a real problem here.

For our nights stay we found a lovely little camp site just out of town next to a old homestead that was an original settlers house.  As we relaxed into our spot and set up for the night, a family of Kangaroos came sniffing around and stood about 20m from us.  Fairly OK with the attention (them not me) I walked closer to get some pictures, later realising when looking back at them that the bigger one was actually carrying a baby in its pouch. 

Dinner tonight was to be some proper Aussie beef burgers cooked on the free BBQ provided at the campsite.  Man and fire has been synonymous for thousands of years and even if men don’t normally do the cooking, they feel qualified to cook meat on an open fire.  Aussies are world renowned for their BBQ’s and as you would expect these facilities were gas powered behemoths.  I walked up and pressed the starter button, then waved my hands over the hotplate like a magician performing a trick….nothing.  Not wanting to return to the van with raw meat and a likely barrage of peetaking, I went against my natural instinct and looked for instructions….damn….nothing.  Just as I was about to look for tinder and two sticks to rub together in a Bear Grlys stylie way, a kind Aussie gentleman approached (either sensing my plight or realising I was a pomme and therefore unpractised in the art of BBQ) came over to show me how to use it.  I am pleased to report that the burgers turned out perfectly (of course!) and the Man Fire relationship was restored.

We have parked in all sorts of different campsites so far from bush camps with just showers and toilets (sometimes just toilets) to proper holiday camp facilities with bars, restaurants and entertainment.  The next night we stayed in our first road side free rest stop.  Some have toilets and BBQ areas, however the one we stopped at had nothing and was 80km from the nearest town.  Rather than having a 5 star restaurant meal we were treated instead to a million star setting and able to eat our dinner outside whilst enjoying natures finest show.  With nothing else to do we turned in as usual at 8pm….Partay!!!  Being at such an isolated location the only sound in the night was oncoming road trains.  These lorries are up to 4 trailers long and light up at night like something from Close Encounters.  You obviously hear them miles before you see the lights barrelling towards you, and then you feel the rumble as they go past eventually diminishing as they plough on into the night.

The next day we crossed over from one state to another, the Northern Territory to Western Australia (WA).  As we drew up to the border we started to see signs for quarantine restrictions and eventually pulled up to a large building that looked like something you would find at an international border crossing.  We stopped as instructed and were asked if we had any fruit or veg? Yes we said as we had just stocked up on $20 worth.  The border guard suggested pulling back into NT and eating at much as we could as we were going to have to bin the rest.  Doh!!  The quarantine restrictions have been in place since 1908 and they are protecting WA from a number of diseases and viruses from fruit flies and other creatures that destroy crops and are carried in fruit and veg.  Due to the large distances between conurbations here the vermin can’t make the journey on their own and need modern transport to make the jump.  So for 45 minutes we cooked what we could and ate the rest so in the end we only threw a small amount.  As we passed the border for the second time the guard wished us well and told us to change our watches.  An 1.5 hr forward, it will now be dark at 17:30, welcome to WA.

We then made our way to Lake Argyle for a campsite with showers and some decent toilets.  Lake Argyle is the second largest body of water in Australia and was man made in the 1960’s to be a reservoir for WA.  The campsite had a commanding view of the lake from a high hill top which was enhanced with a lovely infinity pool and offered spectacular views of the setting sun over the lake.

This site also had a bar and a restaurant and for tonight only…..WA’s best vocalist (or so the advert proclaimed) singing songs about the area and Australia.  Like everything out here life revolves around the 4x4 so his stage and lights were setup on the side of his UHT.  Just pull up outside the bar, plug in and start singing - great idea.  So with a few beers (have to say that the Oz beer I have had so far is truly terrible, but I soldiered on anyway) we spent the evening listening to his songs about the outback.  If he is the best singer that WA has to offer then we feel able to make the statement that people in WA are tone deaf.  Still, it was nice to be entertained and in the company of others (Editors comment - Bill is not getting bored of only conversing with Emma).

We finally pulled into Broome after 1600km and 4 days driving ready for a rest and in need of completing some chores.  If you thought this was a holiday then think again.

Australia: Litchfield to Katherine

So I hear you all asking why after hostels for 3 months have we decided to go oh naturelle and do the campervan thing for 5 weeks.  With Western Australia being 10 times bigger than the UK and sparsely populated compared with the east coast, it would have taken far more planning and time to cover this area using public transport and we also hope that doing it this way would be a little bit cheaper.  Also the freedom of being able to do exactly what we want and when we want to do it was a big draw.

Litchfield National Park is one of the smallest national parks in Northern Australia at only 1,500 sq kms and has a single tarmac road running its length.  Our first nights stay was in a campsite just outside of the park near a small town called Bachelor.  We awoke after a full 12 hrs sleep (easy to do when it gets dark at 7.30pm and you don’t have a telly) refreshed and ready for a days exploring, we were going to enjoy this campervan malarkey.  We had breakfast outside sat under an already blazing sun and cloudless sky, then packed up the van and off we went to explore the park.

Rather than looking in our trusty guide book and heading for things we wanted to see, we decided to take a slightly different approach for a change.  Basically, we would drive until we saw a brown tourist sign and then turn off the road and take a look.  That the first great thing about here….everything worth seeing (and even those that aren’t) are signposted so it makes it really easy.  Our first brown sign was to be the magnetic termite mounds.  As we drove into the car park, a park ranger was just setting up for her free talk about the termites and their home.  The termites build these large monolithic homes containing the Queen, the King and thousands of builders and soldier termites.  All the mounds (hundreds of them) are arranged on the plain so that the thin edges face north to south, meaning the wide area faces east and west.

Originally it was thought that it was something to do with temperature control within the mound but now they think it might be more to do with the sun being able to dry it quicker when they get wet in the rainy season.  It was an incredible sight to see so many over such a large area, all at differing heights.  There were also a number of Cathedral termite mounds here too which were just huge.  Quite amazing to think that such tiny little creatures like termites could make something so big just from soil, spit and sh*t.

Our next stop was a short walk along some fresh water rockpools and then a little swim in the pool of a waterfall, Florence Falls.  As we drove into the car park there were yet more warning signs about the salties and whether it is safe to swim.  Using the old adage, safety in numbers, and seeing plenty of other people splashing about with apparent joy and not screams of terror, we took the plunge and went for a little dip.  The water was very cold even with the outside temperature at 32 degrees (even crocs wouldn’t be daft enough to swim in this!) but the sight of the waterfall and the surrounding cliffs made up for the numbness and possible onset of pneumonia.

And so that was how we spent the rest of our first day on the road, going from brown sign to brown sign and one amazing tourist sight to the next, until we reached the end of the sealed road and that nights campsite.

So with having adeptly ticked off most of the main sights in Litchfield in one day, we drove 250km to the east to Kakadu National Park, this in contrast being the largest national park in Australia and the crown jewel of the Northern Territory.  Kakadu is about the size of Belgium (not sure why its always Belgium that everywhere compares themselves to) and stretches from the coast in the north and to Katherine in the South.

We made our way to a small camp site in the north and the location of some aboriginal rock art at Ubirr.  Having been on the road all day we arrived in time to watch the spectacular sunset here and again just in time for a Park Ranger tour which explained the art, the conservation of the area and some of its history. The drawings were dotted around the area under rock overhangs and in caves, with some of them they think dating back over 10,000 years however they are not entirely sure as they can’t use carbon dating as this areas paint doesn’t have any organic matter in it.

Once the sun started to go down we climbed the rock escarpment on the edge of the flood plains and watched the spectacular sun set over the saltie infested lowlands.

Slap bang in the middle of Kakadu is a tiny town called Jabiru.  The town planners had fun with this place spacing the buildings so far apart that you would struggle to call the place a town.  At least this design gives plenty of room for the dust devils to roll on past.  Jabiru is famous for one of the largest and controversial Uranium mines in Australia.  Controversial in that once the Australian government discovered the deposit a ll previous restrictions went out of the window and they dug a massive open cast mine in the middle of a national park and sacred aboriginal land.  Well, it is Uranium!

After a few days of exploring this amazingly diverse landscape we realised that the sealed road tourist spots were only a handful of the amazing sights that Kakadu had to offer.  The problem was that like in most parts of Australia there are two types of road, sealed for 2 wheel drive and unsealed for serious 4x4 action.  All the really special sights were hundreds of kilometres down unsealed roads and therefore not within our reach.  We did look at doing a 4x4 tour to take us to Jim Jim Falls (apparently one of the best) but the cost was ludicrous, so we decided to save our pennies for future adventures.

As we started to travel out of the park and head down towards Katherine, we got the chance to see a bush fire up close and personal.  As we drove around the park you would often see smoke in the distance or evidence of recent burning.  Nearly all of these fires are started deliberately by the rangers or the aboriginal land owners to control the spread of un-managed fires started by lightening strikes in the Wet season.  This fire though was only a few metres from the road and so I jumped out, with no concern for my personal safety to get an action shot for our avid blog readers.  As I stood watching, the wind suddenly picked up and blew the fire further along the bush increasing in volume ten fold in a matter of seconds, and seemingly lighting the ground ahead of it before it had reached it.  Trees, grass and the dead plant matter on the ground all caught fire leaving behind the smouldering barbequed remains.  I didn’t hang around long after that as I suddenly realised that I was stood in a non burnt patch! 

Our final Kakadu “brown sign” stop was to visit Mardugal Billabong, a 1.5km walk from the car park alongside the South Alligator river (no alligators here though…..just crocodiles!)  We set out, chatting away as usual, along a bush path and not long into the walk we both suddenly jumped about six feet in to the air when a very large snake disturbed by our approach darted to the side and behind us.  The snake was grey in colour and the thickness of a cucumber and the speed it shot off was astounding.  Being well spooked by this little encounter we calmed our breathing and continued our walk.  The trail meandered closer and closer to the river where there were lots of tree covered, overcast patches of dark water.  An ideal place for salties to hide.   Already spooked by the snake and not another soul in sight (the carpark was empty when we had pulled in) we were both imagining that every little twitch of the water or log on the ground was not just that, but actually a crocodile waiting for its first bite of British meat.  It wasn’t long before we decided that the billabong sounded rubbish anyway and we made a very hasty retreat back to the campervan!    

We enjoyed Kakadu National Park but both felt that we had not really seen what it had to offer due to our 2 WD restriction.  We are already talking about a return sometime in the future and hiring the mother of all 4x4’s to really give this place a good seeing to. 

Next:  Katherine and the long drive out to the west coast. 

Australia: Darwin to Litchfield National Park

After an uneventful travel day and a flight on what should have been a BA flight but was instead an affiliated Quantas flight, but actually ended up being a Jetstar flight from Singapore to Darwin, we landed at 4:00am Oz time.  We queued as usual at the immigration desks and prepared ourselves for the monotone questions by the typical idiots that make up immigration officials.  We stepped forward and the official with a beaming smile booms out “G’day mate, how are you?!”  He then proceeds to have a 5 minute conversation with us whilst sorting the paperwork about where we where from, what we where planning to do and how much we where going to enjoy Oz.  I stood open mouthed not knowing what to say….a friendly, intelligent normal person.  I looked round to see if this was a one off…..nope, they were all normal!

We caught the airport transfer bus into town which dropped us right outside our hostel, which if it hadn’t wouldn’t have been a big issue because Darwin is not a big place.  We went to check in with all our fingers and toes crossed for an early check in as it was only 7am and we’d had no sleep again, but we were told there was no chance and couldn’t get into our room until 2 pm.  As we could see signs that said checkout was 10am we weren’t sure if this was due to logistics or that this was just the rule and they weren‘t being very sympathetic.  Nonetheless, we still tried to check in at 12pm but with no luck.  So we joined the aboriginals and sat on a park bench grabbing 15 minutes sleep when we could.  We passed on quaffing the super strength larger though, as it was much too early for that.  The wait for our room was made extra difficult as we were both suffering from a slight stomach bug which we think we got from a Subway sandwich in Singapore.  Very ironic to say the least, as this was our first western meal for weeks and we did not suffer at all in the rest of South East Asia.

Darwin is the largest city for nearly 4000 kms and is closer to Indonesia than the rest of Australia.  It has a frontier town feeling to it with everyone driving 4x4’s or trucks and by the look of the place I got the feeling that most of the work here would be manual.  The main shopping drag has a 1970’s Basildon feel about it probably due to the fact that the place had to be rebuilt after a hurricane completely destroyed the town in 1974.  I’m not sure what Basildon’s excuse is.

One of the challenges we had when planning this trip was what season it would be when we were visiting the different countries.  With the UK enjoying one of the best summers in recorded history, we unfortunately have to endure the Australian winter.  Darwin being at the Top End (as the Aussies like to call it) and close to the equator, we are already suffering a typical winters day in Darwin.  Yes, a balmy 32 degrees and not a cloud in the sky (you pomms call that a summer?)  The Top End does not have seasons like we would know it, but is simply split into the Wet season and the Dry.  We are here in the dry, with wet season arriving in the Ozzie summer (our winter), bringing extremely high temperatures and humidity, monsoon rains and severe flooding.

After finally getting into the hostel it soon became evident that it was frat party hell with a rooftop bar and deck that was frequented by large numbers of teenagers getting drunk and doing what teenagers do.  After joining in for a while we left happy to be only staying one night.  The next day we made our way to pickup the campervan.  We had booked this months ago with the same company we plan to use in New Zealand so securing a discount.  It took about an hour to do the paperwork and be shown how to operate our home for the next 5 weeks.  As you would expect we had the safety talk about turning the gas off while driving, not to drive off road or on unsealed roads and how to run away from a crocodile!  Yes, the Top End is full of salt water crocodiles, ironically found in both the sea and also in many of the fresh water rivers/billabongs where they have managed to get during the floods in wet season.  Salties (as they are affectionately known) can be up to 5m long and 1.5m wide, very intelligent and will kill just for the sport.  Hopefully, we will not have to use the useful advice given to us by the campervan lady of “if one comes after you, just run!”

Once we picked up the van we went shopping for food buying all of our favourites that we had missed over the past 3 months and stocking up for being on the road.  So, like tortoises, we put our home on our back and made our way 150 kms south for our first night in the van and our first national park.  We arrived at our campsite by accident choosing to stop because we could not be bothered to drive anymore and wanted to get unpacked.  The first nights cooking was something simple and an old favourite of ours, Spag Boll.  With only 2 burners on our gas hob and about a meter square to operate in I’ve a feeling that most of our meals will end up being a simple affair.  Settling down for the night we were both hoping that our new home would facilitate a good nights sleep.  With no other light for miles around and nothing but the gentle noises from the creatures of the night, it was looking good.

Next: Litchfield and Kakadoo National Parks.