Exploring the Coral Coast!

So, at last the final part of the trip - heading up the Coral Coast!

A big thank you if you have managed to keep up with all this nonsense over the last few weeks - we hope you've enjoyed it. It's been fun putting it all together. Hopefully we'll catch up again once we're back in Melbourne!

So, here it is - the last update for the moment - hurrah...... ('thank God', you're all saying - go on, admit it!)

Apr 6th
Now we're based in Fremantle for 13 days. Should have been 10 days but the return flights are so expensive that it's cheaper to stay here a little longer! We'll use the time to work on our websites, getting them ready for the exhibitions we'll be attending over the next few months. After the recent nomadic existence we're looking forward to returning to Melbourne, finding somewhere to live and getting on with life.

We’ll be doing more travelling but we now know that we need our own 4WD so that we can go anywhere!

So, a big thank you if you have managed to read all this nonsense - we'll be busy with the 2 weddings over Easter and for a few days afterwards so we'll let you know when we're back in Melbourne and when we finally manage to get into our own place. Look us up on on Skype if you can, it will be great to catch up!

Apr 2nd
Every Sunday the owner of the chalet park cooks up an alfresco pancake breakfast for all the residents, so we sat down at the trestle tables with all the old folks from Europe on their winter road trips and stuffed ourselves in preparation for the final leg of our trip – 350km down to Perth. Our friends, Emma and Henry, had kindly offered us a bed for 3 nights until we could move into an apartment in Fremantle. Taking Highway 1 this time, as the coastal road going north had been uninteresting for the most part, a couple of things on the drive kept us amused. The first, a small trailer containing 3 goats. Initially unable to keep their balance and continually falling over, they eventually got the hang of being on the road and all faced forward, leaning into the corners like bikers with their ears and tails flapping wildly! Later we met an oversize load. Not uncommon, so we slowed a little. What was unusual was the police car driving straight at us, forcing us off the road – then we realised why. A road train was approaching, carrying a wider than wide load – presumably an earth mover for a mining site, the thing overhung our side of the road so much that we had no option but to park on the hard shoulder!

Mar 31st
Friday, off to the beachfront early to see the pelican feeding. A crowd gathers each morning to see one of the local ladies throwing fish to around 10 of the 2 dozen or more pelicans which live in the bay area. Apparently this has been a daily event for the last 20-odd years and keeps the visitors entertained. Spent most of the day working, believe it or not, before shooting yet another sunset.

Mar 29th and 30th
We collected the 4WD Nissan Wrecker for our adventure into the Murcheson River gorges. During the trip we covered 80km (50m) across rough and rutted unsealed roads around this spectacular scenery. The views were amazing - such rugged territory and so vast that it's hard to do justice to the views. On our way to the track we met an emu out for a run down the road – a road conscious emu fortunately, it kept to the left-hand lane occasionally diving into the undergrowth but popping out again before we had the chance to overtake it!

Once on the rough track we initially kept to the speed limit of 50kph but that made for such a bumpy ride that Kim commented she should have worn her sport bra! Once we increased speed to 80kph+ the ride smoothed out a bit, until we hit the sandy sections which make the car snake rather alarmingly…. Great fun though! Even when we stepped out of the car we were still shaking! It’s difficult to tell how old the Nissan is but it’s obviously had a hard life, having done 320000km (200000m), and from the look of things most of those miles have been off-road! We survived though but some of our teeth are more loose than they were….

Mar 28th
Off southwards to Kalbarri – a 400km (250m) drive which took 5 hours! Partly due to several stops for photo opportunities and partly because the navigator (Kim) didn’t notice that the driver turned the wrong way when rejoining the highway after one such photo stop and we sped off northwards again, ahem…. The only wildlife we spotted was a kamikaze goat which carefully timed his adventure across the highway once we were just yards away from him. Now we know why so many vehicles carry over-sized bullbars. One of the photo stops was at Hamelin Pool, a sizeable lake with an amazing population of Stromatolites. These are livings rocks, actually organisms which build up into rock-like formations over many years. Once in Kalbarri we found the entrance road to the National Park which we’d need to use to see some of the sights. Typical, a warning sign telling us that it’s impassable without a 4WD. Not expecting to be able to hire a 4WD, we called into the local garage and the mechanic said “no worries mate, you can take our old Nissan” – er, old being the operative word here! Should be fun….

Mar 25th to Mar 27th
Spent a few more days at Denham and managed to do some exploring but found that most of the area is only available to 4WD vehicles. We did try one 4km unsealed road but it was so rutted that we were reduced to walking speed and our teeth were getting rattled loose! We gave up after 1km and went into town to find a 4WD car to hire. "All out until next week mate" - oh well, we'll just have to come back again then! On another trip to Monkey Mia we took a walk into the undergrowth to get some desert shots, a nice 1km walk - only problem, we took a wrong turn and did the 5km trek instead, just managing to get back as the sun set! Couldn't help but laugh whilst watching a couple of dolphins cruising in shallow water when they decided to creep up on a snorkeller and give him a scare, never seen someone leap out of the sea so fast! Also saw a couple sitting quietly by the beach when they were ambushed by 2 emus who thought they would take a look at the picnic on offer.

You may have seen in the news that after the record-breaking cyclone in the north-west 3 weeks ago that a new one, Cyclone Kara, is rapidly approaching the Pilbara coastline. The last one was category 5 (out of 5!) but this one is 'only' category 3 - still good enough to stir up the weather down here though, 500 miles south. We had a blue sky all day but winds of gale force 7 kept us indoors (working on the website) for most of the day.

Mar 24th
Awoke early(!) to catch the sunrise and to visit Monkey Mia for the “dolphin interaction experience”. Since the early 1960s this has been THE place to visit to meet dolphins up-close. Our friend Natalie visited there 20 years ago and has a wonderful photo of the creatures swimming around her as she stood in shallow water. We expected the place to be busier but were horrified to find a crowd of about 50 visitors on the beach being closely watched by “Monkey Mia Dolphin Interaction Experience” staff, who were issuing strict instructions to remain out of the water and NOT to touch the dolphins. What an anti-climax, we had looked forward to seeing the creatures coming inshore and even wading out or swimming amongst them but there was no chance.

To cheer ourselves up, we took a 2 hour cruise on a 60ft racing catamaran which was going off to find dolphins and dugongs. Great fun, especially as we saw dolphins playing “chase-me” as well as mother and baby dugongs. To save a long explanation, look here if you don’t know what a dugong is!…. Another 35C, sunny day – so we felt slightly toasted once we were back on land!

Mar 23rd
Friday off to the northern-most part of our tour, Denham. Slightly longer distance today, due north covering nearly 3 degrees of latitude! (400km or 250m for the non-sailors amongst you) Still using Highway 1 we saw a sign warning drivers about roaming wildlife for the next 150km. Kim saw a 3ft lizard wandering beside the road but, by this time, Steve had become mesmerised by the non-ending road through the scrub and missed it completely! Almost the whole journey consisted of the road disappearing to a crest on the horizon only to be followed by a further crest to the next horizon. After 2 hours on the road we were desperate for a pitstop and took advantage of a traditional outback dunny. Employing the usual caution required when using a toilet in the desert, Steve suggested that Kim use the facilities first! Finally arrived at the Outlander roadhouse, the final re-fuelling stop for drivers heading further north. Eventually arrived at our small beach-side chalet and explored the township of Denham. Finally found the grocery store when we looked in the back of the petrol station! Every shop doubles-up as something else, the newsagent is also the chemist and the post office….

Mar 21st and 22nd
We took the coast road to Geraldton, a 230km drive, rather than Highway 1 thinking that the drive might be more interesting. What we didn’t realise is that the coast road doesn’t always mean you drive along the coast, merely that the road is nearer the coast than the main highway…. We stopped in several towns to decide where to stay when we return southwards. Jurien Bay is apparently a family retreat and the beach is populated with childrens’ play areas - not for us. Greenhead pongs. The local beach, Dynamite Bay, is lovely - but the smell!!! We could smell the rotting seaweed even before we hit the town. We'll probably stay in Dongara – quite pretty and we found a good place for lunch! Greenough – seemingly mostly known for having horizontal trees! The southerly winds are so strong that the trees bend 90 degrees and grow along the ground, looks most odd. What we found most amazing were the mirages on the main road. Driving across the Greenough Flats where the road was flat (no surprise there then) and straight for 10km or more, the mirages were appearing so close us that opposing traffic was floating well above ground level. A bit spooky, especially when overtaking traffic was floating in front of us, in our lane!

In Cervantes we wanted to visit the Pinnacles rock formations in the Nambung National Park. These limestone pillars are dotted randomly around a sizeable area of desert and are truly impressive, especially as the sun sets and the shadows lengthen. A sealed road leads to the car-park and, for 4-wheel drive cars, a 3km off-road track around the formations. Having driven past the car-park we had to do a 3-point turn on the sand track - that was fun as the road-sides were soft sand! That got Kim worried!

cheers for now, Steve & Kim