As The Crow Flies

It seemed like a milestone when we reached a little town Kalbarri just south of Monkey Mia. This coastal point was the most westerly position as the crow files from Brisbane probably the furthest we’ve been away from home; was certainly an interesting fact when talking to family. 

View East to West in a larger map

Its been roughly 40,000km from when we started in Brisbane to now directly 3,800km opposite the country. 

Along the track we found some other random places that weren’t on our list of things to see. The national park close by featured gorges and a place named ‘Natures Window’ which seemed a particular attraction for visiting Asian tourists.

Heading more towards Perth we also came across something very random: a pink lake. The Port Gregory Lake was developed for the Leadmine which soon turned pink because of the build up of bacteria (Dunaliella salina) in the salt. It certainly was an eye opener pulling over on the side of the road in aura or to put it normally...”holy shit dave, its fricken pink!” (Bogan)

Just before the other subs of Perth there’s a place called The Pinnacles boasting huge limestone pillars rising out of the yellow sand. We were able to drive our car though the national park which weaved through the pinnacles which did make for some pretty shots.

 I wouldn’t have liked it any other way because for some reason this particular area housed soooo many flies. There were at least 50 around us at one time and jumping in the car seemed to be the only escape.

We were slightly concerned though heading more into Perth when introduced to bush fires. This state like Queensland is very prone to Cyclones, bush fires, and floods. The summers are long, very hot, and dry which was evident by the bush fires burning in the hills and other country towns. But once we reached the suburbs we noticed what a beautiful and well developed city Perth is. We took the beautiful coastal road along into our caravan park along Scarborough to Cottesloe and fell in love with the place straight away. It was a Sunday afternoon drive by watching people running with dogs, people surfing, swimmers on the beach, pubs overlooking the beach, all within minutes of the CBD. Perth’s urban development designs all their coastal areas around community recreation areas. It’s the beach, path ways for walkers and bikes, grassy areas for picnics, roads, and then private houses. W.A’s ‘wait awhile’ nickname proves that it waits for other states to bugger up and designs something better to make it work. Transport is excellent, designing bus systems that run into major train exchanges which are built in the middle of highways. Interesting view when you’re travelling 100kmhr on the highway and a train passes by on the right hand side.

Well, so far so good. We're enjoying Perth and surrounding. Might hang around awhile and see what we can find. 

Shark bay - Monkey Mia

After leaving Coral Bay we wanted more action of the west coast and headed down to the very well known world heritage marine park Shark bay. It was a bloody 150km just to get into Monkey Mia from the main road which we drastically underestimated. We rocked up to the Monkey Mia resort around 6pm, I’m pretty sure the receptionist didn’t feel the excitement we were feeling.  We’d been waiting for a long time to finally experience the wonder of the Monkey Mia attraction and tomorrow would be our day hopefully. 

As we checked in the receptionist was saying that there was plenty of room available so we could choose any spot in the unpowered section. Arriving in very late we were introduced to this resort by tents galore, kids running wild, and no spare area for our car. We shuffled around a few people which didn’t help our situation but we hoped tomorrow would be better.

Between 8-12pm daily, usually 5 or so dolphins arrive on the shores for the hand feeding. Dave and I were there ready at 7.30am waiting and still waiting for the dolphins until 10:30am. Apparently, every now and again because of the low tides and cloudy weather, the dolphins arrive late to the shores. We saw at least 10 or so just off shore swimming around so we hoped all of them would come up to the banks which would increase our chances of actually feeding them. So with another hour passing, only 1 dolphin turned up. She was only allowed 4 fish and there were 100 people on the beach all wanting the same thing. Years ago the dolphins would be there constantly and people could touch them without any regulation. But research found the dolphins were losing their calves because they weren’t being taught to fish and could properly milk from their mothers. So now no touching what so ever and once they arrive on shore you are not allowed in the water unless you’re asked to feed them.

So four people were allowed to feed the dolphins; a gentleman beside me had been picked but he declined saying he only wanted to photo them which then resulted in ME BEING PICKED! I was so happy and excited. It made the 150km trip of nothing in, crappy resort accommodation, and the long anticipated wait of the dolphins so worthwhile! Dave was able to capture the moment perfectly.

We visited some other places while we were there including Shell Beach which is exactly described by its name and one of my favourites a little bay we found which nursed all these baby reef and shovel nosed sharks. We were in shin deep water with all these baby sharks in front of us. A few got close which scared us a little but with a few splashes of water they moved away.  It was an amazing free experience that we found. 

All the dark spots are reef sharks

West Coast Gold

So a month later I've gotten my act together and finished a blog. Through the Christmas period and New Years and all that in between I've really put this blog on the back bench. Sorry to my readers especially to my good friends and mostly my family for my slackness. Here we go again...

We’ve been told throughout this whole trip on how beautiful the west coast is and so far the descriptions from other travellers have certainly been true to their words. Turning off the highway leading to the coast ends with vast white sandy beaches lined with red roar cliffs then opposite, to the west is endless desert which randomly if you take the right roads results in amazing gorges in a little oasis. Karijini National Park was a place we’ve heard and seen in many photography stores that showed off how amazing the place is. Just heading out of Karratha our day was designated to travelling into the national park but as we were travelling the Abc news updated us that the national park had been closed due to a severe accident. At the main gorge a father had died attempting to rescue his son when he fell off the cliff track. It was a shock to us and with that the park had to be closed for a few days. This was a place we were definitely looking forward to but for respect of the family we left it at that and didn’t complain that we couldn’t go see it. It looks like we’ll just have to come back over to the most amazingly beautiful state in the country. Damn.

So with the change of plans we decided to drive straight into Exmouth on the coast known for neighbouring Ningaloo Marine National Park and the coral snorkelling right on the banks of the beach. We arrived into Exmouth with a lovely welcome from the local whales. Driving in we saw at least 5 or so whales just frolicking together just near the beach which was a nice introduction to this special peninsular. Driving into Exmouth we knew that we needed to get our hands onto some snorkelling gear which was an absolute necessity in the world heritage marine park where some of the best snorkelling in Australia is found. So with a little luck the local boating and fishing store were having a ½ price sale on everything. It was a quick “Dave pull over” moment. We scored some sweet branded stuff for cheap as. 

With that done we checked into our little campsite right on the beach with views of the coral and the reef breaks us a few metres away. This was our little paradise for a few days where we could fish, swim, snorkel, and relax which we needed on this holiday. The old saying: need a holiday after the holiday. 

Our favourite place was one of the more popular sites named Turquoise Bay. There was a steady current flowing through the whole coral site which made for ultimate relaxation just floating along. We saw a few reef sharks, swan with a turtle, tried to photo a blue ringed sting ray, followed thousands of schools of fish, and certainly saw the most amazing coral reefs. The photos don’t at all show what colour these were. There was no bleaching just colour; it all seemed very much alive.

We found this while we there...

More gear than ours

We were able to get very close to some local turtles on the beach. We heard of the touristy hub where you could go on guided tours during the night and see a few on the beach. The conditions were you had to stay 5m away, no flash photography and all that jazz. So we decided against it but found out from some other campers there was a more private location to see some turtles. So with this super doggy mud map, climbing over sand dunes, taking a left at the gate and a right near the old oil barrel we walked over the last sand dune to find a bay completely full of turtles.  It was one of the most amazing sites I’ve seen, even better when we rescued a turtle which had landed on its back from the incoming waves.

Fishing was good at times. We spent the whole day on the beach fishing finding nothing but one afternoon we hit the jackpot with schools of emperor and snapper.  This was the first only photo I took which showed one of the smaller fish we threw back. Dave caught them all that night which did make me wonder was I was doing wrong. He was so proud gloating all night but I brought him down a level when I asked him who caught that Barramundi in Kakadu.

Me in the background fishing

After a few days of pretty much awesomeness we moved on south to a little town called Coral bay. The town is basically dependant on the tourists; consisting of a few resorts, an IGA, and a lovely caravan park which has bookings years in advance because of its absolute waterfront sites. You may have heard about this town which has been in the news lately when a snorkelling guide got attacked by a 3 metre tiger shark. There was a popular bay known for its variety of reef, nurse, and tiger sharks which he got attacked in and where we logically stayed away from

thankfully.

Swimming and snorkelling in this bay did have its own uniqueness allowing us to see plenty of wandering sharks and the especially rare manta rays. I tried my hardest to take a photo but they obviously are amazing swimmers; me at full pelt with flippers on was like a walk in the park for the ray. Once it had enough it was gone just like that.

Dave swimming with snapper in the afternoon feeding session

Would recommend this region to anyone visiting; I’d say it in my top 5 places so far.