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.

Through the Pilbara

Been physically threatened and verbally assaulted off our farm job was a definite first for both of us. 

We were a little scared, rushed off the property, threatened of no payment, and slightly worried about our well being we assertively decided to get the hell out of Broome. We had no idea whether these threats we real or just tough talk. We didn’t want to hang around to find out and when you’re in a town in the middle of nowhere and where everyone knows everyone things could happen.   Another issue we had were some flight itineraries that were left on the fridge at the farm. Assuming the worst we considered that that son might become revengeful and possibly cancel or change our flights. He had our names, date of birth, address, and flight details; technically nothing was there to stop him. So before we left we cancelled our flight to Perth from Broome and confirmed that our flights could not be cancelled without Identification. It may seem over protective now but during the whole event it seemed like anything could be possible.

Eerie morning heading out of Broome

We finally left the beautiful town of Broome now forever remembered as ‘that town’ heading south leaving our problems behind us. So what we thought... We got into Port Hedland to meet up with our good friends Emily and John (john was unfortunately absent with work), and to check out the local area but leaving the car outside our friends place for no longer than 20minutes someone had engaged one of the 4WD hubs. Unaware of what happened we drove off and soon heard metal grinding and lack of control on the front right side. We were so worried especially when we checked out the front wheel which felt like it was just going to fall off and even more so when the 4WD hub was almost smoking hot. It costed us $490 for that little stunt; $145 an hour for labour and a new wheel bearing. At the end of the day, a simple wheel bearing is nothing compared to a new front differential. What a few days ... luckily for us, things didn’t happen in threes.  We were blessed that this happened at Hedland with the comfort of friends and with a lovely place to stay and recover. So in this blog, Dave and I would like to thank our lovely friends again for their help and the cooled, relaxed manner towards us hanging out at their place while we waited for our car. It made the whole experience so much better knowing that we had friends there to help us out.

Pilbara landscape

Travelling throughout WA, there is a lot of driving in between towns which both of us had underestimated when looking at the trusty HEMA map. Quickly viewing the maps we overlooked the distant markers; the 400 km of nothing didn’t quite sink in when it’s just a little number on the page. Until we compared it to the east coast did we final realise how far we had to drive to get anywhere.  Sometimes the most interesting thing is just the local servo station which in most cases I couldn’t pronounce its true name. We almost ended up tasting every isolated servo pie along the western coast along side with many other tourists and more commonly very interesting truckies. 

I was also spoiled with seasonal wildflowers along the road side which always made for something very pretty to look at.

Wildflower season

For anyone that has seen Red Dog at the cinemas this may trig your memory. We made a definite side stop to Dampier to see the legendary statue of Red Dog. It seemed to hit home for us knowing that we’ve been travelling in his footsteps.

The plaque read:

“The stories this old dog could tell

If only he could say

Would add a page in history

For ever and a day

But still he’ll be remembered

By those who knew his way

The Red Dog of the Pilbara

From the north of W.A.”

We just wanted to wave hello
Some free campsite one the west coast Pilbara

Dave shoves job up Boss's arse

How many times have you ever wanted to confront your boss face to face and shove your job up his arse and leave him to pick up the pieces?  

The farm was to us both one of the best places to work in our whole entire lives and memories will last with us for a lifetime, but on the other side of the flip coin it was also the worst place to work.  When we employed by the owner of we were made aware of all the people we would be working with including his son Jack. This all seemed good to us and after the first week on station we had our own opinion of their son for example when  he was out in sun for more than five minutes he needed a sleep for at least 2hrs on the couch while everyone else did his work. Though after few more weeks on the station the real side of jack started to come out while doing cattle work; we now understood why the last station caretakers said the other son Lachlan was the nicest kid and knew how to run a cattle station unlike Jack who thought it was in the animals wellbeing they be stuck in a cattle yard for at least 72hrs with only water and no feed was ok? And then wondered why they’d collapse from starvation when they walked out of the yard.

To the story though, because it was Grand final day for the NRL I decided to wake up early this day and do my eight hours of work before the footy started, which by way I wasn’t required to do because it was Sunday which is one of the two days of work we were meant to have off. The game started at 2pm WA time, so I had all my jobs done by 1pm. Then at 1pm Jack turned up announced and wanted to start a Grader which was obviously fucked. That was cool but I explained that I had no food all day or water and was going in at 2pm to watch the footy for 2hrs while having my lunch. He said he understood, hmmm sure he did. Firstly Jack thought he could pull start a huge Grader weighing over 5 tonne with a landcruiser Ute. Funny when the landcruiser didn’t even move a inch and got bogged in the road cause the wheels were spinning so much. But Jack continued with the semi-truck and me driving the grader when he figured plan 1 wasn’t working. Again Jack’s intelligence shone through when he continued to pull the grader when the steering wheel had locked and I told him to stop which inevitably put the grader straight into a fence. But we continued with the clock counting down to kick off, when we went past the house to go down driveway I told Jess to follow in the Ute with lunch, luckily she did. After continual stopping on driveway cause the grader wouldn’t start I gave some advice on what to do to fix the problem but Jack wouldn’t listen to anyone like he always did whilst on the farm. Then when got to 1:50 I told him I’d be going to watch the footy, but he just ignored me and kept going. Then at 2pm I told him I was going to watch footy and straight after footy I would come back and continue; this is when the fun started. He said “fuck you’re footy”, I said “no”. I explained that I had told him and his dad which they agreed to that we would not be working for these 2hrs of the GF. That’s when Jack can back with a metre steel pole charging at me yelling, “You’re going to Fucken work when I tell you to fucken work”. I said “excuse me” while standing my ground, he said “get in fucken truck and do what I say”. We then continued to exchange pleasantries, and then I made the remark what “you need a pole to fight me, because you can’t fight like a man?” At this stage Jess was standing between us toe to toe. Then I said “Fuck it, shove your station up your arse, we don’t work under threats” – that’s when we got in the Ute to go back and get our stuff. When we got back I had a made phone call to Todd about what happened and he couldn’t care less about us or Jack (says alot about how much he cares about his staff and station). When we got back to station we packed up all our gear from all over house in about ten minutes while I kept arguing with Jack, to top it off Jack came over to grab the ute I used for work which had my phone attached inside and Jack drove off with me hanging through the window trying to get my phone off the windscreen.  Eventually we drove off the property while fat boy was still trying to catch up and sulking in his couch. 

Road out

Good bye cattle station, thank you for the wonderful memories and hopefully in future you’ll see Jack on next series of Biggest loser if they can fit him in the camera shot. Thank you to Jess for her full support during this, I know she wasn’t happy with the way Jack treated her as well with not even a single thank you said to her once by Jack even though she cooked him tea, fed his horses, open gates all things she wasn’t required to do. But the minute I made the decision to walk off she fully supported my decision right to this day, but I do know she simply misses her animals and especially her dog Bella and I Zoe. I love you Jess.

Cattle Work

Personal Liability and Occupation Health and Safety were certainly a big player in the other half of the job description. 

Think of hot sweaty days, hot red sand throughout the air, and really pissed off cows. Cattle yard work came to us as a bit of a surprise for both of us. My first introduction was to move these cows/bulls from one yard into another which when said like that didn’t seem so hard but once we were in surrounded by 7ft metal fences and nothing but air between a 1 tonne bull and us, adrenaline kicked in. Within a few minutes I was eyed off by a few cows but I didn’t think any of it until I see one of the aboriginal guys up in the tree yelling at me to move. Move to where? I had a very pissed off cow with horns running head down right towards me. I was in the middle of the yard and Michael was already occupying the safety tree. So I did the only thing I could; I ran 360 around that tree with that cow following! That cow was so determined to make contact I was shitting myself while the others laughed. These cows have thousands of acres to wander with no contact with humans until one week in the year. After that event I dusted myself off and continued on always eyeing off the safety tree. Soon I heard the “oh shit!” from Dave off in the back corner. Turning around, I seeing Dave jump that 7ft fence with a single bound with a very angry white Bull chasing after him. Later on, I again see Dave hanging onto that fence kicking away this cow that just wouldn’t let up until Dave fell off.  He was truly hanging on for his life as this heifer was head down horns up literally attacking Dave. We distracted that cow with a few tree branches which meant she now turned on us. Running and jumping time until she caught up with the mob.  This was the first of many more hours to come.

Examine Exhibit A - Look out!

The cows were purposely yarded up for drafting then sale. From one large pen into a smaller pen is the whole concept to eventually push them through the draft and separate the Cows from the Wieners.  The aboriginal guys we had certainly knew what they were doing plus the fact they had balls. Jumping in behind them to push them along...you wouldn’t see anyone sane to do that.  

Some of the cattle we had to deal with...

Things got pretty interesting when we had the last few bulls to push through as they seemed pretty engaged with each other. So like any cattle farmer, he decided to use the Landcruiser Ute to help things along. With a rope around its horns, a chain connected to that, then locked onto the Ute we manually pulled this Bull through the draft. These bulls were the size of large car with horns that were as thick as your arm and had an attitude like no other which made things fun when ear tagging and marking.  

Big as a car

Man oh man we had some fun. Most days we came back with our faces fully painted with red dirt, torn clothes in our attempt to jump the fences, and random bruises from the rough work which was worth the effort when we came home to our pool and cold beers.

Dave certainly learnt a whole lot more. Going out on Bore runs did require decent knowledge and concentration. These water pumps are out on rough roads hundreds of km from the homestead which needed daily attention. Dave had to deal with bogging sand, spring high tides, and generally the long distance between them all. Filling the generators, fixing and servicing them, repairing pipes are just some of the thing he had to do. Seeing Dave also driving the Tractors and graders around the homestead certainly made me sit up straight knowing that he enjoyed what he was doing and learning some decent skills.