Shortly after 8 am a battered old minibus, towing an even more battered trailer arrived, to take me on my tour with 'Aussie wanderers'... the guide/driver having the unusual name of 'Wokka'!! - turned out to be a great bloke, who worked hard driving all day, informative... even cooking the evening meal!!
I met my fellow adventurers, a mix of early 20s backpackers, and a few older ones, including 2 German women, in Perth for the World masters athletics championships!! 10 of us crammed into the small mini bus... a real adventure!!
Having left Perth we started driving north, firstly through the nilgen nature reserve, straightaway I noticed how the bush up here was different, not many trees, all lower scrub and not as dense.
By late morning we were arriving at the 'Pinnacles' in the dessert, several options given for their existence.... a large number of limestone columns just standing up in the dessert landscape, and now exposed by the winds....
The landscape / pinnacles exist for quite a distance (upwards of 30 kms) - I subscribe to the theory they were once part of the underground cave system, and the roof has disappeared over time!
We left there late morning for a drive to Jurien bay, and lunch, sat overlooking the blue sea.
After lunch we continued driving fast and hard, further North... stopping to look at the bent trees in Greenough - bent over because of the strong fierce and constant wind.
Continuing driving we passed by a purple coloured lake just outside our night stop of Kilbarri,
then continued to the coast having just missed the sunset, although we did get the after views,
then it was on to our stop for the night... in a backpackers farm hostel... rough, but clean, and lots of travellers to chat with, and a bed with 7 others (I was on the top bunk bed!!).
Saturday morning we were all up very early at 545 am, for a quick breakfast, then by 630 am were were all packed, loaded and on our way up to the Murchison gorge, river and famous Z bends (typical meandering river plain!):
where some of the group did a little abseiling, I didn't bother, it was only 25 metres drop!!, we then drove from there, further across the Kilbarri national park, along what now were 'sand roads'
and to Natures window, a rock arch on top of cliffs overlooking the striated ridges and canyons below
We'd already been going 5 hours... so stopped for lunch in a layby before continuing our drive, up along all sorts if differing rough roads... we stopped at Hamlin pool to see ratter unusual life forms - Stromatolites, what is reckoned to be the first formations of anything on earth...
then onwards for a bit of fun in Shell beach...
some went for a swim in the shallow very salty water... I practised Boomerang throwing, even managing to get it to come back to me!
After that break it was onwards for an early evening stop in Shark bay, where a tall ship was moored, and on to catch the partial sunset in Denham,
and finally our accommodation at the Monkey Mia resort for dinner and bed after a very long day again!!
Sunday 23rd October we were up early for a 7 am brekkie, then down to the beachfront for a briefing from the national Park rangers, before we could witness a number of Dolphins swimming into the bay, to eventually get fed some fish by the viewing crowd... not really a spectacle I was comfortable with!! The best live action was from 'Rogue' the pelican who kept trying to pinch fish from the volunteers buckets!!
There was even an Australian TV crew there filming it!! After an hour and a half we returned to the mini bus, made our lunch, and set off for the rest of the day's exploration - along the coast, to the cliffs above Shark Bay - I could see why it was named thus as sharks were constantly swimming along the sea beneath us!!
Continuing up through Francois Perron national park, we dropped three of our passengers off (they were returning direct to Perth) and continued up through Sandy Gully and into Kingsford, the base of a satellite receiving station who's one and only use was to relay pictures from the first moon landing - it's now just a museum!!
Carrying on we continued to watch the sunset over Coral bay (handy being on the West coast!!)
and on to another backpackers hostel for another night 'on the road'!!
The fridge was covered in scrawled writings... this one catching my eye, one to remember!!
Monday 24th October was to be a 'free day' where everyone could do as they wished, however we all selected to go on a snorkelling trip out on the 'world famous Ningaloo reef', where there were the prospects of being able to snorkel over coral reefs, and with differing fish!! So we all gathered at the bay at 9 am to be kitted out with our snorkelling equipment, taken to the boat and loaded onto the boat, along with several other customers for an unforgettable day of swimming and snorkelling, although regrettably I didn't have my underwater camera with me, and so there aren't many pictures - they're all imprinted in my mind!!
Having got on the boat, we were taken out into the lovely blue bay towards our first diving spot...
we dropped into the water, and had an introductory session diving over the coral reef, seeing all the differing coloured plants beneath us, and lots of differing fish around us of every colour, size and description!! The water soon cooled, even though I had a short wet suit on, and after about 20 minutes we were all called back into the boat to resume the cruise...
As we headed across the bay I was stood at the front of the boat, as suddenly the message came through that some humpback whales had been spotted, and sure enough, within a few minutes, these majestic creatures roared out of the water in front of me! There were 2 large whales (presume mothers) with two smaller ones (presume 2 new born calfs) looming out of the depths, blowing water from their blowholes, and sinking back down with their large tails sliding up, out of the water before descending beneath the depths!!
We must have spent half an hour watching these majestic creatures, before leaving them to swim off, as we headed further across the bay, and told to get ready to.... 'Dive' as the manta rays had been spotted from an aeroplane above, and we were about to see these other great sea creatures... we lined up on the back of the boat, then slid into the water as directed, to see beneath us 4 large manta rays (biggest about 2 metres across) swimming beneath us... another great experience, I was there for about 10 minutes watching them swim around beneath me as I followed their movements... returning to the boat for a short time, before being given another opportunity to see them as they were staying around for an unusual length of time, so could dive again!!
After this wonderful morning we were taken further out into the bay for lunch on the boat
The day's diving hadn't finished though, and soon we were heading for a different part of the coral reef, to be taken by the crew on a guided tour of the reef, and interesting points... we all dropped in the water on the sheltered side of the reef, and were then guided through a gap in the reef, to the open water beyond... immediately a sea turtle was swimming beneath us, lots of different coloured coral was all around us... and then Sharks swimming beneath us!! Reef sharks to be accurate, however it felt peculiar to be just feet away from these sharks that were almost 2 metres in length, with all the mouth and feet of larger sharks!! At the same time, lots of larger fish were swimming in the reef, with some of them grazing on the coral beneath - I could even hear (and see) their teeth scraping on the coral!!
Eventually it was time to leave this watery wonderland, swim back through the reef gap and return to the boat - the day's dive had finished, and I was able to warm up sat on the front rail in the sunshine.
As we headed back to port had a group of dolphins swimming alongside us... what a day!! Great sights, great crew... wonderful!!
Back on shore we were all raving about the great day we'd all had, and had a shower at the hostel before driving further north to Exmouth, passing some giant termite hills on the way!! We all slept well that night in a nice campsite in Exmouth!!
Tuesday 25th we were all up for breakfast at 7 am and out early to travel into the cape range national park, firstly passing 4 Emus at the roadside who promptly turned their back on us!! We drove up into the coastal hills, where time, nature and water had formed deep canyons, gullys and ridges in the soft underlying rocks
with a dried up river bed stretching all the way through the range, and out to the sea.. after a couple of hours going from viewpoint to viewpoint we returned to Exmouth, hired snorkelling gear and went to Turquoise bay, normally a great snorkelling spot, however today the sea was quite rough and not very good visibility, although a turtle and differing fishes were spotted, although not much... I went for a walk along the bay instead
before returning to Exmouth for showers and then up to the Vlarmingh head lighthouse, to watch the spectacular sunset from the top - as a whale was bursting through the waves in the bay below
then an early night, ready for a long day's drive next day..
Wednesday 26th October was just a long travelling day really, as we headed back down south towards Perth... a mid morning stop at a roadhouse with a few old steam engines just parked up on the forecourt... surreal really,
then into Caernavon where we called in a farm called Bumbacks, with the slogan 'get your bum Back to Caernavon'!!!
A heavy afternoons driving down the coastal highway saw us arriving back in a different hostel in Kalbarri, in time to shower and get out to watch the sun go down over the mouth of the river and open sea, before a spag Bol dinner and early night!!
Thursday 27th October, the final day of the trip continued with Wokka doing us a pancake and eggs & bacon breakfast before we headed off at 8 am on the continuing drive south... firstly passed the pink lake at port Gregory
then onto Greenough 'wildlife' park, with several rescued kangaroos, emus, camels... even crocodiles there, although I wasn't too impressed with the place...
After a quick lunch we were on to our final adventure spot... sandboarding down the sand dunes at Lancelin - I did manage to fly down the sand dunes a few times, although not with as much speed as others!!
Then our final drive into the suburbs of Perth, where Wokka was given a thank you present for his weeks very hard work, good humour and enthusiasm... thanks Wokka!!
I was dropped off near to Jacqui's after my weeks adventure with the Aussie Wanderer!!, highly recommended!!
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